The Ghost of Sephera

by J. D. Tew

  My crew and I sat sullenly, trying to figure out how to reason with Trazuline’s forces. We were not seeing eye to eye.

  ‘Theodore,’ sighed Migon, ‘there is a lot more going on than we are even aware of. We suspect Zane is forming an army on Sephera. We also suspect the Council to be under Zane’s influence.’

  ‘Those are crazy accusations! What could possibly lead you to believe that?’ I asked.

  He picked up a report from one of his operatives and said, ‘Last quarter, one of our agents brought us a digital representation of the Council’s debits and their expenditures. This operative divulged acts of embezzlement.’

  ‘Who is the operative? Who’s involved?’ I asked, trying to press some information out of him.

  Dan and Liam were scratching their heads. And Mariah was rocking on her heels angered and itching to ask more questions. In the midst of the open hostility and chaos, a too-calm Bilovion entered and said, ‘Weapon modifications are complete.’

  ‘Good!’ Pritok answered, lowering his temper by several degrees. ‘Deliver them to my office straight away.’ Then he turned to me with an intense expression and said, ‘Where was I? Oh yes, the information isn’t confirmed and the operative cannot be easily trusted. But what I am trying to point out to you is that everyone is in this fight for their own reasons. What are yours? You don’t need to answer that, but it’s something to think about. You say you’re all about ending Odion, but the moment you take your eyes off of the Premier of the Council, Zane, your crew, the king... They all need to meet the requirements of their instincts. The sooner you see that, the better off you’ll be.’

  I started to protest, but after Pritok’s words, there was a huge rumble. I felt the floor shake beneath my feet. I looked around frantically at the walls and dust fluttered off, like a dog shaking dander from its coat. ‘What the heck was that?’ Migon asked.

  ‘We need to move now!’ I shouted. ‘Where is Freebird?’

  ‘She is parked at the exit of Zigon’s Crevasse. Don’t worry, she’s in good hands. We have a couple of my top recruits watching over her. No one will search near the crevasse because of the Cliguire population—vicious beasts. Hurry, we must leave!’ Pritok turned the communicator table on and said, ‘Initiate evacuation sequence seven. Work together and we cannot fail. Either the Council’s squadrons are on the way to rescue us, or the Dacturons are invading!’ Pritok started tapping away on buttons on a switchboard in front of him. A large surveillance screen shown an influx of changing camera angles and perspectives, until an image of an alien in a maroon frock, leading a horde of angry henchmen, looked directly at the screen and blasted it. ‘Damn it! The Dacturons are here! Go Theodore, lead your crew to the exit. We will try and hold them off at the tunnel near the Gate of Ardian. Your escape is of the utmost importance!’

  Migon ran in, shouting, ‘We have detected Odion! He’s here!’

  Dread congealed within me. ‘Odion’s here?’

  Migon’s panicking face revealed all. ‘For an invading force this small, Odion must really want something if he’s here. He must be looking for you, Theodore!’

  ‘Damn,’ I muttered, my thoughts frozen for a moment. I instantly recalled the last time he met me, when he had grasped me by the throat. This time, there was no giant twelve-foot bird-like creature named Migault to save me.

  ‘Theodore!’ ED yelled. ‘I downloaded the structural layout of the tunnels.’

  The Bilovians scrambled up to us, delivering our gear and weapons. He said, ‘Here. Please protect the Armizards. They must be delivered to safety.’ He pointed at a small container, fit for a gerbil, sitting on the weapons rack.

  I said, ‘Dan, Liam, and Mariah, you will go to the ship. Protect the Armizards, they are vital to the resistance! ED, give Liam the escape route. Liam, you are acting pilot. You will activate the ship and ready it for liftoff. Dan and Mariah, you will be local support-by-fire. Go now! ED and I will ensure your exit.’ Better that ED and I make a clear path for the crew. It was my duty to be the tip of the spear.

  Everyone acted upon my orders, donning gear and then running off. Mariah stopped briefly, looking at me. In response, I raised my hand, as if to say good luck.

  While donning my equipment, I noticed many changes to my armor. The Armizards combined my equipment! ‘Please follow me now sir.’ ED ran, pulling me initially, until, I broke into a sprint myself.

  ‘Slow down,’ I said, as I accidentally bumped into a corner of the wall in passing.

