Star Viking (Extinction Wars Book 3) (36 page)

“Ah,” the Emperor said. “I see what you’re attempting. You wish to maneuver me onto the other side of your spacesuit. No doubt, you will attempt to use it like a net.”

I halted, stunned. That’s exactly what I’d been planning. How could he have known that?

The Emperor chuckled dryly. “Truly, Commander Creed, you do not understand what it means to be Shi-Feng. I will kill you.”

“And lose your empire and the league to Abaddon,” I said. “I’m the better strategist between us. Without me, your race is doomed to defeat.”

“I will stamp out the ancient plague of humanity,” he said. “The Others never should have made your kind. Finally, I will right an old wrong.”

“Who are the Others?” I asked.

Felix Rex Logos smiled. I wanted to smash the smirk from his face. “It is good to see you yearn to know,” he told me. “How miserable you will feel, Commander, going down to death with all these unanswered questions pulsating in your skull.”

I gathered saliva in my mouth and spat on the floor. Then, I dashed to the spacesuit, grabbing it in one hand and the helmet in the other.

The Emperor moved fast, charging me. I flung the helmet like a missile. He swatted it away so the helmet shattered against a wall. He moved fast and delicately, with total economy of motion.

I twirled the spacesuit over my head, flinging it low at his shins, hoping to trip him. He leapt so the spinning suit went under him. Without a sound, his padded feet touched down. Then he came at me, swinging those deadly claws at my face.

I retreated. He followed, swishing the titanium-tipped claws. For the next fifteen minutes, we twirled faster than dancers, employing moves and counter moves. Once, he put three cuts in a row on my left inner forearm so crimson drops fell onto the floor. Another time, a slash ripped open my shirt and blood spurted from my chest to splash onto the fur of his left cheek.

By then, we both panted. He looked winded as he retreated, breathing hard as he tried to wipe away the blood on his face. I just stood there waiting, with my heart jackhammering in my chest. After half a minute, the Emperor appeared revived. That was too fast of a recovery, as my heart still thudded.

“Interior chemical injections,” I said. “He has an unfair advantage.”

“No rules,” Holgotha said in his deep mechanical voice.

“Do not whine, Commander Creed,” the Emperor said. “Die with whatever dignity you can muster.”

I gave him the finger. It made me feel better, as the bastard had tricked me. We weren’t supposed to bring weapons. He had. Himself. Chalk one up for the Lokhar Emperor.

Still giving him the finger, I said, “Here’s what you can do with your dignity. At your orders, I lost my father, my family and my planet. You have a lot to answer for, Mr. Emperor, dude-bro.”

He nodded. “My office is a heavy burden. I admit it. Yet, I carry the weight for the good of my people.”

“Oh yeah,” I said. “You’ve done a real bang up job of it too, haven’t you? The Jelk Corporation has been kicking your ass for decades. It would be far better for you to commit suicide like your bomber-boys and let a real strategist like me take over. I saved the universe at the portal planet. What did you do? Nothing but try to stop me with your daughter-wife, Princess Nee.”

“She begged to go,” he said.

“She begged to die, you mean?” I said. “If she’d had her way, the Kargs would be in mass force instead of just engaged in a somewhat even fight against the Jelk.”

“You are making guesses about them.”

“You think?” I asked.

The Emperor straightened. Making a production out of it, he brought his hands together in front of his face like a kung-fu master. For a second, he held himself perfectly still. Then, he unfolded his arms and took a new stance, one that looked uncomfortable for such a heavy Lokhar.

“Our duel is at an end,” he said in a formal way. “I am ready to commit the coup de grace. Know, Commander Creed, that I will detach your head from your shoulders. I will peel away the skin and keep your skull in our Hall of Honor. As long as worlds exist, Lokhars will speak about this day and my glorious victory inside Holgotha.”

I watched Felix Rex Logos as he spoke. It occurred to me then that I couldn’t survive the fight. He had what was probably the ultimate training, natural armaments, bionic strength and chemical endurance. The Emperor was right. I
was
a walking dead man. That meant I had to decide on the manner of my death. It was time to gamble. Did Holgotha need a victor?

I didn’t know. Yet, if I was as good as dead, I might as well grasp at a straw. I would act as if the ancient machine needed one of us. That meant I simply had to outlive Felix Rex Logos.

Okay. Now I understood what I needed to do.

The Emperor attacked, and he moved faster than any feline I’d seen on Earth. Luckily, I was quicker than any human who had lived before the assault troopers. Had Shah Claath foreseen this possibility? I doubted it.

