by F. E. Arliss
Chapter Fourteen
Resurrection
That night Jullian laid in the softness of the bunk and wrestled with her demons. One demon was the one that said, ‘you’re human, you can not become an Idolum queen’. Another said, ‘you have become a discarder of life, not a giver of life, you are not fit’. The last one was fear. What would happen when she lay in the pool? Should she decide to do so, would all her humanity desert her? Would she then be forever without a family? She supposed that made her demons doubt, judgement, and fear. Those demons needed to die.
Finally, heaving a sigh, she rolled off the bunk and knelt by the pool. “Well, Vis, my demons are doubt, judgement, and fear. What have you to advise me on those? How do I get rid of them? How do I embrace all of this?” Jullian asked, gesturing around her and meaning the ship, the species, and the purpose of it all. “I am full of self-doubt, self-judgement, and fear of the unknown. I want to stop that. I want to be sure. I want to stop second-guessing myself, and I want to be fearless. How can I embrace those things?” she wailed, dropping her head into her hands.
Almost as though the chamber whispered to her, Jullian heard, “You must erase the past.” Jullian lifted her head. She giggled. She couldn’t help herself. “OMG are you telling me the same thing that Star Wars episode 8 said: ‘Kill the past’? Seriously?” she shrieked. “That was Darth Vader’s grandson’s answer, you know! And it sooo didn’t work for him! He ended up bitter and twisted!”
Falling onto her back, she laughed until she was almost out of breath. “Oh my gosh, I’m getting advice from an ancient movie! Forget it!” Jullian shouted. “If we’re going with Star Wars, I’m going with ‘You can’t fight what you hate! You must save what you love!’ Ok, so that’s what I’m going for. Get onboard or go fly!” Jullian shouted at the top of her lungs. Then lay back again, closing her eyes and tried to modulate her breathing.
A sudden stillness settled on the chamber. The slime pool dimmed, then gradually brightened. “Fine…,” Jullian heard whispered from the pool. “What do you love?” echoed like a breeze through the chamber.
“Not much,” came Jullian’s soft answer. After a long pause she added, “I love animals, they never try to stab you purposefully in the back. If they hurt you, it’s because they’re scared, not because they’re scheming or trying to use you.” Resting again for a few minutes, she added, “I love nature, and beauty. I love art and music. I want things to be peaceful and loving and fun. Those are things that are hard to find anywhere. How do I find those things?” she murmured to the pool.
Seconds passed. Finally, she heard a slight response, “Start with anything you find beauty in. There is something, something you find beautiful, here…”
Jullian tilted her head in thought, “Yes, you’re right. I find Talio beautiful. He’s floated out here protecting all of you for thousands of years. He lives and he nurtures. He does not take. He gives.”
“Just start…,” came the whispered reply. “Nothing ever happens unless you simply begin.”
“Good,” she said. “You’re right,” and slid into the pool. She let her head begin to sink under the surface. She didn’t need to breath air, she could breath energy. She could just let go and focus on the beauty of Talio. He was a living ship, a miracle. He’d harbored them, nurtured them. He was a safe haven. He was home. Jullian disappeared completely into the slime.
Two full revolutions of the abyss around the planet, and the door to Queen Altum Vis’ chambers finally opened. Kor, Dent, and Axel, ran into the room. Jullian lay crumpled on the floor next to the pool. It was completely clear and glowing a bright, almost neon, green.
Kor skidded to a halt. As did Axel, then Dent, almost slamming into those in front of him. Mites couldn’t speak, but if they could have, it would have been unnecessary. They were riveted by the scene before them.
“My Queen?” Kor ventured tentatively, looking from the pool and back to the figure on the floor. “Are you well?”
“I am fine, General Kor,” came the firm answer. “Please assist me to my bathing chamber.” Since Kor hadn’t known there was a bathing chamber, this presented a problem.
“Yes, my Queen,” he said and hurriedly dropped to his knees, offering his arm as was appropriate in situations like this.
