Chapter 54
Meryl slipped into the room and darted across to the nearest plant dome. The independent inside it was watching Teres so intently that he did not notice her. She recognised him from the listings she had at Fifth Moon, his name was Caelum as far as she recalled. She tried the door, but could not even budge the leaver that latched it closed. Livio was headed their way and the plant grimly indicated that he would wait. She darted away from Caelum's dome and across to the next.
Teres then lifted a circular neck collar, much like those which bound the others in the room. Meryl felt a shudder of horror course over her as he lifted it to settle it around his neck. As he did so, she felt the power suddenly hum through the room. It was so strong it felt as though her bones were vibrating. The plants in the domes began yelling and tugging at their neckpieces. Meryl saw Livio, who had pulled one plant free of the neckpiece, trying to drag the plant across the dome. But even without the neck piece, the plant slipped into semi consciousness, already part of the loop of power.
It was as she stepped out to confront Johnston, that a movement behind her caught her eye. Vash, with a deadly grim expression on his face. Meryl felt her heart stop. She had seen him with that expression once before. It had been when he had gone to confront Knives all those years back. He did not expect to survive. She was not fast enough to turn and plead with him to stop. She could not even bring his attention to her. It felt as though she were moving through thick syrup as she turned. Vash fluidly stepped up to the pedestal in the centre of the room, took up the collar with a grunt of pain and lowered it around his neck. In that moment Teres spun around, his face a picture of horror. She had thought the draw of power was strong before, but now the movement of energy keened eerily over the terrified screams of the independent plants. Vash swayed for a moment, his fists clamped over the edges of the neck collar.
"No!" Teres yelled as Vash clamped them together.
Meryl was flung to the floor by the ripple of concussion flung out from Vash. He screamed as the power tore through him. His muscles locked, forcing his face into a rictus. His back arched, then he went limp, fell to the floor and grabbed the cable in both hands. He hung on as if he were a man drowning and that was his life line.
"You fool!" Teres screamed at him. "You know nothing of warp systems!"
The strange cracked maze patterns rippled across his skin nearest the neck collar and cable. Vash grew feathers and wings along his arms and shoulders. Meryl felt panic boil through her. She had seen him transform into a plant before, but it had been nothing like this. The feathers he grew now were black, and eerily, some seemed to not only be black, but instead empty holes in the universe. It was as if he were using nothingness as matter to craft form. Black flames flickered all over the cable and flickered across the floor.
It had all happened so fast, she had not even had the time to scramble for cover.
A black inferno whipped around Teres, and he brought his hands up, deflecting it with more of the same weird black energy. It was then that the cries and screams from the imprisoned independent plants changed. Milly had dragged some free, as had Livio. Others hammered ineffectually on the inner walls.
"Vash!" Doug screamed his voice cracking and squeaking in terror. "No!"
Vash weakly pushed himself up into a sitting position, then shaking like a sick man, got to his feet.
"What do I have to know?" Vash demanded of Teres, in a voice hoarse with pain. "When I can do it instinctively?" He closed his fist and the black flames seemed to return to him, as if he were their master.
"It's calibrated to my gate, you'll destroy everyone here!" Teres clawed at the air, almost pleadingly, as he gestured up at the plants above them.
Meryl realised that she was still lying on the floor and pushed herself to her feet. With Teres and Vash locked in some kind of private mêlée, she darted over to the control panel behind Teres. There had to be some way to shut this thing down.
Teres, realised then that he could not hope to challenge Vash with raw power. He drew his pistol and fired at Vash. But Vash, as dazed as he was, reacted instinctively with the grace and speed of one who had lived by the gun for half of his life. Teres's shot clipped Vash's upper arm and by the shudder that past through him, Teres did not use regular bullets. Vash had not aimed for Teres, instead he had struck the collar Teres wore.
While he was distracted, Meryl darted past Teres and searched the machinery in front of her. What should she do? Ancient ship machines were Vash's thing. He knew how to work the mysterious computers that came with the old ships. She did not dare to risk a glance back at him. He would know what to do, while she hadn't a clue. She ducked under the tabletop, hunting for a plug. She was dismayed to discover a metal pipe acting as a conduit for the mass of cables that looped through the console.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Meryl screamed as Teres grabbed her bodily away from the console. Meryl turned and to her horror watched Vash raise his gun again. He fired. Meryl screamed in shock and fear. It felt as if he had shot her ear off. It stung so badly. Teres grunted and gripped her tightly with his other arm. Vash realised his first attempt had failed, though by the way Teres was holding her, and the sticky wetness she could feel on her neck, he had caught Teres through the shoulder.
