To Spite Another God Pt. 12

Mina adjusted the controls with her hands -- then laughed in delight as what she had imagined was nearly precisely right. She slid some of the upper Airesite out of the Cylinder's roof and the whole cylinder bucked upwards, shooting up like a cork that had been loosed from a champgin bottle. Within a moment, the Cylinder had reached the same altitude as the incoming flying machines, startling all of them into a sudden, skidding stop. She wondered why, it was easily within the capacity of the Cylinder's abilities -- but before she could wonder more, the heat rays along the broadside and the top of the Cylinder began to fire.

She could actually hear it. The focused, tearing, hissing, roaring noise, all coming at the same time.

All aimed not by sluggish Martian muscles, dragging machinery around, focused with those overly large, distorted eyes, trying to peer through thick Earth atmosphere rather than their native Martian atmosphere...but by vampires. Vampires with preternatural senses and reflexes. Vampires who were fighting for their home -- not at the whims of some ancient, alien god.

Martian flying machines began to combust -- in a staggering, rippling pattern. Their curved, crescent shapes crumpled and sheered in half, flew off in wild directions as the heat melted and distorted their gravity insulation. They crashed. They burned. They burned. Mina, watching through the scopes, threw her hands up and laughed in excitement, bouncing.

Mina, something strange is happening! Jenny said, her voice filled with nerves.

Mina gripped the scope, then swung it around, tracking it around -- and realized, that if she flipped a single toggle, the view would swap from peering out of the top of the Cylinder to peering out of the belly. And through the belly lenses, she could see that the Martian tripods had reached the port and had set the large, inverted bowl atop the port. The transparent cylinders that jutted from the sides settled against the dish base of the port, and the whole thing seemed to join together into a singular combination -- but it did not appear to be a weapon.

Of course, the atomic bombs had not seemed to be weapons -- they had just appeared to be small orbs...

Mina started trying to bring the cylinder around. But while going up and down was easy, actually maneuvering forward and backward, let alone side to side, mystified her. As she struggled, a clang drew her eyes away from the scopes and saw that Lucy and Jenny and George were hurrying in -- dragging with them a battered and bloodied Martian. Mina had enough time to furrow her brow in confusion, but she saw that as Lucy and Jenny were carrying the Martian, George was bandaging it. She opened her mouth-

And then the Martian spoke.

"You will surrender immediately, Wilhelmina Murray. Or else the entire Earth will be destroyed."

***

Carolinium, like all the elements, could be in three forms.

It could be a solid, the form it was at room temperatures. It could be liquid -- exceedingly difficult to maintain, considering the temperature at which it would melt. And, at last, it could be a gas, which was even more difficult. The destructive potential of the radioactive element was purely in the radiative heat that it released -- meaning it would need to be heated more than it was possible to imagine to turn it into a gas.

However...there was another means by which Carolinium could be turned into a kind of gas.

Via grinding.

Mina absorbed this as she sat at the small folding table that had been fished from one of the convenience stores and set out before the starport. Tripods loomed overhead, while the Generals and Roosevelt and her vampire council sat across from the wounded Martian. It was a rather comical affair, considering how pathetic a Martian looked without their Tripods or their Flying Machines, and when bandaged with thick gauze and splints. One of his tentacles (its tentacles, actually?) had been tied flat to a board, apparently to keep it from doing more of an injury to itself.

And yet, that Martian was the only surviving voice of Mars that was not currently in a tripod standing around the Port, or in a colonization Cylinder that was coming to spread yet more Martians across the world.

"So, let me see if I understand this properly," Teddy Roosevelt says, his mustache bristling. "This...Carolinium -- Element-91, as you call it... it will cause the air itself to burn, even if a single flake of it was exposed. And you have the equivalent of five hundred of the bombs that destroyed Paris within that device." He pointed at the starport. "Ground so fine that they are many tiny flakes? Good God, are you a total maniac?"

"Your definitions of morality are beneath my notice," Mars said through the Martian.

"Why you tin pot dictator-" Roosevelt stood and Mina fought down a flare of sheer appreciation for the pugnacious American. She placed her hand upon his shoulder, then shook her head -- and he sat, grumbling under his breath.

