On the radar they were still able to track Ya’Cahin and she had been still for a few minutes and then all three of them felt the surge of psykik energy below them. Jenny had been driven to the ground her own eyes glowing from the power. They were sure that Ya’Cahin had found the shard now.
They pulled themselves together and Jenny ignored her new pounding headache feeling like she was very hung over. Resisting the urge to vomit she took Alice’s hand and got to her feet. “Alright, that’s definitely her.” She checked the radar on her helmet to be sure and sure enough where Ya’Cahin had been stationary she was now definitely on the move.
“She found the shard,” Alice signed and Jenny nodded. “That means she should be coming top side, soon right?”
“That would be my guess. But at this point I’ve stopped believing I know what’s going on.”
“You and me both,” Seth said. “I almost want to go back home and deal with the mutants and roaming bands of marauders.”
The trio shared a laugh but it was cut off immediately as the ground shook. It was sudden and violent and the trio flinched away, lowering their lights toward the ground. They expected another earthquake and for the ground to split open and eat them like it did with their captain. Lightning flashed in the distance but for the most part the area was scarily still.
“What was that?” Jenny whispered.
Before either could answer the ground rumbled again and the trio moved closer, back to back, and stared at the darkness. Their guns weren’t illuminating much for them. A few trees, the beginnings of a what could have been a boulder, and empty darkness.
Lightning struck to their side, crackling along one of the trees, before settling down. In that flash none of them saw anything nearby and the rumbling had ceased. Alice reached behind her and gently tapped Jenny’s hand. Jenny glanced at her and she signed slowly, “I have an idea.”
Jenny nodded and returned to watching their sides. Alice lowered her weapon and reached into the bag that Ya’Cahin had given her. Pulling out several metal disc she pushed a button in the center of each of them and then threw them like frisbees. One by one they hovered and their edges glowed while the center pieces also shot light up and down.
They became beacons like tiny lanterns but they didn’t serve to illuminate that far away. Touching her wrist, she watched the bars on her mask appeared and sync with them one by one. She raised her wrist and directed them slowly to return to her side, hovering protectively around them.
“Wish you had brought this out earlier,” Seth said shaking his head.
“I’m agreeing with the grump on this one,” Jenny added.
Alice ignored them and directed the disc higher into the air to spread their light. The higher up she directed them the brighter their light was able to become and for the first time they were able to see the area around them. It was aggressively grey and barren but there were several places where the ground opened suddenly into sinkholes.
Seth approached one of them, staring into a hole but it was dark down there as well. Looking over his shoulder at his crewmates they both shrugged. The ground rumbled again and he teleported backwards to stand by the other two. Unlike before the ground didn’t stop rumbling, if anything it got stronger.
The ground exploded and a giant grey snake exploded out of the dirt. It thrashed opening its mouth and flicking two tongues out. It had a pair of giant fangs, one above the other resting in front of its mouth. Its eyeless head turned as it leaned down and faced the three of them flicking it’s tongues out. Hanging from the head were two antennae that hung limply at the moment.
“I guess that’s a thing out here,” Jenny said slowly and whipped out her bow. Drawing an arrow from her hip she placed it against the bow and watched the animal sway back and forth. “Though it might be friendly. What are the odds?”
Alice just sighed and signed, “You’re really asking that?”
Jenny threw her hand and kicked the ground. “Maybe I want to hope for something better.”
Suddenly the snake lunged at Jenny and she jumped backwards shouting. Stumbling backwards the snake reared back and lunged again aiming at her. She raised her bow and fired a few arrows but they just bounced off its scales. It lunged for her faster this time and Seth grabbed her before teleporting them both backwards and out of range.
It slammed into the ground and then just burrowed down like it were wet soil. When its tailed burrowed as well the shaking ceased. The three of them stared wide eyed at the whole it once occupied.
“Okay. Where the hell did it go?” Jenny shouted pointing her bow at the ground.
