“Magus what is the plan? That critter is going to be here in three hours.”

  The sun was only rising, there had been little sleep. The mild headaches and tired bodies made those waking envy the dead.

  Oscar and Gabriel had been ordered to sleep. Some minimums were needed.

  “That critter may be tasked with ensuring our security.”

  “Yes but we fought it and now we are sure it is involved in this supposed liquidation of the planet. We are bound to stop it or die.”

  “Security is rather complicated. It may be the case we benefit more from some action that is not hunting the beast.”

  “Then why are we here on this sad and sinful rock?”

  “Because we and everyone else here are stuck.”

  Grim reality, no whimsy or joke could dampen it. But you could enjoy the atmosphere.

  “I hate this waiting and panic magus. It’s unbecoming.” It was said Ambrose was the most vain of knights, his armor was clean and nonstandard. Pleasing to the eye. He enjoyed the fun and games played by the mechanics and painters as they “optimized” machines away from clean and efficient factory spec in favor of busy and selective “specialization.”

  Joseph the Magus was wise enough only to politely tease the knight. But if “Bro” didn’t improve there would be some form of penance. And as with all pride, it could only be cured by the humility of a fall.

  Truth be told Ambrose’s only real sim was being too old, if he was only six years younger he would be more promising.

  What was the matter with them? The devil themselves was to visit this very day as both the Serpent and the Antichrist and they were worried about looking good for the cameras and spreadsheets.

  “Ambrose I wish we were not so cozy in this monastery. I fear our best course of action is to simply shoot down the vessel and occupy and rebuild our own in the chaos that this planet shall surely endure.”

  “That is your rodent brain magus. Doctrine states we stay here for a purpose.”

  There was no insult. The rodent was a noble creature. Say what you will about the rats of mankind.

  “The knights of old would have done it. Just as any creature on any planet.”

  “That is because of long tailed risk Joseph! Animals and the knights of old accept it because they have nothing but their lives to lose!”

  The Grand Magus met the accusation with a poker face.

  “A fall from ten thousand feet would cripple the machine that little lizard pilots. I rather suspect that without it a bird would eat him.”

  The knights had discussed mobilizing kit to down the aircraft that supposedly carried the lizard. The alien was projected to survive the fall if they could evacuate the aircraft. The mech the alien piloted however, and the weapon that actually posed a threat, was not.

  “We fear our fellow man more than the dragons of old my Magus! This is a wicked world and we shall strive to reach a better one!”

  “It would be so easy night, Ambrose. We would strap up an all-terrain vehicle and mount you and Jason armored upon the sides. I would have given you the radar missile. Jason and I would picket you with the infrareds. We would all deploy, you and Jason would only need to spread out enough that the missiles don’t track each each other. That and intercept the craft. We know it’s exact path between airports.”

  “Would that it should be so easy, there are a great many aircraft on this planet! What if we downed the wrong bird? We cannot be certain of the time it takes off or lands.”

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  “We wake up and gamble every morning! What is one more to clean our hands of this place!?”

  “You know our corporate overlords would not let us leave. Do you really think one broken machine can buy a planet in ransom?”

  “Yes, Ambrose I rather do. That lizard’s engineering is our ticket off this hell hole.”

  “And the gateway to how many more. The divine works in mysterious ways my Magus. Should we prolong the sense of this planet surely we were only work to hasten and embellish others”

  The two were both unarmored, technically under the gaze of Jason. The squire, in these emergency circumstances had been permitted the honor of standing guard over the Magus. The two were technically under the watchful care of the squire, yet unnamed. They were checking the electronics on the church bell. The church bell which, when amplified properly became a non-lethal anti-riot weapon.

  The Magus did not answer, but he was thinking on Ambrose’s words. Ambrose was probably correct. The Magus himself had always been somewhat of a heretic. And his judgment while valued, was often as odds with the proper doctrines.

  Heretics made for a better salesman than philosophers anyway. Which is why this micro-chapter of knights was in the field instead of philosophizing or practicing for a real war

  “Ambrose it all looks good over here. Why don’t you try a song?”

