Mercy had been quiet again for a few minutes, so Raini took her leave and headed to the back of the Sea Dancer. There she found Avon and Tain, the later at the wheel, the former staring out to sea.
“I could have sworn I saw some lightning on the horizon only a moment ago,” Avon said.
“I didn't see a thing,” Tain’s voice was low and empty sounding. Raini looked at the horizon, then figuring out that Avon had a decent eye she used her telescope to try and catch a glimpse of something, but all she saw was the inky blackness of the night. There weren’t even that many stars out.
“What's the plan captain?” Tain asked.
Raini bit her lip. “The fleet should be out here somewhere, they have more mag cannons and heavy weapons than Raven’s Fall did, maybe they did better.”
“Anything else?” asked Avon.
“I'll try for another meeting; any lie can be broken if you hit it often enough with the truth.” She hoped so at least. She continued to watch the horizon, wondering what she'd say if she got a second chance. Her mind wondered to back to Luit. Had he been right to take that way out?
“What are you thinking about Captain?” Tain broke the silence.
“Luit, poor kid. Nothing about this is right but he...” her voice trailed off.
“Poor kid,” Avon repeated, and they fell silent again. Mercy knew that Luit's death should have been shaking her up more than this. She had liked him, his earnest attempts to do what was right had reminded her of herself when she'd first joined Younie’s crew, but there had been so much death lately that one more didn't hurt her as much as it should have. Perhaps when this was all over it would.
“I can hardly believe that this time yesterday I was trying to hunt down a Lasrom troop convoy,” Raini said.
“I think I was finishing a new treaties on the treatment of burns, it was all new material to be given away freely. It was going to save lives,” Avon paused as Raini thought back to the previous night. It seemed so long ago. “I was going to write twenty treaties then fake my own death.”
“Fake your own death?” Raini said. Avon shrugged.
“Alot of the Dead do it these days, we go off somewhere into retirement and away from all the clan politics. I was going to start a twenty-first treaty, claiming that I had discovered the secret to immortality but died before I could write it down just to annoy all those who came after me.” He laughed briefly, but the sound died in his throat. Raini yawned and again tried to fight off her exhaustion, she guessed it would be daylight in a few hours and felt a shiver run down her back as she wondered if this was the last dawn she'd ever see.
“There must be something we can do,” she said.
“Fight hard, die well.” Tain's voice stayed low. “We can't win, we can just make these bastards suffer.” There was the sound of metal clanking on wood as Mercy slowly climbed the stairs. She was like some sort of avenging demon, Raini thought, one that could hunt you down no matter the distance between you and her. She saw Avon shudder as the creature reached the top of the steps and turned to face them.
“My investigation has hit a dead end for now,” she declared. Tain folded his arms and turned to watch the open sea.
“Well, isn't that a shame,” Avon said. Raini wondered if Mercy understood the sarcasm that dripped from the words.
“It is,” Mercy said. “This is very frustrating for us.” Avon swallowed and turned to see what Tain was finding so interesting. Raini could see his hands close into fists tight enough for the knuckles to turn white, she was only vaguely aware that her own had done so as well. Mercy stomped over to them. “It has been suggested that I again ask you for your help in this investigation.”
“Why?” Raini managed through clenched teeth.
“We have no experience with this sort of investigation, you do.” Not a single hint of emotion was in those words, no pleading, no guilt, nothing.
“No, I mean why should we help you again?” Mercy didn't even pause.
“Because this way you will be saved till last.”
“In what twisted world is that enough?” She pushed past Avon and Tain. “The only way we are going to help you at all is if you promise to leave this world and us alone forever. Can you do that?”
“No.” Again the voice was perfectly still. “We cannot leave this world now.”
“Then just leave us alone. Find someplace that we're not at.” Raini felt Avon put a calming hand on her shoulder be she just shook it off and took another step towards Mercy.
“That will not work, if we did such a thing your final days would be horrific, we must do this now for you own good.”
