Eye of the Abyss

by Michael Formichelli

  “What kind?” Armstrong asked as they moved to follow the twins.

  “What?”

  “Of research, what kind?”

  “I think the facility was here to research the temple, but I’m not sure. It wasn’t on the athenaeum,” he said.

  “Athenaeum?”

  “Never mind.” He picked up the pace, climbing the smooth spiral of the stone ramp. “I guess we have no choice but to trust them for now.”

  “No, we don’ have to trust ‘em. We jus’ go along with ‘em for now. You seem to know them, though.”

  He nodded. “A little bit. We spent a week together back home.”

  “Sounds like y’all got up to no good that week.” Armstrong winked.

  “Um, well, let’s stay on our guard. We still don’t know what’s going on, and I don’t know them that well.”

  “All right, boss.” She winked again and bowed her head.

  The twins were waiting for them at the top of the stairs. With a gesture to follow, they lead him and Armstrong through the white corridors of the temple. It reminded him of the one on Elmorus, save that the air remained breathable and lacked the stench of sulfur. The noticeable absence of Savorchans also struck him as they climbed a second spiral up two levels and entered another corridor. Was this temple uninhabited? Who was their host, then? It wasn’t long before he found out.

  Europa led them through a doorway into onto open balcony enclosed by the soap-bubble shimmer of an aegis field. The balcony was the only part of the temple protruding from a sheer wall of black rock that rose up some twenty or thirty meters above it, and was partially enclosed by the slope of a mountain on either side. Directly ahead, far out where the plane below them met the horizon, a settlement’s lights shimmered beneath the sea of stars filling the sky. Ichiro surmised they must be over a hundred meters up above the floor of the basin from which the mountain, and its siblings to either side of it, rose.

  “Auks, this is Baron Mitsugawa and his, ah, servant, Arm-something or other.” She directed Ichiro’s attention to their host with a bright-eyed smile.

  Armstrong growled under her breath.

  A large being, even for a Savorchan, Auks was a meter and a half taller than Ichiro with cloak-draped shoulders so broad they could hold a lounging chair on each. He stood by the railing, his thick, pear-shaped head swinging back and forth over the cliff-face below.

  He watched in fascination as the yellow-veined muscles shifted beneath large, ivory plates when the big Savorchan turned to face them.

  “Welcome, Baron. Welcome, Armsomething.”

  “Armstrong,” she corrected in a low voice while staring at Europa.

  “Welcome, Armstrong,” Auks stated through the breather bonnet he wore on his head. A small, blue light blinked as it translated his ultrasonic language into Solan. “I am honored to have you in this temple, and am embarrassed I was unaware of your coming. Would that I could have prepared for it.”

  “Please don’t be embarrassed, we didn’t know we were coming, either,” Ichiro said. Tengu, trailing behind them, sniffed around the floor of the balcony before settling down in one of the corners by the door.

  The rough expanse of Auks’ head pointed at the cerberai for a long moment. “Still, I regret that I cannot offer you the comforts of your home. Our present situation has made such accommodations difficult.”

  Ichiro exchanged a glance with Armstrong.

  “They arrived some weeks ago and attacked the research facility, destroying the communications dish and the command center,” Enéas stated. “They stopped with that, thank the Will, but they haven’t seemed likely to leave since. Come and look.”

  He gestured them over to the railing. Ichiro peered over its edge and gritted his teeth.

  Below them, gathered at the foot of the mountain, was an army. His father taught him to do the quick estimates good field commanders could do by looking at the size and formations of combatants, but when he cast his gaze out over the assembled ranks of drones below it was different. Somehow he knew how many troops lay there to the exact number. He blinked, surprised that he was certain of such a strange detail.

  “A full battalion of four companies, 452 units. It seems like overkill,” he said. He zoomed his vision in using his cybernetic cornea and tensed. The silver comet of Cosmos Corp was evident on every combat drone and rail cannon present. “How did Zalor Revenant land forces without my knowledge?”

