NovaSiege, Page 2

  Pain… searing pain in the darkness of her mind.

  Red lights sparked and spread like veins through her vision. Her body throbbed with heat. Somewhere in the chaos voices taunted her, stabbing her mind.

  “Come, Julieth. Become one with us.”

  “Yes, we are your destiny.”

  “Only we can save you. Release us. We are a part of each other.”

  She struck at them with her consciousness, grasping to cage them, but in her weakened state it was useless. They swarmed her mind, suffocating her thoughts and replacing them with their own, opening doorways to her soul that she had barred from them. Sweat bled from her pores, wherever she was, and her body quaked with anguish.

  “No, you cannot have her,” the voice of another essence intruded. “I will protect her. She will remain in control, or I will sever our bond.”

  The pain abated slowly, pulling back like a heavy cloth from her mind, removing their grasp.

  Julieth took that moment of clarity to delve within the pain, to focus and battle through it. A sliver of light struck through the burning darkness, dancing and swirling before her as she began to feel the heavy breaths she gasped and the hard stone cave floor beneath her.

  “No…” she gasped. Saliva dripped from her lips as she lifted her head. The spittle had pooled with blood on the stone below. “We had peace… almost… peace.”

  The sounds of howls and muffled speech in the distance beyond her filled her ears. The tiny light continued to swirl before her and she reached her hand slowly out to it, watching as the illumination rested on her shaking palm, moving erratically but remaining there. She brought the light toward her, then noticed it had legs and eyes, and she startled. The thing flew quickly up and away from her, to a man lying against a wall nearby. The two were caged in by metal bars.

  “Ineal? Is that you?” She stood. He watched her intently. “How did we get here?”

  Ineal rose.

  As he approached her she noticed his pale flesh was unscarred by the beasts. He held the thing in his hand out to her. It flew up from his palm and circled her head.

  “Insect, is that what it is called?”

  Ineal smiled. It flew back to his palm and he covered it with his other hand. When he lifted his hand again five light-insects flew up, illuminating the rock walls around them.

  A realization suddenly struck Julieth. “You created them. You create trees and lakes. You heal the wounded. You can use the power the earth mother provides to free us and Gest’s people.”

  A dark, troubled look came over Ineal’s features as he sat, the lights swarming about the chamber.

  Julieth came to him, looking down into his eyes. “Will you not use your power to save us? I believe in peace and in love, but there are times when action and force are all we are left with. The essences within me want to control me and provide me with the power to destroy the beasts, but I know the price would be my soul. You can free us without giving anything.”

  He looked up to her, his eyes cold.

  Julieth knew what she said was a lie, he may not give up anything to the earth mother, but the beast-lives his actions would take would haunt him eternally. I gave up much and killed many to keep myself alive before being infected, and even since then. But without his abilities, our chances of living beyond days are slim. Horror suddenly moved through her. How many of Gest’s people are even still alive?

  Chill crept over her as she neared Ineal. The walls were covered in frost.

  The cold brought everything back. The events leading up to that moment ran through her mind, the screams as Gest collapsed and the beasts clawing at her. She reached up, touching her shoulder where she had been bitten. There was no scar but heat moved through her arm as she touched the spot.

  Someone screamed in the distance beyond the cell and Julieth moved to the bars, clasping them. “Why are we not dead?” she asked, wishing Ineal could respond. She turned to look back at him. There was nothing there, only a mass of the light-insects weaving amongst each other. “I had forgotten you are not bound by matter,” she spoke, stepping back in the cell and looking upwards. Around her the light-insects illuminated the cell walls but above she could see only black. She thrust her wings, careful not to extend them into the walls, and flew upward with the lights following her.

  As she rose the frost thickened to ice. Strange patterns were embedded within it. She hovered so that she could examine them and then realized the chamber’s ceiling was just above her. Julieth eyed the symbols in the ice, reaching out a finger to touch one before a light-insect flitted around her finger. No? she wondered. Are you trying to warn me?

