by Regine Abel
“Okay,” I said in a breathy voice, further relieved that he still wanted to proceed.
I stiffened when he brushed against my psychic vessel. I’d never questioned when Dr. Samuel and Dean Martin had said they’d seen one in my void, looking almost like a cradle beneath the sphere shielding my soul. But to now have a real Xian Warrior, the only beings whose soul could be sheltered within, examine it up close had my mouth go dry and my throat constrict painfully.
“A full and well-formed psychic vessel,” Raven mused out loud. “You truly are a wonder.” He disconnected from my mind, and his eyes slightly went out of focus as they flicked above my head, no doubt evaluating my aura. Whatever it revealed seemed to please him as he smiled, his excitement cranking up a notch. “Let’s go see what else you can do.”
“Okay,” I whispered again, still unable to believe I was not only in the presence of a real Xian Warrior, but of the legendary Raven himself.
Despite my being 5’10, Raven towered over me by a full head as he led me back into the great hall. Two of the test cabins were already occupied, their doors opened while a Xian Warrior was giving the final instructions to the candidate inside. Maria was standing outside the third cabin, talking with another Warrior that I didn’t know. Instead of giving the last cabin to one of the other women waiting for their turn, they’d saved it for me. While my ego wanted to believe it was favored treatment, my head understood they wanted to test me right away so that they could grill me about that Shuria female.
Another tall and broad-shouldered Warrior, with short hair—military style—was discussing with Dean Martin next to that last cabin. He seemed more muscular than the other three Warriors, and obviously more than Raven. While far from scrawny, Raven, like all the naturally conceived and born Xians, was slightly shorter and less bulky than the fully engineered Warriors.
“The test will have five steps,” Raven explained as we approached the cabin and the two men. “Two of them will be completed by you answering a series of increasingly difficult questions. Sometimes it will be through my voice, other times it will be through images. Just speak your answers out loud. The last three steps will take place via a simulation. The Dream Walk will feel very real. Handle the situation presented to you as if you were truly there on a mission. We will continue as long as you are able to manage it or until you request a stop.”
“Understood,” I said, excitement giving way to fear.
“There they are!” exclaimed Dean Martin upon noticing our approach, his slightly excessive enthusiasm betraying his nervousness.
I beamed at him before turning towards his companion. My smile froze, and my breath caught in my throat at the sight of the co-leader of the Vanguard. Dean Martin continued speaking, probably making the introductions, but his words were so much white noise to my ears. Chaos’s welcoming smile faded the second he laid eyes on me. Shock and disbelief descended over his stunning features.
He projected a whirlwind of emotions that slammed into me with such violence that my knees nearly buckled. Joy, awe, possessiveness appeared to battle with something akin to panic and fierce timidity.
Timidity? From one of the most badass Warriors of the Vanguard?
Waves of confusion from both Raven and Dean Martin snapped me out of my dazed trance. As much as I wanted to drown in the inky depths of Chaos’s eyes, I forced myself to smile as if nothing had just passed between us. At the same time, he regained his composure, although he continued to try to rein in his emotions.
“Hello, Chaos,” I said in a breathy voice. “It’s an honor to meet the legendary face of the Vanguard and one of the heroes of the Battle for Earth.”
His scales above the collar of his skin-tight black t-shirt—that hid nothing of his illegally sexy and muscular body—darkened slightly with what I assumed to be embarrassment.
He’s attracted to me!
That realization nearly knocked me on my ass. His initial reaction should have tipped me off, but my own visceral response to him had messed with my head.
“Hello, Sabra,” Chaos responded.
The deep rumbling of his voice lit up a bolt of fire in the pit of my stomach. The way my name rolled on his tongue sent the most incredible shiver down my spine.
“We’re hearing wondrous things about you,” he continued, his emotions now muted to me as he finally got them under control.
I hated that.
“I hope to live up to them,” I said with a nervous laughter.
Chaos gave me a strange look. “I believe you will exceed them,” he replied after a beat.
