Enemy One (Epic Book 5)

by Lee Stephen

  It was time.

  Angling her body, Svetlana pointed at Ka`vesh. “Devour him.”

  Turning his massive maw to Ka`vesh, Mishka rose on his hind legs and roared. Ka`vesh’s bulbous eyes widened; the warrior stumbled backward. The revolt had begun.

  There was no time for Svetlana to wait to see the charge. Lurching forward while Nagogg’s eyes were on Mishka, the nose-less medic snagged the end of the chieftain’s spear. Before Nagogg could even register what was happening, Svetlana shrieked and jabbed her fingers forward, digging her nails into the chieftain’s eyes. Nagogg howled as he flailed his arms to grab her.

  Behind Svetlana, Gabralthaar leapt into a defense stance, then froze, his focus shifting between the canrassi and Svetlana. In the midst of his hesitation, the massive beast charged at his counterpart. Its gaping jaws open wide, it slammed into Ka`vesh at full speed, its teeth clamping around the soldier’s midsection. Ka`vesh shrieked in horror as his body was shaken like a rag doll.

  Snatching a firm hold onto Svetlana’s wrists, Nagogg pried her away from him and glared through watering, bloodied eyes. Wrenching his spear out of her grasp, he pulled it back to strike with its blade.

  Pow!

  Svetlana’s knee collided into the chieftain’s groin. Releasing a yell of agony, he released his hold on her and crumpled to the floor. Svetlana spun her head around. Past the rigid Gabralthaar and Ka`vesh being torn apart, her blue eyes found the weapons. The medic made her move.

  Simultaneous with Svetlana’s darting, Ei`dorinthal reached into the weapon stack to pull out an assault rifle—the Ithini tossed it haphazardly in Svetlana’s direction.

  Gabralthaar reached her first. Colliding into Svetlana’s side at full speed, the massive, armored titan slammed her body against the wall. The medic’s body hit the control board sideways—all wind was knocked out of her. As the assault rifle clinked past her, out of her grasp, Gabralthaar grabbed her by the throat and hoisted her up. Once again, she was slammed against the wall.

  “Traitor!”

  Ei`dorinthal whipped around as the voice decreed. It was Uguul. Leaping over his station, the emaciated Bakma soldier ran straight for the Ithini.

  Straining until she was red-faced, Svetlana fought to pull Gabralthaar’s arms from her throat—to no avail. The muscle-bound titan wasn’t budging. Curling her abdominals, Svetlana lifted her legs into the air, pressing her heels against Gabralthaar’s face. Her legs extended, and the titan’s chin was forced up and to the side. Again, he slammed her into the console, and again, she cried out in pain—but her feet held their place. Pushing with all of her might, she finally exposed the flesh of the titan’s throat.

  Kick!

  Svetlana’s right foot released then jolted forward, crashing against Gabralthaar’s neck while it was unprotected. Releasing her, he stumbled and clutched his throat as they both fell to the floor. With both of them heaving for air, Svetlana crawled toward the assault rifle.

  At the front of the bridge, meters away from Nik-nish, who was diving out of his chair, Mishka’s jaws shook Ka`vesh’s body with blood-crazed frenzy. The Bakma soldier’s shrieks became otherworldly as his body was ripped apart. Blood bursting from his mouth, his eyes rolled back as his lower body flew across the room. Ka`vesh trembled as the canrassi dropped him, then stared over him. Opening its razor-rimmed maw, the canrassi clamped its jaws down on Ka`vesh’s face with finality.

  Svetlana’s outstretched hand had just reached the assault rifle when Gabralthaar’s mighty foot swept in to kick it away. Before the still-coughing medic could scramble to her feet, the titan grabbed her by the hair and slung her again. As she careened over a railing, Svetlana let out a cry of pain.

  Running toward the railing, his massive, sentry-armored feet pounding against the bridge’s metal floorboards, Gabralthaar prepared to make the leap to her side. But he never reached the rail. Something stingingly hard struck the titan square in the faceplate. Gabralthaar briefly saw stars as he stumbled back and turned for the aggressor. The moment he identified him, the titan stared with surprise. “Kraash-nagun?”

  Flitting quickly between where he’d heard Gabralthaar’s voice and Svetlana’s cry, the blinded elite assumed an open fighting stance, palms open and hands outstretched as he angled his earholes to listen.

