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Intermission
8 years ago
The sky darkened as night fell on Jirel. The nocturnal creatures began their mourning songs, falling silent periodically as Bolar patrols interrupted them. Most of Nepheshel Gamilon's surviving crew had made it off the ship and away from the crash site and were heading to the pickup area where Admiral Talan and the fleet would retrieve them – hopefully alive.
Talonka hoped and prayed that the patrols wouldn't catch up to what was left of her brave crew, but her business with one of her enemy's leaders prevented her from going with them. She was honor-bound to complete this one mission. To leave without doing what she had come for... It would change all of Gamilon and Iscandar. Every time the doubts rose in her mind and the fears of everything that could go wrong crashed in, she remembered that even one person could be used to change the world. And right now, she prayed that her one life could be used to save another.
"When I am finished, I will come home." The memory of her words to Garen Krenshaw echoed back to her. "May it be so..." she thought as she stole through Jirel's damp jungle. Her feet crunched through the wild undergrowth, sending spiders, insects, and small animals skittering away into the darkness.
Suddenly she stopped. The sound of breathing off to her left made her ears tingle. She dropped to a crouch. The faraway, but unmistakeable smell of laser fire wafted to her on the chill air. She held her nose against the acrid smell of charred flesh.
There were screams followed by yelling, and her blood froze in her veins when she recognized the voices of several of several of her crew begging for mercy.
She could hear their desperate voices as they pleaded for their lives. Then her stomach lurched as more screams met her ears. "Harel!" she nearly called out as the voice of her gunnery chief being felled by Bolar fire shredded the thick air. "Dayan!" she wanted to shout as her helmsman's terror was evident in his last scream.
Tears welled up, obscuring her vision, but she wiped them away; to be blind in this forest of terrors was to die, and she couldn't do that yet – not until she'd confronted the enemy and done whatever had to be done.
The ground shook as a wave of fighters zoomed overhead. They should have picked up her heat signature at the very least, but none of the planes circled back. Instead, she listened, sick, as the squadron made a strafing run. The screams of the dying – of more of her soldiers – echoed all around her and her throat and eyes burned with bottled grief.
The quiet breathing she thought she had heard before was no longer there, so she forged on, headed towards the Bolar command center. Its ugly violet structure jutted up out of the jungle several miles away. She couldn't see it at the moment, but her senses told her it was there and she had no doubt that if her computer had survived the crash and subsequent excursion into this death trap that it would have told her the same thing.
Each step she took seemed to bring with it new sounds of terror. Men screaming in agony and horror as they were gunned down; the sharp echo of lasers flying all around her – but never in her path. Explosions boomed and small fires crackled, demolishing pieces of the jungle, but she remained untouched by it all.
On and on she went, tears running down her dirt-streaked face as she went through the torture of listening to her friends – her crew – die around her as they desperately struggled to get to safety.
Suddenly, off to her right she heard something – or someone – moving.
She whipped around, and pointed her weapon squarely at the offending undergrowth.
"Whoever you are, you will come out now – and you will hold your hands up where I can see them. Otherwise, you won't be walking out of here." she said, her voice filled with determination born of years of combat and the sense of urgency she felt to complete her desperate mission.
A moment passed and she thought she might have to make good on her threat. Then, three faces started to rise above the jungle foliage – three dirt-covered, blessedly familiar faces.
"Lysis?" she looked at the leader of the small clan. "Frakken?" she eyed the youngest of the three. "Krenshaw?!" the eldest of them – a mere nineteen years old – sported a battered assault rifle.
She let her gun-hand drop to her side, "I told you to get to safety." she started to protest, "But... I am abundantly grateful to see you..." she nearly laughed when she saw what the other two of the young men had gotten ahold of.
"Frakken, I take it you didn't salvage that from the ship." she pointed to the hefty Bolar weapon he wielded, even though the thing was almost half his size. He'd obviously picked it off of one of the downed enemy soldiers – one she was fairly sure the spunky teen had brought down himself.
He nodded, a mischievous look on his face.
"And you," she looked at Lysis, "didn't find that," she looked pointedly at the vicious looking crossbow he carried, " lying around just waiting for you to pick it up."
"Not precisely," he replied with a smirk then offered, "They didn't even know what hit them."
"I have no doubt of that, and I wouldn't have expected any less." she said, smiling sadly.
Sobriety returned to the group when Krenshaw finally spoke.
"We are relieved to see you." said Garen. "Most of the others are dead... those dogs aren't much for taking prisoners." he spat bitterly.
"So I've heard... vividly..." Talonka replied with a sad sigh. "But why have you come to find me? Why not gather more of the crew and help them to safety?"
"We are here to take you to Admiral Talan – to enure your safety." Frakken replied. "You are our highest priority."
