D'Mok Revival 1: Awakening (10 page)

“I thought the gem was magic, but they told me it was my own doing. The next day, I was sent off-world, to the D’mok training center. I was amazed. Those who had naturally manifested their power were there, helping to train others. But the number of volunteers like me was staggering. We seemed to have a variety of abilities, and some of us, perhaps more power, but the ‘naturals’ had more control. And they could combine their powers collectively, something I never mastered. No matter the training, it always seemed they were superior.

“Half a year later, word came. The Nukari were heading for our home planet. The Council convened, decided all our Defenders combined wouldn’t be able to stem a full-blown Nukari assault. The best we’d do was buy time as the others abandoned our world.”

Like a nervous tic, she reached into a pouch and pulled a few crystals out, playing with them between her fingers.

“There’s not much more to tell. The Nukari came sooner than expected. Before our ships could leave, the planetary defenses activated. The skies were filled with explosions. And for the first time, we saw D’mok—
the
D’mok we are named after—take to the skies. He alone went as our first line of defense.”

She dropped a crystal abesent-mindedly and paused to pick it up before continuing, groaning heavily as she straightened.

“The battle was . . . tremendous. D’mok summoned power I’ve never seen before, or again. Destroyed the entire armada. But it cost him dearly. He returned to the homeworld badly weakened. When the second wave of attackers came, we tried to stop him. We told him we were ready to fight. He wouldn’t allow it. He was adamant. Then he returned to the sky. To defend us.”

One of the crystals glimmered faintly as buried emotion played havoc with her control of the gem’s energy. Mencari opened his mouth to suggest he’d heard enough, that she shouldn’t stress herself so. She saw his expression, dismissed his concern with a wave and continued, her tone subtly defiant.

“D’mok reengaged the armada. The sky filled with shooting stars, each one an enemy vessel exploded. We saw a large shadow. We thought perhaps it was a main Nukari ship. But . . .” Her voice lost its edginess, became almost reverent. “We all felt a warm glow: not of pain, but of calm. Such a . . . pure feeling.”

She closed her eyes. “I saw a massive ray of light streak across the battleplane. The shadow erupted. As the explosion died, the fireworks in the sky . . . stopped. We were either safe, or about to die. All we could do was wait.”

She opened her eyes again. “A siren blared, and half the planetary shield disappeared. Speakers boomed instructions. We loaded the lifeboats, millions of us. We thought we were safe. How foolish! As soon as our lifeboats cleared the atmosphere, we saw a third wave of Nukari speeding toward our planet, ten times the size of the others.”

She looked down, her rigid face cracking with tension, and let out a bitter chortle. “And then I knew what D’mok said was true. This
was
the end. For him. For our world. As we jumped into light-speed, I saw the first attacks hitting our planet. We don’t know where D’mok was by then. But . . . he was unlike anyone I ever met.”

She cleared her throat, and her cold demeanor returned. “My family didn’t make it to the transports. And the vessel I ended up on never made it to the rendezvous location. We had to land on the first habitable planet. We set up a colony there. I was
their
great Defender. But I couldn’t protect them from the virus that killed them. All but two of them, anyway.

“The three of us used a small scout craft to get away. But the other two died in the journey. I needed my minerals only, not the air, food or water they did. So I survived until I ended up here.” She let out a cold laugh. “I tried to be grateful that I survived. I have been married to—many men. But they’re gone too. All of them died, most of old age. Each time, I’d tell myself, at least I escaped the Nukari.”

Another bitter laugh, and she turned her eyes to Lady Weun. “So here I am. I saw my planet, my family destroyed. Since then, everyone I loved, I’ve outlived. And to think I was supposed to be a great Defender. D’mok? Even
he
couldn’t stop the Nukari.”

“But they’re back.”

At Mencari’s quiet statement, immeasurable emotion suffused her stony face. Then she turned and began walking away. “I couldn’t do anything before. I wouldn’t be able to now.”

