Muses of Terra (Codex Antonius Book 2) (42 page)

The entire temple shuddered beneath Aquilina’s feet. Ulpius, Dariya, and Daryush glanced around nervously. Another explosion, this time closer, made cracks appear in the ceiling. Dust rained down on them.

“
Cac
,” Ulpius muttered. “Sounds like they don’t want him alive anymore.”

Aquilina could imagine the drone ships hovering above the temple raining down blue lightning in an attempt to destroy it—and Cordus—before he could take control of the vessel.

A buzzing from the high-security Praetorian com nearby made them all jump. Aquilina tore her gaze from the holo-monitor to activate the signal.
 

“—coming from the alien ship,” a hurried female voice said. “They match the description of the toxin drones that attacked Libertus. Repeat, this is the command ship of the Arrius Astrum Naves reporting to all Legions defending Terra—the alien vessel is releasing drones matching the description of the toxin drones that destroyed Libertus.”

The signal crossed all bands; it would be playing on all com devices in every home, business, car, and citizen’s pocket.
 

Aquilina turned back to the holo-monitor as another explosion made a part of the ceiling fall to the floor behind her.
 

Whatever you’re going to do, Cordus, hurry.

Orcus, Juno, and Minerva flinched back from Cordus. The light in the temple went from bright sunshine filtering down from the skylights above to a darkened milieu of roiling black clouds. Even the marble within the temple seemed to blacken and crack.

Orcus growled, “Get down from there or your friends and your planet die.”

“I am Marcus Antonius Cordus, descendent of Marcus Antonius Primus and Consular Heir of the Roman Republic—”

As he said this, the marble thrones next to him flickered and then melted into a single black sphere. The sphere undulated. Blue veins formed on its surface looking like the skin of the vessel. It slowly contorted itself until it finally settled on a shape that Cordus recognized.

The command couch on
Caduceus
.

“THIS VESSEL IS OURS!” Orcus screamed. His voice thundered through the temple, its rage causing more cracks to emerge in the columns and floor.

But this time he sounded scared.

Cordus descended the steps from the command couch, the weight of his feet cracking each step. He towered over the gods. Juno and Minerva stepped away from him. Gone where the serene and motherly gazes from before. Now there was only fear.

The Muses cannot control me, but I can control them. Even this strain. It’s what I’ve
always
been able to do.

“I am Marcus Antonius Cordus, descendent of—”

Debris fell from the temple ceiling, huge chunks of marble, brick, and timber. The ground rumbled.
 

Orcus tossed Kaeso and Ocella to the side, a spear suddenly in his hand. He flung the spear at Cordus.
 

Cordus saw the spear and brought up his forearm. A large shield was there to deflect the spear. It bounced off the floor. Juno and Minerva both loosed arrows at Cordus. Though they were only ten paces away, Cordus had no difficulty bringing his shield around to deflect their arrows. The goddesses fired volley after volley at him as Orcus continued to throw spears, but he blocked them all with hardly any effort.

This was how it felt when I controlled the Terran Muses.
They’ve lost, but they don’t know it yet.
 

He threw his shield at Minerva and Juno. The impact knocked them dozens of paces across the Temple toward the wide open entrance. Orcus, now just as large as Cordus, leaped at him and wrapped his fingers around Cordus’s throat.

“We are your gods,” Orcus snarled, his breath stinking of death. “You will submit to
us
!”

Cordus reached up and grabbed Orcus's wrists. He slowly pulled Orcus hands away from his throat. Orcus's eyes bulged.

“You are not gods,” Cordus growled. “You’re a little germ with a big ship.”

He smashed his forehead into Orcus's nose twice. Orcus stumbled backwards, stunned by the blows. Before Orcus could recover, Cordus thrust his hand into Orcus's chest. But instead of the hot organs Cordus expected, blue light erupted from the wound he had created. He felt the rest of his body being pulled into Orcus.

Orcus screamed. Juno and Minerva screamed from the other side of the temple.

And then Cordus took control of the vessel.

