The Fallen

by Paul B Spence

He felt the forces of pure chaos surging through his fingers. It would be so easy to open a rift into the quantum froth and burn these puny things and their world in the fires of raw creation. However, he couldn't be sure that Tebrey wasn't among them. He wouldn't risk killing his son.

  He bowed his head to the inevitable, but vowed vengeance if his son had been harmed. If that had happened, he would return to this world and watch it burn.

  "We need to go back," Onyx said. "Something has happened."

  Lyra nodded. "Go. I'll stay with Tebrey until we get this sorted out. Tell them..." She trailed off, looking pained "Tell them I will refuse any contact."

  Emerald looked hurt, but Onyx shook his head in understanding. There were issues that had to be addressed before there could be any hope of reconciliation.

  The simulated dawn had been a few hours before, but no one had entered the small park where they were hiding. Tebrey didn't expect anyone to show up; the park hadn't been popular even when he lived here. In the state it was in now, he imagined most people would avoid it out of fear.

  Once the others left, Lyra turned to Tebrey. "So, who can we trust here?"

  "On Valhalla?" Tebrey said. "I don't know anyone here anymore. We'd have to go to the Sentient Concord to find someone that I would say I actually trusted."

  "Fair enough," said Lyra. "We'll have to be careful from here on out. I can sense enemy forces moving against us. Coming here the way we did has attracted their attention. We don't want to lead them back to the Concord."

  "No, that wouldn't be good at all."

  "Can you get a message to them?" she asked.

  "Interstellar communications will be monitored. That assumes the lines of communication are even still open. The Concord and the Federation were on the verge of open warfare when I left. I doubt the situation has improved."

  "What about chartering a ship?"

  "With what?" Tebrey asked. "I don't even have my armor or weapons to sell. We're going to be lucky to find food."

  "Sustenance isn't considered a basic right?" Lyra was appalled.

  "Sure it is," said Tebrey, "if you're a citizen of the Federation. I'm considered either dead or a fugitive by now. I don't dare try to access my accounts. I wouldn't have enough credits for a ship anyway."

  "Given the situation Emerald saved you from," Lyra said, "you were probably declared dead."

  "True, but they're going to know I'm alive as soon as I activate my link. If I've been flagged, security forces would be all over us in minutes."

  "They're going to learn about you anyway. Hunter isn't exactly inconspicuous."

  "I may have an idea," Tebrey said finally.

  "What is it, and why do I feel like I'm not going to like it?"

  "Because you're not going to like it," Tebrey replied. "I need to find out what ships are stationed here."

  "What the hell happened to you?" Mandor asked as Drake reappeared. The man was covered with burns. The side of his face was blistered, blackened, and charred, and his other burns were almost as bad. His clothes were still smoking.

  "What about Tebrey?" Ana pleaded.

  Drake grimaced. It had been a long time since he had felt such pain. It wasn't something that he had missed when he transcended his physical form. "He wasn't there, but he had been. It appeared that he had only just escaped from pursuers. Unfortunately, that meant they were there for me to encounter."

  "Since you say pursuers, I assume it wasn't a Theta," said Mandor. "I wouldn't have thought that anything less would be a problem for you."

  Drake laughed wryly. "I'm good, but I'm not a god, Shadovsky. I don't know what those beings were that were waiting for me. They were like, but unlike, myself."

  "That's a scary thought," said Mandor.

  Ana was crying softly as she touched Drake's face. "You've been badly burned; you need medical attention."

  "Have I?" Drake said. He winced as his fingers found exposed bone on his face. "I suppose I have. I'm not sure what good the local witch doctors can do, but I will consent to receiving such treatment."

  "Doesn't that hurt?" asked Mason.

  "Hmm? Oh, yes. It hurts quite a lot, actually. One forgets such sensations and the effect they can have on the body. I must apologize."

  "Why?"

  "I believe I am going to faint. Do see about medical treatment, would you?"

  With that, Drake collapsed heavily to the floor.

  Chapter Sixty-Three

  Sergeant Liam McGee was well into his third liter of beer when he felt a vice-like hand clamp down on his shoulder. "What the devil?" he muttered, turning his head.

