Chapter Forty-Six

The Price of Failure

Images picked up in the last seconds before the calamity were broadcast everywhere. Some governments tried to suppress them, but it was pointless. They were on every feed in the galaxy, relaid by a horrified Berenice.

One feed showed a city street on a typical day with pedestrians and vehicles moving freely. Everyone stopped as a line of fire streaked overhead. People pointed up and shouted in surprise.

Then, the tear opened in the sky. It was half hidden by trees and buildings, but even then, it was large beyond reason, seeming to stretch from the top of the atmosphere all the way to the ground. Some turned to run, but it was much, much too late.

A wave of light and color washes across the landscape, twisting trees into strange shapes. Some seem to move as a noise, like static mixes with screams.

The wave passes through the street, and the results are beyond horror and beyond description. Some melt together, seeming to merge into the people and things around them. Others are much worse, their still-living bodies twisted into mockeries of life that utter tortured noises before the ground lurches and the feed mercifully cuts out.

The horror of Transit Energy is well known, but it is a controlled one—a safe one. It is taught in classrooms along with other easily avoided dangers.

Or, it was.

Worse still are the feeds that do not cut out quickly enough. Amidst the chaos of change, creatures move. What they were is impossible to tell, but many have been twisted into forms that seem almost purposeful, not nightmares exactly, but new creatures and beings that were never meant to exist.

One of the most viewed feeds shows a place where fire flows like water and stone, which seems as malleable as putty, with buildings shedding it in rivers.

The change seems not about the inorganic materials, which have been proven to be unaffected by the enemy in decades of testing since Transit Energy was first discovered, but more about the rules of reality being twisted in the area.

One thing anyone seeing the feeds knows immediately is that Autumn’s Wind is no longer the planet it was. Everyone watching on a planet looks up, imagining the tear opening above them.

A shiver of fear passed through the galaxy, leaving it a very different place than it was the day before or even a minute before.

Salem is well aware of all this as she looks into the eyes of her fellow delegates from the meeting in the Benediction. They had all arrived at the Rest just in time to get the news they so feared would come.

As they watch the feeds and gasp or pale, she knows one thing above all else.

Nellie would never allow this to happen again. Not now.

“Cyrus has to die,” Monsoon said hollowly. “People need to see him die. On a live feed. Preferably in a bath of acid.”

“He will die,” Salem said with absolute certainty. “But nothing, not even death, can pay for this.”

“She is not wrong,” Cristella said, by far the most calm of all of the delegates, Salem included. “Such a crime is beyond punishment. All we can do is end a threat.”

“He will run,” Thane rasped. “That we must assume.”

“He won’t get away,” Salem promised. “Even if he does try to run.”

“How can you be so sure?” Hopkins asked, clearly uncomfortable to even be here. Not that Salem could blame him. It was mere moments since this had all happened, and yet she was sure there were already people looking suspiciously at the Sagacity. They might not have colluded deliberately, but with something on this scale, ineptitude would make a poor excuse. The people of the galaxy would want to see someone punished. Cyrus and his people would only be the start.

The Sagacity would make a very tempting target for those looking to vent their anger.

“Because after this, the Queens will never stop hunting him,” Salem replied. “And then there is the Marshalls…”

/===<<<>>>===\

Crush-Cha watched the feeds, a cold lump in his chest. This is precisely what they had been trying to prevent. Even knowing they were always likely to fail, it hurt.

“Boss?” Prim asked quietly. “How do you even deal with a crime this big?”

Crush tapped his fingers against the arm of his chair for a moment before admitting the inevitable.

“We can’t,” Crush admitted. “Crimes this big are for governments to deal with. It is beyond any punishment we can give.”

“Oh,” Prim said. “But—”

“So we don’t charge him with this if there is even a word for this crime. No, we charge him with crimes we can deal with. Like murder.”

“Murder?” Prim asked. “Which one?”

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“That one,” Crush pointed to the feed, where a wave of energy passed through a crowd. His finger rested on the face of a young boy, barely a teen, as he was twisted into a mass of flesh that hopefully did not have enough brain left to feel the pain before he died. “And that one,” Crush pointed again. “And that one, and that one…” He took a breath. “There is a lot of crime to go around, so we add everyone who even thought about helping this prick to the list as well.”

“Everyone?” Prim asked, anger starting to replace the shock.

“Open a comm line,” Crush stood. “Broadcast it fucking everywhere.”

“Yes, Boss!” Prim ran over to her console and tapped out commands before nodding.

“This is Chief Marshall Crush-Cha of the Nanite Imperium. Cyrus of the Falling Waters is hereby convicted of over six billion cases of murder, torture, and conspiracy. Any and all people who aided and abetted this act are likewise charged with the guilt of these actions. The sentence is death. I repeat the sentence is death. Anyone who stands in the way of Marshalls carrying out their duty will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. There will be no further warnings. The sentence is to be carried out on sight.”

Crush jabbed his finger on the console to cut off the line and took a single deep breath before he returned to his seat. “Prim, get the crew together. We are going to get to work immediately.”

“Yes, Boss!” Prim nodded and stalked toward the door.

Good thing they had trained some new Marshalls.