“But your skills,” Lady Weun called after her. “You and Rhysus could work together!”

Mencari said, “We could make a difference.”

Still facing away, Seigie retorted, “Oh, could we? I’ve tried that. You, youth that you are, have no idea.”

She slipped into the darkness, still barking. “Leave. Go back to wherever you came from.”

Lady Weun refused to give up easily. “But the Nukari have already been here! Don’t you think they’ll send more of those things? Don’t you care—?”

“LEAVE!”

Her thudding steps continued, grew fainter. After a moment, Mencari said, “It’s no good. Let’s find our way out of here.”

Lady Weun turned to him with wild eyes. “If the Nukari come back, she can help us defend Aeun!”

“We don’t have a choice. It’s
her
choice.” He threw his hands into the air. “Maybe I can have Osuto try to talk to her. I . . . I’m not sure what else.”

Sighing, Lady Weun nodded, and between the two of them, they helped Ine to his feet.

* * * * *

When they reached the spot where Ine’s dead friend still sat, he and Mencari lifted the lifeless body and slung it over Mencari’s shoulders. Lady Weun helped steady Ine as they walked, and Mencari used the time to think.

He didn’t understand everything Seigie had said. But it was far more than Osuto had shared with him about D’mok. Yet the lone D’mok warrior he’d just encountered was defeated, in utter despair. Seigie didn’t want anything to do with fighting the Nukari. Would the others be like that too? Upon his return to the asteroid base he’d talk with Osuto, who would know what to do. He hoped.

At least he had a small bag of fire marbles, to bring to the trading post and exchange for the money they needed, and then some.

Perhaps those crystal creatures would net a small profit from Eyani as well, assuming her device was transmitting after he checked to make sure it was on when he and Lady Weun first embarked to the mine.

If well-funded, perhaps he could figure out a way to fight the Nukari, to develop better technology, perhaps even rebuild his scanner system to detect them.

As soon as they stepped into sunlight Ine paused and stared at Lady Weun. “Thanks for getting us out alive, whoever you really are.”

* * * * *

Their trek back through the forest was uninterrupted this time. There didn’t seem to be other Nukari prowling about. For now.

As they reached Trader Town, Ine slowly hobbled away without saying another word. Mencari saw the conflict in Lady Weun’s eyes.

Mencari implored her, “Come with me.”

“I can’t.” Her voice was tired.

“Why? You have the skills, you could really help.”

“I know. And that’s why I have to stay here. Who’s going to defend this world while you’re looking for the Nukari out there? I’m needed here. I won’t leave them.”

He nodded.

She smiled. “Good luck, Rhysus. And thank you.”

He looked at his pouch of fire marbles. “Thank you again for the help. I’ll keep watch, if more Nukari arrive, I’ll come back. You’re not alone.”

She nodded, turned and waved goodbye. He watched her disappear down the path toward Trader Town.

As he returned to his ship, he turned one last time to look back at the path through the woods. As he scanned the trees, he thought he saw a movement. In a flash, he activated his hand-phaser and raised it tracking the motion.

A robed figure emerged, plodding slowly towards him. “Rhysus Mencari . . .”

He heard Seigie’s deep, brittle voice. He froze, unsure what to say or do.

“I’m going with you,” she said.

After an awkward pause he asked cautiously, “What changed your mind?”

“I don’t owe you an explanation.”

She must have realized the harshness of her tone. Seigie tried again with what seemed deliberate softness.

“I swore I’d give my life to protect the people I loved. This is still my fight. I thought it was long over, but it’s not. I failed before. But perhaps your Mr. Osuto can help me do better this time. Or perhaps you can. Or not. Regardless, I still must try.”

She looked across the peaceful mountains. “I’ve been around for a long time. Now, you and Lady Elle show up . . . Perhaps this meeting was meant to be?”

He noticed a small sack bulging at the seams. “What’s that?”

