The Province Of Terrans 2

A Starshatter adventure

(Art by Wang Junlin)

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Index: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16

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Chapter 12

Destiny reforged

The Roundabout’s patrons witnessed a happy smile blossom upon Northstone’s chiseled face. Placing the Khopesh upon the bar, his armored fingers traced its blade, eyes lost in thought for but a few seconds. He pointed his marriage bracelet to Jenn and nodded so the bartender asked one of her waitresses to place another chair next to the Spacer’s. Regular visitors knew full well what that meant and giddy with anticipation, they awaited Northstone’s announcing his second secret guest.

With a smirk, he placed the olden sword back in its brand new, high tech sheath and continued his story – “When a locked gate bars your way, you must find another way in. This is a wisdom easy to understand and apply, yet... what happens if you find the key? Dear guests, in my case, the Kosmovoi was our key and the gate, exactly the spot where that wretch, Saksulan, made her escape.”

Northstone swiped another couple of holo-slides and a vid to the projector. These depicted him, Niv, and the three Vaugn who came to help, approach the Kosmovoi. Having already watched and listened how Spacer and creature communicate, the audience was a bit startled when they saw the Kosmovoi’s deadly tentacles wave happily when he spoke through the Vocalist:

“Kill... Enemy... Good...!”

The Spacer quickly coded his scan of the battlefield through the device, very much in the same manner he did with holo-footage. Behind, Niv and his Vaugn were using grappler wires to jerry-rig simple bandoliers for all the looted power packs they took from the dead Jaern.

“See... Enemy... Run...?” – began the Spacer when the Kosmovoi signified he had seen the visualization of his scan-data.

“Hear... Enemy... Walk... Finite... Yes...” – replied the creature, one of his many appendages pointing where the Jaern priestess had folded space in order to escape.

“Kosmovoi... Move... Terran... There... Here...?” – Northstone asked with baited breath and there was so much hope in his voice as he inputted his query through the Vocalizer, that the audience twitched with anticipation.

“Kill... Enemy... More... Good...” – and the creature approached them, again in the blink of an eye, his tentacles shrouded in a blueish glow when he replied – “Kosmovoi... Yes... Walk... Terran... There... Here...!”

There was somewhat of a hesitation when the Kosmovoi inquired – “Purpose... Terran... Walk...?”

Once more the Spacer paused and again, his face became adorned with another pleasant smile. Those among the audience who were of Star Blood and aliens knowing of the Terran ways, they were aware what could entice such a wholesome smile. To ensure the doom of a vile wretch, so they could no longer molest the unarmed or torment the infirm, or secure one’s freedom. The highest among these peaceful acts was saving the lives of those who yearned to be free, and learning them how to safeguard their future.

“Steal... Enemy... Captives... Terran... Free... Captives... Enemy... No... Food... Enemy... Eat... Enemy...” – the Spacer quickly explained his plan, adding another holo-slide coded through the Vocalizer.

It was the one he took of fallen Jaern, the ones who feasted upon the corpsified remains of their own kin. The cannibals’ already foul visages were truly horror-invoking, warped far beyond even the evil which they had willingly imbued themselves with before their fall. Sentients of hard mind and toughened soul, primal fear clawed at them from the deepest depths of their genetic memory.

The Kosmovoi was himself a being to be feared and thus, appeared unphased.

“Walk... Terran... Walk... Captives... But...” – said the creature and yet, there was a hesitation felt in his movements when he added – “Kosmovoi... Need... Sustenance... Need... Ghost...”

Niv gave both beamgun and combat supplies to his soldiers. The Vaugn then approached the nearest glowing tentacle and placed his head under it, saying – “Take, spirit.”

The creature, incapable of understanding Niv, inquired – “Why... Terran... Unarmed...?”

Spacer and Vaugn of today shared a look before the first smiled somberly and the second snapped his jaw. The audience shared their admiration of Niv’s willingness to sacrifice himself in polite whispers and discreet links. Many did not even entertain the thought if they would’ve done the same in his stead. They knew that those who did nothing in the face of evil, they died every hour of every day for the rest of their lives...

