The Heirs of Earth

by Daniel Arenson

  His men nodded, grabbed flamethrowers, and aimed into the holes in the hull.

  They filled the boarding vessels with liquid death.

  Inside, scorpions—perhaps the pilots of the vessels—screamed and fell through the fire, burning.

  Inside one vessel, laughter rose.

  Emet frowned.

  He stared at a hole on the ceiling, which a boarding vessel had drilled. The laughter came from inside. An Inheritor stood below, pumping the enemy vessel full of flame, but the laughter continued.

  Blue and white flashed.

  A creature leaped down through the hole, passed through the fire, and landed atop the Inheritor with the flamethrower. Claws lashed. The Inheritor's severed limbs slapped onto the floor.

  Emet fired his railgun.

  His bullets hit a fiery demon, but the creature still laughed. The demon advanced toward him, ablaze, arms outstretched. Emet fired bullet after bullet. The other Inheritors were firing on the flaming beast too, doing no harm.

  "Hello, Emet!" she cried, emerging from the fire.

  A woman with glimmering alabaster skin—skin like a scorpion's exoskeleton. With implants on her head. The fire had burned her clothes and hair away, but Emet recognized her.

  "Jade," he said.

  The Inheritors charged toward her with blades and clubs.

  Jade laughed and leaped into the air.

  She moved like lightning. She rebounded off the ceiling, off the walls, her claws lashing. She dodged every blade, every electric prod. Her claws tore through Inheritors, severing limbs and heads, ripping torsos open.

  Warriors screamed.

  Some tried to flee into the burnt-out boarding vessels, others onto the bridge.

  Jade reached them all, ripping them apart, laughing as their blood splattered.

  "For Earth!" they cried as they died.

  Jade bit out a man's throat, then spat out flesh. She looked up at Emet, licked the blood off her lips, and smiled.

  There is nowhere to hide, Emet knew. If I die, I die fighting.

  He roared and lunged toward her.

  He swung Thunder into her head. The blow knocked Jade's head back; it should have cracked her skull. But Jade merely straightened her neck with a creak and smiled.

  Emet swung the rifle again, slamming the wooden stock into her temple. The wood shattered. Jade laughed.

  Emet sneered, aimed the muzzle at her face, and pulled the trigger.

  She yanked the barrel aside and the bullet flew and slammed into the bulkhead.

  "Naughty human," she hissed, then slammed her palm into his chest.

  Emet flew through the hull, hit into a bulkhead, and slumped to the floor. He lay, gasping for breath, finding no air. Corpses spread around him.

  Jade walked toward him, smiling crookedly. She placed a foot on his chest, pinning him down.

  Emet looked up into her green eyes.

  "Who are you?" he whispered.

  "Your nemesis," she said. "Your death. The death of humanity."

  Jade knelt, grabbed his throat, and began to squeeze.

  As Emet lay on the floor, slowly dying, he realized that the ship's cannons had stopped firing. The hull was eerily quiet.

  A voice, high and timid, pierced the silence.

  "Jade?"

  Jade looked up, then released Emet's throat and took a step back. Eyes fluttering, barely clinging to consciousness, Emet tilted his head back and saw Rowan step into the hold.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  Her breath trembled. Leaving the cockpit, Rowan stepped into the Jerusalem's hold.

  Before her spread the devastation.

  Fifty dead Inheritors, their corpses torn apart, limbs and heads and entrails scattered. A pool of blood. Smoking dead scorpions. And in the center of the slaughter—Emet lying on the floor, wounded, maybe dying, and Jade kneeling above him, drenched in the blood of her enemies.

  "Jade?" Rowan whispered. Her voice shook. "Is that really you?"

  Jade whipped her head toward her, hissing, blood on her teeth. She seemed less than human. A demon. A creature half flesh, half machine. Her skin shone, unnaturally white and hard. The fire had burned away her blue hair, but her implants still whirred and shone on the side of her head. Claws extended from her fingertips. The creature grinned, eyes mad.

  Rowan took another step closer. Every instinct in her body screamed to run. But she advanced toward the demon.

  Because I see something in her green eyes, Rowan thought. Something buried under the madness.

