Resurgence: Imortum

by JK Stone

  Jason shook his head and said, “No, that should do it for now.”

  Jason told Justin, “Call over when you’re ready to move the generators.” Justin nodded back at Jason then Jason adjourned the meeting.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  It only took Terrah twenty minutes to set up the Ion pulse generators on her observation level, and another hour before all of the TDS ships were in their designated positions to begin the attack, and Jason, Justin, and Jerren had gone to the surface to retrieve Sethis and Nephthys.

  Terrah and Eneria kept their ships just out of range of the planet on opposite equatorial GSO’s in the same time frame as the final GMP was to be performed and waited for her brother’s return with the prisoners before Alise and Calia would begin their GMP’s.

  Terrah didn’t need to hear the countdown to know the GMP had worked. Within seconds, over half of the ships and all of the mines surrounding the planet were gone. Another pulse had been performed and more ships vanished, then after Alise and Calia performed the third and final pulse, only four ships, the GoW and three ancient Imortum battleships were left in orbit.

  Within seconds of the final pulse, one of the Imortum battleships fired their weapons in all directions before the three battleships took off for points unknown.

  A second later Saleria called out, “What just happened? The TDS 2 display wall just lit up for a second.”

  Doran was busily working on the science station and finally opened communications with the other ships and said, “Those weapons had the most destructive force than I have ever seen in an energy weapon. I just finished an analysis of the beams and we are going to have a serious problem. A few stray shots hit the GoW, and each shot blasted holes completely through it. It also looks as if TDS 2 was hit as well. That may account for the energy spike.”

  The view reminded Terrah of a time she saw an entire fireworks display get accidentally set off at the same time. The sight was almost too bright to witness, and even after the battleships had disappeared she still saw the glare when she closed her eyes.

  Terrah was getting nervous after hearing what Doran had just said and she called out, “You did get Sethis and Nephthys right?”

  “Yes, they’re in stasis aboard my ship,” Jason said, then added, “Move all ships into position and activate the Ion pulse generators. We’ll worry about TDS 2 if and when we get aboard it.”

  A few minutes later Jerren called out, “The Ion pulse generators are working, we’re at least able to access the TDS 2 console now… the disk is ready.”

  A second later Jerren added, “Saleria has successfully applied the binding disk.”

  A moment later Alise called out, “The GoW is on the move. Keep all the beams on it as much as you can. Call out when you have an archway.”

  Horuisis must have figured out what they were up to because every thirty seconds or so, the GoW would perform a radical course change which broke contact with the beams and Jerren called out, “We keep losing the archway, what’s going on?”

  Terrah replied, “We can’t keep our beams on the GoW long enough. Horuisis keeps changing course.”

  “Terrah! raise your armor and get to the master control room, now!” Doran shouted as he activated his armor.

  Looking at Doran, Terrah wondered what was wrong and was about to ask when he called out.

  “Everyone needs to pull back, I will explain in a moment,” Doran barked out.

  Terrah knew they didn’t have time to argue so she did as Doran said and upon entering the master control room she heard Saleria ask, “What is he up to?”

  Terrah shook her head and said, “I don’t know,” as she brought up her display to monitor what Doran was doing.

  Terrah watched as Doran repositioned TDS 4 beneath the GoW, and then fired an energy weapon at the ship, but she couldn’t figure out why he had done it.

  “Vellia said our weapons won’t be effective against it, so what is he doing?” she said more to herself than anyone else.

  A moment later Alise called out, “Whatever Doran did, it just caused the GoW to lose their engines. We need to realign our Ion beams while the GoW is adrift.”

  Terrah had the feeling of dread flood over her and she darted back into her ship. She ran into the control room and found Doran convulsing on the floor in obvious distress. She immediately closed her eyes and focused on sending him directly to the medical unit, and activated it. Then she repositioned her ship and tried to activate the Ion pulse generator.

  Terrah attempted to activate the generator a second time and deciding it was futile she called out to the others, “Doran is down, and our generator is not working. I have him in medical and I’m moving us to a safe distance.”

  Alise replied, “That’ll be fine. As long as the GoW does not change their course, our other ships can handle it. Is there anything we can do for you?”

  Terrah made it to medical and looked at the results, then she shouted, “The medical unit didn’t even try to heal Doran, it instantly put him into stasis!”

  Terrah Immediatly threw herself across Doran’s body and began to push energy into him in what turned out to be a failed attempt to heal him.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The ringing and heartbeats sounding in Terrah’s head were so loud she could barely hear it as Jerren shouted.

  “Everyone get to TDS 4 now!”

  Within seconds they were pouring onto the ship and once they were all in the room Jerren was saying something Terrah couldn’t make out. Terrah was focusing as hard as she could trying to heal Doran, and she was not sure why they were pulling her off of him.

  Terrah kept trying to get to Doran but Jason was firmly holding her elbow and for some reason, she was gripping Jerren’s elbow while placing her free hand on Doran’s chest. A moment later Terrah’s panic fled her and she receded deep into her mind as one by one she felt extreme but pleasant jolts of energy surge through her body, then she was thrust into what appeared to be an old memory.