“I don’t know,” Seth said looking around them and the discs floated higher expanding the light.
The ground rumbled this time very close to Alice. Alice stared at the ground and started sprinting toward them entirely invisible at this point. The ground erupted and the snake exploded from the ground in front of her. She stumbled running right into it. The snake rotated its body trying to wrap around her since she was so close.
Again Seth appeared behind her, grabbed her around the waist and vanished. The giant snake stared confused at the missing piece of prey and turned toward the trio as they gathered together.
“Alice can your drone things do anything aggressive?”
She was already rotating through her arm band but shook her head. “They’re mostly recon. No weapons on them.”
The snake turned to face them again but stopped suddenly. Rotating back and forth slowly its antenna came to life, rising off its head and flicking back and forth. They looked at one another confused when one of the disk blacked out. It was there and then suddenly it wasn’t.
Another of the opposite side of them was torn out of the sky and Alice stared at her censors but none of them caught what had happened to it. And the snake was still in place swaying back and forth with its antennae swishing. One by one the disk were taken down bringing the darkness back in force.
“Turn off your lights!” Seth hissed and both women looked at him as if he were turning into one of the snakes. But he was already messing with his gun and letting the light die and turn off the lights in his helmet. “Turn off your lights and don’t. Move.”
“Trusting you Seth,” Jenny said and did as he said letting the light go off on her bow and also in her helmet. Alice followed suit as the last of the floating disk were taken out of the sky. They were plunged in total darkness now, unable to see even an inch in front of them let alone the snake they knew was still out there.
The silence stretched and the ground was still. No lightning in the distance, no earthquakes. Just still silence. They were afraid to even breathe too loudly. Alice felt Jenny’s hand in her own and squeezed it back, feeling like the beating of her heart was loud enough to alert whatever was out there.
And then slowly light appeared this time on the snake’s head. The tips of its antennae came to life brighter than anything they had produced before. It was bright enough to cast their shadows long as if they were ten or even twenty feet tall. But it also exposed what had attacked their discs.
Four winged creatures with sharp beaked mouths in their torsos. The wings were leathery without any sort hands or claws on them. They were the same kind of fleshy grey as the snake. There were six of them and now they were circling around the snake as it continued to sway.
One of the winged creatures darted toward an antenna but the snake swayed much faster and darted forward snatching it out of the air. It lurched swallowing it whole and went back to swaying back and forth ready to lure in another one of the creatures.
“I guess this is natural here,” he said softly.
“Life finds a way,” Jenny replied and she felt Alice squeeze her hand and she knew the look she gave her. “Hey guys. Yaya is heading our way. Fast too.”
“Oh yay, she can watch this beautiful display of nature with us.”
The snake threw its head back shaking back and forth and two of the winged creatures had managed to avoid getting eaten and were now pecking at its head where its eyes might have been. They were circling and attacking in turns while the snake just did its best to keep up trying to snatch them out of the sky.
“Are we still getting readings from the ship?”
Alice nodded and she reached into her bag pulling out small orbs. She passed one into Jenny’s hand and another into Seth’s. When both looked at her confused she pointed at the animals and signed, “One of those will win. And when it does we need to be ready to run. These are our distractions.”
“Good thinking,” Jenny replied blowing her a kiss and Alice smirked but the ground rumbled in response and they all tensed. The last thing they needed was another one of those snakes. A spike of pain suddenly hit Jenny’s head and she sank to her knees like it was going to split apart. She could feel the power of the shard approaching. “Seth get us out of here!”
Seth grabbed the two of them and they vanished, teleporting to the edge of the field of light from the snake’s antennae. All three watched as the ground exploded in a blast of green light. All of the flying creatures not caught in the debris retreated but were definitely interested while the snake dimmed it’s on lights and retreated into the ground.
The light subsided slowly from the giant burst to just a small glow. They saw the pair of shapes within the light. The flying creatures did too and darted at them attacking the newest source of light. Ya’Cahin raised her shard and green waves of light radiated out and blasted the creatures off their axis almost as if they were stunned in the air.
