A gunshot broke Yen from his revelry. Burning pain shot up his back, searing from his right hip. Reaching back, Yen was stunned to see dark blood on his fingers. Someone had shot him!
“We have a runner!” one of the guards yelled. Yen turned to see one of the Generals bolting from behind cover and running down the hallway.
Yen cursed as his hip screamed in protest when he tried to stand. Blue light filled the hole in his lower back, as his energy deadened the pain. Turning, enraged, Yen sprinted into the hall in pursuit in spite of the ache that still cut sharply through his attempts to heal the wound. The guards in the hall were caught by surprise as the Terran General rushed by. They barely had time to raise their weapons before Yen rushed past them as well. Yen lashed out angrily with unrestrained psychic energy, but the elusive General dodged behind the clutter in the halls. Boxes exploded from Yen’s attack, but the Terran still continued his escape.
The General rushed past the outer doors and into the intense sunlight. Furiously wanting only revenge, Yen chased after him. As Yen broke out of the shadows of the overhang, blood sprayed across his face. He staggered backward, staring at the gaping hole in the General’s chest. The Terran stumbled a couple more steps before collapsing into the red sand. Looking down at the blood that now smeared his uniform, Yen noticed his soft pink hands. He was still in disguise as a Terran General. Not wanting to be shot by mistake, he pushed the red button on his bracelet. Though the button was pushed, Yen didn’t change back to his regular self. The pink hands remained! He slammed his fist repeatedly into the bracelet, but to no avail. He remained Terran. Slowly, he raised his head and looked toward the distant sniper.
Yen stared into the distance in stunned disbelief moments before a round slammed into his skull. Yen’s vision exploded into a thousand pinpoints of light as consciousness began to ebb away. Slowly, he collapsed to the ground next to the Terran.
He didn’t know how long he remained unconscious. Vision came and went. Faces of his soldiers appeared above his face one moment, only to be replaced by different faces the next. Eventually, as consciousness began to return, a new face appeared above him. Silver hair framed her face, which glowed under the triple suns. The light filtered through her soft hair, accentuating the red and purple tattoos that ran across her skin.
Keryn crouched down by Yen’s side and whispered softly to him. “You’re a remarkable man, Yen Xiao. Even now you fight against the inevitable, using your psychic powers to keep yourself from dying.”
She ran her hand over the still intact side of his face. Keryn shivered slightly as she looked to the far side of his head, where saw the pulsating brain. Except for Yen’s blue psychic bubble, the sensitive organ was exposed to the harsh elements.
“There was a time I truly did love you, you know?” she said as Yen coughed, bubbles of blood forming on his lips. “But it was young love. It was never meant to last. I came to understand that over time, but you never did.
“In some ways, I blame myself for never setting you straight. Maybe, if I had, you would have never strayed down such a dark path.” Keryn stopped stroking his hair and her face grew serious. “And you did go down a very dark path, Yen. You killed innocent people to appease your own newfound sense of Godhood. You played with people’s emotions and then proceeded to ruin their lives.”
Tears formed in the corners of Keryn’s eyes. “You toyed with my emotions, Yen. You ruined my life. You took from me the one man that truly made me happy, all because of some gross misconception about our long-forgotten romance. You became a monster.”
She used the back of her hand to wipe away the tears. “I won’t give you the satisfaction of seeing me cry, Yen. I’m stronger than that; stronger than you ever realized. I spent years of my life fighting against the monster that was the Terran Empire. They subjugated their people through fear and intimidation and I fought against that mentality every step of the way. And then I return to the Fleet to find that a new monster had arisen. One that controlled his people through fear and intimidation, just like the Terrans. But this monster was also a killer. This monster was a brutal madman being controlled by a child’s mind; a mind that cared only about violent revenge for petty insults. I spent years fighting against the Terran monster. What made you believe I wouldn’t fight against you?”
Keryn stood and looked out across the desert. “You did incredible work for the Alliance, Yen. Regardless of your methods, you managed to bring peace to a war-torn universe. For that, the Alliance will always remember you as a hero. But I’m here to make sure another description is added to that title: fallen hero. You see, Yen, even if it were possible to save your life from that horrible gunshot wound, I wouldn’t want to. I couldn’t live with myself if I knew that I was the reason that a monster was stalking amongst the citizens of the Alliance.”
She pulled a pistol free from her holster and looked down at the helpless Yen. “I heard your speech to the Premier, Yen. We were monitoring some of the soldiers’ open radio channels. They were powerful words you spoke, words that deserve to live on in the volumes of history. They were powerful enough words that I feel obliged to reuse them for this situation.”
Keryn pointed her pistol at Yen. He tried to speak in defense, but could only manage a weak gurgle.
“On this spot, so died the Empire. And on this spot, so dies Yen Xiao.”
She squeezed the trigger. Her round struck the undamaged side of Yen’s skull, shattering through the bone and piercing the soft brain beneath. As the slug entered the brain, it broke apart, turning the soft grey matter into a thick pulp. Yen jerked once before the blue light faded from the other side of his skull and his brains spilled onto the sand.
Keryn took a deep breath and shivered despite the heat. Turning, she walked back to the transport ship onto which the soldiers had already loaded. Keryn nodded toward the cockpit as she walked by. Inside, her relief evident, Iana returned her nod. Climbing aboard, Keryn closed the door as the ship lifted off the planet.
“Ballistae, this is Captain Riddell,” Keryn said into her throat microphone. “We’re ready to begin bombing the planet.”
Brink of Distinction Series:
Burden of Sisyphus
Fall of Icarus
Purge of Prometheus
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Purge of Prometheus Page 39
