Angels of Eternity Read online

  “We’ll have to put you in quarantine just the same. Don’t worry, it won’t be very long. Have to do that for anyone who was in contact with the wasps. Suit up and be ready to move out in fifteen minutes. We’ll meet you at the entrance point.”

  Shakti acknowledged the message and closed the panel on her vambrace. “Okay, ladies,” she announced. “We have fifteen minutes to get the hell out of here. I know you all want to stay, but we have a shuttle to meet.”

  The warbrides formed into a single column, with Salina and Tara in the front, just behind Shakti and Durga, as they carried Mangi’s body out. It was a quick trip, after the helmets were sealed in place, to the port where they’d entered the wasp destroyer. They walked slowly with their weapons and shields down. No one expected another attack by wasps, but it could happen at any moment.

  “You realize they didn’t expect us to survive this, don’t you?” Durga told Shakti right before she sealed her helmet. “We were supposed to be a diversion. While the wasps busied themselves with us, they would attack with the corvettes. I checked. There are twenty units of imperial legions on stand-by. We were chum in the water to attract the wasps and find out what they had on the destroyer.”

  “So they found out,” Shakti replied as she placed her helmet over her head. “Maybe they’ll make better use of us the next time.” She sealed it.

  “Assuming we’re still alive,” Durga grumbled as she sealed hers.

  The destroyer still spun slowly to simulate gravity and the warbrides climbed back into the airlock where they’d entered the ship. Shakti led the way again and made sure everyone was inside the lock when she sealed the interior doors with another portable cover. A few minutes later, she heard the signal from the shuttle over the helmet.

  “Ready for extraction, warbrides,” it said to her. “You can pop the seal anytime you want.”

  “Hold tight, sisters,” she instructed them. “Everyone grab something because the air will blow out the moment the seal is removed. Tara, Sarina, make sure you have Mangi’s body secured.” They’d wrapped the body tightly before leaving, but it still might shoot out the opening once the seal was removed. “Lashmi, why don’t you do us the honors?”

  The former street thief and pleasure worker crawled over to the seal and gripped the side of it the best she could. With her free hand, Lashmi, tore the seal loose and let the air inside the lock out. There was a rush as it evacuated the chamber, but the air leaving the room didn’t blow out so quick as to pull them out. When it was over, five seconds later, they saw the form of the shuttle waiting for them just outside the hole.

  It took another five minutes for them to transfer back to the shuttle. Shakti grabbed the line as the shuttle fired it over. She attached a line to the ship before leaving and reeled it out to Durga. Once the line was attacked on both ends, the warbrides used it to move between both ships in a matter of minutes. Shakti let the pilot know when they were all onboard and the shuttle returned to the corvette. Safe on the shuttle, Durga cut the line and the doors closed.

  The medics met them when the shuttle let them out into the corvette. The captain of the corvette ordered the warbrides to keep their suits on since they were all to be taken into the quarantine area. They were taken to a remote part of the corvette away from the rest of the crew by medics in white suits.

  “We can’t take chances,” he repeated. “Too many strange biologicals with the wasps. I’ll have three doctors check out your vitals and take blood samples. We can coordinate it with the medical corps to find out if you carry anything.”

  They had a simple ceremony for Mangi with Tara taking the few possession of the dead woman. As per imperial regulations, her body was sent on a trajectory to the nearest sun.

  The warbrides spent the next two weeks confined. Each was interviewed by an intelligence officer over a screen. Shakti agreed with Durga after a few days: no one expected them to survive. The encounters between human and wasp were few and, before now, few humans survived them. Their actions proved the wasps were vulnerable. No one knew how vulnerable they were as of yet.

  “Right now I could use me something long and hard,” Kamala spoke as five of her co-wives relaxed in the sauna. The corvette had one in the isolation ward to keep the inmates occupied. It was also a way to test their exposure to temperature increases.

