Inherited War 3: Retaliation (7 page)

“They will enter Cole’s mind,” the Kin spoke for the first time, and the Prime shifted to look at the legendary being, “and attempt to drive out whatever is affecting him.”

“If they fail?” Snow’s father asked.

“Gavreal will be uninjured but drained. The Nixa will die.” He said it flatly and plainly.

“I don’t think it will be that drastic,” Thalo began.

“Yes it will,” the Kin interrupted. “Her mind will be completely in Cole’s. If whatever is inside of Cole wins, it will destroy her mind. With no mind, the body cannot function.” Again said with zero emotion.

“Prime, your daughter’s strong and Cole won’t let that happen. Together they can overcome

anything. They have been through a lot and survived. They can survive this,” Thalo said. “We do need to focus on the other thing though.”

“Yes,” the Prime said. “The supposed Nixa who works with Esii. I don’t suppose you have anything else to go on? I mean other than the word of a deranged madman that someone from my race was actually working with the Esii?”

“It has happened before,” Uriel said.

“You,” the Prime pointed his finger at the Kin. “You sound as though you do not like me and have been staring daggers at me this whole time. I was led to believe that the Kin of old were allies and not enemies. Or is it just me? Have I offended you somehow?”

The Kin smiled a big smile. It seemed to take up his whole face. “Where to begin.” Thalo stood at that moment and held up his hands.

“Please, can we just focus on the major problem first? This pettiness can be dealt with in time. Right now we are working on a deadline.” The Kin and Nixa glared for a moment longer before regaining their composure. “Good,” Thalo said. “Now down to business.”

The five of them settled in to discuss their options. They ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner there that first day. Using what power he could, the Prime assigned teams from the internal investigative service to dig through data. Thalo had some leads of his own he wanted to follow, and Snow wanted to go home and see her mother. Uriel wished to be left alone to work his own way though the “Mystery” as he called it and wandered off into the city.

Thalo sat alone with Jeth in a borrowed ground car. He was bone weary but he didn’t have time to rest. None of them did. He entered coordinates in the cars nav system and closed his eyes.
Well, a short nap maybe
, and he drifted off to sleep.

CHAPTER 4

He will erase this after he regains control. I don’t know why I keep doing it. No one will ever hear these words. No one will know I tried to fight. I am slipping further and further away each day. It gets harder and harder to influence my body, my actions. I temper what I can and lessen the damage to what I can’t. For now, thank God or whoever, I have more control around my people than when I am alone. I fear that one day I will have no more control and will doom myself and my fellow humans. All this, everything I have done, and I am the one who will destroy it all. I know his plan. Beat those that helped me. The Nixa, the Worlders, the Kin. Defeat and annihilate them. Wipe them from the galaxy. Use the humans to do it then turn on my own people. Once we’re all gone, the galaxy can spin its way to hell. Who he is and why he is doing it, I don’t know. I have driven off my friends, and Jarrod has truly abandoned me. This was one thing he never foresaw. I hope there was a backup plan because this is not going to end well for me or anyone. The despair is overwhelming me. It is crushing me and I cannot fight it. It eats at me and weakens my resolve. There is nothing anyone can do to help. I am doomed and the galaxy is doomed with me, because of me. I quit.

“Are you ready to begin?” Gavreal asked Sky. West had successfully managed to get Cole off the station and away from the area. Sky had breathed a sigh of relief when she had seen West and Liam load a comatose Cole onto the medium sized explorer craft. A few moments later, the craft had cleared the hanger and departed for parts unknown. Sky hoped they could keep Cole away for more than a few days. She would need all the time they could buy her.

She was standing in front of an access hatch with Gavreal. The hatch led to a room far from the inhabited areas of the station, and so the chances of being discovered were slim. Gavreal had chosen this location because the gravity in this room could be manipulated without affecting the rest of the base.

Sky nodded to the Kin and opened the hatch. She stepped through first, followed closely by Gavreal. As soon as she stepped into the room, she felt gravity let go of its grip on her. She was ready for this and steadied herself, and then pushed further into the nearly empty room. Three walls, the floor, and ceiling were the same grey metal color as all the walls of the station. Plain and unadorned. The final wall had a large door that opened to space. It was closed and should stay that way though their training.

The only object in the room hung motionless in the middle.  Suspended in the zero gravity was a perfect globe of water. It was equidistant from the floor and ceiling and was about seven feet in diameter. Their entrance had disturbed the air in the room and had sent a series of ripples across the surface of the water. It was eerily beautiful. Now Sky understood why Gavreal had told her to wear a robe and nothing else.

“I have manipulated the gravity in the room to hold the water in that shape for the duration of today’s training,” he spoke as he entered the room. He, too, was only wearing a robe.

“Why the water?” she asked.

“Your first time connecting to a mind will be difficult. We must remove as much outside stimulus as possible. The water is body temperature, for you, the lights will be off and it should be relatively silent here. I need you to focus on what you are doing and not what is around you. I hope to get you to the point where you can enter the correct state without the need of such preparations, but for now we must do it this way.” Using his wings to propel and guide him, he moved forward and came to a stop by the water. Sky followed, though was slightly less graceful. “Now remove your robe,” he instructed her and did the same himself.

Sky was never one to shy away from others or her own nakedness. In fact, she had often teased Cole about his own reactions to others nudity. But as she looked upon the perfect physique of the being floating in front of her, she felt a blush rising to her cheeks and a hesitancy to remove her own robe. If anyone had the chance to sculpt the perfect male, Gavreal would be the end result. Every muscle stood out in perfect relief. He didn’t have an ounce of fat and the graceful snow-white wings made him absolutely beautiful to look upon. He, of course, had no reaction.  She steeled herself and forcefully threw the robe from her body. She had to fight the need to cover her breasts and pelvis with her hands. She forced herself to stay still and not react.

