Charles leaned on the bunk and looked down at Francis, who lay on the bed with his hands behind his head. “You’re awfully content to let Cain and Savin handle these things.”

  “We’ve been running ragged since we got here, Charles. There’s not much else we can do at this point. Do I look like an ambassador to you?”

  Melina, who had managed to grab a cigarette, was opposite Charles, leaning on the wall. Their assigned barracks were no less different from the others; they were just as cramped and lacking in any real privacy. Charles moved to his bunk and climbed onto the bed; Pyotr had claimed the one above him.

  “I’m just glad to rest my legs,” said Pyotr.

  “You sure you’re going to be okay?” asked Melina. The concern in her voice came from a place of understanding. After all, she knew what it was like to have another voice in her head, though her symbiote more recently had been subdued, as if it was anticipating something.

  “I’ll be fine, Melina, just you have no idea how nice it is to have only your own thoughts to worry about.”

  “So that’s it?” asked Echo, sitting under another nearby bunk. “We just do nothing.”

  Francis raised a finger. “It’s the long game, Echo. That was the mission. Taking this place by force would create a whole host of logistic issues. We’re the vanguard. It’s only once more of us get here do we make a more direct move.”

  Charles rolled onto his side. “Doesn’t the Kaskari showing up, mess with our plans though?”

  Francis had to think for a while and sat up a little. “We have an agent inside the MTC. She could get a message out to the commander, Major General Skorm. Then we can go from there, if he wants us to move things along, we’ll just have to try to get into the good graces of the Kaskari.”

  “That’s easier said than done,” scoffed Melina. “Sure, we have one of ours in the tower, but the other might not take kindly to learning our real purpose here.”

  “If they have to be dealt with, they will be,” said Francis. “Besides, maybe communicating back home will help bring us up to speed with how things are progressing on the Moon.”

  “We could warn them too,” said Echo.

  “That as well.”

  As if to silence them, the sprinklers activated and drenched both Pyotr and Melina. This made Francis raise an eyebrow. The sprinklers were the plan for the lunar city. There was no plan to do it here. He facepalmed. “Damn it, Eva!”

  “Blyat. I knew something was off with that bitch.”

  “We’ve been sloppy, Frank, letting her out of our sight like that.”

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Melina stepped forward, scratching at her head and hair. She did it so hard that the other members of Black Knight could see blood on her fingers. “Get out of my head, I won’t-”

  She dropped to her knees, and both Francis and Charles leapt into action. Another scream sent shivers down Francis’ spine. Pyotr’s. They could hear him writhing up above. The only other unaffected member was Echo. “What’s happening to them?”

  “Rapid infection,” said Francis. “This probably isn’t the Deterrent. What did the newcomers call the Mortalis?”

  “Primor.”

  ‘Primordalis.’

  Francis fell backwards and grabbed the bed bunk post. If this thing had already begun affecting Melina and Pyotr. The last thing he wanted was to touch the wet floor.

  ‘We are the undeniable truth, his guiding voice. We offer true peace. An end to the conflict that has brought ruin to your people.”

  Francis and the other futilely had their hands over their ears for all the good it would do. The voice spoke at times as if as one being and as many. The intense throbbing pain in his forehead was unlike anything he had felt before. Francis could barely stand.

  ‘Leave them! Humans are not yours to conquer!’

  Now that voice resonated with the Black Knights. Melina, despite clearly in a trance, was engaging with the disembodied voice.

  ‘Conquer? My dear Terran. Convergence has already begun. This isn’t conquest. This is victory.’

  Savin remained seated soaked by the strange liquid fluid. He looked at Cain, who shrugged. “Sprinkler system is supposed to activate in case of a fire.”

  “And yet there is no fire.”

  “That’s because someone triggered it manually, but why?”

  “We are the undeniable truth, his guiding voice. We offer true peace. An end to the conflict that has brought ruin to your people,” Savin said, rising to his feet. The Kaskari present scrambled to put their helmets back on, but it was already too late. They had been drenched, as had Cain. He had got to his feet and approached the wall. The Mortalis worked quickly in each of them, and no matter how hard they resisted. Their will would break eventually. Savin looked at his hands as the skin bubbled before fluid burst out and began traversing his hand and arm. “I have been chosen as this world’s Patriarch. The Matriarch yet resists. She will yield, even if I have to make her.”

  “Savin, I- I can’t find it,” Cain screamed as he bashed his head against the wall.

  “You choose death?”

  “You can have my body, but I will not be your slave,” he slammed his head again, skin cracked and blood poured down his face. Cain didn’t want to become a passenger in his own body. He sort to make himself unusable to the growing presence of the Primordalis.

  “You do not get to choose.”

  Cain tried again, but his head stopped. No, something stopped him. “There’s no way.”

  “The Mortalis always finds its way.”

  “We know that better than anyone,” said the black Kaskari. “We will spread the Truth. His most glorious return.”

  The silver Kaskari had also stood back up. “We must consolidate this world and establish a hive and Convergent Mind.”

  Savin held up both hands. “All in good time, all in good time, but first we have a small problem.”

  Cain laughed to the point he looked likely to be sick. “That bitch and her team won’t be able to stop you.”

  “You say that, but I only sense one of them. The others remain distant minds.”

  “Trust Frank to avoid those blasted sprinklers. Do you want him dead?”

  “I want him to join us.”

  “Then I shall bring him into the fray.”

  “And us?” asked the silver Kaskari.

  “Return to your outpost, spread Truth and liberate your kin from the shackles of this existence.”