The Mirage on the Brink of Oblivion (The Epic of Aravinda Book 3)

by Andrew M. Crusoe

That would be a problem.

  “Zura,” she hissed. “Razakh was not strong enough to wield the stone. He just collapsed. I have never seen anything like it.” Durazha curled her lips slightly. “He was obviously unfit to be the autarch. But where he was weak, I am strong!”

  Durazha charged downward and throttling Zura’s neck against the metal floor.

  She wheezed, her words hissing out like a dying whisper.

  “Durazha, please!”

  The old strategist smiled, shooting a spike out of her arm and moving it toward Zura’s head. “Tell me, Zura, why should I let you live?” She pressed the sharp tip of the spike into her temple, and dark green blood oozed out.

  Zura flailed around, but Durazha held her in place easily. “Please, Durazha! I was your father’s greatest servant and advisor. I could do the same for you!”

  “I don’t need an advisor, Zura. I have made a deal with an overlord, and soon I shall become one myself and this limiting form shall fall away!”

  Zura’s eyes widened. “You spoke to an overlord?”

  “The overlord approached me! Don’t you understand? I am destined for supreme power. Razakh wanted to be Grand Autarch of Aravinda, but I shall be even greater than that. First, I shall become the overlord over our six factions, but I won’t stop there. I shall not rest until I am the Supreme Overlord of the Galaxy itself!”

  Durazha pressed the tip into Zura’s temple farther, causing the blood to ooze out even faster.

  “Please, Durazha!” she pleaded. “I can help you. Tell me what I can do!”

  “Tell me that I shall be the Supreme Overlord!” Durazha yelled. “Pledge to me your undying allegiance!”

  “I pledge it to you and you alone!” Zura screamed.

  Durazha’s eyes burned into Zura’s, pressing the spike into her temple just a bit more. “Tell me that you would die for me without hesitation!”

  “I would! Please! I would do anything!”

  “SAY IT!”

  “I would die for you, Durazha!”

  “OF COURSE YOU WOULD!”

  She thrust the spike deep into Zura’s skull, sending a spurt of green blood shooting across the floor.

  Zura screamed in agony a final time, and her eyes went blank.

  Durazha stood up and retracted her spike, watching as the green blood dripped down from it. Somehow, killing one of her own kind left her even more intoxicated with power.

  She shook her head. “What a pathetic creature. My father may have needed you, but as an overlord, I shall only speak to the autarchs below me. Compared to them, you are nothing.”

  With burning determination, she walked over to the command chair and sat down. At once, she saw a new series of data overlaid on her vision, and with a blink, she opened an encrypted channel to the entire fleet.

  “Greetings, Razakh Faction. I am Durazha, daughter of Razakh and possessing far superior intelligence. Perhaps you’ve heard of me. I have just destroyed my father’s ability to speak or walk, and from this point forward, you shall be known as the Durazha Faction. I am your new commander, and those of you hellbent on attacking Avani may continue, if you wish. But you’ll have to do so without me. My flagship is headed out of this system to meet the Anuttam Vakra itself.”

  Durazha paused, anticipating some protest, but heard nothing. Apparently, the entire fleet was either too shocked to respond or too afraid to challenge her.

  “I am departing momentarily,” she continued. “Anyone who wishes to assist me will be greatly rewarded. That is all.”

  She closed the channel and huffed the sickly air of the command deck. With one easy maneuver, she spun the flagship around and raced toward a ruddy gas giant in the distance. Ahead, a swirling vortex formed.

  Durazha scanned the area once more and was pleased to discover that a half dozen cruisers and a few dozen fighters, roughly eighty percent of the fleet, had joined her. She made the necessary adjustments to the timespace drive and inhaled sharply, watching as the radiant realm filled her vision.

  As before, the ship flickered between the blackness and whiteness of spacetime and timespace, like a full-body strobe, before finally emerging into space above a dark planet, speckled with hundreds of bright orange dots across its surface.

