Before Sonia could say a word, she heard foomp, foomp, foomp as three missiles were fired in rapid succession. Although Sonia had no prior knowledge of the location of the living chambers for Tilhar and Ningal while imprisoned, it was only logical that the breezeways connecting the three towers were the most likely location and the young woman seemed to know this. From their vantage point, it looked like a crown of death rising high into the air overlooking the city. In her mind’s eye, Sonia could see Ningal standing smugly looking out of the huge transparent panels staring at them as they made for an escape only to be ensnared by the trap she had set. The former slave wondered what her expression would be like as she watched the building being fired upon with nowhere to run.
For reasons unknown to her, no one had followed them out of the ginn or appeared to pursue from other locations. It was all too easy. Perhaps they were afraid of Joseph, or maybe a trap had been set for them and at any second, they would be ensnared or surrounded. There was no way Ningal was going to simply let them ride off into the setting Pashoe as it was referred to by the Econians. Even if by some fantastic means they were to escape, Ningal would hunt them down as long as she lived. The idea of simply flying off and leaving her, or the Erim unscathed would be utterly foolish and seen as a sign of weakness. They needed to punch back while they were able to do so. Sonia wanted to cheer the girl on as she intently followed the ice blue lights of the missile's propulsion system. This act was not solely about revenge, it was as much about survival.
“Why did you do that?” Ann gave a quirky jerk of the head as if having trouble deciding to turn from the monitors and possibly missing the impact or face the girl.
The Erim’s defense system reacted to the incoming, but the lasers cut fruitlessly through the air as the missiles eluded the attempts. The first missile detonated just outside of the center breezeway that was facing them. Black metal twisted and the transparent panels exploded into the air and flew backward toward the other towers turning the breezeway into an inferno. Flames shot out in all directions and instantly moved into the buildings toward the adjoining towers.
The second detonated beyond the remnant of the first breezeway weakening the inside structural supports of the three towers decimating the two remaining breezeways. Debris from the explosion pelted the structures within a quarter of a mile from the Erim resulting in several fires and shattered glass. The third caused further damage to the interior structural supports of the three towers.
The three breezeways were being consumed by ravenous flames that quickly engulfed the Erim. The structure creaked and moaned loudly enough to make Sonia cover her ears as the intense heat rapidly weakened the failing metal which began to cede to the planet’s gravitational pull. The three sections teetered and fell inward slamming into each other nearly perfectly in the center over the interior courtyard. The impacts gave each a temporary reprieve from falling. Plumes of black smoke billowed into the sky as fires began to seek new sections of the Erim. It was certain that the three towers would soon fall and would damage the lower sections.
At first, the decimated building was a wonderful sight and Sonia wanted to cry then looked down at the lower level to the ginn. People were still trapped in there and would be sure to die. She wanted to help them, but they needed to make their escape, which already seemed less likely after the commotion they had caused.
“I know, flying quietly away into the sunset would have been the appropriate thing to do. You didn’t really think they were just going to let us get out of here that easy? I may never get a chance like this again, I had to take it. Perhaps she is dead. We would all be better off if she were. Now, there is a good chance that she is. If we can get back into celerity, they will not be able to track us. At least initially. While we have a chance, we needed to destroy as much of the Erim as possible,” the young woman said without any semblance of remorse.
Sonia had a change of heart when she considered the proximity of the fire to the ginn. “What about all of those victims we couldn’t get out? They are trapped in cages. I don’t think they will make it out of the building,” Sonia said as tears began to fill her eyes. “There is no telling how far that fire and the smoke will spread.”
“If they don’t make it, then they are better off,” the young woman said emotionless exhibiting no regret. “I’d rather die that way than live there like that…experimented on, raped, and tortured.”
“To die like that? They deserve better than to burn to death because of your need for revenge. What a horrible way to die!” she stared intently at the young woman.
“We were only supposed to come here and get the boy Joseph,” Ann replied as the girl jammed the thrusters refusing to relinquish control of the craft. The transport lunged upward and shot for the atmosphere.
The comment struck Sonia as odd, “What are you talking about? Who told you that? Joseph?”
Ann didn’t reply. She just continued to scan the monitors and watch as the girl directed the transport away from Onsan.
“Where are the coordinates of our transport. I know you didn’t come all the way here in this,” she said. Ann reached over and tapped on a button that revealed the coordinates and the girl began to navigate accordingly. She abruptly dialed back the thrusters and looked at Sonia. “Something is moving our way…they were expecting us.”
The transport’s forward momentum had taken them to the edge of the atmosphere and the dark reaches of space came into view no longer hidden by atmospheric hues of pink and yellow. Sonia’s heart fell into her stomach when she saw an approaching squadron of smaller, faster and heavily armed Shuhadaku. They were too fast to outrun, to agile to outmaneuver and too heavily armed to fight. They were outnumbered and outgunned. Fighting back would bring certain death.
