NovaSiege

by Scott Toney

  “You are right.” Julieth turned from Faiyror, Alm and the few others around them. She thrust her wings and lifted into the chasm’s center. Then she dove, landing and unsettling sediment by Gest’s people and Faiyror’s warriors who had freed them.

  Gest’s people stood in two groups.

  “These are the people who are infected,” a young man spoke to Julieth as he walked past, pointing to the larger group. Sweat beaded from their brows. They looked pale. “And these,” the young man pointed a finger to the other group, “are the ones who have yet to be bitten.”

  Faiyror approached Julieth from behind. “Those who the process has begun in must be re-infected now if they are to be saved.” He spoke so that only she could hear. “Our blood can heal their minds, but only if we act quickly. We will also need to take them back into the darkness of their cells for that. The others, as you said, should be brought topside.”

  “Let me speak to the infected,” Julieth spoke to Faiyror while she walked away from him.

  The larger group spoke amongst themselves, clearly untrusting. Anger and fear boiled between them.

  “Listen!” Julieth called into them, gathering their attention. “I am Julieth! I was with you! I know you remember me! I came with Ineal to your land!” She flew into the air and hovered above them. Their bloodshot eyes were captive upon her. “The beasts that destroyed Gest are demented! Their race looks human in the daylight and morphs into beasts in the darkness! But these men behind me,” she motioned to Faiyror and the others, “though they are of the same race, they are sane and are forming an alliance with us against our enemy!” She eyed the mass, and also the uninfected group, looking for those she recognized. After a moment’s silence she saw Elias. The leader of Gest had not been welcoming when she first arrived to Gest, but they had forged a strong friendship in the days after. Anger rose in her when she realized he was one of the infected. Salv, a man who spoke adamantly against her and Ivanus, stood beside Elias. She watched their eyes as she continued to speak. “If you have been bitten by the other beasts then you will become one of them unless something is done now! You must let our allies, the good beasts, bite you as well so that their blood can overtake the bad blood! You will still become one of them and transform in the darkness, but your minds will remain intact!”

  The men, women and children below her became restless. “Why would we allow such a thing? How can we trust you?” a man Julieth did not recognize shouted at her from the infected group. “How do we know that you do not lie?”

  Julieth was about to respond but Elias stepped forward.

  “You were not there when she arrived, but you have seen her in the city!” Elias shouted. “If you trust me then listen! She is to be trusted! If Julieth says that we will lose our minds if we do not listen to her, then she is where I place my faith!”

  The first man ran from the infected group and along the far wall, clearly uncertain as to where to go. “I am my own man! I trust you, Elias, but you did not stop Gest from falling! I will listen to no-one!”

  Julieth saw their allies, the good beasts now in human form, go to stop him. Faiyror put out a hand and motioned from his people to let the man be.

  “We will not stop you!” Julieth called to him. “But without our help you will become one of them! Then we will have no choice but to kill you if you attack us!”

  “I take my chances!” the man yelled back, running into a pitch-black tunnel and out of sight.

  “Do any more infected wish to leave and become the enemy?” Julieth called to the rest of the group. “Or non-infected, for that matter? Make your own choices, by all means, but the tunnels are not the right path!” I am being harsh, she realized. None of us chose where we are. This was forced upon us. I must be more understanding, even though time is short. “I apologize, but I fear for us all! Does anyone else wish to go?”

  After a long silence from everyone in the chamber Elias raised his hand. “We trust you! Lead us!” There was fear in his face. “I will go first to be healed! They killed my wife and son! I will not become a maddened beast! If I can divert it, then I will!”

  One by one the others in the infected group raised their hands in a show of agreement. Some of the uninfected followed.

  “Then we must act quickly! I am the only one who can fly those who are not infected about ground!” She eyed that group. “I will bring you up in pairs!” She then eyed the infected. “Trust you have made the right decision! It will be a long day and from what I understand the initial bites will also need time to take hold! You will remain here tonight and I will come to your side to help our allies fend off the enemy should they return!”

