by Reiter
“Two of you prepare for Void-bound rescue operations!” Dungias commanded and Guyn pointed at his Point Man and then his best fighter. Onkorro and Kynsada turned to open the bins where the suits were stored.
“The one thing,” Kiaplyx continued. “… the one solitary thing I could not remove from any of my thought processes was the fact that I had created a trap that my calculations determined you could not possibly escape. Those calculations were run thousands of times, still you survived! You have bested me on every front and therefore, I cannot presume that this act in which I am about to engage will succeed any more than my prior attempts. If you are hearing this, you have indeed survived my attack on your precious Campus, your people, and your master’s base of operations. Whatever permanent damage I might have caused will be considered collateral… I only sought to keep you without means.
“I cannot kill you, Dungias” Kiaplyx stated definitively. “… but I can hurt you. I can assume that you will somehow manage to destroy me, but that will be the end of my pain. This device can only be triggered when you are approaching this location and at least one of four registered bio-signatures is already present. So say a fond farewell to your wife, your sister, your brother, and/or your mentor. If I am most fortunate, perhaps all four!”
“Stars protect us!” the pilot gasped. “Sire, we have a spatial body appearing directly in front of us; a planetoid.”
“Proceed as you have been directed, pilot!” SonBa commanded.
“But sire, it appears to be glowing!”
“Glowing?” SonBa asked as he started making his way to the bridge.
“Be sure, my Master,” Dungias whispered, closing his eyes. “Be sure and fast!”
“Raise shields!” SonBa ordered. “Reverse course!” Dungias sat down, seeing only a glimpse of the bright light out of the corner of his eyes. “Brace!” the First Prince warned and the ship rocked from the concussion wave. “By the slaves of Shay-Dorra, what was that?”
“A dimensional breach of some kind,” Dungias whispered, and only Guyn overheard him. The Exemplar turned, but did not speak. “The only way he could be sure to catch them all.”
“Sire, that was a dimensional aperture unlike any I have ever seen,” the pilot responded. “Instruments show it was five apertures set upon one another. They ripped that planetoid apart at the molecular level!”
“Scan the debris field,” Dungias said softly. The sight of the planetoid was too much of a spectacle for most to hear him, but the Exemplar quickly repeated the order.
“Exemplar, there is no way any–”
“Pilot, I gave you an order,” Guyn said. “Would you prefer a eulogy?!”
“Scanning debris field,” the pilot quickly replied, keying in the command. “Field has been put to graph.”
“Third quadrant,” Dungias whispered, grasping tightly on to Alpha.
“First quadrant, no signal,” the pilot reported. “Second quadrant, no signal. Third and fourth quadrants show no signal as well.” Dungias’ head fell to his chest.
“Re-scan the third quadrant,” Kynsada ordered. The young Traveler looked up at his combat trainer and she smiled, shaking her head. “You’re so seldom wrong,” she explained. “Machines are more likely to malfun–”
“We have a signal in the third quadrant!” the pilot reported. “It’s a ship. It’s so low on power we missed in on the first scan. Plotting intercept course.”
“Belay that process!” Dungias barked as he stood up.
“What?!” SonBa gasped.
“This is a mastermind we’re dealing with,” Dungias explained as he approached. With a glance, he recognized the ship his Vi-Prin had appropriated. He allowed himself a small measure of relief. “Scan for randomly occurring gravimetric fluctuations.”
“The entire area is covered with them!” the pilot reported after a brief moment.
“We take this ship into that debris field, those fluctuations will create a partial breach, opening and closing on whatever touched it. We need something fast, maneuverable, and small,” Dungias noted.
“Each suit comes with an optional gravity pack,” Kynsada offered. “They’re agile, but they aren’t that fast.”
“Perfect,” Dungias said, reaching to the back of his weapons belt and taking out a set of slender goggles and putting them on. He then drew Alpha. Energy arced over the Osamu, and Dungias tapped it against his chest. “I can use Alpha to increase the speed of the pack, but I get the feeling, Onkorro, that you are a better pilot than I am.”
“That goes without saying,” Onkorro replied.
“Then give Guyn your tether, and give me your left arm,” Dungias directed, pulling his hood over his head. “And kindly lower the shields, my Prince.”
