The Ghost of Sephera

by J. D. Tew

  My crew seemed happy, for the most part. We had been traveling for about an hour and had methods of light speed available at our disposition, but we decided against using it. The atmosphere of Foita in the flight zone was just too volatile. ED said that if we undertook light speed for more than a few seconds, blood could pool in our heads, causing us permanent brain damage. Additionally, light speed was too unpredictable and should be reserved only for emergencies.

  As I walked down the grand hallway of Freebird, a glow passed through the skylight from the sun’s rays bouncing off the ice crust. After observing Diode through the telescopic view finder, I saw some cleaning bots gliding along the floor, sweeping any loose particles into their own compartments. They would then convert the waste into energy, thereby refueling themselves. I loved those little gadgets. Without worry, I could scatter zidung scarab beetle wings upon my bed and the crumbs would be gone the next day. Zidung scarab beetle wings, were tart and sour, a perfect snack when dipped in syrup and allowed to harden for a day.

  I thought it would be a good idea to interview the crew about the recent battles as sort of debrief. I had already spoken with everyone about their weapons. One question mark was Lincoln. He had no equipment, and hence not a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out—an old phrase my great grandmother brought over from London, England. Her ancestors were so poor, they urinated in a pot and dumped it out their window, to discard the waste. Thus, back then, if you didn’t have a pot or a window, you were in bad shape.

  Anyway, all Lincoln had was his Dietonical attire, which consisted of raggedy clothes and loose laced combat boots. Despite genuinely trying to fit in our crew, Lincoln couldn’t shake off his messy genius persona.

  Suddenly, our ship began to shake. As I ran to the cockpit, the gravitational forces rocking the ship caused me to slam into walls in the long hallway from left to right, and back again.

  ‘Everyone in your seats!’ I commanded. ‘ED, what is happening?’

  Even as I asked, the ship stopped jerking about, and we allowed ourselves to release long breaths of relief. ED was calculating a response. ‘What happened was that the elevons were almost frozen solid. The ship compensated for its own deficiencies, but this is only temporary. We should be fine for the next five minutes, but we will seriously have to fix these issues before it’s too late.’ Elevons were components of the wings.

  ‘Correct me if I am wrong, these elevons, they control roll and the orientation of the nose?’ I asked.

  ‘You’ve been studying the manual?’ ED asked, impressed.

  ‘No, I just linked to the cellular temporal updating system on the ship to advance my nanocom. Linc suggested it; he analyzed the manual.’ Continuing to laugh, I asked, ‘Okay, what do we do?’

  ‘The exothermic warming core must be damaged,’ ED said. ‘We need to land, and from the outside, apply an exothermic dressing to the wing. This will not only melt the ice on the elevons, but it will also provide some lasting heat as we continue our travels.’

  ‘I will go!’ I said.

  ‘I can go as well,’ Lincoln stated. ‘I am Sepheran, I should be able to withstand anything this environment has to offer.’

  I could tell ED was calculating the chances, and processing Lincoln’s suggestion. ‘I believe he is correct, Theodore.’

  I unbuckled my harness, as the display showed the ship was stable. ‘Alright... ED and Lincoln, then. Everyone else stays here with the ship. But if either of you are not back in fifteen minutes, we’re coming to get you,’ I said. I started walking toward the rear of the ship. ‘Lincoln, come with me.’ We walked for about twenty seconds until we approached a storage bin.

  ‘Here it is,’ I said as I grabbed the cold-weather suit out of the containment unit, and began to fit it on Lincoln. ‘The temperature levels outside are far below freezing,’ I told him. ‘I don’t want to risk exposing your Dietons to the dangerously cold environment if we don’t have to.’ ED was also metallic, but I knew ED was fully equipped with self-heating apparatus inside his chest plate, whereas for Lincoln, we simply did not know.

  ‘I can handle any sub-zero temperatures with no equipment,’ Lincoln insisted, standing stiffly and uncomfortably like any male teenager who simply hated to be fitted with clothes by a doting mother.

  I acted like that doting mother. ‘Well, let’s play it safe first, huh?’ Fussing over him, I buckled up Lincoln’s suit and activated its seals.

