by C. S. Harte
“That sounds awful!” Thorne jerked his head back.
“But then this calmness washed over me, bathing me in coolness and taking away all the pain. I looked around to see the Wraith gone and I’m covered in gray dust.”
“Do you know what happened?” He leaned forward. “What Aorgarian tech was it that saved you?”
“My memories are still a mess. I have all these thoughts jumbled in my head. There was a boy I talked to inside the Anchor. It took on the form of Inoke…”
“Inoke?” Thorne gasped. “Why?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “But I also don’t know if it was important either.”
“What did he say to you?”
“That the Aorgarians were experimenting with vaccinations that would prevent Mimics from infecting and controlling others.”
“Vaccinations?” Thorne rubbed his chin. “The Aorgarians were really a prescient race.”
“It’s scary sometimes to think about how they’ve changed my body.” Meomi stared at her hands. “I wonder if somehow the tech also changed me personally and mentally.”
“What else do you feel is different?”
“Well…” She pressed her lips together. “Where do I begin…”
Thorne turned his head to the right and said with a hiss, “No, not now…”
The ship tilted hard to the right.
“Hang on, we have incoming enemies!” yelled the ship pilot.
Meomi raised her gun at Thorne. “Who were you talking to?”
“No one…” He shook his head. “Being in the dark for so long makes you susceptible to hearing voices. I was talking to myself.”
“I almost believed you...” Meomi glared. “Almost.”
“Captain Hana!” Jonas shouted. “Put that weapon away. We agreed not to shoot anyone until we get back to HQ.”
The ship rattled from an external explosion.
“We’re hit!” shouted the pilot. “Brace for impact!”
Meomi felt centrifugal forces pressing against her chest. Her gun flew out of her hand.
The sound of metal straining reverberated through the shuttle. A loud snap followed.
In the next instant, Meomi saw the sky in between her and the front of the plane. “No…” She turned to Thorne. His eyes were closed, but he was calm. He had no exo suit and would undoubtedly die from the crash. She had no doubt now. He wasn’t human.
Crash.
Dozens of critical warnings appeared on Meomi’s HUD. Her eyes opened to a cloud of thick, black smoke. “I’m alive…” she whispered. Something heavy pressed against her chest. Her eyes began to close without her consent. She felt her mind drifting into darkness.
“Wake up!” The voice sounded like Rayfin’s.
Meomi willed her eyes to open, but they were too heavy to lift. “Rayfin?”
Other voices were speaking. Too many to distinguish, like she was in a crowded place.
Suddenly, silence replaced every sound.
Meomi felt herself drifting. Moving away from something. Hands were all over her, touching her naked skin. But she couldn’t lift her limbs to stop them. Her body felt broken and powerless.
“Sleep,” said a female voice. “It’ll be over soon.”
9
Explosions blared one after another. Laser fire sounded in the distance. Screams of death swirled around Meomi, but the wailings were hallowed, muffled. She fought to open her eyes. They were taped shut. Her hands were cuffed and her legs restrained. “Help… me…” she tried to scream, but her words came out as a hoarse whisper. Smoke entered her lungs with every breath. Heat licked at her feet. “Ray…” It pained her throat and chest to talk. “Jonas… Alyana… Thorne? Something’s not right…”
She remembered the transport being attacked but struggled to find who could be so bold as to attack a Fleet military transport. There was a crash. Meomi was sure of it. The sounds, the smells, the impact, the agony — it was all real. It happened. But she couldn’t remember anything after the crash. “Did I black out...”
Behind her, a door opened. The muffled sounds roared to life. Weapons’ fire erupted all around her, mixing with the ebb and flow of feet stomping metal floors — troops in exo suits running to a fight. Or fleeing from one.
Her nose tingled with the smell of scorched flesh and burning metal. Meomi was in a war zone. She had been in too many to ever forget the experience.
Chills traveled across her body as a frigid breeze flowed against her skin. She felt naked, exposed. “Hello?” Meomi squeaked.
