Star Brigade: Ascendant (SB4)

by C. C. Ekeke

  Zojje calmly turned his long neck toward the helm. “Taorr? Come calm her so she doesn’t further injure herself. I will take the helm.” How could he be calm where mere walls of metal were the only thing between them and this expanse of nothingness?

  “Mhir’ujiid.” The familiar voice enveloped her heart. A figure rose from the helm, passing Zojje, who took his place. Taorr, in all his blue-pelted glory, knelt by her side to hold her hand. His handsome face looked tired but full of love. “I am here.”

  Her world felt right again, despite the constant tremors shuddering through the spacecraft. “We’re in outer space?” she whispered.

  Taorr nodded. “Zojje rescued us. Now we’re leaving Faroor. Forever.”

  The finality in Taorr’s tone chilled all of her warmth. “Oh,” she said in a small voice. Now a pit opened in her soul, letting out the grief over this farewell.

  Taorr caught her reaction and clutched her hand with both of his. “I know this isn’t what you want. But with the skyquakes and…Gaorr,” he barely uttered his brother’s name without looking nauseous. “There was no choice.”

  Mhir’ujiid remembered Taorr’s actions back on Faroor, before she’d passed out. Tears blurred her eyes as guilt squeezed her chest. “I am sorry.”

  Taorr stared at her, confused. “For what?”

  “Forcing your hand with Gaorr, coming between you and your family.” When Taorr’s family threatened to rip them apart, he had chosen her.

  The Ttaunz smiled, resting his forehead on hers. “From now on, you are my family. You are my world. We will build a new life together—Mhir’ujiid!” Pain knifed through her chest as she slumped back on the bed.

  Taorr panicked and turned back to the helm. “Zojje!” he cried desperately.

  “Use the ship’s medical consoles, Taorr,” the Kudoban called back. “I’m evading both the spacelane traffic and the energy phenomena shooting from Qos!”

  The pain eventually subsided and Mhir’ujiid could breathe again. She sat up, looking at the viewscreen. A moon was ringed in fire, forks of energy gushing out and splintering. That had to be Faroor’s moon, the six elements of Totality as one. Many ships fleeing from Faroor got struck, erupting in bright, fiery plumes before winking out in the vacuum.

  “This is happening because Ghuj’aega merged with the Zenith Point?” Taorr asked.

  “Yes. Qos.” Mhir’ujiid was enthralled. Despite being in outer space, the Farooqua was no longer afraid. To witness Qos like this—she barely remembered to breathe. “The Zenith Point is so…beautiful.”

  Taorr looked less than enamored. “I’ll admire the moon more if it doesn’t kill us. WHOA!” A sudden tremor hit them so violently, Mhir’ujiid feared the whole vessel might fly apart. Only holding Taorr’s hand kept the pair from flying from their positions.

  “Something struck us,” Zojje stated from the helm. Suddenly, Qos dominated the screen, growing larger, brighter, more menacing.

  “Why are we flying toward Qos?” Taorr demanded, fearful and angry. “Take us away.”

  “I am trying,” the Kudoban explained, his three-tenor voice sounding bewildered. Never a good sign. “Whatever struck us is pulling us closer.”

  Soon Mhir’ujiid could see the individual fiery fissure running across Qos’s surface. She locked eyes with Taorr. Both of them already knew. “This is the end,” the Ttaunz stated with clear certainty.

  Mhir’ujiid caressed his face, smiling despite this inevitable future before them. “Yes.” The truth hurt, but they couldn’t avoid it now.

  Taorr’s tears spilled down his fuzzy cheeks. “My one regret is not having more time with you.”

  Mhir’ujiid pulled Taorr into a long kiss. When she pulled back, Qos’s radiance had chased away all shadows inside this shuttle. She freed both hands to sign at the Ttaunz in Quud kineticabulary dialect. “I love you, Taorr the Lesser son of Taorr the Elder.”

  Taorr smiled back with such love. When the Ttaunz gestured to her in flawless Quud kineticabulary, her heart cracked even wider. “I love you Mhir’ujiid, First daughter of the Quud Tribal—”

  Explosive light engulfed the shuttle, blinding Mhir’ujiid.

  The shuttle exploded in a muted, fiery swell before the cold vacuum snuffed them out.

  Chapter 37

  Waves of vicious Farooqua Okka warriors crashed into the Star Brigadiers, all while searing red lightning flashed around them.

