Shadow of the Blue Ring (39 page)

No sooner had she said it, the lights dimmed back down to a minimum. Kosare looked around to the rest of the group, smiling with glee as she did so but they just stood there staring at her, not quite sure what to say.

“What… ? It was the last thing Tolassa said before she gave her life to stop the sun destroying the world.”

“Very poetic,” Julio laughed, “I think you have a gift for acting. You should try doing some Shakespeare sometime, I think you would make a great Juliet.”

“Oh Julio, Julio, wherefore art thou Julio?” Kosare said in a mocking voice, “oh yeah, that’s right, still not in my league.”

“Yeah, funny,” he retorted, “you just keep saying that…”

“That’s enough,” James quickly brought their latest feud to a stop and directed everyone’s attention to what was going on in the centre of the room. In the dim lights, several holographic images had appeared before them, depicting some magnificent looking sentient beings.

“Oh wow…” said Ansare, “are these who I think they are?”

“The ancient Jaiytid gods…” Kosare gasped, “Ok, not real gods but projections of their mythical characters… wow, this is amazing.”

Each of the holographic gods was simply stood there, staring in their direction. James was sure that this was the final clue. Once Kosare could solve it, they would reach the last piece of the Shadow Bringer.

“Jaiden, where do we go from here?”

“Just as the riddle tells us to,” said Kosare, “we find it in a virtuous light… hmm.”

Kosare stepped out towards the tall, magnificent looking figures. James counted at least ten of them, stood in two rows along the middle of the room. He suspected that one of them held the final key but that they would need to guess right the first time.

“This one is Voronia, the god of war,” Kosare stated as she walked past a grand looking man with a large beard and a heavily scarred face, “it can’t be him, it can’t be Juyoa either… wait! I’ve got it…”

She quickly made for the figure of a woman on the far side of the room, a very beautiful, blonde haired woman who reminded James a little bit of Isha.

“It’s Anduria, the Jaiytid goddess of love…”

Kosare whispered something to her in the distance but James could not hear exactly what it was that she said. The figure of Anduria turned away from the group and began to walk towards the far end of the room. As she reached the wall, she pressed her hand up against it and a small section of the wall immediately slid back to reveal a passage. As it opened, the images of the Jaiytid gods disappeared and the lights came on at full power again. Kosare had solved the riddle, the way to the final piece of the Shadow Bringer was open.

James indicated to everyone to follow behind him as he made for the latest passage. Once inside, it was only a short descent down into another underground room where, at the centre, the last piece of the Shadow Bringer lay before them. This was the smallest one by far, a small, blue, spherical object surrounded by what looked like the severed connections to the rest of the weapon’s machinery. As ever, it was attached to a lift mechanism that would carry them back to the surface with the piece of the weapon only this time the lift was large enough for the entire team.

“It’s finally ours,” Kalmar said with a sigh of relief, “now we can finally end this thing…”

Chapter
Sixteen

Th
e
Prodiga
l
Son

The third piece of the Shadow Bringer was finally in their possession. As James activated the lift, the whole team gathered around the small blue device at it’s centre, they began their long ascent back up to the surface of Alatennia. Once they were back on the ship, it was straight to the Blue Ring sector to take back the final component, the one possessed by the Al’cari, and assemble the weapon, ready for use. It was not going to be an easy task but it was the only way that the battle against the Al’cari and the Lataka would end.

Slowly, the lift pulled the team, and the Shadow Bringer, back to the surface and finally into an alcove below what would once have been one of the city’s larger skyscrapers. There was no sign of trouble as far as any of them could see, the Lataka had not seemingly worked out where the other end of the underground hangar had taken them. They were back above ground, now all they needed to do was get this piece of the weapon back on the flyer and back to the Evening Star and they could then be on their way. This new piece of the weapon, being smaller than the previous ones, would not pose them the same transportation difficulties as the one from Sharstrom had done.

“No sign of any Lataka,” Kalmar observed, taking a few seconds to check out the surroundings, “we should probably call in the flyer and get going.”

“No arguments there,” James said, pulling out his commlink, “Isha, Kaydenne, we’ve got the last piece of the Shadow Bringer. Lock onto our coordinates and come and pick us up. Respond…”

But there was only silence on the other end. The flyer was not responding.

“I repeat, Isha, Kaydenne, can you hear us? We need picking up, we have the Shadow Bringer… respond please…” but there was still no reply. James suddenly felt a nervous chill creeping up his spine.

“Maybe we should head back to the landing site,” said Kalmar, “perhaps there is something blocking the comm.”

