In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater (39 page)

“I
said they not we, it matters on who you believed to have picked the short
straw. You and I are different than Serena and Lance, we are weaker, more
fragile but we are smarter and more prepared to save
humanity
.
You know how stupidly courageous they are, when we cross over who is going to
make sure we make it? Don’t you think that when the enemy is coming down on us,
they wouldn’t sacrifice themselves for us? They know why they came here,”
Wilker says. “Lance is going to come over here and give a generic
continue
on without me no matter what
speech simply because it’s in his nature, it’s
who he is.”

Noata
looks at the air conditioner unit. Lance and Serena have been hiding behind
there for an awfully long time.
Will
they
really do what Wilker is suggesting they are going to do?

“So
you did think of something better, to sacrifice our friends just so you can
survive, you really are an asshole.”

 “No,
I just added certain variables to your plan that you didn’t think of.” Wilker
has been called many names over the years; Noata is going to have to do better
than
asshole.

Lance
pokes his head around the corner of the ACU and nods to Wilker. Wilker stands
and brushes himself off. 

“Well,
believe in whatever you want to believe in, my job is done. Just a warning
though, that eventually, all that you love, you will have to leave behind in
this new world. And that new world will start tomorrow.”

Lance
approaches them.

“How
do you know that, why can’t everything just go exactly as planned, why do we
have to fail?!” Noata asks him. He looks up at Wilker with his puppy dog eyes.

“I
just know, I’m not sure if it’s these powers of ours or just a fever dream. But
tomorrow everything that you or I know, will change.”

Lance
comes up to them.  

“Remember
my words,” Wilker says as he walks off, Lance nods to him as he passes. He
walks to the edge of the roof and looks out over the city.

Noata
nods as Lance talks to him. Wilker did his part, he gave Lance and Serena some
martial time alone and gave Noata a little dose of reality and made him prepare
his mind for anything to happen tomorrow. He’s sure of it, he’s seen the
future. Even if it was only up to a day.

Everything
is going to change, but for the better? He doesn’t know. But he does know there
will be millions of screams tomorrow. Human and Serephin. This is the end. This
is the final battle.

The
city wakes
,
the Serephin
skyline
buzzes with life as the
star gives its heat to them. The shield protecting the sides burns away.
Everyone is getting prepared for their day, like they usually do every morning.
Yet, there is an underlining tension in the air.

Today’s
the day, some are giddy with excitement but for others, there’s a small worry
and a note of self-doubt in their minds. This human, Cole, has gotten farther
than the others, maybe he could succeed. He’s ascended this fast, the quickest
they’ve seen since Kabus.

Maybe
he's
not like the rest.

They
put on their masks, hiding their doubts of maybe Cole can change everything, maybe
he can prevent their deaths.
Maybe he can save them
all.
But their days continues on as usual, they walk like normal, talk
like normal but the uneasiness is there.

Some
walk past screens in a store and look on in excited glee. The screens shows the
channel of which will air today’s battle. It shows a recap of Cole’s life and
battle history all the way up to his defeat of Ulbe.

Just
because they feel uneasy about today doesn’t mean they’re not going to enjoy
themselves. Ascended versus ascended.

It’s
one of the greatest
marvels
of all time.

Cole
opens his eyes, he still sits Indian style in an empty room in the research
center. He was meditating, he really doesn’t need sleep anymore. So he just
emptied his mind and thought of nothing for the entire Serephin night. It’s
better than sleep because he doesn’t have restless dreams any longer
, no more nightmares,
his
mind and body refreshes themselves.

He
suppressed his presence in the night. The Serephin sensors didn’t detect him.
To them he’s just an ant among giants.

It’s
time to wake them up.

On
his terms.

A
blue haze comes off his skin, his twenty-three spheres appear around him,
waiting, ready for anything. He pulsates, his blue explodes brighter.

Cole
powers down and waits.
How fast will they react
?
The ticks of time goes off in his head. He checks his watch, the map pops up,
the red dot blinking in the middle of the Skyeater’s star.

What
the hell?
He glances back. “I’ve found him.” A voice echoes behind the door. Two minutes,
not too bad. A Damon burst through the door.

