Course Correction_A Bounty Hunter Story
Page 6
“Yes. It seems everything we’ve tried in conjunction with the Earth Alliance is not yielding any results, so I am left with little choice but to try something new. I don’t want to take a human crew aboard the ship. This is my responsibility, I can’t ask others to risk their lives.”
“You can’t possibly go at it alone, you’ll need a crew to mend the ship, and let’s be realistic, you may need someone for company as well as take care of you should you get injured.”
“Hence, my calling you. I— I’d like to ask your permission to create an artificial crew, clone bodies with AIs powering them, but before you object, I’m thinking the similar AIs we use for our ships, and perhaps a blank Gaia canvas like you used on your last mission. I know I shouldn’t be asking you this—”
“But you are…”
Spiros still felt a sting at the mention of her name. They said time heals all wounds, but it would take significantly more time to heal this particular one.
“Look,” Spiros said. “I’m not sure the Earth Alliance will allow you to do this. I know that the risk of an evil AI emerging from a blank Gaia canvas is nearly impossible, but, at the moment, they’re limiting any research related to artificial intelligence. To the point where I’m not allowed to improve her basic template to help me with my own research. Who can blame them, right? Gaia 2 killed me after all.”
“I understand that, but I’m trying to cut through the red tape and bypass the Earth Alliance altogether. Which is why I’m asking you, as a friend, to grant me a personal favor.”
“I see. It’s that kind of request then?”
“Yes. But if it makes you uncomfortable or if you don’t want to help me, I’ll understand.”
“I need to think about this, Chase.”
“Fair enough. First, I need a ship and hope Altair will let me have one.”
“I don’t see why he would refuse you, of all people.”
“The Alliance is now under a council of rulers, and Altair is only one of its members. In the past, I could have made that decision, but as you know, I resigned my commission as admiral.”
“Regretting that decision?”
“Not really, no. I was in no frame of mind to deal with Alliance business after all that had happened. And, frankly, I don’t think I can ever be a leader again. When I do, people die.”
Spiros wanted to argue that point, but he knew better not to.
“Understood, Chase. I’ll give you my answer shortly. Thank you for calling, it’s good seeing you again.”
“Likewise, thank you, Spiros.”
2
Ares felt a pleasant sensation like he was floating. It reminded him of a certain Olympian flower and the high provided when inhaling its pollen. His sister, Athena, was quite fond of the recreational drug.
Athena.
Had she survived the Fury War? And, in fact, Ares questioned why he was conscious in the first place.
His consciousness was not yet able to give him a clear visual of what was going on around him. His senses were slowly coming back to him, soon his vision returned, and he got a clearer picture of where he was. In space. Drifting.
He was no longer inside Aphroditis’ clone body but back to his pure energy form.
He felt displaced and lost. Even space didn’t feel right. It felt alien somehow. Was he en route to Elysium? Or was he there already? Had Chase destroyed Erevos and the Furies once and for all? Was his sister still alive? His mind was quickly saturated with a million questions, overwhelming the former God of War.
Ares tried to calm his mind by emptying it of all thoughts, which seemed to help his senses return to normal. He felt calm enough to try and interpret, or at the very least, figure out where he was. Around him, he could see both asteroids and metallic debris, most likely wreckage from destroyed ships. Looking at the asteroid, he got a strange feeling like perhaps those weren’t simple floating rocks but the remnants of a destroyed planet.
While that was something he was not proud of, Ares had been responsible for the destruction of enough worlds to recognize that this didn’t feel like a simple asteroid field.
Could it be what was left of Erevos and the ships in orbit being taken out when the planet exploded? This meant that the soul ships had managed to shift Erevos back to the alternate dimension before taking it out altogether. That could certainly explain what he was seeing and feeling.
One question lingered in his mind, though. Why was he still alive in energy form? Shouldn’t he have been wiped out in the explosion of the Fury world?
Ares focused his mind on his friend and pupil, Chase, trying to send him a telepathic message like he had done hundreds of times before.
Chase? Can you hear me? Aphroditis? Father? Anybody?
No answer. Wherever he was, he was out of reach of the people he knew. All signs pointed to him being in an alternate dimension. The way his energy form sensed the building blocks of the universe gave him completely different feedback as to what he was used to. Wherever he was, he had never been here before, be it in energy form or before his bodily death at the hands of Argos.
He traveled around the area to seek more clues. He came upon enough ship debris, which allowed him to visualize what type of ships the wreckage had once been. Even though their hull had been exposed to space, the ships’ primary shapes had remained mostly intact. They looked like dark, giant spiders.
With no planet in sight, Ares didn’t know what to do next. He expanded his mind trying to detect any form of life within the next few light years around him. Because space itself felt so different, he couldn’t project his mind as far as he used to. The sensory feedback he received by trying could only be described as a negative tingling.