Pointing at the ones she could see she counted in her head until she hit five. Closing her fist she raised the shard and five bolts of green lighting flew from it. Each one smote a different one of the creatures out of the sky. Another creature that she’d missed flew at her. Zi’Zan raised his staff and shoved it forward spearing the creature out of the sky and driving it into the ground.
“Come on little riar. I’m still here saving your butt,” he grinned at her and she rolled her eyes.
“Cut me some slack. I gotta get used to this thing.”
“Psykiks. I swear,” he tapped the staff against the ground and he felt it rumbling but couldn’t feel it in his feet. “Careful Ya’Cahin. Something big is coming.”
“Any concrete description that I can understand?”
“Probably a giant falker but without the fur and bigger teeth.”
“Are you serious? Seh’hun!”
“Language!”
“Shut up!”
The ground erupted and the giant snake like creature thrashed around blowing both off their feet. Ya’Cahin scrambled to her feet and then realized that she had dropped the shard. Looking around hastily she spotted it and immediately sprinted toward the thing. No way was she going to lose the second reason she came here.
The snake was still for a second and then lunged right for her. Before its teeth and jaw could connect one of the trees flew into its neck and it was jolted to the side. It crashed into the ground and Ya’Cahin slid forward grabbing the shard and rolled to safety. She felt the electricity racing across her fingers and shoved her hand into the air.
The clouds above sparked to life and she felt the roiling energy charging up. Her arm shook and vibrated before swinging it down and a bolt of lightning came down homing in on the tree in the snake’s neck. The snake writhed as the energy coursed through it before finally collapsing with a heavy thud.
“How did that happen?” Zi’Zan asked staring at the snake and hoping it was still dead.
She jerked her thumb over her shoulder and then signed, “That would be my first mate.”
“Oh, you have a first mate?”
“Get used to calling me captain Z’Z.”
She lowered the shard and sighed as the power waned and she leaned forward taking a huge breath. She raised her hand and rotated it around then pointed in a direction. Light shined from her palm, soft blue and illuminated her crewmates. The pair made their way over to them and she knew they were all talking but her comm systems were still down. Now that they were closer Zi’Zan was the tallest amongst them all.
Holding up her hand she started signing, “Got the shard.” She waved it at them and then motioned to Zi’Zan. “This is my friend.”
Zi’Zan waved and signed, “Hi. Thanks for taking care of her.”
Shaking her head she signed, “You guys okay?”
Jenny looked at Alice who put away her grenade and signed to them. “Yeah we’re in one piece. Glad you’re okay. As far as we know the ships still standing.”
Ya’Cahin clapped, “Great! Let’s get out of here.”
“Gladly.”
The walk back to the scout ship was infinitely easier with a glowing green rock that had enough light to illuminate not just their path but at least twenty feet ahead of them. There were far more trees around them then they initially thought and many of them extended easily to thirty or forty feet above them. They had long extended branches but only in the highest of branches, where the light barely touched above, were more of the four-armed flying creatures. They were hanging by each of the limbs and the wings covered the torso entirely. It must have been sleeping.
Some of the trees had dozens of the creatures while others only had one or two. They watched as the sky opened up and a bolt of lightning arced through the air and slammed into one of the trees. It glowed with electricity, super charged by it and was immediately swarmed within seconds by the creatures. They shoved their beaks into the tree and it was like they were sucking the electricity out of it.
Just like their helmets had said, and they had hoped, the ship was still in one piece. A little shaken up by the terrain but it glowed to life when Ya’Cahin pointed her arm at it. The hatch lowered and one by one they boarded the ship. Ya’Cahin and Jenny took their seats in the pilot and co-pilot position.
The hatch was raised and then the air was sucked out before being replaced with something universally breathable by the crew. One by one they removed their helmets and then just fell back onto the floor or into their seats. Jenny held up a finger and shook her head, “One mission. I just want one mission to not be a struggle.”
