“Sumahon!”
“That ship we found before can fly us off this giant rock and take us somewhere safe. But if you’d let me tell my story, you’d know why that might not be any better than staying.”
“Fine, let’s hear it.” A flying ship that could take us out of here and it was under our noses this entire time. There was something I didn’t understand though. How would we make it fly, it literally looked like it was falling apart when I saw it last.
“Well now that you ruined my dramatic build-up. Basically, Ki’thar became technologically advanced before the other budding races in the solar system and spread their way of living among them. A small faction of pacifist among the Ki’darth, your ancestors, rejected technology and searched for enlightenment instead. To the surprise of the rest of Ki’darth, they found it and the first Erusha was born after pairing with foreign spirit. This part gets confusing, but apparently, they believed that Seinkah were beings that lived between worlds and bonded with enlightened minds to grant further wisdom. Obviously, that isn’t true. I mean look at you? If I were really some powerful, between world, spirit, why did I choose you?”
“How do you know any of this is true?” I asked, standing. I wasn’t sure what I believed, but all of that seemed a bit far fetched even for me. I was born not long ago, not yesterday.
“Well, that’s the thing,” Sumahon said cautiously, “Everything I told you is pulled from tiny bits of information from hundreds of different ancestors. I am not sure if it is true, but it is the best I can do right now. We do have a problem, though.”
“Which is what?”
“Well, I told you that all these memories come from your direct ancestors.”
“Yeah?”
“Your ancestors were the pacifists. I have no idea how to fly that ship, how it works, how to fix it, or if it is even possible. It seems your meat bag ancestors refused to even learn the basics of technology, and if you had any memories before the pacifist movement, it is lost in time. The further the memories the more fragmented they are, just the small amount I was able to figure out came from thousands of memories, each one with barely a thought left.”
“Well, the least we can do is try.” I had to keep trying. If I let the thoughts that were threatening to overcome me with despair in, I knew I would be done for.
The dirt beneath my feet gave way as I pushed off and began a slow jog towards the caves. It was time to leave this dead planet, one way or another.
I almost didn’t notice the strange distortion on my visual display that meant a lizardman was ahead. Almost. I hit the ground and let the cloak cover me completely while my display showed me the movement ahead.
“He isn’t moving,” Sumahon whispered telepathically.
“You don’t need to whisper inside my head,” I said, a grin flicking to life on my lips. I hadn’t smiled for a while now and it felt good.
“Oh, right.”
“Are you sure there isn’t anything you can do to judge the lizardman’s strength?”
“Let me try for the thousandth time.”
I laid still on the ground with my eyes shut while dust tickled my nostrils and threatened to make me sneeze. Opening my eyes, I focused on my visual display while I waited for Sumahon to try to come up with a miracle.
I’d been so caught up in everything happening, I realized I hadn’t checked my Level for a while.
-Neak’o, Sri Projector, Level 7, 8,900/10,000-
“I got a reading on that lizardman’s gadget. I would estimate that his little device is around Level 5, at least.”
“Does that mean his gadget is alive, or like you maybe?”
“Excuse me? It isn’t alive, I am reading something inside of it. An energy source of some kind. Compare me to some two-bit gadget, will you!”
I was about to ask if we had a chance against it in a fight when a loud explosion went off not far away. I could feel the force in my chest, and it took me several seconds to get my breathing back under control.
“What was that!”
“I don’t know,” Sumahon said, his tone told me that he didn’t like not knowing, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out what could make such a loud and powerful force. But I couldn’t ignore it, so I lifted myself from the dirt and began moving in the direction of the blasts.
I walked slow and carefully as if I was stalking some unseen prey. There was zero chance I’d live in a fight against something that could create the force I had just felt so caution was the best option at this point.
It took longer than I expected with how loud the blast was, but I finally found its source. A group of lizardmen stood beside one of their blackened ships and several hundred feet away, there was a new hole in the ground.
It was jagged and rough around the edges, so much so that it made the craters made by the lizardmen’s ships look almost neat.
I studied the lizardmen from a distance and tried to pick up what they were saying in their strange, harsh way of speaking. There were four of them that I could see, all wearing similar outfits as the one I first encountered. Tight fit black shirts and a black shirt with a mix of belts crisscrossing their chests. I recognized a few of the gadgets now as their weapons. I was grossly outnumbered.
It wouldn’t do to get caught now. Perhaps I should just turn around and go.
“I agree, get those legs moving!” Sumahon said, “Perhaps I should see if I can grow legs or maybe wings. Hmm.”
“Not yet,” I said, relaying my thoughts to Sumahon.
There had to be a way to get closer without being heard. Maybe if I could find out what had made the blast, I could use it myself.
I moved forward, wincing every time my bare feet brushed against the dirt or rock. Quiet. I have to be quiet. My breath left my chest as another series of blasts rocked the area.
Ahead of me, I finally got my first look at what was happening. A huge pillar of dust had been blown into the air and bits of rock fell all around me ahead. It was hard to make out what they were doing ahead in the dim light of the overcast sky, but I moved forward and found a sizeable rock to cower behind just as the dust cleared.
