The Split Skies (The Possessor Wars, Book 4): The Possessor Wars, Book 4

by Chad Spencer

  Glancing at Akio, Jeff observed that Akio was nodding. So Jeff replied, “Do it.”

  Knowledge poured into his brain in a blur of images, impressions, and sounds. When it finished, Jeff recreated his sword and grasped onto it.

  “I can fight him,” he gloried as feelings of pure power ran through him. “I can do it.”

  Eden cautioned, “Careful, Jeff. I understand how you feel, but you must be careful. That dairei is very powerful. You may not be able to beat him, even with you, Akio, and all the other korei masters working together. But don’t worry. As soon as you make him use his powers a lot, I’ll take control of him.”

  “But he said that being in a host makes him as powerful as you.”

  “Yes,” intoned Eden dryly. “Well, we’ll see about that.”

  They didn’t have any more time to discuss it. The dairei was rising toward them again, this time in the body of a teenager. He let loose with another ring of energy. Immediately, Jeff and the others scattered in every direction. The ring passed by them and dissipated.

  The dairei accelerated, becoming just a blur. He rocketed directly at Jeff, who dodged and struck with his sword. At the same time, Akio slashed at the dairei with his sword and some of Akifumi’s soldiers hit him with blasts of lightning. But the dairei blocked Jeff’s attack and sidestepped Akio’s. The lightning blasts hit him and slowed him down, but they didn’t faze him much.

  “Make him use his powers,” Eden encouraged.

  Flying out of reach, Jeff launched fire at his enemy. Akio used a force push and his dragon attacked with its darkbeam. A veritable wall of attacks came from the korei master soldiers.

  Using a shield that appeared to be made of lightning, the dairei protected himself enough so that he was battered by the attacks, but not defeated.

  Counterattacking instantly, the dairei sent out a cloud of ravenous predators that Jeff couldn’t identify. They exploded toward everyone, intent on devouring them. Using his shield, Jeff was easily able to protect himself. With his sword, he sliced through creature after creature. Each creature that was killed disappeared immediately.

  Jeff saw that most of the creatures from the cloud were gone. But some of Akifumi’s korei master soldiers had fallen dead from the sky.

  “That’s it, Jeff!” called Eden. “I almost have him.”

  Circling through the sky, the dairei screamed out, “No you don’t! I’m as strong as you.”

  Eden screamed. “Jeff,” she cried. “Attack him again. Give it everything you’ve got.”

  Before Jeff could react, he saw Akio dive straight at his dragon. The two of them merged right before Jeff’s eyes. As they did, the dragon grew to tremendous size. The gargantuan dragon bellowed and attacked with a darkbeam of tremendous force.

  Jeff understood. With the new knowledge that Eden had given him, he understood that Akio had become the dragon and that it made him far more powerful.

  And Jeff knew that he could externalize the power of his korei into a creature just like Akio and Harriet. And that’s exactly what he did.

  Casting an explosion of power from his body, Jeff created a giant golden eagle. He grabbed onto its back and urged it forward.

  At the same time that Akio attacked with another darkbeam, Jeff willed his eagle to open its mouth and attack with a concentrated beam of super-intense fire and lightning.

  Both attacks hit the dairei’s lightning shield. But the dairei used a power that momentarily accelerated him so fast that Jeff couldn’t see him. Then he reappeared a few hundred feet away.

  A thought flashed through Jeff’s mind, ‘Why doesn’t he use that power again and attack right now?’ But then he understood. ‘He can’t. That power must take time to recharge.’

  Jeff jumped from his eagle’s back, lifted his sword, and flew as fast as he could at the dairei. His eagle attacked again with its energy beam. Jeff sliced at the dairei, feeling his sword bite into flesh and bone.

  But the dairei jabbed into Jeff, impaling him through the stomach. In shock, Jeff fell.

  Out of nowhere, Danae appeared, caught him, and gently carried him to the ground. Above him, Jeff could see the dairei killing most of the soldiers as Akio attacked again.

  Warmth and life flowed into Jeff as Danae held him close. Healing and strength spread through him.

  In the sky, Amanda appeared and cast a disk of light at the dairei. He deflected it with his lightning shield.

