by James Somers
Grod was completely enthralled by the display. He wanted this kind of power for himself, and he intended to have it. The teragore opened its great mouth again and a long whip-like tongue shot out toward Tiet. He flipped over its strike, as the beast tried to catch him.
The long tongue darted back and forth trying to capture its prey as he continued his acrobatic evasive maneuvers. Orin cried out to Tiet from behind the vent in the dome wall. He heard him and tried to pause as much as he could to locate his voice. He could see Orin’s hands coming through the vent in the wall.
This was a tight place to try and maneuver. The vent was quite thick and blended right into the rest of the wall materials. He couldn’t get enough room to cut through. Orin pulled a kemstick from his thigh clip and brought it through the vent space with his hand, as Tiet tried to evade the whipping tongue of the teragore.
“Tiet!! Take it!!” cried Orin.
Tiet saw the weapon in Orin’s hand and leapt upward after it. The kemstick leapt away to meet him in the air. He caught the weapon just as the tongue of the teragore found purchase around his legs. It brought him full body into the ground. The impact knocked the breath out of him and the kemstick out of his hand.
The great tongue began to retract quickly, dragging him toward the beast’s mouth. He realized the kemstick was not in his hand and reached out with his mind to retrieve it, as he was pulled across the ground. The kemstick obeyed and rolled after him; leaping into the air to find his hand as Tiet was lifted upside down toward the gaping mouth of the creature. He caught the weapon as the creature pulled him inside and the jaw closed after him. The teragore raised its great head and swallowed the young warrior whole.
Grod was grinning from ear to ear as the lump of flesh began to slide visibly down the creature’s throat. Orin’s heart was about to leap from his chest as he watched the heir of his king devoured by the animal. Suddenly the visible lump stopped its descent within the teragore’s throat. A rod of bright orange light erupted from the creature’s neck and quickly whirled around in a great circle from within. The teragore’s massive head pitched forward as the neck separated from the rest of the animal’s body. He leapt out of the orifice within, landing near the severed head covered in the creature’s secretions.
“Unbelievable!” shouted Grod.
He was out of his chair on his feet in amazement. “I have never seen such a display of power and skill!”
Suddenly Tiet sprang into the air and caught a hold of the vent where Orin was located.
“Get back!”
Orin was still in amazement himself at the wonderful escape his protégé had just executed. He slid backward fast to allow Tiet to gain entrance. Tiet stabbed the ignited kemstick into the armor plated grating and cut through it with ease. The hot piece fell out and landed on the floor of the dome below as Tiet crawled inside.
Orin backed his way out of the smaller vent shaft with Tiet following him on his belly. Soon they came out into the larger main shaft.
“Good to see you again!”
“And you. Quickly, put this on. It will hide you from their scanners.”
Tiet pulled on the Barudii cloak and the pair headed back down the main shaft on their knees the way Orin had come in.
“Where did he go?! And how did that weapon get into the arena?!” growled the General.
“We’re searching sir. It appears he has gone into the main ventilation system but his life signature has disappeared from our scans.”
“Find him now!!”
VII
Estall had been doing a good job getting the Vorn battle ships ready for departure. With the enemy under control here, they had been able to gain control of the ships that were still docked on the planet. Ranul had come up with technology to allow them to operate the Vorn control systems. The devices converted the Vorn computer language to Castillian and vice versa, allowing them to pilot the craft through the rift if necessary.
A number of pilots from various Castillian tribes had already signed on for the mission, and now it looked like it would be necessary to go through and intercept the fleet before they attacked as Kisch k’ta had threatened. According to Ranul’s readings of the data, the rift would be stabilized within five hours and they needed to be in space waiting for it.
The Vorn fleet still had not contacted the Governor and Ranul could only conclude that the massive attack sphere was the cause of it. According to the files contained in the Vorn database, the Sphere had been constructed by the Barudii. It still blew his mind to think that on the other side of the rift there was a twin planet to his home world Castai.
He was as anxious to see it as he was to know what had become of his friends. Perhaps they might find the Vorn engaged in a battle with the Barudii sphere and be able to aid in the fight to destroy the Vorn armada. The communication link sounded. “Yes?” said Ranul.
“Ranul, all seven battle cruisers are under way. Are you ready to go?” said Estall.
“Yes. I’ll meet you at the pad in ten minutes. How does everything look?”
“Everything seems to be operating smoothly so far. Those translation devices are allowing everything to go smoothly.”
“What about the Vorn?”
“They’re tucked away nicely in one of their own prison compounds, guarded heavily by my men. The other Aolene warriors are settled in on the warships and ready to join Orin and the others in the fight across the rift.”
“Very good. I’ll join you shortly.”
He did not mention to Estall that the Saberhawk may very well have been destroyed by now. He assumed that Estall could have figured out how dangerous the mission was in the first place, or maybe he just had that much confidence in Orin and Tiet.
The Barudii warriors were powerful, but in a space battle that would make little difference. He hoped Estall’s optimism was well-founded. He also wanted to see his friends again—alive.
