New Light

by Ben Johnston

  Anniya blinked her silvery eyes. The silver in them receded as the shadows grew. Gritting her teeth, clenching her jaw, she shut her eyes.

  The voice to her back continued. “Hopefully the doctors at the Academy can do something, but I think they’re just more interested to observe her before she succumbs.” The voice let out a long exhale. “Or while she succumbs.”

  Anniya swung around on the cold, black bench, then stood.

  The startled guards began to shout something as they raised their weapons before the sound of their voices suddenly faded away as though submerged in water. Their color bled away. Amid the roaring sound that rose around her, the guards’ voices were lost completely.

  Everything was shadows lined in silver, layered in front of or behind countless other shadows all lined in silver. Black drops of sliprain fell around her. She held out her hand. A drop struck her, sizzling. She gritted her teeth, her silvery eyes growing black. She stared at her hand where the rain hit her skin, then shut her eyes.

  Another drop hit her skin, but instead of sizzling or being absorbed, this drop bounced off, breaking apart into smaller droplets. She opened her eyes now swimming with swirls of mirrored darkness. She took a step towards the bars and those outlines of her guards. The bars were now behind her. She watched the shadows of the guards gleam past her. She took a few more steps, hundreds of shadows leafing-by her like sheets of paper being flipped through. She stopped, looked around.

  The black raindrops, the constant roar, and the silver-lined shadows around Anniya all instantly vanished, replaced by a silent and empty, narrow hallway. She fell to her knees, silver and ink eyes wide, gasping for breath. After a few moments, she shut her eyes, pulled in another deep breath, then vanished.

  Anniya bolted, leafing past forests of silver-lined shadows, a deluge of black rain flying directly at her face and past her in horizontal streams. The rain through which she passed curled out behind her in whirling patterns that spun away into the other falling black droplets in the airless space.

  With a silent scream amid the roaring around her, she leapt, exiting the sliplight plane mid-air, high above the outside wall of the prison complex. Blinking rapidly, sailing through the air, her eyelids drooping, she drew in a shaky, deep breath as she came hurling down out of the sky towards a landscape of craggy and uneven flat black rocks. Wind whipping past her, Anniya forced her eyes open, shaking herself awake.

  With a burst of lime-colored light beneath her boots, she impacted on a sloping stack of flat, black rocks. Shakily she skidded, jumped, skidded some more, then tripped and tumbled to the hard ground. Breathing heavily, she got to her feet clutching and rubbing her elbow. With a quick head shake, she shut her eyes tight, her brow furrowing strongly as she swayed a little. Steadying herself, she drew in a deep, more steady breath, then, eyes still shut, vanished again into the roaring shadows and sapping black rain.

  A dark Union Army shuttle landed on a black rocky planet deep inside Vectan territory. The matte-black ship lowered a ramp and a crisply-dressed Christopher Cernon came striding down, followed by a special forces strike team and a slightly-limping Tom.

  The group moved a short distance from the shuttle. The young scholar stared down at the goldenlight compass in his hand and pointed his other hand ahead. “The compass is pointing that way.” He shook the compass. “But the signal is unusually strong.”

  With a sudden crack, a shadow-black rift instantly snapped into the air above them. Christopher and the Union soldiers all looked up to see Anniya’s body come sailing out. Tom was still staring at the compass. The rift slammed shut with a deafening boom as Anniya slammed into the distractedly conscious Tom.

  Anniya and Tom rolled skidding to a stop, the Union strike team and Christopher moving to stand over the two semi-tangled bodies.

  Laying on the rocky ground, Anniya opened her eyes and looked at Tom. She smiled weakly. “It’s you.”

  Tom grinned. “Yeah. We’re rescuing you again.”

  Christopher helped Tom to his feet as two Union soldiers phased-up a stretcher next to Anniya, then lifted and placed her down onto it.

  Outside the Union shuttle, like endless wisps on a summer road, galaxies of all shapes and colors flew by. Inside the shuttle, ignoring the marvelous sight out the front window, the pilot and co-pilot instead focused intensely on a single red light on the console.

  The red light blinked out.

