Epic of Aravinda 1: The Truth Beyond the Sky (20 page)

“The Taarakani are race of people who live on the world of Taarakalis. It appears someone has taken this moon from that system, roughly 16,000 light-years from this nebula.”

“But why steal an entire moon?” Zahn said.

“Because that is how the Vakragha Dominion grows its power. They have worked this way for millennia, corrupting the natural order of the galaxy.”

Asha’s eyes widened. “They stole an entire world from its cradle? That’s insane…”

“Now you see why it is crucial that they be stopped, at all costs. Does everyone have their cloaking fields integrated?”

One by one, they tested the cloaking devices that Yantrik had given them. Asha had integrated them into their suits’ systems so that Zahn only needed to make three quiet clicking noises with his teeth and the cloaking field would be activated or deactivated.

Luckily, there was only one other moon indicated on the gate’s console, which made deducing their destination much simpler. Oonak chose the appropriate symbol on the console, the vortex opened up, and they walked through, one by one, directly into the unknown.

Walking through a gate was similar to flying through one, except that Zahn felt rather nauseous afterwards. Yet his discomfort was soon forgotten once he saw what was on the other side.

To everyone’s surprise, the gate on the other end wasn’t being guarded at all. The cavern was dark, and their suits detected no movement. Even so, they kept their suit lights off and quietly headed over to an opening where light filtered in.

When they reached the opening, they realized that they had just emerged from the inside of a mountain. The surface of the moon was utterly tortured and dry, and rusty rock formations towered high above them. In the brown hazy sky, Zahn could see the tiny disk of the pulsar, and in the distance he saw that the mountain they had just emerged from was part of a severely eroded mountain range that continued down to the horizon.

Zahn turned around and was alarmed to see Asha and Oonak completely clearly for a fraction of a second.

“Oonak! Our cloaking fields are flickering. I think they may be damaged.”

Oonak looked up at the sky in disappointment.

“No, Zahn. The pulsar is the cause. I’m sorry. As I predicted, we will not be safe in the daylight. As long as it is daytime, the pulsar will be raining radiation down upon us every few seconds. This also may explain why the landscape is so tortured.”

“So what do we do?” Zahn said.

“We find your mother as fast as we can and try not to die. Follow me!” Asha ran ahead with the jagrul under her arm.

They followed her, and soon they were running along a narrow path that was carved into the side of the mountain. The gravity was weaker here, so they made longer leaps as they ran. Above them, the sky grew orange, and around them huge boulders and crumbled rock filled the landscape.

The jagrul continued to project a beam of light toward Darshana’s energy signature but in infrared light so they could be as covert as possible. Since their suits’ visors could easily see this light, the system worked well.

After a few minutes, they came to a fork in the rocky path, followed the jagrul’s waypoint up and to the right, and came to a spiral ramp that led up, into a tunnel. Out of the corner of Zahn’s eye, he thought he saw a large figure lumbering around at the bottom of the mountain, but when he looked back, he saw nothing. For a moment, he wondered how much this day was affecting his sanity.

At the end of a short tunnel, they found a long, rusty cavern which stretched down hundreds of meters. Zahn noticed that the jagrul was indicating toward the far end of the room. He was thankful for the light filtering down from above, but he didn’t like what he saw.

Along the wall, embedded into the rock itself, were hundreds of bodies.

CHAPTER
29

ESCAPING HATAAZA DARAD

Frantically, Zahn ran up to the wall and searched for his mother. There were people of all colors, all shapes, and all sizes. They appeared to be from all over the galaxy, but most of them looked dead or near death. Why bring them all here?

Zahn ran, despite the fact that he knew he should be quiet. He ran past hundreds of people.
Where was she?
He kept running.
She had to be here. She had to.

The mad dash seemed never-ending, until something made him stop in his tracks.

It wasn’t his mother.

Kneeling on the ground in front of one of the bodies was a massive figure, clothed in cold, grey armor. When it turned around, his first instinct was to run as fast as he could, but he controlled himself. Zahn knew that there was no way that the Hataazan could see him now that he was inside the cavern and shielded from the pulsar’s radiation. At least, that’s what Oonak had said.

Now that it had turned around and was standing tall, Zahn realized it was nearly twice his height. Its face was grotesque with tiny pupils and huge, curling lips which revealed blood-stained teeth. It growled and moved toward him.

Zahn wondered if he should doubt the reliability of the cloaking field for a moment and slowly stepped aside to see if the beast would react. It didn’t. Instead, it growled past him and kept heading down the cavern, and Zahn breathed a sigh of great relief. He didn’t want to face one of those in combat, even with his resonator.

Curious, he walked over to where it had been and examined the floor. The creature had been standing in front of what appeared to be an old man. The man was completely naked, embedded solidly into the rusty wall. Beside him, protruding from the wall, was a narrow tube with a few drops of red liquid inside of it. Zahn noticed that there were some red drops on the ground as well.

