Breeze Corinth (Book 1): Sky Shatter

by Olson, Michael John

  Bram’s eyes lit up. “What they showed me is that decay is the natural order of the universe, and that all things come to an end. Earth has reached its peak, yet they showed me a way to live forever with power beyond my wildest imagination. All I have to do is feed off the energy of others.” He stared at Oslo with glassy eyes. “It is time for Earth to enter into darkness. You can only prevent the inevitable for so long.”

  Oslo shook his head. “But the light will shine again.”

  “Yes, but not for quite some time.”

  Oslo persisted. “Why the betrayal?”

  Bram’s eyes flickered. “What I learned is that I was so much more powerful on their world as opposed to Earth. For the first time I felt like I found a home. Helena, for all of its darkness and decay, become a world where I could be a god with unlimited power.”

  He then clutched his chest and his body shimmered. “It is also where I met the woman I love, as power is nothing if you have no one to share it with, and she accepted me for who I am. She saw my dark side, yet wasn’t repelled by it. She became my wife, and for a time, I was truly happy. Helena became my kingdom where I ruled as I saw fit. It did not matter to me that it was the source of Earth’s troubles, nor did learning the truth that the regime that ruled Helena were intent on controlling Earth and corrupting our people. I didn’t care. They saw me as a divine being. They did not see me as a traitor to my world, but as a king that would revitalize theirs. They eventually abdicated their power to me and I became their lord and savior. All was well in my life and that is why I never returned. Yes, I did possess vital information that could have prevented Earth’s demise, but it no longer concerned me. The rising and falling tides of the universe would take its course as it always has. This is the cycle of life and Earth was due for a downfall, so let it be, I said. I found my happiness and that was all that mattered, until my wife betrayed me and disappeared with our child. I am here now to find and reclaim the heir to my empire.”

  “What was her name?” Oslo asked.

  Bram spun around to face him. He hovered silently for a moment until he finally answered. “Kera.”

  Oslo nodded as he put on his best poker face so as not to reveal his recognition of the name. “I would like to meet her.”

  Bram responded with a low and menacing voice. “I will find her and make her mine again. Along with my son.”

  “Son?”

  “Yes, that is what I’ve been told. I discovered her pregnancy after she disappeared. My council informed me of her betrayal and how she absconded to Earth in a ship. She was originally from Earth, you see, but was abducted from her family by the Elephim long ago. A wealthy and prosperous foster family with connections to the regime raised her and she rose through the ranks to become one of their most prominent paranormals. Understand that over the past several centuries, most of the children born on Helena were sickly, and the odds of any of them becoming paranormal are rare to nonexistent. The energy that surrounds Earth and creates the environment for paranormal children to be conceived is not found on Helena. That is why they take the children of Earth, so they may find a way for Hellenic children to be like them. But their experiments created hideous results as these hybrid children were born twisted and demented. The union of Kera and I would have created a new breed of paranormal children for the Elephim, as opposed to the black clad monsters that have plagued the Earth, who are nothing more than hideous laboratory creations from the splicing of Earth and Hellenic genetic material together. What the Hellenic Council desires more than anything is to have natural born children without having to graft the essence of Earth children onto theirs. The children of Earth that are abducted and brought to Helena die within a matter of days for unknown reasons. How Kera managed to survive while other abducted children perished, I do not know. Nor do I know why she betrayed me and left with my unborn child to return to Earth. What I do know is that my son will follow in my footsteps. I must find him. But first, I need to retrieve my body.” Bram pointed to a suit of armor that was docked inside a pod. “I need an exoskeleton and whatever energy I can scavenge to stay corporeal, as I’ve lost contact with my body after being away from it for so long. But you have placed some sort of a fog over Perihelion with electro-magnetic properties that I cannot penetrate. I must become whole again Oslo, if I am to do to Earth what I have done on Helena. You will help me re-unite with my body.” Bram’s face contorted into a wicked smile. “But as a consolation, I believe you may have inadvertently brought my son to me.”

  Oslo arched an eyebrow.

  “Don’t play the fool, Oslo. I know he is close by. If fact, he is aboard the scout ship, is he not?”

  “Breeze?” Oslo said

  Bram snorted. “No, not that useless whelp.”

  “Raymond?”

  “Yes, I suspect it is him as I cannot shake the feeling. I must secure the boy and ascertain his origins by testing him for the divine essence that will tell me if he is my son or not. But first, I must take the scout ship.”

  Oslo chuckled. “How? Your body is locked away within the bowels of Perihelion while you are merely a ghost of a man. You are projecting right now, though I cannot fathom how you are doing it. Regardless, you’ve mastered the ability to be seen and interact with the material world. And besides, with what army are you going to fight with? I don’t see any of your Elephim friends here to help you.”

