Another knock came on the door and Ria entered, carrying a small package in her arms. She looked completely different to what Taza remembered. She wore a battle-class TEK, but more remarkable was her hair, which had been trimmed above her shoulders. It was much more practical for combat.
"Ah, there’s the person with your answers," Leeroy said as the Chan entered. "But I wasn’t expecting visitors until later."
Ria nodded and turned back to the door.
"Let her stay…Please." Taza’s words came out a lot more desperate than he intended.
Ria looked back at Leeroy, her eyes wide and pleading.
"Fine. But don’t stay too long. We need him to rest if he’s going to be any use to anyone."
"Thank you," Ria said with the same timid voice she’d used when they first met. It was hard to believe she was the same person who’d disarmed and kidnapped him.
"A word of advice," Leeroy said as he reached for the door. "The Aknar don’t like to be called spiders."
The door snapped shut as the doctor left, leaving Ria and Taza staring at each other in silence.
"I’m sorry," she said, looking at one of the framed paintings awkwardly. "I didn’t think they would figure me out so soon."
"Is it true what Eldi said? You killed Bulstrad and Namoro?"
She spat. "Of course I didn’t kill them."
Taza drew a deep breath as nausea threatened to overcome him again. He rubbed his temples in tight circles. "But Chimera. The Quamat. The spiders. I don’t understand."
"It’s complicated. Maybe Leeroy was right. I’ll come back later when you’re feeling better.”
"No." He reached out with a feeble arm, his head getting light. "Don’t go. At least tell me what happened to Bulstrad and Namoro."
She looked to the door and back again, seeming unsure.
"Please," he all but begged.
Her shoulders relaxed a little as she gave in. "Fine. But I can’t stay too long like Leeroy said. You’re still unwell."
"Just a little while."
"You might not remember Skallig. He’s a Quamat."
"The one in the chamber with the webs."
"The very same. An organization called Chimera hired him, sent him here...through a small galactic gate. He killed Bulstrad and Namoro."
"Yet you work with him?"
"Like I said. It’s complicated. Chimera made contact with Eldi and promised him help to get out from under the shadow of the gods in the sky if he helped them get a foothold in the Shroud. Eldi and other Ushtaran officials have been developing a weapon to use against the gods. They weren’t able to finish it…at least not until Chimera made contact. We believe they are close to finishing this weapon now.”
"What kind of weapon?"
"I’m not privy to that kind of intelligence, but it must be serious to have gotten Bulstrad and Namoro killed. We believe Namoro learned about Eldi’s plans…that he was trying to inform the gods.”
"You knew they were meeting. Which is why you were at the Refinery that day."
Ria nodded. "Only Namoro recognized me. Thought I was there to spy for Eldi. He and Bulstrad went off. Skallig got to them before I could. When Skallig reported to Eldi, the Ushtaran ordered Aldo and Yana to kill him. He barely escaped with his life. Fled into the catacombs.
"Before I knew what was going on, Sergeant Kurza and his guards were shutting the place down. It didn’t take long for rumors about a ghost to circulate. We Chan are superstitious. The Sergeant was right about that." She looked pained to be speaking about the Ushtaran.
"You and Kurza were close?"
"Not close, but he was good…for an Ushtaran. One of the few who treated the Chan as equals. He deserved more than to die the way he did. But it is what it is."
"How did Chimera find the gate onto Ushtar?"
"There’s always been a gate here. The Ushtarans just didn’t know it was a gate until recently. If you ask Leeroy, he might tell you more about how they found a way through."
"You know the gate’s location?"
She froze for a second as though catching herself. "It’s classified."
"Classified, huh?" He couldn’t help but smile. "Whoever your leader is, he runs a tight shift."
"Our leader prefers to be cautious. She is the reason we’ve come so far."
"I don’t suppose you can tell me who she is?"
Ria shook her head. "Also classified."
"Have you been fighting the Ushtarans for long?"
"The resistance has been fighting the Ushtarans for years. But only since the accident have things become serious."
"The one in Refinery Chamber Four?"
"It brought many of the Chan factions together. Emboldened those who refused to fight before then. We have made great strides since. Disrupted supply trains. Shut down communications. We even took down a weapons plant with Skallig’s help."
"Quamat are a slippery species. I’ve never trusted one and not lived to regret it."
She shrugged. "We have no reason to believe Skallig is a threat. We found him fatally wounded not long after he escaped the Ushtaran’s. We nursed him back to health. Since then, he has helped us on a number of operations, several of which would have failed without him."
"What about the data crystal Chancellor Namoro dropped when he died?"
"I’ve already said too much. The Queen will choose for herself whether you should know more. She wants to speak with you when you’ve recovered. She hasn’t spoken to anyone in weeks. It is a rare honor."
"You call her the queen because she controls the spiders…I mean the Aknar?"
"She is their mother. I have said enough of her for now." She looked at her SIG. "I have overstayed my welcome. Get well soon…Taza."
Taza was about to object when the room started to wobble a little. He looked up at the drip. Whatever Leeroy had put in there was kicking in and it was strong. "Yes. I’m feeling tired again. I’m sure the Queen will fill me in on the details." He suddenly remembered another part of the spider nightmare. "In that chamber with the web. You mentioned Zora before, didn’t you?”