Terrified at what his mother must have been going through during her years of captivity, he continued his frantic search, and just behind him he caught a glimpse of Asha and Oonak. They were straining to keep up with him.

He ran again. He could sense her near now and ran faster than he ever had before. Soon, he felt as though he had seen a thousand faces, and outside of the cavern, he heard the howl of a sinister wind. He was nearly out of breath now.

And then, at the end of the cavern, he saw her.

He ran over and examined her body. Over her mouth was an air mask connected to a small tube that led into the wall. She was quite frail, and her light brown hair was very short.

Here was his mother at last. Here was Darshana.

He felt her pulse. She was alive, but only barely. Oonak rushed over with his scanner, and Asha was right behind him.

“She is stable, but extremely weak,” Oonak said. “Asha, do you have the air mask ready?”

Asha carefully removed the air mask that was over Darshana’s mouth and placed their air mask over her mouth instead. As she did this, Oonak held his resonator close to the rocky wall where it met her arm, the resonator making a high pitched hum as he squeezed the trigger.

After a few seconds, some rock broke away, and he continued doing this systematically around her entire body. But Zahn felt overwhelmed. After so many years, finally seeing his mother again filled him with a storm of different emotions, but he knew that she wasn’t truly rescued until they got her out alive.

Along the other side of her body, he used his resonator to help Oonak loosen the rock around her flesh. As they did this, Asha injected a green liquid into her arm and uttered strange words that Zahn had never heard before. At first, Zahn felt alarmed, but Asha explained that the council had taught her what to do at this moment. He didn’t question her again, and instead of panicking, Zahn asked his guides for help.

When the last of the stone was loosed from her body, she tumbled forward out of the rocky alcove. Zahn was in front of her when she fell and caught her in his arms. She felt as limp as a dead fish, and he struggled to hold back tears.

“It’s all right, Mom. I’ve got you now. I’ve got you now.”

Zahn made sure the air mask was fastened around her mouth securely and carried her toward the exit.

Far below them, they felt the ground shake violently.

“We need to leave here as soon as possible,” Oonak said over the comm.

Outside, they noticed that it was dusk, and smoke was oozing from the top of the mountain. They weren’t on a mountain at all. For the first time, Zahn realized the full gravity of the situation: they had been inside of an active volcano.

In a mad dash, they raced back down the path. As they ran, Zahn noticed that the pulsar was dipping below the horizon, and this gave him some hope. At least it wouldn’t disrupt their cloak anymore. Finally, they’d be able to walk around outside without being seen.

When they reached the gate cavern again, Zahn made a quick glance around the corner and noticed two important details had changed. The cavern was now faintly illuminated by crystals along the ceiling, and three of the massive beasts, the same type that he’d had seen earlier, were now standing around the gate.

“Zahn!” Oonak yelled. “You’re visible. Move!” Oonak pulled him out of the way of the opening.

“What?” Zahn said. “I thought the pulsar set below the horizon. It’s night now. We should be okay, right?”

“It’s not that, Zahn,” Asha said. “I think cloaking both you and your mother is putting a strain on your cloaking chip.”

“Well, I haven’t come this far to be stopped now. Don’t worry. I’ll be more careful.”

“No. Take mine,” Oonak said. “You need it more than I.”

“No, Oonak. I’m not letting you sacrifice your safety for mine. I’ll be fine. We just need to cause a diversion.”

The ground shook violently again, and their suits indicated that a wave of hot air was passing over them.

“There’s no time to argue, Zahn. The volcano is unstable, a fact that we can use to our advantage.”

Oonak pulled his cloaking chip out of its slot on his wrist, took Zahn’s hand, and rammed it into the empty slot on his right hand. Now that Zahn had one cloaking chip plugged into each glove of his suit, his cloaking field stabilized, but Oonak was now completely unprotected. Behind him, Zahn saw a wave of lava pouring down the path toward them.

“Take your mother, and be safe,” Oonak said and ran inside.

From inside the cavern, Zahn heard a trio of deathly roars that sent a chill up his spine. A few seconds later, Oonak darted out of the cavern and ran down the path. Two of the horrible beasts followed him.

“NO! Oonak!”

But there was no response over the comm. Zahn started to run after him, but Asha grabbed his arm.

“Zahn, he’s giving us an opportunity,” Asha said. “Let’s use it while it lasts.”

Cautiously, Asha looked around the corner to see the status of the third beast. He was attentive, looking around in all directions.

The lava behind them drew nearer.

“Okay,” Asha said. “I know you’re carrying Darshana, but I need you to watch my back as we go in. We can’t take too long either. That lava is headed this way. Can you hold her and shoot at the same time?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Don’t
think
. Can you or can’t you?”

“I can.”

“Good. Now even though that beast isn’t going to be able to see us, once we fire it’s going to have a good idea of where we are, so we’ll have to keep moving. If it has explosives, we’ll have to move even faster, so I want to get as close to the gate as possible before we fire. Got it?”

