Into the Fire Part I: Requiem of Souls (Universe in Flames Book 9)

by Christian Kallias

  “Yes. Aphroditis wanted to warn me about what my anger could do if I ever lost control.”

  Sarah sighed. “Why would you want to come back here of all places?”

  “I wasn’t even sure this place existed. I wanted to know, and I’m feeling resistance moving forward, so I thought…”

  “You’d face your fears?”

  Chase nodded.

  “Tell me how to help you, Chase,” said Sarah, leaning and gently kissing him.

  “Bring clarity in the darkness where my thoughts are at the moment. I— I don’t know what to do. I mean, I know we must stop Arakan and every fiber of my being wants to destroy him, but—”

  “What, Chase? What is it you’re not willing to say out loud?”

  Chase shook his head. “It’s my fault Zeus died. I rushed toward danger without even thinking that I was being played. That’s exactly what Arakan wanted, to distract us so he could take on Olympus.”

  “Give yourself a break, Chase, there was no way for you to know that ahead of time. Just like there is no way for you to know what will happen next.”

  “I don’t want to rush forward with my head down again and lose someone else.”

  Sarah took Chase’s face in her hands and intensified her look.

  “Chase, you’re not responsible for the well-being of everyone. This is war, and there will be casualties. I might be one of them in fact—”

  “No! Don’t say that. I won’t let that happen!”

  “Chase, I know you will do everything in your power to protect me, Chris, and everyone else. But perhaps that refusal to accept what destiny throws at you is something you need to shed before we go into the final battle. You need to be prepared for whatever comes. Arakan killed Zeus and most of the Olympians. To think we can defeat him without incurring some sort of loss is irrational.”

  Sarah could tell Chase reflected on her words as he looked toward the heavens just when a shooting star shot through the stillness of the night.

  Then suddenly, Chase turned around.

  “What is it?”

  CHASE’S HEART pounded hard in his chest. It felt like it wanted to escape from his ribcage.

  “What’s going on? What did you feel, Chase?” Sarah asked.

  “Not felt…heard.”

  “What did you hear?”

  “My— My father…I think.”

  Sarah eyes grew. “What did he say?”

  “To not go there, that it’s a trap.”

  “How is that even possible?”

  “I don’t know, but I can communicate over long distances, perhaps so can he. In fact, perhaps I get that ability from him.”

  “That makes sense. But why the rush to get away? Shouldn’t you heed his call?”

  Little rocks lifted off the ground and gravitated around Chase, the ground started shaking, and the glow in his eyes cast purple hues around them.

  “There’s nothing you can do from here,” said Sarah. “You should calm down.”

  “I can’t— I—” but Chase couldn’t finish his sentence.

  Sarah approached him, put her hands around him and held him close, resting her face on his tensed chest.

  “That’s okay, Chase. You’re afraid. We all are; that’s part of being alive. We fear danger, we fear loss, and we fear death.”

  “I can’t let any of my friends or family die anymore. I won’t.”

  “Chase, listen to me, please. I can feel the turmoil in you right now, and this is the last thing you need before our next move. Second-guessing yourself and fearing moving forward may bring exactly what you fear the most. You need to regain control.”

  “I don’t know how.”

  “Of course you do, love. Just listen to your heart. Get out of your mind; get out of second-guessing yourself and wondering what you could have done differently. What’s done is done. As painful as it has been, forget the past and look forward now. We’re so close to ending this.”

  Chase caressed Sarah’s vibrant crimson hair.

  “How do you know this? I mean, that we’re close to the end.”

  “I can feel it, can’t you?”

  Chase wondered if that perhaps was the reason for his current agitated state of mind. Was the end drawing near? And why was that scaring him? Had battle and survival become the only thing he knew and felt comfortable with? Had risking their lives and fighting touch battles become a comfort zone for him? One that made him fear he could lose part of his identity once all of this was over? He wondered.

  “I don’t know what I feel.”

