Beyond Death (Perimeter Defense Book #2) (42 page)

I looked Miya right in the eyes and understood clearly that I was staring Death herself in the face. All the same, it was too late to take it back.

"You dare raise your voice to your master?!" I tried to copy the intonation I heard in the Truth Seeker's voice. "On your knees, scum!!!"

The lightbulbs in the small room began flickering. The air started spinning in electric sparks. I even heard some small explosions. In the dark gray murk that had begun to descend on me, Miya's eyes shone back like two orange demonic bonfires. Their flames were at once alluring and terrifying. You either wanted to bow before her unlimited power, or run without looking back. I felt a heaviness that threw me to the ground. With every passing second it became harder to resist. And suddenly, it all passed at once. The lights returned to normal, the heaviness fear and strain all disappeared at once. Miya, kneeling on the cold metal floor, was touching my hands with her forehead:

"Forgive me, master. Your faithful servant forgot her place," babbled the bowing beautiful woman with bright crimson hair in an apologetic tone.

At the same time, I heard a soul-chilling voice in my brain:

"Ruslan, you have just signed your own death warrant. And I don't give a damn what Georgiy says about it. You will die right after your contract is up, that is my promise to you as a Truth Seeker!"

The thought flashed by that I should force Miya to swear an oath that she would not harm me. All the same I did not manage to bring that worldly thought to action, as Miya had already answered:

"That is utterly useless, Ruslan. Here in the world of
Perimeter Defense
, I was in no way thinking of touching you. I really cannot bring harm to you. I do not know who told you that secret, but I assure you that person is already as good as dead. But then, everything outside the
Perimeter Defense
world, my oath would have no bearing over. That's why you'll die as soon as you leave the game."

"I very much recommend against rushing into making those kinds of promises, Miya. I would be very surprised if you could survive even a month without me!" I said out loud.

"Alright, we'll see," the Truth Seeker agreed, standing from her knees with obvious strain. "If only you knew, Georg, what kind of bloody rage is boiling in me! I'm gonna have to kill someone now! Maybe it won't be this pregnant dummy, but at least someone!"

"So then, why is this an issue?" I pointed at the locked door. "On the other side of that door are six armed pirates that have captured me and my people. Miya, they're all yours. Do with them as you wish, but please leave just the one who can help bring the submarine back to port."

The Truth Seeker laughed an evil laugh, throwing her long hair back and cracking her fingers as she said:

"You three stay here. There's no reason for you to see what's about to happen on this submarine."

Miya went up to the metal doors and put her palm on the lock. I heard a gnash and a snap as if something had just broken inside the thick armored doors. With a terrifying tooth-chattering shriek the four-inch-thick door opened, letting the red-headed beauty out, before it closed again right behind her.

"Can you drive the submarine?" I could hear the Truth Seeker's muffled question through the wall.

The guard's answer, I could not. All the same, I suspect that it was a no, given that I could hear a scream of pain and fear. Shots thundered out. The shooting, swearing and yelping continued for two minutes, at which point everything suddenly grew quiet. The doors screeched open once again, and Miya came into the cabin holding Velesh the First's decapitated head.

"Georg, why did you lie to me that there were only six pirates?" the Truth Seeker said with reproach. "There were fourteen! One recognized me and screamed that there was a huge price on his head," the woman said, pointing to the ghastly trophy. "Only he managed to surrender, but while that was stopping me... another remained alive after the slaughter. He'll take the submarine wherever you want."

The Truth Seeker flung the pirate captain's head under my favorite's legs. Astra immediately doubled over to vomit. Miya, clearly pleased with the effect it had had on her rival, commented with a sideways evil grin on her face:

"Still a snot-nosed punk, and yet you crawl into politics... Very well then. I can let you go, just this one time and as a very big favor to the Crown Prince. But if you ever cross my path again, there will be no more quarter. Do you understand?"

Astra gave a very fast nod, after which the former Princess vomited again. Miya frowned in disgust and left the room. I followed after her.

