Resurrection (The Inherited War) (15 page)

The vehicle slowed to a stop and pulled over to the side of the street.  The exited on Thalo’s side one at a time.  Thalo banged on the driver’s window.  The window rolled down slightly.

Thalo handed the being a few credit chits and leaned close to the window.  “I will double that if you stay here and wait for us.  We should only be a few minutes.  The window rose back up and the vehicle pulled up a small ways and settled into a parking spot to wait.  Thalo turned back to the Nixas and said “Let’s go, ladies.”

He took a step forward and was stopped by Sky’s outstretched hand.

“Is this a joke?”  Her voice sounded incredulous as it came out of her speaker.

“Nope.  This is the only one I know on Pitt that can get us to see who has the info we need.  If you have a better idea let me know.  He is also the reason you have to wear that getup, he still may be mad at you and Cole for busting his bar up last time.”  Snow raised an unseen eyebrow upon hearing that.

“Sky, busting up a bar.  That seems unlikely.” 

“Well it was two rival gangs out for revenge that cornered Sky and Cole here.  Jeth had to help get them out but there was much collateral damage to the building.”  Thalo smirked remembering the scene when Jeth came crashing out the front of the bar holding both Sky and Cole in front of him to protect them from incoming fire.

Sky just stared ahead looking at the sign that hung above the doorway.  The Happy Rylioan’s Stick.  Sky never thought she would have come back here in a million years.  Now she completely understood why she had to be hidden on this mission.  If the proprietor of this bar knew who she was, he might still be mad at her and Cole, and refuse to help.

“Let’s not drag this out any longer than we have to.”  Once again she grabbed Thalo and propelled him forward.  She grabbed her sister and hauled her alongside of her.  They walked into the bar they had meet Jeth in so long ago.  The place hadn’t changed much.  Literally.  There was still a giant hole in the ceiling that went up twenty stories to the top of the building, where the one gang had blown their way down using timed explosive charges.  Most of the furniture had hole from projectiles or scorch marks from blasters.  The only thing that had been fixed was the bar.  The three friends stopped just inside of the main
area of the bar and took in the view.  Snow emitted a low whistle of astonishment as she surveyed their surroundings.

Thalo took control and moved forward to the bar and slammed his fist reputedly on the counter.  “Jax,” he bellowed, “you got customers out here.  Paying customers.”  He added.  They heard a rustling in the back room.  Jax made his way out of the bar office and climbed up onto the stool so he could see over the bar.  Snow noticed the resemblance to the Rylioan in the sign, except this one was clothed and not that excited.

“Thalo,” Jax grunted.  “What are you doing back here?”  His lower arms, which had been behind his back, came around to his front and each of them had a plasma blaster in their hands.  “And I mean, what the hell are you doing showing your face in my bar.”  He pointed one at Thalo’s head and the other at Sky.  “Your big friend and his pals ruined my bar.  They got into a shootout with the two worst gangs on Pitt and left without so much as a ‘sorry for destroying your livelihood.’”  The high pitched whine of the blasters filled the silence.

“Now, I am going to count to three.  When I get to three if I haven’t heard a good excuse not to kill you, I pull the triggers.”  He started counting.  “One.”

Thalo slowly reached into his pockets and drew out a handful of credit chits.

“Two.”

Slowly he reached into his other pocket and grabbed a hand full more and placed them next to the first pile.  “That’s just for hearing us out.  You get more if you lower the guns.  Thalo watched as Jax mentally counted the amount of credits currently on his bar.  He agonized over the sum for a moment before finally lowering his weapons and snatching the credits off the counter.

“You got my attention and five minutes of my time.  You still owe me for the damages to my place whether I help you or not.”  He crossed all four of his arms over his chest.  Thalo finally took a good look at the Rylioan standing in front of him.

