Hallowed Nebula

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Gravity pulled her down when the floor beneath her gave way. She tumbled, protecting her face from the glass cutting away at her face. Her hands came to reach onto the footbridge below the chamber, breaking her fall into the white river, whatever the hell it was made of. The bodies that fell into it didn’t rise up.

  She pulled herself up onto the bridge, cringing at the feeling of three or four pieces of glass stuck in her face and the stream of red that dripped. Ahead of Foster, Alisha’s body fell, a white glowing orb rolled out and away from Alisha’s EVA suit. It looked like an engram, memories of an individual in the form of psionic power. In fact, all the white orbs that decorated the inside of the chamber looked like engrams.

  The engram that rolled away caught Alisha’s attention. She panicked and cursed, jumping to her feet running for it. It was important to her, something that could be bargained with if Foster got to it first. Alisha ran for it, the orb rolled to Foster as she ran for it. Behind leaped Jainuzei, unfazed at the long drop, and didn’t hesitate to charge after Foster. He was moving faster than the two. Alisha getting the engram back first would be the least of Foster’s worries. Jainuzei was ready to rip Foster in half. The engram didn’t just become a means for forcing Alisha to stand down, it became a means for Foster to bargain for her life.

  Alisha leaped and dove for the engram with her hand out. Foster did the same and felt its warm solid touch when her hand came to rest on it. Alisha’s hand fell on top of Foster’s.

  A loud clank sounded from behind, another joined the three on the bridge.

  After pulling the engram away and getting to her feet, Foster saw who the fourth was. It was Karklosea, and she waved her redeemer in the air, flowing with psionic energy, screaming to Jainuzei, challenging him to face her.

  And face her he did.

  Just as Alisha stood to face Foster.

  72 Saressea

  Kur

  Hallowed Nebula Core

  July 30, 2119, 10:28 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  The chamber with its shattered glass floor was chaos, utter chaos. Saressea managed to pull back to the remaining 30 percent of the floor that was still together, though the white cracks on the remaining glass floor, looking like spider webs were stretching outward, was making her question its stability. It was like standing on thin ice, it was going to give way soon. Byikanea fighting with Tolukei and Chevallier didn’t help. The repeated blasts of psionic powers sent vibrations that only made the glass crack further and crumble slowly.

  Saressea and Lisette had to escape to the entrance, too bad it was on the other side of the new hole in the floor. They tiptoed around the hole in a slow attempt to reach the main entrance with Chevallier. They stopped when Byikanea jump ported and appeared floating above the hole, lifting her hands into the air, and gathered a torrent of psionic power. Above her was a swirl of lights rotating like clouds in a hurricane. The infamous psionic bomb was forming, and if it exploded, the blast would send the two hurtling down.

  Saressea led Lisette back, and the two ran up the staircase into the three-story altar. A violent explosion sent them flying, and the sound of glass shattering echoed. They got to their feet and climbed the stairs; the altar was the only safe place until Tolukei jump ported in to retrieve them. If he was alive after that.

  The second floor of the altar was full of the same white orbs displayed around its outer edge. Saressea established a comm link with her HNI when she and Lisette hid behind an ancient podium.

  “Please don’t tell me I’m the only one alive here,” Saressea transmitted.

  “We’re still up,” Chevallier’s voice played. “Not sure about Foster or Karklosea.”

  “Where did they go?”

  “They fell down after Jainuzei and Alisha.”

  “Why the fuck did she run in?”

  “Foster fell and Karklosea went in running to get her,” Maxwell cut in, and then paused. Gunfire echoed in the background. Chevallier must have gotten her rifle back. “I told her to stop, but I can’t speak her language, only Chevallier could who was busy.”

  “Saressea,” Chevallier said. “Can you get to us?”

  “Not easily, Lisette and I had to run into some damned altar up ahead—”

  LeBoeuf cut in. “Got Draconians coming in from behind!”

  “Guess this would be a bad time to ask for LeBoeuf or Tolukei to come get us?”

  “Ya think? We can’t even get to the captain or Karklosea,” Maxwell said. “You guys gotta come to us, there’s too much fucking shit shooting at us!”

