“Prepare Uphir, we may have to leave this planet behind and take up new identities soon,” Gatton said after feasting on the souls of two young women that were laying lifeless on his bed. “This body has reached its limits and you cannot safely bring me what I need to keep it going.” He stroked his brother’s face lovingly. “I do appreciate all that you do for me brother, but this is madness.”
Uphir humbly nodded his head. He knew from experience that his brother must to come to this conclusion on his own. Otherwise, he would have already shifted bodies several times over because of Gatton’s murderous ways. Gatton looked at the bed, “Get rid of them for me, will you. And when you are done with that, prepare one of the cruisers that we found on the Theron ship that was captured yesterday for our escape. You will need to make sure that it is untraceable. That means you will have to do better than you did the last time.”
Uphir looked down to the floor immediately. As they started to capture more civilized planets, it was harder to stay under the radar. The technology was catching up with them. The body he now inhabited was that of one of the finest engineers on the planet Drylon. He was brought here to the palace thinking it would be an interview for a position on a mothership that Gatton had no intention of building. Instead, he would become Uphir’s new host. Even after this jump in knowledge, he knew that the level of technology and innovation on other planets had far surpassed Drylon because of the Emperor’s reclusive ways.
He stood against the wall with his knife at the ready waiting to hear the voices of those that were near. When the last soldier passed the door, he plunged the knife under his sternum upwards until he could feel the beating of his heart through the blade. He yanked it out letting the serrated edge tear the flesh and release the body’s lifeblood to drain down onto the floor. He felt the body fall to the ground, yet he remained fully upright. He stepped through the wall and stepped into the young soldier at the back of the line.
It was always an uncomfortable thing to step into someone else’s body. Sometimes they would fight and scream until you felt you were losing your mind. Sometimes it was so bad that if someone else were nearby, he would kill himself again and move among hosts until he found a willing victim. However, he couldn’t do it too many times in succession. It was a tiring thing to possess a body. Nothing felt comfortable for a while. It was like when your clothes sometimes felt too tight, when the skin of the body felt like it did not fit his soul. This was especially true when he took possession of younger bodies. This man was not much more than a boy. His skin felt tight all over.
“Keep up!” said the leader of the group. He pulled at his sweater and tried to get a more comfortable feel as he said, “Yes, sir,” and followed behind them. The first thing that he saw in the throne room was the crumpled body of his brother on the platform. His chest wasn’t moving at all now so it wouldn’t be long. He wondered what would happen to the body that was left behind after such a long possession. He was about to have his question answered. While everyone was watching the body on the platform decay, he was searching for signs of his brother. One of these men would have to be an acceptable host.
They hadn’t figured out all the rules yet with regards to taking another man’s body. It seemed that some hosts were off limits and no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t get inside. If he knew his brother as well as he thought he did, Gatton would first attempt to enter the purple-eyed fellow. The resemblance made it obvious that this man was Zirlo’s son. He waited for the change to occur, for the blackness to take over the iris of the eyes. It didn’t.
He looked around the room looking for any sign and started to panic when none could be found. He had ordered the evacuation of the palace to ensure that there were enough guards on board the escape vessel. Nobody else remained here except the dead, Gatton, and himself. It was then that he started to notice it. Off in the corner, a young soldier moved oddly as if gasping for air when coming out of the water for prolonged periods of time. This drew the attention of the others in the room. The tension was tangible as they all stared.
“What happened to his eyes? They’re completely black!” Ceran said.
Zion looked at him and said so that everyone could hear, “I have seen this before. The demon has picked his host.” Zeb pulled out his pulsar gun and fired at the young man. Uphir watched as his brother crumpled to the ground again. “You can’t kill him. He will just move onto someone else. Only those with protective amulets and those that are mated will not be taken by his evil.” He pulled the amulet out of his shirt and showed the others.
The unmated men looked around at each other waiting to see if this theory was correct. Several minutes had passed and all of them remained unchanged. Gatton eventually found his host a few seconds later. Carel fell to his knees and grabbed his head, “Nooooooo!” He writhed on the ground fighting hard to avoid his fate. But, Uphir knew that his brother was strong. No one had ever been able to resist him. “Jenaya!” Jenaya moved to go near him, but Ceran pulled her away.
“No Jenaya, It’s not him,” Ceran said.
“Let me go!” Jenaya tugged and kicked.
“No, he’s right. He isn’t in there. I know someone who may know how to trap the demon, but for now he must remain in your friend. It is the only way to keep Gatton in custody.” Zion said with consoling large green eyes. She ran to Zeb and buried her face in his shirt.
“We can’t kill him. I love him.” Jenaya pleaded. This brought another moan from Carel’s prostrate body. Carel must be fighting hard. The beads of sweat were on his brother’s face now and his eyes shifting from Carel’s soft brown to Gatton’s dark black and back again and again.
Uphir approached the man on the floor with a set of immobilization cuffs and kept his eyes down so that nobody would notice them, “Shall I bring him up to the brig?”
“Yes. Make sure he is restrained well so that he cannot harm himself or any others. Manko, you go as well.” Zeb said as he rubbed circles on Jenaya’s back to comfort her.
