Elysium Shining

by Terri Kraemer

  “Sure. I’ll come meet you both when I’m done.”

  “Wait.” Zoey grabbed a pistol. “Let’s hope I don’t have to use this.”

  She was certain that she’d seen a stairway or two going to the upper floor while looking around for the basement. Zoey ran into the room again where the Ginserei girl was still sitting. She had a better idea than to wander around for ages.

  “Which way is the Lady?” Zoey said on her approach.

  “Go left, right, forward twice, sharp right to the stairs, and make one last left.”

  “Thank you!”

  After more running and fighting than she had planned while wearing the stupid mask on her face, Zoey slowed by the end of the stairs, again hoping that she got the directions right.

  She heard two women talking in the next room. Zoey entered the space where she found Fe’remene sitting on a chair, basking in duplicity between light and shadow. Where the light shone the Lady’s pink and white dress shimmered. Her devious eyes fell on Zoey as she walked behind the rosewood-haired woman in the room.

  “Ho-ho, I believe you have a sister approaching who agrees with me; or perhaps a brother. Come, do you not agree that her place is here?” said Fe’remene.

  In truth Zoey was unhappy that her siblings had come here, throwing away the effort that Zoey had taken. But she loved them both for trying. The Lady of the manor, though, still made her sick to her stomach. Zoey wondered, after how her fight against Buska had ended, if she could really shoot anyone. For this one woman, she was willing to make an exception.

  She raised the pistol in her hand toward Il’lyse, and said, “You shouldn’t have come here, sister.” Her hand quivered as she took aim. “Down, Lyssa.”

  Il’lyse raised a brow over her narrowed eyes, and pursed her lips. She said, “Do it then,” then dropped to the floor.

  Zoey pressed the trigger. The blast flew over her sister’s falling head and went for the woman in the chair, whose eyes darted open. The blast clipped the side of her face and made her scream out. Her right ear, or what was left of it, was bleeding. A hole had also been blown open in the wall behind the rebel queen. Zoey kept the small pistol trained on Fe’remene in one hand, and removed her mask with the other one.

  “I should teach you how to aim better,” said Il’lyse.

  “Save it for a day when we don’t have to shoot anyone,” Zoey said.

  “No,” said Fe’remene, “now neither of you are getting out of here alive.”

  She leapt to the side and then at Zoey. Zoey had to release her senses, allowing her to see half a second ahead, to gain any clue to Fe’remene’s movements. She was too fast for any of the sentient races, fast enough to disarm Zoey, and yet she was an Aelf. Zoey dodged the blow meant for her face after that.

  “OK,” said Il’lyse, “so maybe I wasn’t the biggest threat in the Hulda’fi after all.”

  The Lady sneered at her and said, “Who do you think taught the man that would one day instruct your parents? The Hallowed Lady hath given since long ago. You refuse my blessing. Now the Hallowed Lady taketh!”

  Both Thalassas girls blocked and evaded the next flurry of attacks as best as they were able. Zoey sought a weakness of any kind, finding none aside from the ear that she had blown off, but finding an opening to strike it again proved difficult. She had no idea how long the woman’s offensive could last, but Zoey’s own endurance was waning. She was not prepared to fight a foe like this one, with or without her sister’s help.

  Fe’remene backed off, and changed her combat pose with a smirk and a smooch in the air.

  “I guess they succeeded in making a super soldier,” said Il’lyse.

  “So you heard, have you?” said Fe’remene. “I was one of twenty candidates at the start of the program, poised to tear Ginserei apart. I was one of eight who survived the initial treatments. I was the first to see greatness, and the last. I will outlast most life in the universe now until my greatness has been long recognized through the eons. You two are mites in comparison.”

  “I guess no bad villain is without a monologue,” said Zoey.

  An explosion sounded in a nearby room. The look on Fe’remene’s face changed as she glanced at one of the open doorways. Dasos walked into the room from the same point of entry. He stopped by a random spot and leaned against the wall.

  “The guns are gone,” he said. “I decided the garden was too nice to destroy, so I went looking for the stash of drugs, if Lady Fjorfolia had any.”

  “No,” said Fe’remene, gritting her teeth.

  “There was a nice girl on the way here. She pointed the way.”

  “You know not what you have done, you insignificant fool!”

  Dasos folded his arms. “Want to bet?”

  Screaming with rage, Fe’remene charged at Dasos, who jumped out of the way. He rolled on the ground again, at random, and dashed past his sisters. Il’lyse and Zoey groaned and took up defensive poses. Fe’remene was fast, plenty fast to require half of a second of seeing into the future so that surviving was possible, but her wrath made the woman too focused on Dasos to consider the girls a threat.

  While Il’lyse went for the face, Zoey punched for the Lady’s stomach. Their hits landed, stunning the head Hulda’fi. Zoey used this chance to spinkick into the woman’s side. She saw, on impact, that Il’lyse had brought her foot down upon the top of her back. Both girls went in for another attack, but their opponent pushed against them with her bare hands. Fe’remene buckled and dropped to her knees, and growled.

