It haunted him how much like her mother she now looked to him. But the dead cold anger in her eyes raged like some ghost of love. Punishing him for choosing duty over love.
“Dad?” she said in a small, vulnerable voice that echoed better times.
“Hi,” he said and felt a sudden surge of panic as he struggled words of any importance. Something that would express how he felt, without sending her reeling.
“Is everything, OK?” she said, rubbing her eyes as she yawned like she was ten years old and catching dragonflies in that great cavernous gob. He imagined her grinning at his teasing. But somehow he couldn’t quite make it real enough. Like an episode of Twilight Zone that he remembered wrong.
For a moment she was six years old to him again. He held her in his lap as she insisted on watching the lightning storm above the Pacific Ocean from their California beach house balcony. There, he’d get her to name the constellations and even the individual stars as they punched their way through the dawn storm clouds. She was always a quick study.
He wondered if she remembered telling him she’d go visit every one of those stars someday.
“Dad?” she said in a tone that seemed to mask her irritation with a thin layer of concern.
“You’ve grown up so much since our last summer family vacation,” he said.
She sighed heavily, “Dad, I thought it was an emergency... you never call.”
“Do you remember when I told you I’d take you and your mother to each and every star?”
“Have you been drinking?”
“Can you still name the Bear’s knees?”
She pulled a face of annoyance he recognized as a challenge she couldn’t back away from.
“Uncle Rhodes put you up to this, didn’t he?” She said with just a little too much scorn.
Hannibal felt a sudden jolt of realization. Like the summer storms of all their vacations. Time had washed away all their castles of hope built on the beaches of shared memories. There remained nothing for either of them to hold onto.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t visit Mom today,” she said almost business like as she poured a coffee. He sensed she was on autopilot now. All he had were her vapor trails to cling to.
“Did you take her favorite flowers?” she asked in between sips and a vagueness to her eyes as if she were busy reading schedules and notes for the day ahead.
He realized he had forgotten Rachel’s birthday.
He swallowed hard. “I couldn’t see your mother. And neither could Rhodes.”
It took her a few seconds to focus her attention on what he’d just told her. Her face screwed up as they both realized that they’d left her alone on her birthday.
“Why what happened?” she asked in that awful tone of guilt she clung to and that he knew so well.
“Something... blew up in my face,” he said. “You?”
“Same,” she said.
He wanted to ask more, but sensed if he pushed, she’d just shut him down.
It was a miracle she stayed on Q-NET this long. Doc must have worked his magic on her. Albeit behind his back. Perhaps he owed Doc an apology. And a bottle of something expensive?
But he knew he was about to ruin it all. He just couldn’t resist pushing to get closer. To feel something from the days of their past when silence was free of the pain and sorrow that dwelt there now.
“Anything I can help with?” he asked.
Her nostrils flared. She bit her lip and shrugged. “It’s just being so near to Mars after mom died there...”
And there it was for him. Her admission that she was blindly following in her mother’s footsteps. Seeking the holy grail of terraforming Earth’s nearest neighbor. He’d tried to talk her mother out of it once and failed. Losing her in the war. His stomach backflipped as he sensed he was about to lose his daughter to Mars.
He’d made the wrong decision then. Never again.
At first he considered attacking the issue head on. But caught himself just in time. “What’s a science ship doing orbiting Mars of all places?”
“You know I can’t talk about it, Dad.”
“Walking in your mother’s footsteps cannot bring her back Nia,” he said.
Her eyes narrowed.
Baton down the hatch. Here comes the family firestorm temper.
But no. He was surprised to witness tears in her eyes.
She glanced around her as if someone was listening. She turned back to him. Looking down the way she did as a child when she didn’t want him to read her. Shielding her eyes to hide some secret shame from him. Like the time she went shark hunting and made her first kill. The shame of enjoying how it had possessed her made her give up the ocean.
Now, her voice dropped into a husky whisper. Her guard seemed to dissolve in her tears.
“Dad, I’ve really screwed up this time.”
He felt his fist clench tight. He forced himself to remain calm. What he wouldn’t give to wrap his arms around her. Protect her from... herself.
Tell her she was right to lay on him all those vicious things she said. He wanted to stop running from her accusations of abandoning her mother for his sense of honor and duty. Confess to ripping out the heart of the family.
He wanted a chance to take back all the accusations he levied on her shoulders. The spoiled bitch who didn’t deserve a mother... but he couldn’t.
Not until I have this conversation in person.
“Tell me what’s happening, Nia.”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I can’t... do this.”
She looked over her shoulder again and this time failed completely to hide the fear in her eyes.
“I love you Dad,” she hurriedly said.
Her image shattered into a hundred collapsing fragments and faded like shooting stars.
She had disconnected the transmission.
He continued to stare into the half-light. His focus like a cutting diamond. That’s the first time she’s ever said ‘I love you’ since her mother died.
“Now I know she’s in serious trouble.”
But what in hell can I do about it?
“Damn it.”
“bridge to Captain!”
Hannibal sighed at the interruption. “Go head, XO.”
“Captain, we have a visual on the Ursu gun runner.”
“I’ll be there at once.”
