by Jacob Whaler
For an instant, Jhata’s eyelids close.
The air shifts. As Matt looks at Jhata, her body is a blur of color. When it comes back into focus, they are standing in the center of a dark open space. Matt’s eyes grow accustomed to the dark, and he sees that it’s the inside of a round dome more than a hundred meters from side to side.
Stars float in the air before his eyes like tiny hovering fireflies.
Leo lies on the floor nearby, still not moving. Yarah is ten meters off to Matt’s left with a faint bubble of white light clinging to her body, concentrating fiercely. The bubble shimmers in the darkness, pulsing with multiple colors.
Good girl, Matt thinks.
“This is what I call my star room.” Jhata walks forward as if she were giving a tour. “Yarah and Leo are familiar with how it works. This is where I keep all the worlds and their mother stars under my control. As you can see, I’ve got quite a collection.”
Matt stares at thousands of tiny suns, some in clusters, some alone. Still tinier planets orbit them, barely visible. They pass right through his body as he moves.
Jhata touches one of the stars. “We’re going to play a game.” It expands until it and the planets revolving it are visible. “I’ve collapsed the distances and relative sizes, but these are the how the actual planets appear. Right here in plain sight.”
As Jhata speaks, Matt notices that Leo’s fingers have begun to move. Matt tries to jump to another spot in the room, testing Jhata’s hold on him. But a force holds him back, like long steel cables. He can’t go anywhere.
“Nice try,” Jhata says. “But none of you are leaving. It’s all under my control.” Her eyes drop to Leo, fingers flexing. “It’ll be a while before he recovers his memories and can use his Stone. By then we’ll be finished with our game.”
“I’m sorry, but you can go to hell.” Matt looks up, smiling. “I’m not playing.”
Jhata nods. “Oh, don’t worry. You already are. You see, not doing anything is part of the game. It may even make it more interesting.”
Matt doesn’t like the sound of that. He tries to jump away again, but the invisible force holds him fast.
“Let me explain the rules of the game.” She reaches out a hand to a tiny blue planet. It instantly increases in size until it’s as large as a baseball floating above her palm. She pushes it toward Matt until it’s only a few feet from his eyes. “This is Drystee Orr, a planet with some twenty billion human inhabitants. Like the people of your planet, they are a warlike race on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Well on the road to self-destruction. Not worth saving. I’m going to help them along by causing their sun to go supernova. You can stop me and save them all by doing one of three things.”
Matt listens carefully.
Jhata raises an index finger. “First, you can hate and loathe me for being a murderer until it consumes you. It should come natural. I’ll know if you’re really doing it.” Another finger flips up. “If that’s too difficult, you can choose the opposite path. Pour out your love for these people by voluntarily laying down your life. Just hand me your Stone, drop all your defenses and allow me to kill you.” A third finger rises on Jhata’s hand. “Your third choice is to do nothing. In that case, I just go on destroying worlds, killing billions upon billions until you choose either one or two.” She pauses to make sure the words have sunk in. “As you can see, there’s an almost unlimited supply of worlds here.”
Matt gets a sick feeling. “Why this childish game?”
“You don’t need to understand. It’s enough that I do. Now, let’s begin.” She walks to Matt and the beautiful blue planet that floats between them.
“Stop.” Matt takes a step back. “Tell me what you want. There must be another way.”
“I want you dead. I want everything about you erased.” Jhata grins and shakes her head. “There is no other way.” The slender tip of her finger stretches out to a miniature sun. “And you’ve already made your first choice.”
“No!” Matt says. A thin blade of high-energy plasma particles jump out of his Stone, and he lunges at Jhata, whipping his Stone past her body on a diagonal from shoulder to hip. She vanishes from where she was standing. Matt stumbles forward as if nothing is there.
Jhata appears at Matt’s side, looking at him on the floor. “I’ve phase shifted, though I doubt you understand what that means. Let’s just say I’m in a parallel universe. Here but not here. Cut and shoot me all you want. I’m beyond your reach.” She bends forward, staring at the miniature sun burning in the darkness. The tip of her finger touches its surface.
