Solara 27
The ship rumbles with the drone of hoverpads before the shuddering booms of thrusters kick on.
My body presses into the floor and slides backward, into a wall.
Cold dread mixes with my weakness. We are leaving Planet Voiant behind.
I have been captured with the souls, and I hear no sound of gunfire.
No one is fighting to stop us, which makes me think no one knows what’s happening.
Lead fills my bones, making me too heavy for my quivering muscles to move. Lifting my head to look around is an impossible task. Still, I try to scan for an escape. I don’t find one, but I get the crates of souls in my sights.
I manage a glimpse into the cargo area behind me.
The walls are lined with glassy boxes, divided into a grid of compartments, each one containing an orb of light.
Some are brighter than others. Many are deep gold like Ulian, some more copper in color, others more like Onidus in white gold. There are thousands.
I hate to think of what Nebs will do with power like that. Beside me, in the back, a Neb sits with a crate in his lap, poking the orbs and laughing when they shake and try to get away from him.
Anger storms through my tired body. My vision isn’t clear, but I see enough to want to rip the crate from his hands. I blink and feel something bump my shoulder. Gold light fizzles out around the crate that tumbles to the floor beside me.
The Neb swears and gets up. He stalks toward me.
Shit! I try to push the crate into the cargo area with my hands but it won’t budge.
So I shove it with an assist from my Vibrance.
He stops and watches the crate slide across the floor and into the room with the others.
Desperate to keep him out, I pry the shield generator from my suit and fling it at the crate.
The shield opens and seals off the room.
He curls his lip when he tries to push inside the golden shield and can’t. The mist of my own blood stains my lips. I can taste it when I grin and give him a middle finger. I don’t think I’m long for life anyway, not after what I just did with my synthetic power.
The Neb stalks up to me, cocks his head, and tags my cheek with a fist.
I forget the universe exists.
A soft, muddled awareness of pressures in my wrists and ankles seeps in.
My chest aches like it has been carved open, and breathing takes effort.
I blink my eyes open to a dark room that doesn’t move, not in the gravity sense.
There’s no momentum either, like I am in space.
I am certain I am no longer in space. But I am suspended, floating… hanging.
The world where we’ve landed is bright. It shines through a small window to my right. When I try to shield my eyes from it, I discover my arms and legs have been tied to posts at my sides, and I’m hanging from them by ropes that have stretched me into an X.
Before me is a crude door made of metal and wood, like something out of ancient human history. Hanging my head back, I try to see what’s behind me, but catch a face looking down at me instead.
The floating cloud of tattered threads around the warped grin and gaping black eyes startle me. Adrenaline heats my stomach. That is my mistake.
The banshees of the Nebulous realm feed on fear. This one screams and races toward me, passing over my body like a fading cloud of cold black powder. Then it swirls by again, wailing and screeching and pelting my eardrums with a horrid racket.
I am not afraid. They cannot harm me.
I am not afraid.
I close my eyes and force out a breath. But I am. I just try to calm the panic and think about my situation. More of the spirits come out of the woodwork, joining in the cacophony of voices, stirring the air in the room into a whirlwind of black, smoky threads and gaunt, eyeless faces.
I survived this before.
But Delsfein was different. I had my father with me. Then I had Onidus. Here, I am alone.
My heart beats faster. Blood pounds in my ears. I tug at my ropes, but I cannot escape. And it brings me back to Tasia and Lashina and my mother’s manipulative ways.
Frustration covers some of my fear. The spirits’ volume fades.
I cling to that progress and focus on my frustration, shouting things at them with my hoarse voice that I always wanted to with my sisters but didn’t because my father taught me better.
“Is that all you’ve got, you big spoiled, cock-sucking, trust fund pussies?
Fuck off! All of you! You just piss me off! You selfish, entitled, bitches!”
The spirits crash into each other, then scatter.
“Yeah! How do you like the screaming of my dimension?” Veins rise in my neck with the effort of my shouts. “Ahhhhh!”
Silence overcomes the room. The spirits have slipped themselves through the cracks and left.
Heavy footsteps thunder from far away, getting closer. Metal clacks. The door swings open to two Nebs with guns.
They mutter to each other in their language, something about what they plan to do with me, especially after I barricaded one of their cargo loads. But I’m too busy appreciating the silence.
