Port bough thrusters fired, slowing the hulk of the Wandering Evil alongside an asteroid on the fringes of the Mardavatt star system. The sole vessel exited riftspace, quickly engaging stealth protocols when they detected human activity.

  "Spectre, what do you see?" Tarrare asked, impatience leaking from his teeth.

  "Three human vessels," Nalusa answered, pressing her palm against the bridge's central column, "none of them are warships. All science ships hosting minimal defensive weapons complements."

  "They weren't expecting visitors then," Tarrare snarled. "We should move quickly to snuff them out!"

  Tarrare, the ranking augur aboard the Evil, compelled the attendants on the bridge to prepare for battle.

  "Hold that," Oscar said, remanding the order causing the attendants to halt. "You are here as an observer, Tarrare. We don't know their intentions."

  Tarrare growled. "It was a mistake to place you in command of such a sensitive mission."

  "You question the Crown Paramount?" Nín said to Tarrare with a nod to Oscar.

  Oscar was surprised that Nín would be standing up to an augur, and to be doing it so early after his birth. Maybe Oscar was having an effect on his brother...

  "We are in command," Oscar said, gesturing to Nín. "I expect you remember that or I'll see to it you're demoted back into whatever hole you clawed out from."

  "Disgusting..." Tarrare said, repulsed by his insolence.

  "There it is," Nalusa said, pulling up a wallscreen image of their target, the Rys.

  At the centre of the orbiting science vessels, was a massive dark hulk, dormant in the black. Along its surface work teams cut with laser torches, ablating away panels and tossing them frivolously into the void.

  "They defile her!" Tarrare shrieked. "They tear at her flesh, we must make haste!"

  "Do we know what they seek?" Oscar asked, ignoring Tarrare's pleas.

  "It seems like they still have not regained entrance," said Nalusa, "When last we were here, we encountered a human expedition deep within. After taking care of that intrusion, we resealed The Rys and departed with news of its finding."

  "And you're sure you left none behind– perhaps they are a recovery force looking for survivors?" Nín asked, himself thumbing through the wallscreen data as if searching for something.

  Nalusa shook her head. "All were expunged," she explained before turning to look at him, "except..."

  "And it took nearly eleven months for them to return?" Oscar asked, "assuming they haven't been here cutting this whole time."

  "This system is remote by all standards. From the records we obtained from their first intrusion, Mardavatt was not recorded on their public starmaps," said Nalusa, "informational isolation was retained by an organization known as Saturnus among their ranks."

  "Saturn... us..." Nín pantomimed.

  Tarrare roared; "so close, I can taste them!"

  "You will have your due, brother Tarrare," Oscar said, "our main goal is discovering what they know– about our prior encounter and about what happened to our ancestors of The Rys following its abandonment. We would not want them stumbling their way to our doorstep."

  "Let them come. More Starfires for the Will!" Tarrare belched.

  "Your haste may spell our doom," said Oscar, "yet I have to agree with you in principle. It would be beneficial to our future Crown Paramount here to bear witness to subsumption first-hand."

  "My forces stand ready in the black," Nalusa said, "they lay dormant just outside sensor range."

  "Muster them, but hold them in reserve," Oscar ordered, "we wouldn't want to spook these scientists into thinking they might flee."

  This was far from Oscar's first deployment with the fleets of the Will; however always relegated to a passive observer. Funny now, he thought, that Tarrare be the one in the backseat forced to watch the machinations of himself, an abomination.

  Oscar felt a cool relaxation at the thought. Tarrare noticed.

  "Your brashness will be the true death of this excursion," Tarrare rattled in his head.

  "Follow my lead, dear Tarrare, and you will eat."

  Tarrare's stomach smiled at that, hoisting himself up from his chair.

  "Domery!" he barked, "fetch me my sabre!"

  "Spectre Nalusa, move us in quietly," Oscar ordered.

  "Should I warm the dropships?" asked Nalusa.

  Oscar shook his head; "no. I would not want to damage the Rys anymore than the humans already have. We will walk in the front door."

  "Rrrright!" Tarrare howled before heading for the airlock tailed closely by a salivating Domery.

