Inherited War 1: Retribution (21 page)

Jeth followed the door and didn’t stop until he got to the far side of the street.  He shuddered to a halt and set
them gently back on the ground.  “We should go, quickly.”  He rumbled and turned to start heading up the street at a quick trot.

“Wait a second
,” Cole called out. 

T
he giant just turned and said. “Eventually one of those gangs will win and the victors will be out here to finish the job of killing you.  Do you want to wait or come with me and meet the being your Major sent you to meet?”  He turned and started jogging up the street again.  Cole glanced at Sky, she shrugged at him and turned to follow.

“I think we can trust him
, he may have been checking us out earlier and he seems to know the Major sent us here.  We should, of course, still be wary but I think we should follow,” came Sky’s response to his unasked question.

Cole ordered his helmet to retract and let his head breath a bit as they ran behind the giant.  Cole tried to keep track of where they were going but soon became hopelessly lost.  Jeth took them down side roads and alleys and anywhere it seemed he could fit.  Finally
, he began to slow then came to a complete stop, at what appeared to be, the very edge of the circular city.  They had stopped at the outer dome of the city and Cole was once again astounded at the sight of the nebula glowing in the distance. 

Sky was bent over breathing heavily and trying to catch her
breath while Cole seemed to be hardly phased.  The giant also seemed unaffected by the flight.  Cole took a moment to scan his surroundings.  It appeared they were in a little used intersection behind warehouse size buildings.  The ground was cluttered with detritus and waste.  Not the nicest part of the city by far, but out of the way and hopefully off those two gang’s radars.  He was beginning to think they might be holding a grudge against him.  Cole caught a movement out of the corner of his eye.  That thing, whatever had followed them earlier, was in the intersection with them and had just dropped about fifty feet from the rooftop to land unhurt and completely silent.

“We wait here for your contact to arrive
, so get comfortable it could be awhile.”  Jeth was saying as he slowly lowered himself to the ground resting his back on the outer dome.  Cole affected a pose of inattentiveness and boredom.  He started to walk around pretending to look at his surroundings all the while adjusting his course to take him into what he hoped was in range to grab whatever the hell was following them.  The creature shifted out of his line of travel closer to the outer dome.  Sky looked up at Cole with a puzzled look on her face.  She started to say something drawing everyone’s attention to her, except for Cole.  He saw a slight shift from the upper region of the creature and he knew it had been slightly distracted when Sky had begun to talk.  He didn’t waste his chance.  He lunged to his right reaching out and wrapping his arms around the creature.  It was a slippery little devil and almost made it away but Cole managed to get his legs tangled up in its legs.  Cole and the creature dropped to the ground.  Sky let out a small scream as she finally caught a quick glimpse of their invisible stalker.  Cole managed to come out on top after their tumble but was having a hard time finding any real purchase on it for lack of being able to see it.  As suddenly as the fight had begun it was over as Cole was hoisted into the air and above Jeth’s head.

Cole tried to roll out of the giant
’s hands but they were locked on him like a vise.  “Please stop struggling or I will throw you through the outer dome.”  Hints of anger bled through the giants words.  “You, you’re supposed to be undetectable.  What happened?”  He kept Cole above his head for the moment.

Sky let out a held breath and said.  “Your bond mate?”  She looked at the giant for his answer.

One moment the intersection was empty, the next it was occupied by a strikingly handsome alien.  He was the antithesis of Jeth.  Where Jeth was huge and cumbersome, the newcomer was lean and short.  Maybe topping out at five and a half feet and one hundred pounds soaking wet.  He had long flowing blonde hair and a goatee to match.  He had large angular eyes that where a deep green and slightly pointed ears.  Cole instantly thought of an elf when he saw him materialize. “You two know each other I take it?  Could you please put me down?”  Cole asked the giant.

