Chapter 3: In the Weeds

"Set a course for Horesh." Dara folded her arms and leaned back in her seat. As their heading changed, she started warp preparations. "Warp in thirty seconds."

Dara shut her eyes against the disorienting wall of muddled visions as they whipped past her.

Toska phased out of warp-space one minute later.

With Kalan behind them, Dara relaxed. She brought up the map. "Gamilon-controlled space…" she muttered. Goru's coordinates for Horesh blinked green.

Dara's fingers itched, roaming toward the pocket sewn beneath her arm. She balled her fist, and forced her hand back into her lap, eyeing Muska's back.

"Course is holding steady," he said.

Dara calculated another jump. "Thirty seconds to warp."

She closed her eyes again, fighting off the jumbled images. One consolation rose. Constance.

Dara counted sixty painful seconds and opened her eyes as Toska sank into normal space. She glanced at the engine status and groaned. "Overheating. Three hours to cool down."

"I'll be in my quarters." Muska left the bridge.

Dara slumped in her chair once his door closed. "We're not even half-way there…" With a sigh, she headed for her room.

When the lock clicked, she flopped onto her bunk and pulled off her boots. She tossed them to the floor and curled up under her blanket.

"What–?" Dara shot out of bed, alarms screeching. Toska rocked hard.

She staggered out the door, struggling to pull on her second boot as she fumbled down the hall to the bridge.

"One ship," Muska announced from the pilot's seat. "It's charging weapons again."

Dara growled and punched the comm controls. "This is Toska. We are not hostile—I repeat not hostile!"

The deck heaved, and Dara grabbed for her chair arm. She snagged it and rode out the turbulence. "Identify yourself," she demanded.

The viewscreen winked on. A bareheaded man appeared, the whites of his eyes a blue so dark Dara could barely discern where he was looking. His skin shone blue, lighter than Dara's. She shivered as his gaze fixed on her.

"I know you have it," hissed the stranger. "Return it, and we will show mercy."

Dara narrowed her eyes at the stranger.

"Give back the key!"

"I have no key," Dara bit back.

"Return it now, or–" The man's gaze shifted to Muska. "You!" he growled, eyes slitted.

"Leave," Muska replied, tone even.

"Not without the key. I'll pry it from your dead fingers," the stranger said.

"Disappointment is part of life." Muska cut the call.

Dara glared at the Keeper.

"Take aim as I instruct," Muska said.

Dara took her station and opened weapons' controls, glancing at Muska every half a second. Four numbers flashed orange.

"Fire," said Muska.

Doubt flared. She hesitated. Her shot flew wide.

Bold red streaks ripped into the bridge. Shards of metal tore into consoles and walls.

Dara hit the deck as debris flew over her head. "Get down!" she shouted to Muska.

He grunted as a piece of metal bounced off his arm, but he stayed in his chair. Air rushed through gaps in the hull as Muska punched in another command.

Emergency seals plugged the breaches and Dara hauled herself into her chair, sucking in a hard breath as the air pressure stabilized. She gritted her teeth. "Nobody beats up my ship."

The instant four more numbers flashed through her interface, Dara fired.

Their attacker limped away, its weapons useless.

"We must leave." Muska headed toward his quarters, gripping his arm. "Get away from here. I will return soon."

Dara held back a gasp. From between Muska's fingers, a shard jutted from his shoulder. His dark sleeve was soaked.

"Wait." She started after him. "Let me–"

Muska's door slid shut in her face, and she took a step back.

"Go on," Muska said through the door. "We shouldn't stay here."

With a sigh, Dara returned to the bridge and resumed their course, settling into the fastest safe sub-light speed. She stared at the jagged hole in the front of her ship. "At least they didn't hit anything vital," she muttered.

Fifteen minutes after Muska disappeared, Dara heard a soft whir. She strained to find the sound's source. She got up and crept toward the crew quarters. The sound grew louder. When it brought her to Muska's door, she stopped. Ears alert, she listened hard.

The whir welled to a jolting chatter.

"Muska?" she called. "What are you doing?"

No answer.

"Muska!" Dara pounded on the door, then tried the control panel. It flashed red. "Unlock this!" she demanded. The chatter intensified to a loud clack, ringing like a bell inside a metal bucket. Dara clapped her hands over her ears and snapped at the door, "Let me in right now!"

