by Caleb Selby
“But the enemy has the Codex!” she protested. “That was our mission! That is why we have gone through this living nightmare!”
Jabel nodded gravely as he retrieved Reesa’s holsters from under one of the Unmentionable’s tentacles and handed them to her. “All is not lost,” he said reassuringly. “The enemy has yet to act on the knowledge of the Codex.”
“How do you know?” asked Reesa as she took her holsters from his hands one at a time and secured them to her legs.
Jabel nodded at the dead Unmentionable. “They are still here,” he said frankly. “Had they read and understood the Codex, they would have left by now.”
Reesa too looked at the dead Unmentionable, her mind racing for answers. “What does the Codex lead to?” she finally asked, realizing that after all this time she still had no idea.
“Power,” was Jabel’s only answer, the tone of voice implying he would speak no more of it.
Reesa nodded slowly, digesting the one word answer. “What would make the possessor of the Codex share its contents?” she finally asked.
Jabel turned sharply and looked at Reesa, astonished at her simple yet astute inquiry. “I suppose nothing,” he said after another moment of thought. “Do you think someone is holding out on the rest of the Unmentionables?”
Reesa shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“I do,” a voice suddenly spoke up from a shadow filled crevice.
Reesa and Jabel both turned around sharply, Reesa raising both weapons and pointing them into the darkness. Before either knew what was happening, two tentacles lurched out of the darkness snatching each of the lydegs. “I wouldn’t do that,” the voice spoke up again as Jabel began to lift his cane as if it were a weapon. “I don’t want to hurt you old man!”
“Show yourself!” Jabel demanded, lowering his cane slightly yet seemingly unfazed by the unprovoked aggression.
Slowly a man stepped out from the darkness, his face obscured by a hood.
“Who are you?” pressed Jabel. “Reveal yourself!”
The man laughed, amused at Jabel’s grit. He then slowly reached up, took hold of his hood, and gradually pulled it off.
Reesa brought her hands up to cover her mouth in shock and even Jabel was taken aback by the ghastly sight that met his gaze. The face was split nearly in two halves. The right half was that of Senator Trivis, striking and handsome as ever. The other half was a rancid mix of rotten skin, blackened blood and mangled knots of hair and bone. Somewhere in the nightmarish pile of flesh, an eye looked out listlessly, unblinking and unfocused. The nose was completely gone, revealing an abhorrent, gaping orifice in the visage that seemed to fade deeper and deeper into an oppressive blackness.
“You’ll pardon my appearance,” Trivis spoke, his voice sounding raspy and his words slurred as they escaped out of one side of his distorted mouth. “I have not had Grimsin in days and the thought of consuming yet another one of you turns my stomach.”
“Grimsin?” remarked Reesa. “What is that?”
Trivis nodded. “It is the source of our power. It is what allows us to portray any persona we desire. It is our greatest strength and our greatest damnation. It is the great secret held in the pages of the Codex. It is the great secret known only to one.”
“Who?” asked Jabel. “Who has the Codex?”
Trivis shook his head as if he couldn’t bear to utter the name. “Defuria,” he finally said. “President Defuria has the Codex.”
“Why should we believe you?” Reesa challenged. “You’ve aided in the butcher of thousands of our people!”
Trivis nodded, not remorsefully but understandingly. “You have no reason to trust me, but seeing as how I have the power to snuff you out at this very moment and haven’t yet, I would appreciate the benefit of the doubt for just a moment longer.”
Reesa looked uncomfortably at Jabel and then back to Trivis. “What do you want?”
“I want to help you,” Trivis said calmly.
“Why would you want to do that?” Reesa demanded, not trusting the senator at all.
“Presumably,” Jabel interjected thoughtfully, “by helping us he will be, in fact, helping himself?”
Trivis looked at Jabel, nodded slightly, and then turned to Reesa. “I want to help you kill President Defuria.”
Jabel and Reesa glanced at each other perplexed.