“Kosmovoi... Food... Ghost...?” – asked Northstone and everyone present could see the pain in his eyes.

“Yes... Walk... Finite... Weariness... Need... Sustenance...”

“Tell him.” – said Niv as he turned around and looked the Spacer dead in his eyes – “My ghost for lives!”

“Dead soldiers save no lives.” – retorted Northstone, yet there was a gentle lull in his voice when he spoke.

Suddenly, the creature moved away from them. It was as if the Kosmovoi had somehow understood what Niv’s intent was. When he had emoted with his otherworldly appendages before and appeared happy even, now there was swift flailing, snapping, energies cracking in the air.

Anger.

“Kosmovoi... No... Consume... Terran...!” – there was a sudden spike in gravitational radiation, for the creature was shouting – “Need... Negative... Ghost...”

Northstone became visibly hopeful, yet he was bound to ask the question – “Negative... Ghost... Meaning...?”

The anger was replaced with indecisiveness and perhaps even confusion. This lasted for a few moments until the Kosmovoi used the Vocalizer device to project an image. Hazy, yet both audience now and Northstone of then could clearly understand what it was.

A wraith of Unlife.

“Kosmovoi... Sustenance... Unlife...?!” – inquired the Spacer and speedily sifted trough his scan-data files, coding one of his earliest, taken from FSS Bird Of Hope so the Kosmovoi could see the possessed cyborgs for himself – “This... Ghost... Sustenance... Good...?”

“Yes... Kosmovoi... Unintelligible... Essence... Kosmovoi... Walks... Finite... Easy... Kosmovoi... Runs... Light... Fast...”

“What... Run... Light... Meaning...?” – Northstone appeared even more hopeful when he asked this.

The Roundabout became silent as a tomb, while the Spacer swiped another holo-vid on the projector. It was taken directly from the Vocalizer and perhaps cleared, made easier to see with the optical receptors of biological sentients. Yet another concept, this depicted two stars connected with a string which pulled the stellar bodies until they became one.

In reply, Northstone coded another short of his cherished FSS Bird Of Hope. The swift starcraft slid into Hyperspace with a graceful flash of white light. Then, star-minutes later, she exited the soul of the Universe, her pilot performing a maneuver of most gracile kind.

“Terran... Name... For... Run... Light... Hyperspace...” – said the Spacer and there was a gleam in his eye when he explained – “Terran... Explorer... Runs... Light... Yes...”

“Kosmovoi... Savors... Name... Hyperspace...!”

Niv rearmed himself and his three soldiers steeled themselves. Northstone, the audience watched him unsheathe the modified Khopesh and draw his Deathknell. The Spacer was about to haul the Vocalizer, lock it where his spare fuel canister was, yet the Kosmovoi interrupted him – “Terran... Need... Feel... Here... Kosmovoi... Feel... Terran... There...”

“Device... Translate... Here...?” – said Northstone as he slowly placed the gadget before one of Kosmovoi’s appendages.

“Yes... Terran... Feel... There...” – and the creature pointed a tentacle at the Spacer’s faceplate first, then at the Vocalizer – “Kosmovoi... Feel... Here... Understand...?”

“Terran... Understand...” – and the Spacer raised his weapons – “Walk... Terran... There...!”

Northstone Firehand made a short pause as he projected one modified holo-file. This one appeared to be a collection of scan-data bits, slides, and vids, yet not all were taken from his beautified spacesuit. Parts of that file appeared to be cobbled up from a multitude of Jaern data-storages.

“Thus, we were walked through the known via ways unfathomable. A creature of deep space, not just of mere alien sentience, he became our ally against the Jaern. Warped the space around us, not, but rather it was us who did so. I... I cannot explain it even though as a Spacer, my knowledge of stellar navigation is quite extensive. Suffice to say that despite the weird feeling and existential dread, all five of us walked in the steps of that wretched priestess.”

Northstone’s party walked out of the nothingness, weapons ready to do peace.

