Five major engagements and as many minor skirmishes. She’d lost count of how many ships they’d destroyed, but there was a number she knew. Forty-seven. That’s how many crewmen they’d lost aboard the Wheel since coming to the front three weeks back.

  Considering the way the battle at Eden had gone, Rachel supposed it was a blessing the number was so low. Still, a lot of people had lost friends, lovers, brothers, or sisters. And here she was, sympathizing with the enemy. Thank God David wasn’t a telepath. If he knew what she was thinking right now … he’d never understand. His view of the holy universe was simpler, and sometimes she envied him that.

  “I love you,” he said. “I mean really, you don’t have any idea.”

  Rachel caught herself grinning at his sudden statement. “I’m an empath, David. I’ve got a pretty good idea. I mean, what with being able to actually feel your feelings.”

  “Does it worry you? I mean, do you ever wonder if the feelings you have for someone are your own, or a reflection of the other person?”

  All the time.

  It was the never-ending danger of being an empath. She had to question whether she lusted after a man because he lusted after her. Was it her nature to desire so fervently or the desires of others saturating her? But David meant whether she loved him because he loved her.

  “The problem with your question, with what you really want to ask me, is … well, all people are like that—when someone loves you back, it deepens the feelings you have for them. It’s not a one-way reflection; it’s an infinite loop. And it’s not just for empaths, David. Don’t you love me more because you know how I feel about you?”

  “Aye. Suppose I do.”

  “Then you don’t need to be insecure, do you?”

  “I know it’s been hard for you, serving on this ship.”

  That was an understatement.

  She felt lost. Knight had found his mission in life, and Rachel had lost hers.

  She’d found the Ark, and it had brought chaos. She’d found Eden, and now there was war. She’d convinced herself her crusade could save mankind, and now she didn’t even know what she was saving them from. There was no more clarity of which side was right and which was wrong. She didn’t even know if she still thought Asherans were the villains Mizraim had always cast them as.

  Void, Rachel didn’t know whether Caleb Gavet was a villain, either.

  All she knew for certain was David was here, and she was going to stand by his side. She supposed it didn’t matter whether the Sentinels were right or not. They were the people she cared about, and so she had to help them, as best she could.

  She sighed, and David stroked her face again.

  “Rach?”

  The Mazzaroth screen beeped, and a transmission from the bridge streamed out of the speakers. “Captain, there’s a report you need to see.”

  David hopped up and switched on the Mazzaroth. It displayed a nearby system where a pair of Sentinel ships engaged an Asheran leviathan. And beyond them, the Ark closed in.

  “Och,” David said. “Are they going to get involved?”

  Rachel swallowed and rose to stand beside him. “It was only a matter of time.”

  Crescents of shimmering blackness erupted from the angel ship in all directions. The arcing bands smashed through drones and missiles, nanobots vaporizing them without slowing in the last. Those bands struck Sentinels and Asherans alike.

  “Bugger me …”

  Rachel clutched his hand. They both knew it was too late to do anything.

  All three ships corroded away as their shields winked out in seconds. Then their hulls turned to dust in rapidly spreading breaches. Explosions rocked each ship, and then they began to fold back into their own singularities. They were so close together, the singularities fed on each other, forming a single black hole. She prayed it would burn itself out before growing large enough to swallow any of the planets in the system.

  A quarter million Asheran civilians lived on three of the planets there. And if that black hole continued to feed on matter, it would grow and grow. If those people were smart, they would evacuate while they still could.

  An angel’s face appeared across the Mazzaroth. The screen was tight on him, and a hood overshadowed his face, but Rachel could see the shadow of his wings.

  “This is the angel Muriel. Mankind has broken the Covenant and will be punished. All prior factions of your tribes are hereby disbanded. All existing governments are dissolved by divine decree. You will submit yourself for judgment and angel rule immediately. We have spoken.”

  Rachel tightened her grip on David’s hand. A great hollow had opened inside her chest.

  Muriel. One of the authors of the Codex and among the most wrathful of all angels.

  What had she done? Rachel had awakened the angels in the hopes of stopping the Conglomerate from controlling the Ark. And it appeared they had. But now, her worst fears would come to pass. All her life she’d fought against angel theocracy and now she alone had restored it. She had damned humanity in her quest to save it.

  The angels intended to reinforce the Covenant.

  The new Days of Glory had dawned.

  14

  “Regulation 201.77: Fraternization with officers under your command except for authorized fulfillment of the Third Commandment is discouraged. Should such fraternization lead to lapses in judgment, sanctions may be applied by superior officers.”

  —Sentinel Holy Mandate

  DECEMBER 14, 3096 EY — TRIANGULUM GALAXY

  “I was glad you called,” Leah said. She sat across a mess table from David, picking at the fish on her plate.

  He’d spent almost all his meals with Rachel, until Knight of all people suggested his friends might miss him. Odd to think the Gehennan should have any insight into such things. Sometimes the man seemed to understand nothing about human relationships. And yet, sometimes David felt jealous of Knight’s ability to read people.

  “Aye,” he said. “It’s been a while since we had the chance to just talk.”

