The Ghost of Sephera

by J. D. Tew

  ‘I’ll take your word for it.’ I didn’t want to anger her by disputing or by inquiring further. ‘Our friends are going to come looking for us. We are not a threat, I promise. My head feels like it is going to pop. Please let us down.’

  ‘Okay, but first we must be introduced officially. This is my colleague Gorb and I am Mag, we will pay no mind to setting you free. You are welcome to go. But...’

  ‘So we can’t eat them?’ Gorb asked, nearly whining.

  ‘Well not if they are being civil, Gorb.’ Mag started to pull up their connection to Eppa, and turned to us. ‘Do you want to see how Eppa works? Wait a minute. Those damn Skiorfs are mining again! Gorb, arm the torpedoes!’

  ‘Wait! Skiorfs,’ Gorb spat out. ‘Yes, they’re pirates. Disgusting beasts. They’ll buy and trade anything.’

  ‘Even humans?’ Dan asked.

  ‘Especially humans,’ Mag said, substantiating King Trazuline’s claim that Liam had fallen into the hands of these rotten pirates.

  I knew we needed to go—ED was shouting over my nanocom for us to return to the ship. I had much more to ask Mag, but I didn’t want to complicate everything by prolonging our stay. ‘We must go and rescue our friend from these Skirofs. Can you help?’

  I didn’t get the answer I wanted. ‘We do not interfere,’ Mag said. ‘You are on your own.’

  ‘Bah! Worthless scum!’ Gorb added. He said to me, ‘You could defeat them with one hand behind your back!’

  ‘Don’t make false promises, Gorb,’ Mag scolded him.

  I gulped, but recovered and asked, ‘Look, our friend is out there, and he could be in danger any moment. After we rescue our friend, can we talk some more about Eppa?’

  ‘I suggest you wait until this evening to search for your friend; the frequency of patrols is too high. Fine, go! But I’ll be expecting you later. We heard you over our security cameras talking about a place to hide your ship.’

  ‘Yes. We were thinking about piloting our ship into the cave. But we will think of another place to hide it.’

  Mag said, ‘No-no! Please do. I want to analyze it. I will take you to the entrance. Here is your gear.’

  We donned our gear. The Gitushkas’ den entrance was very sophisticated, with numerous security measures. First, they scanned not one access cards, but rather five of them, one after the other. Next, each Gituska scanned one cilia, one flagella and one eye—in that order—to make the wall open. Not only did they have to undergo this sequence of intricate security procedures on the way in, but also on the way back out. Once the nerve center approved clearance for the Gitushkas, a segment of the thick wall retreated into a twelve-inch wide slot in the floor, powered by hydraulic pistons. We were not invited in, but we were honored to be witness to this impressive display of security.

  ‘I’ll be expecting you!’ Gorb yelled as we walked into the opposite direction, up the tunnel to the cavern above us, where we had entered. ‘Make sure you stay to the right. It’s the only way out.’

  Mag hollered, ‘Trust me, waiting to save your friend at moon’s glow will give you a better outcome. Fight the Skiorfs, if you must, but when you are done, come back here. We have valuable information on Eppa, and we’re willing to divulge this to you, since you’re so bloody-minded independent of all these tiresome old powers-that-be in this galaxy. And whatever you do, do not mention our existence down here to your friends. Ever. Having two high-profile humans know the whereabouts of our lair is more than enough.’

  ‘Sure thing,’ I said. ‘You can count on us.’ We left in a hurry, and I dreaded going back to their den. Dan and I hurried through the cave tunnels, veering right whenever the opportunity arose. Meeting the Gitushkas was exhilarating and frightening, but they encouraged me to keep an open mind about Eppa. I wasn’t convinced of its importance, but I supposed its importance was a matter of perspective, which I was eager to improve upon thanks to the intelligent mollusk-like beings.

  “My impatience for rescuing Liam was wearing thin, and I needed to get back to the crew to formulate a plan.”