Watching the holo-footage, the audience witnessed a dim, wide chamber. Once a command room, its many consoles and elaborate systems pillaged. Floors lay bent, ripped, and twisted, a hundred strong pyramids of gnawed skeletons reached the ceiling. At the furthermost end there stood a metal-forged altar, a number of Jaern on their knees, bowing at it. Crates of all shapes and sizes, bearing alien markings of newer days and those of olden times, impossible to decipher, looked like the piled up treasure hoards of ancient dragons.

The Jaern, true to their foul nature, they have scavenged and they have kidnapped for Universe knew how many a decade. Yet times of unchallenged predation made them complacent, lazy. The cannibals had a number of sentients roped in a single line, the metallic cords tied to a crooked pillar, inside an enclosure of rusty metal grates. About fifty; the men, women, and children had one thing in common—they were all human!

Wearing olden clothing of surprisingly good condition, they shook from malnourishment, and they trembled the shivers of those suffering from abrupt stasis awakening. Indeed, Northstone’s eye, and the audience was now sharing his point of view, soon noticed a number of antique stasis pods of obscure alien craft lined up nearby. He made his faceplate transparent so kin and foe could see, before leaping forth, engines aglow and Deathknell firing.

“Niv, save our people!” – roared he mid-flight, his laser beams killing two of the nearest and, completely oblivious, Jaern guards.

The Vaugn advanced with swiftness impossible for their slave-chipped brethren. Four the soldiers were and the Jaern guards twenty, yet only one of those groups were free. With rapid fire and from near point-blank range, surprise on their side, Niv’s men tore through the Jaern like sharp sword through paper. When they reached the enclosure, risking not the safety of captives, the Vaugn cleaved through the remaining guards by use of vibroblade, fist, and shield.

Stupefied, the Jaern guards had no time to organize an appropriate and fiery reply; their resistance haphazard, their attacks feeble. While Niv proceeded to cut the strange humans free and his soldiers made a wall of their shields to protect them, Northstone was startled to hear the language they spoke.

“Sobek!” – cried out one man, pointing Niv with shaky finger.

A woman who quickly grabbed a sickly child, shouted – “Rejoice, my kin, for the holy ascended came to our rescue!”

They were Egyptian.

“Follow the warriors!” – directed them Northstone, perhaps in a much too modern dialect of their language, yet they all understood when he spoke – “Follow them to safety!”

“Dear friends,” – said the Spacer as he paused the footage – “to say I was surprised would be an understatement. However, there was no time for long winded explanations in the heat of the moment. The Jaern were already recovering from their stupor and we, about to lose our single precious advantage—surprise. More, the Jaern were dragging a chained red-haired young woman towards their altar. Only after a second glance did I realize that said shackles were aglow and painted in horrid to behold symbols. For one such as I, a blessed slayer of the Jaern, it was clear that this lady was intended to be a sacrifice.”

“It goes beyond clear that such degeneracies are to be opposed at all costs. Those who lick the boot of some deranged entity and grovel in exchange for borrowed power, they too need a beam to the head, before unspeakable atrocities are committed.” – said he and had a bite to eat before resuming the holo-footage, stating – “Of course, mad with rage Saksulan would not stay idle. We were, after all, stealing her entire food supply under her very nose, and so soon after she’d lost many hunters. She had already screeched her screechings during her inglorious escape and, without delay, followed by a towering evolved Jaern hunter, the priestess charged at me.”

The Roundabout watched how Northstone, in true Spacer fashion, proceeded to shoot dead two of the four who carried the sacrifice. Landing in their midst, his Khopesh descended upon the enemy, cleaving through armor-plating and cutting them dead. Not a true master, nevertheless, the exhaustive training he’d gotten from Vinson was easy to be seen by all swordsmen among the audience.

Indeed, now after the battle and in the comfort of their seats, everyone could marvel upon the young woman’s beauty. Fiery red hair which reached below her waist slim, tall, the gorgeous lady was still two heads short of Northstone. She cast her crystal green eyes upon him, her supple lips bloodied, her pale white skin the color of fine porcelain. The Spacer’s faceplate transparent, she too was able to see his manly, chiseled face. The audience was given the privilege to observe a real life battle, witness heroics of legend, marvel upon beauty and terror.

