Elysium Shining

by Terri Kraemer

  “I think, in some of our histories, we’ve had rich societies of our own who were as dedicated to showing off how rich and polished they were. That sounds about right to the sort of thing they would do for their gatherings.”

  “Did you have an eccentric rich person launch a land-based car into space to promote their brand?”

  “I’m not so sure about that one.”

  Keft’aerak said, “I’m sure you have some stories about Earth’s attempts at space travel.”

  Zoey said, “I might, but hardly any are as entertaining as one man playing golf on the moon, unless you count the many works of fiction Earth has about space travel.”

  “Golf? What’s that?”

  “Man swings club to hit a ball, man chases after ball, man repeats until ball enters a hole, and sometimes another man provides dry commentary in a low, soft voice guaranteed to make the mightiest caveman fall asleep before the next club can be swung.”

  Zoey took a bite of the roasted meat and noted how much stronger the flavor was than chicken, despite being so similar in color.

  “What is this, by the way? It’s delicious.”

  “The meat was synthesized to emulate coyaturns, a type of bird. I roasted it with some seasoning and pineapple juice. Those were actually found on the ship, waiting to be bought and used. I’m glad you like it. I’m sure the meat would have been even better with real coyaturns, but we’re a bit far from anywhere that allows hunting them.”

  “What other meats can be synthesized?”

  “There are lots. One of us can probably tell you about every animal catalogued by the machine. It made for a great advance many revolutions ago, but only recently it was made as good as it is now. The raw ingredients turn out better than the finished products, however. I wish I could tell you why.”

  “I haven’t been able to use one yet, but that’s good to know. I guess that’s on my list of everyday things I have to learn, too.”

  Everyone in the family nodded at her. There was so much that Zoey still didn’t know, and much of that she probably didn’t even know to ask about. She thought about it as she ate. What was the first, or next, thing she needed to learn? What was something so basic for everyone else that would help her?

  “I need to learn how to read,” she said. “I knew how to read in English back on Earth, and a tiny bit of other languages there as well, but only if they used the same alphabet.” She recognized the confused glances she was getting from her hosts, and explained, “That’s what Earth Humans call letters, or lewd runes or whatever you call them.”

  Das chuckled and said, “Lyurunics.”

  “Yep, those. While we were playing that game earlier I think I recognized some of your letters, assuming that they make the same sounds. I’ve seen some around the ship too. Other than that, I don’t know. I feel like I should since it would help me as much as it would everyone else.”

  Then, without any warning that Zoey could see, Bon’sinne burst into tears. Everyone else set down their forks and knives, and looked at her. Zoi’ne felt her heart sink and wondered what, if anything, she did wrong.

  “I’m so sorry,” Bon’sinne said. “I’ll be fine. Really, I will. Oh, this isn’t fair, to any of you, but I miss my daughter too much. Part of me keeps wanting to see her when I look at you. Part of me wants to hear her when you speak. You share some of what we knew and loved about her, but that makes it so much harder.”

  Zoi’ne reached out and placed her hand on Bon’sinne’s, in spite of the hurt those words brought her. She said, “I know I can never replace her. I would never hope to. If I may ask, if it might help, would you be willing to tell me what she was like?”

  “Maybe later. You’re too kind trying to comfort me. I’ll be fine. I don’t know why I’ve been like this lately. If you still want to know later, maybe I can tell you.

  “I’m looking forward to it.” Zoey wasn’t entirely sure why, but that was the honest truth.

  * * *

  The craft flew at high speeds while keeping its distance and avoiding detection. The leader of the Kroke Team checked on the pilot and fuel levels. Their stiern-boat could last two more days before needing to be picked up by their allies. Where was the signal that they were waiting for?

  The team’s leader folded her arms as she sat in the pilot’s seat. This mission was edging closer to failure with every passing hour. It didn’t help that she was on edge for the last few weeks either. The Hulda’fi needed that cryogenic case. Recovering it was the Kroke Team’s main purpose out here.

  As soon as the insider signaled them, it was go time.

  Suddenly, she saw it. A light flashed and drifted away from the Marslou. There was no time left now for anyone to investigate the source of that light.

  “Kroke Team, let’s go boys and girls.”

  [ 06]

  Zoi’ne turned upon the bed and realized that she was awake again. Around her was the smaller room that she was staying in during this trip, rather than the vague dream that now faded into nothingness without a shred of memory. She remained at the point of figuring out if the dreams were fading, or if this was the dream now. The same sensation had been going for the last few days.

  Above her was a false window. Behind it was a hallway and back-end of the top deck of the ship. It was possible to project the outside, with a five-second delay, as the Marslou flew through outer space. It was possible to see other backdrops as well, but she had yet to play around with too many of the visual settings.

