“A savior from Baeal?” Sarah asked.
“As I said, the scriptures are ambiguous. Creating a timeframe about the Nucteel is hard. Did they all disappear because of this Baeal? Did their empire live its lifespan like any other and diminished into nothingness? I cannot say. There are divine passages, chants that talk about a female and something called Nightfall.”
“They are coming back home to claim it, but they too are afraid of Her like you will be,” Ray quoted.
“Yes, young man. That is one of the passages. It talks about something dark and evil happening. The texts we had were incomplete and the details impossible to make out. The ones they refer as Them is probably the same thing the scriptures refer as Baeal. However, I do not know who Her is or what does it represent. Perhaps their god.”
“And the Nightfall?” Ray asked.
“End of times, perhaps.”
Ray nodded to Sarah and she reached under her seat, taking the first statuette from the backpack and setting it on the table.
Reverend Marcus pursed his lips. “Gabriel, you removed the Arinar from the temple and gave it to these ignoramuses?”
“Father, we—” Brother Cavil tried to explain, but his father silenced him with a look, shaking his head as if to say ‘I am not amused’.
“What does this stone do in particular?” Ray asked, saving Brother Cavil from his father’s disapproval. The priest gave him a thankful smile.
“This is Ijjok,” the Reverend answered, “It is the map stone.”
“Map of what?” Sarah asked.
“Once activated, it is supposed to show anything the Lohil wants to find.” He took out the stone he carried with him from his robes and placed it near the other artifact, “And this is K’ta, the planar stone,” he explained, showing its markings. “The K’ta, if I am not mistaken, is a planar gateway that bars passage in between planes. It touches the other planes and creates a connection or disconnects one if the Lohil wants.” Reverend Marcus shrugged. “Of course, even though these artifacts hold a great deal of place in the Nucteel culture, it may very well be folklore. There are three more stones, according to the scriptures. Serhmana the power stone, Yrrha the shield stone, and Mara’tthane the lock stone. They were never found as you may have guessed.”
“I didn’t know they were missing.” Ray said
“It is a wonder you bunch know anything, boy.”
“Map stone. That makes sense,” Sarah jumped in, preventing Reverend Marcus from continuing his colorful speech.
“It is a map for the Lohil, showing the galaxy around him, centering him on the map.” Ga’an’s voice irked the reverend, who had seemed to forget Ga’an altogether. “It can show what the Lohil wants.”
“I already told that, very tall man.”
“Ours shows the galaxy whenever the boss touches it,” Sarah said with a fake smile.
Reverend Marcus folded his arms angrily, “Our stone!”
Brother Cavil explained—for the seventh time—but his father ignored him like a parent listening to a story of monsters under the bed. Sarah jumped into the conversation to tell the reverend about the events on Tarra and even Darty meowed a few times, though it soon lost interest in the matter and started licking its paws. The rest were too engrossed in the discussion to back off and in a matter of seconds, the trio devolved into an argument about ignorance and showing respect to elders.
“Enough!” Ray slammed his fist on the table, silencing them in an instant. “I don’t have time for this!” He reached for the Arinar, touching Ijjok first. The stone responded immediately, glowing with bright blue light and becoming transparent. Inside the now-glass statuette, stars shone, spinning slowly in harmony. “This shows what I want to see? Good.” Ray closed his eyes and focused on the Fox. He felt the stone respond and the view zoomed in to their location. Now they could see the asteroid base and their ship, the Fox. Ray pulled his hand away from the statuette and it immediately returned to its original form. He could have sworn he felt sadness through his touch when he pulled away from the Arinar, as if the thing longed for him to hold it.
Then he reached for K’ta. The moment he touched it, the Arinar glowed with bright purple light and Ray felt something like the touch of a cold, spring breeze.
“Ray…” Sarah’s voice was a whisper. “The air around you, it’s rippling like that ship!”
Ray thought he saw moving auras around the stone. Shadows maybe. He gently pulled back and everything returned to normal, again feeling the Arinar’s yearning, as he had with Ijjok.
