Shadows of the Son

by E L Strife

  Bennett didn’t want to intervene, but watching the debris gravitate toward an invisible vessel made him reach an arm for Atana, ready to tug her aside. Whorls of teal exploded out of the airlock beside him, forcing Bennett back.

  Atana’s eyes blazed with unfettered fury like he’d never seen. She dipped and wove the convoluted beam through the wreckage of battle. The fingers of light penetrated the shredded metal of the disintegrating Kyra. Her cheeks darkened, blackened veins radiating out from her face. Strands of her mahogany hair drifted up from her slumped shoulders to dance in the heat of her storm. She tried to straighten her back only to curl forward again.

  “Atana?” Bennett called softly.

  Her eyelids drooped. Come to me.

  Bennett caught her as her knees gave, wondering where Azure had disappeared to. Her grasp on Cutter sputtered out, leaving his barely distinguishable body careening toward the ship.

  Hooking an arm around her back, Bennett held her upright.

  “Default—” she mumbled. “Shields still block debris. Must hold him.” Her head lulled back and against the shoulder of Bennett’s suit. Shields can merge like water drops. Need help. I need—

  “What can I do?” Bennett asked, hopelessly surveying the room. Azure’s glowing eyes appeared through the hazy cloud of her light. He looked pissed.

  Capacitive—She uttered through Ether.

  Azure’s voice boomed out from the shadows. “She means touch. You need to make contact with her skin for your sparks to join forces.” The man didn’t make a move to help.

  Bennett slapped his helmet open and bit a finger of a glove, tugging it free from his hand. Bracing the side of her face, he saw golden helixes coil down her arms, flowing out into space where they blended into green ropes around Cutter’s middle.

  He felt the energy drain from his body, his heart thumping fast and hard. The black veins crawling out over Atana’s cheeks slowed. She sank heavier into Bennett’s arms despite his assistance. Azure, she needs you. Please, help me. I am not enough.

  She doesn’t need me.

  A grunt of annoyance slipped Bennett’s lips before he could properly turn away. “For fuck’s sake, stop thinking about yourself for one moment, and do something because it’s the right thing to do, not because you’re going to get anything out of it. She never gives up. The least we can do is not give up on her!”

  The warrior’s towering silhouette appeared at her other side. Azure studied her for an impossibly-long second before hesitantly slipping a hand up the bottom edge of her jacket.

  Atana’s body quaked. The blackened spots on her cheeks stilled. A pulsing sapphire twist blended into the light rope wrapped around Cutter’s middle. Her eyes opened to a faded blue, black lines snaked over her cornea.

  Ripples bloomed red as chunks of the broken ship pelted the Kyra’s perimeter. In the distance, Kyra Three swelled like a neutron star pending detonation. Cutter passed through the shield.

  Catch, Atana whispered. A trail of blood left her nose. Atana’s eyes rolled back in her head.

  Cutter’s limp body flew through the door.

  Bennett and Azure’s shields compensated for hers as Cutter’s momentum launched their group backward, into the airlock. Clambering up, Bennett slapped the airlock button, and the door closed, sealing them off from space.

  Cutter lay piled up beside Atana, his clothes charred and smoking. White-hot ash freckled his skin. Several burns and cuts marred his face and body.

  Bennett hurried to Cutter, patting out the cinders on his uniform. “Steven, you kicked ass, buddy.”

  Cutter moaned, reaching for Bennett’s arm.

  Taking his hand, Bennett held it firm, hoping to be reassuring. But it felt more like he was clinging to Cutter than the man was to him. Bennett peered out at the shockwave of carmine light silently tearing out from Kyra Three’s position. They had seconds left. “She’ll be proud of you.”

  Azure cried out as he clutched Atana’s unconscious form. His eyes screwed shut as sobs rocked his shoulders. He wove his fingers through her hair and rested his forehead to hers, undoubtedly diving into Ether to try and save her, even as they all prepared to die. I’m sorry, Sahara. Please, forgive me. Don’t go. I’m not ready.

  Kyra Two’s shield blazed to life as Kyra Three bubbled with explosions, threatening ultimate detonation. And just as the light swelled, it withdrew, imploding upon itself until nothing remained except a cloud of black dust blotting out the stars.