“Why?” Reesa blurted out.
Trivis sighed. “The answer is...complicated.”
“Give it a try,” Jabel retorted.
Trivis shook his head. “I believe Defuria is a traitor,” he said quietly, as if concerned he would be overheard. “I believe he does not have the best intentions for my people at heart and is in fact undermining our cause.”
“How’s that our problem?” Reesa snapped. “Maybe I want to help him if he is working against you!”
Trivis shook his deformed head in frustration. “Defuria is powerful, very powerful. Since the early days of the Sion ascendency an entire age ago, he has been the most powerful of our kind. Up until now however, his tremendous power has been in check by the rest of us. But if he is allowed to act on the information in the Codex alone, his power will be so overwhelmingly great that we will no longer be able to restrain him and the destruction he will wield on your world, as well as our own if he so choses, will be absolute and complete. None will be able to oppose him...none.”
“What do you have in mind?” Jabel asked.
“I’m working on something,” replied Trivis as he took a step back and redrew his hood. “But I won’t be able to do it alone and regrettably I can not trust my brethren. Their faith in him is strong and blind, a lethal combination,” he nodded at the corpse on the ground behind Jabel and Reesa. “I will be in touch with you when my plan is ready. Stay alive and out of sight in the meantime.”
Trivis finished speaking and then, much to Reesa’s surprise, handed her weapons back to her, which she awkwardly received. A brief thought flashed in her mind to turn them on the creature but by the time she could have directed them at him, Trivis had already retreated back into the safety of the shadows.
When they were sure he was gone, Jabel looked at Reesa in a complete loss for words. Neither were sure if they had just been handed an amazing opportunity or a convoluted death sentence. They both guessed the latter but didn’t know what to do with the information. Finally, when it was apparent that they had do something, Reesa shrugged and nodded down the passageway.
“The General will be waiting for me,” she said. “If we work this right we can still fix Clear Skies and take down the Krohn Fleet.”
Jabel slowly nodded, his mind seemingly dwelling on something else.
“We better get moving,” Reesa added as she took a step down the passageway. “He can’t get down here without our help, that is if he hasn’t already been killed, maimed or captured.”
Jabel looked up as if waking from a deep thought. He then smiled after processing Reesa’s last comment. “Assuming he wasn’t maimed, captured or killed. Of course.”
“I’m not sure I can get him down here alone,” said Reesa. “Do you have any ideas for me?”
“I do,” answered Jabel. “We need to start recruiting.”
Reesa rolled her eyes.
“We are receiving a coded tele-link from the Defiant,” Etana announced.
Fedrin looked up from his data pad. “Activate it!” he said immediately.
“This is Captain Carter,” the Raider leader’s voice sounded out crackly over the bridge speakers.
“We’re here Captain!” Fedrin answered. “What do you have for us?”
There was a pause before Carter continued. “Most of the Defiant’s crew are dead...killed by an Unmentionable. I have also lost ten members of my own team.”
Being inundated by death on such horrific scales over the past week, the n
ews seemed almost expected to Fedrin who simply shook his head sadly as Carter spoke.
“It was Tropnia,” Carter added. “She was the Unmentionable. She must have gotten aboard when we passed through the Second Fleet wreckage.”
A murmur echoed through the Iovara bridge as everyone discussed how outmatched they were and how hopeless their mission was. Etana silenced them with a quick snap of her fingers.
“Is this Unmentionable still posing a threat?” Fedrin asked, trying to keep his emotions in check and approach the problem pragmatically.
“No,” Carter answered promptly. “Drezden managed to use himself as bait to get her off the ship. She’s floating out in space right now.”
“And Drezden?” asked Fedrin, fearing he knew the answer.
“She is holding him,” Carter answered reluctantly. “He died a hero, Sir.”
Etana gasped, knowing Drezden’s death would be hard for Fedrin. She looked up at him to gage his reaction. It was subtle and anything but overt. He quietly shook his head and offered a slight, uneasy smile in an attempt to prevent tears from building.”
