Chronicles of the Aeons War, page 83
part #3 of The Omniverse Series
“Except that it’ll be here in four and a half minutes.”
“It could be some sort of new Zohor weapon,” Heihachi said.
“It’s not like them to just try them out one at a time.”
“For all we know we’re in the middle of their testing grounds.”
“Grandmaster on the Deck!”
Grandmaster Benedict Jack strode up the ramp as the Bridge platform returned for him.
“I’ve been monitoring while on my way here,” he said, “I’ve seen this phenomenon before. In your future.”
“What is it?” Heihachi implored, “Grandmaster, what does it mean?”
“It means we’re going to war, son.”
“Bridge, Tactical,” Hartman Ambika called from the Tactical Pit below, “We have multiple Q-field disruptions inbound.”
He had the time to say it before a new instance of their fleet began to form ranks, followed one point twenty-one seconds later by two more, then three, then five; they were assembling multiple instances prior to jumping in to the combat staging arena, using the Fibonacci Sequence to increase their Meta-Fleet numbers as quickly as possible.
“The object is not slowing and is now less two and a half minutes out!” Ambika called.
“Cancel the alert,” the Grandmaster called, “Begin telemetry-sharing with all fleet instances.”
“But the object –” Commodore Baxter insisted.
Benedict cut him off with a glance, “All hands, make ready for the Queen.”
The object struck the first-instance Ouroboros and there was a blinding flash of light.
Then, hanging in the air before them was the Queen of Light and Sorrow. Only She was vastly changed: She radiated heat in waves; Her hair fanned like a raging fire in all directions, Her eyes glowing beyond red and into yellow heat spectra. Her skin was incandescent and She wore what appeared to be armour of braided red gold; every seam glowed a luminous, somehow deadly blue.
“THE ORDER IS GIVEN BY ME, YOUR QUEEN TO PREPARE THE META-FLEET FOR IMMEDIATE COMBAT, FROM THIS INSTANCE ONWARD. I WILL CLEAR THE WAY AND WE WILL TAKE THE ZOHOR WEAPONS MANUFACTURING NODE. WE LEAVE WHEN THE FLEET IS ASSEMBLED.” An instant later, She vanished.
“Navigation, Bridge:” Baxter called, “Plot Q-field jump solution for the Meta-Fleet. Destination: The Maelstrom.”
“God help us all,” Benedict said from beside him.
“Incoming transmission from CI Six-Ten.”
“Retransmit to all ships in our instance, across all decks.” Grandmaster Benedict commanded.
“All Combat Instances, this is CI-610; Commodore Baxter Vincent of the Ouroboros speaking. The Shekhina Siva is aboard. We are assuming command of this operation. CI-001 begin training your Macronaut incursion team according to the mission parameters being transmitted, now. All subsequent instances are to continue training their HAM units according to updated specs as they are transmitted.”
Baxter Vincent and Heihachi Daniel shared an uncertain look. Then Baxter nodded and Heihachi turned to the communications officer,
“Open a return signal to all ships.” He said.
A moment later the channel was opened. The Commodore spoke, “This is CI-001. Commodore Baxter Vincent of the Ouroboros speaking. Our fleet is standing by.”
He was unsurprised yet unsettled to hear his voice broadcast not just again, “This is CI-002. Commodore Baxter Vincent of the Ouroboros speaking. Our fleet is standing by,” but to hear it again, and again and again as each subsequent instance began reporting in.
He realized his Bridge Crew were all staring at him, each wearing a similar look of awe. He imagined he was wearing that same look as well. He shook it off when the Grandmaster, the only true veteran of this sort of thing, spoke up:
“Snap to it! To your posts and make ready to receive all relevant telemetry and data from CI-610!” The Grandmaster patted Baxter’s shoulder as he approached his Commodore, who was still listening to the instances as they reported in one by one.
“I’ll bet you one thing, Vincent,” he said, “The Queen’s clawing the walls waiting for each of us to report in already.”
