Oblivion's Peril

by M. H. Johnson

  Julia frowned. "But wait, didn't you save their lives? I just... when I was nosing in your head yesterday, and sorry about that, Mother says I really shouldn't do that to you and Father without permission, even if everyone else is fair game. Anyway, I thought I had a sense of you saving your friends?"

  Val nodded. "I did. It doesn't mean I'm going to steal from them in the next breath."

  Julia laughed softly. "Saving people’s lives and their fortunes. You're definitely the best friend anyone could ask for, Val."

  Val grimaced. "I'm not entirely sure about that. I keep getting the nagging feeling that people I care about are in trouble, and they don't have much time."

  Julia's eyes widened. "Are Yin and the others in trouble? They did seem a bit stressed when we were all under the eyes of those inquisitor henchmen earlier today, but that passed once everything had been cleared up. Do you think we should check up on them? I know Chris, in particular, was a bit concerned that you hardly spoke to us the entire day, doing your own thing."

  "No, Julia. Nothing feels off here. It's my other friends that I'm worried about."

  Julia touched his chin, catching his gaze once more. “Now I can feel how much they mean to you.”

  Val sighed. "Without them, I’m not sure if I would have ever made it to the dreadnought. I'm hoping they're okay, but I just don't know."

  Julia's hand gripped his tight. "I know there are some things I shouldn't even think about, that if anyone with ill-intent peers too closely in my head, all memory will be burned away. But Val? You saved my life that day. I will never forget it."

  Gently she led his lips to her own, kissing him softly. "I hope your friends made it out okay, but at least we have each other, Val, and sometimes it feels like the whole bloody galaxy was trying to prevent that from happening." Her gold-green eyes twinkled beautifully in the dim light. "Let me show you what I think about the universe butting in where it's not wanted."

  She then proceeded to show Val in exquisite detail how she felt about things and when all was said and done, brooding was the last thing on his mind. His final thoughts as the night carried him away was of the beautiful girl holding him in her arms, her powerful golden thoughts caressing him with a blanket of love.

  9

  "Sten, stay with me, Sten!"

  A girl sobbing over the inert body of the man she loved. Shadow shivered to recognize those haunted features, parched and worn as they were. She and her exhausted companions huddled in the ruins of what had once been their starship, their suspension pods having disgorged them as an emergency precaution just before the ship’s emergency power, barely enough to keep them alive, finally gave out. The howling desert winds whipped all around them, a thousand brilliant stars twinkling in the night sky, but hours away from dawn.

  Elise. A single tear dripped from her parched cheeks onto the features of a ruggedly handsome man who had once reminded Val of the most notorious of all rogues and smugglers, his life slowly slipping away.

  A small withered hand gently clasped Elise's own. "We did what we could, Elise. I'm sorry. So sorry. He was the best captain... the best friend I ever had."

  "It's not over yet, Gregor, it can't be!" Elise sobbed, brilliant violet eyes gazing desperately at the heavens. "I love him!"

  Gregor, his wild shock of black and white hair now dull with sand, could only sigh and pat her hand, his gaze filled with despair, eyes falling on the other member of their party, their companion's giant form covered by a bloodstained sheet, utterly still. "Halvar's nodes have placed him in a coma. It will buy him a bit of time, maybe. If I could just focus, maybe somehow I could use that Silbion to concoct some potion to put us all back in suspended animation..."

  "But Gregor, I have to stay awake, in case I sense any minds coming this way. It's our only chance!"

  Gregor lowered his head. "There is no hope, Elise. We crash-landed in the middle of this desert what must have been months ago. And in all that time, not a single soul stumbled upon this ship. No one saw the emergency pods. There was no rescue.” The tiny man gave a sad sigh. “All our systems are down, we have no power, and we have no idea where we are. For all we know, that fireball we saw means rebels are seizing fresh territory, and we don't even have the strength to crawl a single mile, let alone a hundred. All I can do is make our passing as peaceful as possible." He patted her hand. "Just say the word, Elise."

  "We're not quitting, Gregor. It doesn't end here, it can't!"

