“Submit!” The Omega began to batter Michael around the forest like a ball on a chain. Just as Michael would slice one limb off, another would snag one of his extremities and continue bashing him into trees and the ground.
“Argh!” To soften the blows, Michael used his plasma blade as a shield, cutting through some of the obstacles before his skull smashed into them, but the pace was intensifying by the moment. The tentacles were slowly securing each of his limbs, pulling him in toward the Omega.
Michael squirmed as the creature snaked around his plasma blade arm. The tentacle pulled the blade in toward Michael’s body, but he disengaged it just in time. As the extremities cocooned his entire body, Michael attempted to bite desperately, snagging one of the limbs and tearing straight through it with his fangs, but another took its place, slithering around him like a victorious python.
“Ahahhhh! No!” Michael called out as it covered his mouth, muffling his voice and sealing him completely in a shell of tentacles. The extremities pulsed red as the Omega let out an electronic shrill.
“There is no escape, warrior. The more you move, the more you will be constricted.” The Omega held Michael above his head, carrying him toward the barn like a trophy on display.
“I have your champion,” the Omega boasted.
“M-michael?” Vala uttered.
“Garza, do you remember what I told you and Lucas during our first interaction? I was very clear,” the Omega asked.
“You always wanted that fucking artifact! Now take it and leave!” she shouted, holding Lucas’ corpse. She wiped her eyes full of anger and tears.
“Yes, but remember I told you it was best you think of yourselves as newborn children, helpless to the world around you.” The Omega cradled Michael in front of him like a young child.
“Good for you. You said it yourself, you’re thousands of years beyond us. Go have a fucking cookie! You won!” Garza yelled.
“Do you hear that?” The Omega began to pull Michael apart slowly inside the cocoon. Groans of agony could be heard inside the alien’s prison as Michael struggled. The cocoon flexed and pulsed as his exoskeleton fought with every last ounce of cybernetic strength. The struggle forced the Omega to shift his weight to counter Michael’s desperate attempts to free himself.
Vala fell face first in anguish. She couldn’t even make a sound, as if the life was sucked right out of her.
The Omega glared at the cocoon. “A fierce will to survive, this one.”
“Torture?” You said you were slaves, yet you torture captives? You didn’t learn much from your experiences, did you?” Garza asked.
“I’ve learned that you remind me of the most tyrannical species the galaxy has ever known, which unfortunately, has influenced me,” the Omega said.
“Let `em go!” Vala pleaded.
“Perhaps my victory over this abomination isn’t my most glorious prize, but I achieved this without telekinesis, my most powerful attribute,” the Omega said.
Garza cut her eyes away from the Omega, noticing Iris standing out in the open, smiling. “Mine too,” she said.
The Omega snapped its head toward Iris.
Vala screamed as Iris pointed to her headband. She closed her eyes and telekinetically pried the fingers of Michael’s severed hand apart, forcing the arm inside the artifact with the power of her mind.
“Turn it, clockwise!” Keith yelled, observing the situation.
Immediately, the tentacles loosened their grip around Michael. The Omega’s knees buckled slightly as it glanced back at Iris, then Michael. It seemed its breath was knocked out of it momentarily. Michael began to swing his weight violently inside, rocking back and forth until the imprisonment began to lose integrity, creating a sliver of opportunity.
Michael’s arm knifed through a small hole, stabbing the Omega in the side of the neck with his blade. The plasma plunged completely through the creature, creating a hole the size of a fist. A dark blue, slimy fluid flooded out as the creature’s red eyes dimmed.
The Omega ripped at Michael’s arm with its tentacles, pulling it downward to avoid the deadly blade. It spun around wildly as Michael powered through the weakened extremities, knocking them aside.
Vala dropped to her knees. “Michael!”
“Etha-va-da-gad,” the Omega uttered an unfamiliar dialect as its voice faded. Michael viciously stabbed the Omega several more times, burrowing massive holes through its torso as it collapsed. Michael leaped off the Omega before impact as its face smacked lifelessly against the ground. Its tentacles slowly retracted inside its body.
