by Dean Kutzler
“What the galaxy-roaming hell—was that?” she said.
Daxton put one hand against the wall and slowly pushed himself to a sitting position with the other.
He cocked his head to the left, flexing his jaw to the right, and the sound of a loud crack came from the back of his neck.
“Ah—there,” he sighed, closing his eyes. “Much better!”
He cracked a single eye open, raising the matching eyebrow, and hopped to a crouch before standing and offering her his hand.
She accepted, pulling herself up, and said, “Thank you. You sure you’re all right? You hit the ceiling pretty hard.”
“I don’t know,” he said, moving his lips around like a cow chewing cud. “Do I look okay?”
“Are you from Narcissia? Your face looks fine.”
He laughed and said, “You said I’m fine. Wait, is Narcissia a real planet?”
“No, but if it were, you’d be the leader.”
Great! He’s got me cracking stupid jokes.
Focus Thorn, people need you—Elyria needs you.
He saw the emotional shift in her face, and said, “Hey. Don’t worry. We’re gonna figure this out.”
Maybe he’s not such an asshole.
Saren made a face.
“What’s wrong? Shouldn’t I have said that?”
“The light, look?”
“Yeah, they went off when this crazy train stopped.”
“Do you see any lights in here?”
He shook his head. “Wait—we can see each other.”
“When we were on the surface, Ensign Brody and I noticed the same thing. Everything is illuminated without any light. And nothing casts any shadows.”
The surface.
“We’ve got to be somewhere deep inside the planet.”
As if on cue, the symbols started glowing yellow, again, but remained solid.
The humming sound returned, and Saren groaned, “What in the galaxy-roaming hell now?”
The box turned in a complete circle, and both Saren and Daxton braced themselves against the wall, waiting for another wild ride.
Instead, the box stopped, and the symbols turned green.
A button slowly raised on the opposite side of the wall from the last one.
They looked at each other, both hesitant to press it.
Saren said, “Before you reach out and hit that button, can we just take a moment—“
Nope.
He looked deep into her dark, smokey eyes and saw the reflection of his grin as he reached out, pushing the button.
DANGEROUS BEAUTY, KAHARI
SAREN dropped to the floor like a cat ready to pounce after he carelessly pressed the button, again.
“You bitch!” she hissed, unable to keep from smiling. “Do you treat everything like a joke?”
Maybe that was his trick for getting through life after the Scarab came and changed everyone’s lives.
Can’t fault him for that.
Saren and Daxton waited, bracing themselves, but nothing happened.
She gradually stood, scanning the walls for another button or something, whispering under her breath, “What fresh hell hath we now?”
“Old Earth lit?” Daxton asked.
“Huh?”
“What fresh hell hath we now? It’s old Earth literature, right?”
“Oh—I don’t know. It’s just something my daughter always says—fits the situation.”
She cocked her head back, a crease forming between her eyebrows. “I didn’t peg you as a man that was into old Earth literature.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Thorn,” he said, winking.
A loud clacking over their heads interrupted the conversation, and white light appeared around the edges inside of the box.
“It’s opening!” Saren said, facing Daxton.
Quickly nodding at each other, the pair twisted around leaning back-to-back in the center of the unfolding box. Daxton whipped his pistol out in front gripping the gun with both hands, and Saren raised her wristcom.
The walls of the box flipped up, clacking and clattering over their heads, rapidly folding into the ceiling and growing smaller until it disappeared, leaving Saren and Daxton standing on the platform out in the open.
Saren surveyed the area over her wristcom.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
Daxton turned, and said, “Yeah.”
Off in the distance, tall and short multicolored spires of a great city dotted the border of a navy blue horizon that stretched out beneath a vibrant yellow sky. Overhead, the warm brilliance of a crystal blue sun shone down, casting everything in an impossibly natural, colorless light.
Saren moved the wristcom over her eyes and looked up. “It’s beautiful, like a big blue diamond.”
Daxton holstered the pistol and looked at the light, shining in Saren’s eyes.
“Yeah it is. I think we’re inside of the planet.”
“What do you mean?”
She lowered her hand, catching him staring, and he looked away.
“From the mind sprung a place untold, where only the bold and adventurous know. Seek not high, but below, and on to the hollow-world you will surely go,” he whispered, turning back and meeting her eyes. “I can’t believe it’s real.”
“That’s beautiful,” she said, impressed. “Did you write it?”
He shook his head.
“You’re full of fairytales. So, now you think the old tale about a world, hidden inside a world, is true? And that’s where the box took us?”
“Looks like a city—Whatta you say we get some more exercise?” He started walking toward the city, ignoring the question.
She slowly nodded to herself walking alongside him and noticing his shift in mood.
Okay—guess so.
If thoughts of some childhood fairytales were floating around his head, who was she to judge? Thoughts of Elyria nearly got hers taken off.
“I hope Mr. Brody is okay. He’s only got a rod for a weapon,” she said, closing her eyes. “Sorry—poor choice of words.”
