by Sam Sea
He jerked up from the floor and looked nervously around, searching for places to hide, weapons he could use with his trembling hands. But he looked and only saw the familiar ambassador’s suite in which he always stayed during his long inter-planetary space voyages.
He blinked, repeatedly, not understanding again how could something feel so real, nightmares, memories all twisted into one, yet…
He exhaled the breath he kept too long and wiped the sweat that started to come down into his eyes with the sleeve of his silky kimono.
He looked around. Everything was there just as he remembered. Dim lights, were slowly awakening and sensing his presence were already illuminating the shapes of his bedroom, revealing walls covered with antiques from all corners of the empire. Placed on night tables were a blue hand-painted ceramic plate from Sirinus depicting the First Arrival and a pink wine bottle from the Lanna period. The wall was dominated by a fully enclosed and protected oil painting with bright colors showing a man and a boy fishing from a small dinghy. Dated over hundred and twenty thousand years ago, unfortunately it was of an unknown origin and of unknown culture with the estimated value he cared little to know about. It came from his own family’s collection, and it will follow him anywhere he decides to reside while traveling through space.
The painting was one of his favorite, and as he stared at the blue water of the tranquil lake and a willow tree shadowing its edge, he felt his breath slowly become normal.
He turned around and made sure that his sword still hanged above the bed post, and assuring sensation made him relax his crunched fist.
He almost felt at home, and looked at his watch.
It was 54d of the 2025th year of the Emperor Saris, counting 15058 years of the House of Lios. They ruled now, had been for the last millennium and more.
No expense was spared for building Maxima, and it was smoothly crossing the cosmos with the next acceleration and recharging gate probably less than a few hours away. Eight more gates to go through, eight more clicks were still missing from reaching the planet of Zalirus which on his ship translated to two full days using the Capital’s standardized time.
He reminded himself that he was safe. He perfectly knew that everything imaginable was done to prevent even the smallest of accidents to compromise the safety of those on board. There were more chances of dying from a lightning on a clear Ertihian morning than for anything to go wrong on this cruiser. He did not remember the last time anybody died during the transport.
Stupid dream… He wished he had none, should had none. And memories of old, when will they be gone? But the dream that ended with a heavy sense of premonition still lingered and was all too strong and overpowering, with the taste of fear all too present in his head for him to turn around and go back to sleep.
He uncomfortably felt how quiet it was in his suite, the loudest being still drumming of his own heart.
Insecurely, he lurched over to the second rest chamber, his legs hardly listening to him.
There on a bed, a young girl with a long blond hair, not older than ten, lay motionlessly, as if frozen in time. His fighting yelps seemed not to have reached her at all. And his heart ticked a little slower, a little bit calmer, and he felt a whole lot better.
Those dreams of mine, stupid dreams… What do they mean, if anything? Are they echoes of the past or drifting energies of the things yet to come? His thoughts ran as he accepted the fact that he was not even fully awaken yet. Actually, with his wobbling foot and quivering mind, he was quite uncertain if he was still dreaming or not. He fidgeted across the room, not knowing what he should do next.
A distant zooming sound appeared in his ear and it would not go away.
As he moved, his feet seemed to be made of lead, his mind all clouded and unable to focus.
Throwing cold water on his face did little to change that, so he reached for an awakening pill inside his kimono pocket. He remembered the last few times he took trips, and everything seemed effortless back then. Why would he need awakening pill now?
For a long second, he stopped to gather his thoughts and looked all around, at the front door which seemed firmly locked, at the girl sleeping in the back, at his communication pod waiting with the news he missed, and decided to swallow the pill after all even though that implied he would not be able to return to sleep for the rest of the trip.
To burning hell with space sickness! I made clicks before without passing out in my own vomit.
Plus, how much worse can it be from having those dreams? How much worse can it be from feeling the way I do right now? So, to high space with those who says not to use these! I’ll speed up resetting my own system, and if nothing else, a glass or two of old scotch should help out.
He tried to think if he remembered to take a bottle with him. He was not sure. He left in such a hurry, and remembering it all made his mouth very dry.
There are a plenty of bars on the ship serving a good scotch. Something must be open. And afterwards, I’ll find something to do. Plenty of news and work to catch up with. I have to keep my mind busy, anything other than dreaming again… His plans started to take shape and make appeasing sense as he waited for the pill to start doing its magic.
But even as he set down to go through the latest news, he just could not shake off his nightmares. They rested somewhere right behind and between his eyes, ready to thunder through his head at any moment. Something about them seemed so real and familiar.
The next planetary elections were not being held for another five hundred capital days, but a lot of dust was already being raised, and all of that should have been important for him to know… But it was not. Somehow, suddenly all politics seemed unnaturally unimportant. Carrying for a carrier-impacting matters made no sense to him at all.
He thought that maybe putting some food into his stomach would do the trick, so he logged into the ship’s server to find which food court was working. Something had to be open even if all of the passengers were still under and would not wake up for another two days.
