The Gardens of Nibiru (The Ember War Saga Book 5) Read Free

bridge.
    The candle fluttered, its light shining off the pool of liquid wax just beneath the flame.
    He hadn’t bothered to keep track of how long he’d knelt before the shrine. His cybernetic body knew neither fatigue nor discomfort. Lafayette’s cybernetics remained hidden beneath a set of naval rating coveralls, hiding his disfigurement from view. Much of his body had been burned away by a Xaros disintegration beam years ago. Replacing what was lost had been a painful journey of trial and error. All that was left of his original body was his brain and a few organs in his chest cavity. His face was a mask of polymers over a scaffolding that mimicked expressions and speaking.
    Steuben knelt beside Lafayette and matched his pose.
    “I relieve you,” Steuben said. “I take up the watch.”
    “They’re almost gone,” Lafayette whispered. “Let me stay.”
    “Have you heard them?”
    “No, but I don’t have ears anymore.”
    “Ghosts whisper to our souls, not our bodies. If they are silent, then they are at peace, confident that you and I will complete the mission.”
    The flame danced against the wick, growing fainter. The two warriors sat for several minutes more in silence.
    The fire sputtered, then went out with a hiss. The Karigole placed their hands on the deck in front of their knees, then leaned forward to touch their foreheads to the ground.
    “Farewell, Rochambeau,” Lafayette said, “you gave me a blood transfusion after I was injured. It kept me alive so that I would not be the last.”
    “Farewell, Kosciusko. You were the best of us. Your will kept me going, saved me from despair so that I would not be the last,” Steuben said.
    Lafayette placed the balls of his feet against the deck and stood up, his cybernetic knees whirring. He picked up a small trash bin and swept the last bits of candle, beads and fabric away. By the ritual, Kosciusko’s and Rochambeau’s spirits had lost their final attachment to the mortal plane. Keeping their possessions only served to attract malevolent entities.
    “The ship’s power systems are out of balance,” Lafayette said. “I feel it in the deck plating, see it in fluctuations from the lights.”
    “The captain requests your assistance,” Steuben said.
    “Of course he does. His engineer is quite capable when it comes to human technology, but ask him to recalibrate the quantum field stabilizer on the cloak generator and he looks at me like I just offered to procreate with his sister—isn’t that how humans do it? Male to female?”
    “Yes, their Internet archives are full of reference material. I don’t recommend researching the topic. It’s very confusing.” Steuben got to his feet and went to a workbench. He picked up a slightly curved flat box and examined it. “There’s an issue. The ship can’t maintain the cloak for very long. Our time on the surface will be limited.”
    Lafayette dumped the contents of the trash bin down a chute and stopped to examine a tool display with several hand and forearm prosthetics. Each set grasped a metal peg sticking out from the wall. Lafayette grabbed a wrist for a hand with five fingers instead of his usual four, and the prosthetic released the peg. Lafayette grabbed the peg with his other hand and detached it from his arm. The new hand went on with a snap.
    “What happens to the ship once we’re on the surface is irrelevant,” Lafayette said. “I will not leave Nibiru until Mentiq is dead.”
    “Nor will I.”
    “The humans will accept this?”
    Steuben ran two fingers across his chin in annoyance. “No, but I am not concerned. I would rather die in the course of our mission and come before our brothers in the afterlife with pride, than pass away from old age on Earth trying to please Hale and the others’ sense of honor.”
    “Hmm…old age.” Lafayette swapped out his other hand. “I doubt that will be a problem for either of us.”

CHAPTER 2
     
    The doors to Bastion’s stellar cartography lab