“Not with this crew,” Ya’Cahin said then stared at the shard in her lap. “But we’re at three of these bad boys now.”
“You have three of them?” Zi’Zan said mouth agape. “What have you been getting into since I left.”
“Oh you know. Traveling the galaxy. Getting into adventure. Finding lost treasure.”
“I think she’s just showing off at this point,” Alice signed to Jenny who giggled.
“What are we going to even do with them?” Jenny asked looking back toward Ya’Cahin who shrugged.
“That’s a problem for tomorrow. For today let’s get back to the ship. Gotta introduce Z’Z to the rest of the crew.” She started everything up with a few keys and flipping of switches. Jenny did the same from her seat and gave Ya’Cahin a thumbs up. She nodded and pulled back on the yoke as the thrusters came to life below them. “Hold on team!” Gripping the thrusters next she pushed forward and shot forward.
Crossing the ground, they zoomed across the surface of the planet and then pulled up slowly until they had a straight shot into the sky. Spiraling through the clouds they managed to avoid any burst of lightning and broke through the other side. Hitting the thrusters again the atmosphere was next and seconds later they were out on the other side.
The ship hovered in empty space and the communications line sparked to life like wildfire, spreading to the open line. “Jenny. Alice. Seth. Captain Ya’Cahin. Are you there?”
“Yes Ula we’re here,” she replied and leaned her head back in the seat letting the ship drift. “Sorry we lost you there. It’s been a doozy of a trip. But overall one hundred percent successful. How’s life been on the ship? Trey didn’t burn anything, down did he?”
“I resent that!” Trey shouted from somewhat nearby.
“Trey has been very helpful up here. We’ve run into trouble,” Ula said and that got everyone’s attention.
“What’s happened?” Jenny asked jumping into the conversation.
“Not too long ago a surge of psykik energy erupted from the planet. Likewise, we had a similar surge of energy in the ship. We are all right and emergency power has kicked on properly but for the time being our engines are not working. So we cannot leave.”
“Can we get back on the ship?” Jenny asked.
“Yes the hanger can open and we can accommodate you.”
“Then let’s get aboard and figure it out how to fix the ship.”
Rotating the ship around Ya’Cahin piloted them back home. Just like Ula said, it was off axis, floating at a slight tilt and not as bright. They drifted closer and the wall of the hanger opened. Positioning herself themselves properly she docked them into the hanger.
Departing the ship, Jenny took the shard to be contained with the others while the rest went to the bridge. Ula was there at the moment and turned to face them all. They were relieved but intrigued by Zi’Zan who looked around the ship impressed. Ya’Cahin joined her zorg friend and sat in one of the chairs touching the dashboard and pulling up a diagnostic of the ship presently.
“The surge of psykik energy over loaded our systems. Tahu and myself were able to redirect much of the energy for essential functions.”
“That was risky,” Ya’Cahin said cowling. “Either of you could have been overloaded and shut down.”
“If one of us attempted this yes but we were able to balance the load properly,” Ula said confidently.
Ya’Cahin sighed and squeezed their shoulder and sighed, “It worked out and I’m one to talk about crazy risks. So one of our engines are dead. Are the other three working on that?”
“Indeed. Tahu is testing a few theories and repairing what he can with Trey and Rizier’s help.”
“I’m going to check on them,” Getting out of the seat she started down the hallway to the engine room which sat directly below the armory. Taking the stairs down where normally there would be the roar of the engines whirring. She opened the doors one by one until the final one came and she approached her three crewmates.
Tahu was pointing at one of the engines and Trey was floating in the air but as she got closer it was Rizier holding him up through disjointing some of their sand. “Alright there! There’s another crack! Weld that shut.”
“On it,” Trey shouted and clapped his hands together creating a muted whistling from his explosions. Carefully he melted the metal back together. “Oh hey Yaya!”
