by Drew Avera
Deis drew his weapon. It looked larger than necessary to Brendle as Deis leveled it towards the portal. He tried to draw his own weapon, but he was paralyzed. I should be afraid because I cannot move, but I am strangely comforted by it. The bridge whirled in his vision, pulsing with the beat of his heart as it pounded wildly in his chest.
“There’s something happening.” His words fell in hushed tones, barely audible to his own ears. “This is it,” he said as the figure within the portal grew larger, darker against the swirling mirage of blue energy. It birthed a figure moments later. A woman. Anki.
He ran to her, only a few steps, but he was in a hurry to take her into his arms as the brilliancy of the portal delivered her to him. Anki came out disheveled, tired looking, in shock as she fell into Brendle’s waiting embrace. “Are you all right?” He wrapped his arms around her, noticing how cold she felt, her body quivering as it pressed against him.
“I think so,” she said.
“What happened over there?”
She looked up at him, her amber eyes wide. “I think I saw the future.”
Brendle looked at her questioningly while Deis wrapped a blanket around her. “If you saw the future, then what happens?”
Silence followed his question as she wrapped her arms around herself, fighting to stay warm. He could hear her teeth chattering as she looked up at him. “I’m sorry, but I can’t remember.”
The portal behind her closed with a loud clatter. Sparks flew in all directions and Brendle’s hair stood on end as the static in the air filled the room.
“The portal is closed,” Deis said. “We need to get out of here.”
Brendle cut his eye at Deis. “Can you get us clear?” Deis nodded. “Do it. I’m taking her to our room to rest. Call me if you need me.”
“Roger that,” Deis said as he fell in behind the console, Malikea stood behind him quietly. “Mal, you’re going to want to strap in.”
Malikea took a seat across from Deis as Brendle led Anki off the bridge. She was still shivering, but her legs were no longer as shaky as they had been when she first stepped back through the portal.
“How long was I there?”
Brendle looked down at her. “You mean on the other side of the portal?”
“Yes.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe fifteen or twenty seconds.”
She cut a glance towards him. “Are you sure?”
“No more than thirty seconds, for sure.”
“Impossible,” she whispered.
Brendle opened the door to their room and helped her climb into bed. Anki buried herself in the blankets, wrapping herself in layer after layer. “What do you mean impossible?”
She looked out at him through a small opening in the blanket. “I was there for weeks,” she answered.
Taken aback, Brendle sat next to her on the bed. “Are you sure? Deis and Malikea will tell you, we never moved from where we were on the bridge. We watched you step through the portal and then you were back. I think I hardly even blinked while you were gone.”
“I know I was there for a long time,” she answered. “I didn’t think I would make it back.”
“What happened while you were there?”
Anki pulled the blanket from her head and looked at him, the color in her cheeks returning to a normal complexion. “I saw the war, I think. And I think I saw how it ended.”
“You think?” Brendle was confused.
“I saw things, but now I can hardly remember them. I can recall glimpses, tiny fragments of small moments in time. All I remember was that I was scared, but it wasn’t just my fear, it was hers as well.”
Brendle rubbed Anki’s back delicately, hoping to warm her up and comfort her as she regained her strength and settled back into being on the Replicade. “Maybe it was a vision created by Carista,” he suggested.
“Maybe, but it felt real.”
“Brendle, are you seeing this?” Deis said over the intercom.
Brindle stood up and ran over to the monitor to bring up the sensory array. He could see the massive CERCO ship, but only after he zoomed out on the image. “I am now,” he answered back.
Anki stood, her blanket dragging against the deck as she walked over to him. “What’s going on?”
Brindle pointed to a pinpoint of light in the center of the ship. “I think that is the portal left behind on the ship. If everything goes as planned, then that is where the fireworks will begin.”
Within the span on a heartbeat, the CERCO ship fractured under the strain of a bulging orb of bright blue light. It was Carista’s portal expanding in a physical form, tearing the ship at the seams as Brendle and Anki watched.
