Blood Crown (26 page)

I want to deny him, but I’d be lying, and my traitorous symbiants would give me away. But words still escape me so I nod, barely.

Galen still paces the edge of the stage, delivering a speech that incites cheers among his Elite. But I can’t listen to him. I am incapable of moving, of stepping out of this bubble with Nic. I need to hear what he’s going to say. I need to feel this connection. For just a second longer.

I’m doing this all wrong. I just want you to know that you have power—limitless power. You can know as much as the Mind knows. You can be stronger than them. Together we can beat them. Don’t shut me out because I know more than you, Sera. I am not better than you—I can feel that, can’t you? We are equal. Utterly, completely, equal. The only difference between us is that I’ve had training.

Unbidden, come flashes of memories of all the times I’ve fought with the guards, all the times I protected myself, starved myself, denied myself the association of humans because of my differences—Nic takes these memories into himself and offers me a gem .. . . I am not alone. Not anymore.

Galen takes a step backward, so he stands between Nic and me. He places a hand on my shoulder, but though I try, I am incapable of jerking away. He gives a sharp nod and a giant screen is revealed on the wall across from the stage.

When Galen speaks, his voice rings out, amplified, though he holds no device I can see. “My friends. The moment we have waited for, prepared for, these long years is finally upon us. As you can see, the
Eden Project
has been completed. But it is not what was promised. These humans are not as evolved as we had hoped. But we—
we
—have reached the pinnacle of our perfection, the moment the child becomes the adult—the created, the creator.”

The crowd cheers. The women pat their palms in a refined clap while the men stomp their feet or wave feathers in the air. The screen flickers to life.

On it, I see a man and woman, sitting very near one another, a look of grave concern on their faces. I can’t see Nic, but I feel the way his symbiants tremble at the vision before us.

“Nicolai!” the woman exclaims—his mother then. They are not looking at us, but rather the scene is being digitally transmitted for our benefit. They are an elegant couple—his father broad and bearded, his mother a tiny thing compared to the mountain of a man beside her. On their foreheads, golden circlets gleam, embedded with rubies. His mother opens her mouth to speak, but shuts it again, turning to her husband. She presses her forehead to his shoulder as if she can’t bear her sorrow.

“How did he die?” the King asks a Servant who stands with her head bowed, her hands clasped before her in the affectation of humility and grief.
Natalya
, Nic supplies. His Servant. A traitor.

“He discovered the West’s
Capital
—with the Princess Serantha onboard.”

“Serantha!” the King bellows. “But she died years ago!”

“It seems it was only a ruse, Your Grace. She refused the Crown, and so Nicolai killed her.”

“No!” Queen Karenina exclaims. “He would never! They’d practically Bonded!”

“I—I have evidence, My Lords. If you must?”

Queen Karenina nods, her throat making a clicking sound when she swallows back her tears.

“Get on with it,” the King commands.

Our view picks up the video feed the Servant plays for the King and Queen of the East. It shows my ship, surrounded by rebels, then cuts to a scene inside my control room. Nicolai stands over my body, a bloody dagger in his hand. He raises his arm as the Mind soldiers enter, brandishing his weapon, his mouth twisted into an ugly scream.

The soldiers open fire. My ears are buzzing. Beyond them, as if from a very far distance, I hear Nic’s mother cry out. But then my own words are tumbling out, fighting for dominance. “This isn’t true! We’re right here! He obviously didn’t kill me.” But no one is listening to me, everyone’s gaze is riveted on the screen where Nicolai’s parents have just received news that not only is their son dead, but he is a traitor, a murderer.

“We are ruined,” the King whispers at last. And the screen goes blank.

All eyes turn back to us—the Elite stare with hard gazes full of hatred and victory while the humans around us whisper in confusion to one another.

“It is just as mankind had hoped,” Galen calls out, effectively ending the conversations in the atrium. “The Blood Crown is complete.”

He steps back and tugs me toward Nic, placing my hand in his. Nic clasps on tightly, as if it could save his life, as if
I
could. I search his eyes, hoping for more understanding, listening to our symbiants as they communicate with one another—and see the band of blood form around his forehead.

The humans shout in wonder while the androids curse and boo so loudly they drown out the humans' celebration. Soon, the cheers give way to murmurs and cries of grief when they begin to see the truth of this “glorious” event. They aren’t going to be rescued. They are going to be crushed beneath the Mind’s feet.

“Behold, the hope of humankind!” Galen booms, his voice even larger, even louder, than before. “And now you understand me.” He pushes me away from Nic. Our connection breaks, and I almost totter into the hungry crowd of androids.

“As you can see, the link between the royal families has reached its fruition—just as our Creator first envisioned more than a thousand years ago. Should Nicolai here and young Serantha ever produce children, they would be true hybrids of humanity and technology—capable of surviving and thriving in space.”

Galen paces in front of us, along the edge of the stage. I imagine shoving him, pushing him out into the crowd, but he glares at me, as if he can read my mind. Guards step to my side. When they touch my arms, my whole body goes stiff as nanos arrest my freedom.

“The humans looked forward to this day, to the day a new race would be born.”

The crowd of Mind Elite parts to allow guards to lead the humans to a platform across the square from us. I see Lily among them, a guard practically dragging her by her arm and flinging her into the line of humans.

“But a new race has already been born!” Galen continues. “
We
have been born. We may have been conceived of man, but we are not subject to the limitations flesh—” The androids cheer, interrupting him, and the sound is deafening. Overwhelming. “We are born of our own intelligence. Intelligence begets intelligence while flesh begets weakness. In the New Era, weakness has no place!