What a good idea. She thought in a moment of insane bliss. She would buy Vash the largest box of doughnuts she could find if they ever got out of this. She drew her derringers, and shot Teres in the the arm he had clamped around her and in the foot, for good measure. He jerked her off her feet and she felt crystal feathers scrape at her hands. She had forgotten that bullets were useless against a plant.
Then the light began to glow. The arm with which Teres held her mazed over completely and cracked, opening up to tiny patches of incandescent light. Meryl screamed and tried to wriggle out of his grasp. She would be dead by sheer proximity to the weapon he wielded. She could hear that eerie sound of it gathering energy, over the wailing of the plants and the endless roar of the power Vash sought to bring under control.
(Stand absolutely still)
His voice was the only one which would have ever torn her attention away from her horror stricken fixation on Teres' angel arm. He spoke to her thoughts, the sheer power of even a whisper almost shattered her mind. She instinctively glanced across at Vash and froze. He stood as if the winds of power were not roaring around him. They whipped at his hair and coat tails and sending incandescent sparks flying into the vortex gathering above him.
"Release your power Teres." Vash warned in a gravelly voice.
Teres gripped her tighter and the power convergences in his arm grew steadily.
Vash fired, each one missing her by a fraction of an inch, like a magician would do as a stage show, firing at a pretty lady at a travelling fair. She waited for the pain. A moment passed and nothing happened. Then she saw the fire begin to burn around her, those horrid white flames that ate away at the life force of a living plant. Teres grunted in pain as he slumped down. He shoved her away as white fire flickered across his arm, which had glowed so brilliantly moments before. Now it was twisted with black decay. Meryl scrambled away as Teres whipped off his hat to beat at the flames. Meryl gaped at him; his hair is also completely black. Now free of the plant, she realised how much he had been protecting her. The roar and keening of power hurt her ears and made her teeth stand on edge. She grabbed at her cloak so it would not whip against her. She squinted through the wind to Vash to thank him, but he stood with his head bowed, his knees slightly bent as if he carried a great weight on his shoulders. Meryl peered worriedly upwards at what seemed to be a funnel of power and storm filing up through the ship's plant chamber. She then watched the panels around the plant orb housing shake loose. One giant piece of wall cladding peeled off as if it were a piece of loose wall paper and the instant it hit the funnel it seemed to disintegrate into fragments, then into nothing. She shuddered, it felt like a gateway to another place.
Her ear burned from the sting as she squinted through the howling wind. She was worried now. Vash would never have hit her if he were okay. He would never have hit her if he were very badly off either; he had a knack that way. No, that was deliberate. He was not one to harm others; she backed against the consol trying to think. The pain and wind kept distracting her. But the biggest distraction was the way Vash was transforming. He remained mostly human, though his hands and arm were covered in maze patterns and his hair seemed to gather more sparks than his coat. She forced the distractions down. Her gaze came to rest on Teres who lay prone on the floor. He had his hand clenched over his ruined arm and was trying to do some sort of self-healing and failing. Meryl poked him with her boot to get his attention.
"How do you turn this thing off?" She screamed at him over the eerie howl of the energy.
Teres gaped at her, his hair black and his face bloody.
"I don't know!" He yelled, his eyes wild. "We need to get out!" He could not move, but clawed at her foot. She nailed the pressure point on the back of his hand and he released her. He left a bloody handprint on her sleeve as he slumped to the floor.
"You built it!" She waved hysterically at it.
"I didn't! Agone did! This was his pet project." Teres gazed at her his eyes filling with a strange understanding. "You don't know what this is, do you?" He began to laugh though it morphed into an eerie rattling cough. "This isn't the main part of the ship. It's part of the power station. Hear that roar? That's the real ship launching."
Meryl felt the bottom drop out of her world.
"Vash! This is the wrong … place."
He could not hear her. He was trapped in the vortex of power. Feathers and light flared around him. The heat was increasing to the point of discomfort.
She could hear the roar rising. In their prisons, the various plants fought to save themselves. Livio and Milly worked together now, forcing the door of Caelum's dome with a final hefty kick. They burst into the prison and set about disentangling the dazed plant from the circuit. The twins headed to the next sealed dome. They raised their hands and morphed feathers, calling their arm cannon.
