“I thought there was something familiar about you,” Oslo said.
“That has been a popular refrain as of late. I must inform you, sir, I now respond to the moniker of Achilles.”
Oslo nodded. “Very well, Achilles it is then. Whatever happened to you? I faintly remember after a training session involving you and Bram, you just…vanished.”
Achilles nodded. “I have anticipated your question and will be more than eager to explain my disappearance, though I must insist we first evacuate the platform immediately. We are all in great danger. There will be a time for me to divulge what has transpired in the past as there is much to be told, of this I assure you.”
Oslo chuckled. “Yes, it really is you. You always did talk a lot for a robot.”
Achilles’ eyes glowed brightly as it stared at Oslo, then swiveled its head as Breeze and Ray approached them.
“Sir, it’s good to see you again,” Breeze said.
Oslo placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it, then immediately wiped his eyes as they welled up with tears. “Boys, good to see both of you,” he said while attempting to appear stoic. “Where’s Sally? Is she not with you?”
Ray had kept his distance from others and answered with a sullen tone. “Sally is in trouble.”
Oslo pointed to a space off to his side. “Her projection was right there, but Bram must have lost control of her when he was blown out and she disappeared.”
Breeze let out a sigh of relief. “That means she’s back in her body and safe aboard the ship.” He then shook his head. “I don’t get it. If he’s here, then how can he be at Perihelion at the same time?”
“This is something I’ve been pondering since I awoke here on this platform and came face to face with him for the first time in ages,” Oslo sighed. “He has gone mad.”
“You’re still not answering the question, sir.”
He looked Breeze in the eye. “I am not certain. He projected from Perihelion to Helena on what was supposed to be his last scouting mission and he never came back. Yes, his body is still there, but it’s as if he has found a way to function without it. Although, he does fluctuate between solid and astral in moments of stress.”
Breeze’s eyes widened. “That’s why I saw him getting stretched when we smashed the window and everything got sucked out.”
Oslo waved his hand. “We have more pressing matters at the moment. How is Sally? We must find her. God knows I’ve put that girl through too much as it is.”
“She’s fine. I can sense her from here.”
“How?” Oslo arched an eyebrow.
“I have a special connection to the ship and it lets me see.” Breeze grinned at Oslo’s stunned expression. “It’s a long story, and a lot has happened since we last saw you.”
“It always does,” Oslo chuckled, and then his face went pale as he looked toward the force field that covered the shattered window.
An Elephim had stepped out of the shadows and stood before it. It was Enoch. He had blended in with the surrounding darkness and remained hidden as he watched the reunion between Oslo and his students. Pinpoints of light streamed across his face as he took several steps toward them, and then stopped.
Ray raised his hand to attack, but Oslo pushed it back down. “Watch and wait,” he said.
Enoch’s face pulsated in a rhythmic fashion as the lights rearranged themselves into different patterns.
“Is he trying to tell us something?” Breeze said.
Achilles’ eyes brightened. “I’m running an analysis of the pattern, but I am unable to make sense of it.”
Enoch took a tentative step forward, then tilted his head and raised a hand to Breeze.
The lights across his face stopped swirling as it went completely black. Then, images began to appear. They were undecipherable at first; a jumbled mass of colors intertwined with one another. When the images stabilized, Breeze saw glimpses of himself at various stages of his life. The ones that shook him the most were those of him training at night.
Breeze couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “How do you know all of this about me?”
Enoch shook his head violently and raised his fists while Oslo slapped down Ray’s glowing hands when he pointed them at Enoch.
Enoch reached for his throat and made a series of gestures imitating vocalization, and then shook his head as he pointed to his face repeatedly.
“Do we know each other? Did we grow up together in Conception?” Breeze asked.
Enoch slowly nodded his head.
“But, how?” Breeze wondered.
“Breeze,” Oslo said, “there is something that you need to know—”
Enoch began to tremble violently before falling to the floor in convulsions and lashing out with his legs and feet as if fending off some invisible force. He then got up on his knees and gripped his head as a mouth formed from his otherwise featureless face, and opened as if to scream, but no sound came out. Then the tantrum stopped, and Enoch slowly rose to his feet. The mouth disappeared and the malevolent black face punctuated by pinpoints of light re-appeared. Behind him, there was a disturbance.
Energy crackled and the lights began to dim as an image of Bram appeared. He began to materialize as he stumbled toward Enoch. “There will be no revelations today or ever—”
“Fine by me,” Ray said, and blasted a bolt of energy sending both Enoch and Bram slamming against the force field.
“Ray, no!” Oslo shouted. “Bram feeds off energy. You’ll only make him stronger.”
Bram rose up as his body rippled with power. “You should listen to him, Raymond Verhesen,” he chuckled, “after all, Oslo is very wise.” Energy crackled around him as he strode forward. He grew in height with each step he took as he raised a hand and fired a burst of energy.
Breeze threw up his shield just as they were all flung back across the room from the concussive blast and smashed against a wall at the far end of the chamber.
