D'mok Revival: The Nukari Invasion Anthology

by Michael Zummo

  Ine’s mouth gaped slightly, and his face flushed.

  “Steady, friend,” Mencari whispered.

  Ine shook his head and hollered at the figure, “Who are we? Men died from crystal creatures back in the mines. Was this your doing?”

  Her pace didn’t change, but now the strident voice asked, “Crystal creatures?”

  As she spoke, the figure reached up with a hand and pushed down the hood of the robe, exposing a lock of unnaturally thick, dark-amethyst hair. The face was nearly human, and perhaps even beautiful once. The left side, however, sported a sickly-looking blue-green skin that sparkled like the spots the creatures left on the cavern walls. Her hunched posture gave the impression that she was in her twilight years, in contradiction to the better half of her youthful complexion.

  “Yes, creatures,” Ine said, boldly. “Crystal spiders, beetles, and . . . and some beastly behemoth.”

  The reply was cool. “If these men unleashed such creatures in the first place, they very well earned their fate.”

  Mencari’s calming hand was useless to stop Ine’s rage. “Earned? We were simply tunneling, doing our jobs. And these things came out and attacked us in the mines!”

  She gave a dismissive wave. “Were they not kept locked up in a room deep inside my cave? I believe your men let them loose!”

  Mencari said, his voice quiet, “Calm down, Ine.”

  “Calm down? Did you hear? They were her monsters—”

  “Monsters?” The woman spat the word. “This is why I avoid people! Do I not live in a cave? Who’s trespassing here? It’s not my fault you came tunneling into my domain. I’ve been here for hundreds of years. You are the ones who should be asking for forgiveness!”

  Ine brandished the pick. “Twisted old witch!”

  “Perhaps. But not mistaken!”

  Ine said, through gritted teeth, “Who are you?”

  She gazed coldly at him. Her voice was deadpan and forceful. “I am Seigie . . . Seigie Weun.”

  The name stopped the miner cold. He glanced at Lady Weun, then back at her. “You lie. This is . . .” His eyes squinted. “The fortress . . . Those creatures. Your age . . . You must be the legend. But . . .” He looked back to Lady Weun. “I saw . . . her skills . . .”

  Mencari glanced at Lady Weun. Her breathing had become erratic. Ine also turned his eyes on her. “Then who are you?” he hissed at his companion.

  “I . . . I am Lady Elle Weun.”

  Seigie’s head tilted to the side. “Lady Elle Weun?”

  There was a long pause as the others waited for more of an explanation, but none came. Seigie’s curiosity faded. “I have work to do. However you came, leave and don’t come back. I might not be as cordial next time.”

  As she turned away, the tiny creatures behind her scurried to the sides of the cave passage, opening a path for her to leave. She took a few heavy steps, then hesitated and made a lumbering turn back. “I wonder . . . what became of the creatures you encountered?”

  “When we killed them, they became piles of gems,” Mencari said.

  She gave a thoughtful nod. “Interesting, but not surprising. They were . . . early creations.”

  “We’re not done yet!” Ine blurted.

  She sighed as though disenchanted and turned back to walk away. “What is there to do? Your men are gone. My creatures are gone. Now go away.”

  “We’re not done yet, WITCH!”

  Mencari saw her fist flood with blue light, and the scurry of little feet ran away from them down the hallway. Seigie began to shout, “Oh…”

  His body washed with a golden glow.

  “YES…”

  Mencari bolted towards Ine.

  “WE . . .”

  Mencari yanked Ine backward, sending the pick flying from his hands. Instinctively, he extended his hand forward, recalling what his mentor had done in the caves with him. Seigie turned towards them.

  “ARE!” she screamed hurling four deep-blue gems at them.

  The gems collided midair and exploded into a torrent of water. As the wave approached, Mencari’s radiant aura extended, erecting a barrier like Osuto had. A cry rose from his companions as the water crashed against it. The protective light held against the incredible pressure, rerouting the flood harmlessly around the three of them. Ine’s pick was swept away in the torrent, washing through the opening to the outside, where it was tossed in the torrent over the ledge to disappear into the deep chasm beyond.

  In moments, the violent flow became a harmless mist. Mencari lowered his hand and saw the perplexity on Seigie’s haggard face, its ancient lines deepened with disbelief.

