Tebrey smiled to himself as he trotted down the corridor. He knew that Hunter would never have left him alone. He also knew that the panther could no more sit back and let the enemy run rampant than Tebrey could.
I do admit that I'm looking forward to seeing what Harris and Ghost can do, Hunter thought.
The marines were holding the corridor junction just before Medical on the Halberd, but at a terrible cost. Rolling black fire would slash out at a marine, and the marine would fall, screaming and writhing as they were consumed by it. The marines couldn't hold much longer.
"What have we got?" Mandor asked as he pressed himself against the bulkhead next to the small marine commander. Her armored spacesuit was singed in two places.
"Where the hell did you come from?" she asked. "Sir."
"Doesn't matter, Lieutenant."
"Right." She didn't sound convinced. "We've got a big, nasty Theta down that corridor. It's cloaking itself in some kind of opaque darkness. We've burned it bad a few times. It sure doesn't like us right now."
Mandor nodded. "I'm going in. Cover me."
The lieutenant grabbed his arm. Her eyes, seen though her faceplate, were wide with concern. "Sir! That's suicide!"
"Trust me, Lieutenant."
Mandor drew his pistol and his sword. He hoped they would be enough.
"Cease fire, damn you!" Tebrey yelled.
It was utter chaos aboard the Talisman. It seemed, from what Tebrey could glean out of the often incoherent communications channels, that there was more than one Theta entity aboard the ship. He wasn't sure if he believed that or not. His experience on the Kirov had taught him that the things could move around quite rapidly. It was obvious that they could apport. How else could they get aboard ships so easily?
The laser fire stopped, and Tebrey cautiously stuck his head around the corner. Three terrified crewmembers were huddled back-to-back with each other, keeping watch on the corridors.
"I'm here to help," Tebrey said loudly. "Have you seen anything?"
"N-n-n-no, sir."
"The way behind me is clear back to the bridge," said Tebrey. "Get back there and stay out of the way."
"Thank you, sir." They ran past him, two of them helping the third, who had a bad laser burn on one leg.
Tebrey shook his head in disgust. The crewman hadn't gotten that from a Theta.
Hunter? Do you know where Harris and Ghost are?
Sorry, they took off aft. I don't know, other than that.
Damn it, we're supposed to be working together.
I've got contact! Hunter growled into his mind.
Tebrey raced forward to the cross corridor and over to where Hunter was pacing angrily. Where?
It was right here!
I believe you, Tebrey replied. They move fast.
Hunter growled again.
There was a rattle of shots and screams from up ahead.
"Come on, Hunter!"
Chapter Seventy-Nine
Mandor plunged his blade toward the Theta with all of the mass and strength of his powered armor behind the blow, but the Theta faded away just before the blade struck, and his sword imbedded itself in the bulkhead. Even with the augmented power of his armor, he couldn't get the blade to come loose.
"God damn it!" Mandor swore, letting go of the now-useless sword. "Where the hell did it go?" he asked no one in particular.
"I don't know, sir," the marine lieutenant replied.
Mandor glanced at her in surprise. She had followed him out into the corridor after the Theta; he hadn't known she was there. I'll have to recruit her into my special unit, Mandor thought. Following him into battle against the Theta had taken guts.
"What's your name, soldier?"
"Lieutenant Muerta K'Liva, Admiral."
He nodded. He'd thought she was Thyrna-Shae, from her size. It was hard to tell through an armored spacesuit, though. "We need to find the Theta. Get your wounded into Medical and hole up there. See if the bridge crew can track it, and contact me if they can."
"Yes, sir."
Mandor gripped his pistol tighter. He hadn't used it before out of consideration for the marines who were behind him, and that might have just cost him the ship. Next time he'd use the pistol and hope for the best.
They'd be better off dying from the psionic shockwave than from what the Theta would do to them, anyway, he thought as he advanced.