But the server had all the restaurants and bars in dark, and not a single blinking name appeared on his pod. He could not access no live feeds to see who was cooking what, not even menus or their scheduled working hours. He found it all very detestable, thinking how he is going to scold whoever is responsible for such negligence.
I would not mind sitting down with the crew… They must be eating something someplace. A talk with others might balance my mind.
He tried contacting the cruiser staff on duty, but their lights were out as well.
Maybe, he hoped to think, my connection to the info server was not working right… What else could be wrong?
The senator looked toward the small window, and all the dark space outside, distant stars and the black emptiness that seemed to stretch forever, so calm yet so threatening.
“Room image on! Display the view from Anura Space Station.” The instructions to his pod instantly lighted up the room and the green planet of Anura lay below his feet. Above were millions of stars and nearby Anura’s Click Station, the portal to a wormhole that spiraled to the rest of the empire. Twin moons shone from his back. He extended his relaxed hands trying to touch them, trying to play with the golden space dust, hoping to feel better.
Something that normally would spark up his mood did little, and he fruitlessly attempted to remember if on any of his prior planetary trips he ever experienced anything similar. But his mind was blank, and no explanation came forward.
Something was wrong, he knew it and felt it with every new breath. He tried to log into ships schedule, an officer’s chat, Zalirus weather report, tried to establish a link to the Capitan’s private station… Nothing. No connection was possible.
Must have been my connection… What else can it be? Maybe the ship… His stomach churned thinking of the possible ship failure that would leave him stranded in all the darkness and emptiness outside.
How long would I be dead until someone would found me? How m
any times do we ever find people lost to space? A scary question answered his scary thought.
He looked at the front door, and walked a few steps toward it. Hardly audible, he heard unrecognizable distant sounds coming from behind it.
The clinking, the clacking at very low frequencies yet indisputably present, indisputably weird. It was inhuman-like, yet didn’t seem mechanical at all.
So wrong, so strange, like someone pushing a cart with broken wheels…but no broken wheels could ever make that noise, he thought as his mind struggled in understand and recognize it.
He walked as quietly as he could toward the door, pressing his ear on its smooth surface. Tickling-tackling sounds were moving even further away, disappearing slowly in the distance of the ship’s passageways.
When he could hear none of it, he unlocked the door with his thumb, then opened it wide just an inch.
Nothing seemed to be visible there other than an empty passageway lighted with the warming yellow light. The floor carpeted with the pearly coat of a Samaran wool seemed brand new. Obviously it was cleaned recently. No imprinted traces of a cart with a broken wheel were there - nothing at all.
He opened the door further, looked to the other side of the corridor that cornered to the left fifty feet down. It was all empty. Nearby doors seemed all closed, undisturbed.
So wrong, so quiet, he thought again now not able to hear any sound at all, not even that relaxing instrumental music which was always present in the ship’s passageways, the one that was always trying to provide for the joyful atmosphere and make people forget where they actually were.
He stepped out, closed the door behind him and decided to walk to his left. The viewing deck was not far away, and right next to it was a little bar that was never supposed to be closed.
Somebody should be there. Maybe a cup of tea would wake me up, or something stronger… They should have good scotch, although right now, I’d drink anything. Just to wash that taste of blood in my mouth, shake my mind up, erase this weirdness I feel.
But still, as he got closer to it, there were no noises, no sounds of people chatting, drinking, nobody, nothing…
Can’t be that everyone is asleep…
Still, everything seemed to be in perfect order, until… A few drops of red were clearly visible, providing for the dire contrast to the pure whiteness of the soft floor. The drops was still wet, unsoiled yet, and by touching it, he knew it was blood.
His heart instantly drummed faster.
He thought what that might imply, but could not make any sense of it. If he could only fully wake up, clear his mind, steady his thoughts…
He walked further, and just a few feet away, he faced a wall, painted in the desert-golden color. He stared at the part of it which was sprayed with so much blood that it almost looked unreal. But the blood still ran down all the way to the floor.
He knew, right then, instantly, what that meant.
Too much blood, violence. He knew somebody died there.
A life was lost, forever, right here… Less than minutes ago.
He saw things like that too many times before, during the years he spent in the Vendar War, then Vazz war, fighting for the future of the empire, trying to save what was left of his house. It was very much the same sort of thing he saw during his recent dream.
He looked up and down the passageway, rapidly and repeatedly, but could not detect not even a sound, not even a hint of anyone’s presence.
How can it be? With a hurried step, he went forward to the entrance of the bar.
A human hand lay there, on a floor, severed, with the blood from the cut still flowing out.
It could have not been a minute, even a half of it when this had happened… Wasn’t I already in the passageway for that long? Should have I not seen it all? At least hear it?
He looked around again, fear returning with all its might to his blood stream.
But he was still inexplicably alone. Not even a humming sound of a ventilation air was there.
