The hallways that had flowed with soldiers as veins with blood, were marrowless bones on the team’s return. So fearful was the Quorum of the region of space Albion had dared, every Harbinger on active duty had been dispatched, in teams and on solo operations. Though most of the ops were simple reconnaissance forays, the barracks reminded Eukary of a battlefield grave.
She saw Ishtar lingering in the high-ceilinged hall that ran down the center of the barracks, looking down one of the smaller hallways were an odd little man she’d befriended typically bunked.
“Ish,” Eukary said, prompting her partner to keep up with her and Forge. Ishtar nodded, then hopped to. They went to the end of the expansive central artery and turned down their own wing, nearest the armory, briefing rooms and hangar bays.
They first went to the armory to stow their armor, gear and harnesses, then hit the showers. Back in their quarters, the others collapsed onto their bunks. Eukary remained standing by the door. She looked out into the hallway before closing it.
Forge had his sweeper checking for bugs. It came up nil.
“Why are we so paranoid?” Eukary asked. She didn’t like the way she felt.
“Things are changing,” Forge offered. “We can all feel it.”
“You’re being dramatic,” said Ishtar. “The Quorum wants Sol in chains, but we brought him back in armor. We have perfectly good reasons to be on guard.”
“I’m with Forge on this,” Eukary said. “I sense tension. And not the usual tension.” She sat in a chair near the door, looking down the long room at her bunk like there was danger lurking that way. “And I don’t care for Sol being so tight lipped with us. He never held back information from the team.”
Forge, laying on his side, shook his head. “That’s not accurate, Euk. He and Cap always had their talks.”
“Okay, true. But two of us are gone, and he won’t say anything more than not to worry about them?”
“She’s right,” said Ishtar, who lay on her back gazing upward. “Holding that back os strange.”
Forge spoke slowly, a thing he did when he was sure of something. “He came back for a reason. The fact that he included Cat in a private conversation means he wants Cap to move up. In which case, it’s Cat’s responsibility to relate what he told us about Ru and Reev.”
“Cap’s moving up?” Eukary started the sentence confused, but a thought came together as she spoke. “He’s already section chief of the First Front. He’s as up as he can get unless something big changes.”
Ishtar turned over and looked down from her top bunk. “Would it be surprising if Solomon felt the same way about the Quorum as Cap does?”
Eukary mulled over that for a while before responding. “But he left a long time ago. Things seemed more stable back then.”
“Yeah, to us. But we were kids. We were all jazzed about coming back to life and learning about our radiance. I mean, I don’t know about ya’all, but I was more concerned with learning about my past life than anything else.”
“I was trying to figure out what energy source we were drawing from,” said Forge.
And Eukary was obsessed with deciding who she could trust.
“Reev and Ru are still out there,” Ishtar said, laying back down. “But they’re on their own for now. It’ll work out, somehow. For now, we just gotta believe that we’ll see them again, no matter what we’re told.”
“I wonder how much Solomon even knows,” Eukary mused.
“Less than we assume,” said Forge, “but more than he lets on.”
As the conversation faded, Eukary felt increasingly restless, so she changed into her sports bra and leggings and went to the nearest gym. Speck was on the squat rack, adding to his already conspicuous bulk.
“You keep beefing up, you won’t fit in the cockpit anymore,” she said.
He set the bar on the rack and chugged his water bottle. “Gotta be able to keep up with you guys somehow.”
She smirked. “That’s what the ship is for.”
He added more weight and hammered out another set, then finished off his water. Eukary sat on a bench, unsure what she wanted to do other than talk.
“Any word on Ru and Reev?” Speck asked.
“No. Not yet. I’m trying to trust Sol, but it’s hard.”
“Because he was gone so long? Or is it something else?”
“I wish I could say. Things just come to us sometimes, more than they did before, and these feelings never make sense, but something always comes of them.”
“We mortals have that same thing. It’s called intuition. Sounds like yours is just amped up.”
“It’s different. And don’t ask me how I know. I just do. Everything about this life feels like a dream, Speck. I keep learning new things, seeing new things, and none of what we are makes any sense to me.”
Speck wiped his forehead with his towel, then sat on the bench next to her. “Most of us just look at you guys as super soldiers. We forget that you’re people. I guess I always assumed you feel the same way about being you as anyone would.”
