by Reiter
“Look at them,” Hanvashi Zoll thought, placing his fingertip to the glass of his viewing portal. His viewpoint allowed him to see the ships of the Inner Rim and the Ardrian System. Two Imperial Super-Assault ships had only just arrived, forcing the Ardrians to rethink their deployment strategy. The cold glass reminded him of where he was, and he found an eerie sense of comfort within the cold. At least then he shared something with the countless souls that hovered all around him. “There are so many here… in a place considered too far from the Terran Triangle to be of any importance to the Human Race. It would seem some level of significance has been assigned recently. I wonder if the Empire will send us a bill!”
“My Master,” Gregoran said as he entered the room. Three steps into the room, the Priest stopped and lowered himself to his knees.
“Well, at least they came to mourn its passing,” the man concluded before looking at the kneeling man. The sight of Gregoran did not touch him. To see the High Priest bowing, however, disgusted him and he closed his eyes to keep it from his mind.
“A formality you will no longer demonstrate, High Priest,” the slender man directed. “And do not argue with me. I am not in the mood.”
“Then you leave me with the option of open defiance, Master,” High Priest Killington replied. “I live to serve my Goddess and Xaythra has appointed you–”
“TO WHAT?!” he shouted. His desk, which had been bolted into place, flew through the wall between his office and his sleeping chambers. “To lead her people to death?! Is that my task, fool?!
“Look around you, Gregoran,” he railed. “There is no possible direction you can choose and not see death and destruction!
“And we dared to think we were doing so well, didn’t we? We had outwitted the blind man who sees everything. Well, he didn’t see us, did he? And we laughed. We laughed, rejoiced, and were actually stupid enough to think we had achieved something. We achieved nothing, Priest. NOTHING!!!
“He did not see us because we were not worthy of being seen!” the man roared. “Does a boot grow eyes before it steps on the ant? Here we are playing a game of tokens and squares, and look at what has been done!” His body blurred out of sight and came back to Gregoran’s vision as his own body was lifted from the floor. The High Priest had believed the man possessed power, but he had thought it was of the sort of energy that needed to be expressed through light. The master now carried a full grown man as if he had lifted a grain of rice. “Tell me, idiotic Priest, how you dare to kneel to me! Tell me, or join the countless lost souls that linger around this ship!”
“We are the children of a Goddess!” Gregoran shouted back. “Damn what that thing Freund calls himself… he has witnessed the birth and death of gods – how many by his own hand or the hands of those he has taught?! To what standard do we put this conflict? We fight gods and a god-destroyer, my Master… should we not expect their sort of power to descend down upon us?”
Hanvashi locked his green-gray eyes on to the blue eyes of a man he had never truly placed too much faith or hope in, and his face relaxed almost immediately. He lowered Gregoran to the floor, stood him up on his feet and touched his hand lightly to the elderly man’s face, patting it three times before turning away.
“You will assume the role of Arch Bishop, Gregoran,” he said, walking back to the viewing port. “Not because the man who held the position is dead, but because you deserve it. You have managed to remind me that even my faith can be questioned.”
“In the wake of so much, that is to be expected.” Gregoran replied.
“But to have the wherewithal to speak in such a manner to one who could destroy you quickly and easily proves to me that your faith has survived a blow whose measure I cannot precisely define.”
“And why would you wish to do so, Master?” Gregoran asked, wanting to step forward to put his hand on the man’s shoulders… if Baron Hanvashi Zoll could be called a man. “Precious life has been lost. We must mourn them, Master; that is the natural order of things. We mourn them, but not as ones we have lost, but rather the ones who were taken from us! We mourn them… and then we must avenge them.”
“Taken,” Hanvashi repeated. “It is the finding of the Imperial scientists that this was the result of a naturally occurring event; one that has never been recorded before, mind you, but natural nonetheless.”
“This is not an Imperial fight,” Gregoran remarked. “Let them make their reports and let us be done with them. When they have taken their leave, we return to the task given to us by the Goddess Xaythra herself.”