  That was all Svetlana needed. Staving off any internal celebration at seeing Kraash-nagun leap into the fray, the blonde scrambled haphazardly for the assault rifle on the other side of the bridge.

  Ed was leaping for all he was worth—over railings, over stations, over anything and everything that put any amount of distance between him and Uguul. But real estate was running out. Diving beneath the lower half of a guardrail, the Ithini landed on his haunches just meters away from Mishka, who was finishing off Ka`vesh’s head with moist, satisfying chomps. With pieces of Ka`vesh dripping from its jaws, the canrassi looked up to observe the scrambling Ithini. Its spider eyes tightening, it roared lowly and faced the frail, gray being. Ei`dorinthal’s eyes widened as the canrassi let loose a roar.

  Diving across the floor, Svetlana’s grip finally found the assault rifle. Rolling over on her back, she raised her weapon to take aim at Gabralthaar. Bullets exploded around her just as she did.

  Nik-nish.

  The Bakma pilot had reached his own weapon—an M-19 handgun—just as Svetlana had reached hers. Rolling behind a console, Svetlana avoided the wildly inaccurate shots of her new principle adversary. Sitting with her back to the console, Svetlana checked her weapon briefly, ignoring the sparks of weapons fire that struck the floor and wall around her. The E-35 checked out—she was good to go. Holding her breath, she planted her foot, pivoted, and rose.

  Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

  Nik-nish never stood a chance. The footless, stumbling pilot was riddled with bullets as Svetlana’s aim proved true. The handgun fell from Nik-nish’s hands as he collapsed to the floor.

  Without hesitation, Svetlana looked for her next target. Its identity was not even a question. Her ocean blue eyes narrowing on Nagogg, she squeezed the trigger just as the chieftain made for the exit. Nagogg’s lipless mouth cried aloud as bullets struck him in the chest and leg. His spear flew from his gnarled fingers.

  Ei`dorinthal was running at full speed—with every step he took, Mishka, now in a total frenzy, grew closer. On the other side of the room, keeping pace with Ed while keeping his eyes on the canrassi, Uguul moved gradually closer to the remaining assault rifles. At long last, an opening in the fray presented itself. Uguul darted forward, right behind the quickly-moving Mishka, for the weapons.

  Charging straight for Kraash-nagun, Gabralthaar cocked back with his right fist to smash it into the Bakma elite’s face.

  Kraash-nagun heard it coming. Waiting until the armored titan’s footsteps were right in front of him, Kraash-nagun side-stepped and swept at Gabralthaar’s legs, the speed of the elite’s move overcoming the titan’s weight. Gabralthaar’s knees buckled, and he fell forward into the rail.

  Before the titan realized it, Kraash-nagun had leapt onto his back and was feeling frantically around the bottom of his helmet. Locating the attachment mechanism, Kraash-nagun disengaged it and yanked the sentry helmet clean off Gabralthaar’s head. Reaching back, Gabralthaar grabbed Kraash-nagun by the shoulders and slung him forward over his head. The elite landed back-first and upside-down against the wall. As Gabralthaar leapt over the railing to reengage, Kraash-nagun hopped back up to his feet.

  “Mishka!” Svetlana shouted, holding an open palm to the beast as it thirstily pursued Ed across the bridge. The canrassi’s feet dug in, as it skidded to a stop and looked at her. “Devour him!” She pointed at Uguul.

  Rising wide-eyed with his assault rifle, the starved Uguul gaped at Svetlana as she issued the order. Before the Bakma could even properly raise his weapon, the canrassi was on him. Uguul dove over a control panel as Mishka’s jaws clamped down on the air behind him. Scrambling to his feet, Uguul scampered for the cover of the next pan
el.

  The starved Bakma didn’t make it. Clamping down on Uguul’s foot just as the Bakma was about to bolt away, Mishka dragged the soldier back into the open. Dropping his assault rifle in panic, the emaciated Bakma threw wild, frenetic punches at the canrassi’s nose. But Mishka was undeterred. Uguul screamed in violent death as Mishka planted his maw into the Bakma’s ribcage. Blood flew from Uguul’s chest as the canrassi began to feed.

  “You dare to fight for an Earthae?” Gabralthaar roared as his fist struck out at Kraash-nagun, hitting the control board behind him as the elite darted out of the way at the last possible moment.

  Rolling to his feet, ears still attuned to the movements of the titan, Kraash-nagun said, “She fights to be free. So do I!”

