Bane of the Dead (Seraphim Revival Book 1) (32 page)

And even if I can’t, Jack is only human.

Seth signaled the hatch to open and climbed out. Total darkness stretched forth in every direction. He switched on a light in his helmet and slowly made his way down.

His seraph lay on its back, broken limbs splayed about. Seth had some trouble getting used to the half-strength gravity but found it made climbing down the seraph’s side easier.

Seth linked with the seraph’s scanners and regained his bearings. The last thing he wanted to do was run blindly into darkness and fall off the tier. He ran around one of the seraph’s mangled arms and sprinted towards the narrow passage Jack and that woman had headed down.

Seth ran through a seemingly endless field of inky blackness. He finally reached a towering structure, its sheer face rising up into infinite black. At its base was a plain archway barely large enough for two people side by side. Seth hurried through the archway and entered a long, dark passage.

The passage went on, turned slightly down, then straightened. Seth could see nothing at its end. On and on it went until at last Seth came to an open space.

Some primitive culture, perhaps the remnants of the tier-city societies, had carved out this chamber. To either side, small nooks had been cut into the rock walls. A long, open space stretched down the middle, marred by bits of debris. Everything now lay in ruins.

Where did Jack and the Bane go?

Seth looked around. His pressure suit’s light caught the edges of the decrepit structures. He decided to head down the middle and took off at a run for several minutes, until he came to the stone wall at the far end.

A door had been built into the stone wall, and as Seth approached, the door split open.

It has power! I must be close.

Seth proceeded through the door and into an airlock. Light flooded the chamber, and Seth squinted, his eyes watering. The data link from his i-suit indicated a breathable atmosphere. The airlock finished cycling, and Seth walked into a long tunnel with a metal grate floor.

Seth drew his sidearm and proceeded deeper into the powered complex. He came to another door, but unlike the airlock, these had been forced open. Pushed and bludgeoned into opening—
not
aged.

Perhaps the Bane was weak here. Perhaps she could no longer precisely control her powers.

Hope dared to rise in his heart. It mingled there with intense, almost numbing fear.

Seth pressed on. A distant thrumming began to fill his ears.

The tunnel opened until it became a suspended walkway, passing above and beneath vast machines. Small roach-like robots skittered about the machines, repairing and maintaining the devices. However, the machines closest to the walkway were twisted and idle, perhaps damaged by the Bane. Robots clambered over them in the hundreds.

Seth ran on, past rooms of machinery and more security doors, each just as mangled as the first. The walls ahead of him seemed to bow away at the visible edges, as if he were heading deeper into a series of concentric spheres.

If so, then he had to be close to the center.

Seth passed through another set of security doors and found himself in a wider tunnel that bent to the right, the walls and ceiling thick with metal pipelines. Seth crept along the path, sidearm ready.

A sound from ahead clapped out like a thunder. Then two more just like it, closer and more distinct.

The tunnel turned down, then gently arched towards the sphere’s center. Seth could hear a voice ahead: an angry female yelling in the Aktenai tongue, her thick accent similar to those of the Original Eleven.

Seth slowed, coming at last to the end of the tunnel. He edged closer to the entrance and peaked into the heart of the massive layered sphere.

The central room was a hollow sphere with a metal walkway looped around the equator. Near him, the walkway extended out towards the center. And at the center—

Seth didn’t really know what he was looking at. Some shape existed in the center, but light slid off it, around it, and back at him, so he not only saw the other side of the room, but also every part of the room and himself when he looked directly at it.

It was a halo of light surrounding a mercurial reflection of everything near it.

The Gate to the Homeland.

Seth only had a moment to take it in. To his left, the Bane stood calmly with her back to him, a deadly sword of dark light in her hand. Opposite and facing her, Jack had also manifested a short blue dagger.

Jack no longer had his pressure suit helmet on. Blood oozed from a vicious cut along his temple, dripping over one closed eye. He glanced to the side, and when he saw Seth, an unmistakable look of relief filled his face.

Suddenly, Seth
understood
.

