Elysium Shining

by Terri Kraemer

“Touching. Sentimental value has never been my strong suit, I’m afraid. I could have sworn I told you this.”

  “I have to get you two out of here. You’re in danger, and I thought coming down here to save you was the least that I can do.”

  “Soror Valide has a heart?”

  “Wrong sister, but yes she does.”

  Ethan stepped toward Zoey and examined her. There was a sense that he was trying to figure out who this woman was and why she looked like Il’lyse, as well as why she cared. Zoey restrained herself from calling him her father.

  “Nope, I don’t get it,” said Ethan. “Are you her twin?”

  “Not exactly,” Zoey said. “Il’lyse is my older sister. She’s safe now.”

  “Good. Good, she’s using a real name now. It’s ironic, you know. I gave up on trying to raise my son, but I think that woman was the closest I’ve come to trying to raise a child of my own. My son on Earth deserves better than me.”

  “Dylan deserved better than his uncle.”

  “How do you know that name? I’m not sure I ever shared it with anyone.”

  “Never mind about that. Do the two of you have any means of getting out of here safely? Any moment the Hulda’fi who was sent down here is bound to come down here with the two guards that I sent away, and possibly more. I don’t know what I’m going to do about my own safety, but the two of you need to get out of here while these cultists prepare to make their next move.”

  Both men looked at one another. The Aelf scientist rolled his eyes and moved to the device on the table.

  “This is a mock-up of the model we built some time ago,” said the man called Valkoi’ves. “It shouldn’t work, as far as they know upstairs, but we rigged it with spare parts and this man’s skill with math and coding. Once we activate it, the device will expend itself to open an unstable wormhole. Unfortunately we were only able to supply sufficient power and mass to travel as far as outside the atmosphere.”

  “We were planning to tear a hole from here to there, and vacuum as much as we could of this house, and everyone in it, into outer space,” said Ethan. “Our second plan was to open a wormhole to somewhere else on this planet. There is an underground laboratory that we were never allowed to visit during our stay here, and going there would be as suicidal, but nowhere as effective at hitting them back for all they’re planning to do with our work.”

  “We don’t trust them with it.”

  Zoey shook her head and said, “Idiots, both of you. These guys are planning to leave here in less than an hour.”

  “That doesn’t give you much time to get away, does it?”

  “It gives you a chance to hide under their noses. Go to their lab, now, while they are trying to leave. Then try to contact the Peacekeepers once they’ve arrived.”

  “And what if they haven’t left yet, young lady. What if you are wrong?”

  “How would you feel about destroying their genesis nectar?”

  While Ethan looked at her with curiosity and confusion, the other man regarded her with a level of terror and anger that he hadn’t shown until now. Valkoi’ves came closer to Zoey, his eyes narrowing.

  He said, “Genesis nectar, you say?”

  * * *

  The first chamber was locked out. Of course it was. Il’lyse followed everyone into the facility and asked the officers to stand back. There was a window here on the side where the people inside of the lab could see the visitors. She approached the reinforced glass and stared at one of the security guards with a smile. The girl on the other side turned pale.

  The security guard switched her focus from Il’lyse to a shielded button and back again. It was a yellow one as wide as two thumbs, encased in a transparent case. She dove to flip the case. But it was too late. Il’lyse had slammed her hand on the green and black panel by the door, causing it to radiate a warm scan through her hand and then open the door. The Hulda’fi had not yet purged her from the system.

  She heard the alarm sound once the guard hit the button. The door screeched. Men and women ran for the third and final door from both sides, though it was closed. The first door came down from the ceiling, locking the invaders in. Dasos, who had borrowed something from their travel companions, threw a concussive grenade at the second door and pulled Il’lyse aside. The blast came.

  Then the air moaned, and the walls groaned. Something was coming. It wasn’t a security protocol that Il’lyse recognized.

  [ 56]

  The window cracked. The hallway jolted. The overhead lights all blinked and sputtered. Once half of the lights came back, the air convulsed against the inside of the window.

  A wormhole formed inside of the security station behind the glass, but there was something wrong with it. The wormhole pulsed in size, and the event horizon rippled. Two men hopped through it. One of them, who was a human, beckoned at the hole in reality. Seconds later the anomaly closed, and both men ducked for cover inside of the security station when two of the guards decided to come and investigate.

  On the ground near them was the female Hulda’fi that Dasos had seen. She was struggling to get up, and groaned. He could hear her since the glass was broken.

  “Hey, you two,” Dasos said to the men, who looked his way, “open the door for us and we’ll get you out of here.”

  Il’lyse peeked over at them and said, “Doctor, hurry. I can explain later.”

  The human gave Il’lyse, in particular, an odd glance before scanning around the booth and pointing to a button that the other man was close to. The Aelf among them dashed for it and hit the button. One of the Hulda’fi guards shot the man, blowing a chunk out of his left arm. He screamed and collapsed back into cover, at which point the guard who had been in there when this started got on her feet.

