Precipice of Darkness Read online

  Aside from stasis shields, the strongest advantage the ISF possessed was that the Trisilieds fleets appeared to be arrayed in a defensive posture. Though the actual deployments varied, seven million ships across ten thousand star systems only amounted to seven hundred ships per system.

  Taken individually, each was a force that Corsia’s Twelfth Fleet could easily defeat.

  If only they would be so kind as to evenly distribute their ships, she thought with a silent laugh. “Major Spencer,” she called out after a moment’s further thought. “Inform the battlegroup commanders that I want to meet in forty minutes. I might just have an idea that will give us a better edge.”

  ATTACK OF THE PLAN

  STELLAR DATE: 09.23.8949 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: A1 Dock, ISS I2

  REGION: Pyra, Albany System, Thebes, Septhian Alliance

  Sabrina said to the three women as they rose from the table in Sabrina’s galley.

  “Well,” Sera replied, shaking her hair out, shifting its color from black to blue and winking at Fina. “You never know, we may bump into one another out there. Tanis said you’re going to be heading back out before long, as well.”

 

  “With QuanComms, it seems like less of a risk,” Sera replied.

  Sabrina replied, her tone morose.

  “QuanComms?” Seraphina asked.

  “Shit…” Fina whispered. “You have a functioning quantum entanglement communication network! That’s how you’ve been able to get ships to show up wherever you need at the drop of a hat.”

  Sera flashed a grin at her sisters as they walked out into the corridor. “We get the best toys in the Alliance.”

  “Fuck.” Seraphina shook her head. “Mom is screwed. There’s no way she can compete with that.”

  “Mom has her own secret weapons,” Fina replied in a quiet voice. Her EMGs are game-changers, to start.”

  “Not when you have a Tangel to shred them,” Sera replied as she grabbed onto the ladder shaft and slid down to the main deck, the action bringing back another host of happy memories—and a few sad ones to boot.

  She stepped aside for her sisters to follow, and the three women shared a knowing look before walking down the corridor to the ship’s exit.

  “This is going to get weird,” Fina said after a few moments. “We really are the same person, aren’t we?”

  “Nearly,” Sera replied. “You two are closer to one another than I am to you. It can’t be more than a few months since she split you.”

  Seraphina barked a laugh. “Seramitosis.”

  They’d walked into the main cargo hold, where Cheeky, Nance, and Misha stood around a crate, playing a game of Snark.

  “Do the new ones come with a love of glossy primary colors, or is that an acquired taste?” Nance asked with a wink.

  “You know, Cheeky has this epidermis now, too,” Sera said with a wink. “A Finaeus special, I’m told.”

  “We all do now,” Misha replied, as his skin shifted to a shimmering purple. “Go Team Purple!”

  The three Seras laughed in unison, as Cheeky and Nance shifted their skin to purple as though on cue and thrust their fists into the air along with Misha’s.

  Seraphina grimaced. “I bet Jessica just loves it when you do that.”

  Sabrina intoned.

  Cheeky continued to grin as she played a binary star on the Snark Stack. “Yeah, can’t be a glowing purple superhero—complete with a snazzy name like ‘Retyna Girl’—with a crew like this, and not get some ribbing here and there.”

  “You won’t ship out without us having a get-together, will you?” Fina asked. “I…stars, I really wish we could go as a team on this.”

  Cheeky rose and embraced Fina. “Don’t worry Sera-two…three? We’ll all celebrate long and hard. We just have to kick half the asses in the galaxy first.”

  Fina laughed. “ ‘Long and hard’? Nice one. I’m Fina, by the way…not sure if I’m two or three.”

  Cheeky continued to embrace Fina, sliding a hand down her back and grasping her ass. “Feels firm. Not sure if that means you’re an older model, or a fresh, new one.”

  A mischievous smile twitched its way across the newly-minted captain’s face. “I know! I should take the three of you for a spin! That’s a fantasy I’ve had more than once.”

  Fina’s eyes grew wide, but she didn’t push Cheeky away, and Sera couldn’t help but wonder what a liaison like that would be like—barring the fact that it wouldn’t be dissimilar from having sex with oneself.

  “We really do have to get going,” Seraphina’s tone was carefully measured, but her eyes told a different tale.

  “Right,” Sera nodded emphatically. “Tanis is waiting for us.”

  “She can come, too.” Cheeky’s smile turned into a lopsided grin. “I’ve always wanted to sleep with a goddess.”

  Nance drew a card while shaking her head. “I don’t think our fearless leader has reached that level yet.”

  Cheeky shrugged, losing a small wisp of her enticing pheromones. “Close enough for me.”

  * * * * *

  “This feels like Tangel’s past meeting her future,” Sera said as she settled around the long table in the Voyager’s galley.

  “Plus neither,” Malorie said from where she hung in a corner of the room, articulated legs grasping an overhead conduit.

  Troy intoned.

  “I’m going because Katrina is,” Malorie said with a chittering laugh. “Can’t have my angel going anywhere without her devil.”

