Hollow Moon

by Steph Bennion

  “Mother!” cried Surya. “I thought you had abandoned me!”

  “Maharani Uma,” snarled Taranis, mocking her with a sarcastic version of a salute. “Exile has done you good. All these years and you have not aged a day.”

  “Fenris convinced me you were in genuine need of sanctuary,” she said, looking squarely at the priest as she moved down the steps. “To my shame I played along when he duped Quirinus into bringing you here like a shipload of spare parts. But you must have known that once I learned the extent of your treachery I would not let it pass.”

  “You wanted to be back in power as much as anyone,” Fenris challenged her. “You do not have the moral high-ground here!”

  “You knew he was here?” Surya looked at his mother in dismay.

  “He was out of sight, out of mind,” she replied bitterly. “It was only later I learned of Fenris’ deceit. During the evacuation I found the tunnel and came to confront Taranis myself. I did not have the strength to open the hatch so hid until I saw you arrive. I am glad you have found friends,” she said. “That is the only good thing to have come from this sorry tale.”

  The Maharani reached where Fenris stood at the bottom of the steps, regarded him coldly, then slapped him hard across his face. Before he had time to react, her other hand closed deftly around the gun in his hand and plucked it from his grasp.

  “That man nearly murdered us all,” Ravana said angrily, as she helped The Flying Fox to his feet. “He put a bomb on the Platypus. My father may never be able to see again.”

  “Fenris lacks the courage to kill face to face,” the Maharani remarked. She drew Surya close and put a protective arm around his shoulders. “Arranging the kidnap was bad enough, but what I truly cannot forgive is the attempts to brainwash my son! I found your secret device under Surya’s bed, so don’t deny it,” she said to Fenris.

  “That is the way of the greys,” Fenris replied, unabashed. “In your head be it.”

  “That box was a mind probe?” asked Surya. “I’m glad I broke it.”

  “What!?” retorted Fenris.

  “From what Kartikeya told me, you were ready to join us with or without mental manipulation!” Taranis said to Surya. One of his legs limped as he clanked closer, but as yet the priest remained oblivious to the cat munching upon his circuitry. “It seems your mother’s desire to return to a life of idle luxury in Ayodhya has rubbed off on you.”

  “What did you want with Surya?” demanded the Maharani. “You already have a puppet to do your bidding on Yuanshi, not to mention your devoted Dhusarian followers.”

  “Kartikeya is weak and his rebel army are fools!” Taranis snapped. “As for the so-called Dhusarian Church, it needs me in more places than I am able to be. My congress of disciples, alien cyberclones implanted with my wisdom and desires, will take on this burden and spread the word of the greys!” The years fell away as his words erupted with a passion that judging by her scowl the Maharani remembered only too well. “The first twelve are but moments from birth. A new Maharaja on Yuanshi will put the Que Qiao plantations in my hands and provide hundreds more!”

  “You’re using equipment stolen from our laboratories!” Ostara suddenly realised.

  “The detective has finally cracked her first case,” Fenris said mockingly.

  The Maharani handed the pistol to Ostara. “Feel free to shoot him,” she said.

  “We need to get to the reactor controls!” Ravana whispered urgently.

  “It is too late for that,” snarled Taranis. “My disciples awake!”

  Ravana felt another rush of images flow through her mind. A series of gurgles filled the air and green liquid began to pour from vents at the bottom of the twelve cloning vats. Now she could see clearly the creations within and stared in both fascination and horror as the inhuman figures began to twitch and press spindly grey fingers against the glass. As the tanks drained their last, Taranis’ twelve disciples were revealed in all their twisted glory; strange hybrids with the muscular stance of a human but with the haunted features of their unwilling mother. Yet the gentle composure of the creature quivering inside the cage was lacking in the twelve, for their lizard-like grimaces mirrored the merciless countenance of Taranis himself. Their six-fingered fists hammered upon their glass prisons in newly-born rage.

  “Greys?!” exclaimed The Flying Fox.

  “Lizard men!” gasped Surya.

  “She’s the mother,” murmured Ostara, pointing to the cage. “So Taranis is the father?”

  “Gross,” muttered the Maharani. “I don’t even want to think about it.”