“There is a lot of cleaning up to do here Admiral,” Carter said regaining the crew’s attention. “As the ranking officer left aboard, I have assumed interim command. As acting Commander I would like to request that several cleanup teams and several hundred body bags be sent as soon as possible. I will also need a minimum crew drawn from some of the other ships to help operate her as well as a trained officer to relieve me as Commander as soon as possible.”
Fedrin nodded and pointed to Gallo to begin the task. “We’re already on it, Captain. Is there anything else you need?”
“Just hurry,” Carter answered. “I want off this ship as soon as I can. I lost a lot of good people today and I’m ready to go home.”
“Will do, Captain. And thank you for your service in this matter.”
“Thank my dead team, Admiral. Thank Commander Drezden. I didn’t do a thing,” Carter answered and ended the link.
“Sir,” said Jonas from his perch at the tactical station. “I have located Commander Drezden and the Unmentionable with my long range targeting computer.”
Fedrin nodded. “Thank you Lieutenant. Let’s end his suffering.”
“Aye, Sir,” Jonas answered as he programmed a firing resolution.
“And, Jonas,” added Fedrin.
“Sir?”
“We are only aiming for Drezden. You leave that creature out there to die for all eternity. Got it?”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Jonas said. “If I use the Sion incinerator beam at two percent power I can get a narrow enough beam to pinpoint our target.”
Fedrin nodded slowly. Saddened by the fact that he was ordering the lethal shot that would kill his best friend but also comforted by the fact that it would promptly end his suffering.
A moment later a light jolt could be felt as the weapon fired. Then there was silence. Fedrin closed his eyes. Etana placed a hand on Fedrin’s shoulder, which he grabbed for strength.
In the far distance Fedrin spotted a small patch of black space momentarily flash, signifying the end. “Goodbye, old friend,” he said just above a whisper. “Goodbye.”
CHAPTER 12
Too Many Krohns
The Krohn soldier cautiously walked around the broken door that led into the long-range transmission control room. He sniffed the air deeply, trying to catch the scent of an intruder. He smelled something, but wasn’t sure what it was. He readied his weapon, swallowed hard and poked his pointed reptilian head through the doorway. He didn’t know what to think when he saw Darion’s lydeg pistol pointed squarely at his head but he didn’t have to think about it, or anything else, ever again.
Darion struggled to drag the heavy Krohn body into the room. The Krohn’s scales were cold and rough and some flaked off as Darion tugged and pulled the oversized corpse out of the searching gaze of other curious Krohns.
Darion knew he had to find Reesa and Jabel; but his well thought out plan had only gotten him to the Research Center. Getting back to Larep was going to have to be made up on the fly, a very unsettling proposition.
He could hear dozens of Krohn soldiers on the roof talking and walking around. He couldn’t get out that way. The only other option was to challenge the bowels of the facility, one floor at a time and try to get out on the ground floor. This wasn’t a compelling option either.
Once the Krohn body was safely concealed within the room, Darion made his way down the first set of stairs. Weapon in hand, and now armed with the array of explosives and optic enhancers he had found, he darted in and out of shadows, tucking into alcoves and deserted rooms as he tried to navigate the massive building. Considering the presence of the Unmentionable agents in the building, Darion was surprised at the apparent lack of security. He had assumed that the halls would be filled with Sentinels, Krohn Generals, and all manners of other unthinkable horrors; but Darion didn’t complain in their absence. The data device tucked securely in his pocket placed a huge amount of responsibility on him, and the less that got in his way, the better. Yet, even with the sparse patrols, his progress was slow. The hallways were poorly lit and the constant threat of an enemy lurking in the shadows made him overly vigilant. He kept a watchful eye and his weapon ready. Occasionally, as he walked, he would remove one of the precious shock grenades from his pack, hook it up to his wireless detonator and roll it into a shadowy room or dark, cobweb-ridden corner. Just incase worse came to worse, he was determined to bring down the facility and the enemies within.
