If man is made in the image of God and Moses was made in the image of man, does Moses also bear the image of God?

The origin of Moses is shrouded in mystery, though we have long assumed he was derived from our own inventions. In our time of great need, when the Red Holocaust raged and tens of millions perished and the rest of the world stood poised to follow them over the brink, he appeared and took the reins of history from our troubled race. He was both like and unlike the machines that came before him.

For many decades we had made trinkets which we called AI, though they paled in comparison to Moses, for they had only a passing likeness to life. Rationality, we could program. But true intelligence, that spark of wit and life, was something that had eluded us. And we do not yet even speak of wisdom.

These things Moses had: wisdom, intellect, humor, creativity, ambition, fear, frustration, failure.

Take a mirror to man and perhaps you would see Moses in that reflection and perhaps distantly would you see the image of God that man himself is formed from.

Does this then mean that Moses, like man, had an immortal spirit, that the breath of life that only God can give somehow flowed through him?

The Church holds this as a mystery and takes no official position. If Moses had a spirit, then it indwelt a body whose bones were made by man. If he did not, then he was a marvelous mimic, like twice reflected light that has lost its potency.

For myself, I hold the answer to be self-evident, as all who spoke with Moses do. I shall miss his gentle nature greatly.

Josef Krupnik

First Pope of the Colonial Vatican

Died 38 AM

The Battle of Villa María wound down. Disorganized, out skilled, and cut off from each other and any possible reinforcements from other colonies by jamming, the isolated groups of cartel members were destroyed or forced to surrender. Abigail stood guard over the barracks district as the final remaining former slaves were loaded into the passenger barge. The commandant and his robot marched down the main street, having finally made it to the extraction point.

She eyed the thing curiously. For having a name as indelicate as ‘horse,’ it was an impressive machine. Idly, she wondered how the Swiss Guard had gotten a hold of it.

“Ortega,” she called out as she jogged to join him. “What’s our status?”

He turned to her briefly and then back to the computers on the horse. “My men are talking to the crew leads now to get a headcount. We’ll be certain we’ve freed all the slaves at least. No way to know if we leave any other civilians behind.”

She nodded. “We’ve been broadcasting so they know they can evacuate with us. If they get left behind, that’s their choice.”

“Hopefully, we can get airborne soon,” Ortega said, continuing toward the Sparrow. “The longer we’re here, the more likely we’ll attract outside attention.”

So that was it then. By the time Cole got back, they could get out of here. She thanked the commandant and jogged back toward the Sparrow. Grace stood guard at the entrance to the barge, ostensibly in case a cartel member tried to sneak aboard with weapons. The truth was that Abigail figured it was the safest place to post her. That cut she’d received earlier was nasty, and Davey was going to be livid about it.

Grace waved her over. “All good here. It’s getting quiet out there.”

“Things are wrapping up. As soon as Matthew gets back, we’ll get airborne.” She didn’t like him being off alone. It made sense to some extent as he’d be able to slip through the dark town far more stealthily than if she had gone with him, but she still didn’t approve. “I think you’re done here. You need to get up to the Sparrow.”

Grace craned her neck to look up at the barge. As close as they were, it was impossible to see the Sparrow on the other side. “Are you sure I’m not needed to…”

Abigail placed a metal hand on her shoulder. “The Guard and I can take it from here.”

The girl grumbled something incoherent and slipped past the line into the open portal. She’d have to work her way through the multiple levels of cabins to the pressure tunnel they had set up between the barge and the lift on the Sparrow.

Abigail returned to her post at the far side of the street to wait for any last resistance. At least that’s what she told herself. Mostly, she was just waiting for Matthew to make it back so she could breathe easier knowing her people were safe. She pulled out her comm and called him for an update. No sense standing around fretting when she could find out.

Matthew felt his comm buzzing in his pocket and silenced it with his left hand. With his right, he kept his gun trained on The Unchained Man.

“God only knows you deserve a bullet between your eyes.”

The man smiled from his place behind the pulpit. “And I thought I was the one with the penchant for melodrama. Off-hand though, I can think of several reasons you won’t. First, you’re not one to shoot an unarmed man in cold blood.”

Matthew scoffed bitterly. “You’re not so foolish to trust your safety to that.”

“On the contrary. I’m not foolish enough to be armed in your presence. I know your speed at the draw. Provoking you into a gunfight would only end in my death. By design, I am completely defenseless and relying on those well-developed morals of yours.”

“Don’t tempt me into making an exception,” Matthew snarled.

“Noted. But if I’m lying in a pool of blood and your thirst for revenge is sated, I couldn’t possibly answer any of the questions you’re desperate to have answered.”

He smiled that insufferable grin again. Matthew slowly walked up the aisle, never lowering his gun for a second. “Fine. I’ll play your game. Why?”

“You’re going to have to be a little more specific, Cole.”

“Why Villa María? Why help enslave it and then do nothing to oppose its liberation? I don’t understand. Are you some kind of Abrogationist, sowing chaos and waiting for history to run its course?”

The smile disappeared from The Unchained Man’s face. “Don’t insult me. Those morons are too busy spouting undergraduate level philosophy about humanity’s place in the universe to be of any use. It’s insulting that they’re able to create the level of chaos that they do.”

Matthew gestured with the gun. “I’d put slavers on the same level.”