  Ravana winced and put a hand to her head. Inside her mind, the angry thumping of fists against glass was a thunder of hatred and confusion. She did not know how, but she could feel the thoughts of the twelve as their raw alien emotions bled into her implant, drenching her in fear from within. She suddenly felt a hand shaking her shoulder.

  “Ravana!” whispered the birdman. “You’re going into a trance again!”

  “I can’t help it,” she moaned. “It’s all too much!”

  “Don’t worry,” he replied. “If I get a chance, I know what to do!”

  The glass vats had now completely drained, leaving a pool of green sludge upon the floor. The steel walls of the engine room echoed with a staccato of loud clunks, then a vertical slit appeared in each tank and they began to split like huge seed pods. Grey scaly fingers scrabbled through the widening gaps as the clones inside forced the vats open.

  “Magnificent!” Taranis cried. “My children! My disciples! My chosen ones!”

  He turned his back upon his human audience and shuffled through the sludge to welcome his creations. Ravana’s cat still clung to its precarious perch on his spider-walker torso, voraciously gnawing upon the bundle of wires caught up in its diamond-tipped paws. Now two of Taranis’ mechanical legs were visibly dragging, yet the priest was too wrapped up in his moment of triumph to notice.

  “Jones!” whispered Ravana. “What are you doing?”

  “I think your cat has bitten off more than it can chew,” observed Ostara.

  One by one, their grey scaly skin damp and glistening, the twelve clones stepped free of their glass wombs, lifted their arms towards the priest and in unison released a quivering howl. They were truly a terrible sight to behold; a humanoid yet somehow reptilian perversion of nature that moved with the cold implacable air of a snake preparing for the kill. The grey in the cage whimpered and tugged frantically at the bars of its prison. The clones cried out again, only this time their squealing voices sounded defiant and almost human.

  “zz-taaraaniis-zz!” screeched the twelve. “zz-leeaad-uus-zz!”

  “Do my bidding, my disciples!” the priest cried, then whirled around and pointed to his unwilling guests. “These people are unbelievers. Show them the path to oblivion!”

  The clones instantly lunged forward and surrounded Ravana, Ostara, the Maharani, Surya and The Flying Fox to block their escape. Ostara gave a shriek and dropped Fenris’ pistol, then watched in dismay as it clattered across the floor and out of sight. The twelve stood poised, their bony grey fingers outstretched like claws as they awaited the word of the priest. Looking smug, Fenris strode to Taranis’ side. His gloating smile quickly faded when he saw the mess Ravana’s cat had made of the priest’s electronic entrails.

  “Blasted cat!” he yelled. “Get off him!”

  “What is going on?” roared Taranis.

  “Was this your plan?” Surya asked Zotz, who had finally removed his tattered mask.

  Fenris leapt forward, grabbed the electric pet and pulled it away from the priest, then dived for cover as a shower of sparks exploded from Taranis’ mechanical torso. A thin burbling voice drifted up from the AI unit beneath the seat of the multi-limbed chair.

  “Reboot me,” the spider walker whispered. “Reboot me…”

  “You idiot!” shouted Taranis. The priest tried to turn but his metal legs refused to budge. Smoke poured from beneath his se
at and the smell of short-circuited wiring and melting plastic filled the air. “What have you done?”

  “This stupid thing will eat anything!” cried Fenris. He scooted around to face Taranis and held Ravana’s electric pet up high. “And now it has eaten its last!”

  “zz-eeaateen-iits-laast-zz!” echoed the twelve.

  “No!” cried Ravana. “Leave my poor cat alone!”

  “Thraak! Thraak thraak!”

  The sudden cry cut though the air, piercing yet jagged as the creature in the cage finally found its voice. As one the clones turned their heads, for what they heard was not a plaintive call for help but a fierce demand to shut up and listen. The grey’s defiant cry died as abruptly as it had begun, only now the twelve were staring at Fenris and the struggling pet in his arms. They had heeded the scolding tones of their mother, for she was not happy.

  “What is this?” demanded Fenris, as the clones moved to surround him.

  “You’re a bully and a coward,” Ravana said calmly. “I don’t think they like you.”

