by Matt Snee
“Surely you had marvelous inventions and brilliant art!”
“NO,” the Tiamatite answered. “WE DID NOT BUSY OURSELVES WITH SUCH THINGS. THERE WAS TOO MUCH TO FEEL, TOO MUCH TO EAT, TOO MUCH TO MATE WITH, TOO MUCH TO KILL.
“Was it really that violent?” Captain wondered.
“VIOLENCE IS AN EARTHLING WORD. WE WERE ONLY PLAYING.”
“What happened to the ones who died?”
“WHO KNOWS?”
It made Captain confused. The Tiamatites were a beautiful but beastly race.
Then he remembered. “What about the No-Shape?” Then he paused. “What is the No-Shape?”
“THE NO-SHAPE IS NEITHER SOMETHING NOR NOTHING,” the Tiamatite explained. “IT HAS NO FORM BUT HUNGER.”
“Is it alive?”
“IT IS NEITHER ALIVE NOR DEAD.”
“How do we stop it?”
“I DO NOT KNOW,” the Tiamatite said sadly.
“But … that's why I came here. We need to know…”
“YES. THAT IS WHY YOU CAME HERE. BUT WE DO NOT KNOW HOW TO STOP THE NO-SHAPE. BUT WE KNOW YOU WILL.”
“How?”
“WE CANNOT SAY. WE HAVE PROMISED.”
“To who?”
The Tiamatite did not reply. Instead, it sighed and turned its face up to the sky. “WE COULD NEVER HOPE TO STOP THE NO-SHAPE, BUT THE PEOPLE OF THE CLOUD CAN.”
“Who are they?”
“THEY ARE WHAT LIVED HERE FIRST, CHILDREN OF THE SUN. THEY INHABITED THE SOLAR SYSTEM WHEN IT WAS YOUNG.”
“Where did they go?”
“WE DO NOT KNOW.”
“So, they disappeared, like the Owls?”
“NO, NOT LIKE THE OWLS. NOT LIKE THE OWLS AT ALL.”
“Does anyone know what happened to the People of the Cloud?”
“SOMEONE. BUT NOT US.”
“What were they exactly?”
“THEY WERE STUDENTS, STUDENTS OF THE MUSIC OF THE GALAXY. THEY LISTENED. MUSIC WAS THEIR FUEL, AND THEY FOUND IT EVERYWHERE.”
“What is the music of the galaxy?”
“ALL THINGS CREATE MUSIC. SOME WITH OUR HEARTS. SOME WITH OUR VOICES. SOME WITH JUST THE SIMPLE VIBRATION OF OUR FORMS. THERE IS NO SILENCE.OUR MUSIC WAS INNOCENT. THE PEOPLE OF THE CLOUDS' WAS NOT.”
“What do you mean?”
“I MEAN THAT THEY … THEY WERE GUILTY.”
“Of what?”
“WE DO NOT KNOW. WE CANNOT UNDERSTAND.”
Captain had so many questions, and every answer the Tiamatite provided made him only more confused. He decided to go back to the beginning.
“So the only ones who can stop the No-Shape are the People of the Cloud. But they're gone. What do we do?”
“THE PEOPLE OF THE CLOUD DID NOT LEAVE US DEFENSELESS. THERE IS THE TRIBORG.”
“The Triborg?”
“THE FORTRESS. THE BARRIER AT THE END OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.”
“I've heard of that,” said Captain. “How is that even possible?”
“THE PEOPLE OF THE CLOUD HAD GREAT MAGIC. THEY BUILT THE TRIBORG.”
“Why?”
“BECAUSE OF THE NO-SHAPE, OF COURSE. THEY BUILT IT TO KEEP IT OUT.”
“But it got in?”
“YES.”
“And the only ones who can stop it now is the People of the Cloud?”
“YES.”
“But how do we find them?”
“YOU MUST ENTER THE FORTRESS. IT IS THE TRIBORG. YOU MUST FIND THE SHARDS OF THE KEY.”
“A key?” Captain wondered. “Is that how we get in?”
“OF COURSE.”
“And that's our only course of action?”
“YES. YOU MUST FIND THE SHARDS.”
“Where are they?”
“INTERRED. IN THE DEATH DREAMS. HIDDEN, IN DIFFERENT WAYS.”
“How many are there?”
