by Frank Carey
"I thought you said the other races were wiped out a long time ago," Gus yelled to Savannah as two of the guards grabbed him and pushed him to his knees before handcuffing him.
"I lied," Savannah said demurely
The guards nearest the hatch stepped aside as a Sokuhl woman strode in, her wings neatly folded, Gus recognized her immediately. "Sheila?"
"Mom!" Savannah yelled while running over to embrace the woman.
"Hello, Darling. Welcome back. Did these two creatures hurt you?"
"No, in fact, they saved me and Morty from pirates, then helped us return to the station." She pointed first to Gus, then Matt. "This is Gustav Curran and that's Matt Apeloko. They're harmless."
"I see. Husband! The coast is clear," Sheila yelled out the open airlock.
Gus and Matt stared in shock as Kellen Hardy walked through the open hatch. Face, hair, the same as the Kel he knew, but that was where the resemblance ended. Where Kel was two meters tall, built like a bodybuilder with wings and tail, this version was barely five-foot-ten, sans wings, sans tail, and sans anything but normal muscle. He was wearing a black jumpsuit emblazoned with a symbol resembling a sphere surrounded by a dozen letters "S".
"Daddy!" she yelled. She ran up and hugged him. "Look what I brought you!"
"Another lie," Gus noted. "At least she's consistent.
Sheila nodded to the guards who removed Gus's and Matt's cuffs. "Welcome to our humble universe. My name is Sheila Hardy and this is my husband, the Reverend Kellen Hardy, leader of the First Church of the Prohedron."
Kellen walked up to Gus. "I know you, Storen. Have we met?"
"No. I think I would have remembered."
Kellen gave Gus the hairy eyeball before turning his attention to Matt. "And what the hell are you?"
Before Gus could say anything, Matt blurted out, "Mutant elf. My parents were accidentally dosed with a mutagen while my mother was pregnant with me."
"He is a Logash, Father."
"Right... Mutant elf... I think..." Kellen was interrupted by a pounding at the hatch leading to the aft cargo hold. "What, another crew member?"
"No, we collided with a flight of twelve Trent—swarm-units just as we entered the portal," Gus explained. "Several made it inside the hold, but I think they may be dead..."
"Swarm units dead? Impossible. Why do you think they're dead?"
"The hold is filled with pieces of them," Matt replied.
"He's right," Savannah said. "It's horrible."
Kellen thought for a moment, then waved to the troopers to leave. As they walked out, he spoke into his wrist gauntlet. "This is Hardy. Send in Flight One, full alert."
Immediately, twelve heavily armed and armored winged and wingless Sokuhl ran in with weapons at the ready. Kellen pointed at the hatch. "Mr. Curran, if you would kindly unlock that door."
While everyone else stepped behind the members of Flight One, Gus reached over and tapped the door's unlock button before hurrying out of the way. The pounding stopped as the door swung open. This was followed by a large piece of smoking swarm unit sailing out of the door to land at Kellen's feet. "Hold fire!" Kellen yelled as Dr. Kel Hardy walked out into the room while biting into another piece of a unit.
"You know, this is damn good if you remember to pick out the metal," he said as he threw the remaining roast on the floor. Pulling a hankie from his vest, he cleaned his hands before putting his fists on his hips. "Hey, Gus, you doing OK?"
"Hey, Kel. Yeah, doing fine. How about yourself?"
"I'm fine..."
"Hello there, big, tall, and handsome," Sheila said while walking over and running her hands over his wings. "I've never seen a winged male before..."
"Mother!"
"Wife!"
Sheila quickly pulled her hand away, but gave Kel a knowing smile while mouthing, "Later."
"Hmmmm. Flight Leader!"
"Sir!"
"Take our friends to their quarters. Sheila! Bring Savannah to the CIC. I want to discuss our next move. The Prohedron arrived early, and I want to know why. Security Team Leader."
"Sir, a large Goranthi barked as she re-entered the room.
"Have maintenance clean this area, then seal this ship."
"Yes, sir."
