In a mad dash, they raced back down the path. As they ran, Zahn noticed that the pulsar was dipping below the horizon, and this gave him some hope. At least it wouldn’t disrupt their cloak anymore. Finally, they’d be able to walk around outside without being seen.
When they reached the gate cavern again, Zahn made a quick glance around the corner and noticed two important details had changed. The cavern was now faintly illuminated by crystals along the ceiling, and three of the massive beasts, the same type that he’d had seen earlier, were now standing around the gate.
“Zahn!” Oonak yelled. “You’re visible. Move!” Oonak pulled him out of the way of the opening.
“What?” Zahn said. “I thought the pulsar set below the horizon. It’s night now. We should be okay, right?”
“It’s not that, Zahn,” Asha said. “I think cloaking both you and your mother is putting a strain on your cloaking chip.”
“Well, I haven’t come this far to be stopped now. Don’t worry. I’ll be more careful.”
“No. Take mine,” Oonak said. “You need it more than I.”
“No, Oonak. I’m not letting you sacrifice your safety for mine. I’ll be fine. We just need to cause a diversion.”
The ground shook violently again, and their suits indicated that a wave of hot air was passing over them.
“There’s no time to argue, Zahn. The volcano is unstable, a fact that we can use to our advantage.”
Oonak pulled his cloaking chip out of its slot on his wrist, took Zahn’s hand, and rammed it into the empty slot on his right hand. Now that Zahn had one cloaking chip plugged into each glove of his suit, his cloaking field stabilized, but Oonak was now completely unprotected. Behind him, Zahn saw a wave of lava pouring down the path toward them.
“Take your mother, and be safe,” Oonak said and ran inside.
From inside the cavern, Zahn heard a trio of deathly roars that sent a chill up his spine. A few seconds later, Oonak darted out of the cavern and ran down the path. Two of the horrible beasts followed him.
“NO! Oonak!”
But there was no response over the comm. Zahn started to run after him, but Asha grabbed his arm.
“Zahn, he’s giving us an opportunity,” Asha said. “Let’s use it while it lasts.”
Cautiously, Asha looked around the corner to see the status of the third beast. He was attentive, looking around in all directions.
The lava behind them drew nearer.
“Okay,” Asha said. “I know you’re carrying Darshana, but I need you to watch my back as we go in. We can’t take too long either. That lava is headed this way. Can you hold her and shoot at the same time?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Don’t think. Can you or can’t you?”
“I can.”
“Good. Now even though that beast isn’t going to be able to see us, once we fire it’s going to have a good idea of where we are, so we’ll have to keep moving. If it has explosives, we’ll have to move even faster, so I want to get as close to the gate as possible before we fire. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Like perfect spies, Asha and Zahn stayed close to the wall, following the perimeter of the room in total silence. Once they were a few meters away from the gate platform, they waited until the Hataazan turned its back on them, if only for a moment.
Once he did, Asha fired her resonator at the back of its head. Twice. Yet the beast was even stronger than she anticipated and the creature’s skin barely even melted. Instead, it turned around and roared, its eyes flashing wild colors at them. It couldn’t see them, but it fired haphazardly toward their direction. Stalactites fell all around them, and outside Zahn noticed a wave of lava flowing past the cavern entrance, trapping them.
In the chaos, Zahn vaporized a falling stalactite in midair, and jumped away just in time to avoid the resulting debris. He took a breath and carried his still unconscious mother over to a larger stalagmite for cover. Across from him, Asha was using a stalagmite as cover, as well. Through all of this, she still managed to keep the jagrul safe within its spherical shield as she held it under her arm. To Zahn’s surprise, it seemed strangely calm.
In the distance, they could hear the beast talking as it approached them.
“Both of you are cowards and fools!” the beast said. “But your death shall be glorious.”
“Okay, new plan,” Asha said quietly over the comm. “Put your mother beside that stalagmite for a moment and when our friend gets over here, we both fire directly into its eyes. Got it?”
“I’m still surprised that thing can talk, but that sounds good. Which eye?”
“You think you’re that good of a shot? Doesn’t matter. Left eye. I’ll take right.”
The ground rumbled once more. Their suits warned them that the air would soon be too hot for anyone directly exposed to the outside, and Zahn thought of his mother.
Just behind him, he heard another roar. His heart was beating fast now. This was it. This was the moment of truth.
“Now?” he whispered.
“Now.”
Together, they stood up and fired. In seconds, the beast’s eyes smoldered, and it covered them as it wailed in pain.
“Unseen demons, you shall die!” the beast roared, firing toward them in random directions.
When Zahn saw the beast pause to rub his eyes again, he picked up Darshana and sprinted toward the gate.
While he did this, Asha remained where she was and fired at the beast’s feet. If the beast couldn’t walk, it couldn’t be too much trouble. After dodging a few of its clumsy shots, Asha managed to slice open one of the beast’s feet.
“For glory!” the beast shouted as it charged toward her.
But it stumbled and crashed to the ground. Slowly, it stood back up, and Asha fired at its eyes again. Now it was blind, and Zahn almost had pity on it.
The beast felt its way along the walls. After a few moments, it finally found the exit to the cavern and stumbled out.
