Twilight

CHAPTER 3

ETHAN STEWART HAD ONCE BEEN MERELY human. A fine specimen of his species, to be sure, with a body powerful and toned and a mind disciplined and sharp, but only human nonetheless. He was more now. Augmented, enhanced, improved. He was the consort to Kerrigan, Queen of Blades, mistress of the zerg, whom he adored and would serve to the last drop of.. .whatever passed for blood now surging through his veins.

Rosemary Dahl had once been his lover, and he had once honestly cared for her. But now he lived to serve his queen, and Ethan, part human and part zerg, could think of no worse fate than disappointing Kerrigan.

So when his quarry, a simple archaeologist, who admittedly happened to have a protoss preserver in his brain, ran through the swirling blue mist of the warp gate on Aiur, Ethan let out a roar of combined outrage and agony. He had only been a few paces behind Ramsey—but it might as well have been light-years. The man had escaped.

She knew; she saw through his eyes when she chose to, and she saw what he saw, and her fury chilled him.

"The first task I set you to, and you fail me! Apparently capturing a single human male was too difficult for you, even when I give you control of my vast army!"

"My queen.. .we could not possibly have expected the Dominion or the dark archon—"

"One's mettle is tested by how well one reacts to the unexpected. I am disappointed in you, Ethan. Perhaps my creation was not as perfect as I had thought."

"Trust me, my queen, you have wrought excellent work."

"Then prove me wrong. You have let Ramsey and the girl escape. Find them, bring Ramsey to me, and I shall be mollified."

He stared at the battle that still raged, even though the prize he, the Dominion, and the dark archon were apparently all after had slipped through their collective fingers. Rosemary, Jake, and the protoss in his brain had gone through an active warp gate—they could be anywhere another warp gate opened.

Maybe anywhere in the universe.

How the hell was he to find them?

Ethan regarded the zerg under his command as they slashed, chewed, and clawed at what remained of the protoss, were shot to pulpy bits by the Dominion vessels, and launched themselves at the swirling, huge, crimson mass that was the dark archon.

He did not know how to operate the gates; that was protoss knowledge, and nearly all the protoss were dead. Some he himself had killed, quickly dispatching them in frustration when they gleefully revealed their ignorance of the warp gate technology. Apparently such was not just protoss knowledge, but rare protoss knowledge. Furious, Ethan gathered himself and stared out over the blood-saturated ground. A few protoss still stood, making a noble but ultimately futile last stand against the thing out there. Even if the dark archon fell, even if the Dominion departed, both Ethan and the doomed protoss knew he would turn his zerg upon them.

He looked around, waving the extra pair of scythe-like limbs with which Kerrigan had gifted him, itching to slice and maim and kill. There. There was one, downed but not dead. Not yet.

Ethan sent the order, and a pair of hydralisks immediately ceased their attack and hastened to the injured protoss. Before it fully understood what was happening, they had lifted it and borne it to their commander.

The wounded protoss raised his head with a great effort and peered up at Ethan. His armor had been rent in several places and he was slippery with blood. He would not last long without treatment. "Do you know how to operate the warp gate?" Ethan demanded. The protoss nodded weakly. "Yes. But I will not aid you."

Elation and irritation both filled him. "You do not understand the gravity of your situation, protoss."

The alien closed its eyes and tilted its head. "It is you who do not understand. I am redeemed. I would never compromise my redemption for you. I am Alzadar, and I will die a templar, as I once was."

Ethan muttered, "I do not have time for this..." and at once one of the hydralisks impaled its hook-like blade into Alzadar's thigh. The protoss arched in silent agony, reminding Ethan of an insect impaled on a pin.

"You will find no one among my people who will help you recover Jacob Ramsey. We face death gladly."

"Death yes, but torture?"

The protoss's eyes, which had dimmed, suddenly brightened. "Even that. I pity you. You do not understand what it is to love something greater than yourself." He shuddered. "My life... for... Aiur."

