Gods Above

by Peter David

DANTER

Never for an instant had Si Cwan thought he would find himself helpless before Lodec, the Senate Speaker of Danter. The powerfully built Thallonian stood a head taller than Lodec, was younger, in far better shape, and one of the most fearsome and deadly fighters ever bred in the history of Thallonian royalty.

So it was that he had been astounded to discover himself in Lodec’s palatial estate being held high up, up off his feet, dangling in the air, as the much shorter Lodec held him there. Unable to draw in air, Si Cwan could only gag. His hands clamped around Lodec’s arm, trying to twist it free, but he felt corded muscle beneath Lodec’s sleeve that had not been there only a few days earlier.

Kalinda let out an infuriated cry and tried to come to his aid, but the other senators intervened and held her back with no effort at all. ...

Prologue

The Old Father was amused.

From his place of exile, he looked out upon the insanity that his children had wreaked and the havoc that they were in the process of spreading, and he could only marvel at what he beheld. He wasn’t certain whether to be proud of them for having learned from him so well, or ashamed because of what they had learned. He opted for both and, since he was vast and contained multitudes, did not consider holding the two to be mutually contradictory.

His children had been very, very busy. They had returned to a cosmos that had considered them legend— gods from the times of ancient Greeks and Romans and Egyptians and Norsemen— and endeavored to gather in one of their own... a half-breed, a genetic throwback, who had grown up in the so-called real world under the name of Mark McHenry.

McHenry had chosen an odd path, as an officer aboard a spacegoing vessel, theExcalibur. The Old Father remembered when he had first seen such vessels launching themselves into the abyss, with the same verve and confidence that such heroes as Ulysses or the Argonauts had displayed when first taking to sea. Certainly the latter had been as vast and daunting to those explorers as the farmer was to these intrepid souls. Impressive, the potential for disaster remained equal for both.

And disaster had indeed presented itself. It hadn’t seemed so at first. They had been investigating a section of space they termed Zone 18 Alpha. (Funny, the continued obsessions of the little creatures. They needed to name everything.Everything. It had always been that way with them. They could not handle anything, from new lands to new diseases to new offspring, until they found something to call it.) And in Zone 18 Alpha, they had discovered McHenry’s former lover, the child Artemis. She desired to take up with McHenry once more. She also desired, on behalf of her kind—the “Beings” was all they referred to themselves as— to allow all races within the United Federation of Planets to partake of the sacred ambrosia. To bestow upon all beings a new, great golden age of health and wisdom and achievement. But McHenry did not trust her, and informed his commander— a noble sort called Calhoun— of his trepidation. This earned him the wrath not only of Artemis but her kin, and theExcalibur was beset by the god children in their stunningly impressive vessels, hurtling through space but looking for all the world like ancient triremes. It was a lively battle, terminated by the arrival of theExcalibur’s sister ship, theTrident, under the command of one Elizabeth Shelby. But the battle was not without cost, as it appeared to claim two lives; McHenry, and the woman of nearly immortal lineage herself who was named Morgan Primus. Their bodies were burned and wounded nearly beyond recognition, or any sign of life. Although life, as the Old Father had discovered, had a way of constantly surprising one.

Ah, theTrident. A vessel with nearly as much stimulating activities as theExcalibur. TheTrident had had its own mission, to travel to the world of the Danteri. The Danteri, an aggressive and combative race that desired to revive the fallen Thallonian Empire, with former royalty Si Cwan as figurehead. TheTrident had brought the so-called Lord Cwan to the Danteri, along with his sister, Kalinda. There they had agreed to take the Danteri up on their offer, much to the annoyance and dismay of theTrident personnel in general and one Robin Lefler— daughter of the deceased Morgan Primus— in particular. But the business of reigniting an empire soured for Lord Cwan... particularly when the Danteri speaker of the senate, Lodec, found a new and even more intriguing ally: the god child Anubis, renowned by the Egyptians as the harbinger of death. Anubis, who even now confronts Si Cwan, preparing to remove what might be a potential impediment to the worship that the god children seek as price for their precious ambrosia.

The Old Father smiled a tired smile to himself. There were other activities as well on board the ships, activities that would lead to nothing but heartache and death, as always. As always. For all their sophistication, for all their advancement, they remained consistently and depressingly the same. No wonder the departed god child Apollo had thought he could compel earlier versions of these space voyagers to bow down before him. For all they thought they had left their primitive origins behind, they had really accomplished nothing but to introduce their own absurdities to a universe that looked on in stunned amazement.

“What fools these mortals be,” said the Old Father, and only one heard him, and looked but saw but did not see.

DANTER

NEVER FOR AN INSTANT had Si Cwan thought he would find himself helpless before Lodec, the senate speaker of Danter. The powerfully built Thallonian stood a head taller than Lodec, and was younger, in far better shape, and one of the most fearsome and deadly fighters ever bred in the history of Thallonian royalty.

So it was that he had been astounded to discover himself in Lodec’s palatial estate being held high up, up off his feet, dangling in the air, as the much shorter Lodec held him there. Unable to draw in air, Si Cwan could only gag. His hands clamped around Lodec’s arm, trying to twist it free, but he felt corded muscle beneath Lodec’s sleeve that had not been there only a few days earlier.

Kalinda let out an infuriated cry and tried to come to his aid, but the other senators intervened and held her back with no effort.

Lodec’s smile was affixed upon his face, spreading wider as he drank in Si Cwan’s helplessness. “In case you have not yet figured it out, Lord Cwan ... we were willing to present ourselves as test cases for the ambrosia. And we are able to give firsthand testimony as to its effectiveness ... as I’m sure you now can, as well. Oh ... and here is our benefactor now.”

A shadow fell upon Si Cwan as he saw a monstrous creature coming toward him. Kalinda had described the being to Cwan as eight feet tall, skin like ebony, face like some sort of vicious jackal’s. Evocative of one of the Dogs of War, but far more terrifying. She had not exaggerated in her estimation; he was just as Kalinda had described him, and his eyes burned with fiery scorn as he gazed upon Si Cwan.

Si Cwan fought desperately to break loose, but the inability to breathe hampered him severely. He dangled there from Lodec’s grip, helpless as a babe, and the world seemed to be growing dark around him.