Trials of Conviction, page 44
What was it Diesel had said? That a woman approached him with an offer he couldn't resist. Pallas was many things. A woman he was not.
She couldn’t see him working with one to set up the Vega either. For something as sensitive as that, he would have wanted to be hands on. Like he was with the moon.
Kira studied Thea. "Why aren't you angry? I'm furious—and I'm an outsider."
Thea was one of the forty three. There should have been some sign she felt betrayed. Rage and hurt that someone she trusted had broken her faith so thoroughly. Not this cheerfulness. Like this was a game where the stakes didn’t really matter.
"Pallas—did you betray the Vega's position to the Tsavitee?" Kira asked.
Pallas spat on the ground. "No, I didn't."
Thea lowered her weapon, her expression affable. As if she didn't understand—or maybe care was the better word—what Kira was insinuating. "He killed your friends. Are you really going to believe a thing he says?"
"He never denied his role in their deaths."
If he was willing to admit to that, knowing how Kira would react, why deny the rest?
Elena poked her head over the wire cradle she was hiding behind. "Auntie, Thea is the name of the person mother entrusted me to. She was supposed to bring me to you if anything were to happen to her."
Rage slammed through Kira as she looked at her former sibling. "You fucking bitch."
Thea was responsible for everything.
Behind Thea, Pallas gave her a tiny signal. On three.
Kira's expression was fierce as she stared Thea down, not daring to look away from her for an instant.
Thea dropped her head, her shoulders starting to shake.
It took Kira a moment to realize she was laughing.
"You always were so smart," Thea said, wiping the tears from her eyes with one hand.
"I'm going to kill you," Kira informed her.
Her primus hammered at her psyche, begging for release. Kira resisted. Elena was too close to allow it out.
The amusement dropped from Thea's face. "I doubt that."
An explosion from the wall behind Pallas threw him forward. He hit the ground hard, the walkway above crashing down to pin him underneath.
Thea tossed a couple of marbles in the air. "Got to love sticky charges. The ability to delay their boom is just so fun."
Kira started forward.
Thea plucked a rifle out of thin air and pointed it at her. "Ah. Ah. Let's not be impetuous."
Kira stopped, eyeing the weapon uncertainly. It was a Sinister 3421. Developed since the last war for the purpose of taking off a demon's head.
That must have been what she used on Pallas earlier. If not for his Tuann armor protecting him to some extent, he probably would have been dead.
Kira wouldn’t be so lucky. Her Centcom issued suit might deflect some of the weapon's charge, but she didn't want to risk it with Elena behind her.
If she went down, Elena would be on her own.
"Good choice. If you tried something, I was planning to set off the charges I placed beside your niece."
Kira looked over to find four holes in the restraining device Elena crouched behind. That must be how she'd gotten Pallas too. By using the rifle’s bullets to attach the charges. All she would have needed to do was put them in a few of the bullets and then fire them where she wanted.
And Kira hadn't noticed that they were being fired upon because of Thea's talent with illusions.
Elena stared at Kira with wide frightened eyes. "Auntie?"
"Stay there," Kira ordered.
At her side, she gave the sign for "Prepare."
Thea rolled her eyes. "Just stop. Did you forget I helped come up with those signs?"
No, actually. That was what Kira was banking on.
"Why?" Kira asked.
Thea shrugged. "Why not? We're weapons, Kira. We're meant to be used. Not rot in darkness."
"That's your justification for working with the monsters who destroyed our childhood?"
Thea rolled her eyes as she shadowed Kira. "Don’t be so melodramatic. A little short term pain for an unlimited future. Once we'd passed their tests, we would have ruled as kings and queens at their behest."
"You would have still been their slave."
Thea lifted a shoulder. "Everyone answers to someone. Might as well be the top dog."
"You’re insane."
Kira couldn’t believe Thea had thrown away her freedom to willingly re-enter hell. That's what awaited her as the lapdog of the Tsavitee's masters. No matter what pretty bow she chose to wrap it in.
Thea’s smile was sadistic. "Yes, I am. Isn't it fun?"
"How long have you been betraying your family?"
Since Rothchild, obviously. But Kira wanted to know how long before that.
"Ah, ah," Thea crooned, shaking her finger at Kira. "I know what you're doing. You're pumping me for information, thinking that you'll get out of this alive."
Kira smirked. "You’ve got that right."
This time she didn't bother to try to hide the movement of her hands as she sent another hand sign to Elena. "Horns. Left."
"I’ve already warned you that won’t work," Thea said with a frown.
Kira continued to sign. "Ten. Bee."
Thea lifted her weapon. "Kira!"
Three.
Kira's eyes never left Thea's as Elena rose, Elise on her back.
Two.
Thea switched her target to Elena. "I said stop!"
One.
Kira lunged. Elena broke right, over the central platform toward the opposite side.
Thea didn't have time to get off more than one shot before Kira was on her. She brought the rifle up using it to stop Kira's akieri from cleaving her in two from forehead to pelvis.
Kira bore down with her full strength. "I never liked you."
Thea had always been something of a coward, always willing to let others take the brunt of any punishment. Never stepping up when it counted.