The Commodore barked a laugh, but then his face went stony. “I’m more concerned by the name my future self used to describe our Queen.”
“Why?”
“Shekhina Siva is a name from part of the Nai’Marak prophecy that we…are afraid of.”
“Go on,”
“As one of the Great Events of Prophecy, it is heralded by Five Signs: The Zohor attack on Midian, the Shekhina Mehdi waking, the union of Midian’s People, the discovery of the Hope…and the Queen of Light and Sorrow, the Shekhina Mehdi becoming Shekhina Siva. At the end of the Five Signs comes a great battle and the taking of the Hope from the Zohor. That part of the Nai’Marak prophecy then concludes with the descent into madness of the Shekhina…”
“The terms you use in the Old Tongues for Her,” the Grandmaster said, “Do you know their roots?”
Baxter nodded, “That is why I am suddenly afraid,” he said, as CI-465 reported in, standing by, “Shekhina is an Abrahamic word from ancient Hebrew. It means the Dwelling Place of God; it also is the name of God’s feminine aspects and God’s manifestation in female physical form.
“Mehdi is another Abrahamic word, from Arabic languages; means the Anointed one, and has similar connotations as Messiah for Abrahamic Christians or Meschiach in the Jewish tradition. All three words mean The Anointed One. All three words also mean The Redeemer. And so the Shekhina Mehdi is the Woman Anointed God the Redeemer.
“But Siva is a word from a very different ancient language and religion: The language of Sanskrit and the Hindu religion – a belief system much older than the Abrahamics’ traditions. Siva is known as the Supreme God, the God of Death...and the destroyer of worlds. That makes Her the Anointed Goddess of Death…the Destroyer of Worlds. That, Grandmaster, is why I’m afraid.”
“Then take comfort in two things,” the Grandmaster said, “One, that the Shekhina Siva is aboard Combat Instance Six-Ten. Two, that you’ll live long enough to only have to deal with Her, then.”
“I don’t know that I would want to live long enough to see what comes next.”
“You’re El-Ahur, Baxter Vincent, and called upon to do a great many things.” The Grandmaster admonished. Though he, himself made no effort to hide the terror in his own eyes at the enterprise before them.
“Bridge, Comm: Incoming from CI-610.”
“Put it through to all decks and all ships of the Instance.” Baxter Vincent ordered.
“This is CI-610; Commodore Baxter Vincent of the Ouroboros speaking. All ships have reported in and uploaded their flight and combat data. Navigation solution has been calculated and transmitted to each of your individual Nav and Helm stations. Countdown to Meta Fleet Q-field jump is thirty seconds from my mark…Mark! All personnel stand by for Q-field displacement and immediate combat action! This is our one shot at this, and it’s going to be a son of a bitch!”
The Commodore turned to the Grandmaster with an astonished look.
“It seems I rub off on you, Bax.” The Grandmaster said.
“Helm, Conn: Q-field jump in fifteen seconds.”
“To All Ships Broadcast countdown from seven,” Heihachi ordered.
The Helm Officer soon replied over the ASB, “Q-field displacement jump in seven seconds…six…five…four…three…two…one.”
♦♦♦
The Perseus Event was a black hole larger than Midian’s parent solar system; billions of kilometres across. Its accretion disk was light years wide; seen from afar, the massive Zohor Weapons Manufacture Node was a speck of dust, insignificant.
But closer in, within the spiral of dust and gas and celestial bodies being pulled inexorably towards the equator of the rapidly spinning, all-consuming colossus and hidden amidst the greater cosmic violence of the Perseus Event of Abell 426 was a smaller-scale event of violence; yet it was still one that could ultimately prove to have more cosmic significance than the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Maelstrom.
The Meta Fleet had arrived three days prior. The trillions of Zohor immediately turned back on the most direct heading to the weapons manufacture node in orbit around the supermassive black hole at the heart of Abell 426. As the first Zohor came at them the Queen cast them aside. They were scattered, toothpicks in a hurricane, into the heart of the Perseus Event. What few ships She missed were cut apart by the ships of the Meta Fleet, engaging the few remaining enemies with precise, deadly ease.
