“What in the name of Batumah?” exclaimed Theo.
Soldiers poured from the wreck, blasters in hand. The commotion brought out acolytes and Brother Superiors alike. Even the new Yasta members that had very little training immediately jumped into the fray. They may not have fought with much skill, but just from watching them, Theo could tell that they fought with their hearts. Body after body piled up in the courtyard. In the middle of the fray, Theo saw himself and Cherish crouched down.
Softly, Irane whispered, “What more do you think you could have done to stop this?”
Theo watched as he dragged his frail, broken body towards the fountain. Watching it from a distance, he was surprised he even had the strength to do that much. Looking at it from the outside made him realize just how badly off he’d been. If the man below him had been anyone else, he would have commended him on his efforts. There was nothing weak about pressing on when he was so starved and dehydrated. Theo slowly began to forgive himself. “There was nothing else I could have done.”
Irane nodded. “And if you had escaped earlier? What would have happened then?”
It suddenly dawned on Theo that Irane had to have known that they had been taken hostage in the dungeon. He had the gift of super strength, but he hadn’t come for them. Instead, he had left the monastery entirely to pick up members of another infiltration group. Theo thought about the implications that escaping earlier would have brought about. They wouldn’t have been present for the fight at all. The terrible massacre that had happened would have been so much worse without himself, Cherish, and Cierra to fight on monks’ behalf. They were meant to be there.
Theo looked at Irane with questioning eyes. “Did you know? Did you know it was all going to happen like this?”
Before Irane could answer him, something rocked the ship. Irane quickly ended the images streaming on the screen. The sky was filled with more Imperial ships, and smoke. One of the ships had locked on them. Lasers struck them again. If their craft had been made of anything else, they would have been obliterated. The laser shook the ship again, but was reflected off in another direction. The ricochet struck a different imperial ship. Black smoke billowed up, as yellow flames erupted from its side.
“Hold on!” Irane struggled to open a rift.
The ship that had been firing at them was still on their tail. The pilot had adapted after seeing the laser being reflected off them. It was striking at odd angles to make sure any ricochets would not hit the imperial ship by accident.
Ahead of them, a rift opened into subspace. Theo’s knuckles were white. He was clenching the arms of his seat as hard as he could. If they died now, no one would ever know what had happened to them. Cierra would likely think he had either skipped out, or was killed in some mission the others probably knew very little about. She had already lost her husband. Theo didn’t want to be added to the list of dead men in her life.
“Get us out of here!” Theo yelled at Irane, and glanced at the monitor showing the ship that was following them.
“I’m working on it!”
The ship shot into the rift, but the imperials weren’t giving up that easily. The enemy craft raced in after them. With the second ship in the wormhole, the walls rippled violently. The Relissarium groaned under the force. Theo watched as the ship behind them swerved uncontrollably. The imperials were in a far less durable ship. Theo watched as it collapsed under the weight of the subspace portal. It was ripped to pieces, and scattered like sand along the timestream.
As soon as the first piece entered the wall of the wormhole, the end of the tunnel started to close in on itself. The walls were pressing in. If they didn’t reach the end soon, there wouldn’t be an end to reach. Theo didn’t want to think about what would happen if they touched the side of the tunnel.
Glancing frantically from side to side, Theo felt his heart racing. “Hurry up! We’re not going to make it!”
Irane was shaking from the effort of keeping the craft in the middle of the quickly shrinking tunnel. “This is as fast as it goes outside of regular spacetime!”
Theo watched the rear monitor in horror. The end of the tunnel they had entered was already collapsed. The wormhole was sealing itself off. Sparks flew as each side met. It was a blinding collision of spacetime refilling a void that never should have existed. They were in a deadly race, against the universe itself.
Seven
Cierra focused on flying the cloaked ship behind the patrol vessel. She managed to slip in behind it on its final sweep. Makka and Fabois had their palms pressed against the side of the ship. They were trying to share the burden of spreading their gifts, so neither of them were tapped out before they were even inside of the hangar.
