Soul of the Swordsman Read online

“Say what?”

  “Long story, British, how old are you right now?”

  “Twenty-two, why?”

  “Sweetness! Well, to begin with you are immortal, but only for the next five years unless we can break the cycle.”

  “Are you aware what immortal means? Are you aware you have fangs partner?” British peered closer. “More like sharp canines, wow,” she didn’t care, Danica was alive!

  “Yeah, that would be the LVM placed in my system.”

  “Say what?”

  The last handful of Scouts took off running. With Murdoc down, the sight of a real Ghost floating in the air and a battle lost, the creatures fled for their lives. The battered Knights of Salvos gladly let them go.

  “They’ll think twice about coming topside,” said Warfell.

  “If they do, we’ll be ready for them,” added British.

  The Therians will never attempt to live on the surface; Fort Salvos is safe from reprisal, especially when the survivors tell of what happened. They are a broken Kingdom now.

  Fort Salvos, Tower Main, Warfell’s private quarters

  Are you confused yet?

  The Spirit of Caelum Fey hovered near Danica’s bed. Warfell and Fey stood side by side at the window overlooking the expansive greens below.

  “No, it actually makes sense,” British stared through the glass. “How many of my clones have been killed to strengthen me?”

  A very difficult eight, please forgive me Daughter—The Swordsman as well has become legion with three.

  “Okay, please, no more of that Sir,” Warfell replied, clearly displeased with the fact.

  You will have a problem with Denali Warren, she is very strong—just as you are Swordsman.

  “Don’t worry ‘bout me, I’ll deal with—myself,” Danica shuddered.

  If you cannot, Denali would be the best choice for your replacement.

  “OKAY GOT IT!” said Danica. Sometimes the Spirit’s impartial coldness was just disturbing.

  Either way, you will become one with her.

  “She’s got it Father,” British tried to assuage Warfell—she really did.

  “Alright, I’m ready, let’s do this,” Danica took a deep breath as she lay down atop the bed.

  *

  Alternate Reality, Snowflake, Danica’s cabin

  She opened her sparkling blues with a smile to the welcomed sight of the familiar room.

  “Hello Snowflake,” Warfell caressed the wall as though the ship were alive. She rose from her bunk feeling refreshed and full of energy. She slid the door to the side.

  “Hey!” said Tom from a common room sofa. “You’re up! She’s up!” Others gathered, Brey pushing past Robert, moving into Warfell’s personal space.

  “Hey there, you okay?”

  “Yeah, hi from yourself, we made it out!”

  “I know Dad gave us a blow-by-blow account. So over there I am quite the bad ass, huh?”

  “Quite indeed—there and here boss. It’s good to be back, how long?”

  “Three Aleuthian solar days, you might want to eat something,” Brey grinned.

  “Already here,” said Tawnee with a smile and a warm cup of enriched soup. “Good to see you back Captain,” she passed the mug over to welcomed palms.

  Moon Tibor, Woodlands Retreat, East Hangar Bay

  “Damn Cappy, she’s big,” Danton Derulio’s First Mate walked with the crew across the expansive facility, admiring the Badger-craft as they approached the armed guards at the ramp.

  “Crew of the Destiny, reporting for duty,” said Danton to the Lieutenant.

  “Aye Sir, my orders are to send only the flight crew in,” the firm reply.

  “Fine,” Danton took the steps with his Navigator, Helmsman and Chief. He stopped cold when suddenly face to face with Denali Warren—his wife!

  “Dena, what are you doing?” he tried.

  “Bunch a shit you don’t know about me honey. You may disembark now.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Tell me how you actually fly the ship—what does the Captain do to fly?”

  “Uh,” Danton was floored, didn’t know what to say.

  “Exactly, Security? Captain Derulio is dismissed.”

  “I don’t think so…” Danton was cut off as Warren struck his solar plexus three times rapidly, rolling his eyes back to the blackness.

  “Carry him down the ramp,” Denali instructed the Security Officers. “Sorry baby, you were a good tussle and that was about it. Consider this the divorce.”

  Up top, the skeleton crew of three from the Destiny stood tall before Warren and the Chancellor of Tibor in the Captain’s cabin.