And suddenly, looking at his bare hands, he felt very vulnerable. He thought about the girl sleeping in his quarters, and realizing his stupidity. In less than an eye blink, he turned around and flew toward his suite, not understating how could he not thought about her, how could he left her there unprotected.
He cared little how loud his steps echoed down the empty passageway.
He reached his suite in seconds, and after seeing inside of his room full of moonlight, undisturbed, he shut the door, slamming it unintentionally too hard with the noise banged through the undisturbed air.
Could it be a dream, could all of these be just a stupid dream? He thought as he saw the girl still being asleep, but waited motionlessly in his step, not ready to make another noise.
His mind went to the old sword hanged above his bed… He carried no guns of any type on his trips, a thing to regret at that moment. The sword was the only weapon he had.
When was the last time I yielded it? Would it come out if needed, was it still razor sharp? And what is the thing that can kill without being seen, cutting man’s hand off, probably his head off too…? Where is the body? And where is the killer?
Few inches away the ticking-tacking sound changed frequencies and pitch, twisting, echoing, and grew louder. He thought he even heard steps.
If it walks, then it is of this dimension… If it walks, so it can be killed. Yet, he dared not move toward the sword.
Sounds of the beast. Now he was sure of it. But the origin of the beast he could not guess. Even though his life spanned more than five hundred years of existence, he was sure he never heard it before. He was frantically very certain of it.
Hisses like a snake, tickles like a broken wheel, clenching its teeth like a crock… And it slices men to pieces like we are made of butter? And it disappears as if wearing an invisible cloak?
“What’s wrong Sul? “ The blond girl was suddenly sitting up in her bed, looking confused at him
What could have awoken her up? She was supposed to sleep for two more days?
He turned his head, panic forcing his eyes to almost pop out.
“Sul…?” she whispered, but whispered just a bit too loud before she saw his fingers pressed against his lips, telling her to be quiet.
It was a bit too late as whatever it was outside suddenly zeroed in on the noise, and roared with the devilish ferocity that shook the inch-thick wall, then slammed into it with the might of a star cruiser. The unbreakable wall, the one that could brush off an asteroid, seemed to gave in.
The senator instinctively jumped backward.
He didn’t want to stare at the beast which came through, didn’t want to know that it was more than a foot taller than him even though it walked on four legs with thick, black leather skin, black as space, covering its entire body. Raptor-green-and-red eyes hunted and long bloodied teeth were shown ready to bite into him and the girl next to him.
He flew toward the beast throwing the ceramic vase at its face, fully knowing it could not hurt it. But it was enough of a distraction to give him a half a second to jump on top of his bed and reach for the ancient steel sword. As the beast turned its hunting head toward him, he already had it in his hand, the silvery smooth blade already out of its scabbard.
“Lights out!” He shrieked and the room instantly went dark.
But that was all the time he had as the beast was already on top of him. He could not swing the sword. There was no time for it, not even to move it to a side. The only thing he could do was to try and protect his face from the fangs which were already closing on top of him, ready to swallow his entire head. He could only lift the steel in front of him as the beast’s jaws came down.
For a moment it seemed that the beast had succeeded to swallow the entire sword, its teeth reaching past tsuba, millimeters from his knuckles. But then, instantly, it became soundless, the menacing light started to burn less evil in its eyes, and dark sticky liquid ran down his hands, down his arms, and dripped on top of his he
ad. It was not like any animal blood he ever killed before.
He showed the beast to the side, start yanking the sword out, fighting it lose as it got stuck between the hard skull bones.
He remembered in his days how he chopped many heads with that sword, cut bones like they were made of straw. But the bones of the monster seemed almost stone-like.
“What, what was that Sul?” The trembling voice, knitted with outmost fear of a little girl brought him back.
The dreams he had of late, the dreams that got him up, they were all too real.
“I do not know…I do not know what is going on. But you have to stay calm. Carry this,” he said, shoving a metal briefcase that lay next to his bed into her lap.
“What are we to do now?”
“We have to get off the ship Elisa. The ship has been compromised, and we have to reach rescue pods and get off.” That was clear to him. In an instant. And the thought of dark cold space outside scared him none anymore as he knew there was no other way.
Luckily some of the closest rescue pods were located only a corner away from his premium ambassador’s suite. Luckily he remembered that.
But all his luck ended there. As he walked out holding the girl by her shoulder, he saw three beasts of the same making already there, blocking the passageway and waiting for him.
To the back of them, behind them, was a creature that walked on two, covered in a long brown cloak, spikes antenning out of its head, staring at him with beams of red laser light, and waiting...
He suddenly knew what it all meant. His dreams, the beasts, the creature. It all instantly made sense and pure terror seized him at once, the fear that screamed how he and the little girl stood no chance, and will never make it past the corner to the rescue pods.
Is it real, or is it a dream? He wondered in a second he exhaled his breath. Blood covering his hands was sticky, sticky and real, yet how could it all be? He looked at the girl, could not accept it, and nudged her gently and slowly backward.