Prophecy

by Paula Bradley

  Her protective sheath had been working. It had boosted her physical and psychic energy, had kept her organs functioning, acting like an Anorasian self-regulating garment ten-fold. Still she was on the verge of collapse as her two hearts furiously pumped adrenaline through her body. Had it not been for the many Joinings with her loved ones that now suffused her spirit with strength, she knew the sheath alone could not have saved her.

  Finally she managed to get to her knees and then to stand. Weaving drunkenly she faced the front portal of the structure. It reminded her of a camera iris, ready to open like a blooming rose. Still shuddering violently from the exertion, she nevertheless smiled devilishly. If they were watching, she wanted them to think she had come through unscathed.

  With the last bit of energy in her body, she psychically blasted to the ones inside: BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES! HURRICANE MARIAH HAS ARRIVED!

  Strength returned to her body quickly along with her psychic power. With her feet planted firmly apart and her hands balled into fists, her arms shot forward—and two supercharged bolts of energy hit the iris. She kept up the blast even though the backlash of pain was excruciating.

  Mariah was rewarded when finally the iris began to turn blood red. Then it blackened at the core as the metal began to melt and fray.

  A hole began to form. Her arms quivered with exhaustion, but she kept up the barrage until the hole was large enough for her to squeeze through. Not waiting for an invitation Mariah slid through the opening and stood inside for a moment to get her bearings.

  So far, no communication from the Min’yel’os. She wasn’t surprised. She knew they were probably shocked by the breach of their force field and her method of entry through the iris. But she wasn’t cocky enough to assume they were frightened; they just had their own way of dealing with trespassers.

  She psychically searched for Galaxaril, but there was nothing. They had, of course, discovered what he had done and had destroyed his mind as he knew they would. Grimly she headed down the long corridor ... something else for which they would pay dearly.

  The sound of her footsteps on the metal floor echoed off the polished surfaces of the walls and ceiling. As she made her way forward she puzzled over the purpose of this corridor. There were no obvious signs of doorways on either side. The walls, floor, and ceiling were a metallic gray, stark and unrelieved by so much as a pattern anywhere.

  She shook her head, a tight smile thinning her lips. Of course; with the fear-provoking and detestable presence of the Minister of Finance leading you to Them, this lengthy walk (and the noise it produced) was designed to further scare you witless. A picture of her old boss, Evelyn Stillwater, surfaced in her mind: she would have appreciated this form of mental torture.

  Mariah continued, unchallenged. Interesting. For the first time she wondered if the force field outside the Sho’revra was set on automatic, more a token than anything. The Min’yel’os would never believe anything could get past the Shekron let alone through their well-protected shield.

  The corridor finally ended at a wall. It was fitting that they would be behind it. With her psychic antenna set on high she felt the energy beyond the wall as if a nuclear reactor was charging and nearly ready. But other than blowing the wall to pieces, she couldn’t find the psychic trigger to get inside. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes, forcing her mind to go blank.

  Chapter 90

  Mariah felt a presence within her. Energy began to build. Was it hers? Her sheath darkened to indigo and the lights circling her head flowed down to envelop her body. When the unknown power reached sufficient energy, it quested out toward the wall in the form of tendrils that looked like silken threads. Delicately but rapidly touching the wall at all points, the threads finally coalesced at one point to the left of center. When a ten foot section of the wall began to shimmer she knew it to be nothing more than a holographic image.

  The shimmering stopped and Mariah stepped into a dark cavernous room. It reminded her of the sky; distant, cold, immutable.

  As she took a few tentative steps forward the walls brightened but only slightly. No matter; with her exceptional vision she was able to see well enough in the dark.

  Before her; ten towers, all approximately nine feet tall. No more than two inches separated one from another. All lined up in a single row. Red, white and yellow LEDs blinked in varying patterns across the midsection. White lights sparkled in a band, two feet from their crowns, harshly animated against the preternatural darkness.

  A pedestal stood forward two feet from the towers and bisecting them in the middle. It was three feet tall, two feet wide at the base, narrowing to a point at the top. A solid white globe roughly three feet in diameter balanced impossibly on its apex.

