by Brian Fisher
Chapter 74
The night air was crisp and cool as T'Sula rode. It was quiet at night without the sounds of the animals or birds, with only the quiet humming of her hovercycle to keep her company. The solitude could have been irritating, but instead of letting it bother her, T'Sula found herself thinking about why she was there.
She knew the facts, but she also wondered why. What was her purpose? Why her? In the end, T'Sula decided that it didn't matter who had brought her or how she had gotten there. The fact remained that she was there, and there were important things that she needed to do.
Her legs and back began to ache after riding for several hours without stopping. Finally, she gave in and stopped the bike. It had been years since she had ridden a bike for so long, but this one was a good machine. It was well made, and the ride was smooth.
After sitting for so long, the ground felt good under T'Sula's feet. She walked around for a couple of minutes, stretching her aching muscles before she headed back to her bike. The sky was unusually clear, allowing her to see countless stars, and the traces of a few planets in the sky.
As T'Sula gazed at the stars, a massive explosion ripped through the heavens. Brilliant blue fire, tinged with flecks of green and red, blossomed in the sky. T'Sula watched silently as the fires bloomed and died. She knew instinctively that either Corin, or Kamira, was coming for her. There simply was no other explanation.
Her resolution to take what she had started and see it through to the end, grew infinitely stronger at the sight of the fire in space. Whether it was Corin or Kamira out there, made little difference to T'Sula. She would not have their efforts and sacrifices be in vain.
The Buell came to life just as it should. T'Sula settled into the seat, and cracked the throttle. She wasn't entirely familiar with the velocity measurements. Kilometers she knew, but this vehicle's primary increment was in miles per hour.
The needle on the gauge climbed smoothly, and quickly passed into triple digits as T'Sula raced through the night. Dawn approached all too soon for T'Sula, for with it came a new set of threats. At night, it was easier to go unnoticed by the enemy. Daylight made it easier to see, but stealth was nearly impossible.
She turned off the bike's night vision system, and prepared herself for what she knew lay ahead. So much had already happened since she had seen Kamira on Olcai. It seemed like only a faint dream, or a distant memory, even though it was only a few days ago. Kamira, and Narja, and Corin, they all had become important to her in their own ways. Kam, of course, was her cousin. Narja was an honorable comrade in arms.
Corin though, was something else entirely. Corin Dante was an enigma that T'Sula could hardly define. The man was insufferable, but had managed to endear himself to T'Sula, to make her trust him with her life. She trusted him enough, that she let him turn her over to Malek, and in turn to the Ta'Reeth.
T'Sula saw a small recess in the side of a hill not far ahead. She eased the bike to a gentle stop, and pushed the vehicle into the recess. When she turned off the key, it settled quietly to the ground.
Darkness would have been preferable for avoiding the Ta'Reeth, but time was in short supply. She remembered what Pike had told her. She wished that Pike were here with her now. T'Sula resigned herself to completing this mission by herself. This way at least, no one else would get killed.
The canyon wasn't far from where T'Sula stashed the bike. The Grand Canyon itself seemed to drop away from the face of the Earth, diving deep into the realm of the nether. She liked the rugged landscape, with its deep browns and massive rock formations. When she looked closely, she could see the different ages and types of stone in the incredible formations. It was like nothing else that T'Sula Mir had ever seen.
T'Sula walked quickly, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. Even in the morning sun, with keeping low and to the rocks and scrub, T'Sula managed to reach the canyon walls undetected.
What she saw made her stop and want to cry. Even in its present state, there was no denying the majesty of the place. The massive mountain canyons of Bakesh were nothing compared to the one before her. She instantly understood why this one had been named the 'Grand Canyon'.
T'Sula wished that she could have seen this place in its pristine, unmolested state.
Straddling the canyon some distance away, was an enormous bowl. It was supported by a pair of bone girders on either side, and large enough to support a several thousand people. The canyon walls were lined with massive ribs that ran from the river far below, to the rim, giving the giant canyon the semblance of a massive, mutated carcass. The paces between the ribs were covered with cells, from the top to the bottom, and as far as the eyes could see. They were just large enough for a fully grown man to stand in, and were supported on the bottom and sides by thick the gray bone. A thin veil of skin covered each of the cells, giving the occupants a small measure of privacy.
Inside the cells were men and women of various ages, but all were human. At least, they used to be. Each of the prisoners bore some deformity or another. Some of them had grotesque limbs grafted onto their bodies, while others looked as if they had been bred with a specific, unidentified task in mind. No matter what had been done to them, they all had one thing in common. That thing was pain.
T'Sula forced the unfortunate beings out of her mind. She had a mission to complete, and nothing was going to stand in her way. Not Corin. Not the Ta'Reeth, nothing.
It took T'Sula a few minutes of searching, but she found a small recess in the canyon wall that would be suitable for free climbing. She made sure that her footing was secure and that her hand holds were stable, and then started down.
The rock bit into her hands as she climbed, giving her a small connection with the canyon itself. The feeling that the course stone engendered in her surprised her. She knew that no matter what happened, she would always be connected to this amazing place, as if by simply touching the walls of this gorge, she was leaving a piece of herself within it.
T'Sula forced herself to push any thoughts, except for focusing on what she was doing, out of her mind. Cautiously, she worked her way down the canyon wall. Periodically, she stopped to make certain that she hadn't been discovered, and then continued her descent.
The closer that she came to the river below, the more she noticed the smell. At one time, this place had been clean and beautiful. Now there were well over a million people held captive along the canyon walls, and the once clean river was now an open sewer.
The trek was arduous and time consuming, but eventually she reached the bottom. T'Sula tried to cover her mouth and nose to block the smell, but nothing that she did worked. Finally, she gave up and suffered through the stench.
