by Trevor Gregg
“Benjam, activate cloaking when we reach orbit,” Geri commanded.
Kyren scrolled through the remaining items and found several countermeasures and a new weapon.
“Geri, what’s a plasma burster do?” Kyren asked.
“The shields can charge up and emit a spherical pulse of plasma,” she responded as she worked the controls, pouring more power into the engines.
“Cloaking field engaged,” Benjam squeaked.
Kyren pictured the Ashari shimmering out of view, but in truth he had no idea what it would look like. It took them several more minutes of flight before the viewscreen tagged a distant spot. Two spots, in fact. One visible as a tiny brown dot, the other merely an indicator, the target itself too small to be seen even at this magnification.
“Uh, what’s a thessell hydra?” Kyren asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer.
“They’re a beast that lives in interstellar space. They are drawn to warp signatures and eat warp cores,” Geri explained.
Geri zoomed in, and Kyren quailed. Flying on leathery wings, which should not be possible in the vacuum of space by the way, was a great black scaled beast. It had multiple long, snakelike necks, each ending in a draconic head. It was climbing through the warp portal Saeli’s ship had generated, claws wrapping around the edges, somehow holding the portal open. The ship was merely a fly, flitting around in the space surrounding the beast.
“Faster, we need to get there before his ship is destroyed,” Elarra said, urgency in her voice plain to all.
“We’re at max thrust, liadi,” Geri returned coldly.
Kyren watched as a burst of white-hot burning plasma left the open maw of one of the creature’s heads. It streaked toward Saeli’s ship, and he expected to see it vaporized. However, Saeli’s craft juked at the last moment and avoided the majority of the blast.
The ship began to tumble as the plasma clipped it though. He watched Saeli’s ship careening out of control. One of the heads snapped out and bit down on it, but the engines flared and the jaws snapped open. Saeli’s ship sped from the gnashing maw as another head loosed another burst of plasma.
“Almost in range,” Kyren informed Geri, preparing to launch proton torpedoes and open up with the main cannon.
The range indicators went green and the targeting systems kicked in. He executed the launch of the torpedoes. Waiting, he kept his hand hovering over the main cannon’s trigger.
A pair of torpedoes streaked toward the creature as Saeli continued evasive maneuvers. Kyren held his breath and watched the range indicator on the torpedoes counting down. They shot toward the nearest head, and right before impact he opened up with the main cannon.
The torpedoes detonated, the screen whiting out briefly. He was dismayed to see the beast unharmed. And, one of its heads had managed to snap its jaws around Saeli’s ship.
7
Decompression
“Crap, what now, Geri?” Kyren asked, staring at the beast, fear beginning to take hold.
“At the very least, I think we got its attention,” she replied.
“I’m not sure that’s a good thing,” he said as the heads began to swivel their direction.
“Shields, now! Full power!” Geri bellowed as several of the beast’s heads unleashed burning gobs of pure plasma.
Geri began evasive maneuvers, but Kyren knew they wouldn’t make it. He only hoped the shields would hold. The viewscreens whited out as plasma swirled around the ship, deflecting around their shields. Then it cleared and he could see a massive maw bearing down on them.
The ship banked as Geri kicked in the maneuvering thrusters, rolling around the scaly head, avoiding the jaws. Unfortunately, the next head was waiting, almost as if it were anticipating their movements. It snaked forward, jaws open. Crashing down on the Ashari, they snapped shut.
“Plasma burster, now, Kyren!” Geri cried.
He already had the weapons queued up and ready to trigger. His hand shot out and activated the plasma burster. The viewscreens whited out for several moments. When they cleared, he could see Geri dodging them around the last head as they flew past.
“Kyren, target the third head from the left with proton torpedoes,” Elarra instructed.
“But we already…” he trailed off as he saw her eyes.
Elarra’s eyes had gone completely white. She was having a vision, he knew. But she seemed fully cognizant of her surroundings. That was quite unlike the coma-like state she would fall into during previous visions. This was something new. Something Elarra hadn’t told them about.
