The Survivors (Book 12): New Discovery

by Hystad, Nathan

  “The warships are gone, and… it appears as though the vessels near the planet are vanishing too,” Rivo said.

  “Vanishing?” I hurried, entering the courtyard again. The Kraski ship was powered up, the engines vibrating, the thrusters glowing hotly. We climbed up the ramp, both of us carrying Loweck in her heavy suit. She panted as we went, but never complained.

  Once we were sealed in with gravity, I unclicked my helmet, tossing it to the ground. Mary was there, rushing forward, wrapping her arms around me. She glanced at the package I’d brought with me. Magnus’ body lay enclosed in the patterned quilt.

  “Where is he? Are there no survivors?” she asked, and my lips parted, but no words came out. I only shook my head, casting my gaze to the floor. She understood, and her hand flew to her mouth, a small gasp escaping at the news. “Magnus is dead…”

  She glanced at the body and dropped to her knees. “Dubs, get us the hell out of here!” she shouted, and my big commander jumped through the room, racing to the bridge.

  “Dubs?” I asked.

  “He was with Nat and Leslie,” she informed me.

  “Where are they?” I scanned around the cargo hold and moved through it, heading for the bedroom off the kitchen. They were each slumped on one of the beds, and the NannyBot was inside with them.

  “Where’s Jules, Dean?” Mary asked.

  “She’s taking care of the Arnap.”

  “Taking care of them?”

  “We have no way of stopping her.”

  “Do you even want to?” Mary asked.

  I heard Natalia’s Russian-accented voice before I saw her eyes blink. “Magnus… is he…?” Her words were so quiet, but we both knew exactly what she was asking.

  I knelt by the bed, taking her hand. My suit was still on, and my glove gripped her hand tightly. “I’m so sorry, Nat.”

  “Then let Jules do this. Let them pay for what they’ve done.” Nat’s eyes closed, and she turned from me, facing the wall.

  I nodded, not that I had a choice in the matter. I only hoped my daughter would recover after today.

  ____________

  Everything was calm. Jules lost her smile but found she didn’t feel anything at all as she floated closer to the planet. The ships had tried to stop her, to blast her away as she raced toward the Arnap base, but they didn’t know what they were up against. She wasn’t of this time. She was Zan’ra, gifted by the gods, created by the Deities.

  She was Ja’ri, and Jules, but most of all, she was destruction.

  She spread her palms wide, and the space station tore in two, one chunk dropping into the atmosphere, burning up hotly as it plummeted with the gravitational pull. She searched for signs of the Ritair and found one hidden enclave below. They were scared, hiding near a freshwater lake. It was the only remnant of that race, thanks to the Arnap.

  Jules had to rid the system of the enemy. She lowered toward the world. Part of her was affected by the beauty of the planet: the way the clouds danced above the land, the green mountain ranges, the deep oceans brimming with life, unseen by any outside eyes for centuries. She felt a stab of anger that the Arnap also threatened that precious life, not only Brik’s people.

  She closed her eyes as she moved five thousand feet above the surface and sent waves of sensors out. There were twenty thousand Arnap on the planet – men, woman, elderly, even children – but they were monsters, no better than the Sprites.

  Jules targeted them, feeling the blackness of their hearts, the sludge pumping through their greedy veins, and she screamed, clenching her fists as she raced toward the ground. Their hearts beat as one for a moment, then stopped.

  Everything went silent, and she knew that every Arnap on the planet had dropped at the same moment. She was near the lake where the last of the Ritair were tucked away, seeking solitude from the invaders. Her feet touched the grass near the water, and she let the sphere go. Everything rushed at her then, the possession of Ja’ri all but vanished, and she crumbled onto her side, her legs coming up into a fetal position.

  She pictured Patty being torn away, her purple eyes mocking Jules as she took off. She saw Uncle Magnus’ dead eyes, and the ships being ripped out of existence. She felt the beating organs cease pumping lifeblood to every Arnap on the planet, and she cried out weakly, tears falling down her cheeks.