One Neb approaches. He lifts my chin with the muzzle of his rifle and speaks again with his cohort. “What is it?”
“A human.”
He grunts. “Hairless. Disgusting. We cannot breed with these. I would not.”
I lift my head and stare up at him. I studied Neb after I arrived back on Earth. I would never let them have the language advantage over me again. “Shukka na-click, rez-tok-na.” To the best of my knowledge, it essentially means fuck off, ugly.
His pale blue-white irises find me. “You speak our language.”
“Enough.”
“Then tell me how you wield Isonian power in such a pathetic skin suit.”
I curl my lip in disgust when he pokes my stomach with the rifle. “It is not about the power. It’s about the control one has over their mind and their will.” Or so Gairol said.
“What about this?” he taps the orb swirling on my chest, exposed beneath my fragmented exo-suit.
I don’t respond this time.
“It looks artificial,” he tells his cohort. “This is what we need to replicate if we want to harness the souls,” the other replies.
“Then we should take it to the gammalon for modification of the helarina.”
The Neb in the doorway turns around to shout something down the hallway.
The Neb before me unties me. “Try anything, and I’ll kill you.”
My legs give out. “I prefer death.”
He picks me by the throat and sets me on my feet. When he reaches for my harness, I know I am not giving him the one thing that could render them capable of using the souls. So I use the only weapon I can quickly find and bite his hand.
He shouts and staggers away. In his frantic move, his rifle goes off.
I see the pulsing light barreling toward my chest. It is only a split second before the force knocks me backward, into the far wall.
Pressure explodes in my chest and back as I smash into stone and pile up on the floor.
Fiery pain soars through me, radiating out from my chest, crawling through my bones, muscle, and veins like a hot poison that sucks the life from my body.
“What did you do?” the Neb from the doorway demands.
“She bit me! Are there medicines for human diseases?”
Lucky me, I’m up on my Madmyn and Neb immunizations. Though I’m not sure it matters now.
The other Neb storms past him and to where I lie, slumped against a pillar, struggling to breathe, blinking through the smoke of my shattered suit and armor. Blood coats my chest. The smell of burnt flesh rises from my wounds. “You’ve ruined it. She’s going to die now. Great job, idiot.”
He stalks back, slaps the other Neb in the head, then angrily motions him out of the room before closing my door and leaving me to die alone.
I don’t want to die.
I want to see Onidus again.
I close my eyes, sense the hot spots, open my eyes, and do my best to focus on my chest. But my vision is too blurry with tears from the pain. I have to do it by feel.
Slowly, I crawl my fingers over my chest, remove the fractured suit panels and harness, and then start digging for the embedded pieces. Blood pools in divots. My flesh burns.
I don’t want to lose him.
I want to go home to him.
Tearing off bits of fabric from my destroyed shirt, I pack them into the worst wounds. The scorching feeling grows stronger, until I can’t take it anymore, and wriggle so I lie flat on the floor to ease the pain.
I want to hold him again.
I want to feel his arms around me.
I am not Isonian. I asked for more than I was ready for.
Stars, forgive me.
I squeeze the tears from my eyes, look up at the wood ceiling, and hate the idea of that being the last thing I see. So I close my eyes and envision Onidus, his scarred skin, like mine, his augmented eye, and that smirk that he used to hide his pain.
This kind of pain.
I wanted to help. And now I am dying in a Neb camp, and I have no idea where Onidus is, if Oriclen will live, or what the Nebs are going to do with the soulfire orbs of Isonians.
The memory of Onidus holding me bleeds through the pain. I bask in it, hang onto it, and wish I had chosen to be his mate instead. But I am hard-headed and determined like my father was. I wanted to be here because this was more important than what I wanted for myself.
Echelon, if you’re listening, send Onidus my love. Keep him safe. And please don’t let him see me like this.
My thoughts fade into emptiness filled with only white hot light. I linger in it, wonder if this is the end, and I am going to Heaven. Maybe I am going to Echelon. But neither seems right.
I am no angel. I swear way too much.
Soft sounds of rain and thunder rouse me. I think back to Delsfein, to playing in the streets with the other children and how we ran for cover because when it rained there, it dumped hard.
Solara… Someone calls to me.