What else was she hiding? He felt like he didn’t know her anymore. Ever since he found out she had known about Alis’ supposed demise, he wasn’t sure he could trust her. Wrenching his concentration back to the task at hand, he queued up the torpedoes again, preparing a double volley. As instructed, he targeted the third head from the left, preparing the firing sequence and hovering his hand over the trigger button.
“Launch now!” Elarra commanded.
He hit the launch key, but had no idea what Elarra was getting at. The torpedoes hadn’t had any effect on the beast before. He watched the torpedoes streak toward their target, wondering how the outcome could be any different.
Geri navigated the Ashari back around, heading for another pass by the beast. Kyren watched incredulously as the beast’s third head from the left opened its mouth to spew a bolt of plasma. The torpedoes streaked straight into its gaping maw and detonated, whiting out their visual sensors once again.
Incredibly, the neck floated in space, lifeless, completely missing its head. Black ichor poured from the stump, pooling in large viscous blobs. And then the creature shrieked. Kyren wasn’t sure how they heard it, what with there being no atmosphere to conduct sound waves in space and all. But somehow, they had heard it, all the beast’s rage and fury. But there was another overtone, one of fear.
They had hurt it, and maybe, given enough time, they could even kill it. But it seemed they wouldn’t have to. Relief flooded him when he saw the creature turn and flee into the dark of space, trailing streams of black ichor.
“No time to suit up, Kyren. Benjam, get to the airlock, you’re going into a harsh environment. Get ready to grab Saeli and get back to the ship,” Elarra commanded.
Kyren noted her eyes were still white, so it was still happening, whatever it was. Benjam sprang into action, squiggling and squirming at top speed for the airlock.
“Geri, get us docked with his ship immediately,” Elarra instructed her.
Geri began to maneuver the Ashari into position, fighting to match the other craft’s erratic motions, as atmosphere vented into space, wildly changing the ship’s trajectory.
Kyren could see Geri straining at the controls, attempting to line up the airlocks. She bellowed a tremendous “raaaaaah!” and slammed the controls forward. The ships locked together with a clunk.
Elarra rose as he heard the airlock cycling. He followed her as she strode purposefully from the bridge, eyes still stark white. How was she still upright? She had always crumpled when she went into her vision state.
“Kyren, go get as many blankets as you can manage and bring them to the airlock,” she instructed calmly before striding into the ship’s storeroom.
Running down the hall to the sleeping quarters, he began to strip beds and gather arm loads of blankets. Arms full, he dashed back to the airlock. It was beginning to cycle as Elarra stepped up, carrying an oxygen tank.
Benjam, bearing Saeli in his tentacles, spilled out into the corridor, gasping dramatically.
“Oh dear, is he okay? Please tell me he’s okay. I hurried!” Benjam protested weakly, laying Saeli down on the pile of blankets Kyren had dropped in surprise.
Elarra darted forward and placed the mask over Saeli’s mouth and nose and turned the tank on.
“Geri, we’re clear for disconnect,” Elarra called out, knowing Geri was listening from the bridge.
There was a clunk as the ships disengaged. Ky
ren suspected Geri was doing more hard maneuvering to get away from the spinning ship, but he couldn’t feel it due to the damping nature of the grav plates.
Kyren looked down, examining Saeli more closely. The Liadi’s skin had gone blue, and his eyes were rolled up in the back of his head.
“He’s going into hypothermic shock,” Elarra cried, voice cracking. “Let’s get him to the showers, fast!”
8
Saeli
Benjam wasted no time waiting for instruction, he just scooped Saeli up in his tentacles and broke for the bathroom facilities near the rear of the Ashari. Kyren, Elarra, and Geri trailed behind, faces plastered with looks of concern.
The liadi was so cold, his flesh like ice. Benjam had hurried to save him, as fast as he could manage. But the ship had been badly damaged, and navigating it had been difficult. The ship had been venting atmosphere for some time, and was nearly vacuum. He feared it had taken too long and Saeli was now beyond saving.