“In
here!” The beast yells, he’s shaped just like Ulbe, but wholly different, his
snout is pointier, his skin is gray and freckled and he’s wearing clothes,
black pants and button up shirt, fitted-likes tights on a bull. Cole slowly
stands to his feet and brushes himself off

“Where
is she?” Cole asks.

“What?”

“Where
are all the people you took from their homes?”

“I
need you to come with me.” The Damon takes one small step forward. He knows he
can’t win against a true ascended. It’s like a kitten prodding a lion. The
Damon take another step. Cole lights up, his spheres spin around him vibrantly.

“Go
to hell.”

Cole
shoots out of the window as the room explodes after him. He flies to the ground
and lands hard. There’s no way the Damon survived that. Alarms ring out.

He
turns toward the entrance of the building. He has to finish them. He walks and
opens the door.

…

Only
a few minutes later, Cole casually walks out of the entrance. The Skyeater’s
star looms over him. Even with his watch telling him to go for it, he feels
like it’s pulling him.

Why
would Thora be there?
It has to be a trap, but he must go forth. Whatever trick they’re trying to
pull, he’ll get through it.

He
has to.

His
spheres spin around him nervously. He flies up into the air, from the distance
military ships rush over to the research base. He ignores them as they pass.

He
gets to the star. The hovering device projects a force field around it.
Is
there a hole?
As if it can hear his own thoughts a hole opens up, just big
enough for him to fit through.
This is it.
He flies into it and into the
star, the light blinding him as he goes through.

…

Thora
lies naked curled up in the front of the enclosure. Naked, scared, hurt, alone,
and destroyed. She hasn’t moved since that time last night. She’s out of tears
to cry so she just doesn’t move, she wants to die.

Punit
sits on a tree, head on his knees.
Fakhri
stares at her from the darkness. He wants to go and
comfort her, he feels bad for her.

At
first he thought it was just part of their mating ritual but after only a few
moments, it was obvious that it wasn’t.

Yet
he stood back like a coward and let it happen. This place, the Eliite, has
caused him to lower himself to a level he never thought possible. Just because
he’s trapped in this hell and might be for the rest of his life doesn’t excuse
him for what he did and didn’t do.

He
was a leader once and he can be one once more. He looks at Thora and tries to think
of the best words to comfort her. He’s going to take action against
Punit
. He starts to head toward her.

“Thora—“

“
Nooo
! But I don’t want to!”
Caer’s
voice interrupts him. Caer storms in and sits in a chair and pouts. His mother
walks in after him. She walks straight up to the cage and pokes Thora. Thora
looks up at her with dead bloodshot eyes. Her collar pops off.

“Numenwolfe
wants you,” she says.

“Who?”
Thora asks.

“Our
lord and eater of gods,” she says with a smile.

“What?”

Fakhri
runs for Thora. “Wait!” he screams.
Caer’s
mother waves at her.

Thora
rips through the house, through the walls and into the sky toward the Skyeaters
star. As she hurls through the sky screaming, a searing pain scrapes across her
skin.

It
feels like her skin is peeling off. All her dirt, tears, sweat and other things
are shredded off her skin, turning her the whitest she’s been since she was
young.

Scrubbed
clean.

Her
broken arm snaps back into place.

Her
body flashes. As soon as she closes and opens her eyes, she’s dressed in a pure
white silk robe. She barely has time to gasp as she flies into the Skyeaters
star.

…

Noata,
Wilker, Lance, and Serena run through the alleyway, in the downtown of the
city. Noata leads, he checks his tablet and the map on it.

These
alleyways should lead into a plaza and a park where the main transport to the
other side is. From there they can get to the research base and from there they
can steal the Starkiller.

The
plaza is the real problem, built only a few years ago as a beautification
project from a few Eliite politicians, the plaza has no place to hide. There
hope is that it will take a while for the Eliite to relay the troops. The
military are the ones who respond to calls about other species sightings and
they average a five minute show up time.

That’s
their crux of this mission and all thanks to the information Jahum gave them.

They
continue to run until they run past an opening.

“What
the?” someone says.

“Stop!”
Wilker yells out. They all come to a stop.

“What,
Wilker?” Serena asks.

