Mimbres

by Frank Carey

  There was a knock on the door followed by a young elfling carrying in a tray with cups of tea. "Sean. Glad to see you back. How are our guests doing?" the doctor asked.

  "Fine sir, just fine. They are worried about the young miss, sir." Sean said with a smile and ear flick. Aerith saw the flick and returned her gaze to the cryostorage unit.

  Thia took a cup. "Sean, what am I going to do with her?"

  Sean smiled, looked at Aerith and said, "May I try, sir? Perhaps a cup of tea will calm her?"

  Thia smiled. "Maybe you can talk some sense into her. The rest of you with me." In moments, Sean and Aerith were alone in the lab, except for Nochmar standing in his freezer.

  Sean smiled at Aerith while pressing a stud on the bottom of his tray. He glanced over at the wall and saw a red light on a makeshift security camera go out. Seeing this, he ran over to Aerith and took her into his arms. "Aerith, have they harmed you?" he asked.

  "No, no, I'm fine. What are you doing here?"

  "Deep cover assignment. Thia and his cult are suspected in several robberies and murders. The group has been classified as terrorists. I'm here to gather intel," he quickly told her.

  "Do you know who that is?" she said, pointing to Nochmar's cryotube.

  "From your look, I suspect someone very bad."

  “That’s General Nochmar!”

  “Who?”

  She looked at him in shock. “You don’t know about Nochmar?”

  He shook his head. “I must have slept through that class in school.” Sean walked over and peered inside the tube. “Kinda big, isn’t he?”

  She quickly explained what she knew of Nochmar and his crew. “Those other tubes contain his clones! We have to destroy this place!”

  "Great. I hate dealing with ancient evils. Listen, your father, the Queen, and your aunt Tannith are here along with Dir. Devlin and Xura. They are about to mount a rescue, but they need time. You have to help the cultists, but delay things long enough to give your father time to prepare. Can you do this?"

  "Yeah. Yeah, no problem. Can you stay nearby?" she said, wiping away tears of joy.

  "I'll see what I can do. Thia and some of his higher-ups have taken a shine to me. I can use that to keep close to you. Now, no more tears. Think of our wedding day, and all will go well, I promise."

  She kissed him and dried her tears with a napkin she took from his tray. "Damn right," she said before walking over to the console to start working on the last security layer. Meanwhile, Sean tapped the jammer control a few times while walking over to the door. He knocked three times.

  Thia walked in and saw Aerith working. "She said she would do as you ask as a personal favor to me, sir," Sean explained. "May I stay and serve you and the others tea?"

  "Thank you, Sean. Of course you may stay, just keep out of the way."

  "Aye, sir. You won't know I’m even here," he said while targeting Thia and the other members of the cult. He would not hesitate to kill every one of them if the need arose. Little did Thia know the danger lay, not in the cryotube, but in the hands holding the tray.

  ###

  Losira took the lead, followed by the others with Harmon and Rock bringing up the rear. "Scanners up. Check your corners," she said as she led with her weapon. Harm never realized how much military training a Queen must receive to be able to perform her duties.

  The team turned a corner and found themselves staring down a group of several armed cultists. Losira, Ciara, and Xura stunned them all without slowing down. As the group passed the bodies, Rock dropped beacon tags on their unconscious bodies. "The crew will begin sweeping behind us," he explained to Harm.

  "Good to know," Harm whispered, wondering if he should tell Royce about this when they got back.

  They made their way forward, but came to a stop in front of a set of large double-doors. Harm looked up at the ceiling and saw massive power conduits passing through the wall above their head and into the room beyond. "Cold Storage," he read on the doorplate.

  Inside the room, several cultists in lab coats were examining a bank of controls while two guards watched them from the door. All of them were caught off-guard when the doors were kicked open followed by Losira leaping in, firing her weapon first at the guards, then the techs. Harm strolled in a second later to find a very angry Losira holding one of the still-conscious techs by the neck, his feet dangling a foot off the ground.

  "Tell her," Harm suggested calmly as he took her gun and checked it over.