  Bram threw back his head and laughed raucously. “Do you not remember what I just told you? How did the Elephim get the best of us? They did more than build an army to fight us. They also built the machinery needed to observe, counteract, and eventually control us. It’s like any natural resource; you speculate and explore until you discover. Then you put together a plan to efficiently extract, refine and exploit it for your own needs. You must understand Oslo, the Elephim conquered us by encouraging the people of Earth to loathe and disdain the very resource that made us powerful: paranormals. Earth and her colonies were once the glittering jewels of the galaxy and a beacon of light for all the oppressed masses of the outer worlds. The downtrodden of the surrounding systems once risked everything to come to Earth. But the Elephim would not tolerate this. How could they have control over the worlds they wished to dominate when the subjugated chose to leave? So the Elephim put a plan in motion long ago to snuff out the last flame of hope. They infiltrated and took over our sacred institutions and our most valuable resource, our people. They turned them against one another which distracted us. The ones that they favored were placed in positions of power. Those who opposed were banished or killed.”

  Bram turned his gaze toward a darkened corner of the room. “And this is the result of harnessing a resource and exploiting it.” He made a beckoning gesture, and a black clad figure stepped out into the light and stood next to him with a face that was nothing more than pinpoints of light against an infinite blackness.

  “Oslo, I would like you to meet Enoch. Think of him as my assistant. Quite the helper this particular Elephim is, I must confess.”

  Enoch nodded at Oslo.

  “And now,” Bram said as he looked up at the holographic image that displayed a live feed from the outer corridor and the astral images of Breeze and Sally could be seen approaching the entrance to the detention chamber, “we will see this resource put to use.”

  Breeze and Sally entered the detention chamber where they saw a floor to ceiling window that stretched across the length of the room. The radiance of the Earth seeped through it and weakly penetrated the shadowy gloom of the chamber when a lone figure stepped into view.

  “Him again,” Breeze muttered.

  “Do you know this Elephim?” Sally said as she hovered next to Breeze.

  Enoch stood motionless with clenched fists as pinpoints of light streamed across his face.

  “I suppose I do. He looks like the one that helped me when my transport crash—” Breeze wa
s cut off as a hand grabbed his neck from behind. He struggled to break free, but couldn’t. He twisted violently to look at Sally. She too had been captured as she writhed and squirmed, but couldn’t escape.

  “Don’t fight. Don’t resist. You’ll only make matters worse.” A deep, but familiar voice resonated as they were spun around to confront their assailant.

  “Hello, I believe introductions are in order. My name is Bram.”

  Ray swiveled to look back into the passenger compartment at Sally and Breeze, and became alarmed as their unconscious bodies convulsed.

  “Achilles, look!” Ray said.

  Achilles was motionless while silently staring at the platform.

  Ray loosened his harness and leaned over to rap the robot hard on its head.

  Achilles’ eyes lit up as it grabbed Ray’s hand. “What is the meaning of this?”

  “Ow, watch your grip!” He grimaced at the pain. “Something is the matter with Breeze and Sally while you’re busy staring off into space!”

  “My apologies, master.” Achilles released Ray and turned to look back into the passenger compartment. It had removed Sally and Ray from the cockpit and placed them there after they projected into the platform. “We have been discovered,” it said. “Begin maneuvering the ship to the hangar bay of the platform.”

  Ray was stunned. “What? I thought the light wave was supposed to shield us.”

  “It has not. I have failed to compensate for a...variable.”

  The ship was suddenly rocked hard from an impact, and the cockpit was flooded by the wail of alarms.

  Ray was flung to the side and hit his head on Achilles’ seat, then floated across the cockpit unconscious.

  As the ship began to drift away from the platform, Achilles re-routed the controls to his helm and silenced the alarms, only to have them erupt again as the ship rolled from yet another strike. Vid-screens displayed the damage report showing sections of the hull had been breached as the ship was decompressing rapidly.

  Achilles’ hands moved deftly across the console as it typed in commands that sealed off the damaged sections of the ship. Throughout the vessel, blast doors could be heard sliding to a close.

  It realized the danger they were in, as staying out in the open was tantamount to certain destruction, and immediately maneuvered the scout ship as close as possible to the platform without hitting it, then pointed the bow toward open space. After conducting a sensor sweep at full strength, but detecting nothing, Achilles knew their assailant was still out there and waiting to pounce again.

  It fell back into its own mind and reached out with psychic tendrils where it could sense a lone Elephim meshing in perfectly with the blackness of space, and realized it would have to become a decoy and lead the Elephim away from the ship.

  Achilles grabbed Ray as he floated about the cockpit and buckled him back into his seat, then punched in a series of commands into the console that activated the auto pilot while establishing a wireless connection with the ship’s computer so it could operate it remotely.

  Achilles then glided out of the pilot house and into the passenger compartment where it stopped to check the vital signs of Breeze and Sally. They were erratic, as if they were slipping away.

  Something is wrong, the voice inside whispered.

  “Affirmative,” Achilles replied as it floated through the passenger compartment to the exit hatch, and then hit the air dump to decompress the chamber while blast doors slid to a close. It gripped an iron handle and activated the magnetic locks in its boots to keep from getting sucked out as alarms wailed, but faded away with the escaping atmosphere when the hatch rolled open.

  Achilles was illuminated by the flashing strobe lights of the chamber and the glow of the Earth below as it stepped to the edge and looked out into the infinite blackness of space.