  “The first one?”

  “No, no absolutely not. Save that one for when we need it try the second song.”

  Ambrose clicked a button on the control board.

  The dry yet musty electronics room was filled with sound mostly dampened. As was the surrounding military base, though out there it was a clearer sound in the cold actic air. Despite the evils out there were being planned. Or perhaps, what evils they outside were yet unaware of. Despite it all they enjoyed an ancient and bizarre song.

  A live audience, A party organ, followed by a piano. A women’s voice, surprisingly deep and quiet.

  “O holy ni-ight the stars are brightly shining!…

  The lady was clearly the lead singer.

  “What is this song Magus?”

  “A pagan hymn, from before the great tree was chopped down.”

  “I don’t recognize the accents.”

  “No one does.”

  The lady and her chorus continued

  “Fall on your knee eeess!”

  “This is a unique recording Ambrose, it’s banned in syndicate space, you know how their censors are.”

  “Ralph can you hear it?”

  Ralph confirmed that he could

  “Should I give Ralph a sine sweep magus?”

  “Nonsense, that would be cruel. He has not the protection right now to resist it. Besides the people out there don’t need to be assaulted!”

  “But we are rigging this to assault them.”

  The magus frowned, clearly the goal was to assault them in defense of the church if such a thing came to pass.

  The magus held up a hand,

  “FALL AALL ON YOUR KNEES!”

  The chorus the audience and the lady overlapped in a brief mind bending and twisting parody of speech. Not all together unpleasent but difficult to describe. Difficult to remember beyond the shock of hearing. Rising round, the sound falsely fell. The women broke her voice, it seemed intentional.

  Ambrose waited patiently as the magus held a hand up, enforcing the experience upon him.

  “O NIGHT ……

  “I NIGHT DIVIEEEI IEEE iii iii nnne.”

  “This women, initials only known as MC was a pagan opera singer, pedigree mind you.”

  Ambrose patiently waited for more deep lore.

  The song ended amid clapping and chorus.

  “Ambrose you may not be aware, but this ‘songbird supreme’ as the progenitors called her just soloed a part of the song that is impossible for normal humans.”

  “But there was a chorus magus.”

  “By all standards she could have performed alone, a feat only a rare few men can preform.”

  “Magus why are you telling me of this women? There are many things women can do that men can’t.”

  “I had two pages in the church library catalog every recording of that song back on Squall. That song was the biggest outlier.”

  Ambrose frowned, puzzling as to the lesson the magus was teaching.

  “That song breaks countless singers, the power is in the choir, singers that attempt it normally hurt themselves, not physically, but spiritually.

  Ambrose clicked the soundboard, canceling the static hum.

  “Wise singers back off and let the choir do their thing. A rare few singers, often physically gifted can manage to solo the crescendo. They often preform alone to magnify the feat. This lady inverted the dynamic.” The Magus looked at Ambrose judgmentally. “Where normally the singer is magnified by the choir, the choir in this instance is magnified by the lady. It is a statistically odd rendition of the song.”

  Ambrose didn’t have a good response, How could anyone in the face of such analysis.

  “Anyway” the magus continued sheepishly, “I figured you and everyone else should enjoy it before we all are exterminated.”

  “Well It’s a change from the traditional bell recording. I’m pleasantly surprised.”

  Ambrose was diplomatic, it was a shame he wasn’t in the far away libraries studying foreign manners.

  “Ok Ambrose I think that’s it, get some sleep, even one cycle will do you good. Worry not, we shall awake without fail in two hours.”

  “Before I leave magus, do you think our alien shall be insulated against sound?”

  “We shall not count on it, it would be quite the oversight if they cannot cancel sounds as we do.”

  “Perhaps their species does not even perceive audio, do we know anything of their language?”

  The Magus paused, considering what little he knew of the species, officially known as skinks.

  “I have seen their writing, but I could not know what frequency they communicate in beyond what is written.”

  Ambrose nodded and thanking the magus for his wisdom, dreaded a stressful nap time.