That Which One Begins - Chapter Thirteen In the Kalnir-Ban Valley on Tetra Time lost relevance for William as he walked down the long slope from the ridge. How long he had been stepping over bodies of Arion dead, he couldn't say. An hour? Two? After the first few hundred torn and twisted corpses, the time no longer mattered. In some places, dense clusters of charred remains forced William to detour around them. In other places, one or two Arion Betas had died alone. There was no direction to turn away from these horrors and William was forced to see it all. Surviving Arions ignored William. Lost within a dream state of stunned confusion, they too wandered the valley. Some looked for the living; some looked for the dead; most didn't see any difference between the two. None of them raised their tired stares from the blood-soaked ground as they plodded like ghosts through the devastation of their fleet. William soon stood before the burning wreck of the gigantic Arion battlecruiser. The shattered hull covered so immense an area that it appeared to be endless, rising above him and going on in both directions, fading into the smoky distance. The number of bodies was very high here, most of them half-buried in the Tetra dust after their long fall from the broken ship. Stepping over a small pile of debris, William winced at the sharp cracking sound from beneath his foot--a leg or an arm perhaps, he couldn't tell. Daylight did not dare to come here. Churning blackness rose from the burning wreckage to fill the sky, displacing the sun from its rightful place. Only the fires could illuminate this world of death. William wiped his dirty face with his dirtier hand as his need to find life grew more desperate. He sighed heavily once, glanced behind himself, and moved on. "Lillith!" he shouted, letting each syllable of her name draw out like a siren call. "Lillith!" he called again, stopping to listen for the response, but it did not come. She would answer if she could hear his call but she could not hear him, he thought. The dead Arions around him certainly did not hear him. With a shiver, he pushed the painful thought away and tried again. "LILLITH!" "Tok! N'tse din'te vark'et!" ordered a strained voice from behind. William slowly turned to see a bloodied Arion on the ground whose legs were pinned by a massive metal beam. Face down, the Arion was struggling to lift his head and chest from the ground in order to point his GAR pistol at William. "You planning on using that?" asked William, his voice tired and cold. "N'tse din'te vark'et!" repeated the Arion through clenched teeth. The GAR in his hand shook slightly, showing the strain of holding it up at William. William took two slow steps toward the Arion before stopping to spit on the ground. "Go to Hell." The Arion face filled with amazement for only a moment at the words he had just heard. "Terran'a?" His muttered question showed his disbelief "Yeah," William grumbled, not hiding his contempt for this invader. "I'm a Terran. So what?" William and the Arion glared hotly at each other for long seconds before the Arion winced from the sharp pain that tore through him. Without realizing it, he dropped the GAR pistol and cried out a curse against the agony. William's face remained impassive as he merely stood and watched. "Too bad about that," William said with a cool apathy as he nodded toward the half-ton steel span that held the Arion prisoner against the ground. "Just too damn bad." William turned to walk away. Watching his only hope of assistance leaving, the Arion's mind raced to find something-anything-that would be useful to a Terran on this planet. He knew of something, but would this Terran be interested? "Velor'sk!" the Arion shouted. The word stopped William instantly and pulled his attention back to the Arion. "You know where the Velorian is?" "Yahs," nodded the grinning Arion, now in possession of a bargaining chip. His Terran-English was rough, but workable. "I know. I know Velor'sk where." William marched quickly to the Arion, gripping the alien by his hair to jerk his head painfully back. "Talk now, asshole," William demanded. "Where is she?" "Yew... Hep... May?" the Arion strained out. William gave his head another sharp pull. "Yeah, I'll help you, but you tell me where she is." "Yew... Hep." The Arion could barely speak with his head twisted so awkwardly, but he could still bargain. William thought a moment before deciding to trust the Arion. "Alright." Without releasing the Arion, William used his free hand to lift the giant beam. The Arion screamed from the excruciating agony as part of his flesh remained with the beam so carelessly discarded by the powerful Terran. Any possibility of passing out from the pain was just as quickly discarded when William dragged the Arion clear of the remaining wreckage by his hair. His part of the bargain completed, William leaned down to within inches of the Arion's twisted face and spoke with a cold, hard menace. "Okay, asshole, you're free. Now where's the Velorian?" The Arion fought unconsciousness as his eyes weakly opened. Unable to raise his arm more than a few inches, he managed to point at the Arion battlecruiser wreckage. William looked up to see a large opening into