The way he said it implied some kind of underlying meaning I failed to decipher. I was looking for some inane response to give him, but a burst of psychic energy between him and Raven silenced me, the small hairs on my nape standing on end. Although his face remained neutral, a powerful shock ran through Raven while he mind-spoke with Chaos. After a couple of seconds, Raven’s assessing gaze studied my features, an unreadable expression on his face.
“Chaos will run your test in my stead,” he said, matter-of-factly. “However, I will shadow him to make sure you’re not overextending yourself.”
Although stunned, I nodded docilely, wondering what had prompted this sudden change—and tremendous honor—to have two of the top Xian Warriors testing me together. It certainly pleased Dean Martin. It both amused and annoyed me to be his ticket to greater visibility and support for Thirilia. However, the thought of helping the colony while achieving my personal goals also pleased me.
“Let’s get to it then,” Chaos said, his gaze weighing heavily on me.
Feeling suddenly intimidated, I walked towards the cabin, framed by both Warriors. I’d never felt so small and fragile. Chaos opened the door to the pitch black, five square meter chamber. It was completely empty but for a cushioned stool plopped smack in the middle of the space. As soon as I sat down, he placed three luminous nodes on me: one on each of my temples and the third on my heart.
“Did Raven already run you through the plan?” Chaos asked.
“Yes,” I said, my nervousness creeping back into my voice.
“Any questions?” he insisted.
I had a billion before Dean Martin introduced me to him, but now my mind was just one big fat blank. I shook my head, rendered speechless to find myself so affected by this man I didn’t even know. I wasn’t the type to be starstruck. And even then, I’d expected to get wobbly knees in the presence of Legion—the number one heartthrob of the Vanguard—not Chaos. And yet, my brain was tilting just looking at him.
I needed to get a grip for fear I’d sabotage myself into failing the test. There would be plenty of time later to fantasize about this sexy beast.
Chapter 3
Sabra
Chaos leaving the chamber and closing the door behind him helped me regain my focus. I couldn’t see a meter in front of me with the room plunged in complete darkness aside from the tiny glow of the three nodes on me. I’d been dying to perform this test. The cabin actually acted like a psychic dampener. As the test progressed and the difficulty increased, requiring a stronger connection with the test administrator, the dampening effect would rise accordingly, making it harder to maintain, if not impossible for lesser psychics.
“State your name and age,” a voice spoke in my mind.
It startled me as I hadn’t felt the usual tingling or whisper of a consciousness connecting with mine. That made me anxious, wondering if the dampening chamber was responsible or if my nerves were throwing me off my game. Beyond my bone-deep desire to ace this test, an irrational need to impress Chaos—or at least not to disappoint him—had taken a hold of me. Before meeting him, it was Raven I had wanted to blow away.
“Sabra Batay, twenty-five,” I said out loud, as per Raven’s instruction, although resisting the natural urge to respond psychically.
It was a simple detail, but a fiendish one, right off the bat. Without proper mastery of their abilities, candidates would struggle to perform physical
tasks, even something as simple as speaking, while pursuing the psychic conversation. To a novice, it would feel like singing a song out loud while trying to accurately count the number of people in a moving crowd.
“Why do you wish to join the Vanguard?” Chaos asked.
This time, I could feel the presence of Raven shadowing him—essentially riding Chaos’s psychic wave so that he could witness everything that Chaos was doing, be it psychically or physically. This technique was used regularly by Operators—the psychic females that relayed information between the Warriors on the field and Battle Command. Being able to see for themselves through the eyes of the Warrior made it easier for them to convey the situation more accurately.
“My family has served the Vanguard even before the successful birth of the first Warrior,” I said, making no effort to hide the pride in my voice. “My grandmother was personally recruited by Dr. Xi as one of his research assistants. She also volunteered as one of the first surrogate mothers for the Xian embryos. Both my parents are weapons specialists within the Coalition and served in the Battle for Earth. That’s where they met. So, it was inevitable that I, too, would wish to defend the people of the Coalition.”
