Ghosts of Lyarra (5 page)

“I figured it would be you to check up on the disturbance.” The familiar voice called
out.

Bryx turned abruptly; instinct had him on guard the instant the first syllable was spoken and even though he recognized the voice he was still uneasy about him being in this place. Leaning at the back of the room by the bedroom he had already checked was Aen; not the weak and abandoned creature he had rescued three years back, but the hardened and seemingly dangerous being he had now become. Adorned with the armor of the Forgotten, which he had obviously obtained after his incident with them on the lonely station. Aen simply stared back at him with his churning black eyes brimmed with a ring of blue fire. It was a stare that made the mighty Bryx a little
fearful.

“You are not allowed here!” Bryx’s voice boomed in the sealed
room.

“A ghost is not subject to the rules of the Empire, or those of anyone else.” Aen said
smugly.

“You are anything but a ghost, and you know that!” Bryx fired back. “But of all the places to blindly appear, why do you show up
here?”

“Straight and to the point!” Aen smiled. “There’s no getting off topic with you; I like that! I am here because I knew you would come; I am here because the Prophets asked me to
intervene.”

“Intervene?” Bryx was puzzled. “Explain yourself
whelp?”

“You see it all around you now; the shadows that loom over her are great and threatening. Sooner or later they will either consume her or destroy her if nothing is done. I have met the puppets - the Forgotten have turned against their master - but even I cannot pierce the veil of darkness to see the puppeteer; at least not
yet.”

Aen was right, there was danger that Bryx knew of though he could not stop. Iana was exposed and the center of all the growing disdain in the Empire. It frustrated the J’Karin; he was used to stopping all threats before they could gain traction, but this one had grown so large so quietly there was no way to see and react to what had started it. He needed help, though he was not sure if he could trust this creature
yet.

“And what do you plan on
doing?”

“To be honest I hadn’t planned on helping at all until the Prophets asked, and their instructions took me until I arrived here to figure out. It is simple what has to be done; brutal but
effective.”

“I’m not sure where this is going, but I don’t like the direction it’s headed; get to the
point.”

“The point is we have to strike before the enemy does.” Aen stood straight and walked towards the giant. “The point is we have to do what they aim to do, and do it more dramatically than they would. You and I have to save Iana, but in doing so we have to kill the
Empress!”

The instant the words were uttered, Bryx lunged forward and wrapped his claws around Aen’s neck. To even entertain such an act was against his very being, so he struck out at the new threat. But instead of a soft and breakable neck beneath his claws, the J’Karin felt hardened stone as his new adversary barely flinched at the attack. The more he squeezed, the less he felt his actions were effective. After a few seconds, Bryx felt his body being pushed
away by some unseen hand; a force greater than he had ever felt, moved the thousand pound mammoth backwards and separated him from
Aen.

“Now that you have that out of your system, maybe you will let me continue.” Aen said calmly; feeling no ill effects from the mighty guardian’s
assault.

He was beaten before he even started; the greatest threat to his ward stood before him and Bryx was helpless against it. For the first time in his life he felt defeated. A data pad fell at his feet; tossed to him by Aen. He picked it up and looked intently at the display; his despair turned to complete
confusion.

“Tell me my giant friend, how can we initiate these emergency protocols without being found out and how quickly can we do it? I believe the enemy will strike at the Council meeting and our window to act is closing each minute we stand
idle.”

Two
Lyarran Vessel: Dark Light
Imperial Shipyards of Thsin

She hated these meetings; there were so many things she would rather be doing than standing in the midst of those power hungry meddlers, but Lyxia knew it was her duty to represent her ship in the Lyarran Grand Council. As much as it was a pain in the ass - and it was a major one - it was a necessary pain that needed to be done. But lately it had felt she was the last sane being in an insane era; the meetings had begun to take an ominous
tone.

For two years, she had attended these meetings while orbiting Terra Sol as her ship - the Dark Light - underwent massive repairs from the battle against the Husk. For a short time, her heroics had made her a bit of a celebrity in the Council halls from afar, but as time wore on the heroic light faded. Once able to use her jump space engines, the Dark Light returned to the shipyards of Thsin in the Lyarran home system and her crew was given leave as the retrofit resumed in greater detail. Over the next three years, Lyxia was stuck at home on Pax, wishing she was out amongst the stars looking for Aen. She had fallen deeply in love with him over their brief encounters; feelings she didn’t understand at
all.

The Empress had tried to reason with her; she tried to explain the intricacies of the heart and how such small instances could ignite the most powerful of emotions in anyone. But Lyxia remained in shock over it all; her heart longed for her to join the search for the lost Harbinger though the Goddess long preached there would be nothing to find. So she sank into depression and threw herself into her duty. Lyxia turned herself off emotionally and went into automatic, to the dismay of Iana and all her friends. Three years passed like the wind and now the Dark Light was ready to rejoin the Fleet amongst the
galaxy.