Perhaps Alzadar would have broken eventually, had he not been so severely injured. Perhaps he could have been "convinced" to cooperate. But the protoss was badly injured, and before Ethan quite realized it, Alzadar was dead. Ethan cursed.

In the end, Ethan thought with more than a touch of worry, Alzadar's prediction about the nature of the protoss was more than likely correct. How, then, was Ethan to track Jake? Panic fluttered inside him for an instant, but he resolutely pushed it down. He would simply have to find another way, that was all.

He summoned the mutalisk and climbed atop it again, surveying the battle that raged below from an aerial vantage point. Perhaps a fresh perspective would give him insight.

What was happening should not have been possible.

Ulrezaj raged even as he realized that he was likely about to die. How could such a thing happen? He was Ulrezaj! It had been his mind that had seen possibilities where others saw only atrocities. It had been his daring that had taken him to a place where no one, no thing, had ever had the courage to venture. It had been fear that had caused the dark templar, long ago, to forbid the creation of such power. He understood why they feared it; such power, whirling out of control, could do more harm than good.

But Ulrezaj was completely, entirely in control.

Until this moment.

Stubborn protoss, Dominion vessels, and zerg. Anyone, anything else would have perished under theonslaught. Ulrezaj would have vanquished them and reduced Zamara and the frail terran in which she'd secreted herself to handfuls of shredded flesh, had it not been for the psionic storms that the few remaining protoss had inexplicably been able to summon.

He felt his strength ebbing. He swayed as the attacks continued, and knew with both confusion and fury that he would soon fall. They would be upon him then, and he would not recover. All his knowledge, all his power, all the glory that was going to be his, was supposed to have been his—lost.

It was, he would have thought mere moments ago, impossible.

And then, like the eye of the hurricane passing over, there was a pause. The fighting ceased for the most part, and even as hope that he might indeed survive gave him fresh energy, Ulrezaj realized that his prey had fled.

Zamara, clever, despised Zamara, had eluded his grasp a second time.

He did not waste precious time and energy fighting to move forward to discover if the gate was still open. He knew it would not be. Zamara was not a fool, she would not leave such an easy trail for him to follow.

There was nothing to do but retreat and try again. Ulrezaj gathered himself and sent his instructions to those Forged who still stood with him.

The treachery of the Shel'na Kryhas and the attacks of these new foes weakens me. Protect me while I return to the chambers, where I may rest and grow powerful once again.

Xava'tor, we hear, and we obey.

Immediately the ships that had been pressing the attack closed in around Ulrezaj's swirling essence as the enormous dark archon changed direction and moved swiftly toward safety.

"It's hurt," breathed Devon Starke, former ghost and now devoted employee of Valerian Mengsk. "The protoss mental attacks were able to hurt it."

It had been difficult, protecting himself against the power of the dark archon's mind—minds? It was hard to tell which—but Starke had managed to do it. He could not read the thoughts of the dark archon perse, not the way he could those of terrans, but he could get bits and pieces. Enough so that he understood that the protoss had utilized a psionic attack that had managed to harm this seemingly unstoppable juggernaut of darkness that was moving implacably toward—

And it was then he realized that Jake and Rosemary had indeed made their escape. Starke rubbed his head, which was aching terribly. The combination of battling protoss, zerg, and this monstrous thing that had appeared out of nowhere had been too much of a distraction. Starke had come for one thing, one man, and that man was gone.

"Contact Mr. V," he ordered.

"Sir," the pilot said, his voice strained, "I can't raise anyone. Not even the other ships." "What?"

"Whatever the protoss did somehow short-circuited our communications system. We're damned lucky we're still flying."

Damn it. Starke was used to following orders. He needed to know where to go, what to do—regroup with the others, or attempt to figure out the warp gate, or—

—or follow the dark archon, who was now retreating almost more swiftly than it had advanced.

Starke closed his eyes, willing his body to accept the pain, trading the agony for information.

