Into the Fire Part I_Requiem of Souls

by Christian Kallias

  Oryn unleashed a deafening roar, not allowing Arakan to finish his sentence and his indecent proposal. It disgusted her to the core that he would think for just a second that she could just forgive him and side with him after all he had done. Her roar made the entire palace tremble.

  “Shut the fuck up you monster; you’re not my father, you never were. And today I’m avenging my real father. In a few moments, I’ll enjoy crushing your heart with my own hands.”

  “I see,” said Arakan calmly. “I wish things could have been different.”

  Oryn’s aura expanded around her almost instantly, shining a bright white light stronger than the sun. The temperature in the throne room felt like tens of degrees below zero. Whatever humidity was present in the room instantly flash-froze into snowflakes and started twirling around the infuriated female Fury warrior as her eyes shone like two bright stars in the depths of space.

  “I don’t!” shouted Oryn, as she launched herself toward Arakan, determined to kill the man she hated more than anything in this world.

  Upon taking out the second guard, Gaia signaled Spiros with her comms. He carefully used the forest’s vegetation to get to her.

  “What’s next?” he asked when he arrived near her, next to the ship’s ramp.

  “I’ve managed to get into one of the guard’s wireless devices. It gave me the position of the other ten crew members currently inside the ship.”

  “Ten? That’s going to be tricky to slip past them, won’t it?”

  “Not necessarily. Four of them, I believe, are sleeping. Two are in the cockpit of the ship. That leaves only four of them working inside the ship, with only one of them on the path to the conduit I need to distribute the sleeping agent.”

  “That is if we had one.”

  “I’ve already figured that part out as well. The scanner allowed me to check their cargo and supplies. Some of the products they’re smuggling can be mixed and create a very effective sleep gas.”

  Gaia made it sound simple, and on paper, perhaps it was. But a lifetime of experiences of things going wrong on a daily basis told Spiros that no matter how simple or well oiled a plan was, an unforeseen element of surprise almost always managed to creep out of nowhere to rain on one’s day.

  But, then again, this robotic version of Gaia was highly logical in her approach, and she possessed the right tools to adjust her plans to achieve the wanted result, which is why he had, reluctantly, decided to come on this mission. Spiros had to believe that not every single one of their moves would go awry. They had already had a streak of bad luck, and hopefully, they had seen the worst of it.

  It’s not like they had much of a choice anyway. Time was running out for his cloned body, and unless they brought back the biomaterial to Argos’ secret base, they would both perish. Spiros from a cloned-body catastrophic failure, and the real Gaia from data corruption he wouldn’t be there to stabilize and fix.

  “Very well. Do you need me to do anything?”

  “Yes, you stand guard at the top of the ramp. There are some large crates you can use to hide behind. My plan doesn’t factor in any new crewmen returning to the ship, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. That also will give you time to hack into the life support system and activate the fans in the following sections on my mark.”

  Gaia showed the schematics of the ship to Spiros on the portable wireless device she had acquired.

  “And do I try to take out any uninvited guests?”

  “No, that conflicts with my prime directive of protecting you. Too many parameters, too many unknowns. If someone comes, you are to inform me over the comms.”

  Spiros was semi-insulted by Gaia’s assumption that he couldn’t take care of stunning someone with the element of surprise. He had faced way more dire situations in his many months alone aboard a research station overrun with tall and powerful lizard men. He had even killed a few. But this Gaia knew nothing of that, so instead of complaining, he decided to go with the plan.

  “Very well. Good luck.”

  “To you too, Spiros. Let me know the moment you have hacked the life support system.”

  “Will do.”

  Gaia climbed up the ramp and soon disappeared inside the ship. Spiros silently climbed the ramp shortly after and found a crate to hide behind. He brought his brain implant online and was happy to finally see wireless traffic to hack into.

