Cries of the Wolf

by C. S. Harte

  “This can’t be possible. It’s defying gravity…” Thorne said.

  “Did I not mention this before?” Bast asked.

  “NO BAST!” Rayfin yelled. “You did not mention that the mysterious pyramid with the same exact dimension as another pyramid on Earth built over 5,000 years ago, was also floating above the ground. It’s something I would have remembered.”

  “My apologies.” He bowed his head. “Yes, it is floating exactly one meter off the ground.”

  Meomi entered the perimeter of the mysterious structure with her arms outstretched.

  Thorne tried to stop her. “Meomi, what are you doing? We should be more cautious!”

  “I feel… There’s a connection.” Her legs pushed forward without her control. “It’s pulling me closer.”

  “I’m starting to get another one of those bad feelings, Captain,” Rayfin said.

  “Meomi, stop. Don’t get closer!” Thorne yelled.

  “I don’t… I can’t.” She continued underneath the pyramid.

  Rayfin tried to follow her but was stopped by an invisible field. He pounded his fist against the barrier, trying to wake Meomi from her spell. “Captain! Captain, stop!”

  “Meomi! You need to turn around. We can’t reach you!” Thorne yelled over suit comm.

  “Fascinating,” Bast said.

  “There’s a hole… A cube-shaped cutout.” Meomi pointed up, standing directly underneath the base in the center of the pyramid. “My cube… It reappeared.”

  “So it was a key then?” Rayfin said. “This is freaking me out…”

  Thorne placed his hand on Rayfin’s shoulder. “I don’t know what will happen, Ensign. And that concerns me greatly.”

  “Truly fascinating,” Bast repeated.

  26

  Meomi pushed her cube into the slot underneath the floating pyramid. “It fits!” she yelled as she turned around looking for her squadmates only to find herself in a different world. “Not again…”

  The floating black pyramid disappeared from view. Tall jungle trees covered in vines replaced the rocky desert landscape. Blue skies with dual moons supplanted the orange heaven of Caelora. The air changed from hot and dry to warm and humid. The soft lapping of a stream carried into her ears.

  “Is this Dressa?” Her lips curled into a half smile. “Did we make it back?” She felt the breeze of the air on her face. Her Tempest suit was missing. “Something’s not right.” Meomi drew her eyebrows together. “Where is everyone?” She spun around, searching for her friends. “Rayfin! Thorne! Bast!”

  Silence was the only response.

  “I don’t understand…” She frowned. “Was I the only one to make it back?” Meomi walked toward the sound of the flowing water and squatted at the stream's edge. Her reflection stared back, a person with dirt and grime hiding her face with a tuft of matted black hair. Meomi cupped her hands together and drank voraciously from the stream. The water tasted fresh and cooled her body as it drained into her stomach.

  Her ears perked up when she heard a soft French melody floating from behind. Someone was singing in a low voice, someone female. Meomi jumped and dashed behind a tree. “That tune… No, not possible…” She peeked her head toward the singing. “Laurine?”

  The voice sounded both familiar and different to Meomi. The notes were lower, slower — distorted so she could not recognize. She felt a sense of sadness in the singer's voice. “Laurine?” Meomi called. “Is it really you? It’s Meomi….”

  A lump appeared in her throat, one she could not swallow. “I tried to find you, but I… couldn’t…” she whispered to herself. Meomi followed the sound of the music to its source. After a few minutes of walking, she noticed a woman’s torso in her peripheral vision — a woman wearing a Fleet Officer’s uniform. The rest of the body was obscured by trees and vines.

  “Laurine!” Meomi rushed to her old friend. “It has to be her…” Even from a distance, Meomi observed movement in Laurine’s chest, her bosom heaving up and down. “She’s breathing!” Meomi pushed her legs, fighting to run faster. “Laurine, I’m coming!” The words barely escaped her lungs as she struggled to maintain her breath.

  The singing suddenly stopped.

