Inherit the Stars (34 page)

“Engage!” Zhhl's voice reverberated off the walls.

Juxj
blasted apart another oblong vessel on the other side of the Portal.

Kivita closed her eyes and gasped as a tingling spread through her brain. Recalling the vision of Terredyn's manipulation of Sarrhdtuu hull scrap, she focused.

Electrical impulses fired among the trillions of neurons cobbled together inside
Juxj
's structure. All the green-rigged humans, all the biomass absorbed by the Sarrhdtuu, reacted to Kivita's invisible call. The ship's transmitter spat out all the data she'd learned from the Juxj Star and other datacores. Everything Navon, Jandeel, and the Thedes had taught her.

Juxj
's bulkheads warped and bent. Every tube ringing the walls opened. The beamer stopped firing through the Portal. As the Vim had intended, and as she'd discovered over Tejuit, Kivita's mind and the ship melded into a flawless interface requiring no physical connection. Organic, biomechanical, and electrical networks fused.

She sensed every bulkhead, every rivet, every inch of hull, though a terrible weight seemed to mash her heart from the strain. All the tubes holding Kith opened. Green-rigged humans sloshed from their vats, loosing subalien moans.

With the Ascali twins continuing their song, Sarrhdtuu warriors reacted with sluggish movements. Kith, once held captive by the Sarrhdtuu, attacked with brutal strikes, splattering the walls with jelly. Green-rigged humans groaned and crawled from their tubes.

The platform rammed into the floor, tossing Cheseia and Zhara off it. Navon caught Kivita before she tumbled off. Shekelor and his pirates fought their way from
the chamber, as Sarrhdtuu warriors resumed full functionality. Screams and gunfire filled the ship.

Kivita tried to hold control of the ship, but she cried out as pain stabbed into her skull. Navon held on to her. Violent, brutal movement passed in her peripheral vision.

Sar Redryll. Bredine Ov. Help them.
The phrases sounded over and over in her mind. For a brief instant, Kivita visualized Sar's trawler orbiting
Juxj
. Waiting for her.

“I have control of the ship,” Kivita whispered, as her brain sent the message back to
Frevyx
.

Use it to kill Dunaar Thev.

In one strike she could destroy the slayers of her mother, the Sarrhdtuu lackeys who'd used her. Through the Portal, though, the Vim didn't return fire. No one closed with
Juxj
or launched assault shuttles. The yellow suns beckoned, and the large Vim ship still waited.

As chaos and death reigned around her in the gargantuan chamber, Kivita blinked. The Vim had wanted those in the Cradles to do more than just build starships and hone Savant talents to find them.

The Vim had wanted her to eschew violence. The lack of weapon technology in the datacores now became clear. The Sarrhdtuu had been slaves of their own greed, instead of slaves to the Vim.

“This is not the answer, Sar,” she mumbled. “This isn't who I am now.”

Kivita rose with Navon, while the Kith ripped apart Sarrhdtuu warriors nearby. Green-rigged people limped about, gaping with childish wonder, and several walked into kinetic crossfire as Shekelor and his followers battered a path toward the hangar. Many pirate bodies lay broken or cleaved in two.

“Sar wants me to force
Juxj
to destroy the Inheritor flagship,” Kivita said, as she and Navon hid behind a shattered tube.

“How can you receive such a message?” Navon said. “I do not understand.”

Focusing on the code sequence, Kivita poured her will into it. The Inheritors deserved the chance to learn, as she had. Killing Dunaar would accomplish nothing. War would continue, with the Sarrhdtuu the only victors. But united, the Cetturo Arm could determine its own fate.

“I think everyone will someday,” she finally whispered back.

A tearing sensation gripped her mind. All breath left Kivita's body, and her heart stopped for a moment.

Control of
Juxj
had been taken from her.

“They sharpened you well, Child of Narbas.” Zhhl's sibilant voice permeated the entire ship. “Now I will use you against them.”

Juxj
shuddered, and a violet beam shot out from one of its crescent wings and struck
Luccan's Wish
. The Thede ship split apart, with entire decks turned into dust. The remaining sections glowed red as they plummeted into the gas giant's atmosphere.

Kivita, recalling information about Sarrhdtuu ships from the Juxj Star, inserted her hand into a triangular terminal. Mucus-filled mouths whispered in her ears; blood ran like ice in her veins. A deep warmth spread over her flesh, which made the chilled sensation painful. She had the sudden urge to urinate.

