Both Blazer and the Admiral looked at her. “I didn’t know you’d been talking to Ma’am,” Blazer commented.
Marda felt like a trapped animal, looking for an escape while she decided what to say. She glanced between the two men. “I’m sorry. I mean, I’ve known for a while, but she said you didn’t and that I shouldn’t say.”
The Admiral’s face went flush, and he looked up at the orbs with distrust. “She who and you’ve known what?”
She motioned towards one of the orbs, both men turning their eyes upon it.
The Admiral laid his hands on the table and fixed Marda with a serious look, tearing his eyes away from the orb. “You’re mistaken, correct, you misheard her, right? That orb is not Blazer’s grandmother.”
Marda didn’t understand. This should be a joyful, if awkward, moment, but the Admiral at least should know who she was. The orb had served under him, and had stayed in his home for over a decade after that. “Sir, you must have read her file. You have to know who she is.”
The Admiral shook his head. “The personnel file said that her name is Ally Sofair, Ally…” He trailed for a moment and then stared back at the orb.
“I don’t understand,” Marda stammered, on the defensive. “Why are you so upset that she’s Blazer’s grandmother?”
Blazer pushed away from the table, grabbed her by the hand, and pulled her close, away from the orbs. Both he and the Admiral fixed the grandmother orb with stone hard glares. It didn’t move, jitter, skitter, or twitter at them as the other orb backed away from it as well.
“I don’t understand. What’s wrong? Why are they so concerned?” she asked the orb.
The old woman who stood before her crossed her arms, a wicked smile across her face. “Ask them.”
She looked at them. “What is it?”
Blazer turned to his grandfather. “You tell her.”
The Admiral never took his eyes off the orb as he spoke, like it might escape if he did. “Blazer’s paternal grandmother is, was Kamden Krain, a war criminal.”
Marda’s blood went cold. “What? But she was a fleet orb, how could that be? The medium who assigned her would have had to recognize her. They never would have allowed her…”
“The name, Ally Sofare, it’s really A Lie So Far,” the admiral explained.
Marda looked at the spirit. “The old man finally figured it out, Ally Sofare, I liked that name,” the spirit giggled at her. “Too bad she never existed outside of a database.”
“Ally Sofare?” Marda asked, hesitating.
The Admiral nodded. “Yes, but now I think that A Lie So Far is more appropriate.”
“But how can she have been a criminal?”
“She was an Electrolite,” Blazer offered. “It’s one of the reasons my father and grandfather kept the Vaught name, to hide their relationship.”
Marda looked up at him. “What?”
Throughout Anulian history, after the cataclysm, different factions of genetic specialties had risen up in various attempts to seize power. Energy Gatherers were one of the few that did not, in the early post-outcome time. They were known as lightning thieves in that age, since they could steal the power of the lightning and use it against their enemies. In the old times, they were too few in number, and lightning too unpredictable, to give them much advantage over others. After the formation of the Confederation, the number of Energy Gatherers exploded as more people recognized that they carried the gene. They were much sought after for their power.
The Admiral, never taking his eyes from Kamden’s orb, explained. “Over a hundred annura ago, while we waged war with the Galactic Federation, a terrorist cult calling themselves the Electrolites emerged out of the shadows.”
Kamden smiled in appreciation at the acknowledgement.
“The cult attempted to seize power on Anul and consolidate it under their own rule. When that failed, they attempted to take all the Energy Gatherers away to a world of their own, where they could breed ever more powerful Energy Gatherers. Kamden Krain had brought the cult back from the brink of extinction, and under her leadership, they’d begun a campaign of terror and murder over twenty five annura ago.”
Marda stiffened as she remembered those history lessons and went rigid when she remembered the Electrolites had only stopped with the death of their queen. “If Kamden’s spirit is truly here, than she needs to be captured.”
Kamden’s orb just hung there, its ethereal face looking unimpressed. The other orb flittered away. “Coward,” Kamden spat out in its wake, Marda the only person able to hear her.