It was doubly unsettling to see Zohor ships by the millions thrown plummeting into the Perseus Event at the heart of the Maelstrom. They just tumbled past the Meta-Fleet from all directions. Then all at once they would come to a sudden stop, seeming to freeze at the point they struck the supermassive black hole’s event horizon. The Perseus Event was so massive that it took a magnified view to find the images of Zohor ships frozen against the event horizon.
But enough Zohor survived the Queen’s onslaught; it took them three days to advance this far towards the weapons manufacture node. It was still spewing out more weapons: Zohor ships, weapons platforms, missiles…all of which drove towards the Meta-Fleet; nearly all of which were diverted by Act of Will directly into the supermassive black hole.
“THIS IS TAKING TOO LONG!” The Shekhina Siva roared angrily as they drove the fleet onward by mere meters at a time. It was not the voice that Commodore Baxter recalled from his time on the Mountain, or the voice he remembered from the serene Reawoken Queen who came down from Mount Umbra during their time of greatest need. It was a voice of immense power contained by meagre will and controlled by infinite anger.
“We can’t get closer until we’ve depleted the enemy!” the Commodore said from the Bridge.
The Grandmaster spoke up, approaching the railing near the place the Queen floated from, “The battle always takes five days, My Queen, so it has always—”
“YOU WHO ARE SO DEARLY WANT TO CHANGE THE FUTURE? YOU WOULD TELL ME THAT IT MUST BE THIS WAY?”
The Grandmaster Shrugged.
“Your tantrums don’t work on me, your Highness. You can’t kill me; I’m not fated to die here, nor this way. We have to deplete the Zohor resources in the nebula to go forward. If You had the power to do that all at once, You wouldn’t need what’s left to attack that thing,” he said, gesturing to a second-window magnified view of the Zohor Weapons Manufacturing Node. “You can’t do it on your own; I know You’re already stretching Yourself thin. We’re doing what we can with an untested, unproven form of warfare.”
“OF WHICH THIS IS THE LAST INSTANCE, MEANING YOU HAVE SURVIVED TO THE END OF THIS CONFLICT.” Despite the inhuman voice, the Shekhina Siva sounded dismissive.
“No; it only means we’ve survived this far.” The Grandmaster said, “Do your part as we continue to do ours. But don’t dare condemn us or the job we, and our brothers and sisters aboard this ship and in the Meta-Fleet continue to do.”
“YOU PRESUME TO SPEAK TO ME IN SUCH A MANNER?”
Benedict shrugged again, “What are you going to do, Allison? Strike me dead? Do me the fucking favour! Go on!” He spread his arms wide, staring defiantly at Her.
The tension on the Command Deck was as oppressive as the presence of their Queen…even now they whispered Her Dark Name, the Destroyer of Worlds. And though many had grown up and lived with a healthy awe and some small fear of the Queen of Light and Sorrow, what She was becoming before their eyes terrified them.
“GET ME TO THAT INSTALLATION.”
The Grandmaster bowed, “We will. In due time.”
“I CAN FEEL HER IN THERE…AND SHE IS ALREADY CALLING TO ME. HURRY.”
“Keep clearing the path; we’ll take care of getting You to Her.”
♦♦♦
The battle raged on. El-Ahur discipline, metabolism and what the Grandmaster archaically referred to as “Go-Pills” allowed them to go without more than a few hours’ sleep every couple of days. Every day of the battle was the same as the last: The Shekhina Siva floating high into the observation dome, her arms spread wide, watching as hundreds of thousands of Zohor ships streamed by, tumbling helplessly on into the supermassive black hole that dominated the starscape. Watching them cast into the black, invisible sphere of hell, it was almost possible to pity all the Zohor being destroyed. Watching it happen was horrific enough; especially if one glimpsed the self-satisfied grin that inhabited the burning features of the Queen of Light and Sorrow’s face.