  The perfect touch to this hostile, lifeless environment.

  “Well done.” Mariah spoke to the room in general. “I’m sure this silent treatment is meant to intimidate. Okay, so I’m scared. Are you going to speak to me or remain petulant and give me the silent treatment?”

  The perfect stillness in the room was primeval, unreceptive—and malignant. Just as Mariah was beginning to wonder if this was the Anorasian version of a Mexican standoff, the sphere atop the pedestal became transparent. At first it seemed as if mist was rising off a Louisiana bog; however the drifting tendrils darkened and converged into a central core that hung suspended in the center, pulsing obscenely as it duplicated the rhythm of a human heart.

  “Niiiiice. I’m impressed.” Mariah grinned, her hands jammed into her pants pocket as she rocked back and forth. She found several forgotten M&M’s that had been moldering in the pants for some time so she tossed them into the air and psychically pinged them at the towers.

  A beam of white light detached itself from the throbbing mass and shot out of the orb, striking the center of her forehead. When her protective sheath blocked the mind probe effortlessly, she experienced a much deeper push. Interesting. As the probe intensified, the glob in the center of the sphere darkened to a ruby color, sending out delicate filaments that waved angrily in her direction.

  Again she resisted their effort to plumb her mind. The filaments thickened, reaching out until they touched the boundaries of the orb. As though trying to find a way out, some filaments slid upward while others oozed down the globe’s smooth inner surface.

  Mariah knew they were just warming up.

  Galaxaril had told her about the sphere, the Min’yel’os’ central processing core. Through it they communicated with each other; through it they combined their psychic strength to direct their energies outward. Nothing had ever penetrated it since its design over sixty-five million years ago.

  While they attempted a stronger invasion of her mind, Mariah watched in fascination as the sphere continued to heat up. They certainly weren’t trying to hide their emotions from her. She realized they never had to hide anything from anyone. They were the Min’yel’os: arrogant, indomitable, overconfident. And she was nothing more than a single entity, an alien born of a race they considered as inferior as ants were to humans.

  Their assault on her mind ceased abruptly and the artery-like tentacles inside the orb shrank back into the pulsating mass.

  Still speaking out loud, Mariah said, “Pull back and regroup, I always say. Instead of trying to blow my brain circuits, just talk to me.”

  For several seconds, nothing happened. Watching the red blob Mariah smiled when it began to lighten, changing from blood red to soft rose. Her protective energy sheath responded, loosening its tight grip ever so slightly.

  “WE DO NOT COMMUNICATE WITH LESSER SPECIES.”

  Well, it’s a start, I suppose, Mariah thought wryly. The sound was hollow and mechanical, ten voices spoken at the exact same time with the exact same inflection.

  She attempted to send to the two Anorasians who awaited her in space, but there was no answering response. She really hadn’t expected one. She assumed the Sho’revra was designe
d to block any exterior psychic communication. Deep inside Mariah was scared silly, needing the reassurance of the two scientists. However she knew she had to maintain a fearless attitude before the Min’yel’os.

  “Come on gentlemen, lighten up, pardon the pun. Obviously we’re able to communicate so stop treating me like I’m a pesky gnat flying in your face.” She was encouraged when they responded almost immediately, but felt a frisson of fear course through her body at the same time.

  “YOU ARE A MILDLY INTERESTING MUTATION. WE WILL CONTEMPLATE THE ANALYSIS OF YOUR DNA CODE WHEN OUR GENETICISTS CONCLUDE THEIR STUDY. THEN WILL WE ASCERTAIN WHAT PERCENT OF YOUR MENTAL FACULTIES MUST BE DESTROYED.”

  Chapter 91

  “Uh, not exactly what I had in mind. Listen; I’m not here to upset anything, I just want to talk about this old Prophecy and the Shen’dalah and this...”

  She got no further. The prurient mass in the center of the orb instantly turned purple. Prehensile outgrowths popped from its center and fanned out, writhing venomously. Mariah instinctively threw her arms up to shield her face, but it was useless. As her blue sheath darkened to amethyst, a blast of super-heated air slammed into her chest, hurling her backwards until she crashed against the far wall. She slid down, landing hard on her tail bone.

