Resurrection (The Inherited War) (6 page)

“Doctor Sky, by now you know I am no longer the Reckoning, I answer to a different name now.”

“So do I,” she responded, “Commander Sky.  Your Commander, I am filling in for Cole until we get him back.  Something I had counted on you to help me with.  You may have changed your name, but there will be a reckoning when Cole returns.  Count on it.”

“I believe differently, Commander.  But we shall see if he returns.” 

Sky fixed her attention back onto the Administrator.  She stared into his eyes, plumbing the depths of his soul, looking for answers.  She found none.  Nothing.  Why was this male stopping or impeding her people from fighting this war?  She didn’t find the answer in his eyes. She released some of the pressure on his neck as she leaned down and whispered into his ear.

“I don’t know why you are doing what you are doing.  Frankly, I don’t care.  I am the new Commander of the human fleet, and I have more power in those five ships than you do on all of your colony worlds.  One day I will find out the true motivation for your actions and you will be held to account.  If those reasons are less than honorable, your life will be forfeit.”  Putting all her weight on her hand on his neck and the knee in his gut, Sky levered herself up to a standing position.  She turned around and saw Thalo.  He had both the guard and Fury covered and was scanning the rest of the bay.  She glanced to her shuttle and saw Jeth at the bottom of the ramp with what could only be called a cannon cradled in his arms.  It had a dozen barrels and a body almost as big as her.  It had a belt running from the main housing over his shoulder and into a massive ammo pack on his back.

She looked back to Fury.  “You couldn’t just let me come and pick up Hal, you had to complicate things.”  He shrugged his response.  Damn it, she wanted to take his head off too.  She called to Jeth over her shoulder.  “Drop the artillery and get Hal on board please, Jeth.  Make sure that’s his actual housing in there first.”

She heard the heavy clang as Jeth lowered the considerable weight onto the ground.  Jeth stomped across the deck, glaring menacingly at the crew members still rooted to their spots.  The Administrator still lay unmoving on the floor staring up at Sky.  She watched as Jeth pried open the shipping container, which held the central computer core that hopefully still held Hal’s consciousness.

“This is it,” his voice rumbled deeply.  In one smooth motion, he bent and picked up the massive computer core.  His arms, back and legs bulged with muscles under tremendous strain.  Without so much as a hitch, he turned and walked the core across the bay and up the ramp, and without a sound deposited it on the floor of the shuttle.  Jeth came back down the ramp and picked up his gun and placed his ammo pack back on his shoulders.  “Covered,” he said.

Sky gave an almost imperceptible nod to Thalo.  He reacted instantly. 

“Gentlemen, nice seeing you.”  He kept his pistols trained on them as he backed off and moved slowly towards the shuttle.  Without looking, he backed all the way to Jeth’s side before stopping.  He took up position next to his bondmate and waited for Sky.

“Now, as your people may have noticed, my,” she put a heavy emphasis on the word, “ships have moved into a blocking position and can easily support each other.  We leave this vessel unmolested or they will come to our aid.  Nod if you understand.”

Fury scowled but in the
end, he nodded slowly that he understood.

“I will be seeing all of you again, next time it might not be so pleasant.”  With that, she turned her back on them and strode with purpose and confidence back to her shuttle.  Thalo and Jeth waited until she had walked past them before turning and boarding as well. 

Sky stopped and rested a hand on Hal’s core.  She hung her head and took some deep breaths.  She heard the Worlders board, and close the ramp.

“Sky…”  Thalo started to say.

“I know,” she interrupted.

“No really, I…”

“Damn it I know, just get us off this cursed ship and back to the Justice, we will talk about this later.” 

Thalo looked at her for a moment before heading deeper into the ship.  Jeth remained silent as ever while Thalo revved up the engines and lifted the shuttle off the deck and out of the mag field surrounding the exit to the bay.

Silence reigned for the next few minutes.  The tension in the air was thick.  Sky’s mind was racing with all the possible repercussions that her attack on a duly elected representative of her people’s government.  None were good and she couldn’t listen to the lecture she knew was coming.  She heard Thalo’s footsteps as he made his way back into the cargo hold.

“Damn it, now you will listen to me.”  He was almost shouting.

“No,” she responded.  “You listen to me.  I don’t care if you think I overreacted.  I have been pushed beyond my breaking point by my own people.  I reacted the way I needed to and damn the consequences.”

“Are you finished?  Or do you want to keep yelling at me before I say what I have to say?”  Thalo crossed his arms and leaned his shoulder on the
doorframe.

