by Damon Alan
“That's cheery,” Thea said.
The women loaded their packs and picked up their equipment.
Thea checked her radio, it burst with waves of static. “How's your reception?”
“Ember is insane since Merik's slap upside our head. Unless the tanks and scouts saw us coming, we're on our own.” Sarah called into the shuttle. “Flight Chief Nathus, do you know how far out the scouts are?”
“No, Captain, my radio is out,” he yelled back.
Sarah shrugged at Thea, “He delivered us here, I’m not going to ask him die trying to be our eyes. Get ready for some hiking.”
“Why not?” Thea asked. “Hey, Nathus, any chance you're willing to be the eye in the sky? It might be suicide. Two suicide missions in one day might get you a medal.”
“Sure, Doc, not a problem. Nobody lives forever.”
Thea slapped Sarah on the back and picked up her medkit. “Let's go.”
Sarah looked back into the shuttle, and the Flight Chief gave her a thumbs up.
She nodded at the pilot.
This is about all of us, not just me and Merik.
Sarah and Thea ran fifty meters from the shuttle, then knelt down.
Flight Chief Nathus waved, gave another thumbs up out the cockpit window this time, then gunned the engines. The shuttle leaped from the ground, turning a hundred and twenty degrees as it rose into the sky. Nathus began an expanding circle search pattern above them at about two hundred meters.
Sarah dropped the rifle to a ready position in front of her, and Thea draped her medkit strap over her shoulder. They left their other supplies with the bomb. It would serve as a landmark in case they needed to find them later.
The women marched west, planning to circle the radioactive zone on foot. Thea kept her radiation counter in her hand, keeping them out of radiation that would kill them before they accomplished the mission.
After an hour of walking a familiar sound burst from the forest to the west, thunk, thunk, thunk. An exosuit approached them, Sarah knew the noise.
A scout burst into the clearing as the women neared the edge of it. He ran up to them, smiling like a madman. “I thought I saw a shuttle. Captain, it's good to see you. You shouldn't be here, though, it's not safe for officers.”
“None of us should, sergeant, but here we are,” Sarah replied. “You're with us. I need as many eyes as I can get. I don’t have any assets to help me find the enemy at the moment. Have you had eyes on Merik?”
“No, I haven’t seen her. We don’t have anything? No drone package overhead? No satellite feed?”
“The Stennis has been hit, he's in no condition to launch drone packages or run a search net. Damn near everything was offline when I left to come down here and finish this.”
“With all due respect, Captain, shouldn't you be up fixing the Stennis while us grunts do the legwork?”
Sarah let a bit of irritability through in her response, “If the Stennis gets hit again, it's over. He's too damaged to even move. I'm here to end this before that happens.”
“Ah, yes sir. I'm right with you, Captain.”
“Can you contact Hamden or the other scouts?”
“No sir, not since that happened.” The sergeant pointed toward the gas giant. A huge black and orange scar ripped across its surface.
Sarah sighed her words. “Yeah, that's a problem for everyone. We’ll deal with it later. Let's go.”
Sarah and the doctor marched on foot, and the scout moved ahead of them in a zigzag pattern. Together they moved west, toward the sea, skirting the radioactive valley.
“Do you have a method to our movement?” Thea asked.
Sarah’s legs burned as she climbed a small hill. “Alarin said Merik was at the sea. She knows where he is, I’m going to guess she’s going to stay close.”
“Makes sense.”
The women marched several more minutes.
“One point one six Gs... that doesn't sound like much until you’re in it,” Thea huffed.
“Are you getting old on me?” Sarah asked.
“Shut your face.”
They marched for a couple of hours, west then south, climbing and descending hills covered with deep green-purple grass. The land fell gradually toward the west, an ocean lay in the distance. A cool wind blew inland off the sea. The shuttle circled above them periodically, and once in a while Flight Chief Nathus flew low overhead to let them know he'd seen nothing on the ground.
