Shadows Bear No Names (The Blackened Prophecy Book 1) (37 page)

Chapter FIFTY-TWO

AS GOOD AS IT GETS

Ga’an stopped in the visitor’s hall on his way to the bridge, still carrying Ray on his shoulders.

“I think I’m all right, Ga’an,” Ray said, trying to ease his breathing.

Sarah stood near the stones with Captain Samir. Her eyes were wet and she was clearly avoiding looking at the pool of dried blood. Darty was in her arms. She might have been soothing the cat, but Ray thought it was the other way around.

“Ray! My…” she slipped out of her moodiness, rushing to help Ga’an drop Ray on a seat. Sarah crouched, leveling with Ray’s eyes. “You look horrible, Skipper!”

“I’ve been better,” Ray smiled weakly.

“Man, you look like a bomber hit you in the face,” Captain Samir said. Neither he, nor Sarah looked much better themselves, covered in dust.

Ray nodded. “Well…it took some effort to deal with that nut job.”

Sarah’s eyes went down, focusing on Darty. She looked
hurt.
“Is it over?”

“He’s dead, Sarah.”

“Good! Let him rot in hell!” she cried.

“Any news of the old man and Meadows?”

Sarah shook her head. “The communications are a mess. No way to reach to the med bay. Before we lost the intercom, the doctor said it would be…” Sarah couldn’t continue.

“It’ll be all right, Sarah.” Ray reached for Sarah’s face but she pulled herself back.

“No, Ray,” Sarah looked into his eyes, piercing through his soul. “Private Meadows will be paralyzed for life even if they manage to fix her lung. Two of her ribs pierced through the left one. And the old man…He’s in a coma. He has a fractured skull and a bullet tore apart his liver.”

Ray closed his eyes. He’d hoped for the best but nothing in his life had been that considerate since he’d arrived on that blasted planet. If he hadn’t, Brother Cavil and Private Meadows would be alive and well today.

“Sarah Davis, Raymond Harris.” Ga’an’s voice woke them up. “It is time, we have to move.”

“The fourth stone?” Ray asked on their way out.

“We got it all right,” Captain Samir said with a protesting voice.

“Trouble?”

Captain Samir didn’t say a word. Sarah played idly with the cat’s ears, carrying the backpack with the four Arinar inside. “Only a few of us made it back, Skipper.”

“Baeal?”

“The Cosmon Brotherhood,” she said. “And Baeal.”

“Gods. They are neck-deep in this, but why?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care. I just want this to be over, Ray.” Sarah grabbed Darty firmly as the cat tried to escape her hold. The poor animal was frightened to death the moment the group left the room. Lights flickered in the hallways, if they weren’t completely dead. Walls had collapsed and some of the corridors were on fire. The group passed through a hallway with a ripped hull plating, only the force-field keeping them from flying off the ship or having their blood boil. Ray found himself dizzied and Sarah looked equally sick with the idea of walking
through
space but Ga’an and Captain Samir seemed unaffected.

By the time they arrived on the bridge, the ship was in complete disarray. Most of the bridge personnel were dead or fatally wounded. Some of the inexperienced airmen had made their way to the escape pods, abandoning their duties. Ray couldn’t judge them; by the looks of it, the best course of action would be to leave the ship as fast as possible and hope for the best. The super-dreadnought was adrift in space, barely holding together.

Ga’an gave Ray a hand and helped him pass through the fallen rails, then went to check for Admiral Conway.

The woman lay near one of the bridge stations. Her color was yellow and she wasn’t responsive to the Ancient’s calls. Another nearby blast shook the bridge like an earthquake. Sarah’s instincts and reflexes saved Ray from a falling beam by kicking his chair and throwing herself aside with Darty. Ga’an closed himself over Admiral Conway, protecting the woman like a shell, accepting the pain of the illumination panel falling hard on his back.

“Galileo!”
a young man in bloodied uniform yelled frantically, “It was the
Galileo!”

“Raymond Harris, I need to carry the Admiral to the medical facilities before it is too late,” Ga’an said over the chaos on the bridge, trying to make his voice heard over the noise and shouts of panic. He pushed aside the debris on his back.

Sarah waved him to go but they all froze where they stood when a bright light appeared before them, inside the bridge, then turned into the face of a dark, bald man with earrings and ornaments on his right, pointy ear.

