Free Star Viking (Extinction Wars Book 3) by Vaughn Heppner

upon him and he brought down the two pillars, and that brought down the temple full of Philistines. The holy text says he killed more that day than he had during his life.”
    Baba Gobo squinted at me. “What is your point?”
    “The Samson Protocol means I will bring down the temple on both of us, killing all of us as I destroy the Forerunner artifact.”
    “No,” the Starkien whispered. “That is blasphemous sacrilege. You would be branded an outlaw, and your people hounded to the ends of the universe.”
    I laughed. “Do you hear yourself? You threaten to destroy my people, extinction for mankind. That doesn’t matter to a race already slain. Do you plan to kill us twice?”
    “You do not possess the means to destroy the artifact,” Baba Gobo said.
    “I assure you, I do.”
    “You’ve fitted nuclear warheads onto the relic?” he asked.
    “Among other things,” I lied.
    “You are an animal,” Baba Gobo said. “It is vile to destroy an artifact of the First Ones. It is unclean to set explosives on the shrine. I abhor you, beast. Listen to me well. Many think lowly of the Starkiens. But today I will sacrifice my flotilla to rid the universe of monsters like you and your ilk. Prepare to die, Creed-beast.”
    “The explosions will destroy you, too,” I said, surprised at his reaction.
    “I have no interest in your—” The Starkien paused, and he glanced to his left, my right.
    “Commander,” Ella said. “I’m receiving a communication from Ceres. Doctor Sant would like to address the two of you.”
    Baba Gobo regarded me. “I have received a call from Doctor Sant, a Lokhar of Orange Tamika. Did he not return from hyperspace via the artifact?”
    “He did,” I said.
    “Let us hear what the noble Lokhar wishes to say,” the Starkien told me.
    Why did Doctor Sant call now? Could he have been listening to our two-way conversation? Did the Lokhar have military-grade spy devices on Ceres? What did that say for Ella’s assurance that Sant would favor us?
    The split screen changed. The image of the Starkien fleet disappeared. In its place Doctor Sant appeared in his orange robe.
    Like the Starkien and me, Doctor Sant used a universal translating device to communicate with the two of us.
    “I thank both of you gentlemen for taking my call,” Sant said.
    Baba Gobo stiffened. “I hope you are not equating the beast with me. Do you not realize he has just threatened to destroy the Forerunner object?”
    “Yes, I know,” Doctor Sant said. “It is why I wish to address you both.”
    “You are a Lokhar,” Baba Gobo said. “Of all the races, I know you serve the artifacts with the greatest zeal. Surely, you realize that we must expunge mankind from the star lanes.”
    Doctor Sant said nothing, although he turned his yellow eyes onto the Starkien. There was something unsettling about Sant, something I’d never noticed before. It was a new majesty, perhaps, an extra weight or gravity to his bearing. Was that due to the Jelk machine?
    “You weren’t with us in hyperspace, Baba Gobo,” Doctor Sant said. “I joined the humans as they battled down the portal planet to the artifact in the center of the great Forerunner machine. I saw Commander Creed in his element. What is more, I saw him walk the curve toward the ancient residence in the inner torus of the object. He disappeared into an olden building. There, he did communicate with the relic, learning the construct’s name. He bargained with the tool of the First Ones. In a moment of time, the object now in the solar system’s Asteroid Belt left the portal planet and came here. The object has blessed the humans with its presence. It judges them, Baba Gobo. The Lokhars await the artifact’s word on the nature of man. Are the humans beasts as you subscribe, or should mankind join the civilized races as guardians of life?”
    “He threatened to destroy the ancient shrine,” Baba Gobo said.
    “He is the object’s appointed guardian,” Doctor Sant