“Oh, come on Kor. I can’t abide those old rules and I’m wrung out from being in that slime pool. Help me up, dammit!” Queen Vis grumbled in her ringing tone, though clearly in Jullian’s verbiage.
Kor gasped, and put both arms around the woman on the floor and lifted her. “The bathing chamber is behind the closet,” she said weakly. “Who knew?”
Striding through the closet, Kor looked in bewilderment at the blank wall. “Push the buckle on the black boot,” the woman in his arms said softly. Dent stepped forward and tabbed the buckle. The panel slid away revealing a plush bathing chamber. “Sit me on that stool, and start the shower.”
Images must have jumped into Axel’s brain because he immediately began fiddling with the panel on the wall of the chamber and soon a steady stream of cleansing particles fogged the air in the booth. The green slimed figure rose and disappeared into the mist.
“All of you, except Axel, get out. I will emerge when I am refreshed.” stated Queen Altum Vis’ voice.
Hours later, an impatient General Kor and a silently sullen Dent were allowed through the door.
The first thing that struck them both was that it was Jullian but not Jullian. The Queen before them now was slightly taller, almost six feet four now, she would find out later. Though that didn’t matter anymore; height was relative. She also had a large tattoo-like mark in the middle of her forehead.
Queen Altum Vis had had a mark. Hers had been the mark handed down to her from the nest she presided over with Shale as General.
This was not that mark.
This mark was the first of its kind. It was ‘her’ mark. Jullian, looking at herself later in a reflective surface, would laugh out loud at the meaning of the tattoo. They weren’t just random marks. They were runes. Norse runes, if she wasn’t mistaken. The first was the rune for ‘ice’ or ‘cosmic coherence -- Her need to make sense of the universe. So true.
The middle figure was the rune for water or power. Upside down and then overlapped by the same rune reversed. She knew from the pool that the upside down rune for power meant that she did not hold the power, she was simply the conduit for power. Power came through her.
The upside down and reversed rune meant she could use all the permutations of power from all sources of life. She could send and she could receive. Her gift was never ending. Hence the overlapping of the symbols. Water was the source of all life. Even on all these different worlds and in different galaxies, water was still life. She, Jullian, was a holder of life, of energy/water.
The end symbol was again ‘ice’. She needed to be coldly protective of the energy and those that depended on it. She needed to be bracketed in ice. The tattoo was a prophecy and an anthem on what she needed to become. Icily protective of her gift...power/life.
The face was Jullian’s, but the demeanor was changed slightly. She seemed haughtier, stronger, and they would come to learn, she was even more clever. There was no longer any doubt, self-judgement, or fear.
Queen Altum Vis was now Queen Altum Juls. She saved what she loved. It turned out she had more of a family now than she ever had before. Juls had things she loved. She must save what remained.
That was her only goal.
Chapter Fifteen
A New Purpose
Queen Altum Juls swept through her ship with total confidence and a great feeling of satisfaction. She loved Talio. The ship had been with her -- well, with Vis -- for centuries and had protected her through many hardships. It had taken weeks to get Talio back into top working condition. The effects of a thousand years of drifting had not been undone overnight. The crew had been diligent and careful in bringing him back to life. All their lives depended on it.
It had
been an error for General Shale to put her inside her favorite ship, with her most loyal crew, and then send her into the abyss. He should have killed her completely, ship and all. His last act of respect for his murdered Queen would be his downfall.
Juls greeted each warrior by name, inquired after their condition and the situation of their responsibility, gave instructions and then swept on. After a thorough inspection of the ship, she instructed General Kor to set the ship’s systems to manual and then sank into the pilot’s seat on the bridge. Kor took a nearby station, cleared the bridge, then sent messages for crew to secure themselves. They were exiting the abyss.
