[scifan] plantation 06 - plantations origins

by Stella Samiotou Fitzsimons

  He grabbed his head, squeezing his temples, agony all over his face.

  She ran to him and dropped onto her knees. “Eric, what is it?”

  “The stone,” he muttered through gritted teeth.

  “What about the stone?”

  “It’s calling to me.”

  She shook her head. “It’s not the stone. It’s Zarok. He’s doing this. Fight him, Eric. Fight him with all you have.”

  He took her hand. “Freya, the stone has to be destroyed, no matter the cost.”

  “Forget the stone. Concentrate on Zarok. Keep him out of your head.”

  “He can’t control me,” Eric said. Then he screamed, a guttural, bone-chilling squeal. He bent forward in pain.

  His incessant howling cut through Freya, blurring her vision.

  She took his head in her arms. She kissed and stroked his hair tenderly while his entire body began to convulse uncontrollably.

  “That’s it,” she whispered. “Fight it, Eric. Use the parts all your own.”

  His eyes fluttered open. His chest filled to overfull before exhaling in a labored wheeze. “I’m winning,” he said.

  Freya smiled as he squeezed her hand. “Keep fighting. The battle rages on, the voices will make you think you’re winning so that you stop trying.”

  The door opened. Zarok entered to find them on the floor. Eric’s head lay on Freya’s lap. He was shaking, drenched in sweat, nearly unconscious.

  Zarok furrowed his brow. “This is amazing. You supply power to each other,” he said. “Together you are more than you are apart. This is a revelation. You should rule Lageria together as the Couple Supreme.”

  Freya rose and opened her right hand to let the receptor land there.

  “Are you kidding me right now, Zarok?”

  CHAPTER 18

  ERIC

  Depleted as he felt, Eric managed to get to his feet. Zarok raised his receptor, taking a step back. Freya quickly met his energy blast with her own, forcing him into retreat. She was stronger with a receptor than Zarok, but how long would her energy last?

  “You are more stubborn than a three-year-old,” Eric told her, supporting himself on the bed. “Do you not value your life? What about your son? Your sister? Don’t they deserve to have you around?”

  Freya turned off the receptor before looking him in the eye. “I’m sorry, Eric. Your intentions are noble, but I refuse to be saved by anyone.”

  “Too bad, I’m saving you. Deal with it.”

  He barely finished his sentence before her receptor sizzled again. She pointed it at him, the stream of energy locking him in place. He strained himself but found it impossible to move a single muscle.

  Freya bathed him into the purest white light, revitalizing him.

  He felt engulfed in an invigorating stream of energy that ran through all his bones and flesh and blood. His breathing calmed. His fatigue vanished.

  “Have you listened to nothing I’ve said?” Eric said, glaring at her. “You have to completely stop using your energy. You’re dying, Freya.”

  “Yeah, but you’re not,” she said, shrugging. “I need you strong. All of Earth needs you strong. How can you not do that math?”

  His body was fresh, but his mind was too tired to respond. It did not matter that she was making sense. Zarok’s words of Freya’s demise echoed in his head on an endless loop. She must survive. That’s all.

  He watched her slip the pulse gun into a back pocket. “That gun is precautionary. Don’t try to shoot your way out. We’re in space.”

  “Oh, really? We’re in space? Thanks, genius,” she said, fidgeting.

  He knew that when Freya starts fidgeting, it typically ends badly.

  “Freya, just keep the gun concealed,” Eric said.

  “I won’t go out there and kill Zarok, okay?” she said. “You can keep your savior fantasy intact. You can capture him, tickle his feet and make him save the girl or whatever. The band will start playing. The trumpets will sound. The children will dance in the fields.” She raised her eyebrows at him. “Let me know when you wake up and we can finally get to work on these fools.”

  “And by get to work, you mean kill everyone?”

  “I’d let Lada live, I’m not a monster.”

  “I think you’ve been watching too many old movies,” he said.

  “And you haven’t watched enough of them,” she answered.