  It was in that moment that her ears picked up the faintest of sounds below.

  click click click click click click click click click click

  She watched the stone floor and cell bars below her intently for motion.

  click click click click click click click click click click

  Moments passed.

  click click click

  Something metallic came through the cell bars. Cracks in its shell illuminated red and what she assumed was its head rotated, crimson eyes peering up at her. A panel in its back opened and something small moved out of it.

  Before Julieth could process what was happening, light beamed from the thing’s back, projecting Riad’s image on the ice sheen before her. “Vrax?” she allowed herself to drop, her heart beating rapidly as she stopped herself mid-fall and touched down to the cell’s floor.

  The bot was completely still for a moment, its glass eyes changing from red illumination to blue and then to a vibrant orange.

  “Where is Riad?” she asked. “What has happened to the others?”

  Vrax leapt for her before she could adjust, clasping on to the side of her calve and piercing its sharp legs through skin and into muscle. Intense pain burned through her as she dropped to the floor, clasping at its sides and trying to pry it off.

  Connection necessary for vision communication, it spoke in her thoughts.

  Julieth’s sight went dark and she began to see images of Riad, Ivanus and Bayne fighting Samuel. Andral’s body lay limp in the corner of the vision and globular blood splayed portions of the floor. Riad suddenly turned, his eyes dark. He fired at Ivanus and the vision went black, once more opening to real sight around her. Light-insects swirled around her and Vrax.

  Complete loss. Riad now possessed by Samuel. The bot withdrew its legs from her calf and leapt down. It held a limb up, sealing Julieth’s bleeding wounds with a molten metallic substance that quickly solidified.

  Julieth peered into the dark, hearing the moans of Gest’s people. “How did you escape? Why did you come?”

  It went to the bars, cutting through them with a laser as the smell of scorched metal permeated around them. “Connection sustained from prior contact with body. Vrax views location consistently. Assistance necessary to free Riad.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re in no position to free anyone.” She stepped forward in the cell and grabbed hold of the bar Vrax was working on. It had climbed to the top of the thing and was making the second cut to release it. As it cut through she pulled the bar away and laid it gently on the ground.

  “Vrax assists. Winged Woman reciprocates.” Its head rotated on its back, unmoving once it fixed its eyes on her.

  “If you get us out of this and rescue Gest’s people, then yes, I would owe you a debt and repay it.”

  The bot’s head rotated back around and it continued with the bars.

  Julieth hefted the next freed bar in her hands, feeling the frost on it melting with her touch. This is not enough weapon to defend myself and free Gest’s people. Will it even be enough to get me above ground so that I can search for something else? She clenched it, feeling the strength of the thing.

  Vrax freed another bar and she took it in her other hand. The opening was now large enough for her to fit through.

  “Position bars below.” Vrax instructed, clicking ove
r to the two that were already there.

  Julieth took the bars she held and placed them beside the others.

  The bot climbed up them and then pressed flat against the spherical tubes, heating them with its limbs until their forms liquefied, bubbling around it. Vrax then began to cool the molten, cutting lines in it as it hardened. Minute fibers extended out of the bot’s body, pressing within the form it created.

  “It can’t be,” Julieth spoke as she watched Vrax flip the object over and continue etching and pressing its fibers in the opposite side. One of the light-insects flew down, resting on it. Vrax moved to another, unworked pool of molten and Julieth kneeled, clasping the gun and bringing it up to analyze. It was exactly like the weapons Riad had given her to use. The switch to give the option of ultra-violet light was even at its side. “How…”

  Vrax clicked away from the second gun and Julieth picked it up with her other hand. “Vrax forges cybernetics and weaponry. Versatile Reaping Archetype Xtension bot.”

  She clicked the UV light on and off while pointing it to the ground to make sure it worked. Vrax skittered into the darkness beyond the cell and Julieth and the light-insects were left alone. Where is it going? She pondered the thing’s strange appearance. Something cold dripped on her back from above. Where from here? I am going to die before seeing light again. The bugs flew out before her and she put one foot in front of the other, walking in the darkness and eying empty cells to her sides.

