by Reiter
“The kid’s sweet,” Beta-Alphexeous remarked, lighting a cheroot. “Naïve as hell, but damn sweet!”
“You think things are going to get that bad?” Beta-Zeu Rex asked of the Soul Fighter doppelganger, looking intently at the slender cigar.
“You tell me, Sparkles,” Beta-Alphexeous said, looking at the beltline of his commander. Beta-Zeu Rex looked down to see that he was wearing his weapons belt. “Probably don’t even remember putting it on, do you? Not that it matters; but I’ve never seen you go over-the-top heavy. Light? Oh yeah, all the damn time... but never heavy.”
“Ouch,” Beta-Nexeous added as he looked down at the strap for his blade that was on his back. He then looked at his gun, his shuriken and gloves, arranged perfectly on the weapons belt. He started stretching his neck and metering his breathing.
“Time to dust off the books, Rex,” Beta-Alphexeous said, blowing out smoke.
“Then let us begin,” Dungias said, turning to face Beta-Chiaro. “A Light Prism, if you please, Priest. One large enough to encompass the domicile… and it needs to be more than simple coherent light, Master.”
“I have had a moment to look upon the machinery here, and I believe I know what you have in mind. Give me just a moment,” Beta-Chiaro said, sitting to the left of where Danatra was preparing herself.
“We have time,” Dungias replied, walking to the console that was between the stations assigned to Felrus and Laejem. Dungias accessed the sensor and communications array of the domicile to scan the limits of the sensors and check the computer/communications community. It did not take long for him to learn that Royal military ships were combing the sub-sector of space to which Kiaplyx had delivered the disintegrating spacecraft. “Laejem, I am sending an iro-form matrix formula to you. Please enter this pattern into the shield emitters and prepare to raise shields. Exemplar, you are receiving a variation for the domicile’s weapons systems. I would ask you to ready weapons to the given configurations.”
“Shields stand at the ready, kommis,” Laejem reported, taking in a deep breath to calm himself. There was a sensation to the room; anticipation was ripe in the air and it made Laejem’s body tingle. He looked away from the console long enough to reaffirm that his Osamu was on his hip.
“Always did like the senses of the Vinthur,” Beta-Nexeous said softly, stretching his legs. “Things are about to get interesting, Beta-Al. You might be right about dusting off the books. Who had the lead when we left off?”
“Alphexeous!” all of the Beta Forms said in unison, with the exceptions of the two Dragonne Brothers. Like their master molds, Beta-Alphexeous and Beta-Nexeous maintained a very friendly competition regarding body count; the Soul Fighter only had a forty-seven count advantage over the Grandmaster of Dragon, when the disparity between the master molds was closer to five thousand! Alphexeous would always admit his little brother had defeated the more powerful of the enemies they had faced, but Alphexeous was always good for taking on huge groups of opponents while Nexeous only faced half a dozen or so.
“Time for things to change,” Beta-Nexeous said with an eager smile. Beta-Alphexeous smiled as he blew out smoke.
“Power established to shields and weapons,” Dungias declared. “Priest, are you ready?”
“Funny you should ask,” Beta-Chiaro said as, while still sitting in lotus position, he started to levitate from the floor. A pyramid of Coherent Light formed around the Light Priest and started to grow. When the light beams met with the walls, floor and ceiling of the Gamma Chamber, they passed through without making any marks. “For I am very much ready!”
“Vi-Prin,” Dungias said, coming away from his console. “… we will need to share minds and talent.”
Danatra took a position kneeling in front of Beta-Chiaro, with her back facing the Light Priest. She motioned for Dungias to sit in front of her. “What did you have in mind?” she asked as her nostrils flared.
“Once we have a telepathic link, I will give you instruction on how to broadcast my thoughts,” Dungias instructed as he took his seat. “BJ, standby to channel energy that Danatra can easily convert into ThoughtWill.” The smallest of the Beta Forms nodded as he walked behind Beta-Chiaro. The Light Priest was already nodding and lifted his hands as if he was cupping the back of Danatra’s head. “Beta-Arrjeeh, I am sure you are carrying dark stones!”
““I have the ones you requested of BJ and a few more.” the Gem-Caster quickly replied.