“Scan again,” A rough, harsh voice said, “Did we unearth any Serilacite?”
“Sorry commander,” Another voice said, “I am getting the same faint, steady readings we received when we first arrived.”
“Even if we don’t find anymore,” yet another voice said, “We have already collected enough from the savages to fund this entire operation twice.”
“We will blast once more, then focus our troops on finding and capturing the remaining populace.”
“Yes, commander.” Was echoed among several voices.
I risked a peek from behind my hiding spot and saw them moving to a stack of elongated orange spheres not far from the ship.
“I have a plan,” I said, turning and slowly moving back the way I had come.
Sumahon didn’t respond, but I was fairly sure he knew what I was planning and I got the sense that he agreed. During these last few hours, whether I wanted to admit it, our mental connection was getting stronger.
I found that prospect unsettling. It didn’t take long before I was back where I had spotted the first lizardman, the one that seemed to be alone. I snuck closer and closer until I dared not move any further.
Peaking over towards the lizardman’s ship, I could see he held a gadget in his hand, not the weapon I’d seen them use before, but a large flat object that let off light across its surface.
Around his ship, he had set up several metallic grey poles that poked into the ground. They formed a large circle around his ship and stood in height just taller than the lizardman himself.
I continued to scan looking for a familiar sight and was relieved, excited and anxious all at once when I found them. A smaller stack of those orange spheres partially hidden behind the
lizardman’s ship.
I began going over in my head the next steps I could take.
I could sneak around the back and see if I could grab one without him seeing? Or perhaps it would be better just to fire off a blast at them and hope they exploded and took the ship with it?
I wasn’t sure what the right choice was, but I know I had to do something. I’d been weak and done nothing when everyone I knew died around me. Not anymore! I would take action now, and if I die, I die.
“Excuse me?” Sumahon said, “We won’t be throwing our lives away, meat bag. Although I do think I can help you with your current endeavor. A focused Finger Cannon blast at a considerable distance will most certainly do the trick of triggering a chain explosion and, if we are lucky, destroy one of their ships.”
“Let’s do it,” I mentally whispered back to Sumahon.
It didn’t take long to put myself at a considerable distance. I leaned against a large boulder, taking deep breaths.
Here we go.
“Finger CANNON!,” I bellowed the words through my mental connection while snapping my knees straight and moving my fingers to my shoulder and then out towards my target, a small pile of orange in the distance. I felt the power build and release in a cacophony of sensations. It had been a while since I’d used an attack and I found that I enjoyed the way it made me feel.
The beam of energy-infused light sped forward and in an instant, smashed to the left of the target. I had missed it. The attack hadn’t gone unnoticed either. I watched the lizardman scramble to grab his weapon and level it towards me.
Not waiting for him to fire, I charged and released another shot. This time my aim rung true, and my eyes were shocked by the sudden white of the blast.
My vision was stripped away and I collapsed backward, rubbing my eyes in a vain attempt to return my sight. The stinging began to lessen after a few minutes and my vision gave way to small spots of black that soon allowed me to see mostly encumbered.
With my vision returned, I snuck a peek at the destruction I had caused. And destruction it was, my jaw dropped as I noticed the total absence of what could be recognized as a ship. At best, several large pieces that vaguely looked like they belonged to the spherical ship were still intact, but the majority of it was in chunks no bigger than I was.
“I’m not sensing the ‘non-presence’ of that lizardman either,” Sumahon said, “It looks like you completely obliterated him. And oh dear, you’ve leveled up!”
-Neak’o, Sri Projector, Level 8, 18,500/20,000-
I wasn’t completely sure how levels worked, but it appeared that just killing things or blowing things up did something to help increase my Sri Potential. That set unfortunate precedence when it came to becoming stronger. If I could gain raw power just from killing things, then perhaps if I dispose of enough of these lizardmen, I’d be a match for the bastard who killed Aetex.
“The one known as Mesh’el has a level around the 20-25 mark. You have a long way to go before matching his raw power, let alone his skill in combat or techniques.”
I ignored Sumahon and, keeping my cloak’s hood up to hide me as best as I could, I set back down the direction of the road and to the ship that might be our escape.
Chapter Seventeen
The cave hallways seemed dimmer without In’ah’s presence. A part of me was surprised that I didn’t run into any rats of any size during my trek through the dead city and eventually walked through the hallways of the cave that held the ship.
I had noticed several dead smaller rats, not quite as huge as the ones In’ah and I battled, but still bigger than they should be and they had all been missing their tails. Odd.
I listened to my feet echo on the hard surface of the tunnel and into the large domed room as I entered. The ship sat exactly where we had left it and everything appeared to be the same, except for one very unsettling detail.
The side of the ship was open. A gentle white glow poured out and illuminated the floor. I approached very cautiously and from the side, just in case something waited for me. From the angle of my approach, I could see only a small portion of the inner ship. It was very white inside and clean. Not at all what I expected from such an old ship.
