Ahhhhhhh.
Pure ecstasy filled his body as he forced his way into the creature’s mind. With each moment he drilled deeper. Even the vision of the physical room waned as his consciousness began to travel. It was as if he folded in upon himself, into a spectral beam melding him with the beast.
He now traveled through a foggy tunnel of radiant clouds and shifting colors. A rumbling ahead burst into a cacophony of stunted cries, screams of agony, and angry slurs. Half-formed figures appeared in the shifting billows. Memories from the beast were weeping out. Trickles turned into a current, pushing against him, slowing his progress.
Fighting me? he thought, amused.
As the moments passed, the resistance increased. Grunting, he forced himself onward. It had been so long since he played in another’s mind, he would not be denied this pleasure.
Unexpectedly, a force came from behind, punched a hole through the fog, and sent him sailing into a dark void at the end of the tunnel.
CHAPTER 7:
K'pec
“How long will it take?” Mencari asked.
The beast’s body shuddered, then slumped to the side. Katen’s eyes opened, and meandered without focus around the room, then he smiled. “It’s done.”
“But you just closed your eyes.”
“Much can be done in mindtime.”
“What did you learn?” Eyani said.
Katen’s eye twitched as he looked over to Mencari. “That the Nukari are still as vicious as I knew them to be. Sadistic, bloodthirsty, power-hungry. Even when there’s an exception among their kind, they’re slaughtered by those with evil ambitions.”
To the confusion in Eyani’s eyes, he sighed and said, “The beast is called Decreta. They have a breeding facility, run by a vengeful mistress named Kajlit’ga. She’s feared by her creations, and punishes them often. This one, Decreta, hated her and was looking for a way to escape.”
“Would he fight for us?” Cogeni asked.
“He may have been willing.”
“What does that mean?” Mencari said.
“The Nukari laid traps in the beast’s mind, ones that activated and ravaged him. It might be a while before he’d be of any further use. I could try to … help him.”
“Do you know where they’re coming from?” Eyani said.
“The facility, but not the location. There’s much more you need to know.” Katen reflected on the mindwalk, then felt a tingling sensation near him. His eyes traced the feeling to Decreta. He frowned, curious. How is that possible? “Its consciousness is rising.”
He’d seen with his own eyes the damage done to the beast’s mind. What type of being would emerge from that experience?
Cogeni gripped the Demas Beads as the glow of containment surrounded the beast’s body.
Decreta’s deep blue eyes fluttered open. His childlike gaze cast about the room and paused on Katen. Could it even speak? Unlike before, the beast showed no signs of tension or intent to escape.
“Katen?” the beast said in a gritty, guttural voice.
He remembered. Perhaps the essence of D’mar, the source of the beast’s abilities and power, healed the mindscape enough to maintain the beast. “What do you remember?”
Decreta’s stoic face grew pained; he struggled to form words. “Atri, Degnit … Kajlit’ga … Fio’tro, Fia’ra … and … you.” Their eyes met. “You … helped me. You … are like me?”
“Yes, beast.”
Decreta looked at the others beyond Katen. “Who … are they?”
“Only I matter now.”
The creature hung its head in obedience. Katen smiled. Kajlit’ga taught it well; even after its mind was nearly destroyed, its instincts to obey were intact.
“Will I … be returned … to Master Kajlit’ga?”
“You are mine, beast. You will never suffer Kajlit’ga again.”
Katen looked to Mencari. “There’s much more to share.”
* * * * *
“If mindwalking is that fast, imagine what we could learn if Katen did the same thing to Jencho,” Mencari said. As he looked across the glassed-in meeting room, a general discomfort reflected in the eyes of Eyani, Seigie, and Osuto.
“That’s assuming we can trust what it tells us,” Seigie said.
“I don’t like not having a defense against the beast,” Eyani added. “At any time he could do the same things to us that he’s done to others—from reading our minds to paralyzing us.”
“His range seems nearly unlimited too. In fact, he’s probably listening right now,” Mencari said.
I am, pushed into Mencari’s mind. A gasp from the others made it clear the same message was delivered to them.
“If he wanted to do us harm, he would have already,” Mencari said.
You are right to fear me, but Mencari is correct. I wish to harm only the Nukari.
“We still need to have some protection against you,” Eyani said in fearful frustration.
I understand…. A combination of Cogeni, Cerna, and Speru’s abilities might protect a concentrated group of you. Let me know when you wish to test this theory.
“I’ll work with them on that,” Osuto said.
In the meantime, I will play in Jencho’s mind and let you know what I discover. How vegetative may I leave him?
Mencari looked with disbelief at his mentor. “Vegetative?”
“Recoverable,” Osuto said flatly.
By your command.
* * * * *
Speru stared at the projections before him. Osuto left him with a small device that apparently read the crystals D’abar gave them when he fled Alo. Beyond the twinkling radiance before him, the room was dark. It’s how he preferred it. In fact, he did some of his best drawings in the dead of night, with only a small light holding back the darkness in his cadet quarters.