“You-” Raini felt herself lunge forward, if hatred alone would have been enough, she would have torn Mercy apart. Her voice turned into a snarl as she crossed the deck, barely aware of herself through the blanket of red that was smothering, her she smashed into Mercy. To her surprise she knocked the creature to the deck and with her fists bunched up as tight as possible she began to rain down blow after blow.
It did nothing, but Raini didn't care, just as she didn't care about the pain in both hands. She was screaming at Mercy; half the words were nothing more than vocalized incoherent rage. Mercy just lay there, empty eyes watching every blow.
The blows began to slow, and their strength diminished, Raini could feel the tears stinging her eyes until the blows became pathetic and she was suddenly aware of the agony in her fingers.
“Damn you,” she whispered to Mercy. “Damn you and all your kind. One day, one day, you will be gone from here and the entire universe will celebrate your deaths and if there is even the tiniest amount of justice in the universe you will suffer so much for what you have done.” Her voice was almost gone, and she doubted that if anyone but one of these creatures had been stood next to her that they would have heard a word. Mercy didn't move, but after a moment finally spoke.
“I wish I could understand, I wish I could feel the need to save you, but I cannot do so. Even if I could, I do not have the power to.”
“Then kill us all now,” Raini said. “Get it over with.”
“I will not attack you; I require your help.” Raini reached down to her mag pistol and for the first time she felt the true extent of the agony in her hands. She winced and forced her fingers to clasp around the butt of the weapon. Slowly she tried lifting the gun out of its holster and almost cried out as pain lanced from her hand to her chest. A fresh wave of tears welled up as she inched the pistol free.
“If you won't, I will.” She raised the pistol and tried to fire. Nothing happened, she saw the blood on her fingers, saw it dripping down her arm and staining her uniform.
“It would be fruitless.” One of Mercy's fingers was under hers, stopping the trigger from being pulled.
“Not for me,” she said and willed her finger to pull the trigger. She didn't care what else happened, she just wanted the universe to give her this one bit of satisfaction. The universe refused, and the weapon did nothing. Avon grabbed her shoulder, and she felt her feet give way against the waves of pain. Avon pulled her back onto the deck where she stood, panting and watching as the creature pulled itself up.
“I am sorry if you are hurt,” Mercy said. “I fell in order to slow your decent, but it could do little to protect your hands.” Raini stared back, aware that Avon was trying to get a decent look at her hands.
“I don't think you've broken anything, just scrapped some of the skin off,” he said. Then she noticed that Tain was standing by her side, sword drawn and aimed at Mercy.
“Tain, can you think of any way to get that thing off my ship?” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
“No captain, but I'm willing to try stabbing it repeatedly.”
“If you do that, you will no longer be under my protection,” Mercy said.
“I don't care.” Raini said. believing every word. She was confident that if attacked now she and her crew would make these Scatha pay. “You can't offer us any reason to keep you here.” Mercy didn't respond at first, and the pause lasted long enough to unsettle Tain. When she did finally speak there was a slight hesitation in Mercy's voice.
“There may be a way for you to survive this.”
“How many of us?” Raini said, desperately forcing the excitement threatening to rise in her down.
“Potentially we may withdraw from this planet.” Raini didn't believe a word of it, clearly neither did Avon.
“Potentially? Not much in that is there?” he said, his focus temporarily taken off her hands.
“But it is something,” Mercy offered.
“Then explain it,” Raini said. Mercy paused again and Raini wondered if she was taking the Scatha equivalent of a deep breath.
“We all follow the Kings, everything we do is because they told us to, including coming to this world. As long as they are in power, we cannot challenge them.”
“So, is there a way to get them out of power?” Raini said.
“We believe that the person who killed Free Thinking Warrior was one of the kings, depending on which one it will cause us to re-evaluate their judgements and our purpose here.”
Raini took a deep breath and wondered what that would entail. Would it be some sort of revolution or coup? Or would they simply take the king away and create a new one.
Avon managed to speak before Raini had finished processing what Mercy had said. “But there are four kings? Which one do we need to be guilty?”