  Again, Gabralthaar charged, and again, the massive titan’s weight gave his location away. As Gabralthaar reached out to grab Kraash-nagun by his tattered outfit, the elite again dove to the side, grabbing a railing as he slid under it toward the center of the bridge. “You were among Uladek’s most honored!” Gabralthaar roared.

  “Then I was honored by nothing,” said Kraash-nagun. Crouching down, he waited to hear Gabralthaar come over the railing.

  He didn’t have to wait long.

  The titan’s armored hand grabbed hold of the railing as the titan pushed his massive frame up and over it. At just the right moment—a fraction after Gabralthaar exhaled in the effort—Kraash-nagun spun around backward, placed his palms on the floor, and propelled his feet straight up and into the air. The moment Gabralthaar landed on metal, a rock-solid right heel was there to meet his chin. The titan’s head wobbled as he stumbled back against the railing. The next thing he felt were forearms around the back of his head.

  Kraash-nagun twisted, and with a violent snap, the Gabralthaar’s massive neck muscles relaxed. His head rolled forward, and he collapsed to the floor. For a moment, Kraash-nagun went perfectly still, listening for any sounds of movement on the floor directly before him. There were none. Gabralthaar the titan was dead.

  Vacant eye sockets searching, he listened for the sound of Svetlana’s voice. He listened for her screaming, her utterances of combat. But there was nothing.

  Svetlana wasn’t there at all.

  * * *

  Nagogg was crawling desperately. With every meter the lipless chieftain dragged himself down the Noboat’s central corridor, more and more blood seeped from his bullet wounds. Turning around to reposition himself in a way that would allow him to push harder, Nagogg’s sunken eyes froze when they spotted the figure down the hall.

  Svetlana.

  The former captive was marching slowly, albeit steadily, in his direction. Above the vacant nasal cavities where Nagogg had cut off her nose, her blue eyes were burning. In her hand, clasped between blood-stained fingers, was the chieftain’s spear.

  His sunken eyes widening, Nagogg pushed himself away more fervently. Turning his head to the hallway, he screamed in his raspy, lipless voice, “Wuteel!” No answer came—the engineer didn’t hear him. Once again, he looked upon Svetlana.

  With every step closer the tortured medic drew to him, her body loomed larger.

  “You fight an unwinnable war!” Nagogg said, his skeleton’s grin parted as he heaved through weakening breaths. “Do you believe you can defeat Order and Chaos? You can do nothing!”

  Svetlana’s free hand shifted to clutch the spear at its hilt. With every step the medic took, the weapon felt more and more familiar. Twirling it smoothly in one hand, she clutched it firmly after its fifth turn. Angling its tip forward, she lowered her glare.

  Nagogg cast another look toward the engine room as his back came to rest at the hall’s end—Wuteel was still nowhere to be seen. He looked at Svetlana again. “You are an insignificant specimen of an insignificant species. There is nothing you can do to prevent what comes! Have you still failed to realize?” Through bloodied teeth, he rasped, “You are a blight. You are weak!”

  “Weak,” Svetlana said with pseudo-reflection as she drew within meters. Coming to a stop with Nagogg in the spear’s reach, she spun the weapon once with wind-whipping speed then tilted her head. “Weak, I may be.” Cocking the spear back and without a moment’s trepidation, Svetlana thrust it into the dying chieftain’s throat. His bulbous eyes bulged with shock and horror, as Svetlana slid the tip of the spear up the wall. Nagogg’s body flailed wildly as he drew closer and closer to the ceiling, blood pouring from his throat, mouth, and nostrils. Unrepentant and unwavering, Svetlana’s ocean blue eyes bore into him. “But I am stronger than you.”

  Crying out in agony, Nagogg writhed in an effort to wrench himself free. But he was powerless. Svetlana stood poised beneath him, an immovable object. As the chieftain’s blood rained down on her, she closed her eyes and embraced it. Nagogg’s legs kicked with rapidly-diminishing fervency until the movements became little more than twitches. Shivering from his gnarled toes to the top of his bald head, his sunken eyes glossed over and his shoulder muscles gave way. At long last, with the last of his lifeblood draining from his wounds, he went still.

  Nagogg was dead.