Seneca let out an anxious high-pitched noise that Cierra could only classify as a squeal. “We’re almost in range of the security scanners. If anything on this data sphere is wrong, they’ll spot us immediately. There are so many ways this could end badly. Why did I let you talk me into this?”
“Talk you into this?” Hubard scoffed at him. “You demanded to be in charge of the coding!”
Cierra yelled over her shoulder, “If you two don’t stop, I swear, I will turn this ship around! The hangar is about to open. Seneca, can you do this, or not?”
“I’m trying!”
Flying stealthily behind the imperial ship, Cierra muttered under her breath. “You better do more than try.”
A forcefield loomed ahead of them. The light above the hangar remained red. Hubard had managed to tune one of their coms to intercept communication from the imperials. The pilot ahead of them called down to the hangar controller. “Hey, what’s the big idea? My shift is over. Let me in, will ya?”
“I can’t do that. Sensor is registering an unknown craft.”
Cierra’s palms were sweating. “Seneca, what is going on back there?”
The doctor let out another high-pitched sound. “Don’t yell at me! I don’t work well under pressure! This is harder than it looks!”
The imperial pilot was obviously frustrated. “Unknown ship? Are you blind? I’m in a regulation imperial ship! The sensor is obviously having issues. Didn’t you hear about the cart and the ship earlier? The whole base seems to be having technological issues. If I’m late getting home, my wife is going to chew me up, and spit me out. Just open up the hangar.”
“I got it!” Seneca whooped and raised his hands in the air excitedly.
The light over the hangar switched to green. The controller paged the pilot again. “Must have just been a blip in the system. Go on ahead.”
Cierra let out a shaky breath. The imperial ship flew into the hangar with her hot on its heels. She veered off to the side, as it landed in its designated parking spot. If she landed their ship in another spot, another ship could very well land on top of them, thinking he space was empty. She needed to find a place where they wouldn’t be disturbed.
An idea clicked in her mind. In the corner, Cierra spotted a bulky container ship.
Seneca looked around, and then out of the windshield. “Surely you’re not…?”
“Yes, I am. If I land anywhere on the floor, someone could walk into us, or worse.”
“Oh, Batumah.”
Cierra expertly maneuvered into the tight space between the top of the ship and the roof, turned so they were aligned with the whale-sized vessel below, and touched down on it. Silently, she prayed that it wouldn’t make enough noise to draw any attention. After the ship was firmly in place, the crew split up into their separate groups. Fabois would be staying with Seneca and Hubard in the ship. Since he was in charge of cloaking such a large object, they would be supplying him with food and water to keep his strength up. Makka would be in charge of cloaking Cierra, Cherish, and Jaedo. She had an emergency snack pack in her bag, if she needed it. The four of them were dressed in imperial uniforms, for safe measure.
Cierra’s group slowly made their way out of their ship, and down the back of the container ship. They had to maintain
contact, while they climbed down the ladder, to stay under Makka’s invisibility protection. It made the process slow. Eventually, they managed to descend to the hangar floor.
Cherish had memorized the blueprints of the base. She led them through a door near the back of the hangar. A group of rowdy soldiers were making rude remarks about each other’s mothers, and shoving one another while laughing. Cierra and the others pressed themselves close to the wall. After the noisy soldiers left the corridor, the team continued toward the arsenals.
Outside of the door of the first arsenal, a guard was fiddling with a tablet. It emitted the musical pinging sounds of a game. He was too busy tapping the screen to notice a series of muffled footsteps heading his way. In one fluid motion, Jaedo broke away from the group. Two of his arms wrapped around the guard’s neck. One hand covered the man’s mouth to keep him from shouting for help, and the other hand grasped the tablet, to keep it from clattering to the ground. The guard soon fell unconscious from the chokehold. Jaedo searched his pockets, and came away with a key. Without wasting any time, he slipped it into the lock, and the door swung open.