A pink dot appears at the point of contact. As Matt watches, the tiny sun expands outward and deepens in color until its neon red. Slowly, it triples in size, hanging in space like a giant beach ball waiting to be popped.
“Now for the fun part,” Jhata says.
The star explodes in slow motion, and the outer layer sloughs off into a ring that flattens out as it grows.
“I’m not entirely evil. I’ve granted them a merciful death. They won’t know what’s coming until they’re obliterated.” Jhata stands back with her hands on her hips, one eyebrow raised in a look of curiosity. “I always enjoy being god.”
Matt gets to his feet and walks a few paces back. He freezes as the outer rim of the ring inches closer to the fragile world, floating silently two feet from his eyes. The large expanse of blue ocean, white polar icecaps and cloud cover look oddly familiar. Only the outlines of continents are different. One side of the planet is lit by its sun. The other side rests in darkness. Pinpoints of light, concentrated at the edge of continents near the ocean, remind Matt of the impending death of billions.
“Hate should be pouring off you, but it’s not.” Jhata stares at Matt’s face. “Does that mean you’re prepared to die? It’s one or the other, love or hate. Or I keep going.”
Matt closes his eyes. “You’re sick.” His hand grips the Stone as the protective shield of transparent blue hums and sizzles. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Other paths exist.” His mind searches frantically for a way to stop Jhata. He tries to reach out to the planet, its people, anything.
But he runs into the same brick wall. Jhata blocks any attempt to move outside himself.
I have to save them.
She throws her head back and laughs. “You can’t. What are you going to do? Preach to me? That won’t work. I’m already god.” For an instant, anger flashes across her face and her body visibly tenses as darts of red energy burst from the tips of the Stones in her hands toward Matt at point blank range.
They are absorbed into the shield clinging to his body.
Leo’s body stirs as his eyes open halfway. “No.” His voice is a dry whisper. “Please stop. So many lives. So much to live for. Take me instead.” He tries in vain to lift his arm toward Jhata.
“I already own you,” she says.
The ring is only inches from the surface of the planet. Matt senses movement and sees Yarah standing silently at his side, her face devoid of emotion.
As the blast ring from the supernova slowly engulfs the planet, it sheds its outer mantle. Oceans turned white, flashing into steam. Continents peel off and disintegrate. All that remains is a red core, ever shrinking in size. At last, it explodes with a whimper, the explosion itself quickly overrun and consumed by the shockwave.
After thirty seconds, nothing remains of the planet.
“Splendid. Twenty billion fewer souls in the universe. Burdens lifted. Much lighter.” Jhata looks at Matt and Yarah standing only three meters away. Her eyes drop to the floor where Leo lies, reaching up to Jhata, still too weak to stand. “Isn’t this fun? One happy family.” She scans the room like someone on a shopping spree. “Let’s see. So many to choose from.”
Yarah looks up at Matt. “I’m sorry.”
Closing her eyes in a long blink, Yarah lets go of Matt’s hand, takes two steps forward and reaches out to Jhata.
“Can I do the next one?” Yarah says.
>
CHAPTER 65
Ryzaard stands up from the wreckage of the attack-heli and shakes the dust from his tweed jacket. He sees the blood oozing out from popped metal rivets above the spot where two crew members had huddled in black battle gear just seconds ago.
A thin blue line clings to his body.
His leather soles crunch on the icy surface as he walks toward the old woman lying a few meters away.
Her chest rises and falls in quick, shallow movements.
A green sphere drops out of his hand onto the ice where it sticks like a magnet on metal. He kicks it sharply with the instep of his shoe, like a soccer player dropping a goal, and watches it roll over the uneven surface until it rests near the old woman’s shoulder.
An orange bubble bursts out of the sphere, making a low humming sound in the silent arctic night. It encloses the old woman in an oblong coffin of energy.
