Starblazer- Through the Black Gate

by Reiter

  “You forget yourself, Z,” Jocasta panted. “This doesn’t require an engineer’s analysis. Not yet anyway.”

  “Then I exercise my option to take his punishment,” Dungias said, taking a long stride toward Jocasta. “He may not be crew, but as far as this operation is concerned, I endorsed it… when you were asking for my opinion! I fell short of my responsibility. This punishment is mine.”

  “Release my cane,” Jocasta commanded and Dungias did as he was told, taking a position between Nulaki and Jocasta. Their eyes never broke from one another, and Jocasta slapped Dungias with the back of her hand. She could hear the gasps coming from the corridor, and she was reminded of just how many were watching these events as they unfolded. Dungias did not move to defend himself, and the only place he put his eyes was on Jocasta.

  “An Upyri!!!” she cried. “You’ve never seen anything so dark, alien.”

  “I thought we had agreed that it was best not to assume such extremes with one another,” Dungias replied, staring fiercely at his Captain. “While I have not been forced to experience blood-feeders before this evening, what darkness my eyes have seen is a matter best visited when you are not so fiercely ruled by emotion!”

  “One of us has to have emotion, you white-haired freak!”

  “I suppose it is fortunate then, that you are now displaying enough emotion for three crews!” Dungias did not take his eyes off of Jocasta as he took a step away from her. “Cupid, Llaz, Siekor, kindly take Mr. Conadier to the regen in the infirmary. His willingness or not to go inside is not a consideration you should acknowledge unless you wish to join him.”

  “Yes sir,” Llaz replied sharply as he ran to take a hold of Nulaki’s feet.

  “Cutter, place a guard on Mr. Conadier,” Dungias instructed. “I am to be advised the moment he is conscious.”

  “Yes sir,” Annsura replied. “I will take first watch.”

  “Dugger, you take first watch,” Jocasta commanded.

  “Aye, Captain,” he said, immediately turning to leave the room.

  “Cutter, I need everyone ready to depart in thirty minutes,” Jocasta said as she caught Ephaliun’s departure out of the corner of her eye. There was a certainty to his stride. It was clear he did not like what was happening, but he had made his decision – he knew where he wanted to be. “… or didn’t anyone else notice I just happened to beat the crap out of our host?”

  Keep an open mind and recognize that seldom do we have enough information to confirm the impossible! Perspectives change when we see a shay-spawn best an iro-form master!

  Z’Gunok Tella Danatra

  (XI)

  “Yeah, it looks like that thing definitely came this way,” Tolarra said softly as she entered the chamber. She could hear moaning coming from the darkness, and the Star Lark decided to illuminate the matter. Slowly adding light to a forming orb in her hand, Tolarra created a lantern of living light and looked up toward the ceiling of the gigantic room. “Whoa! They used to say the truth will set you free. None of those people ever saw this place!”

  Slips dedicated to the construction of war vessels were smaller, and it was undoubtedly the largest room Tolarra had ever seen; much larger than what she remembered. There were no catwalks, no balconies, nothing to suggest the room was ever made to facilitate anything regarding a life-form her size. With only slight concentration dedicated to the task, the small sphere of light split into five of the same size. One flew to each corner and the original orb remained over Tolarra’s head.

  “By the stars! It’s you!” Tolarra gasped, looking at what she had thought was a pile of debris from a collapsed part of the room. The increased light allowed her to see that while there were a few cracks in the walls, nothing in the room had been destroyed, and the pile of debris was actually a gigantic form lying on its side.

  “Have you come… to finish… what you started?” Fission panted as pieces of his body fell away from his form. “Why did you… even leave me… alive?!”

  “Leave you alive?!” Tolarra barked. “When I bailed out of here, you were aggravated, a couple of warm spots on your body from where I blasted you, but that was it!”

  “That was your… first visit to… me, young entity,” Fission shared, feeling honesty in her tone and even more a change in demeanor in her presence from the last time he had laid eyes on this form.