Marda stared up at her in disbelief. “How? Any medium should have seen through the lie, should have seen that you weren’t Ally Sofare.”
Kamden looked down at her with pitying eyes. “You tell me, child. How?”
Marda shook with fear. Most spirits would appear to mediums how they looked upon their deaths. Others, as they spent more time as spirits, could change their appearance to match other points in their lives. Those were usually older souls, or powerful spirits. Marda had even heard of the spirit of an ancient singer and actor who often appeared to others centuries after his death, perpetuating the myth that he was still alive. For a spirit to change its appearance to another’s all together, though, meant that it possessed some dark power, or… “You’re allied with Negris,” Marda accused Kamden.
The spirit bowed before her. “Of course we are, how else could I have consolidated the power I did?” To emphasize her point, Kamden changed form before Marda to look like three different women in rapid succession.
Marda looked at Blazer and the Admiral. “If this is Kamden Krain, then how and why is she here?”
“Because,” the spirit said, “I wanted to help raise my grandchildren. My poor son and his wife never knew the truth, especially considering,” she looked at the Admiral then turned away from him, scowling. “Especially considering who killed me.”
Marda looked at the Admiral. “Did you kill her?”
Blazer shot an accusatory look at him as well.
The Admiral shook his head. “No, I didn’t kill her, but I was there. I know who did.”
“Yes, you were there,” Kamden replied.
“She says she remembers you being there.”
“He was there,” Kamden said, “when my family rebelled against me, and attempted to leave the Electrolites.”
“Your whole family were Electrolites?” Marda asked, pulling away from Blazer, unable to believe that the man she loved came from a line of terrorists and murderers.
Blazer shook his head. “No.” He glared at the orb. “No Vaughnt was ever an Electrolite.”
Kamden rolled her ethereal eyes at the Admiral. “Don’t you fill their heads with lies, Kamden,” he commanded.
People in the bar stared at the group, and Mendrick was on the link with security.
“True, poor Grandfather Vaughnt didn’t know I was an Electrolite until it was too late. I kept him in the dark for so long, and then he tried to stop me, tried to take my son from me.”
“She said that your grandfather tried to steal your father away?”
“Yes,” Blazer nodded, “when he realized, who and what he had married, and why. She wanted to combine two bloodlines in order to breed a more powerful Energy Gatherer. He tried to get my father away and turn her in, but she killed him.”
Kamden smiled. “I was more powerful. He didn’t stand a chance against me.”
Marda turned to the Admiral. “Were you there?”
“Not when she killed him. I met them several annura later.”
“That’s right, when my son decided to marry that wonderful multiplier stepdaughter of yours.”
Marda looked at Blazer amazed. “If your mother was a multiplier, then Jell…”
Blazer continued to stare at the orb, as did the Admiral.
“We didn’t know until after Blazer was born,” the Admiral explained. “We thought she was,” he bit back the word, “a blank, like her mother and me.
”
Marda understood his reluctance. She hated that term for the majority of Anulians who had no genetic specialty.
“We didn’t know that her father came from a multiplier line.”
Marda looked at Blazer. His mother had been one of the ultimate expressions of the Messiahist faith, her womb magnifying the genetic specialty of his father within her children. Blazer and his sister carried that gene and could pass it on to their children. Ever since the forces of the Scibean Army had wiped out the Multiplier Churches during the Vedek Wars, almost thirteen centuries earlier, few Multipliers knew they carried the gene before having children. It wasn’t even a gene that stood out in the genetics database.
“When Kamden first heard of Jorden’s proposal to Laresse, she opposed it, saying that he could never be allowed to marry a blank,” the Admiral explained. “He protested, saying that he loved her and didn’t care if she was a blank, didn’t care if his mother approved it or not. Then he said something that nearly floored me,” the Admiral went on. Blazer looked like he had never heard this before.
