by James Somers
“Good to see you well, Master Kale,” Olson said as he powered up the thrusters and took the ship skyward again.
“You don’t know how good it is to see all of you safe. I thought Elam had killed you all in the explosion.”
“We weren’t in the house,” Juli said. “Father took us to the bunker he built beneath the house. The tunnel goes all the way back into the mountain.”
“How did you get this ship?”
“Well, when I came back out of the emergency entrance on the hillside I saw what was left of the house. You were there at the shuttle with Elam,” Olson said. “When you got on board with him I wasn’t sure if he had captured you, so I shot the hull with a tracker pin.”
“Good thinking.”
“By the time we caught up with the ship, only Elam’s pilot was inside.”
“And we got rid of him pretty easily,” Juli said.
The shuttle continued to rise through the storm of the Agonotti.
“What course, Master Kale?” Olson asked.
Emil interrupted. “The signs in the place where we came through said Sector City. We have a recall gate that will appear there if we can get to it.”
“Take us there, Olson.”
The shuttle burst away from the ghastly scene in Odem as the cloud of beings took up the chase. The storm of creatures willed their immaterial forms to follow the craft and they were keeping pace with it. Obscene appendages of the gaseous formation launched outward to caress the small shuttle in flight, but had no substance to hold it with.
The adolescents made their way back to check on the king. Tiet remained only half conscious. His breathing was noticeably labored.
“What happened to him?” Juli asked.
Kale looked at Emil, “It’s a long story. I think he may have broken ribs and a pelvic fracture, maybe even some internal bleeding. I’ve got to get him back to my mother—being a doctor, she can help him.”
“I’ve already activated the recall on the transgate,” Emil said. “I don’t know how long it will take to transmit the signal all the way back to Kosiva and put a new portal in place.
“Sector city is only about twenty minutes of flight time from Odem,” Juli said.
Kale looked out of nearby port holes, on either wall of the craft, and saw the swirling mass trying to overtake them in flight. “I hope we can make it.”
☼
Wynn sat at the computer station in his room going over records of the nearby planetary systems when an alarm sounded. The alarm had been programmed to interrupt his current information on the computer screen. A recall signal had been issued. They were coming home, but did they have Kale with them?
Wynn stood and ran down the hall of the ship to the transgate chamber. When he entered, the alarm flashed at several stations inside. Wynn keyed in his own password for the system and the alarm silenced. The computer brought up the relevant data—definitely a recall signal.
Wynn set the calibration and launched the gate immediately. Within twenty seconds, a wall of light burst into view within the gate aperture. Everything was ready. Wynn waited for his comrades to come through, but no one appeared. It was the nature of the field that one could not make out much of anything on the other side unless you were close to it. He saw vague forms of buildings, but no people.
He tapped the communications panel and called overhead for all members of the team to get to the gate room immediately. If Tiet and the boys had activated the field then surely they would be close by to make it to the jump point.
Within moments, Grod, Mirah and then Merab and Jael all came running through the auto doors.
“What’s going on?” Mirah asked as she scanned around for her husband and son.
“The recall signal has been activated,” Wynn said, “I’ve already put a gate in place, but no one has come through yet.”
“Maybe we should go through and make sure they are able to get to the gate—they may have run into trouble,” Grod suggested.
“That’s not a bad idea. At least we could guard the gate from the other side to prevent anyone else from coming through,” Wynn said.
“Wynn, you and Grod go,” Mirah said. “We’ll stay here to make sure the gate is maintained.”
She didn’t say it, but she obviously wanted the two most experienced warriors to be the ones going through after them. Nothing would put her mind at ease though, except seeing her husband and both of the boys coming back through the gate safely.
Wynn and Grod looked at one another and immediately left the room for the armory in the ship. If they were going through then they would be going fully armed and ready for anything.
☼
Sector City appeared on the horizon. The ominous Agonotti cloud continued to track with the shuttle trying to overtake them somehow. The sun diffused through the mingled forms of thousands of the immaterial creatures.
“We’re almost there!” Olson shouted to those in the rear compartment.
Tiet moaned from his injuries. Guilt flooded in on Kale as he tried to make his father comfortable in the shuttle while it rocked and reeled from the pressures being exerted on it by the cloud.
“Father, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you…”
“I know. I’ll be fine. I’m just glad we found you. Please don’t ever think you have to run away.”
“I just wasn’t sure if I could keep control of that thing in my head,” Kale said. “I didn’t want to hurt anybody so I ran, but now it’s happened anyway.”
“Don’t worry, soon we’ll be home and your mother will know what to do for me.”
That thought comforted him a little. Yes, his mother would know, after all she was an excellent physician. According to Emil, she had been the one to find the cure for the symbyte—the antibody formula necessary to kill it. At least, Kale thought it was dead. It certainly had lost control over him and the voice in his mind had gone silent.
