by Frank Carey
"What the hell pile of dodo did we just step into?" Clio asked as she grabbed one of the unconscious and dragged him to the front of the vehicle's box to join his companion.
"Insurrection? Fifth column" Resistance? Don't know," Kel said as he covered the bodies and the weapons with a packing blanket.
"Aren't we going to tell someone?"
"On the way out. First things first. We find Sheila, then we vámonos."
"You mean amscray?"
"Damn skippy," he replied while climbing over the side of the box, closing the lid above them."
"What now?" she asked.
"We wait."
They didn't have to wait long. Loud voices came from outside the box, then it and they were lifted and pushed, finally coming to a stop a few minutes later. They waited for the voices to recede before exiting their hiding place. Once out, they looked around and found themselves in a dimly lit room filled with computer terminals.
"They must be using a system upgrade as a cover, whoever they are," Kel said. He checked the room with his scanner. "Sheila's stuff is one floor up. We go out this door and to the right. There's a stairwell at the end of the corridor."
After checking the hallway, they made their way to Sheila's supposed location. They stopped when they heard yelling.
"One of you is going to die if you don't tell us what we want to know," a male voice yelled.
"I told you, I'm not with her. I have nothing to do with any of this." It was Sheila and she was very, very angry.
The exchange was followed by a loud slap. Clio looked at Kel, then stepped away from the door. "Have at it, Big Guy," she said as she set her weapon to heavy stun.
"Hey, who's out there?" another male voice said.
"Your worst nightmare," Kel roared as he buried his claws into the door and ripped it, its frame, and part of the wall away, throwing the collection down the hallway. Clio, remaining calm, took the opportunity to stun anyone in the room who wasn't handcuffed to a chair.
"Kel!" Sheila said as Clio grabbed keys from the table and unlocked her cuffs. "Who the hell are you?" she asked the young muse in Basili form.
"Clio, Kel's imaginary friend, fool. What about your friend?" she asked with a glance toward the Basili female handcuffed to the chair next to Sheila."
"You're a Basili," Kel said as he took the keys from Clio and unlocked the woman's cuffs, freeing her from her chair.
"Yes, I am. What the hell are you?" She asked as she looked at Kel's tail and wings.
"My name is Kellen Matu Hardy, and I'm a Basili, like you."
"Uh-uh. No Basili on this planet has wings or a tail. Only Malroth fliers have those, and you aren't Malroth anything."
"It's a long story," Kel said.
"And we don't have time to listen to it, no matter how fantastic it is. We need to go," a woman said from the remains of the wall. She stared at Kel who stared back. "Sasha," she said to Sheila's prisoner companion. "Who the hell are these people?"
"Travelers," Sheila said as she grabbed her stuff from the table, kicking one unconscious agent and slugging the other.
Gunfire erupted from the end of the hall. Kel ran out, spreading his wings to protect the others. He saw four Basili with the woman, each armed with what looked like a sub-machine gun. They watched in shock as the bullets from the hostile forces bounced harmlessly off Kel's back and wings.
"I hope you have a way out!" Kel yelled. "I can deal with slug throwers, not blasters."
"What's a blaster?" The woman asked.
Kel, Clio, and Sheila demonstrated by firing a barrage of blaster fire at the approaching soldiers.
"This way," the leader said as she headed in the opposite direction. She spoke into her wrist. "This is Kenta. We have the information. Security is in pursuit."
"This is Torga. We read you. Head to the roof for pickup."
"Torga, we have passengers; three total. I'll explain when we get there."
"How the hell did you find strays in the fortress? Torga standing by."
They made it to the roof when security caught up with them. A small ship was waiting on the helipad. As the group ran toward their ride, dozens of soldiers swarmed out onto the roof, firing at the group and the ship. Kel and his two companions opened fire with blasters set to stun, knocking out swaths of pursuers. As they neared the ship, Kel saw something crawl over the wall. It was big, ugly, bio organic and winged. "Dammit, he said as he shifted aim and fired on the abomination. “ Get into the air while I draw it off," he yelled to Kenta.
"How are you going to do that?" she replied as she fired on the creature. Her bullets bounced off as if it were made of steel.
"With my wit and charm."
"Kellen Matu Hardy, you get your ass inside this ship," Sheila yelled as she fired on the approaching troops.
"You heard the lady!" Clio added while taking out a dozen more troopers. "Get your ass in here, Dragon Boy!"
Kel set his blaster to its highest setting, then fired on the behemoth. The beam carved away pieces of flesh and armored plating, driving the creature into a frenzy. "Kenta, keep my friends safe," he yelled as he ran toward the edge of the roof with the creature close behind. Before anyone could say anything, he dove off the edge, the creature following without hesitation.
"Kel!" Sheila screamed. A moment later, he flew into view, throwing the creature's head onto the roof as he flew off into the night. Two more creatures appeared out of nowhere and gave pursuit as the soldiers turned their fire on the historian.
"By all that's holy! He flies!" Kenta said as she hustled everyone aboard the waiting ship.
"Showoff," Clio yelled at the retreating historian.
