Dark Metamorphosis

by John Coon

  She despised him for what he had done and continued to do. Delcor was no exemplar of heroic virtue. All those stories detailing his courageous and wise leadership during the Separatist War, and since that time, rang false now. Each one no more than a twisted fable, dreamt up to obscure Ra’ahm’s real history.

  Noisy persistent beeps echoed from her bedroom. Calandra turned and stared at the open doorway. Her arca vox was the source. Multiple people tried to contact her over the last two days. Calandra never bothered to return contact or give her arca vox a second glance. Why involve them in her life at this point? They would only end up dead or missing in the end, like everyone else who mattered to her.

  You can’t shut the rest of the world out forever. Stand and fight. Hope has not fled.

  Those words surged into her mind and burned inside her heart. Calandra drew in a sharp breath and rose to her feet. She steadied herself against the washbasin and brushed back her auburn hair.

  “I need to stand against him. I can’t let him threaten me into permanent silence.”

  Calandra whispered her vow as she wiped away tears. It fell on her shoulders to become an agent of change. For Xttra’s sake. For Alayna’s sake. Her grandfather lacked the courage to do the right thing. Calandra refused to let herself travel down a similar path.

  Kevin was right. Her life had changed forever.

  This fight belonged to her now.

  The beeps ceased. Calandra smoothed out her long-sleeved shirt and walked straight into the bedroom to retrieve her arca vox. An urgent message flashed across the holoscreen when she activated the device.

  It came from Bo’un.

  “Where are you? What happened to you?” Fear and urgency spread through his voice. “I’ve been trying to reach you for two days. I don’t know if you’re dead or alive. If you can hear this, Calandra, please contact me.”

  She bowed her head after the message finished. Calandra’s decision to shut herself off from the rest of the world for two whole days created some unintended repercussions. Bo’un had no way of knowing if she was still alive. The last time they spoke, she was fleeing a would-be assassin. She said nothing to him since that time. Nothing to her parents or siblings either.

  Guilt splashed over Calandra like a spray from a waterfall. How many people who cared about her were worried sick right now?

  Calandra did not waste another second. She punched in the code for Bo’un’s arca vox. Relief spread through her like a web when his image popped up on the holoscreen only a few seconds later.

  “Calandra?”

  Shock tinged his voice. Bo’un sank down into a chair behind him. He pressed his hand over his mouth.

  “Apologies. I should have tried to contact you sooner.” She cast her eyes at the ground for a moment and back up at him. “I’ve endured a few rough days.”

  Bo’un dropped his hand again and flashed a relieved smile at her.

  “Praise Ahm—you’re alive. I feared the worst when I didn’t hear from you.”

  His smile disappeared as his eyes settled on her tear-stained cheeks and stoic frown.

  “What happened?”

  “Alayna is dead.”

  “Your friend?”

  Calandra nodded.

  “Someone murdered her. I found her dead body. They tried to … frame me … for …”

  Her lips quivered and tears flowed freely again. Bo’un rubbed the jagged scars on his jaw and neck. Concern filled his gray eyes as he pressed his lips together. He was at a loss for words.

  She brushed away fresh tears with her right hand. Calandra swallowed away the lump forming in her throat and drew in a heavy breath.

  “Why do these terrible things keep happening to us?” she asked. “What did we do to deserve it?”

  A resolute frown deepened on his face.

  “Nothing,” Bo’un said. “We did nothing to deserve these things. Sometimes, people do evil things and innocents suffer the consequences. That’s what makes them evil.”

  Calandra cast her eyes down at the floor. She knew what she needed to say. Dread clawed at her and ordered her to stay quiet for her own good. But she had to quash that feeling. Fear could not rule her any longer.

  Someone else needed to know. Bo’un could help her expose the chief sovereign’s deeds and shine a light on his true nature.

  “He threatened my life, Bo’un.”

  “Who? Talan?”

  “The chief sovereign.”

