Wrath of Angels: Sins of Angels, #4

1

So the angels terraformed a bunch of worlds. Sometimes they used orbital platforms to stabilize weather patterns. But you know what they didn’t do much of—they didn’t go changing the ambient temperature of those planets. We take that as a guideline, of course. Well, the techs use it as a guideline. And what do you do with guidelines? You color outside them! You go in there and spread blue and green and red wherever the void you want. I’m gonna paint planets whatever damned color I want.

OMAR PETROV, LABAN WORLDS CEO

NOVEMBER 10, 3096 EY — PEGASUS DWARF GALAXY

The last time

Rachel had come to the Pegasus Dwarf Galaxy, it had been to reach Gehenna. Now here she was, hiding on another independent world not so far from the Expanse of Nod. Hiding from Sentinels, no less.

Laban Worlds had begun terraforming this planet forty years ago, but their deal with Jericho had fallen through and they’d instead sold the half-finished planet to a small separatist group Rachel had fallen in with once or twice. At the moment, it served well enough to keep her and the others safe.

She walked along the shore near the planet’s only settlement. This one large island was the only place Laban had finished seeding with vegetation and thus, the only real place to live on the whole damned planet. Across the bay, the mainland looked like some rocky sand monstrosity, skirting the edge of civilization.

Off in the copse of trees nearby, Knight and Phoebe were at each other. Their lascivious emotions bombarded Rachel like heavy smoke borne on the island breeze, making her flush. Without ever planning it, she found herself making her way back toward the settlement where David would be.

Maybe just a quickie to help take the edge off …

Before she had even reached their tiny hovel, David emerged, as if his prophetic insight had told him of her probable arrival. Except he seemed anything but aroused. A mix of anticipation and hope and fear simmered within him, the convoluted sensations turning Rachel’s stomach and leaving her dizzy.

Her mind was her mind.

What’s happened? she asked.

Rach. David rubbed a hand along his stubble. Imperator Scott took my call. She’s agreed to grant us all full pardons and even to restore my commission.

That was everything they’d even hoped for. And yet fear rippled off David like bombardments against her psionic nerves.

And?

She wants us all to come to the Tabernacle.

Why? To address the Sanhedrin?

David shook his head. The Shekhinah itself wants to see us.

Holy shit.

The Shekhinah governed the entire Mizraim Empire. That computer ruled the lives of trillions of humans spread across twenty-three galaxies. And it wanted to talk to them? It only ever talked to the imperators of the Sanhedrin.

It was more than that, though.

The last time David had gone to the Tabernacle, he’d been court-martialed and banished to Horesh for a decade. So could this be a trap? If it was, they’d all face a fate worse than some desert penal colony.

But they’d go anyway.

The angels were awake.

The Conglomerate had gone off rotation and was trying to seize the Ark.

The entire holy universe was headed straight for the void.

And at this point, the Sentinels were their last chance to change things.

2

After the Vanishing, it didn’t take long for mankind to fall into civil war. Many records were lost, so even with all my studies, I cannot be sure of exactly what happened. What I can say is that the rise of the Sentinels under the control of the Shekhinah was seen by most as the last chance for mankind.

DR. RACHEL JORDAN, LECTURES AT NRU

NOVEMBER 15, 3096 EY — THE TABERNACLE, NEW ROME

The last time

David saw the Tabernacle he had come in shame, prepared for a court martial. Despite all he had done since then, the Sanhedrin had welcomed him back.

Perhaps the war with Asherah was going poorly and they sought any advantage they could gain.

Perhaps it was all a trap. After all, Imperator Scott had agreed to David’s return to duty in exchange for Rachel and Knight joining the Sentinels.

David piloted Raziel’s unusual ship toward one of the Tabernacle’s three hangars—each a bubble on the station’s surface. The station was a massive sphere housing other spherical districts. As they approached, he released control to the station. The station’s computer guided them through a series of airlock doors that shut behind them, then they touched down gently on the hangar floor.

Are you sure about this? Rachel asked.

It’s a little late for second thoughts, Knight said from the back of the ship.

Rachel still seemed to hope that learning the location of mankind’s lost homeworld would unite them. David had his doubts.