  The fact that she was making jokes, sort of, worried him almost as much as her fidgety body language. She was hiding something, an intent or a plan or a decision she had already made.

  “I need to find Zarok,” he said. “I think he’s preparing Aspis for battle.”

  “This might help,” she said as she gave him Lada’s small, black sensor.

  The sensor led them down corridors and up staircases. Eric used his sharpened senses to survey each section of the ship just before walking through it.

  When they approached flight deck, Eric saw the rotating laser security devices activated. Their cloaking shields kept them from taking fire.

  They entered a flight deck adjacent chamber. Zarok sat among twelve of his flight crew. Half held KA-plasmers and pulse guns, the other half held receptors. Zarok was not the only one who could use a receptor. Another lie.

  Zarok clutched a three-edged sword. “You’ve been to the cryo deck without permission, hybrid,” the Lagerian growled at Eric.

  “Maybe you need some rest, high lord, you look like you’ve been awake for sixteen years,” Eric quipped right back.

  “The mistake humans make is in thinking words and principles are somehow linked to survival,” Zarok said with true fascination. “As if the way a single conversation goes will change the world.”

  “That explains why you suck at talking,” Freya said.

  Insults did not concern Zarok. He swiped his hand over a console. Two ceiling panels slid apart, revealing a circular device with a wide mouth.

  “An electromagnetic magnifier,” Zarok said. “There are certain risks for those nearby, but it will neutralize embedded, cellular powers like yours.”

  Eric remembered the paralyzing effect of neutralizing machines. “If you had that thing all along, why not use it?”

  “How I wish I had. It would have spared me the tedium of watching you struggle with your feeble conscience,” Zarok agreed. “The problem is such, the dark stone will not activate if you are energy deficient, but you leave me no choice.”

  Freya took a step forward, receptor ready. “I’d like to see you try.”

  Zarok smirked. “The dead girl still makes threats.”

  Freya trained the receptor on him while all crew members trained their guns and receptors on Freya. Eric stepped in front of her.

  “This is your last chance. Give me the steps required to reverse Freya’s degeneration process,” Eric said. “Do that and you will survive the day, and I might even add a little bit of jolt to your energy capacity as a bonus.”

  Zarok laughed. “A jolt of energy? Did you really think that was your only purpose? We have plans that go way beyond energy infusion.”

  He motioned a crew member to click on a feed to the cameras in a vast chamber on Aspis. In the center, stood a huge, dome-shaped energy reactor, supported by thick columns. Behind the glass front, purple and bluish energy flames sparked against a dark background.

  “Behold the Ora Dak,” Zarok said, his voice filled with pride. “The weapon to end all weapons. Once activated, there will be no more wars. The Ora Dak can swallow up entire planets and devour stars. It has the capacity to reach into the depths of the galaxy. Resistance will become an antiquated concept. All civilizations will surrender. The Ora Dak was genetically encoded by Nalok, so no one could activate it but him.” He turned to face Eric.

  “Or someone with his genetic code,” Eric said the obvious.

  “You have decapitated the head of the nail,” Zarok said. “Is that how your kind would say it?”

  “Why? What the hell?” Freya sai
d.

  “He means hit the nail on the head,” Eric explained.

  “I know what he meant. I mean, what the hell good is this machine? Only the most moronic madman would create such a device. Someone will steal the technical specs and soon every planet will be swallowed.”

  “The device is best used to deter rebellion or invasion,” Zarok attempted to explain. “If, by chance, it was used once, that should end future uprisings.”

  “It sounds even worse when you say it out loud,” Freya said.

  “Understand, it was not my intention to overthrow Nalok,” Zarok went on. “But once Eldaria was in control, I had to work with her. The survival of the species is paramount. And that would have been accomplished if not for the rebellion of this mutant girl and her feeble friends.”

  Eric knew that while Zarok drew breath, Freya would never be safe.

  “Her friends are anything but feeble,” he said defiantly. “I am lucky to count myself among them.”

