Armageddon (20 page)

All of that would have been mere trivia to Destra, but for one thing: Gors revered female humans, too, and by some twist of genetic fate, Destra’s daughter, Atta, was still receptive to the Gors’ telepathic abilities, even as a young adult.

Because of that, Admiral Therius had determined that Atta would be the perfect general for a mixed Gor and human battalion. The Gors had already accepted Atta as one of their own, calling her the
Little Matriarch.

Destra bit her lip, her eyes on Atta. She stood at attention to Therius’s right, her helmet off and tucked under her arm. Her beautiful dark hair had been cropped so close to her scalp that it looked like a hat. Something warm and wet slid down Destra’s cheek, and she wiped it away with the back of one hand.

Her little girl was going to war. She was only
sixteen,
far too young to be a part of what was coming. Unfortunately, Therius didn’t see it that way. Everyone was going to fight. There were no civilians in the Union Fleet, not even her. Destra was going to fly a drop ship. She’d been training for the past eight years, but she still didn’t feel ready.

Therius finished his speech, and the Gors all shuffled their feet and turned as one, raising their arms to the distant purplish orb of Origin’s sun.

Therius called out, “Fire!” and ten thousand pirakla missiles shot out at the same exact moment. Those packets of energy danced and spun, sparkling bright purple as they soared into the air. Each one of them competed with the sun, looking like a star in its own right. At a set altitude above the parade grounds and the Union’s fortress, all of those missiles exploded at once in a mighty thunderclap that rattled Destra’s bones and shook the balcony where she stood.

Therius could instill in them all the martial pride he wanted, but the truth was, he had just ten million Gors, twenty thousand Sythians, and five thousand humans to take on a planet with countless trillions of people, guarded by a few hundred billion drones. And when Omnius arrived with New Avilon, trillions more drones would arrive to join the fight.

Destra shook her head.
Etherus save us…

Chapter 19

E
than took a few minutes to speak to Trinity before they went to bed. He planned to undermine whatever crazy ideas her mother had put into her head, but Alara refused to give them a private moment.

She crawled into bed beside Trinity, and hugged their daughter close, saying, “Your father is scared, but it’s your life, Trinity. You need to make this choice for yourself.”

Ethan felt a vein begin pulsing in his forehead, and his eyes narrowed. “Trin.” He waited for her to look at him. “Omnius will try to convince you to leave us.”

“I know,” she replied.

“Just remember, everything he says is a lie.”

“How do you know that?” Alara demanded. “Give me one example of a lie that you can prove he’s told us.”

“I don’t have proof. If I did, then Omnius probably would have killed me by now just to shut me up.”

“Or maybe you don’t have proof because there isn’t any,” Alara replied.

“Where’s
your
proof that we can trust him?”

“Dad, stop,” Trinity said, an imploring look on her face. “Please, no more fighting.”

Ethan set his jaw and nodded once. “All right. But we’re a family, okay? If we decide to go to Etheria, we need to make that decision together. Whatever you decide to do, your decision is either going to keep us together or tear us apart.”

“Don’t put that pressure on her,” Alara said.

“Mom…”

Alara sighed and kissed Trinity goodnight. “Happy Birthday, sweetheart,” she said as she brushed by Ethan in the entrance of Trinity’s room.

Ethan lingered, wondering what else he could say, but after a moment’s deliberation, he walked up to Trinity’s bed and kissed her on the top of her head. “Goodnight, Trin.”

Ethan stumbled wearily to his and Alara’s room. He climbed into bed beside her. Alara was at the far end of the bed, her back to him. He glared at her with a frown and then rolled the other way before turning out the lights.

He dreamed that Alara was straddling him, her hands pinning his wrists to the pillow with impressive force. She held him captive, her bright turquoise eyes spitting venom while her hips moved against his rhythmically, making him feel violated, a prisoner to her own fulfillment.
Turquoise eyes?
He wondered, while trying to free his wrists against her impossible weight. That gaze was familiar, but it wasn’t Alara’s. The rest of her, however—her face, her long silken black hair, even her naked breasts—all looked identical to his wife.

He shook his head. “Get off,” he mumbled.

The woman’s lips curved wryly. “Why? Don’t pretend you don’t like it.” She kissed him, and he felt more strength ebb out of him as the taste and smell of her overwhelmed him. He was too weak to resist. His arms felt heavy and numb, his body the same. The kiss went on and on, her lips taking possession of his, as if trying to sap away his very soul. Eventually he found enough of his strength return for him to free his wrists and give her a shove.

She laughed. “It’s too late to push me away now. Alara will never forgive you.” The woman’s turquoise gaze seemed to taunt him, and Ethan had to restrain himself from slapping the grin off her face. It was Alara’s face, but those weren’t her eyes. What was going on?

Suddenly she was back on top of him, pressing her body against him in all the right places, provoking arousal against his will. He focused on waking up, and the woman smiled, as if she knew she’d won. “You like it, don’t you?” she asked.

She brought him to the brink and threw her head back in ecstasy. Her mouth opened wide and an oily black snake slithered out, its own mouth wide and gaping as it
hissed
and turned to him with glowing red eyes. Fangs dripped with venom, a loud
hiss
roared in his ears, and then the snake lunged and the gaping mouth swallowed him whole.

Ethan opened his eyes and lay blinking up at the ceiling. He sat up and turned to find Alara asleep beside him. He reached over and shook her shoulder.

“Ethan?” she asked sleepily. “What’s wrong?”

Where to begin… he felt enraged, violated, confused, and painfully aroused. “I had a bad dream,” he decided.

Alara flicked on the light beside her and turned to him, blinking bright turquoise eyes.

Ethan’s heart froze in his chest.

“Tell me about it,” she cooed, rubbing his chest. Ethan leapt out of bed, tripped over the bedsheets, and hit his head on the floor.