The Queen continued to cast aside the Zohor by the billions. The El-Ahur continued to mop up the straggling survivors of Her Wrath. All this done under silent discipline and snap-to-it order execution. Everyone was terrified now of the Queen, and She, knowing their Hearts and Minds as well as She did Her own, couldn’t have cared any less.
They could all hear, or rather sense a subsonic rumble that could only have been the Shekhina’s Will affecting reality around them. Baxter was terrified of what She had become, and only the Grandmaster seemed able to control Her; he was the only one completely unafraid of Her.
On the fifth day of the battle everything changed; just as the Grandmaster had predicted. The onslaught of Zohor ships sent tumbling into the Perseus Event suddenly stopped and within twenty minutes the last of the Zohor stragglers were destroyed.
“REINFORCEMENTS WILL ARRIVE FROM OTHER SECTORS OF ZOHOR SPACE.” The Shekhina announced to the Meta Fleet, “WE DO NOT HAVE MORE THAN A FEW HOURS. ALL SHIPS FROM CI-610 TO CI-306 PLOT ESCAPE TRAJECTORIES TO TAKE UP YOUR PREVIOUS INSTANCE IN THE COMBAT. INSTANCES CI-001 TO CI-304 WILL MOVE FORWARD TO THEIR SUBSEQUENT INSTANCE. META-FLEET FUSION POINT BACK IN REALTIME WILL BE AT CI-305 WHERE THE TWO DIVISIONS OF THE FLEET WILL MERGE.”
“That sounds…existentially terrifying.” Commodore Baxter Vincent of CI-001 commented.
“Welcome to every day of my goddamned life, Commodore.” The Grandmaster said.
“Attention all combat instances:” Commodore Baxter Vincent called, “The Meta-Fleet will load escape navigation data and then hold the line at the Zohor Weapons Node until the Queen and her HAM escort have completed their mission. CI-610 will deploy first, becoming CI-609. Point of Fleet Temporal inversion, CI-305 will be the final rendezvous.”
♦♦♦
CI-305 broke from Q-Field several thousand light-years from the theatre of operation, as the central instance to the fight absorbed the memories, future and past, into one cogent present. It took days…many patients were admitted to the fleet’s hospital ships for cognitive breakdown. Rebuilding their psyches and memories was a daunting task, especially when even some of the care providers themselves were suffering similar traumas.
It didn’t affect the Queen at all. She vanished again to Gather Herself for what was to come.
The fleet finally regrouped and prepared to jump back to a point exactly one point twenty-one seconds after they’d left, this time significantly closer to the now undefended Zohor structure.
“IT’S A MATTER OF MINUTES UNTIL THE FIRST ZOHOR REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE,” Allison said, as she floated down to the tramway access to the Bridge, which docking let Benedict and Baxter debark, “DEPLOY COMBAT INSTANCES AND STAND BY. LOCAL ZOHOR FORCES TO WITHIN FIVE THOUSAND LIGHT-YEARS HAVE BEEN TAKEN OUT.”
“As you say, My Queen,” Baxter said, standing at the exit to the Command deck, “I will oversee operations from my Ship.”
“OF COURSE; BESIDES, THE GRANDMASTER IS THE ONE WITH THE PROPER MACRONAUT TRAINING. HE’S MY BEST CHOICE TO LEAD MY INCURSION TEAM.”
“What exactly is our plan of attack, My Queen?” the Grandmaster asked, as they boarded a tram to the HAM Decks.
“THE SAME AS IT WAS GETTING HERE; I TAKE AS MANY ZOHOR OUT AS I CAN, WHILE RIPPING A PATH FORWARD TO OUR GOAL. YOU CLEAN UP WHAT GETS BY ME. THEN WE FREE HER, AND THEN WE SHIFT BACK TO THE SHIP. THEN I SHOW THE ZOHOR EXACTLY WHY I HAVE BEEN – AS YOU PUT IT – GATHERING MYSELF.”