  As Elias was led by one of Faiyror’s men into a dark cell Julieth flew to the uninfected group. She landed and motioned for the two nearest people to come to her. “Grab my arms and I will clasp onto you also with my hands.” They came and braced tight to her. With a deep breath Julieth flew upward, her wings beating heavily. The man and woman clasping her arms breathed breaths of awe as she slowly flew. As they reached the chamber’s rim and the two suns’ light she felt full exhaustion take them.

  She set them down on the hot desert sand. “Wait for me here,” she instructed.

  They lay down and did not speak.

  Chapter 8

  Pain seared through Ivanus as he lay on the desert ground, burning pulses bursting through his consciousness, causing his whole body to twitch with each connection. His vision was blurred. Time lapsed. He could not tell one moment from the next. Then there was silence.

  A harsh wind against his exposed flesh.

  The brush of something soft against his face.

  The snoot… he wondered at the thing. “How did you come through time with me?” He was astonished to know that it had. Ivanus reached out a hand and the snoot nuzzled it, pressing its forehead repeatedly to his palm. His future-sight was returning to him slowly, but there was little to see around him. The book, the thought came quickly and he reached for the pocket where he stored the holy book he had taken from his first visit to Samuel’s citadel. It, too, had traveled with him. Thank goodness. Ivanus breathed a sigh.

  He pressed his hands to the burning earth and forced himself to stand. I cannot allow myself to die in this heat. If I am ever to return to Julieth again then I must find shade and rest until I can trek the desert. The essence should keep me alive even without food, but relying solely on the essence would not be wise. His eyes focused and he watched the snoot leap quickly toward him and up his body. It perched on his shoulder.

  “No.” A shudder ran through him. He wiped sweat from his brow and petted the creature. “You should not be here. You will die in this time. There is so little food.”

  The thing sniffed him, uncaring or unaware of his words.

  Ivanus’s eyes then went to Riad’s space craft. Its rusted hull was the only thing near him. He could see what looked like an open hatch in the part of it not covered in sand. Would Samuel have left anything within it worth utilizing? Shade. If nothing else I can use it to rest in.

  He placed one foot in front of the other, and then another and another, slowly braving the heat until he reached the craft’s rusted shell. A wide panel in its front had appeared open in the distance but Ivanus now knew it was only a darker shade. What if Samuel was unable to breach it? Did Riad seal it up before leaving this place? There was hope that there would be more inside… something to help him with whatever was to come. “But how do we breach the door? If Samuel could not, then what chance have I?”

  He went and placed a hand to the ship’s hull. The rust there pricked his hand. Is there a panel that can open it? Surely not.

  The snoot leapt from his shoulder. It sniffed the edge of the craft and then scurried around its side.

  Ivanus watched it disappear as it dug into the sand. Sand spit up as the creature kicked it from its hole. Ivanus went to look in the hole and could not see the snoot. “What are you doing?” He lay down next to the hole and still co
uld not see the animal. Does it sense something I do not?

  For a good while he heard and saw nothing of the rodent. He waited patiently in hopes that it would return.

  The ship rumbled then, startling Ivanus. He stood and ran around its front. The door panel was open and the snoot sat inside. “Do you smirk at me?” Ivanus questioned it with a smile. “Perhaps you will survive here after all. How much is there to you that I do not know? You are quite a remarkable creature. Thank you.”

  The snoot turned and scurried back into the craft.

  As Ivanus walked into the ship he noted faint blue lights illuminating the ceiling and red lights pocking the control panels which lined a far wall. Much of the ship’s controls had been destroyed in the crash, with portions scattered over the floor, but he was shocked that any of the ship was still operational after all this time.

  “Grrrrrr,” the snoot’s angry voice came before it ran from beyond Ivanus’s sight, followed closely by a bot that reminded Ivanus of Vrax.

