Reality: The Struggle for Sternessence

by Daniel A. Liut

  “Stop it! Leave me alone. The target, run to the target.”

  An emergency signal from platoon number two began ringing on Clara’s communicator. The platoon had made contact with enemy forces. Exhausted, Duncan stumbled and fell to the ground.

  “Dahncion, listen, you must listen to me, please,” Clara said from the muddy ground. “We just won’t make it this way—any of us. Leave me here and run to the target. There is no enemy activity around. I’ll be fine.”

  Duncan tried to see her face behind her fogged visor. A red light began flashing on the tactical communicator the captain carried on her belt. There was no time left.

  Placing Clara carefully on a flat rock, Duncan rushed towards the top of the mountain. Erina ran after him. As Duncan approached the target, he began unloading the large device he carried on his back.

  Clara lay motionless, moaning from pain, but still striving to follow the events beyond the watery curtain of the raging storm. Visibility was very poor, so she soon lost visual contact with Erina and Duncan. As she kept her sight ahead, a bolt of lightning pierced a nearby tree. For an instant, the scene became as bright as a thousand flares.

  Behind the visor of Clara’s helmet, the pervasive flash captured a smile of relief, stung with suffering.

  60.

  Duncan was standing on the highest spot of the island. He looked around, but he could not see very much; the rain was too heavy. He quickly turned back to the E.R.G.116 he had just placed on a flat, mud-spattered rock. After adjusting some settings, he turned the device on.

  Duncan checked his chronometer as the countdown sequence was initiated. Grabbing Erina by the arm, he started to run, looking for cover behind a large boulder a short distance down the hill.

  The storm was growing worse, with violent lightning continually illuminating the eerie twilight. Duncan remained focused on his chronometer, his visor flashing along with every lightning bolt.

  “Now!” Duncan barked, holding Erina protectively.

  A dense white ray shot from the E.R.G., straight up towards the local zenith. As it flowed from its source, the complex energy vector grew continually in definition. Suddenly, a fast-expanding silver umbrella of light materialized in the sky. The energy surge was impinging on the local ionosphere; in response, a gigantic shockwave bounced down to the ground, fired from the silver umbrella above.

  As striking as the scene was, Erina was even more stunned by something else.

  Duncan was kneeling on the ground, beside her, staring at the sky. He had not moved in the last minute or so. But his eyes glowed with an intense blue incandescence, as his body did.

  61.

  The evening of the same day, small landing ships from the Australitian Cruiser Admiral Ber-Osclotetl picked up the whole Realitian team. As the boats approached the battleship, sailors started gathering on the port side. By the time the small ships had docked alongside, all personnel free from duty were watching over the main deck.

  A ladder was lowered, and the members of the Realitian team started getting on board, one at a time. Each was received with full military honors—naval whistles included. Certain things seemed to be truly transuniversal constants. Special care was taken in raising a stretcher carrying Lieutenant Commander Clara.

  That night a banquet was held with all the officers of the Osclotetl, presided over by Commodore Lyn-Enroblotep, the captain of the cruiser. Afterwards, Laida hurried to sickbay to check on her friend’s condition. Clara seemed to be out of danger, thanks to Doctor Raikun’s proficiency in administering some basic, but effective, Realitian medicines.

  While her chances of survival were promising, Clara was far from safe. Serum was being administered through her right arm, and two plastic tubes stuck out of her nostrils, according to rudimentary Australitian procedures.117 Her right leg was virtually a single bleeding wound. All over her body—including her face—severe burns complicated her very delicate condition.

  Despite the tranquilizers, getting some sleep seemed unattainable. Pain was patent in her expression. But now, she smiled as Laida, followed by Duncan, entered her room. Clara lifted an arm, with serum ducts hanging from it. Gently intercepting it, Duncan put it back on her chest.

  “How do you feel?”

  “I’ll be fine . . . pretty soon.”

  “Of course you will.” Duncan remained standing by her bed.

  “I must look . . . awful . . .” Clara added, with difficulty.