Jax had been down on his luck since the last time they had been there, that was for sure.  Rylioan’s usually had a nice dark green skin tone that glistened with slime.  Their wide mouths were full of sharp white teeth and their eyes were eerily all white.  Jax had been under a lot of stress and it showed.  His skin was more of a sickly yellow and dry as a bone, which was supposed to be very uncomfortable for his kind.  His eyes and teeth were also a disturbing shade of red.  Thalo felt bad for the little guy.  Jeth had enjoyed spending time working for the foulmouthed little guy to pass the time.  It had been unfortunate that he had gotten in the middle of the scrap between the two gangs and Cole.

Thalo plugged his credit holder into the bar receptacle and entered in a number.  “That should cover the damages, plus there is more if you help us out.”  Jax looked at the new number his account was showing and his eyes cleared a bit as he goggled at it.

He regained his composure and looked back at Thalo.  “That’s a good start, but it will take more than that to replace what I lost.”

Thalo snorted at the gall of the little guy.  That was enough credits to by the building, tear it down and put up a brand new one in its place.  “There is more if you can help me.  None if we leave without what we came here for.”

“Well go ahead, I can’t help if you don’t tell me.”  Jax replied as he leaned forward and rested all four hands on the bar.

“My associate and I have merchandise we need to sell.”  Thalo indicated Sky first and Snow second.  “We need a buyer with deep pockets.”  He looked around the room.  “And considering the state of affairs on Pitt the only one we can count on having the kind of credits we want is, Vinco.”

“Ha, ha.  You want me to get you to see Vinco? Let me see what you got.  I can’t just send you here on your word alone.  If I set up a meet and you ain’t got shit worth his time, after he is done with you he comes after me.  And as you can see,” he looked around the bar, “I ain’t got much left to lose.”

Thalo looked at Jax for a moment, as if weighing his options first.  The Rylioan just stared back at him.  Thalo reached out and grabbed a hold of Snow’s hood and yanked it off her head.  Jax hissed as he sucked in his breath.  A healthy green pallor started to return to his skin.

“Holy hell Thalo.  Do you know what you have there?”  He asked with awe in his voice.

“Yes and now so do you.”  Thalo flipped the hood back over Snow’s head, hiding her features once again.  “Set up a meet and I’ll give you a ten percent broker fee on the deal.  Sound fair?”

Jax couldn’t nod his head fast enough to agree.  He nearly fell off of his stool in his haste to get to his office.  He scampered down the length of the bar and went into his office to make the call.  Thalo and the Nixa waited patiently for him to return.

Jax came out a few moments later and climbed back up onto the stool.  “One hour at this location.  You, your partner, and the Nixa.  No weapons and no funny stuff.”  He leaned in close to Thalo.  “Could I you know, try her out before you go.” 

Thalo leaned in the rest of the way and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and said “No.” before hammering his head onto the bar.  Standing back up he continued.  “Why would I want to lose value on her if it was known that her first time was a Rylioan?”

Finding out she was a virgin was too much for Jax and his eyes rolled up in his skull and he fell over backwards in a faint.  He crashed to the floor and lay silent, unconscious on the floor.

All three beings leaned forward to look at Jax and smiled before leaving the bar.  They walked over to the waiting vehicle and entered in the reverse order they got out.  Thalo knocked on the driver’s window again and handed the being the paper with the address on it and told him to take it slow.  Thalo got in and looked at the two Nixa next to him.

“That was the easy part.  The next few hours will be difficult, to say the least.”  All three leaned back as the vehicle shot off into the back streets of Pitt.

CHAPTER 12

Anastacia was jolted out her dreams by a rapid thumping noise.  It took her a moment to get her bearings and turn toward the sound.  She sucked in a quick breath and froze.  Cole appeared to be having some kind of fit or seizure, and standing above him was one of the faceless.  Her body went ridged with fear and she barely dared to breathe.  She cursed her inability to move and quietly wept at her paralysis.

