The Antithesis- The Complete Pentalogy

by Terra Whiteman

I saw her lips moving in the corner of my eye. “What?” I shouted over wailing trumpets and crashing drums.

  More lip movement.

  I turned the volume down. “What?”

  “Have you told your sister about the sudden change of plans?”

  “No. I was more worried about Ara’s reaction, so at least the worst is over.”

  “I’m surprised he put up so little of a fight.”

  “Me too.”

  “You’re doing a good thing, Qaira.”

  I shrugged, saying nothing.

  We reached the medical facility a few minutes later and I parked in the vacant lot at the west side of the building. Before I could even pull my keys from the ignition, Leid crawled into my lap and started kissing my neck.

  “W-What are you—?”

  Her tongue traced a warm, wet line along my jaw. My body was already responding and she reached between my legs, kneading the bulge of my crotch. I surveyed the lot with a desperate wince, making sure we were out of public sight.

  This was unlike her. She was spontaneous, but never this spontaneous.

  I pulled her hand away from my groin. She looked down at me, confused.

  “You don’t want to?”

  “I’m trying to figure out what you’re doing,” I said, breathily. Even though I wanted nothing more than to fuck her senseless, the thought of our fight last night was like a mental chastity belt.

  Leid understood my meaning and looked away, shame marking her face. “Qaira, please. Not again.”

  “Yeah, let’s just keep fucking like it never happened.”

  “You mean more than the others,” she murmured. “Is that what you want me to say? Do you want me to tell you that I’ll cry for years after I leave?”

  I stared at her.

  “The life of a scholar is lonely and loveless,” she whispered, blood tears brimming her eyes. “Can’t I just enjoy being with you now, without delving into a discussion about how I’ll never seen you again?”

  “Do you want to stay here?”

  “It doesn’t matter what I want.”

  “Do you want to stay here?” I repeated, sternly.

  “More than anything.”

  “Then what’s stopping you? Tell your Court to fuck off.”

  She laughed, sadly. “There are rules, Qaira. I can’t leave the Court of Enigmus. They’d come for me and that would place you and your world in danger.”

  “Can’t you fight them? I’ve watched you lift a couch over your head.”

  “I might be strong compared to you, but not to my own.”

  “Because you’re a guardian.”

  Leid’s eyes widened. “How do you know about that?”

  “Namah told me.”

  “Then you understand.”

  “I do, but I’m not going to give you up that easily.”

  Leid wiped her eyes and looked at the clock on the dash. “We’re late.”

  “I can’t walk into Eroqam Medical with an erection.”

  She arched a brow, and I grinned.

  “Care to help me out? This is all your fault.”

  ***

  Almost half an hour later we barged into Yahweh’s room, smoothing our hair and clothes. The kid jumped at our entrance, already clutching his bag.

  “Thank goodness. I thought something terrible happened to you.”

  “Traffic,” I said, clearing my throat. Leid and I shared a look. “You ready to go?”

  “I’ve been ready for weeks.”

  I stepped aside, gesturing to the open doorway. Yahweh marched through it, smiling brightly.

  When we reached Eroqam, I deliberately walked him through the Commons and the boy slowed as we approached his old room. Placing a hand on his shoulder, I gave him a gentle shove. “Keep going.”

  He shot me a quizzical glance over his shoulder and pressed on. Those glances continued until we reached the door to my estate. He stood back with Leid as I punched in the code.

  “I don’t understand,” mumbled the boy.

  “This is the safest it’s going to get,” I said as the door slid open. “Make yourself at home.”

  Yahweh’s large, child-like eyes shined with gratitude. “I… don’t know what to say.”

  “Don’t say anything, just come inside. I should have been back at the office ten minutes ago.”

  Leid stayed at the door. “I’ll meet you at the port, Qaira.”

  I waved without looking back, and the kid and I trudged up the stairs. As I led him into the dining room, past the kitchen and through the hall toward the bedrooms, Yahweh marveled at every little detail. All he’d ever seen of Eroqam was the Commons and the research lab.