CHAPTER 20 - TO DREAM OF MURDER
Myf knew she was dreaming. It was the same dream she’d had since childhood. And by dream, she meant nightmare.
For years she’d been trying to control the unfolding dream imagery. Slow down the sequence of events. View them from all possible angles. Finally, learn the truth.
Who killed my parents?
Since the day Glaw found her clinging to the dust covered body of her father, she wanted only three things in life. To feel her parent’s love again. To have a chance to say goodbye and to avenge them.
Always, she had failed to penetrate the fog of a six year old human child’s perceptions. This would be the end to twelve years of walking in the dream footsteps of her younger self.
She now felt confident she could enter the nightmare and separate herself from the child. With the strength of objective observation and deduction, see for the first time the face of the creature who ruined her life. And Glaw made it all possible.
Glaw had not exactly adopted her. And he was not exactly a father figure, or healthy role model, either. But he had taken pity on a six year old orphan and given her work on his spaceship, Gy-fly-mach.
He insisted it was the fastest smuggling ship in all the known galaxies. She quickly learned all smugglers made that claim. She also quickly realized he was not just the cute and cuddly over-sized bear that came romping through the Martian dust clouds on a scavenger hunt for engine parts. Glaw was badass.
To this day he’d deny he had a gentle side. But now she remembered that fateful day he’d taken this hysterical six year old orphan from a town of rotting corpses. Carrying
her and Mr Wacko away to his spaceship in his great paws.
She felt his warm coat of fur was the next best thing to her father’s scraggly beard. Glaw performed some kind of magic on her tears with one simple piece of advice that she would hold dear to her heart for the rest of her life.
In the years that followed, she learned quickly and became an adept mechanic and pilot. He didn’t exactly teach her. She learned by example.
She insisted she was the best damn pilot in the known galaxies. Glaw reminded her all pilots make that boast. Especially the dead ones.
She also picked up a few of Glaw’s bad habits. Like shoot first, take the money and ask as few questions as possible. All good advice, she decided, for staying alive in a treacherous and deadly universe.
Glaw had helped her negotiate a barter agreement with a rebel gang of gun runners. In exchange for several risky gun runs, she had purchased a small red crystal. Said to belong to the priests of House Maleficus on Vanguard.
It resonated with frequencies enabling the wearer to enhance their psychic abilities. Control their dreams. Conquer phantoms.
Tonight she wore it for the first time.
The dream unraveled as it had always done. The sun and rain gave her a rainbow. The thing that brought six year old Myf out of her hiding place in the first instant. That, and the terrifying sounds of a thunder storm.
She clung to her stuffed toy bear, Mr Wacko. She pushed him in front of her so he could see where they were headed. She waded through the thick red dust, calling for her parents.
After her father had abandoned her, she had run after him. Guided only by her mother’s screams. Through burning embers her father turned his face to her. A huge shadow stood over him. Pushed him to his knees.
Her father stared at the dead body of a wolf-man. She now recognized him as a Lupos soldier. The one who she remembered attacking her mother.
So who is this shadow?
The shadow raised an arc of shimmering blue steel. It seemed to dance with every color of the rainbow. But mostly with all shades of red and blue. Such were the dust clouds on Mars. The colors of sky and blood always blurred in her dream.
As with every time she had this dream, it had begun to rain. This time, she knew she could hold out a hand and slow the rain drops as they fell. Slow them. Stop them. Command them to part and allow her to see the face of the shadow.
“Run, Myf, run,” her father shouted into the storm, as the shadow slapped the back of his head and forced him to look at the red dusty ground.
“Daddy,” her younger self screamed.
“Myf, turn away,” shouted her father. “If you love me, don’t look. Turn away. Now.”
The blade sliced through the red dust. It cleaved his head from his shoulders in one swift movement. His head rolled across the dust to her feet.
When it stopped and settled on her toes, her younger self jolted. So too, her adult self.
Mr Wacko covered her six year old eyes with his stuffed paws. She made whispering sounds in his pretend voice, warning herself not to look at her father’s face.
She sensed, more than saw, the giant shadow step toward her. She held Mr Wacko up to the shadow.
“Mr Wacko,” said her younger self, “make the bad people go away.”
A shadow hand came down on younger Myf’s head. It seemed to stroke her head like she was a pet.
The shadow stooped, reached out and took Mr Wacko from her grasp. Younger Myf began crying for Mr Wacko. Older Myf forced down her own tears.
“Sleep, now, little one,” the shadow said and moved its fingers across her eyes. Younger Myf slumped to her knees. Her eyes flickered for a moment as if she was fighting the command. But the voice felt too powerful. Her eyes firmly shut.
The shadow stood and held her mother’s limp body in his arms. He turned. Leaping into the dust storm with such speed, Myf struggled to follow.
“Stop,” shouted the adult Myf. Here, finally, was her chance. She parted the dust cloud, but the wind fought her. Throwing more dust at her. It felt almost as if the shadow could command the elements of her dream and fight her. Use it like a cloak and hide.
She stared up at the shadow. At first she thought the shadow was human. With the blurring reds and blues, it took her a while to realize the creature’s skin was a natural pale blue hue.