  "Gurgle!" the tech replied as Harm reloaded his sister's weapon and held it for her.

  "Tell her. You really don't want to piss her off any more than she already is, right Ciara?"

  Ciara smiled at the tech before going full hunter on him, extending her claws and fangs while her eyes went jet black. "Yeah, she's real scary when she's mad."

  The tech nodded vigorously, so Losira dropped him to the ground while Ciara returned to normal. "Where is my niece, the Princess Aerith?"

  "Royal stasis room, one hallway over and five doors down. She's with Dr. Thia and some techs. She's helping him revive Nochmar."

  "And these people?" Losira demanded while waving her hand at the room full of cryotubes.

  "Master Nochmar's clones," he replied. In response, Losira took out her weapon and set it to disintegrate.

  "Losi, be nice. He's cooperating with us," Harm said calmly.

  Losira gave the tech the death stare before resetting her weapon and stunning him. "Get this thing out of my sight," she hissed.

  Harm waved at Rock who walked over and tagged the tech before picking his limp body off the ground and carrying it over to the door.

  Harm walked over to the control console, and after a moments study, placed his hacker ball on it. Once interfaced, he typed in a series of commands.

  "What are you doing?"

  "Checking for options. We can't revive them without reviving Nochmar first. According to the computer, neither Mariposa or Spindrift have enough power to transport even one of these tubes, which means we either revive Nochmar and a whole bunch of his friends, or we end this now. I've set the tubes to terminate when that red, flashing button is pressed. In my humble opinion, these things need to be taken out of their misery. They've been on ice for thousands of years, and no one knows the effect that kind of long-term storage will have on a mind, assuming they still have minds. On the other hand, they may still be sapients. It's your call..."

  Losira pushed the button. "Let's go find Aerith," she said.

  Harm looked over at Tannith who silently mouthed, "Wow."

  "Copy that," he whispered as he followed Losira out the door.

  Halfway to Aerith's location, Losira abruptly raised her fist to call a halt. She tapped her right ear, the one sans earpiece.

  "What's wrong?" Harmon whispered.

  "Screams," Losira whispered back as she chopped her hand along their intended path.

  Sirens sounded up and down the hallway as strobes and mars lights flooded the area with red flashes of light. "Oh my God," she said as she stared at her scanner in horror. Harm ran up and watched as a dozen life signs ahead of them winked out in quick succession, leaving only one remaining, and it started moving toward them.

  "Kes, get the crews back to the ships. Ciara, Xura, cover them!" Harm yelled as he turned to his sister and kissed her cheek before stunning her. "Get them to safety," he said as he ran out of sight down the corridor.

  Rock ran over, picked up Losira, and carried her to safety while Kes and Ciara covered their escape. "Xura! Come on girl, we've got to go. Xura?" Ciara said to an empty hallway. Xura had run off after the crazy elf.

  ###

  Aerith knew she couldn't stall for long, so she ran a diagnostic on the system in the hope it would buy her some time. She checked the two tablets tied into the ancient system and the cables connecting them before announcing, "I need to run a diagnostic. It should only take a few minutes to complete. I don't want to activate a self-destruct by accident."

&nb
sp; "Proceed," Thia said as he, his guards, and Sean watched.

  "Activating diagnostic routines...mark."

  The two computers accessed the ancient system and checked logic pathways in search of logic bombs and malware lurking in the dark recesses of the old core. The software was good, real good, the best money could buy, but the virus waiting inside the system was better.

  In a microsecond, the virus had blown past the tablets' firewalls, analyzed their operating systems, and replicated itself on each device. Using the increased resources afforded by the takeover, it locked Aerith out and began the revival sequence while scanning the room for life signs. Its master would be hungry when he awakened.

  "We've got a problem," Aerith said as she pounded on the tablet's screens.

  "What kind of problem?"

  "I'm locked out, the revival sequence is activating in fast-track mode, and we've been scanned," she said as she quickly moved away from the cryotube. "We need to get out of here, right now."

  Behind her, Sean took out a mini blaster he had hidden in his belt and aimed it at the tube while grabbing Tannith and heading to the door. "Doc," he said in a very un-Sean voice. "I suggest you listen to her."

