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THE RIL-GALAS COULD feel fear.
Even through the waves of anger crashing through her, Sigurdsson knew that's what their step backward had meant. And more, she knew they were afraid of her. Of what she now represented.
She was Kaigor Kai Rii, the great War Matriarch who had come from out of the black to lead the udukiin to their destiny.
Behind her, an army had gathered. Sigurdsson wasn't sure how many udukiin had taken up arms, she wasn't about to take her eyes off the ril-galas to check, but she could feel the buzzing of their minds as they gathered.
"Go back to where you came from," she said, biting off each word. "Or you will die."
The ril-galas line shifted again, but this time not to step backward. This time, it was to allow one of the stalkers to step forward, in front of the rest. It looked very much the same as the other stalkers, save for a splash of white across its otherwise black triangular head—and its bearing. It carried itself differently, less animalistic.
A leader of some sort.
A second stalker with a similar white slash stood behind it, in line with the rest of the invaders.
"You won't get another warning," said Sigurdsson.
Tilting its head to one side, the stalker commander opened its toothy mouth impossibly wide and Sigurdsson could see the slimy musculature of its throat constricting in unnatural ways.
"Surrrrrenderrrr orrr we kk-kkilll all."
She simply stared for a moment. Though its lips weren't moving, the thing was somehow creating an approximation of human speech. And it clearly understood what it was saying.
"Surrrenderrr-kk," it said again.
For some reason, the creature's voice made Sigurdsson think of the rusty hulks of abandoned spacecraft. Dusty, creaking, flakes of oxidized metal cracking off in the wind.
There was a pause as Sigurdsson stared at the creature. And then she began to laugh.
It was not a kind laugh.
"I beat you on Von Daniken's Landing. I beat you on Good Hope. I beat you on New Madawaska," she said, taking a step toward the stalker commander. "I will not surrender. We will not surrender—not here and now, not tomorrow, not ever."
With her left hand, Sigurdsson raised her gunstaff high above her head.
"I am Freyja Sigurdsson! I am Kaigor Kai Rii!"
"Kaigor Kai Rii!" murmured the gathered udukiin. It was perhaps more unsettling than if they had screamed it.
Sigurdsson's lip curled in a snarl.
"I am your end."
Dropping her left hand, she drew her vayan pistol with her right and blew the commander's head apart with her first shot and punched a fist-sized hole through its chest cavity—and the ril-galas pilot within—with her second.
The udukiin attack began before the stalker commander's corpse had hit the ground.
Holstering her pistol and raising her gunstaff, Sigurdsson sighted along the ornate barrel and picked her target—a stalker moving quickly toward an udukiin already grappling with a ril-galas foot soldier. When she squeezed the trigger sensor the weapon fired its bolt of pure energy with barely a sound and no recoil at all. Excess energy flared from the six oval openings encircling the muzzle, creating a brief, bright halo of orange light around the gunstaff barrel.
The bolt slammed into the stalker and the creature erupted into a ball of flame as bright and as brief as the excess energy halo. When the flames disappeared, the stalker was down, a smoldering hole in its torso.
Ril-galas arm cannons boomed, udukiin gunstaves whispered and when the two forces were too close for firearms, the stalkers came to the fore and the udukiin drew their long, curved knives.
Sigurdsson used her fists.
Responding to her needs, her passenger shifted her organic armour to reinforce Sigurdsson's hands and wrists, her fists effectively becoming hammers.
A stalker leapt at her and Sigurdsson swatted it out of mid-air, an udukiin pouncing on it and impaling the creature with twin knives a scant second after it hit the ground. Another stalker charged and as she ducked under its slashing claws, Sigurdsson hammered a fist into its chest, then, grabbing it around the throat with her left hand, used her right to pummel it into a bloody pulp.
Dropping the remains to the ground, she stood straight, realising that the sounds of battle had gone.
The ril-galas had gone—the few that had survived.
The battlefield was littered with corpses and though there were udukiin dead, Sigurdsson could see without a formal count that the ril-galas corpses far outnumbered those of her own people.
At first, she didn't even notice the change in how she saw things.
Her own people.
The udukiin.
Suddenly she was nearly overwhelmed with feelings of pain and hope and fear and longing and an image of herself sitting on her bunk back on Thor's Hammer, stroking Jaeger's head as he curled up against her thigh.
"Jaeger, oh fuck oh fuck," she whispered, Kaigor Kai Rii disappearing in an instant and being replaced with a terrified Freyja Sigurdsson.
Stumbling over corpses, she headed to where she'd last seen him, his body limp and bleeding—fucking hell please let him be okay—but the spot was empty. Empty save a bloodstain the size of an ATV tire.
Her hands began to shake as she frantically spun around, looking in all directions for some sign of Jaeger, her kalthar, her companion.
"Jaeger!" she yelled. "Please, buddy, please be okay please be okay please be okay..."
Another wave. More pain. A flash of her and Jaeger at the fort on New Madawaska. She'd just given him half of her peanut butter cookie. He'd barely chewed it, then licked her face.
