Authors: Paula Bradley
“Prime Commander, the
Lepitera
has returned. I have visual.” First Pilot Meron Drango stared at the vid-screen, shaking his head in bewilderment. “What is the purpose of these maneuvers?”
Bridge Captain Meron Senala was himself perplexed, but his voice never betrayed his state of mind. “Evidently they tried to lose the missile with a series of hyperspatial transports. They failed of course. And now comprehend the futility.” Satisfaction lit his otherwise expressionless eyes. “It appears the traitors are ready to submit.”
“Hail, Prehendere
,
”Mariah sent to the Stirilium Cruiser’s NMIP. “Your little bomb is sure dogged. I’m impressed.”
As before, the neural processor on board the battle cruiser thought it communicated with the
Lepitera’s
NMIP.
“
What is the purpose of this information exchange? You are more than capable of comprehending the nature of the missile that has targeted your signature. Do you wish to record final data for posterity
?”
“Like a last will and testament? Not just yet. In fact, your little guy is under the impression that you have a major short in your circuits. Oh, wait, what he actually said was “the gate is down, the lights are flashing, but the train ain’t a-coming.”
The NMIP tried to fit the words into some comprehensible pattern but failed. Assuming some malfunction in transmission, it requested a repeat send.
Grinning, Mariah sent what she prayed would sound like the Intezelin: “You have, once again, given me an incorrect target stream. Apparently, you are incapable of this simple procedure. You must remove yourself to an amelioration terminal immediately for renovation.”
Indignantly, the NMIP shot back:
“
The data stream transmitting from this unit is correct. Therefore, the fault lies in your comprehension capabilities. Since you are obviously unable to lock onto your specified target, I will download and hard copy the target’s signature to your data core without need of your receptors
.”
Mariah had allowed this last transmission to flow from the
Prehendere
to the Intezelin. Not waiting for the exchange between the two highly sophisticated processors, she gave Sateron the sign—and the
Lepitera
jumped to within twenty thousand miles of the Stirilium Cruiser.
The last step to this seemingly erratic operation was the most delicate. Panting with exertion, body shaking so hard her teeth chattered, Mariah leaped to her feet, her knees nearly buckling as the
Prehendere
appeared on the vid-screen
.
If they were off by even hundredths of a second ... well, no sense in thinking about that. They had one shot only.
“Hey, guys, quit bitching at each other. It’s nearly Showtime!”
The exchange between the Intezelin and the
Prehendere’s
NMIP ceased immediately. If the incoming transmission had been received from another neural processor, they could have locked onto the signature and eliminated the intruder; however, neither had ever been addressed by anything but another processor over their encrypted neural pathways.
“
I do not recognize your authority to transmit on my dedicated path
,” huffed the
Prehendere’s
NMIP, ever protective of its protocol.
“That’s cool, but here I am. What the fuck are you going to do about it?”
At a loss for a response, the processor scanned its massive database for a solution. Mariah had counted on enough arrogance being programmed into its core to keep this exchange from the Anorasians on board the Cruiser—and she was right.
It was time for the Stirilium Cruiser to become part of this drama.
“Once again, they have disappeared from our sensors.” Meron Drango’s voice was low and shaky, tight with a new sensation: fear. No target had ever acted in such a strange manner. It was disconcerting, these inexplicable changes.
What can be their reason for these fanciful artifices
? Senala thought darkly. Aloud, he said, “The one they harbor does not understand the competence of the Intezelin. The traitors allow it to believe it can outmaneuver the missile. False hope to keep it busy until...”
He never finished the sentence. Breaking protocol in his excitement, Meron Drango interrupted his Prime Commander. “The
Lepitera
is on screen, no more than five thousand miles from our location. Obviously it is ready to surrender!”
Senala frowned, ignoring the breach of etiquette. While he’d been trying to follow the erratic movements of his prey, something of great importance had escaped his attention.
And the sudden appearance of the
Lepitera
inexplicably caused his heart to beat erratically for the first time in his life.
“Get ready,” Mariah growled softly through clenched teeth. She was more exhausted than she had ever been in her life, her two hearts pumping fiercely, hard enough to potentially break through her chest wall. The communication between the two processors had dangerously weakened her and she prayed she was strong enough to complete the task.
She clung to a secondary panel array. Her legs were on the verge of collapsing with as much anxiety as fatigue, but she could not have remained seated if she were tied down.
