Starbearer

by Rock Forsberg

  Later, Jill was steering the ship into a closer orbit around Spit City. The gas giant, Heeg, loomed red on the background of a dark spiked ball. A squadron of Remolan ships had already come through with them, and more were on their way. Even the navy couldn’t face up to the power they were bringing over.

  Even though it was only a few moments until the swap of worlds, Jill felt buoyant, light-hearted. It was a strange feeling, something that she had heard of from others, but had never quite felt herself. Until now.

  Ever since she was a child, she’d been somewhat on the edge. Only now did she understand. While she had instances when she had been at ease—a scene from Ragust restaurant in Initia with Tredd came to mind—she had been under strain. As a child she had been anxious, and ever since she’d found her electric powers, she had known she was different from the others. It didn’t help, it made her feel like a monster, an anxious monster. And when she killed her husband by accident, it was already too late. The new career in the army was a ruse, something to keep her from falling into the anxiety trap. Nobody cared if she seemed strung out. It was part of the culture. Nobody questioned the wellbeing of a white-knuckled officer. She had to be like that to make it. Or so she thought, and she never questioned it.

  She thought that things would change when she moved in with Tredd to live in Spit City. But that time was full of the organisational woes of FIST and the navy, and preparation for something bad. She was so stressed that day, that when the navy attacked FIST, she couldn’t hold it in, the electricity, and she gave in and let it all burst. It almost killed her, but offered no release. When Admiral Atamian gave her and Tredd a free pass to go down and live life as normal citizens, she had become calmer, but that, too, had passed. Dancing was supposed to be relaxing, but somehow it had also become a source of anxiety.

  Now looking down at Spit City, her life there, and the life of everyone, seemed so small. It was all going to change soon, and she was happy to take it on. Happy with Nenetl. She was, in every way, more than she could ever have hoped for. Even her electricity—the jolt that would kill a human—was something she enjoyed.

  For so long a time Jill had been wrong, but now she was right. And there was nothing that was going to stop them. She and Nenetl would be eternal.

  Grangar loomed behind them. It stayed far enough away so as not to disrupt Spit City’s orbit around Heeg. But anyone observing could see the stray planet was too close and moving like it was under some extraneous control. And it was—an ancient being in service to she and Nenetl. Now they just had to wait.

  A jolt of pain flared through her head. The sudden shock made her cry out, eyes closed, and hold her head.

  As she did, she remembered the last time it had happened. Thoughts of the world outside Nenetl poured in like a wave. She was with Nenetl now. She was against everyone she knew. Even Belinda. Unlike with Nenetl, where it was all about her spells, with Belinda, Jill had enjoyed a real connection, but now it was gone. The headache made her see the reality, and it was grim. She had succumbed to Nenetl’s powers, yet now she could see.

  She opened her eyes and peered through her fingers. The clean spaceship interior was no more; instead, she was surrounded by serpentine black boughs.

  Outside, Spit City loomed in front of the red planet, and behind them, Grangar, the sentient, planet-sized monster, hovered —ready to destroy whatever Nenetl asked it to.

  Someone touched her on the shoulder, and the pain disappeared. Jill turned to look.

  Nenetl, her love, looked at her with a gentle smile. Everything was good when she was around, and Jill was blessed to be with her. And soon, they would take the next step.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  ‘What’s a Thaqaran?’ Berossus asked.

  ‘That,’ Gus said.

  Before Berossus and the others stood a lean creature of purple and black. It was anthropomorphic in the way that it had two legs, two arms, and a head connected to a torso. The torso of this one had a hole in the middle, however, and at the end of each slender limb were no fingers, and its head was like a slim pointy helmet without eyes, ears, nose or mouth.

  ‘It doesn’t look too bad,’ Naido said.

  ‘It’s not the way it looks,’ Gus grunted.

  The monster disappeared.

  Naido screamed. It had pushed one of its spiky limbs through his shoulder. Naido’s weapon went off and shot a hot burst into the ceiling. Evie cried out, as the monster lifted him up in the air.

  ‘You know I’m here only for you,’ the monster said in a high-pitched voice. It was speaking to Gus. ‘Come with me, and I will spare the others.’