  She had thought the lightning in the Agrist K’anna was powerful; in comparison to this it was like getting a mild shock after you shuffled your feet across a carpet and touched metal.

  Disoriented, she rolled sideways—just in time. Luckily it was in the right direction. The wall against which she had been leaning seconds before exploded into needle-sharp, metal fragments that flew in every direction, raining down on her but not piercing her sheath.

  Mariah growled as much to negate what was happening as an answer to this display of power. She felt the energy surge through her body as atavistic and primitive anger infused every cell in her body.

  Coming up on one knee her arms shot out, her fists aimed at the black tower directly behind the orb. A blistering white light engulfed her body and traveled down her arms, shooting out between her clenched fingers.

  Unprepared for the assault, the Min’yel’os were slow to react. The nine foot obelisk became swallowed up in the light, turning molten as the heat continued to intensify. The LEDs in its mid-section pulsed frenetically, bursting into showers of multicolored specks. The band of white lights at the top spasmed and, one by one, they extinguished.

  Milliseconds before the orb oriented on her, Mariah ceased her assault and hit the floor, rolling until she was directly beneath it. She was not quite fast enough; a needle-sharp beam missed her femoral artery by a hair, nicking her leg and causing her to hiss.

  Even though the pain was excruciating, Mariah could not give thought to it.

  Balancing on her left arm she pushed the palm of her right hand up against the underside of the orb. The veins in her neck bulged as she tried to dislodge it from its precarious perch; however as strong as she had become she was not able to budge it.

  But the angle was to her advantage. The throbbing mass in the center had never been designed to orient downward ... and the Min’yel’os momentarily lost sight of her. They had expected an attack on the orb not a single tower.

  Strange. Mariah sensed that the obelisk she had fired on was not dead, just temporarily out of commission. With no more than a brief second to contemplate this, her protective sheath tightened painfully around her, infusing her with the energy she sucked out of the tower. It would not be enough to take out the remaining nine. She knew it and so did the Min’yel’os. Only surprise and dumb luck would be her allies.

  Mariah needed more power and she had to take a huge risk to get it.

  It took them a second to reorient beneath the orb. It was all she needed. Lying down she flung out both her arms, attacking the furthest tower in line.

  It shook violently, convulsing on its base as she absorbed the energy from it. As the tower gyrated more violently, it banged into the one to its right causing it to vibrate.

  Both she and the Min’yel’os realized something at the same time. She was more powerful than any one of them individually ... and if her attack on each one was successful, her power would equal theirs when there was but six left.

  And then the Min’yel’os did something that astonished her.

  “CEASE THE AGGRESSION. WE WILL DO THE SAME. WE WILL COMMUNICATE.”

  Mariah remained where she was, her left arm now hugging the pedestal, the palm of her right hand sliding back under the bottom of the sphere. Not knowing the integrity of these computerized things, she was suspicious of their offer and was not prepared to give up any perceived advantage until she was convinced they were sincere.

  She allowed them to read her last thoughts. The mass inside the orb reverted back to its rose-colored hue, the tentacles retracting until it appeared the very soul of benevolence.

  “THIS DESTRUCTION HAS NO FURTHER PURPOSE. WE REQUIRED VERACITY. WE HAVE IT. WE WILL ACCOMMODATE YOUR PETITION.”

  There was a pause. Mariah’s eyes widened in shock at their next statement.

  “WE ARE ALSO PREPARED TO ENTERTAIN THE NOTION THAT YOU MAY, IN FACT, BE THE MAN’ASORAI.”

  Chapter 92

  Needing time to gauge their truthfulness, she sent, I want Galaxaril here.

  “HE IS NO MORE.”

  What? Did you murder him?

  “WE HAVE DEALT WITH HIM AS WITH ANY TRAITOR.”

  That doesn’t tell me anything. Where is he?

  “HIS CORPOREAL ESSENCE AWAITS WITHOUT. HIS CONSCIOUSNESS HAS BEEN ELIMINATED.”

  Let me understand this: after nearly two million years of service, this is what you do to an otherwise exemplary employee without even finding out why he did what he did? Are you so fanatically rigid that everything is either black or white?

