Eternal Enemy

by James David Victor

  “We need to know what we’re facing,” Anders said grimly, waving his hands through the field above his own desk to activate it. “And so does everyone else,” he murmured as he started opening the holo-files to see long, boring lists and bullet-points alongside video footage.

  “Moriarty? Can you get a signal through to Commander Malady?” Anders asked. “I want to transmit as much of this straight to him. He might have access to a transmitter.”

  “Affirmative, sir,” Moriarty said as Anders started to view the footage.

  Of people.

  “It’s the New Edeners,” Anders breathed, seeing the way that the humans in the pens had no gene therapies and wore the same patched and strange clothing. Occasionally some would be taken out of the pens and loaded onto hovering transports with ‘Temple Delivery’ stamped on the side.

  But then came a scene where the prisoners started panicking and wailing, for no apparent reason whatsoever. Anders looked, but he could see no Throne Marines or transport vehicle. The prisoners seemed to have just broken into hysteria, which was perhaps understandable, given their situation…

  But I know what it is. Anders could recognize the symptoms of the nausea, sick anxiety, and terror that accompanied the use of PK energy. Of a certain type of PK energy—one that was associated with the Archon.

  And then, moving into view, came a floating module. A single-use drone shaped a little like an isolation tube moving under its own power. Its front was a pane of crystal-glass, and as it approached, the frenzy inside the pen only got worse.

  The drone unit stopped in front of the pen, and suddenly, the New Edeners fell into rapt silence. Anders wondered if this was some sort of PK command, or whether it was the frozen terror that small animals have when faced with a much larger predator.

  And then, without warning, all of those contained within the pen dropped to the floor. The detective did not have to wonder what had happened to them as the drone unit turned slowly, and Anders caught sight of what it contained.

  It was the floating form of a girl, suspended in her own blue field inside the tube, with pipes and wires attached to the back of her neck. She wore a simple red one-piece service suit and her hair was a blonde bob.

  It was the LOHIU.

  Incoming Transmission! Senior Commander MALADY/Outcast Marines…

  “Commander Corsigon. I am viewing your data. We have to kill it. The LOHIU.”

  The words of the man inside the power suit were uncompromising. Malady was the commander of the rebellious band of ‘Outcast Marines’ who had somehow escaped the Eternal Empress’s wrath and attention. Malady himself was contained within his own full tactical suit, forever doomed to never again feel the air on his skin.

  “Sir, I understand your trepidation…” Anders began. He couldn’t explain how he knew that he was here to save the LOHIU, not kill her.

  But… If she is dead, then won’t the connection to the Black Sun also be cut? a treacherous part of his mind asked.

  But the LOHIU had asked Anders to save her. That was what had started this whole mess. She had reached out, using her PK powers, to transmit messages to him half a galaxy away and say that she needed help.

  “This is not trepidation, Commander!” the necro-bot said sternly. “It is clear that the LOHIU is a danger to humanity. A danger to us all! If you have qualms, I will have to conduct the raid myself.”

  Anders gritted his teeth in exasperation. Commander Malady was currently in low orbit over their hemisphere, waiting for the signal to provide cover for Anders’s mission.

  But what good will two dozen Outcast fighter vessels be? the ex-detective thought.

  “Malady, as soon as you break atmosphere, then the Throne Marines are going to work out you’re not some of theirs. You’ll have planetary defenses after you!” Anders said sternly. “Don’t throw your life away for foolish ideas!”

  “Then promise me you will put a meson bolt through that thing’s heart as soon as you can, Commander Corsigon!” the electrified words of Malady returned.

  “Commander, I…” Anders hesitated. When his eyes flickered to Dalia, he saw the alien looking at him carefully. There was no sign of her judgement.

  Should I? Anders wrestled with his heart. Was it really so easy as to just take out one person’s life, for the sake of humanity?

