Buzzard and Adeline hastily readjusted their clothing as the lift doors opened. Hand in hand, they stepped out onto the promenade, both smiling as they breathed in the sweet scent of the surrounding orchard.

Overhead, through the dome’s artificial sky, the real sun’s light gleamed where it reflected off the glass surface. Sneering, Buzzard raised his hand against the glare.

This environmentalist nonsense… He could not believe that someone so brilliant as Anaximander wasted so much time and money on such an obviously lost cause. Always blathering on about nature’s abundance in the Old World and humanity’s place in the ecosystem. The time to worry about that is long past, you fool! The ecosystem is nonexistent. Nuclear radiation is hardly any worse for humans than butter these days.

For fuck’s sake, Anax wears a robotic exosuit and he’s worried about tending to plants?

Sensing his annoyance, Adeline patted Buzzard on his head. His stiff, frazzled hair crinkled at her soft touch. He looked up at her and smiled, then looked out across the pristine redbrick promenade.

The Podexians had settled in quite well. How could they not? Anax had named this dome ‘Eden’—so pretentious. His magnum opus.

To the right, a sandy beach surrounded a crystal-clear, humanmade lake. Ophelia and Stondemaier sat on the water’s edge, baking in the fake sunlight like the rocks they were. They hardly ever left that spot.

A gaggle of Podexians were swimming, a few zipped about on personal watercrafts. Ansoir, Dwillard, and Bethany were surely among that group. The three were becoming fast friends.

Others played volleyball, and even more lounged—colorful drinks in hand—in the chairs surrounding the robot-serviced tiki bar. A mother and two children sat building a castle in the sand.

Anax had forbidden any of the former prisoners from performing any actual work in Eden for one year while they recovered from their trauma and their Kaia dependence. “Your only job is to relax and recover,” he’d told them. After that, they were allowed to do as they wished—they could even continue living as hedonistic loafs!

That order had cost Buzzard his assistant. Officially, at least. Which was very unfair—Dwillard had been only half a slave at most.

In truth, Buzzard was eternally grateful, and more than glad to forgive Anax for his eccentricities. He was a good man, and with that, certain absurd behaviors had to be expected and accepted.

Anax had welcomed them with open arms. The only cost was that Buzzard had to endure constant comments about how Anax had always known that Buzzard had a heart of gold. Bullshit. Science has no heart. It simply is.

“Hey Buzzard!” Limmy shrieked from the volleyball court. “Get over here and play! We need your stupidly long arms.”

Buzzard smiled but waved her off. He was a superb volleyball player, but he had work to return to. Adeline had dragged him away from the lab, forcing him to go out for some fresh air. He was stretched too thin, splitting time between treating Kaia withdrawals, analyzing the footage of the Kaia explosion, and examining the petal of the Megrim flower.

“This is a wonderful thing you’ve done, Buzzy,” Adeline said. “I’m very proud.”

“I couldn’t and wouldn’t have done it without you, my lover. Heehee. It’s wonderful as long as it pays off in the end.” He held up a finger. “I will exact a favor from Gwilym Oubliette. And I’m willing to wait years for the opportune moment.”

Just then, a rumbling sound disturbed the quiet revelry. Buzzard looked up and saw Anax streaking across the sky, having launched from the peak of his fortress.

Anax dove lower, scanning the promenade, and when he was over Buzzard’s head, he oriented himself vertically and descended using the suit’s rocket boots. Gray vapor trailed from the thrusters. Clean Kaia. So wasteful.

With a soft metallic clang, the man touched down on the ground in front of Buzzard and Adeline.

“Good morning,” Anax said. “I was appalled to find your lab empty, but I see Adeline must have dragged you outside.” He gave Adeline a small bow.

“Yes, she insists on an entire thirty minutes every twenty-four hours,” Buzzard said.

“I insist on far more than that,” Adeline said. “But it’s a losing battle.”

Anax smiled, showing off his perfect teeth, accentuating his perfect jawline and high cheekbones. What an absurd caricature of a man. He had black skin, a perfectly bald head, smooth and shiny and not at all misshapen. Buzzard ran a hand through his own withered hair.