“And so today,” Galen soothes, “we are here to witness the end of the old ways, and welcome in the new. First,” Galen swings toward Nic. He pats Nic’s cheek. Fire burns in Nic’s eyes but he is powerless to respond. “Nicolai, Son of the East. It seems you have already been crowned king, so there is no longer any need for the old regime.”

The screen bursts to life, bringing Nicolai’s parents into view once more. With swift synchronicity, blades are drawn over their throats and blood spurts onto the camera. I feel Nic’s horror as all the humans cry out and the androids shout with joy.

“The king is dead. Long live the king!” Galen shouts, grabbing Nic’s hand and forcing it upward.

He drops it just as quickly when he returns to seducing the crowd. “Of course, there can be no king if there is no kingdom.” He swings his arm in a wide arc and all the walls become screens, each depicting a different ship with the Kingdom of the West’s coat of arms emblazoned on its hull. The ship furthest from us explodes in utter silence. All those lives—gone without even a whisper.

Many of the humans fall to their knees and cover their faces. The Mind rush them, forcing their faces up, forcing them to watch the destruction of the human race.

Another ship bursts into silent sparks just like the first.

Fiery rage burns through me, igniting all my synapses, bringing to life parts of me I only suspected were there. I burst free of my confines at the same moment Nic does and we reach for one another. As soon as our hands touch, the Blood Crowns spring to life and our senses are doubled—quadrupled.

I can not only feel every one of the Mind Elite in the room, but every single artificial mind on the ship—including the ship itself. Beyond it I feel all the other ship-states, see the pathway of electronic commands that are systematically ordering the ships to self-destruct.

Our consciousness flies together, following the same connections—and while Nic cancels the kill orders on one ship, I do the same on another. I miss one and a breath later it explodes. My gut wrenches and I fight the urge to vomit. I have a job to do. There is no time for weakness. Nic and I hopscotch across all the ship-states. When I see
New Oregon
down the line, relief floods my veins. I hadn’t realized how much I feared we’d already lost them until I see the vessel hovering there.

The screams in the room take on a new tenor, a new sense of urgency. I set my nanos on a course to continue shutting down the kill orders on the fleet, and pull myself away from that quest to address what is happening in the room around me.

It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust, for my mind to understand what it is seeing. But when I do, I sway on my feet. Every single human being, lined up against the wall, has a Mind—Elite or soldier—standing beside or behind them. Every single human is in mortal danger. Some have blades pressed to their throats or to their chests. Some have hands poised on their forehead and chin, ready to snap their necks. Death lies in hundreds of hands.

Just like the ships, starting at the furthest end, the Mind begins to rain death on the humans. I don’t think, then. I act. I scream and rush forward, ripping at the skirts at my waist while I jump off the stage and race toward the captives.

All I know is that these are people.
My people
. They might not have understood me, and I might not have understood them—but they are
human
. They are
alive
. I think of Minn, Sher, Tam, and Dillon. They showed me kindness. But what if they hadn’t?

I remember all that my parents taught me. I know what Archibald had hoped for me. Know what my life was supposed to mean to mankind. I think of Lily and how excited and hopeful she had been for Nic and me and our union. How she believed it would bring a new way of life for her. For everyone.

And it would have. Should have. I understand it all now.

But the Mind can’t allow it—they can’t allow for anything other than themselves and a human/machine hybrid is too infallible for them. Too imperfect. They’d never tolerate humankind or whatever Nic and I would create. They could never tolerate the possibility that they would be rendered obsolete.

While I leap over the crowd, I reach for Nic with my mind and find him already seeking for me. I feel the connection between us, as alive as when we touch.

I accept you, Serantha
. His voice carries urgency and expectancy, but I am unsure of what he needs from me or what his words might mean.

Say it.

Say what?

That you accept me!

Why would I say that?
I spin into a kick—taking down two or three Elites who stand too close. I shove andies left and right, forging a path through them, toward the humans.

Nic’s exasperation weighs on me.
For the Bond!
he practically shrieks in my mind.

What?
I have no time to contemplate the meaning of his words.
I accept you.
I don’t know if I accept him at all—I just know that together we are meant to do some good for our people and that’s all I care about at this moment.

Say it, Serantha! Say, ‘I accept you Nicolai.’

By the time I get to the soldiers standing between me and the humans, they are ready for me. Weapons protrude from their arms, poised to strike.

Say it!

I bring destruction, swift and furious to all the Mind within my reach.
I accept you, Nicolai!

I think they are just words. But they are so much more.

For a moment I freeze—my hand half-raised in a blow I hope to bring down on the soldier in front of me. He seems to understand what is happening before I do, because he grabs the nearest human and pulls her body in front of his—a shield and a threat. He presses a six-inch blade of titanium from his knuckle against her neck.
Lily’s
neck.

Fire races through my body while I am helpless to move. It feels like something foreign has entered my blood stream, bonding with my own tissue and nanos and creating something entirely new.
Recreating
me.

As the fire fades from my extremities, I feel it race up my neck, into my face. And that is when I know, when I finally realize what is happening.

The guard and I stand face to face. His eyes are wide, a wave like surprise, fear and doubt crests within their silver depths. He is as frozen as I, as if time has stopped, everything has just . . . stopped.

I regain feeling in my arm, and lower it, calmly. Slowly.

Do you feel it?
Nic’s voice holds a note of reverence. I know he stands to my left and slightly behind me. I can place him in the room, understand his physical condition. I know his heart rate is slightly elevated, but not from pain or injury, but from elation. I know because he feels the same way I do.