what looked to him like Hell. "Velor'sk," muttered the Arion before his arm dropped to the ground. "In there?" William demanded, shaking the Arion harshly. "In the wreck?" "Yas," groaned the Arion in his heavily accented English. "Velor'sk in... In dare." "Fair enough." William released the Arion's head and examined his legs. The right leg was broken in too many places, but the left was shredded. Both bled severely, but the left was the worse. William removed a leather strap from the Arion's uniform, wrapped it around the only solid part of the left thigh, and twisted it tight with a small piece of steel. The bleeding in the leg slowed. "Here, give me your hand... Give me your hand, idiot. There, hold that. Yes? Hold that. Do you get it? You understand?" The Arion held the tightened tourniquet and nodded. "Good," William nodded back. "You hold on to that until your medics find you. Okay? Got that?" Standing up, William looked toward the wreckage. "You'll be okay if they get to you fast enough. Just don't let that loosen up." "Larsen..." groaned the Arion. "Yeah, no larsen," William confirmed, looking back down at the Arion. "You hold. You understand?" Again the Arion nodded, writhing from the latest pain. "Alright then." William had taken only a few steps toward the open spot in the wreckage when a single shot from a GAR pistol hit him between the shoulder blades, jarring him forward with an abrupt shove. The laughter of the Arion infuriated William. "You sonavab-tch!" shouted William, spinning to face his attacker. "You bastard!" The Arion's laughter peaked and faded quickly when his eyes rolled back. He was dead before his head thudded against the ground. "I will never understand these bastards," grumbled William before he again turned to walk into the forbidding wreck.   William peered into the smoke-laden world of wreckage. Tornadic flames rose hundreds of meters into the air around him as they swirled on powerful thermal drafts. The wreck had formed an inferno of Hell and William was at the door, looking in. An insane haze glowed in the light of the flames, allowing him to see no more than five meters in any direction. It was a macabre scene from Dante's underworld and he took the first tentative steps into it. A long, psychotic howl shrieked to his left and William crouch defensively only to see a pillar of steel twist as it fell to the ground within an explosion of flames. The ship was dead and the carcass continued to deteriorate. William stood to watch the mangled mass glow white, weaken, and slump further to the ground before he turned away to continue his search. Charred bodies of Arion Betas littered the ground. The heat of the fires was so great that corpses were nearly cremated in place. Large pieces of undisturbed ash danced in the winds from the bones they once covered as skin before taking flight into the sky on the updrafts of heat. William squinted to see beyond the veil of black and gray, but his new vision was impossible to use. He could see vague images formed by the interference patterns of passing Tachyons, but they made little sense to him. What disturbed him most was that nothing moved. Nothing. William walked cautiously ahead and the scene began to change. A large Arion Prime was dead at the center of a deep crater more than fifty meters across and ten meters deep. Sprawled on his back, his arms and legs were twisted into strange, unnatural angles. Nearly half of the upper body of the Prime had turned a deep blue, almost coal black, indicating that he had suffered a major impact with something so powerful that it could kill a Prime. Perhaps, William thought, the ship had collided with him. Whatever had happened, it was sudden and deadly to a nearly indestructible species. A few paces further, William discovered another Prime. This one had been jammed, head first, into rock and showed similar discoloration as the first. William stepped closer to the body to see that the knuckles were badly bruised--this Prime had been in a fight. William instantly spun away from the body. "LILLITH!" he shouted out as loudly as he could before listening for what felt to be an eternity. "LILLITH!" he screamed again, his voice cracking from the strain. He listened, longing to hear her voice, straining to filter out the roar of the fires and the groaning wreck for proof that she lived. "Lillith..." his heart whispered through his lips when the familiar voice did not come to him. William ran forward, desperate to find her yet already somehow knowing that she couldn't possibly be alive. He had already seen two Arion Primes. If there were more, how could she fight them all? Surely she would have been overwhelmed and killed by them. How could anyone or anything survive in all of this? Dead? Of course she's dead, he started to believe. She's lying there, out there somewhere, dead and waiting for me to find her, to take her from this place of death, to take her back to her beloved Tetrites. She died for them. She died... For us. William slowed when he saw that the ground had been devastated. Whole sections had been churned up and massive rocks had been blasted into rubble and dust. Here he found another dead Prime, this one severely beaten and bent back, nearly in half. There