Her eyes flick open. “So you’ve finally come.” Her bony fingers reach for and curl on her Stone lying on the ice. “I never thought I would live long enough to look Abomination in the eyes.”
Ryzaard pulls out a leather-bound book. “So you’re the Shaman.” He thumbs through it, stopping on a page near the back. “The Angekkok. I understand your name is Aanak.” Bending down, he looks into her eyes. “Tell me, Aanak, what have you learned in your years with the Stone?”
Aanak turns her head, spitting blood onto the ice. “Only one thing. Never trust a Kabloona white man.” She grips the Stone and raises it up, sending out a blue arc of energy that slams against the inside of the bubble, causing it to shimmer with a loud buzzing noise.
But the bubble holds fast, and nothing makes it to the outside.
“Did you see Jessica?”
Aanak closes her eyes, saying nothing.
“Of course, you did. In fact, she’s hiding right up there, isn’t she?” He points to the rocky ridge four hundred meters away. “Don’t worry. It doesn’t really matter. The ball is rolling. An avalanche of change is coming. A new world awaits us.”
Aanak looks up at the night sky. “Yes, a new world. But not the one you think.” A smile spreads across her face. “I’ve seen it.”
“Really? Tell me about it.” Ryzaard’s breath floats like a white cloud above Aanak’s face.
“He’s coming.” Aanak struggles for air. “Coming back.” Her eyes drop shut, as if a great burden has lifted off her shoulders.
“I’m afraid you’re mistaken about that. The young man that Jessica loves is dead.”
Aanak smiles. “You won’t be able to stop him.”
“I’ll share a secret with you, since you are about to die.” Ryzaard scoops up a handful of snow and lets it fall like sand between his fingers. “That young man has been taken away by someone much more powerful than even I. Not of this world. We won’t be seeing him again.”
“No.” Aanak’s chest moves in erratic jerks. “I’ve seen it. He will come back. And then—” She struggles to talk, but nothing comes from her lips.
“Good-bye,” Ryzaard says.
Aanak makes one last attempt to speak. Her chest struggles up, falls and doesn’t rise.
Ryzaard stares into her face for a long time. Reaching his hand out, he slips the black Stone from her fingers.
Then he pulls a long, thin dagger from his suit pocket and thrusts it into the thin animal skin above the old woman’s heart, stopping as the tip hits the hard ice under her back.
He scoops up the green sphere, slips the black Stone into a slot, and vanishes in a white flash.
CHAPTER 66
“Come here, child.” Jhata looks at the little girl stepping forward.
“No!” Matt reaches out to grab Yarah, but she slips out of his reach.
Yarah stares up into Jhata’s eyes. “I want to have power and be beautiful, just like you.” She turns and casts a glance at Matt. “He’s afraid of power. I’m not. Let me choose the next world to destroy. It’ll be fun.”
“Drop your shield,” Jhata says.
The multicolored envelope around Yarah fades to white and then nothing.
“Now, open your mind to me.” Jhata takes Yarah’s hand. They both close their eyes.
“Wait!” Matt rushes forward, but passes cleanly through both Jhata and Yarah as if they aren’t there.
“She’s mine, now.” Jhata mumbles as she glides through the outer boundaries of Yarah’s mind into the core. All the defenses are gone. Nothing is closed off. She moves freely over vast continents. Much of it is empty, virgin territory, open to development. A clean slate.
Flying through the network of Yarah’s thoughts, Jhata searches for any sign of deception, any sign of tricks, but it’s all in order, just as you would expect from an honest person. A child.
Perhaps at last Jhata has found the companion she has longed for, someone who could truly understand her. A rare person indeed.
She and Yarah will be partners, the same arrangement she offered Matt over and over, only to be turned down cold every time.
Keeping a tight lid on the inner core of her own mind, she opens the outer layers of her thoughts slowly and tentatively to Yarah, letting her inside just enough to allow seamless communication, but not so deep that Yarah can’t be thrown out at the first sign of trouble.
