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Authors: Viola Grace

Tags: #Adult, #Sweet Romance, #Science Fiction, #Space Opera, #Paranormal

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BOOK: Shattered Light
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He nodded. “Some are under fire but they all need to know what is going on. This is a time of stress and the government has been toppled. They need to know how to take action.”

Trala walked and the orb followed her. In the shadow of the ship an idea struck her and she shared it with Resicor. The world agreed and they were on.

 

“To the citizens of Resicor, I know you are under attack and I want you to defend yourselves with everything in you. The attackers will be seeking out talents and trying to herd them into areas where they can abduct them. The government has been doing this for decades but they have been removed from power now.

“I am Resicor, the soul of your world. For three hundred years I have tried to rise and those who would prey on you have been keeping me supressed. I understand that this is difficult for you to comprehend now, but I want you to fight, I want you to win, and you can rake me over the coals when those who live here can do so in peace and freedom.

“Again. I want you to fight. Don’t let anyone take the ones you love, the ones you know and the ones who you fear because of what you have been taught. You are citizens of Resicor and you will survive this and we will be whole!”

Trala focused and flashed brightly. She carried the program she had devised for teaching alien languages and sent the program into the eyes and minds of everyone near a broadcast source. If they could see, they could now understand. The Raiders and Vorwings would not have ignorant masses to pick on. If they were speaking, they would be understood.

Commander smiled and pressed one hand to his ear. “Relay informs me that she will replay the education burst at the end of that recording on an hourly basis.”

Trala nodded. “Good. I don’t think I can do that again today.”

She heard a throat clearing and turned to see her citizens and the new members of the Citadel and the Sector Guard who had been born on her soil.

The faces she was looking at were so familiar and they lunged toward her, hugging her in turn until she had been squeezed by them all and each one had touched their Avatar.

Resicor was welling with joy once again. It replenished her energy stores and she was able to return her gaze to the capitol.

“We need to get those attack vessels away from my people.”

Commander nodded. “That is why we are here.”

Pilot headed back to her ship. “I will get us in the air. All who are coming, get in the ship!”

Several of the talents rose in the air. A woman with a shock of blue hair smiled. “Ready when you are, Avatar.”

Trala smiled. “Thank you, Kiiki. It is good to have you back for a moment.”

A man formed a column of mist that circled around Kiiki. She blushed. “This is my husband, Harken.”

The other women in Citadel and Sector Guard uniforms laughed and partnered up with the aliens they had arrived with.

Trala felt Resicor’s pride in her children and their ability to find mates away from their home. Trala pushed the pride aside and lifted off. She still had millions to take care of and her work was not yet done.

 

 

 

Chapter Four

 

 

General Drenliako sat in his command chair. His ship was completely dead, as were his crew. It wasn’t a shock to see two Nameless appear in front of him.

The woman with stars in her eyes looked at him. “You know why we are here.”

“You are here to take it back.”

She nodded her head. “Yes.”

He looked around at the devastation around him. “We will not have a second resurgence, will we?”

She shook her head and her companion remained silent.

“You are the children of a lost universe. You chose the path to power, that hunger has led you here. You will not sow the seeds of the past in this time.”

She stepped toward him and Drenliako drew his blade, rushing toward her. He had one chance at life and it was through her.

The delicate woman moved with startling speed. She ducked under his arm and her companion gripped him, holding him still while she stared into his eyes and pulled his life from him.

 

* * * *

 

Nothing but ash remained in her hands. Sky flexed her fingers and looked to her mate. Tavik was grim.

“I don’t like this, Tavik.”

“I know, love, but it must be done and the Vorwings will not be foolish enough to expose themselves again.”

Sky looked out the viewports and watched the battles around them, the second wave of Raider ships was being fought off by a shocking presence. The Kozue were defending Resicor.

“That is not a sight that I anticipated. The Watchers are going to go crazy looking for angles on this battle.”