The inside of the submarine looked like something between a slaughterhouse and a horror movie set. Dead bodies, bullet holes on the walls. There was even blood spatter on the ceiling. The Truth Seeker walked to the dirtiest part of the large hall and sat down in the chair with strain.

"Georg, I barely had enough power to finish them off," Miya admitted, inviting me to take a seat next to her.

Now, the person in front of me was a normal woman in the late stages of pregnancy. Awkward, vulnerable and very tired from the constant burden.

"I need crystals very badly. You promised to get them. Where are my crystals?"

"Well, as luck would have it, the submarine is on its way to a secret underwater crystal lab," I said, quickly finding my place. "We'll be at the base in a few hours, and you can take as many crystals as you can carry."

"You are telling me, an official Mystic from the list confirmed by the Emperor himself, to make do with the crap those illegal drug traders produce?" Miya flared up artificially.

All the same, the glint that appeared in her eyes gave away the mystic's craving for crystals, and she knew it.

"Alright, I agree. Ask this strange being to prepare dinner. And tell your girl that there is a normal bedroom here too. Let her go there. There's no reason for her to sit in such an unbearable atmosphere."

* * *

It was a crazy dinner, so much so that it would make tea-time with the Mad Hatter seem like the very height of normalcy. Miya and I were sitting at a small circular table in the central hall of the submarine. We were drinking some wine that the Alien creature had warmed up, and eating something I didn't recognize that pseudo-Bionica had managed to prepare from what she could find on the submarine. There were dead bodies lying all around, and the floor was slippery from all the spilled blood, despite all that, we did our best not to focus on the mess and had a completely peaceful conversation. An outside observer would never have guessed that it was between a ghoulish woman murderer and her future victim.

Astra absolutely refused to go into the bedroom and fell asleep with her head on my knee. Miya, at least externally, had lost all interest in my favorite and was making a show of not noticing the sleeping girl.

"I haven't seen my employer in quite some time. Usually Mr. G. I. isn't gone for so long," I said, finding a new topic for conversation.

"He broke his collar bone. He was fighting in a bar with some biker and had an unlucky fall on a bar stool. Now he's sitting at home trying to drown out his mental and physical scars with alcohol."

"He always had the pair of bodyguards with him," I said in surprise, remembering the morning I signed my contract. "How did they let that happen?"

The pregnant woman shrugged her shoulders:

"I don't know. You should have a better idea than I do. As an Imperial Crown Prince, you have the same bodyguards, yet your face is covered in fresh scars... By the way, you disfigured the body of my future husband!"

I guffawed, as I could sense that her grievances were totally contrived.

"It's almost already back to normal. You should have seen me a day after the Alien battleship explosion. I was lucky not to have lost an eye! And as for the body, you couldn't be more wrong. I'm even taking very good care of it. On my first day in the game, it was even hard for me to walk. My gut would swing around, practically banging on my knees when I walked. I couldn't go five steps without a breather. My legs hurt like a bitch. My blood pressure jumped all around. Every time I would take off or land on a shuttle, I practically died. But, over these five months, I've lost eighty pounds, built muscle mass in the gym, and I can swim a kilometer without a break. I can almost already do a pull up!"

Miya looked at me as if for the first time, somehow smiling mysteriously as she took a small gulp of wine from her glass.

"No one asked you to change the Crown Prince's lifestyle, Ruslan. These aren't just pluses. They do have their downsides, but thank you all the same. You've done your main mission: you held off the Alien attack, you got the Sector Eight Fleet in shape, and also got him sorted out financially... You have done even more than we were expecting you to. I admit, I didn't believe right away how powerful the glow of glory and admiration surrounding you had become. I couldn't hold back from such a rare delicacy and drank all that power to the last drop. I'm still drunk on the energy overload. I haven't had the like in thirty years, and maybe longer. I must thank you."

"Think nothing of it. The paralyzed Flora has often admitted that she feels a stream of power after serious victories and nourishes herself on them."

