by Sahara Foley
That thought left him unsettled. His fate in the hands of a mere child.
Karrin leaned over and placed her small hand on his broad shoulder. "No, Lurga. I would never harm anyone. Only if they try to hurt you."
Lurga gently pushed her hand off his shoulder, scowling at her. "How long have you been in mental contact with me?"
Karrin peered up at him through her bangs, then looked down at her lap, embarrassed. "Ah, well, a few weeks. I didn't see any reason to tell you."
"Hmm," he rumbled. "I tried linking to you many times, but I am unable to read your mind. Why did you feel it necessary to hide the truth?"
"I don't know," she said in a huff. “I figured you’d be mad at me. I'm not supposed to have any PSI powers, remember? Back on Ispepyein, I was able to read your thoughts, Zelka's thoughts, and the guards’. By the time we left, I was reading everyone's minds around us. This is all so confusing to me. All these voices tumbling through my head…it is difficult to sort them out. But, your voice calls to me the loudest.”
Lurga shook his head, muttering to himself, “Even my private thoughts are no longer mine.”
“I’m sorry, Lurga,” Karrin said contritely. “I should’ve told you.” Wanting to change the subject away from her unwelcome powers, she pointed at the screen. “We’re over Calen, now. How do we trap the energy being?”
The Warrior shrugged his broad shoulders. “I have no idea. Why did you want to come here anyway?”
Karrin studied the star charts. “I don’t know. I thought the Others might’ve left some sort of trail for me to follow. However, I’m not sensing them anywhere around.”
Lurga squinted at her. Even if Karrin had hours of training with her new abilities, he wasn’t sure if she could handle this task. What if she got lucky with the first one? How will she tackle two energy beasts if they attack us at once?
Lurga placed his gray clawed hands over Karrin’s soft ones. “Little one, have you given any thought to the danger you might be putting yourself in? You bested the first Other, but what if it was pure luck? Do you remember how you trapped it? And, now, you might be facing two at one time.” Lurga sighed. “I am defenseless against their powers, so when you battle them, you will be on your own. You are a small child. Are you ready for this responsibility, Karrin?”
She peered up into his almond-shaped eyes, reading the worry he had a hard time hiding. “I’m more than just a child after everything you’ve taught me. I was a good student, wasn’t I?”
Lurga reluctantly nodded.
“Then, don’t worry. Besides, I do remember how I contained the first one, and I’m pretty sure I can do it, again. What really scares me is what the Shalit told me. He said I was the only one who can stop and imprison them. What if I fail? What if everyone dies because of me? Like they always do.” Her lips trembled as she tried not to cry.
Lurga slowly stroked the back of her frail hand. Here was the small, frightened girl lurking inside. She was always putting on a brave face, from the day he took her from Earth. She had to be tough, ready for any obstacle thrown her way. His hearts felt an unfamiliar stirring, and he had a huge lump in his throat.
“I do know this, Karrin – I have faith in you. Yes, your powers are new and untested. We are not sure if they will last. But, if the Shalit is correct and your abilities come from them, perhaps we have a fighting chance. Though I cannot comprehend how beings made of smoke ended up in your lineage. I only wish I could help you.”
“You do help me, Lurga, by being here with me,” she said in a small voice. She glanced up into his face, noticing his usual gray pallor was darker. “I understand Ispepyein’s don’t blush, but if you did, wouldn’t your face get darker? Never mind,” she hastily said, seeing his eyes turn hard. “Ispepyeins don’t blush, and they don’t cry. Right?”
“No. We do not,” the Greatest Ispepyein Warrior grumbled loudly as he pulled away from Karrin, and made himself busy with the controls.
Smiling, she leaned over and kissed his enormous forehead. “There’s my grumpy Lurga I know and love.” Karrin understood he was uncomfortable with her display of emotions as he fidgeted with the gadgets in front of him.
“Okay, so drive us out here and sort of cruise around. I’ll see if I can mentally feel them and, hopefully, they’ll find me. There are three of them out there destroying planets.”
Lurga kept his eyes averted as he fiddled with his control panel. “Did you see the containers the energy beasts were trapped in? They looked silver.” He reached behind him and rummaged around until he found the sphere the Shalit vacated. He broke off a chunk and threw it in his mouth. “Just as I thought,” he said between crunching sounds, “It tastes like the Lear silver.”
“Yeah, I forgot you like eating that stuff. What does it taste like?”
He broke off a small chunk and handed it to her. “There is only one way to find out. Here, try a piece.”
Karrin popped the chunk into her mouth. Not having the teeth Lurga did, she wasn’t sure if she could eat it. She was surprised to find it was soft and pliable.