  “What have I done?”

  ____________

  We found them hours later. It was clear Jules had ended the localized Arnap threat, and I ordered Light to the planet. Our drones showed their cities, familiar to us, as they reminded us of the one we’d lived in on Sterona, only these were filled with the Arnap people we’d only recently seen for the first time. They were all dead.

  “We have life signs deeper into the continent, the southern region. Drones have been deployed, but…” Suma glanced at me. “Captain, they’re Ritair.”

  Brik was beside me, and he ran to the viewscreen as Suma put the drone’s feed on the left section. It showed a brilliant lake, the bright star reflecting off the glistening surface. There were at least three hundred of the race remaining. They’d formed a circle around something, and I hoped it was her.

  “Suma, zoom on the center of their group.” I waited as the drone lowered, and the image refreshed. There she was. Getting to her feet, dusting herself off.

  “Jules,” I whispered.

  ____________

  They were worried at first, but Jules found she was able to speak with them somehow, like how Dal’i had talked to her in English. It took a while, like she was running their words through a diagnostic computer, but soon she comprehended their clipped phrases, their hurried speech, and she spoke calmly to them, informing them she was an ally.

  “I’m human, with an Alliance of Worlds, and we know of your people,” she told them. The last few hours were a blur, a mangled mess inside her mind, but she knew what she’d done. Somehow she was finally able to compartmentalize it, pushing it down. Never let it out, she told herself, realizing how hard that would be.

  “We must be cautious. They will find us. You may have drawn attention to our people. We’ll have to move now, lest the Arnap track your trajectory and lead them to us,” one of their women said. She was pretty, with a long face, her tail thinner than Brik’s.

  “You have nothing to fear. The Arnap are no longer a concern.” Jules saw they didn’t believe her. “At least, not here.” Not yet.

  She heard the thrusters from far away and peered to the deep blue sky, seeing a shuttle heading toward them from the clouds.

  “They are here!” someone shouted.

  “We need to hide!” An old Ritair man ran for the hills beside the lake, tripping on a rock.

  “Everyone halt!” Jules said, her voice booming across the narrow valley. They stopped in their tracks. She took stock of them, seeing how frightened they were. They wore ragged clothing, the children were thin, and they all stared at her, the strange alien girl with glowing eyes like she was the harbinger of bad news.

  “That’s my father. He’s a captain of a great starship, and we have one of your people with us. We’ve been to Sterona. I was born there.” She watched their faces twist in confusion.

  “How were you born on Sterona?” one asked.

  “That is an old name,” another said.

  “Can it be true? Does our ancestral home remain intact?” one of the oldest women there asked.

  The ship landed nearby, and the children were pressed to their parents tightly, fearing retribution, but their attitudes instantly shifted as Brik stepped off to reunite with them. Jules saw subtle differences in the man from the Collector’s ship. He was slightly taller, his eyes and lips just different enough to adapt to their environment here, and a few generations was enough to alter the Ritair.

  Brik ran over, talking to the people in bursts, and Jules felt relief when Papa and Mom stepped off the shuttle, scanning the region for her. Her gaze locked with Papa’s, and all the pain and torment she’d felt since destroy
ing the Arnap took a back seat to the happiness she felt emanating from her parents.

  Twenty-Four

  “We’ll eventually bring them to Sterona if they choose to return, but our first order of business is to transport them to Haven. We’ll set up a home for them in the outer quadrants, since we have enough space ready there for such an event,” Mary said, standing at the meeting room’s visual board.

  “What are we doing with Horizon?” Slate asked, and we all glanced at Sarlun.

  “It’s far past the repair stages, and since the portal stone is… gone, we’ll destroy the remains of the ship and wipe away any clue we were ever here,” Sarlun advised.

  It was another mystery. The portal had been removed from the ship, the entire room cut away surgically, and no one could explain what had become of it.

