Unexpected Destiny

by Trevor Gregg

  To Elarra’s amazement, Kyren began dodging every one of Tharox’s blows, countering with vicious jabs to his face and body, driving him backward. She had no idea how he was doing it, but she quietly cheered him on.

  She wished her vision of the end had been clearer, but she had been so very young when she’d had it. Only now were some of those memories coming into context. She knew Kyren would defeat him, and it looked like the time may have come.

  Kyren was winding up to deliver the final blow, when Tharox reached out and heaved him over the railing, into the chasm.

  “Noooo…” Elarra cried. How could she be wrong? This wasn’t as she had seen it, yet it had just happened. What had she done wrong, had she influenced the future in such a way that rendered her vision irrelevant? She had no idea, and that filled her with terror.

  She glanced at Alis, working furiously to calibrate the bomb. She didn’t seem to be able to hold it for more than a few seconds at a time. Realizing all might be lost, but refusing to give in, she turned to stand between Alis and the hulking cyborg.

  Tharox turned on her and said “Ah, a little girl who is not such a little girl. You are Liadi, are you not? That would explain how you have been able to evade Epsilon Computer’s future path prediction.”

  As he began to advance on her she reached into her knapsack and drew Theo’s ion blaster. The gun was too big for her hands, she struggled to aim. Pulling the trigger in rapid succession she sent bolts of blue energy streaming at Tharox. One of the blasts took him square in the chest, staggering him back.

  Recovering quickly, he closed the gap in seconds, blasts from Elarra’s barrage blazing through the air all around him. Batting the pistol from her grasp, he wrapped his cybernetic hands around her throat and lifted her from the ground. Despair swallowed her whole as all appeared to be lost.

  58

  Fury

  Kyren knew, in every way something can be known, that he would be okay. He had not just seen it, but had felt it as well. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t terrifying to be hurled into an unknown chasm. As he sailed over the edge, he frantically scanned for his salvation. There! He was headed straight for a support truss of some form.

  He braced for impact and grappled with the beam, scrambling desperately to maintain his grip. The suit’s enhanced strength allowed him to grab on and hoist himself up onto the bracing. He quickly surveyed his route back to the top and began his climb. Knowing what was going to happen made climbing easy, already knowing exactly where the best hand holds were.

  Scrambling back onto the platform, Kyren was horrified to see Elarra being hoisted up by her neck by Tharox. Her face shone a palpable aura of defeat. Then she met his eye. Triumph lit up her face as she smiled at Kyren. Then the light in her eyes went out as Tharox squeezed and twisted.

  Kyren was horrified. He had failed, he had been unable to save her. He now knew the Oracle had been right all along, her visions had been true. All of them. And it broke his heart. Summoning all his fury, he grabbed hold of one of the cables hanging down from the ceiling and heaved. With a shower of sparks one end pulled free.

  Tharox appeared to be oblivious to his presence, so he bounded forward, driving the live, arcing end of the cable into the back of Tharox’s head. Sparks burst forth as the energy lanced into him. With a great spasm Tharox fell to the floor, his head smoking and smoldering, his body twitching, servos whining erratically.

  He dashed over to Alis. “How much longer?”

  “It was damaged by reaper fire when we were in the Dragoon city. It has to be actively calibrated. I can’t set a timer, it has to be detonated manually,” she explained.

  “In that case, we’ll detonate it together,” he said, resting his hand on her shoulder.

  “That’s stupid, there’s no need for both of us to die. You need to go,” she urged.

  “I’m not leaving you,” he said firmly. He could see relief visibly wash over her.

  Intent upon Alis, he didn’t see the blow coming. Tharox swung and Kyren went down, ears ringing and body spasming uselessly. He grabbed Kyren by his exo-suit’s armored chest plate and hoisted him up so they were face to face.

