The Blue of Antyllus

by Michael E. Gonzales

  “Not at all, Joe…Nista never stopped loving you, and never will. Nash and Isso will travel a great distance, and Nash will find Nista and do just exactly as you have asked him to do. Nista will travel all the way to Onellametsa Porr tie, the gate to the forest of great joy. There, as is the custom of the E’meset, she will make her love for you known. Then, you will be free to continue your journey.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “It will happen Joe…it has already happened…it is happening now.”

  Hand in hand Joe and the woman walked toward the light.

  “Are you an angel?” Joe asked.

  “Yes, Joe. And I’m here for you.”

  ○O○

  Nash watched as Joe smiled broadly. Then his eyes dilated and all expression left his face. Just then, the medic ran up and, after checking Joe with a med pad, he reported, “I’m sorry, y’all, this one’s gone.” He grabbed his medical kit and took off at a dead run, seeking out other wounded.

  Nash looked up at Isso whose great green eyes were swollen from crying.

  Isso was still holding Joe’s hand. He removed both his and Joe’s respirators and then slowly shook his head and began to chant a prayer for Joe.

  To their south, five explosions went off one right after the other. Nash knew these sounds were the large vehicle and delivery doors being blown open. He knew that with those doors open, the CDF would charge in and then, when it was safe for them, the E’meset would pack the place to the rafters.

  This fight was almost over. But there were still objectives to be met. The fate of the hostages was still unknown. Janet and Isso had told him about Sergeant Cimarron and his mission to get them away. So far, however, no flare had been observed.

  The mercenaries had to be stopped. And as soon as the atmosphere inside the building changed, thousands of E’meset would pour in. The mercs had to know that.

  Nash had set one other priority for himself. He would find Major Kuriko. He knew she would never offer to surrender. He greatly hoped she would not. No trial, no imprisonment for life. No, Nash wanted to see her dead. Today.

  Nash called his leaders together and explained that it was time to push into the building. He selected a squad to remain with the wounded.

  From behind him, Nash heard two soldiers talking. “Do you think they have any idea how many E’meset are about to come down on them?”

  “Hell, no. If they did, they’d all quit.”

  Nash spun around. “You know what? You’re exactly right! They don’t know. Because of the rain, they couldn’t see them all rushing the building, and they can’t see them now. We have to let them know. But how?”

  Isso stood. “I will show you, Captain Nash.” Isso pinched his throat with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand. He took a very deep breath and opened his mouth wide. From deep in his throat he produced an ear-splitting sound no human voice could possibly emulate. The instant he did, all the other E’meset who heard it also began to make the sound. Each throat added to the volume, and more E’meset ears detected it. In seconds, thousands of E’meset voices were creating an ethereal sound that had never before vibrated a human eardrum.

  As the sound permeated the factory, Janet told Nash that inside there was a small room hanging from the ceiling to the southeast. In this room was a PA system; the sniper had used it. From there, Nash could be heard by everyone inside the factory.

  Nash picked up Isso’s respirator and handed it to him. In E’meset, he said, “Let’s go.”

  Nash and Isso ran through the door and stood with their backs against a large machine. Looking back at the door, they were both surprised to see four mercenaries in respirators, two on either side of the door. They were just standing there, looking up and listening to the reverberation of the strange sound which was drowning out all other sounds, even that of the rain pounding on the building. The faces of these men were studies in perplexity and fear. They understood the sound was E’meset, and they understood it was the sound of their doom. They seemed to understand nothing else.

  The four mercs looked slowly at them and it took only a second for them to comprehend that the tall fellow was an E’meset warrior. Upon recognition, they slowly put their weapons down and backed away from them. They were speaking, but their voices were unintelligible. It appeared they were begging for their lives.