  With my father gone, our home had a spare room. Last night Ara and his team had helped me move Yahweh’s furniture and other belongings into it.

  My sister caught us on the second floor. She was clutching several bags with Opalla logos on them, dressed in a red skirt suit and black high-heels. Another long, hard day of shopping.

  I couldn’t be too hard on her. Tae deserved some fun after ten years of being my father’s nursemaid.

  “Qaira, what are you doing home?” she asked. “Did something happ—” Her mouth stopped moving when she noticed Yahweh peeking out from behind me. “… An angel.”

  “An angel,” I repeated, amused.

  “Why is there a little angel boy in our house? What have you done?” demanded Tae.

  “This is Yahweh Telei,” I said. “He is the only son of Commander Lucifer Raith.”

  Tae’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.

  “He’s an ally.”

  “Hostage,” Yahweh corrected me.

  “What did he just say?” she asked. Tae didn’t speak Archaean.

  “Nothing. He’s helping me with some work and will be staying in our home. It’s not safe in the Commons anymore.”

  “… You’re keeping an angel safe from harm,” she summarized, incredulous. Even she knew that protecting an angel wasn’t something I’d normally do.

  “Yes.”

  Tae looked at the boy again. She didn’t move.

  I rolled my eyes. “He isn’t going to bite you.” And then to Yahweh, I whispered, “Say something.”

  “Hello,” he said in Nehelian. “I am a friendly person.”

  “H-Hello,” she stammered.

  “Can you get him settled in? He’s staying in Dad’s old room. I have to get back to work before I’m impeached.”

  Before she could reply I crammed his bag in her hands and headed for the stairs. As I hurried down the first floor hall, I heard my sister ask:

  “So, Yahweh, how old are you?”

  XXVI

  PROGRESS

  “COME ON, COME ON!” screamed Ara. “He’s two seconds behind you!”

  I ignored him to my best ability, swerving around the side of a simulated high-rise. Simulated enemy crafts popped up on the screen and I fired, taking them down.

  Lakash and I were facing off, our simulators side-by-side. We had practiced every day for two weeks, and although the other selected pilots were doing really well, he and I were the best. As expected.

  A crowd had gathered around us—even the engineers had stopped their work to watch the match. Cheers erupted every time either of us shot down an enemy, and to be honest it was killing my concentration.

  As I bit down on my lip, four enemy crafts emerged from either side of the street in a pincer-attack. I rolled mid-air, firing at two that flew in front of me.

  But now Lakash had pulled ahead of me, having ignored the enemies head on and instead goaded them to take chase. They crashed into an Aero-way bridge. Show off.

  ‘OBJECTIVE COMPLETE. TIME OF COMPLETION: THREE MINUTES, THIRTY-FIVE SECONDS. NEW RECORD.’

  Lakash had won. As everyone celebrated his victory by patting him on the back and telling him how amazing he was, Ara stood beside my simulator, scolding me.

  “You should have kept going! Why didn’t you do what he did?”<
br />
  “You’re more upset about this than I am.”

  “Because I know you can beat him!”

  “Your pilot just cleared a forty-five enemy round in under four minutes. What’s there to be angry about?”

  Ara fell silent, looking away sheepishly. “True.”

  “But,” I said, loud enough to alert Lakash and the crowd, “in real life I would prefer you not to make the angels crash into our buildings. That would be expensive, not to mention dangerous.”

  “Of course, sir,” said Lakash, grinning. “I was just showing off. Rematch?”

  “No thanks. I think I’ll tuck my tail between my legs and head over to the Cloak station. Good job, Lieutenant.”

  Yahweh and Leid were huddled around the electrical plans that were spread across the table. Neither of them had been watching the contest.

  “Those simulators are an exact replica of our craft interiors, right?” I asked them.

  Yahweh nodded. “I made sure of it. I wouldn’t have your pilots getting used to something different. That would be counter-productive.”

  “How’s the Cloak coming along?”

