D'mok Revival: The Nukari Invasion Anthology

by Michael Zummo

  In moments they would be headed back to the asteroid base. The first person Seigie wanted to talk to back home was the least likely to expect it. Toriko would be able to extract information from the crystals and help make her cure possible. After that, however long it would take, Toriko might be able to make sense of Voleri’s mechanical notes. If anyone could do it, she could. While there was solace in knowing of a place where her direct descendants survived, the prospect of finding the ancients captivated her. There had to be a way.

  A clinking drew her gaze. The crystals in her hands felt as if they carried great weight. She couldn’t break her glance. It seemed impossible that a few hours and a handful of crystals had changed her entire life.

  The ship jostled, drawing her attention. She didn’t even notice they’d taken flight. Out the port window, Luon shrank rapidly away.

  Whatever the future held, for now, for right now, she had her cure. But what would happen to her when she used it? Would she be useful in the fight against the Nukari anymore?

  The Nukari. Their very name sent an evil vibration through her crystalizing body. So many had lost so much because of their evils.

  Her family and friends—her very planet—all were taken from her. The same held true for Osuto. Mencari had lost his wife and son. For Allia, her right to be an innocent child. Nikko’s father was killed by the Nukari’s water creatures, and Cogeni’s relationship with his beloved mother was further strained by Nukari interference. Toriko almost lost her sister as an agent of Nukari, and her beloved professor had been murdered in cold blood. Nukari mercenary henchmen nearly killed Ujaku. Each of their lives had been forever changed because of the marauding aliens.

  The faces of those she hadn’t seen for a millennium overwhelmed her. For hundreds of years, she had no idea what happened to her own loved ones. She recalled their faces, their smiles. By some miracle, they reached out through space and time, conquering even death itself, reconnecting with her.

  They had survived the Nukari attack. She inwardly glowed in wondrous awe. Her rekindled heart burned with a passion not felt in centuries.

  No sacrifice is too great. This time they will fail! I will … we will make sure of it.

  Her crystalized hands grinded into fists.

  It started as something quiet and warm. For the first time in centuries, her stony heart compelled her. Her ancient lips cracked as they began to move in an unfamiliar way, and then … she smiled.

  She sat silent basking in a moment of serenity. As with all such moments in her life, it was short-lived.

  A shrill noise filled the air. She lurched forward, nearly tossing the crystals away when her hands tried to cover her ears.

  “What is that?” she yelled over the sound.

  A fountain of light flashed before them, which coalesced into the holographic forms of Mini-T and Bob. The alarm abruptly stopped.

  “Thank Eudora!” Mini-T said.

  “Don’t tell me that’s your new way to say hello!” Seigie barked.

  “What?” Mini-T sounded perplexed.

  “That sound!”

  “Oh, you heard that?” Mini-T said. Her holographic foot played nervously in the air. “That’s a high-frequency signal. You’re not supposed to hear that.”

  “Then why did we?”

  “We’ve been trying to reach you! You fell completely off the grid. We were worried over here.”

  Images of Osuto pacing came to Seigie’s mind. “Tell the old goat that we’re fine. Is there some other urgency, or were you just panicked for nothing?”

  “Actually, there’s a few things.”

  “Eyani reports Ghn’en’s team is near ready to move,” Bob said. “Eyani needs to coordinate the final details with Rhysus.”

  “Tell her I’ll call when we’re back to the station,” Mencari said.

  “Anything else?” Seigie still couldn’t see the urgency.

  “Actually, yes. That crystal brought back from the Eden mission a while ago? Well, Osuto placed it into one of the crystal readers, and Bob and I—”

  “Summary, what’s the summary?” Seigie said curtly.

  “We have a lead on something called the ‘Cosmic Link.’ It appears to be some type of weapon, and it’s in the Janux Nebula not far from our base. Osuto thinks you should check it out.”

  “Thank you for the updates, Mini-T,” Mencari said. “Let Osuto know we’re on our way back. We’re going to need some downtime after this mission.”

  “No problem! Travel safely!”