  “THERE IS NO HIGHER TREASON. HE ALLOWED YOU ACCESS TO OUR CONSTRUCT. NO JUSTIFICATION WOULD SATISFY.”

  Humor me then. Bring his body here so I can pay homage to one who would sacrifice his life so that his race might survive.

  “YOU OVERVALUE YOUR IMPORTANCE TO US, HUMAN. NEVERTHELESS IF IT WILL FURTHER THIS DISCUSSION WE WILL ACQUIESCE TO YOUR DESIRE.”

  A portion of the wall to Mariah’s right shimmered and another holograph disintegrated. There was nothing but blackness until a LIMC rose from below and aligned itself with the floor. A figure stood upon it; immobile, seemingly lifeless, until a pinpoint beam of light shot from the orb and hit him between the eyes—and the body of Galaxaril walked woodenly forward. When he was ten feet from where she stood, the beam cut off and the body of the Minister of Finance halted.

  He was magnificent. Tall, stately, this feared and despised Anorasian had a presence even with his mind destroyed. The bony protrusions over his eyes were more refined then Sateron’s or Aleris’ and his amber colored eyes were not nearly so canted. He looks more like Hesad, Mariah thought. Pain wrenched her heart as she gazed into his inanimate eyes.

  She rose from beneath the orb but kept a hand firmly planted against its side as she turned angrily to face the black obelisks.

  You should have just killed him outright instead of this quasi-death. It’s revolting!

  “YOU WOULD GAIN MORE WISDOM AND MIGHT IF YOU DID NOT ALLOW YOURSELF SUCH MAUDLIN SENTIMENTALITY. IF THUS THE NATURE OF YOUR SPECIES, THEN YOU ARE DOOMED TO REMAIN IN AN ELEMENTAL STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT.

  “HE IS NOT TERMINATED. WE MAYHAP COULD RECONNECT ENOUGH TO MAKE USE OF HIM IF WE SO DESIRE, BUT SEDITION BLEEDS HIS HEART. HE WOULD ALWAYS BE SUSPECT.”

  Man, you guys are a real piece of work. I’ll have to let this go for now because I need to learn what you know about the Prophecy.

  Silence filled the chamber electrically charged with danger, burdened with apprehension and significance. The orb flashed prismatic colors and lights on the top of the obelisks blinked furiously. They were communicat
ing with each other.

  Mariah waited.

  Suddenly her ears filled with their hollow monotone.

  “WHEN THOSE WHO BROUGHT YOU TO OUR WORLD STAND BEFORE US, THEN WILL WE IMPART THE FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE.”

  She had expected conditions; however, she was still amazed at their reply.

  When the ... you mean you won’t talk unless Ton Re’Sateron and Ton Re’Aleris are here? Do you think I’m crazy? After what you did to the Minister, I won’t let you destroy the brains of my friends. You’re going to have to communicate with me. No one else.

  “WE WILL DO THEM NO HARM WHILE IN COMMUNICATION WITH YOU.”

  Why don’t I believe you? Mariah tried to keep calm, but she was being pushed to the limit of her patience. It must have something to do with your inability to see why the members of your former race have found it necessary to defy you. No deal.

  The air thickened. It felt like she was breathing through a wet cloth.

  The orb transformed once again; it was now milky white and dense. She knew they were not communicating with each other through the orb because no lights blinked on their towers. Was this the end of the discussion?

  Thinking fast her face lit with a smile as she came up with a plan. She felt the orb heat up fractionally and her smile deepened. She had their attention.

  Tell you what I’ll do, she sent. I’ll bring down the two Anorasians and the three humans if you’ll fix the Minister’s mind. Kind of like a show of good faith.

  Her demand hung in the preternatural silence as fraught with danger as a forty foot dive into shallow waters. If she had still been an oxygen breathing entity, she would have held her breath.

  Several more tense minutes went by before the orb turned translucent. With a quick scan she noticed the lights on the towers (except for the two she had nullified) were blinking in a regular pattern. So they were discussing the merits of her plan. Excellent. She had expected outright refusal; after all, they knew they had information she wanted.