But as she readied herself for this meeting, she couldn’t shake the odd feeling that something was wrong. There were only a few other times she had felt like this in her life; the day her family had been slaughtered by the Husk on their colony had been the last. She awoke with this feeling in her gut long before the horrible news had been given to her. Now as she paced the holo-link chamber, Lyxia wondered what dread awaited her today. It was evident that there was trouble brewing, but it wasn’t a trouble she was accustomed or trained to deal with. Instead of a physical opponent she was faced with a political one; and despite her prowess in battle Lyxia was helpless in this
arena.

It had all started with a whisper; dark tidings of reform in the shadows of the halls of the Grand Council. At the time, she had dismissed them as musings of bitter old hags that longed for more power. These whispers had always existed. They were faceless and held no weight; at least they hadn’t until now. Then came Aen, and the faceless hags now had a weapon to exact their dark plans. And with his disappearance came desperation; a race to find the missing weapon in an attempt to hold the key to sitting upon the Throne of Light. No one would say it aloud, but Lyxia knew that was the next step; Iana’s time on the throne was coming to an end and Lyxia was sure it would be a sudden and tragic
one.

It was only a matter of time; Iana had ruled flawlessly for over ten thousand years. In that time she had grown the Lyarran Empire to great proportions, led them in times of war with the Husk and countless other rogue worlds, and nurtured her people to become worthy of the Gods themselves. But now that was being forgotten; the quest for power always made those who seek it short sighted. For her part, she stayed away from the whispers and schemers; if the end of an era was upon them Lyxia wanted nothing to do with the regime that would replace this one with dark intentions. She wasn’t the only one that felt this way, the J’Karins had also began to distance themselves from the Council; so much so that many felt the already quiet giants were threatening to secede from the Empire as a whole. There were other worlds that shared similar opinions, though quiet with their thoughts; and then there was Terra
Sol.

The human world had become a major hub and a key economic cog in the Imperial wheel. As a whole, the planetary system was rich with resources and Terra Sol herself had rebounded wonderfully from the near destruction levied upon it by the Husk. Its natural wonders sparked a tourism enterprise that matched the throne world Havyiin, but in the aftermath of the Husk attack, the humans had made defense of their newfound riches a priority and now stood as the most heavily defended and secure system in the Imperial fold. Now in these times of impending change, their wealth and riches became looked upon as undeserved as many began to whisper contentions of Terra Sol’s inclusion in the Empire itself in an attempt to render those riches up for
grabs!

Spending two years in orbit of the human’s planet, Lyxia had a newfound respect and admiration for this young race. Their resolve was equal to the battle mentality of her Paxyn brethren; a never-give-up attitude that echoed in every aspect of their daily lives. It was true they had lost their way before the invasion, but as the dust settled from a failed annihilation they once more found themselves the heart of the Spartan warriors of lore as if to honor the being that gave his all to save them;
Aen.

Aen; his very name still sent shockwaves through her soul. How he had managed to impact her so deeply in such a short time still amazed her, but in his death he had torn her asunder. His death had left a wake so large, it rippled through the very fabric of the Empire and rocked it to the core. But was he dead; and if he wasn’t, where was he? Why hadn’t he come back for her, and why he chose to stay away for so long were the questions that haunted her. It was a struggle some days to act like nothing had happened and today seemed to be harder than
most.

As the buzzer went off, the chamber activated and the view from her podium in the Council, formed. Her station was about the half way up point of a four storey coliseum style building that gave a wonderful view around her. Almost directly across from her was the podium for Terra Sol and she could look fondly at her friend, Council Sara Foster. She could tell the human was in a similar mood to hers by the troubled look on her face. Below, the floor of the Council was vacant, and would be until the arrival of the Empress who stood as chairperson and mediator of all Council proceedings. Even before stepping on the holo-pad, Lyxia could feel the weight of the growing tension in the room. No matter how bad this day would become, she knew this was the only way to support the Empress who had helped her so much through life. If it was a day for change, she had some serious decisions to make and Lyxia desperately hoped that the day would be uneventful. But in the back of her mind, she felt the signs of danger and that feeling had always been right in the
past.

—
Geneva, Switzerland; Earth Council Headquarters

It was not the greatest of days for a Council meeting, but in this day and age there rarely was a good day for one. Sara Foster readied herself for yet another day of political attacks from the old guard of the Council. No matter how much Earth had proved itself in recent years, there were those on the Council that would never accept them as equals and it was a fight that had finally begun to wear her down. After five long years at the helm of Earth, Sara was more tired than she could ever
remember.