"Request emergency override?" the computer droned.

"Yes!" Dara replied.

"Please provide retinal pattern," the computer replied.

Dara bent toward the control panel, eyes forward.

With a hiss, the door popped open, and Dara stumbled inside. Muska sat on his bunk, rubbing his shoulder, the shrapnel gone. He pulled on a new shirt just as she entered, but Dara glimpsed the bandage tied around his arm.

"I'll start the bridge repairs." He brushed past her, heading for the EVA locker.

She spied the shard of debris peeking out of a soiled cloth. Black ooze smeared the white towel. Dara wrinkled her nose as the sharp odor of oil and petroleum clogged her senses.

"I'll be outside." Muska passed the door on his way to the airlock. "Keep an eye out for that ship. They may have… friends."

Dara backed into the hall and let the door close. "All right." She returned to the bridge and waited for Muska to tromp across the hull to the breach, hauling his tools and a new hull plate. Dara kept watch as Muska cut away the damaged section and replaced it.

Once done, he returned.

Dara didn't say anything as he tested the hull integrity and then resumed course for Horesh.

"Ten seconds to warp," Dara said as she made the final adjustments for their last jump.

The drive engaged, and reality blurred around her. She shut her eyes and counted. When she opened them, a green world greeted her. She stood and stared. "Take us into orbit."

As Toska settled in with Horesh's gravity balance, Dara eyed Muska's arm again. Three days… and he showed no sign of pain or discomfort.

She clasped her hands behind her back, fingers clenched. "Get to your quarters."

When the Keeper was gone, Dara reached into her hidden pocket and withdrew a tiny, silver disk. She held it between both hands. Images flickered to life, within and without the ship. Using the disk, she sifted through them, but found nothing of value. Dara twisted the silver device. Days, weeks and months of images whirled past.

Two and a half hours went by, and Dara's eyes burned. She adjusted the device once more, to a point just short of two years ago.

"There you are," she hissed at an ominous ship as its image hovered over Horesh. Its sharp corners and austere bow loomed in Dara's memory. "Where did you take my daughter?"

She tapped the device to her computer console. "Calculate this vessel's trajectory."

A heading appeared.

Dara tucked the disk into its pocket. "Get back out here," she called to Muska over the ship's intercom.

Ten seconds later, he took his seat.

"Follow that course information," she instructed as she sat, twisting her fingers together.

"New heading plotted," Muska said.

Dara perched on her chair's lip, anticipation singing through her as Constance's face rose in her mind. "Get us out of here."

"Constance… Princess Mariposa…"

The voice encompassed her, echoing in the void.

She cracked open her eyes. All around, the nether clouds shifted. Shadows whispered into shape and then vanished. Murmurs of eight other prisoners swept through the twilight mist.

"Sentinels approach!" Elazar appeared next to her, concern etched in his emerald eyes.

Constance reached toward him, but his ghostly form faded as she touched it. "Not now." She shook her head.

"Make ready. We need your aid to protect this place—and the Nine. You must rise from stasis—use your avatar to help us protect them," Elazar said.

"But, I don't–"

"Overwhelm their senses," Elazar said. "What of them those creatures still have. Nuray and I will do the rest." Elazar began to fade. "Eight of the Nine are mired in the nether; their power ebbs." He vanished.

Mariposa closed her eyes.

Dizziness rushed through her. She rode it upward, through the nether, stopping in the realm of wakefulness. She pried open heavy lids and was greeted by the cavern tucked near the planet Phantom's heart.

"How long…?" she whispered through her stasis chamber's walls.

Elazar stepped into her vision. "You've slept one year and two months," he supplied. "Return to the nether's upper region. You will know what to do."

Mariposa closed her eyes and sank back into the Nine's network. Her tigress' holographic form materialized, and she laid a hand on its soft coat. Head bowed, she shut her eyes. "Shift."

The cloudy haze melted, replaced by the cavern where her unconscious body lay. Elazar pointed toward the exit tunnel. "Go to the entrance. They draw near."

Mariposa flew up the passage on four light paws. The tunnel mouth yawned ahead, its protective barrier still intact. She phased through the thick, white mesh and into dense underbrush.