"I don't follow," General Schlieffen said, frowning. "If it is powdered, it should be much less dangerous, not more."

"Each particulate part of the Worldburner Device causes the air around it to combust. With a normal atomic bomb, the outer layer of Element-91 alone is exposed to the air, meaning the majority of the energy is contained within. This is all to the good, for atomic bombs are area denial weapons. Paris will burn for a hundred years."

Fosch, who was sitting at the table, clenched his hands, trembling. Mina placed her hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently, while Mars continued to speak through his puppet.

"The Worldburner is different. The energy is released faster -- each particulate is exposed simultaneously to the air. The release is at the upper levels of your atmosphere, in an air current that will carry it far afield. The initial heat detonations will cause the particulates to spread all the further, ejecting them in a hemispherical detonation. Your sky will burn, and as it burns, the particulates will spread further and further, growing more and more devastating as they are no longer clumped together. Some will be launched to the ground and cause fires there as well...but within a matter of moments, the firestorm will be self sustaining. Your atmosphere will have caught flame and the firestorm will spread and spread and spread. Eventually, the fuel will be consumed."

Mars' eyes were utterly pitiless.

"By then, there will be no life-forms on this planet. The undead will follow them into oblivion shortly after -- walking a barren wasteland until their own preternatural hunger consumes them."

"Good...God!" Schlieffen exclaimed.

"You're a monster!" Lucy exclaimed.

"I am fighting for my survival," Mars said, coldly. "You have turned to your monsters. I have dredged the memory-facts of your individuals -- I have isolated the legends and stories of 'vampires.' They are thought to be a living plague. A monstrosity that stands against every idealism your society is based upon. And yet, when extinction comes, you turn to them."

"I didn't exactly turn to them," Roosevelt said, frowning.

"If our extinction is what you want, why did you bother with tripods? Or Cylinders? I thought you were here to harvest us, not-" Mina stopped. "...you're losing. You know you're losing. And you'd rather burn this whole world than go back to your own?"

"The fourth planet of this solar system is dying. There exists a magnetic field about the planet. Are you aware of it?"

Mina nodded. "Of course."

"That's how ships navigate, and how compasses work," Roosevelt added, frowning. "Without it, we'd all be...heh, we'd be all at sea."

Fosch kept glaring at Mars.

"The magnetosphere of the Fourth Planet has decayed over time. Before my Unification, my predecessors discovered that the magnetosphere was produced via the rotation of a molten core of the world -- beneath the crust, beneath the mantle, there exists a massive lump of iron, which spins within your world. This produces the magnetosphere of your world. By contrast, the Fourth Planet's core is smaller, less dense, and has lost energy over time far faster. Ergo, my magnetosphere has died. The sun emits a perpetual haze of energy which, if not armored against with a magnetosphere, will strip away the atmosphere of a planet...eroding it as steadily and as slowly as the erosion of your Great Sphinx."

"You know about-" Mina shook her head. "You ripped it from some poor Egyptologist's head, didn't you?"

"Their name-identification was Lord Carnahan. My world's atmosphere has decayed to the point that food animals cannot be bred save in underground vaults. Surface water has evaporated. My constituent parts require suits to move. The long term projection is starkly clear: Without migratory efforts, the ability to reproduce an active ecology, especially after the number of extinctions...it is..." Mars actually paused then, looking thoughtful. Then, for once, Mina heard a real emotion in his deep, booming voice.

It was fear.

"Long term projections show that my food animals will cease to be viable within two centuries."

Mina sprang to her feet, slamming her palms down, glaring at Mars. "And you knew that our technology was getting better every year!" She pointed her finger right at him. "You knew that you had to act quickly, didn't you!?"

"Yes. Long ranged observations, carried out by orbital cylinders -- unnoticed by your primitive telescopes, logged an immense build up in the production of weaponry among your Great Powers. My constituent parts died of starvation and oxygen deprivation before they could determine more details, but the information I saw through them was clear: Invasion needed to be immediate, unconditional-"

"And an extermination...it'd be as if Europe was sinking into the sea, and they found America," Roosevelt said, shaking his head, his face going flushed.