Tears were stinging her eyes now. There was no doubt he was still alive, which gave her hope, but the amount of pain he was feeling... she couldn't finish the thought. Instead, she turned inward, closing her eyes and hoping like hell her passenger could help.
"I don't know how this works, but I know it's your psychic whatever that's allowing this connection," she said quietly. "I brought you home. I'm helping you fulfill your destiny. Please, I'm begging you, help me find him."
In that moment she knew that if Jaeger died, so would the entire ril-galas race. She would hunt them, wherever they went. She would mobilize every last udukiin into an army four million strong. She would march across the galaxy and she would kill every last one. She would find their home world and she would watch it burn.
The buzzing in her head intensified for a moment and then cleared, so much so that the world seemed to go completely quiet. And then she felt it. A sort of warmth in her mind and then a heartbeat and then the pain and confusion and she followed it like... like Jaeger, all those times he'd picked up a scent and felt a compulsion to investigate. Udukiin raised hands in salute as she passed and—through her passenger's influence, no doubt—Sigurdsson unthinkingly returned it as she headed through the battlefield toward a small building. It was no more than a hovel.
Udrach stood outside and opened the door for her as she approached.
Stepping inside, Sigurdsson opened her mouth to call out for Jaeger when she stopped.
He was there.
At the centre of the building's lone room stood a table. It was covered with a coarse blanket and laying on his side on the blanket was Jaeger. There was blood caked on his fur.
He lifted his head. His eyes met Sigurdsson's and she heard the thump of his tail against the tabletop as it began wagging and she felt a wave of such joy and love and that everything was okay now, and she began to cry as she knelt beside the table and gently stroked his head.
"It's okay, buddy. It's okay, everything will be okay," she whispered.
"Freyja."
Looking up, she realised for the first time there were others in the room. Frankenstein stood beside her. Elgraphaar stood off to one side, and Aylarr sat awkwardly on another blanket on the floor, her arms held tightly to her torso. Her armour sat beside her and she appeared hurt.
"Frankenstein," Sigurdsson said, standing, but not lifting her hand from Jaeger. "Is..."
She paused, taking a deep breath and collecting herself.
"Status report, please."
Frankenstein bobbed his metal head.
"Udukiin injuries are many, but their own medical practitioners appear quite skilled—moreso than I with their physiology. The udukiin are very durable species—most of the injuries I witnessed would be considered relatively minor."
Sigurdsson nodded, trying not to look too impatient.
It was good, the news about the udukiin, but it wasn't the information she was waiting for.
"Jaeger's injuries were quite serious," said the brill, reaching and stroking the dog's snout with surprising gentleness for a mechanical exo-suit. "His attacker's claw pierced his chest and caused damage to his heart."
Swallowing heavily, Sigurdsson said nothing.
Jaeger licked her hand.
A tear rolled down her cheek.
"I have largely immobilized him for now," said Frankenstein.
"Doc... is he," she said, stopping to take a shaky breath. "Will he be okay?"
"He requires time to heal, but I believe he will perhaps exceed the normal expected lifespan for his breed."
The relief was so palpable, so complete, then Sigurdsson felt a light-headedness that forced her to brace both hands on the table.
Jaeger would be okay. He would heal and he would live, maybe even longer than...
What the hell did that mean, 'exceed the normal lifespan of his breed'? She was about to ask, but then remembered Aylarr.
"What about Aylarr?" she asked, turning to the icaran woman. "What happened?"
"His heart was damaged."
"What? Yes, I got that, but what happened to you?"
"Jaeger's heart was damaged," said Elgraphaar.
"Icarans have primary and secondary eyes," said Aylarr, sounding very, very tired. "And we have primary and secondary hearts."
"A natural back-up system for the body," said Frankenstein, brightly. "Quite incredible. Though the icaran secondary heart is actually similar to the human appendix—vestigial, not truly necessary to the operation of the body."
Her mouth slightly open, her eyes narrowed, Sigurdsson looked from Frankenstein, to Aylarr, to Elgraphaar and back to Aylarr.
"Jaeger's heart was damaged," said Aylarr. "And as you humans would say, I had a spare lying around."
Bursting into tears, Sigurdsson dropped to one knee beside Aylarr and spread her arms to go in for a hug.
"What are you doing?" said Aylarr quickly, making Sigurdsson pause.
"Humans squeeze each other to express gratitude," said Elgraphaar.
"I just underwent surgery, Sigurdsson. Please do not squeeze me."
"Okay," said Sigurdsson, laughing, wiping tears from her eyes. "No squeezing. But thank you, Aylarr. Thank you so much. You have no idea how much it means to me."
"He is your kalthar."
"And now you are both part icaran," said Frankenstein.
"Thanks to you, you magnificent bastard," said Sigurdsson, standing and embracing the brill. "You and your fucking genius science shit."
"Medical science shit," he corrected.
"As much as I am loathe to darken the mood," said Elgraphaar. "The Priex Matriarch is dead. Which leaves the udukiin leaderless."
"I don't believe they are," said Aylaar, looking to Sigurdsson.
Keeping her silence for a moment, Sigurdsson stroked Jaeger's flank. She figured it may have relaxed her more than it did him.
