An Excerpt From "The Broken Places: An Andromeda Novel"
By Ethlie Ann Vare (with Daniel Morris)

     The sub-Saharan village where Father Francis Ntume worked and taught had remained remarkably untouched by the technological advances of the Commonwealth. It had even remained largely untouched by the ravages of Nietzschean... shall we say, entrepreneurship, since there wasn't much there worth appropriating. When travelers expressed surprise to find not only the simple village but an honest-to-God mission house in the middle of it, Father Francis would say, "If Darwinism can survive the Long Night, what makes you think Christianity can't?"

     Father Francis was not to survive. His faith was.

     The swarm ships came in early autumn, after Purim but before Good Friday. Their arrival was heralded by a heavenly barrage of photon bombs unleashing light so intense it blinds anyone within a radius of several kilometers... and making them easy picking for the Magog. Most of the villagers were simply eaten alive in the first wave; Father Francis, far enough from Ground Zero that he sustained little damage to his sight, stayed awake for three days and nights giving Last Rites. Sometimes, he gave them to scraps of meat whose DNA he had to analyze before he could give them a name. He had no tears left. He had no conception of God left. He had only ritual, and love.

     Father Francis was raped by a Magog whose name was an earsplitting ultrasonic screech roughly translating as "Fleshrender." Fleshrender was of the officer class: Magog who used weapons and intellect to keep their bloodthirsty charges from killing and eating one another before they ever reached their targets. Francis was just unfolding his long frame, bent over yet another corpse, when Fleshrender's fangs sprayed him with venom, then injected him with eggs. Instantly paralyzed, Father Francis slumped against a slender acacia tree; Fleshrender sat next to him, and waited for his larvae to ripen.

     There is no physiological reason why Father Francis' vocal cords weren't paralyzed by the Magog venom. But any follower of The Way knows a miracle when they see one.

     It takes six Earth days for Magog eggs to gestate. On the seventh day, they hatch and eat their way out of their host. The host's last drop of blood provides the Magog babies' their first meal. And so for six days, Father Francis talked to Fleshrender. There was nothing else for him to do.

     Father Francis told Fleshrender of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He told him about Moses and the burning bush, and Judah the Maccabee. He told him about Buddha, and Mohammed, and Joseph Smith. He told him about African ancestor worship and Haitian voodoo and an Indian god with an elephant's face. He tried to describe Zoroastrianism, which he didn't understand himself. He walked the Eightfold Path and climbed the Twelve Steps. He was, Francis realized, not so much explaining to Fleshrender but rather trying to explain to himself the Mystery he had devoted his life to.

     And while it would be satisfying to report that Father Francis had a cosmic epiphany in the last moment of his life, there is no record that such a thing ever happened. Perhaps it did. Or perhaps he simply died, died the same way he had lived: in Awe. What is recorded, however, is the epiphany of Fleshrender.

     Put simply, Fleshrender received a Vision. Opening up before him, against the backdrop of a burnt sky, shone a path. This path was The Way -- a just and good path, one that could only be traveled with love, wisdom, and a belief in the Divine. It was all-inclusive, and it was all-forgiving. And as this road stood before him, Fleshrender understood that it was now his road, and that it could accommodate an infinite number of travelers of any species, and all he had to do was show it to them and start them down it. It was the best he could do to atone for his sin against Father Francis, and it was the only way he could ever honor what he came to believe was his love for the man.

     As the last seconds of Father Francis life spooled away, the Magog larvae chewing their way through the skin of his stomach, Fleshrender held the man's head in his lap, wiping away his tears, comforting him with a tender, respectful hand. When his young finally emerged, Fleshrender quickly pulled them free.

     He refused them the blood of their host, offering instead his own flesh.

     Suffering the pain of his own offspring, Fleshrender dipped his hands into the blood that had welled in the hole in Father Francis' abdomen, cupping this precious liquid, then lifting these hands to the sky. He let the blood fall onto his head, and it dripped down and around the horns in his forehead and face. Thus baptized, Fleshrender assumed the name of The Anointed, then said a prayer over the lifeless form of Father Francis.

     Eternal life grant unto him, and may perpetual light shine upon him.

     Certain that the body would not be found by other Magog, the Anointed left Father Francis, leaning in the shade of the tree. He pulled his suckling sons from his bleeding fur, vowing that neither they nor he would taste the flesh of another sentient being again. It is a fact that Magog retain some of the DNA of their host, and the Anointed, knowing this, was determined that his sons should live to be worthy of Father Francis.

     The Anointed returned to his people, preaching what he had learned, speaking even when his words fell on deaf ears. The Magog, hardly famed for their friendly dispositions, viewed the Anointed with a deep suspicion and his efforts were usually greeted with violence. With the aid of his disciple sons he did manage, through the example of his sheer devotion and belief, to win over a small number, but he could not win over them all. While attempting to convert the Magog of Rexos Arteris, the Anointed walked into the midst of a young swarm which was being starved in preparation for an attack upon a nearby system. It is doubtful whether any of these Magog, insane with hunger, heard the Annointed's last words as they ate him alive.

     Eternal life grant unto them, and may perpetual light shine upon them.