Ruins of the Galaxy Box Set: Books 1-6

by Chaney, J. N.

  A beat later, the third Luma appeared around the side of the house. For whatever reason, the man was focused on looking for a way into the home and failed to notice Magnus. Hell yeah. Magnus locked onto the mystic’s chest, slowed his heart, and squeezed the trigger.

  At the same instant, flashes of light and sound erupted from inside the house, forcing more glass out of the ground floor’s windows. The event made Magnus’s target duck a split second before the NOV1’s rounds hit. Instead, the blaster fire chewed a hole through the home’s siding the size of a spaceball.

  Immediately, the Luma turned to face the direction of fire and launched an energy blast at Magnus. He ducked just in time for the waterfall to explode, sending chunks of stone high into the air. Water vaporized into steam, and rocks pelted the garden and pool from above.

  Magnus was back on the offensive, firing at the Luma as the man raced across the deck and toward another one of Forbes’s handmade rock formations. But then more flashes of light and belches of weapons fire erupted from inside the home. Magnus could see Caldwell’s thermal image pivot, firing a withering stream of NOV1 bolts at the fourth Luma who dashed through the house. The bolts traveled straight through the home and projected into the neighborhood. Collateral damage with their new high-powered weapons was a genuine threat.

  Magnus was about ready to warn Caldwell when another blast of energy detonated the remainder of his cover. The resulting explosion knocked him backward and into a cluster of small shrubs. He thrashed about and then dove into a mulch bed just as another Luma blast scorched the greenery. He rolled to one knee, aimed at the thermal image beside the pool, and fired.

  This time, the rounds found their mark. They punched a hole in the shield and drilled into the Luma’s chest. In less than a second, the rounds eviscerated the victim. But Magnus’s stream of fire drifted up the man’s chest until his head vanished in a blaze of light. When Magnus released the trigger, the Luma’s halved body fell into the pool with a splash.

  “House clear,” Caldwell said over comms. The colonel had taken out the last Luma with a point-blank round to the head—at least that’s how Magnus interpreted the wide splatter of gore against one wall. The mess showed up as yellow, green, and red IR splotches in his HUD, while the corpse was missing the rear section of its skull.

  “Backyard clear,” Magnus replied loudly, stepping out to examine the floating corpse.

  “House clear,” Forbes yelled loud enough that Magnus’s sensors picked him up. “I think we got them all.”

  “Affirmative,” Caldwell said over externals.

  “You’re gonna have to speak up, Colonel. I can’t hear you.”

  Magnus noticed the street in front of the house start to fill with emergency lights. “Well,” Magnus said to Caldwell. “Looks like Forbes is gonna have an easier time mobilizing his units than we thought.”

  “Which is our sign to get lost,” Caldwell said.

  “Copy that.”

  “Captain,” Caldwell said with his index finger raised. “Wheels up in one hour!”

  Forbes nodded and slung his MC99 under his arm. “One hour! See you in the sky!”

  7

  So-Elku knocked on Piper’s door. “It’s So-Elku.”

  “I know,” Piper said.

  “May I come in?”

  The little girl hesitated. “Sure.”

  So-Elku turned the handle of the old wooden door and pushed. The staff chambers of Brookside Manor maintained the ancient-style rooms, complete with hinged doors and sliding windows. There was something quaint about these quarters that So-Elku liked, something that spoke of a simpler time before the Order could afford more expensive technologies. It also spoke of the Luma’s rich legacy, one that had been around long before he’d arrived. And, now that So-Elku had Piper, one that would carry on long after his death.

  Piper sat on the large raised bed with her knees tucked to her chest. She’d traded the Novian power suit for the traditional robes of the Luma, opting for the green and black fabrics that signified her as an apprentice to the Luma Master. That had pleased So-Elku deeply.