“Interesting,” Reverend Marcus said, but Ray saw he’d reached the man’s senses this time. “So you can use the stones, as it was described.”
Ray nodded.
“And the stones are actually working and not simply a myth.”
Ray nodded again.
Reverend Marcus took a deep breath, scratching his right ear, “All right, very tall man,” he said, turning to Ga’an, finally acknowledging his existence, “I am guessing you will end up as real as well.”
Ga’an just growled.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
MARA’TTHANE
Sarah pulled out her wall bed and covered it with an old blanket she found in a cabinet. She and Ray had taken the smaller cabin, leaving the bigger one to the three men.
“Funny.”
“What’s that?”
Sarah smiled. “He was practically being a prick. Calling Ga’an a liar and all. Now, he wants to share a bunk with him.”
“Old people are like that.”
“Yeah?”
“You know,” Ray shrugged. “Change is hard. Adaptation to change’s harder. Besides,” he rubbed his tired eyes, “our stories are pretty wild for an outsider and our tall friend wins the spot of honor on that context.”
“You think so?”
“Well, he says he’s an alien. An Ancient. He looks a bit off, yes, but pretty much human to my eyes. Well, except for the chin.”
“Yeah, I told him the same thing on Tarra. It’s the giveaway. Well you don’t say ‘ooh, alien’ but you definitely feel something’s off.”
“We found out the Ancients lived and died millions of years ago. If it wasn’t for all the weirdness I’ve been through this month, I would’ve doubted it myself.”
“I believe him. I didn’t see much. Perhaps it was a trick but when he connected that thing to me to learn my language, I believe I saw images of his…memories, maybe?” Sarah narrowed her eyes. “He was big, Ray. A man of position in his society. And I felt sadness, and the image of a plaque with six discs on it. Some of them were missing and he was mourning.”
“What were they?”
“A family standard, maybe. He told me he lost his sons to Baeal.”
“There are no winners in wars. Only survivors.”
“I feel bad for Ga’an.”
“Sad?”
She sat on her bed and sighed, petting the sleeping cat softly “I mean, we won’t be going back to our lives after all this, I’m guessing. You know, you have magic stones that scatter lights and assassins chasing us. Hostile aliens are raiding our stations. But at least we know it’s out there, somewhere. There are people we know, we care about, who live on Earth or Mars.”
“Me, I’m sure this change is irreversible. But you can go back anytime you want. We can just drop you at a base if that’s what you wish.”
“Right now, my wish is more on the lines of smacking you with a wooden stick and shooting you if you don’t stop this blathering.”
Ray raised a brow.
“You’re my family and I’m yours. How can you say that after all the years on Canaar?”
Ray nodded apologetically. “I only want to keep you out of harm’s way. Me, Ga’an and Brother Cavil are tied to this and Reverend Marcus’ interest in the subject will probably keep him around.”
“I was on that ship too, Ray. They were my friends as well.”
“You’re right. I’m an utter fool.”
&
nbsp; “Yes.” Sarah sighed. “Anyway, Ga’an lost his family to the war, fought hard until the very end, only to find himself in an unknown reality and timeline.”
“He planned to die on that bridge and perhaps this is the afterlife for him.” Ray reached for his cup of coffee cooling on the nearby table. “His family was long dead before he ended up here.”
“Ray!” Sarah threw her pillow, missing Ray by a few centimeters. “You can be a bit more sensitive! You really are an utter fool!”
Ray looked at his wet shirt and nodded again. “You’re right. His war should’ve been over with that explosion.” He took the pillow from the floor and gave it back to Sarah.
“At least we know a lot more about the stones,” Sarah said.
“Do we?”
“Well, they predate Ga’an’s people.”
“And this helps us how?”
“I don’t know,” Sarah admitted. “But maybe now we can find the other stones with Is—what did the reverend call it?”
“Ijjok.”
