Void Emissary: The Book of the Void Part 1

by Lon Varnadore

  Kyp looked at Pieter, his face a rictus of agony and pain. “You would tell me how to feel? You who—”

  Before Kyp could continue, Pieter had his sword out and struck Kyp in the stomach. When the youth doubled over, Pieter brought the wooden sword down on his exposed head.

  Flynn grabbed at Pieter as Kyp fell boneless to the floor of the Skyquay. “What did you do that for?” Flynn asked, kneeling down to Kyp’s side, a hand off to ward any further blows.

  “It was needed,” Pieter said. “He was giving in to his inner rage. His Rift. If he had been consumed by it…”

  “What?” Flynn asked, grabbing Pieter by the collar. “What would have happened?”

  “We would have lost him, and he would take a step towards being a Wraith.”

  Flynn let Pieter go, looking at Kyp with fear. Flynn licked his lips, scrubbing his hands off on his pants. “Ahh, well, you didn't have to hit him that hard.”

  “I did. He needed to be knocked out. He’ll be fine.” Pieter said. He didn't know that, yet he allowed the small lie to escape. He felt a small prick of pain for it, but pushed the thought aside. He reached down to touch Kyp, who, even unconscious, was still pulsing with rage. It drained from the youth and Pieter. Still the boy was raging, and Pieter and Flynn were the only two who were conscious or alive on the ship.

  “Can you work this ship?”

  “If I had a crew of ten. Maybe seven if Kyp were conscious, could I get this anywhere.”

  “What can you and I do?”

  “Make this thing flounder in the æther. Wallow around in the shallows of a planet.”

  “Can we reach Io?”

  Flynn looked at Pieter like he said the sun was black. The ætherman then rubbed at his stubbled chin. “It would take the better part of a week, but I think I could limp us there. But you will have to listen to what I say. I don’t care what—”

  Pieter fixed Flynn with a stare. “I understand how to work an æthership. I was not always part of the Emissary.” He reached down to pick up Kyp. “I suggest we leave.”

  “How are we to get over—”

  Before Flynn could continue, Pieter embraced the Void, gripping the aeronaut and pushing him across and onto the ship. He let go and saw the instinct kick in for Flynn. The aeronaut grabbed at rigging, missed, and then jammed his feet to brace himself from skidding further down the slanted deck. Pieter shifted the unconscious Kyp, and with a boost of the Void, leapt onto the deck. It had been some time for the Emissary, and it took him a longer time to grab onto something to keep him from falling.

  Flynn was at the controls, gingerly stepping over the corpse of a milk-pale Ioan. He pulled hard on the ballast control of the ship and Pieter felt his stomach flip-flop as the ship righted itself. Once the ship was more or less even, he set Kyp in a small alcove of the ship’s rope. He then turned and grabbed one of the mooring lines and started to pull it into long loops, throwing out the æther silk in loops, allowing it to curl around of its own accord.

  “Good man,” Flynn said. He then turned and started to walk towards the captain’s cabin.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I need a drink.”

  Pieter turned, embraced the Void and dragged Flynn back to where he had been standing. He gave Flynn a level look. “You do not need to have a drink. You need to trim the sails. Do it.”

  Flynn looked at Pieter for a moment. There was a moment that Pieter was sure that Flynn wanted to call him out for insubordination. On the other hand, Pieter was of the Emissary. This will have to be a fine silk rope walk, Pieter thought. He turned and started to coil the rope again.

  Flynn gave a huff, then Pieter heard the other man start to climb up the rigging.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Sarena woke up, gasping for air. Looking around, she was alone and wrapped up in moss and vines in the medical bay. Her nose itched, and it was then that she realized she had a vine in her nose. The medical bay ports were open, letting in light from the æther. It was bright, yet she couldn’t see if they were moving. Her stomach did a small flip-flop. So, we are in the æther. Good. Benny’s gravity was Earth normal, yet she still knew they were in space. Something inside her could tell.

  “Benny, are you alright?” She looked around, biting her lip.