Taking a deep breath she looked outside the holo-chamber window to the breathtaking view across the Swiss landscape. With the fresh mountain air and the picturesque city, it was one of the few saving graces to her sanity these days to look upon what they had worked so hard to save. Of the original Earth government, Sara was the last one still in office and that was because the Empress had refused her resignation on more than one occasion. So as she prepared for the next few hours of unrest, she knew she wouldn’t back down from any physical or political threats from any of the other worlds on the Council. Earth had now become a fortress, and unbeknownst to the rest of the Empire, they were well underway in building their own fleet of star
ships!

As of now, to enter the system, a ship had to pass through three layers of security. The first was a routine patrol of a Lyarran frigate on the designated entry point to the system. After passing scans and security checks, the visitor would move on to the Jupiter rendezvous point; the first human space station that operated the outer PA cannon ring. These plasma accelerator cannons were four times the size of any mounted to a Lyarran vessel and stood as the first deterrent for any foul-intentioned stranger. One shot from these would gut most cruiser class ships from stem to stern and leave it a burning hulk in
space.

Next was the Mars ship yard and docking station; the furthest into the Sol system a large ship could travel. Here, they would offload their cargo and crew aboard a fleet of transport shuttles that would make the final trek into Earth orbit and land at one of the three functional land based space ports after they had cleared the orbital PA cannon ring. The once annoying and over intrusive screening of the old TSA agency looked like a walk in the park as Earth held the tightest security in the Empire. There was a general consensus in the human population that they would never again be caught unaware of an attack that would devastate the planet like the Husk did. To date, there were a few identification issues, small smuggling rings busted, and one confrontation with an unregistered vessel that eventually was turned away at the Jupiter ring. Other than test firing the cannons, their fury had not been loosed upon anyone as of yet, but today may be the
first.

Early this morning, Sara had gotten word that a small vessel had entered the system and slipped past the Lyarran guard. While this wasn’t an uncommon event - she silently cursed their lazy efforts in security - it was the description given of the intruder by an outbound ship that truly disturbed her. It was conical in shape, reminiscent of a pine cone; a Husk ship! While it lacked the size of its predecessor - scanners showing it to be one tenth the size of the marauder that rocked the Earth five years ago - it was still a threat and if it turned out to be a Husk vessel then Sara was going to use it as a live demonstration to those who had hinted threats to Earth as a reason not to fuck with her
planet!

So with her data pad in hand, she stood upon the now powered holo-link and let herself get whisked across the cosmos to the Grand Council Chambers on Havyiin. Most times she would not wear an earpiece that connected her with the Space Naval Securities Office, but this was one of those unique, one of a kind scenarios. It always made her feel small in comparison with the other races; her five foot six frame was slight when up against the towering races that made up the Empire. Sara took the time to look about the room; she was one of the first stations to come online, but was soon followed by one after the other as podium after podium first lit then began to display their constituents. She was also caught off guard as to how many Councillors were there in person; a rarity for most of these functions! Glancing across the room to where she knew to find Lyxia’s station, her heart warmed fondly when it too lit and her new friend appeared. Other than the J’Karins - who had begun to be no shows at the recent sessions - friends were at a premium in these days and she was glad that Lyxia and her mighty ship were amongst her group of
them!

The lights dimmed slightly and a soft pipe instrument sang to notify all of the arrival of the chair of the Council; the Empress Iana. As she strolled in, it was in a way unlike any of the times Sara had witnessed before. She was always accompanied by the towering J’Karin Bryx - her long-time bodyguard - but this time she was alone. Sara wondered if this would be an opening that the whispers in the shadows might be waiting
for.

There was no secret in the unrest that had followed the battle with the Husk on Earth. Losing Aen was tragic enough for Sara; he being what remained of her father after a genetic experiment transformed him; but it also left the planet feeling vulnerable. Aen had saved them and without his aide the results of the conflict would have been much different. But Aen’s life had sent ripples through the galaxy, and there were those that blamed his loss solely on the Empress and thus granting a foothold to those who wished to push her from her seat upon the Throne of Light. Once whispers in the shadows had become a dull roar, and Sara feared once the Empress was out of the way the Earth may be the next
target!

She was confident they could hold off most attackers, but doubted they would stand tall against the Imperial Fleet as a whole; at least for now. She needed to stall those who may target them for a little bit longer; at least until the secret she was hiding in the inner solar system was complete! As humanity controlled the traffic inwards from Mars, it was quite easy to hide things in between Venus and Mercury, but the sheer size of this last project made that as difficult as could be. Sara only hoped that ‘the shit didn’t hit the fan’ now and that all eyes remained where they were; on the one who sat upon the
throne.

She heard the Empress clear her throat and begin the proceedings. She also felt the weight of the suppressed anger in the room push down upon that in the center. There was an odd feeling in the air and Sara was sure that this meeting would be the beginning of something much greater than just another day at the
office!

—
Lyarran Throne World Havyiin;
Empress’ Chambers in the Grand Council

“What do you mean I have to go out there alone?” Iana screamed. “Have you not felt the anger they rain down upon me each meeting? I would be
helpless!”