“Yes, we can use Ijjok to find the other Arinar. You’ve already located one with Ga’an. How does that thing work?”
Ray pursed his lips, raising his brows. “Before Reverend Marcus told us the stone showed whatever the Lohil wants, I had no idea what it was doing. Just touching it and seeing the galaxy. Now,” Ray clicked his tongue, “it’s as if the stone reads my mind. I thought of you, and it focused on Fox.”
“You thought of me,” Sarah raised a brow and smirked.
“That was a test. We were testing the stone!”
Sarah chuckled.
“Anyway, I just thought about the name of one of the stones, Mara’tthane, and Ijjok focused on a planet not too far from where we are. Pendar.”
“So, there’s an Arinar there?”
“We’ll see what we’ll find out. It’s a terra-formed farming planet according to the star map logs of Fox. Reverend Marcus said he read tomes about a temple of the Gods some years back. The descriptions match with an ancient structure in the northern hemisphere of Pendar.” Ray stood up and put his mug on the table, reaching for the small medical cabinet built into the wall panel over his bed. “I’ll take the first shift on the bridge, we have some distance to cover yet, better to keep an eye on the radar,” he said.
“I’ll hit the showers. Wake me up for my shift.” Sarah took her newly found pants, one of the few useful things left behind by the Fox’s previous owners. Her search had provided them with some worn clothes, a few sidearms and rifles, and enough food and supplies for a few months. She also had found enough cat food to feed an army of cats.
“Someone really likes you, eh, Darty?” Sarah teased the sleepy cat, as she undressed.
“They were probably smuggling those foods,” Ray grimaced, using one of the jet-injectors he’d found in the medical cabinet on his bruises. “I wonder if these things have anything left in them.”
“Even a small dose would be enough to cure those in no time.”
“You gotta love nanomedicine. Tiny robots crawling under your skin.”
“Does it hurt much?”
“I’m fine, Sarah.” The battered captain gave a faint smile. “I’ll be in the cockpit.”
Sarah thought she liked this new captain better; someone who cared for something bigger than himself. Not that Raymond Harris had ever been selfish, he was always caring. And then burning himself out to the point of needing to escape reality.
“I’m going to take a shower,” Sarah said to Darty, now sleepily purring on Sarah’s bed, letting Ray slip from her mind. “Be a nice girl and don’t wander off.”
“Meow.”
***
The refreshing hot water was a welcome change after the pig farm called Joe’s Hole and she hadn’t even had to beg or do shady deeds for the sly man to get it. Sarah was astonished how fast the human mind adapted. Just over a month ago, she’d been a security officer onboard a cargo ship. In the last few weeks, she’d been a stranded victim on a desolate moon, working for a smuggler thug for food and shelter, and very recently, she’d become part of a quest to save the galaxy from alien invaders. Not once had she questioned how Ray was handling it all. “Gotta wonder how he does it.”
Her mind swam through the thoughts and memories of the past weeks. She didn’t check the time but she was sure she showered for at least an hour. The Fox had two showers and a water recycling system; an admirable design covering every need of its crew, Sarah admitted to herself. No way those slimy morons had anything to do with its build. The ship was simply too neatly planned and decorated—and no doubt stolen from its original owners, who were probably drifting in the dead cold of space. Sarah made a note to herself to find a way to replace the missing escape pods she’d discovered on her search.
When she headed back to her room, the cat was gone, likely finding another spot to sleep. Sarah chuckled and lay down, feeling the tiredness in her bones, her every fiber aching. She didn’t try to resist the weight of her eyelids and was fast asleep in seconds, dwelling in dreams.
***
“Girl, wake up!”
“What?” Sarah said, battling to open her sleepy eyes, “I just lay down, please…”
“You have been sleeping for the past twelve hours, my child,” the caring voice of Brother Cavil said.
“What!” Sarah tumbled out of bed in a panic. “I missed the shift!”
“Oh, my…” Brother Cavil covered his eyes and turned away.