  “All we have left to do is install the control system,” said Leid. “It should be finished tomorrow night; we’re just waiting for a systems engineer to hardwire it.”

  I nodded, looking over our nearly-finished product. They’d done an excellent job—I couldn’t distinguish it from the one I’d found at Yema Theater. I ran my hand across its smooth metal surface. It felt the same, too.

  This was our ticket in. Not even the whites would be able to tell it from their own.

  Leid started to roll up the plans. “That’s it for tonight. Qaira, are you done flight training?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yahweh?”

  Silence. The kid was studying something on a clipboard, muttering calculations under his breath.

  “Yahweh?” Leid repeated.

  “Yes?”

  “Are you done?”

  “Oh, yes. For the most part, anyway. I think I can let the engineers finish the shifter torque. But thank goodness I found that miscalculation or else the crafts would have exploded before they’d taken off.”

  My eyebrows arched. “You miscalculated something?”

  He pointed his pen at Leid. “She did.”

  “Sorry,” she muttered.

  “Wow, minus ten for confidence.”

  ***

  Hours later, well after midnight, Leid and I were still catching up on work. Lying across my bed on opposite ends, I reviewed the key topics for our meeting tomorrow, while Leid read another periodical about new discoveries of gene loci in water-dwelling bacteria, or something.

  And she was distracting me. Lying on her stomach, each time she idly kicked her legs I caught a glimpse of the revealing black panties she wore beneath her nightgown—which was actually one of my shirts that she’d stolen. I gave up on reading, eyes glued to her ass. Leid knew exactly what she was doing and kept giving me smug little grins from over her shoulder.

  She was irresistible in that way; my body still craved her. Prior to Leid, women tended to get boring after the third encounter. None of them were able to keep my interest long enough to spark a true relationship. Then again, I might have chosen the wrong women. She was exactly the opposite of my usual type, all the way down to her endearing sense of dominance.

  Leid liked to lead in bed, and more often than not I let her. There was one occasion where she’d tied me down and rode me for three hours straight, being careful not to let me climax. It was the most painful and euphoric three hours of my life, and although I’d deny that it had ever happened, I’d probably do it again if she asked.

  Her foot slid between my legs, pressing lightly on my groin. I was already hard, and she knew it.

  “I’m going to get up there tomorrow without a clue of what to say,” I said, trying to sound annoyed.

  “Oh, stop. You’ll be brilliant as always.”

  “Flattery will get you nowhere.”

  “Won’t it?” she asked, smiling coyly.

  I threw my notes aside, inviting her onto my lap. She took the invitation with a smirk, already fumbling with my belt.

  ***

  An hour later, Leid was passed out in my bed and I still couldn’t sleep. Deciding to grab a glass of water, I headed to the kitchen and found Tae and Yahweh sitting at the dining room table, chatting over tea.

  “What are you doing up so late?” asked my sister.

  “Funny, I was about to ask you the same thing.”

  “Tae and I were discussing herbal tea recipes,” said Yahweh. “Some of them sound delicious.”

  Arching a brow, I walked into the kitchen. “Sounds like a riveting conversation. Don’t let me stop you.”

  Yahweh was almost a part of the family. He joined us for two of our three daily meals, and was free to roam our estate during the day while I was at work. Although Tae had mentioned numerous times that it’d be nice if she had some company on her shopping endeavors, he wasn’t allowed to leave without my supervision.

  But Tae seemed happier with him around, and I was glad they’d hit it off so well. My sister had been very lonely since Dad died. All of her friends were married and busy starting families—no doubt that would happen to her soon as well—but in the meantime Yahweh made an excellent substitute. Likewise, the kid didn’t seem so bored.

  Glass of water in hand, I returned to the dining room, knocking on the back of Yahweh’s seat. “Come on, it’s bed time.”

  Yahweh glowered at me. “Stop treating me like a child.”

  “But you are a child.”

  “I’m not tired.”

  “You’re going to be tomorrow. We have half a day of Cloak wiring ahead of us. I don’t want you too tired to work.”