“Greetings again,” he spoke with a perfect accent, saluting the group. It was as if they were speaking to a highbrow in Oxford. “I must commend your bravery and efforts one more time.”

Ray stood up with Sarah’s help and walked closer to the Baeal, holding his dislocated arm. “What do you want?”

“Only to send my regards to my nemesis. As a gesture of respect.” The dark figure bowed. “Your people fought well, Lohil. This was a battle to be remembered for eons.”

Ga’an growled to the man’s words, his eyes burning with anger.

“Ah, the hero. Praetor Ga’an Sahn Kressim,” the Baeal turned to face the Ancient.

“Hero?” Sarah asked, still tending to the terrified cat.

“Did he not tell you?” the Baeal sounded surprised. “Praetor Ga’an sacrificed himself in the War of Life and stopped the first Baeal invasion of this plane,” the bald figure bowed in respect again, longer and deeper this time. “It was a genius move to collapse the gate, destroying the fleet with a planar disequilibrium. You killed many of my kin that day.”

“Planar disequilibrium?” Ray asked.

“He severed the bridge in between our plane and yours. I told you, Mr. Harris. We are not of this plane. We, Baeal were the touched children of the Creators. We ruled time. We ruled the stars!” The dark man’s layered voice raised. “But then, the Creators became jealous! They unleashed their pet on us! Her!” He sounded disgusted. “She had descended from beyond the stars. They created the Arinar and the Lohil to tame Her as a safeguard but used them to mock us instead!

“I’m already liking these Creators.”

“I would like to hear that again when you have met Her. The stones were deaf to our call. The line of the Lohil absent from our species, but appearing in lesser ones like yours. And so, we ran. Looking for a home. A plane without Her touch. A plane where no Lohil had been linked with stones before. This is our home. This is our promised land.”

“Buddy, you’re in-vad-ing our world.”

“We are taking what should have been ours in the first place. If the Nucteel had not intervened with our plan with a stupid mistake, your species would not even be here.”

“Guess what, we
are
here.”

“My people live?” Ga’an asked slowly.

“No,” the figure replied, almost sounding sad, “but they lived a good, long life I believe. Your empire lasted for millennia after the war in your understanding of time, eventually joining the dusty tomes of history.” The Baeal shrugged, in perfect imitation of the human gesture. “There may still be some descendants of your race, living in seclusion outside the core systems or who joined their life with humans. Again, in your understanding of time, this was a
very
long time ago.”

The news staggered Ga’an. Ray saw it immediately: somewhere deep inside, the tall alien had always hoped to return to his home, or what was left of it. Ga’an had assumed he was in an anomaly even after they found out his home world had been Earth. He hadn’t wanted to believe he was the last Ancient in the galaxy. Apparently, he was.

“Why am I here, demon! Speak!” Ga’an growled.

“I cannot say. Your ship exploded in the mouth of a planar gate. Not one of my species in history was stupid enough to try something like that. I commend you. It worked. Time and planes connect with threads, exceeding in detail what your puny brains can understand. You, by some divine luck, wildly severed the connection and it swung you a few years forward in linear time.” The Baeal stopped for a moment and scratched his ear, his ornaments tingling. “Perhaps it was not so random. Perhaps it is of a piece with this twisted game of the Creators. You ending up at the verge of another Baeal conquest.” He smiled.

“A few years!” Ga’an’s right eye twitched.

“Conquest?” Ray slapped back. “So, you
are
invading.”

“Invading, reclaiming, re-decorating, jumping up and down, singing. Whatever you want to call it. This plane is now ours. Anyway,” the bald figure sighed, “I must take my leave now. Lots of planning to do. I am genuinely sorry you will not be present to see the glory of Baeal, Mr. Harris.”

“How long have you been scheming this? You killed the real Goehring?”

“There never was a real Goehring, Mr. Harris. It was always I, shaping things in my righteous will.”

“How come you could stay here so long while your race disappears without a gate?”

“Questions…questions,” the dark figure made a gesture as if he was yawning. “I will not explain everything to you simply because it is the end of some dark tale where you lose and your rival gloats.”

“Buddy, you’re explaining and gloating.”

The Baeal laughed, several layers of voices merging into one. “Then I am a cliché, eh Mr. Harris? Well, I am special.”

“I
will
defeat you,” Ray hissed. “I killed your assassin and I
will
kill you.”