  "Sister," Rowan whispered, reaching out a shaking hand.

  Jade screamed. The sound was deafening, echoing in the ship, nearly knocking Rowan back.

  "What did you call me?" Jade shouted, voice like a thousand shrieking demons of hell.

  Beneath her, Emet was trying to move, to crawl away. But he was badly wounded. Maybe dying. And Jade was still gripping him with one hand, her claws in his flesh. Without anyone manning the cannons, the Jerusalem was taking a pounding. The ship kept jolting as blasts slammed into their shields. Outside, the battle was still raging across space.

  "Rowan!" Duncan cried from the cockpit. "Rowan, I need you back here, lass!"

  Rowan blinked tears out of her eyes. She stepped closer to Jade, her boots sloshing through blood.

  "Do you remember?" Rowan whispered. "Do you remember me?"

  Jade sneered. "You are vermin."

  Rowan took a step closer. "I'm your sister."

  Jade howled. Beneath her, Emet stretched out a shaky arm, trying to reach a control panel on the bulkhead. But he was too far. He tried to crawl, but Jade kept him pinned down, her claws bleeding him.

  "You are a liar!" Jade howled. "A filthy pest! I will not let you back into my skull. I will not! I am a scorpion!"

  Rowan shook her head. "You are human."

  "Liar!" Jade laughed maniacally. "I will no longer let you deceive me. I will take you back to my master, girl. He himself will skin you. And I will watch and laugh!"

  Rowan wept. She stood before her sister, trembling. "What did he do to you?" she whispered. "How did the scorpion emperor hurt you? I'm so sorry, Jade. I'm so sorry we let you go. Come back to me. Come back now. He can no longer hurt you."

  But Jade only laughed, head tossed back. "Sin Kra, the great emperor of Skra-Shen, hurts me to make me stronger. And I am strong. You will never know true strength, humans. But you will witness it before you die. You will see our empire rise before your wretched race falls."

  Rowan lowered her head, tears falling.

  "They broke you," Rowan whispered. "But you can come back. Come back to us."

  Heavy footsteps sounded behind her. Duncan came racing off the bridge. He must have left the Jerusalem on autopilot.

  "Rowan, lass, step away from her!" Duncan said. "Come to me, lass. Come back into the cockpit. We'll lock the door; it's reinforced steel. Come, Rowan. Come back to me, and stay away from that she-demon."

  Jade leaned down, fished a fallen bullet out of the gore, then screamed and hurled it.

  The bullet whizzed through the air and slammed into Duncan's forehead.

  The bullet drove clean through his head. It clattered into the cockpit behind him.

  Duncan stared for a moment, blood gushing from the hole in his forehead, then crashed down dead.

  "Duncan!" Emet cried, still pinned to the floor. "No! Duncan!"

  Jade laughed, eyes mad. "How frail the flesh of men. This old fool piloted your flagship? This starship will be mine. I will command it myself, firing its cannons to slay your own people. But you will live longer, Emet and Rowan. You will suffer in the hall of the emperor."

  The horror wrapped around Rowan like claws. She had not known Duncan for long, but he had become dear to her. She forced a deep breath.

  Do not panic. Do not abandon her. She's still your sister. She's broken and needs healing.

  Rowan took another step closer. She stood so close now she could have reached out and touched Jade. />
  "Jade." Rowan's voice was barely a whisper. "Do you remember the glittering cave?"

  "Lies!" Jade was shaking now, eyes mad, lips peeled back in a rabid snarl.

  "Do you remember Mom and Dad?" Rowan blinked tears out of her eyes. "They loved you so much. And I love you."

  And now tears were flowing from Jade's eyes too, falling onto Emet who lay wounded beneath her.

  "You are a liar!" Jade cried, but now her voice was torn with grief. Her body shook with sobs. "The emperor told me. That you can do this. That you can hack into my mind. That you can plant these memories." Her voice rose to a torn howl. "Get out of my head!"

  "They are true memories," Rowan said. Hesitantly, she reached out and touched Jade's arm. "We are sisters."

  Snarling, Jade grabbed her.

  Rowan yelped.