  She got up a few seconds later, her face livid. “Lucky strikes,” Fe’remene said, “but the three of you can’t hold out for long.”

  The girls backed away, their eyes focused on the Lady. Dasos stepped up and joined them. He had something in his hand. Zoey would have looked, but that would have taken her eyes off of their adversary. Doing that was too dangerous.

  “It’s possible,” said Dasos. “Here, have this gift as a token of me not giving a damn.” He tossed the object he’d been holding at her.

  Lady Fjorfolia batted it away behind her before opening her eyes wide in sudden realization. Zoey saw that it was the last pistol from the crate that Dasos had disposed of. Maroon lights were flashing on it. Half a second told Zoey to get down or turn her gaze; she did both and covered her ears.

  With a bang, a blast rocked the room that they were in. The siblings all looked at one another and then at Fe’remene. Behind her a crack had appeared in the ceiling and a hole in the floor. Another drop of crimson fluid left what was left of her ear before she fell to her knees, and finally planted her face in the ground. Her back and head were a mess, but she was still breathing.

  It was done, Zoey thought. She plopped her butt on the floor so she could give herself a rest. Midterms were already exhausting. Reuniting with a family member, sleeping little, and doing copious amounts of running and fighting did not need to be added to that.

  “I really don’t want to know what the admiral can do,” said Zoey, her exhaustion showing in her words.

  “Damn, and here I wanted to kick him between the legs hard enough to make up for what he did,” said Il’lyse.

  “Let the law deal with him,” Dasos said.

  Zoey said, “His ship is near Natt Grans, and he’s planning to leave here, possibly by wormhole. There’s no telling what he’ll do next, or if the law can do anything about him. How did you do that with those guns, by the way?”

  “I overloaded them. It was one of the reasons they were outlawed, because of how easy it is to do with that model. Luckily they use a similar lighting scheme with most ships’ alert systems, so you know when they’re about to blow.”

  “You made the guns go infrared,” said Il’lyse. “Nice.”

  “What about the body over there?” Zoey said, nodding to the naked girl with a pool of blood beneath her.

  “That would be the girl I had framed for the lab. Hey, super bitch, you killed the wrong girl.”

  There came a
guttural growl from Fe’remene. It was hard to tell if the reaction was due to the pain she was in, or if she was aware of everything being said by the trio of siblings.

  Footsteps came into the room from the other side of the wooden dividers, and a few Hulda’fi appeared. The rebels stopped and gazed between their Hallowed Lady and the three people sitting across the room from her. Zoey waved at them, and they shook their heads, backing away.

  “Two of them!” said one Hulda’fi.

  “Tell the Lord Tunderek,” said another. They hurried out before Zoey could say anything to them.

  “Shit,” said Il’lyse, “there they go.” She pointed to a distant window where the stiern-boat outside could be seen lifting off. The light warped, and then the craft was gone. The same voices from the Hulda’fi a moment ago shouted in protest. “We’re out of time. On the bright side, so are the Hulda’fi that ran off.”

  Zoey said, “It’s too bad we can’t use that computer virus to stop that thing from leaving.”

  “No, we’d have to be onboard the craft to plant it manually, like the Fjorfolias did to the Marslou, or someone else with Elysium University. We would have had to find a copy of the nearest drive before that.” She jumped up to her feet. “I saw one. Oh, it’s perfect, but I’ll need a suit.”

  “A suit for what?” asked both Zoey and Dasos.

  “I’m going to infiltrate the Hastig Silver. I have an idea how to beat the admiral at whatever he’s planning. Who’s coming with me?”

  * * *

  Dasos folded his arms as he waited. Both of his sisters had left him despite his best arguments against their plan. He avoided one room, in particular, where a Ginserei sat on a couch in the nude. Il’lyse had taken her suit, and the woman, who was reading a book that Zoey had brought her, had refused to take any clothes to compensate.

  He returned to the room where they had fought Fe’remene. She had gotten up and left the area. His heart sank when he realized that she was up again. One room after another in the immediate vicinity, he searched, hoping that the platinum blond Aelf had at least been slowed down so she was neither too far nor too dangerous. He couldn’t see her. That was going to be a problem.

  Outside one window, he could see Allied Peacekeepers appear through matter transference. The remaining rebels, as few as they were, either hid or fell to their knees in surrender. He was happy to see them, but Dasos feared for those men and women if Lady Fjorfolia decided to attack, whether or not she was hidden.

  He turned, and a hand grabbed him before he could recognize who it was.

  [ 58]

  “Das’ithrios? What are you doing here?” said his mom.

  She stood before him in the manor corridor, and now wore a captain’s uniform with lines embroidered into her short collar to show rank. She had not worn this outfit in a revolution.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” Dasos said. “For that matter, why are you in uniform? I thought you were retired.”

  Bon’sinne said, “I returned to duty under the condition that I could still teach at the university and spend time with my family. Never mind that now, you are supposed to be in your condo with Zoey and Lyssa.”