  Confused, Thia could only stare as the tube finished its sequence and opened to reveal its occupant. "My master," he said as Nochmar the Unmerciful stepped from the tube to face the scientist.

  Aerith screamed as the two guards and Sean fired at the monstrosity before them. It laughed as it grabbed Thia, ripped the elf's throat out, and drained him of blood. Finished, the creature turned on the two guards and did the same. He then turned toward Aerith and Sean as Sean tried frantically to open the door.

  "My, what a wonderful day it is. Are you ready to help satisfy your master's..." He stopped when he saw their eyes. "Elflings!" he growled as he roughly pushed them aside. They watched him rip the door out of its tracks and walk down the hallway toward where the other members of Thia's team were.

  "We've got to warn them," Aerith said, reaching for the intercom panel. She stopped when she heard the screaming.

  "Too late. This way," Sean said as he took her arm and led her down the opposite corridor, away from the screaming.

  Chapter Ten

  The dock area quickly emptied as crew members boarded and prepped the two ships for liftoff. Merla looked up and saw her sister run up with Rock close behind carrying the limp body of the queen, while Ciara brought up the rear.

  "What the hell happened?" she yelled as Rock ran past on his way to the infirmary with his charge.

  Kestra explained what they found while Ciara kept watch. "Nochmar is on the loose and on a killing spree. Harm, in his infinite wisdom, has decided to take the creature on by his lonesome."

  "What about Xura, Aerith, and Sean?"

  "Xura lit out after Harm, and we lost contact with both kids' transponders. Merla, prepare for immediate departure."

  "No! I forbid it," Ciara said. "At least wait until we retrieve our people."

  "Director," Kes said as she advanced on the Venlanten woman, "We may have no choice. If Nochmar revives his clones, we will have no chance of stopping them. I'm sorry, but I can't risk any of those things getting back to the League. You saw the scanner! One Nochmar took out over a dozen armed cultists in seconds. Imagine what over three hundred Nochmars could do."

  Before Ciara could answer, Aerith and Sean ran around the corner, only to collapse at the foot of the ramp.

  "Oh my God, what the hell happened to you? Where's your father and Xura?"

  "Nochmar, he's alive. He killed Dr. Thia and his assistants, then drank their blood. It was horrible." Aerith said. She started to weep as Sean helped her stand up.

  "Everyone inside and man launch stations," Kes ordered.

  "We can't leave them!" Aerith said while barely remaining conscious.

  "We won't leave them, at least not yet," Kestra said as Ciara glared at her. "We'll detach from the prison and move-off a couple of clicks to wait for a pick-up signal from Harm or Xura. If we hear nothing, then we leave. We'll give them as much time as we can, but I will not let those things aboard my ship."

  "Fine," Ciara said.

  "Good, now get inside. Merla, let's get the hell out of here."

  ###

  Harm came to an abrupt stop in front of a doorway marked staging. He scanned it and read over a dozen lifeless bodies inside. Xura came around the corner, running into him as he was about to enter the room.

  "Xura! What the hell are you doing here? Get back to the dock!" he admonished her.

  "Nope. I am going to make sure you don't die again," she replied as she walked past him and into the room. She came to a dead stop just inside the door. "Oh my."

  Around her were over a dozen, obviously dead, bodies, each with its throat torn out. The walls were scored from blaster bolts while every pistol in the room was still smoking. "Damn, they put up one hell of a fight. Interesting, not much blood," Harm noted as he examined one of the dead cultists. "Nochmar must have drank it all."

  "Why drink them dry?" Xura asked as she knelt down to examine one of the dead.

  "Who knows? Maybe they did something to him, or maybe it’s his secret to immortality," Harm replied. "Regardless, we have bigger problems. It seems our Nochmar is blaster-proof."

  "Harm! Look out!" Xura screamed as she pushed him out of the way, a blaster beam grazing her side. Harm pulled his weapon and shot her assailant, killing the elf instantly.

