Prophecy (37 page)

“Oops, guess I don’t know my own strength. Not bad for an alien, huh?” she said grinning at the orb. It was time to change this to a full verbal assault.

Mariah knew she had surprised the Min’yel’os once again with her powerful psychic ability. She also knew the only way to stay alive and protect those in the room was to keep surprising them, keep them guessing as to her full potential, something she was not sure of herself.

Sateron and Aleris were speechless. Seconds ago they felt as though they were folding into themselves, becoming smaller and smaller until only their minds remained. Assembled into their natural state, they found themselves in the Sho’revra, in the presence of the Min’yel’os with Mariah grinning at them and Galaxaril standing off to her right, gazing at them with a perplexed look on his face.

Emmanuel, al-Amin, and Siddhartha emerged from their fright, never having experienced such total helplessness. They had not fought the sensation of being totally compressed, remembering Mariah’s admonishments; nevertheless they were delighted to feel back in their bodies once again.

I’ll explain later why you’re here. For now, you’ll be behind an energy field. Don’t touch it. I won’t have time to jump-start your hearts
.

Temporarily ignoring them after that sending, she turned her full attention back to the Min’yel’os.

“Okay, the gang’s all here. Proceed.”

The center of the orb lightened, the rose-colored center pulsing rhythmically but not threateningly.
For the time being
, she thought warily.

“WE WERE THE SYNADRACUS SIXTY-FIVE MILLION YEARS PRIOR WHEN THE PROPHECY WAS UNEARTHED. IT WAS CRYPTIC. OPEN TO INTERPRETATION. IT BESPOKE OF MASSIVE DESTRUCTION. EVIL ON AN UNPARALLELED SCALE. MAYHAP PSYCHIC ABILITY HITHERTO UNKNOWN. A SINGLE ENTITY WHICH WOULD CAUSE UNIVERSAL DEVASTATION. THIS PROPHECY BESPOKE THE SHEN’DALAH, THEY—OR IT, WE COULD NOT DEVISE—WHO WOULD CREATE AN ENTITY SO NAMED MAN’ASORAI. A SUPERSENSIBLE. AN INCOMPARABLE PSYCHIC. ABLE TO CAUSE THE RUIN OR COMBAT THIS CORRUPTION—OR JOIN IT. THE NETSOR’AH WAS NOT CLEAR.

“WE DELIBERATED. TO ALLOW UNCHECKED ANORASIAN EVOLUTION WOULD BE TO ALLOW EITHER ONE OR BOTH. POWERFULLY TELEPATHIC PERVERSIONS.

“EOCENE DICIT’LEDONI WAS DISCOVERED. WE ASSUME IT A GIFT FROM SHEN’DALAH. A WAY TO MAINTAIN OUR CIVILIZATION. A WAY TO CONTROL THE NATURAL PROCESS OF THE POPULATION AND ELIMINATING THE THREAT.”

So they had developed the biologically-engineered version of
dicit
in order to feed it circumspectly to their populace. Their reason for opting to exist in their current form had some altruistic basis of concern for their race.

But it had not worked. Millennia had found them further and further removed from their own race, creating this compassionless apathy.

“You are no less arrogant than humans
,
”Mariah said, directing her comments to the Min’yel’os. “The Shen’dalah could never have predicted that ten Anorasians would become insensate and turn into interplanetary bullies.”

The room was eerily quiet this time in awe rather than unease. Mariah looked around, her eyes settling on Galaxaril, he who was struggling to comprehend who she was and what was happening.

Turning back to the Min’yel’os she said softly, “The two Anorasian geneticists with me assumed that the Shen’dalah referred to
you
when the prophecy spoke of a great evil. And you thought it would be an Anorasian. If I may add fact to all this supposition: neither theory is correct. I have received messages of mindless terror, of fear so primitive it leaves the ones receiving it gibbering in madness. It incapacitates and demoralizes on a monumental level.

“What’s out there aggresses on a colossal scale encompassing the universe, not just this galaxy. It may even cross into other universes, other dimensions—who knows.”

Mariah sensed energy building up. She was expecting something from the Min’yel’os so she wasn’t caught off guard. She was about to find out just how powerful she had become.

The mass within the sphere deepened to blood red, the waving tentacles dashing themselves against their confines. With her hands still touching the orb, Mariah felt the psychic power of the eight remaining obelisks slam into her.

The blast of energy trying to penetrate her protective sheath was relentless. Staggering away from the orb she collapsed to her knees. The tightening of the sheath was painful as it worked feverishly to diffuse the energy.

Just when she thought she had finally reached the limit of what she could endure, power began to build within her. She was sure it was the dicit, accepting the tremendous energy in measured amounts, sucking up all that it could while still protecting her, discarding the rest into the air.