But the eyes betrayed it. Eyes of intense glowing blue pierced the dust cloud. A Vanguard’s eyes.
She now had the face of her father’s killer.
Now, for the true test of the crystal’s dark powers. Lives had been lost stealing the crystal. She and Glaw, had almost lost their own in the pursuit of her obsession. She was about to learn if it had all been worth their sacrifice.
Can I summon a psychic link from this dream? Connect with the killer? Speak with him? Learn his name? Track him down?
She felt her ears pounding with the sound of her heart. She concentrated on calming herself. She recited the ritual taught her by the rebel gun runners.
She pictured a circular gateway before her and it appeared. Within it, a trillion stars swirled like a whirlpool. She raised her arms to the sky and sent the raindrops upwards. She clapped her hands together and compressed the rain into one tall funnel above her head.
“I am the eye,” she chanted. “I am the ear.”
She reached out to the gateway.
I burn the lie…” she said and beckoned a star to her. A fireball hurtled out of the whirlpool and engulfed her.
She admired the way the flames danced on her skin. “I cleanse away fear…”
She dropped her arms and the funnel of rain collapsed on top of her, dousing the fireball.
All around her, clouds of steam hissed. She turned to the Vanguard.
“I command you from across the universe. Speak.”
The Vanguard said nothing.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
The Vanguard’s blue lips quivered.
“Speak,” she shouted.
The mouth opened. The sound of a thousand voices emanated out of the Vanguard’s mouth.
“Who summons me?” the Vanguard said.
“I, Myf, daughter of Earth, avenger of Gaia and Darlh.”
The corners of the Vanguard’s mouth curved upwards. A thousand voices of laughter mocked her. The Vanguard shook. His entire body began to crumble into dust.
“No,” Myf cried and reached out to grab the Vanguard.
The Vanguard collapsed into a heap of ashes and with it the mocking laughter of a thousand voices. She opened her fists and let dust pour out between her fingers.
She fell to her knees. Beat the ground with her fists.
“Twelve years,” she shouted. “For what?”
She knew her raging grief would wake her in moments. But the voices had not entirely vanished with the Vanguard. She thought she heard singing. A vast choir of voices.
The mound of dust at her feet shook. It rose in the air. Rising like a phantom. It slowly took human form. The face seemed somehow recognizable.
“Myf, my name is Gaia,” the phantom said. “I am your mother. Do you remember me?”
Myf recognized the phantom’s voice from old family movies.
“Mom?”
“Myf, darling. You’re more beautiful than I could ever have hoped.”
Myf fought back tears.
“I don’t understand, Mom,” Myf said with a trembling voice. “You died.”
“No, Myf, I was taken as a slave,” Gaia said and cried out in torturous pain. “I’m alive.”
Myf stood and reached out. “Mom, where are you?”
“I’m on Vanguard, Myf,” Gaia said and shook her head.
The apparition stroked Myf’s face. Myf clasped the hand against her cheek.
“I’m coming for you, Mom.”
“Stay away, Myf,” Gaia shouted. “Stay away, or—”
Gaia screamed and burst into a cloud of burning embers that exploded into Myf’s face. The embers fell as ashes.
<
br /> Myf fell to her knees and gathered up the ashes in her arms. She clenched her arms tight against her chest.
“I’ll find you, Mom,” she said. “I swear it.”
CHAPTER 21 - RINGS OF SATURN
“The Ursu ship is leaving Janus,” navigator Bo Sun said and looked up at his XO for instructions. “One minute and counting.”
“‘G’ ring ice conditions?” Zen asked.
Bo Sun glanced at his instruments panel and the three dimensional image of Saturn’s outer rings. He dove his straight fingers into the hovering image and parted them, zooming into the fragments orbiting with the planet’s rings.
“Unusually heavy spread, Commander,” Bo Sun said. “Must have been a recent asteroid collision. Debris could cause problems in getting a good lock on.”
Dax nodded to the weapons specialist Wesley Jackson. “Ready tractor beam. Pilot, as quick as you can, get us into position.”
“Thirty seconds until Ursu ship enters ‘G’ ring, Commander,” Bo Sun advised.
Hannibal strode through the sliding doors and onto the bridge as two marines on sentry duty snapped their heels to attention. He stood and absorbed the atmosphere. Savoring moments like this was a rarity he always took advantage of. The chance to see his crew in action without his presence.
He gazed around the dome-like structure of the bridge and through the large windows on all sides. The windows were composed of a transparent graphene composite that appeared like glass, but a hundred thousand times stronger. On the other side of the windows, the Ursu ship displayed erratic and efficient defense maneuvers. Hannibal knew locking onto the Ursu would be difficult.
He had to admit to himself, he wasn’t entirely happy that he had to trust his new XO. He watched for signs of stress amongst the crew. His eyes moved along the sloping amphitheater design of the bridge. Each level was dominated by endless banks of instrument panels.
Each crew member stood at their designated position. Hannibal preferred his crew to stand on Valiant’s voyages. Standing gave rise to an atmosphere of restless awareness and urgency. Something he knew might one day save their lives.
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