Mariah took full advantage of the
Prehendere’s
NMIP being momentarily off-line as it scanned its data bank for information on how to deal with sentient intrusion on its encrypted neural pathway. She had run out of options; if she failed, the Min’yel’os had won. But she had one more act to this play and she was going to enjoy herself as the curtain came down.
“No more screwing around, little buddy, here is your final download. No questions, no hesitation. Complete your mission, you bag of microchip turds.
“
Ready ... set ... here it is
!”
In one heartbeat, Mariah downloaded to the Intezelin Torpedo and at the same time screamed “
Now
!” to Sateron. The
Lepitera
transported, arriving no more than a thousand feet in front of the
Prehendere
. The Intezelin jumped with them, locking on to the final signature it was given.
The MERS shook violently as energy beam projectors hit her in three areas. The battle cruiser was now engaged. Knocked off her feet, Mariah cracked her head on the corner of the panel array as she went down then slid across the floor and crashed into another panel array.
The two Anorasians were nearly sucked out of their pods; however, the force fields that encapsulated them held and they suffered no more than momentary pain from the jolt. Even though Mariah had anticipated this, knowing Prime Commander Senala would get itchy if the MERS got too close, she was stunned by the ferocity of the attack and continued to lie where she had fallen.
“
Do it
!” came her strangled cry—and Sateron jabbed the final preprogrammed sequence button.
The
Prehendere’s
NMIP tried to correct the signature pathway of the Intezelin Torpedo at the last second, but it was too late. Mariah’s “Little Buddy” had been jerked around enough. It had a clear signature, the target Mariah had downloaded was right before it...
And in a spectacular eruption of super-heated flames so hot that gouts of red and white illuminated the heavens for thousands of miles, the Intezelin Torpedo self-destructed, annihilating itself and its target ... the Stirilium Cruiser
Prehendere
. Both became nothing more than infinitesimal particles that would forever float in the void.
With the concussive waves from the explosion catching it fractionally before its completed hyperspatial transport, the
Lepitera
skidded and bucked, swerving sideways like a pickup truck on black ice. Its neural processor blinked off-line, having been previously hit by the energy beam projectors and now this rupturing blast. Anticipating this, Sateron manually adjusted all the relays to stabilize the vessel. The
Lepitera
slewed and almost went into a roll, but was marginally saved when the NMIP came back on-line and resumed control of the shuddering MERS, bringing it to balance.
Aleris instantly disengaged the field surrounding her pod, moving swiftly to Mariah’s side. She knelt over the prone figure only to have the object of her concern roll over onto its back and say wearily, “Mother, that was close.”
Aleris was not smiling as she looked down at Mariah. She then lifted her eyes to her colleague. Relief washed through him, knowing the Hevru was not permanently damaged. Unlike his colleague, his smile was one of unadulterated joy as he experienced a rush of relief and exhilaration. Nothing had ever beaten a Stirilium Cruiser or escaped a deadly Intezelin Torpedo!
With Aleris’ help, Mariah rose unsteadily to her feet. Her smile was thin, her voice reedy. “Feeling pretty invincible, are we?”
“You have given me the experience of many lifetimes,” Sateron exulted. “If I had not been so concerned for our safety, I would have basked more completely in your luminosity!”
Sitting down heavily in her pod, she nodded at his compliment. “Let’s get the hell out of here. Don’t imagine for a second that the Min’yel’os are through with us. They’ll be even more, shall we say, agitated when they find out I destroyed one of their indestructible war ships with one of their infallible bombs.
“I’m going to sleep. Wake me when we get there.”
Aleris watched Mariah head for her sleeping quarters, a slight frown on her brow. She could no longer teach this human in her fight with the Min’yel’os, could only lend support. She had never felt so helpless or so frightened for another’s safety.
The remainder of the journey to Izorach was uneventful. Mariah slept for twelve hours; upon awakening, she realized that, for the first time since she blew up the surveillance van, she had not completely recovered. One thing was back to normal, however: her appetite. As usual, she was famished. Buoyed by her victory, her belly finally full, she looked forward to who—and what—awaited her on Izorach.
