Epic of Aravinda 1: The Truth Beyond the Sky (25 page)

Darshana nearly tripped over a piece of rubble, but Asha caught her.

“—that it was the end.”

“Far from it, Mom. Far from it.”

CHAPTER
34

RENDEZVOUS AT RODHAS

Stepping over the chunks of rubble that now littered the floor, Zahn, Asha, and Darshana walked over to where the sunlight was pouring in to see where the strange figure had emerged from, but they only saw that a similar door had been rolled open at the end of another narrow hall. Zahn ran to the end of the hall but couldn’t find any sign of the figure or a ship.

They retraced their steps and followed the first hall back to the partially opened door and emerged back out into the open air. It was nearly dusk now.

Zahn looked over to Asha who was holding the faintly glowing Tulari.

“How heavy is it?” he said.

“Not as heavy as you might think. It’s a little warm, too. Touch it.”

It did feel warm to the touch, as if it were alive.

After removing his flute from the sneezing bush, Zahn led them down to the ship. Soon, they were racing high above the jagged peaks of Taarakalis, and the dark blue of the sky transformed itself into the Ocean of Space once more.

This time, he told Navika to prepare for a timespace jump to the outer edge of the Kuvela system, but not to Rodhas itself. Instead, he chose the most distant moon of Rodhas. He wanted to retain the element of surprise for as long as possible before they acted, just in case the Vakragha had a way of disrupting Navika’s cloak and revealing their position. He couldn’t make a mistake now. Too much was depending on him.

“One moment,”
Navika said.
“I am detecting debris in high orbit above the planet that was not present when we arrived.”

Zahn thought of the guttural disembodied voice that had spoken to him as they were leaving Hataaza Darad.

“Any idea of its source?”

“Difficult to ascertain. The debris is primarily a fine metallic dust. However, I can say that it poses no immediate threat to us.”

“Good. Then let’s get out of here. We have a planet to save.”

The timespace drive roared to life, and this time the roar seemed louder than it had ever been before.

Once again he saw the luminous realm. There was a flash, and then he saw space once more. A flash and then space. A flash and then space. Again and again. It happened so many times that Zahn lost count. It must have happened dozens of times now. Was something wrong? Why not just make one big jump?

A moment later, there was a final flash, and they reemerged into the Ocean of Space, a dark moon looming just below.

“We have travelled over 30,000 light-years, the longest jump of the entire journey.”

“Whoa. That’s almost a third of the diameter of the galaxy, but what about those flashes? It seemed like we were briefly entering space, and then reentering timespace again. Why were we doing that, Navika?”

“As I suspect Asha could tell you, a jump is defined as a superset of one or more hops. These hops are necessary because of the drive’s limited energy reservoir. However, since this energy is returned to the reservoir by the timespace field at the end of every hop, the time between hops is negligible. So, as I said, the sum total of the most recent sequence of hops is over 30,000 light-years, nearly one-third of the diameter of the galaxy. Welcome home.”

“We’re not quite home yet, and I’m not sure I understood all of that, but thanks. Can you confirm our position?”

“We are on the night side of the eighth moon of Rodhas, on the edge of the Kuvela system.”

“Good. Proceed under cloak.”

Hesitantly, Zahn maneuvered the ship to the edge of the moon and passively scanned Rodhas. Its cratered surface was a darker shade of grey-green than he had remembered it being from photos. But then again, photos can be deceiving, and he had Navika display a magnified view of the planet while they formulated a plan.

To their horror, angular pieces of the planet’s crust pulled back for a moment, revealing shallow shafts that led into a vast hollow expanse. Within it, Zahn caught a glimpse of a dark, menacing shape that was soon blocked by a small swarm of fighters as they emerged from many points on the planet at once. He had unintentionally fulfilled his dream of seeing Rodhas, but he had never expected this.

“Be careful what you wish for,” Zahn said quietly.

“What?” Asha said.

“Nothing.”