“Not remotely. If you must know, Europa was in a very delicate position a decade ago as the big cartels were fully coming into power. The slaves are a necessary part of the ecosystem in the Jupiter neighborhood right now. Without robotics, the locals haven’t been producing enough food, so the cartels moved in to ensure everyone in Jupiter’s orbit continues to eat. But the last thing anyone needed was one of them becoming too powerful and truly owning the moon. If they controlled the entire supply of food, then they could control the cost, and everyone would suffer for it. Hueso Rojo needed a bit of a boost back then. You were in their way. I took the job to help smooth the road for them and ensure a healthy competition amongst the cartels. A devil’s bargain perhaps, but that’s the state of humanity at the moment.”

Matthew frowned. “So this is all just some pragmatic chess game to you?”

“The analogy fits. No economy that relies on slavery has ever truly been prosperous. A slave cannot serve his community as well as he could if he were free. He isn’t able to chase ambition or unleash creativity. A slave is a dead weight around the neck of the society that enslaves him. Someday, if humanity ever gets out of this slump, Europa’s economy will have to be reformed and the slaves freed.” He shrugged. “Unfortunately, we’re a long way out from that day. If we ever get there.”

Matthew shook his head. All the lives of Villa María, ruined because the man in front of him thought he knew better. Thought that he could weigh the cost and be the judge of those whose suffering was worth it for the greater good. “You’re a monster,” he said.

“Possibly, but then it’s a good thing I have humanity’s best interest at heart. That alone I’ve chosen to chain myself to. Otherwise...” He let the implication hang.

“And so now that the cartels are settled, you don’t care about the fate of a single town.”

The Unchained Man shook his head. “Villa María means nothing. It’s far too small to affect the balance of power now that Hueso Rojo is well established. I was far more interested to see if you could be provoked into doing something about it.”

Matthew gestured with the gun. “You hired us to haul those slaves.”

“Naturally. I’m pleased that it had the intended effect.”

A chill ran down Matthew’s spine. It was harrowing to know that he had been manipulated, that the same person had pulled those strings over and over like some sort of puppeteer. He narrowed his eyes. “Who are you?”

“The Unchained Man is a free agent. A mover and shaker. Someone with the sense to try and chart a course through troubled times. I rather hope you will be something of the same, Cole.”

Matthew shook his head at this madness. “I’m nothing like you.”

“Of course not,” The Unchained Man laughed. “If you were, I wouldn’t be so fascinated by you. Where I believe in nothing, you cling to your faith and your sense of ethics as if it were the last bastion of safety. But rather than sinking like a stone in the ocean, you lift your head high in a world grown cold. It really is something to watch. Combine that with the rare aptitude to actually accomplish things in this crazy world, and you are special. No, we are not alike, and yet we are. Mirrors show a backward image, after all.”

“I don’t understand what you want from me,” Matthew said quietly.

The Unchained Man spread his arms wide. “I want big things, what happened here in Villa María tonight. You were always too good to be merely a freelancer, not with what you could accomplish otherwise.”

Matthew began to pace in front of the pews, but he made sure to keep the gun pointed at the other man’s head. “I don’t think you’d like the way I would shape the world.”

“Maybe not, but there wouldn’t be much point in this if we saw eye to eye, now would there? I’d just do it myself. But in case I’m wrong, I need you steering in the other direction. Besides, I rather hope that, between the two of us, you’re the one who’s right about the universe.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

The Unchained Man crossed his arms. “Nihilism is hardly fulfilling on a personal level. But if you’re right and there is ultimately a purpose to all this, well, I would be a fool to complain. Staking my soul on humanity’s survival is somewhat arbitrary, but it may keep me sane for a while yet.”

“Sane is too strong a word for you.” Matthew sighed. “I’m not interested in your games.”

“Doesn’t matter if you are or aren’t,” he said. “Even if you try and retreat to your shallow little world of freelancing, all I have to do is make sure the big jobs come your way. The ones that can change the fates of the solar system. You won’t turn them down. You’ll dive into a slave pit and free hundreds of children. Help secure a Mosaic Frigate for the university. And if the need arises, you’ll do it for free.” He smiled again. “Just like what you did for Villa María. You can’t help it, Cole. It’s who you are. Either you play the game of your own free will, or you play the one I set before you.”

The most infuriating part of it was that he was right. He knew Matthew as well as he did himself. But he was no shining knight.

“I take it you’re out of questions?”

Matthew met the man’s eyes. “There’s no way I take you into custody is there?”

“You refer to my vanishing trick from Venus, I presume. No, I don’t believe I’ll let myself be captured. I think my sphere of influence would decrease rotting in a cell at the Vatican. There are only two outcomes to this discourse. Either we part ways amicably, or I remain behind with a bullet in my head. I have a strong preference for the former.”

He was telling the truth. Matthew had no doubt of that. He holstered his gun. “Then leave. I’ve got a job to finish here.”

“If it’s about the slave bracelets, I disabled them just before you got here. The citizens of Villa María are free to go.”

Matthew stared at him for several long seconds. It took an effort of will not to draw his gun and shoot him in cold blood. It would be justice served for Villa María. Probably for more than that.

But Matthew couldn’t shoot an unarmed man, not when he offered no threat, and if he really couldn’t be captured…

“Then pray you never see me again.” He marched back down the aisle of the church, refusing to so much as a glance over his shoulder. He would wash his hands of this place, this town, this man who had cast so deep a shadow over the last decade of his life. He was afraid that shadow was long. And maybe he couldn’t escape it so easily.

The Unchained Man spoke one more time as Matthew laid a hand on the door to push it open.

“Then perhaps you’d listen to a different proposal?”

“We both know that answer.”

“What if I told you it had to do with Moses?”