The Sentinels' grunts and rumbling wails made her shiver. A loud snap grabbed her attention as one hideous creature plowed through the brush, its dead eyes fixed on her. Six more crashed through behind it.

Her avatar faded as fear struck her, but Mariposa bared her fangs and dug her paws into the ground, glaring down the monsters.

"This body is not real," she whispered as the creatures charged. Their pointed teeth glistened with black ichor. "They cannot hurt me." Mariposa concentrated on the closest Sentinel. "Go back to your devil queen!" she roared as burning heat exploded from her jaws.

The foremost creature yowled and threw its gray hands over its face as it crashed into the dirt. The other six scrambled back, screeching and flailing their arms.

Mariposa roared again, blinding light gushing out of her avatar's body.

The downed Sentinel clawed the soil and howled, crawling after its companions.

Silence fell over the woods.

Her fur prickled.

Three Sentinels ripped through the trees to her left. She whirled and blasted them with light. They fell back but didn't stop.

"Elazar!" she called through the network. "They're still coming!"

"Hold them," he replied. "Nuray and I need another minute."

"I will try," Mariposa replied, hitting the nightmarish creatures with a wave of noise so loud the trees quaked.

The Sentinels fell to their knees, writhing as they clawed at bloody ears. She counted. Twenty seconds, then the first creature struggled to its feet and staggered toward the tunnel entrance again.

Mariposa released another deafening salvo, buying another fifteen seconds.

Her heart pounded as the closest monster came within a foot of her. It grasped at her avatar's face. She flinched as its claws passed through her.

With a shriek, the Sentinel waved a fist in the air and charged through her tigress' form, hitting the tunnel barrier. It tore at the mesh with talons and teeth. The other six rushed to join it.

"I cannot hold them any longer," Mariposa told Elazar.

"We're ready," he replied. "Let them come."

Mariposa phased through the monstrous knot and into the tunnel. She followed the path as it snaked downward toward the planet's heart. Two minutes later, she heard the Sentinels break through. Their bare, taloned feet scratched the ground as they clamored after her.

"Elazar…" she mumbled. "I hope you know what you're doing."

Half-way to the refuge, Mariposa saw it.

Nuray of the Nine stood beside Elazar, arming a war cannon—bigger than any Mariposa had seen before.

Mariposa leapt behind the pair, coming about to face the approaching seven.

Elazar let loose a battle cry and mowed down two Sentinels with thick laser fire. The creatures' smoking remains crumbled into twin piles of ash.

Mariposa imagined the stink of charred, rotted flesh and she gagged.

Nuray took over the cannon and burned away two more monsters. Only three remained, but they charged the cannon, throwing themselves at the thick metal.

Mariposa's ears stung as the Sentinels' claws screeched against the cannon's shell.

Elazar and Nuray retreated, drawing weapons. Elazar fired on one creature as it gouged a jagged line into the cannon's underside, sending a rain of sparks onto the tunnel floor.

The monstrosity roared as its translucent skin absorbed the first three bolts but the fourth seared into its eye. The Sentinel crashed into the dirt, hands over its wounded face.

Nuray hit the second creature's limbs one at a time. It staggered and went down.

Elazar stood over the Sentinel he'd shot in the eye. It wailed, still wallowing on the floor. "You'll not take this place." He pointed his weapon at the creature's head.

The last unwounded Sentinel slammed into him, its claws digging at Elazar's side. He struggled to push the creature away. Its dripping fangs gnashed inches from his neck and then ripped into his shoulder.

He yelped then whipped out a blade. Through gritted teeth he said, "Not today," and plunged the knife between the Sentinel's dull eyes.

The creature's jaw fell slack as it slumped to the floor.

Nuray grappled with the limping Sentinel. Its arm hung useless and one leg was mangled beyond recognition. It hissed into her face. She growled back, thrusting the solid heel of her palm up into its nose. The crack of shattered bone made Mariposa wince.

The Sentinel fell, dead.

Nuray shot the last monster in the throat, then stabbed its remaining eye. She twisted the knife and ripped it out. Black gore spilled into the dirt.

Mariposa hung back, listening. "There will be more," she said. "Now that they know where we are, what's preventing… her from coming here?" Mariposa shivered.

