by Matt Larkin
Actually, that was kind of true, albeit not in the way he’d thought. Mankind Shall Adhere to the Bounds of the Conduit. Because if it was breached, it could make a bloody hole straight to the Adversary. So they were aliens but not waiting on the edge of space. Waiting beyond it, in a realm of hatred. An entire universe that was alive, according to Caleb—who was, admittedly, a bit off rotation. But something had scared the shite out of the Jericho man.
“Look, you said there are still some seals left, aye? So now that we know what this Apollyon is up to, we can put a stop to him too.”
Rachel shrugged. “We don’t know how many are left or where they are. How are we going to protect them? Especially while we’re busy fighting off angel attacks and Asherah is trying to take over whole galaxies?”
That’s why they needed that alliance with Asherah. David needed the aluf to see reason. It was in mankind’s best interest to stand united against the angels. Maybe … Maybe the Asherans would never join the NER. But if they could have peace … that would be worth any effort.
He sighed. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, lass. But right now, it’s you and me in this room. No angels. No Adversary. And no bloody Asherans.”
She laughed. “You’re incorrigible.” She kissed his cheek.
David flipped her around in his arms and leaned down to kiss her mouth.
Let them forget fear. At least for one night.
17
“I was out there, past the end of everything. The system didn’t even have a name, just numbers. Nothing lived there. No one had been there except one cartography team centuries ago, and I had no real reason to be there. But all I can say is: there is something out there. I felt a presence watching over me, benign, curious … it wasn’t anything divine—I don’t think—but I wasn’t afraid either. I tell you, there is some intellect out there in the deep cosmos that is neither angel nor Adversary.”
Telepath Bart Feldner, appearing on the Mazzaroth program Beyond the Stars
GADARA, MILKY WAY
Gadara.
Knight hated this damn planet. The Lazarus Group had brought him here from Eden to experiment on him. To test the limits of his nephil bloodline. To try to activate dormant genes with electroshock torture and retroviruses that ravaged his immune system. And forced him to relive the traumas of his childhood. And he’d sworn to kill Galizur—Raziel.
And now he was looking down at the little shithole from a shuttle.
“Hey,” Phoebe said. “You all right?”
“Fine.”
“Look. Forget what happened on the planet, all right. Try to remember what we did in orbit after that. Pretty nice, you know? Especially for you, I mean.”
No kidding. He had never expected Phoebe to come for him. He’d been alone, certain he would die, and she had come to save him. And maybe she had saved more than his body.
She elbowed him. “Wake up, ninja boy. I’m taking us in for a landing. Meaning forget what I said. Don’t go thinking too deeply about what happened in orbit. No time for that now.”
Knight jumped from his seat and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her hard. The shuttle spun out of control, flipping around in a loop.
Phoebe pushed him off, and he fell back into his seat, laughing.
“God, Knight. You’re totally off rotation, you know? I have to set the autopilot before we think about romping.”
He chuckled again and caught the smile she tried to hide.
She lowered the shuttle onto the landing pad, then turned to stare at him. “No killing anyone.”
He spread his hands. He knew what they were here for.
“I mean it. Not even half-killing.”
“Ten percent?”
She rose. “God, did you just make a joke? Be still my heart. Keep at it, maybe I can cram a sense of humor into you yet. I was afraid I was going to have to ask Leah to surgically implant one. You wouldn’t have liked that. Come on.”
Knight shook his head, and Phoebe led him to their waiting escort. Men in gray Lazarus coats. Knight glared at one and slipped a throwing knife into one hand. He flipped it around with his fingers, catching the sunlight and reflecting it into the man’s eyes.
Phoebe said no killing. She never said not to terrify the little shits.
“Looks like they fixed most of the damage I caused last time I was here.”
“Yup, yup.”
“Guess they probably couldn’t bring back all the people I killed. Too bad, huh?”
Several of the guards shifted, each casting nervous glances his way. Knight pulled another throwing knife and began the same dance in his other hand.
“Hey, Knight,” Phoebe said, “remember that talk we had about appropriate conversation? And how you should maybe brush up on it? Well, keep brushing, big guy.”
The guards moved a little farther from him and led him to a building, perhaps fifty stories tall. They took a lift up to the penthouse where the guards left them. Knight reached out, telekinetically scanning the room. Only one person. He opened the door. The floor was totally open, a single office that must have been more than two thousand square meters. Like the great hall of a palace in some sappy vid. A long, ornate carpet stretched across the path leading to the desk where Raziel sat, currently in his human guise.
He rose when they approached and spread his hands. “Did frightening my people amuse you?”
Knight shrugged. “Yeah. Not as much as frightening you would, though.”
“Child, I have looked into the maw of the Beast and felt its sick breath on my face. Nothing else in this universe frightens me.”
“Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think, angel.”
“Ooookay,” Phoebe said. “Dial back the testosterone, all right. I know you’re not undersexed, so how about you relax and we talk about what we came for. You know, angel space stations, the Adversary. End of the universe. Small talk.”
Raziel waved them to a pair of chairs across from his desk.
