Salamanca folded his hands and rested them on the conference table. Sensus watched him closely, trying to read his face. They’d been sparring for hours, and Sensus had to admit that he’d been just as petty as the duke. The others of the council were in the usual poses of impatience, though the news he shared at least caught their attention. Now the stink of frustration and fear muddied the cool dusty air of the council boardroom.

“The Surge?” Salamanca repeated.

“According to our intel,” Sensus reiterated. He ground his teeth while the duke slowly nodded.

“And your intel comes from...”. He opened his hands in liue of finishing his sentence.

“I’m not repeating myself, Hector,” Sensus warned.

The duke nodded grudgingly. “Two of your soldiers overheard a verbal communication. They found no data in the captured enemy computer to corroborate, and there was no word of where they were attacking or with how many...”

“”It’s the Surge,” Sensus interrupted, not hiding his disgust. “Where is everywhere, and there’s no numbering them. They consume and assimilate as their opposition as they move, mechanical and organic foes alike.”

“This sounds like just the lucky turn we need,” said Lorenzo, an aging bean counter who somehow landed a seat. “They’ll keep our enemy occupied while we regroup.”

“No,” said Duchess Omikami. Sensus had deemed her the one politician on the council who did not revere Salamanca. But that did not make her an ally. He watched her closely.

“I agree,” said the duke.

“Well I don’t,” said Lorenzo. A few others nodded, but they all looked at the duke for a queue.

“The Surge are exceedingly difficult to beat in combat,” Omikami elaborated. “Correct me if I’m wrong, General, but my understanding is they consume the mass of enemies they defeat and absorb them into their central body for materials to instantly produce new soldiers from.”

“In the short term, yes,” Sensus said. “If the invading Surge mass is allowed to unite with other masses, it will transfer knowledge of consumed technologies, making them more powerful. The last thing we want is for them to gain the power of the Archeus.”

“We shouldn’t jump to any wild conclusions,” said Sensus. “When the Tangents first attacked, it was all we could do as a galaxy to fight them and survive. We still know very little about them. We can’t assume anything, especially when it comes to the Surge. However, I agree that we should move to prevent an encounter.”

“I remember those days,” said Omikami. “Suns were darkened on every world.”

“Albion was a curiosity found in a cave,” said an old merchant lord whose name Sensus could never remember. “Now it’s a weapon in our hands. We must use it.”

“No,” said Salamanca.

Sensus caught the Duchess giving Salamanca a sharp, surprised look, just as he was doing the same.

Here we go, Sensus thought.

“Albion has weapons,” said Hector. “But it is our home. The ship is vast enough for us to expand our populations for many generations to come. Its hyperfiber amor, miraculous propulsion and atmospheric generation, and it's incredibly powerful weapons are for our protection. To fly her into battle would be a criminal waste.”

The historical society’s representative leaned forward. Sensus found the sound of her oversized bracelets clacking on the table offensive. “I agree,” she said. “Albion is our mother. She will protect us at any cost but are lost without her. She cannot be used as a warship.”

“She’s the only warship we have,” said Sensus. “We can’t expect to defeat all our foes in ground wars. We need more than jumpships and troop transports. We need...”

“To retreat from this forsaken land,” said the duke.

“And the leave the galaxy to the Tangents?”. Sensus found hiding his frustration to be a strain.

“If we need to leave the galaxy, we can,” Salamanca said.

Sensus couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His discipline failed him.

“Coward. You make me sick.”

The duke leaned forward. “You’re welcome to stay and fight. A warrior who cannot die will never want for peace. But for us mortals, peace is all there is. You want to take our very home into battle, Sensus. Well, it’s good enough for you. But what of us? How many human soldiers died in the battle you lost? How many are still dying? You care nothing of us, because you are alien to us. Do what you will with your own but give us the choice to live.”

Sensus involuntarily clenched his fists, and his stomach was tightening even more. Salamanca was not wrong. “I lament the deaths of our human forces, Hector. Don’t you dare insinuate that I don’t value mortal life. Especially now that we face an enemy that can inflict a fate worse than death on us.”

“You know this?”

The Duchess looked shocked, sharing an expression of incredulous disgust with Sensus.

“How could you possibly...”

“General,” the duke’s jaw muscles twitched, “have you yourself become split among the Anunnaki? You assume your lost warriors are in agony, but you do not know. Just like you don’t know that the Surge are in fact approaching the Phrastus Belt. For all you know your lost warriors could be in unimaginable bliss, and they’re coming to bring the rest of you into their...”

A line was crossed, and Sensus rose with his eyes and hands blazing.

“Shut. Your. Mouth.”

Salamanca smiled. “There it is. We have a madman whispering insanity into the ears of a bully, and we are meant to bow to their immortal wisdom. We won’t be your fodder, General. And we won’t let you take our home...”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“And we won’t let you dictate policy, Hector,” Omikami said firmly. “I move we table the discussion for now. We can reconvene tomorrow and discuss these topics at length after we’ve rested.”

It was agreed, and in moments the room was empty save the General and the Duke.

Salamanca spoke first, standing and beginning to pace around the room, always looking away from Sensus. “My title was given to me, Sensus. Given by grateful people. Nobel Duke of Peace and Security. Do you know why the masses elevated me to nobility? Because I kept them safe.”

“So, this is all about you? Figures.”

“No. No, Sensus, it’s about them. Endo and exo alike, we all need a haven. This is that haven. We need to go away from war, not into it.”

“Even after the last war left the galaxy a near wasteland, there is still no way we could house more than a minute fraction of the galactic population. Even in a ship as vast as ours.”

“It’s not ours, General. We found it. Or it called out to us. It’s a gift, and we need to respect that gift.”

“And you call Solomon a zealot.”