"Yes, that is precisely why the girl is progressing so quickly. But she also understands that as soon as your contract is up, there will be no more victories. She fears for the future. I can sense it. By the way, on the subject of deadlines, you started that conflict with the Duke to no avail. Mr. G.I. is no soldier and will not be able to handle it himself, so you must solve the problem before the end of your contract. I am prepared to help you in this matter. I cannot simply kill Paolo royl Anjer for a whole number of reasons. But now I am full of power and capable of a lot. Tell me, what do you need to win?"

Geez! The most powerful Miya was offering to help me! This was a once in a lifetime chance! What did I really need? I thought for some time. There were too many wishes to sort through. Finally, I singled one out and said what I considered the most necessary:

"Miya, I need the Orange House Capital warp beacon turned on in a month, just for a couple seconds."

The Truth Seeker laughed in response:

"Alright. I don't yet know how, but I'll make that happen for you."

T
he sheer enormity of the Sector Eight Fleet's new flagship allowed me to not have to think about being economical with interior space. I suppose that only the yacht
Queen of Sin
could compare with
Joan the Fatty
in terms of comfort. There were gyms, pools, entertainment centers and spacious greenhouses for the crew members to psychologically decompress. There were ultramodern medical centers, comfortable bedrooms and a great deal of dining rooms. There was even a zoo on board with exotic creatures from dozens of worlds. Yes, the complete overhaul and updating of the
Uukresh
had forced me to spend a nine-figure sum, but all the expenses had been worth it, in that I had succeeded in adapting another species' starship to allow the mixed human and Iseyek crew to co-inhabit for a prolonged period.

All the same, despite the comfort, the flagship remained above all else a combat ship. There were huge data screens in the fleet headquarters, a surprisingly detailed holographic tactical map and a projection of the current star system the size of a five-story building, all of which allowed me to see everything on the battlefield and around it in detail. The staff officers needed almost two weeks to stop gasping in delight every time they sat down at their console.

"All ships, at the ready in five minutes! Begin acceleration toward the Orange House Capital. We expect the warp beacon to be turned on," I was behind the huge semicircular console, somewhat reminiscent of Savasss Jach's workstation.

"And the observer? Maybe shoot it down anyway?" Space Captain Nicole Savoia said, expressing uncharacteristic bloodthirstiness today.

A suspicious container ship had been circling not far from the Sector Eight Fleet in the Tesse system for two days already. My ships would regularly report that the freighter was scanning them for different things, determining energy shield capacity, nuclear arsenal, and other combat characteristics. Of course, we could destroy the spy ship, but why?

"No, let it keep sending its data. Duke Paolo royl Anjer should see that my fleet in Tesse has just five hundred ships. That is very important. If our enemies from the United Fleet are not convinced that they still have a four-to-one advantage, they might flee before we get there. I'm pretty worried for our enemy's psychological condition when they see the unknown beacon pop up in their capital system..."

Nicole laughed. The Alien cloaked ship capable of installing mobile warp beacons was a military secret. I’m not sure if Miya had fulfilled her promise that way, or the scientists on Unatari had really made a real breakthrough, but my specialists were able to figure out the main systems of the Alien frigate. Getting the cloaker into the Orange House Capital turned out to be a not-at-all-trivial mission. The beacon was turned off practically all the time. But we were also able to overcome that problem. When my "crystal balls" on enemy territory discovered reinforcements for the United Fleet in the Varan system preparing to leave: five light cruisers, six destroyers and around forty frigates. The Orange House beacon blinked on for just half a second, but that was all my soldiers needed to get the warp-beacon carrier into the enemy lair.

"Call Crown Prince Roben royl Inoky ton Mesfelle," I demanded from the communications officer, and ten seconds later, my brother appeared on screen.

The huge Roben was sitting right on the grass in a light, free-flowing robe. Next to the big corpulent man on the blanket, lying on a bunch of pillows, the little smiling Georg was flexing his legs.

"I knew you'd want to talk, brother dear. And that was why I ordered a portable screen brought out to the glade here, so I could tell you my answer right now: no! My decision is firm as ever. The Tesse Fleet will maintain neutrality and will not take part in the battle, neither as part of the United Fleet of Duke Paolo, nor on your side."