As Kel walked out behind Matt and Gus, he heard Savannah scold Sheila. "Mother! Why do you continue to bait Father? He will have you killed!"
"It’s just so damn easy to do, I can't help myself. Besides, Did you get a load of Dr. Hardy's muscles?"
"Mother!"
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Gus, Matt, and Kel were led to a windowless, sparsely furnished room near the docking area. They were shown the necessities and locked inside to wait for their captors—hosts—to rejoin them.
While his fellow captives checked the room over, Kel walks over to a large flat-screen viewer, and after a short examination, activated it. The image of a young Sokuhl woman appeared. She was sitting at a desk, talking about some event while video played behind her. Kel sat down and watched while his companions continued to take stock of their surroundings.
"Dammit," Gus exclaimed as he sat down. "There's not even a network jack. Matt, find anything?"
Matt jumped over the back of a chair and bounced as he landed. "Nope. This screen is it. What'cha watching, Dr. Hardy?"
"Call me Kel. I'm watching a news feed."
Another anchor joined the first one. This one was human. They led off with a recap of the breaking news of the Empire.
"Empire? What empire?" Gus asked
"Switch channels," Kel asked Matt, who was sitting closest to the viewer. The young Logash reached up and tapped the bezel. Another news channel flashed into view. Like the first one, the anchors were of different species. Matt changed the channel once more. They stared at what shimmered into view next.
"The Storen Empire News Channel," Kel whispered as he and Matt turned to stare at Gus.
"In today's news, Emperor Nelson the Fifteenth spoke today from his imperial yacht, the River’s Edge, where he vowed to carry the fight directly to the Sokuhl separatists led by Reverend Kellen Hardy..." the elf newscaster said.
"My father's name was Nelson," Gus noted.
"... who was personally responsible for the death of the Emperor's son and Heir Apparent, Gustav..."
Pictures of two Storens appeared on the screen. The one on the right was younger, with blonde fur and a scar crossing his face over his right eye.
Gus stood up. "That's my father."
"No wonder Kellen thought you looked familiar," Kel noted. He saw Gus standing there, his eyes wide in shock. "Hey, what's wrong."
Gus pointed to the screen. They had switched to a clip from a recent event the emperor had attended. There were several Storens in view, all basking in the glow of strobes as their photos were taken by the paparazzi. "My mother, sisters, brothers... Gisele."
"Who's Gisele?" Matt asked.
"My betrothed... My late betrothed..." He stopped talking as the shaking began.
"Shit," Matt said while grabbing Gus as he fell to the deck. Suddenly, three immortals appeared.
Minnie ran over and cupped Gus's face in her hands. "Gus, listen to me. Those people are not your family. That isn't your father, and that isn't Corrine. They're doppelgangers. They don't know you, and you don't know them."
He looked at her, his breathing calming. "I... I know this... It's just... a shock." He gasped and closed his eyes for a moment, then got to his feet.
"You got this?" Minnie asked while Horus hopped to Gus's shoulder and peered into his large, Storen eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, I got this. Sorry about that. I... I don't know what happened." He looked up and saw a stranger watching him. "Who the hell are you?"
"She's with me," Kel said. "Clio, Immortal Muse of History, I would like you to meet Gustav Curran and Mathias Apeloko. I think you know everyone else."
"Click, click," Horus said while twisting his head ninety degrees.
"Funny, featherhead." She looked at Gu
s. "Trust me, this place is crazy no matter which way you cut it."
"Clio, Can I assume Kellen and his motley crew are not watching us?"
"Nah," Minnie explained. "The moment Gus docked the ship, we three immortals got into the stations network. When we figured out which room you were being put into, we scammed the video feeds so that it looks like Kel is napping while Matt and Gus are playing cards."
"Good job. Clio, did you find anything useful in their computer data banks?"
"Yeah, a lot. You three have been scammed like there was no tomorrow, and not just you. Morty's been lying to the princess since they arrived here."
"Start with that. How has he been lying?"
Horus ruffled his feathers before returning to biped form.
"You know, that never gets old," Matt observed.
