“Well, moving on...” Crystal shook her head. She didn't know if what Daf was saying was true or not, but more importantly right now she was going to get her people off of Sirona one way or another. “I'll teach the Dwarves how to fly, but I'll do so under one condition: we first rescue the inhabitants of Sirona.” She pushed her red hair out of her eyes and thought for a moment. “Nah. Not gonna work.”
“Why?” asked Daf. “That's a sound plan to me.”
“If I teach them how to fly those starfighters, then they'll forgo my plan and head over to wherever those Drags are hiding and blast them to ashes. I'm not going to show them how to fly.”
Crystal tapped her fingers in deep thought. Daf became silent as well, lost in her own thoughts. After a few moments they looked at each other simultaneously, each one grinning.
“You thinking what I'm thinking?” asked Daf.
“I hope so,” replied Crystal. “I'm thinking we take Starship Tranquil out for a spin and accidentally come back with it full of people.”
“They'll crap their pants,” said Daf.
“Who? Our people or the Dwarves?”
“Both!”
∞
Sphere 6 was full of back alley streets, busy intersections, and gorgeous garden-parks, thanks to deceased Overseer, Savanna Levens. Naveya knew this place well. It was here, for many years, that she lived on the streets, giving helpful advice to strangers for nothing more than pittance and sometimes food. She was sent here by Kien and Thomas Berard to uplift the consciousness of humanity. She had arrived eons ago, before the previous cycle ended in bloodshed—when all humans perished. This was the nineteenth cycle and hopefully the last on Starbase Matrona. If the humans can survive this and move on, then Lien-L may leave them alone. That, though, was a big if.
I hope this turns out better than it did last time, thought Naveya. Back then, during cycle eighteen, Naveya was still a rookie and had barely escaped the last cycle's attack, which ended in total annihilation. This time around was different. She participated more in the lives of her fellow humans, only helping when asked, as per Knights Templar protocol, but sometimes slipping in some much needed theories and inventions to prominent individuals, such as the scientist she gave the Suficell Pod blueprints to.
And now she was looking for Payson and his elite super soldiers. But she had lost him and for all she knew, he wasn't even in this Sphere. If he was, he was doing a very good job at hiding. Like Payson, Zim too seemed to be purposely out of sight, not talking on any of the vid channels and away from Sphere 6's governance building.
“Newspaper, here!” shouted a young man, wearing red shorts and a white shirt. Naveya approached the young man with MiMi by her side. MiMi's tail wagged and her tongue hung out—her usual happy face.
“Young man,” called Naveya. “I'll take one.”
“Sure, ma'am.” The kid handed her a paper. “Three bulvas.”
“Three?” asked Naveya. “Isn't that a little low? Or are you just being kind to an old lady?” She smiled, showing her white teeth. The young man did a double-take. He'd never seen such white teeth, especially on a homeless person.
“The secret,” said Naveya, “is to never eat processed sugars and always eat whole, living foods. If you can, eat straight from a growing vine, tree, or bush, and drink plenty of water.”
“Uh, yeah,” he responded. “Three bulvas.”
Naveya reached in her pocket and took out three thick coins. “It's so cheap these days.”
“We aren't selling much, so we slashed prices in half.” He handed her the paper. She bent down and her Knights Templar pendant slid out from underneath her shirt. She quickly tucked it back in, hoping no one saw.
The young man gave a nod. “Look at page nine. That's for you.”
What a strange thing to say, thought Naveya. “Excellent,” she said. “I'll take a gander my young friend.”
Turning away he began his hawking again. “Newspapers, here! Get your paper!”
Naveya patted her leg. “Let's go, MiMi.”
MiMi barked and followed her mistress on the sidewalk. Passing several rose bushes they rounded a corner to a back alley where they sat next to a large dumpster. No one would bother them here. Naveya found the smell of dumpsters very beneficial for that.