“Interesting,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
“Maybe I should’ve just killed the Kractorian. If we’re down here in a hollow-world, then he’s up there with a beast that’s going to be pissed off when it wakes.”
“I wouldn't worry too much about Lucky Charms. He seemed like he can take care of himself, plus—he’s got his rod,” he said, giving her the side-eye.
Saren smiled. “He reminds me of myself when I joined the academy.”
“Ah—yeah, I can see the resemblance.” He leaned back, ogling the curves of her body armor.
“Ha-ha, funny,” she said, playfully shoving him. “He’s determined, loyal—isn’t afraid of doing what it takes to get the job done. It’s why I approved his application.”
Daxton cupped his ear. “I think I can hear people.”
Saren tilted her head looking above the navy blue fortification surrounding the city they’d thought was the horizon in the distance.
The spires topping the buildings beyond the guarding-wall even more impressive up close, painted unique shades of blues, reds, yellow—colors they have never before seen reached toward the yellow sky like a vast garden of flowers
The city stretched farther than their eyes could see on either side.
Saren tapped the wristcom a few times, and the damned beep rang out.
“As I suspected. It can’t read any of this—unidentified material.”
“The buildings—” Daxton said. “They—they’re just amazing. Look close—see the detail carved into those colorful roofs? It’s one big strip of people in a scene, starting at the bottom and wrapping all the way around to the top. It looks like each roof is the evolution of a species.”
“Still think this is Kahari, the prison?”
He looked at her over his shoulder, and said, “A gilded cage is still a cage. This place is a beauty all right, more than likely a dangerous bea
uty. Did you notice there are no ships or terra-gliders flying over the city?”
She did notice.
“Yes, nothing that could get us back to the surface and off the planet. Let’s look for a way in.”
He pointed at another glowing symbol that had popped up on the guarding-wall.
“You really gotta stop doing that.”
“It just appeared, I swear—cross my heart.” He gestured the sign of a cross in front of his chest, a grin tugging his goatee upward.
They approached the button, Saren eyeballing him closely and preparing to snatch his hand back when he surprised her and reached for the holster.
“Hey, we’re the newcomers here. Do you honestly think it’s a good idea to go in aiming a gun?”
His hand relaxed.
She tipped her chin toward the button. “Well?”
He gave a little bow spinning his hand in front.
“You do the honors, my Lady.”
She rolled her eyes at his silliness. His humor was really growing on her.
And he’s not bad to look at, either.
She pressed the glowing symbol keeping the wristcom at the ready, just in case.
The button retracted, like the others, and an arched doorway slowly materialized.
All different races of people and species walking back and forth in the busy city beyond the doorway appeared once the door had fully emerged.
The people noticed Saren and Daxton staring into the city and abruptly stopped, and began forming a line to either side of the doorway like dominos falling back in place.
Saren and Daxton looked at each other.
“Okay,” she said, smiling. “This is strange. Just act friendly.”
Daxton painted on a fake smile, and he and Saren walked through the doorway.
The people turned their heads toward them after each one stepped in line, greeting Saren and Daxton with sorrowful expressions as they continued down the path.
“If this is the greeting party,” Daxton said from the corner of his mouth. “I’d hate to see what they do for a going-away.”
The people of the city finished lining the long path down leading down to another wall, and a figure stepped into view.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” Daxton said.
Saren glanced over her shoulder. The doorway they had entered through rematerialized back into the solid wall.
“Well, we’re out options, now. The doorway is gone.”
“I feel like we’re marching to our funeral. The people look sad, and they’re lowering their heads as we walk by.” Daxton looked back and forth on either side.
“Stop looking at them,” Saren said. “We don’t want to provoke them. There are so many of them. I see about fifty plus species I’ve never seen before.”
Daxton opened his mouth, and Saren silenced him with a hand. “Let’s just get past these people. Maybe he can give us some answers. If it is a he,” she said, jutting her chin toward the figure waiting for them at the end of the line. “Do you recognize the race?”
Daxton squinted. “No, can’t say that I do—or want to.”
I know how you feel.
There wasn’t a single sound throughout the entire place. No chatter, coughing—or even sounds of breathing, just absolute silence.
It rattled her nerves.
Saren stole cautious glances over the people on either side of the path, careful to avoid eye contact as they lowered their heads. Between the colorful spire-topped buildings lie glittering azure-colored city streets bustling with people as far as she could see. Above the streets in the buildings poking out from windows, people caught glimpses of Saren and Daxton walking down the path and shook their heads, looking away.
“Look,” Daxton whispered, drawing her attention. A group of robe-clad people wearing crosses knelt at the end of the path, silently praying around the man.
“Are they—“
“Vaticonian,” he finished.
“I didn’t know they still existed. I remember the Vaticonians praying over the new children that arrived at the orphanage,” Saren whispered.
He glanced at her, and said, “I’m really not liking this. Thinking what I’m thinking?”
She shook her head. “No, there’s too many. Keep it cool. The only way out we know is closed up. We don’t know what their intentions are yet.”
“It can’t be good from the reactions we’re getting,” he scoffed. “There’s a race I finally recognize over there.”
