by S. L. Viehl
“You know they’re probably going to disarm you the minute we step off the launch,” I advised my husband and the oKiaf.
“They may try,” Reever said.
“What is it with males and the unknown that makes them resort to weapons?” ChoVa asked me as we boarded.
I hefted my case onto an upper rack. “It’s probably the reason our response is to pack extra medical supplies.”
With the exception of Maggie, we were all on edge. We were surrendering ourselves to an enemy that had likely destroyed almost all the other civilizations in this region. Not knowing their intentions or what we would be facing down on the planet didn’t help matters.
During the flight Reever briefed us on the surface conditions. “The climate is harsh, and the atmosphere thin. Gravity will be half of what we are accustomed to, so curtail your movements. The Odnallak appear to have resurfaced most of the landmasses to serve their population. Natural resources have been exhausted; they rely heavily on their technology and offworld sources to support life.”
“Are they raiders?” ChoVa asked.
“Scans indicate more than a thousand types of nonindigenous life-forms,” he told her. “We must assume they imported these creatures from surrounding solar systems.”
My husband’s information was chilling, but even so it didn’t prepare us for what we saw as we approached the landing coordinates the Odnallak had transmitted.
Towering structures, industrial facilities, and transportation systems covered every inch of land as far as the eye could see. Which wasn’t very far at all, considering how much the Odnallak had polluted their atmosphere. A thick, dirty-looking fog hovered over the metropolis, darkening from a maroon color at the outer limits where their sun still penetrated to an ugly gray at surface level. The only water I saw was a sickly-looking green color, and was funneling through wide alloy canals between the structures.
“Open sewers.” ChoVa drew back from the viewport. “What manner of people are these Odnallak, that they would dwell in their own filth?”
We got the answer to that as soon as we landed, and our pilot was instructed to lower to the docking ramp. My first inhalation of the planet’s air made me choke—it was so tainted—and I grabbed breathers and quickly passed them around to the others.
“Keep them on until we get inside a sealed structure,” I ordered, and then took Reever’s hand and walked down the ramp.
The group waiting for us on the dock all wore helmets and protective garments, and carried their own air supply on their backs. They also held glowing spheres that they extended like weapons. One of them pointed at us and swept his arm around toward a nearby elevated transport system while the others flanked us.
We walked to the rail transport, climbed inside one of the compartments, and stood waiting as some of the Odnallak came in behind us. The compartment’s doors closed, and I nearly fell over as the transport took off at high speed.
“This is like a visitors’ tram,” I murmured, watching the Odnallak city flash by as the transport sped along. “Only who wants to tour this place?”
One of the Odnallak’s helmets turned toward me, and through it he issued a stern command.
How were we supposed to answer their questions if they weren’t going to make the slightest effort to communicate with us? “I guess that means be quiet.”
The transport stopped at one of the largest structures at the very edge of the city, where we were escorted off the compartment, then led through a tunnel and into the gigantic building. We passed through three different chambers that scanned us and blasted us with different gases before we reached the interior.
Once inside, our captors removed their helmets and began speaking to one another in hard, clipped voices. I didn’t recognize their language, but their features held me riveted.
They were all male, each with the same black hair and dark blue eyes. Their faces were scarred, bitter masks, some showing open sores, broken capillaries, and other signs of ill health, but other than those aberrations their features were nearly identical—and their features were Terran. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing until one of them moved and a light emitter illuminated the gray sheen of his dark hair.
The Odnallak all looked as if they could be my brothers.
I shook my head, wrenching my hand from Reever’s and backing away. “This is a mistake. A trick. They’re shape-shifters—they’re doing this deliberately.” I turned and ran toward the decon chambers.
Our pilot caught me and smiled down at me. “You cannot leave. You have just arrived.”
I knew I was behaving irrationally, but I couldn’t overcome the terror I felt. “Get me out of here.”
“This is your home, Cherijo.” The pilot’s face began to pale and seemed to dwindle as his body shrank inside his uniform. His black hair pulled back into his skull and took on a gray cast, while his white-within-white eyes formed new, dark blue irises. He smiled, baring Terran teeth, and when he spoke, it was in the same language as that of the other Odnallak. Then he looked into my eyes and tried to touch my face.
I staggered back. “Stay away from me.”
“Cherijo.” He stood there beaming like a benevolent demon. “Is that any way to speak to your father?”
Reever caught me from behind and clamped an arm around my waist as he initiated a link. That is not Joseph Grey Veil, he told me firmly. We watched him die on Terra. He is a shape-shifter trying to frighten you. All of these men are shape-shifters.
“Your theory, while admirable, is flawed by your ignorance,” the Odnallak said to my husband. “The Joseph Grey Veil you witnessed being murdered on Terra was simply a clone. I have employed many over time.”
“He read your thoughts.” I watched him stroll over to the other Odnallak, who engaged him in what sounded like a loud, furious argument. “How could he do that?”
“He is telepathic,” Maggie advised me. “And not like the others. He is very old. They are not shape-shifters, Cherijo.”
“What else do you know about them, Maggie?” Reever asked.
