by Frank Carey
“Though statistically improbable, I suspect it isn't impossible."
Shenda sat down on a log and stared off into the forest, though not seeing the trees. Her mind reeled at the implications of Cleth's news.
"Shenda, what’s wrong?" Cleth asked.
"Don't you get it? I am truly my father's daughter and what happened to him could definitely happen to me. Cleth, I can't do what he did. He went to the edge of insanity, then crawled out of that pit to start a new life. I don't have that strength." She sat there a moment longer before getting up and heading off into the forest. "I've had it," she said. "Let's get this over with."
She didn't look back, so she missed seeing the smile on Cleth's face.
Chapter Twenty-Three
A call from Ventos Prime came in over the radio as the Magog entered orbit. "I'll take it," Losira said as she headed back into the lounge.
Harm ran scans of the surface and quickly found what he was looking for: The wreckage of the Rachel. It was strewn across an area on top of a large plateau, one with a very odd energy signature. "Lovely," he said as the computer collected data. When the computer finished, he contacted the Tench governing body.
"Harmon, you old dear. Welcome back to Vodalorn. I hear some of your people are in a spot of trouble.”
Harm looked up and smiled at the look of shock on Losira's face. The voice on the radio sounded like someone from the North of Earth's Great Britain.
"Hello, Merkesa. I apologize for bringing all this drama to your quiet home. I bring you a gift as a token of my sincerity."
"You remembered! I have been growing weary of these bores from your League council. Finally, I get to deal with someone with manners. I accept your gift and offer information in return."
"Thank you, Kind Leader of the Tench. How is the crew of the Rachel?"
"The captain was shot, but is on the mend. Her three companions are shaken, but resting comfortably. Unfortunately, there is no word of the first officer. Did you know her?"
"Her name is Shenda Aymar, and she's my daughter."
There was a sharp gasp from the other side of the link. "I did not know. All of our resources are at your disposal."
"Thank you, leader. I need information regarding a large plateau about a hundred miles south of here. It’s surrounded by clouds and covered with an energy-dampening field. That's where the Rachel crashed."
"Ah, no wonder our sensors lost track of your ship. We thought it had missed the plateau and crashed in the jungle below," Merkesa explained. "The plateau is an evil place infested by dangerous beasts and creatures which defy description. All Tench are forbidden to go there, though many have tried...and died for their efforts."
Harm frowned, not liking what he was hearing. "Merkesa, I need to land on the plateau, my daughter's up there."
"You will surely die if you step foot on that accursed ground. Only one being has found a way to survive there. His name is Vermeer, a Sokuhl researcher. He's been up there for many, many years."
Harm recognized the name. Vermeer: Scholar, bon vivant, and explorer. A being that predates the League. What others only read in books, Vermeer has experienced firsthand. Some say he was the dragon whom St. Michael slew in paintings of old Earth. If anyone could survive in the land of demons, it would be Vermeer. "Your concern is appreciated, Merkesa, but my daughter is beyond precious to me. May I land?"
"None of our probes have ever returned from that place. Everything we sent there drops from the sky the moment it's over the accursed place."
"My ship is designed for smuggling operations, so it is impervious to most evils. I promise I will be careful."
"So be it. You have permission to land and carry out rescue operations. Be careful, Elf. I want you back in one piece so we can drink one another under the table while telling stories of our adventures when this is over."
"Roger that, Merkesa, and thank you. Magog out."
Losira sat down in the copilot's seat. "We've got a problem."
"Lord, it never rains, but it pours. What now?"
"Lortan's father attempted a coup against House Irithyl, probably in conjunction with Shenda's kidnapping."
"Is everyone OK?"
"Sort of. The coup was quietly put down, and the insurrectionists have been imprisoned."
"So what's the problem?"
"Christa, Torren, and Bobby suddenly dropped into comas. All three are in medbeds in the castle's infirmary. Gloria is convinced it has something to do with Shenda. She thinks she can help them, but needs time to implement her solution."
