“Al-far-ren team?” Allia said, curious.
“The group I left D’mar with,” Seigie rushed to explain.
Gasps from the others echoed as a soft blue radiance emitted from the walls and ceilings and showered the group. The effect happened fast, and covered every inch of the room and adjoining hallway.
There was no physical sensation to it. In fact, had she not seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn’t have known it happened at all.
The rays disappeared, and Ves D’entri spread his hands wider in welcome.
“We have found one person from the Alfaren team, and we are grateful. We send our condolences to you, Seigie Weun, that more from your team didn’t make it. However, Great Defender of the D’mar, we are happy you finally reached us.”
Memories of a life lost long ago raged like a river through her mind. She relived her last moments on D’mar and the escape with the Alfaren team, along with their twisted faces as they died from a vicious plague.
Then her heroic days which made her a legend on Aeun came to mind. Petty, native criminals never had a chance against her honed abilities. So many paltry offenders, and yet they earned her great praise and adoration.
The faces of the men she loved and the children she had—all of whom died while she remained ageless—replaced the thugs. She wasn’t warned that the very thing that brought forth her abilities would leave her with an unexpected gift. Her crystal plague was not just a bane upon her, but caused her spawn to die early and painful deaths, a special torture she learned the hard way.
When her last husband killed himself in grief, she recalled the onset of her own cold and dark depression. Driven into self-exile deep within the caverns, she obsessively searched for a cure to her damned eternal life.
Then the faces of Lady Weun and Mencari came to her. To think any of her spawn survived seemed equally impossible to a descendant of D’mar finding her, much less to be told the Nukari had returned. Before she knew it, she was with Osuto, and a host of others—a new tribe of D’mok Warriors.
She recalled her own recent words, when she cursed the very venture to this world, and the slavish trekking that led to this moment. The torrents of memories passed, and a great stillness followed. Ves D’entri’s words came to her once more.
We are happy you finally reached us.
Her body trembled. Emotions and hopes long since petrified began to smolder. Her eyes began to hurt, her face flushed hot. For the first time in centuries, she felt wet droplets create streaks down each side of her stony face.
“I … I alone made it?” she whispered to the image.
Ves D’entri’s image said, “I see the boards have been disabled to conserve power.”
A rush of plasma streaked from the emblem toward the far wall. Colliding, it climbed through thin capillaries toward large gems embedded halfway up. The gems gleamed with energy. Dust shook from the wall as six panels eased open. Each revealed a console of crystal and an ancient bench.
He continued. “Here you will find messages and information left behind by others that came before you. We encourage you to leave your own messages for those yet to come.”
The emblem on the ground pulsed and released another stream of plasma. This time it raced to the wall behind the console. Hitting its objective, the light shattered into wild threads that raced upward. In moments a doorway of fiery yellow light formed, with a blazing D’mar emblem in the middle. A vibration rattled the room, and the glowing section melted into the surrounding wall.
“When you are ready,” Ves D’entri said, “Yeno Voleri will show you the way to the D’mok Sentuate in the lower levels. There, you will be provided with information on how to find the next jump point in the journey to our new home.”
The projection of Ves D’entri bowed. “We look forward to the day when all are one once more. May your travels be safe, Seigie Weun, Great Defender. We are glad you have come this far.”
She looked back to the consoles. This was all far beyond anything she could have imagined—or hoped.
The strange burning drew her hand to her face, where she wiped another tear. She looked dumbfounded at her fingers, sparkling with dampened minerals, and said, “I … don’t know why this is happening.”
One of the consoles flickered to life. Her pace cautious, she walked over with Allia and Ichini close behind. As she sat, the display projected a listing of names and subject lines. Even though her D’mar script was rusty, a name jumped out.
“Is something wrong?” Allia said, concerned.
“Messages. To me. From my mother. But how? They … I thought she didn’t make it to the escape ship.…”
She reached out and touched the display; the first message appeared. Despite the eons of time, she could hear her mother’s voice echo in her mind as she read her words. This time a flood overtook her eyes.