"The Tesse Ships would be a great help to me, brother..." I said, making my final attempt to convince Roben, but he remained uncompromising.

"No, and don't keep asking, Georg. My decision is firm to stay on the sidelines of all this squabbling. Understand me: my conscience won't let me go against my brother. But elementary caution won't let me join your side either: supporting someone with a more than one-to-four ship disadvantage doesn't look like a good investment in a peaceful future to me. I already almost left my son fatherless when I helped you financially, arousing the Orange House Head's unhappiness. I am not preparing to repeat that horror again."

I shook my head in reproach. I had a whole bunch of arguments on the tip of my tongue, but I didn't tell them to him, for some reason knowing already that none of my reasons would work, and I would never convince my brother. Crown Prince Roben royl Inoky had made a serious political error with his inaction, and I also had no doubt in that. The new head of the Orange House, whoever that may be after the fall of Duke Paolo, would hardly be likely to have a positive view of the ruler of Tesse's inaction at a time when many aristocrats had helped him get on the throne. And also, my sister Violetta would definitely view my older brother's neutrality as a sign that he is unreliable and would return to his scheming. But I also didn't reveal these arguments, and signed off.

"The Sector Eight Fleet is ready for attack. The ships are ready to warp, waiting for the beacon," reported Admiral Kiro Sabuto.

"All ships in the Docks are also accelerating toward the Orange House Capital and are ready to jump to the beacon when it appears," my assistant Nicole Savoia pledged.

The second fleet, which had managed to sneak by unnoticed by the Orange House Head's observer and get to the Docks, was my trump card. Even Count Avalle, who had promised to join my side immediately before the general battle, didn't know about the Sector Eight Fleet's backup ships. I didn't have much faith in the Count. He was clearly trying to sit in two chairs at the same time, and would only make his choice in favor of the stronger side at the last possible moment.

I definitely knew from several independent sources that the Orange House Head's security service had been searching very actively for which of the aristocrats I had given the four remaining Emerald Stars to. The Duke's bogeymen had subjected all United Fleet captains to lie detector and Truth Seeker testing for possible collaboration with Crown Prince Georg and the possession of an Emerald Star. The only way Duke Paolo royl Anjer could have known about my giving out the medals was from his younger brother, which characterized my ally as extremely unreliable. Fortunately, Count Avalle had interpreted my words wrong, so the spooks were looking in the wrong place, and the true recipients of the four Emerald Stars had still managed to avoid suspicion.

"New warp beacon detected!" several staff officers’ voices rang out at once.

"Nonstandard indicators. It's something strange!"

"Beacon located. It's the Orange House."

It worked! I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. The step of opening the new portal to the blocked system was the most difficult part of the whole operation. We had only run through warp beacon opening scenarios one time in training in the little-visited Sigur system. We figured out that opening a hole in space and keeping it there required a huge amount of rare radioactive isotopes. Fortunately, I had the Tivalle system at my disposal with its ice asteroid fields, so we could collect the materials we needed.

"Attention Sector Eight Fleet and allies! Enter new beacon coordinates, set warp tunnel exit point at three hundred miles back. I'm waiting for Admiral Kheraisss Vej to confirm."

"My Princcce, all Swarm ship is to understand order and to be ready!"

"Excellent. Send a message to the cloaker: turn off the beacon in thirty seconds and leave! All ships, fifteen seconds to warp! Nicole, countdown! WARP!!!"

* * *

It seemed simply impossible, but my ships didn't find anyone there when we arrived to the Orange House Capital system! I was expecting to see the terrifying United Fleet when I came out of the warp tunnel at a short distance, and was psychologically prepared for the battle to begin immediately. But my enemies hadn't noticed the beacon in their system!

"My Prince, this is Major Mike Geroni, captain of the
Portal
. In accordance with you order, we put out the beacon and went invisible. We're at three hundred miles from your Highness's fleet."

"Tuki-tuka-de-sa, this is the captain of
Surprise-1
. My bomber division has been waiting six hours at full preparedness, but the United Fleet has not shown up in the area of the flashing warp beacon."

