by Reiter
** b *** t *** o *** r **
With the aerial tour complete, Saru took to introducing her man to each one of her chosen plants and arrangements. It was difficult to get him to pay attention as he seemed to be taking it all in at once. As she looked into his eyes, she could find no reason to be angry. He was not acting the way she wanted him to, but he was certainly giving the arboretum more serious thought than she had expected. He acted like a child on his first trip to one of the Vinthur museums. His eyes were full of wonder and he was asking all sorts of questions, seemingly only half-listening to her answers as he moved on to the next subject.
“You have a very good eye, my dear,” Dungias remarked. “And I must admit I am a little surprised at the balance.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I wonder if some of these plants are just herbs you will need for your medicines,” Dungias stated. “Because if that is not the case, then explain that plant with the turquoise blooms there.”
“The Breekois Root,” Saru said quickly. “I would expect a healthy and hearty Malgovi to recognize a spice found only in Malgovi cuisine!”
“I did not think they came with thorns,” Dungias said.
“They don’t,” Saru said, looking back at the plant, losing her smile and levity. Her eyes darted around and she could see five plant forms with thorns which they did not normally possess. “What is happening?” Saru whispered.
“We are vulnerable,” Dungias quickly concluded, taking hold of his wife. The thorns were growing and they looked to be drawing back for an attack. “And I can no longer perceive anything outside of this dream!
“You are to my right in our bed,” Dungias said sharply, taking a surprisingly strong grip of Saru’s arm. “Close your eyes and forget what you see here. Command your body to push hard to your left and roll – NOW!”
** b *** t *** o *** r **
Compressed air and water burst over the rolling couple as a long blade cut through their bed and into the floor. The couple fell to the floor on opposite sides of the destroyed bed, wet, naked, and slightly disoriented. Dungias looked up to see an armoured suit retracting its blade as it recovered from missing Dungias’ head.
“Sai-Eg!” Dungias called out.
“I have neutralized that contingency,” a familiar voice called out.
“Kiaplyx!” Dungias hissed, holding out his hand, summoning Alpha.
“That action has also been removed from the realm of possibility,” the suit reported as it started toward Dungias. “You should have known I would see the door to the dimension of Living Fire and suspect that you found a way to live through my trap. I congratulate you.
“And what an interesting fact that your Beta Forms and those light-people are bound to their pocket dimension,” Kiaplyx said as Dungias stepped back, buying time to think. “Once I caused that little niche to lose its dimensional anchor, well, I am sure you can imagine and appreciate how it spun out of control, tumbling through countless dimensions. While they are gifted and powerful creatures, they are limited to their crafting. As The Campus tumbles through dimensions, they are in the grasp of a backlash that will not end!
“Then I had to see to the other avenues of distraction available to you,” Kiaplyx explained. “Your mentor, your friends, your people, your weapons… I found the means to negate all of them. We will not be interrupted.”
“Immaculate,” Dungias remarked, knowing that he was nearing the wall. But he had moved back far enough to see the iro-form field over his weapons.
“Thank you! So, does Taas know this is why you left her?” the suit asked, motioning toward Saru who had just discovered her kommis, dying on the floor. The doors, which were only fifteen trams from her kneeling body, opened allowing the Tohgrunn to enter the room. At the front of the group was Qalrung Zaylo! “Oh, by the way, you remember the Tohgrunn, don’t you?”
Dungias screamed as he charged. He lowered his shoulders and could see the feet of the armoured suit. The weight shifted to its toes and Dungias gave a sign that he was about to jump, but instead put his shoulder into the chest of the armoured suit. Dungias bounced off the chest to the floor, his right shoulder aching in pain. The suit was off balance when he struck, and it fell to its back.
“You rely too much on your calculations,” Dungias remarked. “Then again, that is all you have. Forgive me if I decide to move differently from any other time you have seen me!”