  The crew was standing by, and as we lowered Freebird, the environment outside of the ship worsened and challenged our landing. ‘Everyone stay in your seats!’ I ordered.

  ED shared his strategy. ‘Theodore, Lincoln and I should exit through the guard dome’s hatch, after sealing the containment cell. Once in the guard dome, we can unlatch the locking mechanisms, yet secure the seal of the hatch. It will be hard for us to move around because of the subzero weather.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ED continued, ‘I suggest that Lincoln and I exit through the dome. If there is any damage caused to the ship by the extreme cold, at least potential damage will be isolated to that smaller portion of the ship. The ramp is too flimsy to withstand such pressure; it was not designed for such conditions.’

  ‘Proceed.’

  The guard dome, the portion of the ship located at the very top, was used for defensive purposes. It contained a plasma gun turret that could rotate three-hundred-sixty degrees. The person operating the gun turret could defend against multiple attacks from every direction. The dome doubled as a hatch that could flip upward; it was nearly indestructible because of its graphene material. Plus, the graphene was a glass-like material; it was transparent, allowing us to see through it. When the ship was in space, the dome truly acted like a skylight to the stars.

  ‘I can dissipate into a disassembled particle form,’ Lincoln said. He was right. Cold didn’t have much of an effect on Lincoln.

  I gave everyone thumbs up, Lincoln and ED walked to the section of the ship directly underneath the dome hatch. The automatic security doors closed at each segment of the ship, protecting each section.

  I escorted ED and Lincoln to the hatch, then stepped back.

  ‘Once you are both officially cleared from the ship and the dome hatch seals, I will use the sensors on the gun system to monitor your movements. We will set out a bot to bring you the hose.’ The hose could protrude through a sliding round slot in the side of the ship and pump any liquid vital to the maintenance of the exterior of the ship. In this case, the hose would pump out the exothermic dressing that the ship exterior badly needed.

  ‘Thanks,’ Lincoln said. I closed down the air guard section once they entered. They unlatched the dome, which nearly flew off its hinges as if it was a car door opened in a hurricane.

  Although the cold was biting and the winds whipped about outside the ship, ED and Lincoln were maintaining stability. An automatic shifting scaffolding exited the ports in the ship’s body to accommodate ED and Lincoln’s maneuvers.

  After the dome sealed, I stood by to monitor ED and Lincoln. Then I heard a sound through the intercom, and quickly turned to identify it with the gun turret.

  ‘Theodore. We have movement at ground level!’

  I picked up growling from over ED’s communicator. ‘ED, identify the threat! Number and size!’

  Looking around frantically, through the corner of my eye, I saw a beast flash by my line of vision—too fast to identify with precision. It hopped once onto our dome; it was gone within seconds.

  ‘Are you guys catching this?’ I asked ED and Lincoln.

  ED said, ‘Theodore. Can you run a thermal scan of the area?’

  ‘I was. Until, some weird hairy beast flew past me!” I sighted another dark blur. ‘There it is again! Remain calm. Lincoln, continue to apply the dressing with the hose. ED, take a defensive stance. Alright, guys. We have a problem. Thermal scan shows... crap, at least one hundred heat signatures around the ship.’ The beast looked like a badly mutated version of Bigf
oot.

  ‘We don’t see anything out here. I repeat, nothing is presenting visually!’ ED said. ‘We’re almost finished. One elevon left.’

  Through the observation screen, I saw a hundred beasts exit the ground, as if they were some type of burrowing animal; each had thick jet-black hair. Their eyes were bright green, like those of a cat when staring directly into a light beam. The beasts all exited the ice ground simultaneously.

  ‘ED! I need a situation report!’

  ‘Theodore, we are under attack! I’m at your three o’clock position!’ After adjusting my turret to ED’s position, I saw him being carried away by a horde of these beasts. Then one landed on the dome atop the ship, with drool dripping from its saber tooth fangs. Its green eyes appeared psychotic, as it lashed away at the surface with its curled claws. When the creature found its claws could not make a dent on the resilient graphene surface, it resorted to chewing away at it with its razor-sharp teeth!