"I cannot go with you..." she replied, sending all three young men into a state of disbelief. "There is something of vital importance that I must do first."
"But Majesty –" Frakken tried to protest, but the queen held up her hand to silence him.
"I must get to the command center." she replied, "Will you go with me?" she looked at all three again.
Frakken, Lysis, and Krenshaw all looked at each other, not thrilled with the thought of leading their queen straight into the heart of enemy territory.
There was silence among them for a long while, so long in fact that Talonka thought they would refuse to come. Then something unutterable passed among them, something that even the queen couldn't have seen.
"Let's go." a seventeen-year-old Lysis announced, the consensus made.
With a sad smile, she turned and led her best three – the youngest barely fifteen – into the dark jungle. None of them ever looked back even for an instant.
It took the rest of the night hours and on into the early morning, but they began to trek through the outskirts of the enemy encampment. By now most of the Bolar troops had taken to the air and were scrambling to shoot down Admiral Talan's ships. The goings on planet-side were being ignored for the most part.
The dawn still flashed with occasional explosions of cannon fire, but for the most part, the battle had moved up beyond the atmosphere as the Gamilon fleet attempted to come fetch the survivors of its strike force's destruction.
Talonka prayed the Admiral and his ships would get through, else the few who had survived would have made it through for nothing and the dead would have died in vain. The only comfort she had right now was that she and her three still had their lives and she would make it to the command center. There was no other option for her. Lives depended on her now especially one life in particular. One child – silently whisked away – for what reason, she knew not, but to her knowledge, that child didn't even know she'd been taken. She lay in an induced coma somewhere beneath the Bolar fortress and there was only one who could release her – one Talonka alone had the resources needed to contend with.
Soon - much too soon for them all – they came upon the command center's main entrance. It loomed above them like a door to death itself. Time was flying much too quickly now for any more hesitation. In two hours, the captured child would die unless someone came to rescue her.
Talonka stared at the building, knowing that just beyond those strangely decorated doors awaited the one person she never wanted to have to face again. But, as Adonai would have it, today she would face that person. And as she thought on this, she realized that the fear she had harbored of this meeting for so many years had melted away, replaced by resolve.
"I know you're there." she thought, staring at the door, still several hundred feet ahead of her group. "I know what you've done and I know how to undo it. You've lost; Adonai has won."
Talonka tore her eyes away from the door and looked up at the sky, hoping to see signs of Admiral Talan's imminent arrival.
The cover story for Nepheshel Gamilon's mission to Jirel had been to take out the base here – which had been one of the true intents of their strike, but it wasn't the entire story. Frakken, Krenshaw and Lysis didn't know why she really had to come here now. Not even her dear Deun knew the whole reason she had to be here, and none of them knew why she had to finish this confrontation... alone.
She thought of her sons. The flood of emotion that came over her nearly made her turn around and run to the safety of whatever hiding place the rest of the survivors had found. But then the face of the innocent girl she had come to save resurfaced along with the overwhelming sense that to abandon her would be far worse than any peril Talonka might face inside the enemy's lair.
The four neared the command center's entrance.
"Stay here." she bade her three escorts in a whisper before taking a deep breath and forging ahead alone.
The young men protested, but obeyed, watching as their queen left the safety of the jungle and walked straight up to the front door of the enemy stronghold.
She stood there, completely vulnerable, no weapons drawn, simply waiting for what she would come. She was rewarded when a group of six guards, fully armed and armored, emerged from the building and took hold of her, their beefy hands seeming to swallow up her much smaller arms.
"Stay quiet and hidden." she silently begged her three escorts.
No sooner had the queen thought this then Krenshaw shouted after her, overcome by his sense of duty and the terror that was now rushing through them all.
"No! No, Garen." she shook her head, touched by his bravery, but knowing that he would only get himself killed if she didn't do something to prevent it.
The queen both heard and saw the three crash through the brush, heading straight for her and her six captors, who now had their weapons trained on the oncoming youths.
When they were not ten feet away, Talonka yanked one arm out of the grasp of the guard on her right and raised her hand to stop the young men. She looked each one in the eye and said, "Go, my friends. This is a fight I must win alone."
Something in her voice stopped them all in their tracks.
She addressed her captors, "Lower your weapons and let them leave," then she added with unprecedented authority, "unharmed." Then she lowered her eyes to the ground as rain began to fall, "I am... expected..."
With an unhappy growl one of the guards pressed a finger to his ear, seemed to listen for a moment as wet drops pinged off his armor, then he nodded to the other five.
They lowered their weapons immediately, though they still eyed Frakken, Krenshaw, and Lysis warily as they did so. As they ushered Talonka through the front gate, the rear two still watched the three teenagers, now getting soaked in the gradually worsening rain storm.