Word had spread through the galaxies like a solar wind, and still Mizraim and Asherah fought. Still the Conglomerate schemed.

David sighed. Part of him wished Rachel would have stayed on Eden. Maybe she would have been safer. Knowing her, maybe not. Besides, the psychic ghosts there would have driven her off rotation.

Then again, Rachel was pretty well off rotation already. Maybe she could learn to live among the ghosts, same as any empath learned to live among lusty, lying, devious, depressive humans.

Either way, the Sanhedrin might not have agreed to his pardon without Rachel’s cooperation. Her intimate knowledge of the Ark made her the most valuable asset in the holy universe. At least, David hoped so.

Just like he chose to interpret those four Sentinels waiting outside the ship as an honor guard, not a prisoner escort. He popped the hatch to the ship and rose from the control console. Best get it over with.

Knight stepped out of the ship before David could even get there and stood so close to one of the Sentinels it couldn’t help but be interpreted as a challenge. The Sentinel kept his face utterly expressionless, looking Knight right in the eye. Good lad. Phoebe burst out laughing and towed her lover along before he started a brawl.

David probably would have been happy for the lass—if her choice of man wasn’t an off-rotation former assassin. And possibly a nephil. David still wasn’t sure what to make of that. Was being a fallen angel’s science project any better than being a cyborg?

He followed the pair out of the ship, and Rachel and Leah came right behind him. David saluted the Sentinels.

Commander MacGregor, one of them said with a salute. We’re to escort you to the Shekhinah.

The Shekhinah? So the Sanhedrin weren’t going to meet him after all? They had been sent straight to the top. It might be a good sign. Or it might not.

Aye. Lead the way, then.

Their escort guided them toward the lift.

What’s the Shekhinah? Knight whispered.

A sentient computer the angels left behind to rule in their absence, Rachel said. It forms the heart of the Tabernacle and is the ultimate authority in the Mizraim Empire.

I thought the Sanhedrin ruled the Empire? Those imperators?

Oh, Lordy. He’d gotten her started in lecture mode now.

"The Sanhedrin are the human voice of Mizraim in much the same way the angels spoke through the dumahim. Individually, they are called imperators, and each is in charge of one of the twenty-three galaxies the Empire controls. Imperator Scott is the highest ranking because she controls Andromeda, the largest galaxy. But the imperators are each just agents of the Shekhinah, which, according to doctrine, speaks with the authority of the angels themselves."

She somehow managed to make the word doctrine drip with venom. Rachel had been raised by Redeemers. Her father was the hierophant, one of the groups’ highest-ranking members—chief judge or whatever those fanatics called it.

Yet Rachel had rejected all they believed in—all David himself had once believed—and appointed herself to save humanity from its own blind faith. Endearingly arrogant of her, really.

The Shekhinah first co-opted the Sentinels, Rachel said.

That’s just flat wrong, David objected, unable to let the mischaracterization of his whole order stand unchallenged. It didn’t co-opt us. The Shekhinah is the legitimate authority appointed to rule over mankind, and it chartered the Sentinels to protect humanity. It only stands to reason⁠—

"The legitimate authority according to itself. Very convenient, David."

He could just imagine her pacing in a classroom while teaching this. Was Knight even listening? Probably. The Gehennan might have feigned disinterest in politics, but David suspected he absorbed information quickly and totally. His training as a spy would have made such things imperative.

The Sentinels were formed in the wake of the Exodus, Rachel said. With the Adversary almost wiping out mankind, they swore to create a force so disciplined and so powerful, no enemy could ever threaten us with extinction again. Ironically, the same justification the angels probably had for the Third Commandment.

Man Shall Populate the Universe.

Rachel had never had much love for that one. She took the angels’ command to raise large families as some kind of personal insult, claiming the social pressure it placed on women was only a step above institutionalized rape.

When put that way, it sounded awful.

David had always viewed it more as an admonition for every able man and woman to do their part to keep the species going. The Codex didn’t care who or when or how. It didn’t advocate violence. Pair ye off and get to it was more what he heard.

Rachel had never bought into David’s interpretation. He wondered how much of her objection was the sense of obligation—whether choosing for herself, she would have shared in raising that family with him with a clear conscience. How could she continue her crusade behind the lectern with her belly swollen with child?