“The disparity will not deliver success in your aims, Traveler,” Kiaplyx replied as the suit sat up. A high-pitched scream preceded a spike flying through the chest of the suit, as Zaylo moved on the kneeling Saru who had given up her back in order to defend her husband. She was still singing, but the note had changed moments after she released her weapon. Zaylo smiled as he set to swing his sword into her neck. His roared as his weapon began to come forward.
Dungias saw the spike hit the armoured suit and fly out of the back. Though his right arm was still not functioning, he still had his left, and he still had the Star-Stride. Dungias blurred, jumping over the sparking suit, the closer target. His wife had managed to strike the main power plant, and then she had changed her song. Her spike-tip was going flat and with the wall behind it, the spike was going to ricochet. Already committed to the leap, Dungias twisted in the air to set himself. The spike struck the wall and picked up speed. Dungias’ left hand stretched out and took hold of the spike. Twisting and spinning, demanding perfection from his body, and before his back could reach the ground, Dungias threw the spike.
“Sing sharp!” he projected as the weapon left his hand. Saru had closed her eyes and stretched the capacity of her lungs, singing for speed and a sharp point. She gave her all until she could not sing any longer. When she stopped, the room was silent. The flat of the blade fell across her calf as Zaylo fell to the ground with her spike lodged in his head.
Saru rolled over her dead kommis, reaching back for the blade in the trap of her left leg. She came to her feet with the blade in hand. She was not very proficient in the sword; the staff was her weapon of choice. That did not keep her from taking stance as she turned to face the four remaining raiders. Dungias’ attack had robbed them of their leader, and they looked at the large motionless form on the floor. With all of the weapons they carried, none were blunt; they were not the sort to take prisoners… not for long. The four looked at their fallen leader, then at each other and they yelled in rage, charging toward Saru. The first raider’s yell became a cry of anguish as he was shot in the chest.
“My man!” Saru thought, tightening her grip on her weapon. “How I love my man!” The second raider was shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the chest, before he fell dead. The third was shot in the head, and the fourth was struck in the hip and he staggered forward enough for Saru to slash his throat. She heard the clicks of an energy weapon trying to fire without ammunition.
“Given what you were able to do with my trap, did you think I would send only one automaton?” Kiaplyx asked as the suit’s systems failed. “Your Vi-Prin is a very brave fighter!” The suit fell dead and Dungias reached for the back panel.
“Bring me your blade, nyaka!” he cried out, pulling on the panel that eventually gave to his strength. Saru ran quickly to present her husband with his request. “Our kommis?” he asked as a tear rolled down Saru’s face.
“He treks another course, my love. You set your mind to saving our saytrah,” she instructed, lacking nothing in the way of insistence.
“I will, wife,” Dungias said, taking the blade.
“And thank you for saving me,” Saru added, looking up to see Dungias’ things still under an Iro-Barrier.
“Let go of that,” Dungias commanded as he worked. As he had estimated, Saru’s attack had made the power plant malfunction. The generator and capacitors, however, were still able to hold a charge. The only other thing he needed was the trigger to the blaster. “We will always be more than our weapons. Our enemy is trying to make us despair.
/> “And when I design a suit, a back-up power plant will be a requiem,” Dungias thought.
“And you would be good to remember all of your weapons,” he added as he worked. Saru turned and looked to where her things had been placed. Whatever it was that attacked her man had not domed her clothes and weapons. Holding up her hand, the Osamu flew to her grasp. She could feel its fear fading, replaced by rage as her attention was returned to Laejem’s corpse. She rolled her kommis on his side and found his Osamu covered in two types of blood.
Dungias stood up and ran over to the bed. He ripped the bed sheets and fashioned three strips that he attached to his jury-rigged device. He came away from the gutted armoured suit with a back pack wired to the Tohgrunn blade.
“That hardly took any time at all,” Saru said, not knowing what to make of the contraption. She held up Laejem’s Osamu.
“No time for us,” Dungias noted, looking at the offering. “We have to see to the others and then find The Campus.” Dungias ran over to Zaylo and pulled the trigger. Energy flowed into the Tohgrunn blade as he swung down on the skull of the dead leader. Saru’s spike rolled free after the skull was cleanly severed and the floor was scorched.