As though watching what the Min’yel’os did from outside her body, Mariah realized she had purposely provoked the Min’yel’os into expending this tremendous energy. And it wasn’t the first time she had goaded someone to build her psychic power by gaining more electrically-charged atoms. She had forced Ta’daeu into ordering three ships to fire on her and had enraged the violent winds in the Agrist K’anna.

The halo surrounding Mariah’s head spread outward. Sometime later, all that witnessed this would claim to have seen movement within it, but they could never be sure. What they did see was Mariah glowing brightly as she stood—feeding on, instead of fending off, the psychic force hurled at her by the Min’yel’os.

Too late, the Min’yel’os realized their mistake. They tried to disconnect the energy beam but couldn’t. Mariah was now in control, sucking them dry directly through the orb.

The purple center inside the sphere burst like an overripe pomegranate, splashing ichor against its boundaries. The malignantly waving tendrils shriveled, dropping to the bottom of the orb where they twitched and writhed in death throes like decapitated worms.

With a
crrrrrrrrak
! and a flash of blinding lavender light that filled the room the orb exploded, shards of glass-like shrapnel flying in all directions. The five behind the energy barrier were protected as pieces hit the shield and sparkled before disintegrating. Mariah protected Galaxaril as well from the flying debris with another shield: only the black obelisks were struck, gouged from the flotsam.

And then silence, almost as deafening as the earsplitting eruption. All that remained of the Min’yel’os’ communication sphere was the pedestal, untouched and useless, its reason for existence now gone.

Mariah stood bathed in a phosphorescent light, her eyes closed, the ghost of a smile on her lips. The sheath remained cobalt blue. The white glow from the halo encircling her head seemed to be alive, flowing up, down, and around her body. The light revolved so rapidly it seemed to be nearly motionless.

The power drawn from the Min’yel’os had caused her to enter another stage of development
.
The
dicit
was now even more intricately woven into Mariah’s DNA, the symbiotic relationship between her and it further enhanced. She was now as much a creature of energy as she was flesh and bone.

And she was now a psychic level 10.9.

Her eyes opened and she gazed thoughtfully at each of the towers, her attention drawn to the pallid lights at the crown.

Enlightenment caused her face to split in a huge grin that went from ear to ear. Removing the energy barriers from around her friends she said in her soft melodious voice, “Well, well, well. Those sneaky devils. You folks are in for a real surprise.”

Her eyes shifted to the top of the tower furthest left. The lights began to pulse slowly at first, gradually increasing until the rhythm was akin to a heartbeat. Then her gaze shifted downward ... and the band of red LEDs began to glow. The front of the tower undulated—and disappeared.

Startled, everyone’s thoughts were a mixture of disbelief and excitement. Several seconds went by ... then slowly, a figure emerged from within the depths of the obelisk.

He was nearly the same height and general physiognomy as Hesad. Taking several tentative steps forward and halting, anger clouded his eyes as he took in the assemblage.

He wore a golden tunic belted in filaments of black. It shone like polished steel and was like no cloth Mariah had ever seen. His royal blue leggings were caught two inches below his knee by soft and supple red boots tightened around his calves.

His thick, silver hair hung to his waist, catching the unnatural light of the room. His eyes were sea foam green, the sockets canted slightly. And the insignia of his race was a hologram of shifting colors on his chest.

Mariah wasted no time repeating the process until all the remaining towers, including the two she had previously disabled, were open. In a matter of minutes ten figures stood in the dim light of the chamber looking back at those who stared at them in varying degrees of wonder and shock.

“Just to clarify what everyone is thinking, let me introduce you to the
real
Min’yel’os.” Clasping her hands together Mariah felt like a child in front of her classmates during Show and Tell. “They had these sarcophagi built to keep their bodies in a cryogenic suspension while their consciousness was sent to the computer which sits at the top of the tower. How clever to give themselves an option. Their bodies have been lying in there the whole time, being nourished as their muscles were stimulated electrically.”

Five of the Min’yel’os were male and five were female. The stunned expressions on the faces of the two Anorasian scientists told the whole story. The human males held back reluctantly, eager to talk to these ancient beings but wary of what the revelation might bring.

Mariah addressed the Min’yel’os and the two scientists. “Now that you know Anorasian evolution has nothing to do with Netsor’ah, you need to form a new governing body based on growth and change. I believe the new guard could learn a lot from the old if past differences can be set aside. It won’t be easy; and the Min’yel’os must understand that they will have to share power. No more playing the Wizard of Oz and hiding behind the curtain.”

Mariah thought she saw several of the Min’yel’os nod imperceptibly, or was it just wishful thinking? No matter; she felt sure that, given time to reacquaint themselves with their populace, they would come to terms with their newfound sentiency and become part of the changes that would occur on Hakilam and throughout the Empire.

Now she could devote her energy to a matter that had become as pressing as the Min’yel’os.

