Page 72 of May the Stars Have Mercy
She didn’t even have the heart to make the joke. Instead, she watched the blob float into the air and slip out the cracks of the ship like it had never existed. Aphrodite stumbled to the chair, staring at the coordinates. Stomach in her feet, heart racing, she opened the map wide and gulped audibly.
How did she tell her mate they needed to makeone last stop?
Chapter Forty:
Xexis
“Youwanttogoto the void?” Reevar eyed the Mphronatch with concern.
The pack woke to the sounds of a body thumping to the floor. Xexis flew from the bunks, knowing no one else was up but his mate. When they came upon Kern, face forward on the floor and Aphrodite staring at a hologram of a map, eyes wide and hands shaking, the pack went into protection tactics. Xexis eased Aphrodite down into the lab, Reevar got Kern tucked away in his bunk and scanned for illness, Grooug and Kiefgr scanned the ship for intruders. Only to find that a Brexzkit had slipped in through the cracks and left without so much as tasting Kern’s organic material.
They were all in the lab, sitting cross legged as Aphrodite went over all the creature said and their next steps. The map to the void spread across the space around them. Stars ended at the void; there was no light. Not a sun, not a star, not a blip—it was endless darkness at the edge of space. The map showed where life ended and the void began, and there, deep in the expanse, was a dark moon full of caverns. How had the rock gotten there? There was no telling. But it existed and was the object of Aphrodite’s concern.
“They called it the nest. Their home ground, likely where they were infected. What little survivors got away before infection arescattered. I say, if we’re hunting for them, if we’re the pest control, the nest is the best way to kill it at the source. After that, we’re just dealing with stragglers.” Aphrodite sat back against the wall; Buddy plopped in her lap.
Grooug nodded solemnly. “Nest is a good target, easy to attack as well.” He leaned forward and poked at the wavering image with a finger. “Craters are good spaces for them to run and hide, but also a good spot to flush. We can set up the cannon on one side, flush them out the other.”
“We’ll be in complete darkness, no natural light,” Kiefgr sighed.
“Correct, which means we can’t go in there naively. If we go, we need to be precise, strike hard and fast.” Reevar crossed his thick arms over his chest, staring at the planet. “I forgot the void even exists. No one has been out there. I do not believe in my lifetime, at least.”
“The void is where life dies and the stars wither,” Xexis breathed, tapping his fingers against his biceps. An old story theKorzavicused to tell his children. Xexis remembered it like it was whispered in his ear. Back when the stars were new, there was a place where their light couldn’t reach. No matter how hard they tried or how bright they shined, they dulled upon approach of that place. Any star that dared breech its abyss withered and rotted. The theory was all the meteors and moons that floated in that lifeless place were stars once who tried to bring life and instead were killed. No one went out there to figure it out.
The Kannatch glanced up from the desolate moon and glanced at his mate. “Are you sure this is where we’re supposed to go?”
“It’s where the Brexzkit told Buddy the nest was—if they’re lying and it’s a trap, then that’s less Brexzkit we have to deal with, either way, we can destroy a large nest.” She softened hershoulders, slouching down against the wall. “But, best case scenario, this helps?”
“I agree, we should attack the nest,” he exhaled. “I will inform Korzavic and Xnasis of our trajectory, and wake Kern of his slumber. Aphrodite, could you make a second cannon? A smaller one? Reevar and I use the smaller one to flush them out and Kiefgr and Grooug will aim the larger one as they spill out. And we kill the nest.”
Aphrodite glanced around the lab, “I think Rexna and I are capable of making a smaller model here. What shall I do when we get there?”
“You and Rexna will be guarding the ship. I want it locked down tight and nothing slipping through the cracks. Buddy and Jruc will scan the ship incessantly until the nest is purged…and in the case this hunt is not successful, then I need you to get the crew out of the void.”
Aphrodite furrowed her brows. “What do you mean?”
“The void rots all life from the inside,” Reevar sighed, shaking his head. “We could kill the nest and then die to the void all the same.”
“What! No!” Aphrodite barked. “It’s just dark space?”
“It’s not dark space, Aphrodite, it’s the void. There’s likely a reason the nest is there, because no life or light can grow. It’s a cursed place.” Xexis watched her face, heart hammering in his chest.
“Then, absolutely not! I won’t allow either of you to step into that place if it’s going to kill you! We can blast the moon from the outside of the void. I’ll-I’ll-I’ll hook up the cannon to the ship, and we can blast it from here, use the ship’s power to amplify it.”
Xexis steadied his stern gaze on her as she scrambled to sit up straighter. “My mate—”
“No! You lost it on me for contemplating taking my life if I was infected, and you made me swear that we were in this till the end. Xexis, don’t you fucking dare break your word to me now! Don’t you fucking dare! I would destroy the stars just to keep you by my side. Do not tell me that we are not capable of anything, for I will defy your logic if it means keeping your heart beating. Is that not what you said?”
His mouth fell open. “Aphrodite—”
“Don’t.” she warned, jabbing a finger in his face. Her eyes glittered with tears as she scrambled to her feet, snatching the data pad with her. Pointing it at all of them with a sweeping motion, hot tears trailing down her cheeks, she hissed, “None of you dare consider dying on me. I’ll figure out a way to enhance your armor and keep you safe, but no one.And I mean no one.Is fucking dying here. I’ve already lost one crew, I don’t intend to lose the one crew I actually like.”
Xexis sat in stunned silence as his mate clambered past Grooug and Kiefgr to the ladder and launched herself up into the ship. His heart ached. Xexis wanted nothing more than to race after her, swear to the stars above that he’d do whatever it took. But she wasn’t ready to hear him right now. He wasn’t ready to admit defeat either.
He stayed in his silence, staring at the empty floor of the lab. Grooug was the one to answer, “The hunt’s not done.”
“No,” Xexis huffed, glancing up from the floor to meet his hunter’s eye. “It’s not done.”
“We don’t go home till it’s done.” Grooug glanced to Kiefgr and Reevar.