  The Elephim that attacked them wasn’t interested in machines it sensed, but instead was tuned to hunting down paranormal energy. Achilles knew it needed to bring to the surface its own paranormal power to act as bait when it turned to look at a shimmering figure that appeared next to it.

  The figure spoke in a deep voice. “We have waited for this moment to arrive, as we both knew it would come. We have preached the importance of teamwork to the young ones, but are we truly capable of doing the same?”

  Achilles shook it head. “Remember, you are a guest. I offered you refuge within my neural matrix until you find your mortal body and re-unite with it. I do not relish the concept of relinquishing control to you.”

  “Achilles, we merged long ago, and have survived by agreeing to work together. Now it is my turn to shine. I know how to deal with the Elephim that attacked the ship. Allow me to employ my skills. Step aside and let me take control.”

  Achilles nodded. “Yes, I do suppose you are right, Raven.”

  “Of course I am,” Raven said as the glow around him subsided enough to reveal a man with jet black hair and piercing blue eyes. He glided over to the robot and disappeared into it.

  Achilles’ eyes flashed as its body shuddered.

  “Watch this, Achilles. We shall play a game of cat and mouse. We’ll be the mouse for now. Let’s lead this Elephim away from the ship.” With Raven in full control of Achilles, he released the magnetic locks on the robot’s boots and hurtled to the platform.

  From a great distance, the Elephim erupted from his hiding spot in the darkness of space to give chase.

  “Now that we have successfully distracted him, establish your link with the ship and maneuver it toward the hangar bay,” Raven said.

  Achilles nodded as it accessed the wireless frequency and took control of the ship remotely. The scout ship spun on its axis and glided after them.

  “Achilles, hate to be a bother, but you will need to open the hangar doors.”

  “Understood,” it replied and scanned the platform for the transponder beacon. It locked onto it and sifted through a myriad of frequencies until it found the one that corresponded with the hangar doors, then accessed the traffic control computer via its wireless transmitter and interfaced with it, but was blocked by a sentry program. It rammed the sentry and flung it aside, then immediately inputted codes to open the hangar doors. Each one was denied.

  “My metallic friend, this relentless Elephim is gaining on us and the ship is about to crash into the platform. Any moment now would be a good time.”

  “I will ignore you until my task is complete. I must steer the ship via remote and maneuver it toward the platform while simultaneously accessing the traffic control computer guarded by a hostile sentry program. This is taxing my processing power to its maximum,” Achilles responded.

  Raven chuckled. “Didn’t know anything could flummox you.”

  “The sentry program is much more complex and tenacious than I have anticipated. I will re-double my efforts.”

  “That’s the fighting spirit.”

  Achilles lashed out at the sentry and crushed it, then scanned the array of codes that spilled from the carcass of the defeated program. It grabbed those related to the traffic control system and fed them into the computer. The computer relented, and then granted access as the hangar bay doors slid open.

  “Bravo, my scrap yard hero! Bravo!” Raven cheered.

  They arrived at the entrance with the scout ship in tow as Achilles scanned the cavernous hangar. Lights flashed throughout the interior but there were no other ships inside.

  The robot cocked its head, then stretched out a hand and felt resistance as a rippling motion reverberated in front of it.

  “Force field. I failed to anticipate this. I must access the flight control system—”

  “Never mind that, our pursuing Elephim is rapidly approaching,” Raven said as it pushed Achilles’ essence to the side and assumed control of the robot’s body once again. “Watch an
d learn. We are a team, remember?”

  “As you so often remind me.”

  Raven chuckled as it plunged Achilles’ hands into the force field and created waves that rippled across its face.

  “Observe. This is how I deal with an opposing force,” Raven said as he flew them deep into the force field and created a rift, then pushed back with telekinesis and widened it into an opening large enough to let the scout ship slip through. Once the ship was in, he flung them into the hangar bay and slammed onto the floor with a heavy clang while the force field snapped back into place and rippled like waves over an ocean surface. Raven then relented control back to Achilles as the robot guided and lowered the scout ship via remote safely to a landing.

  Outside, the Elephim giving chase slammed into the force field and was repelled with tremendous force. The field reverberated heavily from the impact and the Elephim was flung out into space.

  Raven spoke. “My dear Achilles, the Elephim will make another attack, this I can assure you. Close the hangar doors just to be on the safe side. We do have precious cargo to protect within the scout ship, remember?”

  “Yes, of course,” Achilles replied, and then leapt over to an access terminal along a wall where it typed in a series of commands. The hangar doors began to glide to a close.

  Outside the platform and drifting in space, the Elephim snapped out of his daze and hurtled towards the hangar once again.

  “Raven, I must confess that the doors will not close in time,” Achilles called out.

  “I know. The Elephim will punch his way through the field based on his current high rate of speed. Allow me to employ a different tactic.”

  Raven assumed control of Achilles and swatted the Elephim away from the platform with all of his telekinetic might. They both watched dispassionately as he disappeared into the darkness of space.

  Raven stepped out of Achilles and hovered next to the robot as the doors rolled to a close.