Taking a small glass tincture from her bag she put a couple of drops on her finger, and rubbed it on the skin under her nose. “Ylang Ylang,” she whispered. “It can mask any smell.” MiMi jumped onto her belly, using Naveya as a nice comfortable place to sleep. Naveya patted the top of Mimi's head then opened up Sphere 6's Matrona Gazette to page nine.
Her stomach flip-flopped when she saw it. A picture taken inside Sphere 6's Museum of Art, with a caption about Robert Rose and his work. It was Robert's work—which Naveya also had a hand in helping—that was being featured. But that's not why her stomach flipped. There, standing and looking at one of the paintings was Payson himself, unknowingly being photographed. The picture was taken yesterday, but why did Payson care about that particular painting? Looking closer Naveya could see that Payson was studying the piece, most likely trying to figure out its meaning and determine the potential future it portrayed. The challenge to Naveya, however, was that she couldn't tell exactly what painting Payson was examining.
“We must go, MiMi.”
Mimi woke immediately and bounded out of her lap as Naveya stood. She made her way to the end of the alleyway and eyed an apartment complex across the street. Hovercars flew by as she waited for a clear opportunity to cross. She crossed the street and made her way down several more streets until her eyes sparkled—Sphere 6's Museum of Art. In the past she had spent many hours marveling at Sphere 6's incredible painters, sculptors, and designers, happy that Savanna had allowed such a place to exist since no other Sphere had a museum of any sort.
She walked up the fancy steps and into the building, noticing how few people were there. She smiled at the female greeter. “My dog will be quiet and won't hurt anybody.”
“She's adorable,” said the greeter. “No worries. We have dogs in here all of the time, as long as they are well-behaved.”
“Thank you,” replied Naveya, walking over to the same spot where Payson had been standing. She stared up at the large painting, seeing that it was a rendering of the inside of Starbase Matrona's Sphere 1, the military portion of the starbase. In the painting were beams of lights shining through Sphere 1's large windows, touching upon dozens of humans lying peacefully on the ground.
The frames between each window were greenish-gray. This seemed odd to Naveya. All window frames on Starbase Matrona were black.
She crossed her arms and scratched her chin in thought. Oh, I see. She looked down at MiMi. “Payson knows.”
MiMi tilted her head as if she understood too.
“He knows about the poison,” continued Naveya. “It's still on the Starbase and in Sphere 1. We've got to stop him.”
A hand touched Naveya's shoulder and she turned in alarm.
“Excuse me,” said the greeter. “I couldn't help but overhear you talking to your dog…and something about poison?”
Naveya nodded toward the painting. “He's going to Sphere 1 to poison us all.”
“Who?”
“Those green window frames indicate poison and those beams of light indicate the souls journeying back to their creator. The people in this art piece aren't sleeping. They're dead!”
“Are you certain of this?” asked the astonished greeter.
Naveya nodded, then hurried out of the museum and to the hovertrain station. There, she would make her trip to Sphere 1 and do her best to stop Payson.
She paused as she took her first steps on the sidewalk, putting her thoughts together. If those people are dead, then Robert is letting us know that it's going to happen. But, how do I stop it?
She turned on her heels, changing course toward the biosphere. She was going to have to get the antidote from the plant she found earlier and make a tonic to le
t loose inside the Starbase air channels. That might be all the protection needed to neutralize the poison. She just hoped time was on her side. This wasn't going to be easy.
Just as she took her first step toward the biosphere a loud explosion sounded a few blocks away and smoke billowed upward.
The Sphere's Governance building!
She knew it had to be Payson, giving her hope that time was definitely on her side.
∞
Shanraing stood over Prime Director Zim. She had a phaser in her hand. “Get up, Zim. Keep going.”
A blast shook the hallway and small pieces of ebb dust fell all over them. “How did they find us?” he asked.
“It's Payson. He can find anyone,” replied Shanraing. “Fear is the only thing standing between you and staying alive. If you want to live, stand up and follow me.”
“But—all your friends are dead.”
