Ray turned his head to locate Caius. The agent hung by his hands from the end of the rail, trying to pull himself up.
Ray crawled toward the assassin but a screeching sound stopped him; the other chain holding the platform was coming off as well. Ray looked for a way out but he was too far from the door. He heard the chain crack, yielding to the weight it carried and the platform tilted wildly, turning ninety degrees on its axis.
Ray grabbed the pole again with his right arm, trying to find somewhere to put his legs that could support his weight. Caius had somehow pulled himself up with his powerful arms and staggered toward him.
“Don’t you ever give up?” Ray shouted over the noise of the flames below. Smoke burned their eyes. “Man, you really need a hobby.”
“I…have…to!” Caius raised his hand to grab Ray.
Another explosion shook the ship and the agent lost his grip; slipping to the edge of the metal bridge, catching a half-bent railing at the last second. Ray saw the metal bars Caius held on were breaking at the edges. Soon, the thing would come down altogether and Caius would fall into the flames, probably followed by the whole platform. At least I’ll watch him fry first.
Ray saw the man of sorrows appear again behind the murderous veil.
“I am sorry, Marianna,” the dark man whispered.
“You have to know when to quit,” Ray quoted the agent’s words.
“I had to,” Caius babbled. “The hope of saving her…”
“You killed thousands!”
Agent Caius didn’t look like he was listening. “When I lost him, she was all I had left. I had to do something, Mr. Harris, for each day that passed, she dwelled more in the abyss.”
“Do you even know who do you serve?”
“You would never understand, Mr. Harris!”
“I understand!” Ray screamed. “I too lost my son! I lost my family, my daughter doesn’t even want to see me and I’ve no idea where my wife even is. I understand, but it doesn’t make me go on a killing spree!”
Caius looked at Ray and Ray saw the real man behind the wall of death for the first time. “Then you are a better man than I am, Mr. Harris.” Tears rolled down the dark figure’s cheeks. “Could you feel the coldness, the freezing reality calling us?”
“You brought the blizzard into your soul yourself, Caius. In the kingdom of hope, there is no winter.”
Agent Caius nodded with a smile and let go, flying into the black smoke, his arms wide open.
Ray watched him disappear. He didn’t have time to feel sorry for the man—he was about to share the same fate if he couldn’t find a way off this platform.
He pulled himself toward the service door. Each centimeter he covered sent aches through his spine. Ray could no longer feel his left arm, and he found himself thinking how it would be to live with one arm.
“Maybe I should get one of those robotic arms and a head cannon.” He was in pain. “Maybe the cannon first.” The augmentation process was much smoother than it had been decades ago and he could easily adapt to a mechanical arm. The cannon would be useful if he ever met with another freak like Caius. With tremendous effort he reached the door, stupid ideas about implant operations and prosthetics whirling in his mind all the way to the exit.
“Damn it!” he looked helplessly at the keypad, located on the other side of the doorframe. The ramp in front of the door was broken and there was a huge gap, putting him and the wall-mounted controls on opposite sides. “I guess it…it would be too much to ask for another keypad on my side. Damn it!” He could no longer see through the smoke. Ray closed his eyes and afforded a smile. Even in perfect health, Ray knew he couldn’t have jumped the gap without falling into the burning turbines below.
“I’m sorry, kiddo,” he whispered, reaching for the locket on his neck. “I tried.”
The door hissed and two powerful arms grabbed him with astounding force.
“I got you, Raymond Harris.” Ga’an pulled him into the service way and closed the door behind them, laying Ray on his back to let him breathe. “Are you all right?”
Ray tried to answer but nothing came out of his mouth. He nodded instead.
“How...?”
“By chance. The fate is surely shapes around you, Lohil.”
“Yeah... whatever.” Ray battled to keep his burning eyes open.
“Your presence is required on the bridge,” Ga’an lifted Ray to his shoulder without waiting for a further reply and dashed toward the elevators.
“W—What’s happening?” Ray blurted, bumping on Ga’an’s shoulder with each step.