  “Jules, you can’t feel it nearby?” Suma asked my daughter. She sat beside me, but she’d stayed silent for the entire meeting so far. Dean wasn’t here. He was in the suite with his mother, and I was grateful someone in his family had been spared during the last few days.

  “It’s not here, but I can’t sense it anywhere. It’s almost like it’s vanished,” she said.

  “From this dimension,” Fontem said quietly.

  “We don’t have time to speculate on that,” I told the Terellion.

  These are trying times. Would you mind if Fontem and I returned to Haven posthaste to continue our research? I almost hadn’t seen Regnig. He was on a chair, but his head barely made it over the table, and he had the unfortunate seat beside Slate, where he was hidden by my commander.

  “That’s fine. Keep us posted, though,” I told him. I wanted to know everything that pertained to my daughter, as well as our missing Patty. Natalia had offered no emotion when she’d learned of her daughter’s fate, as if she didn’t have enough heart left to understand what we were telling her. She was doing better, but she’d suffered some major contusions and had a lot of blood loss. Her arm was broken, and since it hadn’t been set in two weeks, the doctor had to do some surgery. We were told she’d fully recover, at least physically.

  “Okay, we’ll destroy Horizon and return through the wormhole,” I said.

  Jules stared at the table. “I’ll do it.”

  “What?”

  “Horizon, then the wormhole.” She peered up at me, and gave me a faint smile.

  “Is that a good idea?” Mary asked her.

  “If the Arnap send reinforcements, it’ll be from this end. The Ritair claimed they came three years ago and didn’t use the wormhole to arrive,” Jules said.

  She was having a hard time dealing with her actions, but I’d assured her ten times since we’d picked her up that she’d done the right thing. That did little to ease her conscience. “And you think you can do this? Remove the wormhole?”

  Jules had told us she understood the Zan’ra more now, and when she tried hard enough, she could tap into the full list of real abilities that came with the powers.

  “I believe so. You leave me behind, and I’ll do the rest.” She stood, moving for the exit.

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  “To see Dean.” The door closed behind her, and I glanced at Mary.

  “This has been a tough one.” I told the gathered crew. “Good work, everyone. Sergo, can you return us to the bridge, and prepare to exit the system by way of the wormhole? Be on the lookout for any trouble, Loweck. We’ll leave Jules behind.” And trust she returns to us. I left that part out, but it was clear Mary was thinking the same thing.

  We all stood now, the meeting adjourned, and Fontem got my attention. Mary stopped at the door, waiting for me, and I told her I’d be right there.

  “What is it?” I asked the Terellion passenger.

  “I never expected the Zan’ra to be so powerful,” he told me.

  I eyed him suspiciously. “Is that right?”

  “I’m beginning to understand why the Deities did what they did.” He leaned against the wall.

  I frowned at him. “You mean the genocide of their creations?”

  “You saw what your daughter did out there. I get that she was protecting us, but if those others can do the same thing, then imagine a whole race of Zan’ra running around out there. One corrupt or evil one, and you put billions of lives at risk,” Fontem said.

  Something clicked, and it really bothered me. “Is this why you were suggesting Jules find this Deity and free it? So it can finish the job?” I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the boardroom screen.

  “Whoa, Dean, it’s not like that. I do believe Lom is trying to …”

  “Silence. I don’t buy it. You’ve been keeping enough secrets from me, and I’m beginning to doubt your sincerity. Hear me now. I will never let anything happen to my family. They mean everything to me, and nothing, and I mean nothing will hurt them. Do you understand!” My face was red with anger, the stress and fury at Magnus’ loss boiling over. Fontem’s expression was fearful, and I let him go, stepping away from him.

  “Dean, it’s not that… I don’t want the Deities to harm Jules, but… this O’ri is bad news. Regnig only had a tiny fragment of a story, but I know more,” Fontem said.

  “Then tell me.”

  “I’ll do better. I’ll show you.”

  “Show me what?” I asked.

  “My real treasures are far away.” Fontem smiled, and I found myself believing him again.