  Once she neared the body, Meomi was convinced of the woman’s identity — the bright, golden hair, the sharp nose, and tan complexion. “I knew it was you, Laurine. I had a feeling you weren’t dead…” Meomi skidded to a stop next to Laurine’s body. “If Rayfin and I survived the fall on Nocia, you must have too!” Her eyes narrowed. “Laurine?”

  A strong wind blew through the jungle.

  Laughter echoed from behind Meomi. She turned around for a split second before returning her attention to Laurine. “No…” Laurine’s body began losing color, fading to gray and then drying into ash. The stiff wind continued to blow, carrying with it Laurine’s remains.

  Anger surged in Meomi’s heart. Someone was playing games with her, toying with her emotions. She released a guttural roar and screamed, “Who do you think you are?” She exploded again with her muscles and veins straining against her skin. “What do you want from me?”

  Laughter snuck in behind her.

  Meomi closed her hands into fists as she pivoted around. “I swear… If you don’t show yourself…”

  A flash of light appeared to Meomi’s side. Standing next to her was a teenage boy. His skin glowed with an intense white light, masking all of his features save for his eyes and mouth.

  By instinct, Meomi reached for her weapon around her thigh before remembering she no longer had on her Tempest suit. “Who are you?” she asked with a tense posture. Both hands were coiled and ready to strike. “Are you an Aorgar? Where are we? Why have you brought me here? Where are my friends?” she asked in rapid-fire secession.

  The boy ignored her flood of questions. He leaned forward and tilted his head to the side without speaking.

  “I don’t have time for this.” Meomi let out an exasperated sigh. “Just get me back to my squad, whoever you are.”

  “Perhaps, I can answer some of your questions,” said a familiar voice from behind.

  “Inoke?” Meomi’s eyes opened wide. She slowly turned around to see Inoke’s rainbow eyes and light gray hair. It was him, down to his slim fingers and high-pitched voice. “But I saw you… I saw…”

  “Inoke did perish on Caelora. I apologize for opening what is probably a fresh wound,” said the stranger in Inoke’s body. “I am only using his corporeal form because of your history with him.”

  “I… I don’t know what is going on...” Meomi stuttered her words.

  “Life and death, beginning and end, light and darkness — these are dynamic states. As you have already learned, the universe exists in layers — one on top of another — so does the shades of being.” He snapped his fingers. The jungle scenery instantly disappeared from view, leaving only Meomi and himself against a stark, white backdrop.

  Meomi’s knees went weak as the ground disappeared from underneath her. After taking a moment to settle herself, she asked, “Who are you? What are you?”

  “You have many questions, understandably so. Before I can answer them, I have one question for you, Little Wolf.”

  “Little Wolf?” No one had called Meomi that since her rookie marine days with Wolf Company. The name didn’t bother her so much as it confused her. “Whatever. What’s your question?”

  Inoke waved his hand. Ribbons of every color swirled around them, surrounding them in a prismatic vortex. As the spinning stopped, the colors congealed into a new island setting, with lush green atolls, crystal blue waters, and a cloudless, blue sky extending well past the horizon. Dozens of vibrant scarlet songbirds nested in the tree next to Meomi, warbling softly as if they were a choir singing a hymn. Bundles of lavender, cerulean, and pink blooming flowers hung in a lattice-like arrangement on the rock wall closest to her.

  “What is this place?” Meomi rubbed her eyes.

  “Tranquility. A world hidden from Mimics an
d their kind.” Inoke smiled.

  “And you brought me here because?”

  “I’m offering you a choice.” His eyes flashed white before changing blue. “A chance to save yourself. It is all but determined humanity will lose its struggle to the Mimic scourge. Billions of lives will be lost through no fault of their own.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Meomi said through gritted teeth. “I refuse to believe you. You have no idea what humans are capable of and how resilient we are.” Rage slowly pushed out the confusion in her mind.

  “Belief has no foundation in reality.” Inoke shrugged. “The simple truth is that humans have reached the apex of its cycle.”

  “Cycle?” Meomi raised her eyebrows. “Cycle of what?”

  “Of existence, Little Wolf.” He grinned. “With a snap of my fingers, I can ensure for the rest of your natural life, you, and all those you hold dear, can live in peaceful contentment where you will want for nothing. Say the words and I will make it happen.”

