Beyond the Shroud of the Universe (4 page)

“Damn it,” Master Chief swore. “I told him not to run off without me. Now look!”

“What?” Night asked.

“They’ve been gone too damn long, sir,” Master Chief said, pointing at the watch on his wrist. “They should have reported back by now.”

“Yes, they should have.”

“Well? Aren’t we going to jump in and find out what went wrong?”

Night looked at his watch. “Yes, we are,” he said. He turned and started back toward the tunnel leading out of the cave.

“I thought we were going in after them,” Master Chief said.

“We are,” Night said, “but I’m a naturally suspicious kind of guy. I don’t think I want to jump into the same place where they went in. Whoever got the CO may still be sitting at the jump point waiting for us to show up so they can bag us too. I know it’s dangerous to jump in somewhere that hasn’t been surveyed, but it’s less dangerous to do that than to jump in where we already suspect there’s a problem.”

A smile crossed Master Chief’s face. “I like your thinking, sir,” he said, nodding. “Let’s go kill some damn lizards.”

“I don’t get it,” Calvin said. “I thought you said you killed Wayland.”

“You’re really not very smart, are you? I
am
Wayland. Nightsong came to kill me, but the sentimental fool just couldn’t do it when it came time to pull the trigger. I killed him, instead.”

“What? He let you go?” Calvin asked.

“Oh, no, he shot me,” Nightsong said, lifting up his tunic so Calvin could see the scar in the center of his chest. “His mistake was in caring too much for me. He flinched as he pulled the trigger and hit me too high.” He pointed to a spot about three inches below the scar. “If he’d shot me here, he would have hit my heart, and I might not have been able to save myself, nanobots or not.”

“Obviously you had the nanobots, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“Indeed. As awful as you are at your own history, even
you
have to realize how horrifically primitive medicine was on your planet at that time. I mean, really. Leeches? How is a leech supposed to cure anything? Praying to your peoples’ miserable gods wouldn’t have helped either. I had to come up with a better medicinal plan, or I would have died from their treatments if I had ever been wounded in battle.” Nightsong’s eyes lost focus as he went back in his memories.

“So, what did you do?” Calvin asked when the silence had gone on for several seconds.

“I made a deal with Arges to supply me with medicinal nanobots and taught myself how to be a life-based Eco Warrior. I became so good at healing the locals believed I could speak to the gods. I refused to worship their pathetic gods, though, so one day I made up my own pantheon on a whim. Odin, Thor, Freyr…” he stopped to laugh and then continued, “I gave them a better religion, even though it was completely made up.”

“Wait; you said Arges helped you?”

“Of course he did. He was always there to provide me with whatever I needed, as long as I did what he wanted.” Nightsong picked up the rod from the table and again motioned for the Terrans to precede him through the fissure. “When I first met you, I told you I knew two others who had been given progenitor’s rods, and that both died before accomplishing their task,” he added. “That much was true. What I didn’t tell you was how they died. I killed them.” He held out the rod so Calvin could see it. “You only had two of the symbols, but I need one of them. I imagine it was the one for the Psiclopes’ home world.”

“You didn’t have Olympos?” Calvin asked. “I would have thought getting the Olympos symbol would have been easy. They were your allies, after all.”

“Yes, I could have gone there on several occasions, but I could never stand the little twerps. They’re always spying and trying to find out your secrets so they can use them against you. Go to their planet and let them inspect all my belongings? No thanks. I nearly left your planet when I found out there was a Psiclopes outpost on it; however, by then I had the Efreeti control rod. Since it let me turn invisible and change my appearance, I decided to see how long I could outwit them. That was my mistake, as Arges eventually caught me.”

“What did he want for not turning you in?” Calvin asked.

Nightsong shuddered. “Victims, usually.”

“What do you mean, ‘victims?’”

“Arges is, and always has been, a sick and twisted creature. The reason he was always trying to cause international conflicts was he loved finding hero spirits’ helpers. He would happily follow a hero spirit around for days…but what he enjoyed even more was seeing how long the hero spirit’s helpers would last while he tortured them to death.”

“You mean, like what you were doing to me?” Father Zuhlsdorf asked. “Coming from you, that’s really saying something.”

“Sticks and stones,” Nightsong said with a smile. “Unlike his experiments, mine have a purpose. I am trying to advance the science of sword-making; Arges just does it because he likes it.”