  Then it turned its head towards Evie, as if evaluating her, and in the next moment it turned to Berossus.

  ‘You,’ it said, lowering its pointy limb so that Naido fell free. He slumped into the ground in agony. Evie stared at him like she wanted to run to his aid, but didn’t move. The monster was still too close, and then it moved. Its pointy feet tapped the floor, as it took a few steps towards Berossus. ‘I feel Furnimor in you.’

  Yes, it is me, said the dark voice inside him.

  The monster stepped towards Berossus. ‘Very interesting.’

  ‘I am of the Furnimor,’ Berossus said, surprising himself with those words.

  Evie, who was now by Naido’s side, turned to look at him in wonder. But Gus’s face told Berossus that he knew.

  ‘Who are you?’ said the monster, pushing its face forward.

  ‘I am the Wragh.’ The words came out without him thinking about it, and he knew their source. It was the beast within.

  The monster stepped back. ‘No…’

  ‘Yes,’ Berossus said, again unsure whether it was he or someone else in control. It was confusing. ‘For us Thaqaran to live, you must let him go.’

  The monster lowered its body, as if getting ready for a fight. ‘I don’t believe you.’

  ‘I am the core you miss.’

  The monster jerked.

  ‘She’s leading you astray,’ came the voice from deep within him. ‘You are free now. But once she gets her way, you will be her slaves.’

  ‘No. With her, we will find prosperity,’ said the monster. ‘This human almost wiped us out. I will take him.’

  ‘You won’t,’ Berossus said.

  ‘You can’t stop me. You are no Wragh!’ the monster screamed and jumped at him.

  ‘But I am,’ Berossus heard himself say before the dark haze fell over him.

  When he regained consciousness, he was still standing in the middle of the corridor, on the same spot as before. The monster was gone. Evie and Naido were looking up at him in awe. Gus tapped his shoulder.

  The monster was torn to pieces in the middle of the floor.

  Berossus gasped. ‘What happened?’

  ‘Oberen never told you?’ Gus said.

  ‘Told me what?’

  ‘Hey,’ Evie said, pointing at the time. ‘We have to hurry.’

  ‘She’s right, we’ll go to my old hideout,’ Gus said, and regarded Naido. ‘Are you able to walk?’

  He winced and grunted, then took a few laboured steps. ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, been through worse.’

  They followed Gus down the stairs, Evie supporting Naido as they went, and Berossus listening to Gus.

  ‘Your father and I fought the Thaqaran just before you were born. I told you earlier that I had to go into hiding; change everything about myself up to the point where my family didn't recognise me. Oberen was as much to credit for banishing the Thaqaran from our world as I was, and so he couldn’t stay either. He, too, had to leave, but he wasn’t as lucky as I was: he was caught by the Thaqaran hunters.

  ‘They were going to kill him in the worst possible way, but somehow, he managed to negotiate a deal. They let him go, but he was never to return.

  ‘He went to see your mother one last time. Exactly nine months before your birth. Your father honoured the deal and left.
r />   ‘You were a curious child. And it didn’t take long for Inanna to notice that something wasn’t right—yes, you were healthy, but your behaviour shifted suddenly as if you had become possessed.

  ‘To your mother, both Oberen and I had disappeared from her life. But unbeknownst to her, I watched from the side-lines. What she thought had been a sickness worried me. It didn’t match anything on the database, or respond to any treatments. Sometimes your skin could become red hot while your veins pulsed. Your DNA was off.

  ‘I feared for the worst, so I asked for help from the best: Efia.

  ‘She was aware of what the Thaqaran were, and it didn’t take her long to figure out what was wrong: your DNA was one-part human, one-part Andron, and one-part Thaqaran. That was because of the deal your father had made.

  ‘In the form of a natural healer, Efia became close to you and your mother. She could contain the Thaqaran in you. It wasn’t always easy—you remember your teenage years?—but in the end, the Thaqaran remained mostly hidden. Except when you were far from Efia, and especially in the effect of a large gravitational field, her power couldn’t stabilise you, and the Thaqaran inside you took over.

  ‘Now, it seems that the Thaqaran is coming back.

