The rebel charged at him. Dasos picked up the pistol and fired at waist level. The Ginserei flinched. By the timed she looked down, stunned, the device on her belt was scorched and no longer working. Her face shifted into anger.
“Don’t,” Dasos said. “Just stay down.”
His words fell on deaf ears, however, and the unmasked rebel leapt at him one last time. The gun in his hand went off again. The laser pierced the woman before her body collapsed on top of Dasos. This made twice in one evening that he’d taken a life, which was something that the academy program had never trained him for.
He pulled himself out from beneath the dead rebel, and walked the rest of the way to the Engine Room. His ears rang. His face felt hot. The fighting went on, but he couldn’t hear it, or hear himself.
Within seconds he looked upon his father’s face. Keft’aerak freaked out and shouted at him as something hit Dasos in the side of his chest. The ceiling light swung around his face and drifted away. So, so far away from him.
* * *
Zoey took her mind off of things by further examining the mask she held. She found a pressure release mechanism inside, near to the nose. It didn’t quite detach the beak from the front of the mask, but it allowed for movement with which Zoey was able to twist the additional feature. It came off after twisting the beak a third of a circle in one direction.
Green dust burst from the beak and dissipated at once from the force of her motion handling it. She gave it a whiff and noted a few faint scents mingled together before taking it far away from her face.
“Zoey,” Bon’sinne said, “what do you think you’re doing?”
“Not sure yet,” Zoey said. “It smells a bit of some exotic flower and dried seaweed.”
Zoey looked inside the beak and saw a surface with holes the size of a pen tip. She deduced that the scent came from there, whatever it was.
Meanwhile, Tong-Chang sat to the side with a device in her hand. She had removed the belt from the fallen rebel and laid it on the ground next to her. She prodded the device with a set of pins that she kept in a small tool pouch.
“This is amazing,” Tong-Chang said. “Terrifying, but also amazing. It might explain how they’re getting around. It would take a really stupid state of a smarter mind to make that theory work!”
“Uhh, Tonny?” said Zoey.
“What’s up? Oh, sorry, I just get excited when I see pieces of technology like this.”
“What is it?”
“From what I can tell it uses an advanced matrix similar to our transmats, as you call them, but navigation is random without the right, or rather dangerous and wrong, mindset. The trigger takes an anchor or axis to even work at all. I’ve heard theories as to what can make this access, but the best so far has been a computer virus that adjusts a system’s frequency to match your level of compatibility induced by the state of mind.”
“I’m not sure I get it, but OK then?”
“These Hulda’fi have been getting around the ship with this if you’re right about what you saw. They had to make the ship into their own hub, or else they’d have risked teleporting outside and dying from the loss of air; or inside of a wall and being crushed in an instant.”
Zoey handed her the beak. She asked, “Could the contents of this be responsible at all? It smells weird.”
“I’d have to take that into a lab to have it analyzed by someone more experienced in chemistry than I am. Wait, you smelled it? H-how do you feel? Please tell me you aren’t out of your mind.”
“No more than usual.”
Tong-Chang’s eyes widened, and she stood up suddenly with the salute Zoey had seen around the ship. This prompted Zoey to turn around and see a young woman in uniform carrying a baby.
The officer said, “Um . . . At ease, ensign.” She limped toward the shuttle with her baby in both arms.
Bon’sinne had stood in stunned silence for a while, and quivered at the mouth as she looked at the Aelf officer and infant. Finally she approached the younger woman and said, “Here, let me help.”
She guided the officer into the shuttle and acted as support so the young woman would not have to put much weight on her bad foot.
“What happened, Lieutenant Junior?” Bon’sinne asked.
The young woman said, “How? Oh, right. It was nothing fancy. I twisted my ankle really bad when running to my baby. It'll be fine. My fiancé will have a laugh when this is all over, though.”
“Congratulations. Where is he now?”
“He’s detaching the enemy craft as we speak. Thank you, Captain, you’re too kind.”
Bon’sinne walked back out of the shuttle once the officer and her baby were settling down inside. Her hand shook, and she whispered something over and over about a mother and child.
Zoey put a hand on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I can’t,” Bon’sinne said. “I’ve had so many revolutions of an impressive career, and I just can’t. Not after what I did.”
Seeing a heart so exposed, so vulnerable, and so broken was never Zoey’s strong suit. As Dylan, he’d tried making quips and wisecracks, he’d tried being entertaining, but it never worked. Zoey wanted to run away again, but the woman before her needed someone more than anything. Zoey was that person.
She pulled in Bon’sinne and wrapped her arms around her. For the first time in her life, new or old, Zoey felt like she was doing the right thing. Suddenly she understood why her birth father had given up trying to raise her, and how unlike the man she really was. She’d met a family that cared. Her father would have wanted Dylan to have something like that. The family that had come for a girl that wasn’t really their daughter; the family that still reached out to her because she had nowhere to go.