  Fenris gingerly lowered her electric pet to the floor and backed away. Behind, Taranis wriggled helplessly in his seat as he tried to get his metal legs to work. The cat looked up at them both, gave a self-satisfied meow, then trotted calmly towards Ravana and burped.

  “The cat?” said Fenris. “Right as rain! Such a sweet little kitty.”

  His words became a strangled yelp as all twelve clones suddenly reached forward and placed their outstretched fingers upon his head. Fenris tried to look away but was drawn into their emotionless expressions. His own hands fell weakly to his side.

  Ravana felt an odd tingling sensation via her implant. In her mind’s eye she pictured a warm glow cascading from the clones’ fingertips, seeping down through Fenris’ body. The visible thumping of his chest eased and an angry grimace became a gentle smile. Cleansed of his fears, Fenris looked as if every one of his senses drank their fill of utmost bliss.

  “Rapture!” he murmured. “It’s beautiful!”

  Still the twelve kept their hold upon him. His chest no longer heaved and Fenris began to waver, his breathing now too shallow to take in air. A brief expression of panic flickered in his eyes, the blood drained from his face, then suddenly he fell and with a thump landed lifeless upon the floor.

  “zz-uunbeeliieeveer-zz!” chanted the twelve. They lowered their hands. “zz-aall-thaat-iis-paart-dooees-beeloong-zz!”

  “Behold the might of my disciples!” cried Taranis. “The power of the greys!”

  “Is he…?” asked Surya, staring wide-eyed at the fallen body.

  Ostara nodded. “They killed Fenris!”

  “Good riddance to bad rubbish,” muttered the Maharani. In the shock of the moment she saw an opportunity to escape and pulled a dumbstruck Surya towards the stairs.

  “Jones has an alien AI chip for a brain,” Ravana whispered, realising what had happened as she scooped her cat into her arms. “Taranis said they care for nothing but the mind. The clones were just trying to protect their own kind!”

  Taranis’ creations slowly advanced to where Ravana and Ostara stood. As Ravana stepped back, her foot caught something upon the floor and she glanced down to see a discarded red birdsuit. The Flying Fox himself was nowhere to be seen.

  “This is the first time I would really like my implant to be made of alien brain cells,” murmured Ravana. Her cat started making retching noises.

  “Yes, but where does that leave me?” wailed Ostara.

  Ravana dropped her pet into Ostara’s arms and stepped towards the twelve. She had caught sight of Zotz in a vest and shorts, looking incredibly small and vulnerable without his superhero costume, as he scurried around the back of the empty vats towards the reactor. Behind her, Ostara clutched the cat to her chest, stroking it frantically as if that were the only way to stop it exploding. Her heart pounding, Ravana stood before the clones and held up her hands. She had never felt more terrified in her life.

  “All that is part does belong,” she declared. “Do I belong?”

  The twelve stopped. Taranis scowled at her from his immobile perch. Behind him, the caged mother of the clones once more gesticulated wildly towards the book on top of the crate. Zotz had reached the reactor and Ravana’s glance caught his own as he started to pull at the conduit that ran down the side of spherical chamber and into the floor.

  “zz-beeliieevee-zz!” the clones chanted. “zz-oonlyy-theen-wiill-yyoouu-truulyy-beeloong-zz!”

  “You learn quickly,” Taranis growled approvingly to Ravana. “You would have made a formidable leader of men. It is not too late for you and the Raja to be at my side! A vacancy has arisen, as you can see,” he added dryly. His glare flickered to Fenris’ prone body.

  Ostara stifled a yelp as she was tugged from behind. Surya had returned and was pulling at her sleeve, eager for her to follow. Meanwhile, Zotz had opened the cable conduit and was haphazardly pulling lengths of wire free. Ravana tried not to stare in a way that would alert Taranis to the attempted sabotage, but there was something about the reactor she found oddly familiar. Inspiration struck her as she realised Professor Wak had used schematics of the Dandridge Cole fusion plants in her engineering classes.

  “Do you really think we would join you?” she remarked loudly. “That would be like joining the orange wires on a temperature sensor. Things would quickly get out of control.”

  “An odd and irrelevant metaphor!” retorted Taranis. Zotz however took the hint and after selecting the correct cables from the bundle in his hand began to feverishly scrape at the orange insulation with his fingernails. “The ethics of youth are foolish and untamed,” the priest continued. “Yet your spirit is strong. That can be broken!”