  Meomi’s mouth slacked open.

  “Or do you seek misery and sorrow, death and destruction, so that on the slimmest margins of hope, you may save a tiny, minuscule, insignificant portion of humanity?” Inoke squeezed his thumb and index finger together as he talked.

  “I…” Meomi looked directly into Inoke’s eyes and held her stare. “There is no choice here. I am one of the few people in my universe aware of the treasonous plot against my kind. I will not live the rest of my life a coward and traitor at the cost of my civilization no matter how great the comfort offered. I hope I made myself clear enough.”

  Inoke’s smile curled further up as Meomi talked.

  “Now, if you could stop wasting my time.” Her nostrils flared. “Help me return to my universe or send me back to my squad. Right now you’re really pissing me off.”

  “I was wondering if your self-pity drained your will to fight.” Inoke grinned and snapped his fingers.

  The scenic island backdrop faded to black. One by one, ancient wax candles lit, each adding light to the illumination of a new environment.

  As Meomi’s eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, tiny details began revealing themselves. She found herself inside an old church. Shadowy figures hid their faces far from Meomi where the candlelight could not reach but close enough for her to see their menacing outlines. “Who’s there?" She stomped her foot. "Where are we now?”

  “Do you not recognize this church?” Inoke laughed.

  Her eyes widened. “We’re on Gosi Prime?”

  “Indeed, we are.” His eyes swirled and changed green.

  “Why have you brought me here?” Her face flushed with anger.

  The shadowy figures entered the light.

  “Mimics…” Meomi instinctively took a step back.

  Hundreds of reapers surrounded Meomi, leaving her no avenue of escape.

  “Because this is where you died.” Inoke laughed again. His sinister voice reverberated throughout the church.

  27

  Meomi squeezed her eyes shut and silently counted to ten. Her heart pounded through her chest, her hands refused to hold steady. Fear swelled inside her.

  A cacophony of clicks, coming from all around Meomi, drowned out the sound of her inner voice.

  “Reapers,” she mumbled to herself. Even with her Tempest suit and weapons, Meomi had no hope of surviving against the hundreds of horrors surrounding her.

  Reapers were the most prevalent Mimics seen during the invasion — foot soldiers of the Mimic invading force. These amorphous, jet-black, nightmarish creatures could change size, shape, and density at will. When ready to attack, reapers most closely resembled scorpions with six gangly limbs and a long, hooked tail with a stinger. Their mouths and eyes glowed like red embers when they locked in on their prey — the demonic visage that gave birth to their name.

  When her eyes opened again, Meomi stared down the reaper in front of her. Something seemed off. They had yet to attack. Her previous encounters with Mimics on Gosi Prime revealed these monsters to be predators incapable of holding back their murderous instincts.

  “Interesting creatures, are they not?” Inoke suddenly appeared next to Meomi. He approached the Mimic in front of her and gently grazed its head.

  All the Mimics lowered themselves to the ground. The ember glow faded from their hungry faces, and the terrifying clicking ceased.

  Meomi’s mouth fell open. “Are you… What are you?”

  “I am merely an interested observer of events,” Inoke said. “You, Little Wolf, have been exceptionally fortunate in your story.” He snapped his fingers.

  In a flash, Meomi’s Fleet uniform disappeared, exposing her sandy skin and her scar-covered arms, leaving only her bra and underwear.

  “What?” Her face tightened. She raised her fist at Inoke and noticed strange tattoos on her arms she had never seen before — groups of concentric circles, interlaced with geometric shapes, connecting to other similar groupings in a network pattern. As Meomi scanned more of her body, the tattoos began to move, multiply, and spin. “What’s… What’s happening to me? What are these symbols?”

  “The dynamic language of the Aorgars — a wonderful and beautiful means of communication that can evolve and adapt on the fly. The Aorgars are the only species to use a mutating ideograph system for their written alphabet.” Inoke smiled.

  “OK…” Meomi clawed at her skin. “But why is it creeping all over my skin?”