Definitely, this had to be the alternate dimension.
The thought was unpleasant. In fact, even devoid of a body, he felt a sense of dread by being in this universe. It felt dark, oppressing, and downright creepy.
But no matter how unpleasant the sensation was, Ares pushed through and eventually sensed a new ship approaching the area at extremely high velocity, probably the Spectre’s version of hyperspace. Though it felt more like the ship was instantly hopping from one point to another over long distances, and for just a fraction of a second, blinking in and out of existence until the next hop. Hopefully, in this universe just like on his own, he wouldn’t be detected as long as he stayed in his invisible energy form. It took a while to get a strong lock on the ship in his mind, but eventually, he did, and he teleported inside.
The ship was cold, the floor, the walls, and the ceiling in what appeared to be internal corridors were chrome colored, and there didn’t seem to be anyone near his direct vicinity. He roamed through the ship until he finally met someone or more precisely—something. First, he saw a few metallic spiders roaming about the corridors, producing nerve-wracking metallic clickety-clicks as they walked about. They didn’t seem to detect his presence, which he took as a good omen.
Roaming the ship some more he arrived at what he surmised was the bridge and his first contact with living beings in this dimension. The aliens that served as crew were thin and tall humanoids with a strange fur on their black skin. It was similar to the hair found on spiders. Upon his first good look at their heads, he froze. They had eight legs wrapped from the back of their furry skulls all the way around what served as a face filled with multiple red eyes. They looked like a hybrid between a human and a spider, their faces straight out of a nightmare. Their large fanged mouth made the most unpleasant sound as they spoke.
The ship exited hyperspace. Ares couldn’t understand what they were saying but looking at the viewport on the ship and activity on the bridge, he could surmise that they were scanning the debris. There was palpable agitation, and when someone got up from a chair in the center of the bridge, Ares was surprised to see that this being was not like the others. He also had pitch-black skin but had more of a humanoid face. Still, its flesh was tangled and seemed to be in a perpetual flux, which gave the cre
ature a very ominous look.
The energy this being was emanating felt familiar. The being was enveloped in a smoky black aura and brought back bad memories. Even though he wasn’t entirely sure, Ares thought this being’s silhouette and aura was too similar to the one that he had detected inside Arakan’s throne room back on Erevos. Was that being a Spectre? If so, then Ares had the confirmation of his previous doubts. He was, in fact, in the alternate dimension.
The Spectre-being spoke a similar language as the arachnids. Ares had no idea what they were saying, but then a holo-screen filled most of the area in front of the Spectre. It displayed an image of Erevos exploding in slow motion, taking out a small fleet of cloaked spider ships in the process. The Spectre raised his voice, and from his tone, Ares concluded that he gave a command of some sort.
The holo-image zoomed in and focused on a spatial anomaly that was collapsing. Probably the breach created by the infernal machine Ares had been trapped inside when the Fury home world exploded. Three translucent-looking spider ships managed to make it through before the breach closed. If that meant what Ares thought it did, three cloaked ships similar to the one he was on, made it to the other side, in his universe, and the Earth Alliance could have no idea of their presence there. With the strong time dilation difference between the Spectre’s dimensions and his, Ares had no idea how much time had passed. It could be minutes, maybe days here, which meant that for all he knew years could have passed on the other side.
The Spectre spat another command, and the holo-image changed again. Its focus reverting to Erevos as the footage rewound until the Spectre talked again, which prompted the image to freeze. He walked toward the 3D holo-image and raised his hands. The tip of his fingers lit red as he began manipulating the holo-footage, turning it, zooming in and out, and eventually focusing on a point of interest. Four small craft with animalistic auras engulfing them were flying toward Erevos at an incredible velocity. The auras were of a dragon, a tiger, a phoenix, and a python. They were the Atlantian soul ships, which answered one more question Ares had asked himself earlier. Chase had managed to destroy the Furies. But was he and his family on board the ships? Had they made the ultimate sacrifice to accomplish their mission?
The thought troubled the Olympian. Not only was Chase his pupil and dear friend, but with the Spectres now on the other side of the rift, if Chase has perished, Ares feared the time ahead could be very dark.
As the Spectre played the footage frame by frame, they were blurry from the sheer speed at which they hurtled toward the planet. The Spectre manipulated the holo-interface to try and acquire more information. He ran different modes, analyzing power signatures, and perhaps even lifeform scans. One of the modes showed the interior of the ship, their cockpits empty, which reassured Ares as to the fate of Chase, Sarah, Chris, and Argos. The Spectre resumed the footage, advancing it frame by frame until the soul ships merged into one giant fireball a second before impacting with Erevos. The planet split into pieces and exploded.
So the Furies are gone. At least, there’s that.