  “We mentioned the comm dish,” Europa said.

  He nodded. “Of course.”

  “We would have messaged Shiragawa Command otherwise, or maybe our father…” Enéas trailed off.

  “Maybe,” Europa said.

  “Revenant knows Phykor is a Mitsugawa research colony—”

  “—we’re sure of it,” Europa finished for her brother.

  Ichiro licked the top of his dry mouth. “Of course he does. I’m sure he doesn’t care, either.”

  “I’m sure, not,” she responded.

  “It is the same on the other worlds,” Auks said.

  “I’m sorry? What do you mean?” Ichiro asked.

  “The other Priors have reported that Revenant forces have landed on all worlds with an active Savorchan temple in the Confederation. All are now under siege as we are.”

  “All of them?” Armstrong drawled.

  “Yes, all.” Auks shifted his weight, a gesture that looked like a slowly melting candle.

  “Why?” Ichiro said.

  “We do not know,” Europa answered.

  He shook his head. First they appear here without any apparent means, and now this. He sighed, wishing Setha was at his side and worrying about Mamiya-san and his family. Had they all appeared at Savorchan temples around the Spur?

  “If we could get a message out, we could call for help,” Europa said.

  “I don’t see how that’s possible, though. The colony lacks the means of repairing the dish, and I doubt those ‘bots down there are going to lend a hand,” Enéas said. “Perhaps—”

  “—the way you and your companion arrived could offer some solution?” Europa finished for him.

  “If I knew what happened, maybe it could.” Ichiro frowned.

  “What happened?” Auks asked.

  “There was a green flash, and then we were here. There were others with us, but they don’t seem to have arrived. Have you heard of anything like this before?” he asked.

  “No.” Auks’ tiny mouth at the base of his broad head opened and closed for the first time during their conversation. Savorchans, he knew, spoke through the breathing holes the bonnet covered on top of their heads.

  “We detected an energy spike in the pool chamber,” Europa offered. “That’s what lead us down there.”

  “In the Pool of Shakhrath?” Auks asked.

  The twins nodded as one.

  “A green flash, and a spike in energy in the pool…” Auks placed a hand on the bone plates of his stomach. “There is a sphere in this system, it must have been used. Where were you before?”

  “Taiumikai,” he said. “There is no sphere there.”

  “Curious.” Auks’ head moved to point at the floor for a moment. He shifted his weight again, and Ichiro could hear the air rushing in and out of his body through the bonnet on his head. “It should not be possible to activate a sphere from a system without one.”

  “That was my understanding,” he said.

  “Unless…” Auks trailed off for a moment, then shifted his weight so suddenly it made him jump back and put a hand on Hoshinagi. “Tell me, would that cerberai’s name be Tengu?”

  A tingle went down his back. “Yes. How did you know?”

  “Ah.” Auks pointed his head down at the floor again. “I know because I have met the cerberai when he was a puppy. It was the day Irin’s daughter left for the stars.”

  “You know Setha?” The heart in his chest jumped up to his throat.

  “I met her once. I know of her,” Auks said. “I am of Irin’s tribe, a
nd it would be impossible not to know my future leader.”

  Ichiro licked his lips. “She sent us here, then?”

  “She is the only one I know of who could. Only one who has bathed in the Pools of Shakhrath could link to the Quantum Web to activate a sphere from so far away.”

  “The Quantum Web?” he asked.

  “A network built by the gods. Using terms you would understand, it exists in the fabric of space-time, built using a series of stabilized quantum-scale wormholes. There is an issue that concerns me, though.”

  “What’s that?” Ichiro licked his lips.

  “In order to activate a sphere from so far away, one would need incredible amounts of power. It was my understanding that one who was so transformed by the pool could not draw on so much at once.”

  He felt his stomach sink, remembering the burns on Setha’s body after she used the alien nanomachines on Elmorus. “What do you mean?”

  “I hesitate to say. For now, you must allow me to remain silent on this topic.”