"We came here to hopefully get the udukiin to help in the war," she said, but it sounded hesitant even to her own ears. "And we now have a way to do that."
No one spoke, waiting for her to continue.
"If I do this... If I lead the udukiin to war, I need you to keep me grounded. I need to know you won't let me...," she paused and shook her head, trying to clear it. She was drained, physically and emotionally. "Emotionally, I can get blinded. Especially by anger. If I can potentially call an entire species to arms, I can't afford to let that happen—I can't have udukiin dying because I got angry and marched them to their death to get revenge."
Feeling a cold nose against the palm of her hand, Sigurdsson had sudden flash image of the kindness she'd shown to Jaeger in the time they'd known each other, from sneaking him bits of her meals, to talking to him on the long cold nights as they awaited the next ril-galas assault. The sentiment was as clear as if he'd spoken the words: I believe in your goodness.
His endorsement meant more than anyone else's could have.
"I promise to stand with you," said Elgraphaar. "And advise you to the best of my ability."
"As will I," said Aylarr.
"My counsel is of course yours, at any time it may be required," said Frankenstein. "Though my skills would be perhaps more beneficial were I behind the lines rather than literally standing with you."
The brill turned his glowing blue 'eye' from Sigurdsson to Elgraphaar to Aylarr and back to Sigurdsson.
"I hope you do not think me a coward—I only feel that is where I am able to of most benefit to our cause," he said.
Elgraphaar laughed.
"It's not your courage we question, Frankenstein, but your sanity."
When Sigurdsson had told Udrach she wanted to address the Chamber, it had seemed like such a simple thing. She would just talk. The udukiin would listen. They'd agree or they wouldn't, but all she had to do was talk.
As Udrach rapped his gunstaff on the floor at the centre of the room and announced that Kaigor Kai Rii would now address the Chamber, all eyes turned to her. The room was even more packed than it had been on her first visit and Sigurdsson wished she'd had the foresight to plan ahead—maybe even write some notes—on what she would say.
Complete and total silence fell over the chamber.
"I came here thinking I was returning something you lost," said Sigurdsson. She had no idea how she was going to say what she needed to say and she was trying desperately to channel Finn Radko—he seemed to be a natural at getting all speechy. "I didn't know anything about the prophecy of the Matriarch of the Three, I just knew what I had to do. I didn't know about the bonding, I didn't know a Matriarch could bond to a non-udukiin. I didn't know about your history with the ril-galas and I didn't know you as a people."
Holding her arms wide, she gave an exaggerated shrug.
"Apparently I knew shit all."
The stone-like rumble of udukiin laughter rolled through the chamber. Thankfully.
"But the things I do know are a lot clearer now. Clearer to me, for sure, and I expect much clearer to you as well. I am not udukiin," she said slowly. "And because of that, I can't say whether I am Kaigor Kai Rii. I can't be—and shouldn't be—the one to figure that out. That's for you to decide."
Turning, slowly, a full three hundred and sixty degrees, Sigurdsson tried to lock eyes with as many occupants of the chamber as possible.
"I'm not udukiin, but I'm also not fully human or icaran either—I'm some impossible combination of the three. And if you decide that I am you War Matriarch—if—then I will lead you. I will lead the udukiin against the ril-galas and we will fight side-by-side with the humans and the icarans," she said, pausing briefly—the next line was the only thing she'd really planned. "The udukiin taking their rightful place... as protectors of the black."
The chamber erupted. Udukiin pounded fists on whatever surface they could reach and Sigurdsson felt a panic rising in her and then suddenly understood that the hammering of fists was the udukiin equivalent of cheering.
An elder udukiin stood and the noise died. Sigurdsson recognized him as one of the advisers who had flanked Yrtaan at their first meeting.
"The udukiin people and the star fleet of the Priex will mobilize at your command," he said. "We will mobilize as a singular, unstoppable force under the command of Kaigor Kai Rii."
The chamber erupted in the pounding of fists again.
Sigurdsson raised a hand for silence and got it.
"No," she said.
The gathered masses exchanged looks with each other as Sigurdsson paused. It wasn't shock value she was going for with her pause, but she wanted to ensure she had their attention.
"We aren't looking at a war on a single front. There is no fort we can take to win the war, no one single planet that we can liberate to end this," she said. "Our enemy... they're everywhere. They have spread through star systems like a plague."
"Is that... not more reason for a single, massive force...?" asked one udukiin, clearly much younger than most of her peers.
"The ril-galas are already here, on the Shattered World," said Sigurdsson. "I will not leave the home world of the udukiin undefended or under-defended. If you are to become the protectors of the black, we have to be smarter about this, we have to think strategy not just throw wave after wave of soldiers at them and hope they breath their last before we do."
"This is contrary to thousands of years of udukiin military operation," said a gruff voice from somewhere in the chamber—Sigurdsson had no idea where.
"And that," she said. "Is why it is the Kaigor Kai Rii who will lead you to your rightful place in the galaxy."
It was a bold statement and one Sigurdsson herself wasn't entirely sure of, but it had the desired effect.
The udukiin stood and hammered their fists on seats and walls and desktops and Kaigor Kai Rii was given unconditional command of the Priex's army and star fleet.