Ga’an’s tone was indifferent, as usual. “We are losing the war.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
AS GOOD AS IT GETS
Ga’an stopped in the visitor’s hall on his way to the bridge, still carrying Ray on his shoulders.
“I think I’m all right, Ga’an,” Ray said, trying to ease his breathing.
Sarah stood near the stones with Captain Samir. Her eyes were wet and she was clearly avoiding looking at the pool of dried blood. Darty was in her arms. She might have been soothing the cat, but Ray thought it was the other way around.
“Ray! My…” she slipped out of her moodiness, rushing to help Ga’an drop Ray on a seat. Sarah crouched, leveling with Ray’s eyes. “You look horrible, Skipper!”
“I’ve been better,” Ray smiled weakly.
“Man, you look like a bomber hit you in the face,” Captain Samir said. Neither he, nor Sarah looked much better themselves, covered in dust.
Ray nodded. “Well…it took some effort to deal with that nut job.”
Sarah’s eyes went down, focusing on Darty. She looked hurt. “Is it over?”
“He’s dead, Sarah.”
“Good! Let him rot in hell!” she cried.
“Any news of the old man and Meadows?”
Sarah shook her head. “The communications are a mess. No way to reach to the med bay. Before we lost the intercom, the doctor said it would be…” Sarah couldn’t continue.
“It’ll be all right, Sarah.” Ray reached for Sarah’s face but she pulled herself back.
“No, Ray,” Sarah looked into his eyes, piercing through his soul. “Private Meadows will be paralyzed for life even if they manage to fix her lung. Two of her ribs pierced through the left one. And the old man…He’s in a coma. He has a fractured skull and a bullet tore apart his liver.”
Ray closed his eyes. He’d hoped for the best but nothing in his life had been that considerate since he’d arrived on that blasted planet. If he hadn’t, Brother Cavil and Private Meadows would be alive and well today.
“Sarah Davis, Raymond Harris.” Ga’an’s voice woke them up. “It is time, we have to move.”
“The fourth stone?” Ray asked on their way out.
“We got it all right,” Captain Samir said with a protesting voice.
“Trouble?”
Captain Samir didn’t say a word. Sarah played idly with the cat’s ears, carrying the backpack with the four Arinar inside. “Only a few of us made it back, Skipper.”
“Baeal?”
“The Cosmon Brotherhood,” she said. “And Baeal.”
“Gods. They are neck-deep in this, but why?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care. I just want this to be over, Ray.” Sarah grabbed Darty firmly as the cat tried to escape her hold. The poor animal was frightened to death the moment the group left the room. Lights flickered in the hallways, if they weren’t completely dead. Walls had collapsed and some of the corridors were on fire. The group passed through a hallway with a ripped hull plating, only the force-field keeping them from flying off the ship or having their blood boil. Ray found himself dizzied and Sarah looked equally sick with the idea of walking through space but Ga’an and Captain Samir seemed unaffected.
By the time they arrived on the bridge, the ship was in complete disarray. Most of the bridge personnel were dead or fatally wounded. Some of the inexperienced airmen had made their
way to the escape pods, abandoning their duties. Ray couldn’t judge them; by the looks of it, the best course of action would be to leave the ship as fast as possible and hope for the best. The super-dreadnought was adrift in space, barely holding together.
Ga’an gave Ray a hand and helped him pass through the fallen rails, then went to check for Admiral Conway.
The woman lay near one of the bridge stations. Her color was yellow and she wasn’t responsive to the Ancient’s calls. Another nearby blast shook the bridge like an earthquake. Sarah’s instincts and reflexes saved Ray from a falling beam by kicking his chair and throwing herself aside with Darty. Ga’an closed himself over Admiral Conway, protecting the woman like a shell, accepting the pain of the illumination panel falling hard on his back.
“Galileo!” a young man in bloodied uniform yelled frantically, “It was the Galileo!”