Allia said, “Seigie?”
“She said my father didn’t make it aboard their ship.”
As she read on, two amazing things happened; spears of joy pierced her stony heart, and a tiny laugh escaped her. “She said my little brother was going to be like his big sister, and would defend them until I was with them again.”
“You had a brother?”
“And a younger sister. I was twelve years older than my closest sibling.…”
Emotion took her voice. Unable to talk, she read on as more tears fell. Her body trembled.
“She says they miss me and think about me every day. That they hope someday soon, Father and I will arrive on a ship.”
She looked over at Mencari. “At least they made it. At least they got away from the attack.”
Her eyes coveted every word. In that moment it felt as if her family was there again, alive, talking to her. It was as if the millennium of pain and suffering and loneliness had never happened. For a moment she felt like that girl again, the one lost ages ago at her transformation into the crystal monstrosity. She felt like herself again.
Closing the message, she saw a second and gasped. “Yelis,” she said in disbelief.
Allia shook her head, confused. “Who?”
“My first love. The one who suggested I volunteer to be a defender.”
“Like a boyfriend?” Allia’s tone held a mix of curiosity and repulsion. Seigie simply nodded.
“What does he say?” Mencari asked. “If it’s not too much—”
“No, it’s all right.” She opened the message. “Yelis found messages from my mother, and wanted to leave this message for me too.”
She read on, hastily summarizing as she went.
“It says it was his family my father went to help. He got them to an escape ship, but the Nukari struck it as they hit orbit. The section Father and his mother were in was hit. They were lost when the ship folded, and that—that my father was a hero.”
She felt a sob wrench up through her stony chest, choke her ancient throat, and bellow out her crystalline lips. While her body protested, its pain was nothing compared to the ache in her heart.
A pair of tiny arms wrapped around her. Even Ichini snuggled up to the matriarch’s stony legs. The caring gesture only made her sob harder.
* * * * *
Mencari watched in disbelief as the woman with a heart of stone, crystal really, wept. He didn’t know what to do, other than give her time. Besides, Allia was accomplishing something Seigie would never allow him to do—provide comfort with a hug. At least not if he didn’t mind bodily harm.
Seeing Allia’s tiny body snuggled up to Seigie brought back memories of his own little man. Rhyiel use to look up with his big brown eyes and wide toothless smile while grappling Mencari’s leg for balance. As a sting came to his own eyes, he attempted to refocus on the task at hand. He turned to Vamel. “Who is … or was, Yeno Voleri?”
“He was a datakeeper,” Dozaren answered for Vamel. “Voleri was the first to transcribe the scrolls we use today.”
“Many generations ago,” Zuri added. “But the scrolls said nothing about a
ll this.”
“Perhaps the crystal she carried held what we just saw?” Dozaren mused.
Zuri edged to the passage behind the console. With a cautious reach out, she checked to see if the glowing frame was hot from the plasma.
“It’s perfectly cool,” she said, dumbfounded, before looking farther beyond the door.
Seigie took a deep breath, and wiped away the last few tears. She nodded to Allia. “I’m okay, thank you.”
“Are you ready?” Mencari asked gently.
“I guess even for someone as old as me, this is a lot to take in. Let’s keep going.”
She stood slowly, and walked to the console with her crystal. Gently, she grasped it and lifted. The glow within it disappeared, while the others stayed ablaze with energy. Carefully stowing it away, she continued on toward Zuri.
“There’s a small plasma trail leading down the passageway,” Zuri said, taking the lead.
The corridor sloped downward, and grew cooler. Mencari noticed the same gentle light radiated from the walls and floor as in the other area. After glancing back to make sure Seigie and Allia were following, he moved through the group to reach Zuri. “Do you know what’s ahead, Zuri?”
“No idea,” she said in an insulted tone.
The decline leveled out, and the plasma trail stopped before a glowing archway. Inside, a ghostlike figure hovered.
