The Heirs of Earth

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Her breath trembled. Leaving the cockpit, Rowan stepped into the Jerusalem's hold.

Before her spread the devastation.

Fifty dead Inheritors, their corpses torn apart, limbs and heads and entrails scattered. A pool of blood. Smoking dead scorpions. And in the center of the slaughter—Emet lying on the floor, wounded, maybe dying, and Jade kneeling above him, drenched in the blood of her enemies.

"Jade?" Rowan whispered. Her voice shook. "Is that really you?"

Jade whipped her head toward her, hissing, blood on her teeth. She seemed less than human. A demon. A creature half flesh, half machine. Her skin shone, unnaturally white and hard. The fire had burned away her blue hair, but her implants still whirred and shone on the side of her head. Claws extended from her fingertips. The creature grinned, eyes mad.

Rowan took another step closer. Every instinct in her body screamed to run. But she advanced toward the demon.

Because I see something in her green eyes, Rowan thought. Something buried under the madness.

"Sister," Rowan whispered, reaching out a shaking hand.

Jade screamed. The sound was deafening, echoing in the ship, nearly knocking Rowan back.

"What did you call me?" Jade shouted, voice like a thousand shrieking demons of hell.

Beneath her, Emet was trying to move, to crawl away. But he was badly wounded. Maybe dying. And Jade was still gripping him with one hand, her claws in his flesh. Without anyone manning the cannons, the Jerusalem was taking a pounding. The ship kept jolting as blasts slammed into their shields. Outside, the battle was still raging across space.

"Rowan!" Duncan cried from the cockpit. "Rowan, I need you back here, lass!"

Rowan blinked tears out of her eyes. She stepped closer to Jade, her boots sloshing through blood.

"Do you remember?" Rowan whispered. "Do you remember me?"

Jade sneered. "You are vermin."

Rowan took a step closer. "I'm your sister."

Jade howled. Beneath her, Emet stretched out a shaky arm, trying to reach a control panel on the bulkhead. But he was too far. He tried to crawl, but Jade kept him pinned down, her claws bleeding him.

"You are a liar!" Jade howled. "A filthy pest! I will not let you back into my skull. I will not! I am a scorpion!"

Rowan shook her head. "You are human."

"Liar!" Jade laughed maniacally. "I will no longer let you deceive me. I will take you back to my master, girl. He himself will skin you. And I will watch and laugh!"

Rowan wept. She stood before her sister, trembling. "What did he do to you?" she whispered. "How did the scorpion emperor hurt you? I'm so sorry, Jade. I'm so sorry we let you go. Come back to me. Come back now. He can no longer hurt you."

But Jade only laughed, head tossed back. "Sin Kra, the great emperor of Skra-Shen, hurts me to make me stronger. And I am strong. You will never know true strength, humans. But you will witness it before you die. You will see our empire rise before your wretched race falls."

Rowan lowered her head, tears falling.

"They broke you," Rowan whispered. "But you can come back. Come back to us."

Heavy footsteps sounded behind her. Duncan came racing off the bridge. He must have left the Jerusalem on autopilot.

"Rowan, lass, step away from her!" Duncan said. "Come to me, lass. Come back into the cockpit. We'll lock the door; it's reinforced steel. Come, Rowan. Come back to me, and stay away from that she-demon."

Jade leaned down, fished a fallen bullet out of the gore, then screamed and hurled it.

The bullet whizzed through the air and slammed into Duncan's forehead.

The bullet drove clean through his head. It clattered into the cockpit behind him.

Duncan stared for a moment, blood gushing from the hole in his forehead, then crashed down dead.

"Duncan!" Emet cried, still pinned to the floor. "No! Duncan!"

Jade laughed, eyes mad. "How frail the flesh of men. This old fool piloted your flagship? This starship will be mine. I will command it myself, firing its cannons to slay your own people. But you will live longer, Emet and Rowan. You will suffer in the hall of the emperor."

The horror wrapped around Rowan like claws. She had not known Duncan for long, but he had become dear to her. She forced a deep breath.

Do not panic. Do not abandon her. She's still your sister. She's broken and needs healing.

Rowan took another step closer. She stood so close now she could have reached out and touched Jade.

"Jade." Rowan's voice was barely a whisper. "Do you remember the glittering cave?"

"Lies!" Jade was shaking now, eyes mad, lips peeled back in a rabid snarl.

"Do you remember Mom and Dad?" Rowan blinked tears out of her eyes. "They loved you so much. And I love you."

And now tears were flowing from Jade's eyes too, falling onto Emet who lay wounded beneath her.

"You are a liar!" Jade cried, but now her voice was torn with grief. Her body shook with sobs. "The emperor told me. That you can do this. That you can hack into my mind. That you can plant these memories." Her voice rose to a torn howl. "Get out of my head!"

"They are true memories," Rowan said. Hesitantly, she reached out and touched Jade's arm. "We are sisters."

Snarling, Jade grabbed her.

Rowan yelped.

Jade knocked her onto the bloody floor, then drove her knee into Rowan's chest. Rowan gasped for air.

"You vermin," Jade hissed, leaning down, drooling above her. "You will not call me sister!" Her claws tightened around Rowan's arm, drawing blood.

Nearby, Emet was crawling across the floor, trying to reach the control panel. With a growl, Jade grabbed him, pulled him back.