“What the heck happened to the engine?”
“The ship, bless its heart, tried to use the energy surge but it couldn’t take them all. It was like a big container and it contained too much. So it cracked,” Tahu sighed. “So now we’re trying to do make shift repairs.”
“Do we know where the energy surge came from?” she asked but even as she asked she could feel the residual surge on the air. “The shards, right?”
“That’s the guess. The two in the armory reacted to the one on Gilo,” Tahu sighed again. “Magic.”
“It’s not magic,” she said rolling her eyes. “We’ve never had them react like that before. But we’ve never had three before so this is all new territory.” A curse was going to leave her lips but she paused as a thought ran through her mind. “Wait a minute. New territory. Hey Tahu big idea. Run with me on this.”
The zorg turned to face her and raised an eyebrow. “I’m listening.”
“The other two shards were like personal amps. Super powering us up and probably way too much. I’d be surprised if some of my wires aren’t permantly screwed up. But this new one, it was like an outside amp. Lots of energy to just shoot out. It was like a real battery and not just a psykik one. And with the amount of juice flowing through it I think we can jump start the engines and actually super power us forward.”
Tahu stared at her and blinked slowly, “You want to use one of those shards to power my ship. And expect me to believe it won’t blow us all up?”
“Sure do.”
“How confident are you on doing this?”
“On my own? Not very. With Jenny. A little bit more.”
“With Jenny what?” the first mate in question said venturing into the engine room. “What are you trying to rope me into now?”
“Me? Nothing? Just need us to do a little bit of a shard channeling. No biggee.”
“She wants to power the ship using a shard,” Tahu said and folded their arms.
“Hey only jump start it,” she said and motioned toward her. “You felt it right. It’s different then the others.”
Jenny had to give her that much and nodded, “Yeah it is. Gave me one hell of a headache. Let’s test it first please.”
And so they did. They retrieved the shard and even then, they could feel just how powerful the three of them were together. Just grabbing one from the containment field was like reaching into a very hot oven without gloves on. Thankfully they could drag it out with their powers.
They grasped the new green shard together and they both flinched from the power but it subsided almost instantly. A tiny jolt and then came the power, raw power. Jenny snapped her fingers and watched the electricity spark across them and jump across her arm. It traveled through the shard and Ya’Cahin wiggled her fingers as the energy rested on her side.
They flexed their hands together and created two beams of lightning that crackled against their palms. They varied the intensity from barely visible to strong enough that their hands shook and almost blasted the wall. Lowering the intensity together they met each other’s eyes and nodded.
Bringing the shard back to the engine room. Tahu, Trey and Rizier had managed to get the repairs done as much as they could. “Alright Tahu,” Ya’Cahin said and she could hear the strange distortion in her voice from the shard. “Even more confident this time.”
“Let’s do this,” Jenny added with the same distortion in her voice.
Tahu looked at the two of them and sighed shaking their head but walked them toward the generator. It was a small console toward the back of the engine room and had a tank with a cube floating inside liquid. It was spinning slowly but even to the pair of them they could tell this wasn’t exactly what it was supposed to be.
“It should be whirring around like a dynamo but it needs to be jump started,” Tahu said softly. “Not too much, not too little. A solid jolt should be enough.”
Taking a step back them let them go to work but watched slightly on edge. Partially because this could blow them all up but also because the electricity on the air was making their circuits react.
Squeezing the shard, the pair of them pressed their hands on either side of the generator. Taking deep breaths, they let the energy cascade through their palms. The energy jumped through the liquid and latched onto the cube but it didn’t move yet. Slowly they amped up the charge sending more and more energy into the sank making the liquid bubble up and the energy spike. And then finally it began to rotate and spin.
They kept going until the engines behind them boomed to life and both psykiks stumbled backwards cutting off the energy flow. The shards light faded and the pair stared at the roof, chest heaving but the hum in the room was a good one. “You actually did it,” Tahu mumbled. “You didn’t blow us up!”