“So, it is a sense of duty that drives you,” Chaos said.
The matter-of-fact way he spoke gave me chills. Did he think I was only doing this because I felt obligated?
“Duty is but one factor driving me,” I answered, hoping he would hear the sincerity in my voice. “Conviction in the righteousness of the cause and the necessity to stand up for it are other factors. My parents have passed down to me their passion both for defending our way of life against would-be oppressors and for crafting weapons and tactical defense systems. I could be a great asset for the Vanguard on the battlefield.”
“Your file says your Major is in Psychology with a Minor in Xeno Politics and Culture,” Chaos challenged.
“That is correct,” I said with a nod no one could see. “Growing up with two of the top weapons experts in the region teaching me everything they knew, I didn’t believe studying in that field would be useful to me. But diplomacy is my second passion, passed down to me by my Thirilian grandfather. Therefore, I chose Psychology because understanding the way people think and react to various situations, especially stressful ones, helps defuse potentially dangerous escalations. And with Xeno Politics, understanding their needs, issues, and customs can help reach fair compromises and avoid major faux pas.”
“Weapons master and diplomat? Isn’t that contradictory?” Chaos asked.
This time, I sensed a sliver of amusement in his tone, and some of the tension bled out of my shoulders and stiff spine.
“My motto has always been: try to reason with them first. But, if all else fails, spank some sense into them,” I deadpanned.
I didn’t know what I expected his response to be, but not total silence. Before my nerves could kick in again, the image of a weapon appeared floating a few meters in front of me.
“This is the old model of the G3 Lenusian blaster,” I said.
As soon as I spoke, the image changed to a different weapon. The process continued, cycling through a variety of weaponry, ships, alien species, important Coalition personalities, and famous sites in the galaxy, whether as cultural landmarks or due to major events, be they joyous or disastrous. I was getting bored, not feeling challenged in the least. Then again, I had prepared so hard, for so many years, that this was all a cakewalk to me. However, I could already guess who among the other candidates would stumble on quite a few of these questions.
A sudden tingle at my nape followed by a falling sensation took me by surprise. The Tegorian Temple of Mount Zoleya had just begun displaying before me when I was sucked into the Dream Walk. For a second, I thought there might have been a glitch with the test, causing me to finally slip into the scenario before Chaos had intended for me to.
“Sabra, what are you doing?” Chaos asked.
The concern in his voice took me aback, and then my blood turned to ice in my veins as I felt myself land on the hard, polished stones of what resembled an improvised lab—or rather more like an improvised medical ward—inside a large cave. Two dozen hover stretchers filled the large space, half of them occupied by the strange Mimic young with their greyish and sickly skin. They seemed in pain, many of them shaking and moaning. Shuria and the second adult Mimic she’d called Herina in my previous Dream Walk involving her, were hovering around the young.
“I don’t know how that happened,” I mind-spoke to him, fighting the panic trying to overtake me. To my shock, I could see an ethereal form of both Chaos and Raven flanking me. “I… I will get us back.”
“No!” Chaos exclaimed, his eyes glued to the scene before us. “I want to see what’s going on here.”
I shuddered but complied. However, I could feel the psychic strain of carrying two others with me into this Dream Walk. The dampening effect of the test chamber undoubtedly made matters worse. I would need to keep a close eye on it to avoid hurting myself further.
“Can they see us?” Raven asked.
“I don’t think so. At least, the others couldn’t see me,” I answered, my heart pounding at the thought of what damage I could sustain if Shuria struck me again. Worse still, what kind of damage could she do to the Xian Warriors? “Last time, I don’t think Shuria clearly saw me as much as she increasingly felt my presence. At least, she didn’t see me at first.”