  The thought came to Nash as a voice from out of the blue, as if the thought was not his own. Nash slung his weapon over his shoulder and shouted out the door to the radioman. “Jensen, you hear me?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Call Charlie Oscar and tell him to hold off the final assault one hour.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Nash tapped Isso on the arm then walked around the corner and boldly headed down the path between the banks of machines. Isso was stunned, but he trusted Nash, so he took two large steps and caught up with him. Though he trusted Nash, he did not trust the mercenaries, so he kept his weapon at the ready.

  The sound issuing from the throats of the E’meset seemed to reverberate and amplify inside the factory. As they walked toward the southeast, the mercenaries they passed either laid down their arms or just stood looking at Isso as he walked by.

  Soon, they were closing in on the stairs that would take them up to the catwalk and, from there, into the office suspended from the ceiling.

  Some of the mercenaries walked out from behind their covered positions unarmed. Some stood frozen as the mysterious sound bombarded their ears.

  At the bottom of the stairs lay the body of the merc that was shot by the sniper. Nash and Isso were halfway up those stairs when, to their right, a single gunshot rang out. Every head jerked toward the spot from which the shot came just in time to see a body fall from the rafters. In the dead man’s hands, as he fell, Nash saw the sniper’s scoped rifle. On the catwalk, another merc was lowering his weapon. He glanced at Nash and Isso and set his rifle down and raised his hands. He had just shot the sniper that had killed Joe and who had apparently been lining them up in his sights.

  Nash entered the room in the rafters. It had been a monitoring station for a section of the machines down below. The room was full of bullet holes, the result of Joe’s fire. In the west wall was the PA. The power light was still on. Nash pushed the button and spoke, but his voice could not be heard above the mournful cry of the E’meset.

  Isso nodded and stepped back out onto the catwalk and emitted a high-pitched sound, like a chirp, and the thousands of E’meset voices fell mute. Inside the factory, the silence was deafening.

  Nash turned on the lights in the little room and spoke into the PA. “I am Captain Nash Rastaban. Many of you know me. Some of us have served together. You people have been lied to, and some of you know it. You think you are doing as you were hired to do, to protect IIEA property against the indigs and the CDF. The rest of you know exactly what has been happening here. I am speaking to all of you. In forty minutes, thousands of E’meset warriors, all of whom lost friends, family, and loved ones in the clinic, are going to come flooding in here looking for some payback. You have a choice to make: surrender now, or face the E’meset. Once the oxygen in here is gone, they’ll be all over you. Those of you who want to live, go outside — unarmed — and I guarantee your safety. Otherwise, all bets are off. You now have thirty-nine minutes.”

  Nash turned and left. By the time he and Isso got back outside to the place where Joe’s body lay, hundreds of mercenaries had already exited the factory and more were coming.

  ○O○

  Tanny and Day’Ka were standing in Nash’s unfinished condo. Tanny again glanced up at the tall ceiling and remembered Nash had told her he was preparing a home for the three of them. Nash had already seen them as a family. Tanny cursed the ignorance she had held onto so tightly. Tanny then took Day’ka’s hand as they ascended the steps up and into the dome.

  Here, they looked to the southeast where, in the distance, they could see the black clouds stretching from the south
all the way to the northeast. They watched as the ominous clouds slowly advanced.

  “That is the tihsad,” Day’Ka explained. “It is a very hard rain that comes every five Earth years. They are terrible storms that cause floods and can wash away entire villages. Have you never noticed that we only build in high places, safe from the angry waters of the tihsad?”

  “Day’Ka,” Tanny replied, “I’ve seldom been outside of the city. I’ve never seen any of your buildings except for those in Kulan Kaus.”

  “We have many beautiful villages and cities. All were abandoned during the first Ukse war, but we are rebuilding them now.”

  Tanny looked across the room and noticed the two boxes that she and Nash had sat on that night he told her about Day’Ka.

  She took Day’Ka by the hand and led him to the boxes and they sat down.

  “Day’Ka, I told you your father and I had had an argument, and that is true. But the whole truth is…he had told me about you and I…I reacted poorly. You see, I’ve never been married and I had always thought that the man I fell in love with would be like me. Your father brought me here to ask me to marry him. It was here that he told me he had been married before and had a child.