Harm put his head in his hands. "Ventos prime is light-years from here. Imagine the power involved if this is Cleth's doing. We have to stop him from carrying out his plans, whatever those plans are, while not killing my kids."
She reached over and linked with him for a moment. "I see you found the Rachel."
"Yeah, she's sitting on one big old plateau. It's three miles high and about a million square miles in surface area at the top. Like we thought, there's a permanent cloud deck ringing it at the ten thousand foot level. I detect a low-level energy-dampening field that the computer thinks would stop a probe or most normal ships up to a small freighter. This ship is far from normal. I've been making improvements on her using data I've collected since my release from Special Projects. The Magog is the ultimate smuggling platform. Not a redesigned small freighter, it's a purpose-built smuggling ship incorporating lessons learned over the course of decades of plying the trade," he said as he looked at the readouts. "Yeah, this is doable. Computer, adjust shields and engine harmonics to match dampening field and initiate course change for re-entry and arrival at plateau."
"Working... Course changes plotted and on the board. Waiting for final command."
Harm sat back in his seat and stared out the window.
"What are we waiting for?" Losira asked, not a little confused at the delay.
"The Magog is equipped with a skiff. Why don't you take it, head down to the planet, and wait this one out."
"You don't want me to go along?"
"No. I'd love to have you along. What I don't want is to be the cause of the death of the Queen of Ventos Prime and my only twin sister. You heard Merkesa. This plateau is like the foothills of hell."
"Aren't you sweet? Daft, but sweet. If memory serves, I'm the warrior, and you're the stay-at-home dad who protects the brood."
"We’re twins, and I'm prime! I'm supposed to protect you and our families, remember, and I haven't done such a good job, now have I?"
"No wonder both you and Shenda are having breakdowns. You're both trying to live up to impossible standards set by yourselves. Get over it. WE'RE going down to the plateau, and WE'RE going to save Shenda, stop the demon, and once more make the universe safe for the League and its people. Got it?"
"Yes, My Queen. Computer, engage!"
The Magog dropped out of orbit as if someone slapped it on its stern.
###
The first hint of trouble was an explosion just starboard and aft of the Magog. Harm grabbed the stick. "Buckle-up, the ride is going to get rough. I may have to overtax the inertial dampening fields. He said as he pulled back the stick while throttling back the main engines and punching the dorsal thrusters. The ship decelerated at twenty gees while dropping one hundred meters straight down. A large ship, bristling with weapons passed overhead, its retros firing madly as it tried to match the Magog's abrupt course change. As it went past, Harm pulled a trigger on the control stick, peppering the other ship with bright green paint splotches.
"Are you freaking kidding me?" Losira yelled. "Paint balls, really?"
"Sorry, Magog is unarmed except for tracker puck throwers and paintball guns." He stopped when the radio beeped. Thumbing the mic switch, he said, "Hello, you have reached Harmon Aymar. Unfortunately, I can't come to the phone right now..." The other ship heeled around like a scow in a riptide, and fired a barrage at the Magog which Harm easily evaded in the immensely more maneuverable Magog. "I
'm about to kick someone's moron ass. Leave a message and I'll get back to you...Beep!"
"Irithyl! Stand to and prepare to be boarded," a voice demanded over the radio. Harm jinked starboard and barrel rolled out of another barrage of weapons fire.
"Lortan! Damn good to hear your voice. How's the bastard son of that throne poser you call a mother doing these days? Run away from any puppies lately?"
"Harm, are you insane?" Losira yelled as a torpedo exploded ahead of them.
"Losira's with you, interloper? I shall destroy the both of you and be done with it," Lortan boasted.
"Lortan, you couldn't destroy a sand castle with the tide helping you. Is your sister with you? At least she's somewhat good looking, though like you, she lacks even rudimentary sense. Why don't you two go rent a wet nurse and call me in a few decades?"