  “He is fine, Sarena,” Toth said, who was sunning himself below her bed: his six legs tucked under him. The Lasha yawned and for a moment, and Sarena thought of him as the usual kind of cat from Earth, he said in her head.

  “I truly hate those parallels you make,” he said in her head. I am not like those of Earth.

  “So you say,” Sarena said with a smirk.

  You know you need me human, do not push me. Toth stood up, yawning while stretching out his back, then leapt onto the bed and scowled.

  “Where are we, anyhow?”

  “Near the Eye of Jove and Io.”

  “So soon?”

  “It’s been two weeks, human,” Toth said with annoyance.

  “Two weeks? How have—”

  “Benny was concerned, so we took the Gate. But you are awake and he—and I—decided to slow and head for home.”

  “We aren’t landing without something to sell. And I still need my bath.” She smiled when Toth’s fur rippled in a long shiver up and down his body at the mention of a bath. He leapt down and settled back into his spot.

  Serena stuck out her tongue at Toth, even though his eyes were closed.

  I saw that. Toth yawned again, curled his head down and severed most of the connection to Sarena.

  She was glad for it, once he had left it open while the Lasha dreamed. It was a strange wonderful and heady dream that quickly pulled Sarena into his nightmarish world, and it still caused her to shiver and quake once and again when she woke to the sensation of slimy things caressing her legs.

  She shook off the thoughts and tried to stifle a yawn, and let it out when Benny closed the viewport. She felt herself being dragged down to sleep herself when she heard a soft pinging coming from around her. She opened her eyes and saw the lights around Benny’s roof of the common area pulsing in a lazy pattern of red and orange from the med bay.

  “Damn, Benny, what did you find?” She asked, sitting up. She felt something tug at her arm and gingerly plucked a small thorn and tendril vine from the place where the spar had punctured her arm. There was a small hole where the thorn was, which didn’t even bleed.

  The wall beside her changed color from a dark wooden brown to a transparent viewing port. She could see the blue-green of the æther around them, and the sight of a ship. The high prow and stern made it a merchant class aeronaut ship, she realized. They were floundering from the way they moved. The thing should be cutting through the æther faster than Benny at his current speed, yet they were barely moving to match his speed.

  Serena leapt up and stretched. “Benny, can you make contact?”

  “Why would we contact them?” Toth asked, obviously awake. “We’d be delaying—”

  “I said we need some kind of cargo. A sloop like that’ll fetch a decent price. Even if all we get is the core.”

  “It still is being steered, Sarena. You can’t claim salvage if they are alive.”

  “Then maybe they’ll reward us. It’s a sturdy ship,” she said, tapping her forefinger on her chin. She pushed out of the moss bed. It gave way easily. She was dressed in the jerkin from Wormwood and detected the scent of the horrible planet. I truly need a bath before we meet anyone. “Whoever it is might be some rich nobleman from a house that decided the go out without hiring a crew.”

  “Humans and their high hopes.” He rolled onto his feet and languidly moved towards the viewport.

  The ship was silent for a long few moments. She looked at Toth, contemplating saying something, when there was a strange piercing keen from the connection of the sloop’s ansible and Benny’s sensors. Then, “Hello? Is there anyone aboard?”

  “Yes,” Sarena said while rubbing at her ears from the burst of æthe
r noise over the ansible. “I am here. And Benny, well, Benny is always—”

  “We need help,” the youthful voice said. “We really need help!”

  “Benny, make for the aero vessel.”

  “Belay that,” Toth hissed.

  “I’m the captain. Benny, do it.”

  “I don’t like it. Something very strange is going on,” Toth said.

  Sarena stomped over to Toth and grabbed the Lasha by the nape of his neck. “I am the captain here. You are the one who tells my ship where to go. Do it!”

  Toth stared at her, looking like he would try and bite her hand off. “Aye, Captain.”

  Benny started to thrum and Sarena watched the sloop grow a bit bigger. She heard the vitriol in the Lasha’s words. “You’ll be fine,” she said, letting Toth go. He landed and stalked away. She could feel the slight thrum of Benny’s engines changing direction. A small shudder, and she watched as the vessel grew bigger and bigger.