  9 THEODORE: INSERT FREEBIRD HERE

  “After exiting the cave, Dan and I flew back to the ship—Dan on his board, and I on my rocket boots. I was ecstatic. Flying our ship into a hill’s hole wasn’t going to be easy. We would need to navigate the ship through a narrow valley that was bombarded by the gusts of sand whips.”

  We arrived at the ship, and we were the first group back from the recon, as Mariah and ED were not back yet.

  I was concerned, because ED was shouting over my nanocom, yet now, the communication was silent. Whatever Ed was trying to convey to me, I couldn’t understand because of the wind at his position and the rambling of Mag. After, I tried locating his position but I couldn’t reach either ED or Mariah.

  Nilo lowered the ship’s hatch, and we rushed up the incline of the steel ramp with our heads bowed down in order to block out the gusts of dirt. My eyes stung by the incessant blown sand, I tripped after my first step.

  I panned the landscape, looking for the others, and all I saw was the obscure tan veil of airborne sand dusting the valley. We entered the ship, with the ramp closing behind us. The pistons seemed to struggle while the ramp lifted. The shakiness of the ship’s apparatus concerned me more because the others were not back yet.

  Nilo appeared in front of us and yelled, ‘You guys shouldn’t track all that crap in here and you cannot stand on the ramp when it is rising! I know it’s your ship, but it’s a damn good one, and if it was mine, I would be certain to take care of it. It isn’t safe to stand on the ramp when it is rising.’

  ‘No worries bro, just relax. How can we get rid of all this dirt?’ Dan asked.

  ‘You can start by stepping into the moilon,’ Nilo suggested. A moilon looked like a shower, and functioned on the same concept, but with controlled bursts of air—rather than water. The device analyzed elements contained within it for substances that were not of use, such as dirt, but also insects and any tiny persistent and annoying parasites that latched onto beings in Karshiz for warmth. The moilon would fire precise controlled burst of air to remove foreign objects from the surface of our bodies.

  ‘You mean you haven’t used it yet, Dan?’ I asked.

  ‘Nope, and I’m proud of it,’ Dan said jokingly.

  Nilo was getting antsy. ‘Can you guys just get on with it so that I can get back to watching for the others?’

  I saluted to Nilo to placate him, and Dan and I headed toward the moilon showers. On Earth, if you were to receive an eye exam, they would always fire a burst of air into your eye to rule out glaucoma. The guided bursts of air from the moilon were similar, but were further divided into thousands of accurate bursts at once. It was like being blasted with an air compressor hose. It had taken about twenty seconds to complete the process, and I hopped out of the contraption spotless. Even my transmechanical lifters were clean of all surface oil and grease.

  It felt so good to be clean—on the surface, anyway. I watched Dan when he did it, and his cheeks blew back from the force of the air. It was a definite stress reliever to watch someone cleansed by the moilon. It left me laughing in sporadic bursts for a few minutes after witnessing Dan’s flapping parachuted cheeks.

  ‘Alright, let’s go watch for the others, jelly cheeks!’ I ordered. The temperature signature board lit up, as the rest of the crew returned. ‘Drop the hatch, I can’t wait to tell those guys what I found,’ I said. Dan gave me a look of disdain. “I mean, we found. Sorry Dan.’ We stopped in the piloting section of the ship, where a bored Nilo was twiddling about with the controls.

  ‘Much better. Yeah Nilo, you’re in for a treat as well dude,’ Dan proclaimed. ‘There was also this—’

  I jammed my elbow against Dan’s ribs. He was going to reveal all. Since Nilo was departing our team soon enough, he could not be privy to our future missions. Otherwise, he would become valuable intelligence to our enemies—through torture, if necessary. That was one outcome I strove to avoid, not
only for our interests, but also his own.

  ‘What? Never mind, you humans are strange. I’m just glad you guys made it back as quickly as you did. We need to find Liam,’ Nilo said. That was our top priority once everyone returned with their reports. We stood at the opening as the hatch lowered toward the ground; ED and Mariah barreled up and into the ship as quickly as we did earlier, but there was something much more pressing at play than the blasting sand that tormented them as they made their way into the ship.