The room held a stillness that I didn’t remember before, I thought, as I stood next to the open ship door. It was almost as if a steady humming were drowning out any other faint noise. This was exactly the case I realized as I focused my ears.
“Well go in already!” Sumahon’s words spoken into my mind startled me and it took more effort than I wanted to admit to keeping myself from jumping.
I could hear my heart thumping in my ears as I carefully pulled myself up and around the stairs. The entirety of the ship was revealed to me and I stifled a gasp. Two bodies, one bloody and clearly dead, another in a messy heap near the ground.
I studied the form of the bleeding form first. He was clearly Ki’darthian, but different in subtle ways. His ears pressed closer to the side of his face, his eyes staring into nothingness and open were smaller than any Ki’darthian I’d yet seen. But his skin, the gem pressed into his head, and the familiar color of his blood all marked him as what he was.
“That body is much older than it looks,” Sumahon said, his mental voice betraying his awe as we both studied the corpse, “It looks like he was injured before locking himself in his ship and the ship went into some form of stasis. I’m getting more information. Stand by. I seem to be interfacing with the ship somehow.”
“Careful,” I said aloud, the excitement and strangeness of the moment making me forget my mental speech. The smaller body wrapped in a bundle of cloth at the feet of the dead Ki’darthian stirred at the sound of my voice.
“Neak’o?” A voice asked, “Is that you?”
“In’ah!” I said in surprise and rushed forward. I pulled back the black cloak that was covering most of her and sure enough, I found a familiar smirk waiting for me.
“I thought you were dead,” She said, her voice stronger and more animated than it had been only moments before, “I barely made it away myself and I had been injured pretty badly. I came here looking to rest. I had to kill a few rats, although it looks like I got them all.”
As she spoke, I noticed the elongated forms of her twin blades beneath her.
“Did you run into any of the invaders yet?” I asked, thinking I knew the answer. If she had, I doubt she’d have made it here in one piece.
“Invaders?” She asked back, “Have you hit your head worse than me?”
“No, In’ah,” I started but didn’t know where to start, so I told her the whole tale. Event after event leading up to us arriving in the cavern and our plan at escaping.
“No…” Was her only reply. The merry happiness that had been ever-present in her eyes faded as she stared into the distance. “Aetex, Narth’l, and Mesh’el did what? No, no, no, this isn’t true. No, you, you are lying.” Her eyes began to water with tears and she gave me a look of hurt that I’d only ever seen on her once before but this time it was so profound that I doubted a night’s rest would cheer her back up.
“It is true, In’ah,” I said, trying my best to keep my own emotions in check, “but we have a plan to get back at the invaders and then we can leave here together.”
“You are speaking nonsense,” She said, her own voice firming. I watched as she stood and I noted several large gashes in her clothing, but no wounds to be found. “We will get revenge and we will drive off these lizardmen you met, but I am not leaving my home. You don’t understand Neak’o, we are connected to this world, and it is our charge to be the protectors.”
“You are right, I don’t understand,” I shot back feeling myself growing aggravated, “I don’t feel connected to this rock and if you don’t want to go then perhaps we will just leave you behind.”
I was mad. But even as I spoke, I knew I wouldn’t let her face
the lizardmen alone. She might be my newest friend, but she was also my only friend left that I didn’t have to share a mind with. I decided to try to change the subject, fearing I’d lose my temper and say more things I didn’t mean.
“Tell me how you got inside,” I said, gesturing to the inner ship. I scanned it now closer than I had before. The only chair was occupied by the bleeding corpse, sapphire blood spilling out beside where In’ah had laid. The rest of the ship was lined with a countertop of some kind and small switches scattered about. Several creases in the wall spoke of compartments, but I couldn’t even guess at how to open them.
“I bled on the door,” In’ah said, her tone uneven. I guessed she was trying to decide if she was still angry at me. “It was the weirdest thing. I got here and I was in really bad shape. My hands were covered in my own blood and I happened to reach out and this strange humming started, then boom a door slides open! Super freaky! Then I find this dead guy inside who looks like he just died, but this thing has to have been here forever, right? So yeah, I fell asleep and figured I’d be dead when I woke up, but here I am. I feel like I never even got attacked.”
I didn’t know what to say. She had been healed somehow? I knew from my lessons from Aetex, that was impossible. The biggest limitation that Sri had was it wasn’t able to heal. And yet, here she stood with the torn clothing and story to prove she’d been near death.
My display flickered her information in the new format set up by Sumahon as I stared at In’ah. I gaped.
-In’ah , Sri Manipulator, Level 12-
She was several levels higher than me now, and I had jumped considerably since our last meeting. What had this ship done to her, I wondered.
“In’ah,” I said my voice full of awe, “You’ve grown so much stronger.”
“Nearly four times stronger, it would seem. Her raw power almost rivals that of what Narth’l had before being defeated.” Sumahon said.
“I have?” She said, clearly confused about my remarks, “Well, am I stronger than you now?”
Reincarnation Page 13