Vala placed her hand over her mouth as gobs of midnight blue body fluid spilled onto the ground. The Omega choked as it reached out with its elongated arm. Michael followed the trembling alien arm with his eyes as it reached for the artifact.
“You want it?” Michael demanded.
“Destroy, at least, destroy it,” the Omega struggled. Michael paused for a moment, then marched toward the device and snatched it up, plopping it down a few feet in front of the Omega as a river of blood flowed toward the device.
“Michael. What are you doing?” Keith asked. The Omega swung its arm with the force of a toddler toward the artifact.
“Finishing this!” Michael yelled.
“Here,” Michael muttered, igniting his plasma blade. He melted the artifact into a pile of black goo. Michael stared into the Omega’s eyes as it panted, its breathing became labored. The wheezing sounded like air rushing through metal as if some sort of integrated life support system attempted to assist what little organic remnants remained.
A faint voice emitted from the Omega that was so low only Michael and Vala could hear it. The Omega tilted its head toward Michael with its last bit of strength. “Unexpected. I’ve realized something… in these last moments. You know… my people were freed long ago… but I never felt it, the liberation. I heard them speak of it… but it wasn’t for me. I am an instrument of war for my masters. Even my own people used me in much the same way. I’ve felt the chains of slavery tugging me toward my eternal tomb for centuries, but only now can I rest.”
The Omega’s red eyes flashed as it stared at the liquidized artifact, then slowly faded to blackness.
“What’d it say? I couldn’t hear it!” Keith demanded.
“I think it’s gone?” Garza stood.
“It’s gone.” Michael said.
“Looks that way,” Keith replied. The flaky, ash-colored layer of skin coating began to fall off as the cold wind picked up, revealing dark purple skin underneath.
The deep purple membrane was thick and rough, more like an animal hide, hairless and littered with scar tissue. Hundreds of insertion marks or drill holes burrowed deep in the skin, and what appeared to be claw marks from various species. Most of the arms and legs were cybernetic, possibly replaced from wear.
The facial features were somewhat human in placement, with deep set black holes for eyes that were slightly further apart. Everything else was unrecognizable, like a burn victim with no nose or ears, only holes that seemed scorched and melted. An array of small, circular metallic implants dotted around his eyes and ears, wrapping around its skull like a band of crude jewelry, possibly connected to his telekinetic headdress.
“What’s the plan with the Omega’s body? We can’t let them find it,” Garza said.
Michael stared at it. “I’ll burn it. My blade will incinerate most of it, I’m sure.”
“It should, yeah,” Keith said, patting Michael on the shoulder.
The group stared at the Omega for several seconds without a word.
Chapter Eleven
Six weeks later
There were three knocks at the door. An older woman stumbled through her home toward the entrance. “Karen? Is that you dear?”
Again, three more knocks.
“I’m coming. You have a key, sweetheart. Not sure why you don’t—”
“Hey, Mrs. Keller,” a muffled voice erupted through the thick door.
> “Oh, my word, is that you, Vala?” she asked.
“Yes! It’s me!” she replied.
The woman opened the door. “Vala, baby, come here. Where in God’s name have you been?” She leaned forward, hugging Vala.
“Goodness gracious, I thought it was my other daughter. Come in, please, come on in. It’s cold out there,” Mrs. Keller said with a southern accent, revealing her Georgia roots.
“Just been really busy,” Vala said. Mrs. Keller shut the door behind her. Vala noticed she’d put on a few pounds in her age, but she was still well kept. She was short, about five-foot three with thick wavy hair that was about shoulder length. She had round facial features with big blue eyes highlighted by her light brown skin.
“So good to see you, sweetheart, being up here in Alaska without Fred these days, it gets lonely,” she whispered, placing her arms around Vala, flashing a full smile. Vala noticed she didn’t make direct eye contact.
“No need to explain.” Vala took in a deep breath. The log cabin smelled like pine, just like it did the first time she met Michael’s parents. There was a bit more clutter in the living area as Mrs. Keller used a walking stick to feel around.
