He guided her down spiraling steps made of stone, with each step glowing a phosphorus green until they entered a dimly lit chamber with a pool in its center, and above them the ceiling arced into a dome whose surface shimmered from the quartz embedded within.
Raza knelt at the edge of the pool and slowly lowered Nina into the water, then released her. The girl submerged into the depths.
Excort placed on hand on Raza’s shoulder. She squeezed it while staring intently at their wavering reflections on the surface. A smile lit up her face when Nina ascended to take a breath of air.
“Hello, mother,” Nina said sweetly.
Raza fought back tears as Nina climbed out of the pool and hugged her.
“I’m home,” Nina said.
“Yes, I suppose you are,” Raza whispered. She closed her eyes as powerful memories from the past rose up and consumed her.
She found herself walking through the corridors of Perihelion as if she had only been gone for a moment. Around her, cadets were heading to their respective classes or study halls, while outside the grounds were bustling with activity as military personnel boarded transports to embark upon yet another mission or assignment. The bay was filled with an armada of vessels, and sleek aerocraft darted overhead against a backdrop of blue skies and mountainous white clouds.
She was a young girl from the hills of Appalachia in those days. Agents from Perihelion had visited her at her family’s farm and told her that she was special. She could barely remember their names. One was named Horton, the other one she couldn’t remember. They offered her a chance to go to a place where her talents will be put to great use and she could make a difference in the world. She would be trained to use her gifts to the best of her abilities and to serve a higher cause. Her parents relented and granted permission after much pleading from her, and she left Mount Pleasant without so much as a backwards glance, eager to experience a new beginning far from home.
She remembered arriving on the island and was awed by its lush, tropical beauty. She had never traveled outside Appalachia, and was immediately overwhelmed by her new surroundings. Her excitement gave way to despair as everyone she met was from the larger cities from across the world. They were so cosmopolitan, and it contrasted sharply to her rural upbringing. She felt lost and alone until she met Oslo.
He was tall and awkward, but a good soul, that she knew. She watched him walk down the halls, towering above everyone, slumping his shoulders and keeping his head down in an attempt to appear shorter.
She would never forget how bold she felt to walk right up to him, telling him to stand up straight. She had stood with her hands on her hips, lecturing him on how handsome he was and how he should carry himself better.
He had stared at her with a stunned expression, and then blurted out an invitation to the spring dance in the courtyard that evening. His face turned red with embarrassment as he did, erasing his otherwise pale complexion. She smiled sweetly and said yes.
She danced with him that night, and although they were surrounded by other couples, they were truly in a world of their own as they glided across the dance floor to the soothing music that the band played. The air was warm and inviting as it blew across the bay and into the courtyard where they became one under a star filled sky, while luminous torches that lined the courtyard cast a blue glow over them.
She sighed deeply and opened her eyes. She was back now, holding her daughter tightly in her arms with an old friend to comfort her. Back to a place she thought she could never return to.
There was a commotion at the top of the steps as Mila and her children came rushing down the stairwell. She rushed into Excort’s arms and buried her head in his chest as his sons and daughters came over and expressed their joy at seeing their father again.
The dark and moody chamber echoed with the sounds of laughter and elation while the pool began to glow from an emerald green to a pulsating blue.
Raza hugged Nina even tighter as the blue light illuminated mother and daughter in an angelic glow.
“When is father coming back home?” Nina whispered.
Raza looked up at the crystalline surface of the dome that sparkled like stars in the night sky.
“Soon,” she said.
Oslo stirred in his seat.
Sally patted his hand and smiled reassuringly.
“I’m sorry about everything I’ve put you through,” he said in a weak and trembling voice.
Sally shook her head. “You’ve opened my eyes to the truth of the horror that surrounds us. You have nothing to apologize for.”
He smiled and squeezed her hand.
She looked toward the pilot house. Within the cockpit she could see the silhouettes of Ray and Achilles huddled over a lighted screen.
Achilles pointed toward a bar graph on the right side of the screen. “This represents the current temperature of the hull.” It pointed up. “Should the bar achieve this height, it translates into the early stages of the hull undergoing structural breakdown.” It pointed even higher. “This is catastrophic failure.”
Ray cursed and shook the helm violently, then shoved the throttles back and forth, but received no response. He pounded the console with his fists then turned to look back into the cabin where he caught Sally’s gaze. Their eyes locked for a brief moment before she looked away.
Breeze was surrounded by Elephim who had arrived from neighboring platforms. Every time they would approach him, he streaked away involuntarily. It was as if his shield was instinctively protecting him by acting on its own, moving him out of harm’s way.
His breathing felt restrained and his lungs ached from re-breathing the air he exhaled. For every breath he took, toxins were being scrubbed out of his blood and replaced with oxygen.
He watched in frustration and panic as the scout ship barreled toward Earth. In the distance the platform continued to burn as debris spewed from the shattered hangar bay.
