by Trevor Gregg
“So we’ve got some time. Good. But we still need to get back to Elarra and then on to Procyon to get the robot, then to Earth to stop the Kirugi. I hope we’ve got days, if not weeks for all that travel,” Kyren speculated.
“Yes, that is a problem, but I may have a solution. While I was in the Azorian data network, I managed to find data on warp gates. There are several gates we can use, they are hidden in abandoned systems, unknown to the rest of civilization. I believe this gate network will bypass much of the travel time,” Benjam revealed.
“Great, so we’ve got a way to get there faster, we’ve got our destinations. We should get moving. That includes you, Geri,” Kyren directed.
“Wait, what?” Geri and Alis asked simultaneously, both their ears going askance.
“In our final battle, there were some Consortium forces supporting us. In fact, I think their support is vital to our success. They will be there because of you, Geri. You need to go find us support and get to Earth, with a quickness,” explained Kyren.
“No, mom! Not again!” Alis cried in desperation.
“He’s right about it, at least partially anyway. I don’t know what’ll make a difference in whatever future you’ve seen, but we’ve got to try,” Geri replied. “I’ll take Isa and see what support I can drum up. Benjam, how many days to get from the rendezvous point to Elarra, and then on to Procyon?”
“If the gate network is still active, we can make it to Rendikar in six hours, then Procyon three days later. We can be to Earth in four days, approximately,” Benjam informed them.
“I’ll meet you at Earth four days from now,” Geri said confidently.
They flew on for some time before the final jump to the meeting point with Isa. Warping into orbit around an uninhabited gas giant, they immediately spotted Isa on sensors. Alis glumly helped Geri gather her belongings, sighing heavily more than once. The airlocks opened as the ships finished docking. Alis and Geri said a tearful goodbye, again.
76
Warm Welcome
Kyren was getting anxious. He didn’t know what to expect when they returned to Joraq. She likely knew exactly what would happen and would have a welcoming party waiting. But they couldn’t do this without Elarra, her visions had been instrumental in guiding them so far.
“Final jump to take us to Rendikar in five. Everybody get ready,” Alis called from the pilot’s seat while tapping commands to activate the last warp jump.
The ship warped and Kyren shook his head, trying to clear the jump sickness. He expected alarm klaxons at any second, but all was quiet.
“Hmmm, I expected a welcoming the moment we emerged from our warp portal. This is infinitely creepier,” Alis remarked.
“Yeah, she obviously knows we’re coming back, so why not hit us when we’re most vulnerable?” Kyren agreed while Alis made a course for Joraq’s compound.
Atmospheric entry lit up the viewscreens with orange fire. When it cleared there was an expanse of green below them. Alis began the descent. Suddenly, the weapons lock alarm sounded.
“Now there’s the welcome I expected,” she said, turning to Benjam. “What’s our readout on sensors?”
“There has been a missile launch. The sensors have detected one hundred and seventy five separate heat signatures. Calculating their potential destructive force, there is more than enough energy to defeat our shields and still have plenty of missiles left over to take us out,” Benjam informed them.
“Okay, hold onto your asses! This is gonna be tricky,” Alis cried.
She hit the throttle and the ship increased in velocity. Could they outrun the missiles? How many hits could they take before the ship was terminally damaged? Apprehension flooded Kyren’s gut.
As the Ashari sped on above the compound, many white streaks of smoke indicated the passage of the many missiles. The trails lengthened as the missiles sped on, streaking toward them.
“DS cannon, Kyren! Try to shoot them down,” Alis commanded.
He immediately brought up the targeting reticle while the gun dropped from the belly of the ship. He aimed at the cluster of missiles and opened up, strafing side to side. Flashes lit the viewscreen as many missiles were destroyed. Some detonated spectacularly, taking out neighboring rockets.
Kyren continued pouring ferrous slugs into the cloud of missiles, but there were so many, they just kept coming on. He stared in horror as the ammo readout went to zero.
“DS cannon’s dry,” he cried.