She reached in and withdrew a blue crystal the size of his fist. “A few special gems. Memory crystals I keep with me. Along with some odds and ends.”

“You always carry around memory crystals?”

“Always? No. But don’t
you
keep things that are important to you close by? Sometimes it’s all we have left.”

Fighting the yearning to look at his wedding ring, Mencari nodded and motioned to his craft. “I just have to make one stop first.”

To her questioning look, he replied, “Have to stop at the trading post and deliver some fire marbles. Then we’ll be on our way to see Osuto.”

Osuto and Seigie connected from their first meeting, as much as any two retiring and wary personalities could. Leaving them to work together, Mencari returned to his training in the mines. He hunted for smaller prey, while reflecting on his encounters on Aeun. Even with Lady Weun’s help, those Nukari robots had nearly killed them both. Before facing the enemy again, he had to refine his skills.

“One step at a time,”
Anaka would tell him. Those simple words had helped him to hold his resolve while working his way up the Coalition ranks. Now, even in death, her support endured. “
You just have to keep going.
”

Yeah
, he though,
much easier said than done.

Forcing himself onward, he continued deeper into the mines, engaging with creatures as he found them. Despite his renewed concentration, distractions fast eroded his focus. Something felt wrong. Trying on his own to apply his acquired battle techniques didn’t come naturally or have as good results. He’d always been a strong proponent of teamwork. Perhaps he truly needed others to be effective?

Lady Weun had declined his invitation to join him, but there had to be others out there with similar powers. Seigie had mentioned that there were once thousands of D’mok warriors, lost so long ago. Surely there were descendants. Or perhaps some, like Seigie, had survived to face the curse of long life. He knew they needed more help to have any chance to defeat the Nukari. Having been amazed by the crystal-wielding abilities of Lady Weun and Seigie, he wondered what abilities would others have? If he could find them in time.

Pulling from his thoughts, he found himself surrounded in a long dark tunnel on the mining asteroid by six creatures, each as big as he was.
Idiot! Pay attention!

Panicked, Mencari failed to land any attacks, while the creatures made theirs. Each blow sent him deeper into a desperate spiral. The further he went, the more his primal instincts seized control. The glow around his body intensified, as did a labored breathing. Reaching out he grabbed the nearest creature, flung it against the wall, and shot it dead with an energy ball, his most powerful yet. Then he turned to the others, dodging blows and concentrating on them one at a time. As the last one fell, he banked himself against the wall, exhausted.

I have to do better, learn to control this, or the Nukari will win
.

Yet he had done better, much better than before. Perhaps because he’d been fighting for his survival, much like he had in Seigie’s cave.

* * * * *

He entered the control room to find Seigie and Osuto reviewing the base’s systems. Given the tension of their initial encounter on Aeun and the change of environment from a dark cave to a brightly lit research station, Seigie was doing better than he expected she would. While she still seemed resigned to her fate of eventually becoming a living crystal statue, she’d lost her constant scowl, and listened with rapt attention while Osuto regaled her with stories of his youth as a D’mok warrior.

They were huddled over the monitors when he entered. Osuto beckoned with a wave and said, “These latest scans show little Nukari activity. And thanks to you and your fire marble escapade, we’ll have a few more tricks at our disposal.”

He pulled a memory stick from his pocket and inserted it into the control console. A screen displayed with blueprint images. “Expansion plans for the base, to provide room for any Defenders we encounter who want to join the mission.” Osuto gave Seigie a smile. “Thanks to Seigie, I was able to work on them. You brought back a fine architect here.”

She gave a nod of acknowledgement, but her face held no hubris, or any other emotion. “Let’s just say my last few hundred years spent mostly in the dark have developed a special sense for spaces and structures.”

Mencari pointed at one area of the screen. “What’s that?”

“Oh, that’s for me,” Seigie said. “I asked for a crystal culture lab.”

He was about to ask more about that when Osuto added, “And here’s another upgrade you’ll be interested in: advanced scanning equipment to augment our existing systems.”