  Katrina cast a dark look up to the inverted Malorie. “I wish you wouldn’t say that.”

  “She’s got her pick now.” Sera chuckled, glancing at those assembled. “I’ve been known to be a bit devilish, and Kara here looks like she’ll drag you to hell if you’re not careful.”

  “I may have done that to a few poor souls,” Kara said, her expression entirely serene. “Plus, isn’t Tangel the real angel here? I mean, it’s right in her name, and Tanit was a mythological goddess back on Earth.”

  Tangel’s gaze swept across the group as she drew in a measured breath. “No gods, goddesses, angels, or devils here. We’re just people trying to make the best of the situations we find ourselves in.”

  “The never-ending, shitty situations,” Kara muttered.

  Malorie giggled softly. “You keep saying things like that, Tangel, but no one is buying it.”

  “Stars, I feel outnumbered,” Carl said quietly as he looked around the table. “Am I really the only guy going on this mission? It’s seven women to one man.”

  “I’m not going along with you; well, no further than Khardine, at least,” Tangel said. “You’re down to six-to-one.”

  “Now those are the sorts of odds that I like,” a voice said from the galley’s entrance, and Finaeus strolled in, a lopsided grin on his face. “Though I guess three of you are my relatives, so that rules you out.”

  “Finaeus!” Seraphina and Fina shouted in unison as they leapt from their seats and crashed into the grinning man.

  “You too, Red,” Finaeus said, beckoning for Sera to join the group hug. “I can’t be seen playing favorites with my nieces.”

  “We’re not going with colors, I’m Sera, the one nearly choking you is Fina, and the one with her head on your chest is Seraphina.”

  Finaeus snorted. “Do you really think you can deny me my nickname of choice, Red? I mean…your hair is red, for starssakes.”

 
Tangel stifled a laugh as Sera looked down at her bright red hair. “Fuck! I’d set this to blue. Now it’s going to turn red on me too?”

  A snort-laugh burst from Fina. “You know…you really should change some of your root tokens. I know them all. Was easy to hack your bio-mods, Red.”

  Sera groaned as she rose and joined the group hug, her skin and hair turning blue as she did so. “You’re not taking blue from me that easily, Fina.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “This is so touching,” Malorie said in a mock-croon from her corner. “Are we going to start swapping fashion tips and recounting our escapades next?

  Movement elsewhere in the ship caught Tangel’s attention, and she saw Flaherty quietly moving down the ship’s central ladder shaft. With a stealth that always seemed far too perfect for a man his size, he eased along the corridor until he was standing just outside the galley.

  “You might as well come in now, Flaherty,” Tangel called out. “Otherwise the Seras will get settled only to jump up and hug you as well. At that rate, Airtha will have won the war before we get this underway.”

  “What if hugs are what I’m trying to avoid?” Flaherty said as he appeared in the doorway behind Finaeus.

  “Then I’d say you’re screwed! Seraphina shouted as she detached from her uncle and lunged at the burly man. “Stars, Flaherty, I wondered if I’d ever see you again…I’m sorry about trying to kill you back on Airtha. I was…confused.”

  “Me too,” Fina added. “That was both of us who did that.”

  “I know,” Flaherty said as he held his arms out, a look of resignation on his face. “I didn’t take it personally.”

  “I have to ask, Finaeus,” Tangel said a minute later as the group once again settled down around the table. “Given that you’re married to Cheeky, aren’t all the women here off-limits, not just your nieces?”

  An innuendo-laden chuckle slipped past Finaeus’s lips. “Seriously, Tangel. Do you really think that Cheeky and I have any sort of monogamous relationship? I mean, if I don’t try to sleep with Malorie there before the trip is over, Cheeks will probably divorce me.”

  Malorie clacked two of her legs together. “You might not survive the encounter.”

  Finaeus’s grin only grew wider. “I’ve slept with things far more dangerous than you, my dear. Remind me to tell you about my first wife Lisa sometime.”

  “OK, six to three. We’re closer to even, now,” Carl said as he eyed the group. “And you’re sort of a guy, Troy, you help balance things out.”

 

  “Anytime, buddy.”

  “You’re also forgetting about Jen,” Sera added. “She’s decided to come along as well.”

  Jen gave the room a virtual wave.

  “She’s a peach, I swear.” Sera grinned.

  “There’s the rest of the crew,” Katrina added. “Though some have decided to take up your offer of settlement in New Canaan, Tangel.”

  “I hope that’s OK,” Tangel said. “I mean, it’s what you were working toward all these centuries.”

  “It is,” Katrina nodded. “I envy them, to be honest. For them, the fight is over—for a while, at least.”

  “Any other latecomers expected?” Sera asked Tangel. “Or are we ready to go?”

  “Just one. He’ll be here in a moment,” Tangel said aloud, while privately replying to Sera.

 

 

  Sera physically shook her head for emphasis.

  Tangel replied.

 

 

  A tall figure stepped into the doorway, and all heads turned to watch as Jeffrey Tomlinson entered the Voyager’s galley.