“Isha should be able to hear us from where we are,” James said worriedly, changing the frequency on his commlink to try and reach his ship, “this is captain Tavarez to the Evening Star, can you hear us up there… ?”

There was no reply this time either. They couldn’t contact the ship and they couldn’t contact Isha or Melina on the flyer. Something had happened to them.

“Come on, we have to get back to the landing site as quickly as possible,” James urged the others to follow behind him as he impatiently went on ahead towards the landing site. He hurried the group along behind him, the new piece of the Shadow Bringer slowing them down slightly but between Julio, Ansare and Kosare, they were moving it at a comfortable enough speed. James was seriously starting to worry about the radio silence from both the flyer and the Evening Star. If anything had happened to Isha, he would be devastated. If anything had happened to the Evening Star, they were stranded on a distant world surrounded by a hostile enemy. It was a tense few moments as they waited for a reply.

At that moment, they saw it… the Mantis flyer coming towards them from above the tree line. They had received the message after all. James felt a major wave of relief wash over him, he had worried for a minute that something gone terribly wrong. The flyer landed on the strip just in front of where they had surfaced, breaking a few tree branches along the way as it made space to land. But as the loading ramp to the flyer lowered to the floor, James was greeted by a particularly nasty shock. Three large Lataka soldiers descended from the flyer, their weapons held out in front of them. James raised his weapon, ready to fire, but his efforts would not have made a difference… all around the landing site, Lataka soldiers were coming out of the overgrowth towards them in their dozens, a couple of tall Al’cari soldiers leading them, towering above the rest. They were hopelessly outnumbered.

“What have you done with Isha!” James roared at the leading Lataka soldier, “WHERE IS SHE!?”

The Lataka did not reply, he just continued to amble his way down towards the group, the rest of his men forming a circle around them to block them in. There was no guarantee that the Lataka even spoke their language, they could be completely lost in translation. James found his head filled with horrifying images of Isha and Melina murdered and mutilated in the same way as the bodies they had found back on the derelict Tolian warship. Surely it couldn’t have happened to them like it had to the others…

“Where are they!?” James demanded once more, racing forward towards the leader of the enemy force who was now just a few meters in front of him.

“James, no!” Lucy tried to call him back but her calls fell on deaf ears. The Lataka swung an arm towards James to block him, striking him across the face and knocking him to floor. He was dazed, he didn’t quite know where he was at for a few seconds but there was no finishing blow from the Lataka, he was just stood there over him with a grin on his face. The rest of the group was surrounded and outnumbered by more than ten to one but they had not dropped their weapons. They continued to stand guard around the Shadow Bringer.

“You have something I want,” the Lataka soldier finally said. His grasp of their language was not great but he could at least make basic conversation with them, “hand it over!”

“I’m not doing anything until you tell me where the girls are,” James shot back at him, still slightly dazed from the impact, “where are they!?”

“I have them here,” the Lataka soldier said, indicating to the loading ramp of the flyer. Isha and Melina were being lead down the loading ramp of the flyer, a Lataka soldier holding each of them around the neck, securely so as they could not escape but not enough to cause any actual physical harm. As far as James could see, they were both unharmed but they both looked particularly terrified.

“Let them go, now!” James demanded, although the Lataka did not look as if he was in any position to grant his request. He just continued to stand there with a wicked grin on his face

“We trade you,” he said eventually, “we give you these pretty little things if you turn over the artefact to us right now.”

Of course they would have wanted the Shadow Bringer, why else would they be on Alatennia? They had James right where they wanted him too, it was either Isha and Melina or the Shadow Bringer. They were not going to give him any other choice, these two races were very serious in their aim to retrieve the weapon from them.

“Hand it over now,” the Lataka said again, “if you want them alive, you will give it to us now.”

“Don’t give it to them, James!” Kalmar called out from behind him, “if we lose the weapon here, my planet dies!”

James took a few seconds to observe the scene. The Lataka were surrounding them from all sides, there was no way out that he could see. A flash grenade might allow some of them to get away but the Lataka could still shoot through the smoke and a lucky shot could kill any of them at any time. Even if they did get away, they could not protect the piece of the Shadow Bringer and they could not escape the planet without the flyer or the ability to contact their ship. It was looking pretty hopeless. Negotiation seemed to be their only option but was there any chance of negotiating with a race like this?

“What will it be?” The Lataka asked once more, “I do not have all day. What will your answer be?”

James still said nothing. He could not just hand over the Shadow Bringer but he could not let any harm come to Isha or Melina. Something was going to have to give in the next few minutes.

“Very well,” the Lataka said, “if you no give us the weapon, we take this pretty thing from you.”

