Poster II

Hunter III feebly defended herself from the petting.

So if the K.P.S.D. tactical team had not found the target, then neither had Zachikova. That’s fine. That’s fine. As long as they don’t find her. I still succeed. There was a note of desperation to those thoughts.

Hundreds of sheets of veiny dimly glowing red and blue velvety flesh suspended close. Like a flower of fleshy angel’s wings, fluttering into themselves before her eyes. Crowned by a floating circle of blood or gore that somehow hovered in place.

Psionic power coursed through both of them in an instant. In Shalikova, deliberately summoned– From Murati, almost a reflex, out of curiosity– Murati saw red rings appear around Shalikova’s eyes and Shalikova saw the same in hers.

“Mehmed Khalifa was a member of the Sunlight Foundation. He was a uniquely powerful psychic– we call his type ‘Apostles.’ People who have a powerful soul.”

“My, my! You’re so red, Homa! Look at you! Such a cute little thing; you can’t handle a woman at all still, can you? I’m telling you, if you keep being so fun to tease, I won’t be able to control myself.” Homa averted her gaze and grumbled silently.

“He’s just following the Volkisch’s twisted plan! They’re not going to do anything!” What did Homa care if he thought about her safety personally? If he cared about her? “He’s a monster! All of his rhetoric! Majida was right! He’s nothing but a fraud!”

“Captain Korabiskaya. Ulyana Korabiskaya.” She gave Homa a handsome smile and a little wink, before turning over a portable terminal with their papers. Homa could not meet her eyes.

Murati almost wanted to respond, that she would never become like Mehmed Khalifa. But there was a part of her, a little, dangerous part of her crooked and cracked soul– That may not have passed up the power to kill millions of Imbrians like magic.

Before Jayasankar knew this, Omarov knew this. He didn’t write books. He knew it in his skin. Knew his comrades, knew his enemies, knew his aims and ambitions, and his vision for the world.

“I would not underestimate the fascist drive to glorious self-destruction.” Bhavani said.

Not just because she associated concentration and power of the mind with the ascetic preaching of the Mahdists themselves– –but because she wanted to associate the hated Sihr with God’s mercy for her personally. “Allah is all that I require, excellent is his protection.”

Murmuring to herself whenever her lungs filled– Give me guile against him who schemes against me, power over him who oppresses me, refutation of him who reviles me, And safety from him who threatens me. Reciting prayer as she inched her way to the door she could see ahead.

Nagavanshi fixed her eyes directly on her Premier. “I told you before. We’ll burn in hell together.” “I appreciate the devotion, but I wish you’d be so optimistic as to say we’re deserving of heaven.”

“Fuck!” Once more she banged her head against the wall. Everything from her ethnicity to her womanhood to her livelihood, everything was so much trouble, nobody made it easy, nobody helped her, nobody ever let her just have anything she wanted.

“I completed what you possessed. You can have your people’s Omensight— if you desire.” That hand which had seized upon her face moved down to one of her cold, immobile limbs. “Now, you won’t be needing this anymore. So in exchange, I will dispose of it.”

“Thank you. Commissar, with you at my side, I feel like a hero. We can do this together.” Ulyana clapped her free hand over the two that Aaliyah had brought up. So that they were holding each other’s hands with both of their own at once.

She seemed far less interested in the letter– than in Homa herself. Slowly, that playful smile from before faded back in over her once neutral expression. “Ho~ma~” She said the words in a too-sweet singsong voice.”

Somehow, while the people were all trapped in ships and stations, life teemed out here. And up above, from where all the food for these beings fell continuously from the sky. Homa peered toward heaven, and all her floodlights illuminated was more marine fog.

“But you need it to live. You need to eat or you can’t even work. What did they expect them to do?” Zvesda smiled at her. “You have a really big heart Klob. Channel it into doing what you can to help.”

“It’s not a trick I can really teach you, but you might be able to discover it!” In the next instant, she tipped forward and took Shalikova’s lips into a quick but full kiss. When she drew back, smiling at the dumbfounded Shalikova, her aura started to distort.