  “LISTEN UP! Welcome to the Warship Vengeance My name is Lieutenant Colonel Denali Warren. You shall address me as Sir or Colonel. Pay close attention people,” she pointed to the conference screen. An image appeared of a baby-faced young woman with large brown eyes and long brown hair pulled back tight in a ponytail.

  “This is our business. Brey Fovea; military savant, tactical genius—do not be deceived by her size; this little bitch is responsible for the death of Viggo Forenz and countless others, including three of Lord Atria’s Grandsons. IF YOU FIND YOUSELF FACE TO FACE WITH HER you better react, don’t think—strike with everything you have because she will kill you. Fovea and a small team of rebels broke free of the Silvercrest Reformation Complex, returning a week later to spring these two,” Tom Snow and James appeared on the monitor.

  “Thomas Snow, stunt pilot, Grifter, and all out handsome shit bag is wanted for multiple counts of murder along with Fovea, high treason against Tibor, a very long list of war crimes, and of course, escape.

  This one, is Jaime Waterson, we believe she was at the prison to rescue her boss—she was not an inmate. Before now, she has never been charged with a crime. In fact we have no idea how she even made it into Silvercrest. Waterson and Snow both work for Fovea Interests so it is no surprise Brey came back for them.

  With them is this man, Robert Johnstone, detained for murder. We have Johnstone’s Brother with us. He is the ten-footer below deck—stay away from him and the other mercenaries I’ve brought. They are my men and they are not to be bothered with anything coming from your mouths, savvy?” Denali paused.

  “And then we have this good looking young woman.”

  Warren watched the eyes of her crew as they viewed the camera feeds of Danica Warfell at the prison, and again at the Pavilion restaurant.

  “It is an imposter, obviously. She was committed to the prison for murder under my name and a falsetto bank of data created by Caelum Fovea himself. We believe she was placed there to rescue Brey as well.

  Finally, there are these two unidentified women,” the screen blanked for a microsecond and then showed the security camera footage of Iris and Tawnee fighting at the restaurant, grabbing Chancellor Atria roughly and shoving him towards the melee. She stilled the image.

  “The one with short hair has identical face tattoos as Jaime Waterson…that’s all we know so far. If either of these two have a data bank, it has been hidden or erased completely. We are working on it.”

  The screen disappeared and Denali faced her crew.

  “We will take one day to learn the Badger-craft’s systems, conduct weapons testing and flight maneuvers. Everyone, this is the job of a lifetime, yours, because if we fail we will all die,” when Denali said it, Chancellor Atria startled. He wasn’t ready for that.

  “Exactly my Lord, which is why you shall remain with us for the test flight and then we must proceed to the hunt without you,” Warren took a knee, followed by every man in the room.

  Atria nodded. He knew what Denali Warren was like—he’d seen what she did to make Captain. He walked away that day, one of the only survivors of the massacre that placed him in control of Tibor ten years back—He could never forget what he saw. Denali Warren was a goddamned animal.

  Snowflake, Asteroid Belt

  Snowman set the Vapor-7 down on a large rounded planetoid�
��deep in a crater. They were between the Solar System’s inner rocky planets and the gas giants, hiding.

  “Gods of Cowards, I hate hiding,” Brey Fovea sharpened her foldout Wakizashi with a smooth whetstone, big brown eyes coursing over the surgical steel, admiring the mirror shine.

  “Do you think they can find us?” Danica asked.

  “Oh yeah, I could. Snowflake is faster than any ship on the wing, but he does leave behind an emissions trail behind. It would be a chancy scent, but I would take it. Then it would all come down to speed in the chase. Even their fastest ship would take days…” Brey jerked her head to the side in response to a tone, an alert tone from the cockpit. She shot her eyes to Tom. “Boot the coils.”

  “On it Cap,” said her Pilot, leaping to a stand. Warfell and Fovea followed.

  “An asteroid?” Bigfoot was already there.

  “Too fast, could be a kyper-belt object coming in,” Tom offered, but he knew better.

  “Naw, it’s a vessel,” Brey took her seat, eyes roving over the data coming in. “Here, see the molecular water trail?”