“It could be some sort of new Zohor weapon,” Heihachi said.
“It’s not like them to just try them out one at a time.”
“For all we know we’re in the middle of their testing grounds.”
“Grandmaster on the Deck!”
Grandmaster Benedict Jack strode up the ramp as the Bridge platform returned for him.
“I’ve been monitoring while on my way here,” he said, “I’ve seen this phenomenon before. In your future.”
“What is it?” Heihachi implored, “Grandmaster, what does it mean?”
“It means we’re going to war, son.”
“Bridge, Tactical,” Hartman Ambika called from the Tactical Pit below, “We have multiple Q-field disruptions inbound.”
He had the time to say it before a new instance of their fleet began to form ranks, followed one point twenty-one seconds later by two more, then three, then five; they were assembling multiple instances prior to jumping in to the combat staging arena, using the Fibonacci Sequence to increase their Meta-Fleet numbers as quickly as possible.
“The object is not slowing and is now less two and a half minutes out!” Ambika called.
“Cancel the alert,” the Grandmaster called, “Begin telemetry-sharing with all fleet instances.”
“But the object –” Commodore Baxter insisted.
Benedict cut him off with a glance, “All hands, make ready for the Queen.”
The object struck the first-instance Ouroboros and there was a blinding flash of light.
Then, hanging in the air before them was the Queen of Light and Sorrow. Only She was vastly changed: She radiated heat in waves; Her hair fanned like a raging fire in all directions, Her eyes glowing beyond red and into yellow heat spectra. Her skin was incandescent and She wore what appeared to be armour of braided red gold; every seam glowed a luminous, somehow deadly blue.
“THE ORDER IS GIVEN BY ME, YOUR QUEEN TO PREPARE THE META-FLEET FOR IMMEDIATE COMBAT, FROM THIS INSTANCE ONWARD. I WILL CLEAR THE WAY AND WE WILL TAKE THE ZOHOR WEAPONS MANUFACTURING NODE. WE LEAVE WHEN THE FLEET IS ASSEMBLED.” An instant later, She vanished.
“Navigation, Bridge:” Baxter called, “Plot Q-field jump solution for the Meta-Fleet. Destination: The Maelstrom.”
“God help us all,” Benedict said from beside him.
“Incoming transmission from CI Six-Ten.”
“Retransmit to all ships in our instance, across all decks.” Grandmaster Benedict commanded.
“All Combat Instances, this is CI-610; Commodore Baxter Vincent of the Ouroboros speaking. The Shekhina Siva is aboard. We are assuming command of this operation. CI-001 begin training your Macronaut incursion team according to the mission parameters being transmitted, now. All subsequent instances are to continue training their HAM units according to updated specs as they are transmitted.”
Baxter Vincent and Heihachi Daniel shared an uncertain look. Then Baxter nodded and Heihachi turned to the communications officer,
“Open a return signal to all ships.” He said.
A moment later the channel was opened. The Commodore spoke, “This is CI-001. Commodore Baxter Vincent of the Ouroboros speaking. Our fleet is standing by.”
He was unsurprised yet unsettled to hear his voice broadcast not just again, “This is CI-002. Commodore Baxter Vincent of the Ouroboros speaking. Our fleet is standing by,” but to hear it again, and again and again as each subsequent instance began reporting in.
He realized his Bridge Crew were all staring at him, each wearing a similar look of awe. He imagined he was wearing that same look as well. He shook it off when the Grandmaster, the only true veteran of this sort of thing, spoke up:
“Snap to it! To your posts and make ready to receive all relevant telemetry and data from CI-610!” The Grandmaster patted Baxter’s shoulder as he approached his Commodore, who was still listening to the instances as they reported in one by one.
“I’ll bet you one thing, Vincent,” he said, “The Queen’s clawing the walls waiting for each of us to report in already.”
The Commodore barked a laugh, but then his face went stony. “I’m more concerned by the name my future self used to describe our Queen.”