  The pilot and co-pilot locked eyes, grinning. The pilot leaned back, turning his head to address the cabin. “People! We’re out of Vectan space! We’re clear!”

  Shouts and cheers blasted out from the Union soldiers. “We did it! We rescued the Golden Girl!” The pilots whooped. The soldiers began to sing.

  Laid out on a softly-padded table, covered with a blanket, Anniya smiled weakly at Tom. She reached up, her eyes full of silver-lined shadows. “Spirit told you where I was, again, didn’t he?” She clutched Tom’s hand.

  “Yeah, well, he didn’t tell me. I had to ask him.” He rolled his eyes, then gave her a warm smile and a wink.

  “Tom.” She strained up towards him. “Thank you for being a friend.” She closed her eyes and sank back down onto the padding. She began to snore softly as her grip on his hand relaxed.

  Chapter 52

  The great crystal windows of the throneroom’s ceiling were thrown open to the burning heat of the late afternoon. There was no wind in the forest, so the leaves and pine branches all sat motionless drinking-in the blinding light of Vectus’ three suns in a sky of three blues.

  The two power suns lazily circled around the blinding hot, true sun. The premier’s dark flechettes all hovered around Jonas’ raven-haired head.

  Staying evenly spaced apart, the little black dart’s all arranged themselves so that each shiny needle tip pointed directly at the young man’s face. He stood impassively. One of the gleaming flechettes moved closer, towards his grass-green eye. He stared at it.

  Rechter approached the stolid Jonas and his constellation of obsidian darts floating aimed at the young advisor. “You appear at ease. It is unsettling.”

  The swarm of glinting, dark flechettes all pulled away from Jonas’ face. Returning to the premier’s shoulderpads, the faintly glittering darts all formed back together seamlessly.

  Rechter’s mouth was a line. “I must replace you.” He fixed his eyes on Jonas.

  Jonas stared back at the premier. “But you can’t replace me, my Premier.” The young man turned away. “You know that the escape is meaningless. An escape to the harsh surface of a prison planet. That is death, not escape.”

  Rechter stared at Jonas. “How is that good?”

  Jonas nodded once. “Because we have taken away the Union’s source of goldenlight.”

  Rechter’s eye twitched.

  The young advisor continued. “Now they will never see it, and their great Towers will fall. The plan was a perfect success.”

  The premier looked away. “We could have cut the girl open and got that fracted goldenlight for ourselves.”

  Jonas looked down. “A colorful metaphor, my Premier. But the reality is that goldenlight is lost forever. And that is good.”

  Rechter glanced back at Jonas. “If Vectus can not have goldenlight, then no others shall either.”

  Jonas bowed. “Yes, my Premier.”

  Rechter pointed his hard, square nose skyward, drawing in a breath. “Advisor.” He paused, then turned his frosted jewel eyes on the lowered Jonas. “It is time for the End.”

  Jonas, still bowing, staring at the floor, widened his forest-green eyes. He bowed lower. “Yes, Great Leader.” The young advisor rose with burning eyes. “I shall initiate our strike against the Union immediately.”

  Before the suns had moved the width of a hand in the Vectan sky, Jonas was standing on the bridge of a grand Vectan battle cruiser approaching the Ruin. A symphony of gentle rings and clicks sounded out from the bridge as the young man stared out the sweeping window at the mottled darkne
ss of dead galaxies of burnt-out stars. He turned to stare into the eyes of the tall blonde lightmaker beside him. “Vectus wants to see the Union fall. Their casus belli is that they believe the Union has caused the Ruin Wars.”

  Alexander drew in a breath, holding Jonas’ gaze. “I believe it. I think the Union caused the Ruin wars. I’ve seen the evidence from the Academy of Vectus.”

  Jonas shook his head. “Who caused the Ruin Wars doesn’t matter.” he glanced away from Alexander, out at the passing Ruin space. “For we shall be the ruin of the Union.” He held out his arm to the sweeping front window of their battle cruiser.