"I can see the doubt in your eyes, Jade," Rowan whispered. "You would have killed me already, or taken me captive, but you hesitate."

Jade cackled. "I enjoy seeing you suffer. Pain is so beautiful when it's drawn out."

Rowan closed her eyes. Voice weak and trembling, she began to sing. A nearly-forgotten song of childhood. A song from a glittering cave. The song their parents used to sing them. A song of Earth, and a song of family.

Someday we will see her

The pale blue marble

Rising from the night beyond the moon

Cloaked in white, her forests green

Calling us home

Rowan opened her eyes and looked at her sister through a veil of tears. Jade was staring, eyes wide and damp. Rowan continued singing.

For long we wandered

For eras we were lost

For generations we sang and dreamed

To see her rise again

Blue beyond the moon

Calling us home

Jade was trembling now. She released Rowan and fell back, sitting in the blood, trembling. Rowan continued with a soft voice, completing her song.

Into darkness we fled

In the shadows we prayed

In exile we always knew

That we will see her again

Our Earth rising from loss

Calling us home

Calling us home

Her song ended.

No, not my song, Rowan thought. Our song. The song of all humans, lost in darkness, dreaming of home.

Jade looked at her, eyes damp.

"Rowan?" she whispered, voice trembling. "Is it you, sister?"

"It's me." Her tears fell. "It's me, Jade. I love you."

"I'm scared." Jade's voice was barely a whisper, cracking. "I'm scared, Rowan."

Shaking, sobbing, Jade reached out to embrace her. Rowan opened her arms.

Then Rowan realized that Emet had reached the control panel.

The leader of the Heirs of Earth grabbed a lever. He turned to look at the sisters.

"I'm sorry, Rowan," Emet said, eyes hard yet haunted. "But I cannot let her claim this ship."

He pulled the lever.

The ship's airlock blasted open.

"No!" Rowan screamed. "Jade, hold on!"

Outside, she saw the battle spinning across space, the thousands of starships still flying and firing. The vacuum began sucking out everything from the Jerusalem—the air, the corpses, the fallen weapons, the blood. It grabbed Rowan like an invisible fist, pulling her toward space.

Desperately, Rowan tried to grab something, anything. She gripped a corpse, but it rushed by beneath her. She reached out, clutched a rifle, but the vacuum tore it from her grip. Air whooshed over her. Duncan's corpse flew above, spun, then vanished into the darkness.

Jade too was trying to grab something. She clawed at the floor, trying to puncture holes, but there was too much blood. She was flying backward, scrambling for purchase, screaming.

"Jade!" Rowan cried.

The air lifted Jade above the floor, pulling her through the hold. She flew like a leaf on the wind.

As she flew by, Jade stared at Rowan with wide eyes.

"You lied!" Jade screamed. "You betrayed me, liar!" Her voice twisted with agony, becoming inhuman. "You betrayed me!"

And then Jade was gone, sucked out into space. She vanished into the chaos of the battle.

An instant later, the vacuum pulled Rowan out into space too.

Rowan reached out and grabbed the airlock's rim. Air was still blowing over her, ruffling her hair, billowing her clothes. Emet came flying out a second later, scrabbling for purchase. He managed to grip the rim too, and he stared into her eyes.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

Then the last few corpses flew from inside and slammed into them, knocking both Emet and Rowan out into open space.

All sound vanished.

The storming wind, the roar of battle—gone.

Just silence.

Rowan floated.

She wore no spacesuit.

Space embraced her.

She looked around her. The Concord starships were falling fast. The enemy was everywhere, stretching into the distance, battalion after battalion of strikers. Barely any human ships still flew.

There was pain now. Rowan's skin was beginning to freeze, her lungs to scream for air. She looked around, trying to find Jade, but couldn't see her. Rowan tried to kick, to make her way to another ship, but there was nothing to swim through in the vacuum.

She pulled Fillister out of her pocket. Her hands were so cold now. Blistering. But she managed to turn him on, and the pocket watch turned into a dragonfly.

Goodbye, she wanted to whisper, but she could form no sounds. She felt the saliva boiling on her tongue. Fillister bustled around her, was crying out in silence. He grabbed her, tried to pull her, but he was too small, too weak. They floated together, moving farther from the Jerusalem. Moving into the emptiness. And her skin was so pale, so ashen, freezing now.

So I die among the stars, Rowan thought. The beautiful stars that I so often dreamed of seeing.

She tilted her head back and gazed up through a void in the battle. She saw them there. The stars. A great spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Earth was somewhere out there, one of those distant lights, and it was beautiful. It was so beautiful.

I will not die on Earth. But I will die gazing upon your light.

And from those distant stars, it emerged.

A starship.

A small starship, no larger than a shuttle. It charged into the battle, rippling spacetime around it, knocking back strikers. A starship with a new wing.

The Brooklyn.

"Bay," Rowan whispered with no voice, reaching toward his ship. "Bay . . ."

The small ship came to hover beside her and Emet. The airlock opened, and there stood Bay, wearing a helmet. He reached out and caught Rowan's hand, and he pulled her inside, then grabbed Emet.

He closed the airlock, and air flowed around Rowan.

She lay on the floor, breathing deeply, and the world went dark, and she sank into the shadows.