  But that wasn’t entirely true. A million painful flashes of indistinct scenes flashed inside his mind. Too fast to interpret their meaning, but they felt like the future, that much Chase was sure of. A cold, painful, and dark future.

  MOMENTS AFTER CHASE and Sarah boarded the Victory for the first time, a full-body holographic projection of Emperor Altair greeted them.

  “Welcome aboard the Victory. I wish I was there in person to greet you and give you the tour.”

  “That’s alright, Altair,” said Chase. “What’s your status?”

  “We’re making good time toward the Gorgar home world, thanks to the Asgard assistance in opening one of their fast hyperspace windows for the fleet.”

  “Good, I’m glad to hear it.”

  Chase noticed Sarah wasn’t paying attention to their conversation but instead was inspecting the ship around her.

  “Is everything okay, dear?” Chase asked.

  Sarah turned around. “Oh, sorry. Hello, Emperor.”

  “Captain Kepler, always a pleasure to see you. How do you like the Victory?”

  Sarah beamed. “She’s as beautiful inside as she was from space when we approached the ship.”

  “I’m surprised Chase took a transport shuttle to come aboard.”

  “She’s a beautiful ship,” answered Chase. “I wanted to see more of her on our way.”

  “Would you like me to provide a short tour of the main sections of the ship?” said the emperor’s holographic projection.

  “That’s alright, I don’t want to take too much of your time. I can always ask Yanis later on. Though, I doubt we’ll have much time to do that. We’ll be on our way soon.”

  The holographic projection took a bow. “Very well, Admiral.”

  Chase shot a look toward Altair that conveyed how little he liked being called that.

  “You’re in command of an entire Alliance,” said the emperor, “it’s best that I call you by your rank, at least in official meetings like this one.”

  “Very well, Emperor.”

  Altair smiled. “The rest of your officers await you in the main conference room, in your captain’s ready room next to the ship’s bridge. The computer will guide you there.”

  Calming blue lights lit up the walls and floors and slightly pulsated to show Chase and Sarah the path.

  “Thank you. I’ll talk with you soon when you arrive at your destination.”

  “Very well, Admiral. Altair out.”

  Sarah came next to Chase and put one hand on his shoulder.

  “Are you alright, love? You seem preoccupied.”

  Chase attempted to smile with only partial success.

  “I’m okay, I— I wish we could take more time before going to Erevos, that’s all.”

  “I know how you feel, but now that Argos has finished the Aphroditis clone, I think it’s time for you to go rescue both your aunt and your father. Don’t you?”

  Chase absently nodded before they followed the illuminated path to their destination.

  THE BLAZING ALARM got Spiros to jump out of bed in a hurry. Even though his mind hadn’t really woken up, he started running toward the lab where he was working on Gaia. His heart was beating strongly in his chest. He tried accessing diagnostics remotely before remembering that his new body didn’t have any of the old enhancements he had added when his previous one was old and frail.

  I’m gonna have to work on some new implants. Whi
le I don’t require any motorized prosthetics anymore, I miss my brain implants.

  The moment the lab doors split open and heavy smoke smashed into an unprepared Spiros, he knew that something had gone terribly wrong.

  He quickly grabbed a breathing mask on his way inside the lab. The smoke was so thick he could barely see anything. His rapid heart rate kept pounding inside his chest and a sense of dread filled his entire soul. He hoped whatever had happened inside the lab didn’t affect Gaia. He couldn’t lose her, not after everything they had gone through. He pushed the dark thoughts away as he approached the nearest holo-console.

  His hands quickly travelled through the muddied holo-controls as if he was possessed, trying to locate the reason for the smoke. He was also checking on the status of the pod where Gaia was since he was trying to stabilize her degrading code.

  Soon, he had located the reason for the malfunction, and it was a good news-bad news kinda situation. Gaia’s pod was still in the green but the cloning pod, the one where he was building himself a new body, hadn’t been so lucky. The coolant system had breached, and the pod had taken fire. Fortunately, the automatic fire suppression system had managed to kill the fire, but the clone inside the pod had suffered irreparable damage.