“Judgment. Being here is his choice. If you can prove that he is guilty you may save yourselves.” Avon shot a glance at Raini, and she could tell from his expression that he was trying to figure out the odds.
“So, we have to prove that Judgment is guilty of murder,” he said.
“Yes. I have run out of ideas; I believe that your kind may have more experience in these sorts of matters.”
“Yes, but I don't have a Watch Officer on my crew,” Raini said. She took a deep breath and felt the hatred still in her chest. She wanted to say no and be done with it, but she couldn't condemn her entire species to extinction, she had to do whatever it took to try and survive. “But I suppose we can improvise something, first you need to tell us everything you know.”
Mercy began explaining the situation while Avon ordered Tain to fetch a healer’s kit from Luit's old room. Avon bandaged Raini’s hands, but she refused anything for the pain knowing that it would dull her senses. Tain watched the wheel of the ship and took notes while Raini just sat and listened, trying to get her head around unfamiliar concepts and occasionally asking a question or two. It took almost an hour and by the time they'd finished Raini was struggling to stay awake. She had Avon lift her off the floor to stand and tried to work some blood back into her legs.
“So,” she said as she paced the deck. “What things haven’t you looked at yet?”
“It could be something really obvious,” Avon said, he looked as tired as she felt. They all were exhausted but she wasn't going to sleep until there was nothing else she could do. A decent second officer would have ordered her to bed and done what he could himself, but Tain didn't seem to be ready to step up to that challenge. Besides even if Younie had done it himself she'd have told him to leave in an as impolite way as possible. “We've got opportunity, that's how we know it was a king, and we've got the weapon, what else is there?”
Raini's half sleep deprived mind threw something up at her. “What about motive?” she said.
“Motive? No Scatha would ever have reason to kill another.” Mercy said.
Avon raised an eyebrow. “Clearly one did. So, let's see the reasons why.”
“Judgment is easy,” Raini said coming to a halt. “An argument that got out of hand, or maybe Free disagreed with an order. You said everyone follows the Kings but Free was designed to do things differently.”
“It is not much,” Mercy said. “What about the others.”
“Knowledge?” Tain said glancing over at them. “Did Free Thinker know something that that one didn't? Or wanted to know.”
“Enough to kill him?” Mercy said. “I can't think of anything. The free sharing of knowledge is fundamental to our design and Knowledge facilitates that. It's impossible to hide anything from her.”
“Again, clearly it isn't,” Avon reminded her, she shook her head.
“No, let me try to explain in your terms. Murder requires thought, this does not, this is like breathing. It is done naturally and without hesitation. You may be able to hold your breath for a while, but not forever.”
“So, who else is there?” Raini asked and stared pacing again.
“Curiosity.” Mercy said. “If anyone wanted information, it would be him.”
“I'm guessing that leaves us with the same problem as before,” Avon said. He ran his hands over his eyes and stifled a yawn. “Just like with the actual Knowledge, he doesn't have much to gain. Next.”
“Compassion.”
“Wait a minute,” Raini said, coming to a halt mid stride. “Can we just talk to them here,”
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“What do you mean.” Tain narrowed his eyes a little and his hand went to his sword.
“Can't you leave that body, and let the others control it, that way we could question them,” Raini said. Avon stared at her in an odd mixture of terror and excitement, his mouth opening and closing like a fish.
“Technically possible, it will however take a few seconds to finish the argument that you've just started.”
“Argument?” Avon said in a quiet voice.
“The kings do not like this idea, but almost every Scatha wishes it. They will comply, if only to prove their innocence.” She paused for a moment. “Who would you like to speak to first?” Raini took a deep breath.
“Let's forget about Knowledge and Curiosity for now, give me Compassion.” In truth she just wanted some practice speaking to the Kings before confronting Judgment, and maybe the possibility to sneak in a question or two on the invasion. Mercy didn't respond for a moment, then shuddered like a puppet that had just lost its strings. Then it turned completely around as if trying to get a good look at where it now was.