It was indeed hurt. Wounded, even. Exhausted. It needed to rest. Recover. In... below. Then it would attack again. It would find the preserver and destroy her. There was no place she could hide from—

"Ulrezaj," Devon whispered. He had a name now. Maybe that would help. In the meantime, he knew what he had to do. There was no following Jake Ramsey through the warp gate. But it was clear that this being, this Ulrezaj, wanted Ramsey as badly as Valerian did.

"The dark archon is going to ground," he told the pilot. "Let him think he's shaken us, but don't lose him. When he makes his move, which he will, we will follow him at a distance."

The pilot looked uneasy, but nodded. "Of course, sir."

"In the meantime, I will take a hawk and rendezvous with Mr. V's vessel and apprise him of what has happened." Starke rose and then gripped the arm of the chair as his vision swirled. Such close contact with Ulrezaj, plus uncomfortably close proximity to the—storms, he supposed he would call them, of the protoss had tired him more than he thought.

He sat back down hard in the chair and forced a laugh. "I'll do that in... just a few moments."

Fear skittered along Valerian's mind. He liked Devon Starke. He did not want to think that the man had perished. Beside him, his personal assistant, Charles Whittier, muttering under his breath and looking even more distraught than usual, frantically moved his hands over the controls, trying to raise the ghost. Or indeed anyone, as all the screens were still ominously dark.

"Sir, I-I'm afraid that whatever it was the protoss did may have shorted out communication."

Valerian nodded his blond head, brushing absently at a stray lock that fell into his eyes. "Keep trying, Whittier." He clapped a hand on his assistant's shoulder in what he hoped was a heartening manner. Instead Whittier jumped about a foot.

Valerian folded his arms across his chest, thinking. It was quite possible he'd just lost all his vessels. He'd put every resource available into this, and if they were gone, he'd have to start from the beginning. He thought about the last thing he'd heard from Starke. It's all we can do to stop this dark archon from killing them. The protoss are doing something—I'm not sure what—but it's giving the thing pause.

The moments ticked by. There was no response.

Valerian had sent every ship save his own down to Aiur to capture Jake. None of them had reported in. The best case scenario was that their communications systems were damaged; the worst, that whatever it was the protoss were doing had wiped out his entire fleet.

"This is Captain Macey for Mr. V, are you available, sir?"

Captain Dennis Macey had a smooth, confident voice that sounded like nothing in the universe would take him by surprise. Even now, he sounded so calm one could almost imagine he was bored.

Valerian leaned down and pressed a button. "This is Mr. V., Captain—have you had any contact with your vessels on the surface?"

"Negative, sir, not for several minutes. I'm attempting to raise them, but with no luck."

Valerian was left with only one option.

"Captain, I'll be on the bridge in a moment." He ended the conversation and turned to Whittier. "I'm going down there, Whittier. Prepare my hawk."

"Sir! You can't possibly—what would your father—"

Valerian turned. Gray eyes narrowing, he fixed a gaze on Whittier that silenced the man in mid-sentence. "I came here to find Ramsey. If Ramsey is dead, I need to know. If everyone I set to that task is dead, I need to know. They are my responsibility. Keep monitoring, Whittier."

"Y-yes, sir."

Captain Macey, a tall, taciturn man with skin the color of coffee and eyes that never revealed what he was thinking, turned without surprise as his employer entered and nodded acknowledgment of the Heir Apparent's presence.

Valerian gazed out the huge windows and regarded Aiur turning slowly in space. From this distance, nothing could be seen of the fighting on the surface.

"Starke said that the protoss were doing something—utilizing some kind of psionic attack," Valerian told the captain.

"I don't know that much about the protoss, sir, but I know they know how to ruin a planet. It's entirely possible our ships are—"

"...to Illustrious, come in Illustrious."

The voice sounded exhausted, but it was clearly recognizable as belonging to Devon Starke. Valerian felt a grin spreading across his face. "Devon! Are you all right?"

"Not quite sure how to answer that, sir, but I am alive. And I have quite a lot of news."