  Freya quickly threw a shield around herself and Eric. “There’s one major problem with your plan,” she screeched at Zarok. “We’d much rather die than let you rule all the worlds.”

  Two Lagerian warriors activated shields to protect their own kind.

  The exchange of fire was sudden. Pulse blasts and energy explosions crashed against Freya’s shield.

  “Can you destroy that magnifier thing?” Freya asked Eric, feeling an ache with every blow her shield took on.

  “Negative,” he shouted. “I know nothing of its components. It might annihilate us instantly if I try to take it down.”

  Eric’s energy broke through the Lagerian shield to deliver a lethal blow to a crew member with a pulse gun. He noticed Freya weakening.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Eric said.

  Freya nodded. Her face was red and sweat-covered.

  They slowly backed out the door. Eric used his force field to lock it down. Then they ran, entering corridor after corridor, disconnecting sensors and cameras. Eric cast a bright beam of light as they entered a dark area. They saw an elevator door and hurried to get inside.

  “Now what?” Freya asked.

  “First we destroy the stone,” he said as the door closed.

  The door reopened at the top level. They took a narrow passageway to the Dark Chamber.

  Rounding the last corner, they encountered armed Lagerian lords. Receptors flashed, energy beams clashed. Eric built up his force field, working in two ways at once, shielding them and assaulting their enemies.

  A second row of lords emerged from the left and then another from the right, encircling the two hybrid earthlings. Freya unleashed her receptor’s power in a flash of fury.

  More Lagerians descended upon them, clutching onto more receptors.

  Eric felt a lethal pressure consuming his brain. Each blow he received pushed him back. His power was off somehow, they were outnumbered, they were outgunned and surrounded.

  Whispers of doom turned into sharp screams in his ears. Submit, the voices said. Power is within your reach. Take it.

  “No,” he shouted, as a magnetic field closed in on him, choking him.

  Freya packed higher levels of energy into her force field to hurl a shield over Eric. The Lagerians saw an opening and focused on her, attacking her with relentless waves of blue energy. It was her one receptor against dozens and she had recklessly spent most of her energy sustaining the shield.

  “Eric,” she called out. “Whatever it is, fight it! I need you!”

  Gritting his teeth, he raised a quivering hand to zoom a series of twirling blasts at Freya’s assailants. Three fell, but the rest became more aggressive, turning off their shields to blast Freya with full power.

  Eric felt everything go black when the great dome above collapsed amidst multiple explosion sequences. As in a dream, he saw his body yanked forward by a terrible force while his eardrums exploded. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Freya flying across the floor as metal and debris rained down.

  He summoned every bit of strength left in him to grab onto Freya with an energy field and drag her closer until she slammed into him.

  “Eric, what’s going on?” she said, shouting.

  “I blew up the engines,” he said, pulling her close to him. The liquid explosives had done their part. The main engine reactor was destroyed.

  Several Lagerians lay on the floor, dead or seriously wounded. The rest scattered about in panic as alarm sirens warned of severe damages to the navigation and propulsion systems.

  “I don’t know how you pulled it off, but I could give you a kiss,” Freya said with a silly grin on her face. Her hair was covered in debris the color of ash. There were cuts and lacerations all over her arms and face. Her shield protected him from the falling wreckage but she was left pretty exposed.

  “You are yelling,” he said.

  “That’s because I can’t hear for shit,” she said at the top of her lungs.

  Eric grinned. “Let’s see what we can do about that.”

  The explosion had blocked the dark magnetic force, restoring Eric’s strength and his mental clarity. With only a short supply of energy, he produced a flickering beam of healing white light.

  Freya banged both ears with her palms, testing them. “What do you know?” she said. “It worked. I can hear all your bad ideas again.”

  “I’ll lock you inside the reactor chamber,” Eric said, climbing to his feet. “They won’t find you there.”

  “Wait, what? My hearing must not be one hundred percent yet.”

  Eric sighed. “I have rigged the engine chamber and the command deck with explosives,” he said. “That was before I knew about the Ora Dak. If that thing goes off with the next explosion, we’ll all be blasted to hell. I have to deactivate them manually.”