“Fine, go ahead.”  She looked up from Hal and fixed Thalo with a stare.

He cleared his throat at her intense focus directed at him.  “Umm, well like I was about to say before you kept interrupting me,” he started, “good job. That took a lot of courage and I am proud of you.  I didn’t think you had it in you.”  He smiled at her.

Sky couldn’t have been more shocked if the roof had blown off the shuttle and she had been sucked out into space.  She was speechless.

“Yes, I am also impressed.  We will follow you to the grave if need be.”  Jeth laid a massive hand on her petite shoulder.  It always surprised Sky how gentle Jeth could be when he tried.

Sky’s shoulders sagged with relief.  “But what's going to happen now?  Surely he is going to try and have me arrested.  Or open some kind of formal inquest.  He won’t let me get away with this.  What if he goes after my father for it?”  Worry was creeping into her voice.

“Whoa, whoa.  Slow down for a minute.  First of all he won’t tell anyone about this, and you are acting as Cole’s second in command, not as a Nixa citizen.  Secondly, your father has been Prime Administrator for what, fifty years now?  He can handle himself, don’t worry about him.”  Thalo walked over and placed his hand on the opposite shoulder that Jeth‘s was on.

She had her next question written all over her face.  This time it was Thalo’s turn to stop her before she started.  “He won’t say anything to anyone because as slimy as he is, he is still a male and he has his pride.  He isn’t about to go shouting to the media about how a little girl beat him up.  Now he may go through unofficial channels to exact his revenge, but as long as you stay with me and Jeth, or any of our people or on board the ships, you will be in the safest place in the galaxy.  Your father and family have all those security agents and top of the line security systems.  They will be fine.”  He patted her shoulder one last time and turned to go back to the cockpit.

“He is right this time, don’t tell him I said that.”  Jeth attempted to whisper to her.

“I heard that.” Thalo shouted from the front of the ship.

“He will never let me forget that I said that.  As much as it hurts to say it he is right and you did what I would have done if a leader of my world acted the way he did.  Do not be ashamed.  We will make sure that you have a pair of Worlders with you at all times.”  That was the most Sky had heard Jeth say in one speech before.  She reached up and gripped his hand in silent thanks.

CHAPTER 6

Approximately 20,000 years
ago

              Jarrod sat in his chair and fumed.  Of all the things that could have gone wrong, this was the worst.  His plans had been advancing nicely up to this point.  He was moving his pieces around the galaxy and the outcome was favorable.  Until today.  He had just received word that the site chosen for the location of the shipyards and dry docks had been compromised.  Not just compromised, but utterly destroyed.

             
It had almost been finished when, by pure chance, an Esii battle fleet and a Roche assault fleet jumped into the hidden bases system.  The enemy had overwhelmed the base’s defenses and annihilated everything in the system.

             
He had to start over from scratch.  It cost him time.  He would have to move back their final attack on the Esii by months, if not years.  He would have to send out new teams to quickly find a new site and build a new force of labor drones to do the actual building.  He would have to design a totally new instillation based on the new location.

             
This hurt, and it would continue hurting.  The Worlders couldn’t hope to continue the fight for so long without aid.  He would have to shift more of his people and technologies to the front lines.  That meant more dead and more time lost.  It also meant less of his people for the final assault.

             
It was time to play his hidden piece.  He had hoped to not use them, but he had little choice now.  He brought up a holo of the galaxy and selected a planet on the opposite side of the galaxy from where he was.  It grew to fill the space the galaxy had just been in.  Its atmosphere was filled with clouds, so much so that no planetary features could be seen.

             
The planet had no name, just a designator and a warning. Keep away.  They had listed the planet as having a caustic atmosphere and dangerous natural inhabitants that were little more than thinking pools of acid based life.  Defense platforms had been erected and placed around the planet to keep any unwanted visitors to check the veracity of the warning. It was a lie.  The planet’s atmosphere was dangerous enough.  High winds, scouring sand and a mixture of volatile gases that could severely damage a starship trying to enter without knowing the local conditions. 

             
Once you got under that and passed through the planet’s outer crust into the secondary surface the beauty and impossibility of the place was astounding.  Jarrod had friends there and he needed them now.  The Kin, his secret defense, his last hope to finish his plan.