  Jeff’s bleeding stopped as he watched Akio, in his dragon form, attack again. The dairei used his acceleration power again and dodged. But when he did, he used his sword to slice a huge gash into Akio. The dragon that was Akio fell from the sky.

  41

  Even though Danae wasn’t done healing him, Jeff scrambled to his feet and screamed, “AKIO!”

  He flew to where the dragon had fallen. Akio’s body lay there with a huge gash down his abdomen. Blood flowed everywhere. Nuraiyana was there, lying next to what was left of him. She was unconscious and an overmind lay between them. Jeff was horrified and repulsed. It was hard for him to keep from throwing up.

  Danae, who had followed him, grabbed onto him from behind. “Let me finish!” she commanded.

  It only took a moment for her to complete her healing. And in that moment a burning anger unlike anything that Jeff had ever known exploded inside him and took over every fiber of his being.

  Launching himself into the sky. Jeff recreated his eagle. And then, copying Akio, he became the eagle.

  He was giant. He beat his wings to gain altitude and opened his massive beak to let out a beam of lightning and fire. It hit the dairei full on, blowing apart his shield and frying his host’s body. Once again, the dairei emerged in his energy form. But before he could drop down to the city below and take another host, Jeff hit him with his energy beam again.

  This time, the dairei, in its true form, was visibly wounded. Jeff heard Eden’s triumphant shout, “I’ve got him!”

  The dairei’s scream of “No you don’t!” echoed in Jeff’s mind. It fled as fast as it could go. The fight was over–for now.

  ‘And Akio is dead. He’s dead.’ Jeff returned to where Akio and Nuraiyana lay. The anger drained out of him, leaving him empty. The eagle faded and only Jeff was left. But he turned away, unable to bear the sight of his friend’s ravaged body.

  “Jeff?” Amanda asked. “Jeff are you ok?”

  “Akio,” he whispered. “Akio is dead.”

  Hugh was there. Jeff didn’t notice him arrive. But he was there. Standing slightly in front of Jeff, Hugh was holding a hand scanner and scanning … scanning the horrible scene behind Jeff’s back.

  Jeff didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t turn around and look again. He couldn’t walk away either. He couldn’t do anything but stand there, numb.

  Harriet arrived. And Sebastian with Kasumi. Kenji and Ai appeared, as did Rick and Emily. Tiffany and Dirk seemed to come from nowhere.

  And then Akifumi’s people descended from the sky. They placed some sort of device on the ground by the body. The device projected the hologram of a man that looked a lot like Akio’s dad. In horror, the hologram exclaimed, “No! No, it can’t be! Akio …”

  Hugh froze, staring at the overmind. He looked back and forth between the overmind and the scanner he held in his hand. “I think I know what Nuraiyana did,” he mumbled slowly.

  “What do you mean?” growled Jeff. “She died. She died with Akio.”

  Slowly, Hugh shook his head. “No, Jeff. I don’t think she did.”

  Jeff grabbed Hugh by the front of his shirt and confronted him in despair and anger. Without turning around, he pointed to the bodies behind him. “They’re DEAD Hugh! They’re laying right there in front of you!”

  Raising his eyes and locking them onto Jeff’s, Hugh offered uncertainly, “Their bodies are dead, Jeff. But I think Nuraiyana and Akio are still alive. That’s why this overmind is here.”

  Jeff released Hugh, not daring to hope that it was true. He knew Ak
io was dead, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell Hugh he was wrong again. He just stood there, glaring at Hugh.

  “Jeff,” Hugh began, “we once met a little girl named Carlene Paloma. She was in a coma in a hospital on a planet outside the Alliance. The reason she was in a coma was because there were two churei in her. Even though one of the churei was male, it was still inside her.”

  Jeff growled, “Eden said that can’t happen. Only male churei or dairei can possess male humans and only female churei or dairei can possess female humans.”

  Nodding, Hugh agreed, “We asked her about it later. She told us that because Carlene wasn’t an adult, it was possible for her to be possessed by both. I think it’s because she didn’t have adult female hormones yet.”

  Harriet broke in, “Why would that make a difference?”

  “Because once adult male or adult female hormones hit a human brain, they change that brain.”

  “You’re saying male and female brains are different?” snapped Harriet. “Aren’t you being just a little sexist, Hugh?”