“
Shh
! Shut up!” he answers in hurried whispers.  He
pushes her behind a trash bin and motions the same to the others. A grunt pokes
his head around the corner. He looks around and snorts.

He
slowly makes his way toward the trash bin. Wilker crouches hard on it. The
grunt inches closer and closer.

“What
the hell are you doing?” a second grunt comes around the corner.

“I
thought I smelled a rat,” the first grunt says.

“The
hell is a rat? Forget about that. We’re being called back to base, we’re under
attack,” the other grunt states. They walk off and back around the corner.
Gone.

“It’s
there!” Noata says. Noata and the others finally make it out of the alleyway.
He points to the transport. It is two giant glass tubes that stretch out
halfway to the other side.

One
tube is for departures and the other is for arrivals. As he puts down his arm
his view zooms out from the transporter. Serephins come and go from the simple
transporter. It’s like a giant elevator, there’s just a door, a large platform,
and buttons to your destination.

But
as we look farther back, we can see what’s separating them and their goal.

A
plaza filled with hundreds of Serephins. There are stores, clothing and retail,
restaurants with foods from all over the galaxy. Tables and benches where some
Serephins sit and chat, and even a small park where Serephin families lounge
and play. There is not a single sliver of cover.

They
are fucked.

Bermea
and Kelly overlook their new home. It’s close to opening. Bermea shivers.

“Are
you okay?” Kelly asks. Bermea looks up and through the water above.

“I
have a sudden feeling that this won’t last forever.”

Kelly
puts an arm around him and lays on him. “I can tell you from my time on Earth
that nothing lasts forever.” Bermea just chuckles and lays his head on hers.

Noata,
Wilker, Lance, and Serena all casually stroll through the plaza. Bunched up as
close to each other as possible. The transport is in the distance, they’re
closing into it but while walking through the plaza it seems like its thousands
of miles away. They should gun for it but that would bring more attention to
themselves.

Wilker
was right when he said that this was a bad fucking idea. All around them,
Serephins are stopping in their tracks, pausing what they’re doing and stare at
them. There is nowhere for them to hide.

Luckily
it looks like they’re not bringing to much attention to themselves.

“I
almost forgot,” Lance says. Lance digs into his pocket and pulls out a photo.
“This is her.” He hands it to Noata. It’s a picture of Thora, a picture of his
promise to Julio and Julio’s promise/gift to Cole.

“I
don’t like that you have already given up.”

“I
didn’t, I just know our odds, and in knowing the odds I can make sure I have
left nothing behind.”

“But—“

Crunch!
To Serena’s left there is a table full of Serephins. They’re eating something,
by the way they’re licking their fingers,
it’s
something delicious. One of them digs into a metal bucket on the table and
pulls out—

Headless
humans. They all bite down and munch hard on them.

“Oh,
my GOD!” Serena screams. Both the chosen and the human eaters stare at each
other. Serena motions to leave but—

A
siren wails out over the plaza, up above a drop ship zooms over and a squad of
grunts leap out.

“Noata,
Wilker, run!” Lance yells.

“No—
“ It’s
only been two and a half minutes.

“Run!!”
Serena screams.

The
grunts land.

Wilker
grabs Noata’s arm and runs toward the transport, which is only a short distance
away. They run past the landing grunts.
Why are they here so fast?!

Some
of the grunts give chase. Noata and Wilker run the hardest they’ve ever ran
before, the transporter is a mere meters away. Behind them the grunts are about
to catch up and—

Their
heads are blown off from the distance. As they fall, Lance lowers his hand.
Perfect shot. Noata and Wilker rush past the double doors of the transporter
and pushes the button for the station near the research base.

“Good
luck,” Serena mutters as Noata and Wilker are thrust into the sky through the
tube.

Noata
and Wilker look down as Serena looks up at them. Hope drains from her eyes as
they watch as more and more Eliite surround the titans left behind.

His
calculations were wrong, he sent them to their deaths. The platform stops,
they’re at the top, halfway through the sky.

“What
now?” Noata asks grimly.

“I
don’t know,” Wilker says.

The
platform lights up white. Then as they both blink there is a booming sound.
When they open their eyes, they are on the other side.