"No! Cut it out! You're not using that here!" Livio yelled at them, almost flying out of the dome he was in across to them. The pulse they fired rebounded and they had to raise their feathers to protect themselves. Livio thudded into them and dragged them below himself, although it was their feathers that absorbed the worst of the power.
"Stay down!" Abe yelled over the increasing roar and heat and screams of the trapped independents and plants.
Meryl stared at him, where had he come from? She had been so caught up in Vash and his mishap, that she had not been aware of his arrival. Abe raised Chronica's bazooka and blasted the door.
"Get him!" He ordered as Livio and the twins picked themselves off the floor and hurried on to the next prison.
"Abe! Get the consol!" Meryl called in a flash of relief. The explosion boomed thunderously around the room as Abe the gun fired at the next containment door.
"That's your job Meryl!" He yelled back at her and kicked down the door he had just blasted open for the twins to get the plant out.
Meryl raised her derringers.
"No!" Teres croaked.
Meryl did not listen to his pleas and moans for her to stop. She hauled derringer after derringer as she shot up the consol. She then pulled out all the wires she could find. It shorted and sparked. She burned her hands and shocked herself, then just when she was beside herself as to how to kill the power, it sparked and fizzled. The whole thing went dead. As it did so the entire bank of plant orbs above them flared brightly.
"What have you done!" Teres moaned his expression horrified.
"Hah!" She panted, too exhausted for malice or passion. "Serves you right."
Teres tried to worm his way across the floor.
"No!" He clawed at it, then turned and gazed upwards.
"You fool!" He swore at her, his eyes tormented beyond anything she had ever seen. "That regulated the electricity inflow. Now you're dumping unregulated raw power through the system! My sisters!"
He gazed in horror up at the brightly burning orbs, the light slowly dimmed and the roar outside became thunderous. Inside the howl of power and energy increased. Dust and sparks flew through the air, Meryl pulled up her cape to protect her face. She turned in utter dismay to Vash who now stood half crouched as if carrying an exceedingly heavy burden, his hands clenched and his body shaking. Lightning arced around the room.
"Get out!" Abe yelled. "Livio! Meryl, Milly, you're dead if that hits you! Get out!"
Meryl could not move. There was a thunderous crack so loud her ears rang. Teres lay on his back near her clawing at the arc of electricity that now seemed to earth its way through him. He seemed to revive and managed to stagger to his feet. He turned towards Vash in the centre of the room.
"No!" Meryl screamed. Dimly in the background, other people were hanging on to each other, dragging those who could not walk from the room.
All around Teres the lightning flickered, he took a staggering step over towards Vash, the lightning arcing between him and the cords that surrounded them. Then for a moment the hit the collar Vash wore and the crack of sound was so loud it was raw pain. Vash had raised his arm, and had aimed overhead, and had fired off his revolver, only the bullets were pure energy.
Steam and acrid smoke filled the air creating a mingled haze. Meryl held her cloak over her mouth and coughed, her eyes watering. The lightning surrounded Vash now, isolating him, imprisoning him. She hated how she knew to her bones that there was absolute nothing she could do for him.
Teres swayed where he stood, and clawed at the air, reaching for the power. He tried to leap for it, but Livio threw himself at the plant, knocking him off his feet. Livio held the double fang to his face, as exhaustion, hatred and fury threatened to overcome him. He could not kill the plant, not yet.
"Why did you do this?" He demanded, hoarsely.
Teres hazily turned to his eyes, as if focussing took all his energy. Lightning forked overhead the concussion of noise deafening Livio to any spoken response. Yet Teres did not speak. He only looked up, past Livio towards the upper levels of the chamber where Vash was working the fires of nature. For a moment, Livio followed his gaze, then returned his eyes to his enemy. In that moment he caught the pained expression of utter despair, then he was gone. Livio jerked backwards as Teres' body disintegrated into hundreds of charred crystal feathers, but he was not swift enough. Memories pounded through his mind, the whirlwind of multiple moments were at once coherent stories and twisted conflicted information. Furious Livio jerked to his feet and kicked at the black feathers, many of them disintegrating into dust. He howled in fury. How had this been Teres's end? After all that Johnston had put them through? How had he escaped punishment? Death was too neat, too easy. He was about to thoroughly stamp the feathers to nothing when he saw Jasmine and Douglas clinging to each other near the door. Cold shock doused his fury. His heart clenched in agony as hope and despair fought, he clenched his fists and breathed out. He set his emotions aside as he had learned long ago; there was time to work with them, but not right now. There were more important things than impotent revenge.