“Yes, sir,” Manko replied and the three of them disappeared.
“Brylon, Jenaya needs to be sent to the sick bay immediately.” Jenaya disappeared from Zeb’s arms and was now safe on the ship.
“Ceran, we need to check on the others,” Zeb said as he led the group. They first encountered Thorgrim where they left him. Zeb pulled up his eyelids to examine him. The whites of his golden eyes were blood red. “He took a pulsar blast to the head, he’s gone.” He looked at a soldier near the back of the group. “Take him back to the ship.” The continued to the courtyard. Garrett was still by Rog’s side a couple of Gatton’s guard dead to their right that weren’t there when they entered the palace doors.
Ceran kneeled down beside Garrett, who had been crying and put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. Dreading the worst, he asked, “How is he?”
Garrett wiped at his face with his cuff. “He was alright just a minute ago. He was sitting up and telling us that we needed to go help you guys, and then the soldiers came out from nowhere and started shooting at us. I didn’t want to move him. He said that he couldn’t feel his legs. He needs a doctor.”
Ceran thought in an instant how much he needed Laura. He knew that she had some training on how to heal while she was away and didn’t know what that training was, but she was Rog’s best hope of a decent recovery. She appeared on his right soon after and he did a double take. “How did you know?” She let his question go unanswered and turned her attention to Rog.
“Is everything alright?” Laura said assessing the man on the ground in front of her.
“Just help him.” Ceran pleaded.
“We need to go get Araime. She has to be here.” Garrett said through tears.
Frith and Chabral stepped next to Garrett and one of them said to Zeb, “We know where she is. If you allow it, we can go get her.” Zeb nodded.
“Ceran, I will go with them,” Ceran nodded staying by Garrett’s side, “Brylon, three to the bridge.”
Gunshot wounds on earth have two characteristics that make diagnosis completely obvious for the doctors that treated them: entry wounds and often time lots of blood. Pulsar blasts, on the other hand, don’t leave these tell-tale signs. They instead do their damage under the protective layer of skin. Sometimes in a victim of such attacks you see the pooling of blood just below the skin that tells you that an organ was damaged or worse yet, ruptured and beyond repair. Most of the time, you have to depend heavily on the scanner to tell you what is wrong.
She held the scanner over him looking for something to focus her attention on. The scanner didn’t detect any signs of organ damage although a brain scan would have to be completed on board. That was unless she attempted to heal him here and now. She looked up instantly aware that everyone around her was staring at her waiting for an answer. “He is alive. I can tell you that much. He’s broken his back though and that may affect his ability to walk. Did he say anything before he passed out?”
“He said he couldn’t feel his legs,” and this brought fresh tears to Garrett’s eyes.
“This guy is important, isn’t he?” Laura asked.
Garrett looked into her eyes and nodded yes.
“I will do what I can.” She put her hands on either side of his head and closed her eyes. She matched her breaths to his, slow and deep, as she looked inside for the interruption in his energy. She could tell that he had suffered a concussion and there was some swelling in his brain. She followed the pathway down his spine. The cerebral spinal fluid tinged pink with blood the closer she got to the break. No, this wasn’t going to be good. The vertebra was shattered in the lumbar region, L2 to be exact. She started to do a kind of psychic surgery using the energy in her efforts to move the bones into place. She may not be able to fix the paralysis, but she could significantly reduce the pain that a damaged vertebrae could cause.
The bones moved little by little, every effort costing her own precious energy. She was already drained from helping to heal Mattie enough in order to be able to get her on the ship. She sought out any stray energy that the planet could offer, pulling it up from the ground where her knees touched the soil. The planet offered all it could because she loved the man who laid upon her soil. Drylon knew everything that this man had done and sacrificed to free her from the evil oppressor and well-known planet killer. Drylon didn’t have much, but she gave all she could. Around her, she could hear the gasps of the men who remained behind as they watched. She couldn’t let them distract her. She focused again on her task.
A bit of torn spinal tissue knitted back into place. A severed nerve just past the swell of the ganglia was starting to come back together and grasp hold with each fine white myelinated strand braiding until it was intact. More and more of tiny filaments weaving their ends together in an effort to regain communication passed from his brain to his legs. Now the other side was starting to come to life and reconnecting with its severed partner. The vertebrae now almost together to form that circle that would protect his spine began pulling together giving the bright white of the spinal cord a tight hug. She felt it when the bone sighed in relief as it became whole once again. She sent the red blood cells, lymphocytes, and platelets back to where they belonged and the cerebral spinal fluid ran clear once again.
She sent her energy out searching for any other injury that could be addressed. The concussion was her next task as the water that was being held there was carried by the blood vessels to the kidneys for disposal. The brain no longer suffering from the swelling started to wake up. She heard his thoughts, “Araime. Araime. The tiny micro tears in the delicate brain tissue fused together and the lightning thoughts got louder. She continued to search and found that there was nothing left to do.