“At first I didn’t believe it, I thought it was just a story Jorden had heard. Young Energy Gatherers at the time were either enamored with or mortified by the Electrolites. He said, ‘I will not breed you your king of the Electrolites. I will marry this woman I love and have children we will love even more, no matter their level of power.’ I wanted so badly to deny it. This woman couldn’t be an Electrolite, but her denial of my stepdaughter’s engagement to her son, smacked too much of what the Electrolites believed.”
“That’s right, you put it together, clever man,” Kamden sneered.
The Admiral swallowed and fingered the scar of an electrical burn where his neck met his shoulder.
Blazer stared for a moment then turned back to Kamden. “You tried to kill the Admiral.”
“He did try to shoot me,” she replied, playing the image of him drawing on her into their minds.
“She was faster,” the Admiral remarked.
Kamden laughed and looked at Blazer. “I’m just the dirty little secret of the Vaughnt family, aren’t I? My dear Schan and his precious sister Jell don’t even know the best part yet,” Marda relayed every word as Kamden spoke it.
Marda looked at Blazer, he looked back at her, and then they both looked back at the orb. Who could have killed such a powerful Energy Gatherer? She could outdraw the Admiral when he was in his prime, and he could still outdraw many, even with the injured shoulder.
Blazer stood, pushing Marda behind him. “My father killed you.”
Kamden laughed, the orb chittered and spluttered, and Blazer winced at the laughter penetrating his mind. “That’s right, little boy!”
Marda felt tears welling up in her eyes. This man that she loved came from a family of murderers. No, no, only this woman, this aberration, was a killer.
“He denounced me,” Marda relayed, before realizing her mistake. By relaying Kamden’s responses word for word, she’d left herself open to sync up with her, and the orb plunged into her body.
Marda lost all sensation as Kamden took control of her body. She tried to blink, but her body refused to respond. The sight, sounds and smells of the bar still flowed into her mind, but she felt detached from it. She tried to fight back as her head raised and looked up at Blazer. The look on Blazer’s face was one of horror and Marda screamed, pleading to him for help, but the words that escaped her lips were not her own.
“That’s right little boy, your daddy killed me.”
The Admiral was on his feet, his plaser pistol in his hand as he leveled it on the possessed Marda.
Blazer leapt between them, “Don’t!”
Even Mendrick had his Mosdet particle rifle out from beneath the bar, leveling it on Marda, and Blazer raised his hand to him as well. “No, stop, please, she’s been possessed, you’ll just kill Marda.”
In Marda’s body, Kamden looked from side to side. “Yes, imagine my shock when my son denounced me, denounced the Electrolite way, and attacked me. He killed me, my own son killed me! But I suppose it was for the best, in the end. He and his Multiplier bride did breed you and your sister.” She raised a hand to touch Blazer’s face, and he slapped it away.
Marda felt the sting of that slap, but could do nothing about it. The guilt on Blazer’s face chilled her trapped soul.
“Get out of her,” Blazer scowled, his eyes searching for any hint of Marda.
Marda fought back against Kamden. She dove into her own memories, searching for a way to fight possession.
“Get out of the medium? I don’t see why I should. Little bitch revealed me.” She looked back at Blazer. “Don’t you ever wonder why you’re so much more powerful than your father?”
Blazer shook his head, angry refusal on his face.
“But you are, darling!” She looked at the Admiral then back to Blazer. “I’ve read this little girl’s mind. It’s my new playground and I’ve seen your profiles. Don’t forget, I was there when you fried those, what were they called? Oh yes, those Vermba. Then I saw you do it again in your training. You are so much more powerful than your father, more powerful even than me. You could be far MORE powerful, too, if only you would unleash your talent.”
Marda knew how Blazer wrestled with his abilities. How he tried to only ever use them as a last resort. Was all that some refusal of his of the Electrolite way and Kamden’s ideals?
“Your father did give me my Electrolite King and Queen,” Kamden said, turning to the Admiral. “But he gave it all up to you, told you of all my contacts and allowed you to wipe them out.”
