by Elana Brooks
The red-finned Seraph turned to the one in the center. “Children, indeed, Captain. If our need weren’t so great, we might allow them to grow undisturbed. But what is the fate of a few young compared to the survival of our species?”
“Exactly, Captain,” Yellowface chimed in. “Even if these animals bear a trace of sentience, which might someday evolve to be worthy of our notice, they’re nothing now. This world is by far the most promising the scout ships have found. Gabeel asks us to protect their future at the expense of our own? That’s why no Bleaters should have been allowed to occupy precious berths which could have saved worthy citizens from death. Let alone be entrusted with so vital a task as preparing our new world for habitation!” It flicked its lowest fins at Gabeel in a gesture clearly intended to be deeply insulting.
The Captain narrowed its eyes at Yellowface. “Your hatred of the Bleaters has often seemed to me extreme, Aller. Yet I think in this case you have a point. Gabeel is certainly unreasonably obsessed with these creatures.” It turned to Gabeel. “Our work will proceed without interruption. Gabeel, you are henceforth relieved of your duties. You will return to your body in its sleeping tank and remain within until such time as a tribunal can be assembled to judge whether bringing these primitives here was an act of treason. I’ll testify in your favor if you swiftly comply with my order.”
Gabeel trembled all over, the edges of his fins violently shaking. “I will not.”
Noh moved forward to flank him. “Gabeel warned us that such would be your decision. We’re prepared to fight to defend our lives and those of our brothers and sisters. Call off your attack on our world now, or we’ll stop you by force.”
The Captain released a burbling series of wheezes that could only be laughter. “What do animals like you think you can—”
The ball of energy Noh summoned to his hand flew across the bridge and obliterated the Captain’s tether where it emerged from its body between its top fins. The Seraph gaped for an instant, then lunged for the free end. “Sound the alarm!” it bellowed. A violent clamoring noise echoed through the bridge.
Meanwhile, energy balls from Nama, Sem, and Ohr hit Yellowface’s tether, and attacks from Am, Eneh, and Bet struck Redfin’s. Jeth methodically sent ball after ball to blast all three Seraphim bodies, blowing big chunks of astral flesh into nothingness.
As Noh and the rest shifted their attack to mimic Jeth’s tactics, Gabeel dashed to a bank of controls. Lights flashed. The alarms ceased for a moment, then resumed.
The Captain and Yellowface fell before the attacks, their astral forms so riddled with holes they couldn’t retreat to their bodies. The broken ends of their tethers faded away. But Redfin, though blinded by a shot to the head, managed to blunder through a wall in the direction from which his tether came. His mental voice blasted through the ship. Alarm! Alarm! Invaders on the bridge! Mutiny! Gabeel has turned traitor! Destroy him and the alien savages he’s brought to kill us all!
Gabeel dashed to Noh’s side, his words coming in a burst of clicks and squeals and a torrent of thought almost too fast for Beverly to process. “I failed to cut off life support to the sleeping tanks. They’re protected too well. Remember what I told you. Stay together; hit them as they come. You’re strong; you can defeat them if you don’t panic. Once they’re all dead, move the comets out of their courses. I pray the information I implanted in your mind on how to use the computers will be sufficient. If not, do your best.”
Noh grabbed the tip of Gabeel’s fin. “Why do you speak as if you’re about to leave us?”
Gabeel bobbed his head. “At any moment they’ll reach my sleeping tank and kill my body.”
Noh froze for an instant, then barked to the others, “Follow me!” To Gabeel he declared, “Not if we stop them.”
Gabeel threw his astral form in Noh’s path. “Don’t be a fool! Your bodies are far away, so you’re safe if you protect your tethers. Stay here where you can most easily defend yourselves.”
Noh shook him off. “Come or stay, as you choose.” When Noh glanced back, Beverly saw the other humans had formed a tight cluster behind him. Noh focused on Gabeel’s tether and shot off, following the glowing cord toward its source.