  But she had asked for my help. Even the LOHIU was a citizen. A human of the Golden Throne. And Anders knew that if he started making those sorts of choices, he would be lost… The LOHIU was a person like every other, and her life had to mean as much as theirs, didn’t it?

  “I can’t do that, Commander,” Anders stated.

  “Then I am sorry to hear that, Corsigon,” Malady stated. “You had better get your people out of there in the time it takes for me to launch the bombardment.”

  “How long will that take!?” Anders burst out.

  “I have already transmitted the attack vectors, Corsigon,” the half-dead Malady inside the battle-plate intoned, and then cut the connection.

  “Out-fracking-standing!” Anders snarled as he and Dalia ran for the door out and to the temple beyond.

  20

  LOHIU/Jake

  “This is outrageous, Commander-General! I will not stand for this treatment!” When Jake next rose toward consciousness, it was again to the sound of angered voices. The same angered voices, although they were muted and further away this time.

  “On the contrary, Architrex, you will stand any time that I tell you to, when I tell you to, and how.” Commander-General Cread sounded as amused as a cat playing with a mouse.

  Ugh… Jake felt pain, a deep sense of nausea that was more like the onset of an illness than it was any physical trauma. His thoughts felt heavy and not entirely his own. When he opened his eyes, he saw blue once again—and distant silhouettes moving past him.

  They were moving him somewhere, but he didn’t know where.

  “Commander-General, if you continue in this manner, then I will be withdrawing my treatment of the J-14. Let’s see what you do then when he starts to wake up!” The Architrex sounded angry, but also gleeful with the prospect of imminent revenge.

  No, he feels gleeful, Jake realized. He could feel the Architrex’s emotions on the edge of his mind like a wash of sickly green, shot through with orange and red. It was a bruise against his consciousness, and one that he didn’t like at all.

  “Architrex.” Jake felt something cross Cread’s mind—a sudden, deadly seriousness that promised murder. There would be no compromising or threatening the commander-general, the psychic knew.

  “If you do not proceed as I say, I will order my Marines to throw you off the highest spire of your beloved palace. Do you understand that?”

  The Architrex did not need to have Jake’s abilities in order to feel the commander-general’s certainty. Jake felt the tube that he was in slosh as it slowed to a halt before Cread spoke once more.

  “There. Good. Now, please proceed to do as you were ordered,” Cread said, and Jake felt a surge of agitation, but then he was moving again. The young psychic suddenly got the impression that the Architrex himself must be the one made to actually push the isolation tube toward its destination.

  Which was...where? Fear cramped though Jake’s belly once more. Any slight hope he might have had of the two men killing each other, or of himself being rescued, started to fade…

  And in their place came a deep, punishing despair. No. No. No. No…

  “That is the LOHIU’s chamber,” muttered the miserable Architrex, but when Jake turned his mind toward it, instead of feeling sympathetic waves of PK energy against his mind, all he could feel was blankness.

  “I see that you’re not taking any chances,” he heard Cread mutter scornfully.

  “Of course. You’ll need to wear the suppressors,” Architrex muttered angrily, but Jake suddenly picked up on one of the man’s errant thoughts. “Not that I care if your mind turns to mush as soon as you step in there…”

 
; So, Jake thought, the chamber of the LOHIU must be heavily shielded, and anyone entering needed to wear PK suppressors or…

  Or what!?

  There was the sound of scrapes and grunts and a few frustrated voices, but eventually, the group managed to fit themselves with the neutralizing equipment, and Jake heard the Architrex’s voice, laced with trepidation.

  “Opening in three...two…one…and…”

  Urk!

  Jake felt the wave of fear and terror hit him like a brick, and then he heard a low murmur from the others around him. Even though all Jake’s physical eyes could see was varied shades of blue, in his mind’s eye, he could see a fierce burning light, throbbing with power—and he was being pushed toward it.

  “Dear stars!” he heard one of the Marines murmur, before promptly being sick. Jake could only agree—or he would have, if his body would obey him enough to speak or cry out or be sick.