Knight glowered but sat. Phoebe was right, of course. He’d promised Rachel to come here and get Raziel. Well, here he was. “Rachel wants you back aboard the Sephirot.”
The angel sat back down and shook his head. “Not yet. There are other preparations I have to make. And I still have hopes of convincing my brethren to make peace.”
“They’re not going to work with us,” Knight said. “You said yourself they see us as insects.”
“I’m hoping recent events force them to reevaluate that stance.”
“Look, if you won’t come with us,” Phoebe said, “at least give us some answers to take back to Rachel. So maybe she’ll let us get on with our lives.”
“I’m sorry, child,” Raziel said, “but I do not think that will be possible for you for some time. If your kind is to have a chance of survival, Knight will have to remain in this war.”
“Fantastic.”
“Fine,” Knight said. “Whatever. Tell us about the seals, angel.”
Raziel lowered his head and was silent for a moment. When he looked up, his eyes were dark. “We created seven seals to keep the Adversary at bay. Each was a space station, built as a kind of dimensional lock. It was meant to bar the way to parallel universes. Unfortunately, the Conduit, if not navigated properly, might still lead one into other universes. Hence why we instated the Second Commandment.” The angel waved his hand, and a holo display popped up over his desk, showing seven highlighted locations. “Thirty-one centuries years ago, this one—” he pointed at one in the Triangulum galaxy, “—was destroyed. We never knew how at the time, though I now suspect Apollyon may have been responsible. Regardless, it allowed the Adversary limited access to our universe.”
“Thirty-one …” Phoebe said. “You’re talking about the attack on Eden?”
“Yes. With a seal gone, the Adversary managed to bring a ship through a breach in the Conduit. Eventually, it found Earth—Eden—and resolved to enslave or destroy humanity.”
“Why?” Knight asked.
Why should these aliens want to kill humans? Their war was with the angels. “What is the Adversary, and why does it even care about us?”
Raziel sighed. “We made many mistakes … committed so many sins. The Adversary was our greatest. We created a sentient universe in order to fight against our enemies at the time.”
Enemies? He’d thought the Adversary was the angels’ only foe. “What are you talking about?”
“The Lotan. You would call them aliens, beings of dark matter that threatened our dominance of this universe. So we created an organism molded after their own nature. Something with which to fight our foes.”
“And you lost control of it?” Phoebe asked.
“Oh yes.” Raziel shook his head. “The Adversary earned its name because it became an enemy far greater than what we created it to fight. It drove off the Lotan, then it turned on us. Our sin was pride. In our arrogance, we created something we did not understand and could not control. We thought to play God. It nearly destroyed us.”
“So you locked it away forever,” Knight said.
“We sealed the other universe apart from this one. But still it reached out, corrupting us with the Beast. And seeping dark energy into our universe. A phenomenon we have searched for billions of years for a way to abate.”
“Dark energy?” Knight asked.
“It’s negative energy,” Phoebe said. “It composes most of the mass-energy total of the universe, accelerating its expansion. In theory, it will eventually cause the Big Rip. That’s the whole universe breaking apart.”
Sometimes he forgot how damn smart the girl was.
So … when the angels sealed the Adversary away, it was content to destroy the universe slowly, on a scale of billions of years. Feeding in this dark energy until it dominated all creation.
“With the seals falling, the rate of dark energy injection is increasing,” Raziel said. “But if the last two seals fall, they won’t need to kill us billions of years from now. An armada of Adversary ships will sweep into our reality to destroy their former masters.”
Knight shut his eyes. Raziel was right.
There would be no retiring any time soon.
18
“Asherah’s climate is industrial pollutants on a global scale. It is doubtful that even geshurim could breathe that much for long. The population lives indoors, travels in tubes and tunnels, and everything they eat is fabricated in grimy factories—nothing like Manna Products except in concept. The government controls everything directly. There are no corporations except false fronts they throw together to deal with the likes of us. Chemical and mechanical modifications are their answer to every health problem. I came down with a sour stomach eating their swill, and they tried to convince me to have an esophageal filter installed. Thankfully, I had a nanobot syringe in my stowed gear, but I almost came back a freak.”
Jericho Corporation mole reporting in on Asherah
MARCH 14, 3097 EY — ASHERAH SYSTEM, TRIANGULUM
Asherah was dark, its atmosphere clogged with thick clouds of pollution and charged electrical storms. Even from far away, her scanners picked up the massive cities. Or not cities, but city, as though a single entity covered almost the entire planet. A nested web of metal and wire and constant light.
Rachel had visited Asheran space before—though never the homeworld—back when she was hunting angel relics. Every time she came here, she felt her psionic nerves stand on end. She had limited gift as a prophet, but the worlds here left her jittery. She’d tried to tell herself that cybernetics were not evil, the angels had merely declared them so to limit humanity.
But still, some fears were so deeply ingrained she could not shake them. And just when she had begun to do so, Raziel had offered another of his cryptic warnings. Damn angel never spoke straight.
Of course, Rachel had never expected the aluf’s summons for a peace summit, but David had leapt at the chance. The moment they could leave the space dock, he’d take the Sephirot toward the Triangulum galaxy.
