Chapter 73 of 74 · Book 6, The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Epilogue — Homecoming Queen

Book: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride · Part: The Bedlam · Previous: Chapter 72 — Falling Up · Floor: Floor 8 — The Ghosts of Earth · Series: the series

Opening

» Flash message. The Borant System Government has indicated they are initiating the Earth

Summary

On the night the crawl began, Borant starts the Earth season early, and its assets must reach population centres or self-deactivate. Agent number 22, Agatha, waits in Wenatchee, ten years peeled from the collective and used to being alone. She is not one of the Apothecary's residuals: her kind hunt the Apothecary's residuals and take over their bodies; 'a rare species. One of the oldest still alive.' A handful of her agents stand against thousands of the Apothecary's, with one goal, recruitment of the system AI; her team only needs to win once, and both sides know the mantid upgrades make this crawl possibly their last chance. She means to light a barrel behind the Meadowlark Elder Care kitchens, where Brandon shared his lunch.

Her friend Parvati, number 21, has killed a Borant-employed human at the Mumbai site and infiltrated another, the first Syndicate agent their kind has killed; neither faction dares reveal what they are. 'My name is no longer Parvati. I am now Alexandro.' The Apothecary's agents recite a daily mantra full of known inaccuracies, to protect crawlers from the showrunners, in the hope that a crawler will see it and be secretly implanted with a hidden upgrade; Agatha assumes it is dangerous to the Eulogist. Agatha's side wants the primal to know who it is before its elements are stolen, and to free the Eulogist to return to its slumber. Last time they let the traitor live; if Agatha had her way, the universe would be swept clean of biological life. She lights the barrel.

At an emergency Syndicate Council, Princess Formidable demands the failsafe be pulled now, though she is in orbit and would die too. The Syndicate's own rules caused the quarantine, but the AI now controls the gates, and Formidable charges that it is holding them hostage: provisions come in, but nothing goes out. Prime Minister Glory, a Gleener, notes that over half the galaxy's wealth, her children among it, is trapped in the Scolopendra Club; pulling it means galactic war. The Valtay assistant proposes the solution: over 150,000 armed mercenaries and private armies admitted to Faction Wars, split among the eight sponsored teams, to kill every crawler and the NPC rebels, especially Carl and the cat. Formidable suspects the AI's allowance of this is a trap. Formidable notices a huge garbage freighter stuck in orbit, Long Haul Biological Waste Management Solutions' Homecoming Queen.

Aboard, Tipid, a Crest, rewatches Carl, Donut and Imani reaching the stairwell. Doctor Hu predicted it all, including the council's response. The bone key admits only one; Carl would have had to choose between himself and the cat, as Tipid once did. Rosetta wonders whether Carl is smart or lucky; Tipid credits his split-second judgement and the AI's liking for him, and worries about the presence in him. Fifty thousand former crawlers are hidden in the Homecoming Queen, cleared for onboarding as troopers for the Princess Posse. They were coming home.

Characters

• Agatha — Agent 22: a Residual of the Eulogist's side, ten years alone, lighting a barrel behind Meadowlark.
• Parvati — Agent 21, now Alexandro, inside a Borant transport at Mumbai.
• Princess Formidable — Demands the failsafe; muted; watches a garbage freighter.
• Prime Minister Glory — Half the galaxy's wealth in one club; children at risk.
• Tipid — A Crest, a former crawler, who chose himself once; pilot of the Homecoming Queen.
• Rosetta Thagra — Tipid didn't pay for the ship or the box, she says; 'Comrade.'
• Porthus — Predicted everything; promised death and justice.
• Chris — Called her name that day.
• Brandon — Shared his lunch.
• Carl — Watched from orbit: lucky or smart; must expel the presence.

Locations

• Wenatchee — An alley behind Meadowlark, freezing, two hours before the collapse.
• Earth orbit — A council in cockpits; hundreds of ships; a freighter called Homecoming Queen.

Motifs

• The Residuals — Two factions: the Apothecary (the traitor Primal) and Agatha's kind who serve the Eulogist; a hidden upgrade in a crawler who saw the mantra.
• The Eulogist — 'May the Eulogist ever sleep'; a universe swept clean so it can slumber.
• The failsafe — Blow the star: refused for the sake of the wealth trapped below.
• The Valtay Corporation — 150,000 mercenaries to end the crawl by extinction; the AI's 'trap.'
• The bone key — Confirmed: it lets one through; Tipid knows the choice.
• The Princess Posse — Fifty thousand former crawlers coming home as troopers.
• The Eye of the Bedlam Bride — 'He needs to expel that presence'; ink that shares powers.
• Sponsorship — Long Haul Biological Waste Management Solutions was the Crest all along.