  The twins exchanged a knowing look.

  Ichiro frowned, trying to resist the sense of dread that threatened to wash over him. Why would Setha have transported them here and not herself? The last thing he remembered was standing in the courtyard of his home. What happened? He sighed and looked over the balcony at Revenant’s forces. Perhaps that mystery would unravel in time. The nagging sense of responsibility his father instilled in him was already rising out of the darkness of his subconscious. Phykor was a Shiragawa world, and Revenant’s militarized intrusion into it was an act of war. He had a responsibility to these people to do something about it.

  “It is my understanding that the spheres allow instant transportation anywhere in the Spur.” he said.

  “Yes, that is the gist of it,” Auks responded.

  “I can get you help.”

  The twins looked at him.

  “Can you use this system’s sphere to transport me and my companions?”

  Auks nodded. “Of course, but there are two problems.”

  “Two?”

  “The first is that I can only place you in a star system, without a ship you will die. This is why I have not offered this solution to my guests here.” He gestured to the twins. “The second is that our coordinate systems are different. It may take some time to decipher where you intend to go.”

  He scratched his chin with his human hand, then nodded. “I see what you mean, but perhaps a solution can be found. Maybe there is something nearby that can be adapted to serve as a ship or life pod. I won’t give up.”

  “Admirable, but perhaps this is hopeless,” Auks said.

  “Until we figure that out, I have some coordinates to give you,” he said.

  “Stubbornness can lead to one’s destruction.”

  “Will you help?” Ichiro persisted.

  “Yes, of course. Where do you wish to go?”

  “To a place where I can pick up a warship and head back here to scrape Revenant from the face of this world.” He gave Armstrong a look. Tengu got to his feet.

  “The place is called Seika Zōsensho.”

  Chapter Six

  Calemni IIb, Extra-Terrestrial Mining Corporate Colony

  41:2:42 (J2400:3172)

  Cylus Keltan awakened to the punishing sensations of knives in his limbs and an ache in his head. He blinked his eyes open and saw a smooth, beige colored ceiling with illuminated molding. There was a foul stench in the air that would have made him wretch if he were able to move, but his body refused direction like an obstinate child. Attempting to turn his head sent pulses of agony shooting up into his teeth, and he groaned. A similar noise answered him from his left side.

  Lina? he transmitted, grateful that his implant was still working, though using it made his head throb.

  “Cylus, thank the goddesses you are still alive,” she messaged back.

  What happened? Where are we? Relief washed through him like a river at the sound of her voice.

  “I don’t know. I think we’re inside the house I was—”

  “Sit up,” a deep voice interrupted.

  To his horror he felt his muscles move to the will of the speaker, and his field of vision panned downward in a slow arc. He found himself looking at a room in total chaos with clothing and debris scattered about the floor over what looked like dried blood-splatter. A tall man stood over the detritus, staring at them with silver-ringed irises. Before he had a chance to take in the man’s features, a metallic glint on his lapel caught Cylus’ attention. He gasped. It was a silver eye surrounded by the curling arms of the Milky Way Galaxy. The man was an Abyssian.

  Cylus glared at his narrow face and unnaturally symmetrical features. The Abyssian’s skin was paler than Praetor Graves’, and his nose was shaped like the beak of some predatory beast. Short, oily-black hair clung to his scalp as though magnetized, and his square chin made him look like some kind of gang enforcer.

  “You’re a Praetor?” Lina asked.

  “You are designated Cylus Keltan, Baron of Keltan Securities. You are designated Pasqualina Olivaar, Heiress of House Olivaar, and betrothed of Cylus Keltan, Baron of Keltan Securities. Confirm,” he said in staccato speech.

  Cylus felt his jaw loosen, and he flexed his mouth just to feel it move under his own control. He was about to speak when it dawned on him that his face was no longer covered by the envirosuit.

  “Lina, are we at risk for what killed the colonists?” Panic cinched the muscles of his chest.

