Chapter 14 #3
"Problem. Big problem," Harris exclaimed. "Extraction field unstable. Energy matrix destabilizing!"
“What did you touch?” Lunar demanded. The configurations were worse than before. Whoever rode the bridge to the ship would be in for a painful journey.
Harris gestured helplessly.
“What’s wrong?” Poppy asked.
Lunar felt his world crumbling. He wanted so badly to stay with her. To sweep her away into the night and never look back.
Eclipse attempted to expand his energy but immediately retracted in pain. His body temporarily dispersed before trying to regain cohesion.
“He can’t do it,” Lunar whispered.
“Let’s run. All of us,” Poppy said. “If it’s not safe…”
“I’m sorry.” Lunar touched her cheek.
“Lunar, wait—” Poppy began.
"Stop, you're not strong enough," Lunar ordered Eclipse, who was trying again to expand his energy. A look of understanding passed between them. They both understood the problem. "I can stabilize it with my shadow energy. I'll have to go up."
"But you wanted to stay," Eclipse said.
"As do you if given the choice," Lunar replied. He felt Eclipse’s bond to Rowan. "But one of us must go. Your essence is too depleted for the journey. The council needs to know about Milano's technology."
"Can't Harris adjust it?" Poppy asked desperately.
Harris shook his head. "No. No. No."
“Lunar, please,” Poppy begged. “We need more time.”
Lunar led her away from the others. Her warmth reached for his darkness as it always had, the resonance between them vibrating at frequencies that defied measurement.
"One of us has to go. Eclipse is too weak.” He stopped short of saying Harris had screwed up. "Without intervention, the field will create a micro-singularity that will scatter them across dimensional planes."
“I don’t know what that means,” Poppy said.
"I must go," he said simply, his shadow essence reaching to brush her cheek.
"I know you think that," she whispered, tears tracking down her face.
"I think it because it must be," Lunar tried to explain.
A loud thud sounded behind him.
"Is he…?" Rowan began.
Harris was on the ground, holding his head. "Pudding."
"He's fine," Lunar dismissed.
Harris stood and stubbled in circles.
“If one of us doesn’t control the energy, the ship will be lost,” Lunar explained. “Solar, Dani, all those aboard, will die.”
“Can’t Harris…?” she tried to argue.
"A Galaxy Brides trainee cannot deliver critical intelligence," Lunar denied. "The council will dismiss him without verification from an authorized entity."
"Solar?"
“Someone needs to return with Solar. My people will not trust him if he’s alone,” Lunar persisted. "My presence will help balance his. We will both be needed if Eclipse is not there to represent neutrality."
Poppy’s eyes filled with tears. Her mouth opened to argue, but no sound came out. He felt her pain like a physical blow, her energy signature spiking with distress. She wrapped her arms around him. He felt her tremble. "You're saying you have to go."
"Yes." He hated that he was the reason for the look of sadness on her face. He tried to find the words, but human language still did not have the capacity to explain all he felt.
"But you'll come back, right?" she whispered.
"The council will require detailed testimony. As a Shadow Intelligence Specialist, my report carries authority."
"That's not an answer," Poppy insisted.
The helicopter sounds grew dangerously close, beating against the air like phaser blasts.
"I will return if possible," Lunar told Poppy. He didn't want to lie to her. But these emotions inside of him were not something he could put words to. Earth did not carry adequate phrases to make her understand. "Council protocols for intelligence matters are extensive."
"How long?" she asked, her words rushed as is she felt the seconds ticking away from them.
"Unknown."
Poppy's eyes glistened with tears, but her voice remained steady. "Then I'm coming with you."
"Not possible," Harris interjected. "Human physiology is not compatible with the extraction field. Would cause catastrophic molecular disruption!"
"He means you'd die," Lunar translated gently. "That I cannot allow."
"Fine," Poppy said to Lunar, her voice breaking. "Go and come back to me."
Lunar's shadow form condensed, becoming more defined as he made his decision.
"You have altered me in ways I cannot fully calculate," Lunar said, allowing his essence to partially envelop her, one last embrace before separation. "The shadow territories taught that connection was weakness. You have shown me it is strength."
"Come back to me," she repeated, her hands passing through his darkness, creating ripples of sensation that would echo in his essence for eternity. "Promise me."
"Whatever it takes, I will return," he vowed, the words carrying the weight of an oath. What he didn't add was that if he did not return, it would be because he died trying, which was a real possibility with his people. "Whether in one Earth cycle or ten, I will find a way."
"Pudding!" Harris yelled, diving to the ground.
Eclipse again tried to expand his energy to help stabilize the devices but couldn’t do it.
"Eclipse," Lunar admonished, "you must remain. Your twilight energy is too weak for the extraction. And Milano has already studied your energy patterns. They can't learn more from you that will harm our people. But if they were to find Solar or I…"
Eclipse's twilight energy pulsed with understanding, not needing him to finish stating the obvious. "If you go back, the council may not permit your return."
If it came to that, he wouldn’t ask for permission.
"You have beaten Milano once," Lunar said. "You are best equipped to evade them."
"The threat must be communicated properly," Eclipse said. "The weapons they have developed, their knowledge of our physiology, and their intentions toward interstellar expansion. These represent a potential danger to Zorveya in the not so distant future."
Lunar moved closer to Eclipse. "Promise me you will protect Poppy until I return."
Eclipse's twilight essence pulsed weakly. "I promise. For as long as it takes."
"And tell her..." Lunar hesitated, his shadow patterns swirling chaotically as he tried to articulate what he had never been taught to express. There was so much he wanted to share with her. So much he wanted to explain. But he was out of time. "Tell her everything I could not."
Eclipse nodded.
Lunar pulled Poppy aside. “I must leave now.”
She shook her head. The helicopter crested the ridge, drawing her gaze.
She grabbed onto him. “You come back to me.”
He wanted to promise, but he the truth was his path was uncertain. “You are…”
Damn the human’s for their lack of words. How could he say everything that was inside him?
"I…" Poppy looked helplessly at him.
They were out of time. He needed to leave.
"I wish there was more time," Lunar answered with one last caress against her body. He felt her shiver. The urge to sweep her into the night was almost too much to resist.
"Go." She nodded, though she tried to hold on to him as he stepped back.
Lunar's shadow essence contracted painfully. Turning to Eclipse, he said, "It has been educational serving with you, Diplomat Eclipse."
"And with you, Intelligence Specialist Lunar. Tell the council what happened here. Tell them Earth has potential beyond their imagining. And tell them I have found my true function at last.”
Lunar nodded.
"Protect her," he told Eclipse, gesturing toward Poppy before he let his body shift into darkness to merge with the pre-dawn shadows.
Lunar flowed toward the extraction array, his shadow essence pouring into the devices. He forced himself to act. Leaving was the hardest thing he’d ever done.
The energy matrix responded to him, and the discordant patterns harmonized. The dimensional bridge began to form, reality folding inward at the center of the array. His darkness pinpointed Solar's distant light waiting for him.
As Milano forces poured from vehicles at the clearing's edge, Lunar allowed himself one final look at Poppy. Her face was tear-streaked but determined, and her eyes fixed on his fading form. Her energy signature was already permanently etched into his essence.
The extraction field enveloped him completely, reality distorting painfully around his shadow form. As dimensions shifted and Earth fell away, Lunar held onto one thought with all his remaining consciousness.
He would return to her. Even if he had to tear through the fabric of reality itself. He would see Poppy again.
The extraction field collapsed, and darkness claimed him.