“Yeah, I know it has been several years now since Fred passed, but I just don’t know what do with his stuff. You know, he really got into that holographic reality, at the end. Before, he also loved the outdoors, so lots of stuff here, and I’m afraid to sell it. I wanted Michael and Karen to have but, well, ah,” she went on, shuffling through the clutter.
“Come on and sit down. My bot has a fire going. You remember ol’ Ranger, don’t you? Michael named him.”
“Oh yeah. Wow, yeah, he’s uh, still kicking, huh?”
“Yeah, him I both, holding down the fort, I guess,” she said.
Vala observed the squeaky old QL-54 robot stacking wood next to the flames. It was five-foot tall, simplistic humanoid-shaped model, reliable for most household duties. Its arms vibrated as it struggled to the shuffle the wood logs. It likely hadn’t seen a round of maintenance in five years or more.
Vala moved a stack of old books from the sofa and sat down opposite of Mrs. Keller’s recliner. “Still feels cozy as ever.”
“I suppose it does. Course, I wouldn’t know much different. I haven’t been outside the house in about two weeks. Went down to eye doctor and got groceries. Karen took me.”
“How’s she doing these days?” Vala asked.
“Fine, just fine. You know, she has her life with the kids. I don’t know if she likes coming out this way as much anymore, all these memories of her dad and brother.”
“Yeah.”
“You know, when I married Michael’s father, he brought me up here, and I’ll tell you one thing, Vala, I laughed in his face when I saw all this snow. We’d get some snow down in Georgia, but my word, it’s nothing like this. I told Fred I wouldn’t last one winter in this mess. Well, look here, thirty-seven winters later, I’m still here. Me and Fred raised Karen and Mike, and now it’s just me.” She paused. “Me and ol’ Ranger.” She chuckled.
“Amazing what we’re willing to do for the people we love sometimes, isn’t it? Thirty-seven years of this weather?” Vala asked.
“You bet it is, but that’s what makes life worth livin’, ain’t it? Ranger, that’s good for now. Why don’t get Vala something to drink.” Mrs. Keller raised her eyebrows.
“I’m good, no thank you,” Vala said.
Mrs. Keller looked Vala’s direction and grinned. “So, how are things for you these days?”
“Great.”
“Did you ever marry, sweetheart?” she asked.
“Well, yes actually.”
“Oh, dear, that’s just wonderful. After Michael, passed I wanted that for you, I truly did.” Mrs. Keller grabbed Vala’s hands.
“Thank you.”
“Any children?” she asked.
“Well, we’re adopting one, yes,” Vala replied.
“Well now, I’ve always thought that was an admirable thing. Of course, my aunt used to always say you’ll never love a child the same way you would your own, but we didn’t always agree,” Mrs. Keller said.
“Me either. I don’t agree with that one bit,” Vala replied.
“Thank you, Ranger. You can shut down for a bit.” Mrs. Keller reached out for the coffee mug, feeling around in the air before grabbing it. Vala lunged forward with her cat like reflexes as she lost her grip, securing it. “Oh, I’m sorry.” Mrs. Keller’s eyes danced around in confusion. “I didn’t get a good hold of it.”
“Here ya go. No, its fine. It didn’t burn you, did it?” Vala asked.
“No, no, I’m fine. Sometimes I-I, well, Vala, I hate to bring it up, but I’ve lost most of my vision. I can see shapes fairly well, but I can’t make out the details,” she explained. Vala dropped her head in deep thought.
“Hmm, I hate to hear that, Mrs. Keller. I wondered when I saw the walking stick. I noticed you weren’t using it to walk.”
“Nah, just so I don’t run into things. I’m in good shape otherwise, until I have a fall I suppose.” She laughed.
Vala leaned forward, grabbing her hands. “I’ve got a surprise for you, and you won’t need your eyes for it,” Vala whispered.
“What will I need?”
“An open heart.”
She chuckled. “Well, I still have that.”
The door opened and closed.
Mrs. Keller turned her head, attempting to make out the two shapes walking toward her. “Vala, who’s that? Dear, someone just came in? Karen?” She peeked around Vala, prying to make out the shadowy forms strolling into the living area.
Vala stood up and moved out of the way as Mrs. Keller’s eyes bounced around. “No, that’s a man’s shape. Is this your husband and child, Vala? I can see it’s a man and a smaller person,” she said, peering forward.