“No more fighting. That goes for both of you.”  The giant rumbled his answer before slowly putting Cole on the ground.  Cole slowly moved away from Jeth and stood next to Sky, while the elf looking dude moved around to stand next to Jeth.  Cole snorted a laugh.  “You two look like a before and after picture.  Seriously though
, why have you been following us?”

“A question easily answered.”  His voice matched his looks.  It almost sounded like he sang the answer his voice was so pure and sweet. 
“But first an introduction.  My name is Thalo and I am Jeth’s bond mate.”  He gave them a grand sweeping bow.  He moved like he didn’t have a bone in his body.  It was weirdly fluid but pure grace.  “As to why I followed you, it is simple.  I recognized you Cole, for what you are, either a Pure Human reborn or a descendant from the hidden colonies.  I had to follow you to make sure you were really what I thought you were and also to make sure you were willingly with the Nixa.  Let me say I am very impressed, no one sees through our stealth field.  No one.”

“How could you possibly know he was a colony human
?  No one was supposed to know about Earth,” Sky asked as she grabbed Cole’s hand.

Thalo raised an
eyebrow at that.  “Because fair Nixa, we were given the knowledge of the colonies because we were tasked with finding suitable worlds.  Unfortunately, this is neither the time nor place to be discussing these things.  If you would please follow me to a secure location we can discuss anything you wish at a more leisurely pace.”

“No one is impressed by your flowery speech
Thalo, let’s just get out of here and off the street.”  Jeth started lumbering down the street between the buildings and the dome.

“Ahh
, my overly large friend.  What kind of galaxy would we live in without the beauty and subtly of flowery speech?  I dare say it would be a galaxy of grunts and moans and not the right kind of either,” he gave Sky a sly wink as he started after his friend.

Cole and Sky looked at each other for a few moments before
turning and following the pair down the road.  “I have a feeling we are going to regret this,” Cole said as he started to jog to catch up, never letting go of Sky’s hand.

38

“The Twin Worlders, Jeth and Thalo, are the most unique individuals I have ever met.  Their bond links their bodies, minds and souls, so they say, and they act like it.  Well they act more like a couple that has been married for so long they know what their spouse is going to say and do, before they do it.  I think there must be some form of telepathy between them because they often look at each other and make gestures back and forth but not a single word is uttered.  The little one, Thalo, is deceptively strong and his ability to go almost invisible is amazing.  Apparently no one other than Twin Worlders are supposed to know about that particular ability, along with a few others I have guessed.  One I know is the ability to silence the immediate area around them, like he did when he jumped off that roof and didn’t make a sound.  I have some speculations on some other things but will keep them to myself for the time being until I can prove them.  Jeth on the other hand is all brute strength and muscle.  I compare them in my mind to a Tank and Rogue from MMO’s.  I got an odd feeling the moment I saw them together and hope it’s for the better.”

They spent a few minutes running down the main road before turning down a side street that ran away from the outer dome.  The buildings here looked abandoned and they never once saw another living being.  They passed by three buildings before they finally began to slow down.  Jeth and Thalo finally came to a stop and turned to face the unbroken wall of the building on their left side.  Cole and Sky followed suit.  “So what now?”  Cole asked

“
Jeth, will you do the honors?”  Thalo asked.  Jeth looked at the wall for a moment before pressing his palms flat, at arm’s length apart.  Cole heard a soft click and two sections of the wall slid up reveling two cutouts about knee length high to Jeth.  The giant slid both hands into the cut out and with a mighty heave lifted the side of the building up into itself revealing a hidden way into the building.  “Hurry please, Jeth won’t admit it, but that piece of the building is near his maximum load limit if you catch my meaning.”  Thalo ducked his head and walked into the side of the building. Cole and Sky followed.

“How is
...”  Cole started to ask but Thalo interrupted him.