The look she suddenly shot him told him she’d felt the direction of his feelings.

Bugger it all!

David tried to focus on his desire for children, not any resentment he might have held for her misguided idealism. At least while she was around. He used to get away with slips. As an empath, Rachel had grown, better attuned than ever to the feelings of all those around her but most especially David’s.

Still. A man couldn’t be held liable for his hopes and dreams.

Just when he would begin to think all hope for it lost, she would give him one of those smiles, like she offered now, clearly picking up his sentiment.

My favorite commandment, Knight said.

Phoebe elbowed him in the side. Been following it, ninja-boy? Do I have to worry about lots of little Knights running around Gehenna?

No.

That’s too bad, Leah said. It would be fascinating to study the genetic drift from your bloodline further if we … The rahab’s voice trailed off at the look everyone gave her. Leah frowned. Doctors do more than program nanobots, you know.

David chuckled.

The lift carried them from the hangar, zipping past other spheres and down toward the central hub. Inside, in a darkness beyond the Sanhedrin Chamber, waited the most powerful computer in the universe—save perhaps the Ark itself.

The lift settled into the central sphere, and the smart-glass doors opened. Their Sentinel escort formed up on the walkway leading to the chamber. This was as far as they went, David guessed.

What are you doing? Phoebe whispered to Knight.

David glanced back to see the assassin’s hand on one of his throwing knives. He followed the man’s gaze to the wall. Or a slight shimmering against it. The gog. So the spies were still here, in the Tabernacle itself. Parasites feeding on the fear of others. If the Shekhinah allowed him back into service, maybe he could find out how deeply the Sentinels’ ties with the Gogmagog now ran.

Peace, David said, staring into Knight’s eyes. He willed the man to understand that, aye, he knew the creature was there, and no, they couldn’t do anything about it.

Knight released the knife, and David turned back, leading the way through the Sanhedrin Chamber. The circular room remained dark except for a single illuminated path, leading toward a door in the back of the hall.

David paused at the door to take in his four comrades. Leah and Phoebe had sided with him when he mutinied against Captain Waller. He had spared them persecution by taking the blame on his shoulders, but then, he’d also made sure they were on the Ark and out of Waller’s reach. Now, he’d brought them back, and he couldn’t say for certain whether they would face consequences for their actions.

But they had lost the Ark. The angels were awake now, and David hoped they had driven away the Conglomerate. All he could do was try to protect his people from the war with Asherah. And to do that, he had to be here. He had to risk it all, even the people he cared most about. Even Rachel, though he’d do almost anything to keep her safe.

David pulled off his glove and placed his palm on the door scanner.

The doors opened with a rumble and a grating shriek of metal that the Sentinel maintenance teams could have fixed any time they liked. A chill ran up and down David’s spine, and he knew why they left the sound.

The Shekhinah Chamber climbed around them as the group entered, a vast, hollow sphere built as a cathedral to a sentient computer. Their footsteps echoed until they were stopped short as the computer addressed them.

The voice was androgynous, with a timeless quality that could have been a recording of an angel. Come forward and be recognized.

3

The Adversary’s predations before the arrival of the angels left mankind weak and few of number. The Third Commandment is proof against extermination. Our gift to mankind is the pleasure of fulfilling that edict. For what man and woman might shirk from as a duty, they might flock to as recreation. Thus will your own inclinations preserve you. Merely obey them.

THE CODEX, BOOK OF BARACHIEL

THE TABERNACLE, NEW ROME

The only light

in the inner chamber came from a central pillar Knight assumed was the Shekhinah itself. A nest of thick, black cables ran from the pillar into the walls of the circular room. Faint red illumination seeped from small openings in the pillar.

Despite the darkness, Knight could see. He had always had good night vision, but this was something else. He could clearly see the maze of cables as they twisted around each other like a den of snakes. He could see the conduits on the wall where those cables disappeared. Was it possible Raziel’s experiments had done something to his eyes as well?

David saluted the pillar, then stood at attention. Utterly ridiculous. David MacGregor, reporting.