  Harm turned and grabbed Xura as she crumpled to the ground. "Thanks for saving my life," he said as he pulled out his med pack and injected her with a shot of painkiller. "Why didn't you just pop out of existence?" he asked while binding her wound.

  "I can't. The council fired me for interfering with your life. I'm back to being my old living self...Ouch!"

  "Sorry. It doesn't look too bad, but Losi’ll be a better judge of that. I need to get you out of here."

  "You have to stop that thing first," she reminded him.

  "First, I need to find my kid and Sean..." he stopped when the radio squawked. “Go for Aymar," he replied, hitting the earpiece activation button.

  "Harmon, you moron. How dare you stun me!” Losira yelled.

  "Hi, Losi. It’s really good to hear from you, but can't this wait until later? Xura's hurt, and I have to find Aerith and Sean..."

  "The kids are here with us. They were present when Nochmar revived. Listen, they think he needs to feed on pureblood elves to survive, which is how the kids escaped. Harm, you're the only meal he has left."

  "Now, I know what the last hamburger at a picnic feels like. Where are you, exactly?"

  "Three clicks out from the station. Merla and the Mariposa are nearby. We've remotely launched all the station escape pods except one..."

  "Launch it, right now!"

  "But..."

  "Don't argue, just do it. You can pick us up when this is all over, but Nochmar can't be allowed to escape. What about his wives and eunuchs?"

  "They died millennium ago. All that's left are Nochmar and the clones."

  "Great. Now I have to deal with a hungry, lonely, deformed, and pissed off super elf. Anybody have any idea how to kill this thing?"

  "Daddy, this is Aerith."

  "Hey honey, I'm glad you and Sean are safe..."

  "No time for pleasantries, Father. Listen, when I was working on the console, I discovered that the room where Nochmar's cryotube is located is wired for self-destruct. The control is under the tube's control console. Press the button three times and the whole room is turned into a fusion furnace. I left my pendant there so you can find it."

  Harm looked at Xura who looked back and squeezed his arm. "That's good kiddo, real good. Ciara?"

  "I’m here, you crazy elf."

  "Ciara, get both ships out of this universe and seal the gate behind you. We can’t allow Nochmar to escape.”

  “Wait a minute, fool, what are you saying?”

  “I can’t see anyway to incinerate this thing
while allowing me a way out. Now, get your petite ass out of this verse and take everyone with you.”

  “Harm, I can’t…”

  “You can and you must. Now, Xura has something she wants to say to the boys.”

  “Baaaa?”

  Xura fired off a rapid-fire barrage of what sounded like sheep bleating. Her weresheep companions began to cry like babies.

  "Harmon, you are not going to do this," Tannith yelled as she grabbed the comm.

  Harm took back the earpiece. “Tani, can Aerith hear me?”

  “I’m here, Daddy.”

  “Kiddo, I love you like the dickens. Take care of your mom and aunts. I am so sorry, but I have to do this. Take care, all of you, Harmon out.”

  All eyes, including the ones from the Mariposa watching over the vid link, turned toward Ciara.

  "My Queen, would you like to say something?" she asked Losira

  With tears streaming down her cheeks, Losira said, "The moron’s right. We can't chance that thing making it back to our universe. We have to leave, now."

  "Daddy," Aerith whispered as Sean held her.

  "Helm, take us back to the portal, best possible speed. Merla, stick with us."

  "Aye, aye, Captain," Merla replied through tears.

  "Engage."

  The two ships broke orbit and headed back to the gate, leaving Xura and Harmon to their fates.

  ###

  "Now what?" Xura asked through a pain killer-induced fog.

  Harmon checked his scanner. "Nochy is now at the docks, probably looking for lunch. Ah, Aerith's tracker crystal is a short distance away. If we can get to Nochy's bedroom and lure him there, we can blow that bastard into next month."

  "And us with him," she said wincing.

  "Aye, and us with him. I am so sorry for dragging you into this. I usually die alone."

  "Is that a joke? Really? You can joke at a time like this?"

  "Yes. Xura, I really don't want you to die with me. Maybe the council will accept an apology or something?"