  “I’m never too tired to work.”

  “Bed time.”

  With a sigh, Yahweh slid from his seat. “Thank you for the tea, Tae.”

  My sister smiled. “Goodnight Yahweh, I’ll see you at breakfast.”

  I walked him back to his room and he huffed the whole way down the hall. He kept insisting that I treat him like an adult, but it was hard. When we reached his door, he stopped. Just as I raised the glass of water to my lips, I heard him say:

  “I don’t think you’re allowed to have sexual relations with your scholar.”

  I froze, mid-sip.

  “You’re having sex with Leid, aren’t you?” he pressed.

  “Mind your own business, white.”

  “Why won’t you answer me?” he said, unfazed.

  “Because you haven’t even reached puberty yet.”

  Yahweh sighed, again. “I have a doctorate in medicine, electrical engineering and molecular biology. It’s safe to say I’ve already taken sex education.”

  “Yeah, I’m fucking Leid, and thanks for your advice.”

  “Do you love her?”

  I hesitated, staring at him. “What’s it to you?”

  “Nothing, really,” Yahweh said, shrugging. “I’ve just seen it all before.”

  “Stop stalling and go to bed.”

  “I am a genius who is handing you your victory on a silver platter. I don’t need to be told to go to bed.”

  “Go to bed.”

  “I wonder if once I reach adulthood I’ll become as narrow-minded and ignorant as you.”

  “Good one. I’ll see you tomorrow, genius.”

  As Yahweh opened the door, I remembered something I’d wanted to ask him. “Hey, what happened to your real parents?”

  He paused in the doorway, partially concealed by shadows. “Pardon me?”

  “Where are your parents?”

  “On the Ark.”

  “The what?”

  “Our base ship.”

  “No, I mean where are they? Aren’t they concerned for your safety at all?”

  Yahweh looked away, uncomfortable. “My father and I have never seen eye-to-eye. My mother is mentally ill.”


  “Your father’s a general for Raith, right?”

  “Yes, his First General. Lucifer offered to take care of me when I finished school, and my father seemed pleased to get me out of his hair. He told me it is an honor to be mentored by our leader, and I suppose it is.”

  “Do you love Commander Raith?”

  “Very much.”

  Yet he was working for me with minimal reluctance. Interesting.

  “Goodnight, Qaira,” murmured Yahweh, slipping into his unlit room and shutting the door.

  I headed down the hall, battling my conscience. The kid didn’t know what I had planned for him, and now I felt guilty about it. I’d made the plan several months ago, before he’d coerced me into liking him. But it was too late. I’d come too far and there was no turning back.

  Leid had said that guilt was what separates man from monster, but she was wrong.

  Guilt did not distinguish whether you were a man or monster; it made you aware that you were a monster.

  And somehow, you had to live with it.

  XXVII

  MONSTERS AND METHODOLOGY

  “WHEN THE ARK BREACHES OUR AEROSPACE, four teams of fifty crafts will attack it from here,” I pointed my laser at the west border of Upper Sanctum, “here,” now the east, “here,” now the north, “and on the southern border of Lower Sanctum, here. Attacking from these points simultaneously will give us the element of surprise.”

  I paused, allowing questions.

  Uless raised his hand, like clockwork.

  “Lt. Fedaz.”

  “What about the rest of Lower Sanctum?”

  “We’re trying not to take the fight to Lower Sanctum, since that’s where civilian evacuations are to be held. Keep the angels away from there.”

  Garan raised his hand, also like clockwork.

  “Lt. Geiss.”

  “Why Lower Sanctum? Shouldn’t we be making it a priority to protect Upper Sanctum?”

  “From an economic standpoint, yes,” I said. “But assuming the angels will think that as well, Upper Sanctum is the most likely place for a first attack. I don’t want any civilians caught in crossfire so we’ll be taking them all to the Aeroway shores, underneath Crylle. It is unlikely that the whites will try to damage their own refugee camp.”