“I am Compassion of the Scatha.” The voice was identical, even down to the pauses between the words. “I understand that you wish to ask me some questions.” It could all be an act, Raini thought, but she couldn't think of a reason why, and as ever if there was even the smallest chance of success it had to be taken.
“Yes, we do.” Raini walked up to the creature. She had thought Mercy had stayed still, but now realized that she'd been constantly moving to keep herself perfectly level as the ship was rocked by the sea. Compassion didn't even try, it was like her feet were nailed to the deck but somehow, she still stayed upright. “First question, under what circumstances would either Knowledge or Curiosity kill someone?” She couldn’t tell if that had caught Compassion off guard, but from the half-strangled gulp that came from Avon it had clearly surprised one person.
“None. They do not care; it is not in their remit. Knowledge only cares about collecting and sharing information, why would a death help that?” Raini wished she could hear a hint of emotion in that voice, just something that could give an indication what she was thinking. But it was like talking to a brick wall which specialized in clan taxation law.
“And Curiosity? Perhaps he wanted to find out about death,” Raini said. To her surprise Compassion shook her head.
“No. We know about death; we killed Hatred and that has taught us everything we wish to know.” Fine, Raini thought, at least these Scatha aren’t smart enough to try and pin the blame on someone else.
“What about Judgment. We wondered what would happen if someone refused to do what he said.”
“Nothing, why would he ask them in the first place if they’d refuse?” Compassion moved her head back and forth, looking at each one of her confused audiences in turn.
“How can he know beforehand whether they'll say yes or not?” Avon said.
“Because that is what we designed them for. We built each one to complete a task, if that task is outside of their remit, then we build a different one and ask them instead.”
“So, there's no reason why any of you would kill another Scatha,” Raini said bitterly. There had to be something, some way to prove that Judgment was guilty.
“There is no reason why Knowledge, Curiosity or Judgment would, no.” Raini felt a chill run down her back.
“What about you?” Raini said, her voice just above a whisper.
“There is one situation that I may kill another Scatha.”
“What is it?” She asked, not sure if she really wanted to know.
“If a Scatha is in pain and that pain cannot removed by switching to a new body, which I have never seen. If the pain was too much for them, and they asked me, I would do whatever was required to help them.” Raini’s thoughts flickered back to Luit. Had there really been nothing she could do for him. If death was the only way out for Luit, had the same been true for Free Thinking Warrior? A voice from the lookout snapped her out of her thoughts.
“The fleet! We’ve found the fleet.” Raini looked up and gazed at the horizon where the first of the burning wreckage could clearly be seen.
***
“That's the Leviathan I think.” Avon's voice was low, as if he was just speaking to himself. Still on the aft castle of the Sea Dancer there was only her and Mercy around to hear him. Raini had taken over the wheel of the ship and sent Tain to get the crew ready for a fight.
It has taken an hour to reach the remains of the. Most of the vessels were nowhere to be seen but many of the larger vessels had stayed afloat. Fires raged across all but one, slowly consuming what was once some of the most powerful ships on the planet.
“Thats the Zealot, the Harik flagship.” Avon continued to list of the wreaks he recognized. He'd already pointed out the other four sister ships to the Sea Dancer, the Wind Taker, Saren’s Rift, Short Cutter and the Razor’s Edge had been the first to be spotted. Like the Sea Dancer herself they were quick ships and had outraced the rest of the fleet.
Behind them had come the flagships of other clans and Raini had guessed that they had been leading the entire fleet to the Kasom lands, perhaps hoping for refugee across the sea. Her crew, without any pushing from her had stopped their work and one by one began to salute the wreaks as the sailed past. There was nothing else to do so Raini let them, she was capable of guiding the ship through the remains of the fleet herself and anything that stopped people from looking at the water was welcome.
The fleet was not alone, an honour guard of the dead was escorting it to the end of the world. Or at least that was how Avon had put it. Tears had welled in his eyes after he'd spotted an unknown freighter. It had been a civilian ship and judging by the density of its own escort had been carrying refugee's. Only a few fires flickered on the deck, but enough to make out even more twisted bodies, and the blood seeping down the side of the craft.
