Goddess of the Galacticide Episode 75 - Prophet’s Choice
Was this a coup?
The diin was supposed to help breed the same aliens who destroyed the galaxy during the Galacticide. As if this idea hadn’t been terrible enough, that same diin now conspired with the local flora against his own brood and their divine mistress—Linuka Omga.
The multi-aware Goddess had either been shockingly blindsided, or Cha’s reports had given her enough warning time to fight the takeover. Maybe she wasn’t missing.
“We need to go to the diin,” typed Cha into the chemstick, and let the pinned-down worker alien translate for Terg.
“Why would we do that?”
If these ‘plant people’, as Terg called them, were some Green Wave mutated form of the alien warriors the diin could control, he wouldn’t have just gained this ability recently. The diin’s collusion with the local flora had to have been going for a while. What had changed was that the Goddess learned about the diin’s work behind her back.
The ground waves wrecking the colony rolled away from its center, trying to keep anyone away from the hall of the diin.
He didn’t want to type all this into the clunky rubber keyboard of the chemstick.
“The Goddess will be there, trying to stop him. We should help her.”
It sounded so certain, but Cha wasn’t even 100% sure if the events were not just a crazy manifestation of the plan.
“Yes,” said Vriishany, “we should see the diin.”
The Prophet sounded assertive for someone who had just dangled over a chasm a few moments ago. But was it prophetic wisdom, her dreams, or a simple lack of options that compelled her?
The Goddess had ordered Baaii and Cha to keep Vriishany safe, away from everyone. Maybe she had ordered this because she planned to do something dangerous. And he was leading the Prophet into that danger.
“It’s not safe, my Prophet,” said Baaii. “Cha, we need to bring her back to the residence.”
Cha shook his head. “We don’t know if it’s safe there.”
“Of course we don’t; that’s why we are going there with her. We are the safety—following our only standing orders in this mess.”
This mess.
“I cannot go on like this, Baaii.”
“Following orders?”
“That’s not it. I followed orders all my life, including ones I didn’t like or understand. But I knew who I was, and what my purpose was. I was a Royal Guard, and I protected the Shaajis; I was a marine, and I protected the Levy Fleet. But here? Who’s the enemy? The plants from outside? The diin from within? And what is the magiis plan? I need to know!”
Baaii sighed.
“Alright, Royal Guard, you take your big new friend and go after your Shaajis. But the other guards come with me and secure the Prophet at her residence.”
“No. Last time we split up, it almost got you killed. We’re all going together.”
“Yes, we are going,” said Vriishany. “I will be safe with you, both of you.”
Baaii’s shoulders dropped. No spores were needed to whisper of resignation. The Prophet had spoken, and Cha hoped her intuition was right.
He turned to Terg. Were the administrator—and his strong weapons-wielding branch arms—coming along?
“We shall go. Bring your guards,” read the last spit streak, then Terg released the worker from his involuntary translator role.
***
Cha had studied all the schematics for the main buildings in the colony, especially for the ones he wasn’t invited to. The hall of the diin had two ways to get inside: the main entrance on the ground level, and one probably less guarded.
“We need to get on top of the diin’s hall; there is a maintenance access. This will give us a bit of an element of surprise, hopefully—and a good vantage point.”
“Will it fit Terg?” asked Baaii.
Cha raised his strip beam. “If not, we’ll make it fit.”
“My Prophet.” Cha unholstered his sidearm. “Do you know how to use a gun?”
Vriishany’s eyes widened. “No. I never even held one. How would we get up there after we made it through the waves and plants?”
Cha remembered his own rescue, many orbits ago, when the Goddess came for his team and got them out of the mind prison.
“We’ll take one of the shuttles. Fly over the chaos, land on the flat part of the hall’s roof.”
“Can the roof handle the load?” asked Baaii.
“We’ll enter with a danchoo if not.”
“It sounded like Terg comes with us. Can he pilot the shuttle?”
“No,” said Vriishany.
It had been many orbits since Cha had left Green Wave’s surface. The ships were younger than his last flight.
“You mean we need a Remnant to fly us?”
“No,” repeated Vriishany. “All the ships I have been on are piloted by humans. You will have to use the controls and land on the rooftop. I am afraid I can neither shoot nor fly a ship. I am sorry for being so useless.”
Vriishany Omga had been in his dreams, crying, at the foot of the diin. Whatever was going to happen in the hall of the diin, she was not going to like it, but she had spoken about going there ever since she arrived.
“My Prophet, I think you’re quite the opposite. I don’t know how, but I feel you might be key to resolving this crisis.”
Terg’s legs shuffled. Cha scanned the surroundings for new arrivals. The surviving ‘plant people’, as he called them, moved along the chasm in the general direction of the diin’s hall. Were they looking for a path to reach them, or did someone order them back to form a tighter perimeter around the hall?
The three guards joined the group.
“What’s the plan, boss?”
“You’re not going to like it.”
***
“When was the last time you’ve flown one of these?”
The shuttle controls were designed for humans, as the Prophet had confirmed, but either Cha had forgotten what little he knew about piloting or the layout had evolved.
Baaii’s hands flew over the rounded control surface, gesturing through system menus, cursing, backtracking. She had been the better pilot between the two, and if she didn’t know…
Why had the controls been changed back from alien or Remnant control to human? And where were the crews? The man Vriishany reported about on the other shuttle—had he been the pilot?
A light vibration, a growing howl, a smile on Baaii’s face.
“I got it!”
She turned to the group, forming a half circle around her in the generous cockpit.
“You might want to get seated. Firing up this cart is one thing; flying it will be another.”
Cha squinted through the curved cockpit windows. The hall was just a short hop away for the shuttle. The airspace was clear, but the ground buckled.
“Wave! A big one. Get her airborne.”
The angry planet had given them a break when they moved away from the colony center, assuming they had given up and retreated. But commanding the shuttle had put them back on the threat list. Cracks formed, vines spewed out of the tortured ground.
Baaii inhaled. Her knuckles turned white when she yanked the control stick. Shuttles used to be sluggish; this one behaved like some rich person’s space racer. His feet swept away from under him, and he hit the cockpit floor hard. Something cracked, equipment hopefully, not a bone.
“Zuj shiiv,” cursed Baaii. “Something grabbed us.”
The vines. These tentacles of the planet’s wrath had once reached into the sky and grappled a Remnant cruiser. He should have known better than to assume the airspace above the colony was clear. This was the diin’s world now, and whatever was happening in his hall, he didn’t want visitors.
Goddess of the Galacticide continues on this website with new episodes each Tuesday.
Copyright © 2026 Bert Oliver Boehmer. All rights reserved. No part of this serialized novel may be reproduced, reposted, or distributed in any form without the prior written permission of the author. The creation of any derivative works (including translations, adaptations, or other transformations) is likewise prohibited without permission. The use of any portion of this material for training or developing artificial intelligence or other machine learning models is strictly forbidden.
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