  Svetlana opened her eyes. Through strands of blood-soaked hair, she stared up at the lifeless body of her torturer—her tormenter. Holding him there, pinched awkwardly against the corner of the ceiling by the spear, felt effortless. It felt like nothing at all. Withdrawing the spear, she watched as his body collapsed lifelessly to the floor in a harmless heap of tangled limbs. For a moment, she paused to admire it. But the pause was not long. There was one more zealot to whom she owed a visit. Head turning toward the engine room, Svetlana narrowed her eyes again.

  Wuteel was standing behind the far side of the circular rail that surrounded the quartz crystal when Svetlana entered. The engineer’s body was rigid, as if he already knew what was about to happen. As she stepped further inside, Svetlana caught site of a small collection of monitors, each showing a different section of the Noboat’s interior. She stopped as she scrutinized one view in particular: a rear view of the bridge, above and behind the captain’s chair. In the center of the carnage, and plain for Wuteel to see, Mishka was consuming what remained of Uguul. Her eyes lingered on the image for a moment before turning to the engineer.

  “I helped you,” she said in Bakmanese.

  Looking nothing short of frantic, Wuteel backed up against the maze of pipes and conduits. There was only so far back he could go. At some point, his retreat would end. “I was a prisoner,” he said. “I had no choice but to follow!”

  Blood dripping from the tip of the spear, Svetlana drew steadily nearer, no hurry in her pace. “Funny. Nagogg gave me a choice.”

  “Nagogg was fanatical! He would not have tolerated defiance from me.” His back hitting the wall, Wuteel looked for an escape route, but found none. The only way out of the engine room was through her.

  “For what it is worth,” Svetlana said, “I will not enjoy killing you.”

  Holding his hands out, Wuteel pleaded for her to stop. His words fell on deaf ears. Regripping the spear to strike, Svetlana lunged toward the engineer just as she had Nagogg.

  “Setana!”

  The cry came to Svetlana mid-strike, from far behind her. Halting the blade inches before it would have penetrated Wuteel’s chest, Svetlana glanced back to it. Stumbling awkwardly into the engine room, his hands feeling the wall at every turn, Kraash-nagun blindly called to her again. “Do not kill Wuteel!”

  Her head spun back to the engineer before he had a chance to escape or counter-attack. Pupils shrinking, she stared Wuteel in his opaque, bulbous orbs. “Why should I not kill him?” she asked the Bakma elite without looking back.

  Grabbing hold of the railing and clinging to it, Kraash-nagun said, “Only he can properly monitor the ship’s systems and calibrate the crystal! Without Wuteel, we will not be able to function.”

  The sound of more movement emerged behind Kraash-nagun. Svetlana recognized Ei`dorinthal’s light, Ithini footsteps. Moments later, his voice came to he
r mind. Kraash-nagun is correct. No one else on this vessel possesses the knowledge with which to maintain this spacecraft.

  Svetlana’s stare stayed on Wuteel. At no point did a look of conceit or crossness come over him. He looked desperate for her to listen to his brethren. Tilting her head, she bore into Wuteel’s eyes.

  There was no reason not to believe Kraash-nagun and Ed. Not only had both fought alongside her, both valued their freedom. If they said Wuteel was necessary to run the vessel, it meant the engineer was.

  “We will monitor him,” said Kraash-nagun, approaching her from behind. “If he attempts to rebel, I will slay him. I do not fear him—he is a coward.”

  Taking a cautious step back from the engineer, she addressed him. “You allowed them to torture me after I helped you. It is for the sake of this spacecraft, and for its sake alone, that you still breathe. But know this, Wuteel.” Her eyebrows arched downward. “I learned Bakmanese. I can learn how to operate this vessel. I will not make the process painless.”

  Nodding his head quickly in a way that was almost humanlike, Wuteel said, “I will serve you as I served Nagogg!”

  “You had better.” Stepping aside, Svetlana allowed Kraash-nagun to take her place in front of Wuteel. The Bakma elite had defeated Gabralthaar without eyes—Svetlana wasn’t worried about how he’d fare against Wuteel. Looking back at Ed, she said, “Release Tauthin and the Kalarael. I will return to the bridge shortly. I expect everyone to be there.” Briefly, she looked back at Wuteel and Kraash-nagun. “Everyone.”

  Bowing his head obediently, the Ithini hurried out of the engine room.

  Svetlana looked at Wuteel for one last time, allowing her stare to linger on the engineer. Nothing was said to him before Svetlana turned away—he’d heard everything he’d needed to hear. Walking past the guard rail that encircled the quartz crystal, Svetlana made her way toward the exit.