GHOSTLY

The Saberhawk glided smoothly around Mt. Vaseer approaching the hangar bay on the lower western face of the mountain. Their internal scans of the city indicated severe damage. Obviously, the fighting here on this twin Castai had been far worse, since there did not appear to be any Castillians left on the planet. Numerous sensor sweeps had not found even one native life signature on the surface. They could only hope the data proved incorrect.

As the Saberhawk approached the massive entrance, it became apparent the doors were probably not functional. The doors were shut and pocked with blast marks. Several large holes went all the through. The Saberhawk would not be able to gain entrance to the city.

Orin tried several command codes from back home, hoping they might be recognized here. The automated systems either weren’t functional or didn’t recognize the codes. At any rate, the result was the same. No admittance.

“Well there’s not much choice,” Orin said as he looked back at Tiet. “We’ll have to go in on foot and see if we can find anything.”

“I’m in.”

“Me too,” Dorian said.

“Actually, Dorian, I think Tiet and I will have to go alone. We don’t have the time to land and hike back up to the city. We’ll have to drop in here and go through the damaged hangar bay doors. You can’t make the descent from the ship and I would rather Millo was not left to handle any problems with the ship alone.”

Dorian was clearly not happy about the situation, but she complied.

“Millo, please take the ship down into the southern valley until we contact you. Keep an eye peeled for any trouble and get the ship out of danger if you have too. It’s likely the Vorn will investigate our arrival. I doubt an old Barudii battleship will have gone unnoticed on this planet. Tiet, you and I will make the jump to Vaseer and see what we can come up with.”

Orin proceeded through the bridge passage and down the short stairwell toward the loading ramp with Tiet following close behind.

“Tiet!” Dorian called, coming after him. Both men turned at her approach. Orin looked at Dorian and then Tiet, realizing they needed a moment to speak.

“I’m going to secure some more gear we may need. I’ll meet you shortly in the vestibule.”

Orin went on without further comment, leaving them alone in the corridor.

“What’s the matter?”

“I just have a bad feeling about you going down there.”

“Don’t worry. Orin watches over me like a father,” he said playfully, but Dorian’s expression did not lighten.

“I feel like I need to tell you how I feel before you go,” she said hesitantly, as if searching his face to know his feelings before she continued.

Tiet could hardly breathe, waiting for her next words with such anticipation he could perceive nothing else.

“I have loved you before I even knew you,” she said. “From the images of you as a child, until I first realized who you were in the tunnels, you have been in my most secret thoughts. Now, that I have been with you, I cannot imagine being anywhere else but by your side.”

Dorian raised her left arm then, pulling back the cuff of her uniform. She exposed the donjarr of her family. Tiet recognized the woven bracelet immediately. According to Castillian customs, it was the woman who chose her life companion signified by the passing of the donjarr to the intended male as a promise of her desire to wed. The donjarr was not a light commitment. It was a binding contract once the male placed it on his own wrist.

Dorian looked into Tiet’s eyes, and he could see her longing to know his feelings. He reached for her hand, clasping it in his own. With the other hand, he moved the donjarr from her wrist over their joined hands to rest upon his own, according to the ritual. A tear escaped her swollen eyes, trailing down her olive skin. Tiet pulled her to himself in an embrace they both had longed to have.

“Come back safely to me,” she said as she touched his lips with her own. Then she turned and hurried back to the bridge. Tiet could hardly contain his joy as he went on to meet Orin.

Dorian was a good choice. She was a warrior, much like his own people had been. He was of age and they would grow to truly love one another. It felt right and silently he thanked the Elithias the Creator. Now he had hope, even in the midst of war.

Orin was already waiting at the loading ramp when Tiet arrived. Orin looked him over once, puzzled by the grin on his face, supposing that something had happened between him and the girl. Still, he didn’t ask.

Orin keyed in the safety bypass code, which would allow the ship to open the main hatch while still in flight. Millo had the Saberhawk hovering about one hundred yards above the mountains face where the city’s hangar bay was located. They could see the scarred bay doors below.

“Are you ready, Tiet?”

“Lead the way,” he said over the engine rumblings spilling into the vestibule.

“The way is down,” Orin said. He turned and stepped into the open air, plummeting toward the mangled surface of the bay doors below. Tiet followed without hesitation. The two warriors controlled their descent precisely with the Way and soft landed on the surface of the hangar doors.