  “And what’s this one?”

  “Your third,” he replied, trying to lift its head from the floor, but failing after only a few seconds of effort.

  “That bitch!” Tolarra fumed. “What did she do with my body?” She quickly shook her head and focused on the more important matter she had come to investigate. “We can get to that later. Is there anything I can do to help you?”

  “I have… been drained… of nearly… all my cosmic essence,” Fission explained. “It would seem… that your warning… was more accurate… than I wanted… to consider… more devious than you… would like to know.”

  “What do you mean?” Tolarra pressed.

  “Chamber has been… worked… so I cannot die, but I am kept… at the point… where I can… no longer… regenerate my power.”

  “You’re right, that’s pretty damn devious,” Tolarra said as she started to glow. “… but if it’s cosmic power you need, stand by!”

  Lifting his hand to keep her from enacting anything, Fission moaned in protest. “Don’t! As I said… creature that used… your body… was devious. I cannot see… all of what… she has done here. Expect… contingencies. Must find means… around her treachery.”

  “And how the hell do I do that?!” Tolarra barked.

  “You are entity… but still young. Deprived of my… ability to move… or enact my powers… I am still alive… capable of thought. Things I have… forgotten… you have yet… to learn.”

  “That sounds like the kind of offer I couldn’t begin to refuse,” Tolarra admitted. “What’s first?”

  “Will tell you how… to absorb light,” Fission said. He chuckled at the look of confusion the young female entity wore on her face. “Not as source of power… but source of life!”

  “And the difference being?”

  “Your mind… does nothing… with your light,” Fission stated. “We must… correct that.”

  “Jackpot!” she thought. “It was tracking my light that led me back here. I figured if I could follow where I had been while D’Vatri was in control of my body, I might be able to see what she was up to. This is a bonus!” The five lights near the ceiling flashed bright and burned near white hot as a point of light appeared just in front of Tolarra’s eyes and Fission’s forehead.

  The speed of thought was the only thing Tolarra knew to be faster than the speed of light. Light-transferred thought moved even more quickly through her mind and in a fraction of a second, Tolarra had been brought to a mastery level understanding of cosmic forces. She staggered back a step from the exchange and then flashed bright white as she engaged in the gathering and the reading of the light in the chamber. When that light died, Tolarra was on her knees in the center of a light-burned circle, breathing deeply and slowly. Her effort to remain calm was tremendous and still it nearly failed to achieve its objective. Only Tolarra’s thoughts of Chiaro stayed her wrath. The Light Priest had indeed warned her, but she had not given that warning its due respect. She had been allowed a very costly sort of hubris, but the time for such perspectives was behind her and she stood up, looking once more on Fission.

  “You’re a clever little bastard,” she smirked. “I’m not sure if I will ever find the means, but I will endeavor to repay you for this.”

  “Had I shared… more with you… initially… perhaps I… would not… have come to this,” Fission suggested. “You owe me… nothing.”

  “And there we will have to agree to disagree,” Tolarra spoke as she started glowing.

  “Good gracious, Freund,” she pondered, her thoughts mixing into one another, rapidly tumbling about in her mind as each revelat
ion created a bigger picture of what was happening in the Rims. “… is this why you sent me in the first place?! Did you see this coming too?! Scary, old, blind… did I already say scary? They’re playing chess… you’re playing Three-Card Monty! No one knows where the queen is, and you’re not telling!

  “And I need not get all beside myself wondering if I’m doing the exact right thing. If I stumble into an area where you don’t have a counter-plan, we’ll just smile and both agree that you should be more diabolical in the future!

  “No way was a Force of Creation going to listen to your glowing bird,” she muttered. “You counted on that! If Xaythra had destroyed him, then another would have been formed to take its place. You let a little formation slip and, BOOM, you’ve got yourself a recruit. If she beats him in the fashion she did, then you’ve got a woeful creature, remembering that one tried to warn him of what was coming. His power level might be right there with a newly made entity, but nowhere near as smart or experienced. Then you swoop down and take in the harvest!”