  Jade knocked her onto the bloody floor, then drove her knee into Rowan's chest. Rowan gasped for air.

  "You vermin," Jade hissed, leaning down, drooling above her. "You will not call me sister!" Her claws tightened around Rowan's arm, drawing blood.

  Nearby, Emet was crawling across the floor, trying to reach the control panel. With a growl, Jade grabbed him, pulled him back.

  "I can see the doubt in your eyes, Jade," Rowan whispered. "You would have killed me already, or taken me captive, but you hesitate."

  Jade cackled. "I enjoy seeing you suffer. Pain is so beautiful when it's drawn out."

  Rowan closed her eyes. Voice weak and trembling, she began to sing. A nearly-forgotten song of childhood. A song from a glittering cave. The song their parents used to sing them. A song of Earth, and a song of family.

  Someday we will see her

  The pale blue marble

  Rising from the night beyond the moon

  Cloaked in white, her forests green

  Calling us home

  Rowan opened her eyes and looked at her sister through a veil of tears. Jade was staring, eyes wide and damp. Rowan continued singing.

  For long we wandered

  For eras we were lost

  For generations we sang and dreamed

  To see her rise again

  Blue beyond the moon

  Calling us home

  Jade was trembling now. She released Rowan and fell back, sitting in the blood, trembling. Rowan continued with a soft voice, completing her song.

  Into darkness we fled

  In the shadows we prayed

  In exile we always knew

  That we will see her again

  Our Earth rising from loss

  Calling us home

  Calling us home

  Her song ended.

  No, not my song, Rowan thought. Our song. The song of all humans, lost in darkness, dreaming of home.

  Jade looked at her, eyes damp.

  "Rowan?" she whispered, voice trembling. "Is it you, sister?"

  "It's me." Her tears fell. "It's me, Jade. I love you."

  "I'm scared." Jade's voice was barely a whisper, cracking. "I'm scared, Rowan."

  Shaking, sobbing, Jade reached out to embrace her. Rowan opened her arms.

  Then Rowan realized that Emet had reached the control panel.

  The leader of the Heirs of Earth grabbed a lever. He turned to look at the sisters.

  "I'm sorry, Rowan," Emet said, eyes hard yet haunted. "But I cannot let her claim this ship."

  He pulled the lever.

  The ship's airlock blasted open.

  "No!" Rowan screamed. "Jade, hold on!"

  Outside, she saw the battle spinning across space, the thousands of starships still flying and firing. The vacuum began sucking out everything from the Jerusalem—the air, the corpses, the fallen weapons, the blood. It grabbed Rowan like an invisible fist, pulling her toward space.

  Desperately, Rowan tried to grab something, anything. She gripped a corpse, but it rushed by beneath her. She reached out, clutched a rifle, but the vacuum tore it from her grip. Air whooshed over her. Duncan's corpse flew above, spun, then vanished into the darkness.

  Jade too was trying to grab something. She clawed at the floor, trying to puncture holes, but there was too much blood. She was flying backward, scrambling for purchase, screaming.

  "Jade!" Rowan cried.

  The air lifted Jade above the floor, pulling her through the hold. She flew like a leaf on the wind.

  As she flew by, Jade stared at Rowan with wide eyes.

  "You lied!" Jade screamed. "You betrayed me, liar!" Her voice twisted with agony, becoming inhuman. "You betrayed me!"

  And then Jade was gone, sucked out into space. She vanished into the chaos of the battle.

  An instant later, the vacuum pulled Rowan out into space too.

  Rowan reached out and grabbed the airlock's rim. Air was still blowing over her, ruffling her hair, billowing her clothes. Emet came flying out a second later, scrabbling for purchase. He managed to grip the rim too, and he stared into her eyes.

  "I'm sorry," he whispered.

  Then the last few corpses flew from inside and slammed into them, knocking both Emet and Rowan out into open space.

  All sound vanished.

  The storming wind, the roar of battle—gone.

  Just silence.

  Rowan floated.

  She wore no spacesuit.

  Space embraced her.

  She looked around her. The Concord starships were falling fast. The enemy was everywhere, stretching into the distance, battalion after battalion of strikers. Barely any human ships still flew.