At eighteen years of age she had been the youngest ever to enter Russian Military Flight School.  She had excelled at all of her classes and had been commissioned as a Captain in the Russian Air Force.  She had landed airplanes on aircraft carriers in blizzards, hurricanes, and freezing fog.  She had survived survival training and POW school.  Not one time had she let fear control her.

This was different, this was sheer terror.  The things those faceless aliens had done to her in her time here was something she would never forget, no matter how hard she tried.  When she saw them, she froze.  Just as she had done upon waking and seeing one hovering over Cole.  It was obviously doing something to Cole to hurt him but the terror of seeing the faceless alien was more than she could bear.  She closed her eyes as tight as she could and whispered an old Russian prayer over and over, under her breath.

She wasn’t the only one in the room who was watching the Pyndingum standing over Cole.  Split had risen when the Esii torturer had entered the room silent as death.  Split had heard what Dayja had said earlier about the torturers failure to secure the knowledge that their leader sought.  They didn’t believe this one was supposed to be here.  Split stayed behind the Esii as it walked forward and tilted its head down in a parody of looking at Cole.

It was only moments before Cole started to violently shake on the ground.  “This may be it,” he thought to his bondmate, “we may need to act on his behalf.  This creature is not supposed to be here and he may seek vengeance upon Cole.”

“I agree, move close but hold until we can be sure that he means to harm Cole.”  Split looked down at the human female.  “This one will be less than useless.”  Split slid forward and slowly drew the one weapon they always carried.  A dagger about ten inches in length and razor sharp down both sides.  They took a firm grip with both hands and placed the dagger mere inches from the base of the Esii’s skull.  They had a clear view of Cole from where they were standing as they settled into wait.

~

Cole’s sleep was suddenly interrupted by a powerful will attacking the defenses he had put up around his mind.  With the help of his nanites and a small measure of willpower, so he thought, he protected himself from being mentally invaded again.

Apparently he was wrong.  Whatever was attacking his mental blocks was strong, very strong.  Cole’s eyes flashed open and he saw it standing over him.  One lone Esii torturer, what Anastacia called the Faceless.  Cole clamped his eyes shut and concentrated on his defenses.  It was no use, whoever this was, was good.  Better than Cole and better than the Faceless that had tortured him before.

He had no choice, he had only one option left to him that he could see.  With one valiant effort he tore down his defenses and grabbed the invading consciousness and pulled it deep into his own mind.  Deeper, hopefully, than it wanted to go.  Deep enough that Cole would have the home field advantage.  Deep enough that if Cole killed him here it would kill him for real.

Cole had caught the Esii off balance with his sudden move.  The Esii was trying to reorient itself to its new location, Cole used that time to build a setting that was known to him and would aid his concentration.

Cole focused and released his vision.  He blinked and opened his eyes, he was standing on the bridge of the Retribution.  Cole hesitated for a moment as he took in the austere white of his bridge, the one
place he had truly felt at home.  He added the command chair and the station chairs.  It was as close to the original as he could make it.

“Touching, to say the least.  Is this where you killed my brethren?  This place that holds meaning for you.”  Slowly the Faceless took form on the bridge. 

“No, I didn’t need to bring them this deep.  They were only on the surface of my mind when I broke their necks and snuffed their lives out.  You’re different than them, you must be their leader.  The grand Pooh-Bah as it was. I thought I was done with you guys, you know, after you failed to get me to talk.  Dayja made it sound as if your ruler wasn’t too happy with your performance.”  Cole kept talking as he attempted to improve on the details of the bridge.  He figured the more accurate the detail, the harder it would be for the Faceless to change things.

“Yes the Keisarinn was very displeased with the information extraction.  I was wrong in the five I chose to handle it and now I am here to rectify that mistake.  You see, if I do not return with the information my Lord requires we may be the last of the Pyndingum.  We have fallen out of favor with our Lord and he has seen fit to question our usefulness.  I endeavor to change his mind.”  The Esii started his attack on Coles mind.