Ranul glanced over the data screens once more as he grabbed a pack of his own technical gear and headed for the exit to the lab he was working in. He boarded a nearby transport tube and was whisked away toward the main launch platform where he was to meet Estall.
Within three minutes he was across the large compound and exiting the tube to find Estall waiting for him with a shuttle. They greeted each other unceremoniously and climbed into the small ship. Estall, a capable pilot himself, operated the shuttle controls as they ascended to the Vorn battle cruiser hovering one thousand feet above the compound.
The other warships were already en route for the Transdimensional Rift and would be leaving the atmosphere by now. The small six man transport was dwarfed by the ominous size of the Vorn ship which received it into itself like a mother pulling in its young.
The battleship was easily ten times the size of the Saberhawk and much more heavily armed. These same types of ships had destroyed the Castillian space fleet in the early years of the war with the Vorn. Now, they would allow the Castillians to exact retribution for those losses and more.
They made their way to the bridge where a Castillian crew piloted the ship with the aid of Ranul’s translation devices. They had all spent so many years under the heel of the Vorn, that it was a tremendous feeling to have taken so much control back from their oppressors. The ships were quite powerful and Ranul was pretty confident that if they had to face the Vorn fleet they would fair well in the battle.
The cruiser soared upwards toward space, breeching the atmosphere. The rest of the ships appeared on the main monitors with the Castillian language equivalents. The new Castillian space fleet pushed onward toward the Transdimensional Rift. Neither Estall nor Ranul had ever been in space. The sight of the rift, as they approached, was ominous. It was so huge in comparison with their ships. Absolutely nothing could be seen beyond the void.
Ranul checked the science station readouts on the stability of the rift. It would still be several hours before it became permeable enough to cross. He continued his work on communication with the Barudii
sphere. If the Sphere was in the area of the other Castai, then they would need to quickly establish contact with it to show themselves as Castillian and not more Vorn ships to be attacked. The void lay before them, and everyone wondered what they would find beyond.
WITHIN the ventilation system, Tiet and Orin were making good time, as they passed under a vent coming from above. Tiet, who was bringing up the rear, heard a clattering sound like something coming toward them. He looked upward into the tube and saw a mechanical beast of some sort coming fast at him. There was no room to have a full out confrontation in this vent, and the insect-like robot was going to have the advantage.
He scrambled out from under it as it fell into the same vent tube he was in. Suddenly he saw more appearing behind it, coming from the way he and Orin had already been. The robotic beasts had multiple legs on each side of their slender cylindrical bodies. Several red eyes were spaced across the slender heads that contained small compressed air jets.
As the creatures took up pursuit, scurrying along the vents, they began to fire small spikes from the air jets. The spikes were clattering along the metal sides of the vents as they tried to move as fast as they could through the curves of the system.
The spikes imbedded into the metal where they hit, injecting acid cores, causing the walls to sizzle as the acid burned into them. At this point, they didn’t know if they were on track for the outside or not, but the robot insects were gaining on them. If they tried to blast the mechanical creatures kinetically they might shatter the entire vent tube and drop themselves right into the middle of an army of Horva.
The tube that had previously provided many twists and turns to help them avoid the spikes now opened up into a long straightaway. Orin almost paused, but there was no time to find another route. He picked up the pace as fast as he could, but the creatures were quick and the spikes they were firing were even faster. With a straight shot at them the creatures would no doubt hit them multiple times.
Orin could hear Tiet behind him, dogging his heels. The smaller man definitely had the advantage running in these tubes. Suddenly the shaft closed ahead of them. A security door had come down in front of them and the only outlet was a connecting tube from above. Orin came to a halt below it and turned to see if he could hold the creatures off while allowing Tiet to go up first.
The moment he turned to fight, the entire ventilation tube between themselves and the approaching robots, collapsed inward as though a giant hand had grasped it from without and crunched it. They couldn’t believe what had just happened in their favor and had no explanation for it. The integrity of the tube seemed to be intact. They could hear the robots on the other side of the collapsed tube clattering against the crumpled metal trying to get at them, but to no avail.
Without wasting anymore precious time, they shot up the outlet tube using their kinesis to propel them. The tube appeared to keep going and it looked like they might even reach the roof again by way of it. But how had the Horva known their location in the vent system to close that door in front of them?
Orin wondered if the robots had been transmitting images and navigational information back to the Horva once they had happened upon them. He couldn’t come up with anything else. The Barudii cloaks had been working when he got into the facility; he had no reason to believe they had failed to hide them now.
But if the Horva were looking at their own schematics of the system, they might well know where this tube was taking them and be waiting. Still, they had no choice but to try and exit the facility or be potentially caught in a battle they couldn’t win; if more Horva were waiting they would have to deal with the problem then.
The pair continued upward at a high rate of speed as the end of the tunnel came quickly into view. Orin blasted the vent cap with a kinetic burst. The power rippled the air causing odd refractions of the available light, like a wave of heat rising off a hot road.
The vent cap shot off the tube as they flipped out of the vent and landed with weapons ready on the roof. Orin’s suspicions had come to fruition.