“Stand ready to receive a heavy influx of energy,” Dungias directed. “Beta-Zeu Rex, once I have established a line feeding into Arrjeeh–”
“I shall see that it is maintained until there is nothing left,” the man answered, donning his gloves.
“Great!” Beta-Alphexeous muttered.
“What?” Beta-Nexeous inquired.
“What do you mean ‘what’?” Alphexeous snapped. “Asking Zeu Rex to drain energy?! There may not be a star left in the sky when he’s done!”
“Beta-Alphexeous and Beta-Red Bear, prepare to receive unwelcome visitors.”
“Seems like old times,” the Soul Fighter muttered as he smiled, looking up at the largest of the Beta Forms.. You read for this, Short-Stuff?”
Beta-Red Bear smirked, stretching his neck and lifting his shoulders to push out his chest. The Soul Fighter could feel the dark-skinned man increasing in density and strength as he continued stretching. With Zeu Rex leading this band of adventurers, certain fine points were often overlooked. He was neither the most physically powerful nor the most gifted in the art of Spell-Casting. Red Bear and Forrell, respectively, held those positions. But they were separate entities. Zeu Rex was just one man; strength and casting were not his only legendary talents.
Dungias looked around the room until his eyes came to rest on Saru. She was trying her best to keep emotion from her face and her mate smiled at the effort. “I have not forgotten you, my love. I will need you to sing.”
“Sing?” Saru asked, surprised and confused by the request.
“Yes, nyaka, the Ode of the Stars, if you please.”
“He may not know how to say it,” Nugar projected to his gemopadiah, “but the more you can make him forget this room and concentrate on you, the more he will act through his intellect and not his anger. I believe I have a notion of what he is about to do. Even with the assistance of the Beta Forms, he will need to keep his mind clear. In the waves of darkness where your mate must now wade, you have to be his Light, Saru!”
“I will sing… for you, nyaka!”
Dungias just looked at her for a moment before slowly closing his eyes. He leaned back toward Danatra who placed the flat palms of her hands on either temple. The two children of the House Z’Gunok shuddered at the same time as a slight wave was felt coming from them.
Saru took in a deep breath and started to sing a very old song, one that was sung to the soldiers when they went off to fight the BroSohnti. It was a celebrated hymn, deep in culture and usually dedicated from loved one to another. The meaning of the song was simple: ‘the chances that our eyes will see one another again are less than slim, but the love I have for you, my brave warrior, shall never wane, and when you hear this song, you will feel my embrace, and live through my love!’ What few knew was that Saru possessed a voice that many considered beautiful. Her delivery was made even more powerful as she desperately wanted the meaning of the song to apply to someone else!
“There comes a time when one just has to take initiative,” Beta-Forrell whispered, brushing back the long, red hair out of her face. She stepped forward and lifted her hands to orchestrate a most impromptu enchantment. Her green eyes flared with white light as MannA flowed from her body toward the singing Vinthur woman. Saru’s voice was given a lift in volume and essence as it filled the room.
“What does he want me to do?” Beta-Nexeous whispered to Beta-Zeu Rex.
“What else, brother?” the towering EnervationisT said as he turned to get more room from the others. “Awaken the Dragon!” The Mar
tial Artist displayed a devilish grin as he snickered and moved to a clear section of the room.
“I am with you, Vu-Prin,” Danatra projected as Dungias fed her some of what he gained from the passing Salvigaron. Their connection made it simpler for him to assist the telepath in keeping her focus and containing her anger. Using her incredible talent, Dungias was able to blend the techniques he had acquired from Nugar, Guyn, Danatra, the Savanté Salvigaron, the files Taas had given him, Beta-Alphexeous and Beta-Chiaro. His chin dropped to his chest as he extended his thoughts, seeking out a sensation familiar to one set of his collected memories. When he found it, he smiled coldly.