Bruce sat in Mandor's office aboard the Arcadia and worried about his friend, the admiral. If the admiral were to die, it would be a serious blow to the Sentient Concord and to all of humanity. He wished Mandor had not decided that he needed to solve the problem with the Thetas personally.
He knew that for the admiral, the problem was extremely personal. Mandor's wife and daughter had been brutally murdered in front of him by a Theta when he was younger. The Theta had kept him alive to play with until one day, after months of torment, Mandor found a way to kill the thing.
It had marked Mandor in ways that even he couldn't guess.
Bruce was also worried about Tebrey. Putting the man in such a dangerous situation was not the best thing they could have done. Bruce remembered only too well the words of the Rhyrhan emissary. Tebrey was a wild card. If things went just right, he would be humanity's salvation; if not, its destruction.
It was almost too much to comprehend.
Bruce sighed and stood up. He'd make another attempt to find Drake. Not that he really wanted to be that close to the… whatever he was.
There was little else he could do.
Tebrey and Hunter tried to ignore the carnage around them, but it was very difficult. Rarely had they seen so much death, up close and personal. It reminded Tebrey too much of what had happened on the Kirov.
One of the Theta entities – Tebrey was sure there were two, now – had tortured its way through the whole front half of the ship. Hundreds of bodies lay strewn through the corridors in various degree of dismemberment. Most of people the things killed had been burned with the entropic fire, but a good number of them were torn and mangled. One poor bastard had, improbably, been frozen solid. He was now starting to thaw.
It killed each of them in the way they feared most, Hunter replied to Tebrey's unspoken question.
Try not to think about it.
You're the one I'm worried about, said Hunter. Are you going to be okay?
I'll be fine. Any sign of either of them? Tebrey asked.
No, Hunter thought. I feel them all around us, but I don't know where they are.
Compartment after compartment yielded the same grisly sights. Blood pooled in the corridor. Tebrey was painfully aware of time running out. He had to find the things and kill them before the Fleet decided to destroy the ship just to be sure.
Hunter scouted ahead again while Tebrey checked though each room.
The neo-panther's cry of pain cut through Tebrey's shields like a knife.
Where are you?
I'm ahead and to the left, Hunter cried out.
Tebrey ran forward, firing the quantum pistols as soon as he saw the dark creature in the corridor. Reality tore apart between him and the Theta. Even light was destroyed by the wave. The unleashed energy was transferred into the first layer of hyperspace, causing a shockwave there that threatened to shatter the delicate energy patterns of living bodies.
Pain slashed through Tebrey as the psionic backwash from the shockwave tore at his very soul. The dark entity before him was caught by both blasts, and its scream was almost as bad as the side effects of the pistols.
Deafening thunder boomed down the corridor as the ship's atmosphere flooded into the now-empty path of the beams. Tebrey dropped the pistols and drew his combat knife, wishing Ana had thought to bring the sword he'd been given on Cedeforthy. She had told him what Mandor said about it. It was still on his shelf at home, if the house hadn't been destroyed in the bombardment.
Hunter leapt upon the writhing form of the dying Theta and smashed its head into gory paste against the bulkhea
d. It collapsed and began to dissolve.
One down, Hunter thought to him.
Tebrey nodded mutely. The pistols had hurt him more than he'd thought possible, but he went back and picked them up anyway. They had been effective. One to go, he replied to Hunter. Hey, just one more to kill. Are you okay?
I got singed a bit, Hunter said. I'll be fine. His thoughts were laced with waves of almost unbearable pain.
Tebrey knew Hunter was injured worse than he was letting him know. He nodded grimly. Any sign of Harris and Ghost?
They were fighting one in engineering, but it's heading forward now. They follow.
Let's find this bastard and then get back to Ana.
The Theta appeared out of nowhere to smash the pistol from Mandor's hand.
Mandor cried out, and punched the Theta with his armored fist, but it was like striking thick dough. The Theta grabbed him and threw him down the corridor. It gestured, and black flames rolled over Mandor, searing him even through his armor. He screamed and clawed his way toward where his pistol had fallen, but the Theta scooped it up and crushed it contemptuously.