  "We're not taking a shuttle?" Nín asked Oscar as they paced after Tarrare. "Surely we can't sneak the whole of this enormous ship alongside theirs? Our stealth is good but it's not without flaws."

  "Been reading up on the Wandering Evil's capabilities, have you? Good!" Oscar said, impressed. "No, we don't plan to get that close."

  "A spacewalk then?" Nín pressed.

  "Indeed," Oscar affirmed as they arrived at the airlock behind the others. Behind them, Nalusa appeared having run the length of the corridors; her breath steady in its silence as if she'd been there all along.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  "The Evil shall obey the Will in our absence," said Nalusa.

  Tarrare was panting wildly, his heartbeat pounding outward throughout the wordless quiet.

  "Gilgalel and Abadón will be sorry to have missed this!" he growled with glee.

  "They had other assignments to attend to," Nalusa relayed. "Another matter amidst the black."

  "A culling?" Oscar asked, to which Nalusa nodded.

  "A culling?" Nín questioned.

  "Newcomers will be joining us on our return home, I expect. In the meantime, keep your attention to the matter at hand. Before us lay the void, resplendent in its absence! We are but messengers of the dark, subsumptives of the Wordless Will! The Rys, our great bequeather, our birthright, is just steps away. Show courage now that we may reclaim it!"

  The host of them growled and roared in a cacophony that roiled in both voice and wordless quiet. Tarrare and Domery rattled their sabres as Nalusa let loose her claws. Nín however, looked around in confusion.

  "Where are the envirosuits?" Nín asked, his panic beginning to eek out into the Will.

  "The Evil reports we are now steady, two kilometres above the Rys."

  "Oscar?!"

  Oscar only smiled.

  "Doors open in three," Nalusa announced as she stood tall, closed her eyes, and crossed her arms tightly across her chest.

  Tarrare and Domery did the same, holding their sabres uncomfortably close to their own necks.

  Oscar stepped toward Nín who was growing increasingly panicked. Nín's eyes darted around the compartment, searching desperately for a way out. Oscar wrapped his arms tightly around Nín.

  "Breathe out, brother," Oscar said calmly. "And close your eyes."

  Nín gripped back, trembling and squeezing him around his chest.

  "Did she say two kilometres?" Nín said quietly as realization dawned on him.

  Oscar nodded.

  Just then the outer bay doors of the airlock burst open as all the pressure leapt out into the vacuum, them along with it. As the air left them behind all that remained amongst the stars was wordless quiet.

  Nín struggled to breathe, trying to gulp down vacuum in a panic.

  Oscar nudged Nín, urging him to open his eyes. The two of them sailed through the void as the Evil shrank rapidly beneath their feet. The starfield about them danced and sung the praises of the Will, beautiful as they both are long-lived amongst the void.

  The terror on Nín's face quickly fell away as it was replaced by unbridled wonder. He looked around, still holding tightly to Oscar's robe as it fluttered inconsistently from the whispers of the airlock exhaust.

  "Quiet your mind, brother," Oscar wordlessly said to him. "The Will protects us out here, at least for a time."

  Above them the Rys remained a small point dotted with smaller points as the human science vessels slowly drifted about, the light of Mardavatt's star barely shining off the fringes of their structures.

  As Nín's attention wandered to the beauty around them, his grip began to loosen.

  "Careful now. Better to stay with me lest you fall forever," Oscar said as a sudden and terrible thought occurred to him.

  So easy it would be to simply lose him in the black... to be the only remaining heir...

  Oscar shook his head.

  Sensing his inner conflict, Nín looked up at him. There was something about the way he looked at him. Despite the merciless void around them and the anxiety for the upcoming encounter with the human scientists, his brother looked back at him as... a brother.

  Oscar smiled back at him.

  The Rys was closer now, growing as it moved towards them overhead.

  Ants above sparked their torches still, carrying on with their work unaware of Oscar and his party's approach.

  "Twenty seconds," Nalusa uttered through the Will. "Flip and burn in ten."

  "What is it? What's happening?" Nín's voiceless words reached out to Oscar so softly and imperfectly.

  "Follow my lead, brother. Everything will be alright," Oscar said as he loosened his grip around Nín and pushed him just an arm's width away. Effortlessly he scrunched down his form, balling up his knees to his chest and ever-so-gently flipped himself hand over head so that his feet now pointed towards the Rys.