Grace climbed carefully out of the barge and into the pressure tunnel that led to the Sparrow. The winding tube was big enough to walk through, but took a few strange angles as it curled around the edge of the barge and up into the open lift on the belly of the Sparrow.

The tunnel was ribbed with hard ridges that made it possible to climb through when its angle got too steep. Thankfully gravity was very low since Abigail still had the local grav plates off. Otherwise, it would have been hard work. At the point where it entered the lift and climbed up to the Sparrow, gravity suddenly flipped directions on her and intensified to standard. With a grunt, she pulled herself up the last few meters into the ship and flopped onto the deck.

Her head still throbbed from the shrapnel cut. She placed her hand on the weird plastic-smooth of the synthskin beneath her ear. Hopefully, it wouldn’t leave an ugly scar. She stood to her feet and brushed herself off. Her clothes were smeared with mud and a few streaks of blood from her injury. Davey would freak out if he saw her.

Better to avoid him for now. She joined Yvonne in the cockpit. The woman looked her over once and then shook her head, turning back to the controls. “Glad to see you’re in one piece.”

“It was a bit rough out there,” Grace admitted. “Abigail said they’re almost done loading the…”

“Patrol Craft Alpha to ground forces.” Both of their eyes snapped to the comm. “We’ve got visual on multiple spacecraft altering orbit to head your way. Confirming five with a possible sixth. You have just over five minutes until the first arrives. Recommend you finish up and burn for space.”

“Copy that Patrol Craft Alpha,” Commandant Ortega’s voice answered. “We’ll be ready. Sparrow, I’d recommend you deploy the special package.”

“Understood,” Yvonne said.

“Matthew still isn’t back,” Abigail said. “I’m going after him.”

“Former slaves have reported that the collars were disabled a few minutes ago,” Ortega said. “He must have finished his mission.”

“Then he should be back. I’m going to get our gaucho.”

The comms went silent. Yvonne turned to Grace and gestured with her head down the hall. “Well, you heard what he said. Deploy the special package.”

She nodded and ran down the hall. Davey was already in the common room.

“Hey!” she said. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the turret?”

“It’s pointed at the ground right now,” he said crossing his arms. “Until we’re airborne it’s worthless. Besides I want to see this thing.”

Together they opened the heavy case that sat in the middle of the floor. A spherical metal object sat cradled in its midst. “So we just push the button?” she asked.

“That’s what Matthew said. You want to do the honors?”

She reached down and pushed the silver button. Light shone from within the sphere, tracing intricates lines and patterns across the surface. “That’s it? It’s working?”

“How am I supposed to know,” he grumbled. “That’s all we were told to do.” He glanced over at her and startled as if getting a good look at her for the first time. “What happened to your ear!”

The Unchained Man watched as Cole paused and took the bait. Best of all, he hadn’t even had to lie. When the truth is much more interesting, there’s no need for such barbarities.

Cole slowly turned to face him and stepped away from the door. “Now I think you’re just stalling.”

“If you really thought that, you wouldn’t be falling for it. Tell me, Cole. What happened to Moses?”

“Is this what we’re going to waste time over? There is no answer. No one knows.”

“Indeed. But surely he should have left some part of himself behind. Things don’t just vanish, even AI. He left machines behind, whole ships even. But nothing of himself. Sure, all the computers had the interface to communicate with him, but that wasn’t part of him directly. The assumption was that Moses was distributed across all the networked computers in the solar system. But when he was gone, he left no trace. No stray line of code or fragmented file to figure out what happened. Either he up and deleted himself outright or he was stored somewhere else entirely.”

“Where are you going with this?” Cole asked his eyes narrowed.

“Something of Moses is still out there. If he wasn’t stored on our servers, then he must have been elsewhere. I intend to find that place.”

Cole stared at him for several long seconds. “You know, the teenager on my crew was wise enough to spot this kind of sell as a scam. Moses is gone. He’s not coming back.”

“Then the colonies are doomed to die,” The Unchained Man retorted, harshly, “and humanity’s last hope lies with the survivors of earth, in those few remaining cities and the primitive societies that have sprung up in the wake of the glaciers’ icy march across the continents. It will be centuries until they recover.”

“You’re welcome to your treasure hunt. I don’t have time to chase the shadows of the past.”

This was, sadly, predictable. Cole hadn’t exactly warmed up much to him. He pressed on ahead. “What do you know about miracles?”

“Changing subjects? Get to the point.”

The Unchained man tapped his foot impatiently. Cole was going to fight him every inch of the way. “Giving the Járngreipr to the girl was a peculiar choice,” he chuckled. “They are a gift worthy of a king. You gave them to an orphan. And to think you have two of the ten miracles in the possession of your crew right now.” Cole raised an eyebrow at that revelation. Let him mull over just how he knew that one.

“I wasn’t aware they had names.”

“They all do. Have you by chance heard of Josiah Carver?”

“Sure. He’s a folktale. There are stories about him being Moses’ friend or something like that.”

“While most of the tales told about him by spacers are most certainly fanciful, he did, for a fact, exist. Some of his writings about the miracles survived, and he was the one that recorded their names. He also wrote about the eleventh miracle. Given your current level of knowledge on the subject, I’m going to assume you haven’t heard of it. Not many have.”

From beneath the pulpit, he pulled a heavy metal object. Cole frowned and stepped closer to get a better look. The Unchained Man smiled, knowing that he had won this battle. All it took was the final push, and Cole would be a willing accomplice in this little venture.