“Well, what do you think?” Lurga asked, watching the scopes as he piloted them away from Calen.
“Um, it doesn’t have much of a flavor. Maybe paper?” She jerked up in her chair, eyes wide with excitement. “I sensed one. Or, it could be a Shalit. I’ll take us there.”
The scope showed a blur, then nothing, but black. Lurga couldn’t see one speck of light anywhere. “Where are we, little one? I have never seen this part of space before.”
“I don’t know. From what I can feel, that area is full of dead planets, except for the Shalit I scanned.”
“Take us back, Karrin. I cannot navigate us out of here as my scope will not register the dead planets. I fear we might be pulled into one by accident.”
In a second, they arrived back near Calen. Lurga sighed in relief as he saw the familiar star chart on his screen. He absently threw another piece of ore into his mouth and stopped. He held out another chunk to Karrin. “Here, try another piece.”
“Why?” Karrin asked, screwing up her face. “I don’t like eating paper.”
“I have an idea about this silver ore.”
“Oh,” Karrin said, her face lighting up with understanding. “I just read your mind.”
She threw the piece into her mouth and chewed for a few seconds. “Yes. It’s working. The silver seems to be helping me. Oh, my. I can feel Shalits, and there are hundreds of them, all over the galaxy. Amazing.”
She became serious. “I feel the Others, too. They’re located in separate parts of space. At least, I can tackle them one at a time. But, wait –. There’s something else. Something that feels entirely different.”
She shut her eyes, concentrating as hard as she could to pinpoint the unfamiliar feeling. “It’s so far away I don’t think I can travel to it. It’s silver, like this ship, and alive, but not moving.”
Karrin opened her eyes when she read Lurga’s fleeting thought. “No, it is not the Creator of the Universe. More like a group of powerful beings. They’re like me, Lurga. Did I find my people?” Excited, she bounced in her seat.
Lurga smiled at her antics. “Perhaps we finally found the place where you belong, where I was bonded to take you. First, we must deal with these energy beings. We cannot leave them roaming the galaxy.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Karrin slumped back in her chair. “I don’t want to get too close to them though, as they drain energy so fast. There might not be time to trap them, especially if they come after me all at once.”
She turned toward Lurga after reading his thoughts. “Yes, that dead area in space would be perfect.”
The screens showed the change in star patterns, again. As Lurga watched, one of the stars vanished. They found an energy beast. He knew they devoured planets, but he didn’t realize they did it so quickly, and it must be huge to eat a world that size so fast. “That energy beast just ate an entire planet. Are you sure you can handle such a gi
ant opponent, child?”
Now that she was about to be face-to-face with an Other, she didn’t know herself. She clasped her trembling hands together, not wanting to show fear in front of the great warrior. “Well, I guess we’ll find out. It scanned me and is heading this way.”
Lurga studied the screen and hissed. “Girl, this beast is miles long. How do you expect to battle something this enormous?”
But, he was talking to himself. Karrin wasn’t listening to him. She was concentrating, her glowing eyes focused on the silver sphere in her lap.
The warrior became weaker and weaker, and he was barely able to turn his head to look at the scope. The black cloud surrounded his silver fighter, absorbing their life forces at an alarming rate.
With a tremendous amount of effort, he managed to turn his head to look at his Karrin one last time. Her eyes were closed, hands tightly clenched around the silver orb, lips moving as she mumbled words he couldn’t hear.
Then, everything went black.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Next to a flickering fire, a long, lumpy shape stirred and moaned in pain.
Lurga slowly opened his eyes. He stared up at the tiny, triple moons of Switch. How in the Old Gods did I end up here? The last thing he remembered, an energy beast had engulfed his ship.
He jerked up into a seating position and grabbed his throbbing head. Where is Karrin?
Quickly as he could, every muscle screaming in pain, he stood on unsteady legs. Turning around in a circle, he scanned the area. Several yards away, he saw his silver fighter sitting among some of the black rocks Karrin referred to as Rock People.
Hearing noises off to his left, Lurga lurched in that direction. He followed the sounds until he ended up next to the deep, slow-moving stream where he netted their meals. On a huge boulder next to the water sat Karrin, shoulders hunched, body shaking with uncontrollable, loud weeping.
"Little one, are you hurt?" he asked softly from a few feet away. "Were you able to trap the energy beast?"
"Yes, yes," came Karrin’s muffled response as she hastily palmed her red-rimmed eyes. "I trapped the Other in the same sphere the Shalit came out of." She looked back at him, her face stained with tears. "How do you feel?"
"Fine, I think. Why do you cry? Have you been hurt?"
With a cry of anguish, she bolted from the rock and flung herself into his arms. Face pressed into the hard muscles of his gray stomach, she wailed, "I was so worried about you. I managed to get us back, but I was so tired, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I –I, ah…"she started sobbing again.