The exosuit gleamed—a marvelous metal masterpiece comprising hundreds of thousands of components working in perfect symphony. The dark gray plating was accented with anodized blues and greens. Kaia coursed through the conduits that connected the joints.

This was Anax’s so-called casual suit. He had a dozen others, all engineered for different specializations. Buzzard’s favorite was the one that had a back-mounted nuclear reactor and an array of laser weaponry. It turned the wearer into something far greater than a one-man army.

“I have troubling news, Buzzard,” Anax said.

“Is it urgent?”

“Very. Anesidyra’s warpship just appeared off the coast.”

Buzzard choked and spasmed as Adeline gasped and clung to him.

“W-w-w-what do we do?”

Anax leaned down to put an armored hand on Buzzard’s shoulder. “I can handle her. I doubt she desires conflict. She approaches the port as we speak, with only a small retinue. There is no sign that she intends aggression.”

Buzzard swooned. “Heehee. I could kiss you, old friend.”

“You will come meet her with me,” Anax said.

“Why? I rescind my offer!” Buzzard spat.

“She has a nasty temper. It’d be best if we can provide a small measure of appeasement.”

“I am not a small measure of appeasement.”

“Would you rather hang onto my back, or ride in this little sack?” Anax held up a black mesh bag.

Buzzard weighed the two options. “I’ll go on your back.”

“I know it’s a big ask,” Adeline said, “but if you could keep this quiet, that’d be ideal. I don’t want our little flock to fear for their safety.”

“That is my hope, Adeline,” Anax said. “Come, Buzzard. We shouldn’t test her patience.”

Anax crouched and two footholds deployed from the sides of the exosuit’s knees. Buzzard stepped up and placed his hands on Anax’s shoulders.

Trying to keep his jaw stiff, Buzzard waved goodbye to Adeline. With a roaring whoosh, the thruster boots erupted and the exosuit launched skyward, or rather, ceilingward.

Buzzard took in the view of sprawling Eden. The distant edges of the dome extended into the surrounding sea—it was actually a massive sphere.

The large island—fifty kilometers off the coast of Arleen—had been terraformed into something resembling a miniature version of the planet.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

They were in the center, in the yard of Anax’s towering fortress, which he called the Ark. At the dome’s northern edge, a squat mountain range covered with ice and snow. The tiny flitting dots on the slopes were people skiing.

Those mountains gave way to a rolling tundra. The next third of the space was devoted to two sprawling forests, bisected down the middle to separate the species of trees based on their natural groupings. The fortress sat in a clearing at the center of this forest.

South of the fortress, a vast rainforest, an impenetrable green mass engulfed by mist born of Anax’s weather generators. That end was capped by another icy stretch.

Buzzard licked his lips. Despite its frivolity, Eden was perhaps the greatest scientific achievement in all the World, and likely in all of history, since the Old World was plagued by belligerent idiocy.

Nearing the eastern edge of the dome, they descended to land on a bridge that crossed over a body of water. This was Eden’s sea port.

“She’ll have questions for you,” Anax said as Buzzard climbed down from his back. “Try not to tell her any lies.”

“I’m well aware,” Buzzard snapped, tugging at his collar.

They moved to the far end of the bridge, where an enormous pneumatic hatch was embedded in the dome’s thick glass wall. Anax flashed a hand signal at the woman who operated the door from a booth.

A man-sized door set within the larger door hissed open.

They entered the air lock. The door closed behind them, and a second door opened at the other end, letting in the sound of the sea and the smell of pollution.

Upon stepping out into the real world, Buzzard’s already quickened breath hitched. Some three kilometers distant, Anesidyra’s warpship hung over the sea, a blight in the sky.

Anax’s metallic hand pressed against Buzzard’s pack, pushing him forward. Buzzard had not realized how he’d subconsciously drifted back to hide behind his friend.

“She’s always had a flair for the dramatic,” Anax said.

Buzzard went up on his toes to see over the edge of the dock.

Anesidyra rode the sea on a chariot. A team of five abominable sea creatures pulled her cart. Spliced hybrids—Buzzard saw traits of dolphins, centipedes (of course), and frogs. The creatures thrashed as they porpoised through the waves.