  As the third door opened down, Dasos ran forward. He took out his second, and last, concussive grenade that he had borrowed from the Peacekeepers, and chucked it for the slow-moving opening. The grenade ricocheted off of the ceiling by the door and fell on the other side where the rebels were waiting. He ran back to the second door with a chuckle. He hadn’t activated the grenade, but the Hulda’fi didn’t know that. It was a gamble he had to take. Judging by how his sister peered through the window at an angle and shook her head at him with a smirk, he guessed it worked well enough to give the officers seconds, or longer, to get through.

  “You’re such a dork,” she said.

  “And what about you?”

  “I’m an unstable psycho bitch still trying to make sense. Watch this. Hey, guard!”

  Il’lyse got up and knocked on the window. With the same hand she balled up her fist and extended her middle and ring fingers. She thrust them sideways so the guard could see it. The guard looked repulsed by her rude hand gesture. Il’lyse got back down and looked her brother in the eyes, her expression as plain as a Natt Grans afternoon.

  His twin sister was going to need help one day; that much was for sure. How much would change when that happened, though?

  * * *

  Zoey stepped forward through the wrecked room. That was merely an unstable wormhole that had ripped through this basement. She had to stay back. She had to stay here and wait for her next move. In seconds, she knew she didn’t have to wait long. Feet, heavy and hurrying, tapped against the stairs above. Zoey put the mask back on and waited for the newcomers. There were three Hulda’fi who entered the room. The trio whipped her heads across the sight of the room.

  “They’re so gone now,” Zoey said, returning to her false pep voice. “They were plotting some sort of silly escape. Ooh, you should have seen it. Things went all ‘murr’ and then ‘eeh,’ until a hole opened in the air. It ripped them from here while it was all open and stuff, after I messed with their makeshift machine they built. So now they’re in the middle of the frozen wastes, I think it was? I was never good at geography.”

  In truth, Zoey was acceptable or more with the subject. It was the sole reason she knew that Dereskoo was supposed to be an icy planet with a
stormy atmosphere. Now was a matter of the three Hulda’fi buying her story.

  “Who are you?” said the one in the back.

  “I’m, you know, the one who dealt with those guys,” said Zoey.

  “We don’t think so. Who do you serve?”

  “Who do we all serve? There’s this fairy queen, and we adore her. You know! We’d all die for her, or something.”

  “You’re really strange. Perhaps we should take you to Lady Tunderek when she is done having her little chat with one of our sisters. Maybe she can make out who you really are.”

  “Whoa, do you know how cool you sound right now? I wish I could sound like that.” Yes, she really did. Right now she felt like even her own brain cells were packing for a one-way trip to the other side of the universe. “Every time I try to sound all smart or awesome I end up doing a dumb. Ooh, I think I skipped breakfast.”

  Two of the Hulda’fi bobbed their heads as if reaching some agreement with all that Zoey was saying, and Zoey thought she might have to ask them what that was if this went on any longer. The third one, who had been questioning her, raised a shaking hand to their masked face and pressed their palm against it.

  “Seize her,” the one in the rear said.

  * * *

  The diversion had allowed the lieutenant and officers to go in strong as they entered the main section of the facility. While the combat suits and masks worn by the Hulda’fi could stand a stunning blow, to some degree, from the standard weapons of the Allied Peacekeepers, the guards posted here fell as quickly as they were hit once or twice. The Peacekeepers did the shooting, and the Trullwick Police officers, though few and far from home, bound the fallen security as soon as they could reach them. Guards had fled from their first defensive post by the third door. Some went into nooks that they could find on the ground level, some took to high ground, though one fell when a stunning blast hit them at the top of the ladder, and three stood at their station with two hostages.

  Il’lyse spotted the ajar door that led into the office for bookkeeping. It was harder to tell, between the distance and the gunfire, if there was anyone in there who was peeking through that opening, or if it was her imagination. Given what she knew, she figured that plenty of Hulda’fi were hiding in there.

  None of the police or Peacekeepers wanted her to touch a gun. They had been reluctant as it was to let her bring them here, and even then it was because she knew how to operate the stiern-boat while the rest of them knew nothing of piloting those craft. She wanted to prove useful. Once again, she came to realize, she was in the same building where she wanted to do as much. The Hulda’fi had wanted her dead when her usefulness was over, and soon the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance would want her brought to justice once she was done helping them. She ogled the Hulda’fi guns on the ground where the first guards had fallen, and she relented from her desire to pick one up.

  Do the right thing, look better when judgment comes. Cold, infinite beyond, she dreaded the idea. The abyss behind her was almost comforting compared to whatever sentence awaited her. She felt the darkness calling back to her.

  She turned for the security station where two of the Peacekeeper officers were in a standoff against the three guards. The way to those girls was clear. It was easy. Il’lyse trod the concrete walkway. She glanced up and saw the growing fear and anger in their eyes as one of them shouted at her. Il’lyse didn’t bother to listen past the sounds of gunfire. She loomed closer and closer to the security station and raised her hands.