  “In your case, that’s impossible, Captain,” Duncan said, and smiled. It was clear Clara wanted to talk some more, but her pain was making it very difficult.

  “You need to rest now,” Laida said. “We’ll come back tomorrow, in the morning.” She turned to Duncan, who nodded back.

  Before leaving, Duncan stood by the bed and kissed Clara’s forehead. “I’ll see you in the morning, Clara.”

  Laida’s eyes gleamed with surprise.

  A few minutes later, O’sihn also arrived. Nobody but Clara was in the room. Despite the injuries, her expression looked bright and calm. The captain stayed for just a moment; everything seemed better than expected.

  Clara was immersed in a restoring peaceful sleep.

  62.

  Duncan was standing in front of a wide river that ended in a large bay about one mile ahead. It was a starry night, warm, with no wind. Very far away, ahead of him, a large cloud trailed above the horizon. Its base was about one thousand feet from the ground, and its top was thirty thousand feet above or more.

  The cloud was vibrating with an intermittent light irregularly covering its surface. Every five or ten seconds, powerful bolts of lightning crossed the cloud from side to side, from bottom to top, and from top to bottom. It was largely a quiet spectacle, although occasionally, a distant yet powerful thunder came from the cloud.

  From behind Duncan, another cloud came in, moving towards the first. In the beginning, it was dark and small, but as it moved towards the horizon, it started to glow with a reddish color as it took the shape of a massive and sturdy giant. A strong wind coming from the cloud began to blow.

  The trees began to growl with the force of the wind. Some branches began to fall, one landing very close to Duncan. The words cloud giant, cloud giant could be heard, as if pronounced by the roaring wind. The cloud looked defiant and unstoppable. It was as if it wanted to tear the forest apart. The river, though shallow, began to develop waves that broke on shore with an ever-increasing strength.

  “Someone has to stop it!” Duncan cried.

  At that point, a new cloud appeared from behind. It looked like a warrior, all covered in armor also made out of clouds. The armored cloud had a real sword made out of iron. The giant cloud growled at him. But the warrior cloud charged at the cloud giant with his metallic sword.

  Once in front of it, the warrior cloud pierced the cloud giant with his sword. But the cloud giant began to rain a very heavy rain inside itself. The rain was thick and warm, and it was too much for the sword. The iron started to rust, until the metal peeled off in reddish scales that were washed out by the wind. The same happened to the armor of the warrior cloud. Bereft of its armor, the warrior cloud could not survive, and it dissipated.

  Another cloud appeared from behind, which turned out to be two clouds joined together. One looked like a horse of war; the other, like a knight, riding on top of the first. The knight was not human, but Duncan did not recognize its lineage. Like the warrior cloud, the rider cloud also had a real sword. It was made out of ice, but it was very sharp and deadly; fire and lightning had no power over it.

  The knight cloud and its horse charged towards the cloud giant. As the rider passed the giant, it wielded its sword to chop off the cloud giant’s head. The cloud giant laughed with derision. It was still raining its warm thick rain, but the rain got thicker until turning into enormous balls of hail. The rider cloud hit the cloud giant on its breast. But as it did so, the hail began pelting the sword, which immediately broke into a thousand pieces. The rider kept on
galloping until disappearing behind the horizon.

  Then another warrior cloud appeared. It looked like a bear, dark, but with green eyes made out of stars. He also had a real sword, but this one was made out of fire. With each star in his eyes bright as an emerald sun, he charged towards the cloud giant.

  Turning to the approaching warrior, the cloud giant changed its hail into a freezing snow. When the warrior tried to pierce it through with the sword, the snow, which was stronger than fire, drove into the flames. The fire vanished immediately, and so did the bear-warrior cloud.

  The cloud giant was getting stronger. Its winds began to spawn tornadoes. Trees were flying through the air, as well as people and creatures of all kinds, and even stones, rocks, and ponds.

  Two new clouds appeared. They looked like a panther riding on an eagle. The panther like cloud was white, and beautiful; her eyes were glowing with yellowish bolts of lightning. And she also had a sword—a real sword—made out of diamond. Seeing it, Duncan thought: “This sword will never be broken.”