  She furrowed her brow. “That’s dangerous, Eric.”

  “And what do you call the rest of our day?”

  She got up. “Seriously, Eric, if someone is to lose their life, it might as well be the one who’s almost there already. I’ll deactivate the explosives. Just tell me where to go.”

  Eric considered the offer. “No,” he said, swirling his energy to engulf her in a rock-solid shield. “Stay here.” He anchored the energy that fed the shield onto a wall grid that contained power cells, hoping it would hold long enough for him to run to command deck and back.

  His plan failed instantly. Zarok was again one step ahead of him.

  The Commander Supreme led Lada into the wrecked hall with a receptor at her throat. A misty shield protected them.

  Freya shouted from within the solid shield wanting to get out.

  “Betrayed by my own kind,” Zarok said. His usual bland expression was replaced by something more sinister. “The destiny is upon us. Your human victories are but murmurs at the end of the universe.”

  “And where are your victories?” Eric said, buying time.

  Zarok hissed. He tilted the receptor directly at Lada’s throat. “Betrayal has long flowed in this one’s bloodline. It was a mistake to give her a second chance. Humans will not be so lucky.”

  Lada’s eyes misted as they landed on Freya who clawed at the shield with her nails, desperately trying to break free.

  Eric brought his foot down on the floor. The ground buckled under his boot as the shield dissolved and Freya broke free.

  “Let the civilian go,” he told Zarok. “It’s me you want.” Eric feared any attempt to puncture Zarok’s shield would give the desperate alien enough time to kill Lada. His best bet was to talk him out of this.

  “And you would die for a traitor instead of becoming king?”

  “I thought I was pretty clear about that,” Eric said, moving slightly to give him an ideal position.

  “You are not your father’s son,” Zarok said. “I’ll put you in stasis and extract the genetic material to be used by one worthy of it.”

  “Right,” Eric said. “If that were a thing, you would have already tried it.”

&nb
sp; Zarok lowered the receptor from Lada’s throat. He fixed an ominous gaze on Eric, then pulled Lada closer and slashed her throat with a light beam.

  A double wave of force hurled Eric back before he could attack Zarok. Two guards stepped from the shadows, receptors on full power. Eric pushed his force against their force, his eyes bulging.

  The hybrid legend of two worlds screamed as his bone density struggled against the force building inside him. A torrent of white energy exploded from him in a tunnel of raging light. The guards imploded into a steamy mist that was once blood and bone. Freya and Zarok alike were shocked at the sight.

  Zarok fled among the confusion, engulfed in a strong shield. Eric started after him, but he stopped when Freya screamed.

  Eric turned back. Freya was on her knees, holding Lada. Blood flowed through Freya’s fingers that were pressed against Lada’s throat.

  The desire to finish Zarok scorched within his cells, but Freya’s anguish ran deeper. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Let me,” he said.

  Freya shook her head. “It’s my responsibility.”

  With tears in her eyes, she brought her palms together, calling onto the elemental power within. The white light sparked and hummed as it entered Lada’s open wound. The bleeding persisted longer than expected, but eventually it slowed and stopped. Her flesh and skin mended.

  Freya had to jolt her dying friend’s chest with a finger before Lada could fill her lungs and gasp at the air rushing into her ravaged body. Eric squatted to help Lada sit up and breathe.

  Freya smiled to see the life in her friend’s eyes. “Lada, you’re alive.”

  Eric looked to Freya who suddenly turned pale and fell forward onto all fours, choking and spitting. There was blood in her spit.

  “Go to her,” Lada said, able to sit up on her own.

  Eric scooped Freya into his arms, so that she lay against his shoulder. “Don’t worry,” he whispered. “I’ve got you.”

  He laid his hand on her chest, letting his force penetrate tissues and bones to locate her energy core. Her force was decreasing fast—faster than he had feared. The steady stream should feel like a heartbeat, but instead it had regressed to an irregular pitapat.