Lurga stared down at the small head pressed against him. What happened to her? She never cries. He gently hugged her, gingerly patting her back. "There, there, child. Everything is fine."
"No, it's not," Karrin cried as she broke into loud, racking sobs that shook them both. "I lost my powers, Lurga."
"What? Are you sure?"
Yes." She nodded her head against his stomach. "After I trapped the Other, I barely had enough strength to get us back here. The second one was stronger than the first one and drained me of all my energy. I've tried and tried all day to use my abilities, but they aren't there. And, look." She held up her hand.
Lurga hissed through his vents, his hearts hammering in fear. She had burns all over her little fingers. Her skin no longer invulnerable. Karrin could be hurt, now, and there were still two of the energy beasts to battle. Not to mention Kargan's reward would have warriors hopping all over the galaxy, hoping to cash in on Lurga’s demise. They were in a bad situation.
Over the years, some of the other soldiers teased him about his antisocial behavior and the need to retreat to a distant planet for months on end. It became a game among the other warriors to figure out the location of his mysterious hideaway. Some of them had a pretty good idea in which system he liked to hide. Once they came within scanning distance, their scopes would lead them right to Switch.
Lurga gritted his teeth, upset with himself. This is my fault. I made her eat the Lear ore and somehow the ore took her powers away.
He thought ingesting the silver would help her, as in the beginning. After all, it seemed to enhance his own PSI abilities. He'd been horribly wrong.
Lurga picked Karrin up, cradling her in his arms like the small, helpless child she was, and headed back to camp. "We will be all right, little one. Do not despair. We have food, water, and shelter in the caves, if needed. I must hide the fighter, and I will bring back some bandages for your hands."
Lurga laid Karrin down next to the fire. He received no response. The exhausted girl had fallen asleep.
The worried Warrior covered her small frame with a silver blanket and studied her sleeping form. If she lost her abilities, how did I end up next to the fire? That is quite a distance from the ship to here. Surely, she is not strong enough to drag me this far.
He sat on his heels, scratching his jaw. That meant, at least, some of her powers were still left. Where did they go? He had no answers.
It was difficult for Lurga to comprehend the many changes Karrin went through over the past several months. He felt utterly helpless and, now, he needed to protect her from his own kind.
His stomach rumbled, reminding him he hadn't eaten for a while. Poking around in his flight-suit pocket, he removed a chunk of silver ore and bit off a piece. He placed the remainder on a black boulder close to Karrin, then rose with a grunt and took off for his ship. He had no idea what happened to him during the energy beast attack, but he ached from head to claws.
Lurga secured his ship under an overhang, activated the Tespada to make the fighter invisible, and fetched the self-aid kit from an overhead compartment. He hung the bag over his shoulder and swung his Seeder rifle on the other one. Before stepping out and sealing the door, he grabbed several heavy bags of silver ore – enough to recharge his Seeder weapons for years, plus snacks to munch on.
Striding back toward camp, he gazed up at the glittering stars. If the Peps find us, there will be many battles to fight. Of that he was certain.
He stopped next to Karrin and dropped his bags and weapons. As she tossed and turned in her sleep, she’d thrown the blanket off. He tucked the blanket around Karrin's slight frame.
Lurga removed a tube from the self-aid kit and squeezed some clear gel onto her burnt fingers. In seconds, a rough, flexible coating sealed off her skin from the air. The adhesive would last for weeks.
He rose and reached for the piece of ore he left on the black rock. It was gone. He searched the ground, thinking it fell off. He didn’t find the chunk of metal there either.
Lurga scratched his head. Did I already eat it or take it with me to the ship? He shrugged. He couldn't remember, but it didn't matter anyway as he had plenty to last.
Picking up the net from the other side of the fire-pit, he headed for the stream to catch fish for dinner.
Karrin moaned, mumbling in her sleep as she rolled onto her side, and flung one arm away from her body.
Several feet away, a warm, ebony boulder sat, waiting. Suddenly, the base of the rock transformed into a black, oily liquid and started slithering over the ground toward Karrin, moving the solid mass along with it. Inch by slow inch, it moved closer and closer, picking up speed as it went – its target, the outstretched hand and arm.
The sticky fluid crawled over Karin's hand and moved up the appendage until it reached her elbow. It stopped advancing, like it was holding its breath, the liquid quivering in anticipation. When the only reaction was a faint whimpering from the small prey, it moved, again.
Lurga stepped out of the trees, a net full of dripping fish slung over his shoulder. He surveyed the campsite, puzzled. Where is Karrin? Didn't I leave her next to that giant rock?
