Home of the Forgotten

by Rayne W Grath

  “Well yes, but that’s not the point. I haven’t done anything yet,” Kiya answered with a smirk.

  “Precisely! You said yet! I can’t do this next part without you,” Aarik replied. Dropping one of their linked hands he pointed toward the lab and said, “Shall we?”

  “What exactly are we supposed to do?” Kiya asked falling into step beside him.

  “Why, use our newfound Kh’izmet powers to combine the Nae’derium weapons Taylor and Anna found buried with Zoya into one massive mega weapon of course,” Aarik replied with a wink.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Aarik

  “Do you think it will work?” Anna asked with a yawn from a nearby bench, holding up her head with her hands.

  “There is a small chance it won’t, but we won’t know until we try,” Aarik replied, nudging Kiya to wake her up. The energy they used making the super weapon was a gamble considering how lethargic Kiya was after they were done. When she shrugged him off and mumbled something unintelligible he scooped her up and added, “Wake up Taylor, it’s late and we should get going.”

  Transferring her head to one palm she shoved at Taylor who was snoring next to her and said, “Tay, time to go. Wake up!” When he appeared dead to the world, she plugged his nose. Taylor pushed at her hand weakly and murmured in his sleep, “Just five more minutes, Mom!”

  Yanking his ear until he was awake, she said, “I am not your mother; now get your ass up!” Taylor startled awake with a snort and said, “What! I’m up! I’m up!”

  “It’s time to go, sleepy head. Ailla and the crew left a couple hours ago so unless you want to be the last man standing in this hellhole, get a move on. I’ve had nightmares of being buried alive down here before and I have no intention of playing them out. Speaking of which, where’s our ride, Aarik?” Anna said standing up with a stretch.

  “Calling them now, but Morri and Dag appear to be out of commission. According to Thad and Zoya they haven’t woken up yet.” Aarik replied in frustration. Levitating the weapon behind them, he headed toward the stairs and said, “We still have the terracrafts...we’ll try for another ride once we’re away from here. Have you heard from your dad?”

  “Not since he called to tell me they were headed off planet. It’s a good thing you are asking me to go down and not up...don’t think I’d make it,” Anna complained around another yawn, as she and Taylor trudged down the stairs behind him.

  Just as Aarik landed on level seven, a loud boom rocked the stairwell from above. Grabbing onto the railing, he yelled at Anna and Taylor to cover their mouths as dust filtered down around them. Pulling his shirt over his nose, and doing the same for Kiya, he took the stairs three at a time and was surprised when Anna pushed past him in heels, beating everyone to the bottom. Breathing hard, she wrenched open the door of the ninth floor and said, “I told you I have no intention of dying down here!” When the men looked at her like she had performed a miracle she added in annoyance, “Don’t stand there gawking at me...yes, I can run when it counts...Now move!”

  Aarik jerked into motion and chuckled when Kiya stirred angrily. With her eyes still closed, she snarled in Anna’s direction, “Geez, Anna keep it down. Trying to sleep over here.”

  “How can you sleep at a time like this! The building could very well come down on us and you’re over there snuggling in like it’s Saturday morning...What’s wrong with you?” Anna retorted stalking through the door behind Aarik.

  Kiya stiffened in his arms and opening one eye she looked around cautiously before she squirmed to get down and blurted, “Damn, I was out cold. What did I mi-.” Her sentence was cut-off as another explosion rang through the air, sending everyone into a run toward the terracrafts.

  “Pile in!” Aarik called out, sliding to a stop in front of the podium to power it up. Not taking the time to change coordinates, he barely remembered to maneuver the weapon to the front half of the craft. Hoping it could carry the weight, he said a prayer as he squeezed in next to Kiya, who was trying to give Anna and Taylor more room. Inserting the medallion, Aarik uttered the chant to whisk them away as the facility above them began to give way under the pressure. Electrified plasma surrounded their craft as pieces of the ceiling crumbled to the ground around them.