Reaching the showers, he gently lay him down as Kyren dashed to the controls and turned the hot water on. He pulled Saeli in under the water as Elarra let out a choked sob.
“Saeli, hang on, keep fighting. I know you’re in there, you’ve got to live, please you’ve got to live,” Elarra wailed quietly.
This was really starting to get to Benjam, all this tragedy. Consortium ships being destroyed, entire crews wiped out with the pull of a Crevak trigger, that was bad enough. Alis had been dead, well, now she was alive but still, he had felt her death keenly. And Tharox, too. He didn’t know how Isa would take it, but his heart broke for her.
If only he had thought to map Tharox’s brain. He could have scanned his gray matter, mapped his neurons, and uploaded it to Isa’s systems. Then she would never be alone. It would have taken some advanced technology, but he was sure he could have built it.
Hindsight, he thought, not much to be done about it now. At least he wouldn’t be the one to tell Isa, Alis had already done so. He had no idea how to comfort a ship, but he vowed to try. She was his friend, after all.
He watched in anticipation, worried because Saeli was still unconscious. Saeli’s eyes were closed now, and he didn’t know if that was a good sign or not. Elarra was vigorously rubbing his limbs, looking incredibly distraught. Benjam wasn’t sure how he felt about Elarra at the moment. She had chosen not to save Alis. How could she have done so? He pushed the thoughts from his mind for the moment. Saeli’s skin was no longer blue, but he was still out.
“Kyren, prop him up, let’s get the mask back on him,” Elarra suggested.
Moments later, he was resting against Kyren’s lap, the mask secured firmly over his mouth and nose.
“Dammit, why doesn’t this ship have a med bay,” Elarra cried.
“We’ve done all we can. Now we just wait and see how strong Saeli’s will is,” Geri said impassively.
They waited for many minutes, Benjam’s perfect sense of time clicking along as it always had, clocking in seventeen minutes and forty-four seconds since he had boarded the ship with the injured liadi.
Saeli coughed suddenly, and his eyes flew open. Benjam squeaked in surprise. Saeli’s eyes tracked around the room and he croaked out a few unintelligible words.
“Saeli! What? Just save your strength, you’re safe now,” Elarra soothed.
“No… I must… tell you… my time here is nearly done,” Saeli said after reaching up weakly and knocking the breathing mask aside. “You will travel to a world called Rendikar, to find her, the first of our kind.”
“How do we find this world?” Geri questioned. “Do you have a starchart?”
“The planet is in the Kilgore system. Seek out the one known as Utien,” he explained softly.
“Where do we find this Utien?” Kyren asked.
He coughed some more and closed his eyes, then spoke weakly, “I know not how you find him, but he will lead you to Joraq. You will not like what you find, Elarra. I have not seen the final outcome, but I believe you may meet with your end...”
“I doubt that very much,” Kyren said venomously. “If she’s interpreting her own visions correctly, then she’ll make it to the end, and she knows it. But she’ll do it at any cost, it would seem.”
Benjam quailed at Kyren’s harsh words, especially when he saw Elarra visibly flinch. But she had earned them. She had sacrificed one of them to her cause. Sure, the threat the Kirugi posed was possibly galaxy-ending. But it was equally likely that she didn’t fully understand her own vision. After all, Alis had survived, and Elarra hadn’t seen that.
“Kyren, I…” Elarra began, but didn’t continue.
Benjam looked from Kyren to Elarra, then back to Saeli. His eyes had closed, his skin was pallid. If he was breathing, it was shallower than Benjam could detect.
9
Doubt
“Saeli?” Elarra said, feeling a sense of dread.
No response. She touched his throat, searching for a pulse. Nothing… and then, there! A tiny flutter, barely perceptible. She held her fingers there and found it, thready and slow. But there was a pulse. Elarra felt tears of joy roll down her cheeks.
“There’s a pulse, he’s alive,” she informed the others, her voice cracking.
“I’ll get us planet-side asap, we’ll get him to a hospital,” Geri said and then dashed to the bridge.
“Benjam, let’s make him comfortable. I think we can move him to the bed now,” Elarra instructed.
