by JK Stone
Looking to her left at the man next to her, Inola said, “Alright, what does the suit do?” a bit skeptically.
The lady to the right said, “Hit Flynn as hard as you can.”
Inola turned to the man in the shimmering bodysuit and plowed her fist into his abdomen. Bellowing out a curse, Inola shook her hand in pain.
Flynn chuckled and said, “The body suit is very durable, we have yet to find a weapon that can damage it. All energy discharges are absorbed by the suit and the body, and the suits strength is equally proportionate to the force it comes in contact with.
“There are too many features built into the suits to go over right now, but I will show you a few. In this suit, you will be able to do this.” Flynn made a move toward his weapon and Inola stepped back in caution as he vanished before her eyes.
“Where did he go?” Inola asked.
Flynn reappeared a moment later and said through his still raised hood, “The suit phases me out of this time-space enough to get around undetected. I can still interact a bit, but real matter will not harm me. Like I said, there are many features built into the suit.” Then he activated the anti-gravity and began floating a second later.
“Once you and your crew have a suit on yourselves you can communicate ship to ship, or more correctly suit to suit,” Flynn explained, then descending to the ground he added, “We are producing as many as possible in hopes of protecting the little ones as well, but production is slow. The Nefastus have set off another dark matter bomb at one of our production facilities.”
Inola let out a sigh. “I know,” she said. “We lost two ships and ten of my friends to the blast. Where is the suspension I need to eat?” she asked.
“I can summon it for you now,” Flynn said.
A moment later a dish with Ambrose on it appeared and Inola didn’t even hesitate as she took a mouthful.
A few minutes later Inola opened her eyes to find Flynn was supporting her and she asked, “Is that all?”
Flynn could be heard chuckling from behind his hood as he said, “You actually need to have two bites; it is a cumulative thing but you—”
Inola took the rest of the Ambrose and put it in her mouth and with another shocking jolt Terrah was thrust into another memory.
Terrah was seeing things unfold from a different person’s perspective this time. She watched as Inola led twelve children, six with glowing eyes wearing the golden Imortum body suits and five others in addition to herself, who were wearing Earth clothing to a device on the wall that they had to look into. When they were finished with that Inola led them to a seat where once there a hood dropped over their heads.
One by one they took their turns and finally it was Terra’s turn. She sat down and the hood dropped leaving her in total darkness for a moment, then with a flash, it felt as if she was being drained of every ounce of energy she possessed, and when she was finished she sluggishly moved to stand by the others.
They were all standing there with confused looks on their faces; well her sisters and the three Earth boys she thought she should have known did at least. The others still had their armor on, and she could only make out their general features.
Inola spoke to them and said in a quavering voice, “Gather in a circle for me, and place your heads together.”
They did as they were instructed, and there was an audible arcing sound crackling amongst them then Inola said, “You will forget about everything that has happened over the last ninety-two days, and when the time is right you will be Awakened to fulfill your destiny. If anyone asks you where you have been, you are to say you were having a grand adventure with me. That is all you are to remember until the Ennead is complete. You are the key to the future and I love you all.”
Terrah pulled out of the memory with a heady rush of energy, and a bit of a tear forming in her eyes. “Wow… that was intense,” Terrah said as she looked around the table to find the rest of them looking the same as she felt. “I take it you experienced the vision as well?” she asked.
They all nodded and Alise asked, “Who were the children?”
Terrah thought it over then said, “I know the girls were me and my sisters.” She looked over at Jason. “You were the boys?” she asked.
Jason nodded and said, “I remember having had dreams of that room, but I could never remember any details of it.”
“And the Imortum children?” Alise asked.
Terrah smiled and said, “If I had to make a guess, I would say they were the rest of you… you’re each companions for us, and we for you. Inola must have linked us somehow before, and you were all created the same as when we did the binding, and then we forgot about it until now.”
Alise looked shocked and said, “All of the data from the beginning until the ships were handed over to the Lantins was wiped, so there’s no way of telling what AI forms we were in before. But until we ate the Ambrose we were only ever a computer program though. And after what happened with the clones on Imortus, I am actually surprised Inola made bodies for us and transferred our consciousness into them. That is in essence what we are... clones.”
Terrah gripped Doran’s hand and said, “I don’t care how all of you came to be. What matters now is we’re missing someone. And with what Inola said, I don’t think we’ll be able to open the encrypted files until we find the twelfth member.”
Terrah looked over at Vellia then back to the rest of the group. “Anyone have an idea where to begin?”
Vellia shook her head and asked, “Is there any way to get a copy of this data, maybe it’s in there somewhere. All of the ships have commanders already, so what am I supposed to do?”
Vellia just finished speaking when the lights dimmed and a crystal sphere appeared in front of each of them. Vellia chuckled and said, “I guess there is a way.”
Vellia seemed to be speaking to the ceiling as she asked, “Is there any way of showing me where my ship is located?”