  “Your Oracle cannot save you anymore, what will you do? You will die!” Tharox said, answering for himself. He lifted Kyren with his left, and drew back with his right fist, preparing to smash Kyren’s face in.

  “Kyren!” Alis shrieked, losing her concentration, the sphere blinking out of existence.

  He felt fury welling up inside of him, bubbling over like an active volcano. It powered his strike, a vicious uppercut, swift and strong. His aim was true, wrist blades extending just before impact with Tharox’s chin, the blades driving up into his brain. He went rigid, as if frozen in place. Kyren withdrew the blades from his skull and his body fell to the floor.

  “Is he dead?” Alis asked over her shoulder as she worked to re-stabilize the singularity.

  Was that it? Was he really dead now? He didn’t have time to check for a pulse or finish him off. Instead he ran to Alis’ side. Her face was strained and set in a look of pure determination as the energy sphere, now a bright white, flickered and crackled.

  “Alis… I… I don’t know what to say,” he began lamely.

  “Kyren, I understand,” she replied, looking him in the eye. “Now, hit the damn button, quick before I lose it.”

  Placing a hand on Alis’ shoulder, he squeezed gently. Then, steeling himself for the unknown, Kyren hit the button. Everything went white, and then he knew no more.

  Epilogue

  Kyren blinked his eyes, trying to focus. He felt as if he had just experienced jump sickness. He was in a tunnel of green, ending at a pool of blue. Then he realized the blue was the sky, the green were stalks of a wheat-like grass all around him. He was lying on his back in the tall grass, staring up at the sky.

  He sat up and looked around, but could see nothing other than gently rolling fields. Somehow the tower and structures were gone, but the Ashari was still off in the distance.

  Then Alis sat up, rising out of the grass. “Wha… happened? Where are we?” she asked groggily, ears flat.

  “I don’t know, but I have a suspicion,” Benjam’s high-pitched voice squeaked out as he pushed himself upright with his tentacles. “Perhaps it was an effect of the time bomb. I don’t really know all it was capable of. Maybe it worked like a sort of chronological reset button.”

  Suddenly hopeful at Benjam’s sudden rejuvenation, Kyren whirled to find Elarra standing behind him. Overjoyed, he scooped her up in his arms and squeezed.

  “Okay, enough,” she choked out, pushing herself out of Kyren’s grasp.

  “You were right, Elarra, about everything. What the hell happened? Where are we now?” Kyren questioned.

  “I’m afraid my visions ended with Tharox’s defeat. I am as perplexed as you are.”

  “Where’s the base? Tharox? The dragoons? I mean, we’re still here, there’s the Ashari… where’d everything else go?” Alis reiterated.

  “The last thing I remember was being torn in half…” Benjam shivered and squeaked. “But here we are, somehow. I would need to run some models and perform some calculations, but perhaps, maybe, just maybe, we…”

  Kyren glanced at Elarra as Benjam trailed off, and noted a strange look unexpectedly pass over her face. Suddenly, her eyes went completely white. She let out a gasp and then shrieked.

  Kyren caught her as she started to collapse. She grabbed onto his arm and looked up at him. Her eyes had returned to normal.

  “What was that Elarra? What happened to you?” Kyren asked.

  She spoke softly, “I had a vision. The Kirugi is coming. We must stop it.”

  Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed Unexpected Destiny. If so I’d be honored if you took a moment to leave a review, they are very important to us authors. You can find the next book, Altered Destiny, on Amazon and Audible.

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  Pursued by a relentless bounty hunter, forced to flee to a long-forgotten star system…

  Long before Theophax was recruited by the Oracle to find a lost starship, he roamed the lawless Xia sector in search of technological relics and the score to end all scores. But as usual he’s run into a bit of trouble, thanks to a botched job. The most powerful warlord in the sector has placed a bounty on his head, dead or alive. Now he is on the run, seeking an alien relic known only as The Object. Will he be able to evade Baron Kormugon’s bounty hunters long enough to find his prize?

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