“Savanté,” he projected and he could feel that he had gained their attention. Z’Gunok Tel Dungias was the first who was not controlled by the Savanté to use the network of the Ulti-Mind. It was disturbing enough that an outsider knew of the living mind which maintained the communications network of the self-imposed guardians of knowledge. It was also called upon to empower members of the collective from time to time. For one who had not been secured to know how to access the higher consciousness demanded an immediate response. “Yes, Garanous, I am still alive. You sent most of the corridor to the dimension of Living Fire, but I survived your attempt to banish me. If I recall correctly, Lord Censurer, you and I were in the midst of a rather enthralling conversation when I was ushered away. Shall we resume the debate?”
“You have yet to learn respect,” Garanous projected as he locked on to Dungias’ particular ThoughtWill emissions, though he was not the only one doing so. Danatra projected an image of what she could see: a starless sky, with ThoughtWill giving signs of light and life. Danatra quickly communicated that the lone spark of light was Dungias. A small spark fired far off in the distance when Garanous responded, and it was only the first of many as the black sky was soon sparsely populated with small stars.
“I’ll say one thing: the kid knows how to lay a trap,” Beta-Alphexeous muttered to his brother who quickly nodded in agreement.
“Are all those Savanté?” Felrus asked.
“Who is to say?” Laejem replied.
“We will know soon enough, Warriors,” Nugar said, taking a tighter grip on his Osamu.
“You have yet to confirm to me that you are a fitting teacher,” Dungias projected to Garanous.
Each effort the Savanté made to find Dungias or communicate among themselves only added light to the picture. It was a simple matter to see the similarity between the placement of the small points of light and the map of the Deku and K’Dalkian Systems.
“That one cluster with so much light aligns with where Threm should be at this time of the orbi-term,” Nugar noted.
“And no, Savanté, I am not on Threm… neither is my sister or the members of the Schatten-Kraythe you knew nothing of.”
“We are fully aware of–” a younger mind, located on Zoras, blurted before the dot of light that was Garanous flared brightly and interrupted the telepathic transmission.
“Whoever this Garanous is,” Beta-Arrjeeh said through grinding teeth. “… he just killed that boy!”
“No, he is not yet dead!” Dungias projected. He could see the point of light slowly dying. He reached out for the light, using what he had gained from Taas. Nugar could see Alpha begin to wane and he thrust his Osamu forward, making a connection through a feeding of power.
“You are dying,” Dungias projected in a soft, soothing voice. “You can only hear me because I know how to commune with the dead!”
“He… k-k-killed me?!” the young Malgovi projected. Into that thought Dungias allowed his rage to flow as Danatra fed her brother all of the necessary information regarding the owner of the mind falling from life.
“Yes, Keffkyn, the Lord Censurer has killed you… for defending the honor of the Savanté! Will you allow this travesty to go unpunished?” Dungias projected, asking Danatra to hold the consciousness for as long as she could in a sort of mental stasis. His Vi-Prin took to the effort without giving an answer and her body shook from the increased drain on her reserves.
“Now, BJ!” Beta-Chiaro commanded, beginning to feel Danatra tire. Though small in stature he might have been, BJ did not want for expressions of power, and he channeled Cosmic into the back of the Light Priest who in turn used his KaA to empower Danatra’s mind as well as Forrell’s enchantment of Saru’s voice. All three women reacted from the unexpected feed, and they found themselves basking in the flow of power into their efforts.
“Laejem, now!” Dungias signaled and the reformatted shields were activated. They were steady and strong, mixing in with the make of Beta-Chiaro’s pyramid when the first pulse of ThoughtWill Energy approached. The PsyoniK discipline being performed was surprisingly cancelled upon contact, and the Savanté materialized in the midst of the Void, thinking he was going to appear just over Dungias.
The older Vinthur did not have time to panic or scream as the Void embraced him. The shields he had generated around his body only served to make the experience slower and more agonizing. Like Garanous, he too was a Censurer, but not of the rank or ability of the notable Lord. Still, he was a Savanté, and with a thought he could have tried to crush Dungias. His talent, however, was not set for the mind-numbing cold he felt, and he only had time to see himself begin to crystallize. But as he died, his mental defenses were non-existent and he had managed to amass a great deal of raw ThoughtWill before making his trip to the domicile of Nugar. As planned, Dungias started absorbing that power, feeding it into Beta-Arrjeeh’s dark stones and once the feed was established, it was left to Beta-Zeu Rex to maintain the drain. Perhaps it had been the length of time that had passed since the Beta Forms had seen this level of action, but their leader was anxious and the body of the Savanté Censurer nearly imploded from the feed Beta-Zeu Rex enacted upon him.
