Of Blood and Angels (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 3) (21 page)

They laid him on a table and whilst the
ship departed, a creature began to work on his wounds, stemming the flow of
blood.  The whisperings said, they must keep the body alive for a while
longer.  He did not feel anything but the cold and he knew soon he would depart
this body again and be able to see what had become of him, see what these
creatures were.

After a short time, he was moved again,
this time on the table, to a larger ship.  He could not follow the twists and
turns of the path they took as his senses had nearly shut down by now.  The
bleeding had stopped but there had been too much and he feared there had been
organ damage.  He could repair it.  He knew he could, he had done it before and
given time he would.  He did not think they would give him time though.  They
did not want his body alive.  He surmised, they wanted only his brain and with
his brain would stay his soul.  He would be trapped there forever. 

“Kari-fa,” he swore, though no sound
emerged from his lips, which had turned a purplish blue.  He looked forward for
reassurance.  He thought his body would not die.  He had seen himself, his
wife, his son, Taner, Berkan, even Sorkan in the future, but now all images had
turned to mist.  The visions were distorted and fading. 

“Kari-fa,” he swore again.  The future was
changing.  This was not how it was supposed to be.  This was not why he was
sent here.  What powerful evil force had risen and changed the future he had
been sent to assure? 

He was wheeled into a large room where the
whisperings echoed off the walls.  He left.  The body lay near death on the
table, the brain shutting down to a faint blip on the monitor above the head as
he hovered about it in the room.  Now he saw who had taken him, creatures of
spongy bodies with long appendices and long narrow hairless heads.  Their
brains were small, receptors really, and the transmitter was in the room there
with him. 

Preserved in a chamber of nitrous oxide,
there was a brain which controlled these creatures, their ships, and their
entire lives.  The brain was showing hardening on the occipital and temporal
lobes.  It was dying.  If it died, the creatures would all die and there were
millions of them throughout this massive complex of pods and ship. 

“Where are we going?” he asked the
transmitter brain, though he did not speak.

“To their home, Andromeda,” the brain
replied and with its first word, he knew who controlled it.  “You must return
to your body so that your brain may be extracted and replace me.  I will not
live much longer and your body is dead now too.  You have been chosen to
succeed me.”

The brain spoke lies as he knew it would. 
He had not been chosen to sustain these creatures from Andromeda.  His mission
was in the other galaxy and he must complete it or neither of them would be
able to return.

“Do not fight my master,” the transmitter
brain said and then another voice called out to him. 

It called his name but not the name that
he was known by now.  It called him by his real name, a name that was known
only to the most powerful voices of Heaven and the most evil voices of Hell. 

“The Andromedean creatures need you,” it said. 
“You are their only hope.  They will all die without you.” 

He felt the tug of the evil voice’s
persuasive power but that power was lost on him for he had met it many times
and always had overcome.  He did not care about these creatures who were
nothing more than drones.  Still the evil voice tried, honeyed and thick with
the false charm.

“You have no choice now,” the evil voice
said.  “See how your body languishes.  You cannot return to it.  You cannot go
home because your mission is unfilled.  It is your fault.  You have become too
attached to your mortal being and now, look how you have squandered it.  You
have killed it, Mika.  Stay here.  Stay and serve this purpose for which I have
selected you.”

He hovered over his body.  It was not
dead.  They had to keep it alive if they wanted the brain, but the brain would
be useless without his soul.  He could wait for it to heal and then he would
find a way out of there.  The longer he waited, the more he would heal and the
stronger he would become again.

“Don’t wait,” the transmitter brain said. 
“If I die first, it will be too late for you.”

He would wait and he would think how he
could escape from this place in his body. 

The creatures surrounded his body.  There
were many of them.  They crowded into this room as if anxious to see him.  The
creatures touched him.  They caressed his body, poking their long fingers in
his mouth, his anus.  They licked his skin and kissed his blue lips.  A ripple
of revulsion passed through him and the evil voice taunted him. 

“You have spent too much time as a
mortal.  You have developed all the failings of a mortal man.”

Anger burned inside him, consuming him as
the creatures feasted upon his prone body.  The darkness, the hot and cold
place from whence the evil voice came, beckoned him.  He fought to control
himself.  He knew he must control this or he would never succeed.  He had
fought this evil before and he won.  He must stay strong now or he would be
lost forever and he would belong to the evil voice. 

The evil voice laughed in his mind.  What
a great victory it would be for the Evil One to pull him down forever into
Hell.

Chapter 22

Berkan

“What?”

I thought I heard my name.  I looked up
and glanced around my office seeing nothing in the shadows but my furniture.  I
turned my attention back to the screen.  The ship was performing as designed
but it was still too far away.  I sent a note to the captain encouraging him to
travel faster.  Push her to her limits if need be.

Again, I thought I heard my name.

My father's face appeared on the screen. 
“How much longer?” he demanded.

“A few more hours still,” I reported. 
“She was four sectors away.  There were numerous squawks too.  She's still in
beta testing, you know.  I'm not certain she'll be able to do what needs to be
done.”