“Why?”
“Shekhina Siva is a name from part of the Nai’Marak prophecy that we…are afraid of.”
“Go on,”
“As one of the Great Events of Prophecy, it is heralded by Five Signs: The Zohor attack on Midian, the Shekhina Mehdi waking, the union of Midian’s People, the discovery of the Hope…and the Queen of Light and Sorrow, the Shekhina Mehdi becoming Shekhina Siva. At the end of the Five Signs comes a great battle and the taking of the Hope from the Zohor. That part of the Nai’Marak prophecy then concludes with the descent into madness of the Shekhina…”
“The terms you use in the Old Tongues for Her,” the Grandmaster said, “Do you know their roots?”
Baxter nodded, “That is why I am suddenly afraid,” he said, as CI-465 reported in, standing by, “Shekhina is an Abrahamic word from ancient Hebrew. It means the Dwelling Place of God; it also is the name of God’s feminine aspects and God’s manifestation in female physical form.
“Mehdi is another Abrahamic word, from Arabic languages; means the Anointed one, and has similar connotations as Messiah for Abrahamic Christians or Meschiach in the Jewish tradition. All three words mean The Anointed One. All three words also mean The Redeemer. And so the Shekhina Mehdi is the Woman Anointed God the Redeemer.
“But Siva is a word from a very different ancient language and religion: The language of Sanskrit and the Hindu religion – a belief system much older than the Abrahamics’ traditions. Siva is known as the Supreme God, the God of Death...and the destroyer of worlds. That makes Her the Anointed Goddess of Death…the Destroyer of Worlds. That, Grandmaster, is why I’m afraid.”
“Then take comfort in two things,” the Grandmaster said, “One, that the Shekhina Siva is aboard Combat Instance Six-Ten. Two, that you’ll live long enough to only have to deal with Her, then.”
“I don’t know that I would want to live long enough to see what comes next.”
“You’re El-Ahur, Baxter Vincent, and called upon to do a great many things.” The Grandmaster admonished. Though he, himself made no effort to hide the terror in his own eyes at the enterprise before them.
“Bridge, Comm: Incoming from CI-610.”
“Put it through to all decks and all ships of the Instance.” Baxter Vincent ordered.
“This is CI-610; Commodore Baxter Vincent of the Ouroboros speaking. All ships have reported in and uploaded their flight and combat data. Navigation solution has been calculated and transmitted to each of your individual Nav and Helm stations. Countdown to Meta Fleet Q-field jump is thirty seconds from my mark…Mark! All personnel stand by for Q-field displacement and immediate combat action! This is our one shot at this, and it’s going to be a son of a bitch!”
The Commodore turned to the Grandmaster with an astonished look.
“It seems I rub off on you, Bax.” The Grandmaster said.
“Helm, Conn: Q-field jump in fifteen seconds.”
“To All Ships Broadcast countdown from seven,” Heihachi ordered.
The Helm Officer soon replied over the ASB, “Q-field displacement jump in seven seconds…six…five…four…three…two…one.”
♦♦♦
The Perseus Event was a black hole larger than Midian’s parent solar system; billions of kilometres across. Its accretion disk was light years wide; seen from afar, the massive Zohor Weapons Manufacture Node was a speck of dust, insignificant.
But closer in, within the spiral of dust and gas and celestial bodies being pulled inexorably towards the equator of the rapidly spinning, all-consuming colossus and hidden amidst the greater cosmic violence of the Perseus Event of Abell 426 was a smaller-scale event of violence; yet it was still one that could ultimately prove to have more cosmic significance than the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Maelstrom.
The Meta Fleet had arrived three days prior. The trillions of Zohor immediately turned back on the most direct heading to the weapons manufacture node in orbit around the supermassive black hole at the heart of Abell 426. As the first Zohor came at them the Queen cast them aside. They were scattered, toothpicks in a hurricane, into the heart of the Perseus Event. What few ships She missed were cut apart by the ships of the Meta Fleet, engaging the few remaining enemies with precise, deadly ease.