“They have changed since we put them here. They bred with some of the others before they killed them to have new ones.” She frowned at the group of arguing men. “The undesirables wish to hurt us and kill us, but the old one does not.”
“He’s not Joseph.” I didn’t sound convincing, even to my own ears. “Joseph is dead.”
Reever didn’t look at him, but focused his attention on me. “It doesn’t matter who he is, or who these people are. They mean nothing to us. Do you understand me?”
I nodded tightly, and wrapped my arms around my waist.
The Odnallak wearing my creator’s face returned to us. “If you wish to avoid pointless torture and painful death, you will come with me now.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Very well.” He gestured toward the men. “They are very curious about the Hsktskt and the oKiaf, as they have never seen their species. I imagine they will be the first to be dissected.”
“We agreed to come here to be questioned,” Reever said.
“My ancestors have lied to you, dear boy. When they have carved you up and harvested what they want from your bodies, they’ll signal the ship and tell them to send another group, and threaten to execute you if they do not. It will take a few weeks, but eventually they’ll collect the entire crew that way.”
Shon stepped between us. “We will go with you.”
“Excellent.” Joseph beamed at us and gestured toward another chamber. “This way, please.”
We followed him into a complex industrial center where hundreds of Odnallak were working. The group that had argued with him followed behind us, still bickering among themselves, so there was no chance for us to escape. We walked across alloy bridges suspended above massive pits where enormous machines operated.
“Those are this city’s air and water purifiers,” Joseph mentioned as he noticed my interest. “As you observed outside, my ancesto
rs have thoroughly poisoned the atmosphere and razed the planet in their efforts to make it hospitable.”
“It did not look like this when you were brought here,” Maggie remarked. “It was cold and there was much ice, but there was also much life.”
His smile faded. “My people were accustomed to being warm, well fed, and comfortable. What they did here was merely in an effort to reclaim what you stole from them.”
“We stole nothing. We made you leave our world.” Maggie gestured toward the equipment. “Had we permitted you to stay, you would have done this to it.”
“We’ll never know, will we?” He pointed to a passage leading from the industrial center. “In there, if you would.”
We walked into a storage facility where the Odnallak had filled launch-sized bins with towering piles of ore and minerals. In the center of the facility were a complex array of equipment and wide tanks filled with molten liquid.
“This is where they have been rendering the native ores to power their city and provide fuel for their vessels.” Joseph led us into the equipment complex and pointed to a series of archways spanning circular platforms. “Stand on the alloy circles, please. Everyone but you, my dear.” He nodded at Maggie.
I didn’t move. “What are you going to do to her?”
“The Jxin and I have much to discuss.” He gave me a push toward the archways. “If you do not wish to be fired upon by my impatient brethren, you will stand on the circles now.”
Reever took my arm. “Do as he says.”
My husband led me over to one of the circles and positioned me on it before stepping onto one beside me. ChoVa and Shon did the same. Joseph waved one of his hands over a console, and dark liquid streamed down over us.
“I would suggest you hold very still,” he advised as ChoVa thrashed her tail and I ducked my head to keep the liquid out of my face. “The matrix hardens on contact.”
The liquid turned ice-cold, solidifying over our bodies while at the same time sending out thin tendrils that connected to the inside of the archway. A moment later we were all trapped in dark gray webs of oily-looking crystal.
“It is a crude form of life native to this world, and quite unbreakable,” Joseph advised as ChoVa cursed and writhed. “It is also reactive to movement. The more you struggle, the tighter it will contract.”
He retrieved a device and brought it over to me. “From you, dear daughter, I need some blood.”
“I’m not your daughter.” I hissed in a breath as he stabbed the device into my arm and used it to draw out several vials of blood. “What are you going to do with it?”
“It’s a gift for our friends.” He handed it over to one of the waiting Odnallak, and then strode over to Maggie, who was watching everything with visible boredom. “Now, I think some scans are in order.”
The Odnallak who had taken the vials of my blood quickly left, but the others took up positions around us. I soon discovered that Joseph’s claims were true, and had to force myself to be still to keep the crystal matrix from tightening around my throat and cutting off my air.
After Joseph had performed several scans of Maggie, he handed his scanner to one of the Odnallak, who studied it and uttered several sharp words.
“It seems that my ancestors want very much to boil you alive in one of their mineral vats,” he told Maggie.
She didn’t look alarmed at all. “That will not harm me.”
“They know. It is more a symbolic act, to show their contempt for you and the rest of the Jxin.” He walked around her. “Why did you accompany the primitives here?”
“Unlike you, they interest me.” She walked over to me. “This one is unlike any of the others. Her mind is simple, but she is unique. She was able to operate one of our collectors.”
“Ah, yes. That is because you tampered with her many millions of years from now. I was very displeased when I discovered your meddling in my experiments. But I am not one to hold a grudge.” Joseph smiled at me. “Over time she has proven to be most entertaining.”
“Go to hell,” I told him.
“There is no hell,” Maggie advised me before turning to Joseph. “How long will you keep them like this?”
“Indefinitely, unless you answer my questions.”