Then the real pain began, bringing with it memories long forgotten.
Hunter, go back to the bridge and get some aid, Tebrey thought.
I'm not going to leave you, replied Hunter.
"Damn it, Hunter, you're distracting me with your suffering. Go get it taken care of. A head-blind Homndruu could sense your pain. You'll give away our position."
Be careful, Hunter cautioned. This one is different. We've never encountered two in the same place before. Ghost is injured, too; she's going to meet me along the way. We'll be fine.
I'll be careful, Tebrey thought. I can't be everywhere at once. If you encounter the thing, don't try to take it on. Run. Don't attack it. Wait for me or Tonya to get there and shoot the damn thing.
The pain went on and on.
It brought back all the memories of his wife Gina and his daughter Mary-Ann that Mandor had kept suppressed for years. He knew that was exactly what the Theta wanted, but he couldn't keep the memories away, and the pain of their loss was worse than the pain from the dark fire.
He could feel his life force ebbing. He wanted to die. He wanted to have an end to the pain. He'd fought the enemy for too long.
A brilliant light suddenly blinded Mandor, but all he cared about was that it blocked out the pain. The light was so intense that it overloaded the sensors on his suit, but Mandor would later swear that it shone even through the alloy of his helmet.
He felt the Theta die and knew that he was safe, even if he didn't understand how.
Tebrey dove under a blast of dark fire and shot the thing with the quantum pistols again, but the Theta flickered out of the path of the annihilation and lashed at Tebrey with claws that were suddenly very material. Tebrey grunted in agony as the claws pierced his armor. He struggled to aim the pistols again, but they were smashed from his grasp.
Tonya fired from close-by, and the shockwave greyed out his vision, but the Theta was hit and screamed in rage. It blasted her from her feet with a wave of black fire. She screamed and didn't get back up. Tebrey didn't know if she was alive or not.
Come over to us, a thought invaded his mind.
Never!
Pain seared through him again as the claws punched through his armor and sank into his ribs. Dark fire flowed down the arms of the thing, corrupting and burning. Come to us. We'll make the pain go away. You'll never need to fear anything again. You'll live forever.
Agony wracked Tebrey. His neural blocks failed, and he could feel himself weakening. Hunter! he cried out mentally.
I'm with you, came the comforting thought from the great cat. Let me share your pain. We're coming to you. Hold on!
Tebrey knew that the neo-panthers would never make it to him in time; he was weakening too fast. Blood gushed from his wounds in throbbing pulses that were beginning to slow.
No! Tebrey thought angrily. He felt the Theta pause in its assault at the sudden force of his thoughts. No, I'm not going to fall. I never will.
The claws twisted deeper, and Tebrey cried out.
Tebrey punched and pounded on the thing, suddenly filled with a new resolve to live. Unbidden, the thought of how Lyra had fought the Theta on the Descubierta came into his mind. Tebrey screamed out his rage and frustration at the thing that held him pinned against the bulkhead, and blue-white flames raced down his arms over the steel of his suit and ate at the darkness. Suddenly the dark thing itself screamed, dropping him and stumbling back into the corridor. The blue flames rolled over it.
Tebrey fell to his knees and lashed out at it again with his new-found weapon. The blue fires seared into the thing until they burned from its eyes and mouth, burning it alive from the inside out.
The psionic scream ripped through the ship as the Theta died, sending crewmembers throughout the ship cowering. It died bound into its body, and its twisted soul died with it.
Tebrey crawled over to Tonya and checked her readouts. She was badly burned, but alive. He sat back against the bulkhead, panting in exhaustion and pain.
Things were definitely never going to be the same.
Lyra and the dark one had played a deadly game of tag through the corridors of the ravaged starship. Neither of them could land a killing blow, and she was starting to tire. It had been a long time since she'd had to fight without assistance from the Circle.
