Inherited War 3: Retaliation (21 page)

She wasn’t sure how she knew, nothing had tipped her off, she just knew at that moment that the Esii had done more than implant memories into Cole. He had forced his own consciousness into his body.

“Ahh, she understands,” a voice echoed from out of the dark. “We are one now, there is no defeating one without the other suffering as well.” Eerie, soulless laughter assaulted her, but Sky stood against it, she blocked it out. She grabbed Cole’s mind with hers and wrestled for control. She threw everything she had into it, screaming at the darkness surrounding her, then she stopped.

She gave herself form and filled it with her conscious. She locked herself into the physical form of her true body and called softly into the dark.

“Cole,” she spoke quietly. “I love you and I need your help.” She waited with her head hanging down. She felt the incredulous hatred attempting to surround her and crush her. The Esii believed she had given up, wrongly. Some deep part of Cole’s mind reached out and enveloped her, protected her. She felt him everywhere, surrounding her body and filling her being. “I need you to let go, release your memories to me. I will not, cannot judge you. I will comfort your pain and forgive your misdeeds. I am here to help.”

The Esii screeched his outrage as Cole’s barriers toppled one by one and he gave control of himself to Sky. Trust, pure and given freely, was Sky’s answer. He gave her the one gift that meant more to her than anything.

Without warning, she threw off his protection and launched herself into his memories. She moved too fast for the Esii and he was forced to follow. Sky had the power of the host mind behind her now. The Esii was impotent to affect anything. She tore through the memories as fast as she dared. She needed to find the point where this had begun. Cole had acted normal for months after his escape, living on the ruined world of the Esii and the subsequent battles after Hal had rescued him. It wasn’t until he arrived back at Home that he had begun to change, so she flipped through the intervening memories and pushed hard into the future.

Finally she found it, or at least hoped she had. She saw Cole standing in a dead end hallway, facing a wall. He had a detached look on his face and was barely awake. He opened the secret door and entered the room beyond. Sky followed him in, all the while the Esii behind her whispered in her ear over and over.

“Nothing changes, he is mine and you will lose.”

Sky chose to ignore him and followed Cole into the room. She heard him speak, one word.

“Jarrod?” he said, more of a question to his tone than anything else.

Sky moved into the room deeper and looked around. It was empty. Nothing, bare stone floors, walls and ceiling. She could feel the chill of space in the stone of the room. She turned to face Cole and saw the Esii move around to his front. The Esii changed form; his features melted and ran. They reformed and he looked human, not entirely human, but close enough that no one could tell. The Esii spoke.

“So, my prodigy. You found me sooner than I had hoped. Nothing to do for it then. I guess I just move things along slightly ahead of schedule.” The voice cut through the darkness and into Cole’s soul.

Cole recognized the voice. He had heard it many times in his head since he had been taken from Earth and genetically altered.

“Jarrod?” Cole whispered the question into the darkness. The throaty evil laughter that echoed around the room was his only response.

“But, I thought you were only in my mind? A program you created and put in our DNA? How could you be here?” Cole asked, dumbstruck.

“You wouldn’t fully understand. I needed you to believe I was a program but indeed, I am real and have been helping you from here all along. I could not afford to reveal myself to you physically, it wasn’t safe,” the Esii/Jarrod said.

“You have been here the whole time?” Cole asked, the dazed look still fresh on his face.

“Yes, hiding,” he replied.

“From what? No one has been here but humans, Nixa, and Worlders. It was safe to show yourself.”

“No. It wasn’t for those reasons. The other races are not to be trusted. I created the myths for your people to follow. Assigned every enemy a monster for your people to fear when they met them in space. I also created the good beings that you would recognize to help you. The Kin, the Dwarves, and a few others you haven’t met yet. I left the Nixa and Worlders out because, while not enemies, they could not be trusted. I have revealed myself to you and only you because I cannot trust the others. The aliens on the station must be purged. They know too much and cannot leave here alive.” The statement caught Cole off guard and shook him slightly from his daze. The Esii doubled its effort and forced the haze back over his brain.

