Twilight of the Gods (Universe in Flames Book 8)

by Christian Kallias

  Chase immediately assumed a defensive stance and his growing aura filled the room with purple hues.

  There is no turning back. Goodbye Chase. Please, forgive me. And goodbye Spiros, you who gave my entire life meaning. I shall forever miss you.

  Gaia hurled herself toward her friend with all her might, and she used ninety-nine percent of her processing power to run all the best fighting sub-routines she had acquired by watching Chase and Chris train. She managed to hit Chase twice in the fifty devastating seconds of combat before Chase decided it was time to end it.

  He deflected her left jab and blocked her right uppercut before it could build any sort of momentum. Then his eyes flashed orange, and his speed was beyond anything Gaia could do, even when she had the entire processing power of the Earth at her disposal. Chase used his free hand to smash his palm against her metallic torso. She felt the metal bend from the impact as she skidded a few feet on the slippery anthracite cargo bay floor.

  Her internal sensor array projected an error message in her virtual HUD. She had designed the battle bots to emulate how a human inside a suit would feel. It made her feel more human using them this way. The message blinked: “Structural integrity compromised, battery power leak detected. Time to complete system failure under three minutes.”

  She tried taking a step forward, but instead, her metallic avatar body stumbled, and she fell onto her knees.

  Chase’s aura had turned orange, and he slowly walked toward her with determination.

  She was glad. Chase was doing what needed to be done. She couldn’t help but think of Spiros and let her memories of him overload her mental pathways.

  Chase stopped a yard away from her, pointed an open palm at her chest, and a crackling golden fireball appeared in his hand. He stood there, the fireball hum resonating throughout the large room, for longer than she expected. What was he waiting for? She was ready, the time had come.

  “What are you waiting for, Fury?! Finish this once and for all.”

  The energy inside Chase’s hand dissipated, his hair stopped waving about and his eyes recovered their natural purple color.

  “Why are you doing this, Gaia? I know you’re not my enemy, why are you trying to convince me otherwise?”

  Her deception had failed, but it mattered not, her systems were failing, and the end was imminent. Her goal had been achieved.

  “I have caused enough pain and suffering, Chase. My time has come.”

  Chase grimaced. “It was not your fault.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Chase. I can’t live with the guilt of what my actions have brought upon the planet I so wanted to protect. I’ve put it in more jeopardy than I ever blamed humans doing so. How naive I was, to think I knew better!”

  “That wasn’t naive. Humans can’t always help themselves, and believe it or not, that’s okay. I’m not saying I was a big fan of Earth’s people when we first came to the planet. But you know, it’s often easy to judge others for things we ourselves aren’t exactly doing any better. We pointed an accusing finger because we were more advanced than them. But we’ve been there too, or so the history books say. I…I don’t know, perhaps I was there, perhaps not, I still can’t remember, nor do I wish to. But we made similar mistakes with our environment until we discovered that our survival was at stake. And in this I don’t think humans are very different than any other sentient species in the universe. When survival is at stake, we do what we need to in order to survive.”

  “I know what you’re saying, Chase. I too misjudged and came to conclusions by looking at the cold hard facts. I knew in my mind and shall I dare say, my heart, that there were all sorts of people, that the action of the many didn’t mean it would have been right to punish the few, like I was ready to do at one point.”

  “What made you change your mind?”

  “Spiros.”

  “I hear he’s not fully lost to us.”

  “He is to me. I can’t be allowed to live until he returns, no matter under what form.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t want him to suffer.”

  “And dying now achieves that how, exactly? From what I sensed from his last moments, he feels the same about you. He will suffer to know you are gone, just like you suffered when he died. Except you didn’t accept it, you found a way to transcend beyond his death, and now that he’s about to be returned to you, you’re taking the easy way out?”

  “It’s best for everyone.”

  “No, it’s not. It’s perhaps best for your conscience. But how will he feel knowing you did everything to bring him back but couldn’t find the courage to at least say goodbye?”