The Bane turned and faced Seth, but kept her sword pointed at Jack. She studied him with cold, stern eyes.

Seth raised his sidearm, stabilized it with both hands, and fired a single shot. The bolt ricocheted off the Bane’s barrier in a flash of black light. Seth fired again, but that shot rebounded, too.

The woman smiled coldly. A black cord of energy snaked from her fingertips. It snapped out and struck Seth across the chest, throwing him against the wall. He collapsed onto his side. Gasping for breath, he struggled to his hands and knees, still holding the sidearm.

Jack charged the Bane. He feinted once, then lunged, the edge of his dagger slashing through the Bane’s barrier. Black energy swirled around her for a moment, and vanished. Her barrier collapsed, and his blade cut into her arm.

She cried out in pain and thrust her sword into Jack’s side. Blood splattered across the walkway.

Seth raised his sidearm. The Bane’s barrier was down, and he fired.

The bolt punched straight through the Bane’s heart. Darkness exploded outward, throwing Jack across the room and knocking Seth onto his back. Jack hit the wall with the horrible crunch of bones shattering on impact.

Dizzy, stars in his vision, Seth struggled to his feet again.

The Bane turned to face him slowly. She looked at Seth, her face twisted into a horrified expression, then gazed down at her chest. Gingerly, she touched the bleeding wound.

“I… I can’t stop it. It won’t stop. Why won’t it stop?”

She fell to her knees. Blood continued to pour out of her heart, and she collapsed.

The Bane was dead.

Seth held the sidearm firmly in both hands. He edged up to the Bane and turned her over with a boot. She stared at the ceiling with lifeless eyes, blood soaking her shirt.

The Gate shuddered. Its reflective surface roiled like stormy waters, but Seth had no way of knowing if this was something to worry about. And even if it was, what could he do about it?

A painful wheeze drew Seth’s attention. He walked over to Jack’s prone body. A thousand evil thoughts poured through his mind. He looked down at the sidearm in his hands, then back at Jack. The Bane’s weapon had cut through Jack’s abdomen and spilled out his intestines.

Seth thought about his son, about Quennin, and all his fellow pilots now dead by this pair.

But now, in this place, Seth felt his pain eclipsed by what had been accomplished. He now understood what Jack had done, at least partially. The urgent need for retribution left him. Jack had succeeded where twenty thousand years of human civilization had failed.

The central purpose behind all Aktenai society, their Great Mission, had been achieved.

But my son is dead,
Seth thought.
And I don’t have to kill Jack. I can just walk away and let him die.

He winced at this idea.
What would that accomplish? What would that prove?

That I am nothing more than a slave to revenge?

Just like the Bane?

Seth shook his head.
No. No, I am nothing like that monster!

At last, he flung the sidearm away. It clattered across the metal walkway and fell into the spherical pit.

He removed his helmet and broke the i-suit seals around his waist. Jack was dying, and Seth wore the only thing that could save him.

Chapter 21

Two Wrongs Made it Right

“Ohhh…” Jack moaned. Consciousness and coherent thought slowly returned. He blinked and looked around.

How did I get here?

Jack thought he recognized the airlock at the entrance to the Gate complex.

His eyes watered. Needles of pain shot through his abdomen and danced across his whole nervous system. He clutched his side and found something thicker and more rubbery than a pressure suit.

My intestines seem to be on the inside. That’s an improvement.

Jack became aware of new data in his neural link. This suit, something called an interface-suit, provided details on his current medical condition. He tabbed through the data and frowned. Bones had been set, blood loss stopped, organs returned to their proper locations, but he remained in poor shape.

Oddly, all the damage came with repair time estimates.

Jack focused on breathing. Each lungful burned him inside and out. He sat up and leaned against the wall.

Seth Elexen crouched against the opposite wall and stared back at him with a neutral expression.

Oh crap…

Jack shifted his posture, back to the wall, and rested there.

“Hey, Seth.”

“Hey.”

Jack tapped the i-suit. “Is this yours?”

“Yeah.” Seth wore a white form-fitting pressure suit with a black fishbowl helmet at his side.