  He glanced back at his companions. Lady Weun seemed okay, but Ine cried out in anguish, “What the hell is going on?” and put his hands to his face. As the last of his adrenaline faded, he succumbed to his wounds and collapsed. Lady Weun broke his fall and checked him hurriedly, kneeling and reaching into her bag to search for a healing crystal.

  “You have my attention,” Seigie said from behind him. “Make the most of it.”

  Mencari turned back to continue the facedown with Seigie.

  “Who are you?” she boomed.

  “My name is Rhysus Men—”

  “I don’t want your name. What are you?”

  “I’m a human.”

  “I think not. Since I arrived on this forsaken planet, no one has been able to oppose me. It is unlikely that a human could do so.”

  Mencari motioned to Lady Weun. “You two also have the same skills. . .”

  Lady Weun looked awkwardly toward Seigie, who said, her voice guarded, “Lady Weun? I have seen no such evidence!”

  Mencari motioned again, coaxing Lady Weun to step forward. She lowered Ine’s head to the floor, then, keeping her eyes on Seigie, rose and took a deep-blue gem from her pouch and gripped it tightly. As light poured from her hands, Mencari glanced back at Seigie.

  Lady Weun turned toward the cave opening and tossed the gem. Like Seigie’s, it broke, creating a much smaller wave of water that gushed into the chasm.

  Seigie’s smugness had disappeared. The strange being was silent for a moment, then said in wonder, “Nothing for all these years. And now two with powers like mine . . . in one day?” Her glowing scarlet gaze bored into Lady Weun’s. “And where are you from?”

  “From here,” Lady Weun replied. “My mother and father were from the Alenir province. My father’s name was Weun.”

  Seigie nodded. “I remember Alenir well. I lived there with my last husband.”

  Lady Weun gasped. “How long ago?”

  A cold, pained laugh escaped her ancient form. “Hundreds of years ago. You could be my great-to-the-infinite-power granddaughter. Except that . . . I thought my spawn had all died.”

  Seigie edged toward Lady Weun, looking her over. As she neared, a strange feeling filled Mencari. Seigie kept walking, but suddenly swiveled her head toward him. Her eyes held knowing.

  “I feel it,” she said.

  “The warmth?”

  She gave him a slow nod, and looked at Lady Weun.

  “Rhysus said we might be descendants of a race destroyed long ago,” Lady Weun said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Perhaps you . . .”

  As much as a face made mostly of crystal could, Seigie’s expression crumpled, became wary.

  Mencari said, “I was told those of that ancient race were called the D’mar. And those with abilities like ours were called D’mok warriors.”

  Ine moaned from where he lay at Lady Weun’s feet. She knelt and broke a green crystal, placed it on his forehead.

  Seigie stopped walking and looked away.

  “D’mar? D’mok? I never thought I would hear those names again.”

  She turned and took a few steps toward the opening to the chasm, hesitated. Confused, she turned back toward the three. Then she stared at Mencari. “Human man, what do you know of these D’mar?”

  “Only what has been told to me so far,” Mencari replied. “They wer
e explorers, and wiped out by another race, the—”

  “Nukari.”

  Seigie’s simple word brought a gasp from Lady Weun, as the pain of hearing it ripped through Mencari. He nodded, adding, “On our way to the crystal caves we ran into two. And their pod. But we destroyed them.”

  Seigie whirled to face him, her crystalline eyes glowing. “That’s impossible, they’re long gone!”

  He shook his head. “They attacked my people a few years ago. And we discovered today that they are here, on this world, right now.”

  Lady Weun nodded. “It’s the truth.”

  Seigie lowered her eyes. “They left long ago. They were gone!”

  Mencari said, gently in the face of her unease, “Perhaps. But they’ve returned.”

  There was nothing more he could say. She paced, each thud of her heavy feet a shout that echoed from every wall of the cave. Eventually she looked back at them.

  “How do you know the Nukari?” Mencari asked.

  After a long moment, she replied, “Because I am D’mar.”

  Mencari believed he had found a D’mok warrior with Lady Weun. But, considering her claimed age, Seigie was an original, a native to D’mar itself.

