Daniel Arenson: The Heirs of Earth (Children of Earthrise Book 1)

Coral's eyes were sunken, her tattoos nearly invisible against her dark skin. The scorpion squirted venom. The spray flew toward Coral, and the weaver screamed. The venom sizzled through her coat, burning her skin. Coral lashed her dagger, but a claw slammed into her, tearing her arm. She fell.

"Hear your pest friend scream, Leona!" Sartak said. "Watch me slay her like I slew your husband. Your turn will come."

He raised both stingers high, prepared to impale Coral.

Leona took a deep breath.

She closed her eyes.

She diverted her full attention to her time-twister.

She activated it at full force.

She had never given the implant so much strength. It rattled in her skull. She thought her brain would tear, her skull shatter. She was beyond pain, beyond terror.

The world slowed more than ever before. Every heartbeat was an era.

The stingers were moving downward.

Leona moved forward, tears in her eyes. A strip of skin hung loose from her leg, but she barely felt it. There was a supernova in her head.

Hands shaking, barely existing, she grabbed Coral and pulled her back.

With all her strength, Leona dragged the weaver, then shoved her out of the cracked hull into the mud.

The stingers slammed down into the deck, embedding themselves in the metal.

Leona stared at Jake's killer.

"You killed him," she whispered. "But you cannot kill humanity. Earth is eternal."

The weapons cabinet was ajar. Leona raised her gun. She fired.

As the bullet pulsed forward, rippling the air, Sartak shrieked. He tried to stop the bullet, but his stingers were still embedded in the floor. He could not reach it.

Leona grabbed Jake's skull, grabbed Sartak's discarded shell, and ran.

Her time-twister shattered in her head, and time resumed its normal flow.

Leona leaped out of the starship as her bullet entered the weapons cabinet.

She landed atop Coral, shielding the girl with her body, driving her into the mud. Leona pulled the discarded scorpion shell over her back, then covered her ears.

The Nantucket exploded behind her.

Even with her ears covered, the sound was deafening.

The shock wave pounded against the two Inheritors, shoving them deeper into the mud. Shrapnel hailed down, slamming into the scorpion shell above them. Fire blazed. Burning shards of metal landed around them, sizzling in the marshlands, boiling the mud. Trees caught fire. Birds, insects, and marshcrabs fled.

Silence.

Ringing.

Coral shifted in the mud and looked up at Leona. "Is—"

Another explosion sounded.

Then another.

Then the world itself seemed to shatter, and burst after burst of explosions popped.

"Run!" Leona shouted.

They ran, the shell held above them. Behind them, the bombs and torpedoes aboard the Nantucket —not just the personal weapons in the cabinet—were exploding.

The inferno raged behind them. They raced through the mud, ran between burning trees, leaped over a hill, and flattened themselves in a valley. When Leona glanced over her shoulder, she saw a mushroom cloud. Bits of metal and scorpion shell pattered down around them.

"The first explosion was the grenades in the cabinet," Leona said, barely hearing herself over the ringing in her ears. " Those were the torpedoes meant for enemy ships."

Coral touched her ears and winced. "Are you sure they weren't meant to destroy planets?"

"Just be thankful I wasn't flying the Jerusalem ," Leona said. "That ship has nuclear weapons."

"You must never fly it," Coral said.

Leona nodded. "All right. I never . . ."

She could not complete her sentence. Suddenly Leona was weeping and trembling. She lifted her husband's skull from the mud and cradled it.

Coral wrapped her arms around Leona. They were both burnt, bleeding, but for a moment they just embraced.

"I avenged you, Jake," Leona whispered, holding his skull. "I killed him. I killed the monster that took you from me. I will give you a burial in space. You will rest among the stars."

Coral placed her hand atop Leona's. The girl stared into her eyes.

"No," Coral said. "You will bury him on Earth." She nodded. "Now come on! We gotta climb that mountain to get a signal, right? Let's go!"

"You're wounded," Leona said. "You should rest."

Coral shook her head. "Too murky down here. Up the mountain, I'll be closer to the stars. I will heal. We both will. Come."

The weaver started to march toward the mountain.

Leona followed through the marshlands. She was lost in the wilderness, abandoned on an enemy planet across the galaxy. But today she was one step closer to Earth. One step closer to healing.

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Emet stood in the Jerusalem 's hold, Thunder in hand, as the scorpions swarmed into the starship.

"Fire!" Emet shouted and pulled his trigger.

Across the hold, his fifty warriors fired their own weapons.

The drills had left gaping holes in the floor and ceiling, revealing the enemy's boarding vessels. The scorpions leaped through the holes into the oncoming bullets.

Blood filled the Jerusalem .

Humans and scorpions died.

Railguns pounded the enemy. Claws tore through flesh.

Here were the best warriors in the Heirs of Earth. They fired railguns, powerful weapons that knocked the scorpions back. One man lost a leg but still fought, roaring for Earth as he fired two pistols. A woman lost an arm to a pincer, but still she swung an electric blade, slicing through scorpions. Several men raised flamethrowers and filled the enemy's boarding vessels with flame, roasting the scorpions still inside.

Emet stood with his back to the bulkhead, firing his rifle, knocking back scorpions with his mighty two-barreled assault. The creatures pounced toward him. He stood, firing again and again, tearing them down. When Thunder ran out of bullets, he fired his pistol. When his pistol too ran out, he knelt, grabbed a magazine from a dead Inheritor, and kept fighting. Scorpion corpses piled up at his feet.

"This is the flagship of the Heirs of Earth!" he said. "You will not take it."

Another scorpion bounded toward him. Emet fired his rifle, blowing off the beast's head.

As he fought in the hold, the Jerusalem was still battling the enemy's warships. Duncan was still on the bridge, piloting the ship. Rowan was still firing the cannons, pounding the enemy forces. The Jerusalem kept swerving, jostling as the cannons boomed. Emet couldn't see the battle from here, but he could imagine thousands of starships still careening over Akraba, battling for dominance.

The last scorpion in the hold scuttled toward him, and Emet slew the beast with a single bullet.

He spat.

He looked across the hold. Thirty Inheritors had survived the battle and stood over dead scorpions. The enemy's boarding vessels were still attached to the hull like leeches.

"Get more flamethrowers," Emet said. "Fill their vessels with fire. There might be more scorpions inside."

His men nodded, grabbed flamethrowers, and aimed into the holes in the hull.

They filled the boarding vessels with liquid death.

Inside, scorpions—perhaps the pilots of the vessels—screamed and fell through the fire, burning.

Inside one vessel, laughter rose.

Emet frowned.

He stared at a hole on the ceiling, which a boarding vessel had drilled. The laughter came from inside. An Inheritor stood below, pumping the enemy vessel full of flame, but the laughter continued.

Blue and white flashed.

A creature leaped down through the hole, passed through the fire, and landed atop the Inheritor with the flamethrower. Claws lashed. The Inheritor's severed limbs slapped onto the floor.