  Silence greeted her revelation. Calandra returned her gaze to the holoscreen. Bo’un’s mouth hung partially open, and he stared unblinking at her. A numb shock threaded itself through his face.

  “His hand guided everything that’s unfolded,” she said. “He gave my grandfather a choice of exile or death when he uncovered the sovereign’s past crimes. Alayna and I uncovered the same crimes. He pressured me to stay silent in exchange for my life.”

  Bo’un stroked his chin, sinking into deep thought as Calandra recounted her encounter with Delcor in the holding cell. Her words rattled him. His worried eyes and intensifying frown told Calandra as much.

  “Ominade was right,” she said. “He intends to destroy everyone who survived our expedition to Earth. We can’t let his plan succeed.”

  Bo’un answered her with a slow nod.

  “That explains a few things on my end.”

  Calandra shot him a questioning look.

  “What things?”

  “Stellar Guard leadership pushed me to end my search for Xttra.”

  “What? They can’t do that.”

  “One year has passed since his abduction. They want to declare him dead and close the case.”

  Anger surged inside Calandra and a fire filled her eyes. Stellar Guard leaders wanted to bury their collective heads under the sand and ignore what stared them in the face. Calling off the search for Xttra and pretending he was dead meant no one had to face uncomfortable realities about their chief sovereign.

  “We can’t let them get away with this.”

  Bo’un glanced off-screen and closed his eyes. He grimaced. Calandra realized he held back from fully sharing what occupied his mind.

  “What are you not telling me? Did something else happen, Bo’un?”

  He faced her again and opened his eyes.

  “This is the end. I resigned from the Stellar Guard. I could not accept their decision. I can’t abandon Xttra like that. Not after everything we all endured together.”

  Calandra sank down on her bed. She stared into space, at a total loss for words. The Stellar Guard had abandoned Xttra to his fate. They were on their own in finding him and bringing him home.

  If he was still alive.

  “Any word from Ominade?”

  Bo’un’s question triggered renewed anger. The Stellar Guard was not alone in abandoning them in this dark hour. Several days passed without a single word from Ominade or Kevin. He promised to put Calandra in contact with an underground refugee network that would help her flee Ra’ahm. His promise had gone unfulfilled. She pressed the Aracian letter on her contact block at random times since their meeting. Still, Kevin never appeared later. Neither did Ominade or another agent working for her.

  The worst part is she did not know why. Did their silence mean something sinister also happened to them? Did they share Alayna’s fate?

  “I reached out to her many times.” A fierce anger boiling inside Calandra swam among her words. “No luck. She has vanished as quickly as she appeared.”

  “Maybe it’s time we paid the fake diviner another visit,” Bo’un said. “Ominade led us down this path. The least she can do is travel the same path with us.”

  Calandra agreed wholeheartedly with that sentiment. They faced real jeopardy, in part, because of Ominade. If she and her agents were unwilling to act, they needed to find a way to shake them out
of their complacency.

  ***

  Raindrops pelted the aerorover’s outer shell as Bo’un guided it toward a landing spot along a street around the corner from Ominade’s shop. A fierce storm sent patrons and merchants scrambling from street markets as they sought shelter from the downpour. Calandra’s eyes darted from one end of the street to the other as the aerorover descended. She wondered if Zatoriah or Talan tracked them from an unseen spot, waiting for the right moment to strike. Hidden eyes and ears could be lurking anywhere. Watching and listening.

  Bo’un cast his eyes skyward once magnetic wheels touched stone pavement covering the street.

  “I wish rainstorms turned on and off as easy as a holocaster,” he said. “These are awful flying conditions.”

  “I know what you mean,” Calandra said. “But we can’t afford to wait around and do nothing.”

  Bo’un shut down the aerorover engine. They flung open their respective doors, shut both again quickly, and dashed down the street. Calandra shielded her eyes with her artificial arm as they rounded the corner. Water ran down her forearm and drizzled off her elbow. Raindrops also soaked Calandra’s auburn hair and trailed down her forehead and cheeks. Her feet splashed through one growing puddle after another, shooting out splashes of water from each puddle.