  Nín watched closely, then copied. Clumsily wriggling about and sending himself into a bit of an uncontrolled spiral. Oscar quickly caught and righted him before pointing to his boots.

  "That button there," he said, "wait for Nalusa's word."

  Nín nodded, unsure but trusting.

  "Five seconds," she hissed. Still the humans below them, their forms fully defined now hunched over their laser torches, knew nothing of their impending doom.

  "Three. Two."

  Tarrare let out a howl through the Will, his voice emanating with it a wave of nausea. Oscar fought it off, sparing himself from puking. Nín wasn't so lucky.

  "Darts away," Nalusa said, as two thigh-sized rockets detached from her back and fired thrusters. They arced up and away as their trajectories tracked two of the science vessels.

  From below Oscar's feet an unease began to itch as one of the scientists looked up.

  "One!" Nalusa screeched.

  Oscar gestured to Nín and the pair of them activated their boot thrusters. Arcs of plasma jetted out like the Starfires of old, slowing their descent to a safe velocity before cutting out.

  Nalusa, Tarrare and Domery did the same, reaching the surface with more force just ahead of Oscar and Nín.

  Tarrare slammed down just beside the first scientist, his sabre raised. The scientist's shock and confusion were on full display through a transparent helm as he tried to turn his torch on Tarrare.

  Tarrare swung wildly, slicing the man across the torso. His envirosuit burst open and blood sprayed outward as it escaped and vaporized. Tarrare swung again, cleaving the man's torch arm away, causing the man to loose his footing and careen away from the Rys' hull.

  Alerted, the seven other scientists dropped their torches and turned to head for a nearby landing skiff. One of their number – who by the firearm they brandished Oscar assumed must be their leader – waved them on as they turned to face their attackers.

  Nalusa swung her claws, severing the leader's gun hand, sending it banking off the hull. The gun misfired as it hit and the bullet found purchase in the back of one of the fleeing scientists, rendering them limp and drifting.

  The remaining five scientists paused momentarily in debilitating terror just as Nalusa's missiles found their mark. Two of the three science vessels overhead erupted in balls of plasma.

  Flight overriding their fear, the humans turned and headed for the safety of the skiff only to be confronted by Domery's blade as he slashed two at the neck.

  Two now ran, bounding in the null gravity, as one forced his body into Domery's, pushing them both outward off the hull and into the void. Domery laughed as he forced his blade into the woman's gut and ripped through her side. Nalusa leapt high and grabbed hold of Domery who was distracted by revelry as she fired a grapple back down at the hull.

  Oscar grabbed Nín by the arm and sent them both sprinting towards the two humans as they boarded the skiff. Nín, terrified at the carnage inflicted by the augurs and the spectre, glued himself to his brother as the two of them reached the railing of the open-vacuum skiff. The two remaining scientists – a man and a woman – each tried frantically to get a hold of the controls as Oscar climbed onboard, followed closely by Nín.

  Oscar grabbed the man by the helmet, forcing the man to face him and abandon the controls. Nín tugged frivolously at the woman's arm, grappling with her as he tried in vain to pull her from the terminal just as the skiff's engine began to hum.

  Thrusters fired and the skiff began to lift from the hull just as a behemoth figure materialized out of the black and impacted the woman, shearing her from her limbs and leaving Nín holding only an arm. Tarrare's gluttonous form kept sailing as he ripped and tore into the woman's former flesh, sending viscera flying and swallowing it in fist-sized morsels.

  The last scientist turned sharply, wriggling under the grip of Oscar's hands. He sent several punches into Oscar's stomach, which barely registered in the null gravity.

  Oscar smiled a cheap pity to the man through his helmet visor before squeezing and turning, separating his helmet from his shoulders like opening a stuck jar. Terror was quickly replaced with shock as the man grasped at the helmet, trying desperately to put it back. Oscar tossed it into the void and the man, resigned to his doom, sent a final closed fist into Oscar's jaw.

  The pain of the impact stung with an astringent hate. When Oscar looked back, the remaining life had left the man's eyes.

  Shaking it off, Oscar tapped a command on the terminal and set the skiff back down.