The swarm of small, angular fighters which had emerged from the planet flew around in formation for a few seconds before flying off toward the dark side of the planet. Zahn wondered what they were up to, but was distracted when he realized that both of his ears were ringing. Why did that keep happening?

Zahn looked over to Asha and his mother while he rubbed his right ear. They both seemed anxious.

“So this is the disease…” Darshana’s eyes studied the infested world. “And we have the cure?”

“Yes, and I know what you’re thinking. I know that we’re just one ship facing an entire armada of Vakragha, but we also don’t know how much time there is before this wormhole is unleashed. We have to use the Tulari now.”

“From Avani,” Darshana said. “I could detect the wormhole’s mass, but I never thought it would look so menacing up close. I wonder if they’re using negative energy to maintain the wormhole’s stability…”

“So, what are we supposed to do, Zahn?” Asha said. “There’s only one mindcap, remember?”

“Don’t worry. We have the Tulari. We can do this.”

“I just wish I could be of more help. I’m a pretty good pilot, you know.”

“How could I forget that? You saved us from the marauders, and then you brought my mother back to health, something I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully repay. You’ve already been crucial to our success, Asha. Don’t feel bad if you can’t do as much now. We never would have even gotten here without you.”

Zahn closed his eyes for a moment.

“Anyway, I just asked Navika, but he says he can’t exactly split up into two ships. So we’ll just have to work with what we have.”

In the back of Zahn’s mind, he heard a quiet ping sound.

“There’s got to be something,” Asha said.

The ping sound came again, and he wondered if this was Navika’s way of quietly getting his attention.

“What?”

“We are being hailed by a vessel that is requesting an encrypted channel. However, I do not recognize the ship’s identity. Would you like me to grant the request?”

Zahn furrowed his eyebrows. Somehow, he felt a familiar presence, but he had no idea who this could be.

“Any chance that opening a channel will make us easier to be detected by the Vakragha?”

“Doubtful, as this is a narrowband transmission originating from behind the seventh moon of Rodhas. The Vakragha would need to have a ship directly between us and the source to intercept it, and there are no ships detected in that area.”

“Understood. Establish the encrypted channel and put it on surround so that everyone can hear.”

Moments later, the sound of static briefly filled the room and then resolved itself into a gruff yet warm voice.

“Are you reading me? Is this the captain of Navika?”

“Yantrik?” A look of disbelief crept across Zahn’s face.

“Zahn! Is that Zahn I hear?”

“Yes! Is that really you, Yantrik?” Zahn was stunned to silence for a moment. “How did you know we would be here?”

“Let’s just say I got a bright idea. Strange fellow, too. Kept talking about purity of the heart and lenses or something.”

“Dad! You’re okay! How did you find us?”

“Is that my little Asha? Hi! I’m doing just fine. Your old dad knows how to fight off a few marauders by now. Anyway, during the attack I shut down the power for the entire outpost and threw out some junk to make it look like I was evacuating. They blew that to bits as I’m sure you can guess. Then I waited in silence until they eventually left. I don’t think it was me they were after, anyway.”

“Dad, it’s wonderful to hear your voice. You’ll never believe what we’ve been through. And Dad, we found the Tulari!”

“I know! That strange fellow who brought me here mentioned that you would be ‘wielding the pearl’, and that I would be needed, as well. By the way, why don’t I hear Oonak?”

Asha and Zahn fell silent for a moment.

“He sacrificed himself so we could rescue my mother from captivity,” Zahn said. “And he told us to leave without him.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. He seemed an honorable man.”

Zahn reminded himself to focus on the task at hand. For all he knew, the Vakragha would detect them at any moment.

“Yantrik, I’d like to confirm your location. Navika is detecting from your narrowband signal that you’re on the far side of the seventh moon.”

“Navika is correct. I’m not too far from your position, but far enough that when we attack, it should divide their fire. And I brought a surprise for Asha.”

Beside the command chair, Navika displayed a hologram of a maroon, crescent-shaped fighter ship.

“You brought my ship!” Asha said.