Raini glanced back at Judgment who had taken Compassion’s place. It had not really been fair, Raini had asked him one question and ignored him since, but she'd wanted him to see this. She didn't know if it would help but she was willing to try anything. Judgment hadn't moved or said anything, but from its position next to her she knew he could clearly see what they were sailing past.
“Are you going to board her?” Avon managed. He didn't need to say which ship he was talking about. Right at the back of the fleet was the Dominion, a massive Lasomi four decked hundred and twenty gun ship of the line. It looked perfectly fine. Of course, there was still a great deal of distance between them, but it wasn't burning, and she could see that its masts and sails were intact. Even the twenty long barrelled Mag Cannons had been run out read to fire.
“I will, but only me.” For a second Avon looked like her was going to argue against that, but whatever will he had vanished when he looked right in her eyes. His facade again collapsed, and he looked like an old and broken man. He turned back to the burning fleet and said nothing.
Raini looked at her crew, she'd give them a few more minutes before ordering them to bring the Sea Dancer alongside the Dominion. She was glad that ship was at the back, at least when the pulled alongside her they would be away from the smell of blood, and there would no longer be the sound of things hitting the hull. Raini shuddered and glanced at Judgment. She hoped he was getting a good view.
***
It was another half an hour before they were alongside the Dominion and even though Avon had assured her none of Raini’s fingers were broken climbing up the side of the ship via a cargo net still hurt like hell. Raini, aware that her entire crew were watching, didn't make a sound. She reached the top of the gunwale and threw herself over to land painfully on the other side.
Dead eyes, open mouths and blood greeted her. Carefully she stood and pulled the mag pistol out of her belt. Apart from the movement of the two boats, the rigging and the low whine of the pistol's capacitors there was no sound. No, that wasn't right. She could hear another set of whines, a little deeper but further away than any mag pistol should have been audible. Then it clicked. She looked up to the forecastle to her right and saw the twenty magcannons waiting to be fired. The capacitors sitting next to them were so massive that she guessed they might take days or weeks to power down.
“I'm alright,” she shouted down to her crew below. “I'll be back in a few minutes, if anything happens then get out of here.” She didn't wait for a response but began inching forward. Most of the lanterns had gone out, but enough remained so that she didn't have to study what lay in the darkness. She stepped over the bodies and squeezed past the cannons heading towards the back of the ship. She did take the effort to glance at each of the cannons as she passed, noting that not a single one had been fired. They'd been crewed, she could see that and been run out ready to fire, they'd just never had the chance.
She reached the door to the aft castle, and after spending a few moments fumbling with one of the lanterns outside she opened the door and stepped inside. There was just a single large stateroom inside, impressive only in its size. The walls were covered in maps and charts with most of the space taken up by a huge table covered in even more. Like her own room there was a bed off to one side and a desk with a chair at the far end.
She held the lantern over the large table and scanned the documents there. It didn't take long to find the ships log. Written by one Admiral Mirin Lasrom it confirmed what she already guessed. The fleets of four separate clans had anchored for the night a few miles away from each other after a day of manoeuvring. They'd been expecting to offer battle once it was light again, but the Scatha invasion had put paid to that. Two hours into the invasion after the Scatha armies had destroyed the coastal cities of Dinistri and Malo the fleets had united and with a gaggle of refugee's had headed towards the Kasom lands hoping that the Scatha hadn't reached that far. The final log entry noted that the fleet had come under attack and so Admiral Mirin had ordered the Dominion and four other warships to try and hold them off while the rest escaped. Raini sighed and made a quick note in the ships log, just a few lines detailing that she'd found the ship early in the morning with its crew dead at their stations.
Raini dropped the quill she'd been using on the table and looked around the rest of the room. Admiral Mirin, her throat ripped open and a broken mag pistol in one of her hands sat slumped behind her desk. Raini gave the admiral a salute and headed outside again. She holstered her pistol again and climbed up the ladder to the ships aft castle. A dead lieutenant greeted her at the top of the ladder, but she'd seen so many bodies today it no longer disturbed her. She clambered over that body and came to a halt.
