by C. C. Ekeke
With a blast of speed, the transport tore off across the plains.
And on their heels, a pack of countless jusha beasts pursued with escalating swiftness.
Chapter 35
Taorr’s stomach was in knots over what lay beyond that viewport. Yes, he despised Ghuj’aega more than ever, but journeying into Faroor’s past held a strange excitement.
The Ghebrekh leader seemed oddly anxious, clenching and unclenching his hands, muttering to himself as they phased through the viewport of this mammoth building.
The inside was spacious, vaulted and pillared. Every wall was lacquered with flamboyant tapestries and original paintings—not the holographic or virtual works of art that Taorr was accustomed to. A roaring fire at the room’s north end cast a warm glow throughout its length.
Once again, the Ttaunz saw Farooqua in sophisticated robes, standing upright and speaking vocally instead of with kineticabulary. Taorr shook his head, completely unmoored.
Today, the Farooqua were hosting odd-looking guests. Taorr frowned and peered closer. The trio clearly wasn’t from Faroor or any Union member race he recognized. Each stood around two heads above the tallest Farooqua present, robed in shapeless hooded cloaks darker than night. From Taorr’s viewpoint, their faces were hidden. And their conversation didn’t carry to where Ghuj’aega and he floated.
His curiosity over this gathering temporarily overcame his current dilemma. Here must lie the reason Ghuj’aega brought them to this moment in time. Taorr knew he would get no answer from Ghuj’aega, who currently glared holes at the Farooqua’s guests with surprising hatred.
A while later, the crowd dispersed, prattling among themselves in what sounded like Standard.
“Finally, I get my chance,” Ghuj’aega said with an eager hiss. He moved to the edge of his energy sphere, and Taorr watched with wide eyes as the Ghebrekh stuck an arm through the crimson field.
As if sensing the imminent attack, the hooded figures whipped about and glowered.
Taorr finally saw the faces beneath those hoods…and laughed.
They looked like some kind of Terra Sollan rodents—eyes black and beady like opals, velvety and snow-white fur covering their faces. The Ttaunz’s sore ribs screamed, yet he kept laughing.
Before Taorr could stop, something abruptly jerked him backwards. Winds rushed sharply, stinging his skin, flailing his limbs every which way. Next thing he knew, the young Ttaunz smacked face first on stiff ubrui grass.
Taorr finally pushed himself up to all fours, and spit out broken urbrui stalks. The sudden movement made Taorr’s stomach rebel, but nothing came up this time.
The darkness signaled nighttime; they were back in the present. Taorr slumped lethargically to one side and to his shock saw Ghuj’aega rolling around not too far away, screeching.
“WHY?!” Ghuj’aega roared at the heavens. Taorr’s mind connected the pieces...
Clearly, Ghuj’aega had tried to kill those rodent creatures, who somehow forced them both back to the present. Who they were was something Taorr didn’t try guessing. All this time-travel dreg made his brain hurt.
Clouds parted to reveal Qos above, casting a deathly pale light over the murky hills. Taorr now felt like he was reliving the night of his kidnapping in Yanjon Vale.
“That. Should. Have. Been. ENOUGH!!” Ghuj’aega writhed as if having a convulsion.
Taorr didn’t know how to handle Ghuj’aega’s childish tantrum. He just sat and watched blankly, until bright light caught him in the face. A MetroPol hovercar on patrol lowered nearby, headlights illuminating the darkness.
“Can I help you?” a Ttaunz MetroPol officer called out via sonoramp. A floating halolight detached from the car and floated forward. For a nanoclic, Taorr thought he was imagining this. Until the vehicle driver door opened, and out stepped a real Ttaunz in light body armor with the trademark sunburst helmet.
Taorr noted the MetroPol officer’s less singsongy accent, as in not highborn. He dared another glance at Ghuj’aega writhing on the ground, and felt a wild splash of hope.
Taorr scrambled away and a wave of fatigue dropped him to all fours. “We need to leave,” he hissed.
The MetroPol officer moved back, one hand on his pulse pistol. “Stay put and calm down.”
Taorr was beyond caring. “That is Ghuj’aega!” He gestured wildly at the sprawled figure behind him.