“That’s Voleri,” Zuri called back to her brethren. “It matches the drawings I’ve seen.”
Voleri’s garb looked virtually identical to that of Vamel and Dozaren.
“Looks like another hologram too,” Mencari said.
They entered slowly. Nothing happened until Seigie stepped through the archway.
The hologram spoke. “Defender Weun, my name is Yeno Voleri. I am the third generation entrusted with waiting for those who fled our homeworld during the Nukari attack. I’m glad you’ve made it, and celebrate your return to us.” Voleri bowed deeply, then continued. “I want to chronicle events so future generations would understand our calling and our struggles. Our remaining engineer is elderly now, and I fear won’t live much longer. I have tried to learn everything I can from him in the hopes of maintaining things the best I can.”
He looked briefly away, and the hologram glitched slightly. Looking directly at Seigie, he continued. “The D’mar council knew a threat was making its way toward our homeworld, an enemy called the Nukari. Despite the swelling ranks of our great D’mok Warriors, we continued to sustain heavy defeats. Colony after colony fell. The council foresaw the failure of our young defenders. In preparation, the council began to establish facilities on this world to prepare for the inevitable evacuation of D’mar.
“The Nukari arrived at our homeworld much sooner than anticipated. The facilities here were not ready when fleets of escape ships arrived. Most were forced to continue living in their ships while construction continued. The plan was never to permanently house our people here, but rather provide a short-term jump point on a journey to a distant world.
“Despite conditions here, engineers and resources were sent to the next jump point in order to expedite moving our people farther from Nukari-infested space. As ships became overcrowded, citizens were asked to discard unneeded items into a large pit. It was dubbed the ‘Treasure of D’mar.’”
“So the Thing Pile is really the Treasure of D’mar,” Allia whispered in wonder, and Mencari patted her head for quiet.
“When the time came to move to the next jump point, the surviving council members asked for volunteers to wait for survivors who had yet to arrive. Among them: two engineers, a handful of Lateru Defenders, an invoker to continue their training, and a handful of Pre-Sutrite citizens. Stone workers created the great structures within the cliff walls, dwellings that remain in use today.”
The image sighed. “And now, I near the end of the known history. When the day came, and the fleet made final preparations to depart, one ship had to be abandoned due to structure failures inflicted by the Nukari attack, and poor weathering from the elements on this world. This ship because a useful source of materials, and protection as needed for some time. Eventually it fell into ruin.”
Seigie looked over at Mencari and said quietly, “I’ll bet that’s the structure we found close to the swamp.”
“The Pre-Sutrite citizens were asked to gather food and prepared a celebration for the successful escape of our people. The invoker continued her duties with the defenders, and life continued.”
A new path of yellow plasma ignited and ran through a passage beyond Voleri’s projection.
“Continue into the D’mok Sentuate. There you will find the way forward to our ancestors. Remember you come from a long line of people who sacrificed for your survival. Honor them always. May your journey be safe. Farewell.”
As the image faded, Vamel muttered, “What are ‘Lateru Defenders’?”
“Advanced warriors—highly skilled,” Seigie said. “And ‘Pre-Sutrite’ was a classification for those who didn’t have D’mok abilities.”
Dozaren said, “We still have invokers among us. But why was there no mention of land-tenders?”
Vamel looked with a pained expression to Dozaren. “Voleri mentioned the Pre-Sutrite who were asked to gather food and prepare a celebration.”
“Land-tending,” Mencari mused. “Maybe the Pre-Sutrites, whoever they were, kept doing that for the others. If they did …”
“They’d become our servants of today,” Dozaren said, dumbstruck.
Mencari nodded. “And if all the engineers died, and Yeno wasn’t able to pass on that knowledge, this technology would become useless. You’d be forced to revert—”
“—to our scrolls,” Vamel finished.
Mencari shook his head. “I wonder if whatever is supposed to lead us to the D’mar is still working?”