Breeze and Ray weakly got to their feet and looked at each other in a daze. Breeze was only able to raise the shield in time to cover him and Ray while the others were not as lucky. Oslo was knocked out cold and Achilles was unresponsive.
Bram turned and stared as Enoch’s face swirled violently with light, then grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground.
Enoch struggled to break free. Bram cursed and flung him across the chamber where he struck a wall and flopped to the floor. He wearily rose to his knees while Bram hovered over him, and then bowed his head with his arms stretched across the floor.
Bram growled. “Get up.”
Enoch obeyed and stood to face his master.
“The plan was very simple,” Bram said. “Collect them all in one place and eliminate them, with the exception to Raymond, of course. Then, the other paranormals scattered across the Earth would be hunted down and dealt with in due time.” Bram touched Enoch’s head. “Your disobedience will be rooted out. After all of these years, you really have no need to be sentimental. For now, my adopted son, prove your loyalty to me. Kill them. Except Raymond. Then, go to the hangar and dispose of the girl and the ship.”
Enoch’s face swirled as Bram turned to point at their prisoners.
They were gone.
Breeze struggled with Oslo as he tried to hold him up and run down the corridor to the elevators. The old man was groaning in pain, while Achilles took up the rear and jogged with a limp far behind them.
Ray was already at the elevators and looked back to yell at them. “Are you sure this is the right way?” “Positive!” Breeze shouted. “These elevators lead straight to the hangar bay.”
“Affirmative, Breeze is correct. Continue forward,” Achilles called out.
Ray stabbed the call button repeatedly. “Come on, come on, come on!” He turned to watch Bre
eze dragging Oslo when he saw a black streak rapidly approaching Achilles from behind. “Look out!” he pointed and yelled at the robot.
Achilles immediately spun around with a clenched fist and fired it down the corridor.
Enoch was hurtling straight for Achilles when the fist rammed into his shield, then forced its way through and pounced onto his face with death grip. Sparks and debris flew everywhere as Enoch spun out of control, tumbling and slamming against the floor, ceiling and walls as he tried to pry the fist loose.
Ray, Breeze and Oslo were already in the elevator and yelling at Achilles to hurry up. The robot stumbled and limped its way in just as the doors slid to a close.
The elevator began its rapid descent when a massive explosion from above shook the elevator car violently and debris could be heard hitting the roof. Then, silence settled in and was punctuated only by the elevator chiming as it descended another level, and was soon accompanied by soft pleasing music that filled the air with colorful lights that matched the rhythm of the song. They all turned to look at Achilles.
“How may I be of assistance?” it said.
Ray pointed up. “Can’t you turn it off?”
“I would honor your request,” Achilles said while holding up an arm without a hand, “but the wiser course of action would be to keep the remaining appendage with a hand available to deal with any future hostilities.”
“How do you recover the other one?” Breeze said.
“It does have a mind of its own.” The robot winked.
If only they knew, Raven said from within.
A powerful impact on the roof of the elevator flung them to the floor. They looked up to see Enoch’s black clad fist punching its way through the ceiling.
Ray let loose with a blast of energy and blew him off the roof of the elevator as sparks and debris rained down on them through the gaping hole he created.
“Damn it Ray, don’t you ever think?” Breeze yelled.
“What should I do? Invite him in?” Ray shouted.
The elevator was racked by another impact as Enoch’s swirling face glared down at them through the damaged roof. He had rammed the elevator with his shield and was pushing it to the bottom of the shaft at breakneck speed.
Achilles punched a button on the console next to the doors to activate the emergency brakes. They kicked in but couldn’t overcome their rate of descent.
“Plan B,” it said, then leapt up and barreled through Enoch’s shield, grabbed him by the throat and accelerated up and away.
“Get to the scout ship!” Achilles called out as it faded from view up the shaft.
Moments later, the elevator car slowed to a stop at the hangar bay level. The doors hissed open followed by a female voice speaking pleasantly in a foreign language.
“Is she telling us to have a nice day?” Ray said as he stumbled out of the smashed elevator car, and then ran to the scout ship while Breeze struggled to drag Oslo out.
“A little help here!” Breeze called out.
“No, I need to check on Sally and fire up the engines! Try to hurry up!” Ray shouted as he dashed across the hangar bay.
Breeze wanted to lift Oslo up and hover to the ship, but he was too drained and exhausted. He then looked at the distance needed to reach the scout ship and groaned.
He stumbled as he tried to hold Oslo up, but the old man was unusually heavy and he felt it with each step he took.
Up ahead, he could hear the whine of the scout ship’s engines spooling up as lights flickered and blinked across the vessel. His thoughts turned to Sally and he wondered if she was okay.
Sally woke up in a fog, never feeling so drained in her life. She struggled to recall what happened and faintly remembered rushing back into her body after seeing Bram getting blown out a shattered window on the detention level.
She struggled to get up from her seat and managed to stand up for a moment before collapsing back into it and she vomited. She wanted to cry as she wiped her face, but didn’t have the strength. She looked around feebly, hoping to see someone, anyone, and felt a crushing despair when the realization hit her that she was alone.