Chase had managed to take out the Furies, just as he had promised both Ares and his sister, Aphroditis. One thing was sure, Ares wasn’t in Elysium, and it didn’t look like he would be going there anytime soon. Spider ships had entered his universe, and he needed to find a way to go back and let Chase know. For the time being, he would stay on this ship and try to obtain more information about the Spectre and the arachnids. They could very well be planning an invasion of his universe, and if that happened, Ares intended to have as much intel on this new threat as he could gather, and hopefully, find a way home in the process.
The arachnid female walked toward Nyx. She recognized the beast. Her array of red eyes glowing.
“You should never have defied us,” said the arachnid.
“Zarna. I wish I could say I’ve missed you, but I’d be lying. In a way though, I’m grateful they sent you after me. Saves me the trouble of hunting you down.”
The female arachnid laughed, which was not a pleasant sound. It sent shivers down Nyx’s spine.
“Furies. To think I took pity on you. My superiors were right, you’re a waste of space, an impure race that has brought our Spectre masters nothing but grief.”
“Pity? Is that what you call what you’ve put me through?”
“You’re still breathing, aren’t you?”
Nyx’s orange eyes glowed as her purple aura came to life like a lilac flame, surrounding her entire body.
“Because I escaped! And now, I’m given a chance to take revenge on your hairy ass and believe me, I’m going to enjoy every second of it.”
Zarna growled as a trio of long, sharp bony claws emerged from her hands.
“I think you’re mistaken, Fury, it is I who will enjoy cutting you to pieces.”
The arachnid jumped at Nyx and slashed her right hand at the Fury’s head. Her claws found nothing but air, as Nyx somersaulted backward. Upon landing, Nyx aimed an open palm toward Zarna and unleashed a powerful purple fireball. To Nyx’s surprise, Zarna didn’t try to dodge it, but instead moved her head in the path of the attack and opened her serrated mouth, swallowing the fireball. Her multiple red eyes briefly flashed purple before turning back to red as smoke exited and trailed upward from her nostrils.
Zarna screeched, her eight spider legs detaching and spreading around her head similar to two hands reaching out. Her many eyes flashed an intense red as she spat a gray projectile toward Nyx. Before the Fury realized it, the sputum extended and turned into a web of red energy that enveloped Nyx, trapping and immobilizing her.
“That’s new!” Nyx said between clenched teeth.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about us, my dear.”
The more Nyx struggled to get free, the tighter the hold the net exerted on her, and the pain quickly went from high to nearly unbearable.
“Let me go! I’m not going back to the lab! I’d rather die.”
“Not your choice, I’m afraid.”
Why? Why was Zarna so obsessed with her? What could they possibly want with her and for what reasons? The Furies were a dead race. Nyx felt the anger rise inside of her, and her purple aura grew exponentially.
“It would be easier and hurt less if you just complied; you can’t get free of those restraints.”
“Watch me!” cried Nyx.
The more Nyx struggled, though, the more the net buried into her skin, and soon enough the energy web began cutting through her, drawing blood. The pain was a motivator, feeding Nyx’s rage and bringing it to a boiling point. She unleashed an animalistic roar as her muscles tightened. In one swift move, she broke free of the net and shattered it to oblivion.
Zarna took a step back, fear permeating over her face.
Nyx was bleeding, and it took a second for her to heal herself from the multiple cuts.
“You should have left me alone. You’ll pay for this mistake with your life.”
Her aura grew stronger as she pointed an open palm toward the arachnid. A purple fireball with small, sizzling, white lightning bolts came to life. Nyx, her eyes burning orange like two miniature suns, unleashed her attack on Zarna. The speed and power of the attack took the arachnid by surprise, and she barely had time to move out of the way.
The fireball burned through most of her left arm and shoulder, incinerating any flesh and bone in its path. Zarna’s resulting painful screech was so high-pitched that Nyx covered her ears.
Dark, thick gray blood spilled from where Zarna’s arm and shoulder used to be. A look of terror locked onto Zarna’s agony-deformed face.
The fire in Nyx’s eyes echoed the amount of rage burning in her soul.
“I told you to leave me alone,” spat Nyx, “but you wouldn’t listen. And now you’re going to die.”
But before she could prepare another attack to finish off Zarna, the arachnid reached with her remaining hand and touched a control on her chest armor. She was engulfed in streaks of red light and beamed away.
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You’d better run. Next time I see you, though, will be the last.
To be continued…
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Also by Christian Kallias
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Book 1: Earth - Last Sanctuary
Book 1.5: Ryonna's Wrath (Bonus Novella contained in Book 1)
Book 2: Fury to the Stars
Book 3: Destination Oblivion
Book 4: The Beginning of the End
Book 5: Rise of the Ultra Fury
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Beyond the Black Volume 1
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