“Raymond Harris, I need to carry the Admiral to the medical facilities before it is too late,” Ga’an said over the chaos on the bridge, trying to make his voice heard over the noise and shouts of panic. He pushed aside the debris on his back.
Sarah waved him to go but they all froze where they stood when a bright light appeared before them, inside the bridge, then turned into the face of a dark, bald man with earrings and ornaments on his right, pointy ear.
“Greetings again,” he spoke with a perfect accent, saluting the group. It was as if they were speaking to a highbrow in Oxford. “I must commend your bravery and efforts one more time.”
Ray stood up with Sarah’s help and walked closer to the Baeal, holding his dislocated arm. “What do you want?”
“Only to send my regards to my nemesis. As a gesture of respect.” The dark figure bowed. “Your people fought well, Lohil. This was a battle to be remembered for eons.”
Ga’an growled to the man’s words, his eyes burning with anger.
“Ah, the hero. Praetor Ga’an Sahn Kressim,” the Baeal turned to face the Ancient.
“Hero?” Sarah asked, still tending to the terrified cat.
“Did he not tell you?” the Baeal sounded surprised. “Praetor Ga’an sacrificed himself in the War of Life and stopped the first Baeal invasion of this plane,” the bald figure bowed in respect again, longer and deeper this time. “It was a genius move to collapse the gate, destroying the fleet with a planar disequilibrium. You killed many of my kin that day.”
“Planar disequilibrium?” Ray asked.
“He severed the bridge in between our plane and yours. I told you, Mr. Harris. We are not of this plane. We, Baeal were the touched children of the Creators. We ruled time. We ruled the stars!” The dark man’s layered voice raised. “But then, the Creators became jealous! They unleashed their pet on us! Her!” He sounded disgusted. “She had descended from beyond the stars. They created the Arinar and the Lohil to tame Her as a safeguard but used them to mock us instead!
“I’m already liking these Creators.”
“I would like to hear that again when you have met Her. The stones were deaf to our call. The line of the Lohil absent from our species, but appearing in lesser ones like yours. And so, we ran. Looking for a home. A plane without Her touch. A plane where no Lohil had been linked with stones before. This is our home. This is our promised land.”
“Buddy, you’re in-vad-ing our world.”
“We are taking what should have been ours in the first place. If the Nucteel had not intervened with our plan with a stupid mistake, your species would not even be here.”
“Guess what, we are here.”
“My people live?” Ga’an asked slowly.
“No,” the figure replied, almost sounding sad, “but they lived a good, long life I believe. Your empire lasted for millennia after the war in your understanding of time, eventually joining the dusty tomes of history.” The Baeal shrugged, in perfect imitation of the human gesture. “There may still be some descendants of your race, living in seclusion outside the core systems or who joined their life with humans. Again, in your understanding of time, this was a very long time ago.”
The news staggered Ga’an. Ray saw it immediately: somewhere deep inside, the tall alien had always hoped to return to his home, or what was left of it. Ga’an had assumed he was in an anomaly even after they found out his home world had been Earth. He hadn’t wanted to believe he was the last Ancient in the galaxy. Apparently, he was.
“Why am I here, demon! Speak!” Ga’an growled.
“I cannot say. Your ship exploded in the mouth of a planar gate. Not one of my species in history was stupid enough to try something like that. I commend you. It worked. Time and planes connect with threads, exceeding in detail what your puny brains can understand. You, by some divine luck, wildly severed the connection and it swung you a few years forward in linear time.” The Baeal stopped for a moment and scratched his ear, his ornaments tingling. “Perhaps it was not so random. Perhaps it is of a piece with this twisted game of the Creators. You ending up at the verge of another Baeal conquest.” He smiled.
“A few years!” Ga’an’s right eye twitched.
“Conquest?” Ray slapped back. “So, you are invading.”
“Invading, reclaiming, re-decorating, jumping up and down, singing. Whatever you want to call it. This plane is now ours. Anyway,” the bald figure sighed, “I must take my leave now. Lots of planning to do. I am genuinely sorry you will not be present to see the glory of Baeal, Mr. Harris.”