  “You could say goodbye for me.”

  “Hell no! That’s not a conversation I belong in, and you know it. If you had been destroyed while fighting Gaia 2 instead of trying to die by ‘suicide by Fury’, I would have told him how you felt. But now more than ever, it’s clear to me that you need to do that face to face.”

  Another warning flashed in her mind: “Total system failure in thirty seconds.”

  “It’s too late, my systems are failing. In a few seconds, I will be gone.”

  “The hell you are.”

  Chase put his hand on her crushed metallic body and his aura turned white. He closed his eyes and she felt a foreign energy invade inside each of her avatar’s circuit. The bent metal took back its shape, the battery stopped leaking and soon all damage messages and inner alerts stopped.

  “I thought you could revive only living beings. How did you manage to do that?”

  “I also have the ability to affect machines, as you’re well aware. I just found all your nanites, and gave them a boost of energy allowing them to do their tasks in a fraction of the time. And I just re-activated the sub-routines in charge to heal your avatar that you had disabled and sent the super charged nanites on their way.”

  “You never cease to amaze, Chase. But that doesn’t change anything, I still need to be decommissioned.”

  “Perhaps, but not this way. Now, let’s go, I actually came here for a reason.”

  “And what’s that? Fury?”

  Chase’s look turned grave and then he chuckled. “That’s not funny!”

  “Then why are you laughing?”

  “’Cause for just a moment, you had me going.”

  A large part of her was happy her plan failed. She wanted to see Spiros, even more now. At the very least she owed him a last goodbye. But she wasn’t yet feeling like leaving her current self-imposed isolation just yet. So it was with worry that she asked:

  “What is it we need to do that requires my presence, Chase?”

  “The Commodore’s funeral. I think you should attend.”

  “You can’t be serious. Everyone in their right mind should blame me for this, and you want me to show my face there?”

  “That’s exactly why I want you there, because you’re wrong about your perception of what people think about you, but most importantly, and this supersedes any other arguments we could have on the subject, because Commodore Saroudis would have wanted you there.”

  If her metallic avatar had been built with the function to cry, she would have. Instead, her emotional network of sadness, gratefulness and love fired up.

  “Thank you, Chase. Lead the way.”

  12

  Thor was reviewing battle logs on his desk in his captain’s ready room when his comm link beeped.

  “What is it?”

  “The Fury named Oryn arrived on the bridge.”

  “Very well; show her to my ready room.”

  Thor swiped off the communications, got up from his chair, and walked toward the sliding doors. When they opened, Thor momentarily observed the Fury female.

  “Please, come in.”

  She nodded before entering.

  “I’m surprised to see you here,” continued Thor.

  “Chase is otherwise engaged, planning the funeral of his commanding officer.”

  “So Commander Kepler
has informed me. Would you like anything to drink?”

  “I’m fine, thank you. We do, however, need to talk urgently.”

  Thor’s tattoos blinked three times successively. “I’m listening.”

  “I don’t know how to say this any other way so— Arakan wants to assassinate your Father.”

  Thor’s tattoos muted and his facial features darkened. “How would you know that, Fury?”

  Oryn winced, but Thor could tell she decided to let whatever annoyed her slip by.

  “Before I— defected, I was part of a special group of Fury, a tactical Strike Force if you will, that Arakan used to call upon for very sensitive missions. I’ve received the latest mission brief. I can only surmise that Arakan has no idea that I’m no longer fighting on his side.”

  “How fast are they going to get to Asgard?”

  “Well, fortunately, Fury FTL engine technology is much slower than yours. But we must hurry nonetheless since Asgard isn’t that far away from Erevos.”

  Light and pulses returned to Thor’s tattoos. “Thank you, I’ll deal with this,” said Thor before turning his back to Oryn.

  “You have to let us help you; we’re coming with you to Asgard anyway.”

