Tim appears to be fully recovered now. It has become evident that he and Lisa have become involved. Nothing as blatant as holding hands, or kissing in public, but they're together all the time. It’s obvious to the group that they are in the beginning stages of a relationship. It's been rather enjoyable watching them figure all this out for themselves. Tim's a big kid, and Lisa is very nurturing. They’ll make a great team.
Kathy has taken to sleeping with me at night, but it's strictly plutonic. I believe she's realized I'll never get over Nancy's death. I suspect she just wants a warm body to sleep with, and I'm safe. I haven't told her to stop it, probably for much the same reasons. It's been going on two years since Nancy died, and I'm tired of sleeping alone.
Harold has taken to drinking. He always liked a good bottle, but without Shooter to talk with, the bottles seemed to empty out a lot quicker. I'm worried about him, but I see little I can do to straighten him out. He's lost his best friend, and life sucks.
My abilities grow stronger with each passing day, and Koda's powers seem to mirror my own. The girl is a force to be reckoned with. She has been training daily with me for an hour. Then an hour with Delphi, and another hour with me. Madias has stopped in twice to view the sessions, and I've started to suspect he's actually more interested in Koda's progress, than in mine.
This afternoon, I was alone with Madias for the first time in several weeks. After talking for several minutes in various topics, I said, "I've been very impressed with Koda's progress."
"She's a fierce warrior," agreed Madias. He smiled widely at me, and said, "Delphi says you're doing pretty well yourself. It appears there is some question if you are the student, or the teacher."
"Not to me," I replied. "I've been out of the loop for the last twenty years. I have no doubt Delphi is better with the blade."
"I say there is more than a doubt," noted Madias. "I say that both you and Koda are mutations. You are elite warriors, naturally advanced, and now honed by joining the Chosen."
We were standing outside, across the street from Kathy's house. I'd been out for my morning walk when Madias found me. We had stopped to talk, and I stood there, debating how to respond to his comment. After several seconds, I said, "In the end, I'm just a man, and Koda is just a woman."
"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Madias responded. He paused, looking at me oddly, "I have known many great men and women in my life. There is an edge to both you and Koda. I have known many great warriors, but there is a flame in you two, which burns brighter than I have ever seen before."
Abruptly, Madias raised his head, as If he heard something I couldn't. A look of near panic crossed his face, and he said, "I must go!" Then he folded space, and disappeared.
I don't know why, but without thinking, I focused on Madias, and followed him. I arrived to find a battle in progress. A vast, open, plain, stretched before me. At first, I couldn't understand what I was seeing. The plain was centered between two sets of steep mountains, with perhaps forty miles between the two mountain ranges. The open stretch of flat land ran into the distance as far as the eye could see.
Covering everything were Critz. The creatures reminded me of huge man sized ants. At a distance, you might mistake one as human, but up close, you could easily tell something wasn't right about the way they moved. I had encountered these creatures before, but never seen so many of them at once. There had to be millions of them. Perhaps billions of them. From my vantage point on a hillside, I could see a great battle was occurring, and Critz were busy killing each other on an epic scale.
The valley floor had to show an area larger than four hundred square miles, and the entire place was teaming in life and death struggles. I reached out, scanning my surroundings, and could see two vast armadas in space. They were busy killing each other as well.
Several Critz began to run past me. Then stopped, and looked at me oddly. I could tell they were scanning me. Deciding I was on their side, they quickly headed down into the melee occurring down below us.
I couldn't find Madias in the fracas at first. Scanning the moving mass of creatures, I began to realize there was more than battling Critz here. Down in the valley floor before me, an installation was being overrun. What appeared to be several thousand Guardians, were down there fighting for their lives.
Half of the Critz were attacking the bunkers housing the Guardians. The other half were defending them. I couldn't tell friend from foe, without scanning them.