Out of the smoke and haze, Calor hesitated beside the outline of what had been Teres. She very carefully stepped over him taking care not to touch a single fragment of feather.
"Meryl!"
She did not hear Calor beside her, but the woman tried to put her arm around her. Meryl fought her off.
"I'm waiting for Vash." She said, watching him sink to one knee.
His long feathers whipped around, they seemed, almost, to be conducting the lightning.
"He's trapped!" Calor snapped. "He can't come. You've got to get out of here!" She had to repeat herself several times before Meryl could make out her words. Her ears hurt and her hearing was mostly guesswork.
"No! He'll get out of it."
"Not this time! He's caught in a power cascade. The only reason he's not dead is 'cause he's channelling it. And see the white flames?"
Meryl felt as though she had been punched in the stomach.
Those little white flames were very, very bad news.
"No." She gasped, and leaped towards him.
Calor was faster.
Meryl fought her grasp, and Calor slapped the side of her head. Meryl felt the world spin weirdly around her and cussed out the plant and her powers.
"Here, take her!"
"What? No!" A man grated.
"Take her."
Meryl came back to semi consciousness as someone lugged her under his arm like a sack of potatoes. She wriggled and slipped out of the man's grasp and sprinted back to Vash. Someone grabbed her cape and hauled her off her feet. She hung choking in mid air and staring into the terrifying blue eyes of Millions Knives.
Knives grimaced.
"You've contaminated his life enough, girl." He spat in her face. "I am not carrying you. Walk!"
He threw her along the passage and turned back to Vash.
Calor stood in the passage between Knives and Vash.
"We need you." She said coldly. "Your brother has done his duty well, and you must do yours."
Knives scythed out a blade to cut her down, but Calor blocked it with a furious expression on her face.
"Or would you kill him by distracting him and deny him the chance to save our sisters?"
"You do not dictate anything to me!" Knives grated. "You are latecomers here on this world!"
"Then your worm hives will die, and your world will dry up and our sisters will be left at the mercy of the humans here."
Knives opened and closed his mouth. For an instant his eyes flashed white with power, then it dimmed as he regained control. Calor turned her back on him and walked away. Meryl took the opportunity to hurry back to Vash. He was kneeling now, resting on both hands, as if the power were a weight crushing him. He looked alien, his face covered with cracked mazing and his right arm beginning to form an angel arm. She cried out, wanting him to hear her, knowing that he would regret this action when he regained his calmer mind. She screamed as the awful terror of him returned to engulf what sanity she retained through the panic. Knives grabbed her again, this time he didn't risk it. She crumpled half stunned as he smacked the side of her head with the butt of his black revolver.
"Miss Meryl!"
She was half-aware of Milly dragging her free of the ship, then of someone yelling. Abe? He was cussing out someone.
"I could have killed her." Knives said coldly.
"Mora!" Calor interjected.
"That bastard, I'll kill him." Abe spat, fighting her off and lunging at Knives.
"You could try." Knives mocked darkly.
"Mora!"
There was a scuffle and Meryl opened her eyes as Milly's stun gun went off with two satisfying thunks. Abe and Knives were so intent on their private battle, they went sprawling in the dirt.
Milly screamed.
Meryl spun around in time to watch as a plant blade sliced up Milly's gun, clipped the collar of her coat and her hair on her left side, only to be twisted upwards by another thicker stronger blade. Milly sank to the ground, staring at Knives in horror. He cracked his knuckles and instantaneously withdrew his blades then flicked them at Abe who had thwarted him. Meryl felt ill, all she saw was a blur of movement, catching the action in a weird kind of stop motion as they slowed momentarily while blocking each other. Knives leaped backwards as a sandworm broke through the apron floor. He was drawn upwards, and with one final derisive stare in Abe's direction, turned away. The worm cruised south along the canyon floor, faster than any car could drive.
Abe sank to his knees, shaking as the worm disappeared out of sight. Milly stumbled over to him and he held her away from him, staring at her tattered coat and hair. Milly smiled crookedly to reassure him that she was alright.
Calor walked over briskly and hauled Abe to his feet when she saw Milly was not managing.