The larger transport was designed primarily for comfort and travel over long distances with some safety and defense capabilities. It, however, was on the other side of the small squadron. Reaching it would do them no good at this point. While the smaller transport possessed the ability to reach celerity, which would be their saving grace, it was far too small for the long distance they needed to cover. But they needed an escape and the window of opportunity was rapidly closing as the Shuhadaku moved to encircle them. The proper line back to Econ was directly impeded by the craft. The Imhas manning the Shuhadaku would get several seconds to fire at them if they attempted celerity.
The smaller transport was not heavily weaponized and was never designed to be used in combat. For a second, the young woman considered firing off several rounds before sending the craft into a nosedive back into the atmosphere. But such a move would not be met with apathy. She was not certain what type of catastrophic damage the transport would receive during the free fall. But it was unquestionable that they were outgunned and ill prepared to take on the Imhas.
A twenty by twenty-inch screen in the middle of the control panel lit up as an image came into view. “They are making contact with us,” the woman noted loudly.
An image appeared of one of the Imhas Commanders dressed in a red uniform with a high collar on its lanky neck. Its head was elongated and covered with a blotchy pink epidermis. The creature’s nose was so large that it hung down over its mouth and could only be matched by the length of its ears. A pair of lobes rested on its square shoulders.
The Imhas was the Space Force that was not comprised of locals of the planet of Isfahan but of murderous mercenaries from the planet Scyros in the Dadli star system. Their weaponry was far more advanced than that of the Redum soldiers, but they were far fewer in numbers. It was impossible to talk your way out of an encounter with them. They loved it when their targets ran. Like a pack of hungry wolves, the Imhas enjoyed a good chase but loved the kill at the end. Their weaponry made them bold and too willing to attack, at least from the perspective of those who had the misfortune to encounter them. It was their aggression and willingness to engage in violence that had appealed to the members of the Senate of Onsan that hired them.
Sonia turned into the direction it was looking to see Joseph as he approached the monitor. He appeared stoic and his continence was calm. He took a step sideways and disappeared as he slid into the shadow world. Like a pendulum, the end of the commander’s nose swung back and forth across his lips as he looked back and forth from left to right. His bulbous eyes desperately searched for something. The lids of his eyes slammed shut for a second, then reopened slowly.
“What is happening?” Sonia asked staring at the monitor.
The Shuhadaku in the center fell out of formation and turned portside. It began firing on the other Shuhadaku, who began firing back. Within seconds all had fallen out of formation and were fighting amongst themselves. One by one the Shuhadaku chased after one another. Lethal blows were dealt and none were left unscathed. The debris and remnants from the Shuhadaku orbited briefly before being pulled into the atmosphere of Isfahan.
In a small area just off the wall, a narrow pocket of air seemed to briefly convert from gas to liquid and form a thin vertical opening. A leg fell out as Joseph stepped through and back into the bridge. His countenance was unsettled and he was covered in sweat. His breathing was deep and hard as if having just concluded a marathon. His face was white and bloodless, and his eyes darted back and forth across the bridge. “Go! Go now!” he desperately demanded stopping briefly to face Ann. “It found me. It found me…tried to pull me in. I was almost lost, but I got away. I got back,” he said walking in circles mumbling to himself.
“Who?” Sonia became fearful seeing Joseph act unsettled.
He looked at Sonia, “Don’t stand still! Move, walk, get your weapon…get a weapon. Get something. It can be anywhere. It can be right behind you. It can be anywhere. Don’t stop moving until we are gone from this place,” he demanded. Joseph kept pacing and looking in all directions, “I don’t know how to stop it. If it finds us again…if it gets in, I do not know how to stop it. It will kill all of us. ANN, WE NEED TO GO!” he yelled forgetting that the android was no longer in control of the transport.
“My name is Lindsay!” she said angrily while looking forward focused on the task at hand. The look on her face was not one of fear or retreat but of revenge.
“Lindsay, I understand, but let’s save it for another day. We need to get out of here,” Sonia commanded.
“We kill them,” she repeated as tears began to fill her eyes again.
Ann was able to regain control over the transport and guided them toward the correct line into the hanger and set the transport down.
Lindsay noticed the golden name plate displayed on the wall in the hanger. She squinted for a second while focusing in on it and brushing away the tears, “Oh, my goodness! Is that what I think it is. How did you get this ship?”
“We kind of just took it—” Sonia admitted.
“You don’t just take the Aqvita?” she said while sniffing and trying to breathe.
“What is so special…well, it is a nice ship and all,” she said while looking at the nameplate.
“This is the personal transportation vessel of the President of Econ. This ship is the property of the state,” Lindsay said. Her expression was blank for a second as Sonia handed her a spare shirt from a closet behind the bridge. It was about ten sizes too large and Lindsay pulled off the torn soiled one-piece gown and buttoned up the shirt. She had to roll up the sleeves in order to access her hands, “I don’t know if I can let the android pilot The Aqvita all the way to Econ. I just don’t trust them.” She moved out of the transport and ran as fast as her worn, exhausted body could go toward the bridge of the Aqvita before Ann could get there.