“HOW MANY DEATH DREAMS ARE THERE?”
“Four, I guess,” said Captain. “So we'll find them on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune? One on each?”
“YES, MY FRIEND.”
Captain nodded. He supposed it made sense. While he thought his journey was over, he realized suddenly it had just begun. But rather than disappointment, a determination filled his body.
“So, Jennifer and I… we're the only ones who know?”
“OTHERS KNOW. BUT YOU CARE.”
“Who else knows?”
“THE SHADOWS.”
The Shadows. Captain was certain the Tiamatite was right. They were great enemies.
He watched as the Tiamatites below urged themselves awake and started playing again. “What happened to your planet?”
“TIAMAT? SHE DIED.”
“How does a planet die?”
“SHE WAS HEARTBROKEN.”
The idea gave Captain pause. “What do you mean?”
“BY COMING HERE SHE LEFT HER STAR, THE ONE THAT BIRTHED HER. WITHOUT IT, SHE COULD NOT LIVE.”
“So even though you escaped the No-Shape, Tiamat couldn't survive in a new solar system?”
“YES.”
“That's sad. And you died with her?”
“WE DID.”
Captain felt dizzy all of a sudden, like the air was being pushed out of him. The light on the edges of his vision started to cloud over, and he felt like he was going to pass out. “Ug,” he groaned.
“IT'S OKAY. YOUR FRIENDS ARE TRYING TO WAKE YOU.”
“Why?”
“BECAUSE THERE IS AN INTRUDER IN THE DEVASTHANAM.”
“An intruder?” Captain exclaimed.
“WAIT. WAIT. THERE IS ONE MORE THING WE MUST TELL YOU, EARTHLING.”
Captain was on the verge of passing out. “What?” he breathed.
But then there was only darkness.
* * *
It was obvious to Captain even before he came to that the intruder was the Fangler. A bristling combination of hatred and fear rushed through him. This was it. What was to come had come.
Light crashed into his eyes and oxygen plummeted into his lungs. He found himself being pulled out of the water by Jennifer, who was calling his name desperately.
“Lewis! Lewis, wake up!”
He gasped, coughed, moaned. Reality hit him like a tiger.
“Jennifer!” he whispered.
He could hear booming lightning and an inhuman, plant-like scream. As he pulled himself out of the water with Jennifer's help, he turned and saw Plerrxx at the door to the hall, facing the tall Fangler. Lightning shot out of the Mmrowwr's palms and struck the accursed interloper.
Captain was instantly both worried about his new friend and amazed by the cat-man's alien magic. Finally free from the water, he struggled to his feet and reached for his knife.
“We have to run. We can't fight it!” Jennifer told him, fear coursing through her voice.
“But Plerrxx!”
Despite the lightning, the Fangler lurched toward the Mmrowwr. The plant-creature, singed and the smoke rising from its evil botany did not falter.
“Plerrxx!” Captain shouted.
In response, he heard the Mmrowwr's thought-voice in his head. “The monster is blocking the door! There is no escape!”
Captain watched as the Fangler groaned, its howl echoing through the chamber and shivering down their spines.
“Lewis!” Jennifer gasped, knowing her laser gun would accomplish nothing, scared in a way she seldom was.
Captain didn't know what to do. All of their moments together had led to this and he … he was helpless. Plerrxx! he thought.
And then the Fangler leapt.
That such a thing could move so quickly, none of them could believe. Captain took a step back as the creature flew through the air, brushing off the lightning and landing right in front of Plerrxx. The Mmrowwr, astonished, did not move as the Fangler reached and grasped him by the throat, lifting him up into the air.
Memories of his mother's death were unleashed in Captain's mind. A similar fear crushed the blood in his heart and everything came back to him.
“No!” he cried with all his might.
The Fangler turned and stared at him with the bulbs of its eyes and uttered a sound almost like a laugh. It lifted the cat-man further, and the lightning ceased to flow from Plerrxx's hands. The Mmrowwr fought at the Fangler's grip but hadn't the strength to escape. One last wordless thought came from Plerrxx's mind into their heads … and then nothing.
And then the Fangler threw the Mmrowwr into the ground.