  “Negative. You will not be harmed. The nanomachine plague known as Siren is inert on this world,” the Praetor answered.

  “I think he’s right. My samples were all damaged,” she added.

  What’s going on? Oh goddess, are we going to die? The last thing I remember was seeing—the image of Ben’s head exploding flashed in his mind—something big coming for me while I waited in the street. There was a blue flash and then I woke up here. It—it—killed Ben. It wasn’t true in the strictest sense, Ben was actually a network of neuronic processors across multiple platforms, but whatever that thing in the street was, it destroyed the Ben Cylus took with him when they left Kosfanter. It was a shock to his system, even knowing that he would see Ben again when they got back—if they lived long enough to get back.

  Lina took a moment to respond. “I was upstairs getting more samples. I heard something open the door and I started down, thinking you decided to join me. I don’t remember what happened next.”

  His heart pounded in his chest, and each pulse was answered by a flash of pain in his temples. This Praetor must be keeping them alive for some nefarious purpose. He was starting to feel like prey again, and that was the one thing he could no longer abide.

  I will not be prey! He gritted his mental teeth, letting anger burn the fear. He couldn’t ever go back to the way he was before. After so many years of hiding from his enemies, he was finally becoming the man he was meant to be. He refused to go backwards; he wouldn’t allow it. He would be the strong man Lina believed he was no matter what.

  Captain Fukui? he sent, staring at the Praetor’s blank expression. When no reply came back, he broadcast it across multiple channels using his cerebral implant.

  “I can’t reach her either,” Lina messaged.

  He looked up at the beige ceiling above the Praetor’s head and wished he could scream. Where was Captain Fukui? Had he gotten her too? Why wasn’t she responding? Had he killed her because she wasn’t a baron or heir? The questions swirled about his mind like debris in a cyclone. He tried to access the colony’s Cyberweb, but all it returned was the ghostly images of the buildings around them overlaying his vision. The feature was a navigational aid, useful in the dust storms, but did nothing to help them now. He wasn’t a hacker. He couldn’t get past the limitations of being a guest in the system to access the colony’s surveillance or defensive machinery. He was useless again, right when he was finally feeling like he had power—

  No, not useless, he told himsel
f. He obviously had some use, or the Praetor would have killed him.

  He took several deep breaths, trying to convince himself he wasn’t going to go mad in the next few minutes. It took some effort, and he had a hard time doing it with the images of the violent deaths the colonists suffered in his head. The Praetor’s confirmation that it was Siren which drove them to a homicidal insanity meant they now had something circumstantial tying Zalor to both Calemni and Yoji’s death. The quarantine order came from Cosmos Corp, and if they could show some kind of link between the Laocoon and Zalor, they might actually have him for mass-murder. He was closer now than he had ever been to proving Zalor’s guilt. The rush he got from knowing that fueled the fire of his anger.

  “Who are you?” he asked the Praetor.

  “Confirm your identities.”

  “We are the ones you named,” Lina said.

  “Who are you?” he repeated, not sure what he was going to do with the information. No baron could be a threat to one of Daedalus’ brood. Maybe he could complain to Praetor Graves when he saw him again. This Abyssian had destroyed one of Ben’s platforms and was holding them hostage. He had a lot to answer for already if he could ever be held accountable.

  “Your biometric signatures match verbal confirmation. I am Praetor Modulus of the Abyssian Order. I operate with the authority of Daedalus, Supreme Commander of Star Corps, and the Protector of the Confederation of Sovereign Systems. You are unharmed. I have implanted a command program into your cerebral computers. You will not be able to move without release of permissions. Any attempt to do so may result in negative sensory data. Please do not attempt to move.” Praetor Modulus’ eyes stared straight ahead. His face went slack.

  “What’s going on here? Why are you holding us?” Lina asked.

  He did not answer.

  “You destroyed my artificial servant. You’ll be held accountable,” Cylus said. “How did you get here? We didn’t detect other ships in the system. Answer my questions, dammit!”