“We haven't gotten anything else but
spaceplanes,” my father barked.  “We need battleships, not transports!”

“I know.”  My stomach churned with acid. 
“Isn’t that why Senya was building her in the first place?”

“What about the Alliance?  Will they be
sending ships?”

“No.  Thad said Spaceforce Command would
not authorize a Starship for a single person. 

My father roared like a lion.

“They don't know who he is,” I reminded my
father.

My father let loose a string of
obscenities. 

“We should have recalled him here long
before now.  He should never have been allowed to live there.  I want the
MaKani and the baby back here immediately. They are to stay locked and secured
in the Palace from here on out.”

“I have already sent a spaceplane to fetch
them.  Luci will care for the baby, but knowing Katie, she will want to be on
the ship.  She will want to find him.”

“No!  I absolutely forbid it!” My father
yelled.  “It is the King's command that she stay in the Palace.  We have
thousands of guards who can find him and I will tell her that when she arrives.” 

The vid went black.  I checked the status
of the ship and the project.  Two hours away and from there, who knew how long
and to where we would head.

“Berkan.”  This time I was certain I heard
my name, like a whisper as if the door swished opened or closed.  I looked
across the room at the conference table and for a moment it almost appeared
that Senya was sitting there.  He was naked and his skin was blue.  There were
gaping wounds in his chest and abdomen.  “Berkan,” he said again.  “Help me.”

My stomach lurched as my knees went weak. 
I nearly lost my bladder.

“Help me, Berk.  Help me.”

“Senya?” I squeaked.  “Are you dead?”

“Send the ship, Berkan.  Andromeda.  They
are taking me to Andromeda.”

“It's coming, Senya,” I shouted.  “It will
be here in two hours and then we will come rescue you.”

“Use the EMP, Berkan.”

“We don't know if it works yet,” I
shrieked.  “It might disable our own ship.”

“Use the EMP, Berkan.”  The image faded a
little.

“Stay with me, Senya!  Stay here.  Tell me
where we need to go and what we need to do.”  I ran around my desk to the table
and reached for him as if by grabbing his hand, I could hold him here.  I
grabbed nothing, just empty air.  “Senya?”

After two hours of interminable waiting, I
was called by my father again.  “Is your ship here yet?  There are hundreds of
Royal Mishnese Guards ready to go aboard.”

“It is arriving momentarily,” I replied. 
“I shall meet you at the space dock.” 

I was going to go along.  I didn’t know
where my bravery came from.  Frankly, I hated space travel and spent most of my
interplanetary flights well sedated with alcohol and if that weren’t enough,
tranquilizers. 

Never the less, I grabbed my attaché, my
netbook, my wallet and my keys as if they were to help in this endeavor. 

I boarded the spaceplane on the runway
outside my building.  A short time later, I was in orbit at the SdK dock
watching our ship glide in to view.  Tail number 2 was in the neighboring
construction bay, already a skeleton, soon to become as beautiful as her
sister, unless something happened to Senya, unless he was dead.  Then what
would become of all of us?

The snaking companionway tube that
connected the ship to the airlock, like an enormous umbilical cord, floated
past the window where I stood.  A moment later, I heard a loud hiss as the tube
was pressurized and filled with air in preparation for boarding.  I watched my
father’s troops disappear down the tube toward the ship as I made a few last
calls to my staff, Luci, and my mother.  I said goodbye to my mother just as my
father emerged from the airlock and waved at me to hurry up and come aboard.  I
was just about to do so when one of our spaceplanes soared across my field of
vision and rounding the base, it headed into the lower docking bay.  A few
moments later Katie, the baby prince, and Thad came running up from the lower
docks, followed by a retinue of Katie’s Andorian servants.

“You're not going anywhere without me!”
Katie screamed at me as if it were solely I demanding our departure.  The baby
bounced in her arms and laughed as if this were a great adventure for him.

My father stood in front of the airlock,
blocking it's entire entrance, barring Katie from crossing his path.  “You,
Madame,” he ordered.  “Must turn around immediately and go to Mishnah.”  He
pointed his finger at the blue planet orbiting below.  “You are to stay in the
Palace until this unfortunate affair is concluded.”

“The hell I will,” Katie responded,
glaring at my father.  Thad stood behind Katie patiently waiting.  He glanced
at me.  I shrugged.

“We do not know where we are going and we
are traveling in a ship that is untested.  Your safety, Madame, will be very
much at stake.  His Royal Highness, had he been here, would undoubtedly insist
that you remain safe and in the Palace.”

“No, he wouldn’t.”  Katie smiled as she
replied.  “His Royal Fucking Highness knows damn well that I am an Allied
Spaceforce Captain and I have logged more light years crossing this galaxy than
any of you people combined.  I am more qualified to search this quadrant than you,
Captain Loman, and I guarantee, in your condition, you’ll be down with space
sickness within one hour of being out there.”