“Yes,” Cole answered finally. “I will see to it myself.” And with that, the memory stopped.

“So you see,” the Esii who was no longer holding the image of the human over him turned to look at Sky. “His mind is set and cannot be deviated. He is mine and will be for as long as he lives.” Sky reacted. She took a page from Cole’s book and moved without thinking. She slammed into the Esii and wrapped him in her arms. She felt his mind recoil at her touch and she dug in her claws. She grabbed every piece of the Esii she could find and forced it into the being under her who struggled the whole time. She threw her strength into the battle, and felt Gavreal and Cole join her.

She tore through Cole’s mind and found every piece of the Esii she could. His struggle grew in frantic response to her actions. Cole’s mind shone light on every hiding spot he sent the bits and pieces of his consciousness to hide. Sky had to be certain to get him all or this might all happen again.

“No, never again.” Came the response to her voiced worry. “I let myself be deceived once, and that will not happen again.” Cole was next to her, helping hold the Esii in place. Feathery wings encircled them as they struggled.

“That’s it,” Cole grunted. “He is all here.” Sky looked into the face of her hated enemy and put the fury of her mind into the fists of her hands. She slammed into the Esii’s mind with everything she had, and after a split second of resistance, she felt the mind shatter and the life flee from the Esii. Suddenly she no longer had her arms wrapped around anything, and she finished her fall to the floor. She rolled over and saw Cole looking down at her.

“I love you,” he said and smiled. She smiled back but her will was waning, and she was afraid of what would happen if she passed out.

“I will remove her,” she heard Gavreal say as his strong arms lifted her from the ground. Sky was fading and losing touch with her body.

“Go then, hurry,” Cole nearly shouted, and Sky sensed more than felt Gavreal move. He raced from the depths of Cole’s mind to the surface. He found his bridge and hurtled across it flowing effortlessly into Sky’s mind first. He aided her in reattaching herself to her body before returning to his own.

CHAPTER 12

Thalo sat on the steps of the capitol building again. This time not daydreaming of a glorious death in battle surrounded by the hordes of Roche and Esii, but of encroaching battle between his brother and that Roche freak. Jeth was out of practice. He was more suited to space combat now than brawling and Thalo was nervous. Jeth was inside sleeping the night away, how, Thalo couldn’t guess. Thalo was a ball of tightly wound nerves. The sudden sound of a leaf blowing across the bare pavement had him jumping to his feet and reaching for his weapon. He needed to calm down, that was for sure.

“Thalo?” The sudden sound of Snow’s voice startled him, and he had to stop halfway from pulling his gun out of its holster. “Sorry, you seem tense.”

“Ya think? Tomorrow I have to second Jeth as he fights a giant green monster in mortal combat and hope he wins, because if he doesn’t and he dies, I lose one half of me and will more than likely go insane. To add insult to injury, if Jeth loses then we don’t get any extra time and have to fight a combined Roche and Esii army. So pardon me if I’m a little tense.” Thalo was a little harsher than he had to be, but oh well. If you can’t take the heat, don’t ask the question.

“Can I make a suggestion?” Thalo looked at her and rolled his hand in a hurry up gesture. “Let’s load him on a shuttle and leave. We have a shuttle that has a good chance to sneak past the Roche ships. No one knows about it, but I heard Daddy talking,” Thalo interrupted her at that point.

“Stop right there. Did you tell Jeth any of this?” Thalo asked with a worried look on his face.

“No, how could we get him on the shuttle if he knew about it?”

“Good, forget you ever heard of a stealth shuttle because if Jeth ever finds out you were going to knock him out and sneak him off world, he would never talk to you again.”

“I don’t care,” she screamed at Thalo. “I would rather have him alive and mad at me than dead.” She began to sob. “One I can seek forgiveness from, the other I have to bury,” she stammered the words out between sobs.