  “Stand down,” she said, her voice calm. “None of you needs to get hurt.”

  “Stay back!” one girl shouted at her. The guard’s pistol pressed to Doctor Wilde’s face.

  “I have come to apologize to every last one of you. Who among you did I help to convert? Who among you did I kidnap? Who among you lost a child to this laboratory like I had done?”

  “Ack! So it was true?” said Doctor Rakendaya, clutching what was left of his arm and seething in pain over it.

  “Today that ends so none of us have to go through the pain. Not ever again. No one needs to repeat the mistake made hundreds of revolutions ago. Twice for me was twice too many. I didn’t get a say in it; the one girl who tried was killed for it.”

  One guard dropped her gun arm to her side and said, “Soror Valide, what are you talking about?”

  Il’lyse was close now. She could have risked these men’s lives further by leaping forward and using her hands to take down the guards. No, she needed something on her conscience; something positive. It sounded more and more like her sister, but there, too, was the echo of their mom saying she believed in Il’lyse.

  She said, “Do you not know what genesis nectar is, or why some of us have been sick for days following our visits to the laeknar here? Chan-Yeol lied to us. He lied to some of us more than others.”

  “No, the Lord Tunderek never lies. Do not speak such blasphemy.”

  “I’ve told myself this same lie many times.”

  “Stop it. You betrayed us. We do not listen to traitors.”

  “I truly am sorry.”

  Another guard dropped her gun; except this time to the floor. She said, “You’re supposed to be heartless. You’re supposed to be the one we fear most around here.”

  “There are only three people here who need to fear me. Three people took away our choices, our identities, our lives, and subjected us to things we were never meant to know in our lifetimes. Two of them did it because we were vulnerable. They were the wrong people at the right time. Let me be the right person for you.”

  “What about these symptoms I’ve been feeling lately? Sister Valide, do I go to the laeknar or not?”

  “Not this one. Tell these men you need medical help. Don’t do what our sister did a revolution ago. Don’t risk your life. If you don’t believe me yet, then ask the laeknar who will help you. You might save another, if you so choose it.”

  She thrust her hand forward, and the girl flinched. However, Il’lyse didn’t strike her. Her hand touched against the guard’s lower abdomen. She couldn’t remember the last time that she’d gazed upon anyone with kindness outside of her true family. There was no telling if she had succeeded this time or not, even as the girl fell to her knees and wept into her hands.

  As the guard who held her pistol to the side went to embrace her Hulda’fi sister, the third and last guard snarled at everyone. The third guard lifted her gun from the side of Doctor Rakendaya’s head.

  “Traitors, all of you,” she said. Then she popped the end of the pistol into her mouth and pulled the trigger. Her headless body plummeted, leaving the remaining guards and injured scientist all in varying states of shock.

  “Damn it,” said Il’lyse, averting her gaze from the security station. Her brother was there when she had turned.

  “You tried,” Dasos said as the Peacekeepers went into the station. “You didn’t have to, but you saved most of them.”

  “Of course I had to. You’re not the only one with a soft side. I don’t even know if this deed of mine will matter in the end.”

  “It matters to me. Let it matter to you, sis.”

  “Ugh, you really are a dork.”

  Il’lyse buried her face against his clavicle and enfolded her arms around him. He was warm. There were few places in the universe left where Il’lyse felt safe, and this was one of them.

  “Excuse me,” said an older gentleman behind her. It was Doctor Wilde. “You’ve changed for the better, my dear. I wish I was still able in my old age.”

  “Don’t be hard on yourself, Doctor Wilde,” she said. “It’s thanks to you and my family that I have a soul left. Saving you was the least that I could do.”

  “Yes, family. I’m glad you found yours, Il’lyse.”

  “Where did you hear that name?”

  “There was a girl who told me. She spoke weird and looked exactly like you. I think she was your—.”

  “Zoi’ne! Where did you see Zoi’ne?”

  “In our
comfy little basement. She refused to step through the wormhole with us. I can hardly imagine what she’s up to now.”

  She turned to Dasos with her eyes widened. “She’s here. She was on that stiern-boat. Shit, I have to go save her.” Il’lyse ran for the wardrobe full of cold weather gear. There was no time to argue over what belonged to whom. Everything in this cabinet was hers if she needed it.

  Dasos said, “Lyssa, wait. What are you doing?”

  “I’m finding Zoi’ne, and we’re going to put a stop to this madness. Don’t ask me how. Planning was always more your thing.” She slipped on a second layer of pants, a fur coat, and a cap that covered her ears. Damn it, she forgot the protective mask. She grabbed it. “Make sure you help these men in any way you can. At least one of them knows how to operate the boat outside. Doctor Rakendaya needs help, but it looks like one of the officers is bandaging him now.”