There was a loud sonic boom, and what looked like two fighter jets lipped over the mountain range on the right, and fell upon the Critz moving on the valley floor. It quickly became obvious these were fighter spacecraft. They strafed the moving mass of beasts. Then pulled up, and accelerated straight up till they were out of sight.
I've been around countless fighter jets, but I'd never seen anything like this. They appeared to be using some form of powerful laser, because it cut the average Critz in half in less than a nanosecond. Dropping bombs, and strafing the ground, the two ships probably killed thousands in a single pass. It made very little difference in the big scheme of things.
I had arrived in uniform with a vest on me and a body shield. I brought the shield up to full power, but since it ran off my own energy levels, I was uncertain how long I could maintain it. I'd never used it in combat before.
I’ve recently taken to carrying an UZI instead of my normally preferred .357 Magnum. I'm old fashioned, and don't generally carry a semi-automatic handgun, for fear of the thing jamming at a crucial moment. I tried for two days to get the UZI I had at the gun range to jam. I even got the thing dirty on purpose. When I couldn't get it to jam even then, I switched weapons. Aside from the UZI, all I had was the sword.
I went for the sword!
There was an odd sensation, as though I was shifting into auto pilot. Reaching out with my scans, I began killing Critz, and moving toward the bunker that stood several miles away, in the valley floor below.
A feeling of detached observation overcame me. It was as if I was watching myself, through the eyes of another person. What I saw, was scary as hell.
Critz had taken to seeing me coming, and trying to run away. It was a mistake on their part. I easily outran them, and slaughtered them as they tried to escape. Many tried to stand, but it was hopeless. They were moving in slow motion, and if they failed the scan, they died.
At one point, after what seemed like about ten minutes, I looked behind me, and realized I had already moved about a mile into the battleground. A wide open path lay behind me, and the Critz in front of me were simply trying to escape. It seemed unusual to have traveled such a distance so quickly, but there was no time to analyze what was happening.
As the path cleared before me, I could finally see the Guardians defending the bunker. I had lost my visual reference as I joined the battle occurring out on the flat plain. They were still about a mile away, but I could at least see them again. The bunkers appeared to be about thirty feet tall, and the Critz swarmed all around them like insects.
There were about a dozen of the bunkers in a ring. It made me think of the way a wagon train would defend itself, formed up in a circle. Each bunker had about the same building footprint as a duplex home back on Earth. Built of concrete, or some form of stone, there were firing ports all over the bunkers, and weapons were firing out, killing Critz with great abandon.
As I grew closer to the bunker, I began to tire, and weaken. I was probably less than twenty minutes into the attack, but I just wanted to go someplace quiet, and take a nap. I had that odd sensation again, and found myself about two hundred yards short of the bunker. I realized the noise of the battle had changed, and that I was in trouble.
I staggered several steps, then dropped to my knees. A combat staff was lying there on the ground. I grabbed it up in my left hand, and used it to steady myself as I crouched there, holding my blade in my right hand.
I could tell my body was shutting down. I had misjudged the distance I suppose. It ha
dn't crossed my mind I might not make it. If before I was fast, and the battle in slow motion, that view now appeared to reverse itself.
Behind me, a wave of the Critz allied to the Guardians, had filled the path I had traveled, and now formed a solid wedge, deep into the mass of struggling creatures. Through the noise of battle, I heard a metallic screeching noise, and doors on the bunkers began to open. As they did, they seemed to join the separate bunkers together to form one large structure. From within the bunker, thousands of Guardians began to poor out.
From the bunker closest to me, I could see Madias headed straight for me. As he got closer, I could see by the look on his face, that he was furious.
Before he could reach me, the enemy Critz closed on me. I was unable to defend myself, so for a second the enemy Critz seemed to just stare at me. Then they started to try and kill me.
Behind me, I could hear the allied Critz trying to get to me. In front of me, I could see Madias closing on my position quickly, but not fast enough. The Critz began to run me through over and over. The pain was incredible. They appeared to be in slow motion as they stabbed me time and again. Then I could tell, one of them decided that the best way to kill me, was cut off my head.