Though this was not a holo-flick, but the life of Northstone Firehand, some even felt like it was.

With a single strike of his Khopesh, the accursed chain became undone. Ripping the foul metal, its runes hissing as they vanished into obscurity, he helped the lady on her feet.

“Northstone Firehand.” – said he with a gleaming smile, his Deathknell firing a deadly shot which turned the face of one overeager Jaern hunter into cinders and molten slag.

“Taia, servant of Hor.” – named herself the lady and her fine, silken voice, caressed his soul.

For more they simply had no time since deadly battles gave even the strongest of heroes no respite, not until all the blood was spilt and all the last breaths, taken.

He sheathed the Khopesh and, clutching Taia close to his bosom, ran. Behind came the ramblings of the Jaern wretch; some words Northstone understood, yet others he could not. Dirty, this speech was most assuredly one that only the unhallowed whispered in their spectral tongues! Bones, moldy, blackish, and rotten, they assembled by way of reviled forces into hundreds of armored skeletons. These rushed to the piled up containers, opened them, and armed themselves with vibroblades and beamguns.

Though the Jaern priestess and her underlings were afar, the reach of her magics was long.

“Akl’agach, your bleeding guts will join hers upon my altar!”

With stubborn tenacity, Northstone proceeded to leap around these unholy enemies by way of his suit engines, as he blasted them relentlessly with the Ghost Sweeper 2000. He made sure to extend his shield so the lady is protected since these corpsified enemies attacked without stopper. Yet while none dared fire a beam or swing a blade out of fear to harm the sacrifice, the same was not true when they assailed Niv and his soldiers.

True, with each hit from their particle-beam weapons and Northstone’s Ghost Sweeper, many of these abominations simply fell apart, yet they were hundreds strong. Victory against such odds was not in the cards.

“When I was nearly there, steps away from my Vaugn friends, the wretch sent her brute to deal with me.” – the spacer pointed out a large Jaern figure flying across the battlefield, as he slowed the footage – “This is one of the ‘evolved’ Jaern. Near fifteen foot tall, armed to the snouts and fitted with all sorts of gene-grafts. For sure, I could defeat him... eventually. They are not invulnerable and their size makes them easy to hit, if you know what I mean. However, we had no time to waste, nor could we risk the lives of the people we had just saved.”

They watched how the Spacer loaded his last power pack in the Ghost Sweeper, dashing straight through a dozen skeletons. This was the last stretch between Niv, his soldiers and salvation, when the evolved Jaern finally caught up. The Vaugn had already gathered all survivors at the point of “walking” and only waited for Northstone. They had more power packs, yet the assailants were swarming them on all sides.

Delay, the audience felt, could prove deadly.

The Spacer made sure that lady Taia was safe behind Niv, before he faced the huge Jaern. With swiftness and skill dazzling to behold, the Terran proceeded to shoot his last energy reserves with both pistols. Even though that fiery barrage brutally mangled and melted much of the enemy armor, it did not prevent a most vicious grapple.

Northstone dangled in the air, nigh crushed by two huge arms!

As he desperately flailed with his Khopesh, unable to land a good hit, the lady wept – “I am sorry, for my mind is all spent and I cannot help thee!”

“Surrounded! Failed! Lost!” – sneered the Jaern priestess, her voice calm and stave aglow with the same vile glint which Taia’s chains had – “Food, what did I tell you? Destiny is not to be resisted.”

Finally, Northstone was able to cleave his way through the crushing hug of the towering Jaern, yet, this one appeared to be regenerating and with frightening speed. Nigh chopped off, one of his arms reattached itself before the audience’s eyes and many a curse left their lips. Such was their anticipation, their want to witness what had occurred in this haunting star-seconds, that some patrons had frozen mid drink or bite, their eyes open wide, their chests pounding.

“Death... Your... Destiny...!” – displayed on Northstone’s faceplate came a message from the Kosmovoi and the Spacer relayed it in his words – “Your destiny is barren, wretch!”