Thalo walked up, wrapped his arms around her, and held her tight. She tried to push him back then settled for weakly slamming her fists into his chest. She finally collapsed against him, and he comforted her when his brother could not.

“We must be strong for him. Do not let him see you like this.” Tears were rolling out of Thalo’s eyes now as well. “Jeth will win tomorrow because he has to—he has no choice. Too much depends on him and he knows it. If Jeth loses, it won’t be because he didn’t try his hardest. Jeth fights for you, me, and all the Nixa on the planet. He fights for Cole and Sky and the people of our worlds. He fights for a future with you.” He stroked her hair as he spoke, and he still felt her sobbing on his chest. “He fights for the galaxy and he knows that. He fights for a three-day grace period. The time Cole needs to get here and pull our asses out of the fire, again.” Thalo turned and led the now sullen Snow back into the building. In just one hour, his brother would once again risk his life for others, others he would probably never meet.

The massive and very poorly made Roche landing craft settled down on creaking landing struts. Thalo and Jeth were the only ones there to meet it. They had decided it was best not to expose any of the Nixa high command to the consequences of a loss. The Roche would go berserk and kill anything they could if Jeth lost. Thalo would get his glorious death if that happened.

The craft was basically a giant tube that tapered to a point at one end and had short stabilizers on the top, bottom, and sides. It had been repeatedly patched and welded over ninety percent of its hull, and looked to Thalo like it would fall apart if it stayed on the ground too long. There was a loud groan and a clank that preceded the opening of the ship. The nose cone split horizontally and the lower half crashed unceremoniously to the ground. It bounced twice before coming to rest.

“I don’t think they are going to get a tight seal on that ramp again, ever.” Thalo quipped in an attempt to break the tension. Jeth ignored him.

The ship popped and hissed as it bled off heat from their entry, but it wasn’t too long before a shape materialized at the top of the ramp. She had gotten bigger—by a lot. She clomped down the ramp, shaking the ship as she went. Troopers fanned out from behind her and moved to encircle the duo. She stopped on the pavement about twenty feet from the Worlders. The Roche troopers finished their circle and the air grew still and silent.

“Name terms,” the brute of a Roche stated.

“A weeks grace before you attack the planet,” Jeth rumbled back. Then a slender figure stepped out from behind the Roche and said something in its vile language.

“No. No time,” she said. She looked pained not granting his terms, this was a big breach of dueling etiquette for a Roche.

“Fine,” Jeth rumbled and smoothly drew his side arm and put the barrel under his chin. “I give you one more chance. Three days or I end myself now and you do not get revenge. Broadcast it to your fleet so I am sure they know the terms.” Jeth clicked the safety off and the soft whine of the battery charging the gun echoed off the surrounding Roche. This was the unknown of the plan—could she be baited into ignoring her Esii masters? If she accepted, the fleet would stand down for three days; even the Esii wouldn’t be able to change that.

“Accept!” she roared. The Esii made a motion to get her attention, but it was his last. He grabbed her arm and was subsequently lifted into the sky by her other arm and tossed behind her, head first into the ship. Everyone heard his spine snap when he hit the floor. She didn’t miss a beat. She activated a com and relayed the terms of the duel. Thalo got confirmation from the Nixa that the Roche ships were backing off and powering down in wait of the outcome.

If Jeth lost, those ships would roar back to life and commence with the invasion. If he won, they would remain there for three days. Thalo nodded to Jeth and Jeth handed him the weapon.

“I do not wish this for you,” Jeth said as he shoved Thalo out of the way. “I saved you last time because what you are isn’t your fault, and you shouldn’t have to pay with your life for that. I will not make that mistake again. If you fall before me, you will not rise again.” Jeth was flexing his arms and rotating his shoulders the whole time he spoke. Thalo beat a hasty retreat to the encircling line of Roche troops. He did his best to shove two of them apart but even the normal sized Roche weighed a lot. Grudgingly they made a spot for him and everyone focused on the two massive figures in the middle.