  She walked a good distance before seeing other life, using her wings to keep her light-footed. Then, in a black cell beside her an animalistic moan sent shivers over her skin. She aimed her guns toward the sound and watched as the light-bugs swirled within the cell, dancing about a form with arms and legs. Its skin was pocked with fur and rashed and its bloodshot eyes were wild. She did not recognize it, but knew the beast was a man from Gest who was changing. It lumbered toward her, grunting, and then thrashed against its cell. A snout was beginning to form and push through the skin of its nose.

  “Save me,” it rasped. “I… I cannot think.” Sweat beaded on the flesh remaining on its skull and it reached an arm through the bars, grasping for her.

  Julieth moved back quickly. Her arm shook as she aimed at its skull. I would be doing it a favor. She fingered the trigger, about to fire, and then realized this thing still had a mortal soul and couldn’t take its life. “I will come back for you.” As soon as she spoke the light-insects swarmed back to her and all was dark around the thing once more.

  “Freeee meee!” it shouted, a guttural noise coming through. “Freeee meee!”

  There was a scratching noise after that and the sound of the creature’s whimpering. She hoped the thing would die there and she would not be forced to kill it in fighting later. Or that it will kill me.

  There were many like it as she moved through the passage. They did not speak to her and she did not look in their cells, but the noises coming from within told her they were all changing. And I was at the end of the passage with Ineal. If this is a holding area for our transformation, then why weren’t we infected? She thought back to when she had been bitten by a beast while fighting at Riad’s side. It had crippled her and the essences had tempted her, but she had emerged from darkness then as well and seemingly had no side effects. A revelation suddenly struck her. Ragoor said the essences couldn’t bond with the beast race when their planet was consumed. What if it works in reverse? What if I cannot be transformed by them because the essences are bonded with me?

  Something boomed in the tunnel’s distance, severing her thoughts, and Julieth instinctively beat her wings and lifted her feet from ground. The insects flew beneath their cover, taking away their illumination from anything in the distance that might be watching.

  Julieth used the natural airflow around her to glide unnoticed forward. Sometimes the tunnel’s roof would lower and she would have to adjust, or the side wall would curve in and she would do the same. Arms reached out of cells as she passed them, swiping at her wings as creatures growled. It seemed the further she progressed the more lost the creatures became.

  A woman’s scream struck through her and she touched ground, listening to the sounds of beasts tearing flesh and pounding against what sounded like metal. It’s like a fresh structure has fallen from above. In her mind she wanted the light-insects to move in the direction of the commotion and she watched them emerge from her wings and swarm the bodies of beasts beating against rusted walls pinned in the cavern. Ineal has somehow linked the insects with my mind, she realized.

  “Help us! Please, someone help!” a man shouted from behind the metal slabs.

  One of the beasts gripped its thick hands in a crack in the metal, slowly prying it outward. The creaking of the opening metal sent shivers through Julieth. She looked around for some illumination to indicate Vrax was somewhere nearby but she could see nothing.

  Static charged up her arms as she braced the guns in the beasts’ direction, pulling the triggers as electricity struck from their barrels. The beasts howled. One fell, its charred mass smoking as its limbs still clasped for something. The other that she had hit lunged for her and she charged its torso with a duel blast, charring through its guts.

  She clicked on the UV light in one of the weapons and watched as several beasts nearby began to transform back to humans when it touched them. She heard rock falling behind her and turned, igniting a beast leaping for her with light and a bolt of electricity, just before it punched against her, knocking her to the ground. It howled and moaned in pain as it clawed at stone near them, pulling itself away from her.

  “We are going to die!” a woman’s voice from behind the metal shrieked as beasts in the chamber leapt for Julieth and she rapidly stood, thrusting her wings and flying above them.