was a terrible bruise in the center of his chest. "LILLITH!" William tried calling again, but there was still no response. Caught within the blinding smoke, William tripped over yet another dead Prime. He fell to the ground hard, turning to look in horror at the twisted body. Pushing away as if he had seen a ghost, William tumbled into a freshly carved ravine only a few meters deep. At the bottom, William rolled into the lifeless corpse of another Arion Prime, lying face down in the dirt. The ravine ended at the Prime's head, having been somehow carved out of the surface by the dead Arion's body. With a shout of shock, William scrambled to the top edge of the ravine only to collapse in the dust. "Lillith," he murmured through his desperate tears. Flinging his head back, he shouted at the sky, "WHERE ARE YOU?" before letting his head lower onto his arms in defeat. "Where are you?" The roar of the fires was constant, undisturbed and unconcerned by the sounds or thoughts of living creatures. William stood and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, willing his emotions under control. He wasn't ready to give up yet. "Alright, let's just keep looking," he urged himself. "Let's just..." "Don'det vre'lok!" a sharp, angry voice commanded from somewhere in the smoke. William jumped as if he had heard a gunshot. "Lillith?" he called out. "Lillith, where are you?" "Don'det!" the voice commanded again. "Don'det scill'tre d'hun vre'lok!" William stepped a few paces in the direction of the voice and stopped immediately when he saw a shadowy figure standing not more than a few paces away in the haze. The figure was crouched in a combat stance, one fist extended to defend, the other pulled back and ready to strike. William took one tentative step forward. "DON'DET!" the figure shouted angrily as it stiffened threateningly. William froze. He could now see the figure illuminated in the orange glow. It was Lillith--but it was not. The look in her eyes beneath her twisted hair was fierce; her gaze seemed to pierce through William as if he was transparent. She was seeing a threat, not an individual. Her body, taut and prepared to fight, was stained with blood. Whether the blood was hers or an Arion's, William could not tell. Her tight, right fist trembled slightly. William could see how the horror had twisted her; how whatever she had experienced this day had ripped everything that was Lillith away from her, leaving only a creature fighting for survival in a mad world full of threats. He hesitated, out of fear for her and fear for himself, to speak or move. "My God, Lillith" he barely muttered. "What have they done?" "Don'det." She sternly repeated the threat. The menace of her voice was not lost on William and he dared not move. Her right eyelid twitched slightly. She's warning me to stay away or something, thought William. Damn, she's wired pretty friggin' tight right now. I have to do this right or I'm going to end up like those Arions. William raised his open hand to her and moved forward very slowly. "Lillith," he said smoothly, "take it easy. It's alright now, honey. Just take it..." "Don'det scill'tre d'hun vre'lok!" she repeated rapidly. Her breathing quickened as she grew more agitated. In spite of the danger, William continued as gently as he could. "It's okay, Lillith. It's okay. Easy now..." He could hear her breathing harden from her tense anger. Her eyes were fixed on his open hand as it approached her tight fist. Her nostrils flared, but she did not attack. "DON'DET!" she screamed, flinching from his touch. William now realized the meaning of her commanding words: she had been ordering him to leave. Since he did not, she was threatened and could attack at any instant. Still, in spite of the danger and because of his love for her, he could not and would not leave her. He had to stay, to try somehow to make a connection. "Easy, Lillith," he said to her smoothly. "It's me, honey. It's William." Lillith's eyes narrowed at the last word spoken by the soothing voice. "N'ay!" she stammered. "Don'd... Don'det. Don'd... Et." "It is me, Lillith. Look at me. It's William. LOOK AT ME!" Lillith inhaled once and her breathing stopped. Her eyes showed a moment of confusion, as the trembling fist that guarded her became steady. "Will... Will... M." she murmured with difficulty. "Yes," he encouraged. "It's William." Her fists loosened as the cold stare of her eyes warmed to focus on his. "Will'm?" she pleaded, still not totally believing. "Yes," he nodded with a smile. "William." Lillith's bloody bottom lip curled up at its center as the realization took hold. Now it was safe to let every emotion that was shoved down, that was thrown aside, that she could not allow, now it was safe to let them have their way. Every massive shock and cutting terror, every moment of pain and desperation, every realization of the horrible side of the Universe and of what she too had become, all now reached the surface of her. It twisted her face, distorting it as a prelude to the tortured tears that now tried to wash it all away. The emotions were overwhelming as they cascaded from her and she collapsed onto him, her arms wrapping tightly around his neck as she tucked her face under his chin