  Anna whimpered softly as she watched the place fall apart and then screeched before throwing an arm over her head as a concrete block larger than the craft dropped from directly above them. It never had a chance to make contact as it melted into a pool of magma upon hitting the hot plasma, seconds before they jumped to a quiet and empty terra locke in Vos’rok. Anna peeked out between her fingers and said, “Holy shit. I almost pissed myself until I remembered I was sitting on your lap. Where are we?”

  “Vos’rok. Are we safe?” Kiya replied, looking around as she pushed at Aarik to exit the vehicle.

  Extracting himself from the craft, he offered Kiya a hand up before he answered, “For the time being we are, although if we’re not successful in getting off this rock soon our chances diminish logarithmically. I’ll try Morri and Dag again. Can you try your family?”

  “What’s your definition of soon?” Tayor asked, while trying to scoot out from underneath Anna like a gentleman. Accepting Aarik’s assistance, he turned back around to assist Anna who was nodding her head in agreement before adding, “Yeah...what Taylor just said. Soon is a little too vague of a timeline for me,” as she clambered onto the platform and dusted herself off.

  “How about this...we shouldn’t plan on staying longer than an hour at the most at each location we jump to, while we continue to hail for a ride,” Aarik expelled with a sigh, rubbing his temples to soothe the ache forming there. Torn between checking his visions for guidance once again or asking Dag for a lift, Aarik almost smacked himself in the forehead when Anna cocked her hip and asked, “Am I missing something here? I thought we established you were part Fae earlier. Shouldn’t you be able to open your own portal? Have you even tried?”

  “Well, no...give a guy a break; I’ve been more than busy trying to learn how to control my powers and save the world at the same time!” Aarik replied in exasperation.

  “No one’s dissing the job you’re doing...hell, I’d be huddled in a corner if it was me in your shoes. However, as a scientist, I always want to eliminate the variables. Give it a shot and if it doesn’t work than we cross it off our list of possibilities. If it does then I guess we know what my job here was,” Anna placated in a motherly fashion.

  “Any luck with your ancestors?” Aarik asked before admitting defeat when Kiya gave a quick shake of her head, “Fine, you win. Neither Kiya nor I have been successful in reaching anyone at the moment. I’ll give it a try, but I make no promises.”

  Not wanting to look like a goof while he waved his hands in the air in ignorance, he grabbed Kiya’s hand and entered the AZOK for a little extra help. Expecting their combined powers to give him a boost in locating the answer they needed, concerning opening an interdimensional portal, he was confused when Enki appeared before them both in a low bow and said, The tiny piece of my soul still alive in this projection is rejoicing in the vinculum of your souls, but my time with you is drawing to a close. In order to unlock your Fae heritage, Aarik, I’m afraid the two of you must willingly absorb the last piece of my fragmented soul before you now. I must say, in full disclosure that, when you do, it will open the spell you seek for interdimensional transport, but it will also sever our connection, immediately forfeiting any knowledge this avatar might have been able to pass on to you in the future. The choice is yours.

  We don’t have a choice. The planet is under attack and no one is answering our hail. We need to be outside of Earth’s gravitational pull in order to launch our counter attack by tonight. While I’ve enjoyed our time together and will actually miss our interactions, how do we consume your soul? We’re kind of on a time crunch here, Aarik replied finding it hard to meet Enki’s eyes as the feeling of guilt reared its ugly head.

  Simple, really. Kiy
a only needs to kiss me, Enki responded with a humble bow.

  Regardless of the fact that the kiss wouldn’t actually be in reality, the thought of Kiya touching anyone else, even Enki, was abhorrent. Shaking his head, he was about to tell Enki off and that they would find another way when Kiya took the choice out of his hands as she planted a large wet kiss onto Enki’s mouth. Neither of the two men expected the action, which was apparent on their faces. Enki looked blissful as his soul got sucked up into Kiya’s mouth like she was inhaling a large puff of smoke. It was over before he could blink and when she turned around and said, “Don’t! Just don’t. I could see you were going to be difficult about it so I made the decision for us. Now find what we came here to do and get us the fuck off this planet!” Kiya finished scrubbing at her lips.

