Ex Nihilo - Abyssal Prophecy

Chapter 30

In the captain’s quarters, Helena gripped the communicator. Around her, the ladies stood waiting for the order to be given. She looked to her daughter, who was applying a layer of thin plastic to a small piece of metal. The tension caused Helena to pace back and forth. She knew if she launched her plan too soon, her husband would catch her, and that would ruin everything.

            “Is it ready yet?” Helena asked her daughter.

            Angelica was working slowly to make sure there were no wrinkles on the surface. Gabriel’s fingerprints and skin cells were stuck on the plastic sheet's surface. She carefully handed the piece of metal to her mother. Together, mother and daughter walked to the vault on the wall.

            Helena looked down at the piece of metal. She prayed this worked or all was ruined. Placing the slab of metal against the scanner, she heard the machine hum to life.  She held her breath, and time seemed to slow. Fear churned in her stomach. There was a loud beep and the vault slid open, revealing the cache inside. A multitude of pristine weapons sat in racks.

            “You’re a genius, Angelica.” Helena distributed weapons to the ladies. Once everyone was armed, she showed them how they functioned. Years of preparation and study allowed the women to grasp the knowledge with ease. Looking through the weapons vault, Angelica picked up a pair of energy whips and looked at her mother.

            “Want me to cut through that door?” she asked her mother.

            “No. If I know your father, he’s got some explosives around here. Better to make our entrance with a bang. Once we do, ladies, you need to take down the guards and move to the armoury. No one harms Celeris or Joshua,” she ordered. “Ah, here they are.”

            Picking up four energy grenades, she headed towards the door. She attached the charges to the four corners of the door. It took her a minute to remember how they worked, but she managed to activate the syncing system and connect the grenades. Inputting the timer for thirty seconds, she motioned for the ladies to take cover in the other room. She flipped the captain’s desk and pulled her daughter behind it.

            The explosion rippled through the room, deafening the women and blowing the door to the bridge. Angelica leaped over the desk and charging onto the bridge, activating her whips. Metallic lines shot out of the handles, sparking to life with energy in a blurring buzz of motion. She whipped the energy lines towards the nearest guard, who was starting to stand up. The energy cords tore through his armour, cleaving the guard in half. The other guard tried to open fire, but she had already anticipated this, and her other whip lashed through his gun, cutting it into two. The energy line continued slashing the last guard down the middle, and he split apart.

            “Stand down, my children,” Helena ordered, marching onto the bridge with a rifle.

            “What are you doing, mother?” Celeris cried, raising her arms.

            Joshua was determined to protect the ship even if it was from a coup by his mother. Turning towards the engineering system, he entered his failsafe code. Women poured into the room, grabbed him, and dragged him away, but he smiled, knowing it was too late. Sparks erupted from the engineering console and piloting station. He sneered defiantly at his mother.

            “You’re not taking control of this ship without a fight, Mother,” Joshua declared.

            Helena inspected the damage caused by whatever her son had done. She didn’t have the technical skills to understand what had happened, but the damage was obvious. All of the bridge controls were blacked out. She knew it was no longer possible to take control of the bridge as she had planned. Anger coursed through Helena, and she turned to slap her son hard across the face.

The ladies of the harem poured down the empty corridors, led by Angelica, and seized the armoury without a fight. Looking at the reinforced door, Angelica motioned for the ladies to step back. Activating the whips again, she lashed them across the door. The metal glowed from the sudden heat, and the center of the door began to wobble, no longer attached to anything. With a kick, she forced the door to fall into the armoury. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single suit of power armour left, and she headed to the bridge to inform her mother.

“Fix this now,” Helena demanded.

Joshua glared at his mother. He didn’t know why she was doing this, but he had no intention of betraying his father or the ship. He stayed silent. He saw the frustration pouring from his mother, but he believed she wasn’t capable of killing him. Even if she killed him, it wouldn’t help.

Helena pointed her gun at her son. The barrel rattled off Joshua’s head. The two stared at each other in silence. Helena screamed and turned away, knowing she couldn’t pull the trigger.

Angelica approached her mother.

“The armoury is ours, but it’s empty. There isn’t a single suit of power armour left. How are we going to fight the rest of the ship now?” she asked her mother.

On the viewscreen, Helena watched the Alcatraz’s mining ships growing closer to the outpost. She realized Gabriel had committed all of his forces to the attack, leaving the Alcatraz undefended. Unable to stop herself, she burst out laughing at a twist of fate she could never have seen coming.

“We don’t need to fight anyone. Your father has taken every last troop down there.” She pointed to the viewscreen, turned, and smiled at her daughter. “The Alcatraz is ours!”