“Agent Caius?” the figure sounded unconcerned. “A poor, lost soul, battling his own demons. I simply found him, saw his weakness and exploited it. Most of what he did, he did out of his own twisted justification and anger at this Consortium he was working for. They all do that, you know. Each with their own agenda, telling themselves they are doing the right thing. Anger is an interesting emotion with a wide range of intensity. It is fairly easy to manipulate with the right push. Greed is another one. Those Consortium fools thought they ruled these worlds, while I carefully wove my plan. I admit, it took some effort and time, doing everything with as little noise as possible, but it paid off. Because they all believed they were doing the right thing. For the better or worse. For themselves or for their race. They always believe in that.” The Baeal looked at Ga’an and then back at Ray. “Do you believe you are doing the right thing, Mr. Harris?”

“I’m fighting for my home!”

“You will be the doom of your home. You cannot complete the cycle when the Mara’tthane is gone and you will only be calling for Her when you are linked with the Arinar. I suggest you roll over and die in peace. I promise, we will treat your species as we treat our own pets. With care. It is a better fate than the Nightfall. After all, this is now
our
home.”

Ray was silent. What the Baeal said exceeded his understanding. If he hadn’t seen what the Ijjok had shown, it would be complete gibberish. Now, he wasn’t so sure.

“I can’t let you win without a fight.”

“Do whatever you wish. It is customary in my species to give your name to the one you have defeated on the battlefield. Do not look so surprised. You are doomed, after all. Now, I will do what Agent Caius could not and I will kill you.”

Ga’an ignored the man, turning back to care for Admiral Conway, but Ray narrowed his eyes, eager to carve the name of his enemy into his mind.

“Know the name of your destroyer. I am Sim’Ra.”

“And I am Raymond Harris.”

Chapter FIFTY-THREE

INTO THE VOID

“Sarah, see if you can find anyone on the bridge who can still remember being an officer.” Ray waved at her, still deep in thought and looking at the Arinar, squeezing the cat in her arms. “Ga’an, you take the admiral to the med bay.”

The Ancient raised his head and saw the determination on Ray’s face. He bowed in acknowledgement and took the unconscious woman in his arms, leaving the bridge.

“I really wish the old man was here.” Ray frowned at the Arinar before him.

“What’s it?” Sarah asked. She seemed somewhat awake after Ray’s call to action.

“Sarah, put that poor animal somewhere safe and focus.”

Sarah nodded hesitantly and found a fallen console near the tactical station without power. She forcefully bent the back cover and stuffed the protesting cat onto the bed of wires inside the box, closing the back as much as possible. The cat hissed and meowed, trying to open the panel with its paw but gave up after a few tries, shrinking into the depths of the box.

“Wake up!” Ray shouted loud enough to silence the bridge. “Wake up and get ahold of yourselves. You can mourn for the dead later!”

“What else there’s to do?” Sarah’s stance was defeated. “Maybe we should just leave.”

“Leave and go where Sarah?” Ray asked. “Hide our heads into the sand? How long will it be before they come for us again?” He approached the tactical map. The emergency power was back on but unstable. The flickering holographic view of Earth and Moon were surrounded by red dots of all size with a huge triangle representing the Worm closing in on the planet. “We
have
to save the people down on that planet.”

“Ray, we just can’t. We don’t have the power.”

“A line has to be drawn, Sarah. We can’t sit this one out. I can’t.”

“They’ll kill all of us, Ray.”

“Then we’ll die trying! For Brother Cavil, for Reverend Marcus, for my daughter and all those people who died because of this!” Ray punched a nearby terminal, smashing the front panel. His eyes were literally flaring.

Sarah smiled weakly and nodded. “Then we’ll die trying, Skipper.”

“Now, do you remember anything about the Cavils’ notes?”

Sarah narrowed her eyes. “I bet I can remember the order of the stones Reverend Marcus talked about when he was working on Serhmana.”

“Good, do your best,” Ray touched Sarah’s face gently. “It’ll be all right.”

Sarah nodded and pulled the stones out of her backpack. She opened the data pad she’d taken from the meeting room to Reverend Marcus’s notes focusing on the Arinar.

“Captain Samir,” Ray turned to the seasoned soldier who had watched the entire exchange in silence.

“Yes, Ray?”

“I want you to coordinate the bridge. Restore whatever systems you can with anyone you can muster.”

Captain Samir raised his brow. “You have something in mind?”