“Thanks. I guess I—damn!” Jack grunted and clutched his side.

“Jack, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” His words were heavy with labored breathing. “What would I have said? ‘Hey, Seth! I just figured out today that I’m turning into another Bane!’ How would you have reacted? How would anyone have?”

“You should have told me what you planned, especially after you found that thing.”

“I wish I could have, Seth. Really. But the Bane can… heh, she
could
listen to hypercast.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Yeah, well, so is stopping time. I suppose the two might be related. Plus she was very observant. It sometimes caught me off guard how sharp she was. Gnnnngh! Is it supposed to feel like a thousand needles digging through my side?”

“Yeah. Pain means it’s working.”

“Some painkillers would be real nice.”

Seth linked with the i-suit and released the painkiller inhibiters. Wonderful, blissful happiness spread out from his abdomen.

“Oohh… that’s more like it.” Jack breathed easier.

“It’s normally held back. Painkillers dull our connections to the seraphs.”

Jack took a deep breath and sighed. “So, what now?”

Seth glanced down the passage leading to the Gate. “Something’s wrong. I talked to the Choir, and they think the Gate is going to bust loose. Our fight with the Bane damaged some sort of anchor that holds the Gate in place.”

“Are we in danger?”

“Not right now. We’ve got some time before it rips free. The Choir said it will most likely shoot straight up, exiting the planet’s gravity well. We should be in our seraphs ready to move when it does.”

“Well, that solves the problem of getting out of this pit,” Jack said. “As soon as the Gate leaves, our seraphs should be back at full power. Can your crew get out when that happens?”

“The seraphs are prioritizing their repairs accordingly. We’ll be ready to leave.”

“That’s good.”

“And since we have some time before the Gate leaves,” Seth said, “why don’t you explain to me how you concocted this crazy plan of yours?”

Jack sighed. “Well, you remember when I left, right?”

“How could any of us forget? It was so sudden.”

“I was actually running away.”

“Running from what?”

“Everyone. I figured out what I was becoming, Seth. I knew that I was going to become a bane, though I still have no idea how long the process will take. Do you have any idea what it’s like suddenly realizing you’re going to turn into some monster everyone hates?”

“Can’t say that I do.”

“Well, I did. Hell, your entire
society
is centered around killing the Bane. And I’ll admit it. I was scared. Hell, I was terrified. And so I ran away.”

“You went looking for the Bane.”

“Well, my goals evolved over the years as I searched. By the time I did find her, I figured if I could defeat the Bane, it wouldn’t matter if I was turning into the same creature. I’d done a lot of research on the Bane, the Gate, and the Exile before leaving, and that bastard Veketon let slip more than he thought. So I was able to come up with a plan to lure the Bane here. I thought if I could kill the Bane, it’d be proof to everyone that I wasn’t like that creature.”

“But it didn’t turn out like that,” Seth said.

“Seth, I know I screwed up. The plan seemed simple enough from the start. Find the Bane. Get it to the Gate. Spring the trap. But it all got mucked up when I actually found her. The Bane was smart and suspicious. And there was no way I could send a transmission of any kind to anyone about my intentions, because she would know. I was alone and in over my head.”

“So you used the Grendeni?”

“Well, I knew I needed to get the Gate’s location. Seth, the Choir would never have just
given
me the location. Me turning into a bane is bad enough, but I had the original in tow. You think asking nicely can make up for that magnitude of crap?”

Seth shook his head. “No, I suppose not.”

“I thought about going in alone or with the Bane. Alone was suicide, plain and simple. I’m good, but I’m not that good. Going in with the Bane might have worked, but too many seraphs would have swarmed us, and the Bane would have fought back hard. She could have done to Aktenzek what she did to Imayirot. Seth, you might not believe me, but I used the Grendeni because I wanted to minimize casualties.”

“No, I believe your intentions,” Seth said.

“And even that blew up in my face. The Bane killed one of their schisms. Just wiped it out without a second thought, like the millions of people living there were nothing but vermin.”

“You helped us kill it. That counts for something.”