"You burned us alive, you shot us down like dogs, you suffocated us! Like...like we were insects and and and and and you expect this to gain you sympathy!?" Fosch exploded. "You burned Paris to the ground! You have killed millions! You-"

"I expect nor extend sympathy. I simply outline reality. Now, you understand why I have created and deployed the Worldburner. If I am repulsed, if my constituent parts cease to live upon Earth, then the constituent parts upon the Fourth World shall die, and an unbroken mind of almost a thousand years, the single eternal Me...shall cease to be. I refuse to go alone."

"You'd burn us all out of spite..." Mina whispered, slowly sitting back down at the table.

"Yes."

"Why, damn you!? Why!?" Fosch growled, his hands gripping the cheap table, which quavered in his grip.

"By threatening your entire world, I regain a place at the bargaining table."

"Damn you!" Fosch snarled, then pointed his finger at Mars. "I would rather see the German flag flying over France, I would rather lick the boot of an African savage, I would-"

"Fosch!" Mina said, grabbing his arm. "Fosch, he has a gun to the world's head. Not just France, not just Europe, the world. Every man, woman, and child in...in China, in New South Wales, in America, in...in Brazil, everywhere! They will all die -- taking our future, our past, everything." She glared at Mars. "We understand your terms. Now...go. We shall discuss what it is we shall do."

"Do so."

***

Roosevelt paced, his mustache bristling. "Well, we cannot begin to make this decision here," he said, frowning. "We cannot dictate the future of the world at a folding table. But also, we cannot take the time to gather everyone together and have some kind of conversation about it."

"Why not?" Lucy asked. "...the other Cylinders!"

"Precisely, Lucy dearest," Mina said, pacing back and forth. "The war can swing right back to his side once they land..." She frowned. "We have to make the decision, as poorly suited as we are."

"What do we do? Let them exterminate us?" Fosch growled.

"No, absolutely not!" Mina said, shaking her head. "Mars, for all that he is desperate, for all that he has a sob story...he's still an empire. And we've all gotten to feel what that is like." She frowned. "He could have come in peace. He could have come, asking if we had land to spare -- and land we do!" She gestured to Roosevelt. "What is that poem about...the...the statue?"

"Bring us your tired, your hungry, your huddled poor..." Roosevelt frowned at her. "But these things? How could we possibly exist in harmony with them? We can barely manage it with Chinamen."

Mina frowned at him.

"...I think I know..." Jenny said, shyly, shuffling forward. "The Martians are incredibly advanced, with their machines. B-But...vampires are scary, and we're immortal, and we can stand up to them, s-so, we could be...we could be wardens and...a lot of the vampires are from Britain, and..." She trailed off. "T-They could come here. S-Since...everyone has fled, so, we need to rebuild. A-And...maybe we could...have Mars rebuild, using his technology...to...like...as a repayment. He can owe us, for all the damage. And serve us and...we can make things...we can try? At least?"

She trailed off.

"That's dumb, sorry," she said.

"That's...not a terrible idea," Mina said, slowly. "That's actually...Jenny, my dearest! You're a solicitor! Can you write some kind of contract? This Mars is one big entity -- we're not dealing with an entire people or race, we're dealing with a single man. And a single man can be dictated to more easily! We could lay out our demands, and his requirements, and thus, provide a way for him to bring himself over. There can be restrictions on how many of his...c-component parts can be bred, in the same way that no one man can own overmuch, right?"

Roosevelt chuckled. "Like breaking up those damn Robber Barons, oh, yes, I see what you mean." He rubbed his palms together. "But what kind of technology could he give us? Yes, these heat rays and flying machines are remarkable...but..."

"Mars knows how the inner worlds of our planet function -- he knows how to make materials that revolutionize how we build things, how we travel!" Mina said, nodding eagerly.

"I hate this," Fosch said, sitting down. "None of this will bring any of the slain back."

"Nothing will," Mina said, sighing. "But...I want there to be no more slain. I want this to end without the whole world being turned into a pyre."

Fosch frowned.