  Mariah’s shoulder was swollen. ED shouted, ‘We found a pirate compound miles from here! Seconds after we discovered it, Mariah was bit by a Karshiz Bazilon.’ I was looking at ED stupefied. ‘It’s a lizard; it bit her when we were scouting in the prone.’

  ‘Take her to the infirmary.’

  Mariah collapsed against ED’s shoulder. He shouted, ‘We must move her quickly!’

  I shouted orders to our backup pilot. ‘Nilo! You will need to fly Freebird! There is a hole on the cliff-side of the hill about... a few thousand feet to the right. Just follow the valley. Take us just inside the hole, and I’ll be back here,’ I said. ‘Dan, grab her legs! I will grab her under the arms!’

  ED sprinted ahead through the corridors of the ship, leading us to the room.

  ‘Please hurry, we must stabilize her immediately,’ ED said, as we brought her in, and set her down on a bed that ejected from the wall. The enormous infirmary looked like it could sustain at least five patients. ‘Alright, now you have to leave!’ ED yelled.

  ‘We’re not going anywhere; she is our friend!’ I shouted, and ED began to escort us out of the room. It was the first time an ED used physical force against me; he was physically strong.

  ‘Theodore, Mariah is a girl—you are boys. She would not find it appropriate for you to be in the room when I am undressing her. Now please leave!’ ED shouted, and as the last word left his transmitter, the door closed. My final glimpse of Mariah was of her writhing on the bed in what seemed to be unbearable pain.

  Dan and I looked at each other with our back to the walls, and we both slid our backs down to sit on the floor. While sitting there with our heads in our hands, the ship swayed, causing Dan’s body to slide along the smooth floor, bumping into my side.

  We both looked at each other and yelled, ‘The ship!’

  We quickly left the hallway adjacent to the infirmary. I tripped over my own feet to get to the front as the ship swayed and shifted my weight like a metronome from wall to wall. We were like marbles in a tin can.

  ‘Are you sure you want me to do this?’ Nilo yelled, as he rotated the midline thrusters inward.

  I shouted, ‘Please just get this ship in there!’

  Nilo grumbled, ‘Alright, but this is going to be a tight squeeze. I have never maneuvered a galaxy class ship into a hole before.’

  The ship continued to move in unpredictable directions. Although I had trouble positioning myself in my seat, eventually I did. Flying our ship through the entry and into the cave didn’t exactly mirror an elite fighter pilot’s landing. However, my confidence in Nilo’s skills escalated as the ship landed smoothly into the cave. Freebird settled onto the cave floor successfully, calming my frazzled nerves. Our ship lit up the dark, revealing the inner walls of the cave. The ceiling of the cave was lined with short stalactites, and the ship was merely a few feet from scraping against them. It was a tight squeeze, but a good fit.

  ‘You did it! You’re a flipping rock star. That was super rad, Nilo!’ Dan said with excitement. They bumped chests like a couple of corn balls, celebrating Nilo’s achievement. I joined them momentarily, but then I was brought back to reality when I heard Mariah moan from down the hall.

  I fled the crew after our celebration, and all I could think about was what Lincoln said to me at Jaakruid: ‘Please protect Mariah for me.’ I darted through the central path of the ship, closer to the infirmary. As I drew closer to the door, ED was just closing it—yet again.

  ‘Wait! I want to see her!’ I yelled.

  ‘Theodore, please. Come with me quickly. We must speak.’

  ‘What is wrong with her?’ I asked.

  ‘Mariah was attacked by a lizard.’

  ‘And?’ I asked, while keeping my voice calm.

  ‘The lizard bite she sustained was actually by a species indigenous to the Windled Desert. This lizard is orange with purple dots and carries venom which can upset the natural balance of most beings’ homeostasis. Mariah went into anaphylactic shock. I injected her with epinephrine and her vital statistics are now within normal ranges, but she is still weak.’

  ‘Dang it,’ I said. ‘Throughout the evening, I want you in standby next to Mariah in the infirmary. Everyone can rest for an hour or so, but I want the crew awake at O-two hundred for mission brief. You are dismissed.’