  “But… there is not… much here… but my knowledge,” Fission stated.

  “Do not be too sure of that, my friend,” Tolarra replied as her feet came away from the floor of the chamber. “I’m going to leave these lights with you. They’ll keep the place warm and as bright as you want it.”

  “Thank you, Star Lark,” Fission huffed.

  “I will return, Fission,” she said confidently. “I promise you that! And when I return, we will be taking you out of here. Whatever contingencies she’s arranged won’t matter. I’ll be taking those out when I get back.”

  “Ambitious,” he remarked.

  “Not yet,” she replied. “But give it time!” The largest of the five orbs descended down on Tolarra, creating a portal. She was teleported out of the chamber and out of the dimension.

  ** b *** t *** o *** r **

  Ernestan’s right hand moved away from the console now that he had deactivated his end of the comm-link. He leaned back in his chair, sighed, and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his left hand.

  “Is it so taxing to lie to a member of the Imperial House?” Kannadi asked as she offered a cup of herbal tea.

  “Hmmm?” Ernestan looked up at his student and then at the cup and saucer. “Oh. Thank you. No, I would say that more often than not, it is a simple task… save when you have genuine love and respect for the recipient of the lies. Princess Maradothia deserves the truth.”

  “But…”

  “But what can she do with it?” Ernestan asked rhetorically. “She is in the Prism Baronies! If she is to become what she aspires to be for the Empire, then her focus must be on those classes.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” G’Dalior said, maintaining his folded-arm, leaning-back pose against the far wall. His brace-com bleeped and he looked at the readout. “And it would seem that for the moment you are still out-thinking her, Star Gaper. She just accessed the Imperial Grid to activate a locator program. She has now verified my location, which she believes is in my office, as well as that of the rest of the family.” G’Dalior laughed as he slapped his leg. “That girl is most resourceful!” Kannadi giggled in agreement but Ernestan could not bring himself to laugh.

  “This cannot be right,” he said softly.

  “What is it, Master?” Kannadi said, quickly dismissing the elation.

  “Chanyelle is young,” Ernestan spoke as he continued to think things through. “… but logic and planning are easily seen when you witness her movements. I told you to have the circuit monitored because I suspected she would have put forward effort to have a second opinion on my sight.”

  “I must admit, that sounds like something she would do as well,” G’Dalior agreed before he turned to look at Ernestan. “Something amiss, Gaper?” G’Dalior’s lips were moving, but it was not his voice that came from his lips. Ernestan could not speak as he saw the wall behind G’Dalior crack and fall away, revealing a partial view of the stars the Star Gaper had never seen before. “When was the last time you had a waking vision?!”

  “I’ve never ha–” Ernestan’s office was rocked at the sound of multiple explosions. Everyone looked up and around as alarms sounded.

  “The palace is under attack!” one of the guards yelled and Ernestan looked at G’Dalior.

  “The locator program! That wasn’t the Princess!” Another series of explosions rocked the office and Ernestan fell out of his chair.

  “Master!” Kannadi called out to him as she rushed to his side. “You fell out of your chair!”

  “You don’t look well, old man,” The First Prince added as he came away from the wall... a very much solid wall now. There were also no alarms sounding off and no residual thunder from an explosion. G’Dalior’s brace-com beeped and he looked to receive a report. “But your mind is still very sharp. My sister just accessed the Imperial Grid.”

  “And now she has the location of the entire Imperial Family,” Ernestan whispered before looking at Kannadi. “Get me to my feet!”

  “Yes, Master,” the young Nalyik woman said, managing Ernestan’s weight with ease. As soon as he could stand, Ernestan lunged at his console.

  “She does?!” G’Dalior asked, once more at his brace-com. “Actually it would appear that she–”

  “This is Ernestan Geelmus, initiate a palace-wide alert immediately. The lives of the Imperial Family are in mortal danger! I repeat, an attack has been launched against the Imperial Palace and the targets are the members of the Imperial House!”

