“Liila, can you broadcast Avani DNA to this gate?”
“Stand by.”
As Liila did this, Asha looked over and watched as the air rippled over the roiling lava surface.
“How disenchanting; no response whatsoever. I wonder what would happen if I broadcast the lambda formula to it. Do you want to hear my latest theory about the fractal metaphor?”
“Sorry, Liila, but not right now,” Asha said. “Just hold on.”
“Hold on to what?”
Asha planted her vacuum-sealed boot onto the control console and pulled herself up onto the edge of the gate. Carefully, she climbed over the edge of the ring and dropped down onto the ring’s aperture with a thud, her eyes studying the center where the fins of the aperture met.
“Liila,” she said over the comm, “I know you might think I’m crazy for this, but don’t fret over what I’m about to do.”
“I don’t like the sound of that. What are you doing?”
“Don’t get your nucleus in a knot. I’ll be right back.”
“Please be careful, Asha. Need I remind you that Mira’s life is in our hands?”
Asha gingerly made her way over to the center of the closed aperture surface, feeling for any weaknesses in the material as she walked. She wondered how many years it had been down here, enduring the heat. Still, it was completely solid.
Once she was about a meter away from the center of the aperture, she reached out with both hands and felt all around and above, as if she were blind.
“Asha, are you feeling all right? Did you eat any of the native plants, by chance?”
“Hah!” Asha called out. “I knew it.”
“What?”
“I can feel something.”
“My angle of view is obstructed down here beside the gate. I will move to record what you’re seeing for future analysis.”
“Yes, do that.”
Liila didn’t respond, instead rising into the air in silence, only to see nothing of much interest. All she could see was Asha standing atop the dormant gate.
“I detect nothing new, and I question your mental state.”
“You can’t feel what I’m feeling! There must be an invisible support beam here. Can’t you detect it somehow?”
“Running full system diagnostics. Disquieting. My radiation detection subsystem is behaving erratically. It could be due to the strong magnetic fields being generated by the lava flows within this chamber. Analyzing.”
Asha jumped up and down seeing if she could feel the invisible pillar widen or change above her. It did. Roughly two meters above the aperture’s surface, she felt the bottom of an invisible platform.
“Well, there’s definitely something there. Must be some powerful cloaking mechanism that—”
Asha had no time to finish before Liila interjected.
“Asha, I’m detecting a considerable amount of water heading this way. A wild current, enough to submerge this chamber completely. You need to get inside. Immediately!”
A rumble directly above her filled Asha with a creeping dread. When she looked up, she could scarcely believe her eyes. In the long tunnel above the chamber, a swirling shape was rushing down to them at terrific speed.
Liila darted toward Asha to scoop her up. But moments before she could dive through the ship’s circular opening, utter chaos ensued as the wave met her body.
When Liila played back her mission logs later, several astute observers remarked that, while Asha’s sprint to the ship was impressive, it was also futile given the speed of the water that was rushing into the chamber. In fact, the torrent was not only coming in from above. Several other passages nestled in the darkness on the far edges of the chamber also gushed with water.
Of course, when the water touched the raw, superheated surface of the lava, a tremendous amount of steam was the instant result, and they were both swept up into a wild torrent of energy which spun them around the chamber in a mad vortex. Asha completely lost track of which way was up, and struggled to avoid vomiting in her suit.
In just a few short seconds, the entire chamber was submerged. The surface of the lava rapidly blackened over, and Liila managed to avoid the brunt of the wave by maneuvering behind a low rock wall.
Asha didn’t fare as well. Despite the suit’s life support systems, she was flung to the wall with such force that her helmet cracked open, flooding her face with water.
Liila struggled to fight against the tide to reach Asha’s limp body, aiming to suck her up through the main hatch before she landed on the blackened surface of the lava, still hazardously hot.
But before Liila could reach her, Asha tilted her head and activated her suit’s propulsion systems.
“Asha, you’re breathing! How?”