Osuto’s lined face showed a flash of rare frustration. “But I’m afraid that’s as far as Seigie and I’ve been able to take it on our own. We have more ideas, but we need a more technical specialist to pull the rest of it together. What we need is a techie. Which again, thanks to you, we can easily afford. If we can find the right person.”

“Finding someone could be tricky. I can’t really head back to the Trading Post and put up a Help Wanted notice,” Mencari said.

Osuto shook his head. “Especially considering what happened to you on Aeun. We can’t make our search too obvious. If potential engineers can see the notice, the Nukari could too, or someone working for them. And the Coalition instructed me to not make any moves that might alert the Nukari until we’re ready to fight them.”

Mencari nodded, hiding his doubt that he ever would be fully up to that task.

“We don’t even have the faintest glimmer what the Nukari are up to,” Osuto continued, “or what information they have access to. Still, the trading post
is
the best place to find an engineer,” Osuto said.

He rubbed his chin in thought. “Let’s do this. Seigie will remain here to work with me. Better if she stays away from public places, for now anyway. Mencari, you’ll return to the trading post and make some very quiet, informal inquiries. See who you can find looking for a good challenge.”

He fixed Mencari with a somber stare. “If you talk to any candidates, make sure they understand the need for confidentiality.” He sighed. “
If
we can keep it quiet, when the Nukari do find us—and they may—we’ll have a chance to be ready for them.”

* * * * *

“Greetings and salutations, Coalition visitor, Rhysus Mencari.”

The instant Mencari arrived, Bob the bug-bot appeared glued to his side. Searching for the right words, he said, “Yes, uh, Bob, I’m looking this time for some . . . uh, hired help.”

“Oh, Coalition visitor, to remind you from your first visit, we have a job posting board—”

“No, I need another option. Something more discreet.”

The foot-tall bot looked up at him. “Oh, I see, Rhysus Mencari, Perhaps a more private solicitation is appropriate? And to remind you, there is an Add-Ur-Skills board on the Derator Deck. Privacy guaranteed! Just scan for any listings. Just be warned, prostitution isn’t allowable—”

“Yeah, you mentioned that last time, Bob,” he said. “That’s not exactly the service I’m looking for anyway.”

Bob asked no further questions, just escorted him to the lift before making his chirpy goodbyes and skittering away.

Making his way to the Derator Deck, it seemed easier to master the boards this time, and Mencari was able to isolate a few matches for individuals with tech skills looking for work. Yet he ran into an unexpected problem: None of the prospects identified were available to speak directly with him; the few who allowed him to leave a video message indicated it would be a month or more before they could respond.

At least, he thought he left messages. Some of their communication systems were so convoluted and geeky he wasn’t really sure what selections he made.

He went through his search protocol one more time. Same results for the most part. All skilled techs were busy.

That is, except for one. A new listing appeared. It must have just been filed moments ago.

The listing suggested . . . he double-checked . . . immediate availability. He winced. If techs were in such hot demand, why was this one? This wasn’t reassuring.

Maybe she’s a rank beginner? Just out of school? A psycho? Just got fired from another job?

Still, the board’s ranking system did list her as high scoring, seemingly a solid candidate. He glanced at the skimpy listings, decided he didn’t have a choice, and sent a quick message.

He turned to walk away from the console when a beeping behind him made him whirl back to see an instant message from her. Again, he wondered if this was a good sign. Was she waiting by the com-link because she was desperate? With a sigh, he pressed the buttons indicated by her return-message screen.

An image appeared on the com, and it smiled before blurting, “Hello, I’m soooo glad you called!”

For a second, he thought whoever this was had contacted him by mistake. He’d met plenty of engineers in the Coalition, but never one that looked like a pudgy, freckle-faced twelve-year-old cartoon junkie in a too-tight t-shirt, who at the moment was all but jumping up and down in excitement.