  Ravana winced as a blast of pain tore though her head and smashed away all rational thought. Suddenly, she was back in her virtual-reality nightmare, seeing walls of grey books squeeze towards her, their pages spilling out thousands of miniature mechanical priests on spider-walker legs. In her mind the arachnids were all over her once more, crawling up her limbs, over her face and in her hair, then amidst it all she saw the real Taranis, standing behind his alien clones, laughing at her.

  Close to exhaustion, she concentrated upon the cruel grin of the priest and crushed the illusions in her mind. The clones stepped forward to surround her with all hands outstretched. Ravana caught sight of Zotz frantically trying to join the bared wires together and failing miserably.

  “For Frigg’s sake, Zotz!” she cried wearily. “Tie a knot in it!”

  Taranis snapped his head around and saw Zotz holding two orange wires.

  “Stop, puny child!” cried the priest. “You are powerless before me!”

  “I am Zotz Wak,” the boy declared. “I may not have the badge, but I can tie a knot!”

  With a last defiant twist, he knotted the wires and stepped back. The engine room instantly came alive with flashing red beacons and the sound of sirens. Startled, the twelve clones shuffled to a halt, unsure of what to do. Zotz, knowing perfectly well how to react, dashed across the chamber and was back with Ostara halfway up the steps before Taranis could muster his disciples. The control desk near the hatch began to recite a warning in carefully-modulated tones.

  “Reactor coolant failure. Engine room ejection in thirty seconds.”

  “What!?” Taranis roared. “This is a trick! The reactor is stable!”

  “Tell it to the console,” retorted Ravana.

  She glanced up at the hatch, then rushed to the cage to try to free the trapped grey but could not open the door. Taranis shouted an order and the nearest clone came towards her, its scaly arms outstretched. Ravana picked up a wrench that lay next to the book on the nearby crate and started to hammer hysterically at the lock.

  “Ravana!” cried Zotz. “We need to get out of here!”

  “Reactor coolant failure,” came the voice. “Engine room ejection in twenty seconds.”

  Ravana looked helplessly at the sad stare of the creature in t
he cage and felt the gentle touch of its hand upon her arm. Its other pointed a spindly finger to where Zotz was jumping up and down on the stairs and beckoning to Ravana to follow.

  “I am so sorry,” she whispered. Tears welled in her eyes as she rested her fingers upon the creature’s own. “I will never forget you.”

  “Reactor coolant failure. Engine room ejection in ten seconds.”

  Ravana stood up and grabbed the book from the top of the nearby crate. If Taranis was mad before, this simple act of theft made him more furious than ever.

  “No!” shrieked Taranis. “The sacred texts! Disciples, stop her!”

  Ravana ran towards the stairs as fast as her legs could carry her, then crashed to the floor as another surge of pain shot through her skull and sent her reeling. She scrambled up the steps and reached the hatch with the disciples close at her heels. Zotz pulled her through the opening just as the first of the twelve made a grab for the book under her arm. Moments later it was Ostara’s turn to pull her forward yet again. Ravana heard a clang as Zotz shoved the airtight hatch closed behind her and spun the locking wheel.

  Surya and the Maharani were waiting anxiously when Ravana, Ostara and Zotz rushed through to join them in the room ahead. As Zotz went to close the outer hatch they heard a series of muffled explosions and the room began to shake.

  All of a sudden, a gust of escaping air slammed the hatch shut of its own accord. Zotz, still holding the handle, yelped as he was pulled off his feet. Ravana felt one last burst of pain in her mind, but this time it was a cry of despair; the final shout of anguish as Taranis felt the engine room separate from the Dandridge Cole. So it was that he and his disciples were condemned to a dark oblivion.

  Zotz put an eye to the spy hole. The huge silver cylinder that was the ejected engine room spiralled away into space, spewing tiny jets of gas as emergency systems hastened it away from the asteroid. Soon it was no more than a speck in the black.

  Ostara lowered the electric cat to the floor. “Have they gone?”

  Ravana felt the pain in her head subside and nodded. “They’ve gone.”