by C. C. Ekeke
Marguliese titled her head up slightly. “What do you propose?”
Habraum scratched his chin. “Mhir’ujiid gets info from the N’noa, then we drop her off in Quud territory. After that, we’ll upload the data Lily and V’Korram found to the UComm satellites orbiting Faroor and sync them to our transport—” he began.
“Then execute a global search for any tribes with mixed ethnicities,” Marguliese finished for him.
Habraum smirked. “Exactly.”
The edges of her lips teased at the hint of an impressed smile, a rare thing. “I will notify the team.”
He caught Marguliese by the arm. “No, I’ll do it.” He strode toward the group.
Suddenly, a sharp, incessant bleep grabbed everyone’s attention. At first, Habraum stared blankly at the vehicle. Then Khrome darted forward grinning. The Cerc returned the smile.
A shocked Khal jutted his head out of the transport’s interior and put the event into words. “Big-time spike in temporal/spatial energy readings, guys! Ghuj’aega’s on the move!”
No need for backup plans, Habraum mused victoriously. “How much time?”
Khrome shrugged. “Between a few nanoclics to several macroms.”
“We’re heading out!” Habraum bellowed. As everyone boarded, he called Tyris on his wristcom.
“Way ahead of you, Captain.” Tyris dashed out of the cavern he had entered earlier, with Uyull and Byzlar hard at his heels. “Khrome made sure this thing activated our wristcoms if we were too far out.”
Behind everyone else came Mhir’ujiid. “We’re going to finally get Ghuj’aega?” she gushed eagerly as she scurried up, and a small pang of guilt twisted the Cerc’s stomach. “We’ll see. Get in,” he ordered over the transport’s sharp alarm, following Mhir’ujiid inside before the door shut behind him. As the detection alarm bleeped relentlessly, the mood inside the transport hummed with tension.
Uyull, Fiyan, and Byzlar sat checking weapons. V’Korram cracked his knuckles, looking surly. Tyris reclined, gazing at nothing. Lily and Marguliese sat side by side; the former fidgeting, the latter still as a statue. Khal sat hunched over, his cockiness gone. Khrome clacked away at several consoles.
Habraum took this in from his helm seat. Just another Star Brigade mission. Still, even after over seven years, the anticipation before battle was intoxicating. The Cerc allowed himself a smug grin.
Mhir’ujiid sat nearby staring a hole into Habraum, clearly sensing something was off. He couldn’t focus on that—not with Ghuj’aega so close.
“Whoa!” Khrome broke the silence, startling Khal. “This distortion is bigger than the Thasque one.”
“What about the origin points, Lieutenant?” Marguliese asked.
The Thulican’s round eyes scanned a holomap before him. “I’m seeing two smaller loci of exotic energy. One’s very unstable. Up to you, Captain.”
Everyone turned toward the Cerc. Habraum weighed both options quickly. The unsteady occurrence could be Ghuj’aega, but if the locus died prematurely, who knew what damage would be done to the transport—and everyone inside. “The steady one.”
Khal eyed his Thulican teammate keenly. “You sure this will work?”
Khrome scowled at him. “I’m the Khrome-daddy. So ‘Yes.’”
Khal rolled his eyes as the Thulican entered a final code. “Next stop…Inorskii Fields.”
Mhir’ujiid jerked around. “Inorskii Fields?” The transport began vibrating and abruptly jerked forward, making Habraum’s teeth rattle. An instant later the shaking stopped, as did the alarm.
Everyone was looking rather shaken. “Khrome?” Habraum asked, stretching his jaw out.
“Oh yeah, the exotic energy here is off the charts. Now let’s see—” The Thulican activated the transport’s main viewscreen from his seat for everyone to see. His proud smile vanished. “What the—”
Liliana frowned and asked the query on everyone’s mind, “Uh, what are we looking at?”
Habraum slowly rose to his full six foot five height and peered closer at the viewscreen.
All he came up with was, “Huh.”
Chapter 34
“The wait is over.” Ghuj’aega stood alone at the tent entrance, a gaunt silhouette against a dark, crimson night.
Taorr lay sprawled. Every part of him ached. “The wait for what?” he rasped, his throat parched.
Ghuj’aega’s eyes glittered a deep violet. “Your death,” he replied, as if it were obvious.