  The holographic tinting inside her window remained dark. It was one of the few settings she had learned until now. She swapped to the digital clock setting to check the time, and had to remind herself that this ship ran on twenty-five hour days. Despite Zoey’s gripes about doing even basic math after waking up, she figured out that three hours had passed since she went to bed.

  She got up to grab a glass of water, the window’s effect still set to the Marslou’s clock. Zoey straightened out the nightgown that Tong-Chang had lent her, and then walked to the miniature station in one corner of her room where an empty cup and pitcher of water awaited her.

  As soon as she grasped the handle on the water pitcher, though, the ship shook with sudden force, causing Zoey to lose her balance and lose her footing. Zoey caught herself on the counter out of instinct, reducing her fall.

  At the top of the walls, before the ceiling, was a black strip about the width of a finger that ran around the room where the false window. In a strange sense of double vision where the secondary sight appeared a fraction of a second later, Zoey twice witnessed the strip turn yellow in places. The yellow spots proceeded to glide in one direction around the room.

  Logic told her to stay put and let the ship’s crew handle whatever was going on. Deep down, however, Zoi’ne knew that she needed to put on a simple change of clothes and find the Thalassas family. She grabbed a pair of pants, a hoody, and a pair of slip-on shoes, and changed quickly as she headed out the door. Whatever was going on or needed to happen next, the wonderful people she’d eaten dinner with this evening were the right people to figure out what to do.

  The larger suite in which the family was staying was a few doors down on the other side of the corridor. Zoey tapped the main button atop the array found next to the door, but neither saw nor heard any response yet.

  Meanwhile, in the distance, she could hear the sounds of explosions and other bursts. One burst, in particular, popped as far back as the hallway behind her room. She tapped the button some more.

  * * *

  Dasos thought he heard a ringing sound. It brought him out of a state of floating bliss and into a groggy stupor. As soon as he noticed the shifting lights of a yellow alert, he sat up in bed and found both of his parents rummaging through their packs. He was unsure if they had gone to bed in the last few hours.

  His mother was first to extract her gun. She said, “Dasos, dear, you can probably go back to sleep.”

  “Says the woman carrying her defense weapon,�
�� Dasos remarked.

  “We’re just preparing for the unlikely. Someone’s at the door, by the way.” The ringing sound repeated when she said that. “Why don’t you check the door for us since you’re up?”

  The door’s tone repeated again and again more frantically as Dasos approached. He switched open the locking mechanism. The door slid open, but faster than that Zoey went from looking off to the side, down the corridor, to tackling against Dasos.

  “Look out!” she screamed as she landed on him with the full force of her weight. He was surprised, but managed to hold his ground, catching her. Something fast and invisible struck the doorway. It was strong, because it blew a hole in one side, scorch marks present but minimal.

  In the chaos, Dasos’s parents whispered something that sounded like codes of some sort. His father said, “Both of you get down.”

  He barely got a look at them before crouching down on the ground, taking Zoey with him. His parents aimed their sidearms at the doorway. At first there were faint footsteps, then nothing. The door tried to close. The upper track screeched in pain. Then again – nothing.

  “It’s them,” Zoey whispered. “It’s them, it’s them, it’s them.”

  A figure leapt into the doorway in a crouch. Their outfit matched no one else on the ship, and they wore charcoal hoods and strange masks, with yellow eye pieces and beaks over their nose and mouth.

  Before Dasos could ascertain any more than that, his parents fired their weapons. The invader got a shot off, but it flew into the ceiling, putting a dent in it. The masked individual fell back, no longer able to respond to anything.

  “Is that a Hulda’fi?” Dasos asked.

  His parents confirmed as much in varying words that he wasn’t really listening to. He got up and looked at the rebel lying on the floor. Dasos had only read about these guys, and seen low quality pictures, until now. He heard of their questionable ways long before they had become violent like they were in recent revolutions. He knew, as well, that they took someone he had broken up with after she moved away so Dasos never got to see the Hulda’fi responsible.

  But Zoey? She’d seen them once up close. These were the folks she saw back on Earth; they had to be. What were they doing there?

  Zoi’ne said, “Is everyone alright? I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to do when I saw the yellow lights.”

  “You’re fine, dear,” Bon’sinne said. “We probably would have gone looking for you if you hadn’t.”

  “Who are those guys?”

  The ship’s alarm sounded. The lights changed to orange. Captain Druvvin’s voice came over the intercom without skipping a beat. He said, “Battle stations! Everyone report who is presently able. The rest of you report in and stand by for further orders. In the meantime, make sure any guests or family are escorted to a safe place.”

  “I’m going to help them,” Dasos’s father said. “This isn’t my ship, but it’s the least I can do with these Hulda’fi running around.”

  “Come back to me when you can, my love,” said Dasos’s mother. “I’m going to secure the escape nearest craft in case they decide to go that way. We don’t know what tactics they’re using here, or if they’re after anything.”