  “What the—” Bennett rocked with exhausted laugher. Of the crew in the airlock, he was the only one awake, leaving no one to question his sanity after such an outburst.

  He squeezed Cutter’s hand from excitement and called Lavrion over his wristband. “Your sister and Cutter need immediate assistance. Can you track our position?”

  “A-firm. On my way.”

  While he waited, Bennett studied the black cloud outside. Silvery glints among the stars rotated in concert, disappearing in rows until nothing visible remained but a faint distortion.

  Bennett’s delight was crushed as tails of white lit up the night, leaving only trails of embers. M45s. Primveran ships. Linoan fighters. Collectors. Kyra Two’s shield pimpled and warped from the barrage. No one was spared. Whoever these kiatna were, they had no investment in this battle but to see it’s players wiped from the universe.

  Tremulous alarm had Bennett bolting to his feet.

  Glints of reflected light from explosions were the only indication of the mysterious vessel’s whereabouts. The attacks came from all over.

  Invisible bullets from a ghost ship. Bennett watched in horror as everything that moved was brought to its knees and beheaded. Burning ships crashed into one another. Collectors with pods racing for Agutra vanished in a single white slash.

  “Who would want us all dead?” Lavrion frantically asked, dropping to Cutter’s side and resting a shaky hand to the shepherd’s chest. His black fatigues were caked in dried blood, his face bruised, a split draining above an eyebrow. He smelled of vomit and antiseptic.

  “I don’t know.” Seeing Azure still lying over Atana, linked in Ether judging by the blue light radiating softly through their eyelids, Bennett realized he was the last leader left, and the only one who had a possible explanation. Based on dreams, he reminded himself. Dreams that always come true.

  “Shields at forty-seven percent,” Yari shouted through Lavrion’s fractured wristband. “Where is Sergeant Atana? We need her on the bridge!”

  It’s easier if I don’t fight it. Bennett chewed a lip and accepted his insanity. He stepped over Cutter’s flaccid body then charged toward the hall.

  “Where are you going?” Lavrion desperately called after him.

  “First, to the bridge to coordinate this ship’s safety.” Bennett glanced reassuringly at the young man. Giving one last look out the window at the utter annihilation, he added, “Then I’m going to do something really stupid.”

  Chapter 56

  BENNETT DIDN’T WASTE TIME relaying messages to Agutra and the others. He knew it was pointless to analyze the tactics of an invisible enemy this early in the game. He left Nephma, Terson, and Yari in charge, then hustled for the closest launch bay with Jecarne at his heels.

  “Do you have a plan?” Jecarne asked.

  “Nope,” Bennett admitted, tapping the button on his neck to close his helmet. It whirred as it rounded his head and snapped in place.

  “Just to literally light your ass on fire—” Jecarne mused with an air of disbelief.

  Bennett shrugged. “Basically.”

  Jecarne let out a sharp sigh. “One life for the many.”

  Stopping in the archway to the main hangar, Bennett looked him in the eyes. “I’m not being dramatic. I don’t want to try this.”

  Pulling free the buckle on his chest, Jecarne handed Bennett his pair of swords. “If you make it, you’ll need more than a knife.”

  Dropping his guns on the ground, Bennett accepted the gift with a nod.
Slinging the straps over his shoulders, he quickly added, “Just promise me you won’t hesitate when I give the command.”

  Jecarne ran a hand through his brown hair in exasperation. “I won’t. But you’ll burn up before you get there, whether from this ship’s plasma or theirs,” he said, gesturing toward the second bay door. “The last fighter onboard is in there.”

  The notion of ejecting himself from a thruster was an unnerving one, something Bennett desperately tried to keep himself from overthinking. “I’m just playing the card the universe dealt me. If they want me to die, I will. But I’m going to try. I have to.”

  Jecarne licked his cracked lips and nodded. The man was covered in grease smudges as if he’d been crawling through maintenance shafts for several days. “I still think you’re crazy.”

  “What does that say about you? You’re helping me,” Bennett teased, jogging through the bay doors.