The Starfire Point Man handed Guyn the end of his tether, but frowned at Dungias. “But you need a suit to go out into the–”
“Do it!” Dungias yelled, grabbing Onkorro’s arm. He tapped Alpha against the floor and the Exemplar had no trouble lifting the two of them from the floor. He looked at Dungias, who had closed his eyes, and he knew the young Malgovi was centering himself. “We’re going to need one of your better tosses, my Teacher.”
“To the Star-Stride then,” Guyn remarked.
“To the Star-Stride!”
Planting his feet, Guyn started moving the two around him, as if they were a grappling hook and he was about to make the throw of his life! Guyn brought them around five times and each revolution was faster.
“Shields have been lowered,” SonBa reported.
“Release!” Guyn embraced the Star-Stride and hurled the two toward the wall of the transport that they flew through.
Onkorro howled in triumph, engaging the gravity pack. Given what had been said, and the person who had said it, Onkorro was expecting this to be the fastest gravity pack ride of his life. His pack was not yet at full output and he was moving the fastest of his entire career! He wanted to howl again, but he looked to see how Dungias was faring. He gasped looking at the skin of the young Traveler which was now a shiny black, his eyes glowing with a sharp golden light.
“Receiving scans from the transport,” Onkorro reported. Dungias nodded and pointed to his goggles. He then keyed in the target area where he wanted to land on the ship.
“Onk,” Kynsada radioed in. “If there were ever a time to do it right–”
“I hear you, Kynsada,” Onkorro said quickly before tapping the side of his helmet. “But we may not have time for that. I’m sending you what I see.”
“No,” the First Prince tried to speak softly, but he failed miserably.
“Exactly!” Onkorro stated. “The ship is floating toward one of the fluctuation points.”
“Point Man,” Guyn called out. “… the computer reports you have one hundred six tanku before the ship and that point intersect. Your flight time is measured at eighty-two. You will have less than half a tonki to find and remove the passengers of that ship. Now, even for someone with moves likes yours, that is a tight window. I know who you’re carrying, and I know who he’s after, and you know I love him too, but you’re my Point Man. You made the call the last time, you’ll make the call next time. What’s your call?”
“We need more speed,” Onkorro said, looking at Dungias. The young Traveler could only thank Onkorro with his eyes, but he closed them in his appeal to Alpha and his Inner Star. He could hear Onkorro howling, but he could no longer feel how fast they were moving.
“That’s more like it!” Guyn barked. “Your window is now thirty-five tanku. Make them count!”
“Closer to thirty after this!” Onkorro yelled, taking himself and Dungias into a wide barrel-roll. He avoided five fluctuation points, but brushed one. An aperture shot open like a hungry mouth snapping at a passing morsel. They were fortunate the mouth possessed nothing in the way of teeth, and as the two flew by the opening unharmed, the doorway closed itself.
“Watch out!” Guyn said. “The only good thing to come from that is we can tell
which way those thing are going to open now. It’s being loaded to your helmet. And you were right, that move shaved two tanku off your window. Now reading at thirty-three.
“Received,” Onkorro reported. “I am seeing last group of six points just ahead of me. Not sure I can slalom, though. I will have to go wide.”
“That will put you back under the half-tonki mark, Onk,” Guyn warned. Dungias made a hand gesture suggesting they go through. “Maybe you two should turn back.”
“We’re going through. Star Chaser… guide me!” Onkorro said, leaning into a turn to avoid the first. They were upside down when he dipped under the second. They brushed against the third and the breach opened under them. Despite how much they wanted to see, neither of them looked to see what was on the other side of the breach. Gigantic purple and black tentacles were cut off by the closing of the aperture, and they froze in the wake of the flying tandem.
The fourth was avoided easily, but the way the third center had opened, the fifth and sixth were shifting their positions as three other centers started floating toward them. Onkorro came around the fifth, but his path to avoid the sixth was no longer available. He knew they were going too fast to stop, and Dungias fired his gun. The aperture opened and the two of them saw nothing but solid white light that faded just as alarms sounded off, warning of heat increase. Dungias could also feel their velocity increase. Onkorro’s grip on the Star Chaser’s arm tightened as they approached, and the Point Man made no turn. Just before they could enter the aperture, it closed, and the tandem continued on to the floating ship.