  “I discovered something about myself that night, and I didn’t like what I found. But I have changed, Day’Ka. My love for your father is stronger than any prejudice. I hope he’ll forgive me, I hope you’ll forgive me.”

  “Miss Tanny,” Day’Ka said, sounding very mature, “you recall I told you my father asked me to bring you that bouquet of wildflowers? In his note to me, he explained how much he loved you. He said you were angry with him for not having been truthful and that, on his return, he planned to do all in his power to regain your trust and marry you. He said I should bring you flowers, as you would be my new mother,” Day’Ka’s eyes then filled with tears.

  Tanny turned to him and they embraced. Tanny lifted his head, looked into his eyes where she saw the scared little boy. “Day’Ka,” she said, “Whatever happens…from here after…we are family.”

  Tanny’s COMde alerted her to an incoming communication. She cleared her throat and pulled herself together, then tapped the implant on the side of her head. The call was from Kathy Mitchel.

  “Doctor Austrini.” she said, trying to sound as much in control as possible.

  “Tanny, I would like you and Day’Ka to come to my office, please.”

  Tanny’s heart stopped. “Of course. Is everything all—” she paused and swallowed. “When?”

  “Now, Tanny.” There was a sound to her voice that caused Tanny to choke. She grabbed Day’Ka and headed to sector zero.

  ○O○

  Sitting alone in her office, Kathy and Dave had listened to the recording twice. It brought back the profound sadness they felt as they buried Chuck, and all who had died last year.

  Dave’s secretary notified him and Kathy that Doctor Austrini and Day’Ka had arrived. Dave paused a moment, taking Kathy’s hand. “Thank you, send them in.”

  Kathy and Dave could see the near-panicked state Tanny was in, and he observed the great tenderness with which Day’Ka cared for her.

  They sat in the chairs across from Kathy and Dave, and Tanny held tight to Day’Ka’s hand.

  “You have news about Nash?” she asked.

  “Yes, yes, we do,” Dave reported. “You can relax, he’s all right.”

  With that news, a great deal of nervous energy was released and Tanny began to cry. Day’Ka put his arm over her shoulder and comforted her.

  “When I called you,” Kathy added, “we had gotten information that made us fear the worst—fog of war, you know. We have since received a message from him that we recorded and I want to play for you. Please understand, we are using a technology well over a century old to communicate. It’s none too clear, so you have to listen closely.”

  Kathy pressed a button on her computer and Nash’s voice could be heard as if he were speaking through a wall of spurts and crackles.

  “Charlie Oscar, Charlie Oscar, this is Recon six actual, sit rep over.”

  “Recon six this is Charlie Oscar, send it, over.”

  “Charlie Oscar, as I speak, the remainder of the mercs are surrendering.

  “Moments ago, the rain stopped here, and from the east we all saw a red star cluster arch through the sky, indicating the hostages are safe. Mrs. Lindsey is safe, and with Recon team.

  “I would declare this mission accomplished except for the fact that the ringleaders of this mutiny are not yet in custody. We are looking for them now.”

  There came a long pause. “Charlie Oscar the price tag for this operation has been high. We don’t yet have a complete count, but several hundred E’meset have died. They insisted on accepting the brunt of the fighting because they know the numbers of humans on the planet are growing smaller every day.”

  There came another long pause. “My friend, First Lieutenant Joseph Billen, was killed in action this morning at one zero zero five hours. He died saving Mrs. Lindsey and another hostage, Serenity Reynolds. He was an exceptionally brave man. I will miss him greatly, and this colony…this planet, is the less for his loss.

  “It has just been reported that the sound of two V-tols has been heard to the south. It must be Kuriko. I am Oscar Mike in pursuit. Out.” The recording ended.

  Tanny sat quietly staring at nothing, tears streaming down her face.

  Dave spoke at last. “Tanny, my E’meset friends tell me you know Yalga and Nista.”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “I’m told you met with them not long before they vanished from Kulan Kaus.”