  Jecarne snorted then threw Bennett a grin. “Touché.”

  “You’re certain the shield won’t stop me when I’m leaving?” Bennett asked, glancing back as he grabbed the lip of a rear propulsion nozzle.

  “Yep.” Jecarne hiked up the rear ramp of the ship and slid into the pilot’s seat. “Mostly.”

  Bennett hauled himself into the nozzle of a thruster. “Com check.”

  “Loud and clear, you insane man. Kicking on in five, four—” Jecarne’s voice sounded hollow as a fresh casket inside Bennett’s helmet, but it was still a comfort to have someone to talk to.

  The doors opened to space in front of Bennett, exposing a torrent of destruction.

  He acknowledged his skills only manifested from extrinsic stimulation and weren’t something he could regularly conjure at will, unlike Atana. He prayed instinct would be enough.

  Beneath his feet, propulsion plasma ignited. Bennett’s shield lifted, holding tight against his body. Heat crawled up through his bobbing boots, the ropes of his suit tying him in place. Bennett gripped the metal lip of the thruster, steadying himself in the booming torrent.

  Slowly, Jecarne backed them out of the bay. The plasma brightened beneath Bennett as the collector rotated into position above Kyra Two’s hulking mass. Bennett had a head-on view of the assault. The mysterious source was still cloaked.

  “You alive back there?” Jecarne asked with little inflection like he was having a conversation with himself.

  Bennett studied the pattern of the individual munitions, searching for a hole. “Yes.”

  Jecarne failed to hide the surprise in his voice. “How?”

  “Because I was born to burn.” Bennett saw his opening. “Punch it!”

  “Nice workin’ with ya,” Jecarne smarted.

  Plasma burst in thundering, red-hot pulses, snapping the ropes of Bennett’s suit and launching him like a blazing gold rocket into the void. The wall of Kyra Two’s shield approached fast, and he closed his eyes.

  Shields can merge like water— He clung to Atana’s words and prayed she was okay.

  A red bar of light zipped over his vision, and he looked up to find himself on the other side. “Yes!”

  Silver-white orbs appeared ahead of him, growing in size. Bennett tucked his arms over his head and tensed for impact. “Shit!”

  Waves of disorienting heat and needles of bloodloss coursed through his body. White light painted his vision with blinding intensity. Each hit crackled and thumped against his armor. And then it was gone.

  Bennett inspected himself. His shield was intact, as were his limbs. White streaks grew in numbers, concentrating on his position. Beyond his boots, he watched them eat away at Kyra Two’s shield.

  Another impacted Bennett. A punch of heat. Blood stopping before remembering its place. Breath knocked out. Gasping for air. Pain in every limb, his brain, his heart. Over and over.

  Sweat dripped down Bennett’s face, blurring his vision. He squeezed his eyes shut to free them of the burning salt. He couldn’t reach inside his helmet, not now. Bennett listened to his breaths, counting them, trying to keep them steady. The backs of his eyelids lit with vibrant white and yellow and red.

  A few rockets missed then stopped altogether. Bennett squinted ahead.

  An opalescent curtain of black swept past. Bennett found himself staring up at the ship from his nightmares: like broken shards of dark mirrors. Stripes painted it’s sides as if it had flown through another ship and the crew’s blood was the prize. Jecarne was right. This is suicide! What was I thinking?

  Not thinking. Listening. Bennett focused on his anger: seeing Atana unconscious, the broken half of Agutra spilling bodies into space, the infuriating number of codes on his FMC list. Bennett gritted his teeth. You want to burn so bad, then burn!

  His body kindled alight, fire growing with his rage. Bennett saw his reflection in the many facets of the nearing ship—a golden, incalescent asteroid. Bennett didn’t care to look up and see if the man who watched him in the dream watched him now. He was going to kill him anyway.

  A warcry rattled Bennett’s throat as he tucked himself into a knot, his face screwing up in anticipation of the impact.

  The sheer force of the collision knocked his mind into darkness.

  …

  An undetermined time later, Bennett felt soft thumps against his limbs, his back, everywhere. They grew in intensity until the pangs struck his mind from its slumber. His eyes fluttered open to muted, spinning colors. Through metal and light and metal and dark. He choked in what breaths he could. His shield flickered, straining to hold his body together.