  ‘But from what I have heard it say through your mouth, it seems different. It’s as if it has been listening to us. It comes across as though it doesn’t think they are doing the right thing as a species, in associating with Nenetl.’

  Berossus tried to make sense of what he was hearing. It was like a wave of cold water waking him up, but to what, he couldn’t see yet. He could only mutter, ‘What does it all mean?’

  ‘You, mate, might be the one to sway the Thaqaran to leave Nenetl, and just perhaps, end the feud between the Thaqaran and humanity.’

  Berossus took a deep breath. He was just a mechanic. Even when they were flying with Rutger, saving the world by saving Aino, he did what he could to help as a mechanic. But to sway some alien species was well above his pay grade. ‘How am I supposed to do that?’

  Gus shrugged. ‘Well, it’s a part of who you are. The voice of darkness is you. Don’t fear it, instead embrace it and take control.’

  ‘You know that’s easier said than done,’ Berossus said, with a sigh.

  Soon they reached the edge of the crowd trying to enter the magnarail station. It was bustling with people, and as one of the main feeders of people in and out of Megaplex, it got stuck with everyone trying to leave at the same time, when the power went out. The police were controlling the crowds.

  ‘The magnarail is out of the question,’ Evie said.

  Naido grunted. He seemed like he was in a world of pain. The wound on his shoulder had bled his jacket to crimson. He needed medical assistance.

  ‘The cab rank’s stuffed, too,’ Evie said. ‘There’s just too many people.’

  Gus peered at the screen of his handheld terminal, and muttered, ‘I’ll get us a shuttle. A vacant one is on its way to the casino’s valet parking queue.’

  The casino wasn’t far, and even with Naido slowing them down, it didn’t take long for them to enter and walk through to the VIP shuttle entrance. Normally they’d be asked for a VIP status, but with everyone busy on the evacuation, nobody paid attention to them.

  As they arrived on the platform, a pedestrian white shuttle docked.

  ‘How may I help you?’ the valet said, with a practiced politeness.

  ‘We’re just boarding our ride there.’ Gus pointed at the shuttle.

  ‘Sir, this is not a public pick up point,’ the valet said and eyed the group behind Gus. Evie wore a nasty frown, Naido was all bloodied and grimacing, and when the valet raised his gaze up to Berossus, he sighed. ‘Ah, what the hell— just go!’

  Gus smiled in response, and they followed him onto the shuttle.

  After they navigated through the channels inside the Megaplex, Gus set the shuttle on autopilot, and soon they were cruising along between the tall buildings.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell Henning?’ Berossus asked.

  ‘He would’ve hated me,’ Gus said, ‘and besides, it wasn’t a good time to do it then.’

  ‘I don’t think he’d hate you for it. With Oberen, first I was angry… but I don’t hate him. He’s my father, and I would’ve given anything to get him back. I think Henning would also like his father back.’

  ‘You are right. I’ll tell him once we’ve neutralised the threat.’

  ‘If we—’

  ‘No,’ Gus said. ‘We will. It’s the only option. Never let the negative seep into your thinking; it will pull you down to where you can’t pull yourself up alone.’

  ‘What is that?’ interrupted Evie. She stared up through the corner window and frowned.

  Berossus peered over to see. First it seemed as if Heeg had become smaller, the red planet looming over them, but it wasn’t Heeg, because the massive gas giant was on the other side of the moon now. ‘Heeg has more moons?’

  ‘That’s not right,’ Gus said. ‘If I’m not mistaken, that is Grangar.’

  ‘I saw it in the Remolan world.’

  Gus took a deep breath. ‘When the navy pushed Grangar into Remola and closed the rift between our worlds, we thought we had won, but it was just Nenetl taking over the planet-sized monster, to use for her evil purposes.’

  ‘What is she doing with it?’

  Gus pushed his lips to a line. ‘Well, for one thing, Grangar has more mass than this moon. By running us over, Nenetl could wipe out this moon city in its entirety.’

  Evie stared at him with wide eyes, Naido in resignation.