She tried calling out for help, but her throat was dry and she coughed harshly. She then leaned back in her seat when she heard a sound that made her grip the armrests. Someone was running up the gangplank, followed by rapid footsteps racing down the aisle. She wanted to turn around and see who it was, but nausea overwhelmed her.
“Sally!” Ray shouted as he rushed down the aisle and stopped at her row. “Sally! I, oh —” he recoiled at the smell of vomit and her disheveled appearance.
“Ray?” she said and held out a hand.
“I see that you’re… doing better. I have to go warm up the engines.” He ran to the pilot house and into the cockpit.
She could see him silhouetted against the glow of the console as he settled into his seat. Only once did he stop to look back at her as he prepped the ship for takeoff.
Tears flowed down her face while she looked out the window. The running lights from the ship reflected off the hangar walls and she found them to be hypnotic and soothing as they flashed in alternating patterns.
She settled back in her seat and thought about her family and what fate might have befallen them. She went through all of the events in her mind that transpired since the day she arrived at Perihelion, to the moment she and Breeze were held prisoners at the mercy of Bram.
It was the imprisonment that bothered her the most. Though it was her astral form that was held hostage, she couldn’t get over how physical it felt, and adding to the helplessness was that Breeze was held a prisoner because of her weakness in not being able to defend him. She was grateful she was finally able to cut him loose and send him back to safety when Bram tried to possess her.
She had never really been challenged before when projecting, and this was the first real defeat she had ever experienced outside of her first encounter with Kera. She spent her whole life in a controlled environment where she was always calm, cool, and collected. But Bram’s assault on her shook her confidence to the core.
Her trance was broken when she heard more footsteps ascending the gangplank. She turned feebly to look and her heart soared.
It was Breeze. He had Oslo draped over his shoulder as he struggled to carry him. Breeze saw her and smiled.
He lowered Oslo into the seat across the aisle from her and buckled him in, then leaned over to cradle her face. “Sally, I’m so happy to see you.”
She was about to say something when she pushed his hands away and placed a hand over her mouth.
He laughed and shook his head, then walked toward the stern where she heard him fumbling around in the lavatory, and coming back with clean towels. “Do these seem familiar?” he said with a wink.
She laughed and thought about her insistence on adding a “woman’s touch” back when they were prepping and cleaning the ship at Perihelion.
He sat next to her and gently wiped her face when she took the towel from him and smiled weakly. “I can manage,” she said, and finished wiping her face clean when they both heard Ray yelling from the cockpit.
“I’ll be right back,” Breeze said and ran to the pilot house.
“What’s the matter?” he demanded to know, and stopped in his tracks when he saw what Ray was pointing at. Across the hangar, flames were pouring out from the wrecked elevator car they had ridden in when, like a whirlwind of fury, two figures erupted from it and slammed into a wall directly across.
It was Achilles and Enoch. The robot was flailing away wildly with its one hand and kicking while Enoch blocked and punched back as each blow he made dented its armor.
“Achilles is not going to last much longer out there if we don’t help,” Breeze said.
“I can take that Elephim out from here with the weap
ons console,” Ray offered.
“No! You could hit Achilles and do more damage. I have an idea.” He raced out of the pilot house and back down the aisle, rushing past Oslo and Sally.
“Breeze?” she called out to him.
“I’ll be right back! I promise!” he shouted.
She slumped in her seat and looked over at Oslo who was beginning to stir. She reached out across the aisle and gently squeezed his hand. “We need to go home,” she said softly.
Oslo weakly squeezed back in agreement.
She smiled for a fleeting moment, and then wondered to herself, where is home?
Achilles was fighting for its very existence. Each blow it landed on Enoch made him punch back twice as hard, and only having one hand to use only added to its predicament as the link to the missing hand had been severed.
Achilles then changed tactics, lunging for Enoch’s throat and squeezing as hard as it could. Enoch flailed with his fists in retaliation when Achilles heard a garbled voice over its internal intercom. It sounded like Breeze but couldn’t make out the words. Achilles turned to look at the ship and saw Breeze running toward them.
“No!” the robot shouted when Enoch broke free from Achilles’ death grip and flung it to the ground, then pounced onto its chest and pinned the robot’s arms with his knees. He then rained blows upon Achilles’ head, each strike denting the metal deeper and deeper.
Achilles could only watch as Raven spoke from within. Is this how it ends?
Breeze made a running leap and flew straight towards Enoch and Achilles when he instantly felt his energy draining upon approaching them. He lost control and bounced across the hangar floor, sliding to a stop just a few feet away from Achilles’ head.
Enoch halted his assault upon the robot for a moment to stare at Breeze while the pinpoints of light on his face began to spin at a rapid clip.
Breeze sat up with great effort as the power drain he experienced ebbed. He then looked at Enoch, whose face was becoming more expressive as a mouth and eyes emerged from the inky blackness of his face. He began motioning with his hands in an attempt to communicate with Breeze. Behind him, the elevator doors next to the damaged ones opened.
Breeze Corinth (Book 1): Sky Shatter Page 62