* * *
“No…” mouthed Captain. Not again. He took hold of Jennifer's hand and stepped backwards, pulling her with him. She gripped back, and with her other hand raised her laser gun, even though she knew it would have no effect on the Fangler. She aimed and shot. Pink light shot out of the chrome barrel and hissed across the room, striking the Fangler in the chest. It flinched, but then let out that partial laugh, partial howl again.
It leapt once more, launching itself into the air and landing in front of them. With one sweep of its arms, it separated Captain and Jennifer and dashed them to the floor.
Captain, dazed, looked over to Jennifer, who looked back to him. It seemed to him as though she would now be torn from him forever, and all the things he wanted to say to her, all the moments he wanted to experience with her, would be lost forever.
The Fangler lost interest in Captain and instead turned to Jennifer, whose gaze now lifted up to the monster standing above her. It raised its arms to strike, and Jennifer lifted up her arms to defend herself from the blow.
No! Captain thought. No!
BOOM!
Blue lightning struck the back of the Fangler, conjuring flames up its beaded plant spine.
Plerrxx! Captain looked over to the Mmrowwr, who was on his knees and once again throwing lightning out of his hands.
“You must escape!” Plerrxx's voice flashed in his head.
Captain watched as the Fangler reeled, knowing suddenly that it was weakened. But he also knew there was no escape. It would chase them. They'd never make it to the hopper alive.
He gripped his knife. He had one shot.
Captain lunged forward, off his feet and at the perverse monstrosity, his knife above his head. In less than a second, he made contact with the Fangler, and stabbed the thing straight in its back.
It wailed, convulsed, and then exploded in a giant cloud of green smoke, like a magician's illusion. There was nothing left of it but a cloud, and the place where it once stood was terribly but reassuringly hollow.
“L-Lewis!” Jennifer stuttered, more surprised than anyone that she was still alive.
And then a wind ran through the temple, blowing the green smoke into nothingness.
It was gone.
18. Departure
Strive toward a light and it brightens.
Lewis Darby, “The Path to Her Infinity”
After the battle, Jennifer was impatient. “What did they tell you? What do we have to do?”
Captain collected his thoughts. Jennifer had obviously known all along their adventure was just beginning. After the fight with the Fangler, though, it was hard for him to remember his interaction with the Tiamatite.
Finally, he spoke. “We have to enter the Death Dreams. There is something… on each one.”
“On each one?” asked Plerrxx.
“The shards of the key,” Jennifer confirmed.
“It said… we have to go to the Triborg.”
“The barrier,” Jennifer agreed. “But what do we do there?”
“I don't know,” said Captain. “It said I would know…”
Jennifer bit her lip. “That's all?”
“That's it, I think.”
“We'll do it. Somehow,” said Jennifer, though she doubted it herself.
“It told me about the People of the Cloud. It said only they could stop the No-Shape.”
“But they have faded,” said Jennifer. “They are lost to time.”
“There are too many difficult questions. What you ask is impossible,” argued Plerrxx.
“You don't have to come,” Jennifer told him.
He took a moment to respond. “I want to come. I want to help. Hell, I was going to Ganymede anyway.”
“Why do you want to help us?” Jennifer asked him. “I have no more jewels.”
“I don't want any more jewels. I just want to help. I don't care how dangerous it is. I have nothing to lose, not anymore. I'm a friend to danger. It lives in my heart. But my people are cautious. Perhaps you would do well to travel with someone as cautious as I.”
“I welcome you along,” Captain said. “We could use your help.”
* * *
Then a clear, cold fact stabbed into Captain's mind. “But wait! What about Earth? Is there time to do this?”
“There will be time,” said Jennifer sadly. “According to my dad's computers, the No-Shape has changed direction. It's headed here now.”
“How is that possible?” Plerrxx asked.
“In a way, having the Fangler here was fortunate. It revealed the Devasthanam to the No-Shape. The No-Shape is hungry … and the Devasthanam can sate it better than Earth. There is a lot of energy here, and not just what remains of the Tiamatites. There is Owl energy here, a lot of it, and the No-Shape must be drawn to it.”
“But, what about the Devasthanam? Will it be destroyed?” In this, Captain sympathized with Jennifer. The Devasthanam was her home.
“It will be eradicated,” she responded, with a kind of distant emotion. “For Earth.”
Captain felt a weight lifting off of his shoulders, and then a new one settling in. “How much time do you think we have then?”
“Time enough,” said Jennifer. “I can feel it.”