“I wish he'd give us a positive on sighting her so we can quit marching,” Thea said.
Sarah kept her sentences short. The heavy gravity was taking its toll. “I agree.”
“You officers need me to carry you?” the scout asked.
Both women glared and kept walking. He shrugged his exoskeletal shoulders.
The first sign of Merik was a small explosion from overhead, followed by the rising scream of turbines. The shuttle tore over the top of a clump of trees three hundred meters away, across a grassy clearing, then smashed through the canopy of a smaller copse of trees. Dirt geysered into the sky.
Sarah pointed at the trees as smoke started to rise. “Sergeant, go recon. Rescue Chief Nathus, then backtrack the path of his crash. Find that adept.”
“Aye,” the sergeant grunted as he kicked his suit into overdrive. Even in the heavy gravity of Refuge, the suit covered ten meters with each bound once it reached running speed.
Sarah watched as he disappeared into the trees toward the crash, then resumed her march with the doctor. The energy to comment was difficult to find, but she managed. “This is it. It's all coming to a boil.”
The doctor tried to huff out an agreement, but was too winded.
Chapter 52 – A Push
Sunrise of Firstday, cycle 96, year 8748
Alarin watched Peter sleep, his friend’s breathing was labored.
I need to save him.
Merik’s presence intruded on him almost constantly now, there was no hiding from it. She was a beacon that shone brightly in the east, her gift blazing gloriously for every adept to see.
Alarin saw it from the depths of the sea, through the land between him and her, and over an unknown distance. Merik not only revealed her presence, but traces of what she was seeing were beginning to flood into Alarin’s mind.
He suspected that if he was seeing it, others were as well. He reached out to a friend he knew and trusted from before his betrothal to Merik.
Edolhirr.
Yes, Alarin, my young friend. I know your question. I see her as well.
What is happening?
Even my years do not tell me. Maybe this is the end of us.
Alarin refused to believe that. No. That is not how the gods work.
Have you seen what she’s done to Jalai?
Alarin hoped his fear wasn’t sending with his words. I know of it.
Edolhirr paused before continuing. Then you know the gods are—
No. You will not believe she is a goddess.
What would you have me believe?, the distant adept asked.
That she is mad. She needs our help, or—
Edolhirr finished his thought for him. She needs to die.
Alarin closed his mind, severing the communication without a goodbye. Something else was going on, something he didn’t quite understand yet. Once he did, the answers would unfold for him.
Alarin waited. The world demanded he wait, but not long.
The Tapestry unfolded for him inside his mind, and he saw it was countless stars as Peter had explained on the shuttle after they’d first become friends. Beyond the Tapestry were countless other tapestries, each of countless stars.
The universe was immense, and Merik absorbed the immensity of it into her mind. As she did, it projected into Alarin’s mind as well.
Alarin, I’m becoming a God. I am not going to be me anymore. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
Tears escaped Alarin’s eyes, both at the beauty of the universe she shared with him and for her
despair over losing herself.
I’m watching you Merik. You’re no longer hiding anything. Your mind is open. Every adept knows.
She paused a moment and her vision of the universe expanded even more, Down into the fundamental units that made up everything and everyone. He felt it overwhelming her. They will see me become a god?
I hope not, Merik. You're not becoming a god, you've become a monster. You turned away from our ways, killed our people, and betrayed everything the adepts have been for ages.
Merik’s response was born of rage, but Alarin no longer listened.
He had an idea, and he reached out to his friend.
Master Edolhirr, embrace my thoughts. Call others, do as I do.
Alarin opened his mind, allowing Merik to flow into it. He felt his body collapse to the floor of the shuttle as her overwhelming presence removed his ability to control himself. He felt the body of Edolhirr hit the floor of his palace, and one after another adepts joined in, opening themselves to the staggering reality of Merik’s awareness.
We are here, they sang to Merik.