  “I need to speak privately to Shakti,” the captain of the corvette buzzed them over the speaker.

  She dropped the towel on a pile for the medics and walked naked to the private line. Time to have the latest conference with him.

  Shakti noticed the smile on the faces of five of her co-wives.

  Maybe later, she thought, just not now.

  Chapter 6

  “What do you need, Captain?” Shakti asked.

  She looked at the face of the man in charge of the Vindicator and wondered what was wrong. She noticed the captain staring at her, then realized she was stark naked. He could see her; Shakti sighed and picked up a nearby towel, and wrapped it around her torso.

  “Don’t tell me you have never looked at a naked woman before,” She said to the image.

  The captain, who was known as Wu, was on the short side. He had served in the interstellar forces for many years, but this was his first command of an actual fast attack ship. He’d wanted a position on a larger vessel with more firepower. However, he was happy with his current position. He lacked the relatives to get him a better commission.

  “Not one so fine as you,” he told her with a smile. “We have another assignment for the warbrides. The medics can’t find anything, so you’ll be released from quarantine. The war college wants your team to investigate a wasp ship drifting near the one you captured. We think it might have been part of a convoy.”

  “Why us? Don’t you have any Imperial Legions to look into it?”

  “The emperor sent them to other theaters. This is a small ship, looks to be some kind of transport. We don’t see any external weapons, but no one can tell what’s inside it. We need you and your warbrides to find out what it contains. How fast will it take you to be suited up and ready?”

  Shakti thought for a few seconds. “Give us an hour, Captain. We’ve been lounging around since you pulled us out of that destroyer. I think the girls will like a chance to get out and do something.”

  “One hour. I’ll have a shuttle ready for you.” The image on the screen faded.

  Shakti dropped the towel and folded it. She looked down and admired her naked body. All the physical discipline and rations did her plenty of good. She’d lost a few inches on the waist, but her breasts still were firm. I’d get a premium rate back in my old pleasure house, she thought. She considered again and remembered those days were over. She was a warbride and married to the emperor.

  The women were in the central room of the ward. There wasn’t much to do and they spent their time trying to read or played games. Tara and Salina were occupied with cards and three other women were braiding one of their co-wife’s hair. They all turned when Shakti entered the room and called attention.

  “Our rest period is over,” she announced while standing barefoot in the door. “The captain tells me a new wasp ship was found drifting near the destroyer we captured last week. Since the legions are busy killing wasps on other planets, we get the job of checking out this new ship. I need everyone suited and ready in a half hour.”

  “I could get used to this armor,” Kamala said over her audio as the shuttle circled around the wasp vessel trying to find anything that resembled a docking port. The organic nature of the wasp ships made them difficult to examine. The destroyer captured by the warbrides was in the hands of a technical board who were trying to find ways to explore it without destroying the interior. It took them days to remove the self-destruct bombs. These were the ones the wasp commander tried to detonate.

  “I think I see something,” the pilot told them from his position up front. “Looks to be some kind of docking station ahead. Did you bring explosives?
I can try and shoot it open for you.”

  Shakti was ready to tell him they had their own demolition expert who could do the job, thank you, when the pilot let out a yell.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked over her audio.

  “Port is opening!” he exclaimed. “I’m going to put it on the main screen, have a look.”

  The image on the screen illuminated to show a door slowly opening on the side of the wasp ship. It locked into position when it fully open. The door was smooth and appeared to be made of the same kind of material as the rest of the ship.

  “I’m receiving a transmission from the ship,” the pilot informed them. “It claims to be from human survivors inside it. They say the ship is in their hands and we can come aboard. They want out of there as soon as we can get them. They tell me I can bring the shuttle inside the port; there is room for me to dock. I’m going to risk it and believe them. I can dock right up to the door and seal the shuttle to their ship. That way you won’t have to go outside to get inside.