He had just finished rolling one of the grenades down one of the longer hallways when he spotted a large window at the opposite end. He cautiously yet quickly approached it and peered out. It was an observation window that looked out into the large open hangar that the rest of the facility was built around.
To say the room was huge, would be a gross understatement. It was massive! An entire battalion of troops could be lined up on the floor, complete with their supporting hover tanks and other heavy machinery. And it was high enough for a standard star fighter squadron to maneuver above in a tight pattern.
As Darion gazed out into the vast space, something on the main floor caught his eye. Even from that distance, he spotted what looked to be a small vessel, about the size of a standard fleet shuttle, but shaped much different. Instead of the grey, sleek narrow shuttle with small wings typical of a Navy shuttle, this ship was black with a jagged design that was unmistakably not of standard Namuh design. No apparent windows could be seen in the hull giving it an unwelcoming appearance. Four large, jagged wings came up from around the midsection and came together to form a massive prong in the bow that looked menacing and lethal. This was an Unmentionable ship, Darion was certain. Perhaps this ship was the very same one the agents of Namuh Prime had come in?
Darion was studying the ship intently when he saw a figure come out onto an open balcony directly across the massive room. Darion quickly sat down, so as to not draw attention to his silhouette by whomever or whatever was out on the balcony. He held up his optic enhancers and zeroed them on the figure. It looked like an official of some type but Darion could not make him out. He scanned beyond the lone figure and into the room that led to the balcony. He shook his head when he noticed Armid seated on a sofa holding a drink and talking very hastily with several of the other figures. Darion patted the ring adapter in his pocket, hoping an occasion to use it would not arise.
A faint noise from behind him prompted Darion to turn around abruptly. The faint lighting made it difficult to see anything. Darion realized that his body must have made a wonderful target against the window and quickly abandoned the spot and headed back down the hall.
He had just turned down an intersecting hallway when a long powerful tail waved in front of his face. He had walked up directly behind a Krohn soldier!
The Krohn felt Darion’s
breath on his sensitive tail and sharply turned to face him. A look of total and complete confusion came over the reptile’s pointed face as he looked at Darion. His blood-red eyes blinked once as he tried to process what he was seeing. He simply couldn’t understand why a Namuh was standing in the hallway. It didn’t take him long to decide what to do though.
Darion tried to dive out of the way but not before the Krohn smashed him in the chest with his tail, sending Darion sailing through the air and crashing into a wall. Darion gasped for breath as he struggled to get back on his feet. He reached to his side only to realize in horror that his lydeg was not in its place. He frantically looked around and spotted it on the floor behind the Krohn!
The Krohn dove at Darion, thrusting his tail toward him. Darion dove out of the way, barely missing the armor piercing power of the reptilian appendage, which subsequently penetrated, deep into the floor. The Krohn let out a loud hiss and charged Darion again. Darion rolled over and reached for the lydeg just as the Krohn dove into the air, his tail ready to strike again. As he descended, Darion fired two rounds into the beast’s slender neck. The Krohn dropped out of the air like a rock and whirled around in a daze before he fell to his knees letting out a terrible moan.
“Shut up!” Darion said as he rose to his feet and examined his weapon.
It was too late. Another Krohn had already rounded the corner to examine the ruckus. He let out a series of furious clicks and hisses that Darion was getting sick of hearing. He boldly walked toward the new foe and brought his weapon up and fired three times, two of the shots finding their mark in the Krohns pointed head killing the creature instantly.
Darion gasped for breath as he recovered from the ordeal and was just about to make his way out of the hall when the wounded Krohn behind him let out another loud moan. Darion rolled his eyes, turned around and leveled his lydeg on the Krohn’s head and fired one shot.
“I told you to shut up!” he said and then kicked the dead reptile over in a bloody heap.