Eleven Unveiled (Imortum)

by Kord Stone

  “It was not safe for that body. The ship created a new body for me and nothing had changed… Nothing has ever changed until now.”

  Justin asked her, “And you think skydiving is life threatening?”

  To this Jerren replied, “What? I have over two thousand jumps and haven’t died once.” And he laughed uproariously.

  Alise said, “I will have to try that sometime. We should get started.” She got a focused look, a second later Justin’s chair was moved over, and another appeared beside it, “Okay, as Jason is fond of saying, ‘let’s stick this pig’.”

  The brothers broke into laughter and they all took their seats. It was Justin who began the meeting. “The first thing I would like to know is what happened near the end of the battle? The last thing I remember is closing my eyes, then a bright flash of reddish orange light, then not much else.”

  “Well, the flash you saw was a nuke. Exactly what were you doing when the flash occurred?” Jason asked.

  He replied, “I had one hand on the console and the other on the wall of the ship, like we did in the engine room. The incoming weapons fire had subsided and I needed to get more energy into the weapons… I was trying to build enough of a charge to take out the suicide ship that had just flown past us. There had been a fuzziness that seemed to ease the electrical pulses, but it faded at that moment and I pushed energy into the console. That’s when the bright flash happened.”

  Jason nodded. “That could explain it. You see the nuke caused a power surge and a couple of aftershocks. That’s probably what caused you to black out.”

  Calia said, “Just after the energy surge, we were hit by the atomic wave and it threw us toward the planet. When I regained my vision, I got control of the ship, targeted the suicide ship and fired… It had been taking several blasts to take out the other ships with our minimal power, and I figured it should have taken a few shots to disable that one as well, but when I fired, the beam was so intense it vaporized the ship completely. I got to Justin’s side and assessed his injuries. He was not breathing right and his heart rate was slow and irregular, then it failed completely. So I transported him to medical and activated it.

  “A moment later, the display showed he had stabilized. He had a severe electrolyte and neural activity imbalance and it looked as if the energy in almost all of his cells had been depleted. A few minutes later the medical unit finished and he was stable, so I put him to bed.”

  Jerren told them what he had seen. “As you know I was in the master control room monitoring TDS 5 during the battle. I witnessed something odd. At the time, I didn’t know a nuke had been detonated. It caused a feedback in the ship’s power. Did you notice the blast had three pulses?”

  Alise answered, “Yes, I was temporarily flash blinded but we did register three pulses from the explosion. I figured it was a secondary effect from their weapon. What is the significance of the three pulses?”

  Jerren said, “There was only one EMP wave from the weapon. When the wave hit the three TDS ships, all three energy waves pulsed over one another. The second and third pulses were actually feedback pulses from the other two ships.”

  Justin said, “That makes sense. All three TDS ships were in range of the blast—”

  Jerren cut him off, “Yes I agree with that, but the master control room, TDS 2 and TDS 4 were not in range.”

  Justin could tell he was saving the best for last. It was always a habit of his and he was right.

  Alise asked, “What do they have to do with all of this?”

  Jerren said, “I thought you would never ask.” With a chuckle, he continued his explanation. “When the pulses hit your ships, there was also a feedback effect in the master control room accompanied by a brightening of the lighting. Alarms were sounding on all of the walls. On the TDS 2 and 4 walls, the display went from offline to online but powered down after about twenty seconds. I don’t think it would have been enough time to track them, even if I had the authorization to do so. But up until now, we thought the other two ships had been destroyed. It would appear that the pulses were enough to make a temporary connection.”

  Both Justin and Jason asked in unison, “Stasis?”

  Jerren raised his hands to calm them down. “The pulses hit the stasis room too, but it seemed to absorb the pulses. The energy surges didn’t appear to affect the stasis room at all.”

  Jason and Justin both sighed and said, “Good,” at the same time, and then laughed nervously.

  Calia asked, “What ‘stasis room’ and why is it important?”

  Justin realized he had forgotten to mention the rest of the family to her. He proceeded to bring her up to speed on how they didn’t know how long it was going to take to resolve the problem with TDS 5, and with the hostilities increasing they had decided to put the other family members into stasis without their knowledge and bring them out when it was safe again.

  Calia asked, “So how are your family members going to take it when they find out what you have done?”

  They all squirmed in their seats, and Calia had her answer and laughed. “You do not plan on telling them, do you?” Their silence was response enough.

  Calia aimed her next question at Jason. “After the attack, you said you and Alise let the twelve remaining ships flee, and you had a plan. Is now a good time to enlighten us?”

  Jason said, “Alise put DNA tracking probes on the captains of each of the ships in hopes of finding the person or persons giving the orders. With any luck, we’ll be able to devise a plan to put an end to the attacks and possibly stop TDS 5 as well.”

  Calia sighed and told them, “We were tracking Baelentus before the catastrophe at Lantis and only halted our search when we received the distress signal from TDS 1. We are close to having a lock on him though. There were only a couple of DNA matches left to rule out. After we eliminate those, the next time he is out of phase we will have his location.” Calia noticed Jerren wanted to say something, but Alise asked her question first.

