by T. R. Harris
The four occupants of the Najmah Fayd were in the common room, spread out on the couch and chairs, lost in thought—all except Sherri, who was shaking her head and sticking a finger in her ear.
“What’s wrong with you?” Riyad asked, annoyed by her constant fidgeting at the other end of the couch.
“I still have that damn itch in my brain. I thought that was only because of Lila. Now I think it’s something else.”
“You still feel the sensation?” Arieel asked, sitting up in her chair and taking notice.
“Yeah, just a little, but it’s really beginning to piss me off.”
“It is the same as when you first detected my daughter?”
Sherri stopped poking her finger in her ear. “Yeah, just a little less. You don’t think…”
“She can’t be killed,” Riyad said, also sitting up now.
“What are you speaking of…cannot be killed? Who cannot be killed?” asked Benefis.
“Arieel’s daughter.”
“She cannot be killed?”
“No, she’s a mutant, too. Sorry, Arieel.”
“That is okay, Riyad. I have come to accept it.”
“Two mutants were aboard that ship? I knew Arieel’s daughter was with Panur, but I was not aware she was a mutant. How could that be possible?”
“It’s a long story,” Riyad said as he leaned over toward Sherri. “Could she still be alive…I mean still conscious?”
“What if the outer body freezes but leaves the insides still warm, at least for a while. Eventually the whole body will…you know.” She looked over at Arieel’s troubled face, though it wasn’t looking all that troubled at the moment.
“She is still alive! Maybe we can use Sherri’s Gift to locate her body? The presence should become stronger the closer we get.”
“If we can get there soon enough!” Riyad jumped to his feet. “Everyone to the bridge, everyone except Sherri.”
********
Minutes later, Sherri was laid out on the couch in the common room, the lights dim and a comm line placed around her head.
“Can you hear me, Sherri?” Riyad asked from the pilot’s seat on the bridge.
“Loud and clear.”
“Good. Now relax and focus on the itch—on the signal. I’m going to make minor course corrections. You let me know if it gets stronger or weaker.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
Riyad veered the Najmah Fayd to the right, moving through the asteroid belt at just under ten thousand miles per hour.
“It’s getting a little weaker.”
“Okay, I’m heading back the other way.”
A few second later: “Yeah, that’s better, a little stronger…no, now weaker.”
“Making progress,” Riyad announced. “I’m getting a heading.”
“It’s steady, maybe a little stronger. Now it’s falling off again.”
“Coming to starboard.”
“That’s better. I think it’s getting stronger.”
“There’s a huge asteroid dead ahead, about half the size of the Moon.”
“Signal’s steady, a little stronger. Hurry, Riyad.”
“That has to be it. She probably landed there and the local gravity kept her body from being sucked up by the Juirean ships. Almost there.”
The Najmah Fayd began a low pass over the surface of the craggy gray ball of rock. There were high mountains and countless craters, all cast in the stark light of the nearby star.
“Signal’s strong, but now a little weaker. Back up.”
Riyad spun the ship around.
“I detect metal on the surface,” Benefis reported from the nav station. A flashing circle appeared on the screen along the forward bulkhead.
“How’s the signal?”
“Steady. You would expect it to be getting stronger.”
“Perhaps the body is freezing through more thoroughly,” Benefis offered.
Riyad looked to the silent Arieel Bol and saw her blanch. “We’ll get there in time. I promise.”
“I have a visual,” said Benefis.
Riyad could see it, too—a clump of twisted metal, a section of a hull, along with strings of wires and conduit. Riyad dropped the ship to the surface with a jolt.
“Sherri, use your thing to lock out the ship’s controls once we’re outside.”
He looked at the huge Juirean. “Sorry, but we don’t have a spacesuit that will fit you, and I’m not about to leave you alone in my ship without taking precautions.”
“I would do the same, although I believe I deserve an explanation about the strange abilities some of you exhibit.”
“You’re on. But first things first. Arieel, Sherri, into spacesuits.”
********
The planetoid had gravity—weak, but it was there—yet the dust thrown up from the landing still lingered. By the time Riyad, Sherri, and Arieel left the ship, the dust cloud was only about four feet thick, which was odd. Riyad could barely see his feet, yet his head was above the cloud with a clear view to the debris from the Pegasus II. Tiny air jets on the shoulders of their suits kept them in contact with the surface of the asteroid.
Arieel tripped over something and fell, disappearing into the dust cloud.
“I am okay.” She suddenly popped back up.
The further they moved from the ship, the clearer their path became, and soon they were rummaging through the wreckage, looking for the frozen body of Lila Bol.
“Can you help us, Sherri?” Arieel asked out of desperation.
“The signal is strong no matter what direction I move. She’s here…somewhere.”
“Over here! I think I have something.”
The two females rushed to where Riyad was lifting away a large section of hull, incredibly light in the microgravity of the asteroid.
And there was Lila.
Sherri took hold of Arieel and pulled her away. The Formilian resisted, but couldn’t break away from the Human’s stronger grip.
Lila was entangled in a cluster of razor-sharp metal fragments. Her eyes were shut and her long, black hair was frozen in a wide cascade surrounding her face. However, what caused Sherri to react the way she did was the wide sheet of metal embedded in Lila’s side, nearly severing her body in half.