  Great, just great!

  He keyed more commands and the smoke was siphoned out of the lab in less than a minute. When an atmospheric control light on his holo-console turned back to green, he took off the mask and sighed.

  He would now have to start the entire procedure of cloning a new body from scratch; instead of just finishing the template Argos had provided him. Through Chase and that mental link, Argos had provided Spiros with all the knowledge required for such a task. But he feared he might not have enough time to both work on that and keep Gaia’s code healthy. Not with such painfully slow IO inputs, like touching controls on holo-consoles instead of just thinking what he needed to do and have his implant translate that into an actionable code.

  That meant only one thing; he had to find a way to be more efficient or decide whether to over prioritize either task, none of which were an option. He couldn’t just ignore his already decaying clone body for much longer, nor could he ignore tending to Gaia’s code. The risk of losing her matrix was too high if he diverted his attention too long. And while he’d rather save Gaia and perish, he knew she wouldn’t have wanted that, and she would never forgive him for doing so.

  Looks like I’ll need to get a new implant inside my brain faster than I thought.

  7

  When Chase and Sarah entered the captain’s ready room, they were both baffled by its size. Though, Chase knew he shouldn’t be surprised as the Victory was so much bigger than any of the other ships he had commanded up until now.

  Shortly after Chase and Sarah entered the room, everyone at the table rose. Chase had summoned everyone he trusted. Daniel, Athena, Argos, Oryn, Chris, Kvasir, Yanis and Thor.

  “As you were,” said Chase casually. “Please,” he added, gesturing them to sit back down as he and Sarah came to sit at the large table.

  “Thank you for coming under such short notice,” he said. “As you know, we have a necessary but crucial mission ahead of us. We must rescue Aphroditis from the machine, as well as locate my father and get him out of there alive, so he can provide us with the location of the soul ships. We need the soul ships in order to destroy the Furies once and for all. And, if that wasn’t enough, we also need to provide Kvasir with enough time so that he can reprogram the machine in order for it to work the way it was intended, when it was first constructed ten thousand years ago.”

  Both Kvasir’s and Thor’s tattoos blinked in concert, as if in sync.

  “Kvasir,” said Chase. “Can you do this from a distance? Say from orbit?”

  Before Kvasir could answer, Argos cut in. “Aren’t we just teleporting in?”

  That was a valid question, but Chase’s instinct told him he should avoid this course of action. He had particularly noticed this in his last long-range back and forth teleporting session with Oryn on Erevos.

  “I have noticed a serious drop of energy when I teleport over long distances. Something tells me I’ll need all my power focused on this mission. Therefore, with Thor’s permission, I’d rather he helped us jump into the heart of Fury space with the Victory and a few accompanying ships, should we encounter resistance. At the same time an away team that I will lead will go down to the planet and take care of the multiple objectives that we need to achieve simultaneously.”

  “This will attract a lot of attention,” commented Oryn.

  “I’m aware of that, but we need a ship nearby. I don’t want to be in a position where I might need to teleport us all away from there and be unable to do so because I lack the energy.”

  Oryn nodded, even though Chase could tell she wasn’t exactly thrilled about this part of the plan.

  Chase gestured toward Kvasir. “So, back to my original question. Can you get the machine reprogrammed from orbit?”

  “It’s difficult to say,” said Kvasir. “I’d rather be on the planet and in close proximity, especially from what you’ve told me earlier. The weather conditions on the planet’s surface might actually make a stable connection hard to establish. The last thing we want is for my work to be randomly interrupted from weather interference; if that happens at the wrong time, the machine could be damaged or worse, its occupant killed.”

  “I second that,” said Argos. “The surface of Erevos is one of the harshest environments you’ll find in the entire universe. Fury tech is constructed to bypass the interference created by the multiple sand and thunderstorms emanating from our world, but for such a delicate task, Kvasir will probably have to be in close contact with the machine.”

