“Lani!”
Adoenye’s face turned remorseful, “I’m afraid Fate had a different, more unfortunate plan.”
Euphretes wanted to vomit, as he considered the implications of this revelation.
“Euphretes, Fate doesn’t have the final word. Destiny is still the judge of eternity. Watch and see! My voice is far from being silenced. And with you at the helm, it’s about to roar through the ages!” Adoenye’s voice came out reassuring, filling Euphretes’s core with life giving hope.
Suddenly, the throne transformed again into the same planet as the footrest, only now it had far more detail. Lights could be seen on the dark side of the planet while man made features littered the surface on the daylight side. A planet with a population larger than every Empire combined; a planet ripe for the Galactic Group’s abuse.
The fire inside Euphretes’s soul abruptly erupted into an inferno at the site of the blue globe. While similar to the sensation that drove him through the rift in the sky and up Fate’s mountains, this urging felt as if it legitimately grabbed Euphretes’s very life source and screamed, “DON’T LET THE ENEMY GET THEIR HANDS ON ME!”
“Now go!” Adoenye proclaimed with purpose. “Rescue your captive.” The Pillar AI’s eyes then turned and looked directly at Earth, “and find this planet before The Almighty gets her claws on it!”
Part Three
The Guardian’s Ascension
Chapter 12:
A Blind Jump Into the Oblivion
“EUPHRETES! COME BACK!”
“COME BACK TO ME EUPHRETES!”
“PLEASE.”
“JUST COME BACK.”
Neuma’s seven seconds of panic stricken terror were the longest of her life. Having lost herself in the excitement, forgetting that she was carrying a feeble human with her, she managed to rip Euphretes’s consciousness in half; causing his body to shut down in its entirety.
“Euphretes! Can you hear me?” Neuma pleaded.
Euphretes was hesitant. “Neuma, is that you?”
“YES! Yes, it is! Thank goodness you’re back!”
“Back? What do you mean? Where were you?” He could still feel that sting of abandonment he had experienced during Adoenye’s vision.
“I was right here Euphretes. You disappeared!” Neuma instantly responded, concerned with the hurting that she heard in her partner’s voice.
“Wait a second. You honestly didn’t see any of that?” Euphretes exclaimed, perplexed that not a single part of Neuma was carried into Adoenye’s Sanctuary.
“I’m sorry Euphretes, but no, I didn’t. And none of that matters, you’re back to me. Euphretes, you’re back to me!” She cried, her voice filled with relief and guilt.
Euphretes sensed immediately that she must have suffered miserably while his consciousness glued itself back together, “I missed you so much Neuma,” he confessed.
“You have no idea!” The range of emotions emanating from Neuma swelled within Euphretes’s mind space, reminding them both of the uniqueness of their relationship and the unbreakable Love and dependence they shared for each other.
“Let’s not do that again please.”
“I can agree to that,” Neuma replied before bringing up the elephant in the room. “Something happened to you, didn’t it?”
Euphretes racked his brain trying to make sense of everything that had just happened to him. However, no matter how hard he tried to dissuade himself, he firmly believed in Adoenye’s message. So much so that he was willing to risk his life to find out if Emperor Indus was hiding someone important on his Flagship. “I honestly don’t know how to explain what I just experienced, but that explanation is going to have to wait. I am under a time constraint.”
“Time constraint?”
“I can’t prove any of this, but you have to believe me and trust me.”
Neuma, feeling the concrete faith in Euphretes’s intent, tenderly answered. “You know I trust you; and you know that I have your back as long as blood still flows in your veins. But even you would be asking for at least some sort of heads up right about now.”
Putting himself in her shoes and realizing that her imagination must be running wild, “You’re right, I would be upset if I was being asked to put my confidence in something that I knew nothing about. Ok, I’ll give you a quick summary. I met Adoenye, Neuma. The Pillar AI that legends claim is a part of the UIS, IT EXISTS! Adoenye told me that someone important is being held on Dawn of Creation and that I can rescue whoever it is if I act immediately.”