Cole felt an unrelenting pressure building in his head and he watched as the bridge he so carefully created slowly began to flicker.  It was flickering like a strobe light between Cole’s vision of his ships bridge and the cell where he was currently being held.  He couldn’t let the bastard gain control.  He doubled his efforts and tried to lock the image of the ships bridge in his mind.

“This one thing is so very hard for you, isn’t it?  Come now if this is the best you can do then you should just relent and give in.”  Cole was dropped to his knees by the sheer force of will that was directed his way.  Now every time the bridge flickered away something was missing.  The Faceless was tearing the illusion apart piece by piece.  Cole fought to regain his feet but the force of the Esii’s mind was like a massive weight holding him to his knees.  He was sweating and grunting with the effort of just staying where he was while the Faceless hadn’t moved a muscle.  Cole screamed and threw everything he had left in him at the Master Torturer.  It wasn’t enough.  Cole crumpled to the floor and lay gasping on the ground as the ship melted away and he found himself, once again lying on the floor of his cell.

He sensed more than felt the Faceless wedge a mental block in his brain.  Cole was exhausted, too tired to even try and stop him.  The bastard had access to his mind now and there wasn’t anything Cole could do to stop him.  He had never felt so defeated in his whole life.

“Much better, now let’s see what there is to see.”  The Faceless finally moved.  He held his arms in front of himself and made claws with its hands.  He started to rake furiously in front of himself.  Wearily Cole turned his head to look at his tormenter.  He screamed as the Esii tore into his mind.

The Faceless went to task with reckless abandon.  He pulled everything from Coles mind and tossed it around the room.  With each rake of its hands Cole felt fire course through his brain.  Nothing they had done to him up to this point had hurt as bad as this.  Cole shuddered and screamed as the Esii pulled every last memory from Cole’s mind.

Cole saw it all, with stunning clarity.  Snippets of his life as a boy were looked at and tossed aside.  The Faceless discarded his memories with careless abandon, searching for what he wanted.  Cole watched as his life sped by him until they came to recent history.  Everything disappeared and was replaced by a face.  It had been the first face Cole had seen when he woke up on the alien ship.  He had thought it was an angel, but it had been Sky.  He smiled as he saw her face and remembered that first encounter.  He missed her so hard it hurt worse than what the Faceless was doing to his mind.

The Faceless snarled his annoyance and pushed past the memory of Sky.  It only took a few moments before everything went away and the perfect beautiful image of Sky took center stage again.  The slight smile on her mouth as Cole looked into her perfect eyes.  The Faceless screamed with rage and slashed his arms through the image.  He continued searching and got to the point in Coles life when they first went to the secret Pure Human shipyards.  The faceless let loose a howl of triumph that quickly turned into another scream of rage as the image of Sky covered the one of the shipyards.

Shredding the whole time again the Faceless moved forward.  It was no use.  Every time the Faceless changed the memory, Sky’s face superimposed itself over what the Faceless wanted to see.  Everything disappeared except Sky’s perfect face.  The cell disappeared and Cole, the Faceless, and that one perfect memory of Sky remained, suspended in the ruins of Cole’s mind.  Cole saw as the shoulders of the Faceless slumped in defeat.  Cole slowly started to pull the shredded memories of his life back into his subconscious mind. 

Once he had returned all that he could, he let the memory of Sky fade away.  The weight of the Esii’s mind still kept him pinned on his chest.  He waited and watched the Esii.  “I see that I must try it their way.”  For a brief moment in time Cole felt the weight lessen from his back, not enough to stand and fight but enough to know the Faceless had altered something.  He heard a soft moan and expended the effort to shift his field of vision.