/===<<<>>>===\

Nellie sat in her day cabin and stared blankly at the wall. Fully half of her brain power was currently dedicated to analyzing the feeds relayed by Berenice. There was a lot of information to go through, and she felt like the victims deserved at least one person to watch each of them die.

“We did all we could,” Lucy said gently, her holographic presence the only other person allowed in at the moment. “You know that.”

“No, we didn’t,” Nellie countered. “We did the smart thing. We made the right choice for us.”

“Nellie,” Lucy started.

“I’m not saying this is our fault,” Nellie said blandly. “I mean, we could only have stopped it by bringing the galaxy down on our heads. Even then, maybe not. But still, we made a choice that contributed to this outcome. Many choices.”

“What can I do?” Lucy asked.

“Just… be here with me for a few minutes,” Nellie said as tears rolled freely down her cheeks. “I’m facing the consequences of my choices, but I don’t have to do it alone.”

“I’m here,” Lucy nodded.

“Thank you,” Nellie replied in that same bland tone.

“You don’t sound like yourself,” Lucy said suspiciously. “What have you done?”

“I’ve activated command mode,” Nellie said. “It was the only way.”

“Oh, babe,” Lucy reached out and put her hand on Nellie’s shoulder. Thanks to the nanites, Nellie could actually feel it.

“I don’t have time to grieve or to be furious right now,” Nellie replied. “And I am so, so angry right now. I could burn the galaxy to ashes and not even blink. That’s not a great idea for the commander of a fleet.”

The minutes passed, and finally, the horrors were at an end, at least for now. Her memory was perfect since her upgrade. Nothing could make her forget the things she had seen now. It wasn’t much, but it was all she could do for the dead.

As she stood, Crush’s message came through.

“It seems Crush is keeping his cool,” Lucy offered. “Somehow.”

“He’ll feel it later when he has the time and the job is done,” Nellie said.

“So will you,” Lucy said quietly. “Just make sure I am there when you turn that mode off, please.”

“I promise,” Nellie said with a nod.

“Then go get them,” Lucy said.

“You know they call me the Nightmare Queen?” Nellie asked.

“I had heard that, yes,” Lucy nodded but hurried on, “That’s not you, though. They just don’t know anything but the scary you.”

“No, they don’t,” Nellie agreed. “But today, I am the Nightmare Queen, today, that is who I choose to be.”

Nellie walked into the CIC, feeling strange. She could feel the anger and hate like an ocean around her, but it never touched her mind. It was like she was in a storm’s eye. A calm spot that didn’t diminish the thunder and lightning around her but allowed her to act calmly in spite of it.

“Coming out of jump and into the Aumtumn’s Wind system,” Morton reported as she nodded to him. “We can meet up with the other fleets and—”

“We are going straight on,” Nellie said. “Plot the shortest course through jumps to get us to the Falling Waters system. This has to end as quickly as possible.”

“Ma’am, we will be outnumbered significantly,” Morton warned.

“Acknowledged, carry out the order.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Morton saluted and relayed her commands.

While they skipped through a series of rapid microjumps, Nellie sent messages to the other fleets, calling her people and issuing orders. They could come along behind, cleaning up anything left after the Harbinger and her escorts passed through.

Cyrus had to die, and he had to die quickly. Before another planet became a testament to one man’s selfishness and ego.

/===<<<>>>===\

While the Imperium moved, they were not the only ones making rapid changes to their plans. Cyrus’s people were far from united in their reaction to the actual use of the weapon. Of course, they had built the things but never to use them.

Maybe a demonstration on some small moon with a few dozen people on it. A warning and a bargaining chip. Nothing more.

But somewhere along the way, plans had changed, and they hadn’t been informed. Now, their comm devices were lit up like supernovas as messages flooded in from family in the other systems. Things had been tense, true, but this was different. All the clans had intermarried on some level, and every family had lost people. Mothers spat hate and recrimination at sons while siblings disowned each other and worse.

In the immediate aftermath of the weapons use, the feeds broadcast by Berenice were relayed, and a flurry of suicides echoed through the ranks. Several ships saw mutinies as the crews turned on their leaders, blood running down the deck plates to pool in the crawlspaces beneath.

What unity remained within the groups fell apart, and by the time the Harbinger jumped into the first of the ‘Water’ systems, over half the forces had unconditionally surrendered. They were the only ones spared in the Queen’s wrath. A cold voice echoing over comm lines before the battles started. In the end, the Harbinger hardly had even to slow down, leaving wreckage in its wake as it moved onto the final buffer between it and the Falling Waters system itself.

Many people in the border systems tried to flee, only to find their neighbors were not in a forgiving mood. All those who ran quickly turned back or were destroyed. Those on foreign stations, unaware of anything planned by the people higher up, were just as shocked and stunned as everyone else. They mainly were freighter captains who were simply out buying resources.

Few had even had the vaguest idea of there even being a secret weapon. None of that mattered to the security officers who arrested them or the crowds that tore them apart if security was too slow to find them.

While fear and anger were sweeping through the neighboring systems, the predominating feeling within Cyrus’s systems was one of overwhelming shock. They had trusted and followed a man who was quite clearly insane.

Now, they were trapped, and there was nowhere left to turn for help.

And the Nightmare Queen was coming for them.