Chapter 12 - The Hirophant
Location: Raven's Nest Shipyards â€" Terra
Diamond was paralysed in fear as a naked human woman emerged from the chamber that she was held in, there were tubes that protruded into her neck, arms and hands, making him jump when they snapped off and she collapsed onto the floor in front of him.
She was silent...
Diamond noted that her body was beautiful, her long blonde hair seemed to shimmer next to her pale, pure skin. However one piece of technology caught his interest, it was a coronet that was placed on her head, it seemed to be just a normal piece of decoration but
Diamond had observed Astra and the President talking before about how they had used a "brainwave modifier" to control her... she was just a helpless pawn in their sick little game.
He reached out and grabbed it, feeling the cold metal on his hands and watching her intently for any sign of life, pulling hard he managed to pry it off her head, falling backs he grabbed the coronet in his hands. On top, it looked like a normal crystal tiara but the sinister part was inside, the tubes on the bottom moved like snakes desperately trying to cling to Diamond's arm.
Giving a disgruntled and disgusted look, he threw it in the refuse bin in a corner of the room. He had never witnessed technology like that before, it was clear that it had not already been of Terran design. Kestra gave a slight moan as she tried to get up slowly, she became encased in a pure white light that threw Diamond back, making him cover his eyes.
When Diamond looked again, he noticed that the human form of Kestra was gone, and now, before him lay Kestra as he had seen her in the isomorphic projection that he had witnessed on the ship. What had happened to her? Why could she change form at will? These were some of the questions that were going through Diamond's mind as he watched her stir from her slumber.
Kestra, in her Echidna form, had long green hair and large green eyes, she had a small jaw with a button black nose. Her body was slim and slender, her tail was green, jagged and small. She got up, revealing her large chest with breasts that made Diamond blush slightly. Not because he was attracted to them, but because he was embarrassed.
"What... where?" asked Kestra, she had a soft but strong voice which would have been needed considering that she was an ex-commander of a ship. "Easy!.. now..." said Diamond helping her to her feet, when Kestra had fully opened her eyes, she looked around at the lab that she was in, she noticed that finally for the first time since her awakening, her mind was empty, free from the Terran influence over her. "Th..the voices... are gone..." Diamond looked at her confused but then suddenly understood what she meant. "How much can you remember..?" he asked, still cautious of her.
"Just about everything... it was like... um... looking through a mirror... being able to see myself doing it... but not being able to control it..." she said with honesty and confusion.
"But... I have one hell of a headache..."
"Yeah...?" smiled Diamond. "What was that thing that they were using on you?"
Kestra looked up at Diamond, she studied him, to her, he seemed incredibly weedy, he could not be in the military because he simply did not have the build for such a profession. She guessed that he was probably a scientist or an innocent that got dragged into this by mistake, she decided to go with this partly because she did not feel strong enough to fight anyway. "Its a little piece of tech" she sat back, against one of the workstations. "called a "brainwave modifier", its Dark Collective technology... I'm not that sure what Terra was doing with it..."
Diamond looked at Kestra confused. "Dark collective?" he tried to sound intellectual but failed miserably, not even understanding what the hell they were. Kestra stared back at him, as she spun round and checked the computer console behind her, accessing the systems like she was a professional with this new technology. "Well..." she said tapping the buttons, she knew that in this future, Terrans had no idea what was really out there in the galaxy. "There are two sets of "gods" out there right...? for want of a better word...?" Diamond shook his head, still not even knowing about that.
"Alright then..." sighed Kestra, she checked that room was secure. For the moment it appeared that there was nobody about in this section of the station. "This is gonna take a lil time to explain." She started pressing buttons, taking in the data feeds but also talking to the ever curious Diamond at the same time. "Well... about tweny thousand years ago, there were these beings called humans, they are a race that consider themselves "evolved" from us anthropomorphics... snobby race... don't trust em'... but basically, a group of humans grew up on a world called Atlantia in the Pegasus Galaxy right... you following me?" Kestra looked back to see Diamond nod, ever so slightly confused. "Right... well... these humans became more advanced then any other race in the galaxy, they sent their people out all over the universe to search for intelligent life... well a couple ended up on Earth where they made a country called Atlantis..." Diamond was about to cut in to ask if they were alright talking about this when they really should have been getting off the station but Kestra put her hand up to stop him. "Well the Atlantis peeps were not a big hit on Earth and they were chased off, however a scientist called Galladia developed some sort of stone, called Orichalcum that is able to transmute thought into matter and all that shit..." she said, pressing more buttons and taking a stop of a breath. "Well being selfish and human, blah, blah, blah, she used the stone for evil and tried to kill off all the other Atlantians... by which time of course, they had learned ascension, in other words they were omnipotent... well... Galladia got in, they all started fighting and most of them died, the survivors managed to capture Galladia's soul and split it into a seal of the three swords Galladia created."
"Fascinating" said Diamond who was completely bewildered by this. "But what has that got to do with my original question?"
"Alright!" shouted Kestra in annoyance. "I'm getting there horsie boy... now... the Dark Collective were created by Galladia as sort of well... organic machines, they are capable of well... "rewiring" both living and technology....but I thought we'd wiped them all out..."
Diamond was almost completely confused from what he had just heard about everything but he still had no idea why he was here and why specifically Kestra was here... it was all hopeless confusion.
"We're at Raven's Nest then?" said Kestra as Diamond poked his long head up. "Well... I'm really surprised that the Asgard did not destroy this... well... I suppose we better get off this floating junk yard..."