  “How long should it take to tag the others on your list and rule them out?”

  She was about to answer when Jerren spoke up. “We don’t need the DNA tracker to know where he is. The TDS 5 display wall in the master control room can show the course they are heading on when it goes active. That is how I knew they were headed back to Earth when Jason and Alise were there. Knowing where they are still won’t help us though. We need to find a way to get on that ship to stop him, and I can’t think of a way on if we cannot open an archway. Alise said these ships can’t get close enough to transport to each other.” He looked at Alise. “You said the maximum transport distance is about half the minimum you have to keep from each other, right?”

  Alise nodded. “Yes, we just cannot get close enough to transport to the TDS ships. I think it has something to do with the engine’s energy field because we were able to approach TDS 3 when the engine was offline. I had a lock and was about to transfer Justin to our ship when his life signs stabilized. I backed our ship off a considerable distance to engage the Toralins and when TDS 3’s engine came online, my lock on him was lost, not to mention we encountered the field bounce that we now know came from TDS 5 bouncing between our engine fields. I tried to target Jason after his life signs went haywire, but as our ship approached the engine field bounce range, our transport range decreased by a factor of four.

  “We can transport a lot farther distances, but as soon as we get to the field bounce range of your ship, the target range drops to zero. Our best bet is to stop the Toralins and or the consortium from assisting TDS 5 first. Then as Jerren said, find some way on the ship, or if we could catch him off of the ship then maybe we could transport him.”

  Calia was not bloodthirsty by any means but figured a different approach might be required. “We were put on these ships to protect the integrity of the universe and galaxies within it. Baelentus was a kind person at one time, and I have no clue what could have changed that. He is not doing the job he was installed to do however. I hav
e Atlas’s memories and knew him for almost four hundred thousand years. Even though Baelentus was his grandson, I think he would have agreed with me when I say Baelentus’s death may be the only option.”

  Alise asked about Baelentus, and Calia explained that TDS 5 had lost its commander, and the AI did not have a replacement at that time, so Atlas had the AI collect Baelentus and install him on TDS 5 as commander, then the events that led to their hunting of him.

  Justin looked between his brothers then back to Calia and said, “You may be right about Baelentus, but I think we should try a less fatal method first, so we can question him and find out exactly what he is up to.”

  Alise spoke up now. “We will track the probes we have following the consortium ships and see where the information leads us.”

  Justin said, “I think I know where they’re getting all of the ships they’re throwing at us. On our way here we were diverted by Inola to a skirmish, and she said to help them. There were two ships firing on a smaller ship when we arrived. When we told them to explain their actions, they told me the ship was adrift and their consortium was claiming salvage rights. Then they proceeded to threaten us. The attack didn’t go well for them and afterward, I spoke with the captain of the derelict vessel. He said he was attacked and disabled weeks earlier by the consortium, then new attackers came to claim his ship. I was going to inform you of it before, but you said you had to take care of the event horizon. I didn’t want to distract you, and I figured Inola thought I could handle it.”

  Alise sighed. “That would explain what I have noticed in the recent attacks by the consortium. It looked as if they had the growing support of other races due to their ships being involved. But many of those ships may have been commandeered in the fashion you just described. It had been nagging at me for a while because some of those races had always been peaceful. If they were to find out how their ships were lost, a great number of them might unite to stop the consortium.”

  Justin looked around the group. “Is there anything else we need to discuss before we head back to our ship?” He was eager to get back and pick up where he had left off with Calia.

  Jerren said, “I think I’ll take up residence in the master control room for a while to keep watch on TDS 5.”

  This statement got everyone’s attention and Jason asked, “Why would you want to stay in there? You’re perfectly welcome here.”

  Jerren sighed. “It has nothing to do with feeling welcome. I know I can’t do much over there, but at least I can be on constant watch for where TDS 5 is going and I can relay that to you guys. I will only need access to food and restrooms from time to time, but otherwise I would like to help out in that fashion.”

  Jason replied, “Okay, but we’re going to send you off with a good meal in you first. I think we need to make a new tradition and dine together after we have meetings like this. We will host today.” He looked to Alise, cracked a smile and seemed to speak with her in mind, then returned his gaze to them, “Agreed?” he asked.

  It almost sounded like an echo with everyone saying, “Agreed” at the same time.

  With a chuckle Alise said, “The meal will be ready in a moment.”

  To this Jerren barked, “Good, I was getting hungry. Just because you don’t seem to need to eat anymore it doesn’t mean I won’t wither.” Then he burst out laughing.

  Justin laughed. “We forget you need to eat because you’re such a hulking brute of a man. Since joining the military, it looks as if you’ve put on more muscles than Jason and I have together.” He looked to Jason then back to Jerren. “Well two of me at least. Actually, you’re both hulking brutes. If I hadn’t known it was from hard workouts I would’ve told you to lay off the ’roids.” He let out a barking laugh.

  Jerren laughed in return. “I wouldn’t look so large if you two didn’t look like anemic twigs. Besides it appears as if the bonding is bulking you up too.”