"The Queen will tell you all about Zora tomorrow." She turned away, and he sank into his pillow, no longer able to support his own head.
He wanted to call her back. She left so much unanswered. But exhaustion tugged at his awareness and energy seeped from his bones.
Taza wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he finally mustered the strength to look up at the door, but Ria had gone.
His eye lids closed of their own accord.
Part of him didn’t want to sleep because of what horrors might visit his dreams, but darkness came regardless.
28
The Mark of Nahvoy
Color and shadow swirled with textures her eyes had never seen as her surroundings thrashed like wild waves on a raging sea. Clio thought she might faint and stumble out of the ring, but an invisible force held her steady in a standing position. The somewhat familiar face before her shifted in and out of existence like some kind of glitchy next-gen holo tech. The man held himself as she did, his shoulders back and chest out. If not for his face, Clio would have thought she was staring at her own reflection. She suspected that the ring device was mimicking her mannerisms and movements. It couldn’t have been her father; of that much she was sure.
"My father’s dead," she mumbled.
"I did die. In a sense…"
The more Clio stared, the more of herself she saw in his features, but she still couldn’t believe her own eyes no matter how augmented they were. "What’s your name?"
"I’ve worn many names since leaving you and your mother on Morigan. Here, they call me Leeroy. Back when you were born, I went by Richard Evans. Your mother was Leanna Evans." He looked off as though peering into the past. "We both loved you very much."
Her nostrils flared as she gasped. "How dare you! You abandoned us! The things we went through on Morigan…I grew up on the streets after my mother abandoned me. I visited Leanna the year before the pl
ague took her. I think she went nuts when you never came back. You didn’t so much as let us know. I grew up thinking you’d died."
He nodded, shame creeping into his eyes. "Your mother and I agreed that I should leave. I can’t say it was the right decision, but I fear all three of us would be long dead if I had stayed."
Her heart quickened with anger as the fury tugged at the edges of her mind stronger than it had done in a year. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Leeroy shook his head. "It’s all because of that thing," he said in disgust. "You can feel it even as we speak. It’s feeding on your emotions…your anger."
"What has the fury got to do with anything?"
"Fury is what some call it. The Ancients called it the pre-ascension. Others call it the Void. What do you know of this?”
"I know it had something to do with the Ancients. That the CSD tried to use it during the Kragak War. That I almost died after it took over me last year. I was hoping you could shed some light on it."
"I was one of the original Fury Program subjects during the war. They tested their drugs on hundreds. Few made it to the other end alive. Fewer still maintained their sanity. We knew the risks, but no one could have imagined such horrors…" The hologram ran its hand through its shaggy red hair. “Human minds were never meant to peer into such realms. I was among the one percent who reacted positively to the treatment. I joined a small unit of others. We carried out covert operations during the war. I’m one of the last remaining survivors. After the Kragak caught me on Gorthore…Well, they eventually let me go.”
“But the Omnion showed me your profile. You looked different. I showed Grimshaw. He confirmed that picture was not Sergeant Richards.”
Leeroy shook his head. “That picture was someone else. I paid a hacker to change the records the CSD held on me in case anyone tried to track me down. He changed my profile images among other things. You see, after the Kragak let me go, I reached out to the CSD for help, but they wanted to keep running their tests. To find out why I benefited from the drugs when so many others had wasted away. As soon as Confederation officials caught wind of the liberties the Science Division had taken during the war, the Confederation shut the project down. I was discharged with honors and a small pension. They pretty much kicked me to the curb. I stopped feeling the so-called fury as the years drifted by…Probably because I no longer needed it…no longer wanted it. I met your mother. We fell in love. You were born…even though the treatments I received during the Fury Program were supposed to make me sterile. That was when they started showing up.”
He looked off into the distance.
"When who showed up?"
His attention returned to Clio. "A doctor tracked me down. Claimed he was a scientist who worked for the CSD. He tried to take me to a clinic for trials. But I smelled a rat. When I refused, guards appeared from the shadows. They were veterans. I fought, but there were too many of them. They packed me in the back of a transport. I hadn’t touched the fury in decades at that point, but when I realized I might never see you or your mother again, the flood gates opened. All that pent-up energy. It exploded. I broke free of my restraints and escaped. If they found out about you, I knew they’d stop at nothing to get their hands on you. We hitched an unregistered flight to Morigan. I left you and your mother with enough money to get by until I could return. I threw them off your tracks, but somehow they always tracked me down eventually. One time, I thought I’d finally lost them, but they captured me properly. Locked me in a high security wing on the Brink for studying. There was no getting out of that cell. The walls were lined with tridarium. Most people think tridarium is the toughest known material because of its atomic structure, but that’s only partially true. What they don’t realize is that tridarium also has trans-dimensional properties.”
Clio noted how distant he grew the more they talked.
"What did they do to you?"