She was sickened by the carnage she saw. Never had she known the enemy to be so cruel and animalistic. One or two people killed in such a fashion, yes, but not hundreds slain in an orgy of gluttony.
The Circle need to know about what was happening here. They needed to know what these people were fighting against. The Mo'Ceri might be unconcerned with dark ones that had not once been Mo'Ceri – Lyra knew that was unfair even as she thought it – but even they could not stand by and watch this. At least some of them would help. She even suspected Brennen would come around, once she shared her memories with him. He could be cruel and cold, but she knew it was because he'd been burned so many times before.
Tebrey, her thoughts went out to him, but he was shielded behind pain. She was suddenly worried. The one he fought wasn't trying to kill him. It wanted to turn him. She prepared herself to apport over and assist Tebrey. They couldn't afford to lose him, one way or the other.
She suddenly felt the awakening that she had hoped to trigger in him. His soul burned like a beacon. Even from where she was, thousands of kilometers from the Talisman, she felt the death screams of the dark one that Tebrey fought. She felt the fire of life burn through and consume it.
Then she felt the presence on the Halberd.
She hadn't thought to find any of them in this place. This universe was so dark and cruel, but there it was.
The dark one she fought felt it as well. It was filled with fear, almost shocked into losing its fragile hold on itself. It was suddenly gone from the ship, fled deep into space, far away from Steinway, and Lyra was too tired to give chase.
She doubted she'd have been able to find it anyway. Even if she could, following it into its lair was not a good idea. It had no doubt gone to report to its masters the events that had occurred here. She wondered what they would make of it.
The brilliant light resolved itself into the form of a man. The Theta lay still upon the deck plating, quite dead and beginning dissolution.
"Bruce?" Mandor said quietly.
"I guess my secret is out," the being that had been Bruce Fresia replied with humor. "I've strived to help as best I could without direct intervention, but I couldn't allow you to die."
"Why?" asked Mandor. "Not that I'm complaining." He carefully stood and leaned against the bulkhead. All of his fatigue was catching up to him in a rush, and the pain of his burns was agonizing. Without the adrenaline of battle, all he wanted to do was find a place to curl up and sleep for a few days.
"You're important to the battle that will come," Bruce said.
"More
fighting?"
"When is there never war?" asked Bruce. "This is but the beginning of the war, the first skirmishes."
"How are we doing?" Mandor asked. He was afraid to know the answer.
"Better than you think. You have strong new allies, and the one that was in doubt has made his choice. There is nothing to fear there anymore." Bruce started to fade away.
"Wait!" Mandor cried out. "There's so much I need to ask you!"
You know what you need to know. Bruce's voice was in his mind. Lead our people well. I'll see you again when the time is right. Then he was gone.
Chapter Eighty
"I'm still having trouble believing that Bruce is an ascended being," Tebrey said. He and Tonya lay in Medical, plugged into a dozen machines. He was still weak from his ordeal, but happier than he'd ever been before. He had a weapon that couldn't be taken from him now. Lyra seemed surprised that he'd been able to do it without instruction, but she told him it just the beginning of what he'd be able to do.
"Tell me about it," Mandor replied bitterly. His injuries were less severe than Tebrey's, but only just. More than half of his body was swathed in bandages for the burns he'd sustained through his armor. He was irritated and frustrated at having been so close to an ascended being for so many years, and not knowing it. He had so many questions he wanted to ask one of them.
"Don't beat yourself up too bad," Tebrey said. "You couldn't have known. He was cloaking himself."
"I'd wondered why he didn't like being around Drake."
"Who does?" Tebrey frowned. "I wish I knew where my father was, actually. We could have used his help the other day."
"I talked with Geoffrey Meeks, the young man he brought here, now that he's had a chance to induction-learn Normarish. It seems that he remembered something that might have helped Drake find that missing friend of his. He thinks that's where Drake has gotten off to."
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