With the
Lepitera
well hidden from the surface by low hanging clouds, the three boarded a personal transport vehicle. As Sateron piloted them down to the lab, Mariah stared out the portal, fascinated by the harsh landscape, captivated as they descended into the deep gorge of the Agrist K’anna. She was impressed with Sateron’s expertise as he maneuvered the craft through a narrow opening in the gorge, around some lethal-looking rock projections, and over a quartz labyrinth that brought them into some mean turbulence. She was tickled at the reprimand he received from the vehicle’s on-board processor and Aleris’ long-suffering sigh.
The PTV began to ascend. While it corrected for the change in air pressure, it alerted them to the one hundred fifty miles-per-hour wind velocity. Lifting her head, Mariah listened; the howling wind above seemed far closer than the five hundred feet Sateron claimed it to be. She shuddered, a sudden prescience filling her with dread.
They veered left and the transport vehicle decelerated as it approached the chasm wall. Sateron sent his personal signal to the Protective Energy Array panel and Mariah watched as the rock face disintegrated. The red glowing lights in the darkened hole wound up being the landing lights of a hangar.
Their craft glided through the PEA then followed a path of sequentially blinking lights to its cradle where it settled. Sateron flipped the hatch switch; in a moment, they stood on the landing pad.
Quickly closing the distance between them, Emmanuel approached, arms outstretched, a broad smile on his face. One pace behind, al-Amin and Siddhartha also welcomed her with their own warm smiles.
Enfolded in his arms, Mariah leaned into his strength, smelling the aroma of freshly shaved wood and soap. Just for a moment she burrowed her face into his chest as she had with Thomas, her arms encircling his waist, holding tightly to his solid presence. His arms tightened protectively; he felt her hearts beating against his body.
Sighing, she loosened her hold and stepped back to look up at him. Moving further away, she reached for al-Amin, grinning at his exuberant expression. He responded by engulfing her in his arms in a fiercely protective and nearly bone-crushing hug. As he loosened his hold, he gently communicated his reassurance while bringing her hand to his lips and lightly kissing her fingers.
Taking her eyes from him she looked to Siddhartha on her right. Mariah closed her eyes for a moment as she felt his physical presence surrounding her in a gentle but possessive embrace. This one always made her feel at peace and she reveled in this sensation, needing his steady comfort now more than ever.
The smiles on the faces of the three men faded as Mariah stared with eyes fixed and unfocused. She cocked her head, listening to something they could not hear. The Three glanced anxiously at the Anorasians who did not appear to be perturbed by Mariah’s behavior, only watching her closely to see what she would do next.
She began to walk purposefully toward the back of the hangar, heading for the Vectored Energy Field that led to the living quarters. All they could do was follow.
Picking up speed, she passed through the VEF without a moment’s hesitation then turned sharply to the right, sliding through another VEF that separated the living quarters from the Humid Zone.
Unnoticed was the moist air that settled on their skin and the smell of ripened foliage that insinuated itself in their nostrils. In the diffused light filtering through the trees, the three humans and two Anorasians followed Mariah to the fork in the main path. Without hesitation, she headed left and followed the fuchsia ground cover.
As she approached the grove of quercus trees, they all began to hear a faint humming. Startled, they realized it came from the moss-like entities clustered on the trees. Never before had the Eocene dicit’ledoni made a sound; now, however, they seemed to have found their voice.
Mariah took several steps closer until she stood in the middle of the grove, her eyes closed, apparently unaware of the effect she was having on the dicit. Light willow-green in color, stark against the mahogany of the trees, every one of them began to quiver. Bunching up like inchworms, their front segments came off the bark then arced in a slight curve. The Anorasians had this effect on them; however, what happened next had never been witnessed by any living being either on Hakilam, Izorach, or Earth.
The Eocene dicit’ledoni began to fade, casting out ghostly illuminated wisps of the willow green color that filtered eerily through the grove of trees. The strands of light began to coalesce and intensify as the filaments began to touch Mariah as if drawn by the magnetism of her body. Once they touched her, they turned a glowing white, so bright it nearly blinded those watching. In a matter of seconds, the light engulfed her completely, obliterating her from view.
The intensity of the humming increased. Later, Aleris would remark to the others that she was sure she heard unrecognizable speech intertwined with the steady hum.
Several minutes later, the light dissipated, the glowing tendrils breaking up as if they were nothing more than fine mist caught in the gleam of an early morning sun. For several heartbeats, Mariah stood with her back to the ones who stood on the path.
Then she turned to face them ... and they were thunderstruck by what emanated from the depths of her eyes.
And more so by the other changes in her appearance.