The structure creaked under their weight a little, but appeared to be solid enough. Orin led the way to the largest opening and turned to toss Tiet a lighted headset. He clicked his own headset on to keep communication with the Saberhawk and to provide some illumination of the darkness below them.

“Millo, take the ship down to the valley and wait there until you here from us,” Orin said into the microphone. “If you encounter any trouble, dust off immediately. We’ll rendezvous later.”

“Affirmative. I’ll be waiting for your call. Be careful.”

Above them, the engines of the Saberhawk wound up to a higher pitch and the ship veered away from the mountain on course for the southern valley. Tiet switched on his headset, and the two of them peered into the darkness below. They saw the pavement littered with debris; most likely pieces of the ruined hangar doors they stood upon.

“Look over there,” Tiet said, motioning to a large clear area.

“Let’s go.”

They dropped from the edge of the blast hole in the hangar bay door, about two hundred feet to the pavement, soft landing again thanks to the Barudii Way. From memory, Orin led them through the debris field inside the hangar bay to the control room. It was amazing how things were laid out nearly identical to their city of Vaseer back home.

The door stood open and a thick layer of dust covered the control panels within. Orin looked for the power grid panel and found the energy cells drained to nothing.

“Even after power failure, the successive auto backups would have run for at least six months,” Orin said.

“Maybe, but this looks like years of dust,” Tiet said.

“Well, what have we here?” Orin switched on another panel lever. Several low lights flickered and came on inside the bay. “Manual backup, in case the auto systems go down. These should be connected to solar panels on the eastern face of the mountain. They won’t run down as long as the panels have decent access to sunlight. Let’s go.”

Orin led them out of the control room and up a tunnel to a higher level of the city. Tiet followed the swift steps of his mentor, trying to keep his senses alert to any dangers which might lie in wait.

This twin city had certainly taken a pounding. The ground was littered everywhere with debris. It looked like the Vorn had nearly torn the city apart. Yet, there were no signs of any bodies. A fog of dust hung in the air and, other than the very sparse emergency lighting, only the small spires of their headset lamps penetrated the darkness. The two men came into an ornate corridor approaching a single room. It seemed familiar to Tiet, though he couldn’t place it exactly.

“What room is this?” Tiet asked.

“It’s the King’s quarters. This would have been your home back on our planet. Although, I doubt your father was even born when this city was destroyed—probably over one hundred years ago.

“So what are we doing here?”

“There was a separate computer database in the King’s quarters with its own link to the solar panels. Since they’re still operating, I’m hoping the database is also functioning. It may provide us with some answers.”

Orin tried the electronic keypad, but there was no response. Tiet extended one of his kemsticks and sliced an oval shaped hole into the door. He kicked the cut piece inward, bent down and went through the opening. Orin followed. It reminded Tiet of home, but it had been so long ago. Orin walked over to a certain place on the rock wall and depressed two separate points which were far enough apart so as to be almost unreachable at the same time. A digital keypad rotated out of the wall before him. It still had power and Orin quickly typed in the words: Barudii, Soone, Vaseer 1. A panel slid back in the wall to reveal an information display. A list of categories for searching the database appeared on the screen.

“Good, the code works here, too. That means the Soone family also ruled here,” Orin said.

“But how is that possible?”

“I’m not sure. We’ve lost so much of our historical information because of the war. When I was a child there were stories told by the oldest members of our clan. They said we had not always been on our home world. They spoke of a migration, but that’s about all I can remember.”

“Well, where do we start?” Tiet asked, turning his attention to the computer database.

“How about with those strange spheres we encountered?”

Orin typed in the word spheres and instantly a list of subcategories scrolled across the display. Among the data entries were schematics and weapon systems capabilities for a massive attack vehicle. It must have measured three miles in diameter and looked just like the smaller spheres which they had witnessed earlier destroying the space fleet of the Vorn.

When the information on the Sphere’s origin came across, they were shocked to find that it was the long dead Barudii of this planet who had constructed the huge machine. They scanned page after page of data, hardly able to fathom their findings.

“I can’t believe they built this thing,” Tiet said in amazement.

“To fight the Vorn, or avenge themselves—either way, a very deadly weapon to unleash on anyone.”