  But the LOHIU was more powerful than any human that Jake had ever been near. The closest he had ever come to such incandescent power was the mind of the Archon itself.

  “No. Don’t think about it. You’ll only bring its attention!” a voice needled into Jake’s mind as sharp as a sliver of ice. It made his heart thunder and race in his chest.

  It sounded like a human. A young girl.

  What… Jake thought. He didn’t even know where or what this place was in which he was talking. He had lost sense of the blue and of the outside world of struggling Gene Seers and commander-generals. All that existed was this fierce glow of the LOHIU against his mind, and her strange, small, voice.

  Jake tried to remember the lessons that Dalia had taught him. He tried to remember something that she had said about finding where you were, and who you were, and sticking to it, but it was impossible against such a fierce, powerful soul. Just as when Jake had made contact with the Archon, he felt himself stripped before the much more powerful being...

  “No! The bad man. The Archon. Please don’t think about it…” the LOHIU begged.

  “Get it hooked up! Plug in the unit to the transference cables!” someone was shouting, distantly, and in the midst of his pain, Jake could feel the terrible suspicion that everyone else had in that room: that this was a bad idea. That what they were doing would spell doom for them all…

  “This is madness, Cread! There are proper procedures that have to be followed! We have to calm the LOHIU down before we attempt to meld consciousness!” the Architrex shouted.

  “Use more suppressants! They are tools, Architrex, and they will obey me!” Cread shouted back, and Jake felt another sluggish roll of tiredness and exhaustion lap at the edge of his mind from the sedatives being pumped down the pipes….

  But it was like throwing a sandbag against the sea and expecting the waves to stop. The power of the LOHIU was simply too much for any mere drug, and Jake found himself falling and drowning in her mind.

  His barriers were starting to come down, one by one, and Jake knew that when they were all gone, there would be nothing stopping the Archon from getting in.

  “Jake. Jake! JAKE!” the girl’s voice was shouting, and with the sound of her voice, Jake felt like some part of him that was him was given back. Entirely.

  Jake felt something, or he dreamed something—he wasn’t sure which anymore—and this time when he opened his eyes, he saw that he was not alone.

  There was a young girl holding his hand—or the projected dream of one anyway. She had a bob of blonde hair and a deep red service suit, and large, blue eyes. Everything else around them was dark and completely silent, with no sign of Commander-General Cread or the Architrex or anyone else.

  This is in my mind, Jake whispered.

  “Isn’t everything?” the LOHIU said in a small voice.

  How. But… I don’t understand? Jake asked her.

  “I think they are trying to connect our containment fields. But not that. Our minds…” The girl frowned deeply. Jake did not think that anyone her age should ever have to look that serious.

  “Thank you,” she said, acknowledging his unspoken concern. When Jake looked at her, he caught sudden echoes of…something else, of a small body like his own, floating in a much larger version of the isolation tube that he was inside. And of computers and codes, and of layers of pain and fear and frustration that she had to endure.

  Just like me, he remembered his own personal nightmare sessions when he had been held in animation by the Gene Seers and tested on.

  “Yes. You and me. We’re alike…” she whispered, and Jake’s heart broke with the hope and the longing he felt behind those words. This girl had been trapped here for probably all her life, experimented upon, and probably unable to properly or fully meet with anyone ever…before him.

  But then, the darkness around them quivered, and the LOHIU’s hand suddenly tightened against his own. Jake could feel her fear.

  “Oh no…” she whispered.

  What is it!?

  “I think it’s it. The one I told you not to think about. I think it heard us…” the LOHIU said, terrified and panicked.

  The Archon. The bad man. Jake knew instantly what she was referring to as the waves of evil started to lap at them, pushing ahead of the ancient, Archonic mind.

  The Archon of their galaxy was coming for them, and Jake really wasn’t sure there was anything they could do to keep it at bay.

  21

  Gene Temple

  “Ack!” Anders felt the wave of nausea hit him before he even saw the steel and crystal-glass superstructure of the Gene Temple. At once, he knew what it was.