Taorr actually felt relief instead of fear. Accepting his fate, he wearily rose to his feet.
If only he could have seen his parents or even his brother Gaorr again. And Mhir’ujiid… He filled his head with thoughts of her, steeling himself for the end.
Ghuj’aega sneered at something near the tent’s far end. “Quite the appetite, boy.”
Taorr closed his eyes in self-disgust, refusing to acknowledge the picked-clean forearm and finger bones behind him. “Just get this over with.”
Ghuj’aega shook his head. “Not yet.” Clasping both his hands together, a warm light grew between them, chasing away shadows. He spread his arms wide, stretching the swirling crimson bubble far wider than himself or Taorr. When the massive energy sphere fully formed, Ghuj’aega stood aside. “After you.”
Taorr gaped at the bubble, but entered without protest. A brief tingle passed over his skin. As soon as Ghuj’aega followed him in, a hard yank from inside his stomach jerked him forward like before—everything blurring past in streaks of blood red.
The jerking sensation soon faded, but the Ttaunz flew forward and face first to the ground. He lay there with no intention of getting up. Fear clung to Taorr like skin, keeping him glued to the sphere’s floor. At least the nausea wasn’t as strong as last time.
“On your feet,” Ghuj’aega ordered.
Knowing he was near death, the threat of violence had almost no sway over Taorr. Regardless, he lethargically pushed up off the ground. They were still inside Ghuj’aega’s crimson bubble. But the surrounding vistas outside were new... For the first time in days, he felt something besides terror or pain.
“Where—” the Ttaunz caught himself. “When…are we?”
To his shock, Ghuj’aega smiled happily. “Faroor as it was,” he breathed. “And as it will be again.”
Taorr recognized the warmth of Herope’s pinkish light, Faroor’s trademark rock formations and mountains, and the rolling hills blanketed with reddish urbrui. But the architecture of the buildings below him as he and Ghuj’aega floated past in their sphere…none looked familiar. Even the air tasted different.
Taorr saw a sprawling metropolis of stone, glass, and metal. Some buildings appeared simple and blocky, others resembling colossal mirror-like cylinders. The tallest structures only reached skyscraper height, none resembling any Ttaunzian or other Union species’ architecture. The streets below displayed bustling veins of vehicles—none hovering off the ground. He’d seen holographic constructs of ancient cities like this in historic holobooks, but from other planets... “This can’t be my world,” Taorr whispered.
“It never was your world,” Ghuj’aega reminded cruelly.
Taorr bit his tongue, choosing to get more information instead. “How far back are we?” he asked, the question sounding preposterous to his own ears.
“Over four thousand years,” the tattooed Farooqua replied.
Taorr dropped to his knees. “What—how?” His mind tried digesting that statement…and couldn’t.
The surroundings had mesmerized Ghuj’aega, but he still had the attention to answer. “I hadn’t fully mastered time travel yet. Now, I have. We are just out of sync. No one sees us unless I make it so.”
“Why four millennia?” Taorr looked again to the crimson skies, strangely seeing no sign of Qos.
“On this day, the true Farooqua died.” Ghuj’aega studied Taorr’s confusion and snorted. “You won’t find your moon up there.”
Taorr immediately looked back down at him. “
Why not? Where is Qos?” Ghuj’aega stared ahead mutely. Their energy sphere dipped lower, speeding through rows of majestic towers. One swift turn later, the Ghebrekh had steered them to an off-white building shaped like a spike shooting skyward.
“We’re here.” The Ghebrekh terrorist’s words came out in a low snarl.
Taorr caught the dark look shrouding Ghuj’aega’s angular features as he spoke. His violet eyes pulsed brightly. Suddenly, the fear eluding the Ttaunz over the past day returned like a gut punch.
He had so many questions his brain hurt. But the son of Maorridus Magnus remained silent, rising to his feet and putting on a brave face as they approached the spike-like building.
Habraum stood with hands on hips, glaring at the military transport’s viewscreen that displayed Inorskii Fields. Confusion ruled every thought. He and his team should have been facing the Ghebrekh. Instead, the Cerc and his Brigadiers faced some vacant rolling valley. The only thing out here was a chain of interlocked buildings, each structure sporting domed tops pulsating against the dark, velvety skies.