“Uh,” Mencari began, “I’m looking for a . . . Toriko . . . Purg,” he said, reading the name from the Add-Ur-Skills listing. “Perhaps that’s your mother—?”

“No, that’s me!” she said. “And I’m the best.”

Oh boy . . .

Over the next several minutes, he learned that Toriko wasn’t twelve but twenty-three, and certainly loved the cartoon fan-girl lifestyle. More importantly, she’d graduated at the top of her class at her world’s most prestigious engineering academy with a full academic scholarship. She was also willing—no actually, she
insisted
on providing her own tools and devices, since “I’m really particular about my things. No bargain-bin stuff for me or my clients. Only the best!”

She punctuated her demand with a casual flip of her hand over her headband, whose main distinction was the set of pointed, faux-fur fox-ears.

He’d never met anyone quite like Toriko Purg.
Especially that hair,
he thought, stifling a grin. He’d never seen someone with deep black hair and glitter-red extensions. Or is that part of the headband? He couldn’t tell. She even took the time to explain her entire getup was XoXo, one of the hot brands popular among the college crowd. There was even a video game, which he recalled seeing ads for throughout the trading post. Suddenly, Mencari felt old.

For a moment he forgot he was talking to an alien. Apparently the elaborate outfit made her look like any other rabid human fan of similar things. Once he got past his urge to chuckle, he started asking a series of more serious questions, provided to him by Osuto. Toriko Purg revealed her homeworld to be Tericn, specifically the Murai Dome, and she bragged how they were renowned as the technical hub for the known universe. Question by question, she seemed to know her stuff, as far as Mencari could tell.

“One final question,” he said. “You were the top of your class, and you even have your own equipment. And from everything I can figure, there’s a lot of demand for engineers. So . . . why don’t you already have a job?”

She leaned forward until her chubby freckled face almost filled the screen, and sighed. “I guess, even in this so-called
enlightened age
, people still judge other people by how they look. Stupid, huh?” She grinned broadly. “But I’ll bet you’re smarter than that.”

He couldn’t help but smile back at the challenge in her words. Sure, he was no different from most. Whether human or alien, he tended to take appearance into account.

Yet his gut told him she’d do a good job, in spite of her lack of post-academic experience. He just hoped Osuto and Seigie agreed when he showed up with her. He really was unsure how those two ancients would manage to deal with this bubbling force of youth.

Avoiding any specifics about the Nukari, he told her about the job. “We’re building out additional living quarters, expand the station’s work areas and general capabilities. And a few other things that are highly technical in nature. Those are best explained in detail once you come onboard,” he finished. “But basics first. And all we can offer is food and board, space for a workshop, and some compensation.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” Toriko said, grinned and threw up red-glitter-tipped hands. “At this point, I’m not choosy. I’ve been looking for work for three whole weeks. Only thing is . . .”

Uh, oh, here it comes.

“Yes,” he said, holding his breath.

“Well . . . I don’t have any transportation. No way to get there. Recent college grad, remember? No income, no jets.”

“Not a problem,” he replied, shielding his relief. “Give me your coordinates, and I’ll pick you up.”

“Totes Awes!”

He nearly asked her what that meant, but instead asked, “You
sure
you’re up for this?”

She shook her head vigorously, causing her red tips to form a sparkling blood-red circle around her head. “Believe me, I’ve been waiting for a chance just like this. Sounds great to me! By the time I’m finished, you won’t have a doubt in your mind—I am the best!”

* * * * *

As she clicked off, Toriko’s mind started racing. Oh, Eudora! Her very first, real, paying,
job!
And how did she pull off that show of confidence? More importantly, how long could she keep up that front? Guess she’d find out soon enough.

“And where did all that stuff about
no bargain-bin tools
come from?” she muttered while her fingers flew over the keyboard. “Hope he doesn’t remember that when he sees all the stuff I got at the used-parts bin.” She gave a dismissive shrug. “Oh well, I’ll cross that bridge when I need to.”