Was that really how easy it was?
“Yes you can, Mom,” she said to Bon’sinne. “I don’t know what had happened to you, or what you’d done, but yes you can. I’m going to bring them back right now, and then we can all do this as a family.”
Then she broke away, and made a run for the Engine Room. This family needed to be made whole.
* * *
“The other boxes have serial numbers, Soror Valide,” said one of the others.
“We have the right one then,” Soror Valide said. “Send it to our stiern-boat at once, and head on up. It’s time we got out of here.”
“At once, sister.”
Two more of the Hulda’fi set the case down in the middle of the Engine Room and placed a transfer beacon on top of it. One of them activated it and took a step back. The black case glowed every possible color and then vanished. More of her brothers and sisters grabbed their devices and exploded in their respective puffs of smoke. That left her, two kindred, several bodies, and the anchor sticking through the floor of this room. Soror Valide had nodded to the others and reached for her belt when a familiar voice shouted from the next room.
“That was my son!” the man said.
Her team of Hulda’fi knew well their actions when it came to murdering people and causing mayhem. However, she walked past her kindred that were teleporting out of the ship. She had to see what had happened. She turned through a doorway to find a man fighting against the last few of the Kroke Team single-handedly.
Soror Valide knew the roster well, but had seen no mention of this man upon it. He was so full of rage, but there was no question as to who he was.
His gun ran empty after hitting one last Hulda’fi. He shifted into a martial arts stance without missing a second beat. Once upon a time, Soror Valide had wanted to spar against this man or his wife. However, the Kroke Team’s best knew how to fight dirty, and he eventually fell with one opponent still standing.
Then a girl screamed, “No!”
* * *
Several members of the ship’s crew, including a couple of the laeknir, were helping their comrades off of the ground even though the fighting was still happening. When Zoey got closer she saw that all that was left of the fight was one man
against a couple of Hulda’fi, and then only one. Keft’aerak was more amazing than Tong-Chang by leaps and bounds.
Her pride and wonder was cut short when she recognized one of the bodies on the floor. Zoey ran to Das’ithrios and crouched over him, telling herself that he wasn’t dead. The closest thing she had to a brother couldn’t possibly be dead.
Zoey lowered her ear to his chest. Heartbeats reached her ears a split second before contact, and the chest rose with all the strain of trying to lift all that it could handle. Das needed help, and he needed it now. The laeknir weren’t here to save him, and the palistick on the floor next to Das wasn’t going to help at all. She felt powerless. She hated it.
Then her own heart stopped at what she saw next. The rebel fighting Keft’aerak managed to break his arm and push the man down upon his knees. The rebel raised an arm for what might have been a final blow.
“No!” she screamed.
She dove and rolled forward. In one motion, Zoey managed to grab the palistick, hold the charge button, and throw the weapon at the Hulda’fi, who was too focused on their own target to turn and move.
The palistick spun in the air. There was no telling at first which end would hit where. In a miraculous first for Zoey, it struck the rebel in the neck. The rebel took a step back and grabbed their own throat before falling to the ground. Zoey had the satisfaction of watching the asshole hit the floor twice.
It wasn’t over, nor was it enough. One last rebel entered the room, their gaze focused entirely on Zoey. She noticed a few black bands wrapped around this rebel’s outfit, and the remains of a familiar discoloration on their chest from when Zoey was still on Earth. There was no other explanation for what Zoey saw. This had to be one of the two Hulda’fi that she’d encountered in that store.
“What?” the rebel asked. “Who—?”
Zoey screamed and ran at this person. This nightmare needed to end. There was only one person she blamed for it.
* * *
Soror Valide knew this face and hair too well, but who was this woman now charging at her? Who had this impossible face of hers? Soror Valide had another beacon on her, and was prepared to use it to get that answer in the safety of her own craft.
She blocked the mystery woman’s first blow with a stranger ease than normal. Her secondary sight was working overtime, seeing everything in slightly longer intervals than it did on most days. Where a few people around the room suddenly moved and then didn’t, and back and forth, this raging woman assaulting her never once deviated from was she was about to do.
That was when Soror Valide began to repeat what her best teachers of hand-to-hand had taught her revolutions ago. The new aim here was to subdue and bring back this person.
First she caught a punch and chopped the girl’s elbow without using too much force. Breaking it would have caused heavy trauma. Soror Valide continued from this position to punch the woman in the face with the backside of her free hand. She then freed her left hand and closed her fist for a quick jab into the girl’s torso.
The other girl coughed and kneeled. She tried so hard to scream or to breathe. She then got back up and proceeded to move in three directions at once. A fourth, unseen move proved to be the truth as the mystery woman managed to lift Soror Valide up from between her legs. Before she could move against this attack, Soror Valide felt her body fly backwards through the air and then hit the ground.