The group paused as Calvin switched Father Zuhlsdorf from his left side to his right. “I digress,” Nightsong said as the group started forward again. “You asked about Nightsong. He didn’t know I was a functional Eco Warrior, and took me for granted. Nightsong was already an Eco Warrior and should have killed me with his fire. He could easily have done it; however, it wouldn’t have been a good way for me to go. Instead, he decided to go for the clean kill of a laser. When Nightsong flipped me over to see if I was dead, I shot him through the head.” He sighed. “Salvan Nightsong and I really
were
best friends when we were young. Still, when Arges told me Nightsong was coming to kill me, I knew I only had one choice. Believe it or not, killing him really
was
the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do…but then again, it was either him or me.”

“So you killed your best friend.”

“I did,” Nightsong agreed. “The irony of it all was the real Nightsong was a hero spirit himself, and I was one of his helpers. Nightsong never realized it, and I didn’t figure it out until it was too late. I spent all that time trying to find a hero spirit and then killed the first one I met without being ready to catch his soul. The gods must have been laughing at me that day.”

“And you’ve been impersonating him ever since?”

“Indeed.” He chuckled. “People were amazed at how quickly I advanced as an Eco Warrior. With several hundred years’ of nanobot experience at that point, advancement was trivial; I had to intentionally make mistakes so I wouldn’t be found out.”

As they topped a hill, Calvin looked down to see a ship sitting in the valley. Although the ship was bigger than the space fighter Calvin flew, it was much smaller than a combatant. The ship’s silver skin was shapely, and it was obviously intended for atmospheric flight. “What is that?” Calvin asked.

“It’s my ship,” Nightsong replied. “We’re going to go for a ride.”

As they started moving toward the ship, Father Zuhlsdorf spasmed out of Calvin’s grasp, then collapsed and lay groaning on the ground. Before Calvin could do anything, there was a flash as Nightsong shot the priest with his laser pistol. Father Zuhlsdorf stilled, his last breath escaping as a sigh.

“What the hell did you do that for?”

“He was extraneous to my plans now that I finally have you,” Nightsong said. He motioned toward the ship with his pistol. “Now shut up and get going.”

Night held up one finger to Master Chief as he passed along a status report to their superiors. It was a report Master Chief was happy he didn’t have to make.

“Okay,” Master Chief said, his eyes sweeping across the platoon. “We jump in one minute.” “Is everyone suited up and ready to go kill some liz—” Master Chief interrupted himself as his eyes stopped on Bob and Doug, two of the reptilian Kuji from Domus. Thinking back, he remembered an earlier “let’s go kill some lizards” comment, too.

“Umm…,” Master Chief said. “When I was talking about killing lizards, you know I didn’t mean you two, right?”

“Why would we think that?” Bob asked. “We’re people, not lizards. How would your comment apply to us?”

“Uh, right,” stammered Master Chief, at a loss for words for one of the few times in his life, “that’s what I meant.” His gaze moved back to the rest of the platoon. “All right; gear up! We leave in one minute.” 

Bob looked at Doug and twitched an ear, the equivalent of a shrug for a race that didn’t have shoulders.

“Humans,” Doug said in his native tongue, as if that explained everything. Bob nodded. In this case, it did.

“What are we waiting for?” Calvin asked.

“Are you in a hurry?” Nightsong asked. He nodded to the handcuffs chaining the Terran to the co-pilot’s seat. “Relax. It doesn’t look like you’re going anywhere.” He chuckled, then added, “Don’t worry; you won’t have to wait long.”

Calvin looked back out at the landscape, hoping to see one of his friends. He tried calling the platoon on his comm, but there was no reply. While he was distracted, Nightsong reached over and touched him on the cheek. Calvin’s face burned with the contact. “What was that?” he asked.

“Those were some nanobots of mine. If you get more than 25 feet from me, they will stop your heart. Also, if I should happen to die, you will die too. Just a little precaution in case you decide to try something foolish.” He smiled. “Oh, yeah, I also turned off your implant’s ability to transmit and receive, so you needn’t bother trying to contact your friends.”

Calvin glared at the Aesir, too frustrated to come up with a response.

Nightsong looked at his watch. “Five seconds,” he said. He looked out the canopy as a rumble was felt throughout the ship, and a large section of land lifted a mile away, turning into a massive fireball.

“That’s what I was waiting for,” Nightsong said. “I just wanted to make sure your friends have an interesting welcome when they come looking for us.”