Alarin existed no more as just one man. Merik thought his thoughts for him, yet he was still there, woven into the fabric of creation. He sensed the same for adepts near and far. As one mind they grasped the nature of all reality. They grasped the nature of Merik’s madness, the nature of the newcomers, the meaning of what it is to be an adept.
They knew, collectively, their purpose. They fed the goodness of their souls into Merik, but also into each other. Wounds born from abuse healed as did scars left by dark emotions. As one the adepts healed their collective psychosis. The universe pushed sanity into them, along with boundless knowledge.
Alarin, I still love you.
And I you, Merik. Jalai, our great mother, didn't stop you because this unity had to happen, Merik. You have unified the adepts. You have given us shared purpose. We know why the outsiders are here.
Across the world, Nula Armana’s great expanse of lands, adepts were swept into awe of Merik, awe of creation, and awe of love in the purest form.
You are the greatest adept who ever lived, Merik.
It was Alarin’s thought, but held to be true by millions of others from which nothing remained hidden. Alarin reassured Merik of her path as the morality of his brothers and sisters flowed into Merik’s mind.
With Merik at their core, millions of adepts developed a plan to bring peace to Nula Armana and join with the newcomers in purpose.
The small part of the melding that was still Alarin watched as Merik rose from the ground to claim her destiny.
Chapter 53 – Immortality
Sunrise of Firstday, cycle 96, year 8748
Merik hurt everywhere, her headache was unbearable. The world around her flared with brightness, then grew dark. Her gift swelled and waned, she saw things she'd never seen before. She could do so much more than she ever thought possible, but the pain in her head was excruciating. The wounds on her body, infected and sore, paled in comparison.
A sound came to her from a distance, like lightning but constant. Suddenly a shadow passed overhead, and wind ripped down toward her. She looked up to see what beast made such a terrible commotion, and the overwhelming flood of information that assaulted her drove her to the ground.
I see it all. The universe. The tapestry. It's all there. It’s all mine.
The thing in the sky didn't go away, but circled in a lazy arc over her. She swatted it like a fly, the noise bothered her. Almost without thinking she snuffed the flames in one of its limbs, and a tremendous popping sound issued from it. New flames erupted on the outside of the beast. It spun around, seemed to right itself, then raced off toward some trees.
The annoyance was soon forgotten. She looked back toward the ground with her eyes, lessening the overload of information pushing into her mind. Her eyes saw less, but with each passing moment her mind saw more. She saw everywhere, regardless of how far, how near, how large or how small.
“Alarin, I'm becoming a god. I am not going to be me anymore. It wasn't supposed to be like this.”
I’m watching you, Merik. You’re no longer hiding anything. Your mind is open. Every adept knows you now.
“They will see me become a god?”
I hope not, Merik. You're not becoming a god, you've become a monster. You turned away from our ways, killed our people, and betrayed everything adepts have been for ages.
“I betrayed? You betrayed me,” she screamed.
She felt the adepts across the world, they became points of light in her mind.
Merik stopped walking, confused. “There are so many of you.”
A chorus filled her.
So many of you. Emkis of Danak. Paldaman of Chanugga, Sacrissa of Kanthyr. Two million voices, yet each distinct and now familiar.
They embraced her and merged into one voice. The voice rose and crescendoed in her mind. The collective consciousness of the adepts drove into her damaged psyche and filled her with the morality of two million souls. Most of whom were faithful to their religion.
Merik collapsed to her knees. “Oh Jalai, what have I done? I have gone wrong, you should have killed me.”
Merik singled Alarin out of the voices. She felt his love for her, his horror at her actions, and his despair that he could not save her. “Alarin, I still love you.”
Jalai, our great mother, didn't stop you because this unity had to happen, Merik. You have unified the adepts. You have given us shared purpose. We know why the outsiders are here.
Merik felt Alarin's awe of her.
You are the greatest adept who ever lived.
“I just wanted to love you.”
I know. I feel that love, and it's a true love. Every adept knows true love now.
“I‘ve been a failure.”