“Our Guards are not dead, just a little discombobulated at the moment. Have faith in them. They are some of Kien's elite and they are Knights Templar. They've seen and dealt with worse. They took on Draconi’s warriors, for worry’s sake, and succeeded. Not many can say that.”
“They took on who?”
Shanraing waved her comment away. “Never mind.”
A bang echoed in the hall, frightening Zim. He covered his head with his hands. “I can't.”
Shanraing pulled him up. “You must.”
“Why are you keeping me alive?”
She pushed him forward. “Move!”
They were in the basement floor of Sphere 6's Governance Building. They'd been hiding there while Shanraing figured out a way to extricate Zim from Matrona. Above them were the bangs and blasts from Shanraing's Knights Templar Guard and Payson's crew, volleying shots back and forth at each other. The Knights Templar Guard were holding them off well—almost too well — causing Shanraing to wonder what Payson had up his sleeve. Only a handful of Payson's men had fallen, and the current stalemate had been going on for about an hour.
“How did they find us?” whined Zim again.
“Don't know. Don't care.”
“Where are we going?” asked Zim.
“We are going to Sphere 1 and there we are boarding a flight to planet Lumus. Your old home, my friend.”
“Why?” he said, turning a corner, guided by Shanraings hand. “I thought we were going to Aurora.”
“We have to fix what you broke and you're our key to fixing it.”
“I don't understand. I thought we were going to see Kien. You told me that! You're speaking in tongues again, Shanraing. If we get to Lumus, then Lien-L will hang us both.”
“Lien-L won't make that mistake with me, but he will hang you for sure. However, I'll keep you safe, if you are compliant. Now, move!”
A blast shook the hallway as they exited through a basement door to an underground hovercar parking lot; a second explosion brought them to their knees.
Shanraing’s instincts took over and she pushed Zim away, then somersaulted to her feet. A millisecond later a laser impulse flew between them, creating a hole in the door they had just gone through. Zim jumped up and threw himself behind a large ebb column and next to Shanraing.
“You left me out there in the open to die!” he growled.
“I pushed you behind that column, you nitwit!” She nodded toward a column no more than six feet away.
“Oh,” he responded, pulling at the back of his neck. “Thanks.”
Shanraing clenched her jaw. “Don't mention it.” She lifted the phaser in her hand, waiting for an opportune moment.
She peeked around the corner, taking count: two dead Knights Templar Guard were next to Shanraing's escape vehicle. Four of Payson's men were hiding behind hovercars and columns. From the trajectory of the previously fired laser, a fifth man was present, but not visible from her position.
“If we go out there in the open, we're dead,” said Zim.
“Stay here and I'll be back,” whispered Shanraing.
Zim peered around the corner to get a quick count as well. “Where are you going?” he hissed. Just then he heard two phaser shots, followed by a gasp and a grunt. He glanced toward Shanraing, thinking she had fired the shots while crouched next to him. But she was gone.
He stole another glance from behind the column and could see Shanraing hiding in front of a hovercar. A guy leapt out from behind a nearby car, nearly surprising her. He fired, but she jumped out of the way in time, taking him out with a couple of shots in the process. A second later she placed a shot to her left, downing another of Payson's men.
“That's four!” she shouted. “I know there's a fifth!” She looked at Zim with a grin—and then terror. “Your three o'clock! Move around the column now, Zim!”
A shot hit Zim on the side, then point blank between his eyes. As his body slid to the floor his assailant turned to shoot Shanraing, but instead was kicked hard against an ebb wall and knocked out cold. Shangrain stood in a fury. She could see see smoke curling from Zim’s forehead, his mouth and his eyes lifeless. The Prime Director was dead.
She touched her earpiece. “Let the public know that Zim is dead and a vigilante group run by Lien-L's camp is on the loose. Tell the public to stay indoors and to not let in any strangers. We continue with full disclosure. The people shall know everything.”
“Yes, Shanraing,” said a woman in her earpiece. “And, Payson and his team have left the building.”
“How many down?”
“Six of our Knights, and eleven of his elite forces.”