  The girl didn’t bother to look So-Elku in the face. Instead, she seemed preoccupied with the bird songs filling the lush gardens behind the Grand Arielina. The open window let in the fragrant scents of blooming plumeria flowers as well as the undertones of damp soil and bark.

  “Is your room to your liking?” So-Elku asked.

  Piper nodded, still looking out the window. “The bed is soft.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.” So-Elku moved to look down at the garden. “It’s a lovely day outside. Wouldn’t you rather go for a walk?”

  “I thought you told me to stay in here?” Piper scrunched up her nose. “You said it wasn’t safe.”

  “That was before.” So-Elku waved a hand. “The city has been restored to order.”

  “You mean, my…” The girl hesitated on what to call Awen and the others.

  “The rebels.”

  Piper nodded. “They’ve been killed?”

  So-Elku raised an eyebrow, surprised by how fast the child went to the most fatalistic outcome. “They’ve been driven off and won’t bother you anymore. Especially Magnus.”

  “Don’t say his name, please.”

  “My apologies, Piper. I was only trying to comfort you.”

  “Don’t say it, though.”

  “I won’t.” So-Elku looked back at the garden, motioning toward it with a hand. “Shall we?”

  Piper sighed, then moved her legs and slid off the bed. “It would be a shame to waste such a beautiful day by remaining inside.”

  “Wise words.”

  “Eh. It’s what my…” Again, Piper faltered, this time—So-Elku guessed—in naming her recently deceased mother.

  “Your mother.” So-Elku made a show of sighing more deeply than he needed to. “Her loss is devastating, I must admit.”

  Piper looked down at her slippered feet, then back at So-Elku. “Are we going for a walk or what?”

  * * *

  So-Elku and Piper moved along the stone paths that meandered under the leafy canopies. Sunlight filtered down in blotches, playing on Piper’s golden hair and sullen features. Despite the beautiful birdsongs, which seemed to entice her out of her misery, she kept her hands folded, head down, and feet moving one after the other.

  “I do wish you’d find your way out of all that sadness, Piper,” So-Elku said as they rounded a turn to face a lily pond. “At least for a moment, anyway. Is it not beautiful here?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Please, please, child. Call me master.”

  “Yes, master.”

  “That’s better. Now, what could I do to cheer you up?” He tapped his chin and looked down at Piper. But the girl didn’t respond. So he knelt at the edge of the pond. “You know, you’re not in your power suit anymore, Piper.”

  “I know.”

  “And I believe that the premise of our arrangement here is that I would help you discover who you are, free of limitations.”

  She looked up and wrinkled her nose at him. “The prem-niss?”

  “Premise. The…” He tapped his chin again, then extended his finger as if having an idea. “The main reason we’ve agreed to work together. Would you like to begin?”

  Piper took a step away from the pond and lowered her head. “I don’t know.”

  “Why, Piper. Whatever is the matter, child?”

  “Last time I went into the Unity without my suit, I almost hurt people. Like I did before.”

  “Piper, I need you to listen very carefully to me. Are you listening?” She nodded. “Good. You cannot hurt me.”

  Her eyes darted up to his. “I can’t?”

  He shook his head. “I won’t let it happen.”

  “But how? Not even shydoh Awen could stop me.”

  “Shydoh Awen?”

  “Sorry. That’s our word for master. In the Gladio Umbra, I mean.”

  “I see. Would it be easier for
you if you called me shydoh, then?”

  Piper shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Shydoh So-Elku then. I like the sound of that.”

  “Me too.”

  “And what you like, I like.” He pointed toward the pond. “Come here, child.” Then he had another thought, knowing Awen wouldn’t have had the girl call her shydoh without a student term. “And what did Awen call you?”

  “Piper.”

  So-Elku smiled. “No. I mean, if you called her shydoh, what term did she use for you?”

  “Doma,” Piper said, taking a step toward So-Elku.

  So-Elku repeated the word, trying it out. “Then that’s what I’ll call you. Come, doma. Look.”