  Gregor said nothing further, silently bearing witness to Elise's tears until she collapsed by her fallen lover's side, soft sobs drowned out by howling winds that would bury them alive.

  10

  Val lurched upright with a gasp, blinking in dawn's early light.

  It had not been a dream. It couldn't have been. It was too damned real. Too bloody real.

  Julia gasped as his panic forced her awake. "Val, what's going on?"

  Val shuddered even as Julia frowned, tasting the flickering remnants of his dream. "You don't think it's somehow real, do you?"

  "It doesn't matter. I have to find them!"

  "How? We have no idea where they are."

  Val lowered his head, rapid-fire thoughts blazing to a conclusion he acted on before he was even aware of it, racing from his quarters to Christine's, ignoring the pair of alarmed-looking servitors demanding he announce himself, dwarven armor settling upon his body quicker than ever before.

  "Christine, we need to talk, now!"

  "Raise your hands, Terran, and back away from the mistress's quarters!" yelled one panicked guard, holding his blaster in shaking hands.

  Val turned and caught the man's gaze. "Lower that toy, or I'll take your head."

  The man's eyes widened in outraged surprise before rolling back as he cried out and crumpled to the ground.

  "No man is to raise weapons to my son-in-law. Is that clear?"

  Christine's words, hard as death.

  The second guard gave a hurried nod. "Yes, Your Eminence. Please forgive us. We only feared for your safety."

  "I know. That's why you both still live. Now escort your friend to the infirmary and don't return to your station until you've learned to separate my family from common rabble!"

  "Yes, mistress," the man breathlessly assured, all but dragging his inert partner down the hall and out of her sight.

  Val spun around, catching Christine's gaze, surprised despite himself at how quickly she could flow from tyrant to motherly figure gazing at him with such tender concern and just a bit of pique.

  "Hardly a tyrant, dear son-in-law. Now, pray tell what is causing you such distress?" She frowned. "I can feel my daughter's anxiety even from here. Did you two have a fight?"

  Val shook his head. "No, Christine. Please. I need your help. My friend's ship crash-landed. I’m certain of it." He closed his eyes, awful flashes of dream flickering to life once more. "I think they're to the south of your manor. Some distance, though. A desert away. Do we have any satellites we can jack into to scout the desert? Maybe a ship recognition program? We don't have much time!"

  Christine solemnly shook her head. "No, Val. The highly coordinated system of spy satellites back on Earth is allowed only thanks to the physics of your universe. A dreadnought is more than capable of at least limited spying, but they have the power and heat sinks necessary to facilitate at most a dozen such cameras. A battleship might have one. Of course, all ships have visual screens that allow perfect resolution between nearby ships, or immediately outside the vessel, just as if you were looking out a boat's observation deck or glimpsing your counterpart during a video conference. But that's thanks to hyperion physics, not processing power. Our targeting systems use graphics symbols not much more sophisticated than Hollywood movies made in the 80's, even if our processing power is otherwise magnitudes greater than your own. The bottom line, Val, is that in this universe, a network of high-image satellites is only slightly more feasible than the internet itself."

  Val grimaced, suddenly recal
ling what passed for quality imagery here, their most sophisticated scanners capable of only the most grainy black and white pictures.

  Val shook his head.

  They were running out of time.

  "I need your fastest veli, and all the water and first aid supplies you can give me."

  Christine paled then, catching a glimpse of Val's dream. "Oh my god. That's... that's my daughter!"

  Val didn’t deny it. “I need to go. Now. You need to stay here and organize as many search parties as you can. Alright, Christine?"

  Christine blinked, as if in a daze, Andrey choosing that moment to enter the hallway, wordlessly wrapping his wife in his arms. "Is everything alright, honey?"

  "It's my daughter, Andrey. Val's found my daughter, and she's dying!"

  Andrey stepped back, eyes filled with sudden alarm before turning flinty hard. "What the hell's happened to our daughter?"

  "I'm okay, dad," a rapidly dressed Julia assured, fully kitted in a customized suit of reflective plates and battlemesh. A gift from her mother, Val assumed. "It's not me."