Very slowly, as if it was a child who'd been caught doing something wrong, a small Scatha floated up from behind the wheel. Raini's hand twitched for her gun, but the Scatha ducked away again.
“Who are you? I know your there. I saw you,” she shouted. The small Scatha hovered back into view, and she took a couple of steps towards it. It resembled a small flying skull. It gave off a whine, not unlike her mag-pistol as it hovered. The whine changed pitch slightly and from a light source where its mouth should be shone words across the deck.
“My name is Hider of Small Things.” The words said, a memory clicked in Raini’s head.
“Weren't you the one who first picked up the message?” She asked.
“No, that was Finder of Small Things, but I assisted in the investigation until I was ordered to other duties.” The lights flickered again. “Do you wish to ask me any questions?” The light changed from a fragile blue to a stronger yellow.
“I don't know. I'm finding it hard to get my head around your kind. Is there anything you think you could tell me?” What did they expect her to do, interview every Scatha?
“No. I have already told Mercy all I knew. I am sorry.” Finder then turned away and hovered back behind the wheel.
“You don't need to apologize for that to me,” Raini said. Though she could no longer see the creature it was still able to project the lights onto the deck.
“I was not apologizing for that. Please, come over here.” Curious Raini walked behind the wheel. She noticed a large box placed just below it, connected to the wheel via its support. “What is that?” The words flashed across it. Raini stared at the box, she'd heard rumours of such devices for a couple of years, but the Kasom Navy Admirals and Clan Leaders had always laughed at the idea. They preferred to invest their efforts in proven technology that provided real advantages.
“It's a mechanical pilot,” she said. “It's connected to the ropes that lead down to the rudder. It's filled with springs and wheels and only the dead know what else.”
“What does it do?”
Raini shrugged. “Supposedly if you set these leavers up correctly it'll pilot the ship on its own. Don't ask me how. It's not perfect but it will keep a course for a few hours.” Hider spun in the air to look over the back of the ship. Attached to the pilot by a cable was a weathervane and a wind gauge.
“And those?”
“The read wind direction and power, supposedly they can tell these things to that thing,” she tapped the mechanical pilot with her boot, “so it can keep the right course. In theory at least.”
Hider gave out a low whine. “Thank you, that is all I wished to know.”
“Is there anyone else on this ship?” Hider moved its head back and forth, imitating a shake.
“All dead, very few remain left alive. Only your own fleet and the fortress of the Dead Clan.”
“The what?” Raini's eyes narrowed. She'd never heard of that.
“It's in the Vlatch wastes, on the coast, Judgment doesn't wish to attack yet.”
“And that's all that's left? I thought there were two billion a few hours ago. You can't have-” Her voice trailed off and the yellow light changed back to blue.
“There are, including those on your ship, 11,872 left.”
Raini felt her mouth go dry. “No, no, how could you know that? Can you see everything?”
“On the surface of this world. Yes. There may be some hiding below it, but they will be found in time.” They both fell silent for a minute. Raini closed her eyes and tried to focus. She needed sleep, needed to rest her hands, needed someone else to deal with this. Why can't I just wake up. She thought to herself, why can't I just wake up and go back to the way things were before. Blue light shone and she opened her eyes to see Hider writing again.
“I came here to tell you something,” it said. Raini blinked away tears. “There is nothing you can do to save yourselves, but you can begin much.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Even she could barely hear the words.
“It will not fall today and that is all the time you both have. You and Mercy have taken the smallest crack and beaten on it. You have created new cracks; they cannot be seen but they are there waiting to be exploited.” It was like something that Avon would say.
“Cracks in what?”
“In the lie we both know has been told. You should leave now; Judgment is still waiting to answer your questions.”
***
Her crew were gathered around and waiting for her return. Raini clambered down the cargo netting and landed on her feet with a jolt. She glanced around and saw their nervous expressions.
“No survivors, better get us moving.”
“Where?” Travic asked.