Dungias took them through the hull of the shuttle; the stop inside was sudden and slightly painful for both men. Alpha did what it could to slow them down, but there was too little space to hope for a soft landing. They hit hard against the wall and landed on the regenerators; one was open and empty, the other was running very hot, approaching warning levels.
“Dungias?!” Danatra whispered, not believing what she was seeing. She gasped looking at his black skin slowly returning to its gray-blue hue. “You’re impossible!”
“Hardly,” the young Traveler said, panting for air, as he looked toward Nugar at the door of the room. He was barely conscious, but tightly holding on to his Osamu. Dungias briefly locked eyes with the young Tohgrunn who had Nugar’s free arm around his shoulders.
“Sloppily done, Dungi!” Nugar whispered.
“Get him into the regenerator, Onk!” Dungias ordered.
“Dungias–” Danatra started.
“There is no time, Vi-Prin!” he interrupted, struggling to remain conscious. “Get on top of the unit. You, young Tohgrunn, get on the other. I will stand on one end, Onk you take the other. Ready a canister of atmo-foam and let us pray I can remember my math!”
Everyone moved to Dungias’ command and when the regenerator was closed, Dungias could hear an alarm coming from the one that still held Saru. He did not know what was wrong. His wife’s wounds had not been as severe as Danatra’s, yet his Vi-Prin was out of her unit. Had the unit failed?! He fought with the urge to turn and fix the machine, knowing he did not have the time to analyze the issue with the device. He stood between the two units, at the foot end of them, and signaled Onkorro to push. Both Alpha and Dungias pushed themselves to their limits to make the units light enough for Onkorro to push. Seeing the strain on the Traveler, the Point Man engaged his gravity pack and the group made their way through the hull of the ship as the nose entered into another dimension. The aperture closed midway through the vessel, cutting it in half. It floated dead, like the rest of the planetoid, as apertures of all sorts began to open and close.
Onkorro placed his can in the middle of the units and Danatra used her telekinesis to grab Dungias, pulling him back to where he was between her and the young Tohgrunn warrior. The foam exploded over them, encasing them in a small bubble of air, pressure and warmth. Dungias opened the channel on his PC.
“On-Onkorro, are you r-r-receiving me?”
“I am,” Onkorro replied, breathing a sigh of relief.
“This f-f-foam was designed to sustain atmosphere… for one to t-t-t-two bodies. We’ve got three and two massive medical units. The air seal seems s-s-s-sound, but the temperature… already dropping.” Reaching to the small of his back, Dungias produced the battery he had taken from the suit of the downed royal guardsman. He touched Alpha to it and the battery was drained almost instantly. “We s-s-should be drifting toward… second quadrant. Apertures… opening and closing… outermost region of the s-s-second quadrant should be… devoid.”
“Does this ride ever stop?” Onkorro whispered. “Exemplar, if you are receiving, I am sending you rendezvous coordinates. We are in need of medical facilities, and five tanku from now is four star-terms too late!”
“Understood, Point!” Guyn replied. “Damn fine work, you two!”
Three and one-quarter tonki felt like an orbi-term to Dungias. The area inside the foam was restrictive, so he could not roll over and look at his wife. Alpha was growing heavy and cold, and so was the young Master Traveler. The moment he heard atmospheric doors seal on the transport, he walked through the foam. It was the lightest material he had ever phased through, and the slowest walk he had experienced. He sheathed Alpha and with trembling hands he grabbed the cutting laser Kynsada handed him. He could barely stand or lift the tool, but the foam was easily cut and removed as several regenerators were rolled in and made ready. The young Tohgrunn was the first to be delivered to one. He was showing signs of hypothermia, and ice had formed on his shoulder. Frost was on Danatra’s skin, but she was coming conscious as they loaded her to a unit.
“No,” she protested. “I have to talk to Dungias!”
“Please sit still,” one of the nurses requested. He locked eyes with Danatra and fell unconscious. The other nurse quickly moved away and Danatra ran to her Vu-Prin, but he was already there – he had achieved the place she had wanted to protect him from ever seeing.
