{"id":35,"date":"2011-11-04T03:03:08","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T08:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/?page_id=35"},"modified":"2021-11-14T18:28:57","modified_gmt":"2021-11-14T23:28:57","slug":"into-the-palace-of-death","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/collaborative-works\/into-the-palace-of-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Into the Palace of Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTell Ginny I love her,\u201d Rebecca said as she stepped back from kissing Viktor deeply, tears in her eyes, and her blaster aimed straight at his chest. <\/em><\/p>\n

She answered his look of surprise with a voice that broke. \u201cVik, there\u2019s a way everyone can live through this, and if the Spirits are aiding, these poor people will be saved in the process. There\u2019s no fucking time to explain. Just get in that ship now, or I swear I\u2019ll kill you myself.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He took a step forward and she fired. Crying, she bent down and touched her lips to her husband\u2019s, \u201cStupid, noble idiot. You weren\u2019t supposed to call my bluff. Darrien, get him aboard, and get out of here. Me and Darla have something reckless and stupid to do that\u2019ll let all of you keep your skins.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Sighing, she looked at the unconscious Viktor being slung over Burok\u2019s shoulder. She half chuckled, half choked as she said, \u201cMaybe some of his luck is contagious and we\u2019ll see you later\u2026 somehow.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The two women hurried away as the rest of the fledgling adventuring band got aboard, saluting the pair\u2019s fleeing backs \u2014 tears or their equivocal freely falling.<\/em><\/p>\n

*****<\/em><\/p>\n

The huge orbital palace\u2019s weapons locked onto the fleeing ship as the tractor beams sputtered and failed. There was a series of explosions as the sabotaged weapons systems all overloaded. This the Daggers had expected. The trouble was keeping those on the world below from suffering mass atrocities in punishment for this. The labs where the plagues were manufactured and the bulk of the giant ship\u2019s armament were too well guarded for such a small force to destroy them without destroying the ship \u2026 something that would have been suicide. The only accessible way to do it was almost a maldri from any means of escape and would cause the ship and anything smaller than a Borlothan Battlestar within a thousand maldri radius to be space dust in less than ten piclanid.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Daggers\u2019 ship had barely reached a safe distance before the moment an explosion happened large enough it could literally be heard around the world whose liberation it heralded. Winters would be longer and summers shorter and milder on Midgrothis for another century \u2014 but it was a small price to pay for their lives and freedom. Nothing larger than a cooking pot remained of the enormous flying palace from which The Supreme Majesty, known to the resistance as The Usurper or The Terror, reigned over the whole of the Midgorthan people.<\/em><\/p>\n

Darrien and his band landed on the world a nulair later to cheers and feasts. A royal funeral was prepared for the heroines of the people, who believe that any who make such a noble sacrifice are reborn instantly as Gods and their names are whispered in \u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

Salandra closed the book and began to cry. She put the unfinished novel down, ran to her father, and climbed onto his lap as she sobbed into his chest.<\/p>\n

Viktor held her close. Salandra was certainly one of his more emotional children, but he\u2019d never seen her this distraught \u2013 even when she was convinced her uncle and older sister were terrorist agents being controlled by rogue circuits in their prosthetics.<\/p>\n

He was deeply concerned as there was little he could conceive of that could have put her into this state given that the pair were presently the only people in the house over the age of two; but he knew that she\u2019d need to calm down quite a lot before she would be capable of making anything approaching sense, so he just murmured soothing words until her sobs quieted down enough then asked, \u201cWhat\u2019s the matter?\u201d<\/p>\n

She was saying \u201cPoor Daddy and Ginny\u201d over and over \u2013 which made no sense at all since his eldest daughter was in a different galaxy than his husbands at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cSalandra, honey? What are you talking about?\u201d Viktor expected that Sal had just had another far-fetched, barely even plausible idea. She had a very active imagination that would at times override her common sense.<\/p>\n

Her present state of distress had been a complete shock, nonetheless her reply made it seem planned and expected by comparison.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas that really<\/em> how Rebecca died? How she became a hero instead of one of my mommies?\u201d She met his eyes with her own.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas what really \u2026 what<\/em>? Kj\u00e6re, please try starting from the beginning. You\u2019re easier to understand when you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInto the Palace of Death<\/em>, was that really what happened to Rebecca?\u201d<\/p>\n

Of all the stupid, absurd, pulp trash available in that damnable series of Dagger novels she would have to pick <\/em>that one<\/em>, he thought to himself, fighting back tears as painful, bittersweet memories began to surge through his mind. It was no secret that his first wife and another Dagger, Darla, had been the first Daggers to die in a mission, but the details were generally not asked for and certainly never volunteered.<\/p>\n

Softly, his voice closer to a whisper and husky with powerful, deep emotion as the memories flooded back just as painful now as they\u2019d been all those years before, he spoke, \u201cJa. Den er sannere enn de fleste av de b\u00f8kene.\u201d<\/p>\n