  Leah snorted softly and stared at her fish. “So it has.”

  “How are you adapting to the new ship? The new medical crew to work with?”

  Leah shrugged, then took another bite. “Most of them are fine. Ensign Han shows real promise. She’s been studying divergent evolution in the Races following the angel eugenics projects.” Leah leaned in closer, so close her cheek almost brushed his, and whispered in his ear. “Honestly, I’d like her opinion on … the prisoner in the isolation wing.”

  “No, lass,” David whispered back. “We can’t take the chance of anyone else finding out yet.” They couldn’t be certain how anyone would react.

  The angels were back. They demanded mankind submit to them once again. And despite all that had happened, David’s heart told him to comply. The angels were divine, and they had taken it upon themselves to save humanity from the Adversary. For all Rachel’s preaching about the wrong they did in hiding Eden, now he knew the reason for that too. Which meant they likely had good reasons for everything they did. And Rachel was too caught up in her crusade to consider those reasons.

  David never knew which side to follow anymore. Rachel was brilliant and brave and so convinced she was right. Except now, even she seemed as lost as the rest of them.

  “Until Rachel figures out what to do with him—”

  Leah jumped to her feet. “Rachel is not the captain of this ship!”

  David glanced around, acutely aware of crewmen at other tables watching him. Watching the woman who had just chastised him in front of the crew. What the bloody void had gotten into her?

  David grit his teeth and stood. “You are out of line, Lt. Commander.”

  Leah’s face went slack, and she jerked her hands behind her back. Her eyes darted around the room, and he could feel a hint of the embarrassment coming off her. But she had left him no choice. This was largely a new crew, and he needed to maintain their confidence in him. Their lives depended on his authority and their trust of him.

  And Leah had jeopardized that.

  “Mac, I’m sorry, I…”

  “Dismissed.”

  “Mac …” Leah’s jaw trembled for a second, then she saluted him and strode from the mess hall.

  David kept his eyes on the door, trying not to look at any of the crewmen now staring at him. For the first time, he began to understand why his former captains all took their meals in the officers’ mess. He couldn’t be a captain to these people and be one of them. Even a minor slip like this meant he was forced to choose between his duty and his friendship with Leah.

  Leah was his best friend, and the look she’d had on her face tore at his heart. Like David betrayed her. He hadn’t; Captain MacGregor had.

  Besides, he wasn’t the one who ought to feel guilty. Leah was the one who’d made a scene in the middle of the bloody mess hall.

  Never mind that she may have had a point. Was David failing in his duty as captain by allowing Rachel to decide the fate of their angel prisoner? It had been her crusade all along. It had seemed like her place to make the hard choices. Except now she was just another officer under his command.

  His comm flared. “Dana to MacGregor.”

  “What is it, Phoebe?”

  “You’d better come up to the bridge, sir.”

  15

  “And unto the Ark was bestowed the Wrath of Heaven, with which the messengers might strike down the servants of the Adversary. For in the wake of chaos, only wrath will remain.”

  Sefer Raziel, translated by Dr. Rachel Jordan

  TRIANGULUM GALAXY

  David scratched his head. Maybe a distraction was just what he needed. He strode from the mess and toward the lift. Knight waited inside.

  “She called you too?” he asked.

  Knight nodded. After the lift closed and began to carry them up, Knight cleared his throat. “You shouldn’t go into battle with something else on your mind.”

  What the void? The Gehennan could read him now? Was that Knight’s newfound psionic ability, or did he just see the tension in the set of David’s shoulders? David blew out a breath and slapped the button to stop the lift. “Your idea to spend time with my friends backfired.” The man would likely hear about it sooner or later, anyway. After that scene, the whole crew would. God—including Rachel. “Leah appears to have some kind of resentment toward Rachel for being in charge of Raziel.”

  Knight grunted, then pointedly looked away. The man already knew about it, didn’t he? Why was David the last to learn these things?

  David sighed and restarted the lift. A second later, he stopped it again and spun on Knight. “You’re right. I shouldn’t face such a situation without a clear head. So bloody out with it, Knight!”

  The Gehennan turned and met his gaze, then shrugged. “Fine. Unrequited feelings can strain a friendship, Mac.” Since when did Knight call him that? “And you might not be able to hold on to two women at the same time.”

  Two women? Rachel and Leah? God, Knight thought he had romantic intentions toward Leah. They’d been friends a long time, but nothing had ever happened. Not like that. When they first became close he thought it might, but she always held herself so aloof. And then Rachel came back into his life and … and Knight had to be wrong. He didn’t think of Leah that way.

  But then, that wasn’t what Knight was implying, was it? What if Leah had feelings David hadn’t realized? Had she hidden her heart from him, of all people? He was supposed to be her best friend. If she had wanted … if she had only said …

  Knight grabbed him by the shoulders and stared into his face. “We are needed on the bridge. You take it, and you lock it away until you have time for it. Lock it down, David.”

  David nodded. Knight was right. He had a duty; he had a mission. He would deal with his emotions, with the two most important women in his life, when the time was right. He buzzed the lift.