to sob at the end of a long and lonely nightmare. William held her within his arms and felt the warm appreciation that she lived flow through him as his own tears found their moment. In spite of all the devastation, they had found each other alive. Lillith was filled with the pain and suffering of her terrible ordeal and all he wanted now was to take it all away for her, to end her suffering, to take her home and let her be happy again. But there was nothing more he could do for her now than to hold her, stroke her tangled hair, and soothe her with words he knew she could not understand. "You'll be alright," he whispered gratefully. "I think you'll be alright now. Come on, honey," he encouraged. "Let's get out of here." Lillith didn't understand what he had said and hung from his neck for a moment. Without taking her head from his neck, she tried to wrap her legs around him. "Oh, no you don't," he teased. "You're walking. I'm not going to carry you all the way up that hill." When Lillith didn't respond, William leaned back and saw her staring at nothing. "I know it isn't over for you that easily, Lillith," he murmured warmly with a soft stroke of her hair. He kissed her lovingly and she sighed. Her blue eyes, one badly bruised, turned up to him. "Are you hungry?" he asked. Her finger lightly touched his lips as he spoke his strange language. One word was familiar to her and she tried to say it back to him. "Hungee," she said as her feet reached the ground again. "Are you?" he said gently. "Are you hungry, baby?" Again, Lillith did her best. "Hungee bahbee." She turned her head slightly when he chuckled. "Oh, you'll be fine. I know that for sure now." "Hungee bahbee," she repeated. "Yes, dear, I got it. Baby's hungry." "Hungee," came the confirmation. She nestled her head under his chin with her eyes closed, shutting out the terrible world around them. She turned her head toward him slightly and filled herself with his familiar scent just before her eye snapped open. Her right hand planted firmly on his chest as she turned away in one swift motion to face a new threat. "Lillith," a surprised William said a little too loudly. "What's going..." "Kee!" she snapped, peering at the dense smoke before them. Her voice lowered intensely. "Triva'l, Will'm." She would protect him. There was something out there. Lillith could see it, hear it, and perhaps even feel it. Before William could say a word, the crunch of boots on Tetra ground could be clearly heard just before the Arion officer, Napoleon, stumbled out from the gray veil of smoke. His face was smeared with soot and his grand uniform hung from him in shreds. Looking nervously behind himself, he repeatedly bowed while holding his arms across his chest in the Supremis sign of surrender. He was very agitated and in quite a hurry. "I... I seek asylum," he stammered rapidly. "I seek asylum as a political prisoner." William blinked twice. Napoleon was speaking perfect English. "You talking to me?" William asked, dumbfounded. "I wish to surrender to the military forces of this planet," the Arion demanded, glancing back at the smoke nervously. "That would be her," replied William with a grin, flashing a quick finger toward a very stern Lillith. "YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND!" Napoleon recollected his composure and lowered his voice. "You do not understand. I cannot speak directly to her. She is a Velorian. I am an Arion officer of high rank and as such I am above speaking to such a thing." William's eyes narrowed. "That's a real problem, asshole." The agitated Arion moved to approach William but Lillith would have none of it. "N'AY!" she snapped as she drew instantly into a combat stance. Napoleon rolled his eyes in frustration but took a step back anyway. "Tell your Velorian that I have no intention of doing you harm. I merely seek protection as a victim of this war and..." "I don't tell my Velorian anything, pal. If you have something to say to her, then say it to her. Otherwise, drop your weapon and get your ass up the hill to join the what's left of your folks." William tapped Lillith on the shoulder lightly. She cocked her head to listen, but wouldn't take her eyes off the Arion. "Come on, honey. Let's go." "No!" shouted Napoleon, pulling his GAR pistol from its holster to point it at William. "I command you to stop!" Lillith showed no interest in the weapon, but William grew angry and turned to face the shaking alien. "She's a Protector," warned William with a nod toward Lillith. "She could rip you up in a heartbeat." "Oh, don't I know," Napoleon remarked with a sweep of his free hand." My officers are all dead because of her. They did their duty, of course. That was their purpose." Napoleon provided a theatrical sad face. "Poor Dev'rok. She was particularly unkind to Dev'rok. But then," his face changed to a sinister smile, "he was particularly unkind to her." William glanced down at Lillith and, for the first time, noticed just how bruised and beaten she was. His anger grew. "Look," William spat, "I'd like to chit-chat a bit more, but we've got better things to do today. Sit tight and your people will pick you up. The war's over." "THE WAR"S NOT OVER!" Napoleon shrieked, making Lillith scowl. "It