Kestra climbed to her feet and looked at the bewildered horse that was in front of her. She ran her fingers through her hair. "Is the new Tigris-Class battleship still docked her?"
Diamond watched her inquisitive face, not knowing exactly what was going on but through a method of logical deduction he presumed that she meant the new type of ship which was half completed in the docking bay. "Yes" he said, looking back at Kestra and picking up his rifle, he was still shaken up from the death of Lance and the murder of that young officer which he had to do in order to escape.
"What is it?" asked Kestra before the door to the room was blasted open and several commando burst into the room, all of different species and began shooting at the two. Diamond and Kestra all dived behind different computer consoles with bullets ricocheting over their heads.
"Hmph!" said Kestra as she looked from where she was to the frightened horse who was crouched behind the computer beside her. "Looks like the welcoming committee has come out for us... a little late... slide your rifle across the floor if your not gonna use it!"
Diamond was paralysed by fear, he did not want to do anything, he just sat there amongst the gun-shots flying over his head. He covered his ears, over the last few days he had watched good people die and for some reason he survived. Maybe this was his time... but he was not prepared for that. The horse looked at the rifle beside him, and saw Kestra calling to him to pass it but he still did not want to move. Time stood still for him as he made up his mind.
"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?"
"I... I... can't do it!" whined Diamond until he picked up the strength to grab the rifle beside him, he leant against the computer during a break of the bullets. "Here" he shouted, throwing the rifle at Kestra who grabbed it and poked her head up, with an acknowledging nod at Diamond.
Kestra prepped the rifle with military precision, she realised that the safety was on which meant that Diamond could not have caused the decompressive explosion that had killed the President and Astra. So what had killed them then?
Kestra shot up from behind the computer to return fire, but all the commandos were on the floor dead, in their place was a familiar wolfian who glared at them. "Pigs!" he spat. Diamond thought he had heard a ghost, someone who was dead coming back to haunt him. He shot up from behind the computer and gasped.
"LANCE!" he smiled and ran to him, he grabbed him, hugging him close to his skin. He knew that he never wanted to loose him again, he was beginning to think that maybe there was something more there then just feelings of friendship. "But... I... I... don't understand?
You died..."
Lance just smiling and held Diamond closer to him, he returned the feeling that Diamond was giving him. There was affection there that was more than friendship but this was not the time. "I did die... well... I died from the poisoning but you did shock my body back into the right pattern and I woke up wondering where you are... that was quite a kill on that guy that you pulled."
Diamond felt bad enough about having to kill someone so young, he really did not want to be reminded of it. He just simply smiled at the comment however when he looked further into Lance's eyes he could see that something had changed him as well. His personality seemed different somehow but that just made him all the more attractive. The old Lance seemed extremely fragile while this one seemed more full of confidence and optimism, death was obviously a release for him, somehow it seemed probable that his whole experience had changed him for the better.
"This reunion is touchin' but we gotta get outta here!" said Kestra interrupting the moment in which Diamond and Lance shared pure bliss. Lance took his hands off Diamond and then turned to face Kestra. "and who are you?" he asked, his muzzle slightly open defensively.
"Kestra Valentine... formerly in the employ of the Terran Military but... the pay was lousy so I quit" she beamed at Lance. Lance smiled back. "Well ya know that... um... isomorphic projection on your ship told us to kill you?"
"Oh that thing... I never could program it right... I wanted people to "cuddle" me, not kill me" laughed Kestra as she checked over the rifle. "Now...if we can get to the Tigris, it's possible that we can escape..."
Diamond sounded a note of caution "But that thing only looks half finished..."
"Oooooh" scoffed Kestra as she walked to the door, checking over the corpses of the Commandos that had burst in the room. "What's a few missing hull plates... you should have seen the Valkyrie when I had it... by the end of its term, it was more then a mess then that, horsie boy."
"Well... I took the liberty of disabling the station's security feed... hope nobody minds..." said Lance, holding a chip in his hand that he had removed from the computer.
"Not at all" said Kestra and she motioned for everyone to leave the room.
Location: Raven's Nest Shipyard â€" Central Command Office
A figure sat at the table, watching the power flow monitors, he could not be made out very well from the darkness in this huge room with only a little light coming in from the massive window overlooking Terra behind him. His shadow was advanced and complicated, he appeared to have some sort of appendages attached to his back and a very long nuzzle. He spoke in a gentle but darker voice.
"Establish Contact"
A massive screen dropped down from the top of the room illuminating a woman of pure light whose beauty was seen by rare mortals. It was Lady Odin, the Asgardian who had contacted Eclypse to give him his mission to Silmeria. Odin looked beautiful in the soft white light that was placed behind her.
"Do you have something for me?" she commanded. The shadow just sat there, perfectly still and spoke darkly. "We have a slight problem at Raven's Nest, Kestra seems to have escaped..."
"What!?" said Odin looking over at the screen. "But she was supposed to be secured in your maximum containment facil..."
The shadow interrupted her. "If I may so beg the god's permission, there is a reason why we let her go."
Odin crossed her arms while standing there annoyed by what the shadow had said to her.
"Explain yourself then. Ada has already secured Silmeria, we have set the whole plan in motion."
The shadow carefully stared at her, he lent forward revealing his face for the first time, he was a brilliant white horse that smiled as he watched Odin's rage build on the screen. "We have somebody that can help us in this matter."