I roll my head toward the doorway. An angel stands there, in gold and black, with skin radiant as a supernova. He hurries to me, looks me over, then braces my face. “Solara.”
“Did I get accepted?”
“To what?”
“Heaven?” I rasp. “You are an angel, right?”
He leans forward and kisses me. When he lifts his head, I see one white eye and one storming with colors.
“Oni…” I cough blood onto his beautiful cheek. “S-sorry.”
I try to move a hand to wipe it away, but am distracted by the strange fizzling orange color of it. Why is my blood not red?
“I can’t stay. I have to go. There are many in danger here, where you are.” Onidus hovers a hand over my chest, producing a soothing warm light that makes the pain fade. “I have to go fight… I need you to do the same.”
You want me to fight, like this?
He lifts a hand and whips it back, sending an angry ball of light roaring through the door. Two Nebs fall back in charred pieces. Furious light whirls around his body.
“Yes, Solara. You must find your way to Viriden’s ship. There is a war raging outside. I cannot take you. There are many more to rescue. I still love you. Please understand that I need you to fight.”
A shield ignites around me in a golden field that storms from my side. Onidus has given me a medical shield. It will only last for a short time, depending on how much abuse it takes.
Get up, Solara.
It isn’t my voice or Onidus’ this time.
Get up.
It is Delsfein.
I get my feet under me and lumber heavily to the doorway. Bodies are everywhere: Nebs and those of another species I’ve not encountered. They are smaller than Nebs, with medium-length brown fur, short claws, and eyes like emeralds.
I stagger through the hallways, staying out of view whenever possible. But my body is weak, and I end up crawling on my hands and knees. I pick up a handgun and keep going.
When I reach the exit to the world outside, I stop. Isonian ships have landed apart from the Nebs. Others fly overhead, engaged in fiery exchanges with enemy ships. The sky roars with gunfire and engines.
Ground forces shout at each other and fire. Some moan in pain. Hovercarts race by, then explode into fire and fragments.
Among the soldiers in the field, I spot familiar gray beings with black eyes. Earth used to think they were evil and just wanted to take us and probe us. But those are the Nocorra. Not the Delsfein, who were trying to ask for help. And now they’re here to return the favor.
Onidus’ mission was a success.
I spot Viriden’s gleaming ship across the smoking ground. The idea of crossing the battlefield in my condition is not one with odds I like. I step outside, catch movement to my right, and fire on instinct. A Neb falls. But so do I. The gun kicks hard, and I am still recovering.
Dust stirs up on the ground. Hoverengines thrum nearby. A shimmering gold shield encapsulates me. Metal feet set down, and a ramp lowers.
“Solara, please hurry. I am not supposed to be here,” a familiar voice says.
“ION?” I get up and crawl onto the ramp. It begins closing and lifting me into the sky before I’m fully inside. ION flies me away from the battle. The rapid fire of rotary guns rumbles through the cabin just before the ramp seals.
“Solara, my scanners say you are deeply injured.”
“Yes,” I wheeze. “But Onidus is still on the surface. Losing him would be far worse.”
“Please stabilize yourself in the med bay.”
“Thank you, ION. I really, really mean that.” I hold my stomach as I make my way through the ship, clinging to every handhold.
“You are welcome, Solara.” ION banks far out and away from the battle. Scanners flicker on the screens. “But my name isn’t ION.”
I look around, certain this is Onidus’ ship.
“I am Ember Aserin. I used to be on Onidus’ team. I remember now. He tried to save me when I made a fatal error. He brought me back out of guilt.”
I haul myself into the medical room and reach up for the scanner. “I don’t think it is completely guilt.”
“What makes you say that?”
I pass the device over my body. “The way he talks to you. I think he missed you. And I think when you died, it left a hole in his Vibrance.”
“How do you know?”
I assess the scanner and can’t quite relate to what I’m seeing.
There’s a mixture of fragments and Vibrance buried in my chest. “Because that’s how I felt about every Delsfein who died beside me.
I miss Ha’ah, Nu’li’ah, Co’rah, all of them.
If I could bring them back, I would, too. He chose you for his ship.”
“You’re saying he wanted to keep me around?”
“Yes.”
ION flies faster. “Hang on. I am not as delicate with maneuvers. But I will get our leader back. Promise.”