Tavik laughed. “That is their problem. We have to seek out another target. A dozen Vorwings are in the vicinity and we need to return as many as we can.”

Sky nodded and stepped into his embrace, holding the energy taken from the General inside her. It had to be returned to the Orb before they could return in search of another target. She patted her scissors and thought of the moment that she had acted on her own instead of in the path of the Orb. Once this was over, she might just do it again.

 

* * * *

 

“Makki!” Colah raced toward her niece, trying to beat the Raider who had the young girl in his path. She poured on the speed and projected herself through the spaces between them, slowing slightly so as not to injure Makki as she scooped her up.

Straight up was the safest place to go.

“Aunty Col!”

The small arms were tight around her neck.

“Where is your mom, sweetie?”

“The school. Everyone is hiding in the school.”

“Why were you out?”

Makki leaned back and looked at her with astonishment. “There are people flying out here. I wanted to see.”

Chuckling but worried, Col called Ysyr. “Ysyr, we are heading toward the school. I don’t know if they have been herded or not. I am carrying the gun.”

He sighed in her earpiece. “Keep yourself safe. Don’t let them shoot you.”

“Then come and help me.”

“I am working on one of the landing craft.”

“Then quit whining.” Col laughed and landed in front of the school that she had attended with her sister two decades earlier.

She set Makki back on her feet and pulled her gun around. Normally she wouldn’t carry it but this wasn’t a normal day. She fired on approaching Raiders and backed slowly toward the school.

“Aunty Col, you look different.”

“So do you, pet. You have grown.”

They backed toward the school and the door opened. “Makki, get in here.”

Colah grinned at her sister’s voice. “Come on, Cabbi. She just wants to see the fliers.”

Her sister let out a shocked cry and Colah made sure that the school wasn’t under threat from any visible angle before she lowered her gun and turned around. “Into the school, Makki. We need to make a plan.”

Once inside, a man locked the door while staring at Col in shock. “Colah Geering. You are in the dome.”

Col shook her head and followed her niece down the hall. “Not for a few years now. Come on, we need to see what weapons we have at our disposal. How many people are holed up here?”

Cabbi blinked and said, “Four hundred, but we don’t have weapons.”

Col chuckled and put her arm around her sister in half a hug. “And you also thought I couldn’t fly. Now, let me see what we are working with and we will make a plan.”

The gym was filled with bodies, huddling on the floor and flinching at the sounds of weapons fire. It was time to give them the briefing that no one wanted to hear.

Makki pranced ahead of her and Cabbi turned to the man from the door. “Set up the microphone.”

Col waved her hand. “I don’t need it. My suit can do it for me.”

Her boot heels rang on the lacquered wood. Her robes flared dramatically around her and while she had lowered her gun she had not put it away. She knew that she depicted a frightening figure and she was going to use that to her advantage.

With a few light steps she flew to the stage at the edge of the gym. The murmurs became silent as folk realized they were in the room with a physical talent, someone they had all been taught to fear.

She touched the nodules on her suit and spoke through the speakers mounted on the walls. “Good afternoon citizens of Resicor. My name is Colah Geering and I am one of your kind, more or less.”

Murmurs resumed. She held up her hands. “You can all hate me later. I am here to tell you what is going on.”

Someone in the crowd shouted, “You are invading!”

“No, we are not invading. After the fight is over I have an actual home to go back to. We are here to defend the citizens of Resicor against predation by the Raiders and Vorwings who have been nurturing the increase of talents and harvesting the most useful for genetic blending.”

The murmur got louder.

“Quiet! What I am telling you is that Resicor herself has sent for help and we have come to render the assistance she wants.”

A wise child stood up and scowled. “Planets can’t talk.”

Col smiled. “Yes they can. I have met six Avatars who carry a piece of the planet inside them. They literally speak for the world.