“The hologram things are.” Allia looked across the room, then back to Vamel. “I want to see this D’mok Sentuate.”
“As do I,” Vamel said, eyes wide.
Seigie led them, following the plasma trail. Stairs led farther downward. With each step, the gentle glow on the walls and ceiling were marred with dark patches. The trail of plasma ended where a stalactite had fallen and crushed the crystal channel through which it traveled. The area ahead had long since fallen into disrepair.
Shadow soon consumed the way forward. Allia looked back to Mencari, her face wrinkled in concern. “I feel something.”
“Creatures?” Mencari asked.
“Mm-hum.” She bobbed her head.
Seigie dug into her pocket, pulled out a diamond, and began to charge it. Mencari thought to protest, but noticed the simple gem didn’t appear to cause her pain to energize. The radiant light went a mere few feet before being overtaken by the darkness.
“Really?” Zuri said, unimpressed. Her hellish aura illuminated her body. The long red locks of hair seemed to flow in a nonexistent gust of wind as she powered up. The corridor tinted. Mencari saw stalactites and gaping holes in the walls, many of which didn’t look natural.
Dozaren gasped. Following his glance, Mencari saw giant, shelled creatures with bulging black eyes, large antennae, and pincers, skittering toward them. A new golden light danced with the crimson on the walls. To his side, Allia had powered up. She turned and ran toward the back of the group.
“More tricks,” Zuri snarled. “And true defenders do not run.”
* * * * *
Allia turned and faced the attackers. Time appeared to slow as she assessed the threat. Three insects were charging, one in front, two behind, all with viselike pincers opening and snapping closed.
She wants a show? I’ll give her one!
Allia dashed forward, channeling her power as Naijen taught her in the training mines of the asteroid base. Her light danced along the corridor as she moved with unnatural speed. With a leap into the air, she sailed over the pincers of the lead bug. She saw Ichini disappearing, sliding under the creature with claws up. The insect squ
ealed, accompanied by the sound of Ichini’s claws ripping through its shell. Its body lifted just enough for Allia to twist and grab its antenna. Adding a D’mok boost to her momentum, she bent forward and took the creature clear off the ground. Continuing her throw, the bug flailed helplessly while she flung it through the air. Allia passed over the other two attackers, and saw Ichini slide under her moments before she landed and skidded to a stop. Ichini rolled up into a lunge, taking to the air. As the insect hit the wall, its shell already badly compromised, he pounced on the giant insect, splattering guts and bits of shell everywhere.
Rebounding, Ichini headed for the second, while Allia turned toward the third. In a single fluid motion she turned, leaped, and bared her weapon. The ringing song of the Flower Blade resounded through the air as its blades slung into place.
Her D’mok energies swelled and she thrust her weapon into the insect’s neck. The beast didn’t have time to even squeal before its head was sheared off. Allia landed on its back and its body fell lifelessly forward, skidding to a stop.
She looked toward Ichini. He too sat atop fallen prey, its head and neck severed from the body, dangling from his mouth. “Good boy!”
Ichini immediately spat it out and returned to her side. She glanced down the hall and gloated, “Looks clean now.”
A moment from addressing her hater, Mencari yelled, “Behind you!”
Ichini suddenly flanked her and batted a fourth beetle out of the air. Turning, she saw a swarm emerge from holes in the wall. Gasping, her glow radiated once more. After a few strides backward, she pivoted and entered a full run.
She didn’t have to see them to know they were closing fast. The clacking patter of their scampering feet drew closer by the moment. Channeling her energies, she burst forward in a fit of speed. Despite it, they were snapping at her back.
Trying to dodge the beasts, she hopped on to the wall, using her D’mok abilities to defy gravity and run lengthwise along it. She rounded the wall up to the ceiling, over to the other side. She completed the full loop just in time to see Zuri’s hellish aura magnify. The red witch raised her hand and a radiant fury gathered.
D'mok Revival: The Nukari Invasion Anthology Page 48