“Make it fifteen. I took out four down here and one is knocked out.”
“How many does that leave him?” replied the woman.
“I don't know. I think ten?” Shanraing looked around the parking lot, sensing no danger. “Did Naveya get the message?”
“She got the delivery and we think she received the message. She visited the museum and is heading back to the biosphere as we speak.”
“Great work. Now, let's get to Sphere 1.”
Shanraing made her way to her escape vehicle and started it up. It hovered in place for an instant, then pressed forward, up a ramp and out of the parking lot.
Shanraing braked once she entered the street, waving for others to climb in. A woman, wearing orange Knights Templar Guard attire jumped in. Shanraing gave her a nod, then sped off toward the hovercar tunnels that connected each Sphere, hoping she could make it to the Sphere 1 before Payson. She knew, just like Naveya had found out, that Payson was headed to the poison and would likely let it loose, either through the air, as depicted in Robert Rose's art piece, or in the water system if he could somehow manage to sneak it into the biosphere. That scenerio was highly unlikely, but then again, this was Payson.
She glanced in her rear view mirror, seeing a line of four hovercars full of Knights Templar Guards following her. If she could get this right, unlike her attempt to get Zim off of the Starbase, then she could change the event that Robert Rose predicted—mass deaths on Starbase Matrona.
∞
Walking up the steps and into Starship Tranquil brought on a moment of panic for Crystal. She didn't like being trapped anywhere and remembered the feeling of her recent stay on Starship Sirona where she stayed for countless days, wondering if she was going to die from the assault of Drag laser blasts hitting the starship. But in truth, it would have ended in death from boredom if she had to remain on that ship one more day.
It was morning, or so she thought. She didn't really know the time, since she was in the middle of a mountain where the sun never shone.
“What do you think?” asked Shan. Thun was by his side.
Crystal looked around. She had entered this giant ship at its belly. It was iridescent inside and reminded her a little bit of the biosphere on Starbase Matrona, although on this ship she could see many unique features.
A dozen landings were on each side of the inner ship. Each landing had a row of hundreds of empty, clear, domed houses, with plants and trees surroun
ding each one—something she would never think of placing on a starship. Each landing was about a story in height, higher than the next landing. She figured there were thousands of houses, or quarters, as she would call them. The ceiling glowed a soft light, which gently pulsed like a heartbeat.
“I don't know what to think,” responded Crystal.
Thun started toward the bridge. “Alright, then come with us.”
After a ten-minute walk, seeing hallways, a cafeteria, a door leading somewhere, and more luminescent domes, they finally entered the bridge.
The only bridge she'd ever been on was her mother's, Starship Sirona. There, it was cramped, quite the opposite of this ship. Starship Tranquil’s bridge was spacious. Each station on the bridge was like its own office with lots of room to move around.
“I could sleep in here,” said Crystal. “It feels so calm. Peaceful.”
“Please don't sleep,” grumbled Thun. “This is where you will see why Soul's Eye and your bloodline is so important.”
Crystal instinctively moved her hand to the hilt of the sword, feeling the gentle energy it gave off and the confidence it brewed in her.
Shan gestured all around, indicating the black view screen circling the bridge. She imagined that if the view screen was turned on, she'd see a clear vision of everything around the starship—something that Admiral Byrd had thought up many years ago and implemented onto Star Guild's Starships.
“is this Admiral Byrd's design?” questioned Crystal.
“It is another's design—a Knights Templar design. But your admiral was of keen mind and intuition. Some of his designs were truly inspired,” responded Shan.
The walls of Starship Tranquil's bridge were a bluish-white color that seemed to emanate from within, also lightly pulsing. A large stone, about half the size of Crystal, sat in the middle of the bridge.“What's that for?” asked Crystal curiously.
Thun nudged her toward it, happiness in his eyes. “It's for Soul's Eye. Please insert the sword.”
As she approached, she saw an opening the size of the sword's shaft directly on top of the stone.
Star Guild Episodes 10 - 18 (Star Guild Saga) Page 10