“Child of Narbas,” Zhhl's thick, sinuous voice tickled her ears above the sounds of fighting. “Interface with us. You will be given honors. You will deliver our race from tyranny.”

Kivita narrowed her eyes. “I've seen what you do. You stole what didn't belong to you. Your greed is so great, you've almost destroyed yourselves!”

The Juxj Star floated toward her. Its red glow hurt her eyes, as data from it stabbed her mind.

“The Vim sealed their Portals so no one but Savants could open them with a datacore,” Zhhl said. Its coils lifted it onto the wall above Kivita, where it split into three smaller versions.

“Maybe I should close it,” Kivita said.

The green-rigged humans all turned and glowered at Kivita. More Sarrhdtuu warriors exited the walls and ceiling. In the distance, gunfire grew faint as the last of Shekelor's force met their doom. More than twenty Kith circled Kivita and Navon in a barrier of metallic flesh and bloody claws.

“You forget that you have no hope as your stars die. Either the Prophet of Meh Sat finds the Vim or the Vim show themselves before this Cradle undergoes multiple supernovas,” Zhhl said.

“So you threaten us with destruction to force your agenda? We'll find those derelicts and reverse the process!” Kivita yelled.

“You forget who planted the Juxj Star on Vstrunn. You forget we replicated Vim datacores to serve our purposes. The gem waited a thousand years. Not all of its knowledge is constructive.” Zhhl's words emanated from every Sarrhdtuu mouth, every green-rigged tongue.

The Juxj Star darted at Kivita.

Glimpses of destruction seared her sanity, and Kivita cried out as the full scale of Sarrhdtuu privations became known:
beautiful worlds scorched to cinders, stars
suctioned of their energy and going nova in heavily populated systems.
Over and over again. Kivita wailed and sobbed, trying to shove the millennia of predation and destruction from her mind.

The Cetturo Arm was but the latest in a long line of Cradles the Sarrhdtuu had destroyed or subjugated. Thousands of worlds; billions of lives. All because the Vim had sealed themselves in a part of the universe the Sarrhdtuu could not reach.

Kivita had led Zhhl straight to them.

The images battered her brain like spike batons. Kivita fell on her hands and knees. The floating gem neared her forehead.

“Concentrate,” Navon said. “Remember the layers. Focus, attune, absorb.”

“It's too awful!” she cried.

“Do not fight it!” he yelled back. Their eyes met, even as gray-green shapes rose around them.

“Wish I could have been a better student, learned more—”

Navon caressed her cheek. “You did, my queen.”

Kivita swallowed and concentrated again.

Her flesh seemed to melt off. The Sarrhdtuu's complicated sequences, syntax, and alternate binary overwhelmed her mind.

“It's too much!” she shouted.

“You will not harm the Narbas line anymore,” Navon said above her. Something hot passed before her face.

Navon grunted. Kivita looked up.

The Juxj Star glowed red-hot in Navon's hands as he stared into its sinister depths.

“No!” Kivita tried to knock it from his grasp, but in a
manner of seconds, he crumpled beside her. An electrical wave pushed against her brain; then she sensed Navon reverse it onto itself.

The Juxj Star shattered.

Infinitesimal crystal shards rained over her as Navon's lifeless eyes stared with the endless horrors enacted by Sarrhdtuu over the millennia.

Sarrhdtuu warriors charged the circle of Kith, their sickle blades carving away gray limbs, cleaving through squat heads. Black claws eviscerated jelly bodies and sliced away carapace armor. Black and green blood splashed Kivita's envirosuit. She wiped some off her faceplate.

Kivita tried to calm herself, tried to concentrate on
Juxj
again. Depending on the Kith to save her amounted to a fool's hope. If she gained control of the ship again, maybe she could—

Merciless coils wrapped around Kivita's legs and chest and lifted her twenty feet into the air. Zhhl's sleek, crescent-shaped head studied her with ten purple eyes.

“You humans are braver than your Vim masters. The Aldaakians, the Kith, the Ascali—all fight to cover Vim weakness. All lose because—”

Zhhl jerked back as a piercing cry echoed in the chamber. Other Sarrhdtuu stalled in their tracks, and the few remaining Kith tore through them, while one cut through Zhhl's coils. Kivita tumbled into the morass of bodies. Strong hands hefted her up.

“You definitely need to close that thing!” Cheseia hauled Kivita atop a glowing terminal. Lacerations marred her envirosuit, and a crack ran along her faceplate.