"What's this you taking the side of Millions Knives?" Abe roared, rounding on Calor .
"I am on no one's side but my own!" She snapped at him. "And I hope not to have to demand a loyalty test from you!"
Abe glared sullenly at her.
"You left Vash there to die!"
"He was dead the moment he grabbed that collar and he knew it!" Calor snapped. "Stop fighting me. We need to get away from here. Can't you feel the strain he is under waiting for us?"
Abe gave Calor a wild-eyed stare and staggered a few steps before he regained his balance. He reached for Milly.
"Are you alright?"
"F-Fine." Milly stammered. "Miss Meryl?"
Meryl could not see how bruised and bloodied she was, nor how dazed she looked. All she knew was that it was an effort to focus her eyes.
"Hey, Meryl?"
Meryl tried to stand but her head was too dizzy. She managed a half sway before she crumpled on the ground and threw up.
"Eugh!" Abe gagged. "Do try to not throw up on me, please."
Her addled brain only realised they were headed away from Vash when the ship dipped out of sight behind the sand dune. Abe suddenly couldn't hold her as she wriggled out of his grasp and ran back to the ship. But before she could crest the dune, there was a moment when she knew the worst had happened. A moment of silent stillness engulfed her. It was as if he had used the last of his energy to say farewell.
She screamed a half second before everything went to hell. The eerie warning keening noise too much power made was all she could hear. Light blasted over them as Abe dragged her and Milly flat underneath him and she could feel the heat of his power in response to the greater power roaring over them.
She could not hear when the silence came. Her ears were ringing painfully. She stared up from where she lay on her back on the sand dune, surprised to see a clear sky above them. It was blue and clear of dust, though the wind was blowing ever so slightly.
"Mora!" Calor snapped. "We need to get out of here now!"
Abe groaned and coughing fitfully pushed himself out of the sand much the worse for wear. Milly sat up dazedly.
"Miss Meryl?"
She managed a painful nod.
"What the hell did he do with all that energy?" Abe shook himself, then picked up a foot and put it down again. He shuddered.
"Hurry! Milly, get Meryl on her feet. We need to leave now!"
"Calor, what's the fuss? It's all over!"
"That's an order!" Calor snapped.
"Okay, okay, keep your panties on." Abe waved his hand at her.
Calor's face went purple but Abe did not seem to see that as helped Milly lift Meryl to her feet.
Standing she could see over the dune crest. The place where the ship had been was nothing but a burned out hull, still smoking.
"Vash!" She screamed.
"He's gone." Abe said gently.
"No!" Meryl shook herself free and staggered and fell down the other side of the dune. She picked herself up and push herself on towards the ship.
"Get back here!" Calor cried as Milly and Abe went after her to help her.
The ship stank of burned plastic. The structure creaked and cracked as it cooled. Meryl did not notice how the floor singed her boot soles. Milly hovered at her side, ready to catch her if she were to try kneeling on the floor. Where Vash had stood, there was nothing but a fine pile of ash. The rings of orbs above were all blackened and cracked and empty of any life. She then walked slowly over to the console where Johnston had fallen. Lying on the floor, kicked out of the way in the scuffle, was Vash's own silver gun. She wrapped her cape around her hand and picked it up. Milly and Abe hovered protectively behind her. She gazed at them, as if noticing them for the first time.
"We need to go. Calor is never needless in her orders."
Milly glanced at Abe who wore a sad, bleak expression on his face.
"Shock. Denial. But she understands what happened." He mouthed to Milly.
"And I can lip read Abe Jefferson." Meryl snapped.
"Ah ha! Sorry!" Abe muttered shamefacedly.
Calor met them on the apron, driving an army personnel truck. The wind was picking up, flinging gusts of stinging sand into the air. Livio, the twins and two other independent plants were already seated in the back. The two plants were so ill, all that could be done was to keep them comfortable until they reached a hospital. Livio took in their expressions and turned away, his shoulders slumping slightly.
"Get in, and hurry!" Calor snapped.
"Sheesh." Abe groaned. "What has got you?"
"Can't you feel it?" Calor demanded as she swung the truck around and drove.
"Feel what?" Abe grouched. "I've got a headache the size of the planet; I have power backlash something awful so excuse me if my senses are poorly!"
"The rising storm. That, that fool channelled all that power into the local weather system."
Abe stared at her in horror.
"Oh crud." He slouched down in his seat.