over when I say it is over! I am in charge here! I am in command! You will do as I say!" William looked over the insignia on what was left of Napoleon's uniform. What he saw raised both eyebrows. "You were the Fleet Commander of all this shit?" "I was," Napoleon stiffened, taking a moment to straighten his torn tunic, "the Supreme Admiral of the Grand Tetra Expeditionary Fleet." "Sounds like it paid well," mocked William. The joke angered Napoleon. "Insolence is not tolerated!" he shouted before quickly recovering his composure. He was here to negotiate, not argue. "I find myself in a rather complicated position. I was provided with inferior ships and untrained crews. They were all inferior and now I must pay for that ignorance." "It's a tough life, dickhead. But I gotta tell you that I didn't see anybody inferior on that ridge. If you saw what..." "I do not care about what happened on any useless ridge, Terran. I have greater concerns. If anyone died there, then so much the better. If troops serving under me cannot achieve their objectives, then they do not deserve to live. I, on the other hand, must survive." "And that's where we come in?" "That is," Napoleon's manic grin grew as both hands now gripped the heavy pistol, "where you come in." "Will'm?" muttered Lillith as she patted his chest. "Hungee..." "Yes, dear," William confirmed. "Just a second. This is just getting good." Lillith shrugged and eyed the conversational Arion suspiciously. "Okay, Supreme Admiral," said William with a smile, "what's on your mind?" "It is out of the question for me to be the only surviving officer when my troops have let me down so badly. Command Headquarters on Aria, how does one say it, may not be agreeable to the acceptance of such news. They may wish to place blame for such an episode on a convenient ranking officer." "A scapegoat," offered William. "Yes," Napoleon nodded his sweaty head. "A scapegoat. Such a colorful Terran expression." "Get to the point," demanded William. The Arion smiled. "Obviously, my weapon will have no effect on the Velorian, but she has affection for you, Terran, and my weapon is quite effective against your kind. Therefore, you will instruct the Velorian to grant me asylum and anonymous transportation to Bajklu-4. All performed discretely, of course." "Tell her yourself." "I told you that I wouldn't think of soiling my lips with Velorian words. Besides, it will all mean so much more to her coming from you." "And if I don't?" Napoleon's smile vanished. "Then I will kill you immediately and surrender to her." The devilish smile returned. "She may hate me for killing her pet, but she will not murder me for it. The Velorians are foolishly benevolent sometimes." "Oh, I wouldn't count on that," William said with a devilish grin of his own. "But I'll pass along your grand scheme to her just to see what she says about it." William proceeded to charade the entire plan, including the act of the Arion shooting him, complete with a very dramatic stagger with his hand on his chest. Lillith watched, understood, and tried to suppress a giggle. "She is laughing!" protested Napoleon. "Why is she laughing?" Lillith couldn't keep from chuckling again at the angry Arion. Napoleon became incensed and aimed the GAR at Lillith. "SHE WILL CEASE HER CACKLING!" "You shoot her, pal, and she'll be on you so fast you won't even know how she's killing you. And the bad part is, I'll stop her right when it becomes real painful for you." The GAR rapidly shifted aim back to William. "I will kill you! I will!" "Your guys have been trying to do that all day," William said with a flip of his hand. "Don't you get it? I'm enhanced. Your weapons don't faze me either." Napoleon's eyes reflected the confusion in his brain. He hadn't considered that possibility. Not knowing what else to do, he returned to Plan A. "No!" he shouted again. "No, you will provide asylum for me and..." "Not today," denied William. He put his arm around the still smiling Lillith and they began the long walk out of Hell. "NO!" screamed Napoleon. "You don't understand! I cannot return to Aria. They will torture me for what these cretins did to my command. It's not my fault! They did it all. "You don't understand! I SURRENDER!" William shouted over his shoulder without stopping. "Have a seat and take a number!" "NO!" the Arion screamed frantically before taking a few tentative steps forward to follow the fading figures of Lillith and William. He staggered to a stop, unsure of what to do. Checking his pistol quickly, his darting eyes showed the formation of an alternate plan in his brain. "Tetrites," he spat out. "They like the bugs. I will find a Tetrite and ransom it to..." Shadows fell across his face and he looked up with dread. "No..." Screams of terror and pain mixed with explosions of gunfire were heard far inside the opaque smoke as William and Lillith emerged from the wreckage. "Uh-oh," Lillith muttered as she glanced back into the smoke. "Yeah," agreed William. "Uh-oh. Sounds like his own folks had a retirement plan for him." William looked up toward the ridge, now barely visible through the smoke. "Come on, honey. We have a lot to do yet today." Next Chapter That Which One Begins, Copyright © 2001 by S.T.MAC