  “It is a comfort, though,” Knight said, staring straight ahead. “Knowing that inside, your head is as fucked up as the rest of ours.”

  David snorted. The lift opened, and he stepped out onto the bridge.

  “Captain on the bridge,” Ensign Jackson shouted.

  “Yup, yup,” Phoebe mumbled. “Captain’s out for a stroll. Checking in to make sure whether the war’s still on, sir?”

  “I got held up. What is it?”

  Phoebe pointed to the screen. “This is coming via a Mazzaroth relay.” An Asheran fleet had surrounded the Ark and begun an assault. Thousands of missiles filled the screen, streaming at the angel ship.

  The Asheran Confederacy had given the angels their answer. They had utterly refused the angels’ demands and declared war on their former masters. And David could not blame them, really. Even if Rachel wasn’t right about the things she said of the angels, the Asherans were cyborgs. The angels would likely destroy them and their entire way of life.

  And so now the Asherans would destroy the angels. Mankind’s former saviors, former masters, would be wiped from the universe. And the thought left a hollow in his chest.

  The Ark flashed, and a curtain of crisscrossed violet beams unlike any he’d ever seen shot out from it like a web. An ever-expanding net that engulfed most of the missiles and stopped the Asheran assault dead.

  “Holy shit,” Rachel said. “Wish I’d known how to do that.”

  David jerked. He hadn’t even realized she was at her station.

  He took the pilot’s chair. “How far are they?”

  “Several systems away,” Phoebe said. “We could probably reach them in five or ten minutes. Depending on your performance. In the Conduit, I mean. Of course.”

  Even five minutes would be too late to interfere in this battle. Not that David even knew which side he should be on.

  Ion streams impacted the Ark, and its black flesh shuddered under the blows.

  The Ark retaliated with those arcing black beams Rachel called the Wrath. A dozen of them lashed out at five Asheran ships at once, sweeping over them in continuous motions. Those beams swept round and round, passing over multiple ships. Everywhere they struck, shields winked out and hulls evaporated.

  David’s throat was dry. He watched in helpless horror as the angel vessel decimated an entire fleet. He found himself unable to speak, unable to move from the chair. The Asherans retreated toward the gate, but the angels just continued firing. It was like seeing a gardener clear a patch of land. Cold and systematic.

  By his count, the Ark had destroyed nearly forty ships, and it was still going, the Wrath nanobot beams rotating around it like a turbine.

  “Captain?” Phoebe said. “What should we do, sir?”

  David had no idea. No idea at all.

  No power known to man could stand up to the Ark with angels at its helm.

  16

  “Mankind must become plentiful. Offspring require more than planted grains and stables filled with pigs and chickens. Dig deep. Bring up the riches of the planets. Smelt the minerals of every world, and bring to those many children, the shining beacons of civilization.”

  The Codex, Book of Sariel

  TRIANGULUM GALAXY

  Jeremiah felt clean, inside and out. The angels had captured him. He had felt a mind enter his own, a sensation akin to the warmth he’d experienced the days his boys were born. Through angelic telepathy, Sariel had scanned his life’s work and judged him worthy.

  The Redeemers, to angelic eyes, were indeed carrying on their work. It had been embarrassing at first, feeling Sariel sift through his memories of every encounter he’d had in following the Third Commandment, but ultimately his actions had been perfectly aligned with angelic mandates.

  “They are troublesome. I could break them myself, but there are too few of us, and too much to do,” Sariel said to Jeremiah, who kept his head bowed and accepted the instructions.

  The door whooshed open, and a stink of antiseptic washed over him. The man lying on the cot within was half missing. One eye, one arm at the shoulder, and both legs at the knee—all gone. The fresh stumps and the empty eye socket had been patched with a translucent goo.

  The prisoner was also naked.

  An hour ago, this Asheran had been a cyborg. Even now, the angel Leliel was at work disassembling the rest of the Asheran prisoners.

  “Rise,” Jeremiah ordered the man without thinking. It was so commonplace a command at the outset of an interrogation. Setting the expectation of obedience and the penalties for non-compliance was key. “Hmm, I suppose you might not be in any shape. Lie there, then, wretch. But you will answer me.”

  “They’re monsters,” the man babbled. “Monsters from nightmares. Children pulling the wings off insects.”

  “Silence!” Jeremiah barked, setting the Asheran’s lip quivering. “You will speak when spoken to. You will answer questions. You will ask none.” He loomed over the prisoner. Even unarmed, the man was physically unable to resist him.

  The prisoner nodded spasmodically.

  “You were sent against the holy Ark of angels. Under whose authority?”

  “I am Seren Keevar Endal. I am a dead man.”

  Jeremiah had chased down so many khapiru guilty of consorting with Asheran agents that he should have known more about them. But he had never met one personally. He had little idea of their culture and beliefs, except that they shunned the Codex. By his best guess, the man was refusing to speak on the grounds that he had given himself up for dead.

  “You are not dead, Asheran. The angels have the power to restore your body, refresh your soul. But they would need a reason for mercy. By the same miracles that could save you, they could also reduce you to a brain and a single eye, floating in a jar of nutrient paste for the next five hundred years.”

 

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