  Piper moved toward the pool until she was even with So-Elku. He pointed into the clear waters. “What do you see?”

  “A lily pond with some fish in it.”

  “As do I. Tranquil, yes?”

  Piper bit her lip. “What’s trank-will mean?”

  “Calm. Peaceful.”

  “Okay.”

  “But in the end, what is it really?”

  “What’s trank-will?” Piper asked, looking at So-Elku for the first time.

  “No, what is the pond? The fish? The lilies?”

  “I… don’t get what you mean.”

  “I mean, what composes it all? What makes it what it is?”

  “Mole—mo’mecueles?”

  “Molecules. Good. And what are the molecules made of?”

  Piper thought for a second. “Atoms?”

  “And the atoms?”

  Piper shrugged. “Smaller stuff?”

  So-Elku smiled. “Yes, smaller stuff. Would you like me to show you?”

  “Show me?” Piper looked between the pond and So-Elku. “The smaller things?”

  He nodded, then he scooped up a handful of water and let it slide out of his palm, slipping between his fingers. “Shall we?”

  * * *

  From within the Unity, So-Elku marveled at Piper’s presence. While little more than a waif in physical form, the girl’s ethereal footprint was that of a giant. He figured there was more potential energy in her than any Luma he’d ever known—himself included.

  Piper’s power wasn’t new to him, of course. He’d noticed her strength during their confrontation in the Unity. How could he not? The child was as mighty as she was majestic. But she lacked precision, evident in her lack of discipline. The hapless snares of youth, he noted to himself.

  “The lily pond itself is merely a manifestation,” So-Elku said, looking down at the pool.

  “A manifestation?” Piper asked.

  So-Elku studied the girl’s face and realized an illustration was in order. “When the wind blows, do you see the breeze? Or do you see its effect on the leaves it touches?”

  “I see the leaves move.”

  “Good. That is the same as—”

  “Unless I’m in the Unity. Then I can see the wind just fine.”

  “Yes. But I’m talking about with your natural eyes.”

  “But we aren’t using our natural eyes right now.”

  “I know that. This is an illustration to help you see.”

  “But I can see fine.”

  “To understand,” So-Elku said.

  “Understand what I don’t see? But I can see everything in the Unity just fine, can’t I?”

  So-Elku took a breath. “Yes, in the Unity. The wind was meant as an illustration to explain the word manifestation, nothing more.”

  “I still don’t get what it has to do with the pond.”

  “The wind is—” So-Elku bit his lower lip. Patience, So-Elku. He suddenly remembered how long it had been since he’d spoken with a child for any length of time. There was a reason the Order only took young people in their late teens. “Forget the wind. Look at the pond.”

  “I can see the wind blowing on its surface.”

  “Yes.” So-Elku nodded his head absently, then arrested himself. “I mean, no. Forget the wind, Piper.”

  “But you said—”

  “Forget the wind,” So-Elku said with a sharp wave of his hand.

  Piper recoiled as blonde wisps of hair closed over her face.

  “I’m sorry, doma.” So-Elku lowered his head and softened his tone. “Forgive my impatience.”

  “But you’re mad at me.”

  He looked in her eyes and smiled. “Mystics, no, my child. I simply… I’m mad at myself. For not being the teacher you deserve.”

  “Shydoh Awen says we should not be mad with ourselves, but treat ourselves gently.”

  So-Elku clenched his teeth for a second before speaking again. “And Shydoh Awen is right, on that point. I promise not to be mad with myself anymore.”

  “You should tell yourself that you’re sorry.”

  “I should what?”

  “You know. Say sorry to yourself. Apologize.”

  “Piper, we don’t have time for this.”

  Piper put her hands on her hips. “Apologize.”

  The Luma master blinked twice, then looked down at the pond. He saw his reflection in the water, then said, “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m sorry, So-Elku,” Piper said with the corrective air of a school teacher.

  “I’m sorry, So-Elku.”