“Breathing here isn’t a problem for me right now. Forget about that. Look above the gate! It’s changed!”
Liila stopped and observed as Asha headed toward the center of the chamber, appearing to breathe underwater without any trouble whatsoever.
The source of Asha’s excitement was clear.
Embedded into the floor of the circular platform was the ghostly outline of a remarkable object, and Asha used her suit to propel herself over to it as fast as possible.
Like a ball of light, the sphere’s outline wavered as it sat atop the platform, and when she knelt down to touch it, her hand passed through it easily, as if she were touching a hologram.
“Come on!” Asha’s frustration grew. “If you’re the Kiss of Life, then let me use you to save Mira, to save millions!”
She struggled to get a hold of it any way she could, but it was like a mirage within the water, just on the edge of existence.
Asha shook her head in disappointment, crossing her legs to be more comfortable as she sat on the platform. “Liila, can you detect any object here? I see something, but it’s either an illusion or something non-physical.”
“Mystery. I detect an energy shadow. It could be a non-physical entity. Since we can see it, then it’s already partially in our realm. Perhaps the flooding caused it to bleed through, but I don’t know how to bring such an object completely into our reality.”
Asha peered into the wavering light. “I’ve come this far. It can’t end here.”
Instinctively, Asha held out her open palms to each side of the spherical mirage, and closed her eyes. She scanned her palms and fingertips for subtle sensations caused by the sphere. It didn’t take her long to find a point on the right side of the object that made her fingers tremble, and she did the same with her left.
Asha said a short prayer the Amithyan healers had taught her and focused her mind once more. Lakshmi’s words came back to her. She wasn’t the one doing the healing. She was only an instrument allowing the healing to come through. Instead of seeing herself as the source, she imagined pure light coming down into her head, through her heart, down her arms, and through her fingertips. Within her mind’s eye, she saw that a haze was surrounding the sphere. The light coming out of her fingertips shot little holes into the haze, and she moved them around until the haze faded to almost nothing.
Sensing that there was more to be done, she imagined her chest filling with light and then let that light flow all around her, out of her mouth, eyes, and hands.
She gasped, realizing that she suddenly felt faint. Something inside told her she had done everything she could, yet she was afraid to open her eyes. What if nothing had changed? How would she explain it to Mira? How could Asha tell her that, after all this, she was still going to die?
“Please,” Asha whispered. “Please, let this work.”
Gradually, she opened her eyes and looked ahead.
At first, she only saw a blurry circular shape. She blinked to bring her eyes into focus.
A feeling of awe washed over her as she beheld the object of their long search, embedded neatly into the circular platform she was sitting on. Now a completely solid sphere, the Kiss of Life seemed somehow smaller, about as wide as her hand
outspread. Its otherworldly surface was iridescent, resembling a huge, polished pearl that glowed with a bluish light.
“Liila,” she whispered. “I did it.”
“How positively… inevitable.”
“The Kiss of Life. We found it, Liila!” Asha’s voice filled with a mixture of shock and pure laughter. “I almost can’t believe it! We found it.”
CHAPTER 31
A TORRENT OF DEATH
At first, she tried to remove it from the platform gracefully. When it wouldn’t move, she tried to wrestle it free with all her strength. Yet no matter what she did, she couldn’t pull it free. Not easily discouraged, she pulled out her plasma rifle and fired at the platform. After all, Mira’s life was fading by the moment.
The pink plasma bolt made a small hole in the platform’s surface, and she fired again and again, around where the Kiss of Life was embedded.
“Asha, are you sure that method is optimal? Why don’t you let me try? With my plasma beam, I can etch the object out of its platform with more precision than your weapon is capable of.”
“I’m not concerned about making this perfect, anymore, Liila. Mira is running out of time. I just wish I knew why it’s showing up now. What changed? I can’t see how the water would disrupt a cloaking field.”
“Extremely unlikely.”