At the bottom of the canyon, just above the roaring waters of the river, was a slim walkway. It too was made of bone, thick and stable. T'Sula held tightly to the railing as she walked.
The walkway brought her close enough to the cells that she could clearly see inside. She looked into the first one that she came to, and immediately regretted it. Inside the cell was Malek. His eyes, ears and hands had been removed, only to be replaced with organic mechanisms that she could not begin to understand.
T'Sula jumped back as Malek turned and approached the front of his cell. A grotesque sneer covered what was left of his face. Even through the veil, T'Sula could see the stains of his teeth, and the torment of his ravaged body.
"I know it's you T'Sula Mir! I know it's you!" he howled as T'Sula ran past.
Remembering Pike and his words, T'Sula slowed to a walk and reached into her pocket. Here at the bottom of the canyon she would find the help that she needed. She pulled out the carved stone that Pike had given her, and held it out so that it could be seen. She continued forward, searching for anything that could help.
"What are you doing? Trying to get yourself killed?" a strange voice called to her from a nearby cell. "Get in here before they find you."
T'Sula quickly turned and went over to the cell. There, standi
ng on the other side of the translucent barrier was a bald old man in rags. He stood just under two meters tall, and looked to be in fair health. There was an energy about him that could not be denied. He manipulated something that T'Sula couldn't see on the back side of the barrier, then motioned her to step through.
The thin membrane opened just enough for T'Sula to step through, then quickly closed again. Not knowing what else to do, she held out the stone for the old man to see. He looked it over, smiled, then focused intently on T'Sula.
The old man's crystal blue eyes bored into T'Sula's consciousness, straight to her soul.
"It picked a pretty one." He smiled, and motioned for T'Sula to follow him deeper into the cell. As they went deeper, the cell grew larger. Inside, the cell was adorned with a few crude amenities.
"Why am I here?" T'Sula forced herself to ask, not really believing that this old man could know the answer.
The old man sighed as he turned back to face T'Sula. The smile was gone, replaced with a look that was filled with pain, anger, and frustration.
"Immortality is a curse." he finally said. "And a gift." he moved around the cell as he spoke to her. "It is a gift that only God has the wisdom and compassion to wield."
"It should never be thrust upon a lesser being!" he spun on his heel, turning to face T'Sula. The old man moved better than she had thought possible for someone of his advanced age. "Anything less than a God is too fallible. They cannot handle the power or consequences of immortality."
"Why are you telling me this?" T'Sula asked after a long moment of silence. There were other questions that she wanted to ask, but resigned herself to just the one.
"What you have inside of you my dear is the key." he stepped forward and took her hand. He held a tiny blade, and pricked her palm. He took the few drops of blood, and put it in a tiny dish. "The reason that you are here, the reason for your entire journey, is that in your blood is the antidote, the genome sequence that will stop the Ta'Reeth ability to heal. It's a series of lightly irradiated genes that are coded, so that put in the proper sequence, it produces the genome."
T'Sula sat back on her heels, stunned. It all came crashing down upon her. The Ta'Reeth wanted her because of this. If the wrong people were to find her, the consequences were unfathomable. What was inside her was nothing less than the key to destroying an entire race. The weapons that could be fashioned from her blood would be able change the balance of power, and bring the Ta'Reeth to their knees.
"The Olcai needed to find someone capable of bringing the code to me, so they picked you. You T'Sula Mir, are the key to the survival of the universe." he smiled a thin smile, then laughed with a high pitched wheeze.
"The Olcai? How are they involved?" T'Sula looked at the old man in confusion. They had been part of this all along? "Wait, how did you know my name? Who are you?"
"Surprised, I see." the old man shook his head in dismay to see how little people really knew about others. "The Olcai are a very old people, T'Sula, older than even you Bakeerons. They are old, and very skilled. Don't underestimate them."
"How do you know my name?" T'Sula pressed. Was there anyone on this planet that didn't know who she was? If the First Ta'Reeth knew, she would have no chance at all.
"I made it my business to know." he smiled, hiding the things that he knew, and the things that he didn't.
T'Sula quietly sank back into herself. So much had happened, and here was still so much that needed to be done. She looked deep inside herself, and wondered if she had the strength to see it through. There were hundreds of billions of people, more than she could imagine, and they all depended on her to succeed. What she chose to do now, would inevitably affect all of the people for the rest of time, and she knew it.
"Will this genome put an end to the war? Will it stop the killing?" she asked quietly. The implications of the old man's words weighed heavily upon her. Everything that had happened to her since she set foot on Olcai had been orchestrated to this end.
"That is up to you." the smile disappeared from his face. "The First will never stop. The only way to stop the war, to stop the killing, is to kill the First Ta'Reeth."
T'Sula watched the old man in silence. In some way, she had known that it would come to this. The only way to achieve peace was to fight for it. She knew that she had to fight the First. There was no other way.
"What are its weaknesses?" T'Sula finally asked.
"There aren't any." the old man sighed. "As with any of the Ta'Reeth, if you destroy its brain, it will die. However, the First has over three hundred years of combat experience, and can read your mind."
"What are you going to do with the genome?" T'Sula wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to know, but she asked anyway. Ignorance was indeed bliss; however, she knew that she couldn't afford the luxury.
"I'm going to make things right." the old man replied dismissively.
"Fair enough. How do you know so much about it?" T'Sula got to her feet. She stopped and turned to face the old man before she left. The fact that the old man hadn't told her who he was, yet he knew so much, was not lost to her.
"I'm the one that is responsible for this glorious disaster." he hung his head as he spoke. "Where are you going child?"
"I'm going to finish this." T'Sula told him as she stepped out of the cell.