There were so many things he left behind. His cartoon drawings were the least of what he held dear, even if he had labored for years on them. He already missed D’abar, and wondered what became of him given the accusations D’gorra made against his mentor. Then there was Jeyla, Raitr, and Siana too. With the space rift to his world closed, there was no way for him to return. He’d never see any of them ever again. Everything was so different, confusing. But it wasn’t all bad. He finally had the abilities he’d always dreamt about. He just didn’t realize that along with his dreams would come such horrific nightmares. A knock on the metal door startled him.
“Who is it?”
“Allia!” Her muffled voice barely breached the barrier.
He opened the door, and motioned for her to enter.
“Why’s it so dark?” she asked.
Something about the darkness made him relax. Maybe it was because he could disappear into it and not be noticed.
“Darkness feels more like home.”
“Kind of reminds me of home too. Sometimes I miss my caves.” With a shrug, she headed over to the projection. “Who’s that?”
“That’s D’abar, he’s my guardian.”
“Like Ichini?”
He smiled. “Kind of. My mother died when I was very young, and my father was a very sick man. D’abar was their friend, and took me in when my father died.” He looked fondly at the old man’s image. “He’s all the family I’ve had really.”
Allia studied the holographic interface next to the projection. “Looks like Toriko’s systems—like these should do something.” She pointed to a number of visually offset panels in the projection. “Try to pick something.”
“What do you mean?”
She reached out and pressed the top one. D’abar’s picture was replaced with a young woman in her twenties. Her long flowing hair framed gentle eyes. A weary smile couldn’t hide her beauty.
“That’s my mom,” Speru said, surprised.
“And she’s very pregnant,” Allia added with a grin.
Next to her picture were scans of the baby inside, and a number of detailed notes. His brow furrowed as he read them.
“But I thought you said they were friends?”
“That’s what I was told.”
“Did she do something bad?”
“This says, suspicion of an undocumented ability,” he said, pointing.
“Touch it, looks like there’s more information.”
He carefully reached out, and the words blinked before exploding into another panel of information. He read them, and began to tremble. Allia put her hand on his shoulder.
“Are you okay?”
His head just shook as he sat quietly staring in disbelief. “It says the council was following my mother’s pregnancy—that they thought her child would pose a security risk to our world.”
Speru made additional selections from the holographic panel. He found work logs left by D’abar that revealed a study conducted during his mother’s entire pregnancy.
“D’abar reported a strange drain of abilities on anyone who visited my mother during the pregnancy. Council experts said her baby was causing the effect.”
He read on. “But once the child was born, it flipped, and all those received an uncontrollable boost of their abilities. It led to days of endless debates discussing the threat to Aloan society.”
He read silently. A sick feeling overtook him.
“They worried about the baby falling into the wrong hands. They took a vote that the baby was to be killed. D’abar was the only one to protest, opting to seal the baby’s powers in place of infanticide. Since he was previously tasked to manage the case, he was assigned sole responsibility of both sealing the child’s powers and watching over him. This can’t be.”
“Here, try this.” Allia pointed to a panel with an obvious selection.
An image of a younger D’abar appeared, and an audio log began to play. “The council awarded Speru a position as a cadet today. I had a mixed feeling about this. Speru wants it so badly, and the council is more than happy to keep him close and under their watch. But as long as my seal is in place, his abilities will never manifest. He will never be the Defender he wants to be—longs to be.”
Speru’s body shook. How was this all possible? This wasn’t what D’abar had told him happened at all. Tears welled.
“It’s a torture day in, day out to encourage him to strive for something I alone have ensured he will never achieve. Despite my best intentions to keep him my assignment, after all these years, I love Speru as my own.”
In the recording, D’abar sighed heavily.
“Sometimes I fear for his life. Those on the council lurk everywhere, waiting for the first sign of anything, for any excuse to come for Speru. I know my seal is weakening, and there is nothing I can do to strengthen it without being questioned. But at this rate, his power might be seeping through enough for others to notice. Even in minute amounts, I myself have had the occasional burst of abilities from it.”
Again D’abar sighed.
“If his power were to be unleashed, what would happen to the order found in our society? Could the council be right? How powerful could Speru be?”
* * * * *
Mencari watched Decreta, legs twitching, as it slept. It looked almost pet-like lying there, balled up. But Nukari beasts were anything but pets. From what Katen said, they were not treated well. Someday Kajlit’ga would learn the hard way what happens when you abuse powerful resources. A curious thought occurred to him. If Katen was able to turn Decreta to their cause, could they do that to other Nukari beasts?
The door behind him opened, and Katen entered. “Your answer is yes, it’s possible to turn more of them.”
Mencari’s moment of confusion was replaced with surprise. “Do you listen to our thoughts all the time?”
“Only people of interest,” Katen said through a twisted smile.
“Others are going to have a problem if you keep reminding them what you’re capable of.”
“I already know what they’re thinking. But your concern is … touching. As for your next question, Jencho’s mind will be more pliable if left alone for now. He’s experiencing a special moment with something I placed in his mind.”
“How much longer?”