Maybe Kira could have accepted that if not for the other's habit of being so damn smug and superior all the time. As if Thea had the right to judge Selene for being weak when she was the one always at the back, using the others as shields.
Thea's arms shook under Kira’s pressure. "That's fine. Because I always hated you."
Kira’s sudden grin was a little insane. "That's settled then."
Before Thea could disengage, Kira grabbed her arm, jerking the other woman closer. She slammed her forehead into Thea's face.
Cartilage crunched. Blood poured from Thea's nose.
"That's for what you did to Pallas," Kira informed her.
Kira might want to kill her brother for the part he played on Rothchild, but this traitor wasn't allowed to touch a hair on his head.
Unfortunately, a broken nose wasn't quite enough for someone like Thea. Although Kira considered the other woman weak when compared to the rest of the forty three, she'd still undergone the same training.
That made her a threat. Coward or not.
Thea hammered a kick into Kira's thigh. Directly over her knee.
Kira turned into the blow, deflecting some of the force to prevent the bone from snapping.
Pain shot through the muscle. Kira's leg threatened to collapse, barely holding her weight as she sliced the akieri across Thea's stomach.
The other woman dodged, stumbling back.
"What are you doing?" Thea screamed, Elena's voice coming out of her mouth as she held out a placating hand with a terrified expression. "Auntie, it's me.”
Rage clouded Kira's mind. How dare she think to use Elena against her? Who did she think she was?
"You've forgotten Thea. Your tricks don't work on me."
They never had.
Kira swung her sword, following up that blow with another. And then another. Her attack merciless as she drove Thea to the edge of the platform.
Did she really think Kira wouldn't be able to tell the difference between her and Elena?
The two's fighting style couldn't be more dissimilar.
For starters—her niece was so much better than this coward.
Kira knocked aside the rifle Thea pointed at her. "Next time use a weapon better suited for close combat."
Rifles were great at a distance. Not so much in close quarters.
Thea's smile was nasty. "Okay."
Something darted from the ground, wrapping around Kira's calf. The serrated edges of the cord cut through her armor, biting into flesh.
Kira slashed at it, kicking it away after severing the piece around her calf from the rest.
"A briar," Kira snarled.
"Brings back memories, doesn't it?"
So named for the thorns embedded in the nine strands protruding from the handle, like briars on a bush, the flogger had been a particular favorite of their masters. Especially as a tool for punishment.
Thea sent Kira a wink. "Don't relax quite yet."
Out of the corner of Kira's eye, she caught a shadow of movement along the walkway. Warned, Kira flipped backwards, arcing over its tip as it snapped toward her. She landed, immediately leaping back into the air as another whip targeted her.
"Dance, Kira!" Thea shouted.
Kira was pushed back, barely evading taking damage from the smooth movements of the whips.
She landed a short distance away, crouching to consider Thea carefully. The handle Thea held was how she controlled the briar. It acted via a neural interface. Only a thought was needed to manipulate its movements.
As such it was a difficult foe to break through. Like fighting nine different enemies to get at one.
A sharp cry broke Kira's concentration.
Thea's smile was evil. "Still think that’s an illusion?"
No. Not this time.
With a feeling of dread, Kira turned to find Elena dangling from the grip of a creature that looked startlingly Tuann at first glance. His height and the unnatural beauty of his features told her otherwise.
Nothing in nature could have approached that level of perfection.
It was his eyes that clinched it for her though. There was no conscience in them. No morality or sense of soul. Just utter detachment. A clinical remoteness. As if they were bugs he planned to dissect. Or a science experiment he was evaluating.
"The Osiri, I take it," Kira said.
The nightmare even the generals feared. The mastermind behind the Tsavitee and their armies. And the target Kira had been hunting before she ever knew they existed.
It felt surreal meeting one for the first time. A tad anti-climactic, if not for his hold on her niece.
"Put her down," Kira ordered.
Her gaze darted to Elena's scared face. Jin still clutched to her chest. Where was Elise?
The Osiri stood on the central platform in the middle of the room. Directly above the heart of the pool below. The water rippled with the movement of something big.
Three of the briar's whips slammed down in front of Kira, denting the metal of the walkway when she would have taken a step toward the platform.
"Ah, ah, ah," Thea sang, using one of the other walkways to join the Osiri. "You stay right there."
Kira controlled her rage, not letting anything show on her face as Thea reached the Osiri's side.
"Master," Thea breathed, worship singing from her face as she looked up at the monster.
"You've made quite a mess of my lab."
Thea bowed submissively. "They were trying to steal your subjects. I couldn't let that happen."
The Osiri's gaze showed indifference as his attention shifted to Kira. "We finally meet."
Kira's hand clenched around the akieri, wanting nothing more than to remove his head with it. She forced herself to relax her grip. Losing her calm right now would be a mistake. It was exactly what they were hoping for.
Instead, she’d be calm. Patient. As she waited for her moment.
"You've caused my forces quite a bit of trouble."
She planned to cause them even more before the end.
"I'll take that as a compliment," she said.