  “My mentor, Osuto, is also D’mar,” he said. “He was a D’mok warrior.”

  Seigie thought a moment. “D’mok . . . D’mar. Our race . . . whatever it once was . . . is no more. Does any of this matter anymore?”

  “It may to the Nukari,” he replied. “What can you tell me of your past? Your history. Osuto has told me about the first Defenders, about the invasion of the original colonies. But that’s all.”

  Seigie’s ruby-red eyes hollowed as she gazed into memories burned into her mind. “Some details you already know. The Great Council, which led our world, knew the Nukari were coming. Defenders, all D’mok warriors, were gathering, but we needed more.”

  She gave a bitter laugh. “What a plan that was. And what a name. Defenders. Anyone with any type of so-called ‘ability manifestation’ was called upon to help defend our world. I was sixteen, and a fool. The epitome of youthful arrogance. I volunteered. I was Pre-Sutrite.”

  “Pre-Sutrite?” Mencari said.

  She nodded. “Don’t you remember how your abilities began? Being Pre-Sutrite means one hasn’t blown anything up yet.”

  Visions of Anaka’s death, and the great light surrounding him, filled his mind. He said, “I might have D’mok abilities, but I have a lot to learn. Please, continue.”

  “I was told of a way to . . . speed up the emergence of my abilities. Maybe they didn’t know about the long-term effects. Or they didn’t expect me to survive long enough that it mattered.”

  She paused again, torment reflecting in her eyes. Mencari waited a while in silence, then asked, “What did they do?”

  She pointed to her face. “This. Constant pain, and this damned eternal life. The curse to watch all those you love die before you. To behold new life born, to love and care for them. To see them grow up, then weaken and become gray, then old. To bury them.”

  “How many have I loved? And not one survived? I have nothing. Everything dies. Except me. I’ve been made a god. I can’t even cut my own hair. It wears down and breaks off!”

  Mencari said, “Do you know how they did it?”

  She laughed as if he’d told her a joke, but without the punchline. “They called it ‘infusion.’ Of what? I have no idea. Mineral, alien, animal, engineered? Who knows? I was placed on a table, loaded into a tube, slid into some machine. I fell asleep. When I woke up, my shrieks of pain were nothing compared to the inferno beneath my skin. Like molten metal had been poured on me. Into me.”

  Her eyes flashed. “My mind eventually returned to me. The pain didn’t subside, but my body became used to it. I was bedridden. Every morning I’d wake up, and my skin had lost more of its color. I was told I’d get better, that I could train soon. That kept me alive.”

  “Then I noticed what they were feeding me. It started with specks of crystal, ground to dust, like a spice. I was told it was necessary after the infusion. Within days, I came to crave the crystals over food. Weeks after being infused, I began what they called rehabilitation. Then they handed me my first crystal, a brilliant blue tourmaline. Such brilliance!”

  She reached for a blue stone embedded in the skin just below her neckline, and tenderly stroked it. Her ancient fingers made grinding sounds as they flexed. The act caused a bit of crystal dust to sift down and collect on her robe.

  “I thought the gem was magic, but they told me it was my own doing. The next day, I was sent off-world, to the D’mok training center. I was amazed. Those who had naturally manifested their power were there, helping to train others. But the number of volunteers like me was staggering. We seemed to have a variety of abilities, and some of us, perhaps more power, but the ‘naturals’ had more control. And they could combine their powers collectively, something I never mastered. No matter the training, it always seemed they were superior.

  “Half a year later, word came. The Nukari were heading for our home planet. The Council convened, decided all our Defenders combined wouldn’t be able to stem a full-blown Nukari assault. The best we’d do was buy time as the others abandoned our world.”

  Like a nervous tic, she reached into a pouch and pulled a few crystals out, playing with them between her fingers.

  “There’s not much more to tell. The Nukari came sooner than expected. Before our ships could leave, the planetary defenses activated. The skies were filled with explosions. And for the first time, we saw D’mok—the D’mok we are named after—take to the skies. He alone went as our first line of defense.”

  She dropped a crystal absent-mindedly and paused to pick it up before continuing, groaning heavily as she straightened.