The queen looked back and met each of the three young men's eyes once more before turning away from them and going with the armored men into the command center.
"She was expected?" Frakken said, his hair matting and falling into his eyes as he hissed in disbelief once the queen and guards had disappeared behind the closed door. "By who?"
"She does nothing without reason, Wolf." Krenshaw replied, swiping at the water now pouring into his own face.
"We have to follow them." Lysis stated simply. "We have no other options."
"She told us to leave." Wolf bit back, "Let's just get out of here."
"We can't do that," Krenshaw protested, horrified at the suggestion.
"We're going to go in there and get her back." Dommel repeated. "And if you," he shoved a finger in Frakken's face, "Won't come with us, then we'll go alone."
There was a deafening silence as Dommel and Wolf stared each other down. Lysis, who stood a good six inches taller than Frakken, didn't seem to intimidate the fifteen-year-old, who, though shorter, was just as defiant, with his arms crossed, daring the older young man to force him into anything he didn't want to do.
"She stood up for you, you know." Garen suddenly said, quietly to Wolf.
Frakken looked at Krenshaw, puzzled.
"The GRN was going to reject your application – said that even though you were top of your class that you didn't have the fortitude for combat, much less this mission. The Queen though... she'd seen you and your record and she had faith in you, so she convinced them to accept you."
Wolf stared at Garen, his face halfway between triumph and misery. Then, ashamed of his earlier words, he bowed his head and said, "When do we go?"
The interior of the fortress was just as odd as Talonka had thought it would be. The guards took her through the main garrison's quarters – which was in reality just one enormous hall. Here and there were strewn soldiers, some sleeping, some eating, talking, gambling, or tending minor wounds.
After that, they entered a long, dark passageway. She strained to see ahead, but it was too dark to get a good picture of where they were taking her, though she knew deep down exactly where she would end up.
After ten minutes of walking – which seemed more like an eternity – they came to an anonymous door.
"Hmm," she thought wryly, "A bit plainer than your usual tastes."
No sooner had the words flown through her mind than the door opened and she was shoved through it. The door closed behind her, the guards shut outside.
It was a bit brighter inside the chamber than it had been in the passage leading here. At least she could see that there were four walls, a floor, and a vaulted ceiling hung with ornate, red swaths of cloth that seemed to reach down and try to grab her as she stepped farther into the strange room.
Talonka brushed aside a curtain that seemed to section off the back half of the room from the front. As soon as she'd moved the curtain she regretted it as a wave of that all-to-familiar stench hit her.
"So you did get my little message, neshamah sheli."
The voice nearly made the queen jump two feet in the air, and if she'd been any less disciplined, she might have done just that, but she kept her composure.
"I did." she replied, expressionless. "And I'm here to negotiate the girl's release."
The voice laughed. "Her release? Oh Talonka, you do still surprise me after all these years. It seems your time among those simpletons has made you naïve. I have no intention of letting her go,"
"But you said –"
"I wasn't finished." the voice interrupted sternly. "Now, I have no intention of letting her go... unless you're prepared to pay the appropriate price for her."
"The 'appropriate price'?" Talonka thought, knowing with deepening dread what that price would be. "You want my throne?" she tested.
Again a cruel laugh emanated from the darkness, "Oh, you know that isn't even anywhere near what she's worth." the voice scoffed.
"Yes... I do know." Talonka replied, emboldened by the sudden realization that even though her enemy was near, the Spirit of Adonai was ever-present with her, even now. "I know better than you can ever imagine."
An uncomfortable silence spread through the blackness as the enemy fumbled, then said, "How can you know? Your Adonai does not reveal such things to his subjects."
"Adonai reveals what He will to whom He pleases." Talonka replied boldly.
"Well, Talonka," the voice spat the name at the queen, "This girl is the key to something."
"Then what shall I give you in exchange for this precious 'key' you've stolen?" Talonka asked.
The voice laughed with wicked glee and said, "You are also the key to something I am told, and so I wish an even trade. One key for another."
Talonka said nothing, letting herself breathe, and pray.
Then, gathering the courage Adonai had given to her for this moment she said, "I... My life is yours... I give it to you freely in exchange for the life of the princess Starsha of Iscandar."
A maniacal guffaw issued from the darkness, "Very good! Very good!" then the voice yelled, "Guards! Take her!"
But before her six captors could whisk her away, the queen darted forward into the corner of the chamber, shoved back the curtain that surrounded the bed from which the voice had come and challenged, "How do I know you'll keep your word?"
The occupant of the bed looked up at the young woman, unshaken by her sudden intrusion, and hissed "I vow, by the very Spirit of Guardiana herself that I will do as I have said."
The guards charged in, snatching Talonka out of the corner, but just before she was out of earshot, the queen replied with a sad smile, "Thank you... Mother."