A concussive blast hit from behind and sent him tumbling until he managed to regain control. He turned and faced a patrol ship that was trailing him. Its forward cannon bristled with intensity.
Several patrol ships from surrounding platforms were now responding to the distress calls of the wounded platform. They, along with a multitude of Elephim, flanked him from left to right, and from above and below.
He was trapped.
Oslo mumbled and twisted in his seat as he gripped Sally’s hand tightly. “Breeze is lost and alone out there. Guide him back.”
“I’m afraid to,” she said.
“Don’t leave him to the wolves! I’ll be here to give you strength. He’s the only one who can truly save us.” Oslo looked in her eyes. “The light wave responds whenever Breeze is near. The greater the distance from him, the weaker it becomes. I know of the Phaerion. I have known them for quite some time, and why they helped you like they did. It was because of Breeze. They do not give their aid on a whim. They are not as sympathetic to humanity as they once were. The light they have woven into the ship is a gift, and one that will protect us. Breeze is the key to it. Go find him.”
She stared at him for a moment, then leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes. She whimpered when her astral form broke free from her body. Her nose began to bleed.
She floated out of the ship and into open space, and then turned to look back as it hurtled away. The armored skin was beginning to glow bright red as it entered the outer fringes of the atmosphere. She looked up and saw the platform in the distance. She scanned for signs of life amidst the cloud of debris that spewed from it. Not far from the platform, she detected Breeze’s aura. He was surrounded by Elephim and patrol ships.
She rushed to him, consciously aware that the further away from her body she traveled, the greater the feeling that a chain was pulling her back. She was too weak to project, and her body was telling her so.<
br />
She strained to get closer to Breeze. She could see him amidst the horde of Elephim that were trying to overwhelm him. He was glowing brightly, brighter than she’d ever seen.
The malevolent energy surrounding the Elephim was horrifying. If they were once human, there was very little evidence of it. They were so focused on capturing Breeze, they did not detect her.
She moved in closer.
Breeze was trapped. They were closing in on him.
Beyond the encroaching Elephim, he saw a faint wisp of light approaching like a firefly in the night sky.
A ghostly image of a young woman materialized from it. She spoke with a faint, but familiar voice that echoed in his head. She kept calling his name and pleading with him.
The Elephim inched closer, their faces nothing more than a swirling black mass. The static they emanated was overwhelming.
Through the cacophony of static, he could still hear the woman calling his name. He cleared his mind and tuned in to her voice, when a face appeared before him. It was Sally.
“Come back to us Breeze,” he heard her voice in his head.
A sense of calm swept over him as fear and doubt melted away. He saw a path that trailed behind her, a ribbon of light that stretched toward a burning flame in the distance as it hurtled toward Earth.
He knew what had to be done.
The scout ship rattled and groaned horribly as its metal skin peeled off from the friction of the atmosphere. The temperature inside the ship was beginning to rise. Inside, Ray and Achilles sat strapped into their seats while monitoring the only active vid-screen that displayed the hull’s temperature, and it continued to rise toward critical mass. They didn’t bother looking at one another. There was nothing to be said.
Raven spoke from within. That Elephim we fought with on the platform has drained us. Otherwise, we could save the ship.
Achilles swiveled its head and responded. We have done all that we are capable of performing. It is imperative now for Breeze to find the strength and the will to come to our aid.
Raven sighed. Our fate in the hands of a young man who is not aware of his potential. Has it come to this?
You must have faith in him, Achilles said.
My dear Achilles, most of my faith has faded from me a long time ago, Raven replied.
Oslo held tightly to Sally’s hand as the lighting flickered erratically throughout the ship. He was her anchor. He wouldn’t let her go.
Sally’s nose was bleeding profusely.
One of Excort’s sons came running down the stairs to the chamber. “Father, we have an incoming ship heading toward us!” he said breathlessly.
“Impossible! The fog has us hidden,” Excort said.
“Father, it is coming from high above, not from sea level,” his son responded.
Excort broke away from the reunion and followed his son up the stairs as they exited the dormitory and headed to the Administrative Building. They took the elevator up to the roof and stepped out into the brilliant sunshine. Situated in the middle was a rectangular structure with no windows and a metal door. A tower with a spiral staircase leading to the top stood next to it. On top of the tower laid an antenna array.
Excort rushed toward the structure. “Follow me, Xenthan.”
Xenthan ran behind his father. “The auxiliary air traffic control tower? I didn’t know it was still active,” he said.
They burst into a dimly lit room with only the glow of vid-screens to light up its interior, coupled with the endless hum of electronics operating at maximum capacity. All the walls were covered with consoles attached to vid-screens displaying data. In the middle stood a table with a glass surface.
Alongside one wall, a console beeped insistently with a glaring icon flashing across its vid-screen.
Xenthan pointed at it. “An automatic guidance sequence has been initiated. The computer is guiding a ship back to the island!”
Excort approached the console and typed in a series of commands. “The vessel’s transponder is identifying itself as the scout ship,” he said as data scrolled across the vid-screen.