“The inside of the ship is exposed to vacuum now,” Deis said. “The scan is showing a significant loss of heat in some areas, but with that much energy, you would think the heat would increase.”
Brindle looked at Anki as she shivered next to him. “Maybe not,” he said. “Anki came back from the other side cold. Perhaps the heat is being drained to feed the portal, like it is absorbing energy.”
“Like how a black hole absorbs energy and light?” Deis asked.
“Maybe.”
Anki leaned in closer to Brendle as they watched the CERCO ship continue to bulge before it finally exploded outward. The Replicade shook as the energy from the ship going nova radiated against the hull of the warship. The monitor blanked out for a moment, and when the image was finally rebooted and restored, they saw nothing more than a small blue orb floating in the darkness where Carista had been.
“That’s impossible,” Brendle said.
“What?” Anki asked, her voice drowsy from the energy it took to restore her body heat.
“Deis, do you see that?”
“I do, but it doesn’t make any sense.”
“Can you take us to her?”
“The radiation levels are too high, I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Deis replied.
Brindle swore under his breath. “I don’t care about that; if she’s there, then we need to save her.”
“Brendle, look,” Anki said as she pointed at the blue orb on the screen. It grew in size and brightness. Brindle imagined that was what the birth of a star looked like as he watched, mesmerized by the beauty and brilliance of the light.
Anki took his hand, her cold skin drawing heat from him. Together they watched as the light grew larger and larger. And then it disappeared.
“She’s gone,” Brendle said, forcing the words out past the sob forming in his throat. He felt Anki crying next to him and saw Deis and Malikea embrace one another. Despite the harrowing events that brought them together, he knew every member of the crew had grown attached to the girl named Carista. He was not above saying he had feared her, but over the course of events that brought them to this point, he began to care. I wish I could have saved her, he thought as tears fell from his eyes.
As the Replicade drifted further away from the growing debris field, he kept his eyes open for anything that might stand out to him. Logic dictated that there was no room to hold hope after what had happened, but he didn’t want that to be the final goodbye. Deep inside, he hoped that was not the end of Carista.
Anki squeezed his hand and leaned into him, wrapping her arms around him. “Did we do the right thing?”
Brendle swallowed the lump in his throat. “I don’t know, but we did the only thing that we could do. That has to count for something.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“I don’t know who’s keeping count, but if it doesn’t count, then at least she got to go out the way she wanted to.” His words felt empty as he said them, as if there was no meaning behind them that amounted to anything worthwhile. That was what death brought to them, though—an emptiness that can never be filled again. And this time it claimed a little girl whose life was full of tragedy.
“Good bye, Carista,” he whispered. “I hope you find happiness on the other side.”
Chapter Twen
ty-Five: Ilium
A stasis pod sat in the dark hold of the King Slayer, silently preserving the life form inside. The space, normally empty, sat in the quiet, secluded area of the ship as Ilium stepped up to the pod and wiped away the fog covering the glass window, revealing the person inside. The man was larger than Ilium, his skin a pale grayish color, his dark hair spotted with gray strands. From Ilium’s point of view, the pirate looked almost old enough to be his father, but none the worse for wear.
With the advancements in technology, Ilium knew the man would have access to medical care that rivaled the capabilities on Greshia. Considering the man was found orbiting Farax probably meant they had much of the same procedures as the mother planet in that sector, but this pirate was not considered a citizen of Greshia. If anything, he was a leech on the system and a danger to Greshian expansion. In a perfect world he would be dead, but these were complicated times.
“Hello,” Ilium said, his voice a low growl as he stood in the darkness. The only light permeating the space around him came from the green glow emanating from the stasis pod. The readout on the pod showed all the life support information about the person inside. Ilium smiled as he recognized that whatever injuries the pirate had sustained were now repaired by the nanites during stasis. The man’s heart and brain functions were normal, which meant he could be safely revived and utilized if necessary.