Asha fired again, noticing how muffled and fluid the plasma sounded when it moved through the water, like a warbling note. Breathing underwater gave her a new appreciation of aquatic sound, and she was thankful that the suit gave her a mental link with Liila.
“Any theories?” Asha aimed her rifle and blasted another small hole into the platform. A semicircle of shots surrounded the small artifact now.
“Asha, we’ve got inbound. I’m detecting hundreds of life signatures heading this way.”
“What? This far down? Any idea what they could be?”
“Uncertain at this range. Analyzing.”
As Asha waited, she charged the plasma rifle for a high-yield shot and looked around at the openings in the burnt walls around her. Besides the main opening far above her, there were a couple more at the far end of the chamber and a smaller one in the nearby wall.
“Any idea which opening they might come through?”
“I estimate the nearest one. Oh, intriguing!”
“What? What could possibly be so intriguing?”
“They are of extremely low mass. Postulating life form matches.”
Asha reflected in silence, until it hit her.
“Jellies.”
As the word left her mouth, hundreds of small jellyfish spewed out of the nearest crack in the burnt stone wall, a ragged opening to her left. But these were different. Instead of the white, ghostly creatures she had seen before, these were a hideous ruby red.
Without a thought even bothering to cross her mind, Asha turned and opened fire.
Flowing like an unstoppable torrent, hundreds of the ruby jellyfish raced toward her, and she saw red sparks in their wake.
“They are a variant of what we saw earlier. I’ll draw their attention. I have stronger shields than your suit does.”
Liila zoomed ahead of Asha and opened fire on the jelly cloud to their left, raining pink plasma bolts down upon the ruby swarm. But even with Liila’s help, some of them dodged her shots and zoomed toward Asha as she stood on the small platform that held the Kiss of Life. It wasn’t too difficult for Asha to pick off the few Liila missed. At least, not at first.
But as the ruby cloud became thicker, more jellies were able to dodge Liila’s fire and attack her surface, draining her shields just as the first time when they had crashed into the planet’s ocean. Asha did everything she could to knock them out before they touched Liila’s surface, but she wasn’t always fast enough. And as she did this, some jellies would ignore Liila completely, heading directly for her. Asha’s fire was split, and as the room filled with more and more jellies, she feared the worst.
“Liila, how many do you detect beyond the chamber? How many could there be?”
“The passageways seem to be quite extensive, possibly leading all the way to the planetwide ocean.”
“So, you’re saying it’s possible that every jelly on the planet is heading straight for us?”
“Possible, yes. And my shield cohesion is at 33% and falling.”
Asha swallowed. She wished Mira were here.
“What should we do? I may be a good pilot, but being a captain is something entirely different. To be honest, I don’t think I ever deserved to have the privilege of being your captain, Liila. I’m sorry I put you in danger.”
Asha picked off a jelly just before it could make contact with Liila’s hull.
“Being a captain may not be your strength, Asha, but sometimes we are asked to serve beyond our comfort zone. In such times, we grow the most, and I know Mira wouldn’t have asked you to do this if she didn’t have complete faith in you. And after all, you strive to balance your intuition with your reasoning abilities, something every captain must do.”
The ruby cloud of jellies grew and mixed with the pink plasma like a bizarre fireworks show, and Asha watched in terror as the cloud grew nearer and nearer to the ship.
“Fall back, Liila! I think I can prevent them from reaching your surface. Move just a bit behind me.”
“Yes, captain.”
The ship fell back, and Asha glanced around and noticed Liila’s circular shape hovering above her.
Asha did everything she could to prevent the jellies from touching Liila’s surface, but she couldn’t stop them all. By now, piles of them were strewn across the black lava rock beside the gate, charred from the heat. But as more came, Asha felt the inevitable. The only way this many jellies could be pouring in was if this tunnel led all the way up to the ocean itself, and there was no way they could win against every jelly in the ocean. Without help, it was only a matter of time before they were overcome.