  “Got it, she’s powered on a hydrogen cell, how did you know to look for that?” Tom was impressed, as always.

  “Hold please…she’s heavy, bigger than us, advanced weapons systems, it’s a Forenz prototype, a Badger. I’m getting some com-chatter, they’re hailing us,” Brey tapped her screen and Warfell’s face appeared.

  “This is Colonel Denali Warren of the Tiborean Warship Vengeance. It’s over Brey Fovea. You will surrender your vessel to me.”

  “She’s confident,” Brey said to no one.

  “What’s wrong with being confident?” Danica asked, looming over her partner’s shoulder. “At least she looks good.”

  Brey opened the com feed.

  “Did you know that you see yourself as being good looking? um Colonel. Do you like chicks man?” she said to the screen.

  I will not offer a second chance, surrender Fovea.

  “We could take her out now, what’cha think?” Brey shot her browns to Danica.

  I can hear you over the com Fovea.

  “Not you, you good lookin’ thing, hold please,” Brey shut the speaker off. “We could take her out now—uh, what’cha think?”

  “No time, they’re powering weapons boss!” Bigfoot leaned forward.

  “Tommy?”

  “Yes Ma’am,” Snowman raised the vertical thrust to maximum, lifting off deck violently, pushing all but the flight crew to the grating.

  “They’re firing!” Bigfoot.

  “Evasive action,” Brey.

  “On it—shit!” Snowflake pitched and rolled as plasma turret pads struck his belly hard. Desperately, Tom compensated with the stick, riding the shockwaves.

  “Damage?”

  “Negative, integrity at one hundred—how did you guys fuse this hull?” Robert was amazed. That blast should have broken them apart!

  “It’s a secret. Gunners to the pods, hold him steady Tom, give me twenty seconds,” Brey ordered and the girls ran, striking the walls as the Vapor-7 leveled off. “Get in there,” the pixie kept her eyes on her tactical screen. The enemy was fast, already behind them.

  “Go Tommy GO—aft cannon now.”

  “Aye Captain,” Robert fired and the ship lunged forward from the pulse.

  “Contact! Good shot,” Brey’s eyes remained fixed.

  Warfell and Tawnee were glued to the pod-tube walls from the intense inertia as Tom pushed the thrust bar all the way forward. A tense moment passed.

  “Damn she’s fast, behind us and closing—gunners?” Brey’s voice stayed smooth.

  “Five seconds,” Danica scrambled for her straps, flicking switches to boot systems, a smile wide over her face.

  “Star is go,” Tawnee said on the right.

  “Port is go, I love this shit,” Danica loosened her grip, engaging her green-line grid, taking a deep breath—her fleeting calm on her shoulder, the imaginary winged Sprite watching excitedly for now.

  “Light ‘em up girls—drop ‘em til it’s hot.”

  “HARD TO PORT!” Colonel Warren gripped her chair arms as the Vengeance listed violently to the left, evading the hail of plasma fire. “Roll her back Star,” she commanded and the Helmsman executed a starboard barrel roll, placing them broadside to the target.

  “Fire every weapon this bitch has,” she added, blue eyes sparkling with raw lust.

  “Aye Sir.”

  The Forenz 17 Badgercraft was a one of a kind, like her enemy. Six times Snowflake’s size, she was armed to the teeth with plasma turrets, molecular signature warheads, electromagnetic torpedo-pads, and something new.

  Before his demise, Viggo Forenz began development on a new weapon utilizing microwaves in broad pulses that would simply melt all organic matter inside a sealed vessel—mighty nasty—Colonel Warren could not wait to get within range. The pulses were wide, slow and easily evaded, but up close?

  Up close, the Moorcraft’s crew would not stand a chance. Denali immediately regretted the order. She wanted to see her twin for some face-to-face interrogation time, and then deal with her and Fovea personally. Maybe, if she played it right.

  Inside Snowflake, the Spirit of Caelum Fovea hovered close to Brey as the girl furiously mapped out a trajectory on screen, offering corrections and data, his Daughter nodding. Warren’s voice came over the speaker.

  Fovea, you got a good Pilot, I’ll give you that, but you cannot outrun us, and you are outgunned, this is futile.