“Husband!” Saru exclaimed, shocked at the power of the device.
“This is absolutely horrendous,” Dungias replied, tightening the strips before picking up the spike. He could say what he thought would best help Saru, but Dungias looked at the device that had delivered him and his bride from death. “But it will serve for the moment. Tohgrunn weapons are very dense, and it will take time to burn through it.”
“And what of the hand holding the weapon?” Saru asked, taking the spike from her husband.
“We have regenerators,” Dungias replied, opening the doors. “Of course, that will only matter if I am alive.” Dungias took hold of Saru’s hand and stepped out into the corridor. “You would be best served if you were to join the ends of the Osamu,” Dungias suggested before looking up and clearing his throat. “Verbal command override.”
“Override recognized,” the computer responded to Dungias and Saru was surprised yet again as she now held a glowing staff in her hands.
The Vinthur Healer could feel the power coursing through it and there was the unmistakable feeling of Laejem, embracing her shoulders, giving her strength and fortitude. She closed her eyes as she could see his last moments, how he had been surprised by three suits and had managed to destroy all three, but only after they had targeted and struck the newly mended flesh at his side as well as a mortal wound to the top of his head. It was his devotion to his kommis and saytrah – and the power of the Osamu – that kept him moving for as long as it had.
“I will lose my love,” Laejem had thought, picturing the first time he had laid eyes on Danatra, followed by the look she had given him when they had parted due to the Master of the House’s objection to the Vinthur Race. “I will lose my life! In that, I am content. But saytrah Saru, kommis Dungias… you will feel my embrace, and live through my love!”
Saru could see Laejem’s perspective of the two of them in the arboretum just as he saw a suit appear in the Gamma Chamber, making a hasty approach to the bed where Dungias and Saru slept.
“I cannot reach you,” Laejem concluded as his life slipped away from him. “… but the maker of this fine rod is my blood, and through this Osamu, I will reach him… warn him of the things that come to invade his garden and harm his gardener!”
Saru took only the briefest moment to lament, but she could not be overwhelmed with sadness or the feeling of loss. The sensation of her kommis’ love was still too strong. Her grip on the staff tightened.
“Thank you, my kommis!” she whispered. “We do live through your love, and I know you can see your Traveler kommis!”
Dungias stepped out into the corridor and Saru followed closely behind. In both directions of the wide corridor, she could see armoured suits making their approach. “Osamu lab!” Dungias said, closing his eyes and lifting his hand over his head. He caught a laser bolt just before the flash of teleportation. Standing on the pad of the lab where he had met Alpha, Dungias quickly turned to check his wife. She was panting and looking at her chest. She was wearing his shirt and the front of it had been burned, but the skin underneath was without a blemish.
“But… it shot me,” she said, looking up at her husband before she threw her arms around his neck. Her head came away from his chest as she realized, “Are you all right?”
“Without Alpha, I am nearly at my limits of absorption,” Dungias said as he ushered his wife to the lockers. “This environmental suits will serve as better armour than my shirt.
“But there is only one suit,” Saru argued.
“Saru, dress!” Dungias commanded as he turned to approach one of the consoles. He shook his head, seeing that Kiaplyx had already dealt with the station’s automated weapons, and primary power was close to failing.
Dungias entered in the commands to make the lab a separate entity, independent of the domicile. He then removed one of the wall panels and quickly placed his hand on a battery. He deposited most of what he had absorbed into the lab power reserves.
“That will only last for so long,” Dungias concluded. He then removed his makeshift weapon to put on the coveralls that were always to be found on the hook of the wall. He also took a PC and secured it to his forearm. “As soon as primary power fails, the labs will lose life support and–” he stopped himself, struck by a thought.
“What is it?” Saru asked as she fastened the last of the buckles of the suit.