Sealing the door behind them, Kenta signaled the pilot to take off. She looked at Clio as she took a seat. "Basili haven't flown in thousands of years. Who the hell are you people, and why are you here?"
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Kel flew between buildings while attempting to lose his two new friends. He put his weapon away since all it did was make the creatures angry. He was able to surprise the first one and tear its head off, but these two would be more of a challenge. They were keeping their distance from him, as if they had learned from their friend's mistake. They were definitely trying to tire him out.
"Let's see how smart they are," he said before flaring his wings and coming to a complete, mid-air stop. The two beasts overshot him. Seeing their mistake, the arced around, one to the left and one to the right. The one going right reversed course and headed directly toward him while the one going right flew into a wall at high speed. It died instantly before sliding down the wall to land on the street in a crumpled heap.
"One down and one to go," Kel said going vertical as the creature closed the distance between them. The monstrosity anticipated and pulled up sooner, almost meeting in the climb. Kel banked at the last possible moment and broke away, skimming roof tops as his pursuer closed on him. Suddenly, the creature veered away, disappearing into the waning gloom. "What the hell," Kel said as he watched the creature leave. He turned and saw, too late, the large net strung between the buildings just ahead of him. He hit the net at full speed, breaking it free while entangling himself in it. The weighted trap pulled him down to the ground, forcing him to crash into a building. He came to a stop and tried to free himself, but to no avail. The cordage was too tough to break.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" a voice said from behind him. He turned with great difficulty to see who owned the voice. A young woman stood there, her flaming red hair billowing in the light breeze.
“Reptillian-human mix? Here in the LMC? Impossible! Kel thought. Whatever her ancestry, she looked vaguely familiar.
"Do I know you?" Kel asked as several soldiers freed him from his binding.
"I don't think so," she said as she examined his wings. "Damn, they're real. I haven't seen wings like this on a Basili in thousands of years."
"You don't look a day over twenty-nine."
"Are there more li
ke you at home?"
"I'm the first and only Basili born on Sokuhl since the Basili diaspora. Who the hell are you and what did you have to do with my people being killed off?"
She jumped back two meters, looking around as if something was about to attack her from the remains of the building. "Who are you? The Sokuhl home world is over fifteen hundred light-centuries from her. The people of that planet are thousands of years away from the type of tech required to travel that distance."
"My name is Kellen Matu Hardy, but my friends call me Kel, and I am from the Sokuhl home world. I came here to return my friend to her home there."
“The one calling herself Sheila is from the home world?” Breaking her gaze, she turned to her guards. "Take him to a holding cell and make him comfortable. I will perform the interrogation personally." She turned back to Kel. "My name is Red. I shall find out if you really are telling the truth or if you are just a genetic aberration."
“You know, I really hate when people spew that shit,” Kel yelled. “Free me and we can talk like civilized people. We mean you no harm. You have my word, we will leave you in peace if given the chance…”
She turned and walked away as Kel's captors stripped him of his belt and weapons before taking him to a waiting armored car.
###
They arrived at a windowless building a short distance from the fortress. Once inside, they led him to an interrogation room containing a desk separating two chairs. They placed him in one chair and shackled him to the table while Red sat in the other. "Leave us," she told the guards. They handed her a bag containing his possessions as they walked out, closing, and locking, the door behind him. She emptied the bag on the table just out of his reach.
"Let’s start at the beginning, who are you?" she asked nicely.
"Kellen Matu Hardy."
"Well, Kellen Matu Hardy, nice to meet you. Where are you from?"
"I told you, the Sokuhl home world in the Milky Way Galaxy, a place you seem to be familiar with. It’s the planet the people from this planet came from, except you, of course."
“Of course. You’ve traveled over 1500 light-centuries to rescue a girl?”
“Correct. She came here by mistake and I was sent to retrieve her. How the hell did you and rest of the diaspora get here? How is it you look younger than me yet you’ve been alive for centuries. How the hell did a human end up on the Sokuhl home world?”
She picked up Clio's bracelet and slammed it on the table. "I ask the questions. Where are you from?"
"I told you, the Sokuhl home world. Nice place, you should visit sometime.
"I have," she said as she sat down and examined the bangle. She stopped and peered closely at it. "Where did you get this?"
"A museum. It was about to be put into long-term storage when I found something living inside, so I bought it."
"Something living inside?"
"Her name is Clio and she's a muse, daughter of Zeus and goddess of history. She and I are friends."
Red dropped the jewelry and began to shake. "That's not possible."
"What? That I bought it, it had someone inside, or that Clio is the immortal goddess of history?"
"Zeus had only one child and it was me. He bedded my mother, a Malroth leader, and I was the result."
"By all that's holy, you're a god? Does Zeus even know?"
"You believe me just like that?"
"It explains why you look like my friend. What do you know about the diaspora? How did the Basili die? How did you get here? Where is here, by the way? Why all the statues in the two gate rooms. Who's your mum? Please, I need answers!" he yelled straining at his restraints.
She jumped out of her seat and walked over to the wall near the door while keeping continuous watch on Kel. "We're on a planet we call Arctillus. It's in orbit around a star we call Nata, which is one of millions of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Basili you see around you are all of their kind that survived a terrible accident."
