by C. C. Ekeke
This reeked of Cybernarr behavior, meaning Hojkoddi Nolo was either a Cybernarr thrall…or an undercover Cybernarr himself.
Darkstar felt a chill just considering the latter theory.
But that was why he had arrived at this place, in this time.
Uncover and terminate the Technoarchy threat.
The tangible proof he needed had to exist somewhere in this residence. He moved toward the apartment’s internal translifter to check upstairs.
Then he felt it, a shiver up his spine from something reacting to his presence.
Cybernarr technology definitely existed inside this apartment.
I knew it. But where? He turned slowly around, guided by that sensation, and found himself directly facing the water tank.
Darkstar inched closer at an unhurried pace. The gold faceplate shielding his nose and mouth took on an eerie green shimmer as he stepped fully into the aura of watery light. Only the forehead on his honey-brown face was visible, that and a beady pair of intense violet eyes widening in anticipation.
Standing up against the forcefield, he saw the delicate swirls of saltwater and a few steel-grey fish creatures native to Galdor. A perfect cover, he decided, fixating on some of the tinier bubbles, dull metal dots nearly microscopic in size.
The intruder cautiously pressed a hand against the forcefield, the warmth of the solid energy seeping through his protective gauntlet. In short order, a thousand little bubbles surged through the water and coalesced into a cloud of shiny foam around the spot where his hand rested.
Not even the most detailed observer would notice if a Galdorian plunged into the tank to swim through these innocent-looking bubbles, which were miniscule cybernetic organisms that interfaced with the Technoarchy Connectivity. Not unless the observer was a half-Cybernarr hybrid like Darkstar—or a Cybernarr sleeper like Hojkoddi Nolo. Probably either an Infiltrooper or Razor sub-class.
“Of course,” Darkstar realized aloud, his voice bearing a deep, digitized cadence. No doubt the ‘real’ Hojkoddi Nolo, if he ever existed at all, had been dead for a while. The half-Cybernarr took no pleasure in his accuracy about this sleeper agent. Still, a giddy buzz flooded his insides. Stopping the Technoarchy’s further expansion had been his sole mission in life for so long. And now, he’d found proof of their attempted foothold in Union Space.
Almost instantly those bubbles in the water lit up and flew apart in different directions.
Darkstar scowled and scanned about the apartment. Every translucent viewport fogged up and turned opaque. A security forcefield triggered by his presence. Now he couldn’t transmat out. And Hojkoddi had been notified.
“He’s coming,” Darkstar stated. The hybrid backed away from the water tank and steeled himself in preparation, waiting.
Half an orv passed before Hojkoddi Nolo strolled through the front door.
The impostor was a head shorter than Darkstar, wearing a dark seaweed-thread suit of the finest quality, as if he’d just come from a Galdorian Aquopera performance. At first glance, he had all the typical Galdorian features—rubbery purplish-maroon skin, beak-like mouth, webbed hands and feet, two foot-and-a-half tall eye-stalks perched atop his head. But one look in those golden eyeballs told a different tale—cold, soulless intelligence, scrutinizing how best to dispose of him. And not once did his eyestalks ever bend or tremble to convey any form of emotion. The circuitry-like conduits beneath his Galdorian skin, though hidden to the casual observer, practically bulged out from Darkstar’s perspective. Definitely not a real Galdorian.
“It appears that we have an uninvited guest,” Hojkoddi announced in a perfectly croaky Galdorian cadence.
“I could say the same about your presence on Terra Sollus, ‘Hojkoddi Nolo’ or whatever your real name is,” Darkstar flexed his left hand, a swell of pitch-black energy forming in it.
An ebon tanto blade at four-and-a-half feet took shape in Darkstar’s clenched fingers. How could a full-fledged Cybernarr hide in plain sight on the Union homeworld? Some type of upgraded sub-class? He would find out before killing the beast. “I have a few questions, if you don’t mind.” He advanced toward his target with bold strides—until a female Galdorian slipped through the front door behind Hojkoddi.
Darkstar froze. He wasn’t expecting her. His surveillance never indicated Hojkoddi having a companion. This complicated matters significantly. Collateral damage, he bristled.