They flickered through walls and across spaces too fast for Beverly to register more than a confusing blur. Several times they encountered Seraphim, singly or in small groups. Every time, the Seraphim immediately attacked with showers of blazing balls of energy. Noh and his family blocked the assaults and fought back.
They took many hits. Once Eneh’s tether was severed, but she seized the ends and reconnected them. Beverly experienced a burst of pain as Noh’s right hand, gesturing to call up a shield, was struck and destroyed. He switched to using his left until his astral flesh reformed itself.
No one was killed, however, and they always outnumbered the Seraphim they faced. They managed to defeat each group, killing some, sending others fleeing. Beverly tried to keep count. Including the Captain and Yellowface, she thought nine Seraphim were dead by the time Noh’s group burst into a large round room in the heart of the ship.
Oblong capsules of varying sizes, shrouded by floating tubes and glowing with banks of lights, were arranged in a nine by three grid. More than a dozen Seraphim clustered over the capsules, facing outward, balls of energy hovering before them. Two Seraphim worked on a small capsule near the edge of the grid. A number of its tubes floated loose, and most of its lights were off.
Noh threw up a shield, blocking Beverly’s view as well as the rain of energy the Seraphim hurled at them. He and the others struck back. For several minutes, balls of energy flashed and soared and splattered, shields leaped into being and blinked out, and Noh moved with such wildly jerky dashes and drops that Beverly could make no sense of the action. A dozen times she was sure Noh would be killed, as energy blasted his astral body or severed his tether, but every time he recovered and renewed his attack.
As the fight continued, though, it became clear the humans were losing. There were too many Seraphim. Gradually the aliens pressed the humans into a tight cluster in one corner of the room. Noh and the rest continued to fight valiantly, but Beverly knew with a sinking heart that it was only a matter of time until they were overcome.
“Mother!” Bet screamed. She flashed past Noh and out through a wall, chasing a rapidly retreating thread of light. Noh turned and caught Nama’s battered astral form in his arms.
Chapter 17
Nama gestured weakly at the broken end of her tether with her one remaining arm, trying to form words with her half-destroyed mouth.
“Hush, beloved,” Noh murmured. Beverly felt his heart racing and tears flowing down his cheeks. “Bet will return in a moment with your heart-cord.”
Her voice sounded in his mind. Don’t worry about me. Save yourself and our world! Her astral form went insubstantial and slid from his grasp.
“No! I won’t lose you!” Noh cried. He grabbed for her, but his hands passed through her astral flesh.
Go. Fight. She turned and charged the Seraphim, firing a stream of energy bursts, even as her astral form began to fade.
Noh dove to intercept her, throwing up a shield to deflect the Seraphim’s counter-attack. “Look at me!” he commanded.
Nama’s eyes met his. Beverly, along with Noh, gazed deep into her, seeing past her dissolving astral flesh and into her soul. With reckless abandon Noh drove his own soul into hers, binding them together, making the two of them one.
He grabbed the body that was now solid to him and hauled her back to the others. They clustered around, shielding them both. Noh clung to her, but even bonded as they now were, she grew insubstantial to his touch.
Oh, my beloved, Nama murmured. Would that you could hold me thus. But even a bond of souls cannot withstand the pull of death.
“No,” Noh whispered, powerless to halt her fading.
“Here!” Bet cried, bursting into the room, the broken end of Nama’s tether in her hand. She flung herself at her mothe
r and jammed the glowing cord into Nama’s chest. Noh sucked in his breath as Nama’s form strengthened.
With shaking hands he thrust her into Bet’s arms. “Bless you, daughter. Stay with her and protect her.” With a cry of fury he launched himself at the remaining Seraphim.
Energy rushed into his hands, more powerfully than ever before. He sent great blazing globes hurtling at the enemy. They scattered before him, squealing and whistling in terror.
A brightly glowing form sprang to his side. He turned wondering eyes to behold Nama, restored to her full shape and strength, firing energy blasts as powerful as his had become. “What’s happening?” he cried.
“This new bond has made us mighty,” she answered. “Let us destroy our enemies together.”