This was met with silence, though Terrah could have sworn there was a faint laugh in the back of her mind.
Terrah wasn’t too concerned about Vellia finding her place, having had conversations with her that had to of been past this point in time, so she waited to see what everyone had to say.
“There’s a ship in the Void storage,” Justin said, then he added, “but it’s different from these TDS ships. We don’t know how it got there or even how to access it, but it couldn’t hurt to check it out.”
Terrah forced a smile then peered around the table as she said, “Well, we only have one more thing to figure out then.” The group stared blankly back at her and she continued, “We still have no idea where this ship is headed or how to stop it.”
“Have you checked the master control room?” Jerren asked, then added, “I was able to track TDS 5 while I was in there.”
After thinking a few things over, Terrah’s mood lifted. “No, I’ve not left the ship since this happened, we’ll check there next,” she said, then added, “I don’t think we have too much to worry about at the moment though. I doubt if Inola would have brought us to this point to have it come to an end like this.”
Terrah looked around the group and said, “You guys have said it a few times now, Inola seems to have a plan, but we just can’t see it yet. If there’s nothing else, I think we should call the meeting.”
Terrah looked around and nothing was mentioned so she said, “Alright if we need anything we will call on you. And the same goes for any of you.”
They all stood, said their goodbyes and a few minutes later Terrah and Doran were alone on their ship, “That was interesting, are you ready to check the master control room yet?” Doran asked, obviously anxious, and then he added, “I would really like to know where we are being sent.”
Terrah laughed lightly and replied, “You and me both. Let’s go,” She picked up the crystal sphere from the table, took Doran’s hand and headed for the master control room.
Jerren was still in the master control room when Terrah a
nd Doran entered, and he said, “I couldn’t get the display to show me anything.”
A strange expression crossed Jerren’s face, and he added, “I need to get to my ship. If you need anything, just call over,” then he passed through the archway to TDS 5.
Chapter Thirty-One
Terrah and Doran were now alone in the master control room and Terrah immediately closed the archway and called up the ship’s status on her display wall. The display read:
TDS 4
System Optimal
Relieved that it had worked for her, Terrah asked, “Where is TDS 4 headed,” and the display changed to read,
TDS 4
Nefastus Evasion Protocol
But nothing else. Getting frustrated Terrah asked, “Current location of TDS 4?”
The display changed to read six coordinates that were changing as they watched.
Doran grunted then said, “Well at least we know where the ship is and the general heading.”
Terrah smiled as a thought came to her, and she said, “Show TDS 4 course from Anukan to the current location.”
The display expanded the view to show multiple galaxies and a colored line graph appeared. Terrah looked at the course changes and intervals between them and knew what she was seeing. “This is what we call evasive maneuvers. If anyone were to find you on a particular heading and try to ascertain your destination they would be unsuccessful. There seems to be a pattern to these maneuvers though.”
Terrah called out, “project potential destination of TDS 4 using the current course changes from Anukan to its current location as a template.”
A moment later three potential destinations appeared, and all of them ending at the edge of stellar voids. Now it was Terrah’s turn to groan and she said, “That doesn’t look good, I could’ve sworn Justin told me that ships can’t pass the voids barrier, is that correct?” she asked.
Doran had a furrow to his brows as he said, “That is correct. If a ship were to collide with the leading edge of a stellar void, the only way to salvage the ship is to cut it free from the void. There are sections of voids with ship fragments embedded throughout the universe. There are quite literally millions of stellar voids and almost as many ships destroyed by them.”
Doran appeared to be examining the projected courses and said, “Estimated time of arrival to each of the projected void intersections?”
The display showed, unable to plot intersection, and then Doran manually selected a point of interest just prior to the voids and restated his command, “estimated time of arrival to each of the selected POI?”
A moment later the three intersection times showed on the display, then Doran sighed and said, “It would appear we have twelve hours until the first possible course change. Then it will either be six hours to the Anarra Void or one and a half days until the next course correction. Well, it appears as if we have one to three days until we know where we are headed for sure. I would feel better if we were not on the ship if and when it arrives—
“Stay on the ship,” Inola’s voice sounded clear.
Terrah jumped, because this time, the voice sounded much closer, almost as if Inola was in the same room as them so she asked hesitantly, “Could you tell us what we’re to do?”
Inola let out a faint chuckle, and in a voice that sounded worn-down, she said, “Not now, you will be fine. Enjoy your next six days and tell nobody about your heading. You need to go to your ship now and rest up. There is much to do, and not much time left to do it in.”
Terrah’s heart pounded furiously. This was the first actual conversation she had with Inola and something about it made her sense of nerves calm down. Terrah considered Inola’s tone and wording as well as how tired she sounded, then Terrah remembered Vellia telling her she would find out why Inola wasn’t speaking to her before, and she asked, “Are you well? Is there anything we can do for you?”