“Yes, but first, we need this ship to move fast, before that bald freak show fries us.”

Captain Samir nodded and issued orders. Within a few minutes, the surviving, disarrayed bridge personnel were back at their stations, trying to get the ship in shape to move.

“Lieutenant Jong!” Ray barked and the one-eyed man saluted. “I want you to divert all the power to the engines.”

“All, sir? We don’t even have lights.”

“I know—” Ray stopped when the lights on the bridge came back online. “See, the Light has heard you.” Ray wondered if Brother Cavil would like the sarcasm. “We are back on track. I want everything diverted, even the life support. We have one shot at this.”

Lieutenant Jong looked surprised. “A shot at what, sir?”

“It’s better if you don’t know yet,” Ray winked, sending the man to his station. “Good work with the power,” Ray said as Captain Samir came back near him.

“Compliments of the engineering team. We won’t have weapons or shields but we’ll have the main thrusters in a minute or so. They make these beasts durable, you know.”

“Good to know.”

“Now, what’s in your mind?”

“That moron gave me an idea while he was patronizing.”

“Yeah?”

Ray patted on Samir’s shoulder with a smile. “We’ll blow the gate.”

“And how do you plan on doing that with one super-dreadnought without weapons?”

Ray’s smile broadened. “You won’t like it.”

“Oh, Lord…” Captain Samir’s jaw dropped. “You’ll blow the ship.”

“Well, if you’re gonna die…”

“Then die with your boots on.” Captain Samir laughed. “This has turned out to be an interesting day.”

“Captain!” Lieutenant Jong called from his station.

“Yes?” Captain Samir turned to face him but Lieutenant Jong meant Ray.

Ray shrugged at Samir and earned a smirk. “What’s it, Lieutenant?”

The one-eyed lieutenant’s face was stern. “The radar and the main display are back online, Sir.”

“Good. What does it show?”

“The Worm’s turning around, Sir. It’s coming for the kill.”

***

“Push it, Jong!” Ray barked, his eyes fixed on the radar. The big triangle, representing the Worm was turning slowly and Ray knew if they stood before it when it completed the maneuver, they would be toast.

“Sir, the main thruster’s still offline, we’re moving with the maneuvering thrusters.”

“Then maneuver faster, Jong!”

Deviator
was the faster of the two ships, being smaller.
Much smaller
, Ray thought. But with the damage the super-dreadnought sustained, they were like a few men rowing a warship in an ocean.

“We’re too slow,” Captain Samir said with a wary voice.

“I know! Jong!”

“The main thruster’s back online!” Lieutenant Jong said with joy.

“Great, now move us out of the way, Jong. I don’t want to end up as fried chicken!”

The battle worn super-dreadnought moved with pace, thanks to its main thruster coming back online and not a moment too soon. A few seconds later, a mechanical sound, as if the computers were screaming, echoed in the bridge and a huge beam of light brightened the breached points in the hull, passing right by the ship.

“How much power does that thing have!” Captain Samir had his hands pressed on his eyes.

“Much!” Ray said. “At least it missed!” He looked back at Jong again. “Lieutenant, push it! Toward that Saturn gate. Everything to the engines!”

They were gaining distance and the Worm was almost out of firing range now. It took several minutes before the behemoth fired its main gun and it gave Ray the time to execute his plan. Soon, they were out of the battle zone and on their way to the ringed planet. Through the hull breach he could still see the Worm in the distance like a tiny dot, but the battle over Earth was now farther than the eye could see.

“It looks peaceful from here, doesn’t it?” Sarah said, coming near Ray.

“It does.”

“I’m done with the stones, Ray. I can’t even begin to scratch the surface of Reverend Marcus’ knowledge, but I tried my best.”

Ray nodded, “That’s more than enough.”

“He took some notes.” Sarah scrolled through text on the data pad she held. “Without all the stones active, the link will be weak, but it’ll still carry the force of the other Arinar. The Lohil’s like an unlimited power source for the stones. He amplifies their individual abilities to the point of a massive outburst,” she quoted.

“So, they’ll work.”

“Seems that way. Mara’tthane was the lock stone. Perhaps it means we can’t bar them away for good. But they still should work as a weapon.”

“Thanks, Sarah,” Ray said.

Sarah leaned her head, narrowing her eyes. “You won’t use the stones,” she said.

“No. Not unless I have to.”

“You’re letting that Baeal get into your head.”