The unshakable determination in Euphretes’s voice caught Neuma’s attention. “What about your orders from Carpathian to stay where we are?” She asked, concerned that her partner’s actions might get him in trouble with the Emperor.
“This may come off as disrespectful, but something tells me that I just received follow on orders from someone that out ranks my father,” Euphretes answered. “Besides, I’d rather face the wrath of my father than the UIS, just sayin.”
“What’s the plan then?” Neuma asked, giving up her tactics of trying to dissuade him.
“I don’t know yet, but I’ll come up with something,” The Admiral replied while the burning in his lungs could no longer be ignored.
“COUGH!” “COUGH!” “COUGH!” “COUGH!”
Oxygen flooded Euphretes’s lungs, sending them into a momentary frenzy until they were once again acclimated to their environment. In between the violent gasping, he could hear Chief Browder’s voice. “Sir? Sir? Are you okay? Can you hear me?”
With Euphretes’s Kit relaying the Admiral’s vital signs to Browder’s portable command console, the Chief cancelled the emergency distress signal he had just issued because Euphretes’s body was showing complete normalcy. Absolutely nothing was wrong with the person that had just died before his eyes.
“There ya go Sir, just cough it out.” The Chief advised while slapping him on the back.
Euphretes looked up at Browder and noticed the time, 0326:21 CT. “Well that was fun,” He remarked, drawing a confused look from the Warrant.
“What was fun?” Browder stopped pounding on the Admiral’s back and waited for him to catch his breath.
Before Euphretes could reply however, “Sir, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you were, what medical professionals call DEAD. You were dead, Sir, for a solid seven seconds. So let me ask again; are you sure you’re okay?” The uneasy Chief pressed, not wanting anything else to happen to the Armada Commander.
“I can assure you, Chief, I was not dead. I was, um, playing, so to speak; in the void,” Euphretes responded with sarcasm. “And that’s another thing. I guarantee it was much longer than a measly seven seconds. At any rate, I want to express how thankful I am for you and your team’s hard work. What you did was beyond what I thought feasible.”
Unconvinced, the Warrant looked at the Admiral and back down at his portable command console a few times before responding, “Sir, with respect, the Kit killed you and I’d like to give you back your old equipment if you’d allow me.”
“Are we safe to continue?” Euphretes asked Neuma.
“Yeah, that was my fault. I didn’t realize how far and fast I had gone until I felt you….” Neuma stopped, getting choked up. “When I felt your existence cease.”
“Nah Chief, that wasn’t the Kit’s fault, I promise. You did an outstanding job,” Euphretes reassured. Turning back to Neuma. “Well, it certainly didn’t cease to exist for me.”
Feeling a sudden shift in emotions from Neuma before her words reached his mind space, “Euphretes, the response team found our stowaway. They’re about to move in.”
“How do you know?” Euphretes asked out of curiosity, forgetting that his Kit freed Neuma from the confines of his body.
“Brace yourself,” Neuma warned before reaching out. “I know because I can see the response team moving to close off Steadfast and Loyal’s rear right blast quadrant; their weapons are chambered.” Once fully back into his mind space, sh
e sent the same images she was looking at through Euphretes’s eyes.
“Well that’s a cool trick.”
“Yeah, but it’s exhausting sifting through all of this raw scrambled data,” Neuma laughed. While she was serious about the statement, she was not discouraged about the armor’s abilities.
“Builds character.” Euphretes jokingly replied.
Chief Browder shook his head. “Sir, I’m not one to be nosey, especially with someone like you, but, shouldn’t you be more concerned about this? I mean, last time I checked, randomly dying isn’t exactly normal. You’re acting like this happens all the time.”
Euphretes couldn’t help but laugh, “No, it’s not normal. You’re just going to have to trust me on this one.”