  Lily felt more terror than ever. Even with Fiyan and her PLADECO reinforcements, the doctor, Tyris, V’Korram, and Byzlar were greatly outnumbered.

  But she refused to let fear paralyze her. Not with Okka warriors screaming for her blood. Lily pointed her fingers like a gun and blasted them apart. After everything she’d endured on this mission, this felt glorious.

  Her rings of sonic energy ripped through countless Okka at once. Moving her feet and ducking to avoid spear thrusts or lashing whips, the doctor kept shooting.

  Yet more Okka kept charging from all sides, angry and shrieking.

  From where? she wondered, pointing and firing off another penetrating soundwave. And more Okka went flying, bones shattered and limbs distorted in unnatural positions.

  At her side, Tyris had switched to a massive repeater cannon, incinerating several Okka to ash with one orange beam. He whirled and fired, taking out several Farooqua trying a sneak attack.

  The Tanoeen spun right and fired another sustained blast on five more Okka harassing Byzlar. A few Okka jumped on Tyris’s back with spears to stab him.

  “No!” The doctor panicked and aimed for Tyris’s attackers. Before she could shoot, the Tanoeen tossed them over his shoulder and shot dead on. Nothing remained but scorched earth.

  V’Korram, meanwhile, was a blur of violence savoring every gruesome moment. He launched himself into the fray as soon as the Okka charged, and they had swarmed his massive six-foot-nine frame like ravenous army ants. Lily’s heart stopped fleetingly…

  …until the Kintarian burst through with a furious roar. He barreled through the Okkas, his claws slicing through skin and muscle, teeth ripping out throats in sprays of pinkish blood. His barrage of death blunted the charge of the Okka, throwing them in disarray.

  V’Korram dashed past one Okka and plunged a scaphe dagger deep into his chest, springing off the ground in a twisting roll to slam the flailing Farooqua into three of his companions. Another Okka made the mistake of charging the Kintarian with a whip. Several cat-quick claw swipes later, the Farooqua collapsed, his shredded upper body bleeding from countless wounds. A downward swipe of his claws slashed the face off another Okka. The Kintarian then dashed forward, sliding on his knees, stopped by his scaphe daggers sinking into two Okkas’ bellies. He sprang up and swung their scrawny, ragdoll bodies around like clubs into other Farooqua who approached. The whole time, Lily saw the Kintarian’s smile showing his yellowed, razor-sharp teeth.

  He’s enjoying this. Lily wasn’t disturbed like in the past. In this moment, she had never seen the Kintarian more beautiful. No wasted movement, every slash a killing strike.

  Byzlar, clustered with his PLADECO crew, fired repeatedly with his borrowed pulse pistol. The Aesonite seemed to have regained his courage with Sergeant Fiyan at his side, a bulky pulse rifle in each of her four arms. The Nnaxan sergeant was joined by five other soldiers: a Galdorian, two humans, a Ttaunz, and a Suuruali who towered over even V’Korram. The soldiers unleashed hellfire from their pulse rifles and repeater blasters, mowing down several Okka in droves.

  And finally, the waves of attacking Okka started diminishing.

  “We can’t fly too close to the settlement thanks to the lightning,” Fiyan hollered over the chaos, gesturing her top right arm to the churning skies. “We head west to reach our ships.”

  “Will do,” Lily agreed, pointing at a thick tangle of Okka rushing toward the group. Our way out. The thought pleased her much more than this chaotic skirmish.

  Another skyquake landed, as if someone had grabbed both ends of the
Okka settlement and shaken back and forth.

  Tyris and V’Korram tumbled off their feet in the middle of attacks. For several moments the glow of the Zenith Point overwhelmed Herope’s red light, turning the sky a blinding white.

  Fiyan and her PLADECO officers staggered about before finally falling over. Even the remaining Okka could no longer keep their footing.

  For Lily, the skyquake was unabashed anguish, blurring her vision. She dropped to a knee, her agonized screams lost in the roar of the skyquake.

  A hand grabbed her shoulder. Blinded by pain, Lily whirled around with hands clasped and fired. The rippling soundwave struck her attacker point-blank. The being landed with a grunt several feet away as the skyquake waned. Only then did Lily’s vision to clear enough to spot her felled victim, cracks spidering across his stony skin.