“Watch
, it is really quite amazing.”  Thalo said.  Jeth gave a tremendous grunt and shoved the door up above his head and in one fluid motion spun his hands around shifting his body underneath and ending up on the inside of the building, where he slowly lowered the door back to the ground.  Jeth’s body was covered with a light sheen of sweat from the effort.  In the low ambient light Cole couldn’t see much, but the feeling the building gave him was that it was big and empty.  Cole opted for patience this time and held his tongue waiting for an explanation.  Ghostly silent, Thalo glided across the floor to a soft glowing button on the wall.  He slapped it with his hand and a soft light began to light up the interior of the building.  Cole had been right, the building was both huge and empty.  His patience got away from him.  “Great, can we talk now?”  Thalo whirled around to face Cole and placed one finger to his lips.  Cole steamed, he was tired of all the crap, and he wanted some answers.  With a sheer force of will Cole closed his mouth and silently brooded.  Thalo and Jeth started to walk into the building directly away from the wall.  Cole noticed Thalo counting his steps.  When he got to forty-five he stopped and rubbed at the ground with his foot revealing a slightly darker patch of floor.  He waived at Jeth to move forward.  They looked at each other for a long moment before Jeth nodded his head at Thalo and turned back to stand next to Sky and Cole. 

Thalo stood on top of the dark spot on the floor facing the others.  He closed his eyes and started, what Cole thought looked like, meditation.  Thalo’s breathing slowed down to almost imperceptible levels.  He reached under his coat and came out with four long thin objects in his hands.  He held his hands down at his side.  He took a final breath and silence filled the building.  In one motion, almost faster than the eye could see, his hands and arms shot up above his head and he released the objects he was holding.  They flew upwards spinning end over end thirty or forty feet before hitting the peak of their ark and descending back down again.  They all seemed to strike the floor at the same time.  They landed perfectly behind, in front, and to either side of Thalo.  All perfectly spaced from each other and him.  The section of the floor Thalo was standing on slowly began to rotate clockwise, screwing itself deeper into the floor until there was an opening barely big enough for Jeth to squeeze into.  Jeth started forward and crammed himself into the opening and down the stairs, not even checking to see if Sky and Cole followed.

They both brought their helmets back up when they entered the stairwell because it was pitch black.  They tried cycling through all the vision functions but none seemed to be able to penetrate the inky blackness of the stair.  An indeterminate amount of time later
, the stairs leveled out into a hallway where the light was slightly better.  Jeth, Sky and Cole stepped just off the stairs while Thalo presumably went to turn on the lights.  He did just that and blindingly bright light flooded the room.  Cole blinked away some tears as his eyes got adjusted to the brightly lit room.

He peered around
, taking in his surroundings and let out a low whistle at what he saw.  At first glance he would have thought he was in a military facility by the way things looked.  There were charts and maps projected onto walls, a rack of weapons lined another wall and desks and computers took up more space. There were small vehicles parked in the back.  “What is this place?”  Cole asked.

Jeth ignored the question and wandered over to a machine on the wall by the chart projections.  A moment later he walked back with a mountain of steaming food and sat on the floor and ate.

“Ignore Jeth and his horrible manners.  When he exerts himself like he did earlier, he must replace his energy stores, he does not carry around extra food storage like we do.  He is all muscle and no reserves, so he must eat often.  As to what this place is, it is for you.  It was built by my people as a haven and resource for you to use.  There are many places like this throughout the galaxy but this one was our responsibility to maintain and make ready should you ever show up here, and to pass it along when our time was done if you had not.  It is, I am afraid a very long story so why don’t we get comfortable and I will tell it, as it was told to me.  Please make use of the food and restrooms to freshen yourselves up.”  He did just that, ordering up some of his own food and going to sit besides Jeth.  Cole got a weird feeling like they were doing more than just sitting and eating.  He sensed some kind of communicating was going on between them. 

“You hungry?”
  He asked Sky

“No
t particularly,” she responded

“Good
, neither am I.  Can we get on with the story telling please?”  Cole asked as he and Sky wheeled two chairs over in front of Jeth and Thalo. 