A few feet away, Zhara sang a simple, beautiful note. It soared in Kivita's ears as well as her heart. With a strong mental push, she forced the platform to rise again with all three of them on it. Among the holograms above,
Juxj
hovered near the Portal's lip with
Arcuri's Glory
.

Ignoring the sweat sliding down his jowls, Dunaar gaped out the viewport. The gateway had opened just for him. Never in a thousand cryo dreams had he imagined the Vim would reveal themselves this way. After all his struggles, Dunaar would finally be rewarded. His sweating disease and thyroid might be cured; he'd receive honors beyond imagining for bringing humanity from darkness into the Vim's holy light.

But Zhhl's betrayal had ruined all that.

He would not be denied!
Arcuri's Glory
drew nearer the Portal. Just a little farther, and he would be under the Vim's protection. Almost there . . .

“Rector, your orders?” Stiego asked, standing over the nav console. “Do we return fire?”

“Maintain your course, Captain.”

Violet beams from
Juxj
atomized another of the Vim craft.

Dunaar dropped the Scepter and laid both trembling hands on the viewport. A catch in his throat forced him to cough. Shocked mutters and gasps filled the bridge.

“Rector, if we continue, we will collide with those
ships! We must fire on those Sarrhdtuu traitors!” Stiego's holo monocle faded in and out.

“No. We are almost there,” Dunaar whispered. Sweat rolled off his nose and down the viewport. “We cannot be stopped now.”

The glorious images Bredine had shown him of a Rector leading his people across time and space to safety made Dunaar smile. What were beam weapons compared to the might of the Vim? They had built the very stars themselves. Built them especially for Dunaar.

“
Juxj
has just destroyed the Thede ship and our remaining platoons! We have been betrayed, Rector!” Stiego ran over and shook Dunaar's shoulder. “We cannot fight—”

Arcuri's Glory
quavered.

The security officer cleared his throat. “Rector, Aldaakian shuttles have strafed the starboard side. Sealing adjacent chambers.”

Flailing bodies in red jumpsuits floated past the starboard viewport.

“Do something!” Stiego yelled in Dunaar's ear.

Why hadn't he listened to her? Bredine had warned him of enemies from the dark void. She wouldn't have done so unless she really loved him. Skeletal bitch. Why had she left?

He blinked and shook his head. He was the Rector. The guardian of humanity. The Vim would see he was their warrior, their protector. All would see now.

“Rector!” Stiego cried.

Dunaar shoved Stiego away. “Open fire on anything that moves! All batteries, now!” He grabbed the Scepter and turned back to the viewport. A second violet beam shot out, and a second Vim vessel exploded into dust.

“Tracking shuttles now,” Stiego said, regaining his composure.

Zhhl's battleship neared the Portal, but Dunaar seethed. They would not take his reward from him. Too many believers had suffered; too many martyrs had died. Centuries of trust in the Sarrhdtuu had been subservience instead. This was a test from the Vim. He would not fail.

“Fire on
Juxj
.” Dunaar squeezed the Scepter until the stone tore into his palms.

Stiego hesitated. “Rector, those shuttles will—”

“Fire!” Dunaar yelled.

The port-side K-gun battery loosed its sabot rounds, each projectile soaring through the void like prayers escaping Dunaar's lips. He gesticulated in blessing as the rounds penetrated
Juxj
's starboard hull.

“Again! Fire until nothing remains!” Dunaar shoved aside the security officer and jabbed the fire button himself. Three more kinetic salvos launched at
Juxj
. Each impact made Dunaar smile wider.

Juxj
's violet beams ripped away armor plating, hull, and lives.
Arcuri's Glory
shook. Warning alarms shrieked over the bridge.

“Rector, we have lost all power on Starboard Deck Two, Section C. The forward hull has been breached in three places. We must draw away!” Stiego's face pinched with fear.

“You coward. Stay on course!” Dunaar raised the Scepter and ground his teeth.

Two more violet beams darted from
Juxj
to the Vim starships.

“Damn them!” Dunaar shouted. “Can't you defeat them?” He swatted Stiego with the Scepter.

Holding his head, Stiego examined more damage readouts on the terminal. “We cannot win this!”

“Must I do all this myself?” His saliva splattered Stiego's holo monocle.

Others on the bridge stood in terrified silence. Lesser prophets cowered, eyes wide. Even the Proselytes grouped together, as if seeking protection in numbers. Dunaar feared the fools' morale would falter as more Vim ships met destruction. All they'd been taught of Vim greatness had been scorched by Sarrhdtuu treachery.

