He began to move his arms abruptly, and the tiles flew in all directions. One struck into the column to Henry right and broke in two from the mighty impact. Thousands of splinters dispersed everywhere, whistling in the air like metallic fragments, and one of the largest splinters flew towards the pillar where he was sheltering. It struck the base, which shook from the impact and a large piece broke off it, raising a cloud of dust four inches from his boots. Henry had no time to think about what could have happened before he heard a painful scream. The complete upper part of the pillar behind which Lara Bitnik was hiding had been destroyed. He could only hear her angry voice coming from the dust cloud.
“Endy! What are you staring at? Take this shit off my leg!”
Even though the tiles were flying uncontrollably everywhere and destroying everything in their way, Henry ran with Vallery towards Lara. Through the dust they saw Endy, red in the face, trying to heave aside a big part of the column that was lying on Lara’s leg. When he spotted them, he hissed through his teeth, “I need some help!”
While we were lifting the remnants of the pillar from her leg, Henry heard Kir’s voice again in his head. “Take your crew out of here!”
Lara took out her leg. Her lower leg was completely smashed, and only the leg of the suit was holding it together. Her pale face was dripping with sweat, and she cursed angrily between her clenched teeth. “This is a fucking pain!” Then she looked at me. “Commander, I think you’ll have to take me out of here. This shit…” she hit the pillar with her hand, “...it’s fucked my whole foot.”
Henry knew that she needed a doctor urgently, but he was still in the orbiting cruiser. Only Keniko would be able to soothe her pain, but before that he had to stop the bleeding. He bent over her, took the strap off the rifle, wrapped it around her knee and pulled it tight. Lara tried to thrust her fingers into the floor, but she didn’t even howl, although the pain was unbearable. Henry tapped her shoulder. “It’ll be all right!”
“Who are you trying to kid, Commander? I can say goodbye to that smashed part of my leg. I’ll just have to get a fucking superb cybernetic replacement. Oh, shit!”
Henry knew that she was speaking the truth, but still, he couldn’t answer. He looked towards Endy, who was watching the tiles flying around in the air. He had to shout to overpower the noise. “Endy, go and fetch Keniko!”
He looked at me with bewilderment as another tile flew by them hiding place. “What did you say, Commander?”
“Call Keniko to straightaway come here and inform the others to get to the entrance immediately. You have to come back to help me transport Lara!”
“Yes, Sir!”
“Vallery, take Miura and the rest of the crew and go to the upper level with them. We will join you soon.”
“What about Kir?”
“She is staying here. This is her fight, and we’re only disturbing her.”
While Henry was speaking, another tile flew against a pillar at them backs with a loud crash and Vallery threw herself to the floor at the last second. Part of the pillar flew over them like a sharp torpedo and hit the base of the opposite column with a dull impact, where it smashed into a million tiny pieces which whistled all around. To him, great surprise Vallery was looking carefully at her suit.
“Fuck this!” She smiled bitterly when she noticed we were watching her. “Usually, I’m not like this, but Neekulba has really fucked me up. Has anybody else been caught by any shards?”
“Lara and I are all right.”
In her eyes, Henry caught a ray of fear for the first time, but it dispersed like a lonely cloud in a gust of wind. She angrily thudded her hand on the floor, moved nearer to the edge of the column and peeped out. “I think that shithead has no more to throw at us.”
“Go now and take the others.”
She cast a worried look towards me. “Even you shouldn’t stay here any longer,” she said.
“As soon as Keniko gives Lara first aid we’ll retreat.”
“OK, see you!” She ran away as swiftly as her legs could take her.
Endy and Keniko appeared before long. Keniko bent down towards Lara, quickly unbuttoned her suit under her chin and injected her with a shot for the pain. Henry got up and had a look at the place where he had last seen Kir’s apparition. An anxious calm reigned, just like before a storm. The cloud of dust was settling slowly and soon he spotted a hole in the floor, above which the caped figure was hovering. Henry felt some odd sparks in the air which made me shudder, and then in his head, Kir’s icy voice thundered. “You must run away instantly!”
Tens of monsters began appearing from the dust cloud, moving towards them rapidly, swaying and thrashing with their limbs. Suddenly the closest group of them caught on fire and turned to ashes, screaming. Again her voice echoed in Henry’s head. “You’ve got no more time. You must retreat at once!”
Henry didn’t want her to address him again. He pushed Endy, who was watching with wide eyes as the monsters disappeared in flames. “Give me a hand to lift Lara! We have to get out of this place!”
He looked at me in bewilderment. “What shitheads are these?”
“I mean dangerous ones!”
Henry didn’t have to repeat it. They lifted Lara and went to the entrance with hurried steps. The sounds of scraping grew louder and louder. Neekulba materialized new monsters between all the columns and his metallic voice echoed through the whole room. “Now we two are going to settle the score and my favorites will clear away all the vermin hiding in my chambers.”
A dazzling light illuminated the room behind them and a static cracking and a booming like a thunderstorm attracted their attention. They turned back towards Kir. Bundles of blue lightning were hitting the red dome which encircled her apparition and dispersing all around, wildly flowing in waves over the columns and the floor. We didn’t delay anymore, as the waves became broader and broader and came nearer and nearer.