Salamanca shook his head. “No. I call him an opinionated narccissist. I’ll be adding coward to the list if he doesn’t come out of hiding soon. Tell him he’ll be detained in contempt if he doesn’t attend his trial.”

Sensus let out a mocking laugh. “Now you want to press charges. After all this time he’s been back. Typical.”

“He detonated an anti-matter weapon in a populated area.”

“In an evacuated area.”

Salamanca stopped pacing and put up his hand. “I’ll hear his defense from him, not from you. I’m weary of your assumptions.”

Sensus shook his head. “You lied to all your own people, and mine as well.”

“When did I lie?”

Sensus strode towards the man. His radiance had calmed somewhat, but his eyes still burned hot. “You lie every day. But I’m referring to your lie about Albion being united. You want us gone now that we have a fair say. But we’re not politicians, Salamanca. We care about what’s right, not being right. But you won’t see us for what we are, because in your mind everyone’s an ambitious politician, just like you. And you call Solomon a narcissist. You disgust me.”

And with that he left, clenching his fist when the duke to him to inform Solomon of his subpoena.

“When you see him,” the duke added.

Sensus ignored him. He remained angry, of course, but he had cause to feel reassured in advance of his next meeting. The Sentinels were sure to show wisdom, a refreshing change.

His car took him past the comfortable apartment complexes that housed political aids and high profile liaisons. He thought of Solomon’s apartment and its excessive number of couches. He thought of his old quarters, and his small cabin on H1. He was taking up more and more space as time went on, space that could be better used in times of crisis, and the duke’s response was to annex the Harbingers.

Is that really his game? He chided himself for such reductive thinking. For all he knew, Salamanca might have been completely honest to him. He doubted it because of his status and role as a politician and thought resentfully of those who assumed they onewknew what he was thinking before uttering a word on account of him being a warfighter, or a Harbinger.

A harbinger. Is that what we really are? Portents of doom? If we are, then the doom is here, and our response is to fight it.

Still, the Duke had the shadow of a point. Human lives were both limited and precious and should not be thrown away. Those willing to fight would receive the best of training, and quality weapons and gear. And they would not be taken for granted. But then, Harbinger lives were precious as well, and now, with the Archeus crossing the Verge with their abominations in tow, Harbinger lives were at risk as well.

“Take me to Oak,” he commanded.

“Yes, sir,”.

The car took a smooth turn and in a few minutes had fully diverted course. He messaged the Sentinels on his vam that he would be late, then sat back and let his mind rest for the duration of the drive.

The guards blocking off Oak saluted him. He nodded. On opening the door he heard a sudden shuffling noise.

“You’re wanted in court,” said Sensus.

Solomon sat in a chair, drinking juice and resting. Omri was at a table typing furiously at her computer. The mamani sat in another chair, and the Shadow Children, invisible, were making quick work of a large tray of food.

“Oh? Are theh ready for my hearing so soon?”

Sensus shook his head. “It will be a military inquest.”

He walked into the room and looked at the northern face of the wall. Oak was a strage room. It was large, round and empty. No one knew exactly where the interface with Eno’s core processor was installed, or why it existed in that particular part of the ship. Scans of the walls revealed nothing but a non-localized energy signature, which changed dramatically since Omri had shown the aged mother that she’d isolated the mystical wave.

“Leave,” he said.

He heard Omri’s chair slide back. “General…”

“Now.”

He heard the others leave, including the Shadow Children. Omri left last, gathering some of her instruments first and lingering at the door. Alone, Sensus unfastened a pauldron. It fell to the floor. He felt his aura spreading, growing to a circumference and a potency he had never consciously impelled. Outside in the hall, he could feel the tingling in the spines of the guards, and he reigned his lifeforce in. Another pauldron hit the floor.

Four hours dancing, only three children left. To his right, a boy grew tired. They shot him when he stopped. The girl to his left pushed him, tried to trip him. Had she merely danced, he would have stopped. But her trying to get him killed made him angry. Not for himself, but for all humanity. No one who acted like this deserved to live, so he kept dancing, and soon the rebels had their perfect soldier.

He reached for his harness unthinkingly, but the heavy overlay was not there, so his fingers went to his breastplate, and he dropped it too to the floor. His tassets fell next, and as he reached for his greaves, he saw the blood of his first kill on his hands. An old woman. A nurse. A volunteer. She used to give him food. He, an orphan from the townships. The rebels had to know. Why else would it be her? All mothers love their children. Bad ones abandon them in hopes a good one takes them in, or they hide them away and never let them grow. But the good mother lets her children hurt, helps them grow. She does not hide from them the truth. Sensus unclasped his greaves, and he was near to naked in his underlay. Flex steel textile with a myomer burden layer and atmospheric supplementation tubing running along his limbs.

They made him crush her frail old throat with his hands, and when he had, they sprayed white phospherous on the cribs anyway, teaching him a very important lesson. The wild infant angel inside him screamed.

Haleon descended upon the world while the others went rampant with slaughter on the inhabited spheres. This rock, this catalyst cured satellite, hiding inside the dried blood of raw power, became a throne world to their DeFacto chief. The sad and lonely and maladjusted came to him, and he became like Topar was to Briah, though he lusted after demarcations and clean arrangement, so he called her to him, and they became wedded in vocation. She stayed there and raised those vagrants to a new level of comfort that even she regretted. Wave after wave sallied forth from there, and hushed whispers in seedy ports told of the Temple of Fiends.

Go there, my son.

Sensus breathed deep. “To Bindhu Prime? It’s deep in the territory taken by Haleon’s outriders.”

I will protect you.

“I will have a difficult time gaining cooperation from my colleagues.”

Win the loyalty of the captain.

Sensus sighed. “Thank you, Eno.”

He put his armor back on and went to the Sentinels.