“Shield cohesion at ten percent. I suggest we change our strategy.”
Asha glanced up to see another jelly attach itself to Liila’s surface. “Liila, there’s got to be something you can do. Don’t you have a pulse weapon or something to scramble their brains?”
“That’s assuming they have a conventional neurological system, at all. No. I’m sorry, Asha. I’m doing everything I can. I remind you that I am configured for covert reconnaissance, not a direct assault by a swarm of epsilon-pulsing life forms. Upon further analysis, these jellies appear to be world-drifters, capable of surviving in the vacuum of space itself.”
Another jelly fell down gracefully as Asha finished it off. She fired again, but nothing happened. The rifle merely made a low buzzing sound, and a message appeared on the weapon’s sleek display:
FUEL CELL DEPLETED.
“Liila, my rifle is dead. There’s a backup cell in the void suit I’m wearing, right?”
“In each boot pocket. Shield cohesion at 5 percent. I’ll do my best to cover you while you reload, but there isn’t much time left.”
“Well, do you have any suggestions?” Asha popped out the old cell, an emerald capsule that ejected from the back of the rifle, and opened a pocket on the outside of her left boot.
“Asha!”
She looked up just in time to see a reddish blur heading straight for her head.
SMACK.
The jelly knocked her off of the platform and wrapped its thin, ruby tentacles around her neck as its bulbous body covered the right side of her cracked helmet.
“Liila!”
The ruby tentacles tightened, but no matter how hard she pulled, it wouldn’t budge. As its grip grew tighter, Asha’s vision blurred, and she drifted to the ground.
As she descended, white-hot sparks of pain spread across her, and she twisted uncontrollably. “Liila! Help!”
“Distressing. I cannot guarantee a clean shot. The creature is right on top of you. If I miss, the plasma bolt will hit you, most definitely causing fatal burns.”
�
��Must. Be. Something.” Asha writhed in pain. “What. About. Sonic. Pulse?”
“Warning, shield cohesion is projected to fail in under a minute. Your suggestion is possible. Attempting broad-range beam.”
Asha briefly heard a high pitched whine, but the pain continued to flood her senses. Her vision darkened and her breath became shallow.
“Zahn… I’m sorry.” Asha choked. “I wish—”
As her vision faded, Asha thought she saw a flash of violet light. The pain somehow ceased, replaced by a tingling feeling. She felt for the jelly, and like a limp fish, it fell away.
Slowly, her vision returned as the tingling faded. When she looked back, she could scarcely believe her eyes. Looming above her, beside Liila, was a pyramid of polished ivory crystal.
She struggled to yell into the suit’s microphone, but due to the water, the sound lost most of its fidelity. She thought she heard a familiar voice over the comm, but it was distorted. Liila spoke to her through the mental link again.
“Asha, I suggest you come inside as soon as possible.”
Asha noticed another craft beside the pyramid: a huge, amber octahedron that was oddly familiar to her. As the pyramid showered the swarm with violet plasma bolts, the octahedron spun, scanning its surroundings.
The octahedron lit up, as if on fire; and as its amber surface grew brighter and brighter, Asha had trouble looking away.
By the time the octahedron reached a blinding brilliance, it appeared almost molten, and shot ahead, barreling forward like an unstoppable torrent of death, making a furious gurgling sound as it rushed into the swarm, effortlessly melting away hundreds of the ruby-colored jellies.
In awe, Asha watched as it zoomed into the only tunnel the jellies were still pouring in from. The octahedron fit cleanly into the tunnel, disappearing down the passageway with a fiery glow.
Only a few dozen jellies remained, and the pyramidal ship’s plasma bolts picked off the rest without much trouble.
A strange silence filled the chamber as the firing ceased, and Asha observed the two ships, shimmering as they hovered above her. She stretched her neck. It was sore, but nothing felt broken.
The Island on the Edge of Forever (The Epic of Aravinda Book 2) Page 19