The officer took one look at the dark-blue complexion and the white angular tattoos and whipped out his pulse weapon without another word. Under the floating halolight’s illumination, Taorr instinctively squinted and shielded his eyes with his arm. The MetroPol officer gaped at the filthy, disheveled heir for a moment and shocked recognition set in. “Taorr son of Maorridius Magnus?? You live!”
“Yes, now let us go before—” Taorr glanced anxiously back at Ghuj’aega’s location.
Nothing but urbrui grass wavering back and forth in the wind.
Panic strangled Taorr’s throat. “Oh no.”
The MetroPol officer waved his firearm as he scanned the region. “Where is Ghuj’aega, sir?” The floating halolight caught only urbrui stalks shivering around them.
Taorr’s weary eyes raked the endless stretch of dark. “Probably transmatted. Ghuj’aega can do that.”
The officer didn’t even flinch at the statement. Instead, he tapped a dark circular device covering his right ear. It quickly morphed into a thin, infrared visor over his eyes. “Stay close,” he ordered, his eyes and gun sweeping back and forth. “No sign of Ghuj’aega’s heat patterns. We’ll depart and contact backup.” He looked fleetingly at Taorr and grinned. “Happy you’re alive, sir.”
Taorr flashed a smile. But he wouldn’t feel at ease until he saw Ghuj’aega dead.
Something grabbed his shoulder, yanking him up and off his feet. Taorr yelped as he went flying, landing hard on his back a good distance away. The earth felt like rock against his sore ribs.
The MetroPol officer whipped about, pointing his firearm near Taorr’s landing. “You okay?” he whispered, scanning the scene for any trace of Ghuj’aega.
Taorr nodded, wincing at the throbbing in his sides as he struggled to sit up.
Calmly, the officer muttered, “Infrared off,” and his visor retracted into the device on his right ear.
He reached for his left ear comms. “I’m contacting my HQ—” his voice cut off in a choked grunt as his face twisted in pain. He jerked forward repeatedly, as if something kept jabbing him viciously in the back. Right on sync, a wet SHUK noise matched every jolt.
Taorr was confused…until the officer’s weapon slid from limp fingers as he slumped to his knees.
Ghuj’aega stood behind him, holding a serrated knife dripping in dark blood.
“NOOOOO!” Taorr sprang to his feet.
“Shhh!” Ghuj’aega shushed him with a sharp wave of his spindly fingers.
Taorr felt himself slow…and completely stop. Try as he might, no part of his body could move. All he could do was watch Ghuj’aega lower his blade with a put-upon sigh and open the officer’s throat.
Blood sprayed across Taorr’s unmoving face as he watched the officer’s gaze going from pained disbelief to lifelessness. So much blood gushed from the officer’s slit throat, fountaining in sheets down his torso. Horror overwhelmed Taorr’s senses. But thanks to Ghuj’aega, all that anguish had no way of surfacing.
Ghuj’aega’s eyes never left Taorr, even while callously shoving over the dying officer. In full illumination of the TDF officer’s own hovercar halolight, his body—littered with gushing stab wounds—flopped to the earth and shook in lessening death spasms. Ghuj’aega playfully tossed the bloodied knife back and forth.
“No matter how much power the Zenith Point grants me, killing with a knife always satisfies.”
Catching the crooked weapon in his right hand, he pointed it at an unmoving Taorr, who would have flinched if moving was possible. “As. For. You.” Ghuj’aega didn’t sound angry, just mildly annoyed. He stalk
ed closer, gesturing with his knife. “We had a deal. You behave, and other beings don’t die.”
Ghuj’aega’s violet eyes glinted as he reached behind Taorr’s head, roughly grabbing a hunk of dirty and matted hair. The terrorist slowly slid the bloodied knife into the Ttaunz’s open mouth, the sharp tip poking at the roof. “He didn’t have to die…unlike you.” Ghuj’aega caressed those words fondly, edging his knife deeper inside.
Even if Taorr could move, the Ttaunz wouldn’t have fought. He could taste the metal tang of the bloodied blade pressing against his inner left cheek. For a moment, Ghuj’aega looked ready to kill him.
Taorr couldn’t have been more thankful. Too much death…I can’t take anymore.
“But not yet.” The Ghebrekh leader slid the knife blade out of Taorr’s mouth. Wiping the blade on his bare shoulder and sheathing it in his ankle wrap, he then casually flicked his hand to one side.