Aquilina’s ear com beeped as another explosion almost collapsed the entire ceiling in the com room. Tarquitius’s voice yelled over the sounds of pulse pistol fire, clashing steel, and human and non-human grunts and cries. “The aliens are spreading throughout the temple. They seem to be searching the entire complex, so I don’t think they know where you are yet. But I just saw one group head up the back stairs towards you.”

“How many?”

“A lot!”

Aquilina turned to Ulpius. “They’re coming up here.”

He nodded grimly and went to the door. He opened it a crack to peek through. Then he opened it all the way and stepped into the hall. He stood outside, looking from left to right.
 

Dariya and Daryush joined Ulpius in the hall, their pulse pistols drawn and ready to fire. Ulpius nodded to them. They stood back-to-back, Dariya and Daryush facing left, Ulpius facing right.

“How are your men faring, Tarquitius?” Aquilina asked.

“Not good. We have the aliens coming through the back door, and most of them got past us already. Now the golems are trying to ram down the front doors. We’re giving a gladius to every citizen who can stand, but…”

Tarquitius didn’t have to finish for Aquilina to understand how hopeless he viewed the situation.

“Any way the Consul can speed things up?” he asked.

“I can’t reach him now,” Aquilina said, looking at Cordus. “We have to be patient.”

Tarquitius grunted. “Right,” he said, then broke the connection.

Pulse fire from the door startled Aquilina. Ulpius fired again down the hallway.

“They’re coming out of the stairwell,” he shouted. Dariya and Daryush turned and fired down the hall, too.

Aquilina rushed over and peaked around the corner. The gray, octopus-like aliens filled the hallway and skittered toward them. Pulse fire tore them apart, but more just flooded over the dead. There was no way pulse fire would stop the onslaught.

“Back inside,” Aquilina shouted.

Dariya and Daryush jumped through the door. Ulpius let off a final blast of rifle fire, then dove through the door just as Aquilina slammed it shut and locked it. She heard the aliens gathering outside, their fingered tentacles tapping around the edges.

Ulpius stood back, his pulse rifle pointed at the door. “Hope they don’t have a ram—”

A loud bang came from the other side of the door, and then another. The edges around the door handle and lock bulged inward with each bang. The doorframe soon began to crack and then splinter around the lock.

“
Cac
,” Ulipius said.

“Behind the chairs!” Aquilina shouted.

As soon as everyone ducked behind a tabulari chair, the door lock blew apart, sending shards of wood and steel exploding across the room. Ulpius fired at the aliens streaming through the door. Dariya and Daryush screamed and fired into the alien mass. All three killed many, but not enough.

Aquilina fired her pistol, but was down to one pellet before she knew it. The aliens rushed forward. She focused on Cordus’s sleeping body.

I’m sorry, Cordus. I wasn’t good enough to protect you. I won’t let them dissect and torture you. At least I can give you peace.

She raised her pistol with its last pellet to Cordus’s head. Before she could pull the trigger…the room turned quiet.
 

She turned her eyes to the aliens. They stood before her on four tentacles, with the front four raised like a fan above their bulbous gray heads.
 

“What are they waiting for?” Ulpius growled. “Finish us!”
 

But they didn’t move.

Aquilina looked up at Cordus and then checked the holo-monitor.
 

The first genuine smile in days crossed her lips.

50

Cordus floated above Terra. He did not feel cold or warm, just numb. The planet spread out before him; he could focus on any country, city, street, or individual. He found he could see their atoms, if he chose.

He noticed Roman Eagles flying around him firing missiles, plasma cannons, and mass drivers. None of their weapons touched him. A faint blue glow surrounded him whenever a projectile was turned away or destroyed.

He also saw drones swarming toward Terra. The toxin drones.

Stop
, he said.
 

They stopped.
 

Come back
.
 

They turned around and came back toward him.

He looked down on the planet, focusing on the octopod ground forces and drone attackers all over Terra.

Stop. Come back.

The octopods stopped their ground assaults. The drones flew back.

“It’s a wonderful vessel, is it not?”