Had the Aldaakians been right in calling the Inheritor's old allies the Vim's true enemies? He leaned on the Scepter, sweat running down it from his hand. The strange gateway still lay open despite the Sarrhdtuu discharges. The Vim held it open for Dunaar, for all the frozen Rectors aboard. The promise of salvation was his if he just maintained courage and fortitude.

The means mattered little.

“Those shuttles are too small to target,” Stiego said. “They are nearing the bridge itself!”

Dunaar knocked Stiego to the floor with the Scepter. “Maintain course and keep firing! Our deliverance is at hand—”

“Incoming!” Stiego yelled, hands over his face.

A single green beam flew from an Aldaakian shuttle as a violet one fired from
Juxj
. The Sarrhdtuu beam's mauve brilliance tore away armor as the Aldaakian green beam slid on through. Dunaar shoved aside prophets and Proselytes as the beam struck. He stumbled into the corridor.

The entire ship rocked, and the bulkhead on Dunaar's left collapsed as the bridge's safety hatch sealed
shut. A green flash blinded him, while intense heat puckered his flesh and singed his face. The hem of his robe caught flame, and the Scepter of Office grew too hot to hold. Hundreds of slag pellets rained over Dunaar.

“Help! In the name of the Vim, I need—” Dunaar screamed as the heated slag sank into his flesh, burning as it went. Smoke billowed from the raw pink fissures. He toppled toward his personal chambers, but the entrance sealed shut. Cooled slag floated from the sandstone floor.

“Vim . . . help me . . . I pray you . . .” Dunaar pulled himself along the plush red carpet. Over the intercom speaker, Stiego ordered all cabins and chambers sealed. His sight blurred. A horrible chill blanketed his charred body, alleviating the burning agony for a fleeting moment.

He tried to pray, but the chill reached his lips.

The melted bulkhead on his left drifted into space. Dunaar sucked in his breath as an impact nearby catapulted him toward the Portal.

Vacuum cold numbed his body within seconds. The burning, the pain—all vanished. As the cold froze his lips shut and eyelids open, Dunaar turned end over end. One second he glimpsed
Arcuri's Glory
and
Juxj
; the next, the yawning Vim Portal. His last vision of yellow stars, promising warmth and life, mocked him.

•   •   •

Everyone cheered as the Inheritor battleship maneuvered away from the Portal. Seul patted Taak's shoulder, while the other Troopers cheered. Seul's other hand left the firing manuals, stiff and weak.

Shutting her eyes, she thought of Kael and smiled.

“An Inheritor-class ship has exited the Sarrhdtuu vessel,” Taak said.

Seul studied the console readout. “That's
Fanged Pauper
.” A frown pulled her smile down as the scanner revealed no Savant was aboard. Kivita remained a prisoner, then, or worse.

Optimism ended as the Sarrhdtuu vessel disintegrated the two other Aldaakian shuttles. Seul knelt beside Taak's seat, her damaged cryoports jolting with agony.

“Taak, engage the Sarrhdtuu ship. Mirror
Frevyx
's trajectory.” She keyed the mic. “Sar, Jaah here. We're tailing you in support.”

The shuttle changed course and flew away from the Inheritor battleship. Every Trooper gazed along with Seul out the cockpit's starboard viewport. Archivers had never mentioned Vim wormholes or gateways. The presence of functioning Vim starships, flaring yellow stars, and a world covered in green and blue held them in awe. Ancient tales of Khaasis's glaciers, lakes, and frost groves made Seul's heart quicken.

“I want her to see this someday,” she whispered. “I want my daughter to know we . . .” Seul coughed and patted Kael's lifeless hand.

“Think you can target those Sarrhdtuu beamers while I skim this heap's surface, Captain Jaah?” Taak asked.

“Of course. Troopers, it's been an honor.” Seul glanced at everyone aboard. All nodded to her and touched their chest cryoports.

All her cryoports had numbed, and the muscles in her arms and shoulders grew weaker. Soon she'd perish, despite her polyarmor's sealing of her wounds. Right
now, though, she didn't have time to die. Gripping the firing manuals again, she selected a target and pressed the button. The beamer fired, popping apart a Sarrhdtuu weapon like a Naxan eggshell.

•   •   •

The platform stopped rising as Kivita refocused on
Juxj
's systems. Her mind delved deep into Sarrhdtuu data, a clutter of alien codes and garbled records. Thousands of coordinate sets, schematics, planetary statistics, engineering breakthroughs—knowledge stolen from countless Vim Cradles and Savants.