“What!” Sarah yelled, looking around frantically. Then she saw her reflection in a cabinet’s metal frame. “Oh, God!” She didn’t remember taking off her clothes, every one of them. Cursing non-stop, she tried to find her underwear, stumbled and bumped twice into Brother Cavil who was trying to head for the door with closed eyes, spilling the coffee he’d brought her.
The chaos ended after she found her panties under the blanket and her bra in Ray’s bed. She had no idea how it had ended up there but there was no time to find out. I definitely didn’t do that! Did I?
“All right, I’m awake, you can come back in” she said finally, watching Brother Cavil trying to clean coffee off his robe. She was flushed red with embarrassment.
Brother Cavil’s face burned and his cheeks shone like strawberries in summer. He opened his mouth to apologize but Sarah stopped him with a gesture before the old man could start an unending dialogue. Something Ray had taught her.
“Sorry about your robe, why didn’t Ray wake me up?”
The old man shrugged, “I guess he slept in the cockpit.” He offered the coffee he’d brought—what was left of it—to Sarah.
“Thank you.” She swigged it all. “Where’s he?”
“Cockpit.” Brother Cavil’s face suddenly turned serious. “They all are.”
Ray was in the pilot’s seat, Ga’an following his instructions and helping with maneuvers.
“What’s going on?” Sarah asked, still cursing herself for not waking up when needed.
“This.”
They were near Pendar, the location for the third Arinar according to Ijjok. The planet glowed pale pinkish through the sparse cloud formations surrounding it. Besides the color veil, the planet was Earth-like with its oceans and mountains, and a tad smaller, especially after two hundred years of terraforming according to the general information given by the navigation computer of Fox.
None of them were interested in the planet, though.
“Those are Consortium dreadnoughts,” Sarah whispered. “What are they doing here?”
“Protecting a planet, maybe?”
“From w—” Sarah’s voice died when she saw the huge arachnoid ship accompanied by hundreds of smaller craft, hovering over Pendar.
***
“Admiral, we’re in position,” Lieutenant Jong said over the radar console.
“Good,” Rebecca said. “Get Commander Matthews here.”
“Ma’am, his communicator’s not responding.”
Rebecca’s lips tightened. “Tr
y again and send an airman to check on him if you cannot reach him.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Have you been able to get in touch with the planet?”
“Our signal is being blocked,” the lieutenant answered, “but we were able to alert them before they jammed us.”
Rebecca nodded in acknowledgement and turned to the tactical console. The planet had some considerable surface-to-air defense batteries but would that be enough to stop the invaders? Her memory of the first encounter was still fresh, and again seeing the spider-shaped ship from her last battle—and this one was way bigger—wasn’t helping much with her and her crew’s morale.
“How is the evacuation going?”
Lieutenant Jong opened a holographic view of the planet on the main tactical station. “The enemy ships are positioning themselves somewhere around the planet’s north pole.” He pointed at the red dots buzzing at the top of the view, surrounding a big red circle. “The ships that left the atmosphere from the southern hemisphere report they evacuated around ten percent of the total population.”
Rebecca looked at the tactical map closely, “Something is different this time.”
“How so, Admiral?”
“They are not attacking the fleeing ships. They did not make a move for us either. The pattern here,” she marked a circular area near the northern pole, “looks as if they are searching for something. See how they are circling around that spot.”
“Pendar has no strategic value,” Lieutenant Jong said.
“For us, maybe, lieutenant,” Rebecca reasoned. “They are aliens, what makes you think their logic works like ours.” It wasn’t a question; Rebecca was educating her officer as well as adjusting her own strategy. Do not get cocky. Do not think you know your enemy.
“Admiral Conway, ma’am!” A young ensign rushed to the terminal. “Commodore Price of the Stockholm wants to speak with you.” The man’s hoarse breathing was distorting his own voice. “He reports a small craft has come out of hyperspace into the system.”
Shadows Bear No Names (The Blackened Prophecy Book 1) Page 22