“To the Vlatch wastes, that is apparently where everyone else is right now.” Avon's eyes widened and he gaped at her.
“How do you-” He began but Raini silenced him with one hand.
“Can you just give us a rough direction for now?” He gulped and looked around for support but found none. Finally, he just shrugged, and Raini saw him do some quick mental arithmetic.
“About ten degree’s east of north,” he said eventually. “It’s roughly the right way but-”
“You'll need maps and charts to get the exact course,” Raini finished.
“No, it's just that there's nothing out there.” Avon's voice was pained, earnest and utterly unbelievable.
“Tain, set course for 350 degrees as fast as we can go.”
“Yes Captain.” Tain shouted back. Raini looked at the shaken Avon and smiled. “You come with me; we're going to have an interesting talk.”
As her crew dissolved into action, she took him back to her stateroom. To her mild surprise Avon didn't switch into his cold-hearted killer persona. She wondered if that was deliberate or had she really shaken him.
“How did you know about Vlatch?” he asked in a shaken voice.
“You mentioned it before, last time you were in this room,” she said and sat down behind her desk. She unrolled one of the larger maps and waved a hand over it. “Where is it?”
“But how do you know there are people there?” Avon took a few steps forward and glanced nervously at the map.
“A little Scatha told me, while I was on the Dominion.” She grinned and pointed to the map again.
“And said there are people there?” Avon asked. She nodded. “And you trust them?”
“Listen to me Avon of the Dead, the Scatha maybe genocidal monsters who deserve nothing but a very long and slow extinction, but I've not heard of a single one who lied or hid what he truly was. They may be monsters, but their honest monsters.”
“Are you done?” he said with just a hint of harshness in his voice.
“I'm just getting started you arrogant bastard. Where is it and what's there?” He glanced down at the map and carefully picked up a pencil.
“When this is over you can't tell anyone about this.” Raini laughed and folded her arms.
“When this is over, we are all going to be dead.” The pencil which had been descending to the map halted. Raini leaned forward to whisper in Avon's ear. “We can't win, billions are dead, do you know what our job is now?”
“No.”
“We have to hurt them as much as possible, create the cracks and hope to the Dead that someone stronger comes along soon after us and finishes what we started.” Avon swallowed and made a mark on the map, Raini glanced down.
“That's the middle of nowhere,” she said. Now it was Avon's turn to smile.
“There used to be something in the air around there, something that killed anyone nearby, but it vanished over the past few decades, or maybe it was just a myth.” He sighed and dropped the pencil.
“So, what is this Fortress of the Dead?”
“A refuge. It's a sort of national redoubt, we have supplies, weapons, fortifications, everything we'd thought we'd need if the Dragon's came back.” Raini nodded and decided not to tell him that she thought it would do little good. She looked down at the map, the Sea Dancer on average could do fifteen knots an hour or twenty-seven kilometres, Valtch looked about 200 hundred kilometres away so that would be approximately eight hours of good sailing.
“Good.” She did another quick burst of maths in her head and scribbled a number onto a scrap piece of paper. “Take this to Tain, tell him to get the ship on this heading and stand the crew down, normal operations from now on until I say so.” Avon nodded and took the paper.
“What do you want me to do about Judgment.”
“He promised us time, go and see how long that is and then tell him we don't need him anymore.”
“You- you can't do that.” Raini laughed again, she was suddenly feeling free and in control again for the first time since the Scatha arrived. Freedom, as they said, was when you had nothing left that anyone could take away.
“Yes, I can. I'm sick of playing along with the Scatha games, we can't win or save ourselves, so I don't mind if we let Judgement wait around for a while” She began to guide him towards the door. “I'm going to get some sleep and I suggest you do the same. If Judgment’s answer is less than eight hours then wake me and if he or Mercy makes a fuss you can try and shoot them if you want, other than that I don't want to be disturbed.” She opened the door and indicated it with a wave of her hand.
“Yes Captain.” Avon said stepping through it.
“Good.” She slammed the door behind him and collapsed on her bed. She was asleep within minutes.