“Great job, Asha!” Zahn said. “There’s only one problem. Oonak isn’t responding. I’ve been trying to contact him and—wait, what does this small light on the comm mean?”
“He must have contacted us during the firefight. It’s a recorded message. Touch the light.”
Zahn did, and Oonak’s voice filled their helmets.
“Zahn,” Oonak began, “this may not be easy for you, but you must leave without me. I’ve just placed several small explosives into their thermal regulation systems. This should destabilize the volcano even more, prolonging the eruption and diverting their attention. What is imperative is that you use Navika’s timespace drive to leave this system before the Vakragha realize what has happened. You were wearing the mindcap when we made the timespace jump which means you now intuitively know how to jump, as well. Time runs short. You must go. Neither of you should worry. I will find a way out. Even if I have to—”
But he was cut off. The rest was static.
“What? Is that it?”
The vortex was now open, and the ground shook violently.
“Come on, Zahn! You heard him, and this place is about to get a whole lot warmer.”
Lava oozed into the room. Zahn looked back toward the cavern entrance one last time but saw no one, and together they walked through the gate.
When they exited on the other side, Zahn didn’t have time to feel sorry about what had happened. He carried his mother inside the ship, closed the door, and once again the inner node of the ship filled with pure, cool air. As he did this, he couldn’t avoid tracking some of the reddish dust inside.
“Come on,” Asha said. “Let’s take her into the command bay. I’ll work on reviving her while you get us out of here.”
The moment he sat down, the dome above the chair lowered slightly. Was the ship already reading his thoughts? Zahn felt awkward sitting in the command chair, but he knew that was what Oonak wanted.
“Navika, Oonak has—”
“Sacrificed himself for our safet
y,” Navika said. “I overheard the comm transmissions, and he gave me direct orders to leave while the Hataazans are still distracted by the eruption. He also ordered me to consider you as the acting captain.”
To their surprise, they heard new explosions around them. Zahn looked up and saw that one of the beasts had come through the gate, and then another.
“They’re coming through!” Asha said.
“Get us out of here, Navika!”
With impressive speed, Navika raced out of the cavern. Zahn looked back and noticed that a few of the beasts were following them, but soon they were through the cave and back out into the sky. As they raced above the atmosphere, the cloudy sky of the stolen moon soon became the Ocean of Space once more.
Then, just as he breathed a sigh of relief, he heard a hideous voice from within his own mind.
“Why do you steal what I have rightfully taken?”
The voice was guttural and revolting. It was so clear that Zahn looked around him in shock, but no one was there.
“You may think that you have escaped us, but there is no place we will not find you. My servants will be avenged. We consume all. We control all. We are the Vakragha.”
Zahn wondered what Oonak would do. He knew that no good could come from listening to the enemy. Perhaps Asha would know how to stop this voice.
“If you tell your friend that we are speaking to you directly, she will be the first to die.”
Zahn’s eyes widened. His heart was beating fast now.
“Yes, we can hear your thoughts, and we will find you in the darkness. We cultivate the darkness.”
He braced himself for more of the vile voice, but none came.
“What do you think happened to Oonak?” Asha said.
Zahn almost jumped from her words.
“What? Oonak? He ordered Navika and us to leave. What was I supposed to do?”
Asha was quiet.
She released the jagrul from its spherical shield and continued to work with Darshana, who was still unconscious.
After a few minutes, Zahn noticed that Navika was leaving the nebula at a strange trajectory.
“Navika, what are you doing?”
“To remain safe, we must remain within the moon’s shadow. Otherwise, the pulsar’s radiation will disrupt the cloaking field.”
“Oh. Thanks, Navika.”
“Of course.”
“Are you okay, Zahn?” Asha said.
“I’m good. No worries, Asha. We’ll be out of here in no time.”
“Captain, I’m detecting six Vakragha cruisers approaching us.”
“How is that possible?” Zahn said.
“How is what possible?” Asha said.
“I’m talking to Navika.”
“I didn’t hear him say anything.”
“Zahn,” he heard Navika say. “I am communicating with you directly through the mindcap. No one else can hear me except you. Relaying information is much faster this way. For instance, I can highlight objects behind you, such as the cruisers that are fast approaching. To respond, simply speak within your own mind.”
Images of the view behind the ship somehow appeared beside his field of vision, and within the star field he saw six shadowed shapes, thinly outlined in green, fast approaching.
“Zahn?” Asha called.
“Sorry, Asha. Navika was talking to me.”
“Navika,” Zahn said through the mindcap, “isn’t this a little intrusive? And how can they know where we are? I thought you said we were safe as long as there was something between us and that pulsar.”
“I’d hypothesize that the potent pulsar energy that we were exposed to before may have leaked into the cloaking cells. So it’s possible that the field is unstable, causing the cloak to fail periodically. I recommend we use the timespace drive.”
“Right… Wait, how do we do that?”
“You know how.”
“Sort of. So I just imagine a vortex in front of the ship?”
“Either tell me the destination or hold the picture of your destination in mind, yes. You may begin visualizing the vortex now, but we cannot jump until we reach sufficient velocity.”
