Starship captain Ardeva Korrell is used to fighting prejudice, both because she's a woman in what's normally a man's line of work and because she's from a world with a misunderstood religion.
But now, on a trading mission to a backwater planet, she finds herself with another kind of fight on her hands; she and her small crew must battle an army of robots and defeat the tyrannical, god-like beings who have enslaved the native population.
The task before them is straightforward: to storm the gates of Heaven itself!
Twenty meters ahead, they saw Zhurat standing alone in a small cleared space between some huts. “Come on, you bastards,” he shouted. “Where are you? Let me see the power of the great gods of Dascham!”
Dev grew aware of eyes peeking through chinks in the huts, likely staring in disbelief at this strange being who challenged the gods. Was he brave, foolish, or a god himself that he could speak like this?
“I defy you!” Zhurat yelled. “I, Dmitor Zhurat, defy the gods!”
Forever after, that scene remained etched in Dev’s memory. Zhurat standing alone in the clearing, his arms raised to the sky, fists clenched and waving in the air. Then a deafening explosion, and a quick flash, blinding in intensity, caused Dev and Dunnis to close their eyes. Dev could have sworn she heard a crackling sound and…was that a scream over the driving rain? She could not say.
When Dev could open her eyes again, Zhurat had disappeared—only his smoldering uniform lay on the ground amid a pile of quickly dampening ashes.
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French
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Italian
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Spanish
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Unavailable for translation.
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