“Well, I didn’t expect to find you here…” said a female voice. But it didn’t sound like Alyana. Her voice was off, deeper than it should be.
“Alyana?” Meomi asked. There were no other females in the transport. It had to be Alyana.
More laser fire erupted.
“Ori, I need you at my position,” said the female voice, which was starting to sound more familiar to Meomi. “I have a new assignment for you.”
“Help,” the words barely escaped Meomi’s lips.
“I’ll be back, Captain Hana,” said the female voice. “I must have missed a few guards back there.”
Intense humming noises, the same, distinct tone as torch blades rose to life behind Meomi bringing forth memories of an old friend. “Whisper?” She hadn’t heard Whisper’s voice in a long time. “Is it possible?” They last saw each other before Meomi entered the pocket universe. So much had happened since then. Her stomach fluttered at the thought of Whisper being near. She wanted so badly for it to be true.
Strong hands gripped Meomi’s left arm. The restraints were coming off.
“This will sting a bit,” said a male voice. “Get ready…”
Someone violently ripped the tape off Meomi’s eyes. Pain flooded her senses from the tape and from light hitting her retinas. She tried to focus her vision, blinking the blurriness away. Her limbs felt heavy and useless as she struggled to lift her body upright. “What’s going on?”
“Put this on.” A shadowy male figure tossed her a white hospital gown.
Streaks of laser fire narrowly grazed Meomi as she raised her arms.
“Get down!” The man pushed Meomi off a table and onto the floor. He rested his heavy body on top of hers. “Forgive me, beautiful. They made me do it,” he said with a grin behind his visor.
With all her strength, Meomi tried to push him off. He was too heavy. “Hey!” She tried to squirm.
“Just making sure you’re safe, love.” He pulled out an injection needle.
“No, wait…” Meomi pleaded.
“Easy there, it’s just combat stims.” He stabbed Meomi’s thigh. “You’ll thank me later.”
Pain pulsed in Meomi’s leg. The liquid burned as it circulated through her veins. Her heart soared, wanting to fly out of her chest. Every muscle in her body tensed like a violent cramp. She would have screamed if her jaw could open. Instead, she growled as she writhed on the cold, metal floor. Her senses were lying to her — colors became sound, sound became colors.
It took a few seconds for her vision to clear. The man who rescued her finally came into focus. He was in an all-black Obscura suit. On his back hung a tattered red cloak. Attached to his thigh were four holsters which housed four hand cannons. Meomi stared into the eyes of her rescuer. Bluish-green with yellow flecks.
“Always works like a charm,” the man in black said. He helped Meomi get dressed.
Meomi had control of her body again. Immediately, she grabbed the neck of the helmeted man. “Who are you? What did you do to me?”
In a flash, he disappeared from view. Then reappeared behind Meomi. “Easy there, beautiful. I’m Ori, Whisper’s friend. And that little shot I gave you, it’s my secret combat stim mixture. There’s just a hint of psychedelics. Not much. To make combat a little more fun, you know?” He mimed playing a violin. “It’ll make you feel like you can perform a symphony even if you’ve never held an instrument in your life.”
�
�Whisper?” Meomi’s mouth fell open. “So it was her…”
“Correct, gorgeous,” Ori smirked. “You can sort of tell by the bodies piling up.”
“Wait…” Meomi tilted her head. “What’s going on here?”
“How ‘bout we get moving first and then we’ll talk.” Ori unlatched a spare hand cannon from his thigh and tossed it to Meomi. “I trust you know how to handle one of these?”
She nodded.
“Stay behind me,” Ori said while scanning the hallway for enemies. “Whisper threatened to inject virelex poison into my bloodstream if you died.”
“So you two aren’t friends?” Meomi raised her eyebrows.
“Friends?” He laughed. “Someone like Whisper doesn’t have friends, only people that can be useful to her. C’mon, we don’t have much time before reinforcements arrive.”