Glow shrouded him, Niv, the Vaugn soldiers, Taia, and her people. Mere second before they all vanished, one shining tentacle descended upon the towering Jaern and with a loud sonic boom, smote him. There was a deafening squish and then... silence. Out of the gloom came the Kosmovoi’s fear-inducing shape and everyone appeared to be safe, shielded by his appendages.

No... not completely safe, for there was one less tentacle waving in the air.

The Roundabout erupted in cheer once more. Not just in awe of the feat that this storyteller had achieved, not only of the noble want of Niv and his soldiers to lay down their lives but save others, redeem their forced upon them sins, no. Indeed, it was beyond awe-inspiring the fact that a creature of the deep space, one which would otherwise be shot on sight as a monstrum by those of lesser quality, he gave a limb.

“True, we were wounded, tired beyond measure and our new Egyptian friends, starving.” – began Northstone as he left his seat – “But we had delivered the Jaern a brutal blow, had a working Farm, weapons, a Shelter, and a mighty friend.”

“My betrothed lady Taia, high priestess of Hor.” – and the Spacer introduced his second secret guest, as many a patron gasped and some even leapt from their chairs at the sight of Northstone’s now fabled wife.

No longer dressed in dirty rags but a modern, pale green Egyptian gown, the lady telepath appeared out of the lights and thin air, inches away from her illustrious husband. Glittering, upon her bonny head lay a silver tiara in the shape of a sacred Egyptian falcon, its eyes beautified with polished lapis lazuli.

She graced the audience with a bow and hugging her husband’s right hand, locked her crystal green eyes with his. Had someone unsheathed their blade, they could very well attempt to slice the air between them. So thick with happiness it was, that some swore they could see a gentle whitish glow forming between them, exactly at the point where their eyes met.

“My lord Northstone has done us a great service. Had he, and the Vaugn, not followed after that wretched Jaern priestess, we’d be all dead now. Not even ascended, our spirits devoured by that filthy god she and her zealots serve.” – spoke she, and her voice was even more captivating in person than on holo-record.

“Lady, you are too humble! Not a few days later, you did me, Niv, and the Kosmovoi an even greater service.” – exclaimed her husband, leading her to her chair and occupying his own.

With a previously readied note, he asked Jenn to serve him and his wife a plate of selected Egyptian delicacies, including one pint of thick, aromatic dark beer. The same was to be delivered to every patron for this was a Terran tradition. While servers dashed across the Roundabout, their faces adorned with barely held in check anticipation, Northstone addressed his audience:

“True it is what I say, that the good deed would travel hyperspace, brave spaceship-crippling anomalies, fight fleets of obnoxious Taz’arans, but find its way back to you!”

Indeed, what do you think was Northstone’s next action?! It is for you, dear reader, to decide.

(One) “We dealt the Jaern a crushing blow, yet they were not done yet. They would surely retaliate! For never had I seen them just surrender and roll over, especially when their source of sustenance and honor is concerned, let alone this bunch of zealots, who were led by one carrying the stave of flayed dreams. Immediately, I made sure to return to the Shelter and forge simple vibro weapons and light armored spacesuits for all Egyptians of fighting age while Niv and his soldiers trained them. Better to have arms than not, when the hour of blood came...”

(Two) “I believed that between myself, Niv and his Vaugn, and the Kosmovoi, we had all the protection... at least for a couple of days. Time was needed for all those people to recover their health! Therefore, we would focus on recuperation and camp at the Farm. Make sure that they gather back their strength first. I would use these couple of days to collect every little bit of intelligence information, especially talk to lady Taia. These people, my kin, they have spent time under the Jaern and probably overheard or saw something of vital importance.”

(Three) “Something kept my mind thinking of the giant heatsink and the armored mummies which hanged there. While the people camped in the Kosmovoi’s near, I would organize Niv and his soldiers to patrol the perimeter, as I explored that hanging graveyard. Though the Egyptians could only realistically be expected to wield modern vibro weapons, nothing stopped me from upgrading the Vaugn soldiers’ gear. After all, they were already ready and trained to use modern equipment, had combat experience, and were not suffering from Universe knew how long a time of malnourishment.”

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Dear reader, please do not forget to post your pick in the comments below, and elaborate upon why you think our protagonist should do so.

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