The female Galdorian, slim in build and even shorter than Hojkoddi, flinched away from Darkstar in fright. “Is that…is he a…?” Fear seemed to have rendered her speechless.
“An unconnected halfling? Correct,” Hojkoddi finished her question, those lifeless eyes of his never leaving Darkstar. “Now be a good poppet and eliminate him.”
The female instantly launched herself across the room at Darkstar, webbed fingers curling with lethal intent. The about-face left the hybrid dumbstruck…for half an instant.
“A thrall,” he hissed, catching the female Galdorian by the throat with his free hand. Tiny jagged veins of gold had appeared on various parts of her rubbery maroon skin. Her eyes bulged, turning milky white and losing any vibrancy.
She flailed her limbs violently, silvery claws bursting out of her hooked fingers to swipe and slash repeatedly at Darkstar’s face. He lurched away from her swipes, knowing and seeing that her personality had been consumed by Hojkoddi’s single-minded will.
Becoming a Cybernarr thrall was a fate worse than death, if not halted in time.
There was still time for this one. Under different conditions, Darkstar could save her.
He stared into the puppet’s vacant eyes with a flash of remorse and whispered, “Sorry.” The hybrid hauled the Galdorian off her feet. He then swung his black blade up in a swift, savage arc, slicing her open from crotch to cranium.
The Galdorian dropped to the floor with two wet clunks, inky blue blood splattering everywhere.
He returned his attention to Hojkoddi and saw he was gone—right as a knotted tendril of ribbed wires burst out of the wall to the left. Darkstar ducked low and slashed, cleaving it apart.
The false Galdorian had merged his physical form fully with this apartment’s technology, wielding it as a weapon.
Two more thick corded tendrils shot forth from behind Darkstar. The Cybernarr hybrid somersaulted overhead, hacking the wriggling tendrils to pieces in quick, brutal swipes.
Half a dozen more snaked, one spearing Darkstar through the right calf. He grunted and almost buckled to a knee as a white-hot bolt of pain roiled up his leg. Another caught him flush in the upper back, then another through the left forearm and another through the gut. Each strike was searing agony, but the hybrid fought down the temptation to cry out. He would not give this Cybernarr the satisfaction.
Darkstar found himself skewered and strung up high in front of the saltwater tank, every movement an agony. His pulsating ebon blade slipped from trembling fingers.
Only then did a fountain of liquid metal spurt up from the apartment floor. The oozing jet swelled and took the shape of a Galdorian.
Suddenly Hojkoddi stood before him. Watery light bathed the Cybernarr’s emotionless face as he marched forward, not sparing even a brief glance at the gutted corpse of his thrall.
Fear began slicing at Darkstar’s resolve the closer Hojkoddi came. He thrashed and squirmed with every bit of strength he had, until the coils restraining him jolted his body with blistering fire. The hybrid gasped and drooped, held up only by the mesh of tendrils skewered through him.
Hojkoddi wasted no words or time to gloat. The fake Galdorian grabbed Darkstar by the chin, drew back his arm and shoved the hybrid’s head back through the saltwater tank forcefield.
Suddenly Darkstar’s world turned wet and azure and ice-cold. His face mask immediately sealed up and provided much-needed oxygen, but that was the least of his worries.
The tiny bubbles that reacted to his presence earlier now coalesced again into a silvery cloud, and then shot through the wa
ter at his exposed face on Hojkoddi’s command. Darkstar could only guess that those ‘bubbles’ would infect his cybernetic systems with junk technorganic code, self-replicating until he drowned in toxic cybernetic goop. Or they would alter his systems and make his cybernetics mistakenly assume his human components were an infection.
Darkstar had seen others die one of these ways firsthand, and now he was next.
He tried to jerk his face loose from the Cybernarr’s webbed hand.
But Hojkoddi’s grip was unyielding. And Darkstar’s demise was inevitable. Unless…
The hybrid closed his eyes, ignoring the sharp bite of his multiple injuries and the stifling pressure of the saltwater on his face and regained focus.
That focus ignited a burning in his chest that swelled and intensified, flooding his injured body with revitalizing power.
The spray of greyish bubbles were about to hit his face when Darkstar discharged a bright sweeping arc of concussive force from his body. Hojkoddi went flying back and for a brief moment, the darkened room was bright as daytime.