A failure? You have done a lot of harm, but the good we’re all seeing now is beyond all of that. These outsiders aren't demons, Merik. They're messengers. They gave you a focus that allowed you to show the adepts what the universe is. You're telling us all, like it or not. We see the existence as you see it now. You didn't wrong Jalai, she is just one goddess who is part of a greater thing. The universe is god, Merik. The universe is God.
“I can feel your friends behind me. Sarah Dayson is there, coming to kill me. She is barely in control of her rage. Minds are like books, open to every page at once. I'm going to turn around and go to the outsiders.” Merik changed direction, walking a direct path to her former nemesis. “You were right. I will surrender as you did.”
She will kill you.
“I am one with God. Nobody can kill me now.”
Merik turned and walked toward her end. Along the way she read Sarah's open book.
Chapter 54 - The Meeting
36 NODER 15327
Sarah walked toward the northwest, hoping the scout would catch up soon. She and the doctor were in their seventh hour of marching, something neither was used too, especially in heavy gravity. She started up the incline of another hill. Her head faced the ground far too often although she tried to maintain awareness around her. Thea hadn't said a word in an hour.
I am ahead, Sarah Dayson. I await you. And your judgment.
Sarah stopped. She stood rigid and alert. After a moment, she spun toward the doctor. “Did you hear that?”
“What?” Thea stopped, looking concerned at first, then pissed. “Oh for the love of... this is no time to screw with me.” She lowered her head again and restarted her trudge uphill past Sarah.
Sarah scanned the ridges around them. “Merik. I'm sure it...”
Yes, it's me, in a way. But also more. I seek peace with you.
Sarah ran forward and grabbed Thea's sleeve, hoping for a sign she'd heard the same thing.
Thea stopped. She studied Sarah, clearly worried. “You're losing it, sister.”
You hear me because nothing is beyond me now. Behind you, at the bottom of the hill is a stream. The same stream that washed me of my pain. Drink from it and
rest, the water is clean. I will be there soon. You don't want to be tired when you kill me. Besides, your friend catches up to you with the man I wounded. Tell him I am sorry.
Sarah looked behind her, at the stream they'd crossed ten minutes before. The scout bounded down the hill on the other side, carrying a body. Sarah tugged at the doctor, pointing at the scout.
“Let's go.”
Thea let out a deep sigh of discontent, but turned around. They marched back down the hill and stopped by the stream. The scout leaped across and landed next to them.
“The pilot is alive, he'll be okay I think. At least now that I got him to Dr. Jannis he has a chance.” The scout lay Nathus gently on the ground. “The shuttle is wrecked, Captain. Good for parts, I guess.”
“Good job, sergeant,” Thea said, to which Sarah nodded her tired agreement.
The sergeant’s eyes darted back and forth between the women. “You both look like you've had your asses kicked. No offense.”
Neither replied as Thea opened her medkit. Ten minutes later she looked up at Sarah. The pilot would live.
Your man in the skeleton will try to kill me, which is fine, but not before we speak.
Sarah shook her head. “Okay, either Merik is talking to me, or I really am losing my mind.”
“I don't think those are mutually exclusive,” Thea said.
Your mind is fragile, but not as broken as mine was. I draw upon the gift of all the adepts, they have healed my shattered soul with their collective will.
Sarah looked at the ridges on both sides of the creek, searching for Merik. Can you read my thoughts?
I can. Your fragility, and your rage, is my fault. I apologize. If you wish, I will come to you. Or you can come to me, I am just over the hill you were climbing moments ago.
Sarah tilted her head, and looked up the incline sideways. Nobody was there.
“Sergeant, stay here and guard the doctor. I'm going to go look over the next ridge.”
The man scowled. “We should stay together, Captain.”
“Dammit, people, stop questioning my orders. You will do as you’re told,” Sarah snapped.
“Yes sir.” The sergeant stood up and armed his main machine gun. He scanned the perimeter.