Cierra and Cherish drug the guard inside the room. Leaving him outside would only draw attention. Cierra quickly closed the door once they were all inside. “Would you look at the size of this place?” She let out a slow whistle.
Makka was glad for a break from using her gift. It was tiresome to keep it up for long periods of time. “There must be hundreds of shelves of weapons in here.” She hovered close to the door.
Cierra nodded. Even if they filled their ship up, it would hardly make a dent in the armory. “Let’s split up. If you see any of the new blasters, grab them.”
“How are we going to carry all of this?” Jaedo stood in front of a row full of blasters. “Even with four arms, I can’t carry all of these.”
Makka’s eyes widened. “Someone’s coming!”
The other three were too far away for her to reach them in time to cloak them. Cherish, Cierra, and Jaedo ducked into rows of shelves. Makka quickly used her gift turn invisible. The door handle began to turn. Cierra peered around the shelf. Her eyes landed on the guard who was still knocked out. Eyes wide, she quickly gestured, praying she could get Makka’s attention in time. Just as the door started to open, Makka dove towards the guard. Her fingers landed on the prone man’s leg. The guard vanished. Cierra let out a sigh of relief, and ducked back behind the shelves, out of sight.
A young, handsome man with dark hair, and an olive complexion came in. He was dressed in an imperial uniform. An advisor of some sort followed behind him. Makka peeked from behind her closed eyes. The man looked familiar. She was almost certain she had seen him somewhere before.
The young man walked over to the first row of blasters. His fingers trailed lightly over the weapons. “The response from the emperor about the attack on the monasteries was less than satisfactory. He’s spent so long at the center of things he’s lost touch with the real world. He doesn’t seem to understand why it’s taken so long to make this move. Things take finesse—something he hasn’t had in a long time. No, these weapons are revolutionary.” He picked up one of the blasters, and felt the weight in his hand. “If we had enough of this technology, we could even stage a coup.”
The advisor sucked in a surprised breath. “Dethrone the emperor?”
The young man chuckled dryly. “My father has ruled for over seven hundred years. It’s high time he stepped down and allowed his legacy to continue. Without him.”
Taking a few steps closer, the advisor lowered his voice. “But, Prince Makramis, surely your elder brother wouldn’t agree to something like this.”
“Oh, yes, he would. He just has to think that it’s his idea. Well, that, and that he will be the one taking over the throne. The empire has never been stronger, and the overthrow of this backorbit cult shows that. Obviously, civil war is rarely a good thing, but the central system is a bubble—a society all on its own. Apparently, a good, swift, decisive blow is all that will impress my father. So, if a strong blow is what he wants, who am I to deny him that?” The young man mimed blasting a large propaganda poster of the emperor on the wall.
He placed the blaster back on the shelf, and the two conspirators left the room. When Cherish stepped dumbfoundedly from around one of the aisles, it clicked with Makka where she had seen the young man before. It was hard to recognize him all cleaned up, but there was no doubt about it. He was the same man she had seen in the image that Cherish had been projecting in the medical bay back at the base.
Cherish looked at the door where Makram had left as if she had just seen a ghost. “Prince Makramis?”
“That son of a—” Cierra was too angry to finish her insult. “He was with them the whole time! He played us for fools!” She slammed her fist into one of the walls.
The betrayal stung more than the bruise on her knuckles. She was sick of having the ones close to her being traitors. Makram had never been on their side. He was part of the Galactic Imperial Army from the start. Maybe even worse than that, he was part of the royal family. He wasn’t just a soldier following orders. He was part of the backbone of evil.
Eight
Theo held his breath. They pulled out of the subspace wormhole just as the rest of the tunnel collapsed. “What happened back there? You almost got us killed!”