  Andrey gazed at his wife in confusion.

  "I have another daughter, Andrey, and she's dying!"

  His look of surprise turned to hard focus. "Then we need to rescue her. Do we have a plan?"

  Julia nodded. "Val and I are grabbing the veli that Mother let me drive yesterday. Security's stocking it with water and first aid gear as we speak. You comfort mom and help her organize a search party, Val and I are off!"

  11

  The wind whipped through their hair as Julia drove the velimobile south along the blasted strip of flash-fried rock that passed for roads across in this part of Jordia, Val imagining it was far cheaper to just use a Dreadnought's lasers in a carefully modulated sequence of maneuvers than duplicate the millions of man-hours that went into his own country's highway system given the technology the Dominion had on hand, for a world far less populated than his own. Odd, disjointed thoughts flickered through his head before the anxious dread twisting in the pit of his stomach hit him again.

  He knew they were running out of time.

  Still, the feel of the wind whipping across his face as the veli began to vibrate with speed was a thrill like no other, his careful glances both noting Julia's deft maneuvering of their vehicle as well as the odd mix of anxiety and exhilaration she was also feeling. Skillful hands caressing the gears, coaxing every bit speed she could from the vehicle, Julia was lost in the zen of driving, needing Val only to point the way.

  Time passed. Julia's features tightened against the hot sun now peeking past the eastern horizon, and the pleasant chill was replaced by heat.

  Reveling in the ride no longer, all Val felt was dread.

  "Val?" Julia's anxious eyes met his own. They had seen no trace of his friends, and they had been searching for hours.

  Val grimaced, shaking his head. "I sure as hell am not giving up yet."

  Julia gave a sad nod. It didn’t take a genius to see that she had already given up hope, assuming she thought it any more than a panicked dream. But she would drive on, for his sake alone.

  He blinked. It was all so obvious! He arched his neck around, gazing in the direction Elise had been looking in when Gregor had mentioned the fireball they had seen. Gut twisting, knowing exactly what it meant, but no. No need to think such things...

  There. No fire, but just the tiniest whisper of smoke floating in the air, far to the north. Factoring in the direction Elise had craned her neck last night...

  "There!" Val said, jabbing with his finger. "Go west, fast as you can, just don't crash us!"

  Julia rolled her eyes. "Next time you're driving us, boyfriend."

  Val couldn't help but smile. "Just show me how."

  Time passed in a blur.

  Brilliant hope slowly turned to darkest despair.

  Julia slowed down, gently taking his hand in her own. "Val, honey..."

  "There!" Val shouted, heart racing, suddenly sensing it below as they skirted the lip of a massive crater where something had impacted long ago. Shelter from the heat and perhaps a makeshift landing strip, but unless you knew someone was in that crater, rescue would be near impossible.

  Julia had slowed to a cautious, careful crawl, circling rubble as best she could. "Val?" she said, slowing as they approached the obvious lip of the crater.

  But Val was already off, grabbing one of the med packs already set up, including water jugs, first aid kit, and what passed for normal saline solution bags here on Jordia, sliding down the smooth lip of the crater as fast as his feet would take him, before finding himself a heartbeat from a fatal tumble.

  Finesse check made! Quickness check made! You've managed to avoid falling on your face, dashing down the face of a crater!

  Heart in his throat, seeing the ruined ship covered in shadow just ahead, Val realized how close he had come to folly, the universe's mockery well-deserved, in this case.

  "Don't rush down like me, Julia, I'm an idiot!" he shouted as he picked up his pace.

  "I know!" said the girl behind him, but Val was racing ahead, heart in throat as he heard the scream.

  Time seemed to slow and break in that juddering way it had when terror and dread reached its peak, even as Val raced on, a half second of wonder at seeing the ruins of a ship he had last seen in what he had once thought was a dream, before he spied the hunched over form of a woman sobbing over a body gone still.

  Elise. There could be no doubt.