Riyad pulled away the other surrounding fragments, leaving only the one in her side. He lifted the stiff body. “Hurry, let’s get back to the ship. I’ll bring Lila.”
Through her ATD, Sherri activated the aft cargo hanger door and a ramp slid out. The trio scampered up, Riyad holding Lila’s body across his chest.
Once inside, Sherri shut the door and filled the chamber with atmosphere and warmth. Riyad placed Lila on a workbench and rushed off to the bridge.
Five minutes later, the ship had lifted off the surface and engaged the internal gravity. Riyad rushed back to the cargo hold, where the two females—along with Benefis—were holding silent vigil.
Nearly all of Lila’s clothing had been blown off from the explosion, and the remarkable similarity between mother and daughter was now evident—even in Lila’s frozen state. Although only seven years old by Human time, Arieel’s daughter had grown and developed at an accelerated rate, one of the symptoms of her mutant condition. She looked more like a woman in her early twenties.
Arieel and Sherri rounded up some blankets and covered the body.
“Is this all we can do?” Arieel asked.
“I’m sorry,” Riyad said, “but I have no experience with this. I say we let her thaw out naturally.”
“What about the metal sheet?” Sherri asked.
“Leave it. If she’s anything like Panur, there won’t be any lasting damage.”
“So Panur could be like this as well, somewhere between here and the star?”
“Unfortunately, you don’t have a psychic connection with him, Sherri. Let’s pray that Lila might.”
********
Two hours later, Lila’s skin began to show some elasticity, and that’s when the itch
in Sherri’s head grew stronger.
The foursome huddled around the body, which rapidly gained color with each passing minute. They watched with fascination as the metal sheet embedded in her side slowly pushed away, her skin merging and healing right before their eyes.
The sheet clanged to the deck. The itch in Sherri’s head was becoming painful again.
“Are you going to make it?” Riyad asked.
“I don’t know. This is getting serious. It got so bad last time I passed out. I can see that happening again, if not worse.”
All eyes were on Sherri now as her face turned beet red and she squeezed her eyes to slits to fight the pain. She clawed at her head, pulling on her hair in a fit of madness. Riyad took hold of her by the shoulders. “Stay with us, Sherri! Don’t give in to it.”
Sherri broke away, fell over Lila’s inert body, and began slapping her. “Wake up, you bitch! Get out of my head!”
Arieel jumped on her, but Sherri shrugged her off.
“You’re hurting her!”
“No I’m not. But she’s killing me!”
Sherri slapped the sleeping face until her hand stopped in mid-swing and the pain in her head disappeared, transferred now to her right wrist.
That was where Lila’s hand was grasping Sherri’s arm. Her eyes opened.
“I am quite conscious now. You can stop striking me.”
“Lila!” Arieel cried out. Sherri allowed herself to be shoved aside as mother fell upon daughter. “You’re alive! You’re alive…”
“Of course I am.” Then the young Formilian turned to take in the rest of the people surrounding her. “Riyad Tarazi…and a Juirean. And Sherri Valentine. I assume you recovered my body following the explosion. Is Panur with you?”
“No, he’s not,” Riyad said, stepping forward. “He still out there, floating in space somewhere. Your attackers have steered the debris toward the star. Can you help us find him before it’s too late?”
Lila sat up, placing her arms behind her for support, allowing the blanket to slip from her bare breasts. Both Riyad and Benefis gasped—even Sherri inhaled sharply. Seeing their reaction to her daughter’s naked body, Arieel lifted the blanket and draped it over her shoulders.
“I can do that,” Lila said without hesitation, “as long as he still maintains a minimum of brain activity.” She swung her legs around and stood up, the blanket falling to the deck. She strode off, her perfectly-shaped behind dancing with each step, heading instinctively for where the bridge would be located.
All eyes turned to Arieel. Then Sherri spoke: “I don’t think I have anything that would fit her.”
“Not to worry,” Arieel said, staring hard at her embarrassed companions. “I will loan her some of my clothing.”
Chapter 11
To Riyad’s immeasurable relief, four hours later the purple body of Panur lay on the same workbench in the cargo hold, though his naked body didn’t nearly evoke the same reaction as Lila’s had. The young Formilian had since dressed in a blue satin jumpsuit that fit her perfectly. It had to; it had once been worn by her mother. Since Arieel had boarded the Najmah Fayd without any preparation, she came with the clothing she’d had on at the time. So Arieel was now clad only in a white wrap around her breasts and a pair of nearly shear panties.
Riyad shook his head. Six of one, half a dozen of another, he thought. Either a naked Lila or a nearly-naked Arieel. Both were having the same effect on him.
“Do you have a gas flame tool of some kind aboard?” Lila asked.
“Like a blowtorch?”
“Something similar, possibly smaller—handheld.”
“I think so. Let me check.”
Riyad returned a few moments later carrying a small propane torch. Lila took the offered igniter and lit the flame, running it slowly over Panur’s frozen body.
“Are you sure that won’t hurt him?” Sherri asked.
“I am sure. It will hasten the thaw. I may need more gas canisters.”
