Nemesis

By John Arkham

The supporters of Auguste Saturnine, exiled consul, are silenced and oppressed, driven underground and disenfranchised. Still they cling to hope that one day the wrong will be righted, that the government of the Dominion of Planets will face its reckoning.
Yet a dark wind is blowing, and an evil that the humans of Old Terra escaped ten thousand years ago is now spoken of at a whisper. His name? Unknown. His role? The nemesis.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Arkham
• Release date: Feb 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463897867

Book preview

Part One:

The Fall

Chapter One

How far I have fallen.

Outside the starship’s windows, Saturnine watched the snow fall down and swirl… in the distance were dark clouds, a storm furious and violent.

Here he was, at his nadir, hiding away on a desolate planet, only one misstep from arrest. Three months ago, he’d been at his pinnacle: the elected Consul of the Dominion, receiving the vast majority of votes in the capital.

But he had been driven from office. A warrant had been sought for his arrest. He faced charges of treason, of vote-tampering, of espionage, dreamt up by his political foes. All of them had been bought off. Each member of the Elder Council was for sale. They had removed him from the Consulship; then demanded his execution.

Saturnine was cupping a hot mug of caratch in his hands. He had spent so long in thought, so long in reflection, it had lost much of its heat. He could still smell the sweetness of it, spiced with cinnamon and herbs and sugar cubes. Yet he had lost all capacity for enjoyment. He had a family to take care of. He had servants depending on him. He had his wife, sweet Katerine. But most of all he worried about his son, Rex, only twelve years old and now thrust into the middle of uncertainty.

The buzzer sounded. He saw, up above, on the viewscreen that Katerine was at the door. She was holding something in her hand. He pressed the button unlocking the door, and Katerine entered.

Saturnine swiveled around in his chair.

He teared up at the sight of her. She had never asked for any of this. She had married him at the pinnacle of his success, when he had led DynnoCorp. Now she was stuck with him here, a wanted man, on a frozen planet.

Soon enough, the Dominion of Planets would find out he had sought refuge on Nexus. He would have to depart soon. There was a limit to his resources. His accounts had been frozen. He would run out of money soon. And then, sooner or later, he’d face the crooked justice of the Dominion. He’d be executed for crimes he did not commit. He would face death for something he’d never think of doing. Espionage. Treason. They were all lies!

Saturnine, Katerine said. Rex has been secluding himself again. He’s been drawing…

The thing she was holding was a slip of paper. Saturnine took it from her hands and examined it. Amid scrawls of treetowers in Klyss and herds of therion stampeding through fields, a sequence of numbers had been written down, in the margins and across the page: 5-0-9-0-11-0.

What is this? Saturnine said.

He’s been dreaming, Katerine said. That’s what he told me…

Dreams, Saturnine said. He is worried… like we all are.

It was Councilor Gaius Marius who had first leveled the charges… that he had received help from the Palladians, from the Avridians, even from the Wasters on the edge of the solar system. Councilor Gaius Marius had betrayed him, after offering support for his consulship, after giving him aid both moral and financial. Had he been in on the plot all along?

Saturnine! Katerine snapped.

He had lost focus again. I am sorry, my love, he said. I got distracted again…

She was so beautiful. Now fifty years old, she seemed to grow dearer to him each passing year. And he could lose her, and Rex. It would be all his fault.

Well, not really. How could he have predicted the treachery of the Elder Council? How could he have surmised his dearest friends would betray him?

Katerine snatched the paper from him. Perhaps, it is not a good time to talk.

She stormed off, angry, sullen, but perhaps cognizant of Saturnine’s worry, of his intense fears and growing despair. How could he be a father to Rex, and a husband to Katerine, when he was so consumed with their survival? A frigate was following them. They had lost it for now. But Nexus, an abandoned icy planet on the edge of the solar system, was sparsely populated. They would stand out. It was only a matter of time before the Mandate of Justice found them. Would they lay upon his ship with phase cannons and missiles, or would they drag him back to Metropolis to suffer a humiliating trial?

This ship, SMS Intrepid, had been designed by Saturnine himself in better days, when the money flowed, when DynnoCorp was the richest corp in all of Metropolis. The steam baths, installed on the ship, were now little used. The pool had been drained of its water. The viewing deck, once used for cruises along the rings of Urunao, now had little practical comfort. Those had been the best of days.

Who had Saturnine thought he was, running for the consulship against eight others? Why had he done this to himself? Why had he done this to his family?