  With the Kiss of Life firmly in hand, Durazha’s blood red eyes burned with passion. The view filled her with a sense of déjà vu, and she realized that all appeared exactly as it had in her dream. Except now, beholding the rivers of lava for herself, it appeared even more beautiful, and she sent the ship screaming down to the tortured surface of Agnira at full impulse speed. After all, she didn’t know how long her father would remain unconscious. At this velocity, she would reach the surface in under a minute and excitement bubbled in her veins.

  A glorious transformation awaited her.

  CHAPTER 37

  A COLD TERROR

  Once they’d heard that the hidden gate was finally activated, Darshana and Vivek found it nearly impossible to fall asleep for several hours.

  After spending most of the night trying to calm her mind, Darshana couldn’t help but wish that she’d insisted on leaving with Nirupak. She told herself that such a line of thought was useless, that Nirupak would have definitely invited her to come with him to the gate if it lined up with his plans. But, as Darshana had so often observed, Nirupak had other plans. He must have wanted to examine the device for himself before putting her in danger.

  Yet everyone on Avani was in danger, no matter where they were. As far as Darshana was concerned, she had just as much chance of being captured by the Vakragha as she had dying in a gate accident.

  Darshana thought of Nirupak’s first team. She knew him well enough to decode his nuanced way of speaking. From the careful way he spoke about them, Darshana guessed that he knew they were dead, but didn’t want to focus on it.

  Light streamed through the crystalline latticework that made up the far wall, and a wave of disappointment washed over her. The day was beginning, and she hadn’t given herself a minute of true rest all night.

  No matter. She sat up and stepped out of the wide hammock, rousing Vivek who had fallen asleep on one nearby.

  She walked over to the latticework and looked out through a clear round window set into it, admiring the blue forest canopy and the narrow valley beyond.

  Darshana paused for a moment, taking in the richness of the azure forest in the valley below. A wave of despair washed over her, as she realized today could be the last time she ever saw the valley before the Vakragha destroyed everything.

  BZZT.

  Her gaze shot over to the reading pad resting on a table to her left, and she picked it up. It was a call from Nirupak, and she touched the pad to answer. A video stream filled its screen, but it seemed unstable, cutting out every few seconds.

  “Nirupak, how are you doing down there?” she said. “Your stream is choppy. What’s the status on the transport you’re sending to us?”

  “We’re fine,” he said. “The interference might be caused by the gate. Yes, I’m calling you because your transport will arrive in 15, and we need you, Dar—”

  The feed went blank for a second.

  Darshana grumbled at the device. “Niru, can you hear me?”

  “—to work all night, but we can’t get it to respond. It’s definitely active, but we can’t get a portal to open. We need you. Be ready when that transport arrives.”

  “Of course,” she said. “Just be careful down there.”

  “We will,” he nodded. “Nirupak out.”

  The feed went blank, and Darshana set the pad down and turned to Vivek, who was still half awake in his hammock.

  “Dear, wake up! That transport will be here in 15 minutes,” she said, putting her lab pants on as quickly as possible. He only mumbled. “Vivek!”

  He inhaled sharply, sitting up so fast that he fell right out of his hammock and onto the floor. “Sorry, I’m up. I’m up.”

  In a whirlwind of preparation, they both ate a
quick snack and grabbed what they’d packed the night before, finding Yantrik’s face illuminated by the white light of his wristcomm as he read quietly in the front room.

  He looked up to them, a serious expression filling his face. “We have an eventful day ahead of us. You two get any sleep?”

  Vivek and Darshana spoke at the same moment.

  Darshana winced. “Not at all.”

  “Briefly.” Vivek nodded, but winced when he heard Darshana’s response. “Dear, I had no idea. Do you want a stimulant? We have a few left.”

  “No, I’ll be fine.” She sighed and turned to Yantrik. “The transport will be here any minute. And you’re sure you know how to operate one of those gates? We may need your expertise.”

  Yantrik nodded. “Let’s just say I’ve seen my share.”

  “Good.” She waved for him to follow and opened the door.