She followed anxiously as Benjam scooped Saeli up in his tentacles and squiggled to one of the sleeping quarters. He placed him on the bed and Elarra scrambled to cover him in blankets.
“Benjam, will you stay with me while I wait with Saeli. I don’t want him to be alone if he awakes. Kyren, go back to the bridge and make sure Geri gets along okay.”
Kyren nodded and left. Benjam settled in, lowering himself to the floor, squeaking out a small grunt as he descended. She reached out and held Saeli’s hand, speaking to him quietly.
“Saeli, please, hang on. Be strong, don’t let this be the last time we meet.”
She felt a weight descend upon her shoulder, warm and leathery flesh touched her cheek where the tears were falling.
“He’ll pull through, I know it, Elarra. He’s a liadi, he’s no child, he’s strong. He defied the council to aid us. He risked the hydra to find us to deliver the information,” Benjam said, obviously attempting to sooth her.
She knew better. Saeli had said his time was short. Had this been his Visikaji? Did that mean he knew he wouldn’t make it. Did that mean he wasn’t going to pull through? She tried to push the grim thoughts from her head but couldn’t manage it.
“Elarra, what did you do to Alis?” Benjam asked tentatively, after several moments of awkward silence had passed.
“It’s what I didn’t do,” she said, feeling as if admitting to a crime. “I saw her separated from us, apparently caught in a blast behind a locked bulkhead. That section of the ship was decompressing and there was no way to open the doors. I truly thought she was lost. Had I seen a way around it, a way to prevent it, I would have.”
“But it’s Alis, how could you just do nothing?” he asked, impassioned.
Creeping into her mind was the smallest doubt that maybe she could have done something. Maybe she could have tried to warn them, maybe she could have tried to avoid that route, or be faster, or any number of other factors that might have changed the outcome.
Or she could have used her new vision, she realized. Had she been able to get it to work, like she had just done with Saeli’s encounter with the hydra, maybe she could have saved Alis. She had made her choice. And she had been wrong.
So many lifetimes, she had lived, full of confidence that she knew her own destiny, knew the future she saw would come to pass as long as she played her part. But once she had passed her Visikaji, and lived, everything had changed. It seemed the nature of her visions had changed, and now it was as if she were a newly transformed liadi, unsure of the future, yet
to see anything but her own end.
But the end she was seeing now, it was not necessarily her own. She hadn’t actually seen herself dying, just the apocalyptic ending. And even that had become fluid, changing as events unfolded around her.
And there was the newfound vision, the waking sight. She could see, and do, as if she were living several moments ahead. When she had boarded the Crevak ship, it had been the first time it had happened. Again, while leading Kyren through the halls of the Crevak flagship, she had entered that trance-like state.
And then again, trying to save Saeli. Maybe she could have done it with Alis. Maybe she should have at least tried?
“Benjam, I know now that I could have tried to do something. The nature of my visions have changed. I might have been able to change the outcome. But the more disturbing thing, you see, is that I was sure of something, and I misinterpreted. I didn’t see the whole picture. My vision is suspect.”
Benjam didn’t seem to react, and spoke calmly, “Elarra, we’ve followed you, through many dangers, and you led us true. Don’t keep something like that a secret again. Don’t ever give up on us, and we won’t on you.”
“Thank you Benjam, for giving me a second chance. I’m sure I don’t deserve it after my betrayal. You know I… I…” she tried.
But there was nothing more to be said.
10
Reunion
“Ashari, do you copy?” Alis’ voice came over the comm channel.
Kyren jumped, then turned and ran to the console.
He hit the button to open the channel and cried, “Alis? Alis! I’m here. It’s Kyren. Where are you?”
The Ashari had landed minutes ago, greeted by a waiting medical transport. The raxi med-techs had hustled aboard and gingerly carried Saeli out between them on a small stretcher. He was loaded into a sleek aerocar transport and it had abruptly lifted off and sped away. Kyren had seen the pain in Elarra’s eyes as she watched Saeli retreat into the distance.