  The pelting stopped. Bennett stole a breath and found himself sailing across a cavern between rows of translucent black and white columns. He slammed into a wall and felt synthetic gravity take ahold. One breath. Two. Three—

  The landing knocked out his shield and the little air he’d managed to capture.

  Bennett lay on his back, staring up at a metal ceiling. Blinking hard, he brought the distant panels into focus and the wall he’d torn open. Cables swung free. Hoses vented in white streams.

  Every moment he wasted collecting himself was one more the enemy had to kill his friends.

  I need to get up.

  Rolling onto a side, Bennett noted the room looked oddly familiar, like something he’d seen on Semilath. Bennett clumsily freed himself from the frayed wiring. Broken glass, heavy gray powder, and metal fragments poured from his armor in rivers as he staggered to his feet.

  Bennett intentionally hyperventilated himself, and it helped clear his vision. His shield sputtered but refused to manifest. He reached over his head and grabbed the handles of Jecarne’s swords, freeing them from their scabbards. Nephma had also given him her knife—a stout thing “for gutting wild animals,” she’d said.

  Bennett had left explosive weapons behind for the same reason Dequan’s Shield Team collectors didn’t get munitions. Too much heat increased the likelihood of combustion.

  Ignoring the tremble in his muscles and the churning of his stomach, Bennett shuffled into the center of the expanse, expecting confrontation. It was empty and undisturbed except for the gaping hole his body had bored through it. He could almost distinguish the stars outside.

  He straightened stiff his back, felt it pop, and then turned to the door he’d spotted at the forward end of the colonnade. Marching toward it, he struggled to keep his concerns silent. There was no way out this far in. Every hair suddenly stood on end, and Bennett stopped on the steps before the door. He peeked over his shoulder.

  White rings of electricity buzzed to life, zipping down every pillar. Faster and faster, they hummed, sending crags of lightning arcing out. The arcs grew and coalesced into a giant ball in the middle of the room.

  “Oh, that’s not good!” Bennett stumbled up the last steps. Silver doors—a nouveau blend of glass and metal—irised open at his presence. He bolted through the rush of wind into an airlock. The doors closed. Hearing a fizz followed by a chain of booms, Bennett peered back through the glass.

  The room burst with
white light.

  An indicator—he correlated with a breathable environment—blinked on his display. Bennett opened his helmet and drank in the stale sweetness of air. Finally, rubbing the salt from his eyes with the back of a hand, he tried to come up with a plan. Ahead of him, the door opened to the pressurized section of the ship.

  All right, no plan. That’s cool.

  He peered out, watching a pair of humanoid shapes in white coats disappear around a distant bend in the hall. Bennett hustled onward as quietly as he could, pulling Atana’s Agutra plan into mind. Find a link to the network. Study schematics. Find a weakness.

  Weaving through the wide halls, Bennett searched for something resembling a computer. He found laboratories and column-shaped tanks filled with blue and red solutions. Life forms dressed in white bustled about exam tables with trays, Petrie dishes, and microscopes as if they were unaware of the battle raging outside.

  What is a research vessel doing getting involved in our war? A prickle in his spine made Bennett duck. Bullets whizzed by his head and pelted the wall ahead of him, trailing cobalt smoke. His shield lifted as he ran. He chuckled to himself out of nervousness. Took them long enough.

  Barging into the closest pair of doors was a mistake, but one he couldn’t undo. Every member in the room stood from their suspended, liquid-mirror screens and drew weapons on him. Dressed in armor similar to his, skin a pale marble white, they looked like Suanoa with one exception—one Bennett wished he could unsee.

  They shared the same eyes, but the colors weren’t black and red. And it wasn’t made of just any shade of blue.

  Bennett backed out in a rush. The shots felt like being hit with hot sandbags. It made him stumble and ricochet down the corridor. His body was too beaten to keep pace with his frantic heart.

  The Suanoan look-alikes poured out from everywhere, darting after him. Bennett regretted his impulse. Should’ve rested. Should’ve played it smart. Hid then hunted later.