He leaned back in his seat. “How in the name of any god you choose, did you and yours get here?”
"Are you here to save Jorgan?" she asked, abruptly changing gears.
"What's a Jorgan?"
"Jorgan is the son of the Furia, leader of Malroth."
"I don't recognize any of those words except leader. Clio and I are here to retrieve Dr. Sheila Minty, nothing more."
“How did you get here?”
“An intergalactic bridge we found in orbit around a sun distant from the home world. She inadvertently stepped through while we were examining it as part of an exploratory mission.”
"What bridge?"
"The glowing thing in the museum. Can't miss it; it's big, white, and bright."
She picked up his blaster and examined it. "How does this work?" she asked in an innocent voice. Kel had a hunch she already knew what it was.
"You might want to be careful with that pistol. At its current setting, you could take out a large chunk of building. We call it a blaster, and it can operate as a flashlight, stun an opponent, or blast a hole through concrete. Why did the Basili lose their wings? "
She thumbed the weapon off and gently placed it on the table. "I saved them from a horrible mistake and the only way to do that was to take away their ability to fly. Tell me about your parents?"
"They are Sokuhl. My father is the youngest son of the Patriarch, Zor Hardy. Dad's an accountant, and mother, Deena, is a scientist, a chemist to be exact. I have three siblings--one brother and two sisters--all Sokuhl. Please, tell me, what befell the Basili? What happened?"
She picked up the scanner and looked at it, turning it first one way, then the other. "And what are you?" she asked the device as she would an interesting bug, not at all expecting a response.
Before Kel could answer, the scanner spoke. "I am an Elven Industries Ltd., mark eighteen scanner-computer system based on the EIL mark three quantum computer and mark seven scanpad. My capabilities include data storage, data analysis, medical scanning, seismic scanning, photography, sound recording, and general environmental measurements."
Non-plussed, Red aimed the unit at Kel. "Medical scan, subject Kellen Matu Hardy. Display results."
"Working... Displayed."
She gasped. Nearly dropping the unit on the table, she hurried out of the room without further word.
"Kel, you need to get out of there," Clio said over the sub-audible communications link.
"You think? You never told me about a sister named Red," he said as he watched the door close and lock behind Red.
"I have eight full sisters and over eighty half siblings--some demigods, some full gods. She is not part of that group, which means I don't know what her powers are, so we don't know how dangerous she is. I am so going to have words with Daddy the next time I see him."
"Right," he said while raising up a shackle and spitting on it. The metal melted. He repeated the action on the other bindings, quickly freeing himself. He looked around and saw a camera watching him from a corner of the ceiling. He threw a chair at it, destroying it instantly. "Scanner, tracer check," he said while retrieving his gear.
"Tracers on my body, the weapon, your hair, your tail tip, and your left shoulder."
"Like I figured, they want me to escape. Clio, are you still with our new friend?"
"Yes. I think she's got the hots for you."
"Great, another complication."
"Rethinking the recluse gig?"
"Yes, I am. Scanner, can you spoof the tracer signals to give our watcher a false trail to follow until I can remove the tags?"
"Working... Ready."
"Clio, can you give me a vector to rendezvous with you?"
"Yeah, hold on." He watched as her bracelet glowed. A red pointer appeared on it. "Follow the arrow. We'll be waiting for you."
"How's Sheila doing?"
"You two need to talk, seriously talk. The shit's about to hit the fan on the home world and you two are smack-dab in the middle of it."
"Great. I wonder if I can get my apartment back."
"Hang in there, Big Guy. You've got Clio watching your back."
"Thanks." He walked over to the door and ripped it off its hinges. "That never gets old,” he said as he ran down the hall and out through a window. In moments, he was gone.
Red walked out from a doorway, then over to what was left of the interrogation room. She shook her head when she saw the melted shackles and chair embedded in the ceiling. Her aide, a Basili named Chukka, walked up, and handed her a hand terminal. "He's moving out of the city on a heading which will take him into the Dark Forest."
"Follow him, but not too closely. I don't trust this one."
"I don't understand, milady."
"He could have escaped and taken me hostage at any time, yet he waited until I left. He's not your typical insurgent."
"Milady, may I ask a question?"
"Of course."
"Were his wings real?"
She looked at him. "Yes, Chukka, they were real. He claims to have come from the ancient home world."
"Do you think he did?"
"Possibly. Send a science unit and a security squad to the museum to check out his claim that the gate there has reopened.”
"Yes, milady."
"I want to know everything there is to know about our Kellen Matu Hardy. I want him captured the moment he reunites with the insurgent forces. This could be the chance we've been waiting for to destroy them once and for all."
"Yes, milady."
###
Clio walked back into the building and grabbed a drink from the bar before joining Sheila at a table she shared with Kenta and Torga. The others gave Clio the once over while Sheila just stared at her. Finally, she addressed the elephant in the room. "So, Clio, you're not just a figment of Kel's imagination."
"Nope."
"And you're a Basili."
"Nope," she said as she morphed into her human form. The other two Basili jumped out of their seats with their slug throwers drawn.
"You look to be of the same people as Red. Who the hell are you?" Kenta demanded.