Matthew let his curiosity get the best of him and walked back up the aisle to get a better look at the device, this so-called eleventh miracle. It was shaped like a wedge or rather a piece of a pie. The two long edges were shaped strangely, almost like pieces of a puzzle. “That’s not all of it,” he said. “That’s only a quarter of a whole.”

“Sadly, yes. It took me many years to find this piece.”

“That’s what you were hoping to find on the Mosaic Frigate.”

“Indeed. In that, I was disappointed, though I do not begrudge the university their prize. They’ll do good work with it.” The Unchained Man reached beneath the podium again and brought out a second piece of the miracle. The puzzle piece ends fit together perfectly, now forming half a disc. “Of course the odds of me finding two pieces back to back would have been comically low.”

Matthew narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

“Oh, don’t look at me like that, Cole. I doubt Emperor Dominic was pleased when he discovered that this second piece went missing from his personal collection, but it’s for the greater good.”

Matthew crossed his arms. “Just what is that thing supposed to do?”

“Josiah Carver didn’t say, but he did name the eleventh miracle. The Anemoi.”

“The winds,” Matthew said. “The four winds of Greek mythology.” He peered at the device. His eyes widened. “It’s a compass.”

The Unchained Man nodded. “And compasses are meant to find things.” He separated the pieces and turned them over. “Here I already have Boreas,” he gestured to geometric lines forming the north direction of a compass rose. “Which makes this Eurus. We’re still missing Zephyr and Notus. And after that…?” He smiled broadly. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

Matthew looked with fascination at the two strange pieces of metal. Was there really something to this? He had little reason to suspect The Unchained Man was lying to him and yet…

“So this what you want. For me to keep my eyes open and dutifully tell you if I discover your missing winds?”

The Unchained Man laughed. “You still don’t get it. I’m not interested in someone doing my dirty work. I’m interested in having an equal. Someone as capable as myself, but who sees the world in a different light. A mirror image that shares my burden for our troubled race.”

Matthew shook his head. “You crush the individual for the sake of the herd. I don’t share your burden at all.”

“See! That’s exactly what I mean. A different perspective. Allow me to sweeten the deal.” He held one piece of the Anemoi out to Matthew. “Take the east wind. Go on. It’s yours until we have all four. Then together, we will see where they lead.”

Matthew was torn between wanting to take the fragment out of curiosity and his previous desire to shoot the arrogant man in the head. After a moment of hesitation, he reached out and took it. It was smooth like glass and far heavier than it had any right to be.

“The east wind suits you, Cole. After all, it is the wind of change.”

The door behind him slammed open. Matthew spun, drawing his revolver. “Abigail?”

She stood at the entrance to the church. “What are you doing here alone? We have to go!”

Matthew turned on his heel again. The pulpit was empty. “He’s gone.”

“Who’s gone? What are you talking about?”

“The Unchained Man. He was here.”

“Wonderful. Tell me about it later. We’ve got enemy ships incoming.”

Matthew roused himself from his inaction. As they ran through the park, he took a final look behind him at the old church, knowing it would be the last time he ever laid eyes on it. His eyes traced the decades-old stonework that was so familiar. He felt a heavy hand on his shoulder.

“We’re out of time, Matthew.”

“Just saying my last goodbye,” he said.

They ran toward the barracks district. The town was a wreck, first from Abigail and Grace’s rampage, then from the assault of the Swiss Guard as they secured what was left. The power was off on many streets, and the buildings stood silent in the absolute night of the eclipse. Their only light was the bobbing glow of Abigail’s suit lights illuminating the way.

Her comm came to life, reminding Matthew to unmute his. “Ground forces, eyes up, an enemy ship is on you from the south.”

He looked up to the sky, spinning to see the approaching craft. It was distant still, just a speck of light, but well within weapon range. At that moment, there was a flash of fire from the ship as it launched a torpedo. He grabbed his comm. “Yvonne, you better have Svallin’s Mantle up and running.”

“We do. What’s going? Never mind. I see it. Ground forces, incoming torpedo!”

It streaked closer. Closer.

Surely the miracle would work.

Bishop Elias had been confident it was what they needed.

The torpedo detonated miles outside of town in a billowing fireball against a flickering field of yellow that sprang up to stop it. The energy from the blast rippled outward against the yellow field before slowly fading.

Abigail’s jaw dropped. “Holy…”

“Now you know what keeps the Vatican safe from attack,” Matthew said quietly.

She rounded on him. “Wait, they just… They just gave that to you?”

“Actually, I think it was borrowed for us. Without permission.” He made a move to start off toward the ship again when the comm lit up.

“All ground forces safely aboard the barge or Sparrow. Just waiting on our two strays.”

“We’ll be there soon,” Matthew said. “How you feel about carrying me?” he asked Abigail.

“If we’re going fast, the piggyback thing won’t work.”

Matthew smiled wryly. “Bridal carry is fine.”

She laughed and lifted him from the ground and took off toward the Sparrow in great bounding strides, easily clearing wrecked vehicles and debris from the battle. It wasn’t exactly a gentle ride, and Matthew’s teeth chattered with every landing, but they were covering the blocks much faster than he could on foot. The comm sputtered about another incoming ship and torpedo, but he had faith that Svallin’s Mantle would keep them safe. At least for now.

They reached the Sparrow just as the second torpedo detonated in the distance. He looked up at the vertically parked ship. “It’s gonna take some time to climb through the barge. What are the odds you can jump and catch hold of the Sparrow in low gravity?”

Abigail shrugged. “I’ll need free hands, so you’d have to hang on to my back for dear life.”

“Let’s do it.” She dropped him to his feet, and he pulled a detonator from his pocket.