“The Ore-Eleon?”
He nodded. “Did you know Ore-Eleons can liquefy anything with just a thought?”
“No, I didn’t. Aren’t they a peace-loving race?”
“Yeah—why do you think that is?”
She thought for a moment as they continued down the path.
A race with that kind of power would be dead in under a week over minor disagreements if they didn’t get a handle on peace, not to mention anyone around them.
He was smarter than which she’d initially given him credit.
Skilled, good-looking and smart.
They reached the end of the line and stood before the strange looking species resembling a male humanoid form.
Standing a foot taller than Daxton, he had a long, slender face like an oversized almond with a sharp, pointy chin. Yellow veiny eyes, in the shape of diamonds in a deck of cards, peered at them through vertical eyelids similar to a reptilian, that clicked when he blinked.
The man’s pasty-white facial features resembled a smaller version of a human’s; little mouth, nose and ears, that stuck out on the oversized face. Flame-red hair sprouted from his head and ran down his back past his shoulders.
The most prominent feature standing out on his long brow was an intricate pattern of straggly red lines beginning between his eyes and snaking up his forehead, branching out like roots, and ending somewhere beneath the hair on top of his scalp.
The wall behind the fierce-looking man was identical to the navy blue guarding-wall surrounding the city, only more weathered and faded. In the center flashed the glowing button they were familiar with, but it had already been pressed, sitting flush against the wall.
The man smiled at each of them, blinking, and nodded his head in greeting.
Daxton saw the button on the wall and opened his mouth to speak.
Saren cut him off in a hushed tone, and said, “I know. I see it. I think he beat you to it.”
The section of wall around the button started dematerializing, and a doorway appeared.
FAELAR AARONDORF
“WELCOME to the Outer Ring of Kahari, Saren Thorn, and Daxton Stone,” the man said in a deep, angelic voice. “My name is Faelar Aarondorf. I’m afraid your friends on the planet’s surface will need to join you momentarily. They were not within range of the carriage. Are you both prepared for your caste quest?”
Daxton was right—the tale of Kahari was true!
Saren knew enough to choose her words carefully.
Faelar was different from the people lining the path. He seemed peaceful enough, but she’d been commanding missions long enough to sense when someone purposefully projected powerful confidence in their voice, and when it was real.
Faelar reeked of power.
“How did you know our names, if I may ask?” Saren said.
“You may,” he said blinking.
Click-Click.
“I know many things,” he continued. “It is my job to know.”
He glanced at Saren’s body armor.
She looked over at Daxton who had been quiet for once. His tanned complexion was almost white.
He senses Faelar’s power, too.
“Faelar,” she said, hesitantly. “What is this place?”
“Why, I’ve told you. This is the Outer Ring of Kahari.”
His brow creased, causing the veiny root pattern to undulate.
“Yes,” she said, smiling, trying to hide her annoyance. “I understand that Faelar, but—what is the Outer R
ing?”
Saren slipped a hand under the hair on the back of her neck, touching a slight tickle which had crept up from her spine like an insatiable itch deep inside the skin that couldn’t be scratched and, her eyes shot up meeting Faelar’s.
“Ah, I understand now, Saren Thorn. Please forgive me. Your arrival here is unwarranted. I am very sorry. It is truly a mystery, for Kahari will only appear in the presence of those who deserve sanctioning here. How this has happened is unknown to me.”
When he mentioned unwarranted, hope flashed over her face, and Faelar quickly said, “While I am sorry that you have been unjustly brought here, that sorrow cannot change the circumstances. No entity may ever leave Kahari. Not a single rock can be removed.”
All that time as a commanding officer also taught Saren when someone was lying, and Faelar reeked of that, too.
“To answer your question, Saren, this place, and its Rings is the final destination for those who have committed crimes that are beyond redemption which cannot bear judgment. The energy of the inhabitants of Kahari remains alive here indefinitely.
“Judgment involves punishment suitable to the crime, and once redemption is achieved, rebirth into another sentient follows. All energy is accounted for and recycled. It is the way of all living things. Spending eternity here is not a pleasant thing, but you will not suffer punishment from the planet, nor will you ever gain redemption or rebirth. Your energy will remain here, indefinitely.
“Depending on what caste you achieve on your quest, the best that can be expected is to live on forever without complication. As you have seen on your walk down the path, the Outer Ring is the most pleasant existence you can hope to gain.”
Anger built inside Saren’s chest—she didn’t belong here.
She didn’t do unfair.
Powerful being or not—she wasn’t accepting an eternity of pleasantness within Kahari’s walls. She had a daughter, a crew and universe to save, and precisely in that order. If she were put on Kahari, she would find a way off Kahari.
My shit—going to lose it!
Saren searched her memories trying to recall everything the orphanage mother, Xandrieka Alazennica had told her about Kahari. All that came to her mind was that if someone was sent to Kahari, they were—fucked.
If she didn’t get out of this hollow-world and off this rock, her daughter, Elyria—the crew, were fucked!