“Damn. Maybe their engines are susceptible to lack of atmosphere,” Alis said, maneuvering the ship into a steep climb and pulling energy from the shields to bolster the engines.
The Ashari climbed, and the missiles followed. They reached near orbit, but the missiles were still coming on. Alis pushed the ship into a steep dive and increased throttle even more, robbing power from other systems to feed the engine.
Kyren watched Alis expertly manipulating the controls. Damn if she wasn’t a natural pilot, he thought proudly. He was nervous, yes, but was confident Alis could find a way out of this predicament.
“C’mon you bastards, follow me on reentry,” Alis growled under her breath.
The ship’s viewscreen lit up with the fire of reentry, temporarily blinding their visual sensors. But thankfully, there were other sensors still active.
“Yes! They are dropping off, many are being destroyed by the heat of reentry,” Benjam exclaimed.
“There’s still around fifty missiles that weren’t taken out,” Kyren said after reading Benjam’s sensor output.
“That’s still too many,” Benjam informed them, his voice wavering.
Alis pushed the ship further into a steep dive, nearly straight down.
“Alis, what’re you doing?”
“Benjam, I need a warp vector as close to the ground as you can manage. Come out the other side of the planet,” Alis called out.
Kyren watched as Benjam hurriedly calculated their trajectory. The ground streamed ever closer, the trees taking on definition as they descended. The missiles were nearly upon them, and would impact at any moment now.
“There, jump now, Alis,” Benjam yelled.
She hit the engage button and the warp portal opened in front of them, mere meters above the ground. The ship shot through and Kyren’s brain swam, floating in a sea of confusion as the portal sealed shut behind.
“No missiles on our tail anymore,” Benjam squeaked happily moments later.
“Great, now let’s see if we can get back without any more missiles. Hopefully that volley was her whole inventory,” Alis said while climbing the ship back to orbit.
As the planet turned beneath them, they sped on toward Joraq’s compound. As they approached, no alarms sounded. They came in low, just above the treetops.
Suddenly the weapons lock alarm went off. But before Kyren could react, several pulses of blue energy burst from long dormant cannons crowning the top of Joraq’s ship.
Alis attempted to perform evasive maneuvers but there was no way to dodge, the blasts were moving too fast. The first slammed into the Ashari’s shields, shattering them into a million tiny shards of energy. The second struck the Ashari down the side leaving a great burned furrow in the armor.
The third found its mark, blasting through armor and punching into one of the Ashari’s engines. Alarms sounded as the ship began to spin out of control. But they were too low. There was no time to recover. The Ashari impacted with the ground, sliding down the wide avenue and coming to rest in a large plaza next to the massive silo containing the ancient ship.
“Nooooo!” Alis cried, checking the readouts. “Shit, engines offline.”
“No matter, we’ve got to get Elarra, we’ll see what repairs we can make after we’ve taken Joraq out of the picture,” Kyren said, checking the pistol Geri had given him to make sure a round was chambered.
He adjusted the bracer on his left forearm and strode confidently to the airlock. Alis and Benjam followed, hot on his heels. The airlock slid ope
n, revealing the courtyard. Nar’raxi were scrambling about, as the chatter of weapons fire erupted all around them. Kyren recognized the attackers. Arkanon’s forces had penetrated the compound, and were mercilessly gunning down the fleeing nar'raxi.
77
Slaughter
Chaos reigned outside the Ashari, but Kyren felt a strange calmness. Nar’raxi screamed and ran in every direction. Arkanon’s forces bore heavy assault rifles and were gunning down the fleeing nar'raxi, men, women and children alike.
A cry went up amongst the nar'raxi as a line of warriors stepped forward, some swinging slings with stones, others readying bows or spears. They unleashed a volley at the invaders, felling several. Kyren watched in horror as the surviving mercenaries opened up on the primitive nar'raxi warriors.
They were cut down mercilessly. Kyren was appalled at the slaughter, he couldn’t just stand by. Dashing out the airlock and down the ramp, he ignited his energy blade and raised his pistol. The nearest of Arkanon’s mercs was only about ten paces away, and with his back to Kyren.