  "It's been a long time, Sergeant," said Tebrey. "Good to see you again."

  "Bless my eyes if it isn't the commander himself. Where's that pretty little wife of yours?" He'd noticed the tall woman Tebrey was with, and he didn't approve.

  Tebrey smiled. "May we join you? I promise to tell you a tall tale."

  "Sit," said McGee. "Sit! After what we've been through together..." He trailed off, shaking his head. He ordered up drinks for them.

  Tebrey laughed and sat opposite McGee; Lyra sat to his right. "McGee, this is Lyra. She's a friend who recently helped me with some trouble."

  McGee's eyes narrowed. "What kind of trouble?"

  "The worst kind," Tebrey replied.

  "That's a good friend, then," McGee said agreeably. "Any friend of Tebrey's is a friend of mine." He shook her hand rigorously, and gave her his most charming grin. She was an attractive woman, after all.

  "Ana is doing fine, McGee," Tebrey said in answer to the earlier question. "Hunter is with me, but waiting outside in a side corridor. I'm looking forward to getting home to Ana, but I keep running into snags."

  "Like what?" McGee said, eyeing Lyra's curvaceous form.

  "Like being legally dead, for one."

  "How'd that come about?" asked McGee after downing a large swig of beer.

  "You heard about what happened to Prism?"

  "Yes, I heard the Concord up and bombed them. Didn't make any sense to me."

  "That's because it's a lie, McGee."

  "What makes you say that?"

  "I was there when it happened."

  McGee quirked an eyebrow at him.

  "That's why I'm legally dead."

  "I can understand that," McGee replied. "I'm just trying to think of why it ain't more than just legally, begging your pardon."

  Lyra laughed. "I can see why you like him, Tebrey," she said in clipped English.

  "Told you he was sharp," Tebrey said. "McGee, suffice it say that I was rescued in an extraordinary way."

  "What really happened there?"

  "Admiral Meleeka uncovered problems in the Admiralty. I was working for her, but she was found out. They tried to take me, too. When that failed, they tried to kill me by killing the planet I was on."

  "Problems?" asked McGee. "They?"

  "Bad problems, McGee. They as in them," Tebrey said.

  McGee took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Them," he drawled. That wasn't something he ever wanted to get involved with again, but he owed Tebrey his life. More than once. "You're in a pickle," he finally said.

  "You have a gift for understatement, Sergeant."

  "So what are you going to do about it?"

  "The admiral gave me a list of captains who were loyal to her. It seems a certain Captain John Hutchinson is on that list."

  "I'll be damned," said McGee. "He never said a thing about it. I wonder if the lieutenant knows?"

  "Is that Amelia Christopher?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Even better, then," said Tebrey. "I need to talk to the captain in private. Is there any way you can get us up to the ship? Without making it official?"

  "You know what you're asking me to do?"

  "I do, McGee, but everything is at stake here."

  "What do you mean by everything?"

  "The Federation, the Concord, humanity," Tebrey said. "Kiss 'em all goodbye if we don't stop
what is coming."

  "Mighty tall order, even for you, isn't it?"

  "You know anyone else who wants the job?"

  "Captain, I think we have a problem, sir."

  "What is it, Ensign?" asked Captain Hutchinson.

  "Sensors are picking up too much bio-mass on the shuttle coming in, sir. She's our bird, but there are a lot more than two people aboard her."

  "Bring us to alert status." The captain punched a button on his air screen as the security alert rang out through the ship. "Lieutenant Christopher?"

  "Yes, Captain?" came her distracted voice. He could hear the unmistakable sounds of a weapon being checked and loaded.

  "We have a problem with our shuttle," he began. "It seems that Sergeant McGee has brought a few friends with him."

  "Uninvited, I assume," she answered.

  "I can't imagine the sergeant aiding an enemy willingly. I thought I would let whomever it is think they have us fooled, to keep them from trying to hold our shipmates hostage. Take a marine squad and be ready to take them when they dock. I would prefer that you take prisoners, Lieutenant, but do what you have to do to keep our people safe."