“Mindtime is a wondrous thing. Seconds to us, an eternity to them. It won’t be long. In the meantime, I’ll work with Decreta. He’ll be useful to us, as one of us, something he’ll be amenable to given his unpleasant experiences with the Nukari. There’s something else from the mindwalk you should know. Kajlit’ga mentioned your name to the Nukari beasts. They know who you are.”
A chill ran through Mencari. If Eden knew about Mencari, given the level of infestation across the many worlds with Nukari, it would only make sense the Nukari’s beasts would know of him. Not to mention from the number of Nukari operations he’d hampered on his travels.
“They’re looking for you.”
A fountain of light appeared next to Mencari. He didn’t even flinch from it anymore. Before she was even formed, he said, “Mini-T.”
“Hello!” she said boisterously. “Eyani needs you to come back to the war room to discuss the mission to K’pec.”
* * * * *
Through the glass walls of the war room, Mencari saw Seigie, Osuto, and Eyani reviewing plans displayed in projections before them. One showed a planet whose surface was marred and pitted with deep black craters. Mencari recognized the research world owned by a race called the Xiteb’rn, known as K’pec. He thought back to their initial discovery leading there. The team had traveled to Argosy, Nikko and Cogeni’s planet. There, they found Nukari beasts attacking the people of Selsamed, the city in the Smog Sea. On each felled beast they found a tag that said “K’pec.” Eyani intended to get the team to K’pec and investigate possible Nukari operations there, but it took time to get access. Countless species used the world to conduct research in isolated domes.
Mencari entered in time to hear Eyani wrapping up.
“From the work done in other domes, we’ve earned three more support slots. Those positions will have more latitude to move within the assigned research dome. The assignment: the Forax Dome, the one where we believe the Nukari are operating.”
“What’s the plan?” Mencari said.
“Originally we wanted to find out what connection the beasts on Nikko and Cogeni’s world had to this facility. But after Katen’s mindwalk showed the genetics work done to create those Nukari beasts, it could be happening at the Forax facility.”
“So, recon?”
“Collect whatever proof you can: samples, video, documents. If there’s evidence of actual Nukari, Eden can move on it.”
“When do we leave?” Mencari said.
“As soon as you can. We’ve been given an open window for the moment.”
Mencari, Seigie, and Osuto exchanged glances. “So who should go?” Seigie said, pointing to her crystalline body and then to Cerna’s distinctive size and other easy-to-identify features. “Cerna and I can’t, we’re too obvious.”
Mencari nodded. “But it’s too early for Speru to go on a mission like this, and Allia’s too young, and Naijen … just wouldn’t.”
“Ujaku and Toriko are taking Toriko’s sister and the others back to Tericn,” Osuto said. “And Katen is working with Decreta and Jencho. I’m not the right person for this assignment either.”
“Our options are pretty limited,” Seigie said.
“I guess that means Nikko, Cogeni, and me,” Mencari said.
“They work well together. Both have shown they’re capable too,” Osuto said.
Mencari thought about Katen’s warning. He couldn’t just hide; he needed to be able to do missions like this. “I’d like more of a disguise. If the Nukari are tracking us, making it more difficult for them to recognize us will be important.”
“I’d agree. When you’re ready, Una will take you to the Berolet Professional Services Group,” Eyani said.
“Who
?” Mencari asked.
“They’re the placement service that got us in there. They’ll provide you with specific uniforms and further directions once you’re inside. That should help to mask you a bit. Though, I have just the person to enhance that disguise. I’ll also put together the paperwork and send it along to K’pec, let them know you’re on your way.”
Her face became drawn and serious. “It’s vital that you keep a low profile. Many of our own allies and business partners conduct research on K’pec. A major disturbance there could devastate the entire quadrant’s economy. And I agree we should send you in with a disguise.”
* * * * *
Mencari glanced in the small hand mirror. Eyani’s contact, who went by Kip, did an impressive job. He barely recognized his own reflection. His hair was now a sandy-blond, and Kip had stimulated facial hair follicles to the point where he had a goatee and long sideburns. His eyes were now green, something he’d always wanted anyway. Kip applied some type of cream to his cheeks, which gave the illusion of more weight and lower cheekbones. He also told Mencari to apply the cream to his face one more time before they rendezvoused with the Berlet Professional Services Group. Whatever it was, the cream also seemed to darken his skin tone, adding a subtle scaly texture and grayish color. As long as he used Kip’s kit and applied the cream, he’d maintain the disguise, Kip assured him.
Nikko’s dreadlocks had been tied back and dyed jet black, with the exception of the strands that hung and framed her face. Those were now a deep blue. Her thick eyeliner was removed, and a darker green tint applied to her cheeks. Cogeni’s shrub of hair had been matted down with gel and he sported a trimmed beard. Kip’s cream also gave them ridges on their foreheads and noses.
“Remember your names,” Kip said. “Rhysus, you’re Rygill. Nikko—Moyah. And Cogeni, you’re Dargoh. Got it? That’s what your paperwork says.”
Mencari nodded. Now they just had to remember their names. At least his was close.
D'mok Revival: The Nukari Invasion Anthology Page 77