Finish What You Started Read online

  I’m sure Voidrux will make a fine penitent.

  Oh, and Barnabas? Speaking of penitents, I will enjoy picturing Nickie’s reaction when you tell her most of her work will involve being pleasant to the Federation. Payback isn’t the only bitch you’re stuck with.

  Until the next briefing,

  Bethany Anne

  Barnabas chuckled as he filed the documentation with CEREBRO. He couldn’t wait to see Nickie’s reaction either.

  Uncharted Galaxy, Hidden Location

  The Bitch. The Queen. The Empress.

  Whatever she answered to, however primitive her beginnings, every remaining Kurtherian of the Seven clans knew her true name.

  Death.

  For two centuries now, Death had hunted them. Harried them. With no rest or remorse, she had searched out the Seven and cut away at their power, their resources, and their precious numbers. She had scattered them, driving them ever outward, and then pursued them some more.

  The absence of the Phraim-‘Eh at this assembly was an affront.

  There were no living Phraim-‘Eh left to attend.

  No longer a Prime, a Secondary, or a single Pilot among them, the remainder of the Seven clans gathered in the shadows of a cavern that did not belong to them. Hooded to a person in order to conceal their identities, every Kurtherian present seethed in silence at being reduced to this deception by Death’s ability to read minds.

  Further, Gödel had culled those whose obsession with the moral high ground overrode their good sense to keep them all out of Death’s crosshairs.

  Here were the survivors, the ones whose former quests for glory had been satisfied by smaller progressions along the path to Ascension. The ones who had been adaptable enough to recognize Gödel’s greater wisdom and knew that all of their lives depended upon her leadership.

  The silence grew in volume as many more joined the summit by mental link from their hiding places across the galaxies, another precaution against total destruction should she find them. There were no snatches of conversation that might give away a connection. Even their exact number was hidden.

  Gödel’s law was simple to obey.

  Give the humans nothing.

  A low, reverberating chime sounded, signaling the arrival of the highest-ranking Kurtherian left alive to lead them. A solitary ball of Etheric energy came into being near the roof of the cavern. Its pallid light cast the ancient carvings on the dais into relief, a reminder to the Azzhur in the cavern of the species they’d wiped out when their clan took this planet centuries ago.

  Gödel’s entourage entered first. Two carried her throne onto the dais, and the other four fanned out at the base of the steps and raised their glowing hands to the roof. “Rejoice in supplication,” they proclaimed. “Gödel has come.”

  Every Kurtherian of the clans found the human cryptonym distasteful in the extreme. No one present knew their leader’s true designation.

  None dared ask.

  Gödel exercised her skills with the Etheric with clinical abandon and pinpoint accuracy, as did her faithful, meaning, she could call herself whatever she liked and there wasn’t a Kurtherian who had the power to question her.

  Everyone was aware of how badly the summit would go if everything was not exactly as Gödel expected it. The neutral silence took on an air of uncertainty as her armored guards mounted the dais and positioned themselves around the throne with their scepters charged and glowing.

  Gödel appeared upon the throne in a flash of light and a swirl of semi-diaphanous robes. The relief in the cavern was palpable when she settled back without passing comment—or killing them all in a fit of displeasure.

  The absolute ruler of the Seven adjusted the folds of her ornate hood against her veil before laying her gloved hands in her lap. “Explain,” she ordered in a dispassionate tone. “Explain to Us how Death, that irrational, emotional human, has managed to gain even greater control over the Etheric.”

  A susurrus of denials rebounded off the roof of the cavern.

  Gödel lifted a finger, and a Kurtherian in the front row stepped forward. “Speak, T’sehmion. Tell Us and your brethren what you witnessed.”

  The T’sehmion bowed his head and turned to the assembly. “Your Glory. My facility was attacked by Death and her consort. They gave me no choice but to initiate self-destruct measures. All was lost, including the Bl’kheth.”

  Gödel’s veil rippled as her mandibles jabbed at it. “How did she get past Our defenses?”