A sound of mechanical whirring fired inside the pillar, so faint, he wondered if the others had even heard it.

Then a voice spoke. Ezekiel Knight. The feminine voice sounded hollow, and it echoed off the chamber as though coming from all directions. In fact, Knight had a faint sensation it was not a single voice but that of several in perfect unison.

A beam of light shot from the pillar and swept over him, scanning his body from head to toe in an instant. Your bloodline is confirmed, the computer said. Your genetic structure can only have resulted from an angel eugenics project.

Yeah, I got that already.

Knight! David said through clenched teeth.

The computer whirred briefly. Such a bloodline represents an invaluable resource to the Mizraim Empire. You are hereby ordered to uphold the Third Commandment and reproduce as frequently as possible, with as many partners as are available.

Well … okay. I’ll give it my best shot.

Phoebe slapped his ass. Really? As many partners as are available? You may find that number fairly limited. One at the most, I think. Depending on your behavior. Actually, that probably means none.

Rachel Jordan, the machine said, apparently ignoring anything further Knight might have to say on the matter. You are prepared to turn over to the Sentinels all knowledge related to the Ark and any secrets it may have led you to?

And this was where they came to it, in the end.

Rachel said she was going to cooperate, but for as long as he’d known her, it was never her style. She distrusted any authority as if on principle, and this thing appeared to be the ultimate authority in Mizraim. It kind of boggled the mind that an Empire ruling trillions of people was itself ruled by a computer. If Rachel was right, the thing had created the Empire by appointing itself the legitimate successor to the angels. It had recruited the Sentinels to enforce its order and created the Sanhedrin to give a human face to its rule. Where Knight came from, humans created machines and used them, not the other way around.

Phoebe’s jest aside, he wasn’t entirely certain he liked being told to breed by a machine. Not that he didn’t want children—he surely did. Like anyone else—or almost anyone, excluding Rachel—he believed in the Third Commandment.

Until he’d met Rachel, he’d never even questioned why. People were supposed to have children. That’s what everyone was taught was the purpose of life, from the time they were children themselves.

Sometimes, he’d felt his life a failure because he had found no mate on Gehenna. And then he’d met Rachel, and she’d asked the damned question. The question he had never thought to ask in his whole life before that—why? Did he want children because he truly wanted them, or did he want children because he’d been taught to want them by others who had been taught the same thing?

Rachel had made his life a lot more complicated.

She breathed out a long sigh. I am. I have agreed to commit myself fully to the Sentinels and their cause.

And you, Ezekiel Knight? Do you also agree?

Knight nodded.

Phoebe squeezed his hand. I think you have to speak, she whispered.

Yes.

Then the Shekhinah hereby bestows upon the both of you a field commission of the rank of lieutenant.

Wait, what? Phoebe said. "He’s going to be the same rank as me? That’s a load of⁠—"

David spun and silenced her with a glare. Knight chuckled, and David turned the look on him, making it even harder to keep a straight face. Knight squeezed Phoebe’s hand back, and she jerked it away, then folded her arms over her chest.

"David MacGregor, the Shekhinah hereby restores your commission and promotes you to the rank of captain. You are ordered to take command of the Wheel of Law and to take that ship to the front against the Asheran Confederacy. Use all resources available, including the knowledge of Rachel Jordan, to eliminate the threat. Be certain to ensure the survival of Ezekiel Knight and arrange for as many females on your ship to breed with him as possible."

What? Phoebe stomped her foot. What the bloody void kind of⁠—

David shot her another look, and Leah put a hand on her shoulder.

Knight decided nothing he could possibly say would improve the situation, so he kept his mouth shut.

"I request to take Lieutenant Commander Suzuki and Lieutenant Dana with me as new crew for the Wheel of Law," David said.

Your request is granted. You are dismissed. Further mechanical whirring sounded from the pillar, and then the door to the chamber opened.

Knight slipped out of the stifling room the moment he could. A pressure was building inside his chest, inside his head. Years of training told him he had to always appear strong and in control, so he forced himself not to stumble or lean on anyone. His mind controlled his body. It was his choice whether to let weakness take over.

Raziel had turned him into a breeding commodity. While the thought of women lining up outside his room, waiting