I charged the Emperor, moving at neuro-fiber heightened speed. We closed. His hands flashed, and the titanium-tipped claws shredded the flesh of my chest and gut. It hurt like fire in my belly. At the same time, I delivered a knockout punch against the tiger’s jaw. It catapulted his head back, and I heard a crack that might have been neck bones snapping.

Felix Rex Logos slumped unconscious to the gory deck. Blood poured from my ripped belly. Worse, some of my intestines flopped out. Does that sound gross? It most certainly was. I saw rib bones through my sliced chest muscles.

With one hand trying to keep the rest of my guts inside my stomach, I stood beside the Emperor.

Look, I’m not going to get graphic. Well, not too graphic anyway. I wore heavy boots, and I stomped on his face with all the force I could muster.

He struggled. I kept stomping, cracking his skull and breaking teeth. It was ugly and bloodier than you can believe. I became dizzy and disoriented. I’d like to tell you it was quick and clean like a laser to the head. Nope. I’d seldom killed like this, and I never wanted to do it again. I lost my hatred of Felix Rex. In the end, I kept going as long as I could.

Finally, I toppled to the deck beside him. I had no idea if I’d won or lost. Everything in me felt numb. The Emperor had as good as killed me. The question was whether I’d taken him with me when I left the land of the living. If Holgotha didn’t need either of us, I would never breathe again.

Still not knowing, I fell unconscious, so I can’t report on what happened next…

What I can tell you is that a lifetime later I woke up on my back. I didn’t move, just peeled my eyelids open. There wasn’t any pain. I took a breath. That didn’t hurt, either. Finally, I sat up.

I was in Holgotha’s speaking chamber. The Emperor was gone, and so was his powered armor. The floor was clean.

With a start, I yanked up my now uncut shirt. The skin was smooth, without scars.

“Commander Creed,” Holgotha said, the bronze-colored screen vibrating.

“Did I lose the fight?” I asked.

“No,” the artifact said. “You are the victor.”

“I outlived the Emperor?”

“That is a needless question. You are here. He is not.”

“You healed me,” I said.

“If that is the concept you wish to use, yes,”

Climbing to my feet, I noticed my spacesuit in a neat pile. The helmet was on it, and it looked as good as ever. Something or someone had reordered everything in the chamber. On impulse, I lifted a boot, inspecting the sole. It was clean, baby. I lifted the other boot and saw something. With a fingernail, I scraped away a tiny piece of gristle. I had stomped the Emperor of the Lokhars to death. It had been real after all.

“Are you satisfied?” Holgotha asked.

First flicking the gristle from my fingernail, I regarded the screen. I decided I was done answering the ancient machine.

“I had a question for you,” I said.

“Yes,” Holgotha said. “It was a cunning question. In the end, humans are more dangerous than Lokhars. It is fitting you won the fight.”

I refrained from commenting. I no longer trusted the Forerunner artifacts in any way.

“Your question assumes that Abaddon has reached our space-time continuum,” Holgotha said. “It also assumes he brought Karg vessels with him and that he is busy defeating the Jelk Corporation.”

I stood before the pulsating screen, waiting for my answer. I wish I’d asked the Emperor’s question.

“Abaddon, along with the Kargs he managed to bring through from hyperspace, is defeating the Jelk Corporation because of two factors,” Holgotha said. “One, Abaddon possesses superior technology. Two, Abaddon is a loftier strategist.”

I found it interesting that Holgotha didn’t say Abaddon had more ships. “So Abaddon managed to bring
some
Kargs through but not
all
?” I asked.

“I have answered your question,” Holgotha said. “I will not give you another.”

“Don’t you want to defeat Abaddon?” I asked.

The Forerunner machine did not respond.

“You’re a frustrating artifact,” I said.

“That means there is balance between us, Commander Creed.”

The object must have meant that I frustrated it as well. That was good to know. “So I can just leave?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“And you think the Emperor’s armada is going to accept that Felix never made it out of you?”

“I have already interfered too much,” Holgotha said. “The rest is up to you, Commander. As your kind would say, ‘Good luck with your future endeavors.’”

I grunted a good-bye. Then, I put on my spacesuit and helmet and headed for the exit wall.

***

The trek back to the patrol boat gave me time to think. How should I play this? I mean, in a sense, I had been to the holy mountain. That’s how the Lokhars would see it. I’m not sure what Baba Gobo and his Starkiens would think.