"There are immortals here, hundreds of them, and they are in the midst of deciding on whether or not to interfere with the course of history in this universe."
"I thought that was forbidden," Kel said.
"It is in our universe. Here, it is only suggested," Clio said. "I dug around in their virtual world and it looks like things here went bad millennia ago, but the immortals decided to take a wait and see approach. Unfortunately, they're tired of waiting."
"So, what's going on that so bad?" Matt asked.
"First off, there are no Logash, so there is no interbreeding between the species," Clio said. "There are no elflings, nor any other kind of ings, so there is no way to form extended, multi-species alliances through marriage and offspring. Each planet is on its own."
"Second, there is no League of Planetary systems. Instead, the Storens formed an empire, subjugating first the humans, then the Felini, using their technology to subjugate the rest of the galaxy, including the Sokuhl."
"What the hell is a Felini?"
"A species of Katalan that died out about a million years ago," Kel said. "Think of a Felini as a cross between a Katalan and a Goranthi, with the temper of a wombat.”
“The Storens were able to subjugate that?"
"With the help of the humans and a pinch of genetic engineering, yeah," Clio replied.
Everyone shuddered.
"OK, we have an empire. This still doesn't explain stealing the Yosho," Gus noted.
Minnie took up the narrative. "Several years ago, a religious separatist group led by Kellen and Sheila Hardy, escaped from the Sokuhl homeworld and headed into space in search of their savior which they call the Prohedron. Its symbol is a circle surrounded by esses.
"Ah, I've seen the symbol on Kel," Kel said.
"Their search led them here..."
"The Large Magellanic Cloud? How did they get here?"
"They didn't. That VC star out there is located about twenty light-years from the Sokuhl. We're still in the Milky Way Galaxy."
"Damn!" Gus said.
"From what data we could find," Minnie said, "it looks like the separatists figured out where the Prohedron went..."
"Our universe," Matt said.
Minnie nodded. "They opened a small gate into our universe and waited until something interesting passed by..."
"The Memphis probe."
Clio nodded. "They were damn lucky. It could have taken centuries or millennia before something happened by. Instead, they quickly get access to a Memphis, the InterWeb, and the League database. They know virtually everything about us while we don't know jack about them."
"Can we assume you fixed the latter?" Kel asked.
"We transmitted their database back to the Leavitt the moment Horus and Minnie were able to decrypt it."
"What about this Prohedron?" Matt asked.
Kel looked to the ceiling. "Why would anyone want to bring it back to their universe? It makes no sense."
"Unless they think they can control it..." Clio noted.
"And use it for something..." Gus added. "Friends, I think we've stumbled into a terrorist plot to take over an empire."
"A cloud of tentacle-festooned biorobots would make that easy, wouldn't it?" Horus noted.
"Those morons!" Gus said as he stood up and paced the room. "The first rule of finding is to be prepared for success. Some things should not be found, ever." He stopped when he saw the looks the others were giving him. "Sorry. Rough day."
Minnie patted him on the shoulder. "What now?" she asked.
Everyone looked at Gus.
"What?"
"You deal with strange shit, and you're not bound by a non-interference directive," Kel explained.
"Huh?"
Clio took pity on him. "We can help, guide, even suggest alternatives. We just can't lead. Only you mortals can do that."
"Gus, it is your destiny," Horus said in a deep, booming voice.
"Making with the thunder voice!" Clio said with a shake of her head.
Horus changed back to an owl, letting loose with a stream of clicks and chirps. Clio just glared at him while Minnie stifled a laugh.
"Have they always been like this?" Matt said to Minnie.
"As long as I've known them," Minnie said. She looked at Gus. "Any ideas?"
"Kellen and his people want their god, so we let them get it. It saves the League the trouble of worrying about it."
"Gus, we can't do that. Sokuhl is within striking distance of this station."
"We warn the Empire. They have to know the reverend and his flock are out here. We give them the coordinates, then once the Prohedron is safe and snuggly back with its worshipers, we either destroy or retrieve the drives and bug out back to our universe."