He tried once, and I managed to lean away from him, I saw him raise his blade to finish the job, and I just closed my eyes. To my shock, I heard the blade clang on metal as it descended with a swoosh I could hear. When I opened my eyes, I was even more shocked to find Koda standing over me. She, like Madias, looked pretty angry.
Her motions became a blur as she started killing the Critz around us. She started with the creature that had planned to decapitate me. In less than four seconds, she had cleared a space within twenty feet of us. At that point, Madias stepped into her circle, along with about a hundred guardians. Koda stopped, and knelt next to me. She started examining me as if she had been receiving medical training. When I glanced at her oddly, she looked up, saying, "You told me I needed medical training. I've been having Lisa teach me first aid."
"It's a start," I said weakly.
"What in the name of all the gods are you two doing here?" thundered Madias as he stepped up to us.
"I came because he followed you," growled Koda, pointing at me. "And it looks like it was a good thing I did!"
The battle had turned. The enemy Critz could be seen just starting to try to flee the battle. The Critz allied to us were not allowing their brethren to escape. Mounds of Critz bodies littered the ground everywhere. Some of the bodies in the mounds still twitched, making the piles of flesh appear to have a life of their own.
I tried to stand again, and promptly fell to the ground with a thud. My muscles started to cramp horribly. I suspect it looked like I was starting to convulse, because as Koda started to look at me intently, I realized she was pouring energy into me. In a hoarse voice, I snapped out, "Leave me alone!"
"Just shut the hell up!" Koda snapped back. She looked so angry for a moment, that I decided to not argue with her. She reached down, and grabbed my wrist in her hand. As she squeezed down, I could sense the raw power flowing through our bodies. I abruptly realized she was channeling power from our environment. Pulling it from the very core of the planet itself.
She began glowing brightly as the power increased, and Madias seemed to pause, watching us. It must have been very noticeable, because several dozen Guardians and Critz around us started to stare at what was happening.
I have to admit even I was awed with the intensity I saw coming from Koda. There was an audible, loud, electrical snap. Koda stepped back, and almost absent mindedly said, "There! That's better!"
Madias smiled as he looked at Koda, and said, "Yes! That's far better!" He glanced down at me, quickly saying, "Now stand up Guardian! We have work to do!"
He turned, and started back toward the bunker. Despite the battle happening all around us, he headed straight back to the bunker. I took it we were supposed to follow, and began to stagger along behind him. With each step, the pain seemed to subside, and my strength return. By the time we reached the bunker, I was almost back to normal.
Koda was right next to me, and she wasn't dropping her guard at all. Even as the shadow of the concrete emplacements fell over us, I could tell she was on high alert. She had taken my sword from me, and was now carrying both my blade and hers, one in each hand.
I had picked up the combat staff, and originally used it as a walking stick. By the time we reached the bunker, I really didn't need the thing, but for some reason, I retained it in my left hand.
Guardians were still exiting the structure, and a guard position had been set up at the entrance to the structure. The Guardian guards present simply waved us through, apparently because we were with Madias. We went into the well-lit area, and started down a wide ramp, going deep into the planet.
After walking for several minutes in silence, Madias stopped, and waited for us to catch up. Koda had secured her sword, but was still openly carrying mine. Madias quietly said, "You can return Mike's blade. We are safe here."
"Why don't the Critz just fold space, and appear down here?" Koda asked. She handed me my sword, and I secured it.
"Critz have very limited jump capabilities,“ Madias observed. "Their teleportation range, and frequency of possible jumps, is very limited. Aside from that, this facility is shielded. The Critz would have to come in through the front doors, and we will never allow that."
Standing next to me, Koda asked, "What is kept here that's so important?"
"This is a research station," stated Madias. "The Minions of the Darkness have attacked numerous places like this in the last month. The Guardians have extended their reach prematurely. This has aroused the wrath of the beast, which we call the Darkness. As the Guardian fleet moved out of our galaxy, the enemy has probed our defenses." He paused for several seconds, and then added, "Believe it or not. This was a minor skirmish next to several of the other recent attacks."