  ‘If Liam follows my portable guidetron, then they should pass through the secret exit Tunnel of Gomion in twelve minutes. Theodore, we must move faster. The Dacturons are closing in.’

  I thought, could I put a dent in Odion’s objective?

  ‘Theodore, we should just leave now. There is no time. My calculations…’

  ‘ED, we can’t leave yet. We stay and fight. That’s an order.’ I turned back and retraced the tunnel, heading in the direction of the Ardian Gate. I could hear ED grumbling behind me. Getting closer to the fight between the Opposition members and the attacking Dacturons, I could hear the shrieks and the gunfire of battle.

  ‘Then you have ordered our destruction and your friends to be leaderless!’ ED shouted. It was as if I had a second conscience nagging me, but I knew exactly what I wanted. Odion’s head or at bare minimum, a shot at it. My plan was to see if I could end Odion’s cruel reign, once and for all.

  We turned the corner to the tunnel fitted with multiple turrets, which we had observed during our entry. It was still dimly lit, and the tunnel was at least twelve feet in circumference. At the end, where the tunnel was at its darkest, I could see a platoon of Dacturons rushing forward; they took cover behind nooks in the tunnel. Each Dacturon looked similar to the other, their faces rigid with three pairs of short dull one-inch horn structures. Their pale green skin took on a tint of grey in the faint light. Six fingers on each hand, as contrasted to the five on each of ours.

  The battle began, as the proprietor of evil and the commander of death, Odion, ordered his warriors and wizards to attack; his hands were directing Dacturon elite to move forward.

  I could feel the pressure of Odion’s mind, inserting irrational doubts into my head. My acute fight response was saturating my body. My amulet, designed to warn me of danger, was raging with heat, and I felt that vengeance that Pritok spoke about earlier in the day. I rushed to cover behind a metal barrier to formulate a plan of action.

  Odion was in the flesh, rushing toward us, but about two-hundred feet down the corridor. His maroon frock trailed behind him, as he pointed for his elite soldiers to press forward further; he was rushing nearer, eyes full of satisfaction, as if he had already secured me.

  Files of Dacturon Elite ran ahead of Odion, carrying portable force field generators—shaped like riot shields—that powerfully deflected the Opposition’s mounted cannon fire. I slid along the glossy and smooth floor to a stop. Odion’s face was white and ghoulish, but not as fearful as when I saw him in a nightmare. He was an Omnian, created in a lab by design. He didn’t look much different than Zane. In fact, the only major difference was their cheekbones. Odion’s cheekbones nudged up against his eyes, blanketing his sockets in darkness.

  Pritok and his men were falling back towards us from Odion’s special forces, losing their troops one by one to their vehement onslaught. ED was yanking on my arm, desperate for me to leave. The Dacturon wizards were using X-rays to ionize the Opposition soldiers. The skin on each affected soldier turned blotchy due to the ionizing radiation burns. Pritok gasped as he viewed many of his soldiers gulped for air and succumbed to the horrible burns inflicted upon them, as if chemical warfare had just broken out. Their wails as they lay dying were so horrendous that I knew exactly what hell they were facing, even if I did not witness the unfolding apocalypse.

  Pritok reached for the code panel in order to activate the gun turrets while the enemies occupied the tunnel. But just as the tips of his fingers were about to make c
ontact with the activation panel, one of the Dacturons crushed him with their telekinetic powers, disabling Pritok in midair. Pritok crumpled to the floor, and his body was still.

  ‘ED! Fire your shoulder cannon! Cover me at all cost!’ I shouted. ED’s shoulder cannon was small, but his carefully calculated aim was very accurate. ED’s shoulder cannon zinged several volleys of plasma blasts past me, suppressing and killing some of the Dacturons.

  Migon, shouted, ‘Eight-two-six-nine!’

  My nanocom was still deciphering the Karshiz symbols on the code box. “Got it!” I shouted, typing the code, feeling as if the action would initiate victory. The turrets started blasting away, obliterating many more of Odion’s troops and drastically slowing the enemy’s advance. I ran over to Captain Pritok, who was near death. His breathing was ragged and the life was escaping his eyes. Pritok handed me an ovoid device. ‘This is a teleporter. I have it programmed to take you to the location of your ship. Go.’ His head toppled loosely to the side, his body cold.