  The panther cloud, riding on her eagle cloud, charged towards the cloud giant with a battle roar, but the cloud giant replied with thunder. The panther rider hit the cloud giant on its breast. Its sword was strong indeed, but too stiff to withstand the rumblings of the thunders. The diamond sword began to vibrate and resonate like a delicate crystal cup until breaking into ten thousand pieces of remarkable beauty. Each piece fell into the bay ahead, causing massive waves. The panther cloud and its eagle were quickly dissolved by the infuriated wind.

  The cloud giant was unstoppable, and now it looked as if it wanted to wash Duncan away. But then the first cloud—the cloud that was shimmering with lightning above the horizon, with powerful bolts and deep distant thunders—took the shape of a man. It looked like a man in his fifties, very dignified and wise. Duncan immediately recognized him and smiled.

  The giant cloud heard the new cloud approaching from behind and turned around. In its wrath, it began raging with grayish-white lightning and thunderbolts. The words cloud giant, cloud giant coming from its thunders were eerie and deafening.

  The man cloud took a sword from his back. It was a real sword like the others, but its essence was different, for it was pervasive and stern. He did not know exactly how, but Duncan noticed that immediately. The sword became a beam of blue energy, and with it, the man cloud pierced the giant through its heart. All lightning inside the cloud giant gathered at that very spot to meet the blow.

  Yet in doing so, the energy surge from the man’s sword penetrated the cloud giant’s lightning bolts, and from them, the most recondite parts of the cloud giant. Although the cloud giant doubled the strength of its lightning bolts, it could not stop the light from the sword of the man cloud. For how to stop a ray of light with another ray of light? The best it could do was to overwhelm the incoming blue ray with the light of its own lightning bolts. But they were not constant. They flashed on and off, whereas the light from the man-cloud’s sword was steady, and therefore, stronger. It was piercing each and every bolt of lightning, turning them into blue light from within themselves.

  After a short fight, the cloud giant began to shine with the dazzling blue intensity coming from the light beam of the sword of the man cloud. There was no way to fight that light or its energy, for it was true light, and so, it could pierce and reach anything that is. The cloud giant began to evaporate in rivulets of darkness, and soon only the man cloud remained.

  Everything had become calm and peaceful. The forest had recovered its gentleness, and the waters of the river, their kindness and serenity. The man cloud stared at Duncan. “Victory belongs to sternessence alone.”

  “What is your name?” Duncan asked.

  The man cloud stared at Duncan again, and Duncan immediately heard the man’s name within himself.

  Startled, he woke up.

  63.

  Green, blue, purple, ocher, yellow, silver, and even splendid white: the stars were the sole rulers of the heavens that night, like any other summer night, above the restored ocean. Aquaelight had no satellites and no rings, and at those low latitudes, aurora borealis never developed. The brightest body that could ever be seen was She-sun, a dazzling star not visible at that time of the year. Yet, after sunset, a special clarity always quickened the oceans, especially in the tropical latitudes; a bluish phosphorescence glowing in the waters completed the twilight of the stars above.

  “Someone has to stop it!” Duncan cried.

  Leaning on the railing board, on the roundhouse area, Duncan was contemplating it all. He had awoken from a brief light sleep he had fallen into while reclining on his bed with his uniform still on. Now, as he sought some fresh air, he was comforted by the surrounding beauty as he rested his eyes on the wake left behind by the battleship. Its two propellers were tracing bluish trails on the sea, their blades constantly splattering streams of gleaming water over the sides.118

  Despite the relief of successfully completing an especially difficult mission, Duncan was visited again by uneasy thoughts. The general situation of the Realdom was precarious, and he still failed to see how the military machine could be stopped.

  To Duncan, winning the war remained something distant, uncertain, theoretical. The sternessence issue was back to haunt his thoughts, floating over the dark waters of the widespread conflict. If there was to be a victory—a final victory—that very word, or rather its implications, was supposed to play a key role in the whole scheme of events.