Elazar groaned as he clasped his bloodied side. His shoulder was covered in thick, dark ooze. "She sent her dogs as a test," he said, gesturing to the bodies littering the floor. "If she's returned to Phantom, she will come."

Nuray supported him, helping Elazar to the wall. When he laid both hands against the tunnel side, she let him go and crossed the passage, pressing both palms to the opposite wall.

The pair spoke in unison. Their words rang foreign to Mariposa, but as they uttered the last syllable, from the walls sprang a thick, white barrier. The membrane corded together, sturdier than the breached entrance mesh.

"When the next wave comes, this barrier will hide the remaining tunnel," Elazar said. "They can wade through half of the barrier, but their evil cannot withstand its light." He stumbled away from the wall.

Nuray ducked under his arm. "We need the planetary defenses."

Elazar nodded. "I will go."

"No," Nuray replied. "These wounds will fell you before you reach Korin's tomb."

Elazar sighed as he hobbled back toward their refuge. "You must go," he said to Nuray. "Leave me here and make haste to the watchtower."

"No, Elazar," Nuray said. "You freed me from my eternal sleep. By Isa's grace, you'll not die while I've the power to prevent it, and… you cannot walk the path of the Nine. You know that."

"Then who–?" Elazar glanced at Mariposa as her tigress avatar loped beside them. "Will… you go?"

Mariposa halted. "Me? Will my avatar's range extend far enough?"

"You cannot take your avatar," Nuray said. "You must rise from Phantom's heart and walk among the living again."

Mariposa hesitated, looking back at the Sentinels' corpses. A lump rose in her throat.

"If you do not go… we will be overrun. Not today, nor the next, but now that the Malha's Sentinels know where we are, they will not stop until they slay the last of the Nine." Nuray looked away. "Not even Yildirim, child though he is, will survive."

Mariposa's heart raced. The voices of the eight imprisoned Nine whispered their pleas to her from the depths of the network. "I… will go."

Nuray gestured for Mariposa to keep walking. "The traitor's tomb is but one marker along the journey."

"Isn't there a map I can follow?" Mariposa asked.

"No," Nuray replied. "It is too dangerous. If the Malha found it, we would lose all hope of recovering Phantom's defenses. Each waypoint houses directions to a single stop." She helped Elazar through the refuge's inner barrier and joined him on a stone bench. "Rise from your slumber." She pointed to Mariposa's body, floating in the central stasis chamber.

The refuge faded from sight as Mariposa sank back into her body. When she opened her eyes again, she looked out at the underground chamber through her pod's frosty walls.

Mariposa touched the clear tubing. It vanished, and she floated to the floor outside, lighting gently on her feet. She wobbled and almost fell but caught the edge of the pod's control station. Her long, light blue dress brushed the ground, and she noticed the weight of the crowning gem hung about her forehead. Red hair cascaded down past her waist.

"Come." Nuray beckoned her to sit with them.

Mariposa took a careful step. The world tilted but then righted itself. She sat beside Nuray.

"Each piece of information can only be retrieved by one of Guardiana's blood." Nuray reached for Constance's hand. "You are of our lineage."

Mariposa bit her lip and looked away. "I… know…"

Nuray squeezed her hand. "It is no shame."

"But the Malha–"

"Is your blood kin," Nuray finished. "To whom you are related means little. It is who you are that matters."

Mariposa looked into the woman's eyes and took a deep breath. "What about Elazar?"

Nuray let go of Constance's hand. She examined the gash in his side. "Infection is seeping in already," she said. "Help me dress this." Nuray settled to her knees and pointed to a locker near the entrance. "Supplies are in there."

Mariposa's vision blurred twice on her way to the locker but steadied as she returned to Nuray's side.

The woman eased off Elazar's ruined shirt. His medium blue skin muted the black sludge oozing from his side and shoulder. "The watchtower is your first waypoint to find Inac Star."

Mariposa handed Nuray a white box.

"Retrieve it." Nuray cleaned Elazar's wounds. "Once I and the rest of the Nine have the Star, we can reactivate the defense network and hold off the Sentinels until we find a way to eradicate them."

Author's Note:

Hey, all. Finally got caught up on this week's post.

Next week, we're heading back to "Fortress of Evil" for Chapter 4, Assemble the Outcasts.

See you there,

*dtill359