And she couldn’t blame him. If Asherah stood alongside the NER instead of against it, they could finally bring down the angels. Maybe force them to compromise. Raziel had already been trying to get them to see reason—maybe with a united humanity against them, they would finally stand down. If not, David would be forced to destroy the Ark. He had already proved the Sephirot could handle lesser angel ships. With the entire armada of mankind behind it, she was pretty sure they could take on the Ark—high though the cost might be.
A fleet of leviathans protected this system. Perhaps they were here primarily to guard against the Ark, should it resume its attempt at genocide. Of course, the Sephirot’s reputation no doubt preceded it. She could assume some of the extra precautions were there because of the peace summit.
The whole crew was nervous. It filled the air and seeped into her pores like a miasma of doubt, threatening to choke and drown her. Her eyes itched with it, and she fought the urge to fidget at her console.
“That’s seven leviathans and twice as many cruisers,” she said.
“It’s all right, Rach,” David said. He pulled the Sephirot into orbit. “Leah, you have the bridge. I’m heading down to the summit.” He walked over to Rachel and put a hand on her shoulder.
“I should be going with you.”
He kissed her cheek. “You know they only want me. I’m speaking for the Synod here.”
Frankly, she was jealous of the chance to witness Asherah firsthand. So few Mizraim citizens ever got to see it. It was frightening, of course, but exciting too.
She kissed David back, and he left for the hangar.
Rachel drummed her fingers on her console. Of course she knew the Asherans had no reason to invite her, but still … it hurt to be left out. She was the one who started all this. She should be there when mankind finally made peace. But now she’d become just another Sentinel. Nothing special to the aluf.
Her comm buzzed. “Lt. Jordan?”
“Yes?”
“Prisoner Caleb Gavet is asking to speak with you.”
Fine. It would give her something to do. Maybe she’d even have to see about having the poor man released. He’d been through enough. Though she couldn’t read his emotions, her heart told her Caleb was no longer her enemy. He was no longer much of anything.
Naamah and Apollyon had broken him.
She strolled down to the brig and found Caleb pacing his cell, covered in sweat.
“What happened to you?” she asked.
“Rachel! I just heard we’ve come to Asherah.”
“Yeah, we’re in orbit of their homeworld. It’s beautiful in a sinister kind of way.”
“You can’t trust them, Rachel. We have to leave.”
She snorted. “Weren’t you already in bed with them? Weren’t you the one who urged me to turn to them?”
He slapped both palms against the smart glass, and Rachel jumped back. “I was wrong! Don’t you understand? They’re working with Apollyon! They’re cyborgs, Rachel. They’re going to serve him in the end whether they want to or not.”
“What are you—”
Her comm flared. “Suzuki to Jordan. Get to the bridge! Now!”
Leah?
Rachel took a last glance at Caleb then ran back toward the lift. The ship jerked from a sudden impact and then two more, seconds later.
Missiles?
God, the Asherans were shooting at them.
19
“While attempts to develop a viable antiproton beam have thus far met with failure, the antimatter missile continues to be a stellar addition to the QI Heavy Weapons Division portfolio. Safe to stow, high impact, and priced in a range that is sure to remain competitive with the best Jericho ordnance, we can look forward to strong growth in the coming fiscal year.”
3095 EY Quasar Industries annual shareholder report
ASHERAH SYSTEM, TRIANGULUM
Rachel dashed onto the bridge and rushed toward Leah, who sat in the captain’s chair.
On the screen, a missile streamed toward David’s shuttle. The missile impacted, and an antimatter explosion engulfed the ship. The shuttle’s fusion cell detonated, and it vanished in a wave of light.
Rachel tripped and fell to the deck.
“Mac!” Leah shouted.
That was impossible.
David could not … that was … David?
“Target the lead leviathan,” Leah said. “Full pulse barrage.”
David was … not possible. No, he had to be fine.
He was her husband.
Billions had died in this war, but not him …
“There are too many ships!” Alhaq said from the weapons’ console.
“Fuck …” Leah mumbled. “Uh … the ion cannons. Can we fire the ion cannons?”
Rachel yanked Leah from the chair. They needed a psych pilot for this. “Full spread. Fire everything! Missile barrage on the leviathans, MAGs on the cruisers. Kill them! Kill them all!”
The crew hesitated.
“Do it,” Leah said after a moment.
Hundreds of missiles streamed over the view screen.
How had this happened? Caleb was right. They had betrayed mankind to the Adversary.
And worse, they had taken David.
David was … everything.
A hollow void opened inside Rachel’s chest. Living agony that drowned out all the fear and pain the crew felt. Nothing remained save rage.
Rachel dove the Sephirot low, breaching the planet’s atmosphere. Let them fire on her now. Let them ignite their own planet. Yes. Let the whole fucking planet burn.
She directed pulse fire on the city below. Buildings evaporated in clouds of dust as graviton pulses ripped away whole kilometers at a time. The angels weren’t the only ones who could destroy a world. She wasn’t sure the Sephirot could actually destroy the planet, but she could render it lifeless in a matter of minutes. And she aimed to do so.