by Trevor Gregg
Alis’ voice!
“Alis! They got you too?” he cried in surprise.
Leicara sniffled and tried to stop crying, but he could still hear her choking back sobs.
“Why don’t you back up a little, Leicara. I don’t trust you, you’re hiding things. For all we know, you’re in on this chaos,” Alis said venomously.
“Easy Alis, she’s in the same boat we’re in at the moment. But yeah, she hasn’t exactly been honest with us. Have you, Leicara?” Kyren said as she raised her head from his shoulder.
“Well, I haven’t told you everything. But it’s not of consequence. I kept secrets at the council’s insistence,” Leicara replied, sniffling.
“Again, pffff!” Alis said angrily.
“Alis, lay off, we’re not gonna get anywhere like this,” Kyren cautioned while attempting to stand.
Pain scorched his leg again as he stood, but he was able to remain upright. He reached down and grasped Leicara’s hands and helped her to stand as well. He heard Alis scrabbled to her feet in the darkness too.
“So what’s going on? Why are the Dras revolting?” Kyren asked pointedly.
“I… I, don’t know,” Leicara responded.
“Seems like they must’ve gotten sick of living under your yoke, Leicara,” Kyren said without heat.
“Or they found a higher purpose,” Alis said.
Kyren hesitated. She sounded far-off, distracted even.
“Alis, what’s wrong?” he asked her, feeling concerned.
“Nothing’s wrong, Kyren. It’s actually all right. All of it. These people have found a higher calling,” Alis’ voice had taken on a creepy monotone.
Suddenly there was a distant thunderclap. Rain? Lighting? He couldn’t be sure but that meant they weren’t below ground at least. Maybe the storm would shield their escape? He was going to be free of his bonds soon. He hadn’t stopped wriggling his hands, prying at the knots until he had found purchase and begun to loosen the bindings.
Another thunderclap, this time much closer. The storm was moving in. Maybe there’d be a moment of chaos, maybe an opportunity. He would be ready to act. And now that he had just managed to slip his bonds, he would have an even better chance.
The thunder sounded again, only this time it seemed to come from the other side of the door. It erupted again, and again, and a fourth and fifth time, then fell silent.
“That’s my sonic emitter,” Alis said through clenched teeth. “It’s drowning out the music.”
“What? What music?” Kyren asked, confused.
Just then the door burst open and Heston charged in. The instant light blinded Kyren and he squinted his eyes. He almost missed Heston lunging with the knife. A quick dodge as Heston thrust the knife put him in position for a quick strike to his inner elbow. The nerve strike rendered Heston’s lower arm inoperable, causing him to drop the knife.
Kyren brought his knee up into Heston’s midsection, folding the Azorian in half and dropping him to the floor. He saw Alis scrambling for the knife while Leicara cowered.
Suddenly, Benjam burst through the doorway, brandishing Alis’ wrench, in sonic emitter form. Benjam was oozing blood from a dozen wounds, and Kyren was horrified to see several knives lodged in his torso.
“Kyren!” Benjam squeaked in delight. “I’m here to rescue you! And Alis, you too!”
“What about me?” Leicara grumbled.
Ignoring her, Benjam said “We need to get out of here, before all those Dras I blasted wake up.”
Screams began to emanate from out in the hall. Kyren dashed to the door and looked out. Dralok stood at the end of a long corridor, flanked by two battle bots. He carried a Barish staff with the ends fully charged, and was spearing the unconscious Dras as he strode down the hall.
Ducking back into the room, Kyren informed them “Dammit, it’s Dralok. I’m sure he’s here for us. Or at least me.”
Heston groaned and rolled over, looking Alis in the eye. It was as if something passed between them. Suddenly, Alis was in motion. She spun and slashed with Heston’s knife in a two-handed swing. The move severed Benjam’s tentacle, the one holding her wrench.
The wrench, in sonic emitter form, clattered to the floor. Unable to understand what was happening, Kyren just stood, dumbfounded. Alis scooped up the sonic emitter and pointed it at them.
“Alis? What are you…” Kyren never finished his question.