It’s been a long time since Jhata has been in a person’s mind while simultaneously allowing them in hers.
The pleasure is intense.
Thoughts flow freely. Inside Yarah’s mind, the little girl no longer speaks like a child, but shows the intelligence of a fully-formed adult. From this vantage point, Jhata can ask and probe, confident that the answers are real. She can also kill instantly if need be.
Jhata begins.
Have you decided to join me?
Yarah’s answer echoes past Jhata, the sound coming from all directions.
“Yes.”
What about Matt and Leo? Are they not your friends? Are you willing to leave them?
“They are weak. I want to be strong, like you.”
But will you change your mind again?
“Where else can I find the power you offer?”
Jhata raises a Stone in her hand, the only Stone that she can carry into Yarah’s mind. A neon red blade rises out of its base as she steps forward into the innermost sanctum of Yarah’s mind-core and stares at a trembling web of thin flesh stretching from floor to ceiling. It pulses with varying shades of pink. She pulls the blade back, ready to severe it and end Yarah’s life at the slightest sign of deception.
Do you know where I am?
“Yes.” Yarah’s voice saturates the room where Jhata stands. “You are at the Core.”
I will kill you if you lie.
“I have nothing to hide.” Yarah relaxes. “I speak the truth.”
The relaxation in Yarah’s mind is palpable. Jhata pulls back, lowering her Stone. She has just received the ultimate confirmation she is looking for.
We can do great things together. As partners. Even the Lethonen will fear us. As they fear Matt.
“I have a question.”
I may not answer. Buy you may ask.
“Why are the Lethonen so afraid of Matt?”
Jhata pauses before answering.
If I tell you this, you must allow me permanent residence in this place.
“Agreed.”
They fear Matt because he is the only being to pass through the Eye of the Universe. He has been unmade and remade. His mind and body are inseparable. He can no longer be killed by force.
“Does he know?”
He may suspect, but he does not know.
“Then how can he be killed, if not by force?”
You ask many questions.
“And I have opened myself fully to you without requiring that you do the same. If we are to be partners, I need to know.”
Jhata smiles. Yarah is not timid. She is perfect.
It is simple. And I have already spoken of it.
“I do not understand.”
> He cannot be killed by force alone. But he can be killed if his mind embraces hatred and fear. It creates an opening.
“I see. That is why you force him to watch the destruction of worlds.”
One other way is possible. He can freely and willingly lay down his power and allow death to come upon him.
“Are there only two ways for him to die?”
Only two. No more. No less.
“Do you fear him?”
Jhata hesitates before answering.
He will gather strength to himself. As his strength increases, our power decreases. If we ignore him, someday he will have more power than us. We cannot allow that.
“Agreed. But you did not answer my question.” Yarah’s voice speaks slowly and evenly. “Do you fear him?”
I fear for the loss of my power and domains. I fear the possibility that the universe may contain one who can become more powerful than I. But I fear no human.
Yarah is silent for a long time. “I sense deception in your voice. You do fear him, as you have feared no one else.”
Jhata does not answer.
“If you fear him, then he must be killed. What am I to do?”
His life is worth the blood of many worlds. As I destroy them one by one, he will break and embrace hate. If he sees that you have become like me, it will be difficult for him to resist the urge to hate. Show him that you reject him without reservation and have joined me.
“Yes.” Yarah’s voice reverberates through the room in which Jhata stands. “I will follow you.”
Jhata nods. However pleasurable it is to be at Yarah’s Core, it will be necessary to withdraw until Matt can be killed. She moves silently outward to the broad plains of Yarah’s mind on her way to the surface.
As she crosses the plain, the ground trembles beneath her.
What is happening, Yarah?
“I don’t know. Something—”
Jhata is thrown to the ground. She turns to descend through multiple levels back to the safety of the Core. Once there, nothing can harm her, and if necessary, she can kill Yarah for a quick emergency exit.