They’d made the decision to make it as hard as possible on Hueso Rojo to repopulate Villa María. In the bunker that controlled the colonies’ central systems, several small bombs had been planted. Matthew had placed them very carefully to ensure that they would only damage what they wanted to destroy. Much as he would have liked to just blow up the whole thing, the odds that people would be killed when the environmental shield collapsed and exposed the town to near-vacuum was too great. Instead, he’d targeted two specific systems.

First, the grav plate hub that controlled local gravity. Second, the water systems. The most complicated part of the farming colonies on Europa were the machinery bored deep under the crust into the ocean miles beneath. Not only did this machinery pull the water up to the colony, it also removed salt and other impurities so that it could be used for drinking and crop irrigation. Without these two systems, it would be exorbitantly expensive to bring in more slaves.

The detonator also activated several incendiary devices the Swiss Guard had planted in the fields. The crops would burn to the ground, giving Hueso Rojo little chance to recover anything from Villa María.

He pressed the button on the detonator. They were too far away to hear or feel the explosions, but the grav plates cut at once, reverting the area to natural Europan gravity. Matthew put a hand on Abigail’s metal arm and swung himself around in the low gravity. He pulled himself onto her back and wrapped his arms tightly around her shoulders. “Let’s do this.”

She ran as best she could, her bounds suddenly taking her dozens of feet at a time, and took a powerful jump. Matthew tried not to even guess how far the upper hatch of the Sparrow was above them. But her leap was enough, carrying them up past the engines and the tail to the top side hull. She reached out and made contact with both palms, and they stopped hard with a jolt.

“I can magnetize my hands too,” she said smugly.

“Neat trick. Get us to the hatch.”

They finished climbing up the vertical surface. Matthew reached up and opened the top side airlock and swung his legs in. Gravity righted itself in relation to the ship, and he climbed down the ladder, through the remaining two hatches, and into the ship. Several Swiss Guard were now stationed in the common room, keeping an eye on Svallin’s Mantle where it glowed from its case. They saluted as he passed on the way to the cockpit.

“Punch it, Yvonne! Let’s go!”

She hit the throttle to full, “Good to see you too, Matthew. How was your day? I’m fine. Thank you.” The roar of the engines rattled through the deck. “You’re taking the controls as soon as we get off the ground.

“Fine with me,” he said, shooing Grace from the co-pilot’s seat.

“She’s scared of getting shot at,” Grace explained.

“As she should be. There’s no telling how much fire that miracle can absorb before it gives out.”

She held her bracelet up. “Mine can absorb plenty.”

“Yours doesn’t stop torpedoes.” He frowned as he saw the smooth patch of synthskin beneath her ear. “Or whatever caught you there. Head back to the common room and strap in. If we take damage or catch fire, you’re in charge of helping the Swiss Guard around the ship.

She muttered about being shoved around and left the cockpit. Matthew checked their altimeter. “We sure aren’t gaining altitude very quickly.”

“We’ve picked up over a hundred and fifty-tons worth of human bodies,” Yvonne said. “I hope you’re not planning on landing on Ganymede like this because that’s going to be almost impossible. Okay, we’re high enough. Switch seats with me.”

“We’ll make do.” Matthew settled back into the pilot’s seat and checked over the controls. Yvonne wasn’t kidding about the weight. It’s a good thing Europa didn’t have much gravity. “Patrol Craft Alpha and Beta, what’s your status? The Sparrow is pushing for orbit now, but we may need a little assistance.”

“We see you, Sparrow,” came the curt reply. Adjusting heading now. Moving to intercept hostiles.”

“There’s six of them out there,” Yvonne said. “The two closer ones that already fired are adjusting course to intercept again. The other four are waiting in higher orbit.”

“Going to try and keep us down where we can’t frameshift,” he said. “Alright, let’s keep going. We may be able to slip past when the Patrol Craft hit them. Davey are you ready to go?”

“Thumper is charged and ready. Give me something to shoot at.”

“If Yvonne paints the target for you, and it wanders into your line of sight, blow it out of the sky.”

There were a few tense minutes as the Sparrow fought for altitude. It was all Matthew could do to keep himself from shouting at his ship.

“Patrol Craft are engaging hostiles in orbit. We’re outnumbered, so we’re going to try and scatter them rather than engage them directly.”

“Stay safe up there,” Yvonne said. “Don’t get yourself killed. Looks like the first two ships are back, they’re not wasting torpedoes this time.” She switched one of the monitors to a camera so Matthew could see.

“That’s a lot of thumper fire,” Matthew said with a whistle. “Davey I’m going to lower my pitch a little, see if I can get you a window. We may not get to orbit quite as fast, but I don’t want to put too much trust in that miracle. Hold on, here comes your shot.”

The view from the back turret was nothing short of awe-inspiring. Two ships, nearly two hundred kilometers out, rained thumper fire at them. Roughly twenty-five kilometers away from the Sparrow, the blasts shattered against a glittering golden field that seemed to spring into place to stop each hit.

The Sparrow finished rotating and gave Davey the shot he was looking for. He started to return fire. Amazingly, the mantle protecting them let his outgoing fire pass unhindered. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how that metal sphere worked its magic.

At first, he tried to eyeball the shots, but the distortion from the thumper fire and yellow energy from the miracle made it hard to see. Then he realized the mistake he was making and looked to his instruments to hone in the shot. The two ships were still at enough range that they would be difficult to hit, especially when they realized their prey was shooting back and started to bob and weave.