"The scientist paid me a visit. Turned out it was Doctor Munro, the guy who headed up the Fury Project. I hadn’t met him during the war, but everyone involved had heard his name. The Confederation charged him for war crimes when they learned about his test subjects…the experiments he conducted on pregnant women and newborns…the mutations…He continued those tests on the Brink with help from the disbanded CSD team. A third party funded by Xerocorp Labs bought out the wardens and converted an entire prison wing into a lab. They called themselves Chimera." He paused for a breath. "They ran me through countless trials. Worked me close to death more times than I can remember. They couldn’t let me die of course. I was their most prized possession."
"I’m…so sorry," Clio whispered as a tear trickled down her cheek. The few times she had spared a thought for her father it was out of hatred. She could only imagine what horrors he went through. "How did you get away?"
"While investigating a breakout on the Brink, an SIA archagent got wind of what was going on. He busted me out before Munro’s people could take him down. We took out the Brink’s power supply. Made it crash on Sathrose. We went our separate ways after that. I bypassed a shuttle, got out of there before the station went down."
“The fury first took over me when I was trapped inside a Xerocorp Labs facility that had been taken over by Chimera agents."
Her father looked away briefly before turning back. "What happened?"
"I couldn’t remember much after, but it made me faster. Stronger. When growing up, I would often get out of sticky situations. Run faster than the other kids on the streets. Climb higher. Take more of a beating." Clio sighed. "I thought I was lucky, but deep down I knew I was different. When the fury completely took over for the first time on Colony 115, I killed an elite Aphnai. It taxed me so much I almost died. If an Aegis with an anti-fury serum hadn’t been nearby, I wouldn’t be here."
"Doctor Munro’s suspicions were correct then. It can be passed on genetically, eliminating the need of an implant." He touched the side of his head. "Since fury treatment made first-generation subjects infertile, he could never confirm and his later tests were never successful, but on the Brink he boasted about how close he had gotten. The materials for fury implants were hard to come by. Without that limitation, who knows what horrors Munro would have cooked up if we hadn’t stopped him…"
"Captain Grimshaw has an implant."
"He and I might be the last two original subjects alive, you know."
"Grimshaw takes meds to stave off the attacks, and even then…" She recalled walking in on the Captain having one such attack above the North Star’s hangar on the Sentinel. "You said you reacted positively to the treatment. Are you able to control it?"
"Fury Augmentation Seven was a volatile drug. The implants only made it a little more stable. I used to experience headaches, hallucinations, nausea. Until I stood inside the Kragak ring." He gestured to the circle around Clio’s feet. "Then I could call on it at will and shut it off before it exacted too much of a toll."
"So, this is some kind of medical device?"
"The ring is many things. This asteroid once housed an Ancient facility. I searched the records when I was still here but couldn’t learn what the facility was used for. Think of the ring as an interface, a command module if you will. It allows one to connect to the facility, to control the vessels, to browse the archives as you are now...and more. You can ask me questions. So long as I uploaded the memories, the ring will answer."
"You look so real," Clio whispered, finding the strength to slowly reach out and touch her so-called father’s face. Her hands brushed against something solid, startling her. "It even feels real."
"I uploaded much of my mind to the archives. The ring’s Ancient technology is centuries beyond anything I have ever seen. It takes recordings and combines them with an advanced intelligence to make those who recorded them appear in real time. In short, it took a rough copy of my mind and appearance. That’s not all. The ring can also subtly manipulate the brainwaves of those who stand inside it and make them experience things they
aren’t really experiencing. You don’t feel me so much as think you feel me."
He reached out and took her hand in his.
His skin was warm to the touch and comforting. As much as part of her wanted to, Clio couldn’t pull away. She had never imagined meeting her father let alone touching him, even if it was just a copy.
"Incredible." Her surroundings shifted, and Clio lost her balance. The force inside the ring caught her again, shifting her back into an upright position.
Her father smiled. "You get used to it. When I first activated the ring, I threw up, but the Librarian taught me."
"The what?"
"When I first entered the ring, I was greeted by a figure who called herself the Librarian. She’s the avatar for the system that runs the ring. Would you like to meet her?"
"Probably later. You said the ring helped you control the fury?"
"It did."
"How exactly did that work?"
He froze and his body fizzled. "I cannot answer that question," a female voice boomed from above.
Clio remembered that she wasn’t speaking with her father, but a copy of his memories wrapped around an advanced artificial intelligence.
"Of course," she said. "Can the ring help me control the fury?”
Her father moved again as though suddenly un-paused. "The ring has been scanning you since you stepped inside. The entities confirm that they can help."
"The entities?"
He gestured to the cave. "This Ancient tech connects to a place and time beyond the universe."
"What do you mean?"
"It would take too long to explain. The Ancients could move through other dimensions. That is how they built the stellar and galactic gate network."
"These entities are communicating with you now?"
He nodded. “Now is a relative term. But for simplicity’s sake, let us say they are. And they would like to speak with you before they grant you control over the fury."
"What do you mean speak with me?”
Without answering, her father’s image shifted out of existence leaving her alone in the swirling maelstrom.
The Galactic Sentinel: Ultimate Edition: 4 Books with 2000+ Pages of Highly Entertaining Sci-Fi Space Adventure Page 99