Alis fired, and a wall of sonic energy impacted him, flinging him brutally against the far wall. Ears ringing, all he could manage was to dumbly look on. Benjam was a mass of tentacles, squirming and squiggling in shared shock.
Alis dashed out the door. She spun and fired a quick shot with the emitter down the corridor in the direction Dralok was approaching from. Then she disappeared from view. What the hell had just happened? Had Alis betrayed them? She had sounded odd, was she somehow being coerced?
He couldn’t grasp it while still reeling from being blasted against the far wall. He was crumpled in a heap on the floor, but could see the door. Heston began to stand just as Dralok and his bots appeared in the doorway.
“You’ll not stop the Kirugi. We herald its arrival. We will prepare for the coming!” Heston said, screaming the last part at Dralok.
Dralok flicked his hand and one of the bots charged forward. Its wrist blades sprang to life, white-blue energy crackling and sparking. Heston was decapitated a microsecond later.
47
Bloodlust
Dralok had led them into the street, his bots cutting down Dras whenever encountered. Kyren was appalled at Dralok’s bloodthirst. He seemed to enjoy slaying his own people. The Dras were just not equipped to deal with a full war bot. At least they hadn’t been, so far. Kyren wouldn’t bet it would remain so.
As they trotted down the street, following behind Dralok and his bots, a small glowing red orb bounced into the middle of the avenue. Dralok made a complicated gesture with his hands, and the control gloves he was wearing relayed the maneuver to one of the bots. It leapt onto the orb, just moments before it detonated.
The bot was fractured, breaking into many pieces that were flung in all directions. Kyren was peppered by fragments but none were moving with enough velocity to be dangerous. Dralok engaged his other bot and it dashed into the alleyway.
Screams echoed into the street, and then a second explosion sounded. The remaining bot staggered out of the alley, half of its head gone, and the left leg nearly sheared off. It tottered and fell in a smoking heap, its energy blades winking out with a crisp pop.
Dralok raised his staff defensively before him and motioned for them to follow.
“Where are we going?”Kyren asked, stopping abruptly.
“Come, no time for questions,” Dralok growled brusquely.
“You’re right, no questions, how about some answers, instead,” Kyren said, planting his feet and squaring his shoulders.
“Um, Kyren, shouldn’t we talk about this somewhere inside? Maybe with locked doors?” Benjam squeaked, looking around nervously.
“No. Where the hell are we going, Dralok?” Kyren demanded.
When Dralok didn’t answer, he continued, “Enough with the Azorian subterfuge. We’re trying to save the damn galaxy from an alien menace, and you’re dicking us around? It’s not working, we know what you didn’t want us to.”
“He knows, Dralok. Somehow he knows our weakness,” Leicara said quietly, still obviously shaken.
“Fine, I will foolishly waste time to sate your curiosity, fools,” he responded acidly. “We are going to Leicara’s private fade-gate, where she will escape, along with your braniac. You will accompany me to the war council. We must be prepared, the Halifax will see our moment of weakness and are likely to attack.”
Dralok finished and broke into a brisk trot, not looking back.
Kyren looked at Leicara, “Where is your fade-gate? Where does it go?”
“It’s in my chambers off the northern pavilion, it leads to my personal cr
uiser, parked in orbit around a moon of a gas giant in a distant system. It sits near a dormant warp gate.”
“Fine, let’s go. But I’m done fighting your stupid civil war,” Kyren said emphatically.
They broke into a trot to catch up with Dralok, who had begun to creep forward along the wall, staff held ready to strike. Dras burst from several doorways, attempting to surround them. Kyren spun, taking in the assailants. He counted nine.
This would be tight, he knew. They all bore knives or makeshift clubs. They had a faraway look in their eyes and did not speak. Dralok surged forward, immediately engaging the nearest three. He lunged and struck the first in a downward slash. The staff flared purple and the energy cut into the Azorian’s flesh with a sickening sizzle, cleaving a massive gash down his torso.