“WAIT! NO!” the Lataka had pulled out a large knife from his armour and was about to make his way over to a very panicked Isha but he stopped as James called out to him, “don’t hurt her… please, I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Hand over the weapon then,” the Lataka repeated, “it is that or your pretty thing will die.”

“Take it… just please don’t hurt either or them.”

The Lataka indicated to several more of his soldiers to move forwards and head to where the rest of the group was surrounding it. The desire to fight was clear to see in every one of his crew’s eyes, none more so than Kalmar, but there was nothing that they could do in the face of such overwhelming odds. The Lataka approached the group, each one of them taking a cautious step back from the Shadow Bringer but Kalmar refused to move. He stood between the approaching Lataka and the device, not seemingly willing to allow them to just take it.

“Stand aside, Adean,” the approaching Lataka demanded.

“No!” Kalmar snapped back at him, “I wont let you take it! I will not let you massacre my people with this weapon. I would rather die.”

“Move, or I move you,” he shot straight back at Kalmar. His rifle was now pointed in his face but Kalmar still refused to step aside. The Lataka’s patience appeared to be growing thin.

“Damn it, Kalmar, just stand aside!” Kyrakian shouted to him, “it’s no good us dying out here over a fight we can’t win, just let them take it!”

“I wont stand aside,” Kalmar said defiantly, “I will never stand aside and let a group of thugs like you threaten the existence of my people.”

“So be it,” said the Lataka captain, “teach him some respect.”

Two Lataka soldiers grabbed Kalmar, forcing him out of the way. He tried to resist but one of them hit him hard in the stomach with an armoured fist, knocking the wind out of him. Lucy cried out for them to stop but he was hit again, hard around the face and he was send sprawling to the ground. He did not move, he just lay there motionless.

“You do not learn,” the Lataka captain sighed, “bring us the weapon. Release these pretty things, we need them no more.”

The Lataka soldiers holding Isha and Melina let go. The two of them made a quick break towards the group, Isha flinging herself around James the moment she got near him, a tear streaming from her eye. He could not imagine how terrified she must have been as a prisoner of a race like the Lataka, especially having seen first hand what had happened to those who had previously crossed them. Melina herself had run for the cover of the group, equally terrified and almost in tears, Morelli trying to comfort her as she huddled among them.

“You’ve got what you want,” James said to the Lataka captain, “now will you let us go?”

“You will go nowhere until we say it,” the Lataka captain smirked at him.

“We had a deal!” James snapped, “you said if we gave you the Shadow Bringer you would let us go.”

“I told you we release your pretty things, I never said you go,” the Lataka captain said menacingly and in an almost dismissive manner, “we not done with you yet. We should teach some respect with you.”

James was about to jump to his feet but Isha tightened her grip on him, simply shaking her head. She was right too, he couldn’t do anything except get himself killed if he tried to fight them. He could not just sit by and let this happen though, he had to do something to get them out of this mess.

Meanwhile, the Lataka soldiers had carried the piece of the Shadow Bringer over to the loading ramp of the flyer and they were beginning to board. Within minutes, it would be out of their reach and the Lataka would have two pieces of the Shadow Bringer, assuming they had not already taken over the Evening Star and recovered those pieces that were there too.

“Perhaps we leave you all here,” the Lataka captain grinned at them as the rest of his soldiers moved the Shadow Bringer, “you stay in the place your people came from, just like old times. You have nice ship here, we take this with us, we might have need for it in the future.”

“You really are the most honourless bastards we have even encountered in our lives,” James growled at the Lataka, “you are nothing but thugs and lowlifes and you are a disgrace to galactic civilisation! And what about you…” James turned to the Al’cari captain stood nearby, he recognised it’s rank due to the blue stripe across it’s armour, “. . . the Al’cari used to be a proud race, you had honour and you had morals once. What could you possibly achieve from an alliance with these brutes. Why are you working for them?”

The Al’cari did not speak, it just regarded him for a few seconds before looking away again.

“I don’t think he understands you, James,” Isha said, finally composing herself enough to speak but her eyes still filled with tears, “I don’t think they have any idea what we’re saying.”

“Oh no, I think he understands me perfectly, I can see it in his eyes,” James continued, “I just think that these cowards don’t have what it takes to come clean. Come on, tell us, why are you working for a race of thugs and brutes who kill without mercy and mutilate the bodies!? Tell us!”

“You misunderstand,” came the deep voice of the Al’cari captain, it’s grasp of their language far more fluent than that of the Lataka soldiers, “we do not work for the Lataka, they work for us. They are necessary for us to complete our mission.”

“But why? Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to assemble the most powerful weapon of mass destruction in the galaxy? Why do you want to destroy the Adeans?”