  CHAPTER 10:

  Turf War

  “They’re coming!” the woman screamed over alarms blaring in the background. Her projection glitched as explosions rocked the station. She whimpered and clutched the small boy in her arms tighter.

  “Get to the escape pod, Anaka! Don’t think—run!” Mencari yelled.

  An explosion off his port side severed their connection and spun his ship end-over-end. The universe rotated as he attempted to regain control, then space lit up with a barrage of cannon fire that whizzed narrowly past.

  Two squadrons of Coalition fighters sped past, and drew off his pursuers. Rolling the ship, he turned in time see the friendly crafts implode into unspectacular lumps. In the distance, horror transfixed his gaze. The once-mighty Coalition space station, base of Human operations in deep space, the home of his military unit and his family, was reduced to burning wreckage. Half the structure orbited its own carcass in a ring of debris; the rest burned in fits like a sun.

  An alert yanked him from his trance. Escape vessels deployed.

  At least there’s still hope.

  In a sound that echoed through the communicator like a scream, the station exploded. Its floating scraps turned into deadly shrapnel. Reversing his thrusters, he rode the wave of station remains.

  Once clear, he saw the shadowy enemy ships change course, headed toward the escape vessels.

  “No. No. No!”

  He threw his thrusters to full and charged the last of his weapon banks. The burn of adrenaline washed over his body when he saw the glow of the enemy weapons.

  * * * * *

  “NOOOOOOO!”

  Mencari screamed as his thermal cover went flying. The darkness was obliterated as a powerful glow radiated from his fists, ready to unleash his fury. Frantic, he looked for a target. Not finding one, desperation set in.

  Where? Where’d they go?

  His eyes skittered across barren walls.

  I have to … to …

  His thoughts were interrupted by a sight through the far window. Massive boulders floated lazily by. It confused him. There were no asteroids near the Coalition station.

  A cold realization settled in, and the intense light faded from his hands. There might have not been asteroids there, but there were at his new base with Osuto. There were no enemies to stop—not here, not now anyway.

  It was a dream—that nightmare—again. After being gone for so long, replaced with happier dreams of his son, why had it returned?

  The burning panic dwindled away, and the darkness ate away at the last of the light as he lay back.

  When will it stop?

  Fiddling with his wedding band, he whimpered, “How do I let you go?”

  The dream of his son at gymnastics pushed into his consciousness and with it the piercing, deep-green gaze of the sandy-haired boy. The child’s look of rage filled him with dread. A long-forgotten voice pleaded in his mind, Won’t you even say goodbye to him?

  He shook his head and whispered, “I don’t know how to.”

  * * * * *

  Osuto sat before scrolling projections of data as a weary Mencari trudged in.

  “Morning,” Osuto said, eyes on his task. “I was almost going to have someone check on you.”

  “Slept rough, sorry.” Mencari rubbed his aching head. Though it had been a while since one of his infamous migraines, the lack of good sleep left him with a dull ache that lasted most of the day. “Kept trying to go back to sleep. Didn’t
work so great.”

  “Well, you’ve been working hard. If you need more rest, you should take it.” His mentor hesitated, then looked over. “Who’s Eisah?”

  The very mention of the name made his stomach turn. Guarded, he said, “That’s a strange question. Why do you ask?”

  “Oh, I heard you say it in your sleep. I was just curious.”

  “I don’t know,” Mencari said. “Who knows what’s in dreams.”

  “True.” Osuto smiled. “Ah yes, Nikko wanted me to remind everyone she’ll dance for us tonight.”

  The thought brought an instant smile to Mencari’s face. He remembered the dance Nikko did the first time he met her, when she worked at the B.P. Hovel in the slums of Argosy. No one realized it then, but her dance was one way she manifested her own D’mok abilities. Looking back on it now, he was helpless against her empathic abilities. It already felt like years had passed since then.

  “Where is she going to do that?” Mencari asked.

  Osuto looked around. “I was thinking Allia’s Grotto?”

  “Ah, perfect—”

  Heavy feet stomped down the hall, accompanied by a tiny pit-pat.