  In a matter of seconds, he was inside the ship’s rudimentary computer systems. In fact, he was able to hack the main computer and could easily remote control every part of the ship, if needed. He located and had access to the fans on the points Gaia had shown him.

  “I’m good to go on the life support system,” he whispered.

  “Good. I’m almost done acquiring the materials I need to create the sleep gas.”

  “What about us? Won’t we be subjected to the same gas?”

  “We would, but the best approach is for you to trigger it with a countdown. That way we have plenty of time to get out of the ship when you activate it.”

  “Any preference on how much time we’d need?”

  “Sixty seconds should do it.”

  It only took Spiros a couple of seconds to create the countdown function and link it to the rest of his hack.

  “I have the sleep gas; requesting radio silence for the next forty-five seconds so I can dispatch the only crewman currently on my mission path.”

  “Understood.”

  A few seconds later, Spiros heard voices in the distance approaching the ship.

  24

  Ryonna, Keera and Tar’Lock stepped onto the bridge as the ship rocked from the planet-bound plasma fire.

  The Emperor rose from his captain’s chair.

  “I’m glad you’re all back unharmed.”

  “Thanks to you for saving our asses down there,” said Keera.

  Ryonna wanted to thank the Emperor as well, but she was still pretty stunned and had conflicting emotions about how she felt about him.

  “What…she said,” was all she managed to say.

  Tar’Lock shot Ryonna a dubious look.

  “Thanks a lot, Emperor; we’re very grateful,” he added.

  “You’re all perfectly welcome.”

  Two more long-range plasma fireballs hit the belly of the ship and rocked it so hard that anyone standing almost fell to the ground. Ryonna caught Keera with one hand and steadied her when it appeared she was about to stumble. Sparks flew from a nearby console.

  “Shields are down to fifteen percent, Emperor,” said an Obsidian crewman.

  “We need to get out of here,” declared Altair. “Plot a course for Alpha Prime and engage hyperspace when ready.”

  “If I may, before you do that,” pleaded Ryonna.

  “Yes? But make it quick; the ship won’t take much more of this. The rest of the fleet also incurred heavy damage.”

  “I think it’s a mistake to leave.”

  “Believe me, Ryonna, I’m not happy with this either, but the fleet won’t last long if we stay in orbit. If we’re dead, we won’t be good to anyone.”

  “And I’m not proposing we stay here so the Gorgar shoot us down, but let’s not make a full retreat just yet.”

  “I’m listening; we gotta break orbit, and soon.”

  “Let’s just retreat out of the way a little. Going back to Alpha Prime will take days, during which we won’t have the support of the Gorgar people, and at their rate of development, they could become a powerful enemy. I—” Ryonna paused before ushering out the next words, admitting her mistakes wasn’t her forte. “I may have inadvertently started a war here, and that’s one conflict we do not need, nor do we want the Gorgar to start building a fleet of ships to try and hunt us down. We, if you’ll pardon the human expression, have bigger fish to fry. We need to fix this, and fast.”

  While pondering Ryonna’s words, the Emperor looked straight into her eyes briefly before giving her a simple nod. He then turned toward one of his crewmen.

&nb
sp; “Helmsman, micro-jump the fleet to the other side of this system, preferably behind a planet out of direct sight from this position, then immediately engage stealth mode upon arrival.”

  The jump engines rumbled to life, and the Emperor’s flagship jumped away from the Gorgar home world.

  Oryn sent a column of subzero energy to Arakan who blocked it with ease by extending both his palms forward.

  “You can’t think you’re taking me down with these pathetic attacks, do you? I’ve raised you better than that,” taunted Arakan.

  Arakan absorbed Oryn’s attack energy and created a massive light blue fireball, sending it back toward her. She blocked it with both her hands but the concentrated power forced her to skid backward a few yards before she regained control of the energy. Her aura flashed brighter for just a second, and the attack exploded into a million cold particles that started twirling around her. Light reflected upon the particles, and at that moment, she shone brighter than the purest of diamonds.