“For the Imperials to not find anything out of the ordinary narrows our field of conclusions down to two. Either we are dealing with something never seen before, or the energy which fortified this system was the very agent applied in its destruction,” Hanvashi concluded. “The likelihood of the former leaves us with only questions and little means of finding a resolve. If the latter is the case, we need only answer how such a thing could be done. I can think of three possible sources: Xaythra, Freund and an unnamed player. In the name of faith we can strike the first name from the list. The third option will always remain a possibility, but at this point in time, it cannot be proved or refuted.
“That leaves Freund,” Hanvashi stated as Gregoran nodded. “The death-trap Xaythra set for Freund. It not only failed to take his life, but I am left to wonder if its energy was used to destroy our home.”
“It is another point of contention we will bring to the Goddess, when it is the proper time,” Gregoran suggested. “Yoke your points and placements of strength unto you, Master. I feel you will soon them!”
Survaysi entered the room, shaking her head and glaring at the old Priest. Her squared and muscle-lined shoulders swayed as she walked. “I can see that my entrance is timely,” she said, sounding overwrought. “I wonder if that too is a miracle.”
“Mind your tone, milady,” Gregoran retorted. “We should all be humble in–” the back of Survaysi’s hand spun Gregoran around and though it was a grazing blow, it lifted him from his feet. He fell to the floor, stunned and in pain.
“That is my tone, old man, you try minding that.” Survaysi drew her sword and dropped to her knee as the point of the sword touched down lightly on the floor. “My Lord and Baron.” Hanvashi Zoll looked at his best warrior and shook his head, but only slightly, as he put his hands on his hips.
“It would seem we need to revisit your tolerance and the lack–” Hanvashi gasped as Survaysi’s blade was driven into his chest with the point jutting out of his back.
“It would seem I arrived a little sooner than I might have indicated!” Survaysi whispered into Hanvashi’s ear. “Early enough to hear that you knew Freund was more powerful than you told any of us.
“Men!” she spat at Hanvashi, twisting the blade inside his body. “How they fail to see anything beyond what they wish to. I came to you thinking my lord needed consoling, and I hear the two of you men planning our triumphant return to power… against an entity you knew to be a god-killer! Tell me, Master, how many more must die to follow your so-called greatness?!
“You think so much of yourself and weep for those you led to a fool’s death,” Survaysi said, removing the weapon. Hanvashi dropped to his knees, clutching at the open wound. “Idiot! Even this history eludes you,” she continued, holding up the bloody blade. “This is the sword you gave me! You fashioned it from your powers, remember? And just like what that old blind thing did to Xaythra, I have used your own power against you… I’ve brought you down to next to nothing.
“You led us into a fight against a god-killer!” Survaysi screamed. “Funny how you managed to leave that out of your description of Freund. He’s killed gods and his damn students have killed them?! You told us he was simply an old master, like all the legends say. None of those legends mentioned him killing gods! What in the way of the worlds made you think that your add water and stir goddess ever stood a chance in hell?!”
Gregoran pushed up from the floor, stil
l dazed from the blow he had taken to the head. The form of the Second of Five was impressive, intimidating even. But no showing of musculature could prepare one for feeling her destructive might. The new Arch Bishop was barely able to move as he looked up to see his Master on his knees and bleeding from a gaping chest wound.
“Goddess, no!”
“You can call me many things, old man,” Survaysi said as Kaila entered the chamber. “But given the most recent events, I take exception in being called goddess.”
“Have you lost your mind?!” Kaila said, shocked at the sight of Zoll bleeding. She stumbled to the side until the doorway stopped her. “What have you done?”
“What should have been done ages ago, Kaila,” Survaysi quickly answered, holding up her sword. “I will not allow this man to lead me to a fool’s death! Follow him if you wish, but I can assure you his path is very short.”