  She heard a screeching yowl from behind her. She looked to see Toth was up, his six legs spread out and his tail puffed out like a bottle brush. No!

  The voice in her head screamed at her again and again. No…No…No…No!

  “They need help,” Sarena said finally. “And, even my mentor never left anyone stranded in this—”

  There is an Emissary on board you fool! Toth screamed in her head.

  Sarena swallowed the lump that was suddenly in her throat. Merde!.

  You have no idea what you have done.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Kyp looked at the incoming ship, stunned. He had never seen an Ilvan ship this close. “What is it?”

  Pieter looked at it and grimaced. “It is an Ilvan ship. Which means there is a Lasha onboard.”

  “What?” Kyp asked.

  “A Lasha,” Flynn said. “You remember them weird six-legged cat things that took over part of the Skyquay on Europa?”

  “Yeah,” Kyp said.

  “Well, that is a Lasha,” Pieter said. “They are a strange symbiotic race that use the Ilvan to travel.”

  Kyp didn't want to ask any more questions. He thought he knew what a symbiote was, yet he didn’t want to say anything to the Emissary. He was still mad at Kyp for what happened at the Skyquay. It wasn’t like he wanted to “call the Rift.” Thinking about the dead of the Osprey caused a small quake of rage in Kyp even after a week in the æther. Usually, he was able to push anything from his mind when he was in the æther. Yet, that was when his whole family was there to talk and laugh with him. It was different now with only Flynn and this weird Emissary.

  He had said something about starting “training,” whatever that was. He didn’t want to do it at first. Yet, after a few days, it was that or listen to Flynn bitch about how much money the other dead crew still owed him and how he was now the captain, and he would make a new crew and get revenge on the old one. There was only so much Kyp could take before he went to Pieter and asked for the training.

  It had consisted of sitting, meditating, and breathing. It was boring. Really boring. Yet, there were moments when he felt something just out of reach, on the fringe of his vision or his hearing. When he told Pieter, the Emissary smiled and said, “You should start to address me as Sempai.”

  “Why?” Kyp had asked, cocking an eyebrow. “I know what that word means, and I am not calling you that.”

  “Oh, then how do you think you will learn more of your abilities?”

  Kyp ignored him for the day. He had sat down as he did for a stretch when the Osprey was moving under the power of the small ætherscrew. Flynn had found it in the hold for the few times the æther was becalmed and even the best linesman couldn’t get the æther to flutter with line and sail. Yet, the screw was something that needed long breaks, since it was for a much smaller æthercraft than the Osprey. And he was able to do a bit of the pondering and meditating while he worked the lines. It felt easier when he did it by flinging out the lines. When he told Pieter about it, he nodded.

  “There is a connection between the Void and the æther. Everything is connected to the Void.”

  “How? I thought Void meant something not there. Like a ‘void’ left by someone.” He bit his lip trying not to think of the crew.

  “In a sense, you are right. Yet, it is also a name that has stuck. It is something that is greater than any one of us, a universal force that binds everything together.”

  “Still, why it is called ‘the Void?’”

  Pieter shrugged his shoulders, closed his eyes, and said, “It is a name, simply that, apprentice.”

  “I am not your apprentice. I am—”

  “Kyp, stop lollygagging,” Flynn shouted, cuffing him in the back of the head. “We need to figure a way to moor ourselves to the IIvan and have them tow us the rest of the way to Io.”

  “How can that even fly in the æther?” Kyp asked.

  “There is much about the Ilvan that is unknown, apprentice,” Pieter said. He was coiling a line of ætherline.

  “I am not your apprentice, Pieter.”

  “Sempai,” Pieter said with a smirk.

  Kyp rolled his eyes and went to find more line to coil.

  Kyp was stunned by the interior of the ship. It looked like it was the inside of a tree. Which it kinda is, really. He shook his head for having such a silly thought. He reached out to touch the bulkhead when there was a hiss.

  “Stay away from that, human kid,” a voice said in Kyp’s head.

  Kyp looked around and saw a small white-furred cat, but it had six legs. “Are you a Lasha?”

  “I am,” the voice said in Kyp’s head.