Just two attendants accompanied the Queen. Two women dressed in flowing white gowns with veiled faces.

Anax folded his metal-clad arms. “Maybe it’s just me. But she’s not hard on the eyes. Not at all.”

“Anax,” Buzzard said.

“Hm?”

“Please remove your head from your ass.”

They stepped back from the dock as Anesidyra’s chariot made its final approach. The creatures were machinelike in the way they slowed to pull up perfectly alongside the dock. Puppets, not animals.

Buzzard had never seen the Centipede Queen in person. He vehemently disagreed with Anax’s assessment.

Her skin was chalk-white, sickly and fungal. Her purple eyes and her purple lips made her look undead, which of course she technically was. A crown of thorns sprouted out of her face. Though she was diminished standing below the dock, her height was still imposing.

The Queen floated upward, graceful, her black silks and her orange hair streaming in the wind. Her stiletto heels clicked down on the dock’s metal surface. The two attendants remained in the chariot, standing still as statues.

Buzzard gaped. She wore a living centipede like a necklace. It crawled in a circle around her neck.

Beside him, Anax bowed. Looking up at him, Buzzard was surprised to find that he himself had fallen to his knees.

“Queen Anesidyra,” Anax said. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Anaximander,” she said. “Shall I bother with the needless pleasantry? You’ve already provided me with the little cretin that I seek.”

Buzzard scrambled to his feet, but kept his eyes pointed downward. He considered jumping into the sea and letting those creatures devour him.

“Only if you enjoy the dance,” Anax said, smiling. “Doctor Buzzard and I are friends from our college days.”

Buzzard stole a glance at the Queen as she smiled back at Anax. A mistake—her teeth were like a shark’s. Buzzard was glad that he had not bothered to remove his catheter when Adeline had summoned him for their walk.

“I’d rather cut to the chase,” Anesidyra said. Her voice was silky. Narcotic. “I am aware of all that transpired in Podexia. I took captive every single person who was left behind. I know that Doctor Buzzard is a traitor to the Leviathan. And I know that you’re harboring the insurgents, as well as Lord Jaqlov, here in Eden.”

“And yet you’ve come alone,” Anax said. “I’m flattered.”

Buzzard wanted to feed Anax to those beasts! Was he attempting to be flirtatious with the Centipede Queen? For fuck’s sake, he’d been the one stressing that they shouldn’t antagonize her.

Anesidyra sighed, and Buzzard smelled a poison sweetness on her breath. “I’ll be honest. I don’t give a damn about the Kaia incident. Theodore Jackson and the others have satisfied my desire to impart punishment. And I would not risk war with Eden over something so paltry as a dribbling Kaia vein and a few slaves.”

“Then why have you come?” Anax said.

Anesidyra pressed her fingertips together. “I’m intrigued by what I’ve heard of the ringleaders. I’d like to ask Doctor Buzzard a few questions, as I’ve confirmed that he conspired with them.”

Buzzard gulped so loudly that the sound echoed.

“And if I refuse to allow that?” Anax said.

Anesidyra smiled again. “I am willing to war for the answers that I seek.”

“Then it would only behoove me to acquiesce,” Anax said.

Anesidyra scowled and her eye twitched. She snapped her fingers. Materializing from a cloud of white spores, the two attendants appeared beside Buzzard.

Before he could so much as flinch, one of the women swept out Buzzard’s legs and pinned him down on his stomach with her knee. She grabbed hold of Buzzard’s wrists and laid his hands flat on the surface of the dock.

The second attendant stood over him. She pressed her narrow heel down on the back of his hand—lightly enough that he didn’t scream, but hard enough that he wanted to cry.

“I’m flabbergasted by this show of force,” Anax said.

“Don’t use language like that around me!” Anesidyra shrieked, turning on Anax and raising her hand against him. But she did not strike him. Instead, she pointed her finger in his face. “You’re doing that on purpose because you know it bothers me. If either of you use another silly word, I will kill Doctor Buzzard where we stand.”

“I would be willing to war over that,” Anax said.

She huffed and then stalked over to stand beside her attendant. Buzzard heard the pitter-patter of the centipede’s crawling feet.