“The revelation that he was the Electrolite King that Kamden wanted nearly washed him out,” the Admiral replied. “Kamden convinced him to join the academy to become highly placed in the Confederation in support of the Electrolite cause you raised him in. But once Jorden found out the truth, he rejected your teachings. He set up our meeting all those annura ago, not only to announce his engagement, but also to reveal you, Kamden.”
Kamden/Marda rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. “Such as it is.” She then looked over at Mendrick. “Good to see you, Mendrick. You’ve put on some weight. Makes you look like Sheol.”
Mendrick cocked the old rifle, recharging the power cell and brought it to his shoulder. “Say it again Kamden, and I don’t care. If it means eliminating you, I’ll risk killing the girl.”
Tendrils of sparking power lit up the hairs on Blazer’s arms as he eyed the two men. Marda wished she could do something to stop him. He would attack them, to try and save her.
The Admiral spotted it too. “Don’t do it, Blazer, it’s what she wants.”
“But now you… and this little tramp…”
“Don’t you dare call her that!” Blazer roared and raised his hand, electricity sparking between his fingers, his focus firmly on Kamden/Marda.
Marda would have shuddered if she could as she looked into those eyes. She had never met those eyes when they were angry, and this was so much more than anger, this was hatred and rage.
“Oh, please! Don’t pretend you don’t know how badly this girl wants you to take her to bed again, throw her down, take her all duwn long. I’m almost sorry I’ve been preventing it. But could you imagine? You and a medium, what kind of child would that breed? With your conception blocks in, I could allow it. It released some of the tension. But breed with her? No. I have plans for you and your sister. Two strong Energy Gatherers with Multiplier genes? The child you produce would be a god.”
Marda’s mind clouded with anger. But Kamden had made a mistake. A door once opened can be traversed in both directions, and she saw into Kamden’s own memories. She saw that it was Kamden who had fouled the shields on the Feral bomber they had taken out the semester before. Saw that Kamden would inspect their conception blocks every time they came close to making love, ruining the moment with her intrusive presence. To see that she planned to breed Blazer and Jell, like some line-bred farm animals, revolted her beyond belie
f. How sick is this woman? And Marda saw that it was not just Kamden inside her, but bits of others as well, centuries old, experience fragments from too many souls for her to count, even Negris!
“But you’ll never marry this woman, I’ll see to that,” Kamden screeched. “Of course, if you paid more attention to your friend, it never would have gotten even this far.”
Blazer’s eyes went wide and Marda saw the truth. Arion knew, somehow. He could feel Kamden’s lie. Does Arion possess medium abilities, or has he touched the spirit level in some way?
“He feels it. My presence around her allowed him to perceive just a glimpse of who I really am. But I fooled the poor sap into thinking the aura he was catching a glimpse of was hers, not mine. Oh, but now I have this little girl’s body, and she’s revealed me, and I can put my plans back into play.” She looked at Blazer, met his eyes. “See, even though my grandson hates me, he’ll never allow anyone to hurt his love. He’ll destroy anyone in his path if he has to just to keep this body safe. And he will do just that…”
Marda couldn’t wait any longer. She would not allow this sick woman to use her or Blazer this way. She used every iota of her will to wrest back control of her body. Kamden/Marda jerked back with such violence, she was surprised she didn’t break her own spine.
“Marda, no, wait for another medium,” the Admiral ordered.
Marda felt both light and darkness engulf her as she fought against Kamden. She felt her face and body contort as she tore Kamden away and regained control of herself. “Get out of my body!” Marda screamed, grabbing at her head.
“Blazer, talk to her, tell her to stop! We have to keep Kamden in there!” the Admiral ordered.
Blazer looked at his grandfather, incredulous. “Are you crazy? She’s killing her.”
“No, Marda can contain her. You miscalculated, Kamden,” the Admiral said and Kamden fought to look at him as Marda fought her every action. “You didn’t jump into some spirit talker. You jumped into a medium of the Sciminder line. You can’t get out of her while she’s alive, not unless another pulls you out.”
Kamden/Marda looked at him, her face contorted. “Oh, but if I kill her, I won’t allow her…”
In Death's Shadow Page 17