“She can’t see you, Mike,” Vala whispered.
“W-what?” he asked.
“She’s mostly blind,” she replied. Michael glanced at the floor, then at his mother in deep thought.
“I told you not to worry about how you look, but now you really don’t have to.” She grinned. “You’re the man she raised, the man I love.”
Michael pulled up a chair next to Mrs. Keller and sat down, grabbing her hands. “Mom.”
She jumped back. “Oh-hh-hh! My God! I’m gonna have a heart attack. He sounds, oh my, he just like my M-michael.” She placed her hand on her chest “Vala, dear, p-please, please, I can’t handle jokes, not anymore.”
“It’s not a joke, Mom, it’s me,” he said. Mrs. Keller eyes widened, and her mouth dropped. She buried her head into his chest, weeping uncontrollably. He embraced her. “I knew it! Knew y-you were alive! I told them, they didn’t listen!” He held her tight, rocking back and forth.
She grabbed his chest. “So much metal. What’d they do to you, baby?”
“I was in an accident, Mom.”
“Gosh, it has been so many y-years.” She sobbed.
“I know, I know.” He held her even tighter.
Garza stepped inside, noticing Iris smiling while taking in the reunion. “Did you meet your grandma yet?”
“Not yet.” She grinned, squeezing her shoulders together. Iris stepped past Vala in front of Michael and Mrs. Keller.
Michael glanced over his shoulder at Iris. “Mom, this is Iris. We’ve adopted her. Not sure if Vala told you—”
“Come here, child,” Mrs. Keller demanded, embracing both Michael and Iris.
“So, Mom, Vala and I were curious if we could stay here for a while?” Michael asked.
“You don’t have to ask me that. This is your home, and when I’m gone, it was always going to be yours. I would love for you stay here as long as you want. I wanted to give this to Karen after I found out you weren’t coming back, but she’s got enough on her plate to deal with this old house.” She smiled. “I’m just so glad you’re here. It’s like a dream I don’t want to ever wake up from. I cried for
years, every night, hoping you would come walking through that door.”
“I’m sorry it’s been so long,” Michael said.
“You’re here now. This is going to take me months to get used to,” she said.
“Hey, Mike, pardon the interruption, but when you get a minute, can you come outside? I want to show you something.” Keith peeked his head inside, grinning, quickly shutting to door to keep the heat in.
“Mom, um, I’m gonna step out real quick, okay? I’ll be right back,” he said.
“Okay, baby.” She grabbed his head and squeezed, lightly skimming her fingers across his metallic skull. “Best day of my life, you have no idea.” She smiled.
Michael hugged his mom, then Vala, both of their faces full of tears. “Thank you, Mom.”
He slowly stepped toward the door, panning around the home he grew up in.
“Congratulations, Michael.” Keith smiled as Michael made his way through the door.
“Thanks. Yeah, never thought I’d see the day.”
“You’ve earned it,” Keith said.
Michael sighed, putting his forearms on the porch railing. He slowly inhaled the familiar air from his youth, closing his eyes as Keith allowed him a moment. Michael exhaled, watching his breath dissipate. “Strange being up here again.”
“I remember that feeling, back home after a long hiatus. You know, you forget what it’s like after so long, even who you were sometimes,” Keith said as a hawk soared overhead. Its shadow swept across the white canvas and disappeared into the woods. Michael nodded, glancing up at the bird of prey.
“So, I wanted to give you the rundown of what we’re doing. Garza and I are setting up perimeter around your property, top of the line, fit for a military compound: eight brute drones, a mechanic drone, and an aerial attack Viper, all solar powered so you don’t need to do anything,” Keith explained.
“I was wondering what you had in that tractor trailer that followed us up here,” Michael said.
“Yep. No one’s getting close, and if they do, you’ll know about it way beforehand,” Keith said.
“Good. Sounded like the Star Rust mercs were done with us, anyway. We gave them a beating. But if they do try again, it’s good to know we have serious protection.”
Symphony of Descension: Echo Effect book 2 Page 15