“Where are we going?” Meomi eyes roamed toward a pile of dead soldiers in white exo suits with scorched marks presumably from Whisper’s torch blades. She didn’t recognize the design of the enemy armor.
“To the Zephyr.” Ori peeked around a corner before crossing an intersection of hallways. “It’s waiting for us at the landing pad.”
“What about the rest of my team on Dragon Squad? Did they survive the crash?”
“No clue.” Ori shrugged. “I only know and care about your beautiful body.”
“Wait, why are we escaping?” Meomi tugged his arm. “Is this not a Fleet medical facility?”
A laser beam streaked over Meomi’s head.
“Get down!” Ori shoved her to the floor before disappearing in a flash. After two gunshots and two moans, he reappeared next to Meomi and helped her up.
“What are you?” She breathed.
“I like to think I’m a magnificent lover. Maybe after I rescue you, I can demonstrate why?” He winked at her.
“No, not what I meant.” Meomi scowled. “How can you teleport like that?”
“You mean blink? All agents can do that. Watch.” Ori disappeared for a moment and reappeared 10 meters in front of her and waved her forward. “Over here, lovely.”
“You’re a Whisper then?”
Ori laughed. “Absolutely not. I could never live a life so boring as to work for Fleet Spec Ops.”
Meomi’s face contorted to anger. “But you just said… actually, nevermind. I don’t care about you. Where is Whisper? Why isn’t she with us?”
He held his fingers up to his lips and pointed to an open courtyard area with a glass dome ceiling. Dozens of soldiers guarded every entrance and exit. “She’s rescuing our original targets. We didn’t expect to find you here.”
“I don’t understand…” Meomi clenched her fist. “We’re not on Earth?”
“Earth?” He laughed. “I’m sorry to break it to you darling, but this isn’t Earth. Not even close.”
“Then where are we?”
“Reli Sky City on Venda.”
“Venda?” Meomi’s eyes protruded. “We’re on an Alliance of Faith planet? But… But that’s not possible! How long was I out?”
“Yes, it is possible actually, since you know, we’re here. And I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I just got here.”
The courtyard had three levels. The lowest levels housed merchant shops, the second and third were residential units. Walkways crisscrossed through patches of bluegrass. In the center, a massive Rhokyde tree stood tall enough to reach the tallest point of the dome. Every screen in the courtyard repeated a message:
For your safety, please stay in your homes. Prisoners have escaped the Lisys Penitentiary.
“I count 28 targets.” Ori panned his head from right to left. “Give me 30 seconds, my love.” He winked and vanished.
Meomi watched as he reappeared behind the first solider to the immediate right and fired a shot into the back of his head. Ori then blinked across the courtyard to the third floor and executed the next enemy. He killed eight before they realized the first one was dead.
One guard seemed to expect Ori behind him. When he teleported in, the solider quickly spun around and grabbed him as another knocked Ori’s guns out of his hands. All the others guards on the floor converged on Ori, outnumbering him 10 to 1.
In a swift move, Ori broke the arm of the person holding him. He pulled out two guns from the holsters behind his back and weaved through the army of enemies, shooting each in the head. The last sequence of fights lasted all of ten seconds.
“Hello again,” Ori said after blinking back to Meomi. “Sorry I took a few seconds longer than I would have liked. Did you miss me?”
“And you said you’re not a Whisper? What are you…”
“For you, I can be anything you want me to be.” He grinned, baring all his pearly white teeth.
“Can you give me a serious answer for once?”
“I like to think I’m an enterprising entrepreneur.” He smirked.
“Is that another way of saying mercenary?”
“Well, that would be true if I was actually being paid for my services, but alas, I am not. I’m here to preserve some semblance of an economy. Credits won’t do you much good if Mimics kill every last human in the universe to transact with.”
More guards piled into the courtyard.
“Let’s go love, we’re almost to the ship.”
They reached the landing pads to see a metallic blue vessel with Fleet insignias and in giant, bold, black letters the name “Zephyr,” written on the underside of the hull.