  The red glow beneath the Kurtherian’s hood dimmed as he turned back to Gödel. “I do not believe what I saw, your Glory.”

  Gödel leaned forward on her throne. “I see it in your mind, and it is the truth. Tell them.” Her voice hardened, making her request a demand the Kurtherian dared not disobey.

  The T’sehmion bowed lower. “She walked out of an Etheric storm, but…” he paused for barely a moment, “That is not possible.”

  Gödel straightened, and the room flinched.

  Her chin protruded beneath her veil, every word icy. “Nothing to say? Not one of you can hypothesize how she lived through it? How she went into that storm and walked out at Our facility?”

  No one spoke.

  Gödel leaned toward the delegates. “Then what purpose does any of you serve?” she demanded. “We were not ready for her to discover Our factories. If none of you can protect Our interests, you are of no use to Us or to the future of the clans. We will replace you.”

  The room erupted in whispers as Gödel got to her feet.

  “We d-d-dare not m-move against her, your Glory,” one of the hooded figures stuttered. “She is too p-powerful, and the revelation of her ability to ride the st-storm wall p-proves it without a doubt.”

  Gödel pointed a gloved finger around the room, smiling as she landed on the speaker and took control of his nanocytes. “We are Kurtherians,” she calmly told the assembly as the speaker gasped his final breath. “Superior to all, submissive to none. We…You and I… are the guardians of the path to Ascension, and we are at war.”

  She released the unfortunate to fall to the floor before she raised her voice. “No longer can your duty be disrupted by the will of a single…primitive…female. You will all purge this blasphemous line of thought and find a way to rein in the humans, or it will be Our duty to cleanse our genetic pool of your weakness. There must be something we can use to remove Death from the equation.”

  Gödel glowed with absorbed energy. “Death desecrates our ancestors with her every breath, and it is all we can do to keep her distracted by continuous war. The years she vanished, we could find no trace of her. Now she is returned, stronger, more powerful, and more of a denigration to our Ascension, and We want her destroyed!”

  A curt voice broke the stillness of the cavern, taking the plunge for them all. “We are well aware of her weakness, Your Glory. However, unless we all have access to the knowledge you have gained…”

  Gödel’s laugh rang out across the cavern. “And have you begin to believe you can match Our Magnificence? We think not, Reben. It has become clear to Us, and to you, that the path to victory lies with Us, and Us alone. You are but weapons, and at the moment, ineffective ones at that.”

  The speaker’s continued status as a living being encouraged another to speak up. “Your Glory, any move against the humans will result in disaster for us all. The charts—”

  Everyone present found their ability to draw breath was no longer a given when Gödel lifted a hand and squeezed it into a fist. “We care not for the charts.” She sneered. “We are Gödel. The prophecies are naught but amusements to such as Us. We care only that Death, and all of her allies, is removed as an obstacle to the Kurtherian shepherding all. This universe has a choice: obey Us and accept the Wisdom of Ascension, or die to bring that Age in.”

  Everyone in the cavern hitched a grateful gasp when Gödel dropped her grip on their airways and vanished.

  Her voice echoed through the cavern—and their minds.
r />   Our way is threatened, and We will not tolerate failure. You will find a way to neutralize Death…

  Or die trying.

  Epilogue

  QT2, QBBS Helena, Three months later

  Bethany Anne left the No-Ox habitat, almost soothed by the time spent meditating with the Collective on their shared grief.

  Today was the day Jean would reveal her new home, and Bethany Anne was alone in being underwhelmed by the whole occasion.

  While Izanami’s absence was no longer a knife in her heart every time she got aboard a ship, the loss was never far from her mind. Her meditation had guided her to the conclusion that time would heal her wound, as it had so many times before.

  The difference this time was that she didn’t try to close her emotions down. If she could not find her own joy in the day, she would share her family’s, and that would be enough.

  Nevertheless, it would carry a bittersweet note in her memory, and while she wasn’t exactly fine with that, she accepted it was the way it would be.