  “We weren’t looking forward to blowing it open again,” Shakti told him. “Let us off, but if we run into anything nasty, get the hell out of here.”

  “Don’t worry, I will.”

  There was a thud, which resonated through their armored suits, and the shuttle came to a rest. The warbrides released the bar they held onto during the transfer from the Vindicator and noticed a slight gravitational pull toward the far side of the shuttle. This wasp vessel also rotated slowly to simulate gravity. They pulled themselves over to the open door on the shuttle. Shakti led the way into the ship, which was lit, as they entered.

  The connection to the shuttle was sealed, which meant they didn’t need to use the airlock. The warbrides kept their suit armor on as they entered the wasp ship. They had no idea what was on the other side. Holding her shield high and her sword in a guard position, Shakti walked into the wasp ship and looked around. It appeared safe. She motioned for the other women to enter.

  Shakti looked behind her and saw Dharma holding her crossbow. She was deadly accurate with that thing. Shakti looked into Dharma’s faceplate and saw the tiny dancer smile back at her.

  They were greeted by a small band of humans.

  In front of them stood three men and four women. Sunken eyes stared out at them. Shakti and Dharma couldn’t believe what was in front of them. No one had ever returned alive from a wasp ship or even wasp-held territory. Through her external audio feed, Shakti heard the weapons snap into position from the other women behind her. Based on what had happened the last time, they assumed anything they encountered inside the ship was lethal.

  “Explain yourself!” Shakti snapped.

  It occurred to her what a sight they must appear in their suit armor and helmets. She also needed to turn on her external speaker. Shakti activated it and repeated herself.

  “Survivors,” a man in the front of the group said to them. “We’re all that remains of the colony from Spiritual Discipline.”

  Spiritual Discipline was an outlying human colony on a world recently terraformed by the Imperial Planetary Corps. The emperor used it to relocate a large contingent of pacifists from several other systems. They were causing him no end of trouble. The group, known as “Disciplinarians”, refused to honor the symbols of the empire or even pay reverence to the image of His Imperial Majesty. Rather than create martyrs, the Privy Council recommended they be sent to one of the new planets that opened up after the terraforming process. The emperor liked the idea and had his forces move them to the new world. It was registered in the rolls after the colonists gave it a name.

  Unfortunately, it was one of the first human planets the wasps seized.

  The imperial fleet only knew about the invasion from a garbled plea for help. The planet didn’t even have its own police force. Everyone who knew what happened assumed the human population on Spiritual Discipline was dead.

  “What about the wasps?” Durga cut into her conversation. “Where are they? Who is in charge of the ship?”

  “No one is,” the man replied. “The creatures that built and controlled it are all dead. At least we think they’re dead. We haven’t seen any of them in a long time.”

  “You killed them?” Shakti asked. “I thought your group was against any kind of violence.”

  “We are,” he continued. “There was someone else. Another man with our group who managed to get ahold of some weapons before you found us. I think he was a pirate.”

  This made sense. The pirate clans had a brutal reputation in the empire. If the wasps made the mistake of putting a pirate in with some pacifists, it would explain everything.

  “Where is he?” Shakti asked the group.

  “He’s dead,” one of the women responded. “He managed to get into the place the creatures used to do their…implanting. I think he killed most of them before they got to him. The ones that lived didn’t last very long afterwards. It was all very horrible. Is there a way back? Please get us out of here.”

  “Vindicator,” Shakti signaled to the corvette. “We have human survivors here from Spiritual Discipline. I’m sending them back over in the shuttle.”

  “Survivors?” the captain’s voice cut into the feed. “I’ve never heard of the wasps letting anyone survive. Are you sure?”

  “They’re standing right in front of me, Captain.”

  “Send them back over on the shuttle. I’ll inform the pilot to bring them back and he’ll return for you. Guess I can put them in the isolation ward, since the prefects say it’s alright for you to mix with the crew.”