He dialed up a screen, indicating the ships floating around Nexus and its moons. There were too many vessels to count, even in this isolated planet. Nexus was inhospitable, its atmosphere unbreathable without an airmask, but beneath the snow, beneath the feet upon feet of hard-packed ice, there were minerals to be mined. And settlements had popped up as Metropolis became too crowded. Some would rather live here, on Nexus, than Metropolis.

He was vulnerable here. But his pilots were listening to transmissions, ready to warn him when the Metropolitan forces showed up.

He dialed up another screen, showing the news, broadcast from Metropolis to all the planets in the System. He could see by their speech, Saturnine remained the number one topic of conversation. He recognized the anchor, Val, spouting inanities about the convicted consul.

Auguste Saturnine, consul, convicted of counts of espionage and treason, has fled the long reach of the Elder Council, but acting consul Valeri has no doubts about their ability to recover him. Joining me now is Councilor Elias…

Saturnine switched it off.

Consumed in fear, consumed in worry, he thought above all of Rex, twelve years old, innocent. What would the crooked justice of Metropolis do to him? What punishment would they inflict on him?

~

At dinner, they opened up the viewport. The winds of Nexus had turned to an outright storm; the snow was blowing and falling so heavily Saturnine could scarcely see.

The servants had made the best they could from the galley: plates of sea turkey drizzled in gravy, and roasted therion eggs. They no longer had wine, only water.

Rex wasn’t touching his food. He remained, as he had been lately, deep in thought. Saturnine wondered if the news was getting to him, if he realized the danger he was in.

Katerine was eyeing him protectively. She was wearing a red gown she’d bought in Skyview Department Store in Metropolis. Though concern was written on her face, she looked as beautiful as ever.

My Rex, Katerine said. You have to eat.

Rex shook his head. I’m sorry, Mother…

Rex, Saturnine at last said. What were the numbers you wrote on that paper? What does it mean?

5-0-9-0-11-0, Rex said. I see those numbers in my dreams. I see them when I close my eyes.

Saturnine sighed. Rex had always been a strange boy. But he was intelligent. He was kind. Eat your dinner, Rex, if you can, he said. We have to be ready for whatever comes next.

Chapter Two

Raven drew her sweater just a bit tighter and rubbed her arms together. The starship Enigma was just a half an hour from its arrival in Pallas. The pilots had set the temperature colder than she would like. But she had no status to complain.

She had been sent on a research mission from the University of Metropolis, to study and document the herds of wild therion. She was a scientist, a biologist, a student of life forms throughout the System and the wider galaxy. This was her first time studying therion, a food source now domesticated throughout the System, on farms and in corp-owned ranches. But now, in their true habitat, Raven would document their movements across the vast plains of Pallas, as they moved in vast herds. It was Raven’s job to discover their psychology, how they moved and reacted as if they were one organism.

She got up from her perch in the room she’d claimed as her own. She headed out into the corridor.

She sensed someone there, but she couldn’t see them. Was it a ghost? She laughed. She had studied the religions of Old Terra, the superstitions which remained to some extent even now, in this modern age. Each shadow could be a spirit; each cold draft, a vengeful apparition.

And yet it appeared, in this corridor, un-ornamented, of metal and nail-covered walls, that Raven was alone. The pilots had put her up in the hull, all by herself, as the long journey from Metropolis to Pallas began. They’d drop her off in the spaceport in Amethysta, and she’d have to find her transportation to the wide open plains, where the therion roamed.

She took the lift up to the viewing deck. At the speed Enigma was traveling, the lights blended together, becoming one, pulsing white. Even going this fast, the journey from Metropolis to Pallas would last two days. Pallas, much closer to Sol, received more of her heat and light; she was twice as large in the sky, and Pallas’ continents were twice as verdant. It would be delightful to enter Pallas’ green fields after living her life in Metropolis’ smog and squalor.

One of the mechanics was standing there, amid the chairs and tables. In the corner was a vending machine.

Excuse me, sir, Raven said.

The mechanic turned to her. He was scrawny and brown haired. He had the look of a Palladian.

You know this ship… I was staying in the hull. Do you know of anyone down there with me?

Not as far as I know, madame, the mechanic answered.

The answer chilled her. She wondered. She knew it could be her imagination. But she thought she saw something. She thought she sensed someone. It was a stretch, for sure.

