Atlantis Rising (41 page)

Terri looked down at her arm for
a second and got a questioning look on her face.

“Your nanites are not active
here,” the voice said. “They’re not allowed in the trials.”

The first figure was starting to
get up off the floor. It stumbled around as if it was drunk and was clutching
its left arm. It shook its head several times as if trying to clear it.

Terri locked her eyes on the
figure with the sword as she kept track of the first figure. They were
maneuvering to try to catch Terri between them. The figure with the sword
resumed his attack, the sword blurring with the speed. Terri, as calm as could
be, deflected each attack as she backed up from the assault.

The unarmed figure, directly
behind her, stepped in to grab her. Jon gasped as he watched Terri perform a
back flip into the air over the figure behind her, her sword blurring as she
passed over it. She landed on her feet behind it, in a crouch. She held her
sword at a forty-five degree angle, arm extended with her head held slightly
down.

The figure Terri had leapt over
fell to the floor as he caught his head in his hands. The last figure howled,
rushing Terri, sword raised. That was its fatal mistake. It realized too late,
as Terri rolled to the side and her sword flashed out. The figure’s sword
clattered to the ground with both hands still grasping it. Terri stood up and
turned back to the small circle, her back to the howling figure that was
looking at its stumps. Terri did a quick spin and her sword flashed out. The
howling suddenly stopped when the figure’s head fell to the ground. Terri jerked
her sword in a downward motion and purple blood splattered the ground as she
stepped back into the circle. Terri rested the sword tip on the floor, with
both hands on the pommel.

“Seems you can use a sword quite
well, something rarely seen,” the voice said.

“I have a great teacher, though
I’m what he would call ‘a novice.’ He trains our elite units and gives basic
training to our troops and personnel,” Terri said.

“You mean the ADF?” the voice
said.

“I mean our as I have said,”
Terri said. “My allegiance will always be to my brother, Ga’sahde or not. Since
my brother is the ADF, then yes you can say I mean the ADF too.”

“Interesting,” the voice said.
“It is evident you have the skills to be a Cypher.”

“I know your rules,” Terri said.
“If I pass these trials I must pick a ruler to serve under, and that ruler will
be the only power I have to answer to. While I would control the guilds, the
ruler would in effect be my commander.”

“Yes, it is part of the process,”
the voice said. “We have no allegiance and that is why you must choose someone
to answer to. The choices made by the head of the guilds direct the guilds
power. It can be for peace or war depending on the ruler chosen.”

“You already know my choice,”
Terri said.

“Are you sure of your choice at
this point?” the voice said.

“I know where my loyalties lie,”
Terri said. “I will rebuild the guilds and serve the people the way they need
to be served. Darkness has ruled this Galaxy for far too long, and it’s time
for the people to have some hope. My brother is that hope and he will bring the
people together. Something he has started doing already.”

“There is a darkness greater than
the Invaru Emperor seeping into the Galaxy,” the voice said. “And for now, it
is the Invaru holding it at bay. I’m afraid your brother might have started a
cascade of events that will cost millions of lives.”

“What he has the potential to do
or not do, has not yet been seen,” Terri said. “As for this new darkness, we
will deal with it when the time comes.”

“That time is fast approaching,”
the voice said.

“And we will be ready,” Terri
said.

“I hope so,” the voice said.
“Does he understand the responsibilities which will be placed on him?”

“No,” Terri said. “But he will
adapt. He has done so before.”

Jon frowned at the hologram as he
spoke, “Great.”

“He will have to be well
protected,” the voice said. “If he dies it forces you to choose another and the
second choice might not be to your liking.”

“He is already well protected,”
Terri said.

“I captured him easily,” the
voice said.

“That was a fluke, you didn’t
actually capture him. He came with me.” Terri said. “If this wasn’t what it
was, there would be very little you could do to stop me from getting to him.”

“Pretty sure of yourself aren’t
you?” the voice said.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Terri said.
“But for my brother I would die trying. I love him more than my own life.”

“Humans are interesting
creatures,” the voice said.

The holo suddenly went dead as
the door opened and the strange figure stepped into the room. Jon stood up and
faced him as the figure searched him for a weapon.

“I have no weapons and I’m not
here to do you harm,” the figure said. “My name is Cantella, I’m one of the
last Ga’sahde in existence.”

“You’re a Ga’sahde?” Jon said. “I
thought you all were dead.”

Cantella shook her head as she
spoke, “No, there are about fifty of us in hibernation. They woke me when you
entered this system. We’re waiting for the chosen one to come and claim the
leadership of the Ga’sahde.”

“Why not one of you,” Jon said.

“We aren’t ranked high enough,
nor are we powerful enough,” Cantella said. “Please walk with me. We will talk
on the way.”

“Can I ask where we’re going?”
Jon said.

“To your sister of course,”
Cantella said. “The other Ga’sahde are being woken now, to witness and pledge
their services to the new head of the guild.”

“So, she passed the trials?” Jon
said.

“Yes,” Cantella said. “There is
but one more and we would like your presence.”

Jon walked next to Cantella as
they spoke, “What do you mean you’re not powerful enough?”

“You know how your sister is able
to learn languages right?” Cantella said.

“Yeah, not that I understand it
completely, it has something to do with mental powers,” Jon said.

“Yes,” Cantella said. “Her mind
lightly scans whoever she’s speaking to, and she gleans how their language
functions and how to speak it, fluently. Most Ga’sahde can only read that much.
Your sister’s powers go a bit deeper. She has the ability to predict how people
are going to react to a given situation.”

“She can read minds?” Jon said.