Five more torpedoes closed the space between the ships, as Losira watched their sensor images in horror. At the last possible moment, Harm rolled the Magog ninety degrees port, catching the torp closest to the starboard side in its rear stabilizer fin. This caused the torp to flip end-over-end and head at full speed back at the pursuing ship, hitting it full on in the bow, severely damaging the ship. Meanwhile, Harm fired flares out the bow launcher. The other torps locked on, destroying the flares but leaving the Magog unharmed.
"I've had enough of this shit," Harm said as he pressed buttons.
"What are you doing?" Losira asked as she calmly gripped her armrests with enough force to tear the tough leather covering them.
"Scrambling their sensors and heading to the deck," he said, while thumbing the mic. "Lortan, catch me if you can." He pointed the nose straight down while pushing the main throttles past full military power. The Magog shot toward the waiting planet at over Mach six.
Losira watched the scanners in disbelief. "That idiot is following us."
"Good. The plateau is directly below us. Scan for the remains of the Rachel."
"You're not taking him there, are you?"
"No, but he has to know the field down there will muck with his systems, especially as damaged as he is, so he'll break-off and get the hell out of Dodge the minute I enter the field."
"Harm, as your older sister, I have to tell you your plan has more holes than a slab of Swiss cheese. Lortan is going to follow us into that field and do everything in his power to kill us with his sister's screams of anger egging him on."
"Naw... No way... You don't give him enough credit. Just in case..." Harm keyed the mic again. "Hey, Lortan, buddy. How you doing back there?"
A stream of curses and epitaphs streamed from the speaker like a shit storm from a sick bull, followed by a torp that Harm easily evaded.
"Listen, sorry about that crack about your mother," Harm apologized as he changed course vectors so that he was coming in more at an angle. "Um, the plateau we're heading toward is covered with an energy dampening field. I don't think your ship will survive entering it. Think of your crew. Tell you what, how about you and I meet someplace, have a few drinks, and talk this out like civilized elves."
This time, Lortan responded with a blaster bolt. It was dissipated by the Magog's shields while the gun itself exploded, leaving a large smoking hole in the larger ships hull.
"My God, are all royals this touchy?" Harm asked his sister, while killing the comm link and tapping commands into the pilot's terminal.
Losira looked at him in disbelief. "No, not all of them. There is you and... There's you!"
"Oh, point taken. I've reduced speed to Mach two and set up an approach which gives us about one minute to stop Lortan from killing himself and everyone aboard his ship."
"You do know he wouldn't hesitate to kill us, don't you?"
"I'm not him. Can you scan his ship and determine where everyone is sitting?"
"Sitting?" she asked as she ran scans. "Two bodies in the pilot and copilot's seats. Six more in theater seating behind the cockpit."
"Good," he said, while pressing a button on the console between his and Losira's seats. The center section of Lortan's ship detached and headed for the surface while the rest of the ship continued on course for the plateau.
"What did you do?" Losira asked, while watching events unfold on a secondary viewer.
"Lortan’s ship's central dorsal section can act as a lifeboat, so I ejected it remotely. Unfortunately, the cockpit pod is too damaged to do the same. Its occupants are going to have to ride this out the old-fashioned way. We are now entering the ED field." Harm switched to a reverse angle on the cockpit's main viewer. As they watched, Lortan's ship entered the field and immediately went dead. Moments later, it crashed into the ground, plowing a mile-long gouge through the forest. It came to a rest near a small lake.
Losira looked over at Harm. "Don't say it..."
"Sorry, but we've got to go see if there are any survivors," he said as he turned the Magog around and prepared for landing.
###
Shenda continued on her journey in silence, walking on autopilot, as her legs ate up the miles. She thought about her father, her siblings, and their future. The roar of a nearby waterfall broke her train of thought, stopping her before she walked over a vast precipice. She stopped and took stock of a view not seen on any planet she was familiar with.
In front of her was the edge of the plateau, below which the rest of the planet was hidden from view by an unbroken deck of clouds. Off to her left was the source of the roaring, a miles wide waterfall which disappeared into the clouds below. On the left side of the falls was a massive stone building, at its center a large crystal stood on a pylon.
"Wow," Shenda said as she took in the scene. "Is that the temple?"