  Directly ahead of their shining Vectan cruiser, amid the dimly-glowing darkness of the Ruin, they approached a wall of sheer black. The grand wall of shadow grew quickly to fill their entire window moments before their battlecruiser dove straight into it. After a moment in which there was nothing but black outside the windows, they emerged back into the dimly glowing, mottled darkness of normal Ruin space. But the space was not empty.

  This pocket of Ruin space was full of a misty cloud of billions of Vectan battleships. Directly ahead of them, spanning for as far as they could see, from the left to the right, stood a seemingly-infinite grid of massive, sparkling Vectan craft.

  Alexander's mouth fell open. His eyes darted around, his head whipping left and right before he whirled around to stare at Jonas, wide-eyed. “What is this?”

  “Behold, Colonel. The Ruin Armada of Vectus. Ever unknown. Vectus, ever parsimonious, has been building-up since shortly after the start of this age.” Jonas turned to look at Alexander. “Vectus has been secretly planning, and saving, and building. And by sundown on Vectus today, these billions of ships will all be raining down death upon every core Union world.”

  Alexander stared at the view-encompassing, three-dimensional grid of billions of massive battleships. “That’s planning ahead.”

  Jonas turned his head to look at the awestruck Vectan lightmaker. “All planning is planning ahead.”

  The young advisor returned to staring back out at the cloud of ships. “This, however, is what happens when opportunity meets hundreds of millions of years of Vectan preparation.” Jonas lifted his chin. “It is unprecedented. We are ending the eternal Union, Colonel.”

  The raven-haired advisor stared out at the endless corridors of gigantic battleships rushing by them. “And to do unprecedented things, you need unprecedented things. Things like a weapon that can destroy the eternal towers.”

  They suddenly shot out of the perfectly-arranged formation of huge battleships into an enormous open space in the middle of the ships, like a gigantic bubble formed within. As their little tiny needle of a spaceship glinted out into this tremendous open space, they saw, floating in the center, a craft far larger and far more impressive than the billions of giant battleships. This leviathan was shaped like a sword and the entire sword ship was sheer black. A horizon-spanning, utter shadow. A sliplight sword ship.

  Jonas gazed at the shadow sword outside, sheer black, floating in the midst of the gleaming battleships. The young advisor moved his green eyes to the blonde Vectan lightmaker. “The shadowship is yours, Colonel Alexander Glatchez.”

  Alexander, wide-eyed, bowed. “Great and Honorable Chair Advisor.”

  Jonas held a flat expression. “Cut down the Towers. End the Union.”

  Alexander rose and gave a quick nod. “It shall be done, Advisor.”

  The corner of Jonas’ mouth twitched. He turned away from Alexander and nodded. A technician and assistant ran up to Jonas and Alexander, handing over to Alexander some objects, speaking quickly and nervously.

  “Great and honorable Colonel Glatchez, Sir. May we present to you the Academy’s newest, stronger plastic external covering.” With the help of the assistant, Alexander stepped into the heavy, clear plastic suit.

  “Now, if you please, Colonel, Sir. You can only enter the Shadow Sword through the sliprealm. Please take this round device here. It’s an updated personal sliplight rift device. Place it on your chest, outside of the suit. .”

  Alexander did as he was told.

  The technician then handed him another device, this one squarish and handheld. “This, Sir, is the Academy’s final prototype mapping tracker device, the MTD. You should be able to completely worldstep through the sliplight plane by using the indicator on the MTD mapping device.”

  Alexander looked at the squarish MTD, then down at the circular device on his chest. “I can travel between planets with these?”

  Jonas stepped up to Alexander. His emerald eyes met the Colonel’s sky-blue eyes. “And that is what you shall do.”

  Jonas stared at the circular device on Alexander’s chest. “Immediately after your ship strikes its first blow against the first Tower, use the MTD to worldstep back to the command center on Vectus.” He met Alexander’s blue eyes again. “When you return, Colonel. You will be General Alexander Glatchez.”

  The blonde lightmaker bowed low. “Honored Chair Advisor.” He rose.

  Jonas held out his arm, pointing towards the Shadow Ship. “Do not fail, Colonel.”

  The blonde colonel narrowed his eyes, giving a sharp smile. Advisor.”