~

              Cole checked the time on his HUD, he had it set to ships time. It was just passed 3 in the morning on his fleet right now.  He still couldn’t believe that he was still in his Second Skin.  He snorted and started pacing around the room.  He guessed that of all the tortures they could put him through, boredom wasn’t the worst.  He didn’t think it would last though, the Esii were too vicious to try and bore him into giving up the information he was sure they wanted.

             
“You are correct; we are much more thorough and exacting than that.”  The voice sounded inside Cole’s head.  He spun around just in time to see the door he had entered slowly melt and puddle on the floor like mercury.  The now liquid door parted like the Red Sea and five Esii walked in.  Walked is a relative term, Cole couldn’t see their legs because of the voluminous robes they wore, but they didn’t look like they were walking to Cole.  More like floating.

             
Then he saw their faces.  The Esii were hard to look at as it was, these were downright revolting.  All five looked the same too.  They still had the skin over their faces, but from the top of the forehead back the skin was gone.  Their skulls glistened wetly in the light.  Apparently the Esii didn’t have white bones like humans.  Theirs were phlegm yellow in color.  Cole threw up a little in his mouth at the sight.   Next he noticed their eyes or lack thereof.  Their eyes had been removed along with their upper and lower eyelids.  Cole looked into five pairs of empty sockets.  Finally their mouths.  All of them had their mouths sewn shut with what looked to him like eight inch steel cable.  He lost it.  He spent the next few moments vomiting onto the floor in front of him.

             
The voice sounded in his mind again.  “Yes, most are put off by our appearance, but we strive to be above others petty jealousy.”

             
“Jealousy?”  Croaked Cole as he spit the taste of vomit out of his mouth.  “Why would anyone be jealous of you five?”

             
“Because we have achieved, thorough mastery of our mind and bodies that which others can only dream of.  Perfection.  We have mastered every aspect of our existence and relish every moment.  We first learn to tolerate, then embrace, and finally thrive on every aspect of our being.  We are what all Esii strive for.”

             
“Oh yeah, and who are you?”  Cole asked, wiping his mouth.

             
“We are the Pyndingum and we live in the past and the present.  We know all that has passed and all that transpires.  We have outgrown the need for eyes, we see the universe as it was meant to be seen.  We no longer need our mouths, we speak the purity of thought.  We gather all knowledge and protect the legacy of our people.  We are about to share this great honor with you.  We have been tasked by our glorious leader to secure information from your mind and take a small toll of vengeance from your body.  We are, for a lack of a better word, Gods who walk among men.”

             
Cole let a deep booming laugh out from his belly.  He slowly shook his head.  “Good luck with that, assholes.  I am fairly sure I can stand up to anything you throw at me.”  He crossed his arms defiantly and stared at the Pyndingum standing directly in front of him.

             
“Ahh, yes you refer to the interesting machines that inhabit your body as well as the protective clothing you now wear, correct?  They are quite amazing.  We assume the machines armor can only be willingly taken off and that the machines in your system can blunt your pain receptors?”  They didn’t wait for Cole to respond before continuing.  “There are ways around everything.  Now time for your first lesson.  Remove your clothing.”   Cole instantly felt the weight of the Esii’s mind pushing on his will power.  Cole found it easy enough to push back and he remained standing defiantly with his arms crossed.  He shoved the Esii out of his head and spit at its feet.

             
“Good, you are strong willed.  This will be a challenge.  Lesson one:  obey all orders immediately or be punished.”

             
Without warning, the floor around Cole rose up trapping him inside a rectangular box.  He looked up just in time to see the weirdly flowing metal seal the top of the box.  Cole had just enough space to be able to squat or turn completely around while standing up.  He pushed on all four of the walls and found them solid as steel.  Suddenly enough that it startled him, his suit helmet activated.  The wringing light indicating a detected loss of air pressure had triggered his helmet to protect him from the loss of breathable air.  Activating his external speaker Cole laughed again.  “I can out last you guys in here, have fun waiting.”

             
Cole looked up as he felt something drop onto his head.  He was rewarded with a deluge of fine sand falling from the top.  It was quickly filling in the box.  Cole started to panic, he slammed his fist repeatedly into the walls but they didn’t budge.  It didn’t take long before Cole was completely covered in the fine silvery sand.   He was good and truly trapped.  He couldn’t move his legs and his arms were stuck out in front of him in mid swing.  He couldn’t even shift his head.  To make matters worse, the weight of the sand was compressing his chest and making it hard for him to draw a breath.  They had buried him alive and he had no hope of escaping.  He couldn’t move, he could barely breathe, and his suit could keep him alive for days in this condition. 