Anastacia was lying not but two feet from him.  “Yes, I am quite capable of joining three minds together in one body.  What she experiences here will affect her body as well.  This is new to me to be sure.  Esii are unique in the galaxy for many reasons but paramount is their attitude towards each other.  We believe that the whole is more important than the individual so suicide in combat or random murder mean little to us.  As long as the whole survives, that is all that matters.  So, needless to say, torturing another to make us talk wouldn’t work.  We don’t care what happens to each other as long as the race survives.  You, on the other hand, do care about what happens to those around you.  Especially if they are the second to last of your kind in the galaxy.”  He paused before he continued.  “Especially if you are the reason she suffers.  What I do to her mind here is what will be done to her body by the Esii the Keisarinn sends in a few days’ time.” 

Cole felt the Faceless shift its attention from him to Anastacia.  Her scream cut through to his soul.  It had the opposite effect on Cole than the Esii had intended.  He didn’t give up he gave in to his anger and rage.  He screamed and got the attention of the Faceless. 

“I suffered through a childhood no one should have to go through,” he shouted.  Cole got his arms up and planted his fists on the ground.  “I was experimented on throughout my life,” screaming he pushed his torso off the ground.  “I was weak and sick for my whole life so someone could use me,” his voice was going horse from the shouting.  “I fought for my freedom when I was alone in the galaxy.”  He got one knee under his body.  “I saw the destruction of my world by your kind.”  The other knee.  “I have seen my friends and crewmembers die at your hands.”  He straightened his body up and got one foot under him.  “I have been tortured and abused by your kind for long enough!”  He hurled the last words at the Faceless as he got his other foot under him.  He stood screaming.  “I will not let you hurt another through me.”  Cole stood erect and with monumental effort lunged forward at the Faceless.

It had been a valiant effort on Cole’s part and he had succeeded in stopping Anastacia from being hurt, but it hadn’t been enough.  When he got to the Faceless he passed right through him and staggered to a halt.

“This will change nothing.  Your defiance only prolongs the agony you and she will feel.”  Faceless turned to face Cole.

“Fine, your right.  We both will be tortured and finally killed.  You have beaten me and I will finally give in.  But not to you.”  Slowly, in the back ground a deep thumping could be heard.  Quickly gaining volume.  Thump-thump, pause, Thump-thump.  “I have learned one thing being here with you, I have made a deeper connection to my body than ever before.”  Thump-thump, thump-thump.  The sound was louder, but slower.  Suddenly a steel cage sprang up trapping both Cole and the Esii.  In the background a quieter noise was joining the beating of Cole’s heart.  It was the sound of sludge moving through the Esii version of a heart.  “I will die with my secrets untold and take your order with me.  After they find both of us dead in the cell they will fault you for losing the information I have and your order will die.”  Cole’s heart and the Esii’s were beating together.  The two sounds mingled into one and continued to slow.

The Faceless turned and hurled himself at the bars of the prison cell Cole had built.  Cole noticed that Anastacia had disappeared and the Faceless was frantic to leave.  Cole grabbed a hold of the Faceless heart beat and slowed it to match his own.  He lost himself in the pure joy of his final victory over the Esii.  With his final act he would remove a parasite from the face of the galaxy.  It wasn’t much but it was more than most people could say they had done.  Cole brought their heart rates down further as he watched the Faceless rage in impotent anger against the cell trapping him here.  Slower and slower their hearts beat.  Cole stumbled forward and was finally able to grab the near hysterical being.  He turned the Esii around and stood face to face with the being.  The Faceless stopped its mindless thrashing and did its best to look at Cole with its sightless face.  Cole fixed that with supreme effort.  He gave the Esii back its eyes, he opened its mouth and put skin back on its body.

The Esii gibbered in terror as it saw with eyes for the first time in decades and heard sounds come out of its mouth.  But worst of all was the constant pain of having exposed nerves was gone, replaced by the cool feel of skin.  And still Cole lowered their heart rates more.  Thump……..Thump.  It was almost over.  Not long now and Cole would pass out of the living universe and join his ancestors in the next life or sink into the sweet release of oblivion.  Thump……………..thump.