“You complain about your knee, so you train to strengthen it. Molly and Avery have back problems, so they ordered adjustable desks so they could be more comfortable while they work. I’m trying to figure out a way to cast an image of myself while simultaneously bending light around my body. That seems as fantastic to me as it would to you, Speck. It’s weird. Even after twenty years of being… whatever I am, it still feels surreal.”
“Is that how it is for all of you?”
Eukary nodded. “Haven’t you noticed how Ish is always in a fog, or how Forge is constantly trying to figure himself out, or how Aster will be quiet for long stretches of time? Shoot, I don’t even know where she is right now.”
“She was leaving here when I came in. I don’t think she even noticed me.”
“Exactly what I’m talking about. And what happened to Reev and Ru… what happened to all those Harbingers we fought… There’s one hopeful thing. The Archeus is dead. I can’t imagine Reev and Ru having Anunnak’s fate without the enemy there to inflict it on them.”
Speck chuckled.
“What could possibly be funny about that?”
“Oh, I’m just imagining the next gen Anunnaki being a bunch of smart asses.”
Eukary smiled. “And driving the Archeus insane.”
“Hey guys,” said Forge from the door.
“You feelin’ restless too?” said Speck.
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Forge shrugged, then set his gear by a mat and got ready for a deadlift. He stood still, pondering the weights and bar, then sat on a bench opposite Eukary and Speck.
“I just can’t figure it out,” he said. “What did the Archeus do? We’ve all been stomped on, blown up, jettisoned out of airlocks, run over by tanks... How did that thing destroy their bodies like that?”
“Has a Harbinger even been... killed by anything besides an Archeus?” asked Speck. “I mean, they do something that releases your radiance completely from your bodies, then puts them in shells and forces them to fight. So, it makes sense if they’re the only ones who can do that.”
Eukary felt irritated by Forge’s reaction to Speck’s comment. He just about rolled his eyes, and after she had confided to Speck that their nature was as much a mystery to them as ot was anyone else.
“Yeah, we’ve got that part figured out,” said Forge.
“Right. Sorry. I’m just trying to keep up.”
“That’s what the ship’s for, bro.”
Eukary flashed her cohort a warning look. “Forge…”
“Sorry. I’m just…”
“It’s okay,” said Speck. “You wanna figure out how the Archeus releases your radiance so you can stop it from happening. I dig.”
“We need to observe what happened,” said Eukary.
“Over and over again,” said Forge.
“Okay, then we need to compile the feed from our skullforts.”
“And we need to watch the footage in private.”
Eukary nodded. “Agreed.” She wracked her brain, but was having a hard time thinking of a place where they would be undisturbed long enough to compile and view the footage in detail. Especially without being questioned.
“Damn it,” she said. “Why are we so paranoid? Politics are one thing, but the Quorum isn’t our enemy. Out there. Our enemies are out there.”
Forge was quiet for a moment, then lowered his gaze as he spoke. “We all get these common sensations. I’ve learned not to question them, but to try to understand them.”
“You’re right. Okay. But I can’t think of a place. This is gonna take some time, and it’s gonna be hard to keep a low profile. We’re kind of the talk of the town right now. If we wanna be cautious with what we learn, assuming we learn anything at all, then we’re gonna need some place where we won’t be interrupted.”
“If we do it in stages, we might be able to sneak the equipment we need into our dorm.”
“No. People will see us and ask questions. Damn it.”
“Really?” said Speck.
“Of course,” said Eukary. “We’ll use a ship.”
“One question,” said Speck.
“What’s up?”
“Are you guys gonna be okay watching Ru and Reev get hurt over and over again?”
Eukary looked at Forge. The big guy was quiet, looking thoughtfully downward. He ran a hand through his bushy hair, then looked at her. She nodded. “Yeah. We’ll be okay.”
They all went to their dorms to dress, then Eukary went to the armory and packed up her skullfort and harness, mentioning to custodian Hazel, a newly woken Radiant who’d not yet passed the combat exams, that she was going to do some training. She told Hazel that Forge would likely be along as well.
“I bet you guys need to blow off some steam,” Hazel said.
“Yeah. That was a rough op.”
The boy nodded. There was an earnestness to his movements that Eukary liked.
“I hope your friends come back,” he said.
Eaukary saw something sad in his eyes. “Hey, they will. And you don’t have anything to worry about. We won’t send you out there until you’re ready.”
He smiled, and she felt that she’d misunderstood him.