"I-I'll get to writing," Jenny said, nodding. "And...of course, I can add clauses. We can have room for negotiations and expansions and such. So, ah, so as the Concords become more settled, and as the heads of European states are found -- the Tzar, the Kaiser, for instance, then the agreement can be broadened."

"That can work," Schlieffen said, frowning. "But what of the worldburner?"

"He has to remove it," Mina said, slowly.

"Of course, but how do we agree to that?" Schlieffen asked, frowning.

"No, no, he has to remove it!" Mina exclaimed, standing up. "The Colony Cylinders are coming, and when they arrive, he will activate the port. That will fling the Worldburner directly up into the belly of the Cylinder. Doomsday for both of us. So, he has to remove it either way. And...well, if he won't accept our terms, then we're all going to die anyway." She shrugs, spreading her hands. "There is nothing to be lost in trying, is there?"

"Save our honor and dignity," Fosch said, frowning. "I thought you were an Englishwoman -- don't you...doesn't it grate on you, the idea of this...this Mars claiming London? And more?"

Mina frowned, slightly. She turned, then stepped to the window of the small home they had ducked into for their privacy. She looked through the broken window, at the streets, empty of people and empty of a future. She could see, just barely, the looming bulk of the Port, and the Worldburner upon it. And she felt the very same boiling rage and resentment that burned inside of Fosch, a million times over. But it wasn't petty.

She was not mad because of the Union Jack.

She was furious because of every terrified face she could remember on the refugee ship. Of every unburied body that their army had strode past on Europe. On the sight of all those ships, burning on the horizon as Martian flying machines screamed by overhead.

The whole world had been wounded -- stabbed deep to the gut by a creature as pitiless and merciless as the most brutal dictators the world had ever seen.

And yet...

If fighting him would just bring more devastation, was it worth it?

"Honor can't feed us," she said, turning back to face Fosh. "Dignity will not shield us. I don't care if Britain is occupied, if the alternative is extinction." She smirked, slowly. "But I think you have it completely wrong." She focused, and a mental ping rushed out. She needed some...ambiance for this. The faint fluttering sound came first. She spread her arms, slowly, and the window was filled with a sudden rush of wings, a movement of sleek fur. Wolves growled as they twined around her feet, while bats by the dozen roosted on her narrow shoulders. Her eyes glittered as she looked in at the mortal generals.

"Mars won't be occupying these islands. He will be here...as our guest..."

She smirked, remembering being a guest, in another land, in another time, in another life -- and remembered the strange hospitality and the transformation within.

"And when you are the guest of a vampire..." she murmured. "You never know what to expect next."

THE END

EPILOGUE

Mina Harker laid upon her belly and groaned as the knot finally sank home and she was tied, bodily, to Jennifer. Her eyes fluttered shut and she gasped as she felt the thickness of her lover...of her wife...straining against her insides. Even after feeling this so, so, so many times, it still shocked her how full she felt. Her fingers curled on the sheets and she rocked her whole body in time with the slow, languid thrusting of Jennifer, while her wife kissed up her neck to her pointed ear, whispering softly. "You are so very tight, my dear Mina..."

"Ahh, thank you!" Mina laughed, then gasped, her belly tightening as she felt her cunt clenching upon the shaft filling her. The orgasm that hissed through her frizzed against her skin like the feeling of Champaign bubbling in a glass. Her eyes closed and she threw her head back, moaning in purest delight as the small mounds of her wife's breasts pressed to her shoulder blades. Her diamond hard nipples felt like tiny exclamation points and Mina's own breasts swayed in time with the thrusting into her.

She focused, and she shifted the muscles of her own internals, so that she was able to not merely clench upon Jenny. Instead, she stroked her, from her wolfish tip down to the throbbing, eager knot that tied them together. This was too much for lithe little Jenny.

"Oh Mina!"

Jenny trembled, biting down on her shoulder, her fangs sinking in -- the piercing making pleasure sweep through Mina, who gasped and panted heavily, and felt...no...wallowed in the feeling of the cum gushing into her. Thick. Heavy. Undead.

"M...mmhm...mm..." Mina murmured -- then her eyes flashed open as warm, soft, cool lips pressed to her mouth. She looked into bright red eyes, and then felt the sudden assault on her mind, rushing into her.