Now seems necessary, Ilium thought as he ran his fingers along the control panel of the pod and typed in a series of numbers he acquired from Chief Harso before his unceremonious departure from the King Slayer. Once Ilium pressed the last number, the console illuminated green and the lock disengaged. Fog filled the space around him as the cold temperature air seeped from the seams on the pod into the warmer air of the cargo hold. The cool rush of air chilled Ilium’s flesh, causing goosebumps to appear on the bare skin of his arms. He ignored it and waited for closed eyes to open, to awake to a world the mind behind them could not fathom.
Within the span of a dozen heartbeats, the groggy eyes of a once dead man opened. Ilium stared into them, trying to read the thoughts of the man beyond the onset confusion of coming back into consciousness. “Who are you?”
Ilium smiled, not attempting to hide the wicked grin creeping upon his face. “My name is Ilium and I am the commanding officer of the GNS Hamæråté. What is your name?”
The man’s eyes widened. Probably because he knows he is fucked, being on a Greshian ship, Ilium thought. “Crase Tuin,” he answered flatly.
“Mr. Tuin, you are in a very sad state of circumstances. My ship found you after investigating a distress call from a ship called the Replicade. Do you know of that ship?”
“Yes,” Crase croaked, his throat still stiff.
“Good. When we arrived, the Replicade was gone. After a search around Farax, though, we found your transport floating in orbit around the planet. The drive was offline and we presumed it to be empty. When we reeled it in, we found you, barely alive, I might add. Despite direct orders from Central Command to have all pirates killed on sight, I decided to show mercy and have you held in stasis. I am undecided, however, if that was a good decision on my—.”
“If you’re going to kill me, then do it,” Crase growled.
Ilium turned to face him. “Don’t ever interrupt me again. Do you understand?”
Crase glared back at Ilium and said nothing.
“I am in a difficult situation right now. I have lost my ship due to a fabricated mutiny. The ones blamed for this mutiny have been killed, and I am now stuck on the most advanced warship in our fleet. Unfortunately, that means my hands are tied when it comes to personal endeavors. With that said, I would like to hire you for a job.”
Crase stared at Ilium for a long moment. Both men looked the other down, trying to read each other.
“Is this some kind of joke?”
A smile curled Ilium’s lips. “No, this is no joke, Mr. Tuin. But this is an opportunity.”
“An opportunity for what?”
“Were you not after the Replicade?”
Crase was silent for a moment before answering. “I was.”
“I have reason to believe that someone I would like to see dead is on that ship; a Greshian,” Ilium said.
“Brendle?”
The fact that the pirate knew the name of the man Ilium harbored so much hate for was staggering. “That is his name. I’m assuming you’ve met him?”
Crase smiled this time. “I had a run-in with him and his woman, along with a couple of Lechuns on Farax. I didn’t know his name until I heard someone say it, but I got a good look at him. He looks a lot like you, just with longer hair and an itchy trigger finger.”
The comparison made Ilium want to spit in the man’s face, but he understood what Crase meant. Most bigots thought each species looked too similar to one another to distinguish, but it was just ignorance finding breath. There is no harm in the words of a fool, Ilium thought. “Yes, well I want you to find them and kill them all. Destroy them at any cost.”
“I don’t want to damage the ship. She is my ship,” Crase said.
“The Replicade? I can’t give a shit less about that ship. I want Brendle Quin dead and I want you to do it.”
“I’ll only do it if I can do it on my terms. I said I want that ship.”
Ilium’s smile fell away and his eyes grew cold and sinister. “I said I don’t care.”
Crase lifted his chin and stared down his nose at the shorter man. “If you don’t care, then it shouldn’t matter how I get the job done.”
Ilium weighed the option in his head. How can this come back to bite me in the ass, he thought. The worst case scenario is he had his own warship, but that ship is no threat against a vessel like the King Slayer. “Very well, you will do as I ask, and your payment will be the Replicade.”
A grin stretched across Crase’s face. “That’s all well and good, but how am I supposed to track them down stuck in this pod?”