“Good, now enter the water. Everything must be submerged except your head.” He held out his hand and helped her rotate her body so she entered feet first. The water was a perfect match to her body temperature, and she barely even felt it as it slid over her naked body. As she sunk into the water, she gathered her long hair up and tied it into a battle knot on top of her head. The lights went out and she sucked in a quick breath. Her eyes were wide and staring, but even with her excellent night vision she couldn’t make out the shape of the water or of Gavreal. Her breathing quickened and her pulse raced. She fought down the overwhelming sense of panic that threatened to consume her mind.

She felt detached, the water made her feel like she wasn’t connected to her body. The absence of gravity enhanced that feeling tenfold. The dark and the silence cut her off from the rest of the galaxy. She had never felt so alone in her life as she did in that moment. Then she felt the water ripple slightly as Gavreal entered the floating globe. She sucked in a small breath when she felt him press up against her back.

She had never been this close to another male since she had been with Cole. She felt the firm press of his solid chest against her back, and she couldn’t speak. She felt his hands grab her by the waist and slowly move around to rest flat on her stomach.

She was nearly hyperventilating. Gavreal hadn’t said anything about this. She tried to speak, but her sense of detachment kept her silent. She closed her eyes and bit back a soft moan. It took everything she had to keep her hands away from his, to keep them from moving up her stomach to her chest. She shivered at that thought.

“Calm,” he ordered softly in her ear. He was now firmly pressed against her entire body. From feet to head, they were connected. “Close your eyes, and focus on your breathing,” he whispered in her ear, his breath hot on her ear lobe. “Feel my chest, breath with me. In,” a pause, “out.” He repeated it over and over again like a mantra.  It seemed like hours, listening to his voice, controlling her breathing. His hands moved with her breath, firm on her belly.

Slowly she gained control and slowed her breathing down to match his. More minutes passed by and they grew closer together, until in a perfect moment their bodies synced up and their breathing was locked to each other’s.  In and out at exactly the same pace. Their breathing was so in tune that Sky didn’t think she could change it even if she wanted to.

They spent a few more moments firming the first bond their bodies had made. Then Gavreal moved again. It startled Sky at first, and she wasn’t sure what she was feeling. One of his hands had slid from her front to her side and was slowly travelling up her waist to her arm. Gavreal never broke his connection with her as the hand moved up her shoulder and neck, coming to rest on the side of her face and covering her temple. She nearly broke her breathing when his second hand began to move. Slowly, so very slowly, it moved up her belly to her rib cage. It didn’t stop. He shifted his hand so his fingers were pointing up as it slowly slid up between her breasts. His fingers spread, forcing her breasts apart, and his hand slowly moved to partially cup her right breast, directly over her heart.

“Grab my wrists with your hand,” the whisper in her ear seemed distant but she obeyed. “Good, find my pulse in the veins of my wrists.” As a doctor, Sky had no problem seeking out the strong beat of his heart. It distracted her from the hand over her heart. She found the pulse on both of his hands.

“Feel the beat, in my arm.” He pressed his chest more firmly to her back. “Feel it in my chest.” She could. She could feel his heartbeat everywhere. Everywhere he was touching her his heart pounded through his skin. “Match it. You breathe with me; now beat with me. Feel my heart set the pace for yours, let yours seek it out.” With a small feeling of perfect oneness, their hearts entered a lockstep rhythm. Their breathing matched, their hearts pounded together and then she felt him pushing at her mind. When his mind slipped into her, they ceased to be two people and became one. For Sky, there was nothing else in the universe but that moment, oneness. It consumed and devoured her completely. She would have been lost if not for Gavreal.

He grabbed her detached mind with his and brought her into him. Their joining was complete. For Sky, the moment was almost orgasmic. It was nothing like joining with the human ships. She flowed easily into him and felt as at home in his mind as she did in her own.

“Yes, this is more natural,” he said. “The bonds with the ships are forced and facilitated with dead connectors. When two living beings willingly connect it can be very beautiful. Now open your eyes.”

When he said those words, the universe opened before her. Gavreal’s mind was awe-inspiring. The vastness was incomprehensible. It made Sky feel very small and insignificant. The view of his inner mind shifted and blurred. Sky felt slightly disorientated before the world that was Gavreal’s mind reformed.

Sky’s eyes widened and she took a step backwards. She felt a hand putting pressure on her back, holding her in place. Wide eyed, she scanned her surroundings. She saw she was in her own body, standing on the edge of a cloud. From horizon to horizon, she could see a world spread out below. To her right, a coastline. Blue water crashing into an almost white sandy beach. The beach extended to the horizon and was a barren desert of shifting browns and tans. To her front was a great body of water. Though she was thousands of feet above the water, she could smell the salt in the air from the water below. Islands, big and small, were sprinkled throughout the immense sea. To the left, peninsulas jutted raggedly into the sea. Grasslands and forests covered the lands to her left. She was awed by the beauty of this world.

“I will not let you fall,” Gavreal’s voice was close to her ear. “This is my mind and I am in control, you will not be hurt.”

“Where are we? It’s paradise,” Sky whispered after finding her voice.

“Earth, as it was many thousands of years ago.” Sky noticed the lack of a population almost immediately. No smoke billowing into the sky, and no massive cargo ships on the water. Nothing. Then she recognized where they were.

“This is the Mediterranean Sea, isn’t it? Europe to the north and Africa to the south,” She said dredging the facts up from deep within her own memories of her time spent orbiting this world. “Why here? More to the point, how do you know what the Earth looked like so long ago?”