  “Hey, sleepin’ beauty’s up,” Naijen chided, coming around the corner. “Thought you gonna lay all day tossin’ and moanin’. Made so much noise had to get up! Good thing the twerp wanted to bust some heads.”

  Some mornings were easier than others. As difficult as Naijen could be, his presence was missed when they went to the planet the ancient D’mar had fled to. The hive queen, and even that flame-haired defender called Zuri, would have been easy to manage with his power.

  Not wishing to encourage more chiding, he simply nodded to Naijen.

  “Rhysus, you have to tell him what I did back on Luon,” Allia pleaded. “He doesn’t believe me.”

  “Save it. If I didn’t see it—never happened,” Naijen said.

  “So just show him in the mines,” Mencari said to the distress in the girl’s eyes.

  “Yea, well, it hasn’t been so easy to do again,” Allia said. “But I’m working on it.”

  Naijen grunted dismissively.

  “I’ll show you!” she protested.

  There’s that look again!

  The gleam in the girl’s eyes told Mencari her promise would happen soon, which brought a smile to his face.

  “You’ll see,” she added, and headed over to an open panel under the main command console. She peered inside. “No Toriko there.”

  A guffaw escaped him. It wasn’t an unusual place to look for their resident technical expert. In fact, Toriko seemed to spend a lot of time buried in the systems of the asteroid base.

  “I believe Ujaku, Toriko, and Seigie are still working,” Osuto said.

  “On what?” Mencari asked.

  “Oh Seigie’s cure—from Luon,” Allia said with downcast eyes. “I forgot about that. Too much fun with Naijen in the mines.”

  “I haven’t seen them in hours,” Osuto added. “Any one of them can work for hours on something. Put them together, and who knows when we’ll see them next.”

  A brilliant flash made Mencari’s body recoil. Glancing over, he saw a star chart marked with perimeter readings. Confusion turned to clarity when his eyes locked on a red icon, approaching fast. An alarm screamed to life.

  “Incoming ship!” he yelled.

  “Again?” Osuto yelled over the alarm. “Where’d this one come from?”

  As if summoned, Mini-T appeared in a fountain next to Mencari, already reviewing a tiny holographic screen that floated before her.

  “My scans show it just appeared out of nowhere,” she cried. “I mean literally out of nowhere!”

  “Get everyone to the bay,” Mencari yelled and pivoted toward the corridor.

  Bob appeared in a green flash next to Mini-T. The alarm went silent, stopping Mencari midstride.

  “What do you mean it’s from Eden?” Mini-T growled. “You could have sent me a transponder or something!”

  He looked back, confused.

  “Aw no!” Naijen said. “Can I at least chase it around or somethin’?”

  Before Mencari could say anything, Bob jumped in. “My sincerest of apologies. Eyani is requesting a secure channel.”

  He needed answers, and Eyani might have them. “Open it.”

  “Rhysus,” Eyani said urgently.

  As soon as Eyani said his name, he said, “What’s with the ship? And why weren’t we told?”

  “I’m sorry, but you weren’t because it launched minutes ago and I couldn’t contact you fast enough.”

  “Minutes?” he said in disbelief.

  “It uses our latest tunnel drive systems,” Bob explained.

  Osuto shook his head. “What’s the urgency?”

  “Is it the big Nukari ship, Eyani?” Mencari said.

  “Better,” she said with a smirk. “The Nukari and our silver friends are at it again.”

  “That doesn’t explain the ship.”

  A projection of a panicked Toriko appeared next to Mencari.

  “Seigie, Ujaku, and I are in the bay! Where is everyone? Should we attack? What’s going on? What should we do!”

  “Stand down, it’s okay,” he told her.

  “Okay? No we’re not okay, I coded that system, and the alert I received says—”

  “It’s from Eden,” Mini-T said. “Here, I’m sending the transponder code from Bob.”

  “What?” Toriko sounded more confused.

  Mencari saw Toriko review a display off to the side.

  “It is from Eden.” She looked up, bewilderment on her face. “So, that’s what it felt like when I arrived, huh?”