She opened her eyes, “I’m not saying that it won’t be a long and arduous process, but I’m pretty sure that he is going to walk again.” His eyes were fluttering wildly as he was trying to return to consciousness. She looked at the men around her and was met with vacant stares and dropped jaws. She tugged at Ceran’s pants and said, “We need to get him up to sick bay. I will need to do a brain scan just to be sure the concussion is under control.”
He was having difficulty forming words when he tapped his badge and said, “Roran, bring us up.”
Chapter 27
Manko was running as fast as he could from the brig to the bridge, “Excuse me! Clear the way!” He shouted as he ran, shoving people into the walls if they didn’t heed his warnings. He cleared the doors and saw Zirlo in conference with several other ships. They spoke of victories and some battles being hard fought. King Og of the Blacknor people pleaded for more soldiers to join his fight. His people were being forced into the dense forest and were having a hard time rallying against the enemy.
“As soon as I have a report on the status of our offensive, I will send some men. Until then, I have sent several Sirian fighter crafts to the area to help fend off your enemy. You have my word that help will arrive soon.” The screens went dead and Zirlo turned his head to face Alista. “Any news?”
“Ceran and Laura have just returned, and the soldiers that came with them are being transferred to the loading dock for reassignment.” Alista said. “There are only three areas left that are requesting help. I have sent a message to all the ships involved to gather what troops they can sacrifice and send them to the coordinates I have transmitted.”
“Well done, Alist,” Zirlo said as Manko approached. He waited to be addressed by the commander. “Yes, how can I help you Manko?”
“Can I have a word in private, sir?”
“Yes, of course.” He looked to the third ranking officer on the bridge and said, “Biman, you have the bridge.”
“Yes, sir,” Biman said as he checked the communications that were coming in.
“Let’s talk in my office,” Zirlo said and they walked there in silence.
Manko didn’t know what happened to the prisoners in his charge. He checked with the Eternity’s crew to see if they were mistakenly transferred to that ship instead of the Pyxis, but they weren’t. “I have come to report that Harec and Carel, the man possessed by Gatton, are missing.”
“What?” Zirlo looked at him intently. “Explain!”
“Harec cuffed the man they called Carel in the throne room. Zeb told us all to report to the brig. I was ordered to lock up the prisoner securely until such time that we could figure out how to contain the ‘demon’ from the Drylon man’s body.” He swallowed hard worried how the commander would take it. “When I returned to the brig alone, I contacted the Eternity immediately to see if they had been sent there. They hadn’t. So, I am here telling you that I believe them to be missing.” Zirlo stood in silence rubbing at his temples with thumb and forefinger. He took several paces back and forth across the room deep in thought. Manko remained at attention and completely silent. He knew deep down that the fault did not lie with him. However, he knew in all times of bad news, someone had to take the fall for mistakes made. He just hoped that it wouldn’t be him filling this role.
“Alista, I need Zeb, Ceran, Roran, and Zion in my office now.” Manko’s skin was cold and he was sure that he was pale when Zirlo looked at him and said, “You will stay until we figure this out.” Zirlo walked around and had a seat behind his desk and pointed at the chair across from him, “Please, sit.” When Manko stumbled and fell ungracefully in the chair, Zirlo looked at him with the first sign of compassion he had shown since he entered this office. “Are you alright, son?”
“Y-yes sir, I am. I just want you to know that I played no part in an escape plot or neglected my duty in any way. Engineering had electronportated us and that was when I noticed the men were missing. I followed protocol to the letter. I did…”
Zirlo put his hand up to interrupt, “Manko, I want you to know that I believe that more sophisticated measures were taken to thwart our plans of capture. I assure you that you are not in any kind of trouble. We just need to figure out how and w
hat has happened.”
Zeb arrived, followed by the rest of the men. Ceran and Zion were the last to arrive. Zeb was the first to speak. “What’s this about?”
Zirlo stood and looked his son in the eye, “Gatton is missing, and so is the young soldier Harec.”
“How can this be,” Zeb looked at Manko, “You were supposed to secure him in the brig.”
“Zeb, it wasn’t his fault. That is why I called Roran here. I need him to access the details of the transfer and see where it went awry.” The men all looked over to Roran, who was turning green. “Look Roran, we are not blaming you for what happened. I think there is something more to this that I believe you can help us figure out.”
The tension in Roran’s body released and he approached the desk to pull up records from the electronportation room. He knew the engineer to always be sharp under pressure, second in skill only to Brylon. With a finger, he swiped with his finger upward until he identified the record he was looking for. Manko’s ID number as well as picture along with a box filled with fuzzy strange lines. Zeb stepped forward, “This can’t be.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Ceran. They were all studying the top of the desk now as Roran manipulated the data some. “It is like they bent the direction of the electrons and went into an entirely different destination. Is that possible Roran?”
“It is possible to have certain signatures rerouted if the person is equipped with some type of interference device. I’ve never seen one of these devices for myself, but I have heard of them. I have also heard that they are very unstable and the reconvening of electrons can be misaligned. They are not something one would want to play with unless they were extremely desperate.”
“That would explain Gatton’s state of mind, but what of Harec?” He looked up at Roran. “Do you think you could determine where they went with the data we have at hand?”
The Theron Residency (Brides of Theron Book 4) Page 35