  Inoke flicked his wrist.

  The world around them spiraled, blurring together. When the swirling stopped, the scene changed to the hidden Excog vault underneath the church.

  “As I said earlier, this is where you died.” Inoke held out his palm. On it, a shiny black object. “You so happened to be fortunate enough to die in the proximity of an Aorgarian resurrection cube.”

  “Resurrection cube?” Meomi jerked her head back. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

  “I suppose I should start at the beginning of this story.” Inoke’s eyes flashed a bright yellow. “Before humans became the dominant species of the Milky Way Galaxy, there was the First League, a collective of like-minded species.”

  “I know this already. They were attacked by Mimics.”

  “Well then… I’ll move the story along.” Inoke said with a pinched expression. “One of the member species of the First League was the Aorgars. They were, by far, the most technologically superior species in existence. To give you some perspective, the Katoks are tens of thousands of technological cycles ahead of humans. Aorgars were tens of thousands of cycles ahead of Katoks. To the Aorgars, the pursuit of knowledge was their religion. Scientific breakthroughs were glorified. Researchers were deified.”

  Meomi was only half-listening. She fought the urge to dig at her skin as she watched her tattoos evolve and shift, sliding endlessly along her body.

  “Little Wolf. You have been through much.” Inoke’s face shifted to a frown with his eyes turning a navy blue, the color of sorrow. “There was much hubris when the Mimics invaded the First League. Many had little doubt they would prevail against their aggressors. It was not until the First League suffered their first loss in battle — an event once thought impossible — did panic start to spread and hope began to fade. The fall of the empire was swift from there.”

  “Those who are not used to losing are not tempered against it,” Meomi said.

  “An astute observation, Little Wolf.” Inoke smiled. “There were still some species like the Nausi, the Drenni, and the Yuliths which continued to fight, committing more military strength and creating stronger weapons and superior ships, but the backbone of the First League had broken. Many members of the First League shifted the focus of their research from war to survival. The Aorgars took their focus to a heightened level. They were obsessed with the possibility of complete annihilation, which grew with every First League defeat.”

  “Not unlike what humans are facing now.” Meomi dropped her gaze.

  “The Aorgar
s approached the problem from a multitude of angles. Some worked on a means of escape, developing the technology to travel into pocket universes, which you have benefited from greatly.”

  Meomi bobbed her head in agreement.

  “Other Aorgarians researched inoculations against Mimic toxins to thwart their mind-controlling abilities. Some looked for ways to prevent the liquefaction of their bodies. Unfortunately, this path proved more harmful than helpful. The subsequent testing killed many Aorgarians.”

  “That… That sounds awful.” Meomi’s face turned ashen.

  “Truly dark times.” Inoke paused as if reflecting on a memory. “Aorgarians were panicked and scared. Every individual explored their own method at staving off the annihilation of their species — all of which were fascinating in their own right — but only one other pertains to you.”

  “The resurrection cube.”

  “Precisely!” Inoke clapped.

  “I was wondering when you would get to that.” Meomi narrowed her eyes.

  “As a final safeguard, the Aorgarians wanted a way to revive their dead. It was quite ingenious really.” Inoke smirked. “I won’t bore you with the meticulous details…”

  “No, please bore me,” Meomi said, beckoning with her hands. “I’m very much interested in how I came back to life.”

  “Well, a general overview then.” Inoke nodded. “When a sentient life form is in proximity to the cube, it begins recording genetic composition and neural patterns down to the atomic level. Should the life form perish, the cube can recreate a faithful replica of the life it scanned.”

  “So… I’m just a replica of the real Meomi?” Meomi lowered her chin.

  “Down to your penchant for self-sacrificing and your survivor's guilt.” Inoke lifted her chin. “Do not despair, Little Wolf. Rarely are we measured by the sum of our parts.” Inoke tapped Meomi’s shoulder. “You are the first non-Aorgarian to be resurrected by their cube. That should not be possible but yet here you are. There is something yet to be determined about you I find remarkable. This lights a fascination in me — it is a thrill I have not experienced in a very long time.”