  Jason laughed and stood up. “It’s time for dinner. I asked Alise to prepare something special for you.” Jason extended his arms, and plates appeared in front of each of them. “Enjoy.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Justin was amused at what he saw. A plate had appeared between him and Calia, but it didn’t have much on it, only a single square that had the appearance of golden jelly with color-changing sprinkles within it.

  Jerren laughed and said, “You think this will sate my appetite? Justin did just call me a brute, didn’t he?”

  Jason laughed and said, “I’d like you to try this first and if you’re still hungry I’ll cook you up a whole buffalo if you desire it.”

  “Mmm buffalo,” Jerren said with a smile.

  Justin knew Jason was up to something, and apparently Jerren did as well. After spoiling the surprise with the gravity lift when they first arrived on TDS 1, Justin decided he would just go with the flow and see what Jason had in store for them. Apparently Jerren felt the same way. Looking to him, Jerren smiled as he raised his utensil and took a bite.

  Justin sliced a piece from his and Calia’s plate, gave her a bite, then took one for himself.

  Justin was astounded by the intense flavors crossing his tongue. Each flavor blasted off the taste buds then evaporated with another flavor that seemed to be complementary to the last. The sensations shot to the far reaches of his body. This went on for a few minutes, then Justin opened his eyes.

  Justin was at a loss for words to describe his experience and he looked to Calia, and found she was wearing the same expression that he could only imagine was plastered on his face.

  Jason looked around the table. “Astounding, right? The second taste gets even better.”

  Justin saw Jerren had already gone in for another bite and he had to repress a laugh when the funniest expressions began crossing Jerren’s face. Justin took ahold of Calia’s hand and offered her a second bite, then took another for himself.

  Calia’s body was tingling all over with a warmth she had never known. It seemed to pulse from within her like a beacon. The ambrose Justin had just fed her was astounding. She had made ambrose on several occasions over the past four hundred thousand years, and it had never tasted this good. Jason was right when he said it was better the second time.

  Now she knew why Atlas was never impressed with the ambrose she had made in the past. She was just about to focus on the texture of the ambrose and the sensations pulsing through her body one moment then all thoughts of food were eradicated from her mind and she was overwhelmed by a euphoric passionate dream state in which she was embraced with Justin. Kissing, rubbing and caressing, she ran her hands through his hair then scraped her nails down his back. Her body was aching for a release. When they were on their ship, and Justin was kissing her, she had no idea what her body was needing. Now she realized she needed to allow her body to flow with the passion, but in this dream state, she was unable to reach any further.

  Justin was in heaven, and he wasn’t alone. Calia was there and their bodies were entwined and they were kissing and caressing one another in a sweet euphoric dream state. He was suckling her lower lip and she was scraping her fingernails down his back. They kept gyrating and rubbing their bodies against each other’s, with the desire building to a crescendo. He could feel her desire and he knew she could feel his. The sensations made his heart rate increase. He wanted more, but a barrier seemed to be blocking the release they yearned for, and he wished this were not a fantasy. The time seemed to fly by and a moment later he awoke from the euphoric dream state.

  Justin opened his eyes and looked down to see he was still holding Calia’s hand under the table, and then he looked up into her eyes. They seemed to promise pleasure the likes he had never known, and he forced himself to look away before he embarrassed her and himself by taking her on the table right then and there.

  Justin looked around to see Alise was in a sort of euphoric trance as well, and a minute later she seemed to come out of it and peered over to Jason, then she spoke.

  “So were you bore
d?” Alise asked while looking at Jason

  Jason just replied with a chuckle.

  Justin looked back to Calia and said, “That was intense,” After seeing Alise in that state, he figured they must have been in a trance as well, and he asked Jason, “How long were we out?”

  Jason laughed and said, “You three were out for six hours. Jerren must have metabolized it much faster because he was only out a few hours. It’s too bad you were all out. Jerren’s eyes were a swirl of smokey blue with electrical arcing when he came out of the state, but it faded an hour later.”

  Then Jason explained to them what they had eaten and the rumored side effects. They were not angry, but they were a bit disappointed that they didn’t get to see Jerren’s eyes all smoky and crackling.

  Justin was feeling one of the side effects of the ambrose coming on strong, and after forcing himself to stay and talk with his brothers a few more minutes, he adjusted himself under the table, stood and said, “Well this has been a very enlightening get-together, but Calia and I have to get back to our ship. We still have a few things to sort out over there and as long as we’re waiting on your probe’s data, this should be a good time to accomplish it.”

  Jason and Jerren gave Calia a hug, saying it was a pleasure to meet her, then Alise hugged her. The second Calia made contact with Alise, a static discharge could be heard arcing between them, they both jumped a little and Calia said, “That was strange… It was nice to finally meet you Alise.”

  “Likewise, I look forward to working with you. This is a whole new territory for me. I was always used to being on our own,” Alise said with a warm smile.

  Calia smiled back and agreed.

  Justin gave his brothers a pat on the shoulders and said goodbye. Then he gave Alise a one-armed hug before saying the same. He felt irritation shoot through the hand Calia had been holding, and he quickly ended the embrace, stepped closer to her side and pulled her tightly against him, “Let us know when the tracking data is back,” Justin said, then he and Calia hurried to the engine room.