According to Holgotha, Abaddon and enough Kargs in their warships had made it into our space-time continuum to give the Jelk a go for it. Yet Abaddon had appeared at least one thousand light-years away from Earth, on the other end of the Jelk Corporation.

Abaddon was winning the fight.

What could I make out of what the Forerunner machine had told me? It would appear that Abaddon did not have access to his billions of starships. That was something. I hated the idea that our sacrifice at the portal planet had been in vain. It would appear as if Abaddon had captured at least one Lokhar dreadnought in hyperspace, giving him the limited ability to cross from there to our universe. It seemed as if it had been a one-time occurrence. Otherwise, he could have brought
millions
of Karg vessels with him. In that case, Abaddon would have already beaten the Jelk and already been here.

The bulk of the Saurian fleets along the Jelk-Jade League frontier had left to help with the conflict. Even though Abaddon didn’t appear to have millions of warships, he had better tech and used a superior strategy.

One thing was certain. It would be suicide for the two Lokhar fleets to bloody themselves in self-mutilation. I had to bring peace to the warring sides.

How could I do that?

The easiest way would be to lay down the law from on high. If I could make the Lokhars believe that I came with words from Holgotha, the tigers might set aside their differences and join forces in a grand crusade and against the right enemy.

Okay. I had my goal. Now, I needed a game plan to achieve it.

***

In the end, I went for broke.

Returning to the
Achilles
, I had Zoe patch me through to the chief Purple Tamika shuttle officer. With my head bowed as if with sorrow and respect, I spoke in a low monotone to her. It turned out she was another of the former Emperor’s daughter-wives.

“The Emperor is dead,” I said. “Yet, Holgotha wishes that we honor him as a Lokhar of noblest birth and highest honor. Speaking for the Sol Object, I decree three days of mourning for Felix Rex Logos.”

The daughter-wife stood stiffly as she regarded me. “You think that I will mourn here in your star system?”

“No,” I said. “Both fleets in the Alpha Centauri system must mourn. We must return at once and tell them the news.”

“You wish to gloat?” she said.

Slowly, I raised my head to glare at her. “How dare you sully the honor of Emperor Felix Rex Logos? He was the greatest among us, the Grand Master of the Shi-Feng.”

“Do not speak that name.”

“Me?” I asked. “I am the victor. I saw the passing of the noble Felix Rex Logos. He spoke to me before he died. Do you wish to hear his final words or not?”

She watched me, and at last, she bowed her head. “Let us return to the fleets. You can tell the others your words. I will let them decide if you are genuine or not.”

“Yes,” I said. “Let us begin the days of mourning.”

***

Many of those in the fleets mourned for three days while others cheered and celebrated.

Then, at my orders given in the name of Holgotha, the Forerunner machine of the First Ones, I demanded that all the highest officers of both fleets meet in our chosen battle cruiser.

Half of them came from Purple Tamika’s armada. Half came from ours. The assembled sat in a large hall, facing a podium.

Admiral Saris of Purple Tamika waited along with Baron Visconti of Orange. Seer Sant came and so did the ancient Purple Tamika acolyte, Divine Griffin. Baba Gobo came with nine of his chief elders, which included Kaka Ro. Diana and Murad Bey joined the throng. So did several of the late Emperor’s daughter-wives. We packed the hall with dignitaries, admirals, generals and high priests.

Wearing my black uniform with silver trim and the .44 holstered at my side, I entered the hall and walked to the podium. Would hidden Shi-Feng assassins try to kill me? I expected it, ready to fast-draw and fire.

I faced the heavily Lokhar crowd, with Starkiens and humans sprinkled among them.

“I am Commander Creed,” I said. “Many years ago, I went to the portal planet and returned inside Holgotha. Later, I traveled on Holgotha to raid Sanakaht. Because humanity needed warships, the Forerunner artifact agreed to my request. Several days ago now, the Emperor and I went alone into the machine. Today, I will tell you what happened.”

The assembled crowd leaned forward in their chairs. I could see it in their eyes. They yearned to know. For some, it seemed as if this was a religious experience.

“First, I want to let you know that Abaddon lives.”

Half the Lokhars moaned in dread. The other half looked stricken.

“He battles the Jelk in their core worlds, which lies on the other side of the corporation. Abaddon did not come through with his billions, but with enough starships to fight the Jelk in endless conflicts. Saurian border fleets departed our frontier long ago, leaving this part of the corporation defenseless. What happened next tells of our arrogance and stupidity. Freed from the pressure of Jelk-led assaults, we warred against one another. We fought for pride of place. Some in the league, like the Ilk, have ignored the old customs and laws, going their own way.