  Alexander turned away from the black-haired advisor, reaching out his hand to a nearby technician. The technician offered the colonel a plastic, bubble helmet. He took the bubble helmet and attached it to the neck of his suit, then activated the device on his chest. A dark rift formed around the plastic-suited man. The dark opening in space vanished.

  Alexander was no longer standing beside Jonas on the bridge of the cruiser.

  Simultaneously, across the billions of galaxies in the Vectan empire, the most massive shifting of military resources the universe had ever seen commenced. A perfectly-kept set of secret orders issued forth from Vectus to be opened and executed all at once by the top military authorities on trillions of Vectan worlds.

  On planets both rich and poor, entire military bases and the entire contingent of the reserve military forces on each of those worlds were activated. Bases, airports and shuttle stations were clogged as vectan soldiers were shuttled off planets, departing to board massive military transport-liners in space.

  After plunging through the Ruin, swarms of these planet-full transport starships arrived at the secret Vectan Ruin Armada, each great transport finding and docking with their assigned battleships.

  Each soldier and officer entered The gleaming, ancient battle craft, all untouched, hidden through millions of years. Each soldier took their seat, each engineer activated their control station.

  Then, at the same time, in each command seat on these billions of titanic war machines, Vectan captains, commodores, and all officers up to the admiral of the Vectan grand armada, read through transparencies holding their orders.

  Inside of each great Vectan battleship, the silent shadow of a sliplight interactor unit pulsed slowly, like a pendulum swinging towards, then away from, a candle.

  Each commander of each gigantic battleship finalized their readiness checks, then pushed a single button on their command console. A light turned from red to green. Each and every battleship of the Vectan Ruin Armada was ready.

  Back on Vectus, where it was late noon, one hundred grand Vectan admirals sat in a huge, underground war room. Each grand admiral had been given stations for one hundred communicators to relay commands to each of the grand admirals’ one hundred grand armadas of one hundred super armadas, each super armada consisting of one hundred armadas of one hundred fleets of one hundred gigantic Vectan battleships.

  Each battleship was set and ready to go.

  All the lights were green.

  He stood alone staring out the sweeping window. His leaf-green eyes danced leisurely, scanning the endless walls of powerful battleships that was the vast Ruin armada before him.

  He spun around to face the commanding officer. “First Grand Admiral.”

  She wore a sash that appeared covered in every inch with medals of every
color, hue, or texture. The first grand admiral stood up straight. “Chair Advisor of the Premier of Vectus.”

  Jonas turned away from the admiral to gaze back out the sweeping window.

  “Order the attack.”

  Jonas watched as that infinite grid of all those billions of gleaming metal and crystal Vectan warcraft simply vanished. The unprecedented giga-armada of billions of glowing monsters that had been there one moment were, all in an instant, just gone.

  Jonas let his emerald stare wander for a moment around the now-empty Ruin, glowing in sickly patches and long faint wisps. He then drew in his focus and turned, passing by the first admiral as he exited the bridge. “Take me back to Vectus.”

  Chapter 53

  “Central Communications? Yes, this is Director Weaver. Please reflect me to Director Miller, Special Projects.” Jonathan took his finger off the pad and the white light above it blinked out.

  A voice sounded out from the little sloped device on the desk. “Jonathan, hello. David here. I was just about to have communications reflect me to you.”

  Jonathan held up a transparency, looking at it, frowning. “What is this I’m reading about heavily increased Vectan military activity?”

  David’s voice answered. “Something’s happening, Jon. We’ve received multiple reports of a buildup or increase in military activity in Vectus, but we’re actually seeing significantly decreased Vectan activity.”

  Jonathan blinked. “Less? What does that mean?”

  David’s sigh came out from the sloped device. “Whatever it means, the Union’s response has been to deploy our own fleet in full to the borders. Now we’re the ones with heavily increased military activity.”

  It was Jonathan’s turn to sigh. “What do we do, Dave? What do you want me to do?”

  David's voice was flat. “Nothing, Jon. Just sit tight. If a storm’s coming, we’ll weather it.”

  David’s voice was gone.