  “The battle was . . . tremendous. D’mok summoned power I’ve never seen before, or again. Destroyed the entire armada. But it cost him dearly. He returned to the homeworld badly weakened. When the second wave of attackers came, we tried to stop him. We told him we were ready to fight. He wouldn’t allow it. He was adamant. Then he returned to the sky. To defend us.”

  One of the crystals glimmered faintly as buried emotion played havoc with her control of the gem’s energy. Mencari opened his mouth to suggest he’d heard enough, that she shouldn’t stress herself so. She saw his expression, dismissed his concern with a wave and continued, her tone subtly defiant.

  “D’mok reengaged the armada. The sky filled with shooting stars, each one an enemy vessel exploded. We saw a large shadow. We thought perhaps it was a main Nukari ship. But . . .” Her voice lost its edginess, became almost reverent. “We all felt a warm glow: not of pain, but of calm. Such a . . . pure feeling.”

  She closed her eyes. “I saw a massive ray of light streak across the battleplane. The shadow erupted. As the explosion died, the fireworks in the sky . . . stopped. We were either safe, or about to die. All we could do was wait.”

  She opened her eyes again. “A siren blared, and half the planetary shield disappeared. Speakers boomed instructions. We loaded the lifeboats, millions of us. We thought we were safe. How foolish! As soon as our lifeboats cleared the atmosphere, we saw a third wave of Nukari speeding toward our planet, ten times the size of the others.”

  She looked down, her rigid face cracking with tension, and let out a bitter chortle. “And then I knew what D’mok said was true. This was the end. For him. For our world. As we jumped into light-speed, I saw the first attacks hitting our planet. We don’t know where D’mok was by then. But . . . he was unlike anyone I ever met.”

  She cleared her throat, and her cold demeanor returned. “My family didn’t make it to the transports. And the vessel I ended up on never made it to the rendezvous location. We had to land on the first habitable planet. We set up a colony there. I was their great Defender. But I couldn’t protect them from the virus that killed them. All but two of them, anyway.

  “The three of us used a small scout craft to g
et away. But the other two died in the journey. I needed my minerals only, not the air, food or water they did. So I survived until I ended up here.” She let out a cold laugh. “I tried to be grateful that I survived. I have been married to—many men. But they’re gone too. All of them died, most of old age. Each time, I’d tell myself, at least I escaped the Nukari.”

  Another bitter laugh, and she turned her eyes to Lady Weun. “So here I am. I saw my planet, my family destroyed. Since then, everyone I loved, I’ve outlived. And to think I was supposed to be a great Defender. D’mok? Even he couldn’t stop the Nukari.”

  “But they’re back.”

  At Mencari’s quiet statement, immeasurable emotion suffused her stony face. Then she turned and began walking away. “I couldn’t do anything before. I wouldn’t be able to now.”

  “But your skills,” Lady Weun called after her. “You and Rhysus could work together!”

  Mencari said, “We could make a difference.”

  Still facing away, Seigie retorted, “Oh, could we? I’ve tried that. You, youth that you are, have no idea.”

  She slipped into the darkness, still barking. “Leave. Go back to wherever you came from.”

  Lady Weun refused to give up easily. “But the Nukari have already been here! Don’t you think they’ll send more of those things? Don’t you care—?”

  “LEAVE!”

  Her thudding steps continued, grew fainter. After a moment, Mencari said, “It’s no good. Let’s find our way out of here.”

  Lady Weun turned to him with wild eyes. “If the Nukari come back, she can help us defend Aeun!”

  “We don’t have a choice. It’s her choice.” He threw his hands into the air. “Maybe I can have Osuto try to talk to her. I . . . I’m not sure what else.”

  Sighing, Lady Weun nodded, and between the two of them, they helped Ine to his feet.

  * * * * *

  When they reached the spot where Ine’s dead friend still sat, he and Mencari lifted the lifeless body and slung it over Mencari’s shoulders. Lady Weun helped steady Ine as they walked, and Mencari used the time to think.

  He didn’t understand everything Seigie had said. But it was far more than Osuto had shared with him about D’mok. Yet the lone D’mok warrior he’d just encountered was defeated, in utter despair. Seigie didn’t want anything to do with fighting the Nukari. Would the others be like that too? Upon his return to the asteroid base he’d talk with Osuto, who would know what to do. He hoped.