  “For?”

  So-Elku looked up from the pool. “Piper, we really—”

  “For what? You have to say what you’re apologizing for, or it doesn’t mean anything.”

  This was not going as he’d planned. He sighed and then looked back at his reflection in the pool. “I’m sorry, So-Elku, for being mad at you.”

  “And?”

  Great mystics of antiquity. This child was getting on his nerves faster than he cared to admit. No wonder few people wanted to commit to working with children: they were downright infuriating. “And I’ll do my best to never let it happen again?”

  “Are you asking me, or telling yourself?” Piper said. “She pointed to the pool.

  “And I’ll do my best to never let it happen again,” So-Elku said to his reflection. When he looked back at Piper, she gave him a satisfied look and took her hands off her hips. “Can we get back to the pool now?”

  “Sure.”

  “So, the pool and the fish and everything that composes them are connected through space and time in the Nexus. You know of it.”

  “Of course. That’s how I trapped you before.”

  “Quite so, quite so.” He studied the waters again. “But unlike shydoh Awen, I bid you venture into the Nexus unbridled.” Piper blinked at him. “You’re going to be free to do whatever you want in the Nexus.”

  “You use a lot of fancy words, shydoh.”

  “I consider myself informed.”

  “So, you want me to follow the pool back to the Nexus?”

  “Not quite, my child. I want you to use the Nexus to discover the pool.”

  “But I see it fine. I don’t need to discover it.”

  “Yes, that’s true, you do see it. But you see it with your second sight much like a bee sees a flower. But do you know how the flower’s stem sees the flower?”

  “Stems don’t have eyes.”

  Again, So-Elku took a controlled breath before continuing. “But pretend they do.”

  “But they don’t.”

  “Pretend.”

  Again, Piper took a step back.

  So-Elku repeated himself more gently. “Let’s just imagine that they do, for fun.”

  “Like a game?”

  “Like a game, exactly.”

  “Well, if a flower’s stem has make-believe eyes, I guess it sees the flower a lot differently than a bee. It’s not gonna want to make honey from it.”

  “Quite so. What is it interested in?”

  “Feeding it with water, maybe?”

  “Excellent. And where does the moisture come from?”

  “I said water.”

  “That’s what moisture is.”

  “Oh.”

  “And where
does it come from?”

  “From the ground, silly.”

  “This is like the Nexus then,” So-Elku said, holding his hand over the water. “When you look at the pond, you see water and fish and bubbles and all manner of things. But when the Nexus sees the pond, it even sees the atoms that compose it.”

  “And even the smaller stuff?”

  “Even the smaller stuff, yes. Would you like to see what the Nexus sees?”

  “The smaller stuff?”

  “That’s what I implied, yes.”

  “Sure.”

  So-Elku stepped into the pool. Piper took his offered hand and joined him, the water going just over her knees. “Now, I want you to get close and sense the Nexus without going to the Nexus.”

  “Huh?”

  So-Elku was tiring of the tedious explanations. How had Awen managed to teach this little thing so much? He imagined throwing himself off a tall building were he to endure days on end of this sort of exchange. “The Nexus. Sense it, but don’t go to it.”

  “Sense it?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “But don’t go down to it.”

  “Correct.”

  Piper’s eyes darted around the pool. “From right here.”

  “Precisely.” When she hesitated longer than he had the patience for, he decided to try and employ yet another word picture. “Think of it as a scent.”

  “The scent of what?”

  “Well, what smells do you like?”

  “Warm bread.”

  So-Elku smiled. “That is a wonderful smell, yes. Now, when you’re standing outside and smell warm bread, what do you think?”

  “I want to eat it.”

  “Yes, which means what?”

  “Which means I’m hungry.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “And it will taste so good with melted butter.”

  “Yes, but go back to the smell. If you smell warm bread, it means that…” So-Elku moved his hand in a circular motion, trying to summon the answer out of her.