Suddenly, Taorr could move. He pitched forward, a roar of anguish long overdue escaping his lips, echoing into the night. Death had been delayed…again. Damn Ghuj’aega.
Taorr fell to a kneeling position, hitting wet earth, gasping greedily for air. The only thing lying in front of him was the dead TDF officer, his eyes staring lifelessly up at Taorr. It then hit the young Ttaunz like a sharp slap that the wetness on his knees was blood spilled from this officer’s corpse.
Taorr, too numb to scramble away, gaped down at another who had died because of him.
Ghuj’aega stared up at Qos, completely ignoring Taorr and the corpse. He spoke calmly now, at the same time gesturing in deliberately slow kineticabulary.
“Of course. I must escape my mortal anchor to reach true zenith. Then we have our revenge…”
He stopped in mid-sentence as if something obstructed his throat. The Ghebrekh stared straight at Taorr, who recoiled. But the Ghebrekh leader appeared to look right through him.
“Can’t…see my path.” For the first time since this nightmare began, Ghuj’aega’s face looked almost…frightened. “A blind spot? How…” Ghuj’aega breathed. Just as quickly, the uncertainty vanished, replaced by a smolder of black fury. “Star Brigade,” he spoke the name through clenched teeth.
The words struck Taorr as so odd that even in grief, he said, “Star Bri-what?”
Ghuj’aega’s answer came in an abrupt and vicious blur, a stiff kick catching Taorr in the chin and dropping him like a stone. He glared down imperiously. “Don’t go anywhere.”
A dazed Taorr watched him march over to the TDF vehicle and place hands on the hood, causing the whole transport to glow. Then in a blinding flash, both vanished.
Too tired to guess where they went, Taorr welcomed the darkness pulling him under.
“Khrome, speed’s increased. But I still can’t get any higher than a metrid off the ground,” Habraum called out from the transport helm. The vehicle hurtled through endless rolling hills, a horde of snarling jusha beasts hot on its tail. Still, the Cerc had no reason to worry…yet.
“Working on it, fearless leader,” Khrome shot back, typing furiously at a holoconsole floating in the passenger section’s center. “But the liftoff won’t improve much until we escape this damnable energy blanket.”
Khal took a long look at the main viewscreen, spotlighting the jusha beasts’ razor-like teeth gnashing. “Those are ugly.” His words were met with several thuds shuddering the transport all over.
“Think they heard you,” Tyris quipped.
“Shielding momentarily dropped,” Khrome called out, his eyes on the holoconsole. “Those jusha beasts caused only superficial hull damage. Modifying energy flow to compensate…”
Habraum had no reason to doubt what Khrome could do. But with their shields acting up, who knew how long it would take for those jusha beasts to breach the vehicle?
“The distortions are messing with our shields, Nwosu,” Fiyan stated, an undercurrent of tension tightening her voice and craniowhisks. “If we can’t shake those things off our tail—”
“Got it, Sergeant.” Habraum waved a dismissive hand at the Nnaxan. He knew the risks all too well. “Khrome, hand over repairs to Marguliese.” That order might as well have been a pulse pistol going off in a silent room. Tyris, Liliana and V’Korram all turned in their seats. Khal arched an intrigued eyebrow.
Khrome’s round eyes grew impossibly wide, as expected. “Captain, I can fix this!”
“I know,” Habraum countered, and calmly explained, “So can Maggie. We need these beastlies off our backs now and you’re the only one I can send against them.”
“Oh.” The Thulican relaxed and grinned in typical Khrome fashion. “Where do you need me?”
Moments later, he was transmatted outside the transport. Onscreen he rose into the air just over the horde barreling after the transport. “Time to play,” he chuckled fiendishly.
Khrome plunged from the sky in a shiny blur. He hit the ravenous pack like a sonic boom, rattling Habraum’s teeth from inside the transport, blowing apart the frontline of jusha beasts like rag dolls.
But just as quickly, the rest of the countless pack pounced and buried the stocky Thulican under their overwhelming numbers. He’ll be fine, Habraum convinced himself.
Mhir’ujiid was not convinced. “Those creatures will rip anything soft and fleshy apart—”
“Khrome is anything but soft,” Liliana replied tartly, but kept a worried eye on the viewscreen.