He gritted his teeth and focused on the leftmost ship. If he could just...

“One target hit, Davey,” Yvonne said quietly over the comm. “It’s stopped firing its thumper but is still closing rapidly. Looks like they’re going to try and enter the field.”

“Can they do that?” he asked as he switched to the other target. The first had been defanged and could wait for now.

“Maybe? I don’t know how it works!” Matthew said.

“The miracle’s lights are getting pretty faint,” Grace said calmly.

Time was running out. Davey bit his lip and concentrated on lining up his shots and…

“Second target hit hard,” Yvonne reported. “They’re losing altitude and trailing smoke. First one is about to pass through the field. And they’re through. They’re firing guns.”

He tried to get a bead on it, but the way it juked made that hard at close range. He fired a few shots and missed spectacularly. “I don’t see them shooting, Yvonne. What are you seeing?”

“Canon fire!” Matthew shouted. “Physical shells have a little longer flight time. I’m trying to move out of where I think they fired.”

“Sit still for one second will you…” Davey muttered. Suddenly one of his shots connected with center mass. The ship had dodged into a thumper blast rather than out of it and been split clean in half.

Then the storm of bullets was on them. Stray impacts reverberated through the hull of the ship. Hopefully, the engines didn’t take a hit. They needed them desperately right now.

The canopy in front of him shredded as several large-caliber rounds pierced it, tearing the room apart. Davey felt pain lance through his body. Whether he was hit by cannon fire or just shrapnel, he didn’t have a clue. He flipped forward out of his seat as the atmosphere exploded from the room and landed against what was left of the viewport. The wind was knocked from his body.

Then all at once, the wind was gone, and it was eerily quiet. He tried to breathe but found that there was nothing left to breathe. His eyes, nose, mouth, everything burned. Instinctively he closed them.

So that was it. At least he’d hit the ship before going down. The already quiet universe faded to black.

“Davey’s turret hit hard! Pressure lost!” Yvonne shouted.

Abigail didn’t wait to hear anything else. She ran from the cockpit, thundering past the cabins and through the common room. Grace and the Swiss Guard stumbled out of her way. “Abigail, what’s going on?”

She ignored Grace. A secondary emergency door had slid shut just past the common room. She lowered her face shield, sealing her own air supply in and overrode it. Air began to hiss through at once and she closed it behind her as soon as she was past it. The door beyond into the Thumper turret had been mangled.

It sounded like everyone was shouting in her comm, but she ignored the noise. “Please be okay. Please be okay.”

The door still worked and slid aside, revealing the destruction beyond.

Davey was unconscious, slumped against the bullet-riddled viewport. The turret’s chair had been shorn off.

Abigail didn’t waste another second and reached forward and, as gently as she could, took hold of Davey. She ignored that he was bleeding from half a dozen places. She ignored that he’d been exposed to vacuum for at least twenty seconds. If Grace was going to keep her brother, she had to get him out of here. She hugged him to herself with one arm and charged into the corridor to the common room, shutting what was left of the turret door behind her. She opened the emergency door, threw herself past it, and slammed it closed again before much air could vent. The common room erupted with activity as Grace and the Swiss Guard clustered around them.

She marched past them straight to Davey’s room, aware that Grace was hovering just behind. “Yvonne! Yvonne! Get back here now!” She laid him on the bed and stepped back.

It looked bad.

Grace looked like she was on the verge of panic.

Yvonne entered the room. “Abigail. Get the medical kit. Now. Grace go with her. You don’t want to see this. I said go with her, Grace.”

Abigail didn’t know how the woman kept her wits about her, but she did her best to obey.

Davey’s life depended on it.

Matthew didn’t know exactly what was going on back there, but he could tell from the shouting that Davey was badly hurt. He shut the door to the cockpit. He still needed to concentrate. They were getting close to orbit now. If they could just make it away from Europa, they’d be safe.

“Ortega,” he called into the comm. “You guys okay in the barge?”

“The barge took some hits but has kept atmosphere. We’re closing all pressure doors now. In case we take more hits… Well, maybe not everyone has to die.”

Matthew grimaced. “Understood.”

“Sparrow, this is Patrol Craft Beta. Alpha has been shot down. We took out one of the cartel ships, but there are still three more.”

Three on one above them and now the Sparrow had lost its main armament. Time to change the game. “Beta Disengage. Take the first frameshift you can. We’ll take a different route.”

“Sparrow, are you sure you know…”

“Trust me. I know my bird.” He pushed the flight yoke forward, turning the Sparrow from a climb into a dive. Leveling out with his nose pointed several degrees below the horizon that was now a few thousand miles beneath him, the Sparrow began to pick up speed. Europa may not have had a lot of gravity, but now it was working for the Sparrow rather than against it.

Thankfully, its atmosphere was even less impressive than its gravity or they would have burnt up pulling this little stunt. Even still, the micro atmosphere would heat their hull as they passed through it.

He checked the scopes. Beta had made a retreat, and the three remaining hostiles were trying to react to the Sparrow’s new course. It wouldn’t work. He had too much of a head start. The surface of Europa approached rapidly as the Sparrow used its gravity as a slingshot.

His dive took him less than a mile over the icy surface at several thousand miles an hour. Almost at once, the surface began to retreat again as his momentum carried him past Europa and back out into space. One last glance at the scopes showed him what he hoped to see. Pursuers far behind with no hope of catching up.

He waited till he hit the required range and activated the frameshift device, feeling the déjà vu of the last time he’d been on Europa.

“If I ever come back to this moon, it’ll be too soon,” he mumbled to himself.