  Racing like a madman, he was there faster than Elise could blink. Eyes widening in surprise, utterly unaware, Val only realizing as his hand slammed down with a serpent's grace upon her Psiblade before she could draw it that he had entered Shadowmind, and only now was Elise gazing at him with such desperate hope and awe, sobbing in his arms as he suddenly found herself holding the exhausted, trembling Elise, a girl from his dreams, now sobbing for the man she loved.

  "Oh heaven's mercy, Val, it's you!" Her awed smile and tearful sobs turned desperate, her gaze strange in its intensity. "How? How are you even here?"

  "No time!" Val snapped, gazing at Sten's still form. Panic and a furious resolve to smash death in the face roared through his veins. His hot gaze pierced Elise's own. "How long?"

  Her face crumpled up in a sob. "He stopped breathing just seconds ago!"

  "Julia, I'm here, go carefully!" Val screamed before letting the icy chill overtake him once more, forcing the rage and desperation to cold intent. This wasn't the first time one of his brothers had been down, and now there was no enemy fire to contend with. He knew as much emergency first aid as anyone with his background would. And whether it would be enough to save his friends, he had advantages no Earthbound paramedic could match.

  "Okay!" Val shouted, immediately giving Sten chest compressions. "Elise, do you know how to insert an IV?"

  Elise gazed at Val in shock. He shook his head. No time. Yanking open his backpack. Plasma. Line. Needle. Find vein. No vein. Damn. It was madness, but they had no time. And what might kill a man on Earth could save him here. Val felt for the correct ribs, pulled a healing potion from storage and didn't hesitate to rip open the top of the IV bag he was holding and dump the fluid in before jabbing the needle where it needed to go and squeezing the top of the bag where he had ripped it, forcing the solution into Sten like a baker would force filling into a pastry.

  "Massage his heart, Elise. Chest compressions, just like you saw!"

  Elise was still gazing at Val in shock. Trembling. Val realized just how weak she was. Sudden panic. He needed a heartbeat for this to work!

  Then Julia, gazing at Sten with a surprisingly adept eye, frowning only once at Val's madness before seeing the odd shimmering red color of the potion in the plasma bag.

  "Fuck it, that just might work," she said, immediately doing chest compressions as Val slowly squeezed, forcing the fluid into Sten's body.

  "Who are you, what are you doing?" Elise whispered.

  "I'll explain later!" Val said, ga
zing carefully at Sten. "There's a water flask in the bag. Drink it, Elise. Slowly, though. Slowly. Then drink the second. When you're done, drink this." He handed her one of his half-dozen remaining healing potions.

  Julia's eyes widened. "But don't drink it before you hydrate! The magic will heal you, but dehydration is what's killing you. If you drink it now it will hyperactivate exhausted cells and might just kill you before it can do any good."

  Elise blinked at Val's potion-infused solution trickling into her beloved captain, not even bothering to sip her flask as Elise and Val worked.

  "Drink it, Elise. Now!" Julia snapped, sparing only a moment to glare at the girl who was her sister. Elise blinked, looking more confused than ever before slowly sipping, then gulping down the flask. "Slowly, Elise. You risk abrupt electrolyte imbalance if you rush things too much right now. Your body's closer to death than you know." Julia's critical eyes gazed at the exhausted woman even as her hands expertly performed chest compressions. "Damn it, okay. Drink Val's healing potion, now drink the other flask as fast as you can."

  And much to Val's relief as he finished squeezing in the first potion-infused bag of plasma, Elise did just that. It chilled him that she didn't seem to move or react at all, save stare at Sten, and Val's anxiety grew.

  Julia grimaced, clearly growing tired.

  "Okay, we'll alternate with this bag. Squeeze it in just like I did."

  "Val..."

  "Just do it!" Val shouted. Julia flinched, swallowed, jerking a nod.

  "Thank you," Val softly said as her tired hands carefully grabbed the bag by the corner he had ripped, pouring the second potion in just as Val took over compressions. Anxiety and the energy infused in his every cell feeding upon Jordia's rich flood of mana meant he wasn't tired in the least as he performed endless sets of compressions.

  "Val."

  "No! Prep a third bag. This is going to work!" Val shouted, refusing to pay attention to the treacherous sting in his eyes.