  “No. I’m just talking about normal human development. This stuff was proven centuries ago. Male adult hormones make male brains develop more grey matter. Female adult hormones make female brains develop more white matter.”

  Jeff queried, “You’re saying that male and female brains function differently?”

  “Exactly. That doesn’t mean better or worse. It just means differently. And it’s ok. In fact, it’s been ok for men and women to be different for all of human existence. It’s a survival characteristic. This is old science.”

  “Hugh,” wondered Jeff. “What does that have to do with Nuraiyana and Akio?”

  “I think Nuraiyana and Akio are in this overmind. I think she found a way to save him from dying.”

  Harriet demanded, “If that were true, why wouldn’t she just use the overmind in her android body? Why would she need this one?”

  “Because,” replied Hugh, “all of the androids we have were built by Ikko and Nikko, or they were built with programming that Ikko and Nikko had.”

  Both Jeff and Harriet chorused, “So?”

  Hugh sighed, “Ikko and Nikko were built especially for Hikaru. Their android bodies are designed to be able to take a human brain–a female human brain. They were built that way because in an emergency, one of them could take out the other’s brain and put Hikaru’s brain inside to keep her alive. So their bodies have artificial female hormones in them. When we first had them build androids, they only built female androids. Some of the Argentinean women thought it was demeaning to women to only have female-looking servants. So the Argentineans downloaded Ikko and Nikko’s programming and altered it to build male androids with artificial male hormones.”

  The two of them looked at him blankly, so Hugh continued, “The overmind Mark II was built to be as much like the human brain as possible. If you put it into a female android body it gets exposed to female adult hormones. So it basically becomes a female brain. Akio can’t go in there. That’s why Nuraiyana left the fight and ran around so desperately trying to find an overmind that hadn’t been used in an android. She needed a gender-neutral brain for them both to stay in until we could make a new body for Akio.”

  Continuing, Hugh explained, “Nuraiyana called the Shadow Eagle back and had Sebastian teleport her inside. She took one of the overminds that we added to the ship’s computer network. She pretty much ripped it out of a wall. Then she had Sebastian teleport her back to the fight–the fight she knew we couldn’t win.”

  Hugh paused, looked down at Nuraiyana’s crumpled form and said, “It’s brilliant, really. If she had somehow used her own overmind I probably never would have figured it out. But when I saw this overmind, the first thing I did is wonder why she needed it if she already had an overmind in her head. That tipped me off, so I scanned this overmind and saw the same type of brainwave patterns that Carlene Paloma had.”

  Wide-eyed, Jeff stammered, So … so they’re both still alive … inside this overmind?”

  “Exactly,” assured Hugh. “All we have to do now is build a new body for Akio. We can use his DNA. Then we can put this overmind in it. The android body will have male hormones that will organize the overmind into a male brain just like human hormones do to human brains. And hopefully that will make Nuraiyana leave this overmind and go to her own overmind in her own body.”

  Holding up the scanner for Jeff’s inspection, Hugh pointed at the readings. “Look. Look right here. Nuraiyana’s body is still functioning. She can go right back to it if we can get her to leave the overmind she and Akio are in.”

  The hologram broke in with, “Do you really think he’s alive, Hugh?”

  Hugh responded, “Who are you. You look familiar, but …”

  “I’m a hologram of Akifumi. He was thrown backward in time when his life pod came through the wormhole. I have a copy of all his memories and his personality. So you can talk to me as if I were him.”

  The hologram explained that Akifumi had lived his life on Seriphoth and become the leader of his people. Then it said, “I’ll have my people wrap up Akio’s remains and take it to the Hiryu. We’ll take DNA samples and put his remains in cryostasis. Ikko and Nikko can build a body for him right away. We’ll tell them that his brain is still alive and needs to be implanted in an android body. They’ll build one for him just like they did for Nuraiyana.”

  Akifumi’s soldiers moved to comply. Jeff didn’t turn around. He couldn’t watch. Finally able to make his body move, he started walking forward, never looking back.

  All around him in the distance, Jeff could hear explosions and the shouts of panicked crowds. He didn’t care. He tried to care. But he couldn’t care.