  “Hold please—here, talk to yourself,” Brey rotated the monitor to Danica.

  “Hi, I’m you from another dimension. Tell me, do you believe in Ghosts?” asked Danica Warfell of herself.

  I…do…not, Colonel Warren was at a total loss for words.

  “Yeah, I didn’t either. Just keep your cool and you will be alright. Do you have a fleeting calm? A little Sprite who flies away when things get thick?

  Denali remained silent. She did imagine her anger as a winged pixie that always arrived to tap her on the shoulder when it was time to start hurting people. She shook her head—this was insane.

  “Okay, got it,” Brey interjected over the silence. “Colonel hot stuff, I want you to know that we are actually best friends forever—later days partner, go Snowman.”

  Tom entered the codes, and the Tibor-glide came online. Brey punched in her calculations and Snowflake bounded away, leaving the Vengeance behind with no more emission trails to follow.

  “WHAT DID THEY DO?” Denali screamed.

  “They…they have a Tibor-glide Sir,” the Chief said with his face close to the screen.

  “Okay,” Warren clenched her fists tight, struggling with her sudden desire to kill every crewmember within reach. “Okay, okay, plot their trajectory and pursue at full—where are they headed?”

  “Three seconds Sir,” said the Navigator... “They are headed to Alai.”

  Where they will bounce between his seventy-plus moons and catapult away, escaping to an undisclosed safe location—the hound has lost the fox Colonel, you have failed.

  Colonel Warren calmly turned around to see the Aequitas Caelum floating mid-deck on the bridge. Her blues grew wide and her brows raised high as she whispered.

  “Ello—what’s this?”

  “I don’t understand,” Danica asked moments later.

  “Well,” Brey leaned back, so pleased with her cunning maneuver. “Alai is a ringed gas giant with a powerful magnetosphere and a shitload of moons. We will slingshot around several of them. At that stage, they only way to follow would be if you could actually see us, because…” she extended a palm to Bigfoot.

  “We will cut power to the electrical systems for a while to make sure. It’s gonna get cold for a bit. We don’t have a suit that will fit me boss, I just thought of that.”

  “We’ll keep ya warm if we gotta sit on ya big fellow, don’t worry about that,” Brey smiled and patted a massive shoulder.

  “Where to after that?” Tawnee
leaned in.

  “Occia,” the answer.

  “Really?” Tawnee was amused. “Been everywhere else, why not?”

  Within the hour, the temperatures plummeted, the crew huddled up close with hand held LED lights and blankets—Robert in the middle. Warfell and the others were quite warm in the skintight neoprene suits. Space is incredibly cold, just as an ocean is wet—the Foveas stocked their ship well.

  Warfell found she liked the strange white rubber, sliding her boots, gun-belt and sword-strap on over the suit and donning a cloak. She admired the Aleuthian Federal Crest and the V-7 on her chest, toying with the idea of having ‘Snowflake’ embroidered on them somewhere, maybe even their names. Need to have a suit made for Bigfoot.

  You are a good team. Snowflake has a very worthy crew.

  When the Aequitas Caelum spoke, Danica startled like a kid. She’d never get used to that. She wondered if he could read his Daughter’s thoughts as well and then quickly raised a finger for silence.

  “Thank you Sir. It is an honor to be with them in any reality,” she bowed as did the ethereal Spirit in silence.

  Brey remained up front with a snow cloak pulled tight about her. Tawnee joined her, squeezing into the leather Captain’s chair next to her, slinging her blanket about them both and touching her forehead to Brey’s slender shoulder.

  “Still two months until my birthday.”

  “I know, you’ll be pushing thirty,” Tawnee grinned.

  “What if keeping me alive doesn’t break the cycle, what then?”

  Tawnee removed her right glove, taking Brey’s left hand in her own and pushing both beneath the cloak.

  “Then we continue to be. All of us will die one day, if we carried our worry around with us life would just be miserable.”

  “You are so…oh…okay,” Brey smiled as Tawnee’s hand traveled.

  Five minutes later, Tom took the cockpit steps to check on them.

  He rotated abruptly and came back down with a thumb’s up to the others, finding a place next to Warfell and sliding in. “They’re good,” he whispered, settling in for the long ride.