Juls smiled faintly at General Kor and nodded her head. It was good to have someone who knew her...both of her! She was one now, the old Jullian Arban and the new information and characteristics of the old Altum Vis. They had melded, and both their experiences ran through her deep and clear. She liked it. The past was dead. Ok, so that hadn’t been such ridiculous advice after all. She did like the future advice better though.
Save what you love, that was what they were doing. It turned out she had more to live for than she had ever hoped for or imagined. They were going for the things she loved. She was going to be icily protective.
Leaning back into the chair, Juls closed her eyes and began to calm herself. Sinking into a deep trance of meditation, she then opened her mind to the patterns of the abyss. She’d gotten them in using the small shuttle. Now she had to get them out in a much larger vessel. Nodding to Kor, she engaged the engines, closed her senses to everything but the patterns she began to see emerging, and moved Talio forward for the first time in almost a thousand years.
Even though Talio was larger than the shuttle, it took half the time to navigate an exit to the abyss. Perhaps her talents were stronger now or maybe with Altum Vis’ extra knowledge the way became clearer. Either way, she was quicker at seeing the patterns now. In one way, Juls was sorry to leave the abyss. It was a safe refuge. She had responsibilities, but the abyss would always be there. Waiting. If she needed it.
Once they’d exited the abyss, Juls returned to her chamber and laid on her nest to rest. It felt good to stretch out once more. She’d had General Kor send a communique to General Monsav and then set a course. As much as she longed to see General Monsav’s home planet, there were other more pressing matters. She needed General Monsav and the rest of the nest with them.
The matter of the future health of the nest took top priority. Queen Altum Vis had given her the coordinates to something that would give their nest an edge and though it would take them days, maybe weeks to reach it, reach it they must.
She wanted them to take it slow. No sense in damaging Talio. He needed to get used to being free of the abyss. They all did. Everything had changed. They all needed time to adjust. And plan.
Slow, but sure, was the way to set about the tasks they had in front of them. Slow, methodical, covering every possibility they could foresee. Some they would not, and that would be where their mettle was tested. Shale was smart. They had to be smarter. They had to protect that which was most precious. Then they would worry about Shale.
Closing her eyes, Juls let sleep take her. There was time enough for planning in the days ahead. First, rest, rejuvenation, and finding a clear path forward. That needed her top priority. No priority was higher than being fit to deal with the coming events.
Chapter Sixteen
Home Found
They dropped out of fold-space into a murky, deep-violet atmosphere. It was threaded through with a shredded claw of white ice crystals. The planet below them was barren. An orange dust ring encircled it, and the sun it revolved around flamed a strange reddish-orange. To either side of the dust planet, large groups of moons clustered in close proximity to each other. Exploded asteroids wove a net of swirling danger around them.
Occasionally an asteroid would be sucked into the dust planet’s orbit and an enormous geyser of pulverized rock would join the dust swirl around the perimeter of the planet.
Anyone entering the atmosphere of this chaotic combination of forces would most likely take one look at the hot, barren planet, the twisting lump of ice crystals, the spinning net of asteroids and jump again immediately. It was a study in opposites. The only opposite not immediately visible was the calm one. On the surface the galaxy was barren and rimmed in ice. It had chaotic patterns of asteroid collisions and close-hung groups of moons. It was a mess. It also held the opposite.
One moon, on the farthest side from the sun, was a tiny bit of mammalian paradise. That is where the Talio now hovered. Having set hidden and silent for several orbits of the dust planet to make sure they hadn’t been followed, Talio now settled into a valley on the small, lush moon. Once down, his exterior coating began to mottle and grow a living camouflage of plant life from the surrounding forest. Soon, he was completely invisible.
In the adjoining valley, large herds of slow-moving mammals that looked a little like light-weight hippopotamuses from Earth wandered the floor of the crater. They moved through scooping large mouthfuls of the sweeping grasses. As they floated along the valley they chewed massive wads of cud, then excreted the seeds back onto the ground. It was a perfect cycle. Food to waste; from waste - food.