  *****

  Terrah was witnessing a massacre, the ships that attacked came in wave after wave raining fire on the surface of the planet. She saw children running and screaming with Imortum adults chasing after them. One of the adults caught up to a child and began running back to cover when an energy blast hit them and they were vaporized in a nanosecond.

  This scene seemed to play out several more times with others before she found a bunch of children crouched beside a half-fallen wall. Rushing to their aid, she crouched down taking them in her arms. Terrah saw her reflection, only it wasn’t hers. It was Inola’s reflection staring back at her from the wall, and she called out, then a moment later they were aboard one of the TDS ships.

  With a shocking jolt the vision jumped to another memory, she was walking with another Imortum talking, but Terrah couldn’t make it out. They were in a field of green surrounded by thirty or forty children playing in groups levitating rocks and toys or playing other games as they ran around.

  All of the children had on the same golden sparkling bodysuits as Inola and the woman next to her. Inola and the woman seemed to be arguing about something. Inola shouted that they were responsible for this. But that argument was cut short when the skies darkened and filled with the same battleships as before.

  Once again, the fire rained upon them. Inola was blasted off of her feet and flying through the air she yelled out to the air and her armor rose. A moment later Inola collided with the ground and rolling backward she made it to her feet.

  Inola ran back and found a crater in the same location she had just been standing, and looking frantically from side to side Inola spotted five children huddled together. Peering to the horizon she saw another wave of ships headed in the children’s direction and she ran for them.

  Inola almost made contact with the group when with a flash of weapons fire, the children were gone and Inola was flying backward once again. Someone called to her and with another flash, she was in the decontamination room of one of the
TDS ships, then a second later she was back on the planet’s surface.

  Inola had been transported right in front of a group of nine frightened children. She rushed to embrace them and cried out, then a moment later they were all aboard the TDS ship and within seconds, the Time Dilation engaged.

  Terrah watched as Inola gathered the group of children and was about to say something when Terrah felt a massive jolt and another memory began playing out.

  One of the children she had saved was grown up now and had come up with a plan, he was arguing with Inola who was not backing down. Inola had said ‘absolutely not, I forbid it!’ Then she vanished.

  There was another flash and she entered a TDS. Inola was in her suit with the heads-up display reading a hull breach. She rushed to the figure floating in the weightlessness and as she screamed in anger, bolts of energy exploded from her body and they lit the ship up like an arc welder.

  Inola placed her hand on one of the consoles in front of her and within seconds the gaping hole in the ship closed and the time dilation engaged. Inola then waved her arm in the direction of her fallen comrade and he vanished.

  A second later Inola approached the medical display and analyzed the results. They were the same as Doran’s had been, with one major exception. Doran had been placed in stasis whereas the man in front of Inola was dead, and a moment later Inola’s weakened and disjointed voice sounded in Terrah’s head saying, “Go to Anukan.”

  With a shock of concern over what she had just witnessed, Terrah was ejected from the memory to find they were encircling Doran, one hand holding the person’s elbow next to them and their other hand touching Doran’s body. A moment later Doran took in a raspy deep breath but didn’t awaken.

  Shaking uncontrollably due to the adrenalin rush over what she had just seen, Terrah activated the medical unit, then backed to the wall and had to sit down. She closed her eyes and immediately set course with a blur as she considered Inola’s voice. It sounded like Inola’s but something about it felt extremely weakened and off.

  Jason approached her and asked, “Terrah, are you alright? Where are you taking the ship?”

  Terrah was a little startled to see Jason in front of her. “I saw him die from the same thing,” Terrah managed to croak out.

  “No, Doran was just in stasis. He should be fine. Where are you taking the ship?” Jason asked again with added concern etched in his voice.

  Terrah took a few deep breaths and gathered her thoughts then she said, “No, I saw someone die, and I think he did the same thing Doran just did.

  “When you pulled me off of him, I felt despair for a moment then I was pulled into some of Inola’s memories. In the first one, there was an attack by those battleships and Inola saved a few children. Then there was another attack on a bunch of children playing in a field, they were wearing these suits. I saw it from her perspective and by the end, there were only nine left. The next memory I saw one of those children grown up and arguing with Inola one moment then it flashed to him being dead with a hole blasted through one of these TDS ships.

  “Inola repaired the ship and performed a medical scan of the dead man, and his results were the same as Doran’s, except the other man had been dead. Just before I was ejected from the memory Inola told me to ‘go to Anukan’, so that’s where we’re headed.”

  Jason went to stand up and Terrah grasped Jason’s arm saying, “These suits don’t work against those battleships either. I saw them vaporize many people who were wearing them.”

  Jason patted Terrah on the shoulder and told her, “Everything will be alright. You need to get Doran settled, and we’ll call you if we need you, alright?”

  Terrah took a few more deep breaths and nodded. “Yes,” she said.

  Jason helped Terrah to her feet. She thanked all of them for their assistance. Then peering around, she noticed her sister’s and Eneria’s eyes were now glowing like the others but decided not to mention it at the moment.