Dralok reversed his strike and brought the other end of the staff around, vaporizing the skull of the next assailant even as he raised his club above Dralok’s head. The third attempted several clumsy swings, which Dralok easily dodged. He counterattacked with his staff, thrusting the point through the Dras’ left eye.
Another Dras had picked up a fallen knife and began to advance. Dralok looked Kyren in the eye, just as the Dras lunged at Dralok’s back with his knife. Dralok’s leg scythed out behind him, connecting with the Dras’ head, snapping it back and dropping him to the floor, unconscious.
There wasn’t time to be impressed, and certainly no time to ruefully wish one of the Dras had kicked Dralok’s ass instead. He dropped into a fighting stance as the first of the Dras reached him. Their clumsy swings were easy to dodge, their inept footwork made their movements easy to predict.
Several more were advancing on him, and if they joined the fight, he’d be through for sure. So he took a chance and struck just as the Dras drew back his club to deliver a blow. His fist rocketed forward, propelled by the force of his fury. He keoped as he struck, snapping the Dras’ head back. A fraction of a second later, it wobbled and toppled to the ground.
The next two lunged at him with knives. He backpedaled, feeling the cut to his leg burning again. They kept slashing, driving him backward. Suddenly, tentacles lashed out and wrapped around one of the Dras’ wrists. Benjam squealed in a falsetto version of a keop as he yanked the Dras off his feet. There was a gurgling as the Dras fell on his own knife.
Benjam squealed again, but Kyren couldn’t pay attention. The remaining Dras was slashing wildly, not coming close to scoring any wounds, but neither could Kyren advance upon him. Kyren heard Dralok keoping loudly, battling several opponents at once.
The Dras was slashing wildly, fervently, but still unskilled. All Kyren had to do was wait for… there! He finally saw the opening he needed. He struck the Dras’ arm swinging the knife with a vicious block, the pain reverberating up his arm and down into his thigh. The block had the desired effect, driving the Dras out of position, rendering him unable to strike before Kyren could counter.
He delivered an elbow strike to the Dras’ face, stunning him. He stepped around the Dras and grabbed the back of his collar, hauling him over, levering him with his hip and delivering him into a throw that sent him nearly ten feet away. He spun to find a Dras raising a club above his head.
Then the Dras’ head exploded, as Dralok’s energy staff punched through his skull.
“Quickly, before more come,” Dralok said, heading off.
They followed him for several minutes, wary and alert, but encountered no more Dras. Kyren was grateful, he didn’t relish the idea of having to hurt more of them. Nor did he relish Dralok’s apparent glee at killing them.
They reached the northern pavilion through a side passage. They emerged into the bright sunlight. Kyren had to blink multiple times as his eyes adjusted.
“Leicara, braniac, go,” he said while pointing. “You, bot-fighter, you come with me.”
“No.”
Dralok swung his staff, but stopped less than an inch from Kyren’s face, purple energy arcing and crackling, “You are needed to pilot the Gaidan, it must be deployed if we are to survive.”
“Okay, where are we going, exactly?” Kyren responded, eager at the chance to get ahold of the Gaidan.
He felt his heart breaking as he thought about Alis, though. What had happened to her? This might be his only chance to get ahold of the giant robot from Elarra’s vision, but that would mean abandoning Alis, at least for now.
“We’re going to the control room, where we will deploy the Gaidan,” Dralok informed him.
“Okay, Benjam, take Leicara and get out of here. I’ll go with Dralok, we’ll meet up later. I’ve got something I need to do,” Kyren instructed.
“Here, take this,” Benjam handed him a small handheld device. “Comm unit.”
Kyren tucked it into his pocket and turned back to Dralok, “Lead on.”
Leicara and Benjam disappeared down the passageway. Kyren turned and followed Dralok. It was time to go steal a giant robot. Boy was he gonna piss off Dralok, he thought, grinning.
48
Benjam’s Battle
Benjam squiggled down the passage after Leicara. He wasn’t sure about Kyren’s plan, but he knew it would probably be the only chance to get ahold of the robot. He didn’t much like splitting up, and he was feeling quite distraught over Alis. What the hell had happened to her?