  ‘Theodore! If I get any further from the ship, you won’t find me!’ ED yelled in distress, as the beasts carried him further away.

  ‘Lincoln! Do whatever it takes to rescue ED!’ I shouted.

  ‘Yes sir!’ Lincoln yelled as he laid down the now-limp hose. ‘There! The last elevon is finished!’ In response, I pressed the button; a revolving giant reel within the ship would now extract the hose back in automatically.

  I started spinning the guard dome as fast as it could operate, and the black beast above me tumbled off from the sheer centrifugal force. I locked on all targets near ED, and started blasting them with the turret. The turret fired extremely accurate laser beams that were fifteen times thicker than the laser beams on Mariah’s rifle, but it wasn’t enough as many more of these burrowing beasts emerged from the ground, with snow bursting in every direction. Plus, the drifting snow obscured my vision.

  Lincoln jumped down from the ship, and ran faster than I had ever seen him run before, plowing over the beasts like a bull trampling a hundred Spaniards. But that was not enough for him. An eerie orange glow, emanating from his hands started swirling around his body; and his suit, no longer able to sustain the pressure, ripped away from his body. Lincoln himself started to glow and swirl, as if he was constellating into a massive cloud of minute orange particles.

  Through the wild lashings of cold gusts scattering disturbed snow all about, I saw Lincoln—or rather, the orange cloud he had transformed into—lifting the beasts and dropping them to their deaths. As my jaw dropped, I just realized how powerful Lincoln was. He was formidable enough to challenge a herd of wild beasts on his own, even without any weapons. I heard the cries and whimpers of these animals through ED’s communication, as Lincoln thrashed them one by one.

  ED sounded the alarm once again, shouting ‘Theodore, these mangy mammals are trying to disassemble me!’

  ‘Lincoln! Fall in on ED’s position now, we’re losing him! I’ll cover you!’ Not that I needed to.

  Lincoln’s wild orange cloud of glowing Dietons now shifting position in response to my command, congealing adjacent to the beasts that were ravaging ED. Lincoln stood over the beasts, and commanding newly recruited Dietons, fed upon himself, growing larger and larger—twice his normal size.

  The newly enhanced, dominant Lincoln reached down and grabbed one of the beasts, holding it by its tail and dangling it like a tiny sewer rat in his massive glowing hands. I yelled to him, but he ignored me.

  I shouted at the communicator, ‘Let it go, it is not a threat anymore!’

  The other beasts, aghast at Lincoln’s show of prowess, scrambled about in a mad dash to retreat through their burrows.

  While I zoomed in on Lincoln, there was a look of emptiness in his eyes and they glowered indifference. He had already disposed of nearly twenty-five of these beasts within seconds, yet he treated the experience as casually as one would observe a light rainstorm.

  I shouted again, but to my dismay, Lincoln slammed the beast against the ground, killing it instantly. Even after it hung lifeless in Lincoln’s hands, he continued to whack it against the ice slab, like a cat tormenting its prey. I cried out for him to stop, and he finally acknowledged me.

  ‘Yes?’ he said, as if we had been sitting across a table eating dinner, and I had been re-starting a conversation after a ten-second pause. Dispelling the surplus Dietons, he shrank back to his normal size. He and Ed made their way back to the ship, Lincoln carrying ED, arms over his head with his incredible strength.

  Lincoln made a giant leap to the dome hatch, even with the heavy weight of ED hoisted above him, and entered the ship when I opened the hatch for them. I was surprised to see him bypass the automatically deployed scaffolding.

  ‘Whatever it takes right?’ Lincoln asked.

  I nodded my head and started walking back, thinking of nothing but the expression of indifference on Lincoln’s face just as he toyed with all these beasts, even as they died by his hand.

  ‘ED, are you functional?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes, my inboard miniature bots are currently fixing the damage, which is minute.’

  ‘Then let’s get this ship in the air! ED, how far can we get with the exothermal dressing applied?’ I asked, frustrated from my experience with Lincoln.

  ‘The exterior is fine now. But it’s never wise to sit too long out there in this abominable and frigid environment, so it’s best if we leave as soon as possible.’

