Elysium Shining

by Terri Kraemer

  “If you don’t make it, I’m finding some way to tear into the universe to bring you back. Don’t think I won’t. We owe each other a rematch someday.”

  Zoey went to the door and said, “You’re on, Soror. Besides, you still owe me a proper breakfast.” Then she was gone.

  Shaking her head, Il’lyse checked the syringe now that she had filled it with the tranquilizer needed for five muscle builders. The syringe had a control mechanism built into it to inject a limited dosage at once.

  Il’lyse knew that the sanitary thing to do was to change the needle, but if she was successful in her mission, then that was the least of her worries. So she skipped out on the tray full of replacements and dropped the opened bottle of tranquilizer on the floor of the Medical Bay on her way out, allowing the substance to make a slippery mess by the entrance.

  She sneaked from corridor to corridor, judging the best route to take and who to bother putting to sleep. There were sixty people on this ship, meaning two fifths of that were at work keeping the craft moving. Protocol for the alliance meant a minimum of ten security guards were on patrol, not counting the captain or admiral upon request. This was a ship registered to the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance, but it was run by the Hulda’fi rebels. Given their love of pleasures of the flesh, and Zoey saying she was on her way to distract some of the crew, Il’lyse could understand why she saw so few people walking through the hallways.

  Three people worked in the Engineering station, and a fourth Hulda’fi stood by the door flirting with them. There was no time to deal with their arms if they were facing away from Il’lyse.

  The first thing Il’lyse did was inject tranquilizer medicine into the neck of the girl visiting her kindred. The engineer and technicians were too many meters from reaching the alarm button, and worse off for taking a moment to realize what had happened to their sister in front of their eyes. Il’lyse felt as though she were beating up on untrained civilians when she attacked all three people in the room. She subdued them all, hoping that they had better dreams than her assault being the last thing they saw.

  Once they were asleep she went to work in uploading the virus onto the ship’s primary system. It didn’t take long once the drive was connected, of course, but finding the right spot to plug it in was a more frantic prospect than she had anticipated. Getting this done, and getting her sister home, weighed on her mind.

  Worrying about other people made it harder to get anything done.

  She checked the sleeping bodies, all propped up against one another on one wall, and sighed. “Rest in peace, my brothers and sisters. Bury our sins in the cold, infinite beyond where they belong,” Il’lyse said.

  Now all that was left for her was to return to the stiern-boat and take control of the systems without the ship’s crew realizing anything was wrong until it was too late. Il’lyse hurried along to the vessel that she and Zoey had come on and closed the door once she was onboard.

  Detaching the lock from the Hastig Silver’s port was easy without turning on the power to the boat, though she did have the power on the computer that she was using to control the larger craft. The ship now thought that the boat was still attached. All of the ship’s systems were at her fingertips, including navigation. No, they weren’t going home this way. Not only would that raise too much suspicion but there was no telling how the Allied Peacekeepers would handle the situation. Instead, she had a dangerous liar to slay and an underdeveloped planet to rescue without so much as a single nod of acknowledgement.

  The self-destruct sequence came up on the computer screen. A single press of one button could set the timer, but then someone might notice and try to counteract it. She could set the timer for a few seconds, but Zoey needed more time. How much time did Zoey need?

  What Il’lyse needed to do was take full control of the ship, and send a signal for her sister to get out of there.

  “Come on, Zoey,” she said. “I’ve got the perfect sign for you.”

  * * *

  Inside of the Hastig Silver, the walls reminded her of the first ship that Zoey had ever been on. It didn’t matter the layout of this one. The curvature of the walls and dark gray stripe running back to front told her plenty. The silver overlay of brambling vines, all accented with tiny diamond shapes as if it sparkled, told her which of two ways was the bridge. There was no time to argue with the convenience or debate its meaning, so she pressed on.

  “What’s with the mask?” asked one girl as Zoey drew closer.

  Zoey pulled it off and said, “Take me to your Lord. Uhh, please?”

  The small group of insurgents backed away from her in surprise. She knew all too well who it was that they saw. However this half-assed plan of hers turned out, Zoey hoped this was the end of the shadow that her sister had cast. One of the three girls who looked at her stepped forward straightened up, trying to appear more in control of the situation.

  “He does not need to see you,” said the posing Hulda’fi.

  “He’ll want to. I’ll go to him alone if I have to. I’d prefer to do this without any violence between us.”

  “Y-you’re not her, are you?”

  “No, I’m the other Thalassas daughter. Will you escort me to your Lord or not?”

  While the four of them walked together, Zoey shifted the straps of her utility harness that had come with the suit. None of the Hulda’fi checked her for any sort of weapon or device. Either that meant that they didn’t see her as a threat at all, or Zoey was so big a threat that one more item didn’t matter. She wasn’t about to ask, nor was she about to draw attention to the beacon tucked away in one pouch.