“No. She is what we would call an
empath,” Cantella said. “A very strong one. She picks up how people feel and
gets an idea of what they’re thinking. Like, kill, love, hate and the like. If
a person thinks ‘turn left’, she might get an idea they will turn to the left.
We don’t know how strong that is in her. She predicted what the assailants were
going to do.”

“Was it really necessary to kill
those men?” Jon said. “Why not fight until submission.”

“Yes it was,” Cantella said.

Jon sighed.

“Trust me when I say it was their
privilege to die in such a manner,” Cantella said.

“Somehow that doesn’t comfort me
any,” Jon said.

Cantella changed the subject,
“You know your sister will become one the strongest people in the Galaxy.
People will try to kill her, or you, to force her to choose another.”

“I don’t understand that, why
would they care,” Jon said. “The Cyphers are peaceful and help races come to
agreements.”

“That is true,” Cantella said.
“Your sister isn’t a Cypher she is a Ga’sahde.”

“Yeah,” Jon said. “I understand
that and I understand the Ga’sahde are a bit more forceful.”

“You don’t understand, even
though you think you do,” Cantella said. “The Ga’sahde are the last resort. The
Ga’sahde are sent in to force an agreement when everything else has failed.
Empires fear the Ga'sahde throughout the Galaxy. They’re the shock troops of
the Cyphers. If the Ga’sahde show up, you know it’s time to settle your
dispute.”

“Oh,” Jon said.

“Yes, ‘oh’, indeed,” Cantella
said. “We’re upholders of the laws of every race. The Cyphers make sure they
don’t abuse each other. We make sure they follow the laws. We maintained the
peace for hundreds of years.”

“Galactic police force,” Jon
said.

“In a way, yes,” Cantella said.
“We only step in if the Cyphers fail. The Cyphers only step in when asked to
intercede on a party’s behalf. The only other ways we get involved is if
something threatens to disrupt the Galaxy, or our leader orders us to go in.
Our leader reports to one person, the Galactic Authoritarian.”

“And how is this person chosen?”
Jon said.

“According to the Galactic Laws
that person is chosen by the head of the Ga’sahde,” Cantella said. “That would
make you that person if your sister succeeds.”

“Great,” Jon said.

“You can choose how tightly you
monitor our actions,” Cantella said. “You’re a balance to our power. It’s to
keep us from stepping out of bounds and going rogue. You’re one of two people
who can reverse a decision, the other being your sister.”

“Interesting,” Jon said.

“If your sister succeeds, you
will be the closest thing to a Galactic Emperor we have,” Cantella said.

“Not something I really want or
need,” Jon said.

“I didn’t say you would have the
power of a Galactic Emperor,” Cantella said. “That is something you have to
earn on your own. We can help, to some extent, but we cannot go beyond our
charter. Let me just say that in the past, the appointed person was given much
respect, and the Galaxy responded to their words. However, with the current
state of the Galaxy, I doubt you will get the same response.”

“You think?” Jon said.

“Sarcasm, I take it,” Cantella
said as she smiled.

“Yup,” Jon said smiling back.
“You catch on quick.”

Cantella winked at Jon as she
spoke, “We’re here. Your sister is through that door. I can’t go any further.”

“Thanks,” Jon said as he stepped
through the doorway and into the room beyond.

Terri was in the center of the
room standing as Jon had last seen her. The door behind him shut and latched.
Jon caught movement out of the corner of his eye and noticed several figures
standing around the room, each holding a sword.

“This is the final trial,” the
voice said. “If you survive this you will have passed.”

“I understand,” Terri said.

“I don’t,” Jon said.

“It’s simple Captain Hunter,” the
voice said. “This is a fight to the death.”

As the disembodied-voice spoke
the last word, eight figures launched themselves at Jon and Terri with swords
raised high.

One of the figures closest to Jon
swung at him barely missing him. Jon reached up, grabbed the edge of the
figure’s helmet, and gave it a sharp jerk like Oojoung had taught him. The
snapping neck echoed through the room as a clang of metal sounded behind Jon.
Jon spun around and he let go of the helmet. Terri had caught a sword that had
meant to cut Jon in two, with hers.

Terri reached down with her foot
and kicked the sword of the dead figure up in front of Jon. Jon grabbed it but
he didn’t know much about using it, having had only a few lessons from Oojoung.
Terri spun her sword about knocking the figure’s sword out of its hands. Her
sword flashed and sliced its throat.

The other six figures kept a
respectable distance and had all guessed the same thing, Jon was the weak link.
Four of them lunged at Terri distracting her as the last two engaged Jon in a
dance of death. Slowly, they separated the two. One of Jon’s attackers found
their mark as they slashed a deep cut in his back. The spinal armor on his suit
was the only thing that saved him.

Jon screamed in agony as he fell
to the floor. The second attacker slashed down at Jon’s neck only to find his
hands missing from its arms, just as quickly Terri separated its head from its
body. Jon grunted, pushing himself back to his feet. He shoved the pain to the
back of his mind.

Suddenly, he felt a second
person: Deatra. She was helping him control the pain coursing through his body.

Jon fell to one knee, as he felt
the nanites go to work repairing the wound. Jon let out a small sigh of relief
as the pain lessened. By the time Jon was ready to get back into the action,
Terri was a whirling dance of death, weaving between the figures. When she
finally stopped, the only other person standing was Jon.

Terri turned towards her brother
and dropped her sword. Tears were falling down her face as she looked at him.

“What’s wrong Terri?” Jon said as
he approached her. “We won, or rather you won, I didn’t do much. I think I need
to spend some more time with Oojoung.”

“Jon,” Terri said.

“What is it?” Jon said. “What’s
wrong?”

“We can’t both leave this room.
Only one person can,” Terri said. “You must kill me.”