Several hundred Horva warriors were closing from all directions, but the automatic gun turrets still had not picked up on their life signatures. The cloaks were working but nothing was going to hide them now; the Horva were closing fast and beginning to fire their pulse weapons.
The pair blocked several shots with their ignited blades and each one began to send out kinetic blasts in various directions, trying not to hit each other in the process.
Suddenly from somewhere within the Horva masses, a huge kinetic bubble erupted, sending many of the Horva over the sides of the crowded rooftop to their deaths. Tiet and Orin looked at each other in surprise, as neither had caused the incident.
From within the area a new fighter could be seen utilizing twin ignited Barudii blades; whirling with complex precision, slicing into the Horva around him. The mystery guest in this battle was taking down Horva in all directions and with a complexity and speed that captivated the tiring pair.
This fighter was moving nimbly among Horva and reaching out in all directions with ignited twin blades—blocking incoming shots as an afterthought to his own offensive attacks. It was terribly precise fighting that smacked of a highly trained Barudii; beyond even Orin or Tiet’s skills.
Suddenly the auto-guns swiveled around and began to fire not at them, but at the Horva warriors. In particular, the guns were picking off Horva around the new unknown fighter almost as if they were coordinating with his sword attacks. For a brief moment Orin thought he must be controlling the guns somehow.
But surely this warrior was not so powerful as to be able to execute such precise and amazing hand-to-hand fighting along with the mental stamina required to precisely operate five or six computer controlled laser cannons all at the same time—was he?
The action had gone away from Orin and Tiet by now, but they didn’t know whether to make a getaway or wait to see what or who this person was, doing all the amazing damage to the Horva. They hesitated toward the latter. Then the figure, having cleared away most of the Horva around him with swords and the auto-guns, launched high off the rooftop and came to a landing in front of Orin and Tiet, still crouched in their defensive positions.
The person was wearing a sand-colored garment that seemed oddly pedestrian for a warrior of this caliber, and he was hooded, with only glaring, penetrating eyes visible. “Do you want to live, Barudii?” he said with a distinctly masculine voice as the Horva regrouped behind him with more reinforcements adding to their numbers.
The warrior ran to the edge of the roof and launched out away from it with such power as to completely clear the compound’s energy wall three hundred feet away from the building’s perimeter. Orin and Tiet barely took enough time to glance at each other as they stood and followed after the mysterious man. They each made the jump and soft landed next to the warrior.
“What about the perimeter cannons?” asked Orin as they all broke into a paced run away from the compound.
“We’re all cloaked from their sensors by our garments,” said the warrior.
Well that answered one question, thought Tiet. Now who in the world was this person?
“Who are you?” asked Orin.
“There isn’t time now. The Horva are already mobilizing attack fighters to come after us. We must keep moving.”
“Where are we going?” asked Tiet.
All he could see in the direction they were running was desert. Against the pale sand, the attack fighters he spoke of would easily spot them without sensors.
“Just keep moving!” urged the warrior.
As they continued on toward the open desert, the terrain began to shift from the rocky terrain where the facility was located to shifting sand and large dunes. The trio had been running for nearly fifteen minutes when they heard the sound of fighter engines coming toward them from the rear. Despite having covered approximately two miles at a high running speed, the fighters were still closing in.
The men began
to enter the dunes as Tiet looked back to see at least ten aerial fighters coming into view about a mile behind them and moving fast. As they entered the dunes, the sand began to swirl around them. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but kept running. The whine of fighter engines got louder and louder. Orin knew they must be within visible range by now. Only the warrior’s tan attire seemed appropriate now as they ran through the whirling sand.
Then suddenly a wave of sand seemed to billow up around them all and swallow them whole. The fighters zoomed past where the men had been and kept on going on the assumption that their targets must be hiding around the dunes, or had made it further away from the compound than they had anticipated.
Tiet, Orin and the mysterious warrior now found themselves in an odd shaped underground alcove. The sand was above them without being on them. It was as though the desert had opened its mouth and swallowed them, depositing them within its bowels. The sand parted before them to reveal an underground cavern of immense size.
“Don’t be alarmed gentlemen. We are quite well hidden down here,” said the stranger.
“Who are you?” insisted Orin.
“Ah, yes,” said the man as he untied his hood and slipped it away to reveal a man of more years than Orin with a partial beard and short completely white hair.
“It can’t be! I thought you were killed in the sector seven battle—Wynn Gareth.”
Orin was shocked and Tiet was clueless. Who was Wynn Gareth, that Orin would know him? He had never mentioned the name to Tiet before.
“Well, I see you’ve heard of me, though I don’t remember either of you. I wasn’t killed in that battle obviously. One of the big Barudii carriers exploded in the vicinity of my fighter, which disabled my controls; the shock wave pushed me through the Transdimensional Rift.
“After I emerged on this side I was able to affect repairs to the damaged system and make my way to the planet. It took me awhile to figure out what had happened to me. At first I didn’t realize my ship had even gone through the Rift.”