The merc was a short, squat humanoid with yellow-brown skin and a shock of green hair at the very peak of its head. Kyren sprinted forward and thrust with the blade, punching through the merc’s back right between the shoulder blades. The merc looked down at the energy blade extending from his chest and stared for a moment, before going limp and toppling forward.
Kyren raised his pistol as the next nearest of the mercs, a blue-skinned saurian, but the merc was already turning, the barrel of his rifle tracking toward Kyren, barking a steady stream of high-velocity slugs. Kyren quailed mentally as he realized he wasn’t going to get on target before the rounds found him. Shit, he’d just gotten himself killed.
But before the barrel reached him, a massive thunderclap sounded and the merc went flying. Thank the stars, Alis! She’d just saved his life. Kyren stashed his pistol and scooped up the first fallen merc’s rifle.
Several more of Arkanon’s men had entered the plaza from the opposite side. Kyren raised the rifle and fired wildly, driving the mercs to cover. Damn, this was starting to go badly.
They began to take aim when a crater appeared where one of them had stood. A blast wave rocked outward from the point of destruction. Kyren looked behind him and saw the Ashari’s main gun swiveling to take aim on the rest of the mercs.
Witnessing their companion’s disintegration, the rest of the mercs scurried back into the alleys and out of sight.
Benjam’s voice came over the speaker in the airlock access panel, “Go, find Elarra. I’ll protect the ship.”
Kyren oriented himself and tried to guess where the stockade would be located.
“That way,” he said, pointing.
Alis met his gaze and nodded, and they made their way cautiously across the plaza. Entering the maze of avenues and alleyways, they darted from corner to corner, trying to keep to cover. Aside from the nar'raxi, who seemed to be ignoring them, they encountered no one else.
Reaching the stockade, Kyren held up a hand. He watched to make sure the way was clear, then dashed across the street and into the doorway, turning to cover Alis as she darted over to him.
“Do you think Elarra’s there?” Alis whispered as Kyren turned to the door.
“Dunno. But we have to check.”
Kyren touched the pad and the door slowly slid open, revealing the building’s darkened interior. Glancing behind, he was startled to see the street had begun to fill up with nar'raxi. They bore primitive weapons and an even more primitive look on their faces. He grabbed Alis and tugged her inside, closing the door immediately.
“Elarra!” Kyren called.
A male voice answered in return, “Kyren?”
He recognized the voice but couldn’t place it.
“Who’s there,” he asked, walking toward the hallway where the voice was coming from.
He could now see a row of cells lining one wall of the corridor. Stepping into the hallway he stood before the first cell and peered inside. An imposing figure was lurking near the back of the cell, shrouded in darkness. The figure stepped into the light.
“Arkanon!” Kyren said, feeling stupid for not having recognized him. “What are you doing here?”
“I was riding in the transports with the first wave. Joraq destroyed the transports but I survived, thanks to my advanced battle armor. From the sounds out there, I would say my second wave has arrived.”
“Yeah, your goons are slaughtering the nar'raxi. They’re murdering the innocent!” Alis interjected hotly.
“You want to stop this slaughter? Get me out of here and reunite me with my forces. We’ll only go after Joraq. You have my word.”
Alis snorted at Arkanon’s offer, but remained silent.
“Alis, can you hack the lock with your wrench?”
“Yes. But…” she said hesitantly
“What?” Kyren questioned
“Well, I’m not okay with releasing him. He’s a bloodthirsty warlord, and I don’t trust him.”
“Hey, you two relax. Listen, if you let me out I can stop the killing. Well, the indiscriminate, anyway. I just want Joraq. My men will find me eventually, but by then, who knows how many innocents will be slain?”
“Murdered, you mean. Murdered at your order,” Alis growled, ears going flat.
“He’s right, you know. We’ve got to let him out. Only he can reign in his men, stop the killing.”
“Fine! But if he turns out to be a scumbag, I’m gonna thunder his ass.”