  She exchanged her roamer vehicle for a fresh one from the charging point outside the airlock and set off for the shipyard.

  She could only stare in wonder at the size of the ship. It reminded her of that moment in one of the Star Wars movies when you saw Darth Vader’s Executive…no, that was an Executor-class star destroyer, right? Either way, the other star destroyers had looked like toys next to that ship.

  Hundreds of years later, that scene was still firmly implanted in her memories.

  Alexis and Gabriel were waiting for Bethany Anne when she arrived.

  Alexis elbowed her brother in the ribs as their mother climbed out of the roamer. “I told you she was still sad. She’s been with the Collective again.”

  Gabriel scrutinized Bethany Anne’s face. “She looks fine to me.”

  Alexis rolled her eyes and walked over to Bethany Anne. “You are such a guy sometimes.”

  Bethany Anne held out her arms to her children. “This is getting to be embarrassing since you two are taller than me now.”

  Alexis released Bethany Anne and clapped excitedly. “Not for long. Jean told me your armor is ready.”

  Now, that was a reason for Bethany Anne to embrace the celebratory mood. She shooed her children ahead as the first hint of a smile graced her lips. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go so I can see how she did.”

  Gabriel looked over his shoulder. “You haven’t seen it already?”

  Bethany Anne shook her head. “Jean’s kept this sewn up tighter than… You know, you’re not the right audience for that kind of snark. She’s tested my patience, that’s for sure.”

  “That’s not saying much, Mom.” Alexis giggled. “I mean, you don’t exactly have an abundance of it when you want something.”

  Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “Whose side are you on?”

  Alexis batted her eyelashes. “The side that says Gabriel and I should be ungrounded?”

  Bethany Anne snorted. “Yeah, right. Not in a thousand years is that look going to work on me, Alexis Nacht. This is my payback for bitching about my Guards, I know, but it’s not going to make any difference. You go out, you have guards. End of discussion.”

  Alexis pouted all the way to meeting Michael at the hangar entrance.

  Michael noted immediately that Bethany Anne and Alexis were at odds. “Why don’t we look like a family about to see their new home for the first time?” he asked, wishing it wasn’t his job to mediate between his wife and daughter.

  That was no different than most dads in history with daughters. He was not the first to deal with this problem, nor would he be the last. However, he would absolutely be the one in the middle of two of the most powerful. It was his burden to bear.

  Gabriel sauntered past, waving a finger at Bethany Anne and Alexis. “Mom was already in a bad mood, Alexis made it worse and then decided to sulk about it, and now Mom is one rolled eyeball from being done.”

  Michael looked at his son for a moment before mulling the reasons he sometimes checked for gray hairs in the mirror despite having nanocytes. “Is that accurate?”

  Bethany Anne shrugged. “It’s accurate enough. Jean will be waiting.” She headed into the hangar to look for Jean, passing antigrav pallets piled high with supplies and equipment on her way to the open hangar doors leading out to the construction frame holding her superdreadnought.

  “You can’t board until you name her,” Jean teased, coming down the ramp from the frame. “Otherwise, she’s ready for you to move in. I had all your belongings sent from High Tortuga, so you’re good to go.”

  Bethany Anne turned to see Michael approaching the foot of the ramp. “You can name this one.”

  “Easy,” Michael replied. “The Baba Yaga, in Izanami’s memory.”

  Jean chuckled. “Funny you should choose that. I named this class of superdreadnoughts for her.” She turned to the assistant hovering behind her. “You heard the man. Get it finished so they can go home.”

  Bethany Anne managed to pull a smile from somewhere. “I like that. Where are the children? We should take a tour while the painters finish up. We have an extended trip to plan for.”

  Gabriel and Alexis showed up a moment later with K’aia and Trey in tow.

  Bethany Anne chuckled at Michael’s instinctive movement to herd them toward the ramp. She headed over to Michael and linked her arm through his as the children ran onto the ship ahead of them.

  Michael bent to kiss Bethany Anne’s hair. “It is not such a bad home, this ship. It is certainly the largest I’ve ever lived on.”