Habraum spared the viewscreen only an unaffected glance, his mind on the immediate task—getting CT-1 and the TerraTroopers to safety. “Khrome will buy us enough time to get out of here. He’ll join us after that.” The Cerc turned to Marguliese. “Update?”
She kept fixated on her workstation’s holoscreen, her hands typing with inhuman speeds that left the three TerraTroopers gawking. “I improved shield integrity by 11.53 percent, but elevation is still an issue.” She remained cool and detached as ever, a welcoming anchor of composure for Habraum.
He drove on and turned to Khal. “Vertex, comms?”
“The block on our frequencies is breaking,” Khal replied. “But it’s not enough to contact anyone.”
Habraum turned to his second-in-command. “Arcturus, anyone tailing us?”
“Idlers.” The Tanoeen scanned the viewscreens at his station. “Most are focused on Khrome.”
Habraum addressed V’Korram, “Jakadda, how’s the terrain looking?”
The Kintarian straightened his posture, both ears perking up. “Headed toward rockier areas. Big jagged landmass up ahead at the edge of this energy blanket.”
Habraum had an idea and grinned. “Brilliant, that landmass is our boost.” He put on a kick of speed and raced up the jagged rock formation, over its peak. The transport rose into the air as a blink of light flooded the holoscreen—followed by a hovercar careening straight at them.
Shock hit Habraum for an instant. On instinct he called out, “Arcturus!”
In a heartbeat, Tyris fired up the transport’s ordnance, and white-hot flashes from the transport’s front-side pulse cannons barked, lighting up the night. The Tanoeen’s rapid-fire onslaught drilled the vehicle into scorched pulp, fissuring it apart in a fiery swell.
But Habraum had driven too fast to avoid the explosion, and the transport hurtled through. He clenched his jaw as fiery orange light fleetingly flooded the transport’s insides. The shields protected them, but the vehicle lost its ascent and slammed back to earth. The shock absorbers took the brunt, the transport shaking up and down.
Habraum spun around for a quick passenger inventory. Liliana sat gasping and flattened to her chair. Tyris whipped about, his spiked head bobbing, cobalt eyes wide. Everyone appeared shaken but okay.
Byzlar finally broke the taut silence. “What in the two hells was that?” he demanded.
“A silver hovercar with markings of local Ttaunz MetroPol,” Marguliese responded flatly, as if describing a plant species. Fiyan shot an appalled glance at the Cybernarr’s unnatural calm.
�
�Where did it come from?” Khal asked, quickly regaining poise.
Habraum shook his head. “One moment nothing, the next, a hovercar nearly wallops us.”
“Was anyone inside?” Cortes’s question plunged the transport again into silence. The thought had not occurred to Habraum. If any poor soul, or souls, were inside that hovercar…
“Transmission from Khrome,” Khal called out. Habraum gestured for him to accept.
“You guys okay?!” the Thulican shouted over a cacophony of braying beasts and breaking bones.
“We’re fantastic. You?” Habraum answered.
A gruesome crunch was followed by the vile shriek from another of Khrome’s victims. “The usual.”
Habraum could almost see the impish grin on Khrome’s face right now. “Join us once we’re clear. Reign out.” As he signed off, Habraum glimpsed Marguliese frowning at the viewscreen with what resembled mild perplexity. “Maggie?” the Cerc asked in concern.
“Our target,” she answered, subtly nodding toward the viewscreen.
Habraum followed her gaze and started. “Rogguts!” A gaunt, slightly hunched figure stood deep in the heart of these stony fang-like protrusions. Darkness couldn’t cover its likeness or the wraith-like glow from his eyes.
Habraum’s guess was confirmed by Mhir’ujiid’s trembled admission, “Him.”
Uyull grabbed a nearby pulse rifle on instinct. “Ghuj’aega? Here?!” The whole transport reacted in kind.
“That expounds the hovercar,” Marguliese noted flatly, watching Ghuj’aega like a hawk.
Onscreen, the Farooqua terrorist smirked and leisurely lifted his thin arms up in challenge. The crescent moon of Qos hung high above, trails of light bleeding off its edges to the left.
“No backup?” Tyris’s cobalt eyes narrowed. “How brazen.”
“He won’t need backup.” Mhir’ujiid now looked utterly terrified.
“His choice,” V’Korram growled, crouched and ready to pounce. “His funeral.”