“Again, all due respect Sir, but from the outside looking in, walking out still wearing that Kit is a really stupid thing to do. In fact, one could see it as suicide.”
Placing a reassuring hand on Chief Browder’s right shoulder, “Everyone already thinks we Royals are stupid anyway. This just confirms it!” Euphretes answered.
“Guess it does,” Browder replied, not even remotely convinced.
“Thanks Chief. Unfortunately, I have to get back to the Command Center. But I have another favor to ask.”
Browder almost turned around and walked away but decided otherwise, “Sir?”
“To help get my body used to this thing,” Euphretes began, pointing to his First Line Protective Suit, “I’d like to wear it under my duty uniform but obviously want to make sure if something happens again, my suit is transmitting some sort of signal to alert Medical.”
“I like where you’re going with this.”
“Not sure what you’re asking, Sir.”
“Sorry, that could’ve been explained better.”
Euphretes gathered his thoughts, trying to find a viable excuse to get a transmitter attached to his under suit. He wanted to add the advantage of Neuma’s freedom to their arsenal without needing to be in full battle rattle. “I was trying to ask if it’s possible that I could drop this sucker off with you during our jump to the Desert Regions. Specifically, so you can attach a much smaller transceiver to the First Line Protective Body Suit. You know, so I can wear it under my duty uniform to get used to its effects while giving you the peace of mind that if something ever happened, someone would be alerted immediately because of the transmitter.”
Having no idea of the intention behind Euphretes’s request, Browder responded, “Only if you promise that if that ever happens again, you’ll take it off and never put it back on.”
“Deal. There is one condition, however. This must stay strictly between us. Should anything happen to me while I’m in combat, it cannot be attributed to the armor without a thorough investigation.”
Rolling his eyes, as if to say, “Are you serious right now Sir?” The Chief reached out his hand, “Done.”
The men shook hands. “Thanks Chief, I owe you one.”
“You bet you do!” The Chief shouted, as Euphretes took off for the Command Center.
Stepping back onto the Secondary Passageway, Euphretes sealed his visor to conceal his face while covering his rank with his hand to prevent getting saluted by every soldier he passed.
“That doesn’t look weird at all,” Neuma joked, referring to his awkward gate.
“Hey now, it gets the job done. Speaking of, how’s the response team doing?” He asked, sending Neuma off to check on the progress with the stowaway. He could feel her stop and pause her search efforts momentarily before reaching even further into Steadfast and Loyal, this time stretching her partner and forcing him to focus intently on his field of vision to stay in the present.
Getting used to the feeling and better at reigning himself in with each trial, Euphretes brought his senses under control and waited patiently for Neuma. He could feel her beginning to return, and sensed her remorse. The Empirical Admiral braced for the worst.
“Euphretes, I have some bad news.”
“I knew it,” he said to himself. “He got away, didn’t he?”
“He?”
“Our little stowaway problem,” Euphretes immediately replied.
“I’m sorry. The response team is still getting in place, but they shouldn’t have any problems. I’m referring to the War.”
Neuma paused, thinking of the right words to say but forgetting that Euphretes could feel the stench of death all over her. “What happened Neuma?” His words were direct.
“The Esam Star System. It’s gone.”
Euphretes doubled over as bile pushed its way into his mouth, threatening to spew. “Wha. What do you mean, gone?”
Neuma waited for him to settle down before she continued. She decided the best approach was the brutal truth. “The Baikal Military found a weak spot in the right side of the Natron front and attacked it. Simultaneously, they sent a stolen Yare Frigate to a nearby security checkpoint. In all of the confusion taking place at the front, the Frigate slipped through and managed to enter a jump sequence before sounding any alarms.”
Euphretes was utterly dismayed by their continued stroke of bad luck. “Their border has been contested for the last twenty-one thousand years; you’d think they’d have things figured out by now,” Euphretes interrupted, not yet aware of the meaning behind Adoenye’s message about Lani.