  Terrah looked at Jason and said with her don’t argue with me tone, “Call me when we’re ready to assault the GoW.”

  Terrah needed to vent a little anger, not to mention a lot of her frustration, and she would prefer it to be focused on someone other than Doran at the moment.

  Doran must’ve known something might have gone wrong, that’s why he told her to raise her armor and ordered her off of the ship. Terrah was still going to have words with him about attempting foolhardy stunts like that. Things have changed, and he’d do well to remember that, Terrah thought painfully.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Terrah had put Doran into bed to sleep off the rest of the effects of the damage he’d sustained, and then she cleared the observation level. The Ion pulse generators had been destroyed when Doran activated whatever he did, and after seeing the effects on the generator she decided to analyze the data to determine exactly what Doran had done.

  It only took Terrah about ten minutes to figure out exactly what that was, and she was rightly pissed off. Doran had to have known it was potentially fatal, and that’s why he ordered her off the ship. He had worked on what Vellia had told everyone in the meeting earlier about the resonance frequency.

  Doran had adjusted the ships harmonic frequency and amplitude, and firing the Ion pulse beam along with the particle weapons, his modified beam destroyed the tungsten bindings the modified beam came in contact with.

  The only problem with that was that by changing the ships resonance, it affected not only the exterior of the ship but the internal resonance as well. Terrah recalled that the other man didn’t have his armor raised, and she realized that had to of been the only thing that kept Doran from being killed immediately.

  Well that, and the fact he was placed into stasis straightaway. Groaning at what had almost happened, Terrah stood and was about to go back up and check on Doran’s condition when Jerren called over.

  “Terrah, we have the archway opened. Are you feeling up to boarding TDS 2?”

  Sighing and quite happy to have something to distract her for a while, Terrah replied, “Yes. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”

  Terrah thought about their predicament a moment. Anubisis had armor that he either modeled after the ship or the ship was modeled after the armor, and seeing as how he and Horuisis built the GoW together, she figured Horuisis would have made the same armor for himself as well.

  With energy weapons being useless against the armor, Terrah made her way to the armory to search through it for a particular type of weapon that she thought might be of use.

  Terrah knew DARPA was working on the technology on Earth, and she hoped someone had perfected them sometime in the past.

  It took her a little longer than she’d hoped, but Terrah finally found what she’d been looking for. The only problem she found with the weapon was that it had limited ammunition. Sighing, and figuring it would have to do, she turned and headed for the master control room.

  *****

  Terrah stepped through the archway and Jerren had been talking when he glanced her way, then seemed to peer down at the weapon she was carrying.

  Jerren’s voice seemed to falter a second, and then he asked, “What’s that?”

  Everyone turned to see what Terrah was carrying, and she chuckled at his expression and replied, “A little added protection. It’s a Rail Gun.”

  Jerren looked a little confused at first and asked, “Why?”

  Terrah told them her thoughts about the armor, and then she added, “I don’t know if it’ll work, you did say the armor was vulnerable to intense force.

  “If the projectiles from this weapon do what rail guns in theory are supposed to do, then the projectiles should hit at near light speed shattering the bonds. The only problem is it has a limited capacity, only twenty shots, but I figured it will be better than nothing if anyone onboard that ship has armor like Anubisis’s.”

  Jason, Jerren, Justin, and Eneria excused themselves for a moment, and Terrah chuckled, then looked over at Sale
ria, who was patiently, albeit nervously waiting for everyone’s return.

  Saleria’s voice sounded a little muffled from behind her EVA helmet as she asked, “How are you doing with all of this?”

  “I’m fine, it’s kind of hard to believe this is happening to us, but this situation is far better than my last,” Terrah said.

  Saleria nodded and said, “I can imagine. My situation was getting out of hand as well, but nothing like you’d been subjected to though.”

  Terrah appraised Saleria a moment, and remembered Saleria’s appearance when she had been transported to TDS 1 and she said, “I was going to ask about that when we were alone, I could tell you’d been crying, but things got crazy and it slipped my mind. What had you upset?”

  “I just had a very bad day. As you know I try to distance myself from patients,” Saleria said.

  Terrah nodded, and Saleria continued, “You remember the little girl that befriended me last year? Well, she returned to the hospital, but this time she was the patient. I couldn’t help her, and I had been notified of her death a little before being transported to the ship.”

  Despite the bulky EVA suit, Terrah hugged Saleria and said, “I’m sorry to hear that. If you need to talk it out later just let me know.”

  Saleria nodded then asked, “By the way, how is Doran doing?”

  “Doran appears to be doing alright now. I really want Pops to meet Doran, I think he’ll like him,” Terrah said with a sigh.

  Saleria seemed to force a chuckle from behind her helmet and said, “As long as Doran makes you happy, I don’t think Pops would care if Doran was a purple alien with horns and a tail.”

  Terrah laughed and said, “With any luck once this all dies down we will have time to relax and visit more. I really need to make the time to see Pops though. I hope he doesn’t think I’m deliberately avoiding him.”