  The thing was smaller than Riad’s bot and stopped when it saw him, eying him with its green eyes. A gear ground on its back, clicking in a meticulous pattern.

  “Do you speak?” Ivanus asked.

  The thing scurried around him, its ‘eyes’ always making contact with Ivanus’s own.

  “Are you mentally connected with a being?”

  The bot lowered itself and then leapt at the control panel behind Ivanus, causing the snoot to leap and scamper out of Ivanus’s sight. “Negative.” Its metallic voice was more robotic, more primitive if it was possible, than Vrax. “Ship repairs only. Base communication.” It walked to him, touching the back of his hand with its spindly legs but not piercing his skin.

  “I come in peace,” Ivanus assured it. “The animal is my pet.” He thought for a moment. How can I earn its trust? “I am a friend of Riad’s.”

  The droid’s head rotated inquisitively.

  “Vrax?” Ivanus questioned.

  The bot’s back gear stopped clicking for a second and then began again. “Yes. Memory intact. Vrax. Cyborg reconstruction bot.”

  “I need your help. Is there a way to communicate with Vrax from the ship?” Since entering the ship he had begun to worry about his friends’ fates. Last he knew Bayne had slain Samuel. Had Samuel’s essence bonded with Bayne? His memory was foggy.

  “Negative. Com links gone.” The bot moved over his hand, touching its fiber-like legs to the veins of his hand and then to the stumps where his fingers used to be. It moved over them several times before perching on the data-board before them and staring at Ivanus. “Hand reconstruction.”

  Was that a question? Ivanus eyed the stumps of his fingers. At times he felt as if his fingers were still there, only to go to grab something and find he could not lift it as he used to. It happened frequently at first but much less often now. Does it have a way to heal me? No, I would doubt that.

  The bot scampered over to a large metallic box that was veined with wires. “Hand reconstruction,” the thing said again. It touched a minute hole in the machine and a metal door swept open. Steam rose from the top of the box and a rush of static swept through Ivanus. Claw-like braces were inside the box and a long, thin piece that the braces connected to. The bot clicked quickly back to Ivanus’s wounded hand and touched his stumps with its fibers once more. “Reconstruction. Cybernetics.”

  It finally dawned on Ivanus that the thing was saying the machine could give him cybernetic fingers to fix his hand. “Thank you.” He thought for a moment. Did he trust the thing? How could he know that the whole ship had not been compromised by Samuel and that this wasn’t a fail-safe program set up to fool him? But to have my working hand again… He scanned the ship for any sign that he would be safe. In a dark corner he saw a massive gun under debris. In another place he noted a metallic vest. If Samuel had entered then those things would be gone. He looked back at the bot. “Can you work it?”

  The bot’s head rotated again. “Operational.” It confirmed.

  With a deep breath Ivanus rolled back his sleeve and placed his hand in the box. The claw-like clamps immediately clenched to his arm, sending pain through him as he struggled to pull his arm back out.

  A moment later the box’s door shut, forming a perfect seal around his skin. His entire hand went numb as it was held captive.

  “What is it doing?” he asked the bot.

  Silence.

  It scurried to the top of the box and pressed its legs into a minute hole.

  The snoot came running around them for a second and then scurried off into the darkness once more.

  What have I allowed this thing to do to me? The door of the machine zipped up, steam flooding from its top, writhing around the bot.

  Ivanus’s hand was no longer clamped down and he took it out, eying its new form. Perfect metal fingers stretched up from where his stubs were. He moved them flawlessly and when he touched his face with them he could actually feel through the surface of the metal. “Amazing,” he breathed in awe. “It is as if I have a newer, stronger hand.” He traced his fingers along the machinery in front of him and then held out his hand for the bot to climb into. It is amazing how much the cybernetics feel like they are actually a part of my body.

  The bot stared at him, unmoving, unspeaking. “KR4,” it spoke finally.

  Ivanus brought his hand back down, seeing that the bot would not come to him. You are truly a robot, he thought. How much mental will do you have? Is there any, or are you just programed in ways of interaction?” “Is KR4 your name?”