  Chase could tell from the speed at which their tattoos flashed that that didn’t exactly enchant either Kvasir or Thor. Chase wasn’t thrilled with the idea either. That would make one more life to worry about; one more body to protect.

  “I guess you’re part of that away team, then,” said Chase in a resigned tone.

  Kvasir’s tattoos muted slightly as he nodded in agreement.

  “We would gladly send more Asgardian destroyers to this small fleet of yours,” said Thor. “But—”

  “That’s alright, I understand you guys lost a lot of ships in the last battle,” answered Chase. “Your assistance in opening a fast travel hyperspace window is already highly appreciated.”

  Thor’s facial tattoos flashed once brightly before fading almost completely out.

  “Still, you’ve saved my father’s life and saved Asgard at great personal loss no less. I wish we could provide what ships we have left. But Odin feels we need to keep the remainder of the fleet in orbit around Asgard for the time being.”

  Chase was not doubting Thor’s honesty in the matter, but like Odin, he also preferred that the Asgardians had some forces to defend themselves should Arakan throw them another curveball and come back to finish what he had started.

  “Fret not, Thor. I’m hoping even the few Earth Alliance ships we take along won’t have to fight during this mission. We’ll try to get in and out of Erevos as fast as humanly possible.”

  “I’m afraid,” interjected Oryn, “that it might not be that simple. There are simply too many unknown variables in this plan to guarantee that everything will fall into place. We don’t know how long it will take to rescue both targets, nor how much time it will take Kvasir to reprogram the machine.”

  “I concur,” confirmed Argos. “But that won’t stop us from doing what needs to be done. By the way, I think you’ll all want to see this,” he added before getting up and pressing a button on his wrist device.

  The doors of the captain’s ready room split open and Chase thought he was hallucinating as Aphroditis entered. Every pair of eyes was drawn to her. With the initial surprise gone, Chase realized he wasn’t looking at his aunt but at Ares controlling her cloned body.

  “I know this must sound weird,” said
Ares with Aphroditis’ sweet female voice, “but it’s weird for me as well, so bear with me.”

  Chase gestured Ares to sit at the table with the rest of them. Ares complied.

  “Good job, Argos. This was the one crucial point for this plan to work. I’m glad you managed to create the clone so fast. I take it it’s a fully grown one that’s ready to fulfill what we need it to?”

  Argos cleared his throat, which Chase knew was not a good omen.

  “It is an accomplished clone, but I cannot guarantee that it will survive the treatment the machine does to it over an extended period of time. I’ve run simulations based on the scans I had taken of Aphroditis shortly after she entered the machine, and while I can guarantee that the clone body should be able to survive for a few weeks, I have no idea if it can last any longer.”

  Chase sighed. That’s not what he wanted to hear.

  “Well, then it just means we’ll have to finish off the Furies in that period of time,” said Chris, obviously trying to defuse some of the tension he was feeling in the room.

  While Chase mirrored his son’s sentiment, he also knew that they couldn’t predict how long it would take from the moment they rescued Aphroditis and Menelas to the moment of the final strike upon Erevos.

  Chase rose and felt everyone’s gaze fall upon him.

  “Now, one more thing. I don’t want us to take any unnecessary risks.”

  Is that wise? asked Sarah telepathically. We might not have a choice but to go all in.

  I agree with Sarah, added Argos.

  So do I, echoed Chris.

  Chase was surprised Oryn hadn’t added an additional layer of comment as well. But perhaps she didn’t need to; he could see it in her eyes. She would do whatever it took to try and bring Arakan down, whether Chase agreed or not with this course of action.

  “For those of us who don’t speak telepathically,” said Daniel, “Mind sharing with the rest of us?”

  Chase was surprised at Daniel, but then again his best friend knew him well enough to interpret his facial expressions and demeanor.