“Got it.”

Like perfect spies, Asha and Zahn stayed close to the wall, following the perimeter of the room in total silence. Once they were a few meters away from the gate platform, they waited until the Hataazan turned its back on them, if only for a moment.

Once he did, Asha fired her resonator at the back of its head. Twice. Yet the beast was even stronger than she anticipated and the creature’s skin barely even melted. Instead, it turned around and roared, its eyes flashing wild colors at them. It couldn’t see them, but it fired haphazardly toward their direction. Stalactites fell all around them, and outside Zahn noticed a wave of lava flowing past the cavern entrance, trapping them.

In the chaos, Zahn vaporized a falling stalactite in midair, and jumped away just in time to avoid the resulting debris. He took a breath and carried his still unconscious mother over to a larger stalagmite for cover. Across from him, Asha was using a stalagmite as cover, as well. Through all of this, she still managed to keep the jagrul safe within its spherical shield as she held it under her arm. To Zahn’s surprise, it seemed strangely calm.

In the distance, they could hear the beast talking as it approached them.

“Both of you are cowards and fools!” the beast said. “But your death shall be glorious.”

“Okay, new plan,” Asha said quietly over the comm. “Put your mother beside that stalagmite for a moment and when our friend gets over here, we both fire directly into its eyes. Got it?”

“I’m still surprised that thing can talk, but that sounds good. Which eye?”

“You think you’re that good of a shot? Doesn’t matter. Left eye. I’ll take right.”

The ground rumbled once more. Their suits warned them that the air would soon be too hot for anyone directly exposed to the outside, and Zahn thought of his mother.

Just behind him, he heard another roar. His heart was beating fast now. This was it. This was the moment of truth.

“Now?” he whispered.

“Now.”

Together, they stood up and fired. In seconds, the beast’s eyes smoldered, and it covered them as it wailed in pain.

“Unseen demons, you shall die!” the beast roared, firing toward them in random directions.

When Zahn saw the beast pause to rub his eyes again, he picked up Darshana and sprinted toward the gate.

While he did this, Asha remained where she was and fired at the beast’s feet. If the beast couldn’t walk, it couldn’t be too much trouble. After dodging a few of its clumsy shots, Asha managed to slice open one of the beast’s feet.

“For glory!” the beast shouted as it charged toward her.

But it stumbled and crashed to the ground. Slowly, it stood back up, and Asha fired at its eyes again. Now it was blind, and Zahn almost had pity on it.

The beast felt its way along the walls. After a few moments, it finally found the exit to the cavern and stumbled out.

“Great job, Asha!” Zahn said. “There’s only one problem. Oonak isn’t responding. I’ve been trying to contact him and—wait, what does this small light on the comm mean?”

“He must have contacted us during the firefight. It’s a recorded message. Touch the light.”

Zahn did, and Oonak’s voice filled their helmets.

“Zahn,” Oonak began, “this may not be easy for you, but you must leave without me. I’ve just placed several small explosives into their thermal regulation systems. This should destabilize the volcano even more, prolonging the eruption and diverting their attention. What is imperative is that you use Navika’s timespace drive to leave this system before the Vakragha realize what has happened. You were wearing the mindcap when we made the timespace jump which means you now intuitively know how to jump, as well. Time runs short. You must go. Neither of you should worry. I will find a way out. Even if I have to—”

But he was cut off. The rest was static.

“What? Is that it?”

The vortex was now open, and the ground shook violently.

“Come on, Zahn! You heard him, and this place is about to get a whole lot warmer.”

Lava oozed into the room. Zahn looked back toward the cavern entrance one last time but saw no one, and together they walked through the gate.

When they exited on the other side, Zahn didn’t have time to feel sorry about what had happened. He carried his mother inside the ship, closed the door, and once again the inner node of the ship filled with pure, cool air. As he did this, he couldn’t avoid tracking some of the reddish dust inside.

“Come on,” Asha said. “Let’s take her into the command bay. I’ll work on reviving her while you get us out of here.”

The moment he sat down, the dome above the chair lowered slightly. Was the ship already reading his thoughts? Zahn felt awkward sitting in the command chair, but he knew that was what Oonak wanted.

“Navika, Oonak has—”

“Sacrificed himself for our safety,” Navika said. “I overheard the comm transmissions, and he gave me direct orders to leave while the Hataazans are still distracted by the eruption. He also ordered me to consider you as the acting captain.”

To their surprise, they heard new explosions around them. Zahn looked up and saw that one of the beasts had come through the gate, and then another.

“They’re coming through!” Asha said.

“Get us out of here, Navika!”

With impressive speed, Navika raced out of the cavern. Zahn looked back and noticed that a few of the beasts were following them, but soon they were through the cave and back out into the sky. As they raced above the atmosphere, the cloudy sky of the stolen moon soon became the Ocean of Space once more.