  Its green eyes flashed off and on twice. “KR4. Designation.”

  “Again, thank you. Can I and my pet stay the night?” He motioned to the snoot with his hands.

  The rodent sniffed the dusty air before reluctantly scampering to him and climbing up his shoulder. Its fur was raised as it watched KR4 intently. Its tail swished behind it.

  “Ship long vacant. Time passes. None come.” Its eyes flashed. “1 night.”

  “Do you have food?” Ivanus stood, looking to the corners of the ship in hopes he could find something to help the snoot survive once they entered the terrain beyond the ship. “My companion and I could use nourishment.”

  KR4 leapt quickly from its perch, clicked across the floor and up a paneled metal wall. It dug its spindly legs into a hole. A door hidden in the wall swept open.

  Boxes upon boxes were stacked inside.

  “What are they?” Ivanus asked as he walked to them and picked up a box. He blew the dust from it.

  “Long-term sustenance store.” KR4 perched on the wall.

  Ivanus pushed a finger into a button on the side of the box and its lid popped open. Inside were layered trays with pills packed full across them. The box had no writing inside or out, only a scanning code of some kind that he knew he would not be able to decipher. “These are edible? These will sustain us?” He looked at the stacks of boxes. There had to be one hundred just in the compartment. It was completely full, aside from the box he held.

  “Yes.” KR4 let its grip on the wall go and fell to the ground.

  Ivanus spent the rest of the day scouring the ship for anything he could carry and use when he left. KR4 did not follow him or seem to care. He assumed it would not attempt to stop him from taking anything. He packed the contents of the pill cabinet in a satchel he discovered. When he examined the large gun he had seen earlier he discovered a smaller gun stored in its side mechanics. He took small tools also and a letter written in foreign lettering which was magnetized to one of the ship’s walls. It had a crimson seal he remembered seeing on Riad’s cybernetics.

  That night Ivanus lay on a cushioned bunk in one of the ships personal chamber rooms. His mind was filled with images of Bayne just before he had time-jumped back to the past. Images of Samuel’s face also kept him awake. Why can’t there be peace? His heart was heavy. The one thing all of our troubles seem to have in common is the essences. One is a part of me as well. He felt the burning sensation of anot
her scorched line searing down his back. He felt for it with his hand. When he touched it he felt heat on his palm. There has to be a way to rid myself of it. They will destroy all of Solaris. They are the true enemy. They caused Samuel to become the evil that he was. It was strange, but Samuel had truly become his friend before he changed. Ivanus closed his eyes and focused on sleep.

  He awoke suddenly in the middle of the night as something jumped on his stomach. Ivanus sat upright, grappling for the thing in panic, and then tried to calm his rapid heart as the snoot jumped to his chest. It clung there, whimpering.

  “You must be hungry,” he told it. “I only have the pills.” If I am going to keep it from starving then I will have to try something. He stroked the snoot’s back gently. In Ivanus’s sight he saw himself reaching into a pillbox in his robe pocket nearby and taking a pill from it. He did as he saw and then held the pill to the snoot’s lips.

  It would not take it, but sniffed curiously.

  Ivanus used his sight again and stood, walking to a corner of the room and taking a metal disc and a shard of broken metal pipe. He set the pill on the disc and then ground it with the pipe into something he hoped to get the snoot to eat.

  As he returned to the bed Ivanus held the ground pill in the palm of his hand. “Here, little friend. You will need to learn to eat this if you are to survive.”

  The snoot scampered up to him, sniffing the powder. It turned and began to walk away, then came back and sniffed again.

  “Chit chit chit,” it protested.

  “I wish I had more. I wish I had liquid. We will have to find that for you as well. But this will sustain you until we can find better.” He thought of Ineal and the water he brought up from the desert. “Where we are going there is delicious food and pure water. You will love it there. Eat this. You need it.”