"You realize you haven’t won this. You’ve only been a tiny nuisance to us. Even now, my forces are massing to eradicate the vermin you’ve brought. Once we have, we’ll take our origin ships and relocate somewhere you’ll have no hope of finding again."
Kira lifted her chin in response. "I don’t think it’s going to go the way you hope."
Though the fact they would so easily abandon this planet upon its location being compromised led her to believe that it may not have been their home world as she’d assumed.
The Osiri set her niece down, his hand still gripping the back of her neck. "Your faith in those vermin is misplaced. As we speak, they die in droves."
Elena kept her gaze locked on Kira as the Osiri spoke, nothing but faith and trust in her eyes.
Kira had no intention of disappointing her niece. Not now. Not with so much at stake.
"You don’t believe me," the Osiri said, his head tilting as he studied Kira with a dispassionate expression.
Kira watched him calmly. His words doing nothing to shake her.
A perplexed look crossed his face. No doubt because she didn’t react as he’d expected. "Shall I show you?"
The image of the space battle taking place over the planet was projected above the platform.
Kira tilted her head to take in the view of the CSS Reliance and CSS Horizon in the midst of battle. Their fighters had been deployed. Both their fixed wing aircraft, along with their waveboards.
Despite that, they were getting their asses handed to them. Both ships taking heavy damage from the much greater forces on the Tsavitee side.
It was only a matter of time before they were destroyed.
"Everything you’ve done to this point has been futile. All you’ve accomplished is delivering yourself and your friends to my door."
Kira’s smile was bittersweet. "There’s an old human saying that I’ve always enjoyed. ‘It’s always darkest right before the dawn.’"
The Osiri stared at her. "You still believe in them."
"I do."
She would until the very end.
"You are foolishly naive. I will have to break that trait in you."
Panic flooded Kira as the Osiri reached around Elena for Jin. Her niece resisted, clutching the drone with both hands in an effort to protect him.
The Osiri tightened his grip on the back of her neck in punishment.
Elena made a pained sound, her grip on the drone loosening.
"What are you doing?" Kira asked.
The Osiri lifted the drone out of Elena’s hands, holding it up in front of him to study. "I've heard stories about your relationship with this soul bound. Did you know we weren't aware until relatively recently what he was?"
Kira aimed a pointed look at Thea. "What? Your spy never told you?"
The forty three knew. She still remembered Elise's expression the first time she’d realized what—and who—Jin really was. That meant Thea would have known as well.
The fact she’d never told the Osiri was something Kira could use to drive a wedge between them. Plant a seed of discord and doubt.
Thea lashed the briar at her, aiming for her throat. Kira sliced it in half with a quick move.
It looked like she was getting to her. Good.
Unfortunately, the Osiri didn’t respond to her provocation, more preoccupied with his study of the drone than the conversation.
"There you are," the Osiri declared.
He did something.
Pressure squeezed Kira's skull. The connection she shared with Jin roaring back to life. An onslaught of sensation poured down their bond. White hot and searingly intense as it blistered the nerve endings in her mind.
Kira fell to the ground, Jin's screams mixing with her own.
"Intriguing, isn't it?" The Osiri crouched in front of Kira, his fascinated expression the only thing she could see as her vision began to tunnel. "The things that can be done to you."
Twenty Nine
Jace - CSS Reliance
The ship shuddered. The sensation slightly different than a missile impact.
"We've been boarded," Jace observed, looking up.
He knew that particular sound. The thunk of Tsavitee ships bashing into the hull. Metal screeching as they penetrated the ship. Next, they’d create a vacuum seal to prevent the ship from depressurizing. Right before their landing party dropped inside.
It was the tactic they used to capture a crew alive.
Sometimes, though, it was less about capture and more about having fun with their prey.
"Captain, activate the quick reactionary team to that location and notify the rest of the crew. Prepare to defend the ship by any means necessary," Jace instructed.
As a rear admiral, Jace was technically not in charge of the Reliance. That role fell to its captain. Though as the ranking officer Jace could relieve the captain of his duties under certain circumstances.
Not that he ever would. Captain Bechler was one of his finest.
"Aye, aye, Admiral."
Jace undid his harness, rising from his chair to stride toward the weapons locker.
"Maintain fire on those ships. Do not let up," Bechler ordered his people.
"Yes, sir."
Bechler met Jace at the locker a second later. "I have to say we've landed ourselves in quite the situation."
Jace helped himself to one of the cold weapons, strapping the sword to his waist before grabbing an X-ON pulse rifle and distributing it to the petty officer Bechler had pulled from the crew and tasked with defending the bridge.
"I did say I wanted their attention," Jace said calmly.
Bechler grimaced. "I would have been okay with a little less of it."
Jace plucked a few grenades from the locker, handing a couple to Bechler and the petty officer before keeping one for himself.
When humanity reached the stars, the use of hot weapons fell by the wayside. When one mistake could result in the loss of an entire crew, they turned back to the cold weapons of their distant past. Things like swords and knives.
Grenades and rifles were no longer the first choice. Except when the situation was dire and death a preferable alternative to capture.