  "I'm on it, sir."

  The airlock cycled only a few minutes after the shuttle glided gracefully into the docking bay. Lieutenant Christopher and her squad of marines were in full vacuum combat armor. She'd ordered them to stay out of line of sight of the shuttle as it came in.

  Sergeant McGee was the first out of the airlock. He was grabbed and thrown roughly to the side. It was a sign of how far the situation in the Federation had deteriorated, that the two marines guarding the sergeant didn't hesitate to keep him under their guns.

  "Wait!" he cried out.

  "What's the situation, Sergeant?" Christopher demanded.

  "Everything is fine," he said hurriedly. "I brought someone up that needed to see the captain. It was urgent!"

  Lieutenant Christopher cursed under her breath. "McGee, if this is some kind of prank, you're going to find yourself in the brig for the rest of your life. You'll be lucky if the captain doesn't just space you."

  "I had no choice, Lieutenant. I was under secure orders."

  "What's this, now?"

  "Sir, Lt. Commander Tebrey is on that shuttle. He needs to talk to the captain urgently."

  Christopher twitched when McGee named the commander. Tebrey had saved their lives on Cedeforthy, despite everything that idiot of a scientist expedition leader had done. "He's the person on the shuttle?"

  "Yes, sir. Him and that cat of his, and another person."

  "Shit. Wait here." She strode to the open lock. "Lt. Commander Hrothgar Tebrey?" she called out.

  "Yes. Is that Lt. Christopher?"

  It was his voice, all right. "It is, Commander. You picked a hell of a way to go about this. You should have called ahead."

  "I'm afraid circumstances were such that I couldn't safely do that. The message may have been intercepted. May I assume from your tone that you won't shoot us on sight when we step out? We're unarmed."

  "You may, but don't do anything else stupid. I've orders to arrest everyone on this shuttle. You're headed for the brig."

  "I need to speak with the captain, Lieutenant – urgently."

  "That's up to him, sir. You know the rules."

  Tebrey stepped out of the airlock with his hands on his head, fingers laced, palms up. "Good to see you again, Lieutenant. I wish it were under other circumstances."

  "You picked a hell of a way to get our attention," she said. She pulled his arms down and cuffed him, aware that he was letting her do it. "I hope you know what you're doing."

  "Me, too."

  Chapter Sixty-Four

  "That was unusual," Daeren Drake said as he sat up in bed.

  Mandor looked up from his portable computer. "How do you feel?"

  "Better, thank you." Drake reached up and touched the fresh skin on his face. Ana was sleeping curled up in a chair to the side. "How long was I unconscious?"

  "About fourteen hours," said Mandor. "You were growing new skin before we could get you out of the facility."

  Drake smiled.

  It was the kind of smile that held secrets, Mandor reflected. As if the Mona Lisa had been an alien. Mandor was forcefully reminded that Drake wasn't remotely human every time he started to get comfortable with him. Mandor didn't have a problem with non-humans. It was just that Drake wasn't even close. Dr. Kainoa had taken a genetic sample from Drake to analyze and had practically gone into convulsions at the results. Drake was alien in a way that a Rhyrhan or even a Nurgg was not.

  "I trust nothing untoward happened while I was... asleep?" asked Drake.

  "No," Mandor replied. "Ana was up all night. She's quite taken with you."

  "I can be very charming," Drake said without a trace of irony.

  Mandor chuckled. "Says the man who assaulted me in my office."

  "And yet here we are," Drake said.

  "Here we are," Mandor agreed. He was hesitant to ask, but... "What are you?"

  "I don't know," Drake answered soberly after the briefest hesitation. "I don't think I ever knew. I met a man like myself once. Except that he was purest evil. I hunted him for years."

  Mandor swallowed nervously. He hadn't expected Drake to actually answer him. "Did you find him?"

  "No," Drake replied, laughing softly. "Someone, or some thing, got to him before I did. By that time I was quite adept with weapons of all kinds; I had devoted my life to war."