  Outside was a long airboat, hovering a small distance above a grassy patch that ran alongside the nearby path. Its canopy was down, making it easy for them to see the driver in the front. He was a middle-aged man, sporting the same shade of ash-blond hair that Vivek had. The man stood up and waved them over to the boat, wearing a jet black uniform that was featureless except for a familiar insignia of an eye on the collar.

  “I am Officer Taktakayana of the Ashraya Observatory, designation: Pilot, L-2. Master Nirupak requests you at once.” The officer paused, looking over to Yantrik. “I was only instructed to bring two. This one will have to stay behind. Hurry,” he waved again, “we may not have much time left.”

  “Tak?” Vivek called out to him. “That’s what you want us to call you, right? Weren’t you an auditor before?”

  The wind kicked up, and Tak squinted at him. “Excuse me? Hurry up! We’re wasting time!”

  Vivek turned to Darshana, concern filling his face. “I met that officer before. He was pretty rude, almost took Yantrik and me in for questioning.”

  Yantrik called out to the officer. “Sorry, Tak, but Darshana has asked for me to join you. I trust that won’t be a problem, unless you make it one.”

  “I’ll handle him,” Darshana said coldly, turning around and walking up to the airboat.

  “Should we do something?” Yantrik turning toward Darshana as she made her way to the airboat.

  “Keep your distance,” Vivek said, grabbing his arm. “When Darshana is fired up, she’s a force to be reckoned with.”

  Even before she spoke, Darshana burned her gaze into Officer Tak for a few seconds, and he wilted slightly at her presence. “Listen,” she said, “just so you know, I didn’t sleep at all last night, so I advise you to be circumspect about your conduct. Nirupak is a personal friend of mine, so if you give us any trouble, I’ll make sure that your new designation is sanitation officer. Do I make myself clear?”

  She held him in her gaze unflinchingly.

  “Yes,” he whispered, clicking his teeth nervously.

  “Good.” She turned back around. “Come on!”

  Yantrik only blinked before his expression melted into a grin. “Now that’s a woman I respect. Stands up for herself.”

  They all rushed into the airboat, securing their safety straps.

  “Is everyone secured?” Tak asked.

  Darshana looked around, noticing the plush white seats.

  She nodded. “Punch it.”

  The airboat lurched ahead and upward. Tak took them above the sapphire forest canopy, and soon they were gliding a few meters over the rolling ocean waves.

  For some time, no one spoke. All three of them were engrossed in watching the islands diminish in the distance behind them.

  After what seemed like a half hour, the last hint of the island peaks finally disappeared below the horizon.

  “I just remembered,” Darshana said, turning to Vivek, “the rockturtles will hatch today.” A sadness washed over her. “Not that it matters anymore.”

  Vivek took her hand, the gaze of his slate-grey eyes falling softly on her. “We’ll survive this, my dear. I can feel it.”

  “We must. I will not die without seeing my son again.”

  A great wind kicked up out of nowhere, jostling them back and forth for a few moments, and Darshana studied the horizon. There was nothing, only blue sky.

  BZZT.

  This time, Darshana answered the call in under a second.

  Nirupak’s face was visibly strained. “What’s your status?”

  “We’re on our way,” she said.

  He winced. “Darshana, although we were able to activate the gate with Avanian blood, we can’t get the gate to actually open, and the Vakragha wormhole has grown rapidly since we last spoke. It’s beginning to affect the atmosphere. It appears to be stripping off part of the exosphere now. Has anything unusual been happening near you?”

  “Some wind, but that could have just been weather,” she said. “We’ll be there soon.”

  “Good,” he said. “I should warn you though, based on the current rate of wormhole growth, I calculate we have perhaps a day before the entire atmosphere is torn away.” His eyes darkened in despair. “I’m afraid not everyone can be saved, Darshana. Not everyone.”

  Beside her, she noticed Yantrik tap furiously at his wristcomm, causing it to display a myriad of odd control interfaces that she didn’t understand.

  “Hold on,” Yantrik said, “if he can show me what kind of gate it is, I might be able to communicate with it via my ship. After all, I can control my fighter with my wristcomm easily.”