“I’m more convinced than ever that the SOS I’ve been receiving from outer space has to do with Netsor’ah. I must find out who—or what—is sending it. I think I’ll take the Minister along with me. He’s been in politics for nearly two million years; I will, most assuredly, need his expertise. And he probably might like to do something different for a change.”

Mariah slipped into Galaxaril’s mind, traveling the same neural pathways as had the Min’yel’os when restoring part of his consciousness. It took several minutes, this psychic soldering, this mending of broken links, but she was finally rewarded. Slowly the light of intelligence replaced the Minister’s vacant stare. When he smiled beatifically, his eyes bright with understanding, Mariah knew he was restored.

“I would consider it an honor to accompany you in any endeavor,” he said, his voice hushed and reverent, trying to keep from falling to his knees in her presence. Regardless of what she said, he knew her to be Shen’dalah.

“Not so, my friend. You identified the Shen’dalahincorrectly. Shen’dalah is not a Supreme Being; it’s the name of a race, just like you are Anorasian and I am Human.” Turning to look at each one in the room individually, her eyes settled last on Aleris. “Because you lack the vocal chords to say their name properly I’m going to let you hear how beautiful it really sounds.”

Their minds suddenly filled with unsurpassed joy, of spirits soaring, of hearts infused with splendor. And a sound began to swell, filling not only their ears but their minds and hearts with exultation never before felt:

SSSSHHHHHHENNNN---DAAAALLLLAAAAA!

“That’s who they were, psychics who communicated with emotions as well as thoughts.” Mariah was pleased by their amazed and delighted faces. “By the way, not to confuse matters any more than they already are, but the Shen’dalah did not create the dicit. They may have actually inherited it from a race even older than themselves.”

She turned to face the ten who had emerged from the towers. “I need to pay a visit to a few people before Galaxaril and I leave. While I’m gone, he’ll need to make the ship ready.”

“‘Ship’?” Aleris said, confusion causing an uncharacteristic frown to settle on her brow. “A Stirilium cruiser or a warship will not take you where you need go. I would presume a MERS is not appropriate either. Of what ship do you speak?”

Galaxaril’s face flashed a triumphant smile and Mariah grinned back, sharing in his coup. Her gaze shifted to the one who had been first to emerge from his crypt.

“Go ahead. Tell them ‘what ship’.”

He made no response, just stared enigmatically at her. Mariah shook her head.
I guess it is going to take a while before they trust anyone
, she thought.

“THIS ship
,
”she said as the light from her energy sheath intensified.

The ground beneath their feet began to tremble and they heard the unmistakable sound of an engine grumbling to life. They never saw the eight pinnacles that surrounded the Sho’revra topple backwards like toothpicks—towers that were, in fact, nothing more than stabilizing ground clips. What they did experience was the sensation of rising ever so slightly.

“The Sho’revra is nothing more than the bridge of a massive space ship the Min’yel’os constructed even before Galaxaril’s time.” Mariah was enjoying herself immensely. “Our Minister discovered this not too long ago when he found androids moving purposefully in and out of an area he presumed was nothing more than a foundation for the Sho’revra. He also found the controls for the bios energy shield. That’s how I broke through the outside barrier: he managed to drop the shield for a few seconds before the Min’yel’os discovered what he’d done and put him out of commission.

“I’m assuming they built this ship to escape, just in case they needed to vacate Hakilam quickly. It’s been constantly maintained by androids and drones and tweaked as new technology came along. It’s state of the art both in weapons technology and maneuverability.

“And I need it.”

After a slight pause the first Min’yel’os to have left his crypt walked forward to stand directly in front of Mariah. Just an inch above six feet, he was an almost ethereal figure with his light amber skin and pale green eyes.

“I am Gevr’ah, the first Minister of Finance in the infancy of the Synadracus,” he said in a voice hoarse from millennia of disuse. Clearing his throat several times he said more clearly, “I was Shel’Zib when received the vision. Great wonder and trepidation did I glean from Shen’dalah’s touch.”

He paused, staring into Mariah’s eyes as if to judge her worthiness. With a slight nod he continued. “Past millennia, we also felt the distress signal of which you speak. It was filled with grief unspeakable yet did we sense therein horrific corruption. We sent ships to triangulate the message but they never returned. Persistently over eras we received signals and knew fear great.”

The ancient Anorasian continued to have only eyes for Mariah. He seemed to draw strength and comfort from what he saw there. Standing straighter he said, “Much do we need learn and hard will it be. From those here, Anorasian and Human, and You from most especially. We honor You this ship and will instruct Your complement in all its intricacies. Use it well, Man’asorai. Defense our races and our galaxy from the destruction prophesized.”

She smiled and the Anorasian felt warmth flow through him—warmth, and an emotion he had buried many millenniums past: trust.