“He is the First of Five… Xaythra’s chosen!” Kaila argued, finally coming away from the archway she had used to support herself.
“And I have opened his chest,” Survaysi snapped. “Where is our goddess? Still weeping over the millions we lost because her own powers were used against Tau Upsilon?!”
“Sensei… we don’t know–”
“What else could it have been that we could not detect, Kaila?” Survaysi screamed. “We’ve got technology, or at least we had technology that not even Imperial developers could understand! Even if the weapons had been cloaked, there still should have been some sort of energy signature recorded.
“And I can hear the wound closing,” Survaysi muttered as she spun around, slashing at Hanvashi’s abdomen. Baron Zoll fell forward on to his right hand as blood escaped from his wound and his mouth. She continued her spin and her blade deflected a shuriken meant for the back of her head. She caught and crushed the second throwing star hurled for her chest. A muffled beeping noise preceded a soft popping sound. Smoke escaped from between Survaysi’s fingers. “That hurts, K,” she said softly before opening her hand and allowing the charred debris to fall to the ground. “But I’m willing to overlook that simply because like me, you’re a true believer.”
“You were a true believer!” Kaila said, turning her left shoulder toward Survaysi. She definitely did not want to fight the Second of Five, but she was not about to back down either.
By the time Survaysi finished telling Kaila what she had overheard regarding Freund and his ability, Kaila was looking on Hanvashi in a different manner. In fact, she found she could not look on him for long.
“But the Priest knew,” Kaila said, gesturing toward Gregoran.
“It sounded to me as if all of the men knew,” Survaysi replied, placing her PC on her belt. “I just received word from Aleesha. She didn’t know either.”
“So we’re all just a bunch of dumb-ass bitches for following you around, is that it?” Kaila asked the Baron, her eyes glaring with anger. Hanvashi could not talk, but he shook his head ‘no’. Survaysi snorted before taking hold of Hanvashi’s neck. Her fist pounded repeatedly into his face, and though Kaila no longer had love for the man, she could not watch the hammering of his face. Survaysi was not pulling her punches, and after five Kaila asked the large woman to stop. “Survaysi, please!”
“You don’t have to look, K,” Survaysi suggested.
“And you don’t have to act like one of these men, either,” Kaila returned. Hanvashi was dropped to the floor, a bloody and quivering mass of flesh.
“Just how many times do you think you can hit my switches and come walking away as pretty as you are?” Survaysi asked, putting her clean fist on her hip.
“The last thing we need to do is remove an asshole and replace him with another problem,” Kaila replied. “We’re better than that. Now, the Third of Five was on Relga when the event went down… so we know she’s dead. Xaythra was the Fourth of Five and Hanvashi was the top of the food chain. That leaves you and Aleesha, the Second and Fifth, as the only ones with rank and authority.”
“And you think old lady Aleesha would be–”
“Actually, neither one of you is ideal leadership material,” Kaila said flatly. “But any army you lead is a formidable force. In the same way, Aleesha could organize a cosmic storm.”
“But that doesn’t give us a leader,” Survaysi pointed out. “Or are you suggesting yourself?”
“The only thing I would even want to lead would be our diplomatic efforts,” Kaila replied. “But we do need a third between you and Aleesha.”
“You mean a fourth between Aleesha, you and me,” Survaysi added. “It would be a stupid man mistake to have our Foreign Policy Liaison on the outside looking in when we have to make heavy decisions.
“But even then we’re still light a leader,” Survaysi surmised. “And with our ranks scattered–”
“There is one more,” Kaila stated. “… another woman, actually. She’s still asleep, an–”
“And there she will stay!” Survaysi declared. “It was all of this godhood shit that got us into this mess, K! You think if we change up faces but stick to the same godhood sources that we’ll be fine?!”
“When you say it out loud, you have a point. I just don’t see…” Kaila looked up from her considerations with a smile. “Son of a bitch!” Kaila smiled at her large sister-at-arms and turned on her heels.