Dungias’ brow furrowed as he initiated more feeding lines to Beta-Arrjeeh. From the first, who was nearly drained, suddenly there were ten, and then thirty-two. Not all of them were gifted in the mental arts. Some were enforcers for their Savanté masters. That did not spare them from being fed upon, though the feeding time was understandably shorter.
“They aren’t changing their means of approach,” Beta-Chiaro said to Beta-Alphexeous to warn him that there may not be anything for him to do. Without some sort of variation, there was no way any of them were going to get past the shields.
Dungias had created his fifty-first draining connection before he felt a command move through the Ulti-Mind to cease hostilities against Dungias. The command came too late to save eleven more of their number, and they were all drained as they died. The power he was absorbing from the Savanté flowed into the dark stones, while the unguarded power in the Ulti-Mind network was drawn into Dungias and Danatra. They both smiled as Dungias could feel other minds raising the alarm regarding his presence inside the Ulti-Mind. They called on the Censurers to do something to resolve the matter, and Dungias shifted his primary focus back to the dying Savanté. He told Danatra to remove the stasis and she was too elated to comply.
“I will not allow it!” Keffkyn cried as his conscious mind was flooded with unmitigated rage. Not all of it was what Dungias had given the dying Malgovi youth, but it had served as a catalyst. With his life slipping from this realm, his rage was still growing.
“No more, Traveler!” Garanous proclaimed. “You may have learned our secrets, but it is too simple a matter to lock out your mind from our haven. And there is more than one means to destroy that half-hidden base of Nugar’s!”
“Tend to your own base, Lord Censurer,” Dungias projected as he painted an image of Garanous over the Ulti-Mind. He pulled it from his own memory, adding how he had felt when he first encountered the Savanté.
“I found him, Keffkyn,” Dungias announced. “You only have one strike left to your life-force. Hold nothing back!” The voice of Thalshov Zil Keffkyn could be heard by all of the Savanté as he cried out, releasing all his might into a telepathic surge that Dungias endeavored
to hold. It was a powerful attack, and even though it did not cleanly reach its target, it blasted against the defenses of the Ulti-Mind, which were now unattended, and those protective walls started to crack almost immediately.
“You can either receive this or open the network,” Dungias projected to the Ulti-Mind. There was no hesitation coming from the consciousness as it moved to preserve itself. Dungias removed the holds he had on Keffkyn’s attack.
“Here they come!” Felrus shouted, as his targeting board signified the approach of a warship.
“That was a Jump-Stride,” Nugar hissed. “They have been brought here by a Traveler! The hold these Savanté have on our people runs deep!”
“Can your light handle my slide-stride, Priest?” Beta-Alphexeous asked as his cheroot moved from the right side of his mouth to the left.
“And then some,” Beta-Chiaro replied. Beta-Alphexeous took his sword pommel from his hip and his blaster from its holster at the same time. The crystal center of the gun started to glow as the flechettes came out of the pommel and formed into a sleek, double-edged blade. He jumped up and to his left, but never landed on the floor of the GAMMA Chamber. Instead, his body seemed to broaden as he left side expanded away from his right. It had not yet reached a meter when the right side of his body slid to catch up with the left and the Soul Fighter doppelganger faded from sight.
“That never gets old!” Beta-Nexeous said as he squatted.
“Stars of my Fathers!” Felrus gasped as the approaching ship slowed to attack speed. Shafts of white light burst through the seams of the spacecraft that started to turn.
“Fire the guns, Exemplar!” Dungias commanded.
“Target?”
“Any area of the Void away from that ship!” Dungias commanded. Felrus did not understand what he was supposed to be doing, but he had faced a single Savanté at the Royal Palace and that one skinny young man had nearly been the death of both himself and Laejem. Had it not been for Nugar, at least two graves would have been dedicated that star-term. Now Dungias was taking on the entire community and apparently winning. He quickly set the coordinates and fired. The particle beams from the main cannons converged on a point and blasted an aperture open.