  “Hello, everyone,” he said in a calm, sure voice. “I hope it’s not too strange for me to be here.”

  Tanis watched the three Seras become stone-faced, though the original one more so. The other two had not gone through the forced extraction of Helen—nor had they watched Elena kill Jeffrey on the Galadrial’s bridge.

  “Of course, it is, Jeff,” Finaeus said, gesturing to the open seat next to Tangel. “Sit anyway. We’ll do introductions.”

  “I’ll do it, to keep them brief,” Tangel said. “We have a lot to go over, and not a lot of time for icebreakers. Firstly,” she gestured to Jeff as he lowered himself into the seat on her left, “we have Jeffrey Tomlinson, former President of the Transcend.”

  Jeffrey looked around the table, and a small—and slightly nervous—smile tugged at his lips. “Rumors of my death have been premature.”

  “OK, not to interrupt right off the bat,” Fina said while raising her hand. “But how did you end up out in the LMC? Airtha sent Seraphina to get you out of that stasis pod—for some reason or another—but she couldn’t because we’re not the original Sera.”

  As Fina spoke, Seraphina winced. “Thanks, Sis.”

  Fina shrugged. “Facts are facts. Our existence is complicated. Neither of us is supposed to be here.”

  “None of us are supposed to be here.” Tangel placed her elbows on the table and folded her hands. “Everyone at this table has made it to the ninetieth century though some twist of fate.”

  “Speak for yourself…well, and for everyone else.” Finaeus chuckled as he spoke. “But I made it this far by my wits.”

  Tangel inclined her head. “I bet there are a few fate-twisting events in your past, Finaeus. You draw a straight line back nearly seven thousand years. I have a suspicion that, in years lived, you may be the oldest human in existence.”

  “Then you should all bask in my wisdom.” A roguish grin lit his face, to be answered by a snort from Fina.

  “Stars, if this is the face of venerable wisdom, we’re all doomed.”

  “I too am here through my wits alone,” Flaherty added, his tone level and serious.

  Tangel cocked an eyebrow as she turned to the man who could not lie. “Really, Flaherty? That’s not a lie…but it’s not entirely true.”

  “You know that many of the truths we cling to are more centered around our points of view than any sort of absolute measure.”

  “Do I ever,” Tangel replied.

  “OK, we had our little segue within a segue,” Fina spoke up, turning back to Jeffrey. “How did you end up in the LMC?”

  Jeffrey raised his hands off the table and shrugged. “I really don’t know. My last memory is of boarding a ship bound for the Huygens System to review my brother’s plans to build the diamond ring around the white dwarf there—something he’d been thinking about for ages.”

  “There were no clues in the databanks within Bolt Hole,” Tangel added. “Though we still have teams scouring the planet and system for anything that might elucidate us regarding this matter.”

  “Damn you like to talk fancy,” Malorie muttered. “Get on with the intros.”

  Tangel gave Malorie a sour look that had the spider-woman ducking her head and retreating further into the corner, before she continued clockwise around the table. “Next up is Flaherty, Fourth Order Sinshea, former Hand agent, and now protector of three Seras, Sera, Fina, and Seraphina.” She gest
ured to each as she said their names.

  “Wait,” Seraphina interrupted. “We hadn’t told you the names we picked, and even if Sera did, how do you know which is which?”

  Tangel winked at the woman who she could tell was assuming the role of the more staid of the three. “You forget that I can see inside your bodies. Sera did not tell me about your names, but you keep repeating them to yourselves, as though you’re trying shape yourselves around them. I’m not trying to pry, but your thoughts are broadcasting rather loudly.”

  “You can read minds now?” Katrina’s eyes narrowed, and Tangel reminded herself to talk to the former warlord about what she’d seen inside her.

  “Probably,” she replied. “Though I’m trying really hard not to. People’s minds are so loud—I think if I didn’t have Angela’s and Tanis’s experience with filtering out each other’s thoughts, I’d have a hard time concentrating.”

  “That’s a bit disconcerting,” Carl said with a nervous laugh.

  “What am I thinking about right now?” Finaeus asked with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

  “Finaeus!” Tangel exclaimed. “That is not sanitary. And I’ve already seen enough of Cheeky sucking on feet for a lifetime, thank you very much.”

  “You have?” Sera cocked an eyebrow. “Do tell.”

  Tangel swiped a hand through the air. “Another story for another time. I’m doing my best not to wander into people’s minds—”

  “Or bodies,” Katrina interrupted with a soft laugh.

  “Or bodies,” Tangel inclined her head. “But it’s like I’m in a room full of people who just got the Link, and are broadcasting everything they’re thinking about on the public nets. So, anyway, with that segue out of the way, next we have Carl, who has been chief engineer here on the Voyager for about five hundred years.”

  “Give or take a bit,” he replied, wobbling a hand back and forth in the air.

  “Followed by Kara. Many of you know her as Adrienne’s daughter. She spent much of her life under his aegis, but he released her when Airtha captured him.”