It was doubly unsettling to see Zohor ships by the millions thrown plummeting into the Perseus Event at the heart of the Maelstrom. They just tumbled past the Meta-Fleet from all directions. Then all at once they would come to a sudden stop, seeming to freeze at the point they struck the supermassive black hole’s event horizon. The Perseus Event was so massive that it took a magnified view to find the images of Zohor ships frozen against the event horizon.
But enough Zohor survived the Queen’s onslaught; it took them three days to advance this far towards the weapons manufacture node. It was still spewing out more weapons: Zohor ships, weapons platforms, missiles…all of which drove towards the Meta-Fleet; nearly all of which were diverted by Act of Will directly into the supermassive black hole.
“THIS IS TAKING TOO LONG!” The Shekhina Siva roared angrily as they drove the fleet onward by mere meters at a time. It was not the voice that Commodore Baxter recalled from his time on the Mountain, or the voice he remembered from the serene Reawoken Queen who came down from Mount Umbra during their time of greatest need. It was a voice of immense power contained by meagre will and controlled by infinite anger.
“We can’t get closer until we’ve depleted the enemy!” the Commodore said from the Bridge.
The Grandmaster spoke up, approaching the railing near the place the Queen floated from, “The battle always takes five days, My Queen, so it has always—”
“YOU WHO ARE SO DEARLY WANT TO CHANGE THE FUTURE? YOU WOULD TELL ME THAT IT MUST BE THIS WAY?”
The Grandmaster Shrugged.
“Your tantrums don’t work on me, your Highness. You can’t kill me; I’m not fated to die here, nor this way. We have to deplete the Zohor resources in the nebula to go forward. If You had the power to do that all at once, You wouldn’t need what’s left to attack that thing,” he said, gesturing to a second-window magnified view of the Zohor Weapons Manufacturing Node. “You can’t do it on your own; I know You’re already stretching Yourself thin. We’re doing what we can with an untested, unproven form of warfare.”
“OF WHICH THIS IS THE LAST INSTANCE, MEANING YOU HAVE SURVIVED TO THE END OF THIS CONFLICT.” Despite the inhuman voice, the Shekhina Siva sounded dismissive.
“No; it only means we’ve survived this far.” The Grandmaster said, “Do your part as we continue to do ours. But don’t dare condemn us or the job we, and our brothers and sisters aboard this ship and in the Meta-Fleet continue to do.”
“YOU PRESUME TO SPEAK TO ME IN SUCH A MANNER?”
Benedict shrugged again, “What are you going to do, Allison? Strike me dead? Do me the fucking favour! Go on!” He spread his arms wide, staring defiantly at Her.
The tension on the Command Deck was as oppressive as the presence of their Queen…even now they whispered Her Dark Name, the Destroyer of Worlds. And though many had grown up and lived with a healthy awe and some small fear of the Queen of Light and Sorrow, what She was becoming before their eyes terrified them.
“GET ME TO THAT INSTALLATION.”
The Grandmaster bowed, “We will. In due time.”
“I CAN FEEL HER IN THERE…AND SHE IS ALREADY CALLING TO ME. HURRY.”
“Keep clearing the path; we’ll take care of getting You to Her.”
♦♦♦
The battle raged on. El-Ahur discipline, metabolism and what the Grandmaster archaically referred to as “Go-Pills” allowed them to go without more than a few hours’ sleep every couple of days. Every day of the battle was the same as the last: The Shekhina Siva floating high into the observation dome, her arms spread wide, watching as hundreds of thousands of Zohor ships streamed by, tumbling helplessly on into the supermassive black hole that dominated the starscape. Watching them cast into the black, invisible sphere of hell, it was almost possible to pity all the Zohor being destroyed. Watching it happen was horrific enough; especially if one glimpsed the self-satisfied grin that inhabited the burning features of the Queen of Light and Sorrow’s face.
