Mandela studied the floor. “They’re cloning boys.”
“The silver would have killed off all the women. Not all at once, but over time. Just like home. They aren’t human, but close enough.”
“But the Catalyst—”
“Isn’t the same silver. The Catalyst comes from Lilith. It doesn’t discriminate against biologic. The silver comes from…” Headache forming behind eyes, reflex to rub, glass shield prevents.
“Mother.”
“That’s when it all started.”
“The worlds we’ve hit already? Rogue planets, harboring the enemy?”
“They weren’t harboring anyone. They
“And now we’re taking the Catalyst home. To her home.”
“She wants to finish what she started.”
They didn’t speak on the return to Archimedes. Hunter had made it clear that this information must remain their secret until he could find a way to approach Tallis. He didn’t think it would be easy to persuade the blood- thirsty new commander to re-evaluate their objective.
Tallis waited for them in the hangar.
“What the fuck have you been doing?”
“Recon.”
“Do you know how dangerous it was to—”
“I was aware of the dangers. It was a dead ship.”
“And you just—”
“We didn’t find anything, Brendan. It was slag.”
Tallis sneered. “Get out of the suits and into the bubbles. We’re ready to fly.”
“You’ve tracked them?”
“We know exactly where they are.”
“How far?”
“Days.”
“Will Lilith have enough time to regain her—”
“She’ll be ready.”
“Good.” Hunter feigned eagerness. “Let’s go.”
Ten thousand midnights, the blink of an eye in Light X, a slumber barely refreshing, fraught with uncertainty and echoes of a planet now dead, the woman hidden at its center, a vessel preparing for war, his love hanging at its center.
“Crew prep for aerial bombardment.”
“No.” Tallis strode across the bridge. “We’re going down.”
“There’s no need to risk—”
“They killed Uncle. We’re going down. Crew to transports.”
“We can hit them from above, just—”
“I want blood. We’ll take the tether down ourselves. Get to your transport.”
Hunter’s eyes locked on Arik’s as Tallis stormed from the bridge.
The target worldships had landed long ago on the central continent. The phase technology of the enemy apparently provided a faster ride; cities had grown around the sunken spheres. Hunter swallowed hard as he watched the descent from his monitor. He couldn’t let this happen.
The transports landed just outside of one of the cities.
There was little resistance.
Tallis’s Attack One cut through the city without mercy, slithers strafing from above, ground troops storming the streets. Hunter’s own Attack Two and Arik’s Attack Three were just as brutal, although Hunter himself never fired a shot in offense. He felt sick to his stomach at the slaughter enacted upon the “harboring” world.
Outside of the city, a city collapsing and a city on fire, the centerpiece the worldship hemisphere rising above it all, now cracked and falling. Tallis called all of his forces to the outskirts of the city for tether placement.
“Isn’t it great?” His smile disgusted Hunter, refracted behind the shield, twisted into a leer.
“We have to talk.”
“Leave it for the ship.”
“No. We have to talk now.” Hunter’s weapon swung ominously close to Tallis.
“Tether in place.”
“Incoming!”
A fresh sea of combatants stormed from the city, had to be combatants, couldn’t be unarmed people, unarmed men. Couldn’t be. Running, hands outstretched, shouting—
“Light ’em up.”
“What are they saying? What the fuck are they saying?”
“Who cares? Light ’em up. Trigger it. We’ll iron out the paperwork later.”
Hunter shook his head. “This isn’t right. Something isn’t right.”
Tallis glared through him, flipped his visor down. “Call in the fucking strike, Windham.”
“Sir, I can’t just—”
Tallis tore the comm from Hunter’s grasp, shoved him aside. He locked the device into the hardlink on his throat shield. “Tallis wing to orbital firing group. Bring the weapon online.”
“Sir, listen to them. They aren’t—”
“Hunter, don’t—”
“They aren’t humans.”
“The fuck are you—”
“
“It’s an off-chart language. So what? We have orders.”
“Tallis,” Hunter pulled off his helmet. “Listen to them.”
An instant of light, a forever of end.
Hunter shouted in frustration and disgust. Tallis looked pleased.
It struck from above: the beam was peaceful, gentle, a faded light draping across the city, barely casting shadows, barely touching anything at all. From within the static shielding, Hunter and the dozens of other droptroops braced themselves.
The natives fell silent. Hunter realized with a morbid fascination that they had never actually spoken at all. The guttural tones that came from underdeveloped mouths had been the only thing Tallis had heard. He had failed to listen to the voice of the
mind, the Voice of the people who were now an instant from the eternal cease.
Hunter heard. He heard them all.
“You knew!” Hunter knocked Tallis to the ground with a swift, unexpected blow. Both of their shields rippled from the impact. “You fucking knew!”
Tallis stood, shield purging dust and dirt from a hundred invasion points. He wiped the mud from his chest.
“Back to the ship. We’re done here.”
“This isn’t over. You knew they weren’t aliens. They’re people.”
“Back to the ship.” His growl chilled the windless plain. The city outskirts were silent, the inhabitants frozen in place, replaced with something from between the stars and times.
Slithers docked.
Hunter leapt from his cockpit, released seals on gloves and helmet, let them drop to the floor. Other pilots climbed from their vessels in silence. They had seen; they knew what would happen.
Mandela jogged to Hunter’s side. “Don’t, man. Maybe we can—”