  There was pain now. Rowan's skin was beginning to freeze, her lungs to scream for air. She looked around, trying to find Jade, but couldn't see her. Rowan tried to kick, to make her way to another ship, but there was nothing to swim through in the vacuum.

  She pulled Fillister out of her pocket. Her hands were so cold now. Blistering. But she managed to turn him on, and the pocket watch turned into a dragonfly.

  Goodbye, she wanted to whisper, but she could form no sounds. She felt the saliva boiling on her tongue. Fillister bustled around her, was crying out in silence. He grabbed her, tried to pull her, but he was too small, too weak. They floated together, moving farther from the Jerusalem. Moving into the emptiness. And her skin was so pale, so ashen, freezing now.

  So I die among the stars, Rowan thought. The beautiful stars that I so often dreamed of seeing.

  She tilted her head back and gazed up through a void in the battle. She saw them there. The stars. A great spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Earth was somewhere out there, one of those distant lights, and it was beautiful. It was so beautiful.

  I will not die on Earth. But I will die gazing upon your light.

  And from those distant stars, it emerged.

  A starship.

  A small starship, no larger than a shuttle. It charged into the battle, rippling spacetime around it, knocking back strikers. A starship with a new wing.

  The Brooklyn.

  "Bay," Rowan whispered with no voice, reaching toward his ship. "Bay . . ."

  The small ship came to hover beside her and Emet. The airlock opened, and there stood Bay, wearing a helmet. He reached out and caught Rowan's hand, and he pulled her inside, then grabbed Emet.

  He closed the airlock, and air flowed around Rowan.

  She lay on the floor, breathing deeply, and the world went dark, and she sank into the shadows.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  They pulled her into a striker.

  For a long time, Jade didn't breathe.

  Claws jabbed her. Electrical wires shocked her.

  When she finally gasped for air again, her fists clenched.

  She tricked me. She betrayed me.

  Jade rose to her feet, shaking with weakness and rage.

  "Liars!" she howled, fists raised.

  Scorpions surrounded her, gazing at her. Her true siblings.

  "I am one of you!" she said. "Do you hear me? I am one of you!"

  The scorpions nodded, but she saw the doubt in their
eyes.

  Jade fell to her knees, lowered her head, and remembered a glittering cave, an old song, and the eyes of a sister.

  * * * * *

  Emet struggled to his feet, gasping.

  He was alive.

  Rowan was alive.

  They had spent less than a minute in space without spacesuits. An eternity. Their skin was cold and blistered. Their eyes were bloodshot. They were probably suffering from ebullism, hypoxia, hypocapnia, and a bucket full of other space sicknesses.

  But they were alive.

  Emet gulped down air, standing in the airlock of the Brooklyn.

  "Bay!" He grabbed his son's arms. "You came back!"

  His son stared at him, and there was something hurt and haunted, even frightened, in his eyes.

  "I had to come back to save your ass," Bay said, smiling, but there was no mirth to his smile.

  He's terrified, Emet knew. We all are.

  He wanted to embrace his son. To speak to Rowan, to explain his actions, why he had nearly killed her.

  But there was no time. No damn time! The battle was still raging around them, and the Concord was losing. The ISS Jerusalem was listing on autopilot. Already the frigate was plowing through the wreckage of other ships. Within moments, the Jerusalem would plunge down toward the marshlands of Akraba.

  "Bay, lend me a spacesuit and get me back onto the Jerusalem," Emet said, voice hoarse. "Hurry."

  "Dad, I picked up a signal from the planet," Bay said. "Leona is down there. We have to go fetch her."

  Emet nodded, relief flooding over him. "Return me to the Jerusalem first. Then go fetch your sister!"

  They worked in a mad rush. Emet was nauseous, close to passing out. He clung to consciousness. He pulled out a spacesuit from a closet. He was a larger man than his son. The spacesuit barely fit, but it would protect Emet inside the airless Jerusalem.

  Bay navigated through the battle, dodging plasma blasts from enemy strikers, bringing them close to the Jerusalem. Emet's beloved ship was badly damaged, covered with burnt boarding vessels like leeches. She was barely staying afloat.