But she was disturbed. She would not return to the hull, or to her private quarters. She’d spent too much time there already. She was here for the therion. Soon enough, she’d be in Pallas proper. She would forget her lingering fears and worries. She would commit herself to the studies on behalf of the University. She would fear no longer.

The ship began to quake.

Raven fell over, staggering to her knees. The ship lurched out of hyperspace; the windows showed a mantle of stars—they were in the middle of space. Something had jolted them out of their travels.

The mechanic had steadied himself on a table. His face had turned white.

What was that? he mumbled to himself.

A look of panic soon overtook him. He scrambled away, toward the lift.

He pressed the buttons in vain; the power was lost.

Panic was welling inside Raven, seizing her gut. They were in the middle of space, easy prey for Wasters or any manner of dangers.

The mechanic hurried away, through a door and down a series of stairs. That was the only way he’d reach the cockpit.

Fear was pulsing through her; she was all alone on the viewing deck. Could that shadow, that fleeting presence, be here? She was all alone, in a ship set adrift in the middle of space.

She turned and hurried down the stairs, clattering downwards into the dark. The lights were winking in and out of existence.

It struck Raven that now—after she’d embarked on this hopeful trip to study the therion—that she could die here, in the most ignominious of circumstances. Wasters traveled in ships along the rim of the System; but sometimes those mad marauders ventured closer to civilization.

She was hurrying down the rickety staircase when the lights flipped on again and the roar of the ship’s engine took her by surprise. She almost fell. The ship was speeding away; it had changed direction.

All was well. They would enter hyperspace soon. She grabbed the railing to steady herself. She took a moment to breathe. All is well, she repeated. All is well.

She wanted off this ship.

As the roar of the hyperspace engines shook the starship Enigma, Raven’s grip on the railing became slick. Her palms were sweaty. She heard screaming in the cockpit below.

All was not well, it seemed.

She hurried down the stairs, descending quickly down several levels, faster than she’d thought.

When she reached the cockpit, having sprinted down several hallways, the pilot was shouting, furiously working the controls.

The mechanic was approaching Raven, perhaps intending to hurry by her, but she laid her hands on his shoulders. What is going on? she snapped.

We’ve lost control of the ship.

They had entered hyperspace.

The engineer seemed shaken.

How was it possible? How could it be?

A thousand scenarios were pouring through Raven’s head. They could slam into an asteroid. They could slam straight through Sol and have her fire and energy disintegrate them wholesale. They could collapse on the edge of the System, where Wasters patrolled in their junks, searching for easy prey.

Panic would do no good. The pilot was trying as best as she could. Surely, the mechanics were trying to fix the problem, even as they lurched into hyperspace in a direction they did not want to go.

The pilot was cursing up a storm.

For a moment, Raven thought about her life, now that it was surely at an end. She had been born poor in Metropolis. She had worked her way through the rungs of the corps. She had studied at the University of Pallas. She had earned all the success she’d received. Now, sent on the biggest mission of her career, after all those hopes of promotion and reward, it was at an end. Her death was hours away, at best, unless they ran roughshod through a ship or passing meteor.

Her mind returned to that presence she’d felt down below, in the hull. She was a scientist. She knew there was no innate sense a stranger gave off. But she had been sure she was not alone. Could it be true? Could the strange feeling she’d had, the goose-bumps which had formed on her skin, have something to do with this disaster that had befallen them?

The starship Enigma had been overtaken, its controls seized outright… had some dark syndicate, some shadowy organization, sent an agent for that purpose alone? Had Raven, like a medium of ancient times, sensed his presence while he committed his evil deed?

It was beyond comprehension. Raven was shaking. She wanted to throw up.

Shouting at the pilot would do no good. She hurried back up the stairs. She collapsed halfway up them, eyes watering with tears. The ship was shaking. The ground was quaking beneath her. She could do nothing but wait. She could do nothing but observe her own death.

Chapter Three

For years, Cruz Petroize had stayed on-planet, here, in Meretrix, the third moon of Urunao. Its flashing lights and omnipresent smog had become his home. Life in Pallas was a distant memory; his upbringing amid the green valleys and the snowy mountains and the therion herds had vanished. He had spent his childhood amid that green earth, taking care of those immense creatures, and selling their valuable eggs to restaurateurs across the System and beyond. Now he made his living in the most illicit of ways, robbing, extorting, and running drugs from the casinos and shipping yards of Meretrix to the wastelands of Nexus.

With a whir, a levtrain