  “And what is there?”

  “You want secrets? I have old secrets. More than you could imagine.”

  ____________

  Jules watched as Light exited the system, and suddenly, she was alone. Nothing moved, and she peered toward the distant planet. She hadn’t allowed herself to view the aftermath of her attack on the Arnap, but she could still feel their lives being snuffed out every time she closed her eyes.

  Horizon was a shell of a ship, the portal stone removed, a gaping hole in the side of it. There was nothing left on board but an entire crew, dead from the attack. So many losses, so many friends and workers she’d grown up visiting and seeing. The big guards from Bazarn that had protected the portal were gone too.

  She now understood Fontem’s discussion of the time-travel device, because she wanted to return to a previous time where Magnus was alive, where she could watch Dean and his father interact again. But Fontem warned them against it, and it might be for the best that Papa had lost the Delineator. Fontem told her about his obsession with his wife after she’d died. He used to travel back and visit her, like a stalker, until he could no longer take it. He’d done it for years, nearly driving himself mad.

  At that moment, thinking about everything that recently transpired, Jules understood his motives only too well.

  She smiled as she closed her hands, and with a pulse of power, Horizon crumbled into billions of microscopic specks of matter.

  “Goodbye, everyone. Thank you for your sacrifice,” she told the crew.

  There was nothing left for her here. Jules floated toward the wormhole, and for a moment considered not using it, not destroying it, and plotting another destination for herself. Trying to find Patty and Lan’i, maybe traveling to the world the Deity had called to her from, to see if she could converse with it before freeing the god.

  She had too many unknowns about her future, but deep down, she couldn’t do it. People needed her. Dean needed her, and so did her parents. Hugo too. And truth be told, she couldn’t make it without their support.

  Jules flew to the rift in space and passed into it without another second’s delay.

  When she arrived on the other side, she filled her sphere with a force unlike any she’d ever encountered before. It wasn’t built of hate or anger like the last time, as she’d destroyed the Arnap, but of understanding and love, a perfect balance to her previous use of the intense powers. The wormhole glimmered, ripples casting on the inside before it closed without so much as a flash of light. It simply shrank and disappeared forever.

&nbs
p; She returned to Light, which was waiting for her arrival a few thousand kilometers away, and once she was in the hangar, she decided it was time to find Dean. They needed to talk.

  Jules walked to the crew quarters and found him as she approached his suite. He was just leaving, and he seemed surprised to see her.

  “Ju, did you…?”

  She nodded. “It’s done.”

  “That was quick.”

  She grinned at him. “No reason to dawdle. Look… can I…” She pointed at her door, and he nodded, following her into their quarters.

  “Your dad’s in there with Mom,” Dean told her as the door closed behind them.

  “How’s she doing?” Jules hadn’t brought herself to see his mom yet. She was too scared that seeing Auntie Natalia would be too much, and that she’d break down, and she needed to be strong.

  “They did some surgery and inserted robotics in her right arm.” Dean absently rubbed his own arm as he followed her to the living room. She took a seat, and patted the couch beside her.

  “I know we haven’t had a lot of time to talk, or to deal with what happened, but I wanted to say I’m sorry,” she told him.

  “For what?”

  “For letting Patty get away…”

  “You did everything you could, Ju. You’re amazing.” His hand found hers. It was warm. “Not only that, but you fought for my dad. You avenged him, and I’ll never be able to repay you.”

  “I killed them all,” she whispered.

  “I wish I’d done it.” Dean met her gaze, and she could tell that he meant what he said.

  “No, you don’t. You don’t want to live with this,” Jules told him.

  “You’re not alone, Ju, because we’ll take on the guilt together, okay? For everything. Patty, my dad, the deaths of all those Arnap. You…”

  She pressed her lips to his, and he didn’t pull back, for an instant. Then he did, and he shook his head. “We can’t do this. You’re still a girl… and…”

  Jules saw it, the fear in his eyes at what she was. “A monster.”