  They came to the front of the ship, the Hulda’fi stopping at one of the side doors of the bridge. One of them pressed the main button on the panel by the door, causing it to slide open. Zoey had almost missed these sliding doors, as opposed to the swinging ones found throughout Elysium IX. She took a few trepid steps past the doorway, at which point the door closed and the panel beeped twice to indicate that it had been locked. The crew stationed around the room shot glances her way. Two women stood guard at the sides who kept an eye on her. The admiral stood in the middle of the floor, looking forward.

  “Young Lady Thalassas,” said the admiral, “I heard you wished to see me. I assume you came on that stiern-boat of mine?”

  “I came alone, and willingly,” said Zoey.

  “Oh?” He turned to face his guest. “What of the one who flew you here?”

  “She’s in the Medical Bay where I left her. You made her nauseous, like you did with her sisters; my girlfriend as well.”

  One crew member working at a station on the bridge hesitated and lifted her fingers from the console she sat behind. The young woman went back to work after the apparent hiccup in her activity.

  Chan-Yeol hitched a brow at Zoey and said, “So that particular rumor was true then? A shame that her children will have to grow as they will – without the love of their mother’s life.”

  “There’s one child,” said Zoey, “and I’ll find a way home. This is a dream, and I’m lucid enough to say what will happen.”

  “Perhaps not for long. Perhaps you will say what comes next after we convince you what comes next. My children and I can be most persuasive. Once you receive the Lady’s blessing, you will see what sort of dream life really is. Hallowed is the flesh and the pleasure we give it.”

  “You have no remorse for all you’ve done, do you?”

  “Remorse? Nonsense. I gave the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance something it didn’t realize that it needed. I gave it the strife it needed to press forward. You told me once that you love history and archaeology. What civilization has lasted long without any conflict or crisis? What wars have not led to brilliant advancements, or how many great things were born outside of fighting between peoples? Our last great war, after all, gave us our Hallowed Lady, my wife. Would that I knew why she didn’t make this journey with us, but she has her reasons, I’m sure. When we join her again, one day, she may well bl
ess us with this knowledge.”

  Zoey stilled herself. She knew the reason Fe’remene wasn’t here, but telling the truth wasn’t the best move where she stood. Her sister needed more time. Her sister needed to send her a sign.

  “Now you plan to take over the Earth,” said Zoey. “Its own people have tried over the years. All of them failed to take the known world.”

  “I’m sure I can guess where every one of them went wrong,” the admiral said, chuckling. “I’m sure I know well where they are most vulnerable.”

  “We have time before we get there. I think I know the perfect history lesson to give before we arrive.” She laughed to herself. It was poetic to her that the last piece of Earth history she had read before leaving as Dylan was the one that she would give approaching Earth as Zoi’ne. Better still, it had parallels to a book she’d read on the way to Elysium IX.

  “Perfect, you say?”

  “You are a military man. Maybe you will appreciate this most of all.”

  “Do tell.”

  “There was an empire, long before guns and technology, that outgrew itself and fell on one side for a myriad of reasons. Centuries before it had become an empire, it had a rival and adversary in trade and military. The two nations fought three wars against one another, ending with the decimation of one and the violent growth of Rome. It is the second war that you will want to hear.

  “In the second war a man was hired to take the fight to Rome and ruin them. He attacked from a front that no one expected. He ravaged the countryside for years with no one from Rome able to keep him in check. There was one battle, in particular, where this man, Hannibal, made the Romans lose control of their own army, lured them into a precarious attack position, and then flanked them. For the Romans it was a massacre, but it was also a lesson.”

  “Such an effective maneuver is commendable,” said Chan-Yeol, amused.

  Zoey said, “Years later, a Roman general repeated a similar strategy to other men working for the people of Carthage. The general won when he gave the enemy a taste of what Hannibal had given Rome. He would eventually beat Hannibal in a showdown. Earth’s people, you see, are fond of repeating any success.”

  “So, what, do you mean to say that Earth will beat us with our own strategy?” He gave a boisterous laugh as though trying to get the crew to go along with him. A few chuckled with far less energy.

  One crew member yelped, and then shrugged at their console in confusion. The console had stopped responding to her inputs. Above, in the dark strip at the top of the walls, lights flashed in succession. Zoey saw yellow, red, orange, green, and yellow on it. Il’lyse had done it, but how much time was left?

  The Aelfs and Ginserei on the bridge noticed something was wrong in time for a second sequence of colored lights to flash. This second time it was red, yellow, orange, and yellow. Four lights instead of five; it was counting down. It had to be.

  “Yes,” said Zoey.

  “What was that?” Chan-Yeol said.

  “It’s not Earth’s people you should be worried about. Did you know my sister is pretty damn smart when she wants to be?”

  The admiral shot her a wary squint. Green, red, orange. The man pointed to one guard, then the other, saying “Medical Bay” and “Engineering” between them. Both women took out their cell-comms and spoke into them too quiet for Zoey to hear, but she knew that her sister would be in trouble if she was still anywhere near those two rooms.