“The Zephyr is a Commonwealth vessel?” Meomi stood still to admire the graceful contours of the ship. “Who’s the Captain?”
“Well, it was a Commonwealth ship. We’ve since given it a new purpose. And the captain is kind of a dull, humor-less fellow, Jonas Barick.”
“Jonas? But… He’s part of Dragon Company… Isn’t he?” She furrowed her brow. “Nothing is making sense…”
“Dragon Company? Never heard of it.” Ori scoffed. “But you should thank him. If that idiot didn’t get himself captured, we wouldn’t be rescuing you.”
Whisper and Jonas ran onto the landing pad. On his left shoulder, hung a pale, unconscious teenage girl.
“Why are you standing around?” Whisper glared at Ori. “Get her on board!”
“I was just about to! Sheesh!”
Jonas passed by Meomi without so much as glancing at her, acting like he didn’t know her.
Meomi, however, did recognize the pale girl. “Roni…” Nothing was making sense. Her reality wasn’t aligning with her last memories. Meomi wondered if this was another simulation. But everything felt real. There were no voices in her head swaying her one way or another. At the very least she didn’t want to leave without the rest of her team, Rayfin and Alyana. “I can’t go yet. We’re still missing people.”
“Trust me, Meomi,” Whisper placed a hand on her shoulder. “There’s no one else left. We have to leave now.”
“C’mon, love.” Ori ushered Meomi onto the Zephyr. “It’s time we start our new lives together.
10
The combat stims in Meomi’s body faded. The psychedelics did not. Walls and doors moved and swayed as if blown by a strong wind. Beams of light fell like water, splashing onto her hand. The pain returned. Her body felt fragile, broken. Even breathing hurt. Nothing seemed right, and she didn’t know why.
Meomi woke in her own personal quarters on the Zephyr. She lay in bed until she felt strong enough to get up. Dirt and grime covered every inch of her skin. She pulled herself into the sonic shower where she sat for the next two hours. The dirty feeling never went away. At least the auditory pulses soothed her tired, aching body, massaging away much of the tension. She forced herself to stand, to get out, to move on. “How long have I been asleep?” A slight migraine formed.
Someone had left a blue and white flight suit on a chair. Meomi spent the next ten minutes struggling to dress herself. Exhausted, she returned to bed and stared up at the metal ceiling of her bedroom.
Flashes of confli
cting memories raced across her mind. Names, faces, and locations all jumbled together into a confusing mess. Meomi resisted the urge to cry as uncertainty and hopelessness crested inside her. “It has been one thing after another. One lie after another.” She was tired of the fighting and tired of always running away from danger.
Meomi rubbed her eyes until she saw stars behind her eyelids. “What’s real? What’s not?” She took in a big breath of air. “Ray? Thorne? Dragon Company? Did any of that happen?” Her eyes closed as tiredness washed over her. “I wish I could just sleep and wake up when the war is over…”
The door notification sounded.
“Come in,” Meomi said and pulled herself into a sitting position.
Whisper walked in wearing a blue and white Obscura suit without her helmet. White war paint streaked across her face. “We keep running into each other in the strangest places.” She smirked. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been to The Void and back.” Meomi sighed. “Where is Rayfin? I want to see him.”
“He isn’t on this ship.” Whisper lowered her eyes.
“Where is he then?” She furrowed her brow. “Was he not on Venda with me?”
“No, he wasn’t,” Whisper said softly.
“Does that mean he escaped? Still alive somewhere out there?” Meomi tried to smile. “Rayfin is a survivor. He’ll find a way to reach me. I know he will…”
“Meomi…” Whisper sighed. “Let’s talk about you right now. How are you feeling?”
“I don’t know how to answer that.” She dropped her shoulders. “Every molecule in my body hurts.” Her eyes became dull. “I don’t feel like myself.”
“I can’t imagine what they did to you…” Whisper leaned forward. “To your mind…”
“Why was the Alliance holding me, interrogating me? How did they even capture me?” Meomi closed her hand into a fist. “What did they do to me?”