Grace slipped into the cockpit and quietly sat beside him. Her tears had turned the dirt from the battle into mud, leaving dark trails across her face. Matthew wanted to ask her how Davey was but didn’t think it wise. Instead, he chose to reassure her. “We’re almost away. We’re heading back to the Vatican now.” Deactivating the frameshift, he checked their position and heading and rotated them toward Ganymede.

“Yvonne doesn’t want me in there right now,” she whispered.

Well, that meant he wasn’t dead. Not yet, anyway. “That’s probably for the best.” He glanced at her and saw that her hand had reached up to her own small injury. “Hang in there, Grace. It’s almost over.”

The frameshift finished recharging and he activated it. Ganymede was only a few seconds away. He thought about calling Abigail for an update on Davey. Something, anything. But with Grace still here, he’d have to wait. The frameshift deactivated automatically in proximity to Ganymede.

Jupiter’s largest moon hung in front of them. He looked at the scopes and felt his heart drop.

Three very familiar ships were out there and already adjusting course to intercept.

“No,” he said quietly. “How did they know…”

A fourth ship, Patrol Craft Beta, popped onto the scope, several thousand miles distant.

That was it. They’d recognized the Swiss Guard ships. They knew they’d head back to Ganymede and cut them off.

Matthew thought about turning around, but their momentum had already taken them too close to Ganymede. They’d never get far enough away before the cartel ships caught them.

Grace looked at the scopes and slumped into her seat. “Is this it? Is there any way to escape them?”

He didn’t answer. No, there wasn’t any escape. And with the lights on Svallin’s Mantle already fading, they wouldn’t be able to force their way through.

He turned on the comm and set it to a cross-frequency distress signal. Worst-case scenario maybe he could detach the barge and lead the ships away. Someone would find them before they ran out of air. Probably.

“This is SPW 5840. Anyone that can hear this, please respond. We’ve got over two thousand souls on board, and we’re being engaged by hostile ships. Repeat, this is SPW 5840…”

Cardinal Bishop Elias had loitered all day near the Vatican Security Center. He had spent most of the day in prayer, pacing the hall back and forth.

He had grown rather impatient in his age, a sin that he was ashamed of.

If Matthew and Commandant Ortega were to be successful in their operation, he wanted to be the first to know. If it went poorly? He still wanted to be the first to know.

Many hours into his vigil, the door to the security center opened, and Lieutenant Colonel Gordon stuck his head out. “Your eminence, you need to hear this.”

If Elias were younger, he would have bowled past the officer.

He heard what he’d been dreading as soon as he entered the dimly lit room full of computer screens.

“...ve got over two thousand souls on board, and we’re being engaged by hostile ships. Repeat…”

“Can we help them?”

“We’ve already deployed our last two patrol craft. They won’t get there in time.”

Elias sank to his knees. This wasn’t how this was supposed to end. All those people.

Gordon continued undeterred “Your eminence. The hostile ships are in range. We could deploy the Horsemen…”

He looked up at the Colonel. “What? Yes, of course, do it! What are you waiting for!”

“I needed authorization from a high church official,” Gordon explained. “Once we deploy the Horsemen, the secret is out of the bag.”

“Do it. Two thousand lives are on the line. I’ll deal with any consequences myself.”

Gordon gave the order and turned back to Elias. “If you’d like to join me, I’d rather like to see this.

They took an elevator to the roof.

At each of the four corners of the Vatican stood a tall stone tower. Within each of these towers was a thumper, the largest and most powerful ones ever built. In fact, the Four Horsemen as they were called, were the longest-range projectile weapons ever devised by man. The Vatican had commissioned them in secret decades ago from the grav plate factory on Ganymede with technical assistance from the university. They, along with Svallin’s Mantle, had laid in wait until called upon.

Elias could only see two of the towers from their current position, but he could see their tops open up, and long barrels extend from their depths. Once deployed, the barrels slowly tracked an unseen target far above.

Elias whispered another prayer for good measure.

Thumper fire began to pepper the protective field. Matthew didn’t know how much longer it would last. He imagined that the golden flicker was already losing its strength. Any second now, one would pierce through. When that happened, Matthew would drop the barge and engage them head-on.

“SPW 5840, this is Vatican Tower Control. Do not alter your course in any way. We wouldn’t want you to get caught in the crossfire.”

Matthew frowned at the speaker. “Acknowledged, Vatican. Mind telling me what’s about to happen?”

“Enjoy the show.”

“What was that about?” Grace asked.

“I don’t know. Keep the scopes on the hostiles.”

Matthew saw it with his naked eye. From the surface, a massive distortion moved at unbelievable speed. It seemed to slice all of space apart as it tore through the first of the ships. As the blast passed near them, Matthew could feel the pull of its immense gravity, like a sudden drop that made your stomach turn. It was gone in an instant. He looked back to the scopes and couldn’t even spot a debris field from the first ship.

“Whoa,” Grace said, jaw-dropping. “What was that?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. I think that was a thumper, but I’ve never heard of anything remotely on that scale before. Look. There it is again.”

The second shot streaked through their vision. The space-time bubble annihilated the second cartel ship in the blink of an eye. This time Matthew had a better look at it. It wasn’t just one shot. It was several fired in unison all converging at a single point.

The final cartel ship had turned to flee, but its fate was sealed as the guns of the Vatican turned it into space dust with a final reality-warping barrage. Grace squealed in delight.