Matt looked at him in horror. "What if the reverend is wrong? That thing could kill everyone on this station and in the empire. It could kill Savannah..."
Gus looked at the Logash, his over-sized eyes filled with nothing except pain. For a moment, he was going to say something, then he saw the horror in the eyes of every one of his companions. He looked to the ceiling for guidance. "New plan. We kill the Prohedron once it enters this galaxy. This eliminates the threat to the League, the Empire, and this station."
"Destroy it." Kel said. "Any idea how we kill it?"
"A small piece of an idea. Kel, what happened in the hold of the Yosho?"
"The McMurphy twins shunt-transported me into the hold seconds before the Yosho crossed over into this universe..."
"You can do that?" Gus asked Matt.
"I can take any one of you from one place to another within a certain maximum distance dependent on how big you are. The twins can move someone from point to point without accompanying them. No other Logash can do that. It has something to do with their parent's DNA. Remember, Shenda McMurphy, their mother, and Chasm, their father, are both genetically engineered life forms."
"Damn," was all Minnie could say.
"Sorry, Kel. Please, go on," Gus said.
"Moments after Clio and I materialized in the hold—Clio came along in her bracelet, by the way—the ship was hit multiple times, each hit opening up the hull. The first hit caused my helmet to close which activated my suit's scanners. That's when I detected the first Prohedron unit. Before I could do anything, other units joined us. They attacked and one bit through my suit. It exploded the moment its teeth came into contact with my flesh. I removed my gloves—I can survive vacuum exposure for almost thirty minutes—and grabbed the remaining units. They both exploded the moment I touched them. By then, the sealers had taken care of the breaches."
"No flame breath?"
Kel shook his head. "Something about my touch lit them off like a bomb."
"Could your different quantum spin signature have lit them off?" Gus asked.
"I doubt it since the swarm has been feeding off planets in our LMC for centuries."
"Clio, any mention of the swarm getting indigestion from contact with a Sokuhl?"
"I went way back in their history. Legend has it that the Prohedron was developed by an unknown race as a defense against interstellar invaders, but it had to be destroyed when it attacked its creator
s. It was always assumed that these creators were the Sokuhl. They never denied it."
"Yet Kel is Sokuhl, but he caused it to explode. They look like Sokuhl, they sound like Sokuhl, so what's missing..." He looked up at Matt. "No Logash. Matt. When Agendor and the original Logash launched the seed ships and the colony ships, were any of their target destinations in the Large Magellanic Cloud?"
"No. Too far. The data banks aboard Agendor's ship indicated targets only in the home world's quadrant, the one containing the League. None of the probes or ships had enough power reserves to make it out of the Milky Way.”
"The Prohedron can feed on people in this universe, people who've never seen a Logash..." Gus summarized.
"And it can feed in the LMC, a galaxy bereft of any Logash..." Minnie noted.
"But it explodes when it comes in contact with a League species carrying Logash genetics," Gus added. "Could it be that simple?"
"Maybe we should find out," Kel said.
"That shouldn't be too hard," Clio said. "They've got three of the little suckers stored in a nearby lab."
"Alive?" Gus asked.
"Oh yeah, and nobody will go near them."
"Right, then I have an idea," Gus said as the others gathered around him. He looked at Minnie and Horus. "You two aren't going to like this."
"Been there; done that," Minnie said.
"Click, chirp," Horus added for emphasis.
"What's your idea?" Kel asked.
"I need to touch one of the captive units."
"Excuse me?" Minnie said as she went from curious to horrified.
"They touched Kel and died. I think they died because he carries the Logash gene. I need to test that assumption."
"You're crazy," Minnie noted.
"Maybe so, but test the assumption I must. We need to get to that lab."
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Gus continued to walk around the room while he thought aloud. "I wonder if this place is on a personnel schedule."
"Let's find out," Kel said while removing a ring and placing it on the table. "Scanner, access station computer system. Question: are guards on a rotation schedule?"
A rotating holographic glyph—"Ventos Prime University"—appeared above the ring. "Working,' a female voice said.