  Saressea snorted. “You guys sound busy, how about I call you back later?” she cut the comm link, stood and faced Lisette. “Yeah, so I don’t have a plan for what happens next.”

  Lisette rolled her eyes. “Great . . .”

  Saressea returned down the flight of stairs observing the growing battle. At her feet was an ePistol, the one Alisha was using. The recent blast must have sent it flying back to her. It was an Earth made weapon but followed the same rules of Radiance magnetic pistols. Point it at someone you don’t like and pull the trigger. If the bullet hits, they’ll probably die, or will be showing you a new level of respect.

  Byikanea flashed ahead when Saressea went to return up the stairs. Her tail stiffened with fear, and then her whole body when Byikanea’s mind paralyzed her with the crushing feeling of telekinesis. Byikanea threw Saressea up the stairs like a ragdoll, and she landed face first then rolled across the floor.

  Byikanea appeared again, this time floating above Saressea, flicked her wrist and sent her body flying into a dragon statue. Lisette came running to Saressea, pushing her hand out to Byikanea. One of the pillars in the altar cracked and a piece of it shot away hitting Byikanea, she flipped over backward. Lisette wasn’t that bad a psionic after all, though it probably took all of her power to do that.

  Saressea got to her feet, drew the pistol, and inched her finger closer to its trigger. Flashbacks of Byikanea violating her raced through her head, it made it hard to pull the trigger, as much as she really wanted to. Saressea shook it off and pulled the trigger. Her bullets crashed into a psionic bubble Byikanea threw up as she leaped to her feet.

  “Two against one, Byikanea,” Saressea said. “Just give it up.”

  “Jainuzei and Alisha didn’t have Marduk on their minds . . .” Byikanea murmured.

  “Yep, they played you all, killed the whole leadership except you,” Saressea said. “And I did too, in case you didn’t figure it out.”

  Byikanea’s body turned to blue light and that carried her away somewhere. Saressea wasn’t sure where just that she and Lisette needed to run, it didn’t matter where they just needed to stay mobile. A moving target can’t be picked up by psionic thoughts easily.

  “I knew he was killing the leadership,” Byikanea said, appearing ahead of the two. Lisette pushed her back slightly with a telekinetic push. Saressea dodge-rolled behind a statue of the naked woman that was on the front door. “I allowed him to do it; he promised we would rule Radiance as king and queen after we brought Marduk back!”

  When Byikanea jump ported again, Saressea moved, and then turned to shoot when the chance arose. The large size of the statue was perfect, running around it, or using it to stay out of Byikanea’s line of sight, forcing her to sense her presence with ESP, draining more of her power in the process. Byikanea was growing tired, and her mental state wasn’t helping. It gave Saressea an idea.

  “Since Marduk isn’t coming back, why not just give it up?” Saressea taunted. “The SOM is finished and Jainuzei is a sleazy cheater.”

  “We were lovers,” Byikanea groaned. “Jainuzei lied to me, Alisha was his wife . . .”

  The more Saressea taunted, the more Byikanea became disturbed and haunted. Psionic powers were all in the mind, if a psionic user was going nuts and became mentally unstable, it would take their powers along for the ride. Jainuzei lied. Alisha lied. The SOM was a lie. Rubbing it in her face was driving her insane.

  The las
t jump port Byikanea made put her in front of the statue. She fell to her knees, the look of defeat forced her eyes to moisten, her fist smashed against the floor. Saressea slipped behind with Lisette, placing the pistol at the back of Byikanea’s head. Byikanea was finished, Saressea was not.

  Lisette pulled on her arm. “Leave her, let’s get out of here!”

  Saressea ignored her. Byikanea was a lunatic, a murderer, a rapist, someone that put a level of psychological trauma into Saressea’s head she’d never be able to recover from again. Saressea wanted to see her brains splatter across the statue. Make the naked woman with wings coming out her back, whoever the fuck she was supposed to be, see what happens when someone worships false deities.

  “I have to finish this . . .” Saressea groaned.

  “Come on!” This time Lisette pulled Saressea with her mind.