Time enough. Captain felt relieved but frightened. Where did they go now? “Where do we go now?” he asked.
“Jupiter,” Jennifer said. “That's closest, and… I have friends… family there.”
“And then?” Captain wondered.
“And then Saturn. And Uranus. And Neptune. And then to the end of it, I suppose.”
“To the Triborg?”
“Yes.”
In a way, Captain almost felt thankful. It was a dauntless task, but he felt like he had a clear path now, a way to stop the No-Shape, a line to follow. He didn't know what would happen, he didn't know what he would do when he faced these things. But for the moment, they had bested the Fangler, and they had tricked the No-Shape away from Earth, and even though he did not know what idea he was supposed to have, he felt more comfortable than he had since he had left Earth and begun this journey.
* * *
“Is there anything else?” Plerrxx asked.
Jennifer hesitated before answering. “No,” she said finally.
“Then let's go.”
She took a long look at Captain. They had come so far. My God, what I have dragged him into, she thought. But I had to, right? There is no other way.
“It's ok, Jennifer,” Captain told her.
“What?”
“Whatever you're worried about. We'll get through it.”
She laughed. “I don't think you know what we're up against.”
“No, and I didn't at the start of this adventure when you told me the same thing. But we made it didn't we?”
“Yeah,” she admitted. He was right. He was stronger than she had ever guessed. “Look,” she told them. “There are a few things I need to gather, in my rooms. And I need to say goodbye to this place. I'll meet you at the hopper in a little bit, okay?”
“Sure,” said Captain. “No worries.”
* * *
Before we go, I'm going to drown one last time, she told herself. Real quick. No one will know.
She made her way down to where the ghosts were and without a second thought leapt into the water, like she had a thousand times before.
Everything erased.
Until a new world dawned. Their world, the world of Tiamat, before her for one last time.
One of them quickly greeted her. “HELLO,�
� it said in her mind.
“Hi,” she said.
“I KNOW YOU FEEL SORRY FOR US. BUT YOU SHOULDN'T.”
“I can't help it,” she told the Tiamatite.
“OUR TIME HAS GONE. WE ARE READY TO FINALLY SLEEP. ALL LIVING THINGS EAT. AND IT IS THEIR FATE TO BE EATEN IN RETURN.”
“Will it hurt?”
“PERHAPS.”
She was silent at this.
“BUT THAT IS NOT WHY YOU HAVE COME. DO NOT LIE TO US, LITTLE JENN. WHY HAVE YOU COME?”
“I want to know what you haven't told me,” she said.
“HOW DO YOU KNOW THERE IS MORE THAN YOU KNOW?”
“Because there always is,” she answered.
“SO BE IT,” said the Tiamatite. “YOU KNOW, THERE IS ANOTHER ENEMY.”
“Who?”
“GREATER THAN THE FANGLER. A SERVANT OF SOMETHING TERRIBLE. A NIGHTMARE.”
“Who?”
“OUR WORDS CANNOT TELL. BUT WE WISH TO WARN YOU ALL THE SAME.”
“How do I fight it?”
“YOU CANNOT.”
“Then what do I do?”
“HOPE. HOPE IS ALL YOU HAVE NOW.”
* * *
She pulled herself out of the water soon after that. Then she made her way back to her family's apartment and breathed in the air one final time.
What could she take from a lifetime of possessions? Family photos? Trinkets? Memorabilia? She lived out of a backpack. She decided quickly she would take nothing. It would be more oblation, a sacrifice of the past for the future.
Still she stood in the doorway of her parents' room for a long time.
* * *
Captain, who had waited patiently for her once he and Plerrxx got to the space hopper, was infinitely pleased when she arrived at last, but was curious when he saw her hair was wet. He said nothing, but wondered if she had visited the aliens one last time. Well, he thought. That is her right, and her business.
“Okay?” he asked her, smiling.
“Okay!” she smiled back. Still, she was obviously hiding a great pain.
Captain wished there was something he could do to help. Despite their adventure together, there was still a huge gulf between them.
“And that's that?” asked Plerrxx as she boarded the space hopper.
“That's that. It will work. It has to.” She couldn't look either of them in the eyes.
Captain watched as she stashed her gear and Plerrxx closed the airlock. “To Jupiter then,” said the Mmrowwr. “Should take a week or so, maybe longer.”