  Jake. The LOHIU.

  “I feel it too.” Suddenly, Dalia was at his side, putting her arm around Anders’s shoulders and guiding him to the side of a tree as Patch gave a similar low moan of torment behind them. “Here.” Dalia moved, grabbing the Void engineer and settling him beside them.

  “You need to calm yourselves. Find your center. Remember what you are, not what you are not…” she said in what Anders thought of as an infuriatingly Ilythian way.

  “I have no idea what you are talking about,” he said, blinking away the tears from his eyes as he looked beyond the dark boughs of the trees to the gleaming sides of the structure ahead of them.

  The Gene Temple was huge. High, vaulted walls made of steel and stone, layered with gigantic panels of colored crystal-glass that made it look like a cathedral. Only larger. It shone in the daylight with dazzling brightness, with cropped green meadowland and sculpted gravel driveways leading into it.

  How are we ever going to get into that!? Anders thought with a groan, just before another wave of psychic pain and nausea almost overtook him.

  “It is simple, policeman,” the Ilythian said with characteristic coolness. “These feelings are things happening to you, not by you. Remember that. So why hold onto them when they belong to the mind of another? Let them go. Remember who you are…” The alien’s voice was almost singsong as she talked, and Anders wondered if this was another of the strange meditations and sciences that the Ilythian race excelled at.

  It was undeniable, in fact, that as he listened to her words and attempted to breathe through his pain, he did feel a little better. The nausea lifted a little, and his headache throbbed just a bit less, too.

  I am Anders Corsigon. I am here to save my friend. He felt his resolve harden once more, and when he lifted his head to look at Patch, he saw, through the visor of his own suit, that the Void engineer looked a little less pale too. Well, almost back to as pale as he always did, anyway…

  But the feelings, although lightened, were still there—and they were still emanating from that building. From what was inside that building.

  “They’re doing something to Jake,” Anders breathed.

  “And the LOHIU…” Dalia added.

  “Something they don’t like,” Anders said. Suddenly, there was the bright call of an alarm, and he watched as two of the impressively-large double-doors started to slowly open.

  Out poured a c
loud of humans, some wearing Throne Marine armor and others wearing the white-and-gold service suits of the Gene Seers. They were falling about themselves, coughing, holding their temples, and a couple even vomited as they sank to their knees. There was a sudden roar of engines as two drone transports shot through the building doors too, almost knocking over their comrades...

  “This is our chance.” Anders said, already springing to his feet. Whatever effect Jake and the LOHIU were emitting, it was powerful enough to cause some of those inside to flee.

  “You want us to just barge our way in?” Patch said, staggering to his feet. The Void engineer looked down at himself—at the Outcast Marine power suit he wore—and the question was obvious. Who was going to be fooled?

  “They’re only a little way from a throne power suit,” Anders forced himself to say recklessly. “And this is our only chance.”

  He turned and ran toward the Gene Temple, and the source of the pain, with Dalia and, after a second, Patch McGuire following him.

  Ach. The wave of nausea that hit Anders was almost bad enough to force him to his knees as he ran past the first of the stumbling Marines.

  You know this. You’ve seen this before, he demanded of himself, forcing his legs to keep moving.

  “Anders…” It was Dalia, at his side and lightly touching his shoulder. It was a small gesture, but it gave him the courage he needed to keep going.

  “Commander?” one of the Gene Seers in their white coat groaned to the running figures, clearly mistaking their Outcast power suits for Throne Marine ones. But the ex-detective was in no mood to correct the man of his assumptions. Anders spared the man a look, and then in the next breath remembered how these had been the people to capture New Edeners and imprison them in those cages.

  Anders ignored the man, dodging around the groaning forms and reaching the open doors of the temple.

  “Check,” he said over his suit-to-suit comms, and Dalia slid to the other side of the wide doors with perfect military precision, with Patch behind Anders.