  ‘Lincoln. Follow me to my quarters.’ We entered my dorm. Finally alone with him, I hollered at him, my spittle flying. ‘What happened out there? What was that, huh?’

  Lincoln showed no empathy, and replied sanctimoniously, ‘You said, do whatever it takes to save ED.’

  ‘Yes, but you’re taking me too literally. You’re acting like you’re using a sledge hammer to squash a gnat!’

  This time, Lincoln’s voice showed defiance and disdain. ‘It is what I calculated to be necessary,’ he said coldly.

  Alarmed by our shouts, Mariah entered the fray. Glancing back and forth between us, and observing our angry expressions, she said, ‘What’s going on, you two?’

  ‘Nothing,’ I snapped at her, treating her badly. ‘Please assist ED in the cockpit.’

  Mariah shouted at me, her face turning red. ‘Fine, next time you need help, I just won’t bother!’ She spun around, pivoting on one foot to leave in a huff.

  Lincoln started to head off to the exit, but I retorted icily, ‘Lincoln, you’re staying until we’re done.’

  ‘Oh, so you’re the boss of me?’ A haughty Lincoln crossed his arms and lifted his chin at me.

  I paced around him, striking my fist into the air. ‘Look, you don’t understand. You are obviously extremely powerful.’

  ‘So?’

  I sputtered. ‘Well—remember my sword, Wrath?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Just because I have this sword, the most powerful of its kind in the galaxy, doesn’t mean I’m the master and commander of everyone. I have to show restraint wherever necessary, and you didn’t. In that situation back there, you went way, way too far.’

  ‘I guess I don’t understand. You’re Earth’s messiah, so you’re important, obviously. ED was in trouble. You, the leader determined I should do whatever it takes, and I implemented your order. I do not see what I did wrong.’

  ‘There is a thin line between self-defense and bullying, Lincoln. In your calculations, did you consider at any point that you had the upper hand?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘That would have been the point to stop, yet you continued. And I ordered you to cease action! You disobeyed me! You don’t kick a man when he’s down!’

  ‘They were beasts!’ Lincoln shouted.

  ‘It doesn’t matter. You had the situation under control.’

  ‘Theodore, come to the cockpit quickly,’ Mariah said over the intercom. Her voice sounded alarmed, causing me immediate concern.

  ‘Just do what ask of you, Linc. That is all I ask.’ Pressed for urgency, I ran to the coc
kpit, As soon as I saw the view on the giant screen, I stopped in stupefaction. In front of me were beautiful, flowing blue twirls of atmospheric gases. As if disturbing the breathtaking canvas, flashes of light thundered out on our forward observational scanner.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ I said.

  Nilo, attempting to beat ED by being the first to answer, said, ‘Ted, it should have been a routine hail of our status by the observation tower. We’re ready to land in Diode, but for some reason, they seem to think we’re trying to avoid detection.’

  ‘Theodore,’ said ED, not willing to be marginalized. ‘Maybe our communications are not aligned.’

  A flash of burning light zinged by our viewing screen and we all squatted down simultaneously because Freebird was taking incoming fire from some sort of massive weapon from the flight control center.

  I shouted orders. ‘Activate shields and take evasive action. Everyone strap in now! Take us down. Maybe they’ll reconsider when they see we are not firing back.’

  ‘I will try to open up communication again,’ Nilo said.

  There were two more flashes that zinged our ship, but did not make impact because of our force field. We also knew that the localized burst of light originating from the perimeter of Diode was incendiary cannon fire, evidently warning shots. We donned oxygen masks as we descended in spite of the incoming blasts, and Nilo kept working hard to open a line of communication. While the crew scrambled to deal with the unexpected reaction of the air traffic control tower, Lincoln was calm—perhaps too calm. He looked almost bored.

  ‘Nilo, do you have anyone on the communicator?’ I asked. He shook his head no.

  I then looked at Lincoln. ‘Now engage Plan Cleric.’

  As everyone else managed to avert their eyes from the wildly fluctuating screen controls, they gasped as they viewed Lincoln transforming himself, as he momentarily disintegrated.