  “Vanished? I don’t know anyone who’s vanished.”

  “The girl was a Poh’palm meas—”

  “Oh, yes!” Tanny’s face lit up. “The girl with the mud.” Tanny looked at her wrists.

  “Joe was very much in love with her,” Kathy explained. “She hasn’t been informed, though she may know already. If you know how to contact her—”

  “She told me she would need me in the future. Could she have known?”

  “Tanny,” Kathy took her hand, “never underestimate these people. We haven’t yet scratched the surface of understanding them.”

  “I don’t know where she is, Kathy.”

  “Well, rest assured she knows where you are, and she probably knows that the future has arrived. You will most likely be seeing her, and soon.”

  Chapter 12

  HIGH MINDEDNESS

  Nash had his radio operator call the commander of the southern force and request a V-tol be flown from the motor pool to the west side to pick them up. They would then pursue Kuriko and the leaders of the revolt.

  Almost an hour had passed before three V-tols appeared in the sky above them. The lead vehicle landed and the door slid open.

  Nash and his radio operator leapt in. Isso stood, looking perplexed.

  “Afraid to fly?” Nash yelled at him over the drone of the engine.

  “No,” Isso shouted back. “I am too big, I think.”

  “Come on, you can fit! Hell, the pilot is, what, six five?”

  The pilot shouted back, “A hundred and ninety-eight centimeters, sir.”

  “See?” Nash shouted back to Isso. “Get in!”

  Isso, at two meters and thirteen centimeters, was quite tall, but he had no problem getting into the aircraft. His apprehension, however, was obvious.

  As the ship lifted off, Nash fitted a flight helmet onto Isso’s head that allowed him to talk to the crew. Then the pilot informed all aboard that the two enemy ships were using the southern mountains as cover and following them around to the east.

  “How do you know that?” Nash said into the mic of the headset.

  “It seems the E’meset have some form of communications through the forest, like jungle drums, smoke signals, or something. They notified the E’meset commander of the eastern contingent. He radioed me.”

  “All right. Let’s go get ’em.”


  The three V-tols flew over the top of the factory and headed northeast.

  New Roanoke and its immediate surroundings sat in the weathering remains of a great impact crater, eons old. The mountains, called Eya’Etee Ki Kee Reenot by the E’meset, were the remains of the rim of that crater.

  The E’meset called this place “Lu’aya tuenan maren cassistaw.” In English: the cupped hands of Lu’aya. Their legends told of a time when the world was a burning ember, and Lu’aya caused a moon to fall into the world. On this moon, Lu’aya had placed the spirits of all that lives, and so did all life come to Eya’Etee Ki Kee.

  Following intel relayed by the E’meset through the eastern force commander they were now flying to the northeast on what they hoped would be an intercept course.

  Below them was the triple canopy forest, what they called “The Wild Blue.”

  The storm had departed the area of the factory and was now to their northwest.

  Approaching the massive river Hau, they could see that it was greatly swollen from the rains. In its now muddy and violently churning waters, entire trees that had slid off the banks of the river were visible, and were now being washed downstream.

  Below them, easily visible because the rain had pushed the vegetation down, lay a set of ancient ruins. Several white stone buildings seemed to protrude out of the side of a hill at the western extant of a mountain range.

  Isso pointed down to it, saying, “That is Onellametsa Porr tie, the gate to the forest of great joy. Here come all souls at the time of parting, and through the gate enter Onellametsa. From there, life continues. With you come all your joys, all your sorrows, your loves and hates. Here is your heart weighed and your destiny set.”

  “So, it’s not heaven? No harps and white robes and streets paved in gold?” Nash asked.

  “It is life in the world beyond this world. There is happiness and joy. There is also danger and sorrow. It is life as life is. What would a people do in a world with nothing to strive for?”

  Ahead of them now was the lower Kau’Etay ― the river that flowed out of the west and cascaded down the great cliff, then flowed through the mountain valley where sat the great E’meset city of Vortain Val Leasa.