"Yes. The crystal is the source of the energy-dampening field that blankets the plateau. That is our destination," Cleth said as he peered over the edge of the cliff before them.
Shenda stopped and listened to the sudden silence around her. Moments ago, the jungle was alive with screeches, roars, hoots, and calls, but now there was only dead silence. "Cleth, I think we have a problem," she said as a beast of impossible proportions emerged from the forest only to stop scant feet from the luckless elfling. Looking down at her, it roared with a sound not unlike a hundred angry lions. Shenda stood still, paralyzed with fear.
"Shenda, use your weapon," Cleth yelled over the beast's roars.
Shenda ripped her pistol from its holster and thumbed it to full power before firing on the behemoth.
It ignored the beams of raw energy as if they were gnats.
"Any other bright ideas?" she screamed as the thing advanced on her. Stepping back, she tripped on something, sending her sprawling. She now found herself staring up into a tooth-filled maw. Shenda screamed once more, possibly for the final time.
Before Cleth could answer, or the beast could make its final lunge, thousands of iridescent butterflies appeared from below the cliff and congregated between the beast and Shenda. As she watched, the butterflies turned toward the setting sun. Incredibly, thousands of beams of light emanated from their wings and hit the beast, burning spots in its tough hide. With a single scream, the creature leapt away from the source of pain, to land in the forest beyond. Shenda listened in amazement as the beast ran away, its screams of pain and fear fading into the distance.
"Hello," the cloud/flock/swarm said to Shenda. "I'm Hernog. I see you returned my Cleth to me. For that, I am eternally grateful."
Shenda sat there, torn between fear and wonderment, while still shaking from the attack. "You can see him?" she asked in a quivering voice as adrenaline coursed through her veins.
"Of course I can see him. He's standing next to you, happier than I have seen him in many star cycles."
"What you call years," Cleth explained. "Hernog, this is Shenda. She is here to help us reunite."
"Can you do this?" the butterflies said as they swirled around her like a glittering vortex of light. "That would be so wonderful!"
"Cleth thinks so, and who am I to argue with half a super
being."
The cloud performed barrel rolls while emitting a sound like ringing chimes. "Yes, so true. Come, I will take you to Vermeer who has been working on that same problem for the last fifty star cycles," Hernog said as her butterflies flew off toward the temple.
Shenda stood up and brushed herself off. "Cleth, are there any other dangerous creatures I should be aware of?"
"All of them. This plateau is home to thousands of species which would be classified as inimical to other life forms."
Shenda stopped and looked around, visually taking stock of the area along the tree line. "We've been trekking through these woods for the past two days, yet I've seen nothing. Are you sure about the danger?"
Cleth looked down at the ground. "I think they may sense me. The beast that attacked you probably thought you were a threat to its safety."
Shenda looked at Cleth in disbelief. "Are you freaking kidding me?" she asked as she checked her pack. "A thing as big as a school bus, with enough teeth to supply a scrimshaw school for a year, attacked because I, make that we, were a threat to it? What the hell were you doing up here to generate that much anger, hatred, and fear amongst the locals?"
Cleth shrugged. "What can I say? Hernog is the one with people skills."
Shaking her head, Shenda hurried after the cloud of butterflies while her companion disappeared into thin air.
###
An hour later, Shenda walked out of the forest onto an open area in front of a large stone building. Above the building jutted the crystal-topped spire she had seen from the distance. She was alone. For some reason, Cleth had decided not to manifest, at least not yet.
"Crikey! A visitor!" a cry came from off to the left of the building. Shenda looked and saw a miniature reptilian kaiju standing in a doorway. Shenda walked over to the refugee from one of her father's collection of Earth monster movies. As she got closer, she saw it was a male Sokuhl, a very odd one, but definitely a Sokuhl.
"Hello! My name is Shenda Aymar," she said, while extending her hand palm down in traditional Sokuhl greeting.
"Vermeer," he replied, while taking her hand in his and touching his forehead to it. "You know our ways?"