  Darshana furrowed her eyebrows at him. “Are you sure?”

  Yantrik shrugged. “As sure as I can be. These old gates are unpredictable, but it would certainly save time.”

  She turned back to the reading pad. “Listen, Niru. We have a friend who has seen this technology before. He’s right beside me. If you can bring the camera closer to the gate console, he might be able to help you get it activated.”

  Nirupak regarded her with disbelief.

  “Please, Niru,” she said, “he’s trustworthy.”

  Yantrik leaned over to see the video stream more closely and waved. “Howdy.”

  “All right.” Nirupak pointed the pad’s camera to the console, showing them the controls in detail.

  “Excellent.” Yantrik smiled back to him. “I think I know what kind that one is. Let’s keep our jets cool for a second, and I’ll use some of my equipment to make a few gravity pulses.”

  For a moment, Yantrik once again tapped at his wristcomm.

  “Okay, any change?”

  A shocked expression filled Nirupak’s face. “Yes! The gate hum got deeper. How did you do that?”

  “Never mind that,” Yantrik said. Did the control console change, at all?”

  “Well, there’s a hexagonal shape pulsing farther up on the panel now.”

  “Push it,” Yantrik said. “I gave it coordinates to a world that should prove quite habitable.”

  He screwed up his face. “You what?”

  “Look, if you want the gate to open, press the hexagon, man!”

  “All right!” Nirupak shook his head and pressed it.

  Instantly, the low hum of the gate grew into a mighty roar, and Nirupak pointed the camera toward the gate. Darshana watched as a point of light appeared in the center of the ring.

  “It’s active!” Nirupak said in utter elation.

  Darshana smiled and turned to Yantrik. “Thank you.”

  Before anyone could respond, she heard a series of alarms sound over on Nirupak’s end of the video stream.

  “What’s going on, Niru?” she said. “Are you okay?”

  He glanced to something out of view. “Darshana, there’s a burst of activity in high orbit. You need to get down here! Now!”

  To Darshana’s shock, a thick viridian beam of plasma shot down through the ceiling above Nirupak, causing huge chunks of ice and rock to fall all around him.

  “Nirupak!” she called out, but there was no answer.

  Darshana froze as th
e beam sliced into the glowing ring gate, destabilizing it and drawing boulders into the swirling vortex.

  Nirupak must have dropped the reading pad because the video feed whipped around, pointing directly up to the ceiling.

  She heard a huge explosion, followed by dead silence. The silence was broken a few seconds later by a sickening whine and the crash of a huge collapse of rock.

  The cavern faded to blackness, and she could see nothing.

  “Nirupak?” she whispered. “Nirupak, please.”

  The video feed cut out.

  To her left, Vivek took her hand, saying nothing.

  Yantrik only shook his head slowly.

  “Those were Vakragha weapons,” she whispered. “They must have detected the gate’s activity just as we did. And Niru.” She turned to Yantrik, shock threatening to overtake her. “What have we done?”

  “I am so sorry, Darshana,” he said.

  Vivek looked up to her. “My dear, was there any other way? There’s still a chance for escape. There must be.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “No,” she whispered. “We’re finished.”

  The wind kicked up again, buffeting them against the water, and Officer Tak turned around to face them. “The wind is becoming hazardous. I’ve never seen it like this out here before. We may have to dive under.”

  Darshana didn’t respond, simply letting her gaze drift up to the radiantly blue sky. Except, something had changed. High in the sky, there was a dark patch that hadn’t been there before, and the moon was slowly being pulled toward it, filling her with a cold terror.

  She turned to Vivek, feeling tears in her eyes. “My darling, please tell me we’ll see our boy again. Tell me we’ll see Zahn one more time, and I’ll believe you.

  He embraced her tightly and stroked her hair. “We’ll see him. We will see him. Somehow, my love, we will.”

  CHAPTER 38

  THE BURNING WORLD

  After they made their way into Navika’s command bay, Oonak sensed a shift in the Mirage. No doubt the Empress was nearly free, and his intuition told him they only had moments before a detachment of guards arrived.