“Something just became very clear to me,” Dungias said softly. He lowered his head and thought. “The helmet for that suit is in the locker,” Dungias said as he started entering more commands into the console. “With it, you will have fifteen s’tonki of air.”
“You are my husband, and your voice is the law of the Void to me,” Saru said, taking hold of his arm. “But I will not leave you!”
“My wife, you are with child,” Dungias said, touching the side of her face. Saru stood still, unable to speak. “It would seem I did not entirely leave you when I went to the Palace. You must think of our child, nyaka! I have set the systems to ready Nugar’s last ship when you send the command. Use the pad to teleport yourself to the hangar.”
“I will do as you bid me,” Saru said and Dungias removed the straps made of linen, replacing them with fastening binders used to control the heavier laboratory equipment. With a better fit, Dungias also made a few quick corrections to the connections to the blade. He then applied Sopki Oil to the middle of the blade and the handle of the sword. “And what will you do?”
“I must do what Kiaplyx expects of me in order to draw him to me,” Dungias replied. “When he shows himself, I will destroy him.
“Now I can delay no longer; Nugar and Danatra are still dealing with this attack. I can feel them both, so they are still alive.”
“Go to our saytrah first,” Saru demanded. “Our gemnur will not forgive you and my nyaka will not forgive himself if he goes to Nugar’s aid first and loses Danatra.”
“Yes, my love,” Dungias said as he stepped back to the pad. He gave a set of coordinates and Saru rushed to the console as he flashed out of sight, hitting the commands to bring up the surveillance systems.
“May the Stars bring you back to me,” she whispered, accessing the domicile sensors. She pounded her fist on the console as she read the results of the scan. She watched as the number of unidentified forms drop to forty-seven, only to have it go back to fifty. Then down to thirty-nine and back up to fifty.
** b *** t *** o *** r **
Danatra’s back slammed into the cafeteria wall, and she nearly collapsed from the damage levied on her body. Her eyes flared wide and she quickly leaned her head to the right. The blade cut some hair and pinned even more as it lodged into the wall. Danatra cried out, thrusting her hands forward and releasing electricity. Again the Tohgrunn danced, screamed and fell. Danatra worked the
blade out of the wall, sliding to a squat and panting. Her body was shaking and she was weak. She closed her eyes, trying her best not to cry in frustration as she heard the tell-tale sound of the arrival of more raiders. She had lost count of how many she had killed, but it seemed that whoever was leveling this attack had an unending army at their command, sending only small groups to slowly weaken them. She looked up to see that another powered armour suit had accompanied the latest score of raiders.
“You are quite exceptional,” the suit remarked in Liangu. “It must be that Z’Gunok blood, refusing to die easily.”
“Again, no mind,” Danatra concluded after a brief scan. “What is this thing?!
“No,” Danatra said as she pushed against the floor to stand again. “… we’re just a very stubborn sort! We could be soaked and wet and you could not convince us it was raining if we set our minds against it.”
“And you know how to stall like your Vu-Prin,” Kiaplyx noted. “But surely you know there is no way we can converse long enough for you to recover your strength.”
“That would depend on what strength you are referring to,” Dungias said as his blade cut into the back of one of the Tohgrunn. “Zaylo has fallen to me and you will fall next!” Dungias held up the fallen Tohgrunn Leader’s blade as he slowly approached. The eyes of each Tohgrunn flared and they started to back away from Dungias.
“Well played, Malgovi,” Kiaplyx stated as the Tohgrunn were recalled, replaced with two more armoured suits. “The Tohgrunn are useless to me now. But as you can see, I have a contingency already in place.”
“Let my Vi-Prin leave,” Dungias said, circling the lead suit. The cafeteria provided significant space, while the tables and chairs kept things relatively tight at the same time. “She’s not what you want.”
“And what do I want?” the computer asked.
“Are you trying to act as if you do not know?” Dungias returned. “Look at what you have done! With all the weapons and tools at your disposal, this is how you attack me?! It seems very personal and short-sighted – not objective in the least! Not at all what I would expect from a machine.