She quickly picked back up a defensive position as the other woman charged at her. This time there was only one attack that she went for, and Soror Valide was ready for it. She caught the incoming kick and threw it aside, leaving the second leg open for the open-palmed punch to the side of the knee. She thought to deliver another closed fist to the stomach, but Soror tackled her opponent and reached for the device inside her harness.
All of a sudden, the world flashed and spun. Something powerful hit Soror in the side of the mask. It stung and burned. She looked past the woman that she had fought and covered what she found to be an open space in her mask with her hand.
* * *
It took Zoey a second to realize that the Hulda’fi was no longer on top of her after a loud, yet dull bang. She sat up, still angry but also frightened of what else this rebel was going to do to her. Zoey was clearly outmatched.
She did, however, hear someone lay claim. “She’s mine,” the angered voice shouted.
Zoey sat up and saw the other person doing the same while everyone else in the room was busy trying to get away. That strange mask now had a hole in it, revealing a stunning green eye until the rebel covered the hole with her hand and looked toward one of the corridors; Zoey wasn’t sure what direction it was anymore.
There was Bon’sinne. She trained her gun on the Hulda’fi and said, “That was a stunning blast. The next five will be killing blows if you don’t get the fuck away from my family right now.”
Down the other corridor, Captain Druvvin arrived with a couple more officers with their weapons ready, and the head laeknar, Doctor Saludalta, stood behind them with a medical kit.
The rebel shot a strange glare through her mask’s opening at Zoey while her hand grabbed something in her harness. It was anger still, but also fear. Seconds later she glowed and vanished before anyone else could get near her.
“Cleanse our system at once,” Captain Druvvin commanded his officers. “Ensign Leezu will be here shortly to aid you. Doctor, save who you can. You, give me a hand with sealing the deck before we’re sucked out.”
One of the officers grabbed a kit lying on the ground and followed the captain into the room. Crackling and suction sounds boomed as they got deeper inside. Then came a deafening silence until one person’s sobbing caught Zoey’s attention.
Bon’sinne held her son’s hand, and was crying.
[ 09]
His eyes and ears reopened to the world around him. All the smells of a clinic found his nose as well. He felt as though his body had been dragged through a field of hot volcanic rock. The white and green interior, and the sounds of medical devices, confirmed what he already knew. Das’ithrios sat up nice and slow, careful not to injure himself further, and the head laeknar approached his bed. His chest still ached, and his muscles felt drained of energy.
Zoey sat by the bed too. Rather, she slept with her arms and head upon the mattress. There was a book beneath one of her hands, opened a fair way into the book’s thin page count.
He looked back up to the laeknar and said, “What happened, Doctor?”
“A foolish young man got himself shot and almost killed,” the laeknar said. “At least you’re awake now, and you’re recovering. Your sister here refused to leave your side until you got better.”
The privacy curtain between Dasos’s bed and the next opened. His father smiled at him and stood up. The man’s right arm was in a soft cast.
“Hey, you’re up finally,” Keft’aerak said.
“In a manner of speaking,” said Dasos. “Is your arm OK?”
“It’s fine. I just need a few more days of therapy and it’ll be as good as new. We all thought we’d lost you, you know. You were one of the lucky ones.”
Das dropped his gown after prying the front collar with a thumb and checking his body. As far as he could tell, everything was still there that was supposed to be there. Then he wondered if Zoey would have appreciated him making a joke about still being the same gender.
As if on cue with his train of thought, Zoey murmured in her sleep, “You’re such a butthead.”
The doctor said, “You should be up in a couple more days, Das’ithrios. As much as I’m happy to help you, I’d also appreciate it if your whole family made a habit of not ending up in my medical facilities.”
Keft’aerak nudge Zoey on the shoulder to wake her gently. All it did, though, was prompt another murmur in her sleeping state.
“Funyuns are friends, what?” she said. Dasos and his father exchanged a look and laughed silently. They weren’t entirely sure what that was about, but Zoey wa
s definitely mid-dream.
The main door opened to allow entry for Bon’sinne. She walked in carrying a couple cups, and she smiled at Dasos upon seeing that he was awake.
“Excuse me,” Keft’aerak said as he walked toward his wife. Food and beverages were generally not allowed past that door, and so they went outside to the waiting area.
Zoey stirred from her slumber at last. After staring at Dasos for a couple of seconds through squinted eyes, she jumped up and gave Dasos a tight hug. The weight of her body put pressure on his chest, which hurt a fair deal, but he allowed it for now.
“Don’t go jumping in front of crap like that,” she said. “I finally had something I never thought I’d have, and you damn near took it from me by dying.”
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