“There’s a small scout craft in the hangar bay called the DeVar. I will release you from the pod and lead you to the transport. The transponder is off and you will be pushed off the King Slayer mechanically. Do not engage the drive until after we have jumped.”
“How long will that be?”
Ilium looked down at his watch. “We have less than twelve minutes,” he answered.
“Well shit, get me out of here then.”
“That’s the spirit,” Ilium said as he reached for the door to the stasis pod and opened in. Inside, Crase was strapped down by his wrists and ankles. Another set of straps held down his chest and thighs, but the restraints were common to protect whoever was inside, not because they were being held captive. Ilium freed him and Crase staggered out of the pod, half naked and shaking from the cold. Ilium tossed him a robe. “Follow me,” he ordered as he turned to leave the cargo hold.
Crase followed Ilium down long, dark passageways and into a barren hangar bay. “Is this it?”
“Yes. You have a change of clothes inside as well as a few days’ worth of food. It is designed for a three-person crew, but I’m sure you can figure out how to fly it solo.”
“Yeah, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
Ilium turned to face him and handed him a com-unit. “When it is done, contact me. I may have more work for you to do.”
Crase looked at him as if he was out of his mind, but he nodded. “Fine.”
“Off you go,” Ilium said. He looked at his watch again. “Seven minutes.”
Crase ran towards the DeVar and climbed on board. Ilium watched as he disappeared behind the skin of the ship and the door closed behind him. Ilium left the hangar bay for the security of being deeper inside the King Slayer, but he could still see the transport through the observatory window. His hand fell onto the crane controller and he shifted it forward, watching the crane’s arm descend. He manipulated it until he was able to move the transport without damaging it. He had only a few minutes before the King Slayer jumped, but it wa
s plenty of time to do what he needed to. With a gentle nudge, the crane arm shoved the transport beyond the artificial barrier that helped the ship maintain atmospheric conditions, and out into the dark, where it was sent spinning away from the larger ship as it quietly drifted away. A smile curled Ilium’s lips as he thought about what the future held for him now. He was safe on the King Slayer, out of Haranger’s reach, at least for the time being. To make matters more interesting, he had just sent someone to silence the only loose end he had left to cut. “The enemy of my enemy,” he whispered with a grin etched across his pale face. He watched the DeVar spin out into the ether until the King Slayer made its jump. From where he stood, the map of stars changed drastically and celestial bodies appeared from out of nowhere. We are, no doubt, in the Shiveian Sector now. Ilium turned to walk towards the bridge. With Crase left behind, it is time to move forward, he thought as he ran his hand along the smooth bulkhead of the King Slayer. “That’s one objective achieved; now for the next one. Just wait until Haranger finds out about this.”
Epilogue: T'anoi
Above him, the assembly buzzed with activity as the reports came in about the ship Yeopa’s being destroyed. It was the worst news to strike at the heels of the Organization in over a decade, yet T'anoi could not stop the smile from spreading across his face. For all intents and purposes, CERCO served the Organization in just the capacity they were sworn to uphold: the scientific capacity. They were subject to the Organization only because CERCO had the means to create what the powerful men of the Organization wanted. Why should I be upset that our creation did what she was taught to do? It only goes to show that we have met the mark. The Organization should be proud of what we have accomplished, he thought as he looked up at the monitor to see the man peering back at him from some undisclosed location.
“You lost her. Why are you smiling?”
“Because this is precisely what we’ve been working towards all these years. She had more power and control of that power than any of us could fathom. The project that created her was a great success,” he said as he looked into the monitor at his nameless benefactor. The man was a mystery, but the funding that allowed T'anoi to conduct his research was very real. The company he named CERCO was so close to completing a living weapon that it was only a matter of time before they were successful. Carsita had proven their concept had merit, but like many successes in science, it came at a great cost, and not just financially. Her loss was the most painful experience T’anoi had endured since their allegiance with the Organization formed.