  “Your attempts at nostalgia won’t work. There is only one thought in my mind, and one thought only. To kill you.”

  “Nobody kills me today, Oryn. Not Chase, not Argos, and most certainly not you!”

  “We’ll just have to see about that. Your overconfidence may just be your downfall.”

  “My confidence is why I am still alive today, even when our best scientists said that my brain injury would prove to be fatal.”

  “The only reason you’re alive is that I created your medication, not your delusion about your own resilience to death.”

  Arakan smirked. “And yet I have died and risen from the dead on Olympus.”

  “And I can feel in your aura that whatever brought you back is not Fury. So stop trying to convince me that you are in control when we both know you’re nothing more than a grotesque puppet nowadays. Hopefully, by killing you, I also kill that thing you’ve been talking to for all this time.”

  Arakan growled and moved so fast that he took Oryn by surprise. He smashed her face with a powerful elbow strike, grabbed her by the hair before she could recover and started spinning her faster and faster. After a moment, and when Arakan was satisfied with the speed at which he was spinning his adoptive daughter, he sent her flying and smashing toward the east wall. Upon impact, she became embedded in the wall, which cracked around her.

  Arakan raised a palm and unleashed a dozen small, black-smoking fireballs at Oryn.

  Before they could impact with her, a fast-spinning object deflected them all. Upon slowing down, the object appeared to be Poseidon’s Trident, with the God of the Seas holding it, a look of murder reflected in his eyes.

  “We have unfinished business, you and I,” he said to Arakan.

  Oryn growled. “I don’t need your help; get out of here! Nobody but me kills him, do you hear me Olympian?”

  Poseidon looked back at her from the corner of his eye. “You’re doing a bang-up job here. He killed my brother; that gives me just about the same right as you to want to exact revenge.”

  Oryn broke herself free from her unfortunate and temporary wall encasing. She dusted herself off before bringing her bright white aura back to bear, her eyes shining the same color, and pointed a finger at Poseidon.

  “I don’t care what right you think you have, Olympian. You’ll stand down right now, or I don’t have a problem with mowing through you first before I rip Arakan’s heart out of his chest.”

  “You’re welcome to try, but I would hope you’d think twice before killing your uncle out of revenge. I doubt that it would sit well with your conscience once Arakan is dead. Plus, I think this would be counterproductive, and give Arakan an advantage he cruelly needs. I’ve already killed him once, and deep down, he knows I can do it again. I have no doubt you have the power and resourcefulness of doing so as well. So, why don’t we just both bring him down, together? In the name of Zeus, we both know he would have wanted us on the same side and not as enemies.”

  In her unquenchable thirst for revenge, Oryn hadn’t even stopped to think of the family link between her and Poseidon. She was just so laser-focused on bringing Arakan down at all costs that she omitted to think that she still had family members out there.

  She looked at Poseidon for a moment, then at Arakan.

  “For Zeus then, but you let me take the kill shot; that’s non-negotiable.”

  “I can live with that.”

  “Then let us kill that son of a bitch!”

  Ryonna stopped in front of the door of the Emperor’s ready room. She still couldn’t believe the stunt he pulled to save their lives. Emperor Altair had risked the ship and all the souls on it to get them out of Dodge. In fact, even with all her courage and warrior skills, Ryonna knew very well that they only had a couple of minutes left to live when the Emperor micro-jumped his ship into the planet’s atmosphere to save them.

  She paused, wondering what her feelings were at the moment. A few hours ago she was still extremely angry with the Emperor, and part of her wanted to kill him. Now, she felt remorse for her behavior.

  Before she could gather her thoughts and enter, the doors split open, and Emperor Altair stopped, a little surprised someone was behind the door.

  “Hello, Ryonna. You scared me slightly for a second. Did you come to see me?”

  “If I’m not intruding.”