Thalo released a long sigh before answering.  “What has become of the galaxy when one cannot even finish ones meal?”  He glanced up at Jeth.  “Are you sure you don’t want to tell them?”  He asked the giant.

“You’re the one with the pretty words and love of his own voice, the honor’s all yours.”  Jeth said as he leaned back and closed his eyes.  “I have heard it before so I’m going to catch some sleep.”  In moments he was quietly snoring away.

“Ingrate.
  Don’t let the big dumb act fool you, Jeth is much smarter than he looks.  Ahh, now, where to begin.  This will be easier if we just start at the beginning, as all good stories must.   We were second only to the Nixa among the ranks of the Pure Humans allies.  We were the second and third sentient beings discovered by your ancestors.  Until the point when the Pures discovered our two planets, Jeth’s and my people didn’t know each other existed.  Our worlds were locked in orbit on opposite sides of our sun.  Neither of our peoples had achieved space travel and were not very sophisticated scientifically.”  Thalo’s stiff posture began to relax as he told his story.

“To be honest we were little more than barbarians roaming our world, we had no purpose or direction in our lives.  We lacked the ambition to better our existence and had lived the same nomadic lives for countless centuries and
millennia.  Your ancestors changed all of that in a few short days.  When they arrived on our world, they already spoke our languages and knew our customs.  They showed us what we were missing as a people but still there was no rush to learn or change.  When they brought the first of Jeth’s people to our world to visit us, all of that changed.  That meeting produced the first sets of bond mates.  The Pures then explained to us their theory of quantum separation.”  As soon as those words left Thalo’s mouth, Cole’s body whet ridged and he fell over onto Sky.

Sky went into Doctor
mode in an instant.  She rolled Cole over onto his back and pried his eyes open.  “What did you do to him?”  She shouted at the two.  Jeth had woken instantly to the change in atmosphere of the room.

“Nothing we swear.” 
Cried Thalo as he hurried to Cole’s side.  Sky shoved him away and if looks could kill, Thalo would have been dead on the floor next to Cole.  Sky only spared the one glance at Thalo before returning her attention to Cole.  She checked his vital signs first.  She could see his chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm and was getting a strong but rapid pulse.  “Look at his ears.”  Jeth said quietly and pointed to his head.  Sky rolled Cole’s head to the side and saw a thin trickle of blood starting to crawl down his neck from his ear.  She rolled his head to the other side and saw the same thing.

“I swear on Cole’s life if you don’t tell me what you
did, I will make sure you two never leave this room alive.”  Sky screamed as she yanked her pistol out of its holster.  Her hand was shaking as she pointed it at Thalo but he was close enough that she wouldn’t miss.

Thalo looked at Jeth and shared silent communication.  He looked back to Sky and sighed profoundly.  “You are correct we did do something
, but it shouldn’t have done this to him.  All of those trained to set up and maintain stations like this are told this story, it hasn’t changed in twenty thousand years.  His people taught it to us in order for us to tell it to him.  When we helped the Pures to prepare for their inevitable defeat, they told us that when they returned sometime in the distant future they would have all of their old knowledge but it would have to be unlocked from their brain.  It would take a certain combination of words in a certain setting to unlock some of those memories.  The story of how we first bonded was the trigger for unlocking some of those memories.  We were never told this would happen though.”  He locked his eyes on Sky’s.  “We are very sorry, we never meant for this to happen.  We were doing the duty laid upon us twenty thousand years ago by his people and we would not shirk from that sacred duty.”

Tears in her eyes Sky looked at Thalo.  She choked down her rage and said.  “You will get us back to our ship and
aid, however you can, in helping him.”  Her gun hand had steadied into an immovable object.  “You will do so now or I will shoot you both and have the ship fight its way here.  Move.”

Jeth glanced at Thalo before standing up and moving to pick up Cole.  “Keep up then Nixa we will be moving at top speed and will not stop for stragglers.”  Thalo and Jeth
turned to head back up the stairs and out of the building.