“That’s the thing Euphretes. The report on why it was allowed through is filled with grey areas. It raises more questions than answers.”
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how they got in Neuma, but what they did,” Euphretes said. He was too afraid to ask about the specific Royal Family member who called Esam and its solar system home.
“I beg to differ, but in this instance, the Frigate went to Esam’s star and managed to remote detonate another Shadow Matter Bomb deep inside the star’s convection zone. Exactly what caused the star to collapse is still being reported as unknown, but it went supernova before eighty percent of the inhabitants could get out,” Neuma explained.
Euphretes reached the stairwell and collapsed onto the steps. He was remembering how Adoenye described it, her unfortunate fate. He also could sense that Neuma was struggling to find the right words, but he still needed to ask. “Did. Did. Did she?”
“She’s been officially missing since the day of the attack.” She didn’t bother to add that there were rumors of Lani being reported missing well before the attack. Neuma knew Euphretes would blame himself for her disappearance.
“Missing doesn’t mean gone Euphretes. In fact, the chances of her being alive are quite plausible considering that, as a Royal Family Member, protocol dictates she and her family would have been the first to be evacuated.” Neuma was doing her best to provide hope in what clearly seemed to be a hopeless situation. “So she’s gotta be in hiding Euphretes; and until we both see a body, she will remain alive!”
“I should’ve been there!”
“No! You were right where you were supposed to be. Besides, that decision wasn’t even made by you,” Neuma reminded him. She could see the fragile emotional state he was in and redirected the conversation. “Look, I don’t mean to change topics, especially one as sensitive as this, but if they haven’t caught the stowaway by now, they will shortly.”
“No, you’re right Neuma. I’ve told you that hope is what makes humans better than the machines that protect us. It’s time I swallow those words and live by them!” He stood up with a new sense of determination.
“We’ll find her Euphretes. We’ll find her or go down trying; I guess what I’m trying to say is…” Euphretes cut her off, her aura telling him more than her words ever could.
“I know you would Neuma,” He reassured. “And until then, there’s nothing we can do except keep fighting.” Euphretes took off for the primary passageway, changing topics on his way, “So, how do we avoid killing me again?”
“Well, for starters, I didn’t give you a warning when I decided to go turbo on you.”
“Yeah, t
hat would’ve been nice.”
“And until I get used to not dragging so much of you with me, our best bet is for you to use your eyes’s version of reality to keep your consciousness grounded.”
“You’re gonna have to dumb that one down for me,” Euphretes snickered.
“How do you not get what I’m talking about, Mr. Nerdy Pants? Find a stable, non-moving inanimate object whenever you feel yourself stretching, because that means your brain’s grip on reality is slipping. But it’s important that your object be stable and still because focusing on a moving object will be too taxing on your brain. The second your object disappears, moves, or does anything other than just sit there, you sound the alarm and I’ll come back.”
Euphretes could tell Neuma was done with the topic by the tone of her voice, so he turned to something harmless to talk about in order to provide them both some reprieve. “Nerdy pants? That’s a new one.”
“You like it? Thought it’d give it a whirl.”
“I do. But the pants part needs work; as does the nerdy part. Come to think of it, the whole thing needs to be revamped!”
“OK. That’s fine. I can rework that. But what about you? Remember when you used to put both index fingers on top of your head, stick out your chest and yell, ‘THROW UP?’ Do you remember that? It was ridiculous. Silliest thing I ever saw.”
“I was a toddler,” he said flatly. “And a damn cute one at that.”
Both of them laughed heartily as he turned onto Steadfast and Loyal’s primary passageway. The two spent the remainder of the short walk laughing and hurling fake insults like long lost friends reunited. The playful camaraderie re-energized Neuma and lessoned the pain for Euphretes.
CLICK. CLICK. SSSHHHRRRR.
Through the Abyss Page 29