“I do not want to stay here. I want to return to the ship.” Maggie moved down to ChoVa, who was having difficulty breathing. “Loosen this one’s bonds, or she will expire.”
Joseph passed his hand over ChoVa’s web, and the tendril wrapped around her neck eased away. Immediately she began to curse him, until he caused another to wrap around her muzzle.
“There, all better. Now, your people have been devoting themselves to ascending to the next level,” he said to Maggie. “How close are you to attainment?”
She thought for a moment. “Within the solar year the eldest will acquire perfection and ascend.”
He inclined his head. “My people are also very close to attainment.”
“You cannot ascend.” She made a negligent gesture. “You are impure.”
“My people have already discovered the equations, and acquired enough power necessary to make the transition,” Joseph informed her. “In fact, their entire civilization has been quite devoted to that end. Their intentions are to ascend before the Jxin.”
“They cannot. They are still flawed.” Maggie frowned at the other Odnallak. “They have already sickened themselves with the things they have put in their bodies. They would never survive exposing their flesh.”
“On the contrary, they can and will, as soon as they collect the last element they require.” He grinned at her. “Where is the infinity crystal?”
“Maggie, don’t tell him,” I shouted.
“It is inside the Jxin,” she told him. To me she said, “You need not shout. He must know that he and the other undesirables cannot take it from us.”
“We are not interested in what you have used for your own selfish purposes,” Joseph said. “What we wish to know is, where is the source?”
Maggie moved her shoulders. “It came to Jxinok long ago. Some of it left. We do not care where it went.”
“But you do know where it is now.”
She pointed up. “It protects the vessel you attacked.”
Joseph turned to the other Odnallak and spoke quickly to them. They lowered their weapons and immediately left the facility.
“What are they doing?” I demanded.
“They will be launching drones to collect the crystal from the Sunlace. Hopefully your captain has finished his repairs to it.” He took Maggie’s arm. “We’re through here now, my dear. Come with me.”
“Where are we going?” I heard her ask as Joseph led her away, but I couldn’t hear his response.
He was probably going to drop her into one of those molten-ore vats. “Reever, we have to get out of here and warn the ship.”
“I can’t free myself.”
“I can,” Shon said, and out of the corner of my eye I saw an intense white glow. “Close your eyes.”
Minutes passed as the light enveloped us, and the gray crystal began to tighten. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t blink, and a scream rose in my throat as the matrix contracted and began grinding into my bones. Just when the pain grew unbearable, the tendrils encasing me began to crack and then break apart. Shards of the ruined web pelted the alloy circle and the floor all around me as I struggled to free myself of the remnants.
By the time I’d worked my way out of the web, Reever and Shon were free. ChoVa was the last to stumble out of the archway, and shook herself, flinging the shattered crystal all around her.
“If we try to leave the way we came, the Odnallak working in that industrial center will see us,” I said, looking around until I spotted a small vehicle of some kind. “Shon, can you pilot that?”
He went over and looked inside the cockpit. “Yes.”
The vehicle turned out to be a multipurpose transport, which could be operated on the ground as well as in the air. As S
hon activated the controls, I checked the interior and tossed out some equipment to make room for the four of us.
“We have to find Maggie, get off this planet and transition the Sunlace out of here before they can get the protocrystal they need from the hull,” I told him. “They’re not going to be happy about it.”
“I was a combat pilot,” he said. “I know what to expect. Duncan, take the copilot’s seat. ChoVa, you and Cherijo get into those harnesses.”
By the time we were strapped in, Shon had engaged the engines and tested the craft’s controls. “It’s fast, which we’ll need. Hold on.”
With a maneuver that upended the craft and rolled it in a complete three sixty, Shon flew the craft across the storage facility and into the industrial complex.
Below us everything was in chaos, with smoke belching from the equipment and several small fires burning. On one of the walkways I saw Maggie standing and looking down at Joseph, who was sprawled in the bottom of one of the pits.
“There she is.” I reached up and pointed. “Can you land there?”
“No, but I can hover close enough for someone to grab her.” Shon changed direction and headed for the walkway.
As he descended, Maggie beamed and waved at us, squinting as the engine’s backwash blasted over her.
I opened the back compartment door and turned to ChoVa. “Hold my legs.”
The Hsktskt wrapped four limbs around me as I pushed the upper part of my body out of the compartment and reached down to Maggie. “Grab on to me.”
She jumped up, seized my hands, and hung dangling from my grip. “You freed yourselves. I was just coming to do that.”
I turned my head and yelled to ChoVa, “I have her.”
The Hsktskt jerked me inside, but I lost my grip on one of Maggie’s hands. She clasped my arm with her free hand and began climbing up me with ease, until she was inside. At the same time, some of the Odnallak beneath us opened fire.
I hauled Maggie over my lap and slammed the compartment door shut. “She’s in,” I told Shon. “Go.”
“Cherijo, that was very unexpected.” Maggie struggled into an upright position. “How did you free yourselves? Were you able to operate the undesirables’ machines? You are not angry with me again, are you?” She glanced at ChoVa. “You wish me to shut up now.”