Ray turned from the gap and leveled with Sarah. “You saw what the Ijjok had shown. What if it’s true? What if I call that…whatever that was to this plane? We can’t even fight Baeal and they, in all their might, were looking for a hole to hide from that thing.”

Sarah didn’t say anything, returning to the Arinar sitting near the tactical map.

“Sir!” Lieutenant Jong yelled over his station. “We’re near the gate.”

“Good. Now I want you to—”

“Incoming!”

“What?” Ray turned to see who was shouting but he saw
what
he was shouting about first. A new red dot had appeared on the map, right in front of them, coming out of the gate. He rushed to the console to look closer at the signature, then turned back to the main screen to see the actual thing.

Another planet-killer was coming out of the gate, its huge legs appearing from inside the swirling pool of darkness.

“We can’t best it, Ray. It would be a damn ugly battle even if we were in top shape.”

Ray hadn’t realized Captain Samir stood beside him.

“Lieutenant Jong,” Ray turned to the one-eyed man. “Activate self-destruct.”

“S-Sir?”

“You heard me, do it.”

“I can’t, Sir.”

“Lieutenant?” Ray raised his voice. “Now’s not the time.”

“Sir, I can’t because I need Admiral Conway’s authorization codes.”

Ray felt the blood rushing at his cheeks.
Fool, playing it doesn’t make you the real captain.
He scratched his face. “All right, can you overload the engine core?”

“We can try.”

“Do it.”

Ray hoped the engines would overload before the enemy ship was out of the gate in full. If they realized they were facing the
Deviator
, they could easily fire a salvo to finish the job.

“Sir, the reactor will overload in two—”

A mechanical noise as if the ship itself was howling echoed through the bridge and Ray was blinded. No matter how he tried to block the light, he couldn’t. The light penetrated through his hands and his eyelids. It hurt. Gods knew, it hurt a lot. Ray heard screams.
Was it his own voice or someone else’s?
Sarah was calling for him but her voice was distant.
Was she crying?

Ray risked opening his eyes. To his surprise, it was almost pitch dark. Everyone was afloat, dead or alive, around the bridge. He watched Captain Samir’s body fly toward one of the bigger breaches near the far end wall. To his luck, the separately powered force field was still active, not letting him fly away into the deep cold of space. Still, it was a hard hit. The man looked unconscious, or worse, dead.

Ray looked around in fear, realizing Sarah was nowhere in sight. He tried to turn around frantically but he couldn’t. He felt a sharp pain, the shock running through his right leg. His leg was stuck—he’d punctured a hole in one of the floor panels. It had kept him from flying away, but he was sure his ankle was broken.

Then he saw Sarah. Her eyes were closed and her face bloody. Her body was afloat, arms open. She looked as if she was underwater, slowly drifting away.

“Sarah!” Ray yelled. Yelling hurt, but he didn’t care. “Can you hear me? Sarah!”

She didn’t respond. Ray felt his tears and looked around helplessly, trying to find a way to free himself, then watched Sarah drift away into a dark corner of the bridge and disappear. “Sarah!” he cried out.

Ray raised his head to look through the newly formed gap above the bridge. The Worm
wriggled
, coming toward them. It was much closer than he last remembered. He turned his head, ignoring the pain, and looked out through the smaller gap on the other side of the bridge. The second planet-killer was out of the gate and hovering over the
Deviator
.

Then he saw them. The four Arinar. They were sitting on the half-torn tactical table. Unscratched, undisturbed. They weren’t afloat. It looked as if the stones were glued to the table’s surface. He felt them calling his name. They were longing for his touch.

He looked down at his ankle again and his jaw tightened. Ray pulled his leg with all the strength he could muster. He pulled and he screamed.
Oh Light, he screamed!
More than a scream, it was wailing, but he managed to free himself and pulled himself toward the stones, holding on to anything fixed to the ground he could find.

He came near the stones but hesitated. Sim’Ra’s words about Her echoed in his thoughts. His warnings. He turned back to check with Lieutenant Jong, see if there still was a chance to overload the engines. Lieutenant Jong was nowhere to be seen. His station was under a collapsed beam, occasional metal computer components flying around lazily. Ray saw Darty, the cat, pushing itself clumsily toward where Sarah flew.

Then he saw the beam of the monster Worm brightening in the distance.

“Let this end!” Ray reached and touched Yrrha.