  ‘Yes sir.’ ED walked toward the infirmary.

  After I was done mulling for a while, I explored the status of my crew on the ship. Since it was now night time, everyone had slipped into a state of torpor, all sleeping except for ED. He was in standby. His eyes were open, but he was hibernating. I lay down, and tried to envision Tez—in hopes of eliciting a dream, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Zane and Odion and their insane plans of galaxy domination. I still could not believe that Trazuline suggested killing Zane. I thought, could this really be the answer?

  I then remembered that the Gitushkas fervently hoped that I would return to them soon. Since everyone was out for the night, the timing was perfect. As I was gearing up to leave, I was astonished to see Mariah exit the infirmary.

  ‘Hey, Theodore.’

  ‘You okay, Mariah?’ I cocked my head as I observed her, hoping that she was feeling better.

  ‘Yeah, thanks Theodore. I saw the lizard on my shoulder, and just as I was about to smack it off, it bore down and snipped into my shoulder. Ed said there was nasty blue venom oozing out of my neck.’

  ‘I know,’ I said. ‘We are kind of learning as we go here. There is something else though, right? You just seem a little… off.’

  She leaned her left shoulder against the wall. The static electricity from within the ship teased some of her hair strands, tricking them into lifting up against the wall. I was trying not to laugh. ‘It’s Lincoln. I wish I could have done something.’

  I said, ‘You weren’t there, Mariah. There was nothing you or I could do. Lincoln did exactly what he wanted, and he died because of it.’

  ‘You’re so insensitive sometimes. Just because you’re in charge doesn’t mean you have to be so focused on the mission.’ She stepped back with a startled look after she noticed my gear, fresh and ready to go. ‘Wait a minute! Where are you going?’

  ‘You’re right, you should know, in case I don’t come back. ED would be the best person to coordinate a rescue, if needed.’ I sighed. ‘I have a meeting with an alien species that lives deep in the cave. They might have the connection to Eppa, which we’ll need if we’re going to find a creative way to defeat Odion. Here is a tracking module; it will monitor my vitals. If it sounds an alarm, that means I am in trouble.’

  Mariah snarled at me. ‘So that is why you didn’t answer our distress signal, earlier. Well, go on, play messiah.’ She turned toward her room, and left. I fumed silently, trying to avoid reacting negatively to Mariah’s comments. She missed Lincoln, and so did I.

  “It was time to leave the ship. I pressed the ramp open, and after walking down it, I clicked on the encrypted remote I had with me, so that I could complete my adventure by myself. The trip to the Gitushkas den didn’t take long because I used my lifters. When I arrived at the massive wall entry, I was breathless with excitement.”

  Now, I need a break.

  Here in my cell, presently, there is no break from my curse of imprisonment. As the feeling of uselessness creeps into my mind, the vault’s sliding talk space opens.

  “Prisoner eight-six-seven-five! The warden’s message is as follows: we remind you that you must keep going until lights-out or mealt
ime actually happens, not when you think it happens. We will turn out the lights in one minute, but it is absolutely impermissible for you to stop early. If this happens again, a guard will enter your cell and a punishment will commence. Message end. Prisoner, the warden wants confirmation of your understanding and reception of this message. Do you comply?”

  “Yes sir,” I say. The talk space closes. Thankfully it’s moments from lights-out and I can assume the always uncomfortable sleeping fetal position. The lights turn down, and one remaining light flickers. Annoying! I toss and turn, trying to avoid the pulsing light.

  The light will not stop flickering, and I pull my mat over my head to shield myself from the light.

  With the mat draping over my body, I suddenly see a separate blue light on the dusty floor beneath me, glowing slightly. I bring my face closer to the tiny object; my nose brushes it gently.

  With the mat still draped over my body, I gaze at the light for a moment, scooping it in my hand to bring it close to my face. As I stare at it, enchanted, my memory brings me back to the first time I saw a Dieton; it was on a microscope’s slide in my grandfather’s basement. Now it only appears to me as a pulsing indigo light. To uncover further secrets within, I would need a magnifying device. Is it trying to communicate with me?