It took forty-five minutes before Lila had reached the point where her flame was causing the flesh to char with each pass. However, by the time she returned to the starting point, the flesh was back to the same pasty white as Riyad remembered it to be.
Eventually, Panur’s chest began moving as he resumed breathing—which Riyad found to be a superfluous act but comforting nonetheless. When Panur opened his eyes, he locked them on Lila.
“You have brought me back. I thank you.”
“I had help.” She stepped back so Panur could scan the room.
“Seeing this gathering, I somehow feel my awakening is just the beginning of another great adventure.”
********
“You obviously have not gone through this much trouble out of the goodness of your hearts. You want something from me. What is it?”
Panur had dressed in an oversized man’s shirt, with a belt around his waist to hold it in place. The team was on the bridge of the Najmah Fayd, the moment of truth now upon them.
“We need you to help us rescue Adam Cain.”
“Adam? He is being held captive somewhere?” Panur narrowed his eyes. “I can only conclude this has something to do with the Sol-Kor.”
“That’s right. He’s being held prisoner on Kor.”
“You returned to Sol-Kor space?”
“Yes, we did. And Admiral Tobias destroyed the master portal array for the Milky Way galaxy. By the way, why didn’t you tell us there was only one main array?”
Panur smiled. “What fun would it be if I revealed everything I know? I find it more entertaining to watch you figure things out on your own.”
Benefis spoke for the first time: “At the cost of trillions of lives?”
“A Juirean…in the company of Humans. Now that I find interesting.”
“You know you are insane, do you not?”
“Insanity is a relative term, Juirean.” Panur turned his attention to Riyad. “With the master portal destroyed and the personal units under the control of the Sol-Kor at the array locations you have yet to destroy, you need access to my universe.”
“That’s right. We still have the portal you built for Adam. We need you to make whatever improvements to it so it can link with other universes.”
“Why go through such effort?” He waved his hand in a circle. “Does this ship not employ the hybrid drive I developed for the Pegasus II?”
“Yeah, it does. What does that have to do with anything?”
Panur smiled. “The system is a combination dimensional portal and gravity drive, allowing you to jump short distances within your universe before reappearing at a new point in space. I have been thinking that the next generation would allow transit between universes, not just within one.”
“You mean this ship could become its own TD-portal?”
“Precisely.”
Riyad stood up, his face animated. “Then that’s it! We turn the Najmah Fayd into a universe-hopping starship and then jump over to get Adam away from the new queen.”
“Hold on a minute, Riyad,” Sherri said.
“How soon can you make the upgrades?”
“No…wait!” Sherri stood up. “Do you realize what you’re saying?”
“What? What’s the problem?”
“Just think for a minute. Right now the galaxy is safe from the Sol-Kor because they don’t have a master portal to send their starships through. If Panur is right—and I have no doubt that he is—then there’s a way for the Sol-Kor to turn each of their individual ships into a portal—”
“At which point they can enter the galaxy when and where they wish, and without the need for a matching portal,” the Juirean finished for her.
“That’s only if they get the technology. We just have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“But what if they do?” Sherri asked. “Look, I want to save Adam as much as any of us, but this is too big of a risk. Maybe just modify the smaller portal and let us go in that way.” She looked to Panur for support.
<
br /> The alien seemed to be lost in his own thoughts and not listening to the back and forth between her and Riyad. After a moment, he turned his unblinking gaze upon Riyad.
“You used the term new queen a moment ago. Please explain.”
Riyad swallowed hard. Realizing his blunder, he knew that with Panur’s infallible memory there was no going back. This was the moment he feared most.
“Adam and I…well, we kinda killed the Eternal Queen.”
Even though the mutant’s mind could work at an accelerated pace as compared to Humans, he still took his time to react. “I was not aware there was a way to kinda kill a mortal creature. You do realize she was my mother?”
“You have to understand, she had begun a campaign of indiscriminate sterilization of entire planets, regardless of a harvest or not. It was a personal vendetta against the Milky Way. We had no choice.”
“If you recall, I stopped you once before from killing the Queen. Yet you again journeyed to Kor and ended her life, a life that had continued for five thousand years. Do you realize what a loss that is?” His black eyes continued to bore into Riyad. “I see that you made it back, yet Adam Cain did not. Now you wish to remedy that situation—with my help. Now he is being held by one of the Zygotes who has assumed the title of Q—”
“No…we killed all the Zygotes, too.”
Again a pause. “If you killed the Royal Zygotes, then who…J’nae!”
“You know of her?” Riyad was taken aback. “She’s something…different. She’s the size of male Sol-Kor, but with distinctly female features. We didn’t know anything like her existed.”
“She didn’t…until I created her. J’nae is my daughter.”
Sherri fell back into a chair and slapped the console next to her. “Well fuck me,” she said. “This just gets better all the time.”
“She is your daughter?” Lila repeated, emotion thick in her voice.
“She is, yet not in the traditional manner. She is the product of my DNA and that of the Eternal Queen.”
“How…why?” Riyad asked.
“It began as an experiment—and as a contingency plan. Apparently the proper conditions have materialized that called for her ascension.”