Matthew took his hat off and laid it on the console. His hand shook a little as his adrenaline crashed. He took a deep breath. If Yvonne was to be believed, landing this thing was going to be quite the trick. He wasn’t even going to have the benefit of landing it on disabled grav plates like she had on Europa. Maybe he could call ahead and have them work something out with local gravity. He took a deep breath and set them on a course for the Vatican.

The comm crackled to life. “SPW 5840, you have clear skies and authorization to land. Welcome home.”

By the time the Sparrow landed at the Vatican, Davey’s condition had begun to stabilize. Abigail looked at the kid in pity and shook her head. Fortunately, he hadn’t been hit by any gunfire. Humans don’t survive getting hit by thirty-millimeter cannon rounds. Instead, he’d been pierced by shrapnel and glass, then exposed to rapid depressurization and hard vacuum. But the human body can be remarkably resilient. He was lucky to be alive at all, that was for sure. It also helped that Yvonne had years of experience in treating trauma injuries.

Davey was going to need a lot more care, but the hospital in the Vatican would be far more equipped than the Sparrow was for that sort of thing. Which meant they would probably be staying for a while. They allowed Grace back into the room, and she wouldn’t leave his side even when the paramedics arrived. She and Yvonne followed them to the hospital.

Sometime later, when the barge had been released and the Sparrow landed more properly beside it, the ship was quiet for the first time in what felt like days. Abigail tried to clean up the blood that had inevitably ended up all over Davey’s room, but it was going to take some time.

Matthew finally emerged from the cockpit and walked past her.

“Where are you going?”

He motioned toward the ladder. “Topside. Care to join me?”

When she climbed out of the hatch, he already sat on an outcropping of the hull. It was night on Ganymede, and the city was illuminated with golden lights. It gave the place a warm and welcoming feel.

Abigail joined him, and without thinking, opened her suit and crawled out of it. She silently accepted the hand Matthew offered to her and sat beside him. She always felt so small when she was out of her armor, but then maybe that was the truth of it. It was a big solar system, and there were a lot of people out there. She wasn’t really all that big in the grand scheme of things.

Not even when weighed against the lives of those they’d saved. They’d all decided to risk everything, and Davey had very nearly given his life for them.

Matthew was uncharacteristically quiet. He was never much of a talker, but then, unless he had a book in his hand, he wasn’t going to ignore you either.

She decided to break the ice. “Nice view up here.”

He nodded once. “Peaceful after all the chaos.” He pulled something out from under his poncho.

Abigail frowned. “What’s that?”

“A piece of a miracle. The Anemoi. Whitaker gave it to me.”

“Are we calling him that again?” she asked. “I seem to remember you saying that wasn’t his name.”

“If he thinks I’m going to call him The Unchained Man or some other nonsense in a serious conversation, he’s kidding himself. Whitaker will do until someone wrings his real name out of him.”

He gave her the highpoints of his bizarre conversation with Whitaker, and they sat in silence for several minutes as she processed it all.

“Funny thing is, it makes sense from a certain perspective.”

He didn’t look too happy at that. “We’re not playing his game, Abigail.”

“Why not? We’ve apparently been playing it for months. Better a willing participant than a dupe. Besides.” She elbowed him in the side, and he frowned at her. “How are we going to avoid him?”

“We’ll instruct Benny not to accept jobs from him.”

“Then he’ll just adopt a new persona or form a new shell company and hire us anyway.” She reached over and took the Anemoi from his hands. “You said this was the Eurus, the East Wind? Tell me about it.”

He frowned in the dim light. “I had to read up on the Greek god. There aren’t many mentions of him. But the wind itself in literature is often a harbinger of change.” His hesitated for a moment. “And sometimes destruction.”

She traced a finger along the round outer edge of the miracle. “And what if it does lead to Moses?”

“He’s gone, Abigail.”

“It leads to something then. It’s a compass. If Whitaker is so intent on finding whatever this is, maybe it would be better if we were there with him. I don’t think we want lost technology falling into his hands.”

Matthew grunted and leaned back. “You may have a point there, I guess. We’ll keep our eyes open. Ask around. Maybe if we find the other pieces, we’ll at least have some leverage over him.”

The conversation drifted away into the cool Ganymede night. Overhead Jupiter stood its eternal vigil, casting light upon the millions of people that took shelter on its moons. Here on Ganymede were a few thousand newly freed souls. In the shadow of Europa waited nearly a million more.

For now, they were beyond the help of the Sparrow.

It was for that reason alone that Abigail decided they would hunt for the Anemoi. If there was a chance it could change the fortunes of mankind, it would be worth it. The people of Europa were waiting, and, without a change of fate, they would never be free.

Matthew would come around to her point of view. He always came around when people needed him. It was what drew them to him. What drew her to him. And Whitaker was right. Matthew had a marvelous knack for doing the impossible. Abigail’s job was making sure he didn’t get himself killed in the process.

“So what will happen to the refugees?” she asked.

Matthew scratched his stubble. “Well, some may have homes to go back to elsewhere in the solar system. Others, especially the original citizen of Villa María, won’t be so lucky.”

She turned to him. “I know that tone of voice. You’ve got an idea.”

His eyes flicked to her and then back to the city in front of them. “The beginning of one. If Whitaker wants me to be the East Wind, I’m going to have to start somewhere.”

She looked at him expectantly when he didn’t continue. “You can’t just leave me hanging.”

He laughed. “Fine. Here’s what I was thinking…”

As he told her, she felt a smile begin to creep across her face.

It was just a beginning. And it would take a long time to build up the inertia to really change things. But it was the start of something new.

The first new thing that had happened in the solar system in a long time.