“Yeah, but we never saw this one—only the smaller drones.”

“You can be sure it’s out there,” Orin said. “It’s probably directly responsible for the destruction of the space station we witnessed. It appears they launched it just prior to being wiped out by the Vorn. It was sent to attack their home world of Demigoth then pursue the remainder of their clan and annihilate them.”

A small illuminated box on the display began to blink as Orin continued scanning the data. He tapped the box with his finger, causing more data to appear.

“This appears to be a live feed from the Sphere itself—it’s still transmitting data back to its creators,” Orin said.

“Look at this tactical map. Isn’t that Mt. Vaseer and the Saberhawk in the southern valley?”

“Yes, and on a direct trajectory from the Sphere down to the valley is a massive group of drones!” said Orin.

“Look at that, coming in from the northern pass. It looks like a ground army and their moving toward the southern valley, too!”

“Orin to Saberhawk, dust off immediately! I say dust off immediately!” Orin commanded. “Enemy forces are closing rapidly on your position!”

“We’ve got to get down there to them!” Tiet shouted. He scrambled out of the room and down the corridor.

Orin followed, still trying to get through to the ship.

“Millo to Orin…are you there?”

“Yes, Millo! I hear you! You’ve got to get out of there now!” shouted Orin into the headset as he tried to keep up with Tiet through the corridors leading to the surface.

“I’ve got them on scans already. Shields are at maximum and weapons systems have been armed. I’m trying to lift off but some of those drones are already within visual range and closing fast on us.”

“Do your best. We’re on our way!”

 

☼

 

When Tiet and Orin reached the main gate, they found it blasted almost completely away. As the pair emerged into the open air, they heard the noise of battle in the valley below. Many of the spheres were already attacking the Saberhawk. The ship was pinned down by a swarm of drones strafing at it with their energy weapons.

Another group of spheres landed in the valley and began a terrible transformation. Long arms emerged from their sides lifting their bodies and acting as legs to carry them and fight with. Blasters popped out of the tops to lay down laser fire against the masses of Horva.

The pass from the north to the southern valley was flooded completely with ground forces that appeared to be Horva, but Tiet noticed that these were different. They were dark skinned men like the Vorn and Horva he had seen, but they were an organized fighting force—not like the brutes they had encountered back home at all.

The Horva drove forward by the thousands against the large robots, who in turn were spraying them with wave after wave of laser fire. Tiet saw the Horva using the same electromagnetic shield generators he and Dorian had on their uniforms. Laser fire sprayed into Horva ranks, but killed very few.

They moved in close to engage the sphere robots with larger pulse cannons mounted upon hydraulic arms attached to their vests. The pulse cannons did damage to the hulking robots. It seemed to Tiet that the pulse wavelength modulated continually to match the shield wavelengths of the robots, allowing them to penetrate.

All the combatants laid siege to the Saberhawk, even though the Horva and the sphere robots were more interested in one another.

 

☼

 

Tiet ran down the main path of the city toward the valley with Orin following hard after him. The Saberhawk hovered forty feet off of the ground, but the sky above them was too congested with enemy vessels to get clear of the battle. Tiet saw the Saberhawk returning fire in all directions, but it was greatly outnumbered. He knew their shields must be losing power reserves fast at this rate. Before long, they would be taking hits directly to the hull. Then it would all be over.

Tiet ran with all his strength trying to get to Dorian. He had to protect her. He leaped away from the path at a nearby ledge overlooking a thirty foot drop down to the fighting already raging below. Tiet landed right in the middle of a group of clones firing on a nearby robot. The dark skinned clones immediately reacted to his presence, bringing their weapons to bear on him.

Tiet’s kemsticks leaped to his hands from their leg clips as he landed among the men. He sliced one rifle in two, while deflecting another shot at point blank range. He swept his body downward under the barrel of another clone who fired and killed a fellow soldier standing ready on the other side. With a complete sweep of his kemstick, Tiet cut the man down at the knees. He wasted little time dispatching two others then quickly ran off to reach the Saberhawk.

 

☼

 

“We’re the biggest thing out here!” Millo complained.

Dorian blasted away with the Saberhawk’s weapons while Millo looked for a clearing in the congestion overhead.

“If we’re so big, can’t we just plow through those other ships?”