“They were successful!” his son shouted.
“Were they? The plan was to send me an encoded message if they succeeded, then return to Appalachia from the Pacific Northwest where they were to remain until they were certain they had not been followed. Instead, the ship is unresponsive to any attempts to hail it. On top of that, it is sending out distress signals and the automatic pilot has been engaged. For all we know they could be dead, and the scout ship is a Trojan horse sent to infiltrate the island.” Excort grimaced and his eyes narrowed. “How can the ship be heading toward us with that trajectory? That can only be possible if the fog is not active.” He moved to another console and scanned its vid-screen. “The fog is down! How can this be? Why didn’t the alarms go off?” He typed commands and studied the data that scrolled across the screen. “Now the computer is telling me the emergency shielding is inactive and the generators are offline. What is happening here?”
Excort contacted his sons, who were with Mila by the pool, via his wireless earpiece. “Get the generators back online! Both the shield and the fog are inactive! We are exposed to those above!”
“Should we shut off the guidance system and divert the ship away from us?” Xenthan said.
“We could, but if they’re alive we might harm them. The ship is programmed to return to Perihelion if it’s in distress, but it must enter the vortex along a horizontal plane to safely traverse the fog. For any ship to approach Perihelion from a vertical descent can only mean that…its pilot knew the fog would be down and the island could be seen from above. If not the pilot, then it was the ship’s computer detecting that the fog is not active, and determined that a vertical descent would be more expedient.”
The dwarf clenched his fist. “Regardless, we are most likely the victims of sabotage. Perhaps the squadron of Elephim who invaded us before have not been fully purged from the island. Some may still be here and are responsible for shutting down the generators. By doing so, the ship can be tracked to expose Perihelion’s location. It is as if they knew we would all be gathered here in one location, making it much easier to destroy us all in one fell swoop.” The dwarf tilted his head to look up at the ceiling. “As if someone on that platform had planned this all along,” he muttered, and then shook his head. “No, we cannot divert them. We need to know if they are still alive. It is a risk we have to take.” Excort thumped the console. “I told that Scandinavian to leave things be and not stir up a hornets’ nest. No good would come of it.”
“Father, what are you talking about?”
“Never mind and follow me.”
Excort stepped out of the control room and clambered up the spiral stairs of the tower while Xenthan followed. At the apex of the tower was an observation platform. They stepped onto it and gazed up at the fiery trail slashing across the sky.
Xenthan squinted and shielded his eyes. “Do you really believe it is them?”
“We will find out soon enough,” Excort said.
Breeze relaxed his shield so that it hugged his skin. He could sense the patrol ships behind him as they pulsated with an energy that reverberated through his body.
The Elephim drifted even closer as one of them lifted a hand and pointed at him. The patrol ships responded by moving into a tighter formation.
Breeze felt a calm he had never known before as he drifted back into his mind and remembered the nights he spent in the desert struggling to master his power of flight. He recalled the joy and elation that swept over him when he lifted off the ground, or the hours he spent hovering in the night sky and marveling at the desert below, with the moon splashing its luminescence across the landscape. He felt that same power and energy rush through him now. He smiled and opened his eyes.
An Eleph
im hovering before him tilted his head quizzically.
Breeze ballooned his shield. The rapid expansion slammed the encroaching Elephim and sent them hurtling away as patrol ships were smashed into pieces.
Breeze hovered with his arms outstretched as he reveled in the surge of power. Lost in the moment, he barely heard Sally calling his name within his mind. He turned and saw the ribbon of light that trailed her was pulling her away.
“Come back to me!” she pleaded.
Breeze leaned forward and accelerated to chase her. He strained to grab her outstretched hand, but she was always out of reach. Just ahead of them was the scout ship, on fire and falling apart, as it plunged deeper into the upper reaches of the atmosphere. He could barely sense the light wave that once flowed freely through the ship.
Breeze spoke to her with the mind link they shared. “Sally, I won’t leave you, but I need to do something first.”
Breeze flew into the ship’s wake and trailed close behind it, then expanded his shield to encompass the vessel, which immediately snuffed out the burning flames consuming the ship. He gritted his teeth from the strain of containing such a large mass.
He tried to steer the ship back up into space, but it resisted him as rockets fired to adjust its course.
His shield instantly retracted and altered it shape to protect him as the exhaust from the rockets flung him away.
He regained control and turned to find the ship. He saw it in the distance as it plunged like a ball of fire into the atmosphere and rushed after it.
He changed his strategy, choosing this time to hover over the ship and keep pace with it. He expanded his shield around the vessel and tried to pull it up, but the gravitational pull was too powerful.
Sally glided up and touched his arm. Her touch felt electric and her voice echoed in his mind. “Oslo’s with me. He says the ship is on a fixed course, don’t try to alter it.”
Breeze nodded as he started to speak, and then grimaced as he concentrated to communicate to her by thought. “I understand that now. You need to go back.”
Breeze Corinth (Book 1): Sky Shatter Page 64