This time he woke up for real. He blinked quickly, clearing the bleary haze of sleep from his eyes. His body was bathed in sweat, and he shivered as a draft from the room’s climate control vents found him. He’d obviously kicked off the sheets while tossing and turning in his sleep.

Ethan rolled over to find Alara sleeping soundly beside him. He sat up and spent long minutes searching the darkness for slithering shadows and glowing red eyes. Blood roared in his ears and air wheezed in and out of his lungs.

Was he awake or dreaming still? How would he know this time?

The seconds slipped away, marking the minutes on a slow march to dawn. For all he knew, it was dawn already. Both day and night were equally dark and shadow-filled. Ethan turned back to his wife and stared at the back of her head. Suddenly he wondered what color her eyes were. He turned on his bedside lamp with the manual switch and then reached for her shoulder.

Déjà vu.

Ethan shook her gently, his heart jackhammering in his chest.

Alara flinched and rolled over.
Violet
eyes squinted at him. “What is it?”

Relief poured through him, and he shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

Alara’s gaze softened and her brow furrowed. “For what?”

“For the fight.”

Unable to help himself, he wrapped his wife up in a fierce hug.

“What if Trinity decides to go?” she whispered beside his ear.

“Let’s deal with that if it happens, but we’re a family, and we need to stick together.”

“So you’ll consider following her?”

Ethan hesitated. “I will.”

* * *

“Happy Anniversary, Darin,” Ceyla whispered before leaning over the table to kiss him. She withdrew with a bright smile and returned her attention to the heart-shaped dessert they shared by candle light at their dining room table.

“Seven years married,” Atton said, shaking his head, his eyes fixed on his wife’s beautiful face. Her features were framed by wavy blond hair, her blue eyes shining in the candlelit glow of their dining room. He smiled to see the heart-shaped silver locket he’d given her dangling down the plunging neckline of her sparkling blue evening gown. When opened, the locket would project a picture of the two of them, taken on their very first date. Now that was more than eight and a half years ago. She’d been so overwhelmed by the gift that she’d insisted they leave the restaurant early, taking their dessert to go. She wanted to be alone with him.

Atton smiled, watching Ceyla finish the last bite of the heart-shaped cake. He took a moment to look at his own anniversary gift, a holo-engraved wedding ring with their names on the outside and an inscription on the inside that read,
I’ll love you forever -C.

Ceyla wiped her mouth on a napkin and rose from the table, taking him by the hand and leading him to their bedroom. Once there she continued to show her gratitude for the past seven years of marital bliss.

Afterward, Atton slept soundly until his alarm woke him. He deactivated it verbally and stumbled out of bed, heading straight to the bathroom to get ready for work. Admiral Vee had been working him harder than usual.
Bliss doesn’t deliver itself,
he mused bitterly.

As he approached the bathroom, he was surprised to find the light already on. He opened the door to find Ceyla sitting on the lid of the toilet, her locket lying open in her hands, the hologram of them hovering before her eyes. She stared fixedly at it.

“Ceyla?” he asked.

She looked up, her eyes brimming with tears, her cheeks wet.

A sharp stab of concern brought him rushing to her side. “What’s wrong?” he asked, getting down on his knees beside her.

She shook her head and blinked away her tears. He wiped them away with his thumbs before they could run down her cheeks. “Hey… it’s okay,” he said. “What is it?”

“Look at us,” she said, nodding to the hologram.

He looked at the picture. It had been taken on their first date. The two of them sat in a booth at the same restaurant they’d gone to last night, hugging one another, her head on his shoulder as they smiled dreamily at the camera.

Whatever it was that had her so upset, he didn’t see it. “It’s us,” he replied.

“Look at me, and then look at you.”

He still wasn’t getting it. “Ceyla…”

“Just look!”

Atton frowned and spent a moment analyzing every detail of the hologram. When he was done, he looked up and shrugged helplessly, but Ceyla wasn’t looking at him, she was looking at the mirror above the sink.

“Now look in the mirror,” she said.

He did, and this time he noticed what was wrong. His heart pounded, and his palms turned clammy with sweat. Eight and a half years had passed since that hologram had been recorded, and his face was the same as ever, an exact replica of the hologram, all sharp angles and smooth, unlined skin. Ceyla’s face, however, was not the same. She’d changed subtly over the years. Her features were now those of a woman, not a girl. Her face was fuller, her eyes harder, her skin duller, and faint lines had appeared to ring her neck and web her eyes.

The differences were still slight, but thanks to the high resolution hologram he’d given Ceyla, she had the before and after to look at whenever she liked.

Atton cursed his stupidity and turned back to Ceyla. “You’re as beautiful as ever,” he said with a sly grin.

Ceyla shot up from the toilet. “I’m not! But
you
are! I always wondered why you were so handsome. You said you chose to become a Null when you were eight. You didn’t, did you? You’re one of
them.
”

Atton took Ceyla by her shoulders and met her blue eyes with his gold. “You’re imagining things.”

“Am I? Prove it then. I want a blood test.”

“You don’t trust me.”

“If I’m wrong, I’ll make it up to you.”

Atton shook his head, and began working himself up into an indignant rage. He shook a finger in her face. “After seven years of marriage, suddenly you don’t trust me?”

“Get the test.”

“If we don’t have trust, then we don’t have anything.”

“And if you’re not a Null, then we don’t have anything anyway! If I married a clone, what do you think happens next? I’ll grow old and die, and you’ll marry someone else. That’s
if
you don’t leave me when I’m old and ugly and you’re still just as young and beautiful as ever. I’m not going to sit around and wait for that to happen. Besides, if you’re a clone, then I married a man without a soul. You think I want to die and go to Etheria without you? Get the test, Darin.”