  “Are you okay?” Aarik asked with concern, taking a step in her direction.

  Kiya held up a hand and shaking her head, “I’m fine...just a weird experience and my lips are tingling a bit. Quit stalling.”

  Ignoring her request he pulled into his arms and covered her mouth with his. When she melted into him he deepened the kiss before he released her and said, “Had to make sure you knew who these lips belong to.” Stepping back, he congratulated himself at Kiya’s dazed expression as she touched her swollen lips reverently.

  “We can go now. I have the spell,” Aarik added with a chuckle when Kiya shook her head like a dog and then growled at his antics.

  They exited the AZOK mid-laugh, which quickly turned to a yelp when Anna pinched the back of his arm, dragging him down to the ground and whisper yelled, “Welcome back to reality, but we have company.”

  “Friend or foe?” Kiya asked quietly.

  “Didn’t stop to ask, to be honest. You are more than welcome to find out, but if this was a movie, I would be yelling at you to run the other way. All we’re missing is the ominous music,” Taylor responded in hushed tones, before he pointed to the terracraft behind him and said, “We should jump to another terra locke, in my humble opinion, and live to fight another day.”

  “I couldn’t agree more, but how bout we travel to the stars instead,” Aarik replied at full volume. Shaking Anna off when she tried to stop him from standing. He got to his feet and found they were alone. Closing his eyes he started the complex hand movements the interdimensional portal required. Feeling almost Tai Chi in nature, Aarik let the movements center his core. Pushing out with both hands, he visualized sending out a call to Thad’s location and when it felt like he had someone on the other end he completed the final movement of the ritual by pulling his hands back in to make the connection. The gasps of surprise from his companions were all the validation he needed to know his first attempt was successful. Smiling he opened his eyes and said, “Ladies first.”

  “How do you know you made a connection to the spaceship?” Anna asked in consternation as she studied the wall apprehensively.

  “Like a phone call, I dialed a specific number, in this case a location, and waited for the line to pick up,” Aarik answered, as a voice from behind drawled out, “My, my, my... What do we have here, boys?!”

  A painful vision blasted across his view of their nefarious intentions. Turning around faster than humanly possible, Aarik flung out his arms, freezing the bandits in place before they had a chance to fire the weapons pointed at Taylor and him. Growling, he grasped for a death suited for the type of men they were, until he felt Kiya gently stroke his soul, calming his inner beast before she whispered, Even though I agree they deserve that and worse. We don’t have time for an elaborate, well thought out, death. Cut off their oxygen supply or something and be done with it. Whatever it is, just do it. We are leaving now.

  Kissing him quickly...she patted his cheek and said, “Don’t forget the weapon.” Turning around on her heel, she pulled Anna and Taylor up by the armpits and led them into the mist, leaving him without a backward glance.

  Moving the weapon through the mist, he turned back to the men and dropped an invisible dome over their heads as he syphoned all of the oxygen from their location. Unfreezing them, he smirked as they fell to the ground gasping for air. As the last of the men stopped flopping like a fish out of water, he entered the mist with a satisfied smile on his face.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Kiya

  Stepping through the mist, Kiya released Anna and Taylor, pointed a finger at Morri and Dag and said, “You little shits, what kind of game were you playing? We could have died down there!”

  “Seeing as you are still alive and standing in front of us, I would say our little game paid off. Where is Aarik?” Dag replied with a raised brow.

  Looking behind her for Aarik, she stepped to the side as the super weapon they created crested the mist coming to rest beside her. “Tying up some loose ends. He’ll be along shortly, I assure you. What’s our current location? Aarik said we need to be away from Earth’s gravitational pull in order for our baby here to hit its mark,” motioning to their creation beside her.

  Thad cleared his throat and said, “Will the moon’s gravitational pull be a problem? We’re currently hiding inside it.”

  Kiya shrugged and was going to defer it to Aarik, when he entered the room and snapped his fingers, making the transport mist dissipate instantly. Their connection told her he did it to ensure they wouldn’t be followed. He looked about the bridge and smiled before he asked, “How’d you know this was where we needed to be?”