  Shakti showed the survivors the entrance they’d used and told them the shuttle would take them to a human ship. They filed into the shuttle holding area. As the door closed behind them, Shakti observed the way they jerked suddenly as if afraid something would grab them at any minute. What manner of horrors had they witnessed?

  “Okay,” she announced to the rest of the warbrides. “Let’s see what the pirate left us.”

  “I thought pirates didn’t exist,” Chimata commented to the other women. The all used the same frequency. “Aren’t they some kind of ghost story told to scare kids?”

  “I guess this one was real,” Salina commented.

  The women traveled down another corridor and found a large room. It appeared to be some kind of storage area. Cages were mounted into the walls. Shakti’s suit sensors indicated the pheromone markers placed on the walls. Bioluminescent light flooded from the ceiling. The walls, as in the wasp destroyer, curved up to meet in the middle where the light source was placed.

  In the middle of the floor, surrounded by cages, were the remains of twelve wasps. Scattered amidst them was the pirate’s body. Split abdomens and thoraxes from the wasps lay next to what was left of forearms and mandibles. A lone sword in the center of the carnage told them how the pirate had dispatched his captors. The survivors would tell the intelligence officer on the corvette how the pirate found a short sword concealed in the transport ship and waited a long time for his opportunity.

  He was picked up during the final raid on Spiritual Discipline by the wasps. The pirate was the only survivor of a pirate vessel. It crashed on their world prior to the wasp invasion. They nursed him back to health after finding the remains of his life pod on the surface. He’d just managed to stand up when the first wasp ship landed. Since he wore the pacifist’s clothes, the wasps thought he was one of the colonists.

  “These don’t seem like the same types of wasps we found in the destroyer,” Chimata observed.

  Since she was the only one of the group with anything more than a basic education, Shakti let the small, fair-skinned woman look over the body parts. Chimata walked through the remains on the floor and peered down at them. She illuminated the carnage with the light on her helmet and described what she saw.

  “Ovipositors, vestiges of wings, slightly larger abdomens,” Chimata spoke while looking at the remains. “I think these may be breeders of some type. Princess Caste, if you will.”r />
  “Shakti, are you there?” It was Captain Wu again. “I’ve talked to the survivors. We have them in the infirmary and the medics are taking their vitals. We’ve started interviewing them too.”

  “I’m glad to hear it, captain,” she replied. “Anything we need to know? We’ve found the remains of a pirate and the twelve or more wasps he killed.”

  “One of the women says this ship was hauling a brood chamber of some kind. You might want to be careful when you go in there. She began to scream when we pressed her for details.”

  “I’ll keep it in mind.”

  They continued down the first corridor, which led out of the chamber. Shakti couldn’t decide which the best way to move out of it was. She chose the one that was coated with the green stain of wasp blood. The green fluid was dry by the time they stepped on it, but it was a reminder of what took place.

  She continued down the corridor with Durga covering her left. The corridor was wide enough for two of them to pass, since it was built for wasps, not humans. The ceiling was lower than most people would tolerate and they were forced to duck every now and then when a line crossed their paths.

  “What the hell is this place?” She heard Lashmi ask as they emerged into another room. This one was covered with instruments. Unlike the destroyer they’d captured, most of the levers and panels appeared to be built for humans. Shakti had Tara take some pictures of what they found. It was not possible to transmit the images to the corvette since they were deep in the wasp vessel. The signal to the corvette ceased as they went further into the ship.

  Lakshmi’s question was answered when they saw a movement in the corner of the room. In the pale light of the bioluminescence, a group of four humans sat on the floor. The warbrides lowered their weapons. Shakti approached them first.

  Each appeared to be part of the same family, since they all resembled each other. All of them had grey faces with pale eyes and blond hair. They wore a tunic of some brown cloth.

  The people in the room jumped up and slid back to the wall when they saw Shakti and her crew. They waved their hands and appeared frightened. Shakti flipped on the external audio and went up to them.