  “I need you to bring everyone, Rhysus,” Eyani said. “There’s plenty of room in the ship. Load up when it docks, and I’ll explain everything.”

  * * * * *

  “We’re going to drop right into the battle,” Eyani explained while the team took their seats. “Our goal is to assist our silver allies and, if all goes well, establish dialogue with them. A secondary goal is to bring back one of the Nukari creatures—dead or alive.”

  “Understood,” Osuto said.

  Mencari looked over to Seigie and noticed a new armguard sporting embedded gems of green, blue, yellow, and red. The armguard pulsed gently with power. “What’s that?” he said.

  “My cure,” Seigie replied, glowing. “Our wizard here was able to create it.”

  “With some help from Ujaku,” Toriko added, cheeks ablaze.

  With care, he asked, “Is it really ready?”

  “Development is done. It just needs field-testing.”

  “She assured me it wouldn’t blow up my arm,” Seigie said, joking.

  Toriko’s body locked up.

  “Well, go easy until you know it’s working,” Mencari said.

  “I’ll do what I need, Rhysus,” the matriarch made clear.

  “Who’s that?” Allia pointed to the woman with the strange metallic skin and short-cropped, light blue hair behind the navigation panel. It suddenly occurred to him how Human she looked. Her black-and-tan-striped uniform showed her a member of Eyani’s Eden crew.

  “That’s Una,” Eyani said through a projection floating by the group. “A Metallic from Tericn.”

  “Tericn?” Toriko said, curious.

  “Talk with her later, Toriko,” Eyani replied in a more-telling-than-informational tone.

  The ship jostled, then accelerated away from the asteroid base. A smooth, silky voice drifted in the cabin when Una said, “One minute before the tunnel drive engages.”

  “We have one minute to make a plan,” Osuto said, his tone urgent. “Seigie, Toriko, Cogeni, Nikko, you come with me. Naijen, Allia, you go with Rhysus.”

  The old man looked at their two newest members. “I want you to stay close to me. You both need more training, and I can’t keep you safe if you stray too far.”

  “We understand,” Cogeni said.

  Seigie said, “You sure you want to leav
e Rhysus out there on his own?”

  Osuto looked bewildered. “He won’t be. Naijen and Allia will be with him.”

  She shook her head. Mencari knew what she meant, and suspected she’d be right the second they were out the airlock.

  “I think it’s important I help Osuto, Rhysus,” Seigie added. “Otherwise I’d go with you.”

  “I’ll be okay.”

  “So we’re for team silver, right?” Allia said.

  “Based on what we’ve seen so far, yes,” Eyani replied. “Support the silver, capture the others if possible.”

  “Engaging tunnel system,” Una said.

  A ray of light projected ahead of the craft, followed by a distortion that rippled out from it. Spinning inward in the way water swirls down a drain, the sight gave Mencari a sense of déjà vu. He recalled the first time he, Toriko, and Seigie attempted tunnel travel. The brief trip was nearly their last. A sudden pain from his hands brought the realization he was clenching his seat.

  Gravity shifted a moment as they entered the rift. He noticed Eyani’s projection glitch, then zap out altogether.

  “Where’d Eyani go?” Allia asked.

  Una said, “Our communications grids have not been tuned to maintain a connection with ships moving at our speed.”

  Mencari was entranced by the beautiful swirls of energy as they careened past, creating the luminous walls of the tunnel.

  “Exiting in thirty seconds,” Una announced.

  “This thing is fast,” Osuto said.

  “The rear airlock is the safest way to depart.” Una looked back as she spoke. For the first time he saw her deep amber eyes. The contrast against her silvery skin was striking, if not beautiful.

  “Use your communicators to keep in contact,” he added.

  “We’ll have a visual as soon as we come out of the tunnel,” Una said. “In 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1.”

  Mencari listened for some change in the engines, but it was whisper quiet. Again gravity inside shifted. New projections beamed to life, showing an astral fireworks show. Swarms of them moved about, silver streaks that dodged in and around the darker aura of the Nukari beasts. Furious beams of energy blazed forth from both sides, sometimes breaking against familiar-looking fields of energy, other times missing altogether.