  "For how long?" Mandor asked. His mouth was dry; he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

  "Far too long," said Drake. "Let us say that it was longer than most of your people's recorded history, and leave it at that. I had found this place in my travels. Ironically, I was seeking a place of peace. I settled down here. I liked it. I thought for a time that I could be happy here. I found a woman I loved, and it had been many years since that had happened."

  "Amanda Tebrey."

  "Yes," Drake said. There was an infinity of sorrow in his voice. "I did love her, even if she was mortal. I didn't expect her to become pregnant, though. My people rarely produce offspring, but that makes them more precious to us. I loved that boy with all my heart. When I thought them both dead..." He stopped to get his voice under control. "I didn't care anymore after that. I almost fell into darkness. I wanted my answers again. I went seeking knowledge, and I gave myself to it completely. I became a monk in a faraway place. I gave up my titles, my Realms, everything. I wanted nothing but oblivion. I got this instead."

  "You ascended," Mandor said in awe.

  "I did," Drake replied. "Then, I knew what it was I'd fought all those years before. It was a destroyer of worlds, one of the Fallen, of my own people."

  "It sounds like it was more powerful than anything we've encountered here."

  "I would think so. No offense, but my people have a much greater potential than yours. Ascension, or falling, exaggerates – amplifies – the qualities of a race, good or bad. If you are more than just human to begin with..."

  "I see your point."

  "These local things you are having problems with were once human. They have human strengths and weaknesses. It is my son that I worry for."

  "Why? He's fought them for years. He's done okay."

  Drake was shaking his head. "If they get to him, they could turn him, force him to fall. It has happened before. People will do just about anything to make the pain stop."

  "I thought that a person could only fall when reaching for ascension," Mandor said quietly. What Drake said make a frightening kind of sense. He remembered only too well the dark promises amidst the pain from long ago.

  "You are mistaken. A person can be pushed closer to the threshold. If they reach it in the depths of despair and anger, they fall."

  "Tebrey would be a powerful Theta if he fell?"

  "If he were to fall, he'd have all the potential of my race, not just yours."

  "Oh, shit," said Mandor.

  "Indeed. My so
n needs training to fight them. I can teach him the correct path, but we must find him before they do."

  "I think we need to step back from this for a moment and let tempers cool," said Leander. "We don't really know what happened here."

  Brennen looked up from his bed with angrily. "We got our asses handed to us," he said. "We were lucky to avoid losing anyone."

  "Were we?" Leander asked.

  The Circle had gathered in Brennen's quarters to discuss what had happened the night before. It was rare for them to meet in the flesh, but it had been a long night, and the Mo'Ceri were being uncooperative.

  "What's that supposed to mean?" asked David.

  "An entity so powerful that it swatted down hundreds of Mo'Ceri who came near it showed up here, and no one died? That doesn't sound like the enemy I know."

  "It was after Tebrey," Brennen growled.

  "So were you," Ryan said angrily.

  "My point," Leander interjected, "is that whatever it was, it didn't really try to kill anyone. Considering the casual power it displayed, I'd say it could have."

  "If Brennen had been a normal man, it would have killed him," David added.

  "I wasn't ready for it," said Brennen. "The next time will be different."

  "But does there have to be a next time?" Leander asked. "Why was it seeking Tebrey?"

  "It wanted to turn him, obviously."

  "I don't think so. I talked to some of the Mo'Ceri who were injured in the attack. They all say that it refrained from actually killing. They all agree it could have killed many of them, too. It could probably have killed you as well."

  Brennen shrugged painfully. He was quite battered. If he'd been human, the first hit would have killed him. Many of the others of the Circle probably wouldn't have survived such an attack, but how could it have known exactly how much force to apply? If it knew the truth about him...

  "I don't think it was the enemy," Sondra said. "It was not darkness, but light."

  "There was plenty of darkness there, lady," Brennen said.

  "But the light shone through it. It was almost as if it was made of both the light and the dark, like a stellar nebula. It is not like the Mo'Ceri, nor is it like the enemy. I would like to talk to it if I have the chance. We should know what it is, and why it wanted Tebrey."