Inola could be heard sighing and she said, “I will be fine for the time being sweetie. But there is nothing that can be done for me now. Just remember that I love you all… now you need to go to your ship.”
Terrah didn’t like the sound of that, but she turned to Doran, took his hand and called for the Archway. Doran took a step in and just as Terrah stepped into the archway she took a look back and thought she saw Vellia entering the master control room from TDS 3.
Terrah was tempted to go back and talk to her youngest sister, but she felt that Inola needed them out of the master control room for some reason or another, and Inola’s other words set in, ‘Enjoy your next six days.’
Now Terrah knew where they were headed, and realizing there was nothing Inola would allow her to do to help her anyway, Terrah continued stepping through the archway with the intention of finding a distraction to prevent her from dwelling on everything that has recently happened.
Doran must have had the same thought, because upon entering their ship, he spun Terrah in his arms and said, “I do believe we should follow Inola’s orders.”
Terrah looked at Doran as if she had no idea what he meant by that, and waited to see what he had planned.
Doran smiled and said, “She did tell us to ‘Enjoy our next six days’, and I have just the place for that.”
Doran closed his eyes and with a flash they were both laying naked atop their bed.
*****
Several hours later, Terrah was gasping for breath. She forced her way to her back and took in deep breaths as the stars from outside of the ship as well as the ones dancing in her vision floated around her.
Doran had a grin plastered on his face, and all Terrah could do was chuckle as he pulled her close and held her tightly.
An hour or so later Doran was lying on his back and Terrah was gently gliding her hand along his abdomen, and unexpectedly she spoke.
“What had you panicked when we were on TDS 1?” she asked.
Doran took a deep breath, then sighing he said, “Jason had been speaking to me about what I did to the GoW, and he told me to try to put myself in your position, and imagine how I would feel if it were you who almost died.”
Doran tried to calm himself down because he felt the same emotional rush as before begin to fill him again, but Terrah’s touch seemed to lessen the effect, so he continued, “I did and my imagination began going out of control. I was immediately overwhelmed by imagery, not of you almost dying, but by events where I saw you actually die in countless different ways. It was almost too much to bear, but you grasped my hand and I managed to get past it.”
Terrah leaned over and after kissing him she said, “Try not to dwell on it. It was just your imagination, I am safe,” and she hugged him tightly.
Doran could feel the surge of affection Terrah felt for him course through her touch and sighing contentedly, Doran put those thoughts out of his head as he said, “I do believe we have rested enough.”
Terrah looked up at Doran with a glint in her eyes that made him want to make her cry out in pleasure again, so with that in mind, he set out to do just that.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Terrah was astounded at Doran’s stamina. Over the last six days, they had christened almost every surface of their ship with only one short break on the first morning. Terrah and Doran had met the others on TDS 1. Saleria needed to know how to perform an Ascension ritual, but Terrah had reminded her that Eneria knew more about the rituals than she did, and after that meeting, she and Doran weren’t disturbed again.
Grinning at the memories of what had ensued between her and Doran over the past days Terrah nudged him and said, “Time to wake up.”
Doran groaned and replied, “But we just got to sleep.”
“That was four hours ago, so get up you big baby. We’re getting close to the Answarin void,” Terrah said with a nervous chuckle.
That statement seemed to get Doran fully conscious and he sat up in bed. “How long do we have?” he asked.
“We still can’t plot an exact intersection with it, but if the prior course is
steady, then we have just around twenty minutes,” Terrah said.
Doran stood and gestured for Terrah to follow him. She was standing beside him and he led her to the Ion shower, then they proceeded to the control room.
*****
Terrah and Doran took their seats and Terrah brought up a scan of the space in front of them. The voids barrier was three billion kilometers away and approaching rapidly. Within seconds of hitting the voids leading edge however, the ships harmonics changed and the frequency of the phase shifts which had been occurring at a rate of one or two per half hour had accelerated to the point where the temporal blurring was constant. Terrah tensed up in her seat as TDS 4 hit the barrier and she flinched when she expected to encounter a collision.
A few seconds later Terrah’s nerves eased up a bit as the ship continued traveling through the void.
They had been traveling for what seemed like hours through the void, and Terrah had repeatedly attempted to contact Jason, Alise, Justin, Calia, Jerren, Eneria or Saleria, but their communications appeared to be down.
Both Terrah and Doran had attempted to open the archway to the master control room as well as the one to the void storage to no avail either, so figuring there was nothing they could do about that, they took their seats and decided to ride this pony out.
Coming up on what had to be the sixth hour, TDS 4 had been thrown out of the void and on indrawn breath and after performing a cursory scan, all Terrah could manage to get out was. “Wow!”
It took a moment for Terrah to wrap her head around what she was seeing and she asked, “Where are we?”
“I am not quite sure, I can see that is a galaxy, but if the void is indeed caused by dark matter weapons, then how did this galaxy survive the blast?” Doran had been staring at the display as he asked that.