Then he had a revelation. Leicara had mentioned, when explaining what she knew of the Kirugi, that there would be a sign, a herald of its coming. People would be influenced by it somehow, driven to provide a safe haven for the beast in advance of its arrival.
Could these Dras, and even Alis, be under the sway of the Kirugi? It was distinctly possible, but he couldn’t be certain without more study.
“I think this may be the herald of the Kirugi’s coming,” he said to Leicara’s back.
She turned and looked at him intently, “I see, that would certainly go a long way to explain what is happening. But that would mean it is nearly here.”
“And my timeline may be completely wrong,” Benjam said sadly, feeling shame that his calculations failed to take into account something, some as-of-yet determined variable.
What that something was, he wasn’t sure. Leicara reached the end of the hallway and swung open a plain wooden door. Beyond was darkness. Leicara stepped through the threshold and there was a slight blurring of her form. As she stepped through, lights immediately flickered on, revealing a ship’s bridge.
Benjam followed a moment later. There was no sensation as he passed through the doorway. No warp sickness. Not even a slight tingle. She stepped around him and fiddled with the control panel next to the doorway. The portal winked out of existence, revealing a blank wall.
“How are we going to pilot this ship with only the two of us?” Benjam asked bluntly, looking around at the multiple battle stations.
He wondered if Leicara was a pilot, like Alis. Alis. There it was again. Had she been influenced by the Kirugi too? It would seem so. But how? Why her?
“This ship is controlled by an AI. Skotinicene, please greet Benjam,” she said aloud.
A voice came over the loudspeakers, “Greetings Benjam. I am Skotinicene, I am the ship’s heart.”
“Hello, may I just call you Skotty?” he said, recognizing the name immediately.
But Skotty was aboard a station, not a ship. Benjam realized what he must do. He must find the station and transfer the AI to it.
“Skotty, can you encode yourself onto a data core?” Benjam asked, an idea forming in his mind.
“Indeed, I can copy my essence into a data core of sufficient capacity,” he replied cheerfully.
“Leicara, do you have a spare data core?” Benjam queried.
“Yes, I believe I do, but we’ll need to pull it from the ship’s systems. We’ll have to take something offline to find one that can accommodate Skotinicene’s coding,” Leicara informed him. “We can do so after we travel to our last base to meet up with Dralok, Kyren, and the council.”
“Skotinicene,
please set a course for the base,” Leicara instructed.
“Indeed,” he replied happily.
The images on the viewscreen showed several moons around ringed gas giant. The ship began to move and the perspective on the viewscreens shifted. He watched as the moons receded. They made their way around to the far side of the planet.
As they crested the great orb, Benjam caught sight of something. A massive ring hanging in space, orbiting the planet. A warp portal. It was dark, however, appearing to be deactivated somehow.
“I’ll activate the portal so we can travel to our base. However, there is a chance that the Halifax have used their computer, and will be able to anticipate our move. We may face an enemy force, the moment I activate the warp gate.”
“How come they haven’t activated it themselves?” Benjam wondered aloud.
“I’ve got it locked from this end, and they don’t know which one it is. With it offline, they can’t connect to it.”
“Skotty, what is this ship capable of?” Benjam asked.
“I have a full complement of neutronium bombs, pulse cannons, graviton torpedoes, and a pseudo-stasis field for defense,” was his overly cheerful response.
“Skotinicene, please ready all of our defenses,” Leicara instructed.
“Indeed!” Skotty replied.
The ship continued onward, the warp gate growing ever closer in the viewscreen.
“I’ll activate it when we’re within thirty-five kilometers. That will leave only a few moments to act, but that’ll give our enemies the same disadvantage,” Leicara revealed.
The ship sped onward through the blackness of space, framed by the blue and white gas giant, its rings glowing with reflected sunlight. They reached the appropriate distance and Leicara keyed in the activation sequence. The warp portal sprang to life, the pulsating, fluctuating energy field began to form.
The second it was completed, ships began to pour through the portal. Black ships. Triangular ships. Dragoons. Escape was likely impossible, if the Halifax were indeed using their prescient computer.