  “I told them,” Grams said from across the room, spinning around in her chair like she was Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek.

  “Grams!” Kiya called out in greeting. Crossing the room she pulled her into a hug and said, “Why am I not surprised you are the reason we are in the right spot at the right time. When did you find out the moon was hollow?”

  “Always had my suspicions but when they fired a rocket at the surface and it rang like a bell all those years ago my suspicions were confirmed. I just didn’t know there was a door until I told them where we needed to be,” Grams replied confidently.

  “Anyone ever tell you how special you are?” Aarik asked playfully, rounding the room to stand by Kiya. “We’ll lie low and wait for the King’s ship to pass before Kiya and I make our move. In the meantime...what kind of reports are coming in from the troops?”

  “They are still rolling in, but the loss of life was minimalized. At first count, the surface lost around 32 million to the bugs. Earth is still burning but the bugs are dying out as they leave the major cities so the rural areas are mostly untouched. We’ll have to do a sweep after this is over and ensure none of the bugs went underground to start a new infestation. We lost a couple ships, but the majority of our people were able to escape on pods or interdimensional transports and were picked up by our counterparts,” Thad offered. Blinking, he covered his ear and added, “Well whatever you and Kiya have in mind it better be soon, because the king’s armada just arrived in the Lotahairian solar system. They’re not messing around either.”

  “What do you mean?” Anna asked with her hands on her hips.

  “It appears they brought a lot of firepower with them. Their arrival almost blocked out Lotah due to the size of their fleet,” Thad replied matter-of-factly, before adding, “Are you sure that weapon will cause enough damage to stop them? That’s an awful large army.”

  “Never said I was going to stop them all, just going to cut off the heads,” Aarik answered before looking at Kiya and adding, “Babe, will you take Anna, Taylor, and Tashina to the sick bay? Gameer owes me a favor and promised to look after them for us.”

  “Wait. No one is taking me anywhere until I find out where my father and mother are.” Anna demanded, with her hands on her hips, ready to throw an adult-sized fit if someone didn’t answer her.

  Kiya could see Taylor whispering in her ear that her delivery could use some work and when she turned her scowl toward him he backed up and apologized as Aarik answered, “He’s here in the sick bay actually.”

  “What’s wr
ong with him?” Anna demanded.

  “Nothing, he’s waiting for your mother to wake up,” Thad offered with a smile.

  “Is there something wrong with my mother?” Anna hedged next.

  “Wrong? No, she’s extremely healthy,” Morri replied with a giggle.

  Kiya looked over at Anna and said, “Are you done?” Anna nodded once in return, but Kiya could tell she was mulling over Morri’s choice of words. Turning to Aarik she said, “First of all, how does Gameer owe you a favor? We just met him. Second, how are we supposed to make OUR big move if you’re sending me away? I can easily point them where they need to go. Thad said our enemy is almost here. Shouldn’t we be preparing for our big move?” She gestured dramatically pointing between the two of them dramatically to indicate their united front as she finished.

  “Let’s see, to answer question number one; Enki saved Gameer’s whole race from extinction an eon ago and the only payment he asked for was to one day protect his Kh’izmet and family when the time came. That time is now. This ship is going to take damage during our confrontation, so the safest place on the ship will be there. Plus, I have insider knowledge you’ll be able to concentrate better if your friends and family are safe. So to answer your last question, if you use the med tube behind you, you’ll be back exactly when I need you. Go...go get your Grams all set,” Aarik replied carefully.

  “Huh...alright. Makes sense. I’ll see you in a minute,” Kiya replied in bewilderment.

  “Take Zoya with you as well,” Thad demanded, only to take it back a moment later when Zoya said, “I’m not going anywhere. You promised we’d never be separated again and I’m holding you to that promise.”

  Kiya chuckled at how fast Thad changed his mind as she ushered her friends and Grams to the med vac in the hallway off of the bridge. Calling for the med tube, she gave them a warning, “Alright just so you know what to expect. It’s kind of a cross between a water park ride, except you don’t get wet, and a theme park ride like the slingshot, except going up and down is the same speed.”