  Without turning back around, Thor answered. “We’ll see. You’re not exactly someone I’m willing to trust just yet. But since Captain Athanatos sent you, I’ll give your warning the consideration it deserves.”

  Not long after Thor had finished talking, he felt the temperature around him fall dramatically and a small layer of ice fused his feet to the floor.

  “Your short temper isn’t exactly making it easier for me to trust you.”

  “And talking with me with your back turned, not even looking me in the eyes, that’s what exactly? Asgardian manners?”

  Thor let a low growl escape, and soon an emerald aura engulfed him. A few seconds later, the ice layer around his boots shattered and was consumed by Thor’s aura. When he turned back toward Oryn, his tattoos not only flashed, they actually morphed into different shapes on his face, growing sharper and spikier, giving Thor an even bigger presence.

  “That’s better,” said Oryn before the blue in her eyes crystallized into a deep cyan and a small layer of ice covered the area around her eyes. “I understand your reluctance to trust us, but don’t disrespect me, Asgardian!”

  Thor extended an arm forward. “Mjölnir!” he said sharply, calling upon his weapon.

  Lights within his forearm’s armor blinked and traveled toward his fingers. A holographic jade-colored 3D wireframe shape drew itself in the air. In less than a second the shape of a hammer appeared, lighting brightly with the same intensity as Thor’s dancing aura, until it solidified into a physical object. A series of illuminated runes flashed from all corners of the perfectly carved metal slab forming the hammer’s head. Rings of light illuminated downward in succession on the weapon’s handle. When they reached the handle, Thor’s aura engulfed the entire hammer as if it fed its energy from the Asgardian warrior.

  Oryn instinctively took a defensive stance and her icy aura intensified. “What’s going on, Thor? We’re not your enemy!”

  “And yet you used your powers on me, without impunity!”

  “I was just trying to get your attention,” declared Oryn, her eyes shining like two diamonds.

  “You had my attention,” cried Thor before touching a control on his wrist armor.

  A circular cylinder of green energy grew under Oryn’s feet, and before she could react, it shot upward and trapped her in a force field emitting translucent emerald light. She tried getting out of it, but the field countered every move she made with pain feedbacks.

  “Don’t— don’t do— this!” she barked through clenched teeth.

  Thor disregarded her plea and threw his hammer-wielding hand toward her face. He saw fear in her eyes as the shiny metallic hammer grew closer to Oryn’s helpless face.

  The hammer stopped less than an inch away from her cheek, and the sudden stop in motion and resulting shockwave threw Oryn’s hair backward. Thor could tell from Oryn’s expression that she understood the amount of power his hammer yielded.

  “Why— why did you stop?” she said defiantly.

  “Because I don’t think Captain Athanatos would look upon me with much regard if I killed you this way.”

  “I’m not— that easy to kill,” said Oryn before closing her eyes.

  Her aura quadrupled in size and the emerald tinted force field turned blue little by little, and eventually ice started growing around it. Thor took a few steps back and had to intensify his own aura to protect his skin from frostbite.

  “You can’t get out of this with your parlor tricks,” said Thor.

  When Oryn re-opened her eyes, even though most of her silhouette appeared hazy through the ever-growing layer of ice around the force field, Thor could see a strong glacial light shining from them.

  Impressive. I wonder if all Furies are so resilient.

  Oryn unleashed a war cry that made the entire Asgardian ship tremble, and her self-constructed icy prison exploded into a million shards of ice, taking the force field out with it. Through a thick layer of vapor, she growled and started walking toward Thor. Each step she took flash-froze the floor under her feet.

  “That’s an impressive display. I know of no other species that ever escaped this technology. Tell me, is that how you would plan to kill my Father if you hadn’t switched sides and still were part of that Strike Force?”

  That seemed to stop Oryn in her tracks. The intensity in her eyes softened.