With a glad cry of assent he turned back to the Seraphim. Side by side they advanced against them.
Their newfound power evened the odds, but the Seraphim regrouped and put up a spirited defense. Neither side could gain an advantage. After many minutes of fierce battle, Noh and Nama retreated to rest behind shields.
Am dropped back beside them, panting. “Father, Mother, what did you do to become so much stronger?”
Noh blinked and thought back to that moment. “I looked into her eyes, and—” Beverly felt him groping to convey a wordless understanding of what he had done to create the soul bond.
Am frowned blankly for a moment. Then his eyes widened. “I understand.” He whirled and called to his wife. “Eneh! Come to me!”
She hurled a ball of energy at her opponent and disengaged. Flying to Am’s side, she took his hand with a quick squeeze, but scowled at him. “What’s so urgent you must interrupt the battle?”
“Dearest, do you trust me?” Am seized Eneh’s hands and gazed into her eyes.
Her expression softened. “With my life, beloved.”
His voice dropped to a whisper. “Then let us join our souls and become mighty together. Father showed me how.”
Eneh drifted closer to him, eyes locked on his, lips parting in wonder. “Yes…”
Their bonding took only an instant. Then they turned hand in hand to assault the enemy, incandescent with power.
Sem and Ohr, Bet and Jeth, flocked to Noh’s side, demanding to learn how to create their own bonds. He showed them, then watched, marveling, as his children and their spouses rained destruction on the Seraphim.
The aliens clustered together and made a valiant last stand, but they were no match for the humans’ newfound strength. Energy balls burned through Seraphim shields and obliterated tethers and bodies alike. When a crippled foe dropped into one of the capsules to rejoin its body, Jeth blasted it as soon as it emerged. After that, the Seraphim who escaped remained within their bodies, proof against any energy the humans could hurl at them, but powerless to act.
“Look to Gabeel’s body!” Sem cried from across the room.
Noh whirled to see the capsule the two Seraphim labored over. They stared at it, every line of their astral forms straining with great effort. A crack appeared in the capsule. Water sprayed out and froze into a cloud of ice crystals that drifted across the room.
“Cease!” Noh shouted. Nama at his side, he launched himself against the two Seraphim, energy blazing. They scattered, and the crack stopped expanding. Ice rimmed it, and crystals spread across the flexing, shining surface within. Noh turned from pursuing the enemy to fix his attention on the capsule. Shifting energy from the astral plane into the physical required intense mental focus, but when Nama joined him their efforts seemed to feed off each other. The force they were able to apply doubled and redoubled as it passed back and forth along the link between them. They shoved the lid of the capsule closed, trapping most of the liquid within.
Gabeel appeared at their side. He fixed his attention on the capsule, and drifting tubes refitted themselves into place. “Hold it a moment more while I restore power to the locking mechanism.”
Noh’s multiplied strength was waning when Gabeel called, “It’s secured. You can let go.” Noh sank back, blinking around him.
Sem and Ohr hovered over the rows of capsules, eyes shifting between several, which Beverly guessed held surviving Seraphim. No astral Seraphim save Gabeel remained in the room. The rest of the humans huddled nearby, conversing in low voices.
“Are they all accounted for?” Noh asked.
Everyone chimed in with descriptions of what they had witnessed, gradually piecing together a full account of the battle. Five Seraphim had retreated to their bodies. Eleven more were confirmed dead. With the nine previously killed, and Gabeel, that left only one Seraph out of the crew of twenty-seven missing.
Gabeel went from capsule to capsule, checking readouts. He glowered at the ones containing the hiding Seraphim. “As you saw, our tanks are difficult to breach, a fact to which I owe my life. They’re shielded against telekinetic penetration. Oxygen and nutrients can be shut off, but our bodies are so slowed they can survive for many hours with none.”
“Never mind them for now.” Noh said. “They pose no threat as long as they remain imprisoned. Can you tell who’s still at large?”