“Are we where we should be?” Habraum asked brusquely.
“Yes.” V’Korram scanned over his group of holoscreens diligently.
“Then where are the Ghebrekh, and what the hazik…is that?” the Cerc angrily gestured at the viewscreen.
“I see buildings,” Khal said, the look on his handsome face echoing Habraum’s befuddlement. “But other than the energy readings, it’s as if nothing is in that vale.”
“Cloaking technology, obviously,” Marguliese added.
Fiyan walked forward. Her craniowhisks twitched wildly. “Which most buildings don’t have unless they’re secret government facilities or illegal.” She turned to Khrome. “Is it emitting energy?”
Khrome shook his head. “Not at all. But the whole area has the most concentrated readings I’ve seen since Thasque. This complex, or where it should be, is sucking up energy like a sponge.”
Habraum clenched his jaw, attempting to absorb this. “Why?”
“Who knows?” Khal shrugged. “I mean, Khrome can’t be the only one to discover its temporal and spatial properties.”
“Can’t we just transmat back to the xephrite mines?” Lily asked.
Khrome shook his head. “Since there’s no exotic energy there, no. And I’m no longer detecting that second unstable reading.”
Marguliese scanned over the screen quickly. “The building’s design is undeniably Ttaunzian, using a blend of obsolete architectures derived from before they settled on Faroor. No doubt to avoid association if detected.”
Byzlar stared at her. “You got all that off a building you’ve never seen before?”
Habraum looked over his shoulder at the three UComm officers. “Did your lot know about this?” he asked, both out of anger and to change the subject away from Marguliese’s deduction skills.
Fiyan appeared almost insulted, both craniowhisks jostling. “Not at all. UComm never enters Inorskii Fields. It’s neutral territory to both Farooqua and Ttaunz.”
“This is a direct violation of that treaty,” Byzlar added with folded arms. “Besides, this place disrupts tech so thoroughly that no one could build anything or get devices working.”
“Yet the Ttaunz found a way, most likely with outside help.” Habraum scratched the back of his head. Curiosity about this complex aside, his thoughts revolved around how Ttaunz entitlement had again interfered with his mission. “Once we’re far away, you let only UComm know. They can deal with this.”
“Getting another energy spike, Captain,” Khrome called out. “And this time we got visuals.”
A dark, distant funnel cloud had coalesced out of the clouds swirling in the moonlit nightfall. The narrow vortex swayed back and forth, crackling with a wraithlike energy. Deafening gale-force winds pounded against the transport’s shields, despite the vortex’s distance. How far it spiraled up into the heavens, Habraum could only guess. But its hypnotic, terrible presence could not portent anything good.
“So our comms are screwy, as are most of the other readings, and we can’t transmat away.” Khal gave Khrome a stony look. “Thanks for that.”
“Enough, Lieutenant.” Habraum glowered at Khal before he could toss out another insult. By the misery etched across Khrome’s face, he was already beating himself up enough.
“Nwosu.” Mhir’ujiid grabbed his arm, her face telling a story of terror. “We must leave NOW!” Everyone stared at the Farooqua.
With a calm honed from years of crisis experience, Habraum gently eased his arm from the Farooqua’s vise-like grip. “We already are, lass. Why the immediate scuttle?”
“The fields used to be littered with Taumattang,” Mhir’ujiid shot back, “but ever since Ghuj’aega appeared, whatever replaced them is far worse. The energy from the Zenith Point riles them up—”
And Uyull had enough. “Again with the Zenith Point?!” He threw his cloven hands up in disgust.
Mhir’ujiid’s bulging eyes widened at the Nirandian’s insolence. “Do not mock the Zenith Point—”
“SHADDUP!” Uyull snapped, silencing her.
“Uyull.” Byzlar approached, looking embarrassed. “Relax already.”
“Stay out of this, Vaas!”
Khal did his best not to laugh, and failed.
“Guy’s freaking out,” Khrome muttered.
Marguliese arched an eyebrow. “Indeed.”
Mhir’ujiid deftly moved behind Habraum. The Cerc stayed silent, folding both arms across his chest and looking pointedly at Fiyan to handle this.
She grabbed on Uyull’s shoulder. “Easy, Corporal.” Her tone wasn’t a suggestion.