I turned to my assistant, Nicole Savoia in confusion.

"I don't understand a thing... The beacon was on for almost a minute and a half, but none of Duke Paolo's ships came to destroy the Alien ship!"

The space captain smiled happily:

"Your Highness, you and I know that the Alien warp beacon frigate is fragile, and should be shot down immediately. But the United Fleet's admirals, I suppose, are still in shock from seeing an Alien starship in the Orange House Capital."

Our conversation was interrupted by a message from the communications officer:

"My Prince, incoming call from Duke Paolo. The signal is coming from this system, most likely the battleship
Orange Majesty
."

"Alright, put him through. Let's see what the Orange House Head has to tell us."

However, instead of Duke Paolo royl Anjer, who I was expecting to see, an unfamiliar, middle-aged woman with a black robe and a hood thrown back appeared on screen. She had dark hair with a touch of gray, proper facial features, and was wearing no makeup. The woman met with my gaze, smiled in happiness, stretched her right pointer finger out at me and said in a tranquil tone:

"Die!"

"My Prince, you are under attack by Selena ton Bist, Duke Paolo's Truth Seeker! I have taken the strike with my body!"
Despair and pain came through in the message sent by Florianna.

"Turn the screen off now!" I ordered, but the officer who ran in hesitated for some reason.

"It's useless, Crown Prince," the woman on screen smiled again. "The line is open. You have received my greeting, and now the result is in no way dependent on the monitor being intact. As soon as the little Truth Seeker grows weak, you will die. And so your little girl won't suffer any illusions, I'll show you the real balance of power.

At the very bottom of the small screen, seven additional windows opened in a row, and each of them containing the strained face of a different Truth Seeker. All the women were in identical dark clothing and I didn't recognize them... However... Marian Sabati, Count Avalle's ghoulish Truth Seeker I did recognize.

"They are all attacking together! It is very hard for me, Georg! I can't hold out much longer!"
I heard clear panic in the paralyzed girl's thoughts.

One of Florianna's minions gave a sharp creak of pain and collapsed onto his back, appendages twitching. Just three Beta Iseyek remained around the flying chair. The insects placed their many hands on the little paralyzed girl, causing them to shake in perfect synchronization. Florianna needed help, but how?!

The red-headed Bionica, serving in my headquarters as a second translator together with the real Bionica, suddenly stood from her place and went to Flora's room, changing shape along the way. In two steps the Arite already looked like the red-headed Miya, and took a few heavy steps toward my Truth Seeker. The arrival of a new participant was immediately apparent, though the slight confusion in the ranks of the enemy lasted just a bit longer than a second.

"Very funny," Selena ton Bist waved her hand carelessly, and the Arite dissolved into a whitish cloud before trailing off in a long line into the ventilation.

"Miya, I need you right now!!!"
I thought, calling her mentally, all the while watching the Arite's strained escape attempt: my bodiless acquaintance was rushing to hide from the Truth Seekers' rage.

The new participant's arrival I first heard, and only later saw. But first I noticed that all the noise in the room immediately ceased. The officers in the headquarters went silent at once. Even the instruments started buzzing more quietly, and the light in the room dimmed noticeably. I saw Nicole Savoia's eyes grow wide, having seen something scary behind me, and I turned sharply.

Miya was walking unhurriedly between the staff officers' work stations. The Truth Seeker was wearing a long crimson robe that went down to the floor this time. On her head, a hood was obscuring the pregnant woman's red hair. Miya came out into the middle of the hall, stopping three steps from Florianna's chair and said, looking at the big screen with eight enemies.

"So then. I recognize all these faces. The party's at full swing, but no one invited me. That's not very polite..."

It was as if Miya was smiling and joking, but the sound of her voice made your hair stand on end, and gave you the feeling of ants crawling on your skin. I noticed a dribbling sound coming from Florianna's flying chair onto the floor. The paralyzed girl, who had been fighting bravely against eight more experienced enemies bravely until that point, suddenly panicked at the sight of her tormentor. Miya turned to the girl she had paralyzed and said: