Near
the planetoid Volun-4, just outside the cluster of Bahdtwe
The wormhole closed rapidly behind the tumbling figure of her;
she had done the passage much too quickly. She had hurried partly
because of her anger, but mostly because she was afraid that her
hunch might be wrong, so she had traded control for haste. If
she was wrong, she felt that perhaps by rushing through she might
still have a chance to backstep and try again to find the warship
whose trail led to this empty plot of Space. An option she knew
did not really exist since they could have gone anywhere. Righting
herself, she looked for the ion trail that had led her to believe
that the ship was going in this direction. There were no signs
of anything similar. She had arrived before them or they had turned.
Which one was true, she could not know. She had only her instincts
to ignore or to trust.
Interpreting the stars against her knowledge of them, the Protector
of Tetra made her decision and accelerated away from the wormhole,
in the direction of her home planet.
The
interrogation chamber on A'ya's ship
"I saw you die."
William's incredulous words were met only with the satisfied glare
of Casan's brilliant green eyes, her subtle grin not unlike the
Mona Lisa. A'ya seemed to be enjoying the moment, casually slipping
her hand into Casan's robe while she rested her chin on the powerful
shoulders of the red-haired warrior. Her voice purred.
"She does not look very dead to me, Will'm. In fact, she
appears to be very much alive." A'ya's hidden hand found
a sensitive area on Casan's chest that made the redhead draw in
a long breath. Casan arched her back just a bit to show her approval
as A'ya continued.
"Is she not wonderful? So incredibly strong. So very....very...."
A'ya's voice faded when Casan turned her head toward her. Their
lips met slowly, letting their tongues play freely. William sighed
loudly to show his annoyance.
"Look, this is all cozy and all, but I saw this woman drop
dead in front of me and Lillith tossed her and her other folks
into the Tetra sun. This can't be her!"
A'ya and Casan released their embrace just enough for A'ya to
whisper a translation of what William had just said to a very
entertained Casan. The two women giggled together before A'ya
chose to finally explain. As Casan continued to simply stare at
William, A'ya drew her hands pleasantly back over Casan's shoulders
and walked calmly around her as she spoke.
"Funny thing about large celestial bodies, Will'm, is if
you don't approach them just right, you can never be sure that
you'll even come close to them. So many forces at work. Sometimes
they'll surprise you, eh?
"I found her and the others orbiting around that sun when
I passed through your sector quite a while ago. I didn't even
know a Protector was on Tetra. I just found some drifting space
junk and took a look. The two males were dead alright, but this
one,..." Her hands tenderly caressed Casan's neck from behind.
"This one was just barely alive. Her hemorrhaging had been
stopped by the hard cold of Space, her frozen blood sealed her
wounds. Much of it had already sublimated away, but the rest kept
her from bleeding to death. She had no pulse. Isn't that interesting?
No pulse, yet she was still alive. It's in the eyes, Will'm. Always
look into the eyes. The Supremis species does not die easily.
I can say that in spite of killing so many of them." A'ya
closed her hands around Casan's neck as if she were going to choke
the life out of her. For an instant, Casan's eyes narrowed as
her steady gaze slid to one side, but A'ya's sudden giggle put
the moment back into perspective and Casan's smile widened as
her gaze returned to William. A'ya kissed the side of her neck
tenderly just before she returned to strutting and explaining.
"I brought her back, treated her, nursed her, helped her
overcome her addiction." A'ya stopped and raised her clenched
fist. "She is my sword, the strong right arm of her goddess.
Casan! D'twe hwant'r!"
On command, Casan loosed the rope that bound her robe. With a
slight shrug, the robe slipped easily from her body and fell to
the deck. William's eyes opened wide at the sight of her. She
was even more powerfully built than he remembered on that foggy
night so long ago. Around her hips, a white cloth Kitant
hung loosely, clipped at the front with a silver crest. Amused
and more by William's obvious expression, Casan raised her arms
and curled them into huge, tightly-flexed masses of muscle. Her
shoulders flared large, her chest contracted into striations of
power, her belly creased into a display of hard abs, and her legs
rippled with awesome might! William instantly knew what he was
seeing.
"She's....she's enhanced! You...how did you...?" A'ya's
laugh stopped William cold as she effortlessly lifted the flexing
Casan up into the air by simply gripping the striated hips of
the Geheim woman and hoisting her overhead like a trophy. A'ya
beamed up at her creation.
"I am a goddess, Will'm. Do not question when I create perfection."
For that instant, William had a thought that perhaps she might
be right.
On
the bridge of A'ya's ship
The sound of glass shattering on the steel deck momentarily got
the attention of at least half of the dozen or so crew on duty
in and around the bridge. The party had kicked into high gear
a few hours ago and was now flickering out like a spent candle.
Those of the crew who did not hear the empty bottle of Geheimite
brandy drop to the deck had good reason. They were all passed
out and sound asleep.
It may have been a military ship, but the crew was anything but
the appropriately disciplined and well-trained machine that normally
crewed an Arion man-of-war. Most were social discards from hundreds
of planets across galaxies too numerous and widely scattered to
mention. They hitched the wagons of their futures to A'ya, seeing
only profit and dominance in her and wanting little more than
that. These were the creatures A'ya trusted most because, when
profit was the motive, no one would dare chance her displeasure
and lose out on a net gain. Their loyalty came with a price that
A'ya made sure was met. Most of the lower ranks of the crew working
in the decks below were survivors of planetary raids or pirated
ships that had the misfortune of crossing A'ya's path. While the
crew split up the riches found, A'ya kept all technology of power
for herself. A weapon here, a weapon there, anything powerful
enough to damage or kill a Supremis being. Even the ship itself
had been stolen, with a few of the crew still surviving to serve
her. All of this she kept under her own control for they were
all useful to her in so many ways. Useful indeed to a being who
believed that the entire Universe was hers as well.
The First Mate lounged sideways, across the Captain's chair. His
unfocused eyes could not make out the broken glass that spread
out from the base of that same chair. Too drunk and too lazy to
investigate, he merely slumped back into a more comfortable position.
With a blasé wave of his hand, he announced his intention
to call off any further investigations into the whereabouts of
his brandy bottle.
"Screw it."
Suddenly, an excruciatingly loud klaxon alarm, punctuated by high-pitched
wails, sounded from the Threat Detection Console. Hands, arms,
and legs flew everywhere as bodies crashed down to the deck in
panic! The First Mate flung himself at the TDC acknowledge button
to silence the horns and peered at the screen to see what had
set every damn alarm on the bridge off like that. Seeing the tiny
sensor image on the screen and the computer's assessment of that
distant smudge, his eyes grew larger as he immediately sobered.
The crackle of the overhead communication device startled everyone
in the Interrogation Chamber. The voice of the First Mate only
seemed to annoy A'ya.
"Cap'n! We got a Velorian Protector bitch in a high-speed
approach two points to port ahead and slightly below. The closure
rate is..."
For the first time since William had arrived, he noticed that
A'ya looked very surprised. She turned away from him and shouted
back to the communication device overhead.
"Evade! Cross her extended path to port. Shear away!"
"T'aye, Cap'n!"
Seconds passed that seemed like minutes until A'ya looked up to
speak. The First Mate interrupted her by answering her next unspoken
question.
"She's turning to intercept, Cap'n. Looks like it's us she's
after."
A'ya was stunned! "Who is that? There are no Protectors out
here! The closest is on Tolan!" The sound of William's laugh
made her instantly spin around to glare angrily at him. All she
saw was his broad grin.
"I told you not to take her for granted. That's my girl!"
"Impossible! This one is coming from ahead!" William
rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief.
"What is it about you megalomaniacs that you always think
that nobody else in the Universe has a brain."
A'ya cursed silently at such a blasphemous remark, but she had
other business to attend to at the moment.
"Bridge! Hold course and open fire on her when you have a
target within range."
"T'aye, Cap'n!"
Slowly, A'ya collected her thoughts. She hadn't come this far
by giving in to surprises.
"Well", A'ya sighed, "it's not exactly what we
had planned for her but if it's done out here then here is where
Lillith will die."
"As long as she's dead, eh, A'ya?" William's words sounded
like a curse. A'ya shrugged.
"I only want to help Casan avenge her comrades. Justice,
Will'm. Simple justice."
"Bullshit. I'd bet you never helped anyone to do anything
in your life. You're just using Casan to do your dirty work for
you."
A'ya sneered. "You'll never understand me, Will'm. I didn't
want any of this! It was Casan and..."
"Bullshit! Lillith was right! You know exactly what you're
doing! You know where each and every Protector is located and
you're quietly moving against each one! You're not interested
in right or wrong, you're just eliminating the competition!"
A'ya peered back at William in cold silence. Moments passed before
he spoke again, his voice dropping to a whisper. Something still
bothered him. "What do you get out of doing all this, A'ya?
Why drag us all out here? You could have...." A sudden realization
froze William in shock as his eyes widened.
"The baby!"
A'ya's face seemed to harden. "Well done, Will'm, although
it did take your little male mind a while. I couldn't just kill
you and Lillith in front of the baby and the Tetrites, now could
I? Out here, your deaths happen the way I say they happened. The
Tetrites are such gullible creatures. You feed them the information
they hunger for and they trot off contentedly. They will raise
that brat of yours for me while I teach her to worship me properly.
She will one day be a magnificently powerful addition to my inner
circle, standing proudly at my side as the daughter of a god!"
William immediately felt a father's sharp, stinging hatred for
someone who intends to harm his family. Touch my daughter and
die, you stinking bitch, he thought. Lillith was coming. He
needed to do what he could to help stop this woman. She was a
real psycho. Maybe the best way to fight someone nuts is to play
with their head, use a little psyche-warfare on her. Freak her
out a bit to give Lillith an edge. It might be worth a try. One
thing was sure, he was going to enjoy messing with her head until
Lillith arrived to do some serious damage to her body.
William lowered his head slightly as his eyes bore intensely into
A'ya's. His voice became cold and menacing.
"Lillith is coming, A'ya, but not for me. She is coming for
you."
For a moment, no one moved as William held A'ya in his cold stare.
The sudden rumble of the guns broke the spell and A'ya blinked
once before her original look of defiance returned.
"Let her come on then, Will'm. Casan! Ski'tre buntra'jha
fort'p ska!"
Casan nodded rapidly. "T'aye, A'ya!" Quickly,
Casan ran back to the hatchway to William's left and disappeared
as A'ya removed her weapon and placed it on the desk. Straining
against the energy locks, William's hatred filled his voice.
"A'ya! Before this is done, you will face me. Do you hear
me? I will bust you up!"
A'ya calmly turned, her coolness only incensed William more. Two
can play mind games as well as one.
"Will'm, when Casan kills Lillith, we are going to send her
body into the nearby sun just as she did to Casan. You will join
her, Will'm. I'll chain you in gold to her lifeless corpse, but
you'll be alive. That won't be very pleasant, will it, Will'm.
Face to face with your dead lover. You may even see her be consumed
in the sun before you are as well. Pity, but then.....who cares."
Lillith could now make out the swept hull of the cruiser using
her normal vision as she hurtled toward it at high speed. The
steel of its hull and bulkheads were coated to prevent Tachyon
imaging, so what it contained was hidden from her, but she could
feel William's presence. Somehow she knew he was there.
Suddenly, tiny brilliant red flashes appeared all over the ship,
signaling the weapon discharges meant to destroy her. Concentrating
on the approaching pulses, Lillith tumbled a bit to the right
to begin her violent movements to avoid them.
Every available weapon with a forward field of fire was engaged
on the target. The First Mate staggered a bit, still under the
influence of the brandy in spite of the adrenaline surging through
his body. Out through the forward transparent-steel windows, he
could just make out a tiny dot that jinked and twisted, expertly
avoiding the fusillade of energy discharges that rained at it.
A tiny dot that gradually grew larger as it came right at the
bridge window! He screamed loudly as everyone lunged for cover!
"SHE'S GOING TO RAM US!"
Lillith mushroomed in size rapidly as she rocketed straight at
the window! There was a flash of blue, red, and yellow that filled
the window....and she was gone.
Without a target, the guns fell silent. The First Mate, along
with the rest of the bridge crew, slowly rose to their feet. Looking
nervously around themselves, no one could understand what had
happened. Acting on instinct, the First Mate pulled his Gar pistol
from its holster without really knowing why. The silence enveloped
them all in its eerie grip.
Only a handful on the bridge noticed the angry looking face of
a young female appear upside down at the right-most window. Her
blonde hair floated with a liquid freedom without gravity to keep
it in place. With a flick of her finger, she snapped on the window
so loudly that it sounded like a gunshot inside the bridge. Without
hesitating, the First Mate blindly fired his Gar pistol at the
sound, hitting the window directly in the center just an instant
after the face disappeared upward. The window held from the blast
except for a small web of fractures at the center. Everyone sighed
with relief before hurling insults at the First Mate for his stupidity.
"Are you insane? Put that weapon away! You could have blown
out that window and we'd all be dead!"
"Shut up! Shut up, all of you!" The First Mate screamed
back at them. He heard something else. Something he desperately
hoped he wasn't really hearing.
A subtle, high-pitched squeal came from the window for just a
moment as the First Mate noticed a crack grow from the center
web toward the lower left corner of the window. The jagged crack
moved a few inches, then stopped. One of the crew whispered, "It's
stressed. The pressure's too much for it."
Everyone of the crew immediately bolted for the airlock hatch
to the inner ship except for the First Mate. He stood frozen in
fear as he watched the crack start again, squealing loudly now
as it grew on a jagged, uneven course for the corner. Just as
the crack reached its destination, the First Mate's terror could
only allow him to mutter, "By....the.....gods!"
The explosive decompression when the window blew out sucked everything
loose, including those crewmembers who could not escape in time,
directly out of the ship and into Space. Much of the forward bulkhead
around the window was blown outward, shredded by material and
bodies being pulled violently out through an opening originally
much too small for them. The First Mate lived long enough as his
broken body hurtled away into the darkness to see a Velorian Protector
sitting cross-legged on the ship's hull just above the windows.
She didn't move at all as she watched him tumble into the cold
distance to die.
It was all over quickly and silence returned to the bridge.
Lillith slipped through the hole that had once been the front
of the bridge complex and stood on the cold deck. Dark except
for the faint glow of small indicator lights that were sprinkled
across various panels, she could still see that only one being
other than herself now remained on the bridge. A solitary figure
firmly strapped into a seat, its face a bloody mess, its eyes
and lungs torn apart by the sudden decompression. Sparks from
a nearby damaged console illuminated the face, its mouth frozen
open at the instant of its death, a mask of pain and terror. Lillith
winced at the sight and felt sorry that any creature would have
to experience that. She rotated the chair to return the figure
back to the console and away from her sight before walking toward
the still open airlock hatch to the rest of the ship.
"Firing stopped, A'ya. Now
why do you suppose that is?"
William's words were taken silently by A'ya as she looked upward
expectantly. The bridge should be reporting that the target was
destroyed by now. She would wait no longer.
"Bridge!"
The silence annoyed her almost as much as William's mind game.
"BRIDGE!"
"You don't suppose they're not there, do you, A'ya?"
"SHUT UP! BRIDGE!"
As if in response, a massive bang shook the entire ship! The hull
creaked.
"She's just letting you know she's here, A'ya", snarled
William, obviously enjoying the moment.
A'ya nodded slightly as she muttered to herself, "This one
is formidable." William chuckled.
"Yes, she is, A'ya. She's cold as ice and cunning when she
hunts her prey."
In the airlock from the bridge, Lillith finally got the airlock
pressurized, but she just couldn't figure out how to open the
other hatch. She had already pressed all the buttons on the small
console and none of them worked. Out of frustration she punched
a hole through the hatch, but all that did was shake the entire
ship and leave a six inch hole in the center of a bowed out hatch.
Peering through the hole, she could see a number of Arions with
weapons waiting for her to come out.
"Uh-oh", she muttered as she pulled her face away from
the hole. Frantically she looked around the small chamber and
spotted yet another switch on the bulkhead above her. She stabbed
at it once, flipping the small toggle to another position. The
lights immediately went out.
"Pistu!"
A'ya slowly paced as she and William waited in silence. She seemed
lost in thought, a point not lost on William.
"So where do you think she'll attack you, A'ya? Could be
anywhere. She might even be watching you right now. Watch your
back, A'ya, or you just might get it broken."
The last remark brought a smile to A'ya's thin lips. Walking calmly
up to the imprisoned Terran, she ran her fingers through his hair
almost tenderly.
"I needed you alive to bait Lillith, Will'm, and now she's
here. I don't need you to live any longer so don't provoke me
or I might just trade my enjoyment of seeing you die later to
shut you up now. Would you like me to do that? Hm?"
William glared defiantly at her but said nothing. A'ya patted
him lightly on his head.
"Good boy."
Lillith just didn't know what else to do. Gripping the top of
the closed hatch back to the bridge, she hoisted herself up and
slammed both feet against the uncooperative hatch solidly! The
half-ton structure blasted off its mounts and rocketed down the
gangway, slamming into the six Arions Betas gathered there to
ambush her. Four were killed instantly, the remaining two were
left unconscious and badly injured.
A blonde head poked out of the airlock to looked around before
moving ahead. Walking cautiously toward the first turn in the
gangway, she noticed movement around that corner. Stepping back,
she was suddenly confronted by a very nervous Thort. He unsteadily
aimed a small disruptor pistol at her and was about to fire when
Lillith remembered what she had once read about Thorts in her
classes back on Velor. Immediately she stuck her tongue out through
her lips and blew. The loud "blurt" sound was instantly
recognized as an appropriate greeting by the Thort who responded
with an appropriate fart sound in return. The weapon did not fire,
but it did not lower either. Lillith's knowledge of species didn't
tell her what else to do, so she simply spoke to the threatening
Thort and hoped for the best.
"Sk'non d'lur'ta."
The Thort's buzzing voice responded in English.
"That is good. I do not want to hurt you either. You are,
perhaps, Velorian?"
"Yes."
The Thort lowered his weapon with a shrug. "Then my weapon
would not harm you anyway. This is all quite pointless. I only
wish to leave."
"Wait, please, I'm looking for my mate. He is a Terran male,
quite beautiful with strong, wide shoulders and sexy...."
"There is a terribly annoying Terran male down below that
does not know when to be silent."
"That's him!"
"Interrogation Chamber, deck 4, subdeck B. Look for the double
doors. There is a maintenance stairway at the end of this corridor.
It is hardly used and you should not be molested by the crew if
you use it."
Lillith nodded, making her hair bounce lightly. "Deck 4,
subthing B, double doors. Got it."
The Thort turned to leave, but stopped before he had taken a step.
"Do you plan to kill A'ya?"
Lillith looked resolute. "If I have to."
The Thort nodded. "You will have to. When you do, my brothers
will smile upon you." With that, the Thort turned to continue
down the gangway. He didn't slow down or turn around as he called
back to Lillith.
"Have a nice day. Do not touch his restraints!"
A final snort signaled the disappearance of the Thort as he wheeled
around the far corner and disappeared.
"This is taking a bit longer than I would expect. Perhaps
we should wiggle the bait a bit."
A'ya gripped the helpless William by his neck and smiled.
The brief scream of pain that reverberated through deck 4 made
Lillith's head snap to attention, her wide blue eyes slid to the
left, then right, waiting for one more sound to confirm the direction.
It only took a moment.
"GAWDAMSONNOFABITCHINSHITMUTHAFU..."
Lillith charged toward the familiar voice.
William heaved heavily, trying to catch his breath now that the
pain had subsided. A'ya looked pleased.
"Thank you, Will'm. That should do it." He glared up
at her sneering face with a look of pure hate.
"I'm ....going...to enjoy...doing that to you, A'ya."
"Oh, Will'm, promises, promises...."
Suddenly, the double doors exploded inward, shearing the steel
framing from the bulkhead and scattering shards of ripped steel
through the room. At the center of the destruction stood a massively
muscled Lillith, snarling her words through gritting teeth.
"Get...away...from my mate."
The
Fallen continues....
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