  I shouted orders at two of the three soldiers who collapsed the tunnel earlier; the missing, third soldier, was lost to acute radiation death. ‘You two! Concentrate your fire on the ray blasters! And you get over here and help me. We retreat now! ED, if you have a clear shot at Odion, take it!’

  ED paused, calculated, and fired, executing my request at his first opportunity. The blast from his shoulder cannon rippled through what seemed to be a hologram of Odion. I noticed one of the Dacturons was carrying a pack that was emitting a virtual projection of Odion—a hologram. I knew it was too good to be true. Omnians, such as Odion, are too haughty to fight in person.

  I thought, Liam, ready the ship!

  Theodore, I’m doing everything ED showed me, Liam thought over his nanocom.

  I could feel Odion in my mind as I ran away from the collapsing tunnel of Ardian. Odion kept his iron grip on my thoughts and ordered me to stop, for the sake of my friends—as if he had them in possession. Under his twisted influence, I actually felt like I was doing harm to my crew by not turning myself over. I had to resist his mind control the best as I could, since he was making me think things that were not true. When I maintained my resistance to his power, Odion grew more cruel and resorted to chanting, ‘The end is near, Theodore.’

  Odion wasn’t physically present in the tunnels, but I knew from my training that Odion could only use telepathy within range. He had to be in Booyang, somewhere.

  While running, a giant slab of metal from the ceiling fell to within inches of my head and stopped suddenly, halted by a weird orange glow. Amazingly, something had halted the slab in mid-air.

  ED used his rocket pack to jolt us away from Odion and his elite wizards.

  Aghast, I asked, ‘ED, did you see that?’

  ‘I saw nothing.’

  ED and I flew through the maze of tunnels, avoiding downed pipes that were leaking steam and water from the impact of the Dacturons’ destruction of Tamara’s tunnels. Eventually, though, we reached a dead end, as the tunnel abruptly stopped, revealing nothing but a wall of glistening ice. I shouted. ‘We need to use the teleportation device now! Grab hold of me, ED!’

  Zigon’s crevasse was a large space between two ice plates within Booyang’s city limits. ED and I teleported near the exit of the crevasse, and what a sight to behold!

  There were Dan, Liam, and Mariah, all out of breath and sweating from their ongoing fight with a giant Cliguire! Stomping around on the ice shelf, it posed a formidable barrier to my crew’s access to Freebird, which was parked on the other ice shelf.

  What a beast was this giant Cliguire! They were similar to mythical dragons, but instead of breathing fire, they spat out acidic projections of venom made from saliva ducts under their tongues. A Cliguire was a unique beast, but if I was to compare it to any animal, I would think of it as a rhino and a lion combined together—the magnificent head of the lion, but the massive body of the rhino. The furry, yellowish-brown fur of the head gave away to the scaly skin around the neck area; it was a rather strange creature.

  ‘Finally, we need you!’ Dan shouted, as he scrambled further away from the beast. The Cliguire bore some wounds from their weapons, but it was far from being deterred. As it saw two new challengers, it let out a deafening roar that nearly shattered the ice floor.

  ‘We have to hurry! ED, fire! Aim for the throat, just below the bony frill!’ Mariah was nimbly climbing up a large ten-foot pile of ice plate fragments, using her new flight boots.

  I shouted, ‘This is just like our training! Dan, use your board to scare it off!’ As Dan flew around the giant beast, it unleashed a showering burst of venomous acid at Dan; but missed him by inches. Dan continued to fire low-level plasma charges at the Cliguire’s side with his shoulder cannon.

  After activating my sword Wrath, I lunged for the hind leg of the beast. Its three-foot wide legs were grey with weathered armor, like those of a rhino. I swung Wrath, and slashed at its rear leg. My mighty, lethal blade had easily sliced through the armor of the galaxy’s most formidable enemies in the past, but this time, it barely made a dent in the hide of the Cluigoire. Sensing futility, I ran off to a more safe distance.

  The snorting behemoth violently swung at my friends with the spiked thagomizer of its tail.

  ‘I have his weak spot in my sights!’ Mariah yelled, looking through her rifle’s scope.

  ‘What are you waiting for? Take, him, out!’ Liam shouted, as he heaved his axe in the direction of the beast.

  ‘Watch out for Liam when you shoot!’ I ordered.

