pshoffman

The Last Human IV - 69 - Of Old Friends

< First | < Prev

New moss bearded the ribs of the Ark, cutting lush green lines against a bright, blue sky. Clouds built white castles in the distance, tinted with the promise of rain. But not today. Today, light from an alien sun (truly alien, Laykis thought) filtered down through the city in the Ark. 

After only a handful o...

The Last Human IV - 68 - To Bless and Be Blessed

< First | < Prev | Next >

The two avians locked themselves together. It didn’t seem to matter that Agraneia was still standing in the room. 

Agraneia coughed awkwardly. “I’ll, uh, see you two later.” She didn’t think eithe...

The Last Human IV - 67 - One Last Prayer

< First | < Prev | Next >

This new universe looked much like the one they had left behind. The stars were different, and the galaxies, closer and brighter.

But Poire had brought them here. He had opened the Way, and shepherded the badly damaged Ark through one Scar, and into another. To our Salvation. ...

The Last Human IV - 66 - The God Who Was There

< First | < Prev | Next >

Poire did not touch the ground. There was no ground to touch. The remnant universe had changed according to Poire’s will. He had atomized and recombined all the matter—all of it—into a new form...

The Last Human IV - 65 - The Turning of the Key

< First | < Prev | Next >

From this vantage, the twin fleets appeared like a streak of metallic paint smeared across the solar system. No longer could Khadam tell which one belonged to which half of the Sovereign. They occluded the moon, a...

The Last Human IV - 64 - One Last Test

< First | < Prev | Next >

The falkyrs’ wings beat the air, driving the hot winds away. One wrapped his talons around Khadam’s shoulders, and—without landing—hefted her from the ground. Khadam gasped as his talon dug into the blackened patch on her shou...

The Last Human IV - 63 - The Ninth Hell

< First | < Prev | Next >

Avians and cyrans both believed in the Eight Hells—one for each of the eight Great Sins. As Agraneia crawled out onto the Earth’s surface, she believed she had found the Ninth.

Clouds of smoke and storms of pollution raged a...

The Last Human IV - 62 - Unbroken

< First | < Prev | Next >

Agraneia couldn’t stop shivering. The ceiling spun, and the floor felt like it was rolling on an arctic ocean current. She tried to steady the motion, tried to hold herself upright, but her muscles gave out. She tried to grab ahold ...

The Last Human IV - 61 - Some Kind of Saint

< First | < Prev | Next >

This was not Thrass et Yunum.

Then why could Agraneia hear the artillery? Giants, walking. Their footsteps shook the ceiling. And she could smell the trees, and the smoke from the campfires, and the earthy rot and salt and fresh soil from the lowland jungles. 

Plants grew on everything. Ivies climbed up the machi...

The Last Human IV - 60 - The God

< First | < Prev | Next >

Poire wielded the Crown, and time bent to his will. And with the Crown, he opened many scars, and he gazed upon the long-dead people of his home universe.

And he spoke, that they might listen. “Help me save them.” 

The Last Human IV - 59 - The Gift of Mortality

< First | < Prev | Next >

Broken scales littered the floor around her. Two of her ribs had cracked. Probably from writhing against the bands that held her fast. Ring-shaped wounds wrapped around her wrists, her shoulders, her waist, and dried blood ran down h...

The Last Human IV - 58 - The Birthworld

< First | < Prev | Next >

The Ark drifted through a field of shredded ships. Twisted hull fragments, mangled super structures, and shattered mega-repulsors spilled into the darkness, glittering as they caught the sunlight. Support beams trailed long wires whi...

The Last Human IV - 57 - Pearl and Crown

< First | < Prev | Next >

Standing upon his spiral pillar, Poire lifted his hands. The movement was delicate, but the effect was tec...

The Last Human IV - 56 - What Comes After Death

< First | < Prev | Next >

Thunder echoed through the trunks, as Anu’s branches began to break. The crunching, splitting sound of alien bark shook the branches and sent echoes crashing through Anu’s inner, winding paths. A pendulous groan s...