“Let’s go!” Henry cried out. “It’s too dangerous!”
The monsters were everywhere, but they got around them easily as they were roaming around and flailing blindly. But a problem emerged when they were only thirty feet from the entrance: Neekulba’s monsters had gathered in front of him, and they were mutually nudging each other and bellowed inarticulately.
Endy asked me, terrified, “What shall we do now?”
“Destroy them with a rocket launcher! We have to pass through that passage!”
Lara leaned on Keniko so that she could take off her rocket launcher, but before she could shoot the monsters began roaring, and the back row of them erupted in flame. The impacts from the ultrasonic cannon put an end to the burning monsters and blew the rest of them onto the floor.
Mark appeared at the door. His solar sphere ignited the monsters on the floor. Screams echoed around the walls, and they banged their burning limbs against the floor. Mark fired a shot from his ultrasonic cannon and tore apart their ignited bodies. He waved his hand. “Come on here quickly!!! They’ll soon reappear. I’ll protect you.”
While they were running towards him, a monster emerged not far from him, but he destroyed it with a precise shot in the chest. When they had run through the doorway, he also withdrew into the corridor.
“That was close, Commander!”
“Where are the others?”
“They have retreated to the upper floor.”
“Keniko, support Lara. You and Endy take her to the upper floor.”
“Yes, Sir!”
“Tell Vallery that we are waiting here for Kir.”
While they were going slowly up, Henry turned to Mark and leaned his hand on his shoulder. “There, a job well was done.”
“Commander, these cannon is law. Have you seen what it did to those assholes?”
“That’s why it is called a Destroyer.”
“We ran into them while we were retreating and it proved to be pretty effective. Major Vallery left me here to clear away the passa
ge for you.”
Henry looked at him, but no new monsters appeared in the doorway. “It seems that there are no more of them.”
He turned around and went closer to the door, and then gave me a sign with his hand. “Something weird is happening. Where is Kir?”
Both of us stepped back through the entrance and watched the other end of the hall. A dense haze hovered everywhere, whirling up like a wavy sea among the columns. The light from the ceiling began to flicker as Neekulba drained power from the whole city, but his blows were becoming weaker and weaker. Soon they halted altogether. Just then Kir’s apparition came closer to him, speaking in a voice which echoed around the whole hall.
“It’s my turn now!”
“Nooooooo!” Neekulba shouted furiously and raised his arms to attack again, but at that moment the light disappeared. A bluish shield lit up in the darkness, barely visible at its rims, which were touching the floor. The figure swung with her arm. It seemed that we were suddenly transported to the bottom of the sea; the room was lit by an unreal bluish light. She approached him very closely and looked him right in his eyes.
“The moment has come to set Aranam Guartinas free.”
Neekulba was beating the floor fiercely with his foot, but the projection of his child body was flickering. He spat at Kir, “Aranam Guartinas is dead!”
“He isn’t dead; you didn’t allow him to die.”
“I killed him many years ago!”
“He created you, and you captured him in this chamber and ruined his world.”
“He loved his family more than me! I killed them with satisfaction!” he shrieked, leaning towards her. “Since that moment he has always been with me, but he has still been suffering for them. He has never asked me, what I feel!”
The apparition was watching him silently.
“He often came into my chamber, but I decided when he should become a part of me. So I drew out what I liked most from him: fury and hatred. The more he hated me, the more satisfied I became, stronger. I felt mighty.”
“You are evil!”
“And you aren’t? Who loves someone like you? Nobody! You have no friends; all of them are terrified of you.”
“But I hadn’t killed except for when I had to. Why did you kill the entire population of this planet?”
“My Creator loved them. He shouldn’t have loved anybody save me, nobody, else!”
Kir’s apparition shot him through with her look. “All of them. They asked me to carry their message: they want you to feel all the fear which they felt at the moment of death.”
Neekulba grinned and waved with his arm. Around him, monsters emerged and moved towards the apparition. He pointed his finger at her. “It’s your time to die.”
“No, Neekulba!”
Kir’s caped figure closed her eyes, spread out her arms and began hovering high above Neekulba, who was watching her, scared. The creatures which had been moving towards her frozen and Neekulba began to scream painfully and loudly, holding his head.
“Noooooooo… Nooooooo…!”
He cramped up on the floor and then disappeared, just like the creatures he had materialized. Total silence reigned, and then the cylinder blew apart in a violent explosion. The tubes which connected it to the ceiling started cracking, sparking wildly and falling to the ground. Kir’s apparition slowly descended to the floor and when she touched it with her toes she disappeared.
Mark and Henry ran over to Kir, who was still hidden behind the pillar. She was lying in the fetal position and wasn’t moving. Henry approached her slowly and lifted her with both hands. She opened her eyes, laughed and leaned her head on his chest.
“You never learn! You are always trying stubbornly to save me. Aren’t you fed up of flying?”
“It seems I am not.”
Henry sighed loudly. He had been holding his breath, but now his heart was beating excitedly as Henry watched her pale face. “Tell me how you killed him.”