  Calandra glanced up at the square sign displaying the diviner’s symbol and rushed toward the main door. It slid open with a metallic whoosh. Chimes rang out when she entered the shop, and again when Bo’un followed on her heels a second later. Calandra blinked away remnants of raindrops and brushed back wet strands of hair.

  She cast her eyes around the shop. Her limbs tensed up and her spine tightened.

  Empty space greeted her eyes.

  Pendants. Trinkets. Rings. All vanished. A few empty shelves, a counter, and rotating poles which held the aforementioned items only inhabited the shop now. No other visible evidence remained to show Ominade ever occupied this place.

  “Where did she go?”

  Fear filled Bo’un’s eyes and crept into his voice. Calandra sensed an identical fear sprouting inside her chest and extending roots through her limbs. Did the chief sovereign’s agents finally track down Ominade? Did she and Bo’un inadvertently lead them here on their earlier trip to meet with her?

  “This feels like a trap.”

  Calandra’s quiet words were not quiet enough for her comfort. Even a whisper made a pointed echo in this empty shell of a room. She cast her eyes toward the stairs leading to Ominade’s underground chamber. The metal chamber door had been sealed.

  “I wonder if she concealed herself in her chamber.” Calandra glanced over her shoulder at Bo’un. “Remember how Ominade told us magnetic door locks made it tough for unwanted visitors to go down there?”

  Bo’un frowned.

  “If those locks are active, we’re not getting inside that chamber either.”

  She turned back and stared at the sealed door. Calandra tiptoed forward and waved her hand before the door, hoping to trigger a hidden sensor that would release the magnetic locks. The door did not budge, and she heard no noises to suggest a sensor activated.

  “What do you think we should do?”

  Calandra wheeled around and faced Bo’un again. An obvious answer to his question did not pop into her mind. If only they could break through the door, it might illuminate what transpired here.

  “I don’t suppose you have a cutter strong enough to punch a hole through this metal?” she asked. “It might be our only option at this point.”

  Bo’un stiffened. His hand dropped to a holster on his right hip. He drew out his eliminator. Calandra’s eyes widened when she laid eyes on the weapon.

  “What are you—”

  Bo’un pressed his left index finger to his lips. Then he pointed at the ceiling. She nodded and swallowed hard. Her heart pounded against her ribs. Calandra dared not gaze up into the rafters to search out what he had seen. It already dawned on her what she would find. Someone else had hidden themselves inside the shop, spying on them from above.

  She closed her eyes and tried to slow her intensifying breathing to a normal rate. When Calandra opened her eyes again, Bo’un had drawn out a thermal tracker from a pouch on his belt. The screen lit up. Several heat patterns materialized on the screen inside and outside the shop. He touched the screen and reduced the tracker range to only the shop itself. One red blob after another faded away until only four heat patterns showed on the screen.

  Two were in the rafters directly above their heads.

  Both resembled humanoid lifeforms.

  Terror crawled up Calandra’s spine. She dared not move a single step in any direction. What they found on the tracker screen only confirmed a lingering fear.

  She and Bo’un were not alone inside the empty shop.

  32

  Bo’un refused to take his eyes off the ceiling. He extended his arm and handed the tracker off to Calandra. She tucked it in the palm of her metal hand. He raised his eliminator to eye level. Calandra finally forced herself to cast her eyes skyward. She needed to see who hid above the shop floor for herself, no matter how much that knowledge frightened her.

  Her eyes traced a maze of long wooden rafters and hanging lights running along the ceiling. Mirror shades covered each light to boost illumination along the floor, leaving shadowy places in the rafters. It offered a perfect spot to spy on someone below while staying hidden to the naked eye. Calandra had excellent vision, but even her eyes played tricks on her in the shadows. No clues tipped her off to the lurkers’ locations.

  A laser bolt discharged from a spot above her head.