Gabeel paused at a capsule, bristling his fins and baring his teeth. “Siffer,” he growled. Beverly picked up the syllables of the name from his voice. “The one with red fins who questioned you. He escaped the bridge and sounded the alarm. He’s the most intelligent of our crew, and the most ruthless.”
“Where would he go?” Noh asked.
Gabeel reflected a moment, then spit an unintelligible sound with the feel of a curse. “Back to the bridge.” He darted away. Noh and the others followed, leaving Sem and Ohr on guard.
As they zoomed through the empty ship, a telepathic voice reverberated into Noh’s mind. Warning! Hostile aliens inhabit this planet. But they are too weak to defeat the full might of the colony ship if you come prepared to face them. They’ve disrupted the preparations, but the project can be resumed when you arrive. Beware the Bleaters among you! They may side with the aliens.
Noh burst onto the bridge. Redfin—Siffer—hovered over a bank of instruments, focused intently on one of them.
Siffer glanced up at the humans and sneered. Continue on course as planned. Destroy the aliens and claim this planet for our people!
The Seraph’s body tensed. The instrument panel before him erupted in a shower of sparks. The metal crumpled and tore, disintegrating into an unusable mass of scrap. Siffer gave a piercing shriek of defiance and launched a massive ball of energy straight at Noh.
The six humans and Gabeel rained energy on Siffer. He fought fiercely, but was no match for their combined strength. Powerful attacks from the bonded pairs burned through his shields. When his tether was severed he didn’t attempt to retreat to his body, but fought on, launching blast after blast as his astral form dimmed. It became so faint only the flying balls of energy gave evidence of his continued existence. Then they ceased, and he was gone.
Noh knocked aside Siffer’s last strike. It splattered against the viewport. All was still save for the panting of the humans and the whistle of Gabeel’s breath.
The Seraph drifted over to gaze sadly at the ruined instrument panel. “Our telepathic amplifier. Without it I cannot contact the colony ship. Though even if I warned them away from your planet, they wouldn’t listen. All the other scout ships have reported in, and none of our other potential refuges are as desirable as this one. Our leaders have decided to set their course here. The journey will consume all our resources, so that it will be too late to continue to another world. If my people don’t settle here, we’ll perish.”
He turned to face Noh and the others, resolution in his voice. “So be it. This is your world, not ours. We have no right to take it, even if that’s the only way for us to survive. When the colony ship arrives, you must be ready to defend yourselves against them.”
Noh looked out the viewport, where Earth was visible as a brilliantly glowing crescent. His shoulders drooped. Beverly could feel his weariness. “Ho
w long until they come?”
Gabeel moved to a large glass panel that Beverly recognized as a computer display. He concentrated, and a series of complex diagrams and columns of mysterious symbols appeared. “These are the courses our ships have traveled thus far, and where they are now.” One of the diagrams expanded, and Beverly saw a cone-shaped bundle of lines terminating in flashing dots, with a series of symbols captioning each. In the center of the cone a larger dot blinked, accompanied by its defining symbols.
“This is the course the colony ship will travel.” A line extended from the large dot to one of the smaller ones. Next to the diagram a long list of symbols appeared. Gabeel frowned at them. “Approximately eight thousand of this planet’s years.”
Nama gasped. “Eight thousand years? If humanity endures so long, surely any warning we may try to transmit will be long forgotten.”
Gabeel tilted his head. “Write it down.” At the puzzled looks from the humans, translucent lids blinked across his eyes. “You have no writing?” He swept a fin at the symbols on the display, but Noh shook his head, and the others continued to look baffled. Gabeel slumped. “You will in time, I’m certain. Until then, I suppose you must pass the information from person to person, down through the generations. It’s possible to encapsulate memories in a fixed form, so they may be shared among many. I’ll show you how to do so.”
Noh went to the viewport and looked out. “First, though, we must move the blocks of ice so that the storms and floods cease.”
“Yes.” Gabeel called up another display. “I’ll set the ship on a course to intercept them. Return to your bodies, refresh yourselves, and come back here when next night falls on your vessel.”