Tapping into the Idolum code of honor, Queen Altum Juls and General Monsave had explained the Khyberian nest’s method of honoring their life-sources to her small crew. The mammals were the giver of energy, though those close to Juls didn’t need anything other than what she generated, it was good to start the indoctrination of the ideology she wished to perpetuate. Geez, I sound like some cult leader rationalizing his process, Juls thought, rolling her eyes internally.
Each day she urged the nest to walk the valley with the creatures, touching them lightly and for short periods of time so as not to drain them and learning their natures and cultivating a relationship with animals of their choice. This had not gone down easily, as most Idolum thought of the mammals they fed upon as simply a food source, not as a living entity. She meant to change that. The things that gave life should be revered, not taken for granted.
In the abyss, Talio had sustained the stasis pods off his own organic energies. After a thousand years, it had left him weak and depleted. If Juls had not been the powerful conduit that she was, they all may have perished there. Juls emphasized that they owed their lives to Talio and the life source he had provided. All life sources were to be honored.
Shortly after arriving on Geboren, the moon hideaway that had been revealed to Juls in the pool, she had set out with General Kor for a long walk. Dent and Axel had followed, making sure they had not been observed. Juls lead General Kor to the reason they had made haste for this small moon in the back of beyond. Besides being a sanctuary where they could heal, recharge, and develop a plan for coming centuries, it also held a great secret: Queen Altum Vis’ last batch of eggs.
Situated in crevasse on the shaded side of a large rock formation, a dark, narrow passage ran deep into the interior of the small mountain. Within it lay several hundred eggs. It was the last batch of eggs Vis had ever laid.
Amongst the eggs, there were differing types of pods. Most were worker-class warriors. A dozen, set off to the side, were Lieutenant eggs - or in this case - eggs that Vis had hoped would be future queens and generals. These were her true ‘children’ if Idolum had used those kind of terms.
As the four of them stood looking at the eggs nestled in the small dark chamber, it was Juls who spoke first. “Holy cow! I’ve got a lot of kids!” This was followed by a choking laugh. Then silence. A certain dread seemed to enter her voice on the next question, “Are they alive?”
“We will have to see,” General Kor added softly. “They have lacked sufficient energy sources for almost a thousand years.”
“I will sit with them for the next few weeks and see how many I can revive to develop and hatch. Please let General Monsav and the crew know that we have a birthing nest and that I will need them to be on high alert fo
r predators,” Juls said softly.
“Please see to it, General. I will be here. Leave one of my mites here with me and rotate two other warrior-guards at the entrance. I want to make sure we are well protected,” Queen Altum Juls stated emphatically, then proceeded to the middle of the nest and sat down. “Please begin to take precautions for the protection of the planet as well,” Juls added. “We must protect the things we love.” Waves of pulsing energy began to flow from her and consume the nest area. General Kor and the mites backed slowly away, leaving Juls to send love, nurture, and hope out to her legacy in hatchlings.
It became clear after a week that most of the eggs would not hatch. Three of the Lieutenant eggs seemed viable. Of the several hundred other eggs, only about thirty seemed sufficiently strong to hatch.
It was strangely heartbreaking for Juls. She had Vis’ recollection of the breeding and laying and knew that the father of these eggs was a General Freux. He was a fearsome warrior and considered to be horribly ugly due to his purposeful filing of his teeth into blunt edges and because his hair was long, straight and grey, rather than the ‘proper’ slightly ratty-looking black. Queen Altum Vis had chosen him for his cunning, strength, and willingness to be different. She had wanted that ‘outside the box’ thinking. It would give her hatchlings an edge over other more conventional thinkers.
Juls knew that General Freux was still alive. When she’d enquired into his whereabouts, the helmet had divulged that his Queen was now dead, assassinated by a rival nest for the resources in the same region of space. The nest he had remaining had dwindled dramatically due to attrition. Many warriors had deserted to other nests, leaving their ship vulnerable. The rival nest had obliterated them in a short, but fierce battle.