“That’s right,” Yantrik replied. “You can thank your strange friend for that. He asked if he might bring me and your ship to where we would be needed most. He said it was vital that we come. When I said yes, there was a flash unlike any I’d ever seen, and I found myself here.”

“Who was this person with such power?”

“Well, he showed up at the outpost a good while after the attack. Could barely even make out his face, he was so bright. I asked him how he got to be that way, but he only chuckled. Like I said before, strange guy.”

Zahn and Asha looked at each other. “The radiant figure!”

“What? You’ve seen him around? Any idea who he is?”

“No,” Zahn said. “But he’s already helped us once. Whenever he shows up, he seems like an angel.”

“Yeah, I can see why. I wish I knew his trick on how to get us here so fast. Anyway, Asha’s ship is heading to your position now. Don’t worry, I calibrated the cloaking cells carefully. Tell Asha to let me know when she’s ready, and then we can finally see what this Tulari can do. I’ve spent too many years searching for it to miss it in action now.”

Out of the corner of his eye, the mindcap showed Zahn that Asha’s ship was requesting to dock, and he accepted the request. After a few seconds, he heard a hissing sound behind him, and Navika told him that they were now docked. To his surprise, Navika also informed him that her ship had sent detailed radiation readings which he had just used to further improve the cloaking field at close range.

“Thanks, Yantrik! That helps.”

“Exactly. Every little bit helps.”

On her way out, Asha grabbed her bag and the sphere containing the jagrul bird, which was now sleeping beside the long bench. She reassured Zahn that she would be of much greater help now that she had her ship, but Zahn stopped her.

“Wait,” Zahn said. “Mom, go with her. You’ll be safer with Asha than with me and the Tulari, and I’m sure you could be of help to her.”

“Are you sure, Zahn?” Darshana said.

“Trust me, Mom. It’s better this way.”

“Be safe, Zahn.” There was a sadness behind her eyes.

“Mom, we’re about to launch a covert attack on an alien base hidden within a hollow planet. I don’t think anyone is going to be safe for this.”

“Then be lucky.”

Zahn embraced his mother tightly.

“I can do that.”

Once they were in the central node, Asha helped Darshana put on an extra flight suit that she had kept on her ship for emergencies like this.

“Darshana, have you ever fired a plasma cannon before?”

“No, but I could learn.”

“Can’t think of a better time than now. You’ll take the auxiliary cannon.”

In a strange silence, Zahn watched as the door slowly closed, leaving him alone for the first time in what felt like days.

After a short conversation with Navika, Zahn decided that the best way to deploy the Tulari would be to place it in the central node of the ship, and then open the door to blow all of the air out, taking the Tulari along with it.

When he asked, Navika assured him that his core nucleus would be fine. The cables that connected Navika’s nucleus to the ship were extremely strong, and Zahn got the idea to wedge the Tulari between a few of the cables above the door. It was secure enough to prevent it from falling out and rolling around, but was easy enough to push it out of the cable mesh if he tried.

When he sat back down in the command chair, Asha was hailing him.

“We’re all set here,” she said. “Darshana already seems comfortable with the weapon interface. Between all of us, we’re going to make these Vakragha wish they’d never been born, or hatched, or whatever they do. Do we know how they reproduce?”

“Navika, do we know that?” Zahn said.

“The reproductive cycle of the Vakragha is currently unknown to the Confederation.”

“Guess not. Okay everyone, report in.”

“Asha reporting in through a secure narrowband channel.”

“Darshana, standing by on same channel.”

“Yantrik, standing by.”

“Good. Okay, here’s the plan. We’re going to wait for a shaft in the planet to open again. Asha, when it does, I want you and your father to make a low pass and take out as many surface cannons as you can. While you have the Vakragha distracted, I’ll get into position. When I give the signal, I want everyone to retreat, since using the Tulari could very likely destroy the planet along with the wormhole. They don’t even know we have it, so we have surprise on our side. Does everyone understand?”