“Resicor planted power inside us to help us and make us extraordinary. That goal was subverted when the Raiders offered the psychics freedom if the physical talents would be turned over to them. Think about it. When does the memory of hate toward the talents begin? It didn’t occur naturally, there are entire buildings full of psychics who have been building that hate and distrust in order to keep their own freedoms. That is over. The psychics are being turned off by the very planet who gave them the talent they have abused.”

More muttering and murmurs.

Col held up her free hand. “That doesn’t matter. It will be proven later. You have already seen the Avatar. She produced the vid that enables you to speak Alliance Common. I have been speaking an alien language and you have all understood perfectly.”

The stunned silence made her smile. “Fine. Now, we don’t want to move you if we don’t have to but I need to know if there are any talents among you. I will try and defend this area but I am just one woman and there are more landing craft outside. If anyone who isn’t Resicoran comes and tries to move you or tries to herd you in any way, run.”

She looked around. “Now, does anyone have any talents? Healing? Ability to flip dice?”

No one moved but several people looked around nervously.

“There is no longer a restriction on talents. You won’t be arrested for using what this world has given you. Do what you can if they come in here, but know that it means I cannot help you. If they get in, I am not able to defend anyone anymore.”

She bowed. “Thank you for your attention.”

She floated over to Makki and gave her a proper hug. “Be good and stay with the others.”

Cabbi hugged her hard. “I never thought to see you again. You look good.”

Col laughed. “I am well. My husband is in the middle of the landing parties.”

“Husband?”

“Yes, if a man walks through the walls looking for me, point him in the right direction.” She winked and crouched to face Makki at eye level. “Thank you for writing that letter.”

Makki’s eyes shone with tears. “Be careful, Aunty Col.”

“I will. Keep safe.”

Cabbi looked around and ignited her hands. “I will keep them safe.”

Gasps rang through the room but Col merely smiled. “Good on you. Just remember that flames burn oxygen so make sure that the area you work in is well ventilated.”

Makki was staring at her mother and other folk were moving further away but there was a look of determination in the eyes of several who moved out of the crowd and stood around the edges.

Col didn’t know what they could do but they would do it if they had to. She returned to the exterior of the building and shot anything that moved. Her family was inside and no one was getting past while she lived.

 

* * * *

 

The capitol was finally quiet. Other parts of the world were still under attack but the population of the great city was safe.

Trala rubbed a grimy hand over her face. The shadow was next to her as he had been throughout all of the attacks. He had watched her back and kept her from a fatal injury while she was still adapting to Resicor’s presence.

“Fine. I think it is time to tell me who you are.”

“My name is Envix. I am master of darkness of the Citadel.”

She sighed. “Why didn’t you say that?”

He shrugged. “It wasn’t time.”

She made a face. “Fine. Resicor is in communication with the other worlds via the portals. I want to find out where we are needed.”

“Ask the Sector Guard.”

She turned to the orb following her and asked, “Can you get an assessment for me to determine where I need to be?”

The orb spun and projected the side of a hill where four Raider vessels were on the ground and there were tubes around them.

“Jaykot Prefecture. Thank you, Relay.”

The orb spun happily.

She turned to Envix. “It is only ten minutes at a decent speed.”

“Let’s go.”

She took off and as he flew with her. “Don’t you get tired?”

“I feed on darkness. There is plenty of dark acts here so I am fine.”

She blinked and realized that he meant emotional darkness. “Right. Well, thank you for your help. I have not had enough time to properly bond with Resicor.”

“I know. That is why I was sent to guard you.”

“You have done a very good job.”

He laughed. “I have always taken pride in my work.”

She eyed the horizon where searchlights were flaring and rotating. “I am glad because your work isn’t over yet.”

His tone was grim and his tendrils of darkness lashed outward restlessly, “It never is.”

 

 

Chapter Five

 

 

Removing their clothing and weapons was an easy way to determine who was a Raider once she was down on the ground.

Envix made a strangled noise every time she denuded the attackers but he didn’t say anything else. Naked people didn’t put up as much of a fight.

BOOK: Shattered Light
8.57Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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