Behind him, Zahn could hear the timespace drive begin to roar again.
“Wait, how do I reach that velocity, though?”
“Oonak made you captain and you don’t know?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure that—”
“Incredible. He must really believe in your abilities. All right, here’s your crash course in mindcap piloting: energy flows where attention goes. Visualize your desires and the ship will move.”
Zahn imagined the stars moving past, yet nothing happened.
“Good. We are now moving at 5% impulse. But you’ll need to do better than that Zahn.”
“What are you talking about? It doesn’t look like we’re moving at all.”
“The stars you can see around us are dozens or hundreds of light-years distant—too far to see relative motion. However, just beyond the edge of your vision, you should see a spiral shape within a circle. When the edges of the spiral touch the circle, we have reached adequate velocity to make a jump.”
Zahn looked forward and realized that, somehow, he could see the indicator just beyond his vision. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t notice it before, but he guessed it was because he’d never looked for anything outside of his field of vision before. It was quite bizarre, as if he now had an eye on the side of his head.
“Please hurry. We’ve been discussing this for nearly one second already, and the Vakragha cruisers are now within firing distance.”
Only one second? That’s right. Navika had told him that conversations went faster with the mindcap.
He imagined the spiral shape expanding more and more within the small circle and felt the feeling of acceleration as he did so, even though Navika nullified all changes of inertia in the cabin. Somehow, he felt acceleration as a concept now.
“Good work. Vortex in ten seconds. Wait—incoming fire!”
Behind him, Zahn didn’t like what he saw. Six dark, menacing shapes fired toward them, and as they fired, a small point on one of the distant moons glowed a bright orange.
CHAPTER 30
AS PHANTOMS OF LIGHT
As Navika counted down, Zahn held the image of a vortex in his mind and recalled the music they’d heard on Aarava to help him relax. Asha looked back toward him, her eyes wide with fear. “4…” He focused on the Aaravan music and what it felt like the first time they’d used the timespace drive. “3…” Complete calm and focus, just like Oonak had taught him. “2…” It’ll be like going underwater for one second. It’s easy.
“1…”
The roar reached a fever pitch, and behind them dozens of green plasma bolts raced toward them.
“Engage!” Navika said.
Zahn imagined a vortex appearing in front of the ship, and just a fraction of a second later, one appeared. It looked like a sphere of swirling stars, and when they dove in, a vision of perfect light filled his mind.
There was a brief flash, and they were back in the Ocean of Space once more. Zahn looked around, but could only see stars and the faint glow of the galactic core in the distance.
“Excellent work, Zahn,” Navika said.
“Yeah, good job getting us out of there!” Asha said.
“One moment,” Navika said. “I am detecting traces of Vakragha radiation. It’s possible—Wait. That’s odd. The radiation traces have vanished. I am now detecting only natural galactic background radiation. Perhaps I am in error. I will begin running diagnostics on my sensors now.”
“Don’t worry, Navika. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and you’ve been through a lot. We all have.”
Asha looked around at the stars now surrounding them. “So, where are we?”
In the excitement of the moment, Zahn had completely forgotten to imagine his destination. He had no idea where they were, so he discreetly asked Navika. Within a few seconds, Navika displayed
a hologram of the galaxy to his left. This was the first time Zahn was able to study a complete hologram of the galaxy, and he was surprised to see that one of the galactic arms was partially covered by a murky shape.
“What’s that darker area?” Zahn said.
“I am once again speaking to you via the mindcap. The darker area is the current known extent of the Vakragha Dominion. We are 1,027 light-years from the Nirananda Nebula which borders a part of this shadowy region.”
“Hmm. So why did we go so far even though I forgot to picture a destination? I didn’t even tell you one.”
“I made a judgement and went for minimum safe distance.”
“One thousand light-years is minimum safe distance?”
“With the Vakragha Dominion, yes.”
Then again, a thousand light-years was a mere hop relative to the size of the galaxy. Navika was right. It was enough space that Zahn wasn’t going to be watching for every little sensor reading.
“We’re in the middle of nowhere, aren’t we?” Asha said.
“More or less,” Zahn said. “But we’re safe. Well, at least once we fix the cloaking cells. Navika told me that the pulsar radiation may have slowly contaminated them. How’s my mom doing?”
Zahn stepped up from the command chair and walked down to them. Asha had placed his mother on the long bench. She had even found a pillow and blanket for her.
“I can’t wake her up, Zahn. I think she may be comatose.”
“Didn’t you learn anything on Amithya about comas?”
“She’d been there for years, Zahn. These things can take time. I’ve stabilized her, but I’m not sure what else I can do for her right now.”
Zahn knelt down, held his mother’s hand, and looked down to her face. He thought of Amithya, and closed his eyes.
Please help her, he thought. You said you would be with us, helping us in hidden ways. Were you telling the truth?
Zahn kept his eyes closed for some time as he meditated on this thought.
When he opened them again, he saw strange orbs of light in the cabin, moving over them. For a moment, they were both completely speechless. The orbs seemed divine and otherworldly.
Epic of Aravinda 1: The Truth Beyond the Sky Page 21