  Bethany Anne steered Michael up the ramp. “It’s not a home.” She frowned. “But we will make it one. Come on, Jean looks like she’s going to have a fit if we don’t hurry up.”

  Jean waved them aboard. “You’ve got as long as you like to suck face once I’ve shown you around. Don’t pretend I haven’t still got a full day’s work to do after this.” Her face told a different tale than her tone, her eyes crinkling at the corners as they walked onto the ship.

  QSD Baba Yaga

  Bethany Anne wandered away from the tour, wanting to get her first visit to the bridge and the meeting with the ship’s AI out of the way before she built it into something impossible.

  >>What’s the deal?<< ADAM demanded. >>You didn’t lose me. We can talk, you know. I miss Izanami too. She was a part of me I’ll never get back.<<<br />
  Bethany Anne stopped in her tracks. I never thought of Izanami as an extension of you, she admitted. She was so individual, so…her. I feel like I lost a friend.

  >>You did,<< ADAM reasoned. >>You lived aboard her ship and spoke to her every day. She bonded with you, and she wasn’t designed to do that. You bonded with her too, Bethany Anne. Be sad. Be angry. Miss her. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t.<< He paused. >>But then get off your pity party and talk to the people who are here for you.<<<br />
  Bethany Anne placed a hand on the bridge door as she remembered the time she had gone through as the dark one, the Witch of the Empire. I’m not going to break. Not this time. I’ll talk when I’m ready.

  The bridge door cycled open, and Bethany Anne strode in to find a space defined by clean lines in cream, silver, and blue.

  It was a complete contrast to what she had been expecting, since what she had seen of the ship so far was more utilitarian in military gray and white.

  Bethany Anne walked around the hard light projector in the center of the bridge on her way to the main console. She took her chair and engaged the ship systems, ignoring the tightness in her chest as the HLP whirred to life.

  The children clattered onto the bridge, followed by Michael and Jean.

  Bethany Anne turned from the console. “You made it just in time.”

  Gabriel dropped onto the arm of Bethany Anne’s chair and draped his arm over her shoulders. “Mom, just wait until you see your armory. Ours is awesome, but yours is the coolest I’ve ever seen.”

  “Never mind the armory!” Alexis squealed, tak
ing the other arm. “The closet, Mom! It’s bigger than Aunt Tabitha’s and Uncle Pete’s apartment!”

  Bethany Anne turned her eyebrow on Jean.

  Jean lifted her hands. “What can I say? You had the space.”

  The console lit up, distracting Bethany Anne for the moment, and she checked the displays. “Looks like our new AI is coming online. Don’t crowd her, children. Remember, this is her first experience as a sentient being.”

  Everyone moved back as the HLP’s whirring kicked up a notch. The spindles moved into position and began to glow.

  “This is always slow at first,” Jean warned. “Give it a minute to warm up.”

  Bethany Anne was unable to look away despite herself. The AI was the heart of any ship, and the freedom to choose their own personality was a gamble at the best of times. Would she get another Meredith? An ArchAngel?

  Hopefully not a Shinigami.

  She didn’t think she could take it.

  The children gasped when light burst from the spindles at the top of the tubular encasement, pooling in the deep tray at the bottom. The spindles cut out when the tray was filled to the brim, and another arm emerged from the upper part of the apparatus and held a marble-sized sphere above the tray.

  Bethany Anne held her breath as the light began to rise and coalesce around the hard light drive. This iteration was supposed to be virtually indestructible, needing the force of two colliding planets to crush it.

  Or so Bobcat had told her.

  Time would tell, and she had learned her lesson about getting attached to inorganic beings who resided outside her body. She would not get attached to this AI, even if she lived aboard the ship for a hundred years.

  Bethany Anne held Gabriel close as the physical appearance of the AI came into focus.

  The light around the drive now vaguely resembled a human form.

  Bethany Anne’s heart dropped when she made out the shape of a breastplate and greaves. Her hair hung loose. It was white.