Forge had brought the other skullforts in his bag. As big as he was, people hadn’t questioned him carrying a larger pack with more gear. They went through the motions of a quick routine, then packed their armor pieces up, along with the skullforts, and went to the hangar where they found Speck perusing the new jump ships.
“Find us a new one yet?” Eukary asked, loudly.
The dockmaster was standing close by. He came over to them and tipped his hat.
“We’re sorry for the loss,” he said. “Speck tells me there’s hope.”
“There is,” Eukary said, wanting to believe it.
“If there’s anything I can do, ma’am, let me know.” He gave Forge a respectful nod, then looked back to Eukary.
“I think we need to just keep our mind off things,” she said. “We appreciate all the condolences, of course...”
“But you’d like to be left alone...” the dockmaster said. “When my daughter died, my wife and I wanted the same thing. Speck picked out a ship. Why don’t the three of you get acquainted with her?”
Eukary gave the man a big smile. “Thank you, Seargent.”
Speck had picked out a very nice ship. She was much sleeker than their last craft, both inside and out. Her hull flared subtly amidships, giving her the look of a fisher bird in mid plunge. She had better lighting as well, with more spacious hallways and fewer exposed components. Their bunks were bigger, as was the galley, and the bay for the insertion craft was fitted with redundant printing machines for manufacturing insertion craft.
“She’s gorgeous,” Eukary said.
“Treat her right,” said Speck.
“You mean you actually chose this one?” asked Forge. He tended to favor more rustic machinery.
“Well,” said Speck, “I kind of had to. No way of accessing more than pre-op and diagnostic systems without a full requisition.”
Forge nodded, then they all went to the CIC. The computer booted up insantly, and in a few minutes they were reading the stored files on their skullfort cameras. Eukary felt her stomach tighten when they saw Revol charging the Archeus.
“He is the bravest class clown I have ever known,” said Speck.
Eukary chuckled, then felt her throat tighten when Aster went mad. Sister...
They copied the files onto their vams, then packed up the skullforts and left. Speck followed them to their door, where they found Aster and Ishtar talking by the porthole. They told them the plan, but Aster raised a question that sent a jolt through EUkary’s gut.
“What about their skullforts?”
Forge and he looked at each other, then to Speck, who shrugged.
“They weren’t in the armory,” Eukary said. “I didn’t even think about them.”
“They’ll still be in the quartermaster’s office, I assume,” said Forge.
“I’ll take care of it,” said Speck. He left and they all sat on the couches in the middle of their dorm. Revol had smuggled in enough equipment for them to set up a home theatre, a thing Cat had reluctantly turned a blind eye to. They watched the recordings one after another, looking intently for some clue. It was on Eukary’s own feed they saw a strange, shifting distortion around the eye of the Archeus when each of their friends’ bodies were shattered. They watched it again and again, seeing it most clearly when Revol was crushed. But even when they zoomed in, they couldn’t see anything revealing, only that the creature’s eye generated some sort of field.
“I need to see it head on,” said Forge. “I need to see what Reev saw.”
They waited quietly for Speck.
“Sorry it took so long,” he said. “Saanvi was working the desk by herself. She’s a sweet kid, but had a hard time keeping up when it’s busy. We had to find the helmets, and the whole place was a mess.”
“Did she ask why we wanted them?” Eukary asked.
Speck shook his head. “No. I just said you guys wanted them, and she looked like she was about to cry. The dockmaster asked a few questions, though. But, whatever. Here.” He handed them a data crystal. “I copied the last six hours of storage from each.”
They watched Revol’s first. In the moment, Eukary hadn’t noticed just how much damage he’d done in that fight. I miss you, bud, she thought. Then he was on the ground looking upward. The Archeus seemed to change, its segmented armor plates separating and flaring out like flayed skin. Its face started to transform, and the feed stopped.
They tried again and again to get it to play all the way through, but it stopped each time.
“That must be all he saw,” Aster said sadly.
“No,” said Forge. He reviewed the moment where the footage ended again and again. They watched Haruspex’s feed as well, and the same thing occurred, though hers cut out before the Archeus began to change.
Just then Catalyst returned. Eukary told him what they’d done, and they showed him the footage.
He nodded. His face looked pained.
“What do you think, Cat?” Eukary asked, hoping for a reassuring answer.
“You’re really not going to like what I have to say.”
The room was silent.
He sighed. “This was all planned.”