Kale looked out one of the portal windows and saw the vile formation crowding around the ship, but then something more. The ship shuddered as something collided with the hull. Kale watched physical forms coalesce on the hull of the shuttle.
Agonotti became solid one by one, clinging to the craft and forming for their weapons large broadswords and battle hammers, all coming into being from the same material that their bodies had formed from. So that’s it, their clothing, weapons and bodies are all formed from the same matrix.
The creatures hammered into the ship with their weapons, trying to breech the hull or bring it down.
“What are we going to do?” Emil shouted. “They’ll destroy the flight controls!”
Kale didn’t have an answer. They couldn’t fight them on the hull while they were in flight.
“Father, what can we do?”
“I’m too weak. Kale, you and Emil try to push them off kinetically. Just don’t damage the hull.”
The boys moved to either side of the compartment trying to sense where the Agonotti warriors stood on the outside. They each pushed the creatures away as they sensed them beyond their touch. As the warriors fell away they disintegrated their forms and rejoined the mass of Agonotti in the cloud. Still, more formed on the outer hull and more than the boys could deal with at one time.
Suddenly, several of the portal windows burst inward and the foul smoke poured through into the compartment. Agonotti warriors formed from the dark vapor ready for battle. Kale and Emil pulled their weapons and began to slash through the creatures physical forms.
Juli and her mother screamed as the Agonotti cornered them in the compartment and moved in for the kill. Emil intervened instantly—dispatching both warriors and then quickly moved on to several more. The compartment was of fair size for a shuttle and Elam had certainly outfitted for luxury, but the battle grew cramped fast with more and more Agonotti materializing from the invading fog.
A warrior tried to attack Tiet, who was too weak to fight—only barely maintaining consciousness. But Kale came to his defense being s
ure not to allow anyone near his father, the king. The wind howled through every portal window in the shuttle except the cockpit. For some reason, they had abandoned that option when they had gained access through the others.
Olson continued to drive the shuttle hard for Sector City and soon they were flying over the boundaries of Wellor Lake. He looked down at the beacon display that Emil had left in the cockpit for him to follow. The gate showed a location in the heart of the city only a few miles ahead.
The battle raged in the rear compartment with Emil defending the women and Kale standing against those trying to get to the cockpit or to his father. Clanging could still be heard from Agonotti warriors on the outer hull. There were just too many of the Agonotti warriors to do anything except hold their own ground and try not to get killed.
An explosion rocked the craft.
“They’ve blown out the flight control module!” Olson shouted. “We’re going to crash!”
The Agonotti began to disintegrate immediately upon hearing Olson’s warning. The battle ended suddenly as the ghastly warriors rode the wind back out of the ship.
“Is everyone alright?” Kale shouted.
“We’ve got to get strapped in!” Emil said over the howling wind.
Kale went to help Juli get into a flight restraint as the wind whipped through the shattered portholes like a cyclone.
“Olson!” Juli’s mother got to her feet and ran toward the cockpit to help her husband as the shuttle pitched to the side. She slammed into the wall as she ran, but frantically continued on, trying to reach her dear husband in the front of the ship.
“Mother!” Juli cried.
The shuttle pitched forward and descended down into the city. It slammed into one of the city’s tall buildings full of glass panes. Kale tried to put a kinetic bubble around the ship to protect it as it collided with the wall of glass and steel.
The craft penetrated and came through diagonally out of another side of the building, nearer to the street. The entire compartment rotated as Kale tried to hold the mental force field around the ship and simultaneously get the final click on his own flight harness, but he couldn’t manage both in the chaos.
His grip on the strap gave and he flew out of his chair through the compartment as it rotated around him. He hit the top of a flight chair and slammed into an adjacent wall. The mental bubble dissipated as Kale was tossed about like a rag doll. The exposed craft descended toward the street below and slammed into a number of personal transport vehicles. It skidded to a halt on the pavement.
The massive Agonotti cloud descended upon the city as civilians ran through the streets in a panic. People had been killed, when the ship fell out of the sky and plowed through businesses and then into traffic. Everyone recognized the Agonotti cloud.
Agonotti warriors materialized in the streets. They would not waste the opportunity of a feeding among the civilian population roaming the streets during the middle of the work day. The cloud cast a massive shadow and it seemed as though death itself had come to call upon Sector City.
☼
Emil shook Kale back to consciousness. They both lay on the roof of the shuttle in the overturned craft. Above them and down the compartment Tiet hung a few feet away in his flight chair. Juli moaned something about her mother as Kale made his way to release her from her harness. He smelled the wreckage burning.
Kale tried to support Juli’s small frame and then released the latch for her flight harness allowing her to fall onto his shoulders gently. Emil emerged from the cockpit as Kale let Juli down to her feet. The look on his face told Kale that her parents had not survived the crash.