“Actually, our new environmental control
system eliminates most causes of space sickness,” Thad remarked.  “We haven’t
had a single instance among any of our test crew in how many hours of testing,
Berk?”

“Shut up, Thad,” I mumbled.

“I’m sorry, Madame,” my father stated in a
voice that would cower anyone in the Royal Guard.  “You will return to the
Palace.  It is the King's command.”

“I’m sorry, Captain Loman,” Katie replied
in a voice that I imagined would cower anyone in the Allied Spaceforce.  “I
will not.  Tilia!”

One of the Andorian’s ran forward and took
the baby from Katie.  “Take care of him.”  She leaned over and kissed the prince
on top of his head.  He reached up and grabbed a handful of her curls, putting
them in his mouth.

“When will you be coming back, MaKani?”
the Andorian asked as Katie extracted her hair from the baby’s grip.

“I haven’t a clue,” Katie replied.  “We
don’t even know where we are going yet.”

“Actually,” I cleared my throat.  “We are
going to Andromeda.”

“Andromeda?” Katie demanded.  “How do you
know?”

“Uh…”  I cleared my throat again.  “Senya
told me?”

“What?”  My father frowned and narrowed
his eyes at me.

“Was that before or after the squid dudes
kidnapped him?” Thad asked.

“I think after,” I said.  “It was just a
few hours ago.”

“That’s definitely after then,” Thad
nodded.  “The squid dudes took him what?  About seven, eight…”

“What the hell nonsense are you spouting?”
my father declared.  “We are wasting precious time here.  Goodbye Madame.”  My
father turned to board the ship.  “Berkan, come along if you are coming,” he
called over his shoulder.  “Andromeda.”

“Stop!” Katie commanded.  “I am coming.  I
am his wife, which means I am the MaKani and now you are going to listen to
me.  I have been to Andromeda and it wasn't pretty.  We barely got out alive
and we were in an Allied Class A Starship.  I doubt you or any of your pathetic
Mishnese spaceplanes have ever been past the fourth quadrant let alone had to
deal with anti-matter fields and worm holes every other click.  Besides that,
every one of those spaceplanes out there in that bay belongs to me and I say
that Thad and I are coming or nobody will go!”  She pushed her way into the
airlock, past my father, who raised his eyebrows in stunned amazement.  Thad
followed her into the companionway. 

“Don’t take it personally, Loman,” he
said, patting my dad on the shoulder.  “She’s like this about our SdK projects
too.  It’s her way or the highway.  She’s going to make one hell of a queen for
you guys.  Are you coming to Andromeda, Berk?  I think I know a little sushi
place there.”

“I’m going to turn those squids into
sushi,” Katie growled, taking out a handgun.  She checked it for ammunition and
wiped it off on her tunic.  Then, she pulled up short, right in front of the
window that gave us our first glimpse of the ship floating tethered outside. 
“What the hell is that?”  She pointed her gun at the ship.  “Is that what we
are going in?”

“Um, Katie,” Thad chuckled.  “You remember
that little project that you delayed by giving away all of our funding?”

“Is that the project?” she cried.  “That
ship?”  She broke into a run, scampering across the ship’s threshold to get
aboard.  We all ran after her including my father. 

The last time I had been aboard was long
before she had been trimmed out and even I was surprised by how well the ship
had come together.  It was a beautiful vessel, decorated in the manner of an
ancient sailing ship with brass railings and deeply polished mahogany, wood
planked floors. 

Suspended two stories high on the wall of
the atrium was a portrait of the lady for whom this ship was named.  It was
Katie of course, dressed in her wedding finery, gazing down upon us with an
uncertain smile, just as she did that day when she became the Crown Princess. 
The ship was called the Katelina de Kudisha, and she was the flag ship of our
future fleet. 

Katie stared up at her image, her eyes
wide as the ship released from her tether, swung her bow around toward the far
reaches of our galaxy, and from there, toward Andromeda.  A moment later,
propulsion engaged.  Swiftly and smoothly, just as she was designed to do, the
ship gained post light speeds, our fermium based engines emitting neither sound
nor vapor.

“So Katie gets the Owner's Suite, right?” 
Thad turned to me. 

“Deck twelve, aft,” I replied.  “You might
want to change out of your Spaceforce uniform, Madame.  Some of our crew might
not understand why…well you know.”

Katie nodded.  “I don't have to wear
something like that, do I?”  She pointed at the portrait.

“Actually,” my father grumbled.  “Since we
weren't planning on you coming aboard, we haven't gotten any gowns for you. 
We'll get you a Royal Guard uniform with a captain's bars.  Would that satisfy,
Madame?”

“Sure,” Katie nodded again.  “I'm so
screwed,” she told Thad as they walked toward the lift.  “If anyone ever found
out I came on this ship because Spaceforce wouldn't send one, I'd be court martialed
faster than you can say my name.”

“Don't worry, Katie,” Thad winked.  “Once
Spaceforce finds out about this ship, which, by the way, has your name on the
side of it, you'll be court martialed anyway.”