“Hey, no need to thunder, please,” Arkanon responded in what must’ve passed for subservience for him.
Alis set about cutting the bars with her wrench transformed into a laser cutter. She made short work of the aged metal, and soon Arkanon limped from the cell.
“See, I’m an ally,” Arkanon said, holding his hands palms out, placatingly.
“Pfff, we’ll see,” Alis glowered at Arkanon, who simply smiled back.
Kyren wasn’t reassured by the smile. It was the smile of a predator.
“Let’s get out of here. We need to find Elarra,” Kyren said with urgency.
“Where could she be?” Alis asked rhetorically.
“Actually, I think I have an idea where we might find Joraq and most likely Elarra too,” Kyren said, reaching out for the door controls.
The door began to slide open and arms immediately thrust through, followed by entire heads and shoulders. nar'raxi were attempting to get through the doorway, even before the door was open. The door opened to the width of a nar'raxi and they began to spill into the room.
Bearing knives, clubs, and spears, they began to advance on Kyren as more continued to pour into the room. They would quickly be overwhelmed if they didn’t do something. Kyren raised his rifle, ignoring the advancing nar'raxi, and fired at the doorway.
Blood spattered in a sickening spray as the high velocity rounds tore through the unarmored nar'raxi. The bodies fell in the doorway, slowing the influx. He fired again, but was forced to adjust his aim. He had to gun down a nar'raxi with a spear who had gotten within striking range.
Alis’ sonic emitter boomed, the confined space causing the sound to reverberate, leaving his ears ringing. Several nar'raxi were flung backward and impacted with the opposite wall, dropping their weapons as well as their consciousness.
Kyren glanced at Arkanon, who had liberated a large machete from one of their attackers. He was expertly wielding the blade, cutting down any nar'raxi entering his threat radius. Retraining his aim on the doorway, he unloaded another burst, felling more. They seemed to keep coming though.
“Quick, get back to the cell and take cover,” Arkanon cried as he detached a piece of his body armor.
It was a small plate that looked like a belt buckle, but had a tiny holopanel on the back. He hit a couple of commands and the lights went red. Quickly tossing the plate at the doorway, Arkanon scrambled back to the cell.
Kyren and Alis followed, cowering against the back wall. A tremend
ous explosion rocked the building and the blast wave hit them moments later. They were slammed against the wall, rebounding to crumple to the floor. Kyren’s ears were ringing so loud now he couldn’t hear anything.
“Alis, are you okay?” he shook her and she groggily raised her head.
She spoke, but no sound came out. Or rather, he couldn’t hear her. He hoped he wasn’t deafened permanently, but there was nothing he could do about it. He clambered to his feet and raised the rifle, stalking into the tremendous cloud of smoke billowing from what remained of the building’s entrance.
78
Unwelcome Memories
Elarra woke lying in the rho’kar. Removing the sensor basket from her head, she stood shakily and peered around. Beyond the pool of light, the rest of the hangar was cast into darkness, but silent. She was alone, it would seem.
What the hell had just happened to her? What had Joraq done? She staggered as a pain split her skull. Memories flooded in. Memories of torment, torture, glee at the pain she was causing. Only it wasn’t her, even though it felt so. It was Joraq. One of her memories.
Somehow, she had imprinted Elarra with the sum total of her life. Elarra could feel it, bursting at the seams of her mind and trickling out. The memories came unbidden, and she saw snippets of Joraq’s life. Much was incomprehensible, as it didn’t appear to be coming in any logical order. She struggled to shut off the flow, or at least get it to a manageable trickle.
Leaving the pool of light surrounding the rho’kar, she struck out in the direction of the door, hoping she really was alone. As she neared, she could see the door was framed by a razor-thin rectangle of light. Good, that meant daylight still, she couldn’t have been out for more than a few hours.
Still, Joraq could have gotten up to more mischief in even a short time. What was her game here? Elarra still hadn’t figured it out. But she did have a sneaking suspicion she was being influenced somehow by the memories. She felt, what was it exactly, this feeling? A mood? A raw emotion of bitterness?