  “Star Gaper!” G’Dalior exclaimed as the sounds of the alarm could be heard throughout the palace.

  “I saw it, my Prince. I just witnessed a waking vision!”

  “A waking vision?! What are you talking about?!”

  “Your sister just ran a locator program, didn’t she?”

  “No,” G’Dalior replied. “She just made a comm-link with our aunt.”

  “But the explosions,” Ernestan whispered as he looked around. “They were targeting the Imperial Family. The locator program told them where they were.”

  “There is no locator program!” G’Dalior declared just as realization took hold of his mind and made his body shudder in fear. He could hear the doors to the Star Gaper’s outer office opening and heavy-booted footfalls quickly approaching. It was his security detail, the one that was always activated when a high-priority alarm was sounded. “But they would not need such a program now!

  “Guard, where is my family?!”

  “Sire, you are the only one registered to these grounds who has not reported to the Imperial Launch! A portal has been prepared to take you there.”

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a young voice suggested from the far side of the office. Everyone turned to see a slender female form standing in the corner. She wore a dark blue body suit with silver markings and a mask of the same color. The security detail responded by drawing and charging their weapons as they moved in between the mysterious female and the First Prince of the Empire. A massive explosion sounded off in the distance, and the office shook as screams could be heard amongst the sounds of breaking glass.

  “Light of Tarranos!” the Prince whispered as he reached to the nearest wall to keep his balance. “What was that?!”

  “That was probably the hangar where one might find the Imperial Launch,” the female figure advised. G’Dalior’s face lost its color as his eyes gaped wide. “But I wouldn’t worry much… my colleagues evacuated the area before the blast.

  “You’re going to find that the energy behind the blast – and also behind your Gaper’s false visions – is KaA. One of the Energies you’re weakest against. This one comes to you courtesy of MoGo!”

  “So you say!” G’Dalior asserted. “You could have arranged it and–”

  “Worked all of this to gain your trust,” the female nodded, waving off the argument. “Yeah, we figured you’d want to go that route.” A glimmer of yellow light flared around the woman’s body and she began to fade. �
�Just ask yourself, when your Gaper reached into MoGo, did anything reach back? They have strict rules they have to follow in regards to how they can take action against mortals in the mortal realm. But they get to break just about all of them when one of us goes meddling with one of them!

  “Might want to look into that,” she said as she was nearly gone. “My people might not be in the area next time!”

  Looking out on familiar faces, all of whom were smiling, Megan removed her mask. “Well, that’s the last way I thought my first visit to the Inner Rim would go.”

  “I know what you mean,” Javier said as he removed his mask. His twin, Joslyn, was slower to remove her mask, looking awestruck at what she had just witnessed… an act she had assisted in making happen. “Auntie Leesha, good eyes!”

  “Seeing the matter was one thing,” Aleesha said softly. She was not able to talk any louder, as she was still weak and cold from the vision she had sought out. “You’re the ones who made the good moves. Nice portal-making, twins.”

  “Good work on all fronts,” Shuronne added, trying her best to give everyone her eyes. There were a number of people involved in the effort, but it did not feel like a team. Shuronne knew such togetherness would take time and she was willing to make every effort to start building bridges.

  “That was just too fuckin’ awesome,” Joslyn finally spoke, shaking her head in disbelief. “Did we just save the Emperor and the Empress of the Inner Rim?!”

  “That we did, Sis,” Javier smiled. “Managed to save their entourages too. I gotta admit, that was a sweet set-up: devices to prohibit the flow of MannA and ThoughtWill all over the hangar, and a huge KaA bomb in the middle of the Emperor’s Transport. Those people were dead meat!”

  “Yes, they were,” Kaila agreed, squinting her eyes and shaking her head.

  “Please remember that Survaysi is the master strategist, Kaila” Shuronne stated. “I’m barely hanging on by a thread here.”

  “Then you should know that this was not just demons,” Kaila declared. “They don’t do devices!”