“After seeing those spheres ramming into the Vorn ships I’d rather not take any chances. I’m going to try and move us out of the battle at this altitude.”

“Well, you had better hurry. Our shields are already down to thirty percent power!”

The battlefield was overrun with Horva warriors, fighting furiously against the robots. Although the Horva were taking losses, they continued to blast away at the automatons. For every ten Horva getting killed, a robot was brought down.

 

☼

 

Vale and his doubles were fiercely engaged in the ground battle. The three androids moved swiftly through the battlefield toward the position of the Saberhawk. Vale remembered his defeat by the Barudii warrior on the same vessel. There was little doubt he could acquire his target there again. The triplet androids moved independently as though separate beings, yet all were under the control of Vale and the Sphere.

Vale noticed the ship veering away from the fight and heading toward their position.

Vale-one and two pulled hypermagnetic grapples and fired them at the ship as it passed low overhead. Vale-three was still fighting with a Horva warrior as the hull-implanted grapples pulled the other two androids up and away from the battlefield. Vale-one and two retracted their grapple cables until they reached the hull.

Activating the hypermagnetic discs beneath their android skin, they each clung to the hull of the Saberhawk. The ship’s shields did not prevent them since they were designed only to repel energy weapons. The two androids avoided any attempt to cut through the hull with Barudii blades as it would cause a repulsion charge from the shields and vaporize them. They crawled across the hull on their bellies, as the shields snapped back energetically above them at the incoming pulse blasts from the battle.

Vale recalled the entry code for the outer hull hatch and keyed it in. The outer hull door obeyed, and both androids entered the ship without incident. Vale recognized the cargo hold as the place of his defeat at the hands of the Barudii warrior.

The robots walked to the doorway of the cargo hold and found it locked. Vale-two used his blade to cut a portal through the metal door. The pair proceeded down the corridor toward the bridge, even as the ship shuddered under enemy fire raining upon it from all directions. The android’s heard voices beyond the locked bridge door—a man and a woman. They sliced through the door with Barudii blades.

Dorian whirled around in her chair at the weapon console, hearing the crackling of molecular bonds bursting. She threw a spicor disc toward the android coming in through the cut hole. Vale-one caught the spicor disc in the upper torso. The tightly controlled burst pattern vaporized all but its arms above the waist and left the lower body hanging in the door.

Dorian pulled her blade as the second robot moved in fast over its fallen twin. She felt the pressure and pain building in her fractured arm as she brought it to join her other arm on the hilt of her sword.

 

☼

 

Millo looked back from the controls, as he heard the spicor explode behind him. The ship was taking a beating from the sporadic weapons fire erupting from the battlefield below them. There was no way he could leave the controls. The android grabbed a pulse blaster with its free hand and sprayed laser fire in all directions across the bridge. The electromagnetic shield on Dorian’s forearm repelled the incoming blasts.

Millo held the controls of the Saberhawk as the firestorm swept across the bridge. Several shots pierced his flight chair and his body. He arched in pain for a moment then slumped forward over the controls.

The ship lurched upward and back, causing Vale to stumble a moment. As he brought the blaster back toward Dorian, it met her blade in flight. She sliced through both the weapon and the android’s hand. With no notion of pain, Vale brought his own blade down upon Dorian’s shoulder, only to find her weapon barring the way. With Millo slumped over the controls and many of the flight controls destroyed by laser fire, the Saberhawk turned backwards from its course, descending clumsily toward the battlefield.

 

☼

 

Tiet saw the Saberhawk under fire from both the battlefield and the sky. Millo drove the ship hard away from the fight. Soon Dorian would be safe. In his heart, he urged the ship on. He and Orin had been separated by a small distance and were furiously battling clone soldiers as they tried to get through the congestion.

The entire valley before Mt. Vaseer blazed with laser fire. Overhead a multitude of aerial combatants tore each other out of the sky. Wreckage dropped onto the battlefield at regular intervals as the Sphere drones and the Vorn attack fighters with clone pilots exchanged weapon’s fire in a chaotic dogfight.

A Horva warrior strafed at Tiet with his pulse rifle. He deflected several blasts with kemsticks as he spun them around his body then Tiet let one stick fly toward his attacker. It caught the Horva’s gun and proceeded to swipe across his chest and cut him down. The kemstick rebounded back to Tiet’s waiting hand in time to block an incoming battle staff in the hands of another clone warrior. He dispatched his opponent and kept going.