Promptly, the bubble cloud in the water tank dissipated, Hojkoddi’s grip on his face was gone, and the tendrils impaling his limbs went slack. Free from the water tank, Darkstar lurched forward and faceplanted hard on the floor. His faceplate’s filters opened up and he breathed in the freshly recycled oxygen of the apartment.
Too close, he told himself, sucking in laborious breaths. Straightaway, Darkstar yanked out the four tendrils still impaled through his body. Each removal hurt worse than the last, carroty-colored blood oozing out of every wound. He shook his braided head, spraying tiny droplets of water in every direction, and then struggled painfully up to his feet. Luckily, Darkstar had that concussive burst trick up his sleeve for whenever the odds weren’t in his favor.
Across the common room, Hojkoddi began to stir. Darkstar whipped his head in that direction. The false Galdorian lay in a gruesomely twisted posture. Their eyes met.
Darkstar’s attack had blasted away gaping chunks of rubbery purple skin, mainly from the Galdorian’s face and upper torso, revealing bleeding cyberorganics of conduits and circuitry underneath.
For the first time, some semblance of emotions distorted the Cybernarr’s ruined face—surprise and discomfort. That concussive burst had injured him more severely than he let on.
“A halfling…maximum? Interesting.” Hojkoddi’s vacant orange eyes flickered as his body began shuddering and losing cohesion, melding with the floor to escape.
Darkstar dove forward, determination chasing away the screaming pain of his injuries. He snatched up his weapon, and with snake-strike quickness stabbed Hojkoddi through the chest.
The ebon blade exploded out through the Cybernarr’s shoulder blades in a gush of yellowish fluids.
Hojkoddi went rigid and arched his back, eyestalks standing straight up in agony. But the false Galdorian didn’t scream. Darkstar frowned, sensing tendrils of wiring and conduits shoot from the walls behind him at Hojkoddi’s command. He answered by channeling a pulse of bio-electric shock through his ebon blade into Hojkoddi, wracking the Cybernarr’s sinewy frame with violent convulsions.
Immediately the tendrils dropped like limp rope. Darkstar ceased his attack, but connected with and slaved the false Galdorian’s cybernetic systems to his own.
Instantly Hojkoddi drooped like a corpse. That disabled his control of technology, which kept the Cybernarr from escaping either physically or virtually from the apartment.
“Trapped,” the hybrid tried to remove the relish from his voice, but it wasn’t easy. “Now for my questions. How many of you are there in Union Space?”
Hojkoddi lifted his head and stared back with blank defiance.
Darkstar gave his blade a brutal twist, sending another bio-electric shock through it. “HOW MANY?” he roared.
Hojkoddi’s face contorted in pain. Thick yellowish fluid oozed freely from his beaked maw. “This battle…against your own kind is…ultimately fruitless,” he replied feebly. His eyes began to dull. “Destroy…me, and ten more will assume…my place. You cannot repel the Technoarchy.”
“I’ll take my chances,” Darkstar grimaced. He unleashed a surge of concussive energy through his blade, bombarding Hojkoddi’s injured body over and over until he was wracked with violent tremors.
At the same time, Darkstar linked with the Cybernarr’s systems through their forced physical connection. He tunneled deep through blinking algorithms, barely dodging past cybernetic security protocols, soon pinpointing Hojkoddi’s virtuessence—the cybernetic heart and soul of a Cybernarr.
Darkstar seized hold of Hojkoddi’s virtuessence…and ripped it apart without a shred of mercy.
In the physical world, the false Galdorian’s body jerked and flopped uncoordinatedly like a fish out of water. His scream bounced off the apartment’s soundproof walls like the strident shredding apart of metal. A pleasant melody to Darkstar’s ears.
Just as abruptly, the cold, golden light in Hojkoddi’s eyes winked out. The Cybernarr was dead.
But Darkstar didn’t revel in his very minor victory at all. Hojkoddi was just a soldier, and no doubt the Technoarchy would shift strategies because of Darkstar’s interference.
“At least I now have proof,” the hybrid allowed himself a small pat on the back. With a flick of his wrist, the ebon blade evaporated into nothingness. A wet circle of pungent yellow fluids pooled outward around Hojkoddi’s corpse, which now showed signs of fissures forming at the outer extremities.