  Nenetl had all the Shades. And now she was going to strike a planet down on them. The city had just turned a shade darker.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Evie followed Gus to a shuttle rental, Shuttler-shop. Inside, everything was neon green or gleaming white, like the shiny shuttles on display in the showroom. A perky receptionist greeted them with a stretched smile at first, but when she noticed Naido with his wound and bloodied jacket and Berossus with his torn shirt, she grew concerned.

  ‘You should go somewhere else,’ she said in a super-friendly voice, then peered down and tapped on her controls. ‘Security will be here to assist you out.’

  ‘No,’ Evie said. ‘We need to—’

  ‘Hush,’ Gus said. ‘Let them come.’

  Gus probably knew what he was doing, so Evie agreed to stay quiet and wait. It didn’t take long for two big men to stomp in. The receptionist nodded towards Evie.

  ‘Gents,’ Gus said, as the guards approached. ‘You remember me? It’s Gus.’

  ‘I’m sorry, sir, but we have to escort you out.’ They grabbed Gus by the arm.

  Berossus drew his arm away as a guard tried to touch him. Evie planted her feet firmly. She was not going anywhere. ‘We have important business here.’

  ‘Just kidding, sir,’ the guard said. ‘She’s new. We’re glad to have you back. We’ve kept your office just the way it was. They said you’d be gone forever, but we knew you’d return.’

  Back in Gus’s office, Evie helped him pull up the presence chair. She had spent time with Gus in the room, sometimes on a terminal, sometimes in the chair. It was still the most elaborate hacker’s den she had ever visited: a tall space, walled with technology from RX-visualisers to stacks of quantum cores, and movable stuff like the double presence chairs and an operating table Gus had used with Aino.

  This time, it was Naido who got to lie on the operating table. The guards had picked up some quick-healing paste, and Evie helped them apply it to his wound. Even though the paste worked wonders, he had to rest to help it do its magic. His wound was almost exactly in the same place as Evie’s, from when Tommy had shot her.

  ‘Feeling better?’ she asked.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, with a raspy voice. ‘This stuff does wonders.’

  ‘I know. I was shot, not too long ago, in the same spot.’

  Naido raised his brows. ‘You were shot? Really?’
>
  ‘Don’t believe me?’ She pulled the zipper of her jacket down and tugged away her shirt. The skin where she had been shot had healed, but it still retained a different texture and a few radial lines. ‘He shot me with a plasma rifle, but now it’s healed pretty well.’

  ‘Who shot you? Fab tattoo, by the way.’

  Evie grinned. ‘Thanks. It was Tommy Huckey, when we first met.’

  ‘You don’t say,’ said Naido. ’Now I understand why you didn’t go so well together. Have you heard from him since we lost him in Remola?’

  Evie shook her head. ‘Two options: he’s either dead or with Nenetl.’

  ‘My guess is he’s dead. Nenetl doesn’t need him.’

  ‘Perhaps you’re right,’ Evie said, and pulled her zipper back up. This reminded her of their earlier conversation; she was sure he’d remember too. ‘But what do you need?’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘Last time I asked why you do this, you left something out, didn’t you?’

  ‘Maybe,’ he said, his cheeks reddening. ‘You once said you're not a damsel, but you were in distress, and I did enjoy saving you. Every time. I enjoyed it a lot. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned.’

  Evie gulped. So, he had feelings for her. She looked away.

  ‘Oh,’ he said. ‘Before this gets awkward: I love you, I really do, but not like that.’

  Evie stopped, and stared at him in confusion.

  He grinned, ‘Don't take it wrong, but you're not my type.’

  ‘Good to get that sorted,’ Evie said, and followed with a nonchalant chuckle, because it wasn’t sorted at all. She didn’t know what to say, other than, ‘I should log in now.’

  Naido nodded, and when Evie was about to go, he grabbed her arm. He looked into her eyes and said, ‘Thank you for taking care of me.’

  ‘It’s all right,’ Evie said, her smile masking her thoughts.

  Of anyone, I should know that ‘not my type’ is a perfect way to say one’s not interested. Besides, what was I expecting: that he’d be madly in love with me and we’d get married? Naido, the thug? Why am I even thinking about it? She took a long breath to help her focus—after all, she had a mission to complete.