It had only taken him a moment to glance at the operational board of Nugar’s unit to see that his mentor was stable and unaffected by the cold. He had moved to Saru’s unit, and there was where he had remained. One of the technicians warned that the unit was going to fail in a few moments due to the power demands of the wounded inside. The Prince lifted his hand and all arguments ceased.
“I don’t know what happened,” Danatra started as tears rolled down her face. “When I awoke, her unit was like that and it hasn’t stopped since.” Looking around the room at all the lowered heads, Danatra was tempted to peer inside their minds. “Why aren’t the technicians helping her?”
“Because they can’t,” Dungias explained. “No one can.” The other unit opened and Nugar sat up. The technicians and doctors wondered how the old Traveler had managed to awaken inside a functioning regenerator but with the look on his face, they were hesitant to approach.
“Dungias?” Nugar called out.
Dungias lifted his head as the first tear rolled down his cheek. He did not want to talk. He especially did not want to listen. There were things, however, he had to know. He walked over to Nugar and touched Osamu to Osamu. The exchange was immediate and Nugar’s face broke into painful sadness and he shook his head as he started to cry. Dungias then turned to his Vi-Prin and projected the events of Quantia Prime to her mind. The effect was the same, though her reaction showed even less restraint.
“I need you,” he said softly to Danatra who nodded as she wiped her crying eyes. “Forgive me, but the only other thing I need is space.”
“Clear this chamber!” SonBa commanded, moving to wheel out the unit with the young Tohgrunn himself. He had never seen the race before, but he was sure there was a story behind him being here. The First Prince made sure he was the last to leave, and he locked eyes with the Traveler before the doors closed behind him.
“Dungias, I am so s–”
“Does she still have a mind?” he asked and Danatra cleared her throat, wiped her eyes again and walked over to
the unit. Before Danatra could apply her talent, Dungias spoke again. “No. Wait.” Taking the cutting laser, Dungias fired the tool into his hand transferring more power into the unit as Alpha started to glow. The laser died and he dropped it to the floor, drawing Alpha. Danatra could see a light shining from inside the regenerator. The stuff of the power scepter was no longer legend to her as she could feel Saru in the room, reaching out to her husband.
“Thank you, my Vi-Prin. You too may go now.”
Danatra did not move with the same composure as the others. She ran for the doors and was sobbing before they could open. When they whispered shut, Dungias closed his eyes and touched Alpha to the glass of the regenerator door. He looked at his Osamu for a moment, hearing the second stage alarm coming from the regenerator. Alpha flashed a series of lights and Dungias allowed himself a slight smile.
“That is not what I had in mind… but it is a better idea. Thank you.
“I know you can hear me, wife,” he said softly. “Just as I know why you are fighting so hard. Every Vi-Zai… every ishah fights for their children… just as you fight for ours! I suppose we know now that the gift is delivered upon conception. I wonder if our child would have shone with incredible iro-forms or woven the most powerful incantations. Knowing how stubborn we both are, it would have demonstrated both.
“If you do not blame me, as I feel you do not,” Dungias continued, inserting the tip of Alpha into the pocket dimension. “… I cannot allow you to blame yourself. Yes, I know, that will make me a hypocrite for a very long time. So be it! Simply another choice of the construct known as Dungias.”
Alpha was pulled from the pocket, the black cube that Borsidia had sent hung from the end by a simple gravity lock. “But at least there was one choice that I made that chose me in return… and without you, I would not be Dungias. Not one of this worth. I love you, Z’Gunok Tella Saru.”
Taking one last look at her face, Dungias lowered the cube to and through the outside of the regenerator unit. “As for you, nameless one, I cannot think of a finer… environment within which you can… develop.” As the crafter of all three Osamu, it was a simple command for Dungias to give to have the three link. But he would not allow Alpha to take in the essence of Laejem or Saru. He directed it instead into the cube. He knew of no finer examples of life and living than his kommis and his bride. “Learn from them, take from them… his strength, his loyalty, his sense of faith and family… her passion… her pride… her song… her endless love… take them, and you will be able to change worlds. This I know from experience!”