  “Long story. We ended up here with some police and Peacekeeper officers. Most of them are at the lab.”

  “Where are your sisters right now?”

  “They’re doing something really stupid, and I tried to stop them.”

  She frowned and pressed her hand on Dasos’s back as she walked. She grumbled as they had entered another room. Dasos recalled this room, and then shielded his eyes when his mother stopped. It was the room with that girl on the couch.

  “Hello,” said the Ginserei. “My goodness, is your whole family moving in here or what? Not that I mind.”

  “Who is this, and why is she naked?” said Bon’sinne.

  “I’m a sex-craving cultist, ma’am. I see your daughters, and son, take after your good looks. A shame none of you are interested in me.”

  “I hope you know that you’re under arrest.”

  “Yes, the thought had occurred to me. You might want the three Hulda’fi in this basement behind me, too.” A voice that was muffled by the door called out. “See? I’ll be right here if you need me for anything.”

  Shaking her head, Bon’sinne grumbled again. It had been many revolutions since the last time, but Dasos felt like his mother had walked into the end result of his and Il’lyse’s childhood mischief, and he was there to see each and every reaction come from Bon’sinne as they went from area to area.

  “You’re being rather accommodating,” said Bon’sinne.

  “I try,” said the Ginserei. “I had joined these folks for the fun sexy times, but was in too deep when I realized how wrong a lot of it was. So now I’m reading this book that one of your daughters brought me. I think I heard Lady Tunderek down that way.” She pointed in a direction away from everyone. “She didn’t sound too happy.”

  “Too accommodating, even.” Bon’sinne tapped the standard issue headset she was wearing. “This is Captain Bon’sinne Thalassas. We have three insurgents trapped in the basement, a cooperative cultist guarding their door without any clothes on, and my children are here, somehow. My son says the facility has been taken by some of our own already. Will you, darling? Thank you.”

  Dasos said, “Uhh . . . Zoey and I bound two more in one of the storerooms on the side of the manor.”

  “We’ve found them, I believe. Yes, it sounds like it. Go on.”

  “Zoey and Il’lyse left the planet, I think.” Bon’sinne gave him a harsh stare. “Like I said, I tried to stop them. Also, they fought Fe’remene, and we won, but I don’t know where she went.”

  “Did you destroy her main drug supply?” said the Ginserei, who now drifted behind them as they continued to walk.

  “Yes.”

  “Good job. I’m glad my directions helped. She’ll be looking for a backup stash then. I think you destroyed the last of it that was here, actually. Oh hi! Are you here for a good time?”

  Several Peacekeepers were marching through the corridor. Dasos turned past a doorway so he couldn’t see how many stayed behind or how many followed him and his mom. The Ginserei’s voice faded the further forward they walked.

  “I thought you said the investigation would take months to open?” said Dasos. “How did you come here so fast and take action?”

  “Everything lined up too easily,” Bon’sinne said. “Every piece of evidence we had corroborated with Il’lyse’s statement, Admiral Fjorfolia attended the meeting by video from orbit outside Dereskoo, and you should have seen his face when Aerak and I played the statement for every ranking official of the alliance to witness. I might have hounded him down with that stare of mine.”

  “Il’lyse got that stare from you.”

  “Did she?”

  “It was the fastest surrender of a boat full of insurgents I’ve ever seen.”

  “Well, it would have been nice if, once we got here, everyone had surrendered so easily up there. Vessels belonging to the rebels and alliance alike waited for us. They all fought to keep us all at bay. It took us twenty-eight minutes to disable their weapons and engines, destroying two of their craft along the way. One long-boat with two stellar masts tried to escape undetected, but your father caught them.”

  “Which ship did they give you, or were you along for the ride?”

  “They gave me both my father’s Tyk Jarl and Ren’baek’s the Marslou. The latter required my assistance and orders because the commander is still on the ground on Elysium IX. Captain Druvvin was busy pretending to be wounded by some Hulda’fi assassin planted on his ship. While we were fighting, he offered some orders to his crew, but I told him to sit back and deal with his own sibling come back from the dead. Buska’vild sits in the brig as we speak, with Ren’baek watching her. I told him that if she gives us any trouble, then I am interring her ass into the sun whether she is dead or not while it happens. He understood.”

  “O
K, that raises the question as to why Captain Druvvin would pretend to be wounded by an assassin. I know Doctor Saludalta said they had someone under their watchful eye, but still, what’s going on there?”

  “You are correct. Captain Druvvin and his crew deduced that someone wanted the Marslou to be misdirected, and the captain slain if need be. Ren’baek took the rebel spy aside and asked a series of questions, such as who it was that had worked for them when the ship was attacked a few months ago. That went nowhere since this new spy knew nothing of that incident. So he proposed amnesty for this Hulda’fi if she helped him with his ploy to make the people in charge think they won.”

  “I imagine, then, that Captain Druvvin is expected to make a full recovery once this is all over.”