  “What have you done?” said Chan-Yeol. “Tell me.”

  “I was getting to that,” Zoey said. “If you remember the Marslou and Elysium University, a computer virus had infected those systems. The virus had been used by none other than yourself and your brainwashed children.”

  Orange. Red.

  She saw the half-Ginserei’s face lose color of its own, and Zoey said, “You made too many mistakes and lost control. My sister has found and planted the virus on your ship’s primary computer. In other words,” she paused to pull out the transmat beacon, “we just Hannibaled your ass.”

  “Stop her,” said the man in a weak voice, his head shaking. He took steps toward her. The footfalls had been staggered.

  Maroon.

  With a tear rolling down Zoey’s cheek she pressed the activation button on the device in her hand. She hoped this worked. She loved this dream, if it was one, or this life if it wasn’t. The rest of the white lights in the ceiling turned red and maroon.

  People around the bridge were too shocked to move. The admiral, in his final act of rage and fear, reached for Zoey. He shouted, “No!”

  Then she blinked, spots of dark red dissolving into the void.

  [ 60]

  Somewhere in the Hoshi-Lacarta, a young man dialed his cellular communicator to call someone from halfway across the stellar system. He was never any good with long-distance relationships, but calling her was right in his heart. He asked her how she was, and the young man felt lighter inside his chest than he had in months.

  Across the garden, a woman who once thought she couldn’t trust herself to make any major decisions was directing members of the military where to go. More prisoners had been taken today alone than the Aelfs and Ginserei had seen since the early days of the great war. Beneath her arm, she carried a paper parcel containing a change of clothing that one of her daughters had left behind. She had to get them both back. She had to, even if it would take a month to travel one way, and another to comb the stellar system for two girls.

  A few kilometers away through the snow, a man spoke with two gentlemen who were far from home. Both were scientists with specialties in related fields, but one of them was in need of more advanced medical attention for his arm. The human from Earth said he had no intention of going back, but he would be delighted to lend his talents to this alliance between worlds. All he needed was an active assistant who was as talented with technology as his partner was, and he could send anyone across the galaxy within the day. The military captain laughed it off for a moment until he spoke with another man who had been the ranking officer among the Peacekeepers present. The lieutenant said he had seen two girls take off in a stiern-boat, and that they had come here originally by a wormhole. The captain looked again to the Earth human.

  In one of the ships above the atmosphere, a man sat in a chair. His only brother, made into a young woman, lay on a medical bed behind a barrier. The new woman had further injured her own legs and feet when taken into custody. Her feet could be fully mended with the procedure responsible for her change, but the risks would be as great as the cost. She leered at him again, choosing not to try to help the man redeem himself. The man still had to try. He owed it to their parents, as well as to his own soul.

  Many kilometers away, in a city reeling from the recent assault, two girls stood behind a window in a condo that wasn’t their own. One Ginserei had her arm around her sister’s shoulders as they gazed upon the park below. The lockdown was lifting, but the military-run medical camp was still there. Clouds formed in the sky to signify the coming of rain. It was dusk, and one of the girls had not seen the owners of this home yet. The older sister knew that one of them had spoken with the younger from a few planets away, but where were the girls? In the road below, a car pulled up against the sidewalk, and a decorated man in uniform exited one of the passenger seats. The older of the girls knew this scene. When a man or woman in uniform made a housecall like this in a black car, either they had come to pick someone up or they’d come to bear bad news about a loved one. The latter was too frequent, she heard, especially in times of conflict. She felt her heart stop when the man in uniform looked up at the window she stood behind.

  * * *

  Reality flooded her face, smacking her like a great wave. Her eyes saw the dark interior of the stiern-boat. Her nose found scents she didn’t even want to think about. Her legs found the feel of gravity. Her ears found a voice.

  “Did you wait till the last second or what?” said Il’lyse.

  Breathing heavily, Zoey patt
ed herself with her hands. She removed her gloves and tried again. Hair, boobs, hips; they were all there. Everything was where it needed to be. She was here.

  “I’m alive,” she said. “I’m really alive.”

  “Hang on to something. Shit, shit, shit!” Something hit the craft. “The shield is holding, but we’re not far enough away from the heat yet.”

  “What heat?”

  “The heat of the explosion. I made that guy’s ship go infrared and left the drive with the virus there so no one else thinks to use it. With my luck there are more copies of it somewhere. There, now take a look at this.”

  Zoey walked across the boat and saw that the view ahead of the craft was spinning. The rotation was slow and steady. In the distance, pieces of the Hastig Silver were burning. Bright, orange lines crawled over the surfaces as they broke apart further and further until the ship was nothing more than dust. Sixty people had been slain with a single act, but billions saved on one planet alone. It was hard to swallow, but knowing that Chan-Yeol Fjorfolia could never hurt anyone again helped. Her sister grabbing her hand, as the two of them looked on, helped.