The Queen continued to cast aside the Zohor by the billions. The El-Ahur continued to mop up the straggling survivors of Her Wrath. All this done under silent discipline and snap-to-it order execution. Everyone was terrified now of the Queen, and She, knowing their Hearts and Minds as well as She did Her own, couldn’t have cared any less.
They could all hear, or rather sense a subsonic rumble that could only have been the Shekhina’s Will affecting reality around them. Baxter was terrified of what She had become, and only the Grandmaster seemed able to control Her; he was the only one completely unafraid of Her.
On the fifth day of the battle everything changed; just as the Grandmaster had predicted. The onslaught of Zohor ships sent tumbling into the Perseus Event suddenly stopped and within twenty minutes the last of the Zohor stragglers were destroyed.
“REINFORCEMENTS WILL ARRIVE FROM OTHER SECTORS OF ZOHOR SPACE.” The Shekhina announced to the Meta Fleet, “WE DO NOT HAVE MORE THAN A FEW HOURS. ALL SHIPS FROM CI-610 TO CI-306 PLOT ESCAPE TRAJECTORIES TO TAKE UP YOUR PREVIOUS INSTANCE IN THE COMBAT. INSTANCES CI-001 TO CI-304 WILL MOVE FORWARD TO THEIR SUBSEQUENT INSTANCE. META-FLEET FUSION POINT BACK IN REALTIME WILL BE AT CI-305 WHERE THE TWO DIVISIONS OF THE FLEET WILL MERGE.”
“That sounds…existentially terrifying.” Commodore Baxter Vincent of CI-001 commented.
“Welcome to every day of my goddamned life, Commodore.” The Grandmaster said.
“Attention all combat instances:” Commodore Baxter Vincent called, “The Meta-Fleet will load escape navigation data and then hold the line at the Zohor Weapons Node until the Queen and her HAM escort have completed their mission. CI-610 will deploy first, becoming CI-609. Point of Fleet Temporal inversion, CI-305 will be the final rendezvous.”
♦♦♦
CI-305 broke from Q-Field several thousand light-years from the theatre of operation, as the central instance to the fight absorbed the memories, future and past, into one cogent present. It took days…many patients were admitted to the fleet’s hospital ships for cognitive breakdown. Rebuilding their psyches and memories was a daunting task, especially when even some of the care providers themselves were suffering similar traumas.
It didn’t affect the Queen at all. She vanished again to Gather Herself for what was to come.
The fleet finally regrouped and prepared to jump back to a point exactly one point twenty-one seconds after they’d left, this time significantly closer to the now undefended Zohor structure.
“IT’S A MATTER OF MINUTES UNTIL THE FIRST ZOHOR REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE,” Allison said, as she floated down to the tramway access to the Bridge, which docking let Benedict and Baxter debark, “DEPLOY COMBAT INSTANCES AND STAND BY. LOCAL ZOHOR FORCES TO WITHIN FIVE THOUSAND LIGHT-YEARS HAVE BEEN TAKEN OUT.”
“As you say, My Queen,” Baxter said, standing at the exit to the Command deck, “I will oversee operations from my Ship.”
“OF COURSE; BESIDES, THE GRANDMASTER IS THE ONE WITH THE PROPER MACRONAUT TRAINING. HE’S MY BEST CHOICE TO LEAD MY INCURSION TEAM.”
“What exactly is our plan of attack, My Queen?” the Grandmaster asked, as they boarded a tram to the HAM Decks.
“THE SAME AS IT WAS GETTING HERE; I TAKE AS MANY ZOHOR OUT AS I CAN, WHILE RIPPING A PATH FORWARD TO OUR GOAL. YOU CLEAN UP WHAT GETS BY ME. THEN WE FREE HER, AND THEN WE SHIFT BACK TO THE SHIP. THEN I SHOW THE ZOHOR EXACTLY WHY I HAVE BEEN – AS YOU PUT IT – GATHERING MYSELF.”