“What? Where are you going?”
“To play a perverted longshot!” Kaila responded. “You hang out here and wait for Aleesha. With any luck, this won’t take long! Trust me, you’re better off not knowing if this blows up in my face!”
“Why do I get the feeling she’s right,” Survaysi said a setting her eyes on Gregoran. She slashed once more into Hanvashi’s chest on her walk over to the withdrawn Priest. “And why do I get the feeling I need to do something with you?”
“I’m sure I can’t say,” the Arch Bishop replied, gesturing over to Baron Zoll. “But if you would let me preside over his passing before you have your way with me? You may have lost your faith in Xaythra, but–” Gregoran screamed as his extended hand was removed by Survaysi’s blade.
“I think I have just the thing for the both of you,” Survaysi said before calling in the guards. “To hell with the both of you and your faith! You love your goddess so damn much, I will send you to her!” The guards came and collected the two bodies, though they were initially hesitant about touching Baron Zoll. It quickly became a matter of fearing a bleeding and debilitated demigod, or an untouched warrior maiden, splattered with the demigod’s blood, who could send them through a solid wall.
Without ceremony and with only two more inflicted wounds upon Hanvashi, including an energy pod thrust into an open wound, the two men were carried to the closest airlock and dumped there. Gregoran begged for his life, which Survaysi expected. Hanvashi said nothing. He did not even look at Survaysi as she lowered the door and set the pressure seal. She gave the frequency of the pod receiver to one of the technicians.
“Send an energy purge through the chamber and to that pod every three minutes until we’re ready to set off,” she commanded. “When the ship is about to get underway, open the outer door and tell all batteries on that side of the ship to open fire on their bodies.”
“Mistress!” one of the soldiers called to Survaysi as she stepped away from the airlock. “We are receiving a communication.”
“Source?”
“A ship off the starboard side,” the man replied. “The registration of the ship corresponds to an Imperial file, but the ship is not part of their fleet.”
“That’s odd,” Survaysi remarked. “I thought the Empire no longer allowed such registrations.”
“It is extremely rare these days,” the soldier stated. “… but the registration for the ship dates back before the Terran Triangle!” Survaysi stopped and looked at the messenger.
“The name of the ship?”
“The Congeries!”
“And what does her Captain want?”
“He had requested permission
to collect bodies from the sector-wide debris field.”
“Oh, that’s just disgusting!” Survaysi said, turning to walk away.
“He said he would be willing to pay five hundred credits for every specimen he keeps,” the soldier quickly added and Survaysi stopped again. A fresh start away from Hanvashi and Tau Upsilon was going to be a very costly endeavor, to say the least. Most of the finances had been handled by Hanvashi and were seated in the heart of Tau Upsilon. Only the accounts held by Aleesha remained intact, and they were about to be seriously drained. Survaysi looked at the men and then at the floor.
“Verify that this loon even has that range of money,” the former Second of Five ordered as she looked at the ship on the monitor. “… and if he doesn’t, call in the Imperial ships!”
“And if he does?”
“Send a detail over to his ship to keep a count of how many bodies he takes aboard,” Survaysi ordered before walking away. “Someone wants to harvest dead bodies in the middle of outer-space! What is this universe coming to?!”
** b *** t *** o *** r **
“Nothing like flying blind with expectations that are polar opposites of one another,” Kaila thought as she meditated. “My training is geared for sending thought inward. How do I send it outward, and what direction should it take?! The last time I dealt with this guy, Zoll had shown me the way, and he said he was looking through the eyes of the Goddess.”
“That would explain much,” Freund remarked and Kaila whirled around with her pistol drawn. It was only after she had completed her spin that she remembered she had been sitting on the floor in the middle of her room. Now she was on her feet, but had no recollection of getting up. There were no walls, floor, or ceiling to speak of – everything was simply black space. “KaA, or any energy for that matter, when well applied, can foil the senses of even the most skillful ThoughtWill master.”