  The feeling that went through Saressea’s body was the same fear that hit her when Byikanea gripped Saressea with her mind for the first time. A flood of traumatic memories returned, distorting reality. Saressea was reliving that moment. When she looked at Lisette, she saw Byikanea.

  She went to shoot her, and her hand holding the pistol stiffened. Another telekinetic mind took control.

  “I have to finish this,” Byikanea said from behind. “I’m so close . . . I can bring Marduk back right now, he doesn’t have to have Armuzei’s body. He can have another. And I’ll see to it his first duty after his return is to punish Jainuzei and Alisha, the Terran alliance . . . everyone in the fucking galaxy that opposes me!”

  The Byikanea ahead of Saressea became Lisette again when her mind calmed. Being paralyzed by telekinesis left very little else for one to do. Behind her was the real Byikanea and she did something, she wasn’t sure what, just that it was enough to make Lisette back away, looking up. Byikanea was floating most likely. Lisette ran. It was something the two should have done.

  “And you . . . Saressea,” Byikanea said. “You also misled me. I’ll see to it Marduk takes you first, unless . . .”

  Unless? Saressea couldn’t open her mouth to speak.

  “Answer a question for me,” Byikanea said. “Are you a believer? A believer of the three false Gods of Radiance? Or the one true God of Gods, Marduk?!”

  Byikanea partially released her grip over Saressea’s head. It allowed her to reveal. “I believe that you are one crazy fucking bitch.”

  With Saressea’s head free to move, she looked up and saw the swirling waves of psionic energy, the makings of a psionic bomb. Her plan backfired, Byikanea’s disturbed mental state turned into rage. An angry psionic mind was like giving a gun to a kid. If Saressea pulled the trigger, this could have been avoided. If she and Lisette ran, this could have been avoided. Someone was going to die for all this, and she hoped she would be the one to suffer.

  Byikanea pulled a large white orb from the statue of the woman and made it float before her. Byikanea’s eyes searched the altar, her mouth open with fury.

  “Where is the Nephilim?”

  “She kinda dipped when you were rambling.”

  Byikanea raged, screaming and yelling, making the interior of the altar shake and rumble. Her loss of focus released Saressea from her telekinetic grip, and she fell to the floor. Beside Saressea was the pistol, she took it back, and looked up at the psionic bomb growing in size. If it exploded, it might take out the whole chamber, it was fueled by Byikanea’s anger and sorrow.

  There wasn’t enough time to take aim. Saressea simply pointed the weapon up and started shooting, hoping one of the bullets would end Byikanea. The first two bullets hit her psionic barrier, the third hit the ceiling, the fourth hit the orb.

  Everything went white. The world around Saressea started to fall, the floor wasn’t together, neither were the walls or ceiling. The altar crumbled and fell to the bridge and white river below the chamber.

  73 Karklosea

  Kur

  Hallowed Nebula Core

  July 30, 2119, 10:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  Karklosea eyed her opponent, Jainuzei, the large powerfully built Aryile man, with a heavy suit of armor covered in the weapons he collected over the years. She approached him with her redeemer in its blade form in hand and her psionic wrist shield on her left wrist. Jainuzei was true to his word, replacing his firearm with an equivalent weapon. From the back of his suit, he drew a plasma katana, powered it on, making its blade glow with a bright green light from the plasma that illuminated the blade.

  The bridge they stood on had very little in terms of cover. Karklosea needed this fight to be on her own terms, she needed to not be shot at. She needed to win.

  Her feet carried her to him as she made four rapid thrusts with the redeemer, thrusts that were parried by Jainuzei’s control of the katana. She retreated behind her shield, deflecting his strikes as he handled the weapon as if he were an ancient human warrior of the bushido. Samurai as she recalled the term was.

  The energy shields of Jainuzei’s armor were still active, blocking her attempts to lift, pull, or push him off the edge of the bridge with telekinesis. It was a shame, as he remained still enough at times for her mind to get a lock. She had to take down his shields, after that she could flick him away into the white river below.

  “Have I ever told you the story of a man that refused to die?” Jainuzei said as their blades, full of energy, clashed.