Emil came to support the girl as Kale made his way to his father. Using the same maneuver, he released Tiet’s harness and took his weight upon his own shoulders.
They heard screams out in the street as the group made their way to the boarding ramp door. The ramp itself was on the roof to them and Emil forced the door open with his mind. Beyond, thousands of people ran through the streets.
The Agonotti rampaged against the inhabitants of the city. Kale and the others walked out of the ship. This had to get to the transgate recall portal. Warriors materialized around them as the cloud hung heavy in the street.
“Leaving so soon?” a voice said from behind them.
They looked back to see more warriors on top of the mangled hull of the shuttle. Emil lit a kemstick with one hand while supporting a slightly injured and dazed Juli with the other. If they had to fight now, the wounded might hinder their efforts.
Suddenly the warrior that had spoken to them exploded in a blue spherical burst. A spicor!
Kale and Emil turned to find Grod running at them firing the plasma glove at the Agonotti as the shadow of Wynn Gareth passed over them. He landed on the shuttle’s hull and quickly dispatched several Agonotti before any of the humanoids could react. Without hesitation, Grod ran into the midst and pulled Tiet off of Kale’s shoulders, bearing the king’s weight. Then he took off running back the way they had come.
“Come on, the gate is this way!” he shouted.
Wynn brought up the rear of the party, engaging the masses of Agonotti that came out of the cloud to pursue them. He thrust many Agonotti away with his mind and cut down any within striking distance. Still they pursued.
It was a short run to the gate. They had crashed just around the corner from its location. Grod blasted away at any Agonotti in his path. He reached the gate and ran through with Tiet. Kale and Emil tried their best to avoid the creatures as they got Juli through the gate with Wynn close behind them.
Chaos reigned in Sector city. Then the scene snapped out of existence as Wynn closed the gate before anything else could come through.
Mirah fell on her son’s neck kissing him before he could even find a chair to set Juli in. But motherly smothering and affection quickly took second chair to her need to treat her patients. She saw that the young girl was more dazed than anything. She might have a concussion, but Tiet looked far worse.
Mirah went to him and helped Grod get him into the ships medical lab. Tiet faded in and out of consciousness.
“Wynn, bring the kids to the med lab. I want to get bio scans on everyone,” Mirah instructed as she followed Grod through the doors.
Wynn looked at Kale. “Well, young man, it looks like you’ve had quite an adventure over the past few days—you get a vacation and turn a whole city upside down.”
“There’s more going on there than you know.”
“Boy, that’s the truth,” Emil said.
“Well, let’s get you guys checked out and see how your father is doing. You can tell me all about it tonight.”
☼
KALE watched through the transparent med-lab window as his mother, Wynn and Grod worked on stabilizing his father’s vital signs. Intravenous drips ran into his arms—Kale wasn’t sure what kind of drugs they were. On a computer screen behind them, medical data poured onto a display. Pictures of Tiet’s chest and abdomen made it clear, even to the layman, that several of his ribs and his sternum were fractured.
This is my fault, Kale thought. He had been so weak, letting the creature inside his mind take control and do this to his father. Guilt descended with a mighty weight as Kale thought, he is fighting for his life in there all because he loved his son—the son that ran away.
“It’s not your fault, you know?” Emil said, sitting in the chair in front of him.
“Then whose fault is it? I did this.”
He brushed a stray tear as he tried to remain angry at himself rather than breaking down. “I ran away trying to avoid hurting any of you and what good did it do? Nothing! It happened anyway.”
“Running wasn’t the answer, but you didn’t know that. You had good intentions,” Emil said.
“Yeah, intentions,” Kale said through clenched fists, still watching the drama unfolding in the next room.
“Your dad is strong, Kale,” Merab said from the doorway. He came in and sat next to the
young man.
“I think he’ll come through this. I’ve seen him do great things, even before you were born.”
The boys became very interested.
“You know that the general and your father were enemies at one time, but when it came time for peace, your father fought his way into Nagon-Toth and practically dared us all not to make treaty. He very nearly died that day, but he wasn’t afraid. And now look at us. We’re allies, the Horva and the Barudii. He’s a great king. If being swallowed alive by a teragore couldn’t do him in, then I don’t think we should count him out yet.”
Kale may have pretended that Merab’s words weren’t comforting, but he was very glad to hear them. He didn’t know as much as he would have liked about his father’s younger days, but that was going to change. He just hoped his father would be around to tell him personally.
In a few minutes the med-lab drama calmed down. Grod emerged looking exhausted. “Mirah thinks he’s going to be alright. She has him stabilized and medicated for his pain. He may have some hard days ahead, but it looks like your father is going to pull through.”