  “Do you only speak in people’s heads?”

  “Only when they want to be secretive,” Pieter said. The Lasha’s back arched, his tail came up and bristled, and there was a low growling hiss that came from the Lasha. “So, they usually talk in their victim’s heads,” Pieter continued. Kyp saw that Pieter’s hand clenched the hilt of his witchwood sword very tight. And Kyp, for just a moment, felt something from the Emissary. There was a red flash, and then it was gone.

  “Why don’t we all calm down here,” a female said from the doorway.

  Kyp looked up and saw, framed in the doorway, a woman of about twenty. She had on dark trousers, a white shirt that clung to her bust, and a dark vest that looked to be made of Llian skin. Her hair was wet and collected in a thick pony tail. She also had a plasma thrower in hand.

  “Why would you greet us with a weapon in hand?” Pieter asked, his hand off his sword hilt.

  “A precaution. Why threaten my first mate?” she asked, looking from the Lasha to Pieter.

  “That, that thing is your first mate?” Pieter asked, aghast.

  “Yes, Emissary, I am. And if you don’t stop trying to invade Captain Sarena’s head, I’ll be forced to vent this section.”

  “Try it, cat,” Pieter said, his sword coming free from his belt.

  “Whoa there,” Sarena said, pulling the plasma thrower up. “There is no need for that.” She pointed it at Pieter. “And, if my first mate is telling the truth, something he usually does, I’d appreciate it if you stayed out of my head.”

  “That is not how an Emissary—”

  “Spare me, Wraith.”

  The name caused Pieter to growl, his hand tightened on his sword, and Kyp could see the flashes of red around Pieter plainly.

  “Pieter,” Kyp whispered.

  “Not a good time, apprentice…”

  “Then, Sempai I think you need to calm down.”

  Kyp’s words caused Pieter to take a deep breath. The flashes were gone, and he attached his sword to his belt.

  “Alright. I am going to calm down. Lower your weapon and—”

  “I think not. We will also be taking your ship,” Sarena said.

  “We will?” Toth asked.

  Sarena looked at the Lasha with anger. “Dammit Toth!” She looked at Pieter and Kyp. She shook her head and shoved the plasma thrower into a holster on her hip. “Have to s
crew the deal like that?”

  “The ship isn’t worth it, and I don’t want to be any closer to an Emissary than I have to.”

  “Why do you want our ship?” Kyp asked.

  Sarena looked at the youth. “Reasons kid. Reasons.”

  “Well, we are trying to get to Io,” Pieter said. “I am trying to get my apprentice to the Embassy, and I will gladly pay you for the trip.”

  “Half now,” Sarena said.

  Pieter smiled. “I have no money now. But—”

  “Then, no ride,” Sarena said. “I suggest you get on that sloop and limp your way. You should be there in another month with the way you two are going.”

  “There is a third member,” Kyp said. “He wants to—”

  “I want to what?” Flynn asked, walking into the room.

  “I thought you wanted to stay?” Kyp asked.

  “Changed my mind,” he said.

  Kyp looked at Flynn. There was something different about him. He couldn’t figure it out, but something about Flynn was different. Kyp shook it off as nerves or his own stress from dealing with Pieter and the Lasha.

  “Are you the owner?” Sarena asked.

  “In a way. Kyp and I are co-owners. Why?”

  “I will give you a tow to Io. You give me the core to sell, and you can find another ship to sail on.”

  “Agreed,” Flynn said.

  Kyp’s jaw dropped. He tried to pull Flynn away.

  “What are you doing?”

  “What?”

  “The Osprey is our home. We have—”

  “It’s a ship, Kyp. A place that our family was murdered on. I want to be rid of it. I am sorry I didn’t talk it over with you. But, we need to move on with our lives.”

  Kyp couldn’t believe that Flynn was saying such a thing. The Osprey was home. I don’t know another place that is. He felt lost. He turned away from Flynn, rushed past the others in the meeting room, and boarded the ship. He kept going until he was in his berth. He felt alone. More alone than ever before. More than when his mother died. More than when they had even discovered the Osprey. He was truly alone now. And there was nothing he could do.