  Harriet, in an authoritative voice, directed, “Sebastian, teleport Jeff back to the Shadow Eagle. Then take Ikko with you to the Hiryu. Kasumi, you get your crew back to your ship. Take Akifumi’s people and the hologram with you. Get everyone started on building Akio a body right away.”

  “Wait,” interrupted Akifumi. “We still have an invasion to stop. For tens of thousands of years, the dairei has been building an invasion force of mind-controlled humans just for this moment. Our intelligence reports say that every continent on this planet is being invaded.”

  “What do you suggest?” countered Harriet.

  Akifumi explained, “Akio and the Hiryu were thrown backward in time seven months. It was enough time to repair the Hiryu and implant two seeds in an asteroid in Seriphoth’s rings. Those two Living Fighters are ready for action. I’ve already got trained crews manning them.”

  Harriet instructed, “Deploy them out over the planet to stop the invasions. The first targets are those machines that stop our technology and our korei powers. Get your people organizing the locals everywhere they go into fighting forces. Get this planet defended. We’re taking the Shadow Eagle. We’ll be attacking the enemy on this continent first. Then we’ll move on. Send us a map of all of the continents on this world. You and Hugh can coordinate the plan of attack once we get back to the ships.”

  Leo, who Jeff hadn’t noticed until now, commented, “Wow, Harriet. Are you in charge?”

  Harriet hesitated. Then she answered, “I guess for now the answer is yes. Now let’s get moving.”

  “Leo!” exclaimed Tiffany. She pounced on Leo, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him for all she was worth.

  Jeff cringed at the sight. Fortunately, Sebastian chose that instant to teleport him to the Shadow Eagle along with Amanda, and Danae.

  They appeared in the crew’s common area. Jeff felt like he should go to the bridge and pilot the ship. But somehow, he couldn’t.

  Sebastian teleported away and returned moments later with Harriet, Tiffany, Leo, and Dirk. Hugh appeared with some of the colonist crewmembers. Immediately, he teleported away to get the rest of the colonists.

  “I’m going back to the Hiryu,” stated Sebastian and he disappeared.

  “Leo and Dirk,” comman
ded Harriet, “you’re gunners.

  “You’re not in charge!” spat Dirk.

  Putting her fists on her hips, Harriet shot back. “What makes you think so, Dirk?”

  “I have korei too,” Dirk asserted defiantly. “I was appointed a captain too, just like you. I should be captain of this ship.”

  “You have korei?” Jeff demanded disbelievingly. “How would you get korei?”

  “Eden gave them to me during the battle. And it means that I’m as powerful as you now.”

  Danae broke in with, “Oh really? Exactly what are your powers Dirk?”

  Haughtily, Dirk shot back, “Lightning. And a lightning shield. And one I call electric flash. If we’re in an atmosphere, I can make the air around an enemy explode in a flash of light and completely fry them.” His eyes narrowed and he jabbed a finger at Jeff. “So just try pushing me around again, Bowman, and see what happens to you.”

  Jeff laughed out loud. Dirk scowled and shot back, “What’s so funny, Bowman?”

  “Dirk, I have all those powers plus more. Why don’t you just try attacking me with all you’ve got and see what happens?”

  Shocked, Dirk recoiled. Then he scowled even more, stomped from the room, and went to the bridge.

  Gratefully, gently, Jeff asked, “Harriet, could you please take charge? Just for a while? This is my ship. I’m the captain of it. But I … I need you to take charge for now.”

  Nodding, Harriet agreed, “I know, Jeff. I know what you need. And it’s all right. Just take some time. Akio … Akio will be all right. Don’t worry. I’m sure his crew can get him back.” She paused and then reassured him, and maybe herself, by saying, “I’m sure they can.”

  As Harriet made her way to the bridge, Jeff heard Amanda mutter, “Why does she know what you need?”

  Sighing, Jeff replied, “Because we’ve been friends a long time, Amanda. She knows I need time. And I know I need you.”

  “Me?” queried Amanda. “Not her? Wasn’t she really good friends with Akio too?”

  “Yeah, yeah she was. But Akio and I were like brothers. She’ll probably need time later. But right now, she’s doing her best to help me. And she’s walking away from us so we can be together. I’m grateful that I have a friend like her right now. And I’m grateful that I have you.”