“Buzzard,” the Queen said. “The incident was orchestrated by a Hallowed man named William, and a woman with a flower for an eye. Her name is Leira. I know that you’re very familiar with them both. Are either of them being harbored in Eden?”

William? “No.” Buzzard didn’t know what constituted a silly word according to Anesidyra’s idiosyncrasy. He’d be punished for having a splendiferous vocabulary? Preposterous.

“But it is true that all the insurgents escaped with you on your airship?”

“I’d actually prefer if you called them ‘refugees’,” Anax said.

Buzzard squealed through clenched teeth at the stabbing pain in his hand. Anax, you stupid bastard. “Yes, that is true,” he said, gasping.

“Were William and Leira aboard your airship?”

Gods, was it even possible to lie to this woman? Her presence was overwhelming; sweat poured down Buzzard’s face. A monstress wearing human flesh. “Yes.”

Buzzard whimpered, though the attendant had not so much as twitched. He did not want to betray Gwilym and the Megrim Daughter. Dammit. He’d told Anax his theories about those two.

“Then where did they go?” Anesidyra hissed.

“I don’t know.”

The sharp heel crushed down on his tendons, digging between his metacarpal bones.

“I swear I don’t know! They jumped ship. I gave them a parachute.” More pain. “I don’t know!”

“Permanent damage to my friend’s hand would cross my threshold for violence, Ani,” Anax said.

Anesidyra gestured and the attendant took her foot away.

The Queen glared at Anax. “I want proof. Allow me to search for them inside Eden.”

Anax laughed. “No. You will not step foot in Eden.”

Buzzard felt her gaze fall upon him again. Like plunging into icy water.

“What was their purpose?” she asked. “Why did they destroy the Kaia? Why did they leave Jaqlov alive?”

Buzzard squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. “They just wanted to free the slaves. They didn’t care about anything else.”

“Vermin?” the Queen spat.

“That’s a definite possibility,” Buzzard said. “It’s my best guess.”

“How did you end up allying with them?”

“To save my own skin.”

“Where exactly did they-”

Anax cut in. “I’ve entertained this long enough, Anesidyra. You will take your leave now.”

The Centipede Queen smiled and sashayed over to Anax. She placed her hand on his cheek. Her fingernails were like rusty knives. The centipede crawled down her arm, coiled around her wrist. Even with his exosuit, Anesidyra dwarfed Anax.

“If I discover that you’ve deceived me, I will annihilate your little garden, Anaximander. I will take the two of you, flay you both, and feed you each the other’s skin. Then I will enslave your ravaged bodies and use you as furniture or some such awful thing.

“Make no mistake, it is not out of fear that I avoid conflict with you. It is merely pragmatism, and the knowledge that I can always return later.”

“It’s been a pleasure, your grace,” Anax said. “Let’s make the next time sooner than a decade.”

With a wave of her hand, Anesidyra whisked her attendants away. They reappeared in the chariot.

“Anaximander. We know about your Great Machine.” With that, Anesidyra fluttered her fingers in farewell. She turned and drifted into the chariot.

Her sea creatures screeched to attention and pulled away.

Anax looked dead in the eyes. Tendons twitched in his neck and a vein bulged from his forehead. Buzzard had never seen anything like fear on Anax’s face. Still, it was fleeting, gone after a couple of heartbeats.

“Let’s get you some ice for that,” Anax said, helping Buzzard to his feet.

“It’s fine,” Buzzard said, though he couldn’t stop shaking as they made their way back up the dock.

“That went well enough,” Anax said.

Outrage stole away Buzzard’s perturbation. “What? Your antics nearly got me killed. Your recklessness could’ve gotten your precious Eden destroyed!”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Anax said. “She was bluffing. And I was distracting her. It’s called a tactic. She secretly adores me, anyway. I’m proud of how you handled yourself.”

“I saw you pissing yourself when she mentioned the Great Machine.”

Anax sighed. “Buzzy, my friend. We are young men in a game dominated by ancients. We must tread carefully.”

Buzzard tugged at two clumps of his hair as they entered the airlock. “I need a break. I’m gonna go get drunk and play volleyball.”