The Last Human IV - 55 - The Unmaker

< First | < Prev | Next >

Anu’s limbs stretched to the edge of sight, and beyond. A near-infinite network of blood vessels, dried up and cracking and unable to rot in the vacuum of space. This was not the Anu he had come to fear. 

The Last Human IV - 54 - The Howl of Nothing

< First | < Prev | Next >

A cast iron pot cooked over a fire. Flaming logs filled the air with a sweet, burning scent. Oil crackled, and pale rings of dough floated and bumped against each other as they slowly darkened. Smoke, perhaps a little too much, rose o...

The Last Human IV - 53 - Through Faith Alone

< First | < Prev | Next >

Cloaked in titanium lace, brimming with the contained power of a sun, Yarsi of the Ark screamed through the void. Grit and dust particles bounced off her hull like droplets of rain. The light of a billion stars streaked her ch...

The Last Human IV - 52 - The Sacrifice

< First | < Prev | Next >

A hundred could fit on the Bridge of the Ark, but twice as many xenos crowded the lower command deck, and more stood at the bulkhead doors, desperate to see the spectacle on the massive screens that lined the walls. The crowds ...

The Last Human IV - Ch. 51 - The Screams of the Damned

< First | < Prev | Next >

Hints of metal gleamed in the shadows. Cold machinery clinked and rasped, calling to Agraneia’s mind the knives she used to sharpen. 

Wires and cords hung like mossy curtains from a ceiling she couldn’t quite see. Pipes and steel...

The Last Human IV - 50 - The Elder and the Younger

< First | < Prev | Next >

Poire frowned at the Boy. The Boy frowned at the rock. And the rock sat very still.

The Boy gritted his teeth. 

“Is that what they taught us in the Conclave?” Poire said, “You have to relax.”

But ...

The Last Human IV - 49 - Sight Unseen

< First | < Prev | Next >

Between the Ark’s generators, bathing in the hum of machines and the glittering fog of the Light, Yarsi sat alone—watching time.

She did not think of herself as a prophet, but merely an observer. From her perch in thi...

The Last Human IV - 48 - The Twin Fleets

< First | < Prev | Next >

Sweat and dirt and dried blood streaked Khadam’s face. Her lips were cracked from thirst, and her clothes were torn ragged, first from crawling out of the machine tunnels, and then from scrambling down the mountains toward wh...

The Last Human IV - 47 - The Veins of the Earth

< First | < Prev | Next >

The cave was a dagger wound in the Earth, hollowing out the rock for hundreds of yards straight down. Agraneia and Laykis walked the steps that spiraled down the crevasse, and when the steps stopped, they climbed hand and foot into the increasingly-na...

The Last Human IV - 46 - Where Gods Once Stood

< First | < Prev | Next >

Concrete steps, cracked and crumbling and stained by ages of rainwater led down into the cave. The steps were simple, unassuming. And the cave itself was little more than an open gap in the earth, shielded by broken shelves of ...

The Last Human IV - 45 - Scavengers

< First | < Prev | Next >

Asphalt and concrete prevented the rain from soaking into the ground. So, it gathered at the bottom of the valley, rushing along in shallow rivers, taking granules of asphalt with it and piling them up against sheets of corrode...

The Last Human IV - 44 - Easier Ways to Die

< First | < Prev | Next >

Agraneia ran through the suit’s diagnostics—again. 

Onboard power, hydraulics, oxygen supply. Optimal. Then, she inspected the weapons systems—again. Shoulder-mounted micro-launcher, charge rifle, and reactive platin...

The Last Human IV - 43 - Still Alive

< First | < Prev | Next >

…still alive. 

And so what?

Ten thousand years ago, Khadam said goodbye to Rodeiro and the rest of the clan. Then, she stepped into that coldchamber. They loaded her into a ...

The Last Human IV - 42 - The Slaves - 42

< First | < Prev | Next >

When the black door irised open, Khadam’s jaw dropped. A twisting nightmare of metal split apart into three branches. The walls were riddled with holes, which breathed gases or took them away or crawled with ...