  The doctor’s whole world stopped.

  “Vaas?!” She ran to the Aesonite right as the skyquakes began to intensify again. This time the huts around them swayed and rocked off their moorings. The doctor was thrown off her direction, scrambling to reach the friend she might have killed.

  It was an accident, Lily told herself. Byzlar can’t die.

  But the skyquake’s vibrating pain made thinking impossible, forking down through every limb. The skyquake intensified, dead and living bodies flying every which way. The heavens buffeted the settlement with unbearable white radiance.

  “Vaas?!” she cried again, but her voice was lost in the uproar.

  The doctor was thrown off her feet, agony and horror dragging her under.

  Heartbroken, Lily didn’t resist the pull of unconsciousness.

  Chapter 38

  “This has to be the Zenith Point,” Khal stated after their new surroundings bled into view from unending white nothingness. Khal shook his head, wishing that alternate universe with the gender-reversed Star Brigade had been a bad dream.

  Now, he and Marguliese were safe in a vast forest of sorts, towering organic growths reminiscent of those skyscraper-high sequoias imported to Terra Sollus and Terra Gima from Old Earth. The structures littered as far as he could see in every direction. Except, these growths didn’t look entirely organic. The strobes of lights shooting up and down each appeared…cybernetic. Khal pushed his black, wavy coif out of his face as he looked around these structural wonders. Clearly they had barely scratched the surface of the Zenith Point’s insides.

  “Fascinating,” Marguliese stated, her voice echoing for a while. “This entire structure appears biomechanical, but ancient.” She approached the nearest towering growth with brisk strides. “I must learn more if we are to disable the threat it poses.”

  Khal scurried after her. “Sure that’s wise?” he cautioned. “We don’t know what this machine is besides a space-time nexus posing as a moon.”

  “Do you possess a superior theory, Vertex?” Marguliese inquired without breaking stride. “Obtaining access to the Zenith Point’s intelligence might help us locate our missing teammates, since communications are not functioning.”

  Khal had no counter to this. He and Marguliese had attempted several times to contact Captain Nwosu and the others. No response except static. It’s just us, a favorable scenario for Khal under much different circumstances. He pulled his brain out of the gutter and glanced upward, seeing only darkness where the glittering growths stretched into. “Just be careful.”

  Marguliese reached out with her cybernetic arm to touch a massive root of the lofty growth. Her hand twisted and morphed, coiling cables latching to the root. Marguliese’s eyes flashed bright blue as she connected. “I…have never encountered an artificial intelligence so powerful…yet so nascent.”

  Khal looked around, fists curled. “It’s young and powerful. Anything we can use to our advantage?”

  “Patience,” the Cybernarr chided. “I believe I can communicate directly with the Zenith—UHH!” Marguliese’s whole body stiffened before a choked grunt escaped her lips. Tremors overtook the Cybernarr as she suddenly made an odd droning noise. “NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN…”

  Khal rushed forward. “Marguliese?” The ground began quivering, as if angry at Marguliese’s connection.

  The Cybernarr’s eyes went from blue to pitch-black. Not good. Her convulsions increased. “NNNNNNNNNNNNN…”

  “Marguliese!” Khal grabbed her by the waist, tugging to detach her arm from the root. She was stuck. Even worse, a dark, coiling growth was worming up the Cybernarr’s arm in hundreds of miniscule tendrils. Khal yanked harder, aided by telekinesis, and finally ripped her limb free. She slumped back into his arms convulsing, eyes still jet-black. The end of her silvery arm hadn’t morphed back into a hand, the twisted cybernetics worming with black rot. Her beautiful face was strained yet empty. Khal’s heart raced up into his throat.

  “Marguliese!” he screamed. He took time to glance up, and his insides turned to lead. Huge snakelike filaments burst from every growth around them, hurtling toward his and Marguliese’s location.

  “Tattshi.” He raised a small telekinetic bubble around them at the last instant. The filaments lashed against the bubble like snakes, only to recoil away and strike again. Whatever Marguliese did clearly triggered the Zenith Point’s security systems. Soon Khal saw only hundreds upon hundreds of filaments colliding with his shields. He winced at each impact, the filaments shuddering and wrapping around them. Staying in one place meant death for him and Marguliese.