Tiet kept a visual on the ship. Its path was leading it off the battlefield to the east and he was glad Millo was getting them out. The ship slowed, arching nose up then it came back around from its present course. Something was wrong. Tiet’s heart sank when he saw laser fire flashing repeatedly through the bridge windows. “No!”

The ship fell back from its escape run and began descending onto the battlefield. If they didn’t recover quickly they would crash for sure, and Tiet was too far away to do anything to help them. Several men approached Tiet to attack. He repelled them all with a blast of his mental power.

Tiet reached out in desperation with his mind, trying to seize the ship and keep it aloft, but the Saberhawk’s engines fought to drive it downward into the valley floor. The ship slammed into the ground, crushing several of the sphere robots and dozens of clone warriors caught in its path. The Saberhawk burst into several large pieces as it tumbled over twice. Tiet felt his strength slip away as he watched Dorian going down to her death in a fireball.

He burst away from his position, running as hard as he ever had. Tiet closed the distance between himself and the wreckage. He wasn’t sure why, but he knew Dorian was not dead. Tiet sensed her location in the wreckage as he drew near. He could feel her pain.

From the wreckage before him, a familiar adversary emerged with the majority of its synthetic skin burned away. The android was here—it had caused this. It had hurt her. Before the robot even spotted him, Tiet hit it with a mental burst fueled by pure rage, sending the robot flying into a large section of the Saberhawk’s hull. Before the android could recover, Tiet leaped through the air and came down on top of it. He pinned its head to the wreckage with his blade, driving the weapon in all the way to the hilt. The android body jerked with mechanical aftershocks then moved no more.

Tiet backed away and went searching for Dorian. He found her pinned underneath a metal support pillar. He pulled underneath the edge of the metal trying to move it. Using his mental power for added strength, he got it off her and let it fall a few feet away. Dorian looked at him, barely conscious. She tried to speak, but did not have the strength.

Tiet sat next to her speechless as tears welled in his eyes and escaped down his anguished face. He held her hand and felt it grow cold as life left her body. Dorian reached to touch the donjarr on Tiet’s wrist then she touched his lips. Her fingertips lingered there only a moment. Her arm fell limp as the focus of her gaze faded. Tiet’s mind raged apart from any coherent thought. He became numb to his senses.

The one who had loved him and chosen him above any of her clan was dead. Sorrow filled his mind and despair gripped his heart. Tiet only half heard the battle raging around him. Then he heard familiar heavy footsteps running across the wreckage, too heavy for a man. He looked at the robot. It was still lifeless and pinned to the hull by his sword. Then he looked toward the approaching sound and saw another android running at him, its own blade ready to strike.

Tiet reached out for his sword, still lodged in the other android’s metal cranium. It obediently dislodged itself and leaped through the air to his hand in time to meet the second android’s strike. He wondered only a moment why there were so many of these things running around. The fight was on. Tiet slashed furiously at the deadly android, finding every strike countered. He exploded with rage as the thought of Dorian lying here dead on the battlefield tore through his mind. He screamed out in fury at the robot. “Die!”

His rage burst forth as a wave of psychokinetic energy hitting the third android with astonishing force, sending it flying through the air into a pile of the Saberhawk’s wreckage. Tiet had never felt so powerful. His anger fueled his mental power and he could not contain it. The Vale android regained its composure and attacked again. Tiet lowered his father’s blade to his side and let the power flow freely. The Vale robot came closer, ready to kill its target. Then the Barudii blade it was carrying was torn from its grasp.

The android stopped for a moment confused. Tiet looked on with grim satisfaction. He summoned the wreckage around him to attack the robot.

Man-sized pieces of debris flew off the ground toward Vale, striking the robot repeatedly. The jagged hunks of metal tore away the androids veneer of humanity, exposing the adomen skeleton beneath. The projectiles pummeled the robot again and again, tearing off an arm and parts of its torso.

Tiet scowled at his prey as he launched the mental attack, but nothing could dull the pain of losing Dorian. He hurled his blade at the robot. The sword pierced its adomen skull, driving hilt deep into the android’s head. The android fell over and did not move again. The battle still raged on around him. But Tiet knelt near Dorian’s body and sobbed.