Sonia remained behind in the transport with Joseph and was unmoved at the realization of the ownership of the vessel, “Well, she got us here. I wasn’t so confident either. You need to rest. You’ve been through a lot.”
After several minutes the thrusters kicked in and the transport jumped forward. In the blink of an eye, Isfahan was beginning to fade into the distance. Just before they reached celerity Joseph looked at Sonia, turned away from her, and took on a defensive posture as if to protect her, “It’s too late, it has found us. It is here.”
Just in front of Joseph, a black mass began to rise from the floor like smoke from a fire. Within a second the formless invader rose to the ceiling and was almost too tall for the bridge. Joseph was unsure of himself and what to do. This was new to him. It had found them and Sonia was what it wanted. He moved to attack, but a black appendage formed a fist that flew out and hit him in the chest. Sonia could hear the wind go out of his lungs as he flew backward sliding across the floor and into the wall. Joseph rolled over struggling to breathe desperately attempting to regain control of his lungs. He began to panic as he tried to stand.
In the center of the bridge, the black mass took on more of a form. Four legs and what appeared to be an elongated tail became visible. The face was ever changing and morphed into creatures and alien beings she had never seen as if searching a database for an identity.
Sonia was uncertain of what to do but could not stand by and watch the shadow creature, the only name she could give to it, hit Joseph again. She lunged forward holding the telenium over her head and jammed it into the center of what should have been the shadow creature’s back. Her hand passed effortlessly into the black smoke and she realized that it did not have a physical body despite being able to strike Joseph. Sonia’s hand turned cold as ice on contact feeling as if on the verge of freezing. Instinctively she attempted to pull back. Sonia realized the magnitude of her error. Her arm would not move and felt as if locked in a death grip or a vice. She desperately attempted to pull her arm free. The cold sensation began to spread from her hand into the forearm. Slowly it was spreading toward the elbow. Extreme exhaustion ensued as if the shadow creature was draining the life out of her.
It turned and launched her across the floor slamming her back first into the control panel and the captain’s chair. Sonia tried to shake off the pain and struggled to get up. She grabbed the armrest on the chair and pulled herself to her knees and slowly back to her feet. Experience had taught her too well that the ground was a place of vulnerability and weakness. Inexplicably her mind flashed to visions of the Tilhar standing over watching as she helplessly writhed on the floor in pain just as he had done so many times. She wasn’t going to let that happen again.
The cold slowly continued to spread up the right arm despite having freed her hand. The skin was pale in the area that was cold. She reached out with her left hand and tried to shake it as if waking a sleeping limb. It was numb, cold to the touch and lifeless. Sonia stood, dangled and shook her arm hoping that it was simply a matter of a lack of blood circulation. If she could get the blood flowing again warmth and sensation would return.
It was coming and she turned to face it. The creature looked at her with the face of a demon, then changed into a dragon-like creature, then into some horned beast she could not recognize. It was angry and evil, and the putrid smell of death soiled the air making it difficult to breathe without combating the urge to vomit. Out of the black mass, an arm formed, then a hand, and a long finger with a hooked claw at the end of it. The beast reached for Sonia’s face and pulled the claw across her cheek. Blood began to trickle down to the jaw and drip onto her shoulder.
The black mass, energized by her fear, morphed again and she instantly recognized the likeness. The round head and oval eyes…it was Tilhar. He stood over her as angry and as vile as ever. She tried to shake it off as if her mind
was playing tricks on her? Had the shadow creature read her thoughts or tapped into her greatest fears? Regardless, there was no doubt about the likeness of the creature standing in front of her. Sonia wondered if it was a trick, her imagination or a hallucinatory side-effect of the cold poison that seemed to be working its way through her body.
The shadow creature pulled away from her. Inside of its smoky torso, she could see Joseph. He was staring at her. The shadow creature spun in a circle and seemed to be irritated by whatever Joseph was doing. The palms of his hands were radiating a dull white light that slowly increased in its illumination. As Joseph gained strength, the black mass spun faster like a tornado despite its resistance. The mass swung wildly at Joseph attempting to stop him and grew in agitation as the light grew brighter.
From Joseph’s hands, a bolt of electricity shot out and seemed to disappear into thin air. To Sonia, it appeared that the mass was reducing in size as Joseph continued to direct the electricity to a place she could not see. The mass was in a mad frenzy desperate to get at Joseph, but helpless to do so. In the location where the electricity had vanished into thin air, a black opening formed. The beast seemed desperate to avoid it. Joseph took several steps back and his hands stopped radiating. The mass shot through the portal, which closed behind it. Joseph fell to the floor exhausted and in pain.
Sonia wiped the blood from her cheek with her good hand. She felt weak and exhausted but made her way over to Joseph. He was sitting on the floor breathing heavily. “Because of me he found us,” he said.
“Who?” Sonia pleaded.
Universal Code Page 38