  Thor opened his hammer-wielding hand and grabbed his wrist with his other hand. The powerfully majestic weapon levitated upward and deconstructed into thin air.

  “Are you insane? Without your hammer you don’t stand a chance!”

  “I thought we weren’t enemies,” said Thor with a grin.

  Oryn’s eyes stopped glowing altogether and her aura died down.

  “What the hell was that? Why did you stop?” demanded Oryn.

  “Before I go into battle with strangers, I like to know what they’re capable of. If what you say is true, then I thank you for coming forward with this information.”

  Oryn was panting. She had exerted a lot of energy getting out of the force field.

  “There’s a chance this could be a trap to get either Chase, myself, or both of us to go exactly where Arakan wants us to be.”

  Thor reflected on the words and nodded his head slightly.

  “Thank you for your honesty. But it seems to me that no matter what Arakan’s plans are, Asgard is now involved. Have Captain Athanatos quickly wrap up his affairs around Droxia; we need to get back to my home world. I no longer think you’re lying. At least not anymore, unlike the first time you told me my world was the next target.”

  Oryn’s eyes widened. “You knew?”

  “Do you think I lived over seventy thousand years without knowing when I’m being played?”

  “Then why even help us and come to Droxia with us? I don’t understand.”

  “You’re young, one day you will understand. Odin doesn’t think we should enter this conflict. But as Athena has not-so-subtlety reminded me, we’re a proud warrior race, and as much as I try following my father’s wishes to the letter, he and I don’t see eye to eye regarding the Furies and the threat they pose. You’ve just demonstrated that I was right to follow my gut feeling. And for future reference, on Asgard, turning one’s back on a stranger or even an enemy, is a sign of respect. You may want to make a note of that for future reference. Not all Asgardians will extend you the courtesy of giving you the benefit of the doubt in a similar situation.”

  “I couldn’t have known.”

  “As I couldn’t have known if you’re worthy of coming with me to Asgard— now I do. I’m looking forward to seeing your powers in action when the time comes.”

  “As I am yours. I— I don’t know what else to say.”

  “Then it seems our meeting has com
e to a close, you’re—” Thor paused for a moment then smiled. “Respectfully dismissed.”

  Oryn chuckled before leaving Thor’s ready room.

  CHASE STOOD on the podium in one of the Hope’s hangar bays. Almost everyone but a skeleton crew left to care for the ship was present. Gaia stood in the back, not willing to attract too much attention upon herself. All of Chase’s family and close friends were right in front of him. Even Argos had come, which Chase hadn’t expected.

  “We’re here to honor the memory of a great man. Commodore Saroudis is no longer amongst us, and I know you all feel the same void in your hearts that I do. We’re all lesser for it. Today we have lost the most courageous, honorable and kind person I have ever had the honor to serve with. Someone that has been a father figure to me, someone I knew I could always count on, no matter how dire the situation seemed to be. There are no words for me to express the pain his passing has brought upon me.

  “My heart goes out to his family, his wife, Alexandra, and his daughter, Sendra. They’re too far away to be here today. And, perhaps it’s better that way—”

  Chase had to suppress tears forming in his eyes.

  “I— I gave him my word that I would take care of his family. But the truth is, you all are his family. I’m sure none of you will object to the statement that Adonis was more than just a commanding officer to us. We all looked up to him, and the void his passing has created will be impossible to fill—”

  Chase took one deep breath. He still felt responsible for not being able to save his friend and commanding officer. And addressing the crew about Adonis was as hard as he thought it would be.

  “I wish we had more time to pause, reflect and properly pay reverence to Commodore Saroudis. But if he were here today, I know he’d be laser-focused on finding a way to destroy the Furies, to remove this scourge from our existence, and to try to build the lasting peace we all seek deep within our hearts. There are still many battles ahead of us. Not everyone present here today will see that day when the Furies are no more. But I promise you, in Saroudis’ memory, that I won’t stop fighting until that day comes.”