Page 59 of Tears of Tungsten
Black Holes
Knox
Meanwhile
“Well, this is it. The Apsid Quasar. I’m pretty sure I’ve narrowed down the entry point as accurately as I could.”
“Are you sure about this, Brendan? If we pass this point, we won’t be able to turn back.”
“I’m as sure as I can be. It’s risky to rely on Penelope, but the alternative is waiting for an approval we’d never receive.”
Hidden in the shadows of the control room, I watched the others discuss our unavoidable doom and silently focused on reining in my beast. It was more of a challenge than I’d have liked to admit. My instincts of self-preservation screamed at me to get out of here at once, but I found that very easy to ignore. It was the delay that bugged me, the inexorable passage of time and the knowledge that every second that passed could very well be another day Selene spent in the aliens’ clutches. I’d have gotten angry the others were even having this conversation had I not known they were as anxious about it as I was.
For the purpose of expedience, we’d taken Brendan’s Venom to what he and August had determined to be the closest access gate to the quasar. The large vessel wasn’t that inconspicuous, but we’d be leaving it here anyway. Even with the strong tachyon shield around it, our chimeras would still be a better option for the mission. We’d be cooked alive if something went wrong again, but it was a risk we were willing to take.
We didn’t have the forces necessary to stage an actual assault on the apsids and win. I doubted we’d have been able to gather the necessary military strength even if we’d had King Philip’s full support. So we were forced to rely on subterfuge.
The chimeras were small enough that we might be able to escape unnoticed. Logic stated that the apsids would have means of protection against that, but I hoped we’d be able to avoid their sensors.
That was the only thing we had, hope, coupled with the instructions in the files that held so many secrets about The Grand Judiciary. I’d actually thought Brendan would try to dangle the more delicate information over his father’s head, but then, I’d realized that was a ridiculous idea. It was much too risky. The Grand Judiciary was far more likely to ensure our deaths at the hands of the apsids than they were to provide reinforcements.
Either way, we were here now and we’d soon have to face our worst enemies. Nobody was looking forward to it, not even Cerberus.
The chimeras were at the back of the Venom, but even so, Cerberus managed to reach out to me through our bond. He didn’t say it, but he knew our chances of success weren’t very high.“Don’t be so down, pup,”he tried to encourage me.“You’ll find your mate. I’m sure she’s waiting for you. And she’s strong. Even if she’s angry with you for what happened on Terra, she’ll understand eventually.”
Maybe she would have, under regular circumstances, if we’d been able to talk to her immediately. Selene had always been willing to hear us out, to open her heart to us, even when we hadn’t deserved it. But this time, we’d well and utterly failed her. We’d almost gotten her killed and had been unable to save her from the apsid.“I don’t know about that, Cerberus, but at this point, I wouldn’t mind it if she hated me. All I want is to get her back to safety.”
She deserved so much better than this, so much better than being lied to and used. Because that was exactly what we’d done. We’d lied and used her. Even Sphinx had been no better, for all that she’d sworn to protect Selene. And while we’d had our reasons—good ones—the fact remained that Selene was more than entitled to push us away.
I shoved aside my morose thoughts and joined the others next to the displays. “We’ll go with our previous plan then?” I asked.
Brendan nodded and passed an agitated hand through his hair. “It’s our best chance. Come on. We’re wasting time. Let’s board the chimeras. Flight Lieutenant Cavallero, you’re in charge of setting us up for launch remotely.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” August answered.
It was no coincidence that both August and Brendan had chosen to refer to one another in such an official way. This was a mission, the most difficult one we’d ever participate it. We had to be as professional about it as possible.
Today, we weren’t just a pack, a brood, or a team. We were an army, a task force of nine people all working for the same goal. Nothing—not even each other—would stand in our way.
One by one, we entered our respective chimeras. Sphinx looked lonely and abandoned because she didn’t have a tamer, but she could use her primary systems without Selene, so she was going anyway. If we succeeded in extracting Selene, Sphinx’s presence would be essential. She could easily whisk our captive lover away while we fought off potential waves of attackers. We’d also be relying on her to guide us to Selene. Her bond to our lover was cracked, but frayed threads of it still remained, and it was our best chance to track her down instead of losing ourselves in the immensity of the quasar.
As Brendan had instructed him, August opened the launch pad of the Venom. The void of space was ahead of us, with Jupiter looming to our right, a silent monolith barren of all life.
The area seemed innocuous and not at all like a place that would secretly hide a transport point to the Apsid Quasar. But appearances could be deceiving, and there was no one who knew that better than I did.
When Cerberus launched himself into space, a mix of clarity, anger and determination flooded my veins. We might not be near Mercury now, but it was still so easy to remember our last battle, when we’d almost lost August to the viciousness of the sun. This time, it was so much worse, because back then, we’d still been together as a unit. This time, we’d been torn apart. But we would fix it, no matter what we had to do.
Usually, Brendan led our missions, but today, August took his place. Brendan was right behind him, with Pollux, Sphinx and I following. August had insisted on this formation, because he really did believe the information Penelope’s files had provided on his background as an apsid. If something went wrong, he’d likely suffer less damage from a full blast of an apsid’s attack than we would.
We’d all tried to tell him that if the shields around the chimeras faltered, his nature wouldn’t make a difference. We’d been unable to dissuade him, and in the end, Brendan had decided to go along with his idea. For all we knew, August might be right. It couldn’t hurt to have an additional layer of protection, even if it wasn’t something one hundred percent reliable.
We swept right through the point of entrance to the quasar. After all the fuss made to protect the area, actually going inside was pretty anticlimactic. One moment, we were in our galaxy, and the next, the space around us shifted unnaturally, turning into a different reality. I took the transfer in stride, more concerned with the possibility of running into guards. If any apsids were nearby, though, I couldn’t see them. The displays of the Cerberus lit up with the impossible heat he had to withstand, the accretion disk of the quasar attempting to force us out. He took the assault without protest, but he didn’t hide his concern.“It’s going to be difficult to track down any opponent here, pup.”
“We already knew that was going to happen. I’m more troubled by the absence of the patrols. Just how much will we stand out?”
“Too much,” Brendan replied through the coms. “We’ll just have to use what time we have at our disposal to the best of our ability.”
“The temperature isn’t excessive,” August offered. “For the moment, I’d say we’re doing fine. Sphinx, which way?”