  “No, of course not. I was going for my daily run, but I can do that at another time. Please, come in,” said Altair, gesturing Ryonna toward the nearest seat across his desk. Once Ryonna sat, he walked around the desk and sat as well.

  “I take it we haven’t been detected, yet?” said Ryonna.

  “Fortunately, our stealth engines weren’t too badly damaged, so I doubt they know we’re still here; to their instruments, it should show that we’ve turned tail and run.”

  “We can’t return to Alpha Prime. We can request backup to come and help us repair, but jumping back and forth, even with the help of the Asgardian ships, could take hours that we don’t want to waste.”

  “I know.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes, and I must thank you for your intervention on the bridge earlier. We’ve been running continuous long-range scans of the planet. You were right, they’re already building Fury super-destroyer class ships at a dangerously fast rate, and my guess is, those aren’t meant to be delivered to the Furies. It would make sense that’s what they’d build; their near infinite workforce already has everything in place to build them with those efficient concentric assembly lines you’ve mentioned in your report.”

  “That would have been Keera’s report,” she paused. “Emperor…I don’t do paperwork.”

  “Then, I guess she signed your name; it matters not though, what does is that we don’t need another enemy right now. We’ve only recently defeated evil Gaia’s forces. Now, about what you said on the bridge? About you starting a conflict?”

  “I’m sorry. I’ve let my impulsive nature get the best of me, and I knocked out an uncooperative Gorgar. I didn’t expect they’d go berserk about that.”

  “That’s unfortunate, but don’t beat yourself up about it, as far as we know, we could have started a similar situation with just a diplomatic dialogue, and it matters not how this situation began, only that we find a quick solution to fix it. What does your gut feeling tell you about what happened down there?”

  Ryonna was pleasantly surprised by Altair’s interest in her opinion. She clearly had misjudged the man, and while she wanted to apologize to him, she couldn’t find the right moment to do so. Emperor Altair must have picked up on her hesitation, as he inquired about it.

  “Is there something wrong, Ryonna? I get the feeling you’re two places at once.”

  “I— I apologize.”

  “What for?”

  “For putting a dagger to your throat earlier and threatening to kill you, I…I cruelly misjudged you, and for that, I’m sorry.”

  Altair smiled. “That must not have been easy for you to say. Therefor
e, I truly appreciate the gesture. Apology accepted, and please think nothing of it, no more. Water under the bridge as the humans say. I know it will take time for most species in the known universe to forget about the way I previously ruled. I have accepted that.”

  “Why did you risk so many lives to save only three?”

  “Life is not a number’s game, Ryonna, each and every one of them is precious. It should be nurtured, loved and protected. I’m not about to start weighing numbers against one another, every life counts. I realize that there are situations where making that choice of sacrificing a few to save many will be more difficult and perhaps even unavoidable. But anyone under my command knows, or at least I hope they do, that we’re going to risk our lives to save others. That’s the legacy I want to leave to my people before I die. To be empathic and try to do the right thing, not to conquer and rule territories by force.”

  The words struck a chord with Ryonna. But, she still was baffled that they were coming from the leader of the Obsidian Empire. And, unofficially, the second in command of the Earth Alliance.

  “That’s very noble, and it seems like you did a lot of introspection and thinking, I—I’m having a hard time reconciling the person I’m talking with right now with the image I had of you, even before I met you.”

  “Then it seems my thinking has been beneficial. While I appreciate you apologizing and us having a personal discussion, I believe we should get back to the subject at hand.”

  “Indeed,” said Ryonna with a smile. “My gut tells me that whatever this drug Argos created to give the Gorgar more long-term memory abilities has had an unforeseen side effect.”

  “Such as?”

  “I can only speculate at this point, but what I can tell you is that from our last visit, the Gorgar have turned from slaves to being pretty strict on rules, with a new political structure which seems a radical change from the old one, where one queen is ruling the entire planet as opposed to a cluster of queens. And they seem trigger-happy if you’ll pardon me saying so.”