  The roaring beast had other ideas. Slamming its enormous tail into the ice pile, it thwarted Mariah’s line of sight and caused her to tumble down the slope.

  ‘Damn!’ Dan shouted out.

  Provoked by Mariah’s sudden lurch, Liam charged ahead like a lumberjack, holding his axe high above his head. Grunting, he smashed his axe against its hind leg, nearly toppling the Cliguire. It raised another elephant-sized foot, its front one this time, and angrily lifted it toward me. After falling over backwards, I fervently thrust my sword up toward the incoming foot and wished for a miracle. After I felt Wrath thrash about when it came in contact with the sole of its giant foot, I rolled over and abandoned my sword. Just in time too; the Cliguire’s massive foot slammed into the ground nearby me, nearly causing a mini-quake. As I got up on all fours, my eyes widened as I saw my sword stick out of the injured beast’s foot, sticking in at least three-quarters of the way. The Cliguire’s giant chin rose up, and he roared from the pain.

  As I turned to look at Mariah, I saw her readying herself with her rifle. It was a most opportune moment, as the beast was standing on its hind legs, with its chin in the air and neck exposed. Mariah aimed accurately at her target’s neck.

  She thought out her actions to us through her nanocom: target acquired, taking shot.

  Only a second after her confirmation, a laser beam exited her rifle and zapped into the neck of the beast. The beast put on one last show of might by rearing up on its hind legs and letting loose a reverberating roar. Then, it collapsed on the ice and thrashed about—the beast had fallen. Blood from the Cliguire’s neck flowed into the cracks in the ice below it. Green goop filled in the clean blue and white swirls in the ice ground. The Cliguire labored to breath and then passed on. I darted over to retrieve Wrath from the sole of its impaled foot.

  Dan landed at my side. Mariah ran over to us, huffing and puffing. In the wake of our bout with the beast, we heard the rumble of heavy machinery from around the ice plates; the commotion sounded as if it was a massive bulldozer crushing the ice beneath it.

  Exogons approached, taking a different route than we did. I didn’t hesitate. Allowing the Exogons to capture us meant immediate imprisonment at the hands of the Council.

  ‘ED, fire!!’ I shouted.

  ‘Not advised, Ted! They are very powerful, wait and see if they say something!’ ED said.

  ‘Do not resist!’ An Exogen shouted, using its suit-ampli
fied voice.

  There were six Exogens total; each one was fifteen feet tall. Their giant metal exoskeletons were adjusting their surfaces to match the colors surrounding them—to hues of blinding white and cool icy blue. At this point, it was difficult to see them. They were like blurs passing through the air.

  The Exogens’ weaponry ejected spiraling rocket-propelled missiles and searing laser beams, similar to Mariah’s rifle, yet the firepower was far more extreme. The missiles smashed into the glaciers and ice fields next to us, creating deafening roars and huge explosions of blasted snow and ice. If we all were located at the valley of a snowy mountain, we would have been buried by an avalanche by now.

  We had to retreat. ‘Everyone in the ship now!’ I yelled. Everyone ran up the lowered hatch, except for Dan, who was at the back of the line. As he neared the ramp, a missile collided near the ship, sending tiny ice fragments against my face, stinging me. I jumped to the ground and shielded my family jewels with my outstretched hand, but when I looked back at Dan, he was clawing at his leg in anguish. He had been struck with shrapnel from the missile that had just exploded near him. I couldn’t tell the severity of the injury, because Mariah and Liam pulled him in immediately.

  Just before I closed the ramp, I saw an orange glow swarming around us, much like trillions of tiny fireflies. This iridescent dust seemed to act in synergy with our safety, similar to the one I had just seen within the tunnels when the Dacturons were attacking us.

  The orange cloud began to form a dome over our ship, and blocked the massive artillery fire from these menacing Exogens. The rockets exploded against the opaque orange dome, and the laser beams fizzled out upon contact.

  Yelling over my shoulder, I asked, ‘ED, is the ship ready?’

  ‘Almost!’ ED shouted. ‘The ship has been cooled for too long, and is just warming up!’

  The massive cloud of luminescent energy shifted off to the field in between our ship and the advancing Exogens, and miraculously started to change shape before our bewildered eyes. Shifting, coagulating, assembling, it was magically forming a new state of being.