“It was a low bar to clear metalhead,” Ya’Cahin replied.
“In captain we trust,” Trey laughed clapping his hands.
“Well done,” Rizier commented their sand floating forward and creating two hands above them. The pair each grabbed one and got to their feet steadily.
“I’ll put this back in the containment field. See you on the bridge captain,” Jenny grinned before taking the shard back. She winced at taking on the full brunt but walked it back to the armory.
Ya’Cahin was going to stay something when suddenly the ship jolted and she panicked thinking that they had actually messed this up and they were about to blow up. “Ya’Cahin. We have another situation.” Ula said over the communications.
“Seh’h un what now!” She got up and led the rest of them back to the bridge but stopped staring at the yellow light that was suddenly filling the room. She took a slow step forward staring into the light. She glanced at Ula and back out the window. “What am I looking at?”
“Well captain, this.”
Ula directed the ship backwards and as they moved the giant yellow glow gained a white layer that expanded more and more as the ship pulled back. But it became clear to all of them watching that this wasn’t just an orb or some sort of just celestial object. It was a person, wearing a hood with pale white skin and large yellow eyes. But they had no nose or mouth. The ship was barely big enough to meet the face of whatever this thing was.
The crew watched as more and more of it came into view. Its hands were at its side, arms loosely swaying as if it were just taking a stroll and the galaxy was a sidewalk wearing some sort of gown that seemed to be made of the stars. From their position none of them could actually see their waist let alone their legs or how they were maneuvering through space.
“What the fuck is that?” Trey asked staring at the being as it glided through space.
“We’ve had legends of those,” Zi’Zan said. “Celestials is what they called them. Old ones older than time. They don’t even see us. Just wander through space existing. No idea what they even want.”
“I thought they were supposed to Gods on planets,” Alice signed and shuddered.
“That’s what you said right?” Jenny agreed leaning against her girlfriend.
Ya’Cahin shook her head, “They are. Were. That one was. This one though. Is a whole other level.”
Rizier reshaped themselves and moved to sit, “The galaxy is certainly full of surprises.”
They continued to watch the being as best as they could but then watched as it simply blended into the stars. The shifting of whatever gown it was wearing blending into the darkness and swirling stars before finally just disappearing into the galaxy at large.
Ya’Cahin continued to stare in the direction of the being before she fell back into her chair. Zi’Zan stood beside the chair and leaned against the back of it and looked around at everyone. With the celestial gone for the time being everyone fell back into a rhythm of preparing to get the heck out of this solar system and find something new. The two zorgs in the pilot’s seats. Rizier, Seth, Alice and Trey seated around and ready for action.
“You really are the captain of this thing huh little riar?” Zi’Zan asked.
“Yeah I am,” she said and it was strange to realize just how true and real that was.
“You’ve come a long way since Xanic. Think I might have to stick around for the ride.”
“Welcome aboard. I could use someone else to complain to about Yaya,” Jenny sat down in her chair directly beside Ya’Cahins. Equal height and stature. “Well captain we’ve got three shards and rescued your friend. Met a celestial and probably pissed off the Megreega. But we’re not doing so hot on money so we need to find a job.”
She laughed rubbing her jaw lightly but an idea dawned on her. “That’s true but I think it was you who said you needed a real vacation after all this. So before we go and make some money let’s go find a nice empty planet to kick back and relax. Probably one with an ocean. Mdae of water like you guys like. A nice sun not too close. All that jazz.” When everyone started voicing their agreement with that plan she snapped her fingers. “Alright then. Ula pick a heading. Tahu get us out of here.”
With a hum the ship turned around, as they pointed into the empty vastness of space. The ship was still but that was only in preparation as the ship began to vibrate heavily. Tahu flicked a few switches and nodded, “Preparing hyper jump. Wanna do the honors Yaya?”
“Always. Hyper jump in 3. 2. 1. Hit it.”
The Harlequin Library 