  “Gotta get out.” Cradling the spasming Cybernarr in his arms, Khal focused his bubble and hurtled upward. Snakelike filaments shot after him in pursuit, right on his heels. Khal held Marguliese firmly, pushing his TK bubble up into the darkness. After a few macroms, fatigue bit the edge of Khal’s senses. High-speed telekinetic flight always took a lot out of him. Coupled with that fight against his gender-reversed self, Khal fought past the exhaustion and flew upward. As his wavy black hair flowed back from the winds, Khal pushed past the highest of these biomechanical growths until the writhing filaments finally couldn’t reach. Not far enough.

  Thankfully he saw a growth with a summit, branches splaying out in all directions. Khal was running on fumes now, TK shields waning, and flight speed slowing to a crawl. “Almost…spent,” he panted. Khal angled his TK bubble toward the nest of branches and tumbled onto the bowl-shaped center of the growths. Marguliese was thrown from his grasp, his telekinetic bubble completely gone. For several long moments, Khal lay prone, sucking in greedy breaths of air as sweat poured down his face. Khal could finally see the Zenith Point’s ceiling, still too far from reach, speckled like starry heavens in space.

  He pushed up onto his elbows after he regained some semblance of strength. Marguliese lay nearby, spasming still but in diminishing jolts. At least her eyes were no longer black as pitch.

  Crawling to her on all fours, Khal realized he’d saved the Cybernarr again. Only this time, instinctively.

  “She’s my teammate,” Khal muttered, not caring if Sam wouldn’t like that. Marguliese had shown no disloyalty to Star Brigade. His allegiance to D’Urso aside, he had to see unshakeable proof otherwise.

  He spotted Marguliese’s blue eyes contracted to ocean-blue irises. She sat bolt upright, gasping. Shock dominated her golden features.

  The Cybernarr turned away and retched, dark metallic grey goo spewing from her mouth.

  Khal recoiled. “OK, what the red hell happened?”

  “It is alive,” Marguliese interrupted, wiping her mouth with the back of her non-cybernetic hand.

  Khal was lost. “Huh?”

  “The Zenith Point,” she snapped, staggering to her feet. Her cybernetic hand transformed slowly, the silvery mechanics shifting back into fingers. “This space-time nexus is a living biomechanical organism. Unquestionably the first of its kind.” She looked around with reverence and fear. Khal wasn’t comfortable seeing the latter sentiment on Marguliese’s face.

  He stood up, heart pounding so hard the whole Zenith Point probably heard. “Didn’t see that coming.”

/>   “When I touched its consciousness,” she continued, “it reacted with revulsion. I was overwhelmed, tried to disconnect. But the Zenith Point trapped me…attempted to drown my consciousness in junk code. From then until now, I recall nothing.”

  The ground beneath them shook, the gargantuan growth shifting away. “What now?” Khal groaned.

  He didn’t have to wait long for an answer. They stood in what looked like a command center, except twenty-five times bigger than any Khal had stepped foot in. Biomechanical growths spidered up the walls, covering nearly any machinery in this space. Khal had experienced some of the universe’s stranger sects, but never like this. His eyes were drawn to the room’s center and what appeared to be a small breach of sunlight. It was beautiful, attached to no wall, hanging in midair. Some of the thickest growths wreathed the tear, veins of yellow light coursing like rivulets from that breach. Along with the growths, Khal spotted large coils untouched by the dark biomechanics feeding directly into the breach.

  “That must be the spatial-temporal tear the other Habraum informed us on, which the Zenith Point was sealing,” Marguliese stated, as mesmerized as Khal was.

  “It’s beautiful,” he murmured. Beautiful and terrifying. The breach throbbed and belched out a thin, sinewy Farooqua. Its descent slowed a few feet from the ground. The radiance faded away, revealing the Farooqua’s glittering sky-blue pelt. His eyes, blood red, sliced through Khal with their intensity. The angular white tattoos made the human recoil and Marguliese take a battle stance.

  “Apologies for my friend’s hostility toward your attempt to connect, and scattering your comrades,” the Farooqua sounded peaceful yet rather otherworldly. “After centuries, he still mistrusts non-Farooqua.”

  Khal centered himself, telekinetic energy pulsating through his arms. “Ghuj’aega,” he hissed.

  The Farooqua closed his eyes, shaking his head with a smile. Very unlike Ghuj’aega. “I consumed his essence to usher my return. Guess again.”