  Calandra threw up an arm to shield herself and ducked down. Bo’un exhaled loudly. She snapped her head in his direction. He stumbled back a couple of steps. The bolt punched a hole through the right shoulder of his uniform, leaving singed and torn fabric in its wake.

  His flex armor remained intact underneath.

  Bo’un fired a bolt from his eliminator into the rafters. Splinters shot out from the blast point.

  Calandra sprinted toward the counter. More bolts rained down from the ceiling. Splinters and wood chunks flew upward from impact points around her. Smoldering holes peppered the floor now. She dove behind the counter and pressed her back tight against it.

  At once, a brilliant bluish white flash lit up the room behind her. Calandra saw the stun pebble’s light bursting forth in her peripheral vision and quickly pinched her eyelids shut to avoid suffering accidental blindness. Screams from the rafters greeted her ears. A thud on the floor followed.

  “I got one,” Bo’un whispered.

  Calandra’s eyes popped open again. She peeked around the corner of the counter. Bo’un crouched under a pock-marked table. A dark-haired man lay motionless on the floor, his mouth partially agape.

  “Is he—”

  “Dead? Without a doubt. Broken neck.”

  She grimaced and averted her eyes from the body. It was not Talan. Calandra did not recognize the dead man. Kevin once informed her the chief sovereign used an extensive network of agents for carrying out his secret orders throughout Ra’ahm and the rest of Lathos. It meant a random attack on her could occur at any time or in any place.

  That thought terrified her to the core. How could she ever sleep again?

  “We need to get back to your aerorover,” Calandra said. “I don’t like our odds of survival staying in here.”

  “That’s only one,” Bo’un replied. “Where’s the other one we detected on the tracker?”

  She poked her head around the counter again. Bo’un’s eyes still followed rafter beams and hanging lights. A fresh hole over his ribs adorned his shirt. His flex armor remained intact and kept the eliminator bolt from piercing flesh and bone. Still, their good fortune would fade away if they did not conceal themselves. Calandra did not have the security of wearing he
r own flex armor. The protective fabric was reserved alone for use by Stellar Guard officers and city guards. Taking a direct hit from an eliminator, like Bo’un had suffered twice now, would end her life.

  He shot a questioning glance at her. Calandra remembered the thermal tracker was still in her metal hand. Her eyes dropped to the screen. One other heat pattern still lingered. The unseen person moved silently toward her until they were almost on top of Calandra.

  She gulped and pointed directly above her head. Bo’un nodded and swung his eliminator upward. He angled the barrel at a narrow rafter beam running above her head and discharged two bolts from the eliminator. A pained groan followed.

  Their would-be assassin, a woman wearing traditional silver Orontallan half-braids, staggered into the light and fell forward off the beam. She landed face-first on the counter with a crunch. Her left arm flopped down against the counter in front of Calandra. Blood dripped off the woman’s fingertips and splashed on the floor. Her lifeless face possessed an eerie calm, her eyes unblinking. Calandra gasped and pressed a hand against her mouth to stifle a scream.

  “That takes care of the immediate threat,” Bo’un said. “Now we only need to worry about escaping from Luma unharmed.”

  Calandra stiffened and answered him with an unblinking stare.

  “How are we going to do that?”

  Bo’un gazed at his eliminator and shrugged.

  “We’ll scale that cliff when we reach the mountain.”

  He did not inspire confidence. They dispatched two assassins who let their guard down while not expecting detection or resistance. Calandra held no illusions of a similar favorable scenario repeating itself if they crossed paths with more agents loyal to the chief sovereign along their escape route.

  “Where are we going to go?”

  “First stop is your apartment. Grab what we need to survive. From there, we’ll take my aerorover into the Aurora Mountains and escape across the border into Daraconiah. We should be safe there. For the moment.”

  Bo’un’s thermal tracker dropped from Calandra’s hand and clattered against the floor. She buried her face in her hands and rubbed them down her cheeks.