Chaos’s ethereal form nodded, but his eyes never strayed from the adult Mimics. A third one I hadn’t seen before came into the room from a connecting one at the back, carrying a basket filled with thick leaves I couldn’t identify. She placed it on one of the empty hover stretchers, and the other two Mimics came to join her. With a disturbing cracking sound, the three females morphed into Kryptid Workers—the sterile females of the species.
Similar in appearance to the Soldiers, the females were smaller, with a much tinier Deynian horn on her forehead—the crescent moon shaped horn that every sentient Kryptid possessed—and baby-sized mandibles framing their human-looking mouths. Like their male counterparts, their bodies were covered in dark brown chitin plates and their waists unnaturally narrow like an ant’s. If not for the movement of their heads, their multifaceted eyes would make it impossible to guess where they were looking. Moving on their three-segment legs, Shuria and Herina closed the distance with their third companion, and all three began chewing the plants in the basket, making quick work of it.
Raven, Chaos and I exchanged the same confused look. For some reason, it seemed like an odd time for them to be taking a snack. And why do so in Kryptid form? Was the plant harmful to them as Mimics but safe to the bug’s anatomy?
“Is it true then that these modified Mimics take on the abilities of the species they morph into?” I asked both men.
“Yes,” Chaos responded absentmindedly. “And I would love to know what’s so special about this plant.”
As if they’d heard his wish, the Mimics finished their ‘meal’ and then turned back towards the young mutants. Shuria stopped in front of a male and held her hands palms down, fingers splayed, above his chest. Unlike the male Kryptid Soldiers who only possessed three digits on each hand, female Kryptids had five. To my horror, her fingertips lengthened into thick and pointy needles, the same phenomenon occurring with the other two females. I slapped my virtual hand over my mouth as their nightmarish fingers sank into the young mutants’ flesh.
Mouths opened in a silent scream of agony and their backs arched, their hands fought the restraints keeping them strapped to the stretcher. Chaos and Raven both cursed, their fury palpable.
“And this is who Bane wants to save? This monster?” Chaos snarled.
“She’s too far gone,” Raven said, sadness mixing with anger in his voice.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “They hate that they’re hurting them. They believe whatever they are doing will help.”
Both Warriors turned to look at me as if I’d grown a
second head.
“What makes you say that?” Chaos challenged.
To my relief, there was no haughtiness or dismissiveness in his tone, merely genuinely confused curiosity.
“I can feel it,” I replied.
“Feel it? As in you can feel their emotions?” Raven asked.
“Yes. I inherited my grandfather’s empathic abilities,” I said matter-of-factly.
As if to confirm my words, Shuria pulled her fingers from the young man, the needles of her fingers resorbing into her fingertips. The expression of sorrow on her Kryptid face was disturbing as she bent down to kiss his forehead, then pressed her own against his.
Chaos tore his gaze away from Shuria to stare at me with an indefinable expression. Even in this ethereal form, his eyes hypnotized me, drawing me into their depths. The whispers of a dull throbbing at the back of my head broke his mesmerizing hold on me. Just as I was about to tell him we needed to leave, a wave of suspicion made my head snap towards Shuria. Her head jerked up and she stared in our general direction, her suspicion turning to conviction, outrage, and then rage.
“No!” I shouted out loud as I sensed her preparing to strike.
I couldn’t say if the other two adult Mimics had heard or felt me, but they turned abruptly towards us just as the cave faded from view. I felt my consciousness tumble down at dizzying speed then slam into my body like a car crashing into a wall. It was jarring on the psychic level and left me feeling like someone recovering from a bad hangover.
The test chamber’s door jerked open, the bright light outside blinding me. I squinted as Chaos and Raven rushed into the room.
“Are you all right?” Chaos asked, his voice thick with concern, as I feebly tried to get up on wobbly legs.
“Yeah, I just…”
I never finished my sentence. No sooner did I get up than my knees buckled beneath me. Chaos caught me before I could collapse to the floor. He lifted me up in his arms, and I rested my spinning head onto his broad, muscular chest. Worry and guilt swirled around both Warriors.