             
“We assume your suit will maintain your body functions for quite some time and it will prevent you from trying to kill yourself by removing the helmet.  We shall return when your suit has lost power and falls from your body.  We suggest you take this time to reflect on your situation and your actions in our presence.”  The presence in Cole’s mind suddenly vanished leaving him utterly alone.  Cole screamed and struggled as best as he could.  He panicked and railed against the Esii.  He yelled and thought every foul word he could at them but it was to no avail.  In the end, his suit managed to stay functional for three days. 

             
Cole was barely lucid when it finally ran out of power.  He had screamed himself hoarse and exhausted himself in his struggles.  He never even noticed when the lights in his helmet winked out one by one as the suits systems shut down.  Finally the rebreather and the primary function ran out of power.  The suit lost its cohesiveness and slid off of Cole’s body leaving him at the mercy of the crushing sand.  Reflexively he held his breath as the helmet came off, but it wouldn’t be enough.  Just as he breathed out and was about to drown in the fine, silvery sand, the walls of his upright coffin fell away releasing Cole and his sand to fall to the floor.  The sand slowly sank into the floor leaving Cole lying naked and alone in the room.  He was lying on top of his now defunct Second Skin.

             
The door to the room melted and parted allowing the five Pyndingum to enter the room.  They stood in a half circle and watched to see what Cole would do next.  He disappointed them.  He didn’t do anything he just lay in the puddle that was his suit and looked blankly into the wall.  The Esii pushed themselves into his mind, his defenses were down for the moment and they invaded full force.  For hours they rooted around in his subconscious, looking everywhere for the information their lord required. 

             
“Get up.”  It was more than just a command.  There was a force behind the words.  It was compelling Cole to move.  “GET UP!”  The order pounded his brain awake.  All five of the Esii bent their minds to forcing Cole onto his feet.  A third time it boomed.  “GET.  UP.”    Cole was back, he focused his mind.  Slowly he rolled off of his stomach and got on his back.  He looked up at his tormentors, raised his arm, and shot them the middle finger.  He finally succumbed to the stress and exhaustion of the last few days and passed out.  His mind shut down so completely and quickly he went even beyond the range that their minds could reach.

             
The Pyndingum were both disappointed and intrigued at the same time.  They had pushed his body and mind past what should have been the human’s breaking point.  Not only had he survived but he had retained his sanity.  The leader had placed a time limit on their task, they didn’t have enough time as it was to fully break the human and setbacks like this wouldn’t do.  They silently conferred and reached a consensus.  The Esii used their minds to pull down a section of ceiling.  They formed it into two long poles that grew down towards Cole’s arms.  They stopped just short of his wrists and spread out to either side of his wrists forming cuffs that locked seamlessly around his arms.  The poles slowly retracted into the ceiling dragging Cole with them.  They stopped just as Cole’s toes almost left the floor.  All of his weight was now on his wrists as he hung from the ceiling.  To most beings this position would be very uncomfortable for a while and downright painful after a long time suspended in this position.  Cole’s nanites would keep him from feeling the pain but his mind would know it was uncomfortable.

             
Next, the Pyndingum sent out two mental summonses.  Within moments the first summoned underling appeared.  He had in his hands a pair of goggles with blacked out lenses, four short fat screws and a hand held drill.  They gave the servant his instructions and he went to work.  The servant drilled four holes into Cole’s face.  One above each eyebrow and one below each eye.  He then placed the goggles over Cole’s eyes and screwed them to his face.  The servant, his job finished, turned and left without uttering a word.  The Pyndingum had to wait for their final summons to be answered but answered it was.  Guards from the pens brought a prisoner into the room with the Pyndingum and Cole.

             
“The prisoner stays, you may leave.”  The two guards bowed to the Pyndingum as they backed out of the room.  The five focused their attention on the being standing in their midst.  “You have been instructed as to the part you will play?”  They asked him.

             
“Ye…yes,” he stammered out trying to hide the revulsion he felt as he looked upon their faces.

             
“Then begin your work as soon as he wakes.  Remember, your fate and your peoples depend on how well you work here over the coming days.  Any intentional or unintentional slip ups will be punished.  Severely.  You hold your and your people’s future in your hands.”

             
“I understand,” he said more confidently.  He watched as the five disfigured Esii moved out of the room.  The door flowed back up into its original position and sealed him in with the unfortunate human suspended in the middle of the room.  Looking around he found no chairs to sit on so he went to the nearest corner and sat against the wall and waited for the human to awake.