Darkstar rose up to his feet…and immediately wished he hadn’t.
Every part of his body hurt, even his long, copper braids. Thankfully, Darkstar could feel his puncture wounds slowly begin to knit, his sheath-like armor supercharging the healing process. He’d be fully healed within an orv or three.
“Time now to make contact with UniPol,” he lifted a gauntlet in front of his face and tapped a few buttons. In short order, a small holoscreen appeared above his wrist gauntlet with the broad and blocky face of a pinkish-skinned human male: Agent Puemri Tas of UniPol’s Terra Sollus branch.
His buzz cut hairstyle notwithstanding, the bone-white locks with brick-red roots revealed his Pogollish heritage.
Puemri’s fatigue morphed into shock and then disdain in half a heartbeat. “Darkstar,” the stormborn human spat.
This individual was supposedly the one who would help Darkstar expose the Technoarchy’s hidden scheme to penetrate and eventually corrupt Union Space. As his frosty greeting inferred, Puemri had been less than receptive to Darkstar’s warnings. The half-Cybernarr warrior tried his best not to lose faith in this Agent Tas just yet.
“How did you get this frequency—” the UniPol agent began, and then reeled his fury in. Clearly he wasn’t alone. “Never mind. I don’t have time for another of your Technoarchy conspiracy theories—”
Darkstar cut him off succinctly. “There is something you must see.”
The stormborn human gaped, as if the statement was blasphemous. “Do you know what tomorrow is?” he hissed.
Darkstar wasn’t sure what he found more patronizing, the question or the tone. Of course he knew of tomorrow’s significance—even a blind, deaf and mute sentient living inside a super black hole at the center of a galaxy knew about tomorrow’s significance.
The Galactic Union and the Kedri Imperium were to engage in some ridiculous trade merger that would supposedly change the very face of this galaxy. No doubt every Union agency was on high alert, making sure nothing could derail this monumental moment.
If only they knew how ultimately pointless their efforts will turn out to be, Darkstar allowed himself an amused smirk beneath his faceplate.
But it wasn’t his place to deride, and definitely not his place to divulge what he knew about that outcome. “What I have to show you is important,” Darkstar insisted soberly.
On the holoscreen, Puemri folded his arms and scoffed, unmoved. “Ensuring this planet’s safety from anything going wrong
tomorrow is more important.”
Darkstar glowered. Sometimes he wondered if what he’d heard about this man and his testicular fortitude had been massively inflated. “Very well. If you’re not interested in thwarting a potentially hidden threat to the Galactic Union that you claim to serve unwaveringly—”
“Fine,” Puemri ran nervous and impatient fingers through his hair. “Show me.”
“You’ll need to see this in the flesh.”
For a long and heated moment, the stormborn ground his teeth so furiously, Darkstar thought they might crack. “What. Are. The coordinates?” he snarled out each word.
A smirk formed beneath Darkstar’s faceplate. Maybe there was hope for this operative. “Come discreetly.”
Puemri arrived over an orv later, transmatting directly into the dim apartment foyer in a bright flare of gold. He was a lean strip of manhood in his steel-grey denims, black Henley, and navy blue overcoat. The veneer of patience he had on, however, wasn’t nearly as well-fitted.
Darkstar strode limping from the common room without as much as a handshake. “Are you alone?”
Puemri nodded, “I came ‘discreetly’ just like you asked.” A lie, but at least the stormborn had the decency to enter the apartment alone. Darkstar had at least earned a modicum of trust during their short partnership, thanks to the leads he’d provided Puemri all eventually paying off.
The stormborn noted Darkstar’s limping gait. “You’re hurt.”
“I’ll endure,” Darkstar turned back toward the common room. “Were you seen?”
“Of course not,” Puemri snapped, his impatience evaporating. He stopped in his tracks, hands on his hips. “What are you showing me?”
Darkstar’s probing yet dismissive onceover quelled the stormborn’s insolence. “By the way, the wearable monitoring in your clothing won’t provide any data to your backup stationed two blocks away.”
Puemri’s eyes grew the size of saucers. “How do you know?”
Darkstar turned away without answering, fighting back a grimace while he hobbled his way into the common room. Annoyingly, his wounds weren’t quite healed yet.