“No,” I said. “Holgotha and the other Forerunner artifacts are not pleased. Why do you think Emperor Logos died in the Sol Object? Was it because of my superiority? I will tell you the truth. He died because in his arrogance he thought to bring brother against brother into war. Unknowingly, the Emperor fought Abaddon’s battles for him.”

“No!” a Lokhar shouted, standing to his feet. “You lie!”

I’d been waiting for that. Speed drawing, I aimed and fired a single round. The slug took him in the head, exploding his brains onto those sitting next to him.

Lokhars roared with outage.

“Shi-Feng,” I said.

The rest of the Lokhars stood to their feet.

“Listen to me!” I shouted, with smoke trickling from the gun barrel. “Listen, you of Purple, Orange, Yellow, Green and Crimson Tamika. I just shot a Shi-Feng assassin. I knew they would attempt this. What you don’t know is that Holgotha has told me to tell you to outlaw the ancient house of killers. Their days are over.”

The old Purple Tamika acolyte pointed a trembling finger at me. “How did you know he was…?”

“Shi-Feng?” I asked.

“Do not say that name,” Divine Griffin told me.

Of course, Holgotha hadn’t said any such thing to me. I’d known because I’d seen the tiger begin the Shi-Feng blink. Since Sanakaht, I recognized the maneuver. I didn’t tell the assembled crowd any of that, though.

“I know because I have been given knowledge,” I said. “I saw into his heart and knew him as part of the outlawed assassin band.”

The Lokhars stared at each other in wonder and disbelief. I could see the question in their eyes. Did the human speak the truth?

“Would you hear the rest of my words?” I asked. “If so, then sit down.”

Diana and Murad Bey led the humans in sitting. The Starkiens followed their example. Finally, one by one, Lokhars began to sit.

“No!” a tiger howled. “He lies. We will never disband.”

I shot him next, another Shi-Feng assassin. I suppose anything could have happened then. The meeting could have turned into pandemonium. Instead, I saw new expressions come over the tigers. They saw me in a different light. The Shi-Feng were supposed to be invincible. They always killed those they targeted. Yet, before everyone, I’d just slain two half-mythical assassins. In that moment, I think most of the tigers believed I was indeed the speaker for the Forerunner object.

Something troubled me then. The Shi-Feng attacked in triads. There should be another assassin lurking in the crowd. Yet…could Felix Rex Logos have lied to me? He said he was his own triad. These two assassins had been highly ranked Lokhars. I wondered if they completed the Emperor’s triad.

Inspiration struck, but not about the Shi-Feng. It’s weird how things work like that. In that moment, I knew how to cement the enemy Lokhar to me, how to win the diehards to my cause.

“Because of Holgotha’s words,” I said. “I am formally returning the articles of honor to Purple Tamika.”

Many in the audience stirred, both enemy and friendly Lokhars. Clearly, my words shocked them.

“What do you demand as payment?” Admiral Saris called out.

Clutching both sides of the podium, I stared at her. “Not a thing,” I said.

“Nothing?” Divine Griffin asked in bewilderment.

“That’s right,” I said.

Lokhars exchanged startled glances with each other.

“But…” Divine Griffin said. “This is not the way. Because you have the articles, you should extract grim oaths from us.”

“That is the old way,” I said. “That way died with the Emperor. I have returned with the new way. In order to defeat Abaddon, we must practice these methods.” I paused for effect. Then, I leaned toward the crowd, lowering my voice. “Let me tell you a truth you might not know. You are Lokhars of honor. Instead of merely having your word, I want your hearts. You will fight the harder because of it.”

“Meaning what?” Divine Griffin asked.

“Meaning that we must wage the greatest crusade of the age,” I said. “Listen. The Emperor slew billions of humans when he ordered my world attacked and poisoned. Before he died, Felix Rex Logos repented of his heinous act. He asked me to ask you to atone for the deed.”

“How can we atone?” the old acolyte asked.

“By beginning a holy crusade against the Saurian border star systems,” I said. “First, everyone will help cleanse the Earth of poison. Then you must help me free the captured humans among the Jelk Corporation. They will come to Earth to live, incorporated among the free people. For centuries, the Jelk have stolen Earthers. Their children were born into slavery. Together we will free them and train them in the arts of war for the coming grand crusade.”