"That doesn't answer the question," Koda pointed out. "What are you people doing here?"
"Primarily we do genetics research here," noted Madias. "We are also doing time and dimensional travel studies, based on the research of a man by the name of Professor Hans Bahn. He is a scientist involved with the Guardians, and through them, the Chosen. He modified a working flying saucer to travel through dimensions. As a result, one of the children of Satu-Ra were rescued from a horrible fate." A frustrated look crossed his face, and he abruptly said, "Let’s do it this way!"
A series of images flooded my mind. Information about the space ship and its modifications. It was a real flying saucer, complete with the ability to easily travel between star systems. I had always thought of green men from Mars as a bit much. Flying saucers was out of my league.
The problem here was, that I had been on several ships in space at this point. I had seen other planets, including one that was inhabited by dragons. My ability to ignore all this was pretty well shot to hell.
We all stood there for perhaps twenty seconds as Madias transferred the information, and we stood assessing the data. Then Koda quietly said, "I hate to keep asking this, but why are they attacking here? You must have some idea."
'The Guardian Satu-Ra, is what we call a construct." Madias replied. "He was created here, in a birthing tank, just over eight thousand years ago. The genetic material for his creation was stored here. A construct copy was recently created, so that my son might live among us again." He looked around slowly, before saying, "This place has taken on special meaning to the Guardians. It is more to them than just a research station. It is a shrine to their leader."
"So! Satu-Ra thinks he's some kind of a god," hedged Koda.
"No!" blustered Madias. "Please don't say that! He would be angry if he thought I said that!"
"You sound scared shitless of him," stated Koda.
A smile covered the older man’s face, and he almost laughed. "I don't fear Lord Satu-Ra at all. He is a King who would refuse his kingdom. A son who killed his ow
n father, to save the people of Earth. A Guardian above all others, and yet modest to a fault. I’d have him for my son, but he already risked his life to return my son to me. I shall follow my King till we are free, or all destroyed, and I will do it out of love, not fear."
Slightly flustered, Koda said, "I didn't mean any disrespect! I just don't know much about all this."
"Something has happened in this time space continuum," Madias said patiently. "Not only has Satu-Ra appeared at this time, but these events are occurring just as the group known as the Magi has finally decided to rejoin the rest of the Universe. In the midst of all this, the legendary Golden Warrior appears. The man the warriors on the Amazon call Deathdealer."
Now I was getting slightly flustered as I said, "I'm getting a bad feeling about this."
Madias slight smile widened. "You made up your mind long ago Guardian. You know how much depends on what we do. Don't pretend you don't understand the consequences of your actions. You already know how this will end. We both do."
Now Madias turned, and started down the corridor again, heading deeper into the planet. Koda and I just fell in behind him, and started walking. We must have traveled for at least fifteen minutes, and I realized I was starting to tire slightly. Koda looked over at me as we walked, and asked, "Are you alright?"
"Do I look that bad?" I asked.
"It's your aura," she replied. "It looks unstable."
"It's that stunt he pulled up on the surface," noted Madias, apparently picking up on our conversation. "He's lucky he can walk at all."
"I brought his energy levels back up," Koda observed. "What's the problem?"
"He's not some kind of battery." Madias responded. "You can't just recharge him and set him loose. His body will become unstable, and he will feel ill."
"Please stop talking like I'm not here," I requested.
We had been walking, and Madias stopped again. He looked at me oddly for a moment, and then said, "You are an amazing person Mr. Rutger. I'm still not certain of all the ramifications, but I can tell you that Koda and you aren't like the rest of us in this Universe. Until we can better come to understand what's happening, I suggest you try not to take too many unnecessary risks. I realize you may feel immortal. I can assure you, you're not!"
The Koda Files Boxed Set - Books 1 & 2 Page 19