  Duncan had just had a dream, where the same character of other dreams—Lan Leakim was the name he had revealed today—had reappeared to remind him of the significance of sternessence, and the relevance of committing to it. Yet, although those dreams recurred, their consistent message was not gaining strength in Duncan’s heart.

  _______________

  107 Local nautical mile. Arc subtended by a degree of a maximum (average) circle on the surface of the planet. A circle subtended 20,736 degrees in the Australitian standard units of those days. If the same units were used on Earth, an Earth nautical mile would be about four percent larger than a lonamy.

  108 Erina had volunteered to join the Royal Navy under the condition of always being assigned with Duncan. As a commodore, O’sihn had the prerogative to recruit new members under special circumstances, so he incorporated her under an in commission status, which implied that to make the incorporation regular, the new recruit should complete the required courses and training when circumstances allowed. In O’sihn’s judgment, although Erina had virtually had no exposure to the Royal Navy yet, the thorough training she had received on Earth to become, first, an astronaut, and then, a u-naut, were more than sufficient credentials to incorporate her into the team, with the rank of private, promotable to a junior officer rank.

  109 Small electric propellers for personal use.

  110 In order to improve the stealth characteristics of the submarine (thus minimizing its chances of detection), the internal communications system worked with light codes rather than sounds, as in all Australitian submarines.

  111 As we saw in Iluminia, Establishment occupational forces, such as Kervian’s, would typically reconfigure the areas under their control to suit the environmental demands of their leading species. The reconfiguration affected the environment and the native species, to preserve them and adapt them to live under the new conditions. The reconfiguration of the area where O’sihn’s team was about to land had started a few weeks before and was still incomplete. The low temperatures and the constant storms on the area were a consequence of the still on-going reconfiguration process.

  112 The initials were written in the relatively simple Australitian alphabet. Clara had gotten familiar with it when studying the maps for the landing. Only the most relevant elements in them had been translated by Australitian Intel, which forced her to learn the basics of the local alphabet to extract important information from them.

  113 During the very intense physical and psychological instruction,
Kloph would often give “prophecies” such as “The civilians out there . . . the poor devils: they are missing the real fun right here, a foretaste of the good days to come.”

  114 Seventy degrees Fahrenheit or twenty-one degrees Celsius. That was the default temperature generated by the suits, which could be adjusted to the user’s needs.

  115 As O’sihn had explained in the briefing on board the submarine, this was the target-destroyed signal expected from platoon number two, indicating that a critical telecommunications complex had been destroyed.

  116 Environmental Restoration Generator.

  117 Raikun had brought along a medical kit from the Intrepid that had been very helpful in treating Clara. But what he had was not enough, and however coarse, he had no choice but to use medical procedures available on board the Australitian cruiser.

  118 The tropical waters were very rich in bioluminescent microorganisms.

  CHAPTER 11

  A Good-Bye and a Hope

  64.

  “Commander Laida said you wanted to see me.”

  O’sihn raised his eyes from his terminal. “Dahncion, come on in, please.”

  Duncan stood in front of O’sihn’s desk.

  “Please sit down.” O’sihn gave an uneasy glance to the clock on one corner of his display. “I have a special duty for you this morning. I know you are quite busy with the ammunition inventory, but today I would prefer that you give me a hand with Sub Commander Clara’s transfer to the YSF Temperance.”

  “Transfer?”

  O’sihn nodded. “Doctor Raikun’s post-battle report clearly indicates the need for sending her to a specialized medical center at the earliest possible convenience. She will be all right,” he added, anticipating Duncan’s next question. “She’s out of danger, but we don’t have all the equipment required for her rehabilitation on board. Sending her to Realitas right now is the best way to get her back with the shortest delay.”

  As reasonable as it was to expect such a transfer, considering the injuries Clara had suffered, Duncan had been unconsciously avoiding the matter. Now he realized—despite what O’sihn had just said—that he might never see her again. After her treatment, she did not necessarily have to be transferred back under O’sihn’s command, especially since she belonged to Veritas’ Navy, which was regulated by its own statutes.