  “Agreed. You two?” He looked over at Dasos and Zoey.

  Zoey said, “The last time I saw these guys, my old life ended. At least I think it’s them.”

  “You saw them on Earth?”

  “It might have been different ones. The three on Earth didn’t have bird beaks over their mouths. Wait.”

  Zoi’ne rushed over and knelt by the Hulda’fi raider and looked more closely at the mask. Das wanted to tell her to be careful. They didn’t know if the person on the floor was unconscious, dead, or simply faking it.

  She removed the Hulda’fi pistol with enough care to pick a plush animal toy from a sleeping toddler, and then did the less careful act of waving it sideways in Dasos’s direction. He grabbed it, his heart clenching harder than his fists around the strange weapon. Luckily, it didn’t go off, and neither did the person lying on the ground get up.

  “It looks fastened to the mask,” she said, “but not built in. I don’t see how to remove it, either—ah!”

  The Hulda’fi lunged at her with their hands at her neck. Dasos and his mother called out to Zoey as she and the raider rolled out of the doorway into the corridor.

  * * *

  As they wrestled against one another, all of a sudden, Zoey could hear the distorted and pained voice of someone laughing.

  “So long,” her new foe said between the laughs. “I’ve waited for this. I must kill you—”

  Zoey punched at her attacker through their attempt to strangle her. Striking the mask hurt her own hand as well, but she hoped that it was able to stun this person. It didn’t seem to have the full effect that she wanted. Then she wasted no more time and pushed the masked assailant off of her with her legs.

  Then they screamed out when something pounded against the surrounding air with a loud thud. There was Das, pointing the strange pistol at its previous owner and breathing heavily. His eyes filled with trying to figure out what he had done, despite knowing the answer already. He didn’t want the answer, but it was there in plain view.

  Now there was a corpse next to Zoey in a contorted position. She slid over and lifted the mask while this person faced down. The lifeless eyes of a male Aelf stared across the floor. His face looked so young, but how could Zoey tell for certain?

  She looked up at Das and said, “Thank you.”

  “Of course,” he said, getting a grip of himself. “That was dangerous.”

  “I’ll be more careful. I think I needed this so I can understand better what all of this is about.”

  “How much can you make out from that?”

  “That’ll take some time, at least. Let’s get going.”

  Back at the door to the guest suite, Bon’sinne was tinkering with a device that reminded Zoey of cellular phones back home. A holographic list seemed to hover above the phone between the top and bottom edges of it, and she scrolled down it swiftly with the internal surface below the glowing image. Bon’sinne made a selection and walked back deeper into the suite.

  “Can I help you, Captain Thalassas?” asked Captain Druvvin.

  Bon’sinne said, “I’m hoping to hear how else we can help, Captain. We’ve taken down one of the rebels invading your ship, and I’m about to make my way to your escape crafts to secure the area.”

  “I’m not sure securing the escape crafts will be entirely necessary at this time. I’ve ordered guests and family members be taken there as a matter of protocol.”

  “I’ve read reports to the contrary, and you know what happened during my last mission before I retired. Consider it the least I can do.”

  “Very well. If you must know, we have been yanked out of Delta Warp, as well as general motion being halted. Five of my crew have been picked up as missing by the ship’s sensors, as well as two being dead. These rebels are zipping back and forth across the ship. It’s clear that they are looking for something other than trouble. I fear it may be the object that I had an ensign relocate for analysis before she went off to report to the admiral and his wife for the night, and she’s among the ones missing. The primary energy shield is down. We are now trying to detach the rebel craft, but need to send some of my men and women to do so manually.”

  “This does not bode well.”

  “I am well aware of the situation. If you wish to secure the escape crafts then you may also wish to take your family to Shuttle Re since it’s the closest to your suite. We will be reaching red alert in five minutes. Captain out.”

  Zoey said, “Tonny’s missing.”

  “What?” asked Bon’sinne.

  “Tong-Chang was assigned to taking care of the admiral and his wife when she isn’t on other duties.”

  “Well, I’m heading to the escape craft. We will need to hurry so we can keep things orderly over there.”

  Keft’
aerak re-appeared from wherever he had been hiding, now wearing plainer clothes instead of pajamas. He said, “I’m ready to go. I’ll go help with detachment. If those rebels are clever and want something on this ship then they will be guarding the area closest to their exit.”

  “Lover, please take care, and come back to me. You two are with me.”

  There was a grunting sound by the door. Das shook himself out of his daze and wiped a hand across his face. After a deep breath he said, “I got your back.” Then his body quivered for a second.

  His mother nodded at him knowingly. Her frown spoke volumes of someone who wanted to comfort their child after some trauma, but there was no time. There was so much more still to do. So much more to do . . .