He paused as his words reached his ears and he realised he\u2019d spoken Norsk rather than Galfarran. As Salandra did not show signs of confusion he decided she\u2019d recalled what the words meant and pressed on rather than backtracking to offer translation, but did force himself back to the child\u2019s native tongue. \u201cThat part especially \u2013 Darla\u2019s brother swore to eat the author\u2019s still beating heart if one detail were changed or omitted, as I recall. I rather agreed with the sentiment,\u201d he said, shuddering as the sentence triggered memories of more recent traumas and struggles, \u201cand wouldn\u2019t have approved any version that did anything that dishonoured their memory or their sacrifice. How far did you read?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yeah \u2026\u201d She sniffled in answer. \u201cYou never said she\u2019s a goddess<\/em> now! And I\u2019m pretty sure Ginny hasn\u2019t either.\u201d She put an accusing glare on her puffy, tear streaked face that caused Viktor to chuckle slightly in spite of himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not quite a goddess, exactly. They were taking literary license with a difficult to translate term. A closer analogy would be Donovan\u2019s saints, or maybe angels. Or some sort of cross between a Valkyrie and a warrior of Valhalla? It\u2019s complicated. Uhm \u2026 possibly a \u2026\u201d He wracked his brain for a term from Faeshild or Kiva\u2019uptkasi. \u201cIl\u2026uh\u2026ilktharv\u00eb? They\u2019re not so much worshipped \u2013 as I recall that book suggests \u2013 as revered and prayed to in times of need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIlk\u2019ythrv\u00ebtr,\u201d she said absent-mindedly correcting his pronunciation of a word that is literally physically impossible for a Human to say, and in Ruragak\u2019s home dialect rather than Imperium standard Kivanian.<\/p>\n

Seemingly unaware she\u2019d yet spoken she put her head to one side, blinking in that disconcertingly slow way of her race, and making it clear her ancestors had evolved from something more akin to birds than had his own. \u201cOh. Daddy? Didn\u2019t she want to see Ginny again? Most Daggers don\u2019t have little girls; they didn\u2019t then either, did they? Why\u2019d it have to be her and Darla? Couldn\u2019t you have \u2026\u201d She paused, her imagination working in overdrive for a solution to the problem. \u201cCouldn\u2019t you have brainwashed some \u2018bot to do it?\u201d She thought another moment then added, \u201cWhat exactly did<\/em> they do anyway; the story doesn\u2019t say, only that there was a massive explosion that altered the planetary climates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viktor sighed heavily, wishing that Renata were here as she could explain this without having to relive it and also while having the faintest idea what Rebecca and Darla might\u2019ve done \u2026 which he never had understood himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would have done anything to see Virginia again, sweetheart. She had no choice. There were no \u2018bots on that ship to<\/em> brainwash \u2013 and they\u2019d have never been able to do the job; their core programs would stop them or something \u2013 I\u2019m sure Ren or Kris could explain that to you better. What Rebecca and Darla did was some incomprehensible thing to the ship\u2019s reactor or hyperdrive that overloaded \u2013 umm \u2026 reactors and drives that big have systems to keep them from suddenly becoming tiny, momentary stars. They worked together to wreck those in some fashion which, I gather, made it (them?) rather like a small, short-lived supernova instead. Few of us had even the slightest idea how to do that, and of those who did \u2013 some of whom had no family and begged to go instead so that Becca and Dari could go home to those who loved them \u2013 none but Becca and Dari were still fit to fight the scores of guards along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tears were flowing freely from Viktor\u2019s eyes and he had to pause for a moment to regain his composure. Salandra cuddled closer against him. \u201cSal, don\u2019t believe for a moment she would rather have been a hero than Ginny\u2019s mother. But she couldn\u2019t let millions, possibly all ten billion, of the people of that world die just to see Virginia again. Her choice wasn\u2019t hero or mommy; it was hero or monster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viktor had always been proud of his wife\u2019s courage \u2013 but pride couldn\u2019t talk to him or sing to the babies. Thirty years had only eased the pain. He would miss her until he died. Then, he suspected, they would meet again in Valhalla, a place \u2013 in his opinion \u2013 he had no business nor right to ever find himself, despite what most people who knew him said; but, he mused, she probably had Thor, Loki, and Odin calling her \u2018min dame\u2019 and bowing by the third day and she would have demanded he be saved a seat.<\/p>\n

Salandra was soon fast asleep in his lap, her tears exhausting her. Viktor slid her glasses off and watched her sleep as he wandered fondly through old, bittersweet memories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTell Ginny I love her,\u201d Rebecca said as she stepped back from kissing Viktor deeply, tears in her eyes, and her blaster aimed straight at his chest. She answered his look of surprise with a voice that broke. \u201cVik, there\u2019s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":33,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-35","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P1Y5CS-z","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22723,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35\/revisions\/22723"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/universal-nexus.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}