“Bastard,” Calvin spat.

“No, just cautious,” Nightsong replied, unperturbed. “Speaking of which…” He turned a dial on the instrument panel and pulled the boom microphone down from his headset. “
Base, this is Faery,
” he transmitted. Although Nightsong spoke in Farsi, Calvin’s implant was able to translate, as he had received a download of all the common Terran languages. “
I’ve delayed them all I can. You need to execute Plan Tempest.
”

“
But we are not ready
,” a voice replied from a speaker, also in Farsi.

“
If you do not do it now,
” Nightsong said, “
the Americans and their allies will be here to talk with the Efreet soon, and you do
not
want that
.” After a moment, he added, “
Do what you do best. Bluff.
”

“
You leave us no choice,
” the voice said. “
We will move forward with the plan. Make no mistake, though; we are not bluffing.
”

Nightsong looked over to Calvin. “The scary thing is, he really isn’t bluffing.” Nightsong shrugged. “And they call
me
crazy.”

“You’re never going to get away with this…,” Calvin said. “…no matter what
this
is. Night will come for you. He will never give up.”

Nightsong smiled at Calvin, then looked back out of the cockpit. “I rather doubt he will come after us,” the Aesir said as he pulled back on the control stick. The ship leapt from the ground and soared skyward. “Even if he somehow survives his entry into this universe, I think he is going to be rather busy with other things very soon.”

“Ready,” Master Chief said, reaching over to make skin-to-skin contact with Staff Sergeant Alka Zoromski.

“Me too,” Night said, putting his free hand on the staff sergeant’s.

“Here goes nothing,” Zoromski said. He pushed the ‘transfer’ button on the control rod, and the three men jumped into the Jinn Universe. They immediately dropped into ready positions, each facing outward, scanning their surroundings. Like all the other planets they’d been to in the Jinn Universe, the sky was a light green. The sun shone down on barren hills…and not much else.

“Hey, sir,” Zoromski said after a few seconds, “isn’t there supposed to be some sort of civilization here?”

“Yeah,” Night said, surveying the empty horizon, “Nightsong said the Efreet were supposed to be nearby. Apparently, we’ve been lied to. Go back and get the next group.” He gestured toward a small hill that stood between them and the cliff housing the mouth of the cave. “C’mon, Master Chief, let’s go take a peek and see what there is to see.”

As they reached the top of the small rise, Night and Master Chief were thrown to the ground as something below them detonated, the blast throwing huge pieces of dirt and rock in all directions. A massive fireball rolled past them.

“Ugh…” Master Chief said, rolling to his stomach and pushing himself up. “It appears someone didn’t want us in the cave.”

“I guess not,” Night said. “I think that pretty much confirms we’ve been had.”

“By who, though?” Master Chief asked. “Not by Nightsong. The Efreet must have found out somehow we were coming.”

“If it wasn’t that bastard Nightsong,” Night said, “then I don’t know who else it could have been. How else would they have known exactly where and when we were coming?”

The two began walking back to where platoon was assembling. As they neared the unit, Zoromski returned with the last group, who promptly threw up.

“What’s up, Captain Train?” Master Gunnery Sergeant Bill Hendrick, the leader of the Ground Force, asked. “Any sign of them?”

“No—” Night said.

“Hey, sir,” Sergeant Pierce ‘Big Sky’ Tomas interrupted, “what the hell’s that?”

The platoon’s leadership turned in time to see a silver ship rising in the sky a mile away.

“Beats the hell out of me,” Night replied, capturing several images of the ship for future analysis. “It looks like it’s about twice the size of one of the shuttles, but I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“That bastard can move,” Master Chief said as the silver ship rocketed into the sky. It vanished from sight faster than any ship he had ever seen.

“Whoever was in that ship, we missed them,” Night said. He looked around to see all of the troops staring up at the sky. “I don’t imagine they’re coming back, either,” he added to the group. “If everyone would like to
get back to doing their fucking jobs
, we’ll do a quick survey of this planet and then get back to our world to figure out what we’re going to do next.”

Master Chief closed his own mouth, and his gaze dropped to the men and women under his command. “What the hell is everyone doing staring up at the fucking sky?” he yelled. “The enemy is probably near here somewhere. Get your heads out of your asses and start acting like a military organization. Let’s go! Scouts out! Everyone else, set up a defensible perimeter. Let’s
move
, people!”