Uyull angrily shrugged her off. “I will NOT calm down, Sergeant! She keeps spewing off about the Zenith Point and how it gives the Ghebrekh its power. The Zenith Point wasn’t strapped with the impact bombs that killed our Armada comrades. The Zenith Point didn’t scalp or eviscerate so many innocent Ttaunz who were just living their lives on this rocky dunghole of a planet! The Farooqua—her race—did all of that! And she has the nerve to place blame on her world’s moon?!”
Seeing that Fiyan’s chiding was ineffective, Habraum stepped in. “Uyull, I understand.” He glanced at the scared girl hiding behind him. “But Mhir’ujiid is explaining—”
The Nirandian strode furiously up to Habraum, causing both V’Korram and Tyris to stand. Despite the Cerc’s tall frame, Fiyan had nearly half a foot on him. “You keep eating up whatever that backwater liar serves? Get a CLUE, human!” he roared.
The silence that followed drowned out everything else. Habraum turned his gaze on Uyull like a knife. “Mind your words, soldier,” he replied with chilling calm.
Uyull squared his shoulders and glowered down at him. By his tense posture, he appeared ready to take a swing at the superior officer. But Habraum felt no anger. If he had to defend himself, the Cerc had no qualms dishing out a brief but thorough beating to this absurd Nirandian.
Neither flinched. And no one else in the transport dared interrupt, not even Sergeant Fiyan.
After what seemed like an eternity, Uyull backed down. He slumped his massive shoulders, bleated something in his native Nirandian, and stomped off to the rear of the transport.
Tyris and V’Korram exchanged looks before sitting back down. Habraum didn’t notice until after the tension dissipated, but Marguliese had slipped behind Uyull’s previous position in case the Nirandian had made the wrong choice...
The Cerc pointed after Uyull, but his words were for Fiyan. “Get your soldiers under control.”
Fiyan said not a word. She nodded stiffly, visibly keeping her anger and embarrassment in check, before pivoting about and heading toward Uyull.
Something outside the transport started braying loudly now, and Mhir’ujiid frantically jerked her head in every direction. Habraum summoned over his Star Brigadiers with a quick hand gesture.
“Since this didn’t work, we’ll go back to our original plan. We head toward th
e N’noa tribe and then the Narii,” he decreed as they rounded him in stance. “Our search will utilize UComm satellites to—”
“WHOA,” Khal blurted out from his comm station.
Habraum turned. “‘Whoa’ good or ‘whoa’ bad?” he asked, almost wishing he hadn’t.
The Brigade intel officer spun in his seat, visibly unsettled. “I’m picking up multiple life forms heading straight for us from that tornado formation.”
“As in how many?” Habraum frowned.
Khal’s face soured even more. “As in…several hundred.”
“Farooqua?”
Khal shook his head slowly, jostling his dark head of wavy hair. “Not remotely.” The braying din outside drew closer, sounding more like a roar—from numerous contributors. V’Korram’s lips curled back, showing teeth. His low, challenging snarl drew Fiyan and Uyull’s attention.
Byzlar walked forward, his granite-like face full of concern.
Habraum turned to his medic officer. “Cortes?”
Cortes clacked a few buttons on her console, pulling up a motion image for one of these creatures. The wolf-like beast charged forward on all fours, muscled like a bull but moving with feral grace and speed. Its sharp teeth and claws glinted in the moonlight, as did its three freakishly green eyes. Its body, armored from head to toe in a thick carapace, included a spiked spine.
Habraum multiplied that vicious image in his mind by several hundred, and shivered.
“I want to say it’s a Taumattang,” Liliana began again, albeit without certainty. “But it’s a drastic variant not in any database.”
“That’s no Taumattang.” Mhir’ujiid hugged herself as if freezing. “Those jusha beasts were brought here by the Zenith Point.” The braying of jusha beasts outside grew louder
Habraum raised his brow in concern. “From where?”
Mhir’ujiid looked back at him. “Not Faroor.” Her young face carried so much fear that Habraum felt a tightness in his chest.
“I’m supposing from some place ghastly,” the Cerc commented, hopping into the transport helm and shifting it into motion. His thoughts and movements were all business. “Khrome, shields. Tyris, weapons. Everyone else, buckle up,” he called out. “We’re gone.”