A male child’s voice came from beside Cordus. He now stood in a room shaped like the inside of a sphere, with space and Terra surrounding him. Three children stood next to him, one boy and two girls. The boy had dark curly hair. One girl had long dark hair and a small, snowy-white owl perched on her shoulder. The other had auburn hair tied in two braids that ran down her back. All three wore white togas of ancient design.

“We built it 15,900,127 of your years ago,” the dark-haired girl said. Her owl cooed at her voice.

“We like it far better than a mundane body,” the auburn-haired girl said.
 

“You can tell it to restructure itself if you don’t like the design,” the boy offered. “It’s very easy.”

Cordus stared at them. “Where are Ocella and Kaeso?”

The boy shrugged. “Bring them here if you wish to see them.”

Ocella. Kaeso.

They both appeared before him. Ocella—arrows no longer protruding from her chest—rushed over to Cordus and hugged him tightly. He returned the embrace with equal strength. Kaeso stood behind her with a proud grin.

“Well done, kid,” Kaeso said.

Cordus pulled back, looking at them both with tears in his eyes. “You’re both dead aren’t you?” It was more a statement than a question.

Their smiles faltered.
 

“You’re just the personalities the Muses built around your memories,” Cordus continued. “My Ocella and Kaeso are…gone.”

Ocella and Kaeso nodded.

Cordus turned to the three children. “What will you do when I leave this ship? When I return to my body on Terra?”

The boy tilted his head. “We will take back control and destroy your planet.”

“We will try to kill you as well,” the auburn-haired girl said.

“You have angered us deeply,” the dark-haired girl said. Her owl flapped its wings in agreement. “Only your will is keeping us from destroying you now.”

Cordus eyed them sardonically. “Thanks for your honesty.”

“We are under your command,” the boy said. “We cannot deceive you.”

“I could root you out of this ship.”

All three shook their heads. The boy said, “We are too deeply integrated. You could no more destroy us than you could the strain that lived in you. You cannot kill us, only control us.”

The auburn-haired girl said, “And you would have to stay here to maintain control.”

“How? My body is still down there.”

The dark-haired girl said, “You can sever the connection.”

A tendril of white light, no bigger than a spider web strand, connected him to his body on Terra. The tendril undulated as if swaying in the wind. He then found a gladius in his hand.

The auburn-haired girl said, “Your mind will stay here, but your body will die. You will become part of the vessel. Like us.”

Cordus took in the stars around him, the planet below, and all the ships flitting about nearby. The power and freedom he had with this ship was everything he ever wanted. The things he could do, the places he could explore…

Ocella put a hand on his face and gently turned him toward her. “You can’t stay.”

Cordus stared at her. “But we could be together.”

 
Kaeso stepped forward. “There’s a world down there full of scared people who need a leader to give them hope.”

“I’m not strong enough to—”

“You are,” Kaeso said firmly.

“I just…don’t trust myself to be consul,” Cordus protested.

Ocella said softly, “I know. That is why it must be you.”

Cordus turned away, his eyes and senses taking in the universe.
Gods
,
why tempt me with everything I ever wanted if I was meant to do something else?

He remembered Aquilina in Roma. She was standing guard over his body right now. He hoped it had been an easy task, considering he was still alive and could see the com signal. She believed he could inspire others to make the Republic a better place.

He remembered Dariya and Daryush. He hoped they had somehow escaped in
Vacuna
and were on the other side of the universe by now. They deserved their own ship and the freedom it gave them after the hard life they had known at Roman hands. Despite all that, they had given Cordus, a Roman, their loyalty.

He remembered Blaesus. He prayed the old man still lived after the alien attacks in Roma. He embodied the best parts of the Roman principles of law. The Republic would need people like him now more than ever.

He remembered Nestor, killed by golems on Reantium, which seemed like years ago. He had had more faith in the Pantheon than anyone Cordus had ever met, including many flamens. He had lived a charitable life according to his faith. Cordus prayed Nestor’s soul was welcomed in Elysium with a triumph that overshadowed Heracles.

He remembered the Praetorians Piso and Duran, who died before his eyes. He hoped Ulpius and Gracchus still lived. All four followed him because he honored them with respect, a leadership quality he learned from Kaeso. Their allegiance to him had strengthened Cordus and given him courage.