“Yes, Child of Narbas. Interface and destroy them.” Zhhl's voice rang inside her head. Kivita covered her ears and stumbled.

The holo display above them showed a Vim craft crash into another one. The Portal's six components flashed red.

“No,” Kivita mumbled.

“Fulfill your purpose. Decode and compile the destruction intended for us.” Zhhl's words hummed throughout
Juxj
itself. More Sarrhdtuu warriors slid from walls and alcoves.

“No!” Kivita screamed. Cheseia and Zhara tried to steady her. Their combined voices grew weak, and their furred bosoms heaved with effort.

The humming became a roar in her ears.

All the dreams she'd had since Xeh's Crown, all the sensations she'd felt since Vstrunn, blasted open her consciousness. The impossibility of knowing each star's name, in a dictionary of a billion names, flowed through her. The location of ten thousand demolished systems beyond the Cetturo Arm made her moan with fear and pain.

“I'll . . . I'll destroy you,” she gasped, her thoughts melding with
Juxj
's weapon systems. “I'll destroy you!”

“The more you learn, the more you interface,” Zhhl said.

Juxj
's beamer incinerated another Vim craft on the holo display. This time, Kivita sensed the connection from her mind to the weapon placement. She'd targeted the victims; she'd activated the merciless violet light.

Coils latched onto the platform from below, and six warriors dangled from the ceiling, their coils melding into the hull itself.

Cheseia hugged Kivita and sang louder. Zhara stalked to the platform's edge, her voice ululating throughout the massive chamber.

So much knowledge, spread over a vast, infinite fabric. Kivita didn't want to see, hear, or know anymore. She wanted to purge it all from her mind and become the salvager she used to be. A simpler life, but cold and lonely. Wisdom had revealed so much, only to shackle her with slavery after all.

Dammit, she had to concentrate! She refocused her mind and screamed.

The entire ship shook. Kivita gasped, and Cheseia yanked her back from the platform's edge. Warriors clambered up after them, while more dropped from above. Below, Zhhl absorbed dozens of other Sarrhdtuu, growing into a tangle of coils, eyes, and puckering maws.

Zhara sang louder, and even Zhhl's movements slowed.

Two Sarrhdtuu warriors fired their wrist cylinders. Violet beams atomized Zhara.

Cheseia's voice faltered; then she ripped away her
helmet. Her tears splashed Kivita's faceplate. A single note stunned the warriors for a moment as the Ascali's body shivered.

Kivita's heart sank into a cesspit of fury. Thoughts raced along alien neurons; her desires merged with Sarrhdtuu brains. As she clenched her teeth, tears wet her own cheeks. So they liked to fight and kill, huh? She'd oblige them.

Eight Sarrhdtuu warriors vaporized one another with their wrist beamers.

Cheseia pulled Kivita behind a glowing terminal, while more warriors battled each other. Curved blades sliced off coils or cleaved into crescent-shaped heads.
Juxj
shook and creaked as the ship's readouts flashed in Kivita's mind:
damage from kinetic sabots and shuttle beamers. A trawler skimming the hull, its transmitter sending requests into her mind.
Arcuri's Glory
, withdrawing from the Portal.

Gargantuan coils crushed the terminals around Kivita. Green jelly and carapace showered over her. Zhhl, now thirty feet tall, crawled along one wall toward her.

“You cannot reverse what you have initiated, Child of Narbas. A parasite cannot hold its host captive.” Zhhl dashed aside battling warriors with its coils. Jelly splattered the walls, then morphed into them.

Body numb with weariness, Kivita tried to form a plan. Focusing on the ship's beamers only activated them against the Vim. C'mon, think! What else could she do? The Vim Portal's components blinked red again on the holo display.
Juxj
's port-side hull neared one as it entered the Portal itself.

A coil whooshed over Kivita's head.

Cheseia shoved Kivita back and confronted Zhhl,
her song shrill and desperate. The huge Sarrhdtuu lurched back, coils hanging limp.

“I will always truly sing the ‘Chant to Revelas' for you,” Cheseia said as she turned. Russet orbs shimmered with tears, but her mouth curved into a smile. “Zhara will certainly sing, too. Tell Sar I always—”

One of Zhhl's coils wrapped around Cheseia's torso. She stood defiant as three more coils obstructed her from Kivita's sight. Zhhl's purple gaze glowered at her from twenty different eyes. The coils constricted, then squeezed.