She gave him a look; there was sadness in her eyes. “I didn’t kill him. I killed Aranam. Aranam was in possession of telepathic powers and Neekulba developed them to their utmost limits, clouded his mind so as to only carry out his criminal massacres. Aranam wasn’t able to free himself and Neekulba kept him alive, for without him he couldn’t exist.”
“Why did you mention the inhabitants of the planet?”
Kir closed her eyes. “For a long time, I have been communicating with them. I felt all their despair, wrath, and fear, which I transported into his memory by means of my telepathic powers. That killed what remained of Aranam’s brain and burned his computer synapses. Now that Neekulba is dead, finally all the spirits of this planet are liberated.”
“What about you? Are you well?”
She laughed and looked at him with her blue eyes. Maria gave him an answer in a voice filled with love. “I’m more than well.”
The Epilogue
XV
One month later Henry was in possession of all the papers about the expedition. He was ready to present them to General Barnet Hensell and the President of the Interstellar Confederation Armonden Zektar himself. But before that he had to do something Henry liked even more than a presidential reception: deliver the letters of dismissal to his fellow fighters and friends. The President had informed him that he wouldn’t receive the prisoners, to say anything of delivering their release papers; such contact with scum from Hades could do harm to his flawless reputation. But, though unwilling, he had still allowed for him to deliver them their papers with their new identities in front of the palace.
The media only had erroneous data about the research expedition on Godeena. Allegedly a fuel tank had exploded, killing all the members of the expedition. The leader of the research expedition, Diana Uterra, was the sole survivor, and she was attending Henry audience with the President. After all those dreadful happenings the President had approved a large amount of money for further research into the numerous artifacts found in the city of Absolute; it was the greatest discovery of the century. All the deceased researchers and scientists won the highest medals post mortem, and these were delivered to their family members at an impressive ceremony. Diana and Henry won the Purple Star for courage, but not a word of it was found in any of the media; likewise for the deceased commandos. Everything was covered with an enormous veil of military secrecy and hushed up.
For that reason, all the survivors were being put up in a small hotel, Belund, hundreds of mile away from the President’s palace. In the late afternoon three unmarked, armour-plated antigravity vehicles arrived to pick them up, and they were soon on the way to the palace.
Their first view of the huge building and its surroundings took our breath away. For miles and miles, they drove through the grounds, which were landscaped in the modern style. They saw millions of taxpayers’ credits worth of luxury. The palace itself was glazed with different kinds of glass in various colors, and the effect was unreal, like that of an enchanted castle in a fairy tale. The thousand square miles around the building were filled with parks, paths, fountains, and tens of thousands of different sculptures by many famous artists from all corners of the known universe. It all fitted together in perfect unity, and at every step, one could feel the power which the President held in his hands.
After a short drive, they stopped by one of the subsidiary entrances, before which two state-uniformed soldiers were standing formally. They even didn’t blink when the towering door opened behind them. They stopped in a minor parking lot and without a word the driver opened the door. When they got out, he drove away to another part of the parking lot and waited there with the lights on for Henry to deliver the letters of dismissal.
Henry was watching the survivors, who were standing at attention opposite him. He opened his briefcase and said with satisfaction, “From this moment you are free. Sergeant Colburn will hand you your documentation.”
They all began whistling and shouting with pleasure, and H
enry had to raise his hand to hush them. “Gentlemen, don’t make me take you to Hades again.”
Endy presented himself first, as always. “I reckon I’ll have to find a more comfortable place to live.”
Vandor remarked coldly, “Maybe as a cow trader.”
They all laughed, and Endy added, “If necessary I’ll sell you to them.”
Vandor turned towards him and shouted, raising his arm, “I always wanted to be a bull.” Then he hugged him strongly.
“You are a big neat, or an ox,” said Endy. “I can’t breathe from how strongly you’re squeezing me.”
“Would you like to be best man to a bull? Keniko has specifically requested you.”
Endy, his face glowing pushed him away. “I might if you just don’t embrace me anymore.”
“Enough you two, I can hardly wait to get you off my back!” shouted Colburn.
Endy and Vandor looked at him, and Endy said, “It seems to me that you have softened since you were awarded that medal and rank?”
The Sergeant approached with a raised hand. “Would you like to feel whether I have softened?”
Vandor moved away from them. “I see that somebody might get a thrashing here, and I don’t mean you, Sergeant,” he said.
Endy turned towards him and shrugged his shoulders. “Some godfather of mine. Aren’t you able to support me?”
“I’d like to if the Sergeant was somewhat weaker.”
The Sergeant approached Endy and squeezed his hand. “I’ll miss you.”
“Like a thorn in the ass.”
“Well, I think not that much.”
As they all laughed, the Sergeant hugged him and said, “I have to admit that you know much more about explosives.”
“When you say it then it must certainly true.”
While they were embracing Henry said, “Sergeant, I’d like to stay with you, but I have things to do, and before I leave I’d like to say goodbye to my friends.”
*
Some ten minutes later Henry entered the palace. The President’s Secretary was waiting for him, and he approached him at a swift pace. “You have half an hour until the reception with the President.”
Godeena: SF Novel Page 33