  Karklosea jump ported behind him, hoping to blindside him. Jainuzei’s parry was quick. “Can’t say you have,” she finally replied.

  “He was an evil man,” Jainuzei said as their dueling blades fought. “He worked hard to bring down the Celestial Order. During our final encounter, we dueled like this over a bridge. As a matter of fact, this katana belonged to him.”

  “So, you admit it at last.”

  “Yes, I was part of the Order, indoctrinated by their sorcery, as was Alisha.” Jainuzei made a vertical slash. Her jump port put her two feet out of its reach. “After the defeat of the Order, Alisha and I retreated into the darkness, praying to Gods that don’t truly exist, for a means to seek vengeance. As time went on, the effects of the indoctrination faded, and we discovered how it happened in the first place.”

  The Celestial Order used ancient gems to warp the minds of people. The old Patriarch Radiance during that dark era had a staff with an orb inside it, just like the gems. Karklosea remembered watching fine sailors turn to the aid of the Order when a Muodiry wielding the staff and the ancient alien object used in it.

  “I’m aware how your minds became weak,” Karklosea said.

  “Then you must be aware that the staff, Order gems, and the white orbs in them are one and the same as with the engram.”

  She grimaced, thinking about the white orbs in the chamber above. They looked exactly like the center of an Order gem, and the orb inside the Patriarch’s staff. Kur, Marduk, the Celestial Order, Sirius, there was a connection. Her will to live increased and she had a feeling nobody saw the connection she did. The galaxy had to know.

  Her making the connection nearly cost her life when Jainuzei made a three-folded slash. Her armor got singed, a plume of smoke rose away from the damaged metal and electronics inside. Her psionic wrist shield deflected the two remaining strikes.

  “The Poniga and Undine are able to create engrams,” Jainuzei revealed. “It’s a technique the Lyonria developed, converting thoughts, memories . . . one’s entire conscious into psionic energy that can be transferred to another. Alisha and I searched for the truth about the Order’s ability to indoctrinate people, it led us to Sirius, which led us to the reports of Foster, which led us to the discovery of the Marduk-worshiping Poniga tribes and Undine clans.”

  She flashed four feet away with a jump port, and felt her mind grow tired, and saw the purple glow of her psionic shield dim. She had to conserve her mental strength.

  “The SOM . . . so it really was your creation,” Karklosea said, and waited for him to make the next move.

  “Yes,” Jainuzei said, chargi
ng at her, resuming their dance of the blades. “But not to bring back Marduk, but to take advantage of the gifts he offered, the gifts Foster turned down when she was in Sirius. My love for Alisha is strong, stronger than any woman I met. I pledged my life to do anything for her, even stay behind on Sirius to build the cult and send it on the mission Alisha wanted. Unfortunately, the leadership turned their backs on us, pushing for Marduk’s resurrection instead of the one we wanted. So, you see, Karklosea, that is why I have been slaying their members and leaders sparing Byikanea. She had the potential to side with us when our true plans were to be revealed. My cock was quite good at making her do whatever I wanted.”

  Jainuzei wouldn’t yield, the battery pack he used to power his suit and weapons had a while to go. Meanwhile, repeated use of jump ports weakened Karklosea’s mind as did retreating behind her shield and keeping the psionic energy flowing through the blade of the redeemer.

  If her mind grew tired now, she’d lose the shield and the sword’s psionic plasma. Jainuzei, on the other hand, he just needed to have a full battery. Even then, he had various guns on him that could be used to finish her, none of which he was using because of his honor code. If she had switched to rifle mode, he’d pull out his. If she lost her weapon, he’d use his fists. Jainuzei wanted to beat her in a fair fight.

  So, what would happen if we weren’t fighting?

  Karklosea made a jump port away, the final one she’d make in the bout. Jainuzei spun, readied his plasma katana, and prepared to charge and slash. He stopped when Karklosea threw her redeemer to the bridge below, and then got to her knees placing her hands behind her head.

  “I yield,” Karklosea said, her eyes looking down in case he wasn’t the man of honor he claimed to be. She just gave him the power to behead her and would rather not see it coming if it came to that.