  There were five below her. She lit one with the light-gun and blasted its skull, then lit another with the light and blasted its chest as it dove away and transformed back to beast form. The creatures circled below.

  “We will have you. There is no escape. The Alpha will not allow it,” one of the beasts taunted.

  Julieth aimed at it, about to fire, and then was struck in the back by something large. She felt claws tear into her shoulders as she and the beast collided with the rusted metal frame, sliding down and pounding to the ground. A woman’s hand reached out of the hole in the metal and grabbed hers as she watched the beast looming down. It arched its back, its ribcage pressing through its chest and maw wide, and then thrashed down toward her.

  Electricity surged through the thing just as its head thumped against her shoulder. Her savior, Vrax, was clutching its skull with its legs. The beast rolled limply off of her and Vrax dislodged itself, skittering into the rust-wall structure behind them.

  Julieth’s heart beat heavy and she stood in an instant, illuminating each of the remaining four beasts with the light gun and individually picking them off as they ran for her.

  The smell of burnt hair permeated around her as she stood, sweaty and breathing heavily, but finally with a breath of time to allow her muscles relaxation. The light-insects swirled around her in a playful dance. How long do we have until more creatures arrive? she wondered. Surely we were heard. Of course these things make so much noise on their own that they may not even be suspicious. She turned and shone the light from her gun on the rusted walls. A woman’s eye and forehead were visible where the beast had torn open the metal.

  “Julieth, is that you?” the woman asked. There was calmness in her voice but Julieth could still tell her nerves were on edge. “Help us out of here. We were stuck on a ledge above for two days until one of those monsters dislodged us.”

  “Who…” Julieth began to ask and then realized she knew the voice from Gest, a neighbor she would bring fruit back to after picking it in the garden beyond the city walls. “Marlay? Is that you?”

  “Yes, thank goodness for you. I could never defend myself like that. We are going to die down here, aren’t we? Hailn is in here with me.”
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br />   “As soon as we see daylight above I’ll fly you both out of here and you can flee. We just have to survive until then. I’ll return though. I can’t leave our people down here to be tortured and turned into these creatures.” Julieth moved to the rusted metal slab, shining the light from her gun around its edges in hopes of finding a way to create a hole that Marlay and Hailn could climb or crawl out of.

  “What are they?” Hailn questioned, his worn and gashed face appearing in the hole.

  “I do not know truthfully, but I faced them before with Riad and Ivanus, the men I originally arrived in Gest with. Sunlight, or UV light, causes them to transform to human form. They infect others and turn them into what they are.” Julieth watched as Vrax climbed into the opening and began cutting away the metal with his legs. The bot then heated it and forced the opening wider.

  “That is horrible,” Marlay gasped. “And you would defend us even when we barely allowed you in our city? If it wasn’t for Ineal…”

  “I know how it was.” Julieth took Marlay’s hand and helped her out of the cramped space.

  “Your people were only focused on survival then. You accepted me later. I am one of you now. I will save every man and woman that can be saved from these things.” She wiped sweat from her brow, amazed that it existed with the ice-chill around them. “I will destroy this madness or die trying.”

  Marlay and Julieth each took one of Hailn’s calloused hands and pulled the man from the shell. Metal bent and moaned as he stepped beside them. His face was soiled and thin.

  Julieth looked from Hailn to the darkness, listening to the baying of the creatures in the tunnels’ distance. Ragoor, where are you? Do you lie in wait for me? She thought of the were-beast again that she invited amongst their fold. Did she bring this upon them because of her open heart, her belief in good in everything? I have allowed myself to trust too much since meeting Ineal. She smelled the air, the dirty scent of wet animal fur that permeated around them. Then she looked above, hoping that she would see sky so that she could fly Marlay and Hailn to freedom. At first she saw nothing. Then her eyes adjusted. “The belt of Moodar,” she breathed the name of the constellation as she focused on the distant lights. Moonlight also faintly illuminated the opening of earth above. “Clasp onto my arms.” She held them out, spreading her wings wide and away to give them space to take hold.