“How long have you been scheming this? You killed the real Goehring?”
“There never was a real Goehring, Mr. Harris. It was always I, shaping things in my righteous will.”
“How come you could stay here so long while your race disappears without a gate?”
“Questions…questions,” the dark figure made a gesture as if he was yawning. “I will not explain everything to you simply because it is the end of some dark tale where you lose and your rival gloats.”
“Buddy, you’re explaining and gloating.”
The Baeal laughed, several layers of voices merging into one. “Then I am a cliché, eh Mr. Harris? Well, I am special.”
“I will defeat you,” Ray hissed. “I killed your assassin and I will kill you.”
“Agent Caius?” the figure sounded unconcerned. “A poor, lost soul, battling his own demons. I simply found him, saw his weakness and exploited it. Most of what he did, he did out of his own twisted justification and anger at this Consortium he was working for. They all do that, you know. Each with their own agenda, telling themselves they are doing the right thing. Anger is an interesting emotion with a wide range of intensity. It is fairly easy to manipulate with the right push. Greed is another one. Those Consortium fools thought they ruled these worlds, while I carefully wove my plan. I admit, it took some effort and time, doing everything with as little noise as possible, but it paid off. Because they all believed they were doing the right thing. For the better or worse. For themselves or for their race. They always believe in that.” The Baeal looked at Ga’an and then back at Ray. “Do you believe you are doing the right thing, Mr. Harris?”
“I’m fighting for my home!”
“You will be the doom of your home. You cannot complete the cycle when the Mara’tthane is gone and you will only be calling for Her when you are linked with the Arinar. I suggest you roll over and die in peace. I promise, we will treat your species as we treat our own pets. With care. It is a better fate than the Nightfall. After all, this is now our home.”
Ray was silent. What the Baeal said exceeded his understanding. If he hadn’t seen what the Ijjok had shown, it would be complete gibberish. Now, he wasn’t so sure.
“I can’t let you win without a fight.”
“Do whatever you wish. It is customary in my species to give your name to the one you have defeated on the battlefield. Do not look so surprised. You are doomed, after all. Now, I will do what Agent Caius could not and I will kill you.”
Ga’an ignored the man, turning back to care for Admiral Conway,
but Ray narrowed his eyes, eager to carve the name of his enemy into his mind.
“Know the name of your destroyer. I am Sim’Ra.”
“And I am Raymond Harris.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
INTO THE VOID
“Sarah, see if you can find anyone on the bridge who can still remember being an officer.” Ray waved at her, still deep in thought and looking at the Arinar, squeezing the cat in her arms. “Ga’an, you take the admiral to the med bay.”
The Ancient raised his head and saw the determination on Ray’s face. He bowed in acknowledgement and took the unconscious woman in his arms, leaving the bridge.
“I really wish the old man was here.” Ray frowned at the Arinar before him.
“What’s it?” Sarah asked. She seemed somewhat awake after Ray’s call to action.
“Sarah, put that poor animal somewhere safe and focus.”
Sarah nodded hesitantly and found a fallen console near the tactical station without power. She forcefully bent the back cover and stuffed the protesting cat onto the bed of wires inside the box, closing the back as much as possible. The cat hissed and meowed, trying to open the panel with its paw but gave up after a few tries, shrinking into the depths of the box.
“Wake up!” Ray shouted loud enough to silence the bridge. “Wake up and get ahold of yourselves. You can mourn for the dead later!”
“What else there’s to do?” Sarah’s stance was defeated. “Maybe we should just leave.”
“Leave and go where Sarah?” Ray asked. “Hide our heads into the sand? How long will it be before they come for us again?” He approached the tactical map. The emergency power was back on but unstable. The flickering holographic view of Earth and Moon were surrounded by red dots of all size with a huge triangle representing the Worm closing in on the planet. “We have to save the people down on that planet.”
Shadows Bear No Names (The Blackened Prophecy Book 1) Page 36