A little shaken, Irane pulled the ship back to a normal speed, and relaxed. “The ship that came in behind us wasn’t built to handle the timestream like this one is. The pressure ripped it apart and scattered its atoms along space and time. The steadiness of the time field correlates directly to the certainty of the future. All of those atoms, changes, being sent out into so many different moments in time, made the wormhole unstable. It collapsed in on itself.”
“Where are we?” Theo looked at the star field above, and the curved horizon of a red-brown world far below. Strange buildings rose from the planet’s surface. It wasn’t anything he had seen before. The atmosphere was tinged red, lending an ominous appearance to the city. Some of the structures looked entirely too complex to even exist. “Where are we?”
Irane pulled up an image on the screen, and turned up the volume. “This is Castor, the heart of the empire, a little over one hundred years into your future.”
The screen showed the inside of the palace. A new emperor sat on the throne. He looked ragged. Theo squinted at the man on the throne. “That’s not the emperor. Who is that?” Irane sat in silence as the doors to the throne room burst open.
A group of scientists came into the room. None of them would look the emperor in the eye. He sat forward in his throne. When no one spoke, he broke the silence with an impatient yell. “Well? Have you done it?”
The scientists looked at one another. Finally, one of them answered him. The scientist’s voice shook with fear. “Emperor Makramis, we have tried everything.”
Another of the scientists butted in to the conversation. “Nothing has been able to reverse your illness. I’m sorry. The most we can hope to do is prolong your life a little longer.”
“How much longer?” Makram’s voice was chilled hatred.
The first scientist hesitated. “Your majesty…”
“HOW LONG?” His voice echoed through the room.
“One hundred years, at most.” The first scientist hung his head in shame.
Makram stood up. He walked slowly towards them. “I did not give up my youth for this empire to only get two hundred measly years on the throne. You made my father live for centuries.”
“Your Majesty, your father did not have the same ailments that you—”
“Did I say you could speak?”
The scientist quickly apologized. “I’m sorry, I—”
Makram’s face was red with fury. “DID I SAY YOU COULD SPEAK?”
“N-no.” The man was now ghostly white.
“Maybe, if you spent more time working and less time backtalking me, you could have prevented your fate.” Makram motioned for
the guards to move forward. Each of the scientists was grasped by their arms and restrained.
The first scientist pleaded for his life. “Your Majesty, please, I have children!”
Makram’s face twisted in rage. “So do I, and you are condemning me to death! Do you think that your fate deserves to be better than your emperor’s?” He motioned for the guards to take them away. “Get them out of my sight. Execute them. Then, find me some scientists that are actually worth a damn!”
Emperor Makramis was alone in his throne room. He pressed a spot on the wall, and a secret panel slid to the side. A data sphere was located in the hidden compartment. Makram pulled it out, and held it in his hand. The section of the wall slid back into place. Makram walked back to the throne, and sat down. He pressed a button on the data sphere and a video message pulled up.
It was Makram from when he was younger. “This is Prince Makramis. I have joined the Carbonari, as planned. So far, the training has been…intense to say the least. I fed them some sob story about my family being killed by the Yasta. Karl should be in place with those dress-wearing monks by now. I guess it’s a race to see who can rise through the ranks fastest.” The video stopped.
Makram pressed a button, and another video started. “They paired me with a team today. There’s a cyborg with them. She’s probably my biggest competition at this point. There’s another girl, but she’s soft. I don’t think she’s ever killed anyone before. Yareck is the commander. He’s my first target. Once I get in good with them, I need to find a way to take him out. All I have to do is make sure that I’m the next logical choice for his replacement.”
The sphere jumped to another short clip. “Turns out that I didn’t have to take Yareck out, after all. That was taken care of for me. Probably for the best. Nothing for them to tie it back to me with. I was named the commander, as planned. The others trust me—except for a rube the soft girl brought into the group. I need to be careful. He makes me uneasy. I don’t like him.”
The Relissarium Wars Omnibus Page 46
