Solara 21 #2
“He was a freak of nature.” I catch the box. “How he kept working on just coffee and one meal a day, I do not know.”
I find a packet and free the tablet, then stick it under Onidus’ tongue. “Sorry. It might taste like hot lemon-lime metal.”
He sucks in a breath and sits up in a panic. Onidus’ skin glistens with sweat. “Fucking hell.” He works the tablet around in his mouth with a grimace. “What is that?”
I give him the quickest rundown I can.
“So you’re saying the more I do, the cooler I’ll feel?” he asks.
“Our best guess,” Chris offers.
He runs a hand through his short hair. “At least it’s nothing unfamiliar. Put me to work?”
“We actually need to go.” I study his eyes, awake and looking at me, try to remember this moment, one more with him alive, and wonder how many more I’m going to get.
“Where?” Chris asks.
“Lumen Command. The Augurs know what happened, and they’ll want to speak with us. The Delsfein told me right as Onidus was flooded with their...power.”
Chris takes me by a shoulder. “What do you mean they talk to you?”
I squint at him. “I don’t understand what you’re asking.
They talk to me. They always have, since Dad and I first arrived.
I learned their language. Dad did too. Onidus wasn’t there at the same time.
His family arrived later to help fortify defenses.
He can’t hear their voices through the portal. But I can.”
“You talked to them through the portal?” Chris tenses.
“Yes!”
He rips open a drawer and then another, scrambling through the pens, wrenches, and flashlights. Then he grabs one with a strange blue light. He steadies my head with his callused hand and runs the flashlight over my eyes. As he does, a moving network of strings lights up in my vision.
“No… Solara...” He staggers back and covers his mouth like he doesn’t want to tell me what he saw.
Ulian gets up, takes the light, and does the same. “Primordial permathreads? In a human?”
“She was exposed to a natural portal without shielding,” Chris mutters. “Synthetic portals do not create this mutation.”
“Mutation?” I ask. “Am I going to sprout extra arms or turn green or what?”
“You can hear them. Then you can see them.” Chris clutches his head.
“Eventually, they start to drive you crazy, and you start having trouble interacting with reality because they’re always in the way.
So you alienate friends, have to quit, move away from everything you know and love, shield your home with protective symbols that ward off the extra-dimensionals.
And Delsfein aren’t the only ones out there.
Ksion have ancestors, along with others. ”
Ulian tilts his head, then flashes the light at Chris’ eyes. Chris squints and shies away. “So that’s your story?”
Chris throws me a pained glance. “I didn’t think she was affected. Her father and I worked together on missions. I always felt responsible for her, so I kept her away from them. But they must’ve been exposed upon arrival.”
Ryz rests a hand on Onidus’ shoulder. “Well, it’s time you come out of this hole and help. Unless you’d like their Bond to fall apart like the Delsfein, our people, and those on the fringe at risk of banshee harassment.”
Chris slumps down in a chair. “I was just going to get wasted and kick my busted thruster until I finally got it put back together. I didn’t expect this.”
“Please.” I walk to him. “Dad never gave up. He fought and died on Delsfein. Onidus is, like Ryz said, Bonded to me. And he’s my closest friend.
Isonians are always out there, deep in the heart of the war like Amphirans, Drathious, and Aegeris.
They need help. They need us humans to step up, or this war is going to use them up. Then we’ll be in worse trouble.
“Don’t let the voices or the Nebs or Myndrous or anyone else keep you from what matters. The way I see it, a meaningless but long life isn’t worth it, but a day fighting and dying for something that means something is.”
Chris barely laughs, looks away with a shake of his head, then drags his gaze back to mine. “You are so much like your father. I’m so glad you turned out like him and not your mother.”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” I acidly reply.
“Right.” After a deep sigh, he walks to a wall in the back. A screen shimmers through the rock. “Everybody hang on. I’m going to break us free.”
He taps the screen, punches in a code, and scans his face. The entire cavern shakes and rumbles like vast, angry thunder. Trees outside disappear. The floor pushes upward. Engines kick up dust as a seal screen pops to life. The entire mountainside rises, taking us and the Isonian ships with us.
“Shaking off the dust.” Chris taps something else, and the hangar closes up with metal doors. “Come on then. Onidus, I’ve got work you can do as we head for your fleet.”
I look out a window I didn’t know was in the hallway as I follow him up to a rocky doorway that fizzles into a bulkhead door that rises and exposes a cockpit with seating for twenty. “Son of a bitch. You hid this from the whole time?”
Onidus leans close to me as we walk. His hand brushes my low back, though I don’t think it’s for my benefit as much as it is for his reassurance that he’s still here with me. “A good soldier never gives away all of his secrets.”
Ryz laughs in shock. “You revived an old Federation battle cruiser. What is this? Looks like a Tachyon Sprinter.”
Chris beams back at him. “You know Earth ships?”
Ryz shrugs. “A bit fascinated, no offense, by how a species can be so advanced in ships and weapons without Vibrance. What kind of engines you got in this relic?”
I walk alongside Onidus, eyeing the shimmering symbols in his body. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I ate way too much candy. I’m hot, jittery, and my core doesn’t feel great.”
Chris motions Onidus into the maintenance bay. “My engines haven’t run in a long time. They need to be cleaned out and have the dust burned off. Do you know how to do that?”
“Yes. Is my ship secure?”
“All three of your Stingers have been locked in for transport.” Chris motions me up to the front of the ship.
I snag Onidus’ hand, draw him to me, and kiss his scarred lip. “I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll stay with him,” Ulian says.
“Thanks.”
Chris sits in the pilot’s seat and motions me to the copilot’s seat. “Ryz, could you run a check on the munitions bays? I want to see if our defense systems that have been buried need any repairs. We cannot go into battle with rusty guns.”
“You got it.” Ryz checks the map on the wall, then excitedly walks down a different passage.
Chris draws the chip from his pocket. “You want to know what this is?”
“If it’s relevant.”
“It is, more than you know.”