Realms Of The Gods Read online

  The greyhaired man nodded and moved several controls on his com-panel. ‘We’re ready, Elite Commander. They can now see and hear everything from our bridge. I have linked their bridges to our own.’

  Jalek looked toward the large com-screen at the front of the room and smiled. ‘Fools,’ he said. ‘Through my generosity you will have the great privilege of seeing history made as I, Elite Commander Jalek of the Hindishah, destroy your pathetic gods.’ He laughed softly then turned away.

  Head to the pavilion’ he ordered as he stepped toward Tae, and just as casually backhanded her hard into the wall, splitting her lip badly. He looked down at her in gloating triumph. ‘Now, just as I promised, you get to see your gods die.’ A maniacal gleam entered his eyes and he turned his attention back to the screen.

  *****

  Tae hit the wall hard with the right side of her face and slid down it, entering a new world of pain. She automatically bent her knees so she landed in a kneeling position instead of landing on her butt. She knew that if she let herself sit she might never be able to get up again. The bastard was strong, and he definitely wasn’t pulling his slaps, if he ever punched her he would more than likely kill her. She started to breathe slowly as she tried desperately to stay aware; she knew she must be ready to act at the slightest opening.

  Unfortunately things weren’t looking to good for her at the moment. Judging from the new onslaught of pain in her face she thought her jaw was now probably broken, as it was she’d definitely felt her nose break when she’d hit the wall. The pain was radiating from seemingly everywhere on her face, and an odd buzzing noise filled her head as her vision swam alarmingly. Blood started to fill her mouth from her split lip and now bleeding gums.

  Strangely Tae’s vision started to clear as she swallowed her own blood, her tongue automatically flicked out unwittingly to gather more from her streaming nose and lip.

  ‘We’re in range, Elite Commander,’ she heard a woman say.

  Something hard kept digging into her back when she tried to lean back against the wall to try to gather her thoughts and focus. It was then Tae remembered what it was, her hair bead, and with that realization she knew she now had two options left open to her.

  One; she could kneel here placidly and let this bastard kill the gods and then her, or, two, she could try for one last desperate throw of the dice. She could try something very dangerous. Something that would in all likelihood get herself killed, but something this miserable little turd definitely wouldn’t be expecting. She looked over at him, he was so smugly confident that he had all of their fates in the palm of his hand. As she tasted more of her own blood sliding down her throat she allowed all her feelings of pent up rage and hatred to boil up from within her, then of course she chose the latter option.

  While they were all engrossed with the screens she dragged her hair around and pulled loose the wooden bead. She then awkwardly undid the bow of the one at her neck and, after discarding the ribbon, stood. She made sure she kept both beads hidden in her hands in case someone should glance her way. Jaden looked over at her, grinning excitedly.

  ‘Do you see my power now, bitch? Is it finally starting to penetrate your dim terran mind? Now watch as your pathetic gods die by my hand’ He clenched his fist and turned back to the screen.

  Arrogant, little arsehole, well let’s see who’s a dumb terran now you smarmy dick. She opened the first bead.

  ‘Fire!’ he yelled.

  She felt a slight vibration beneath her feet and watched in horror as a blast of power hit the pavilion. The force field darkened to a light red where it was hit but it held, she sighed with relief.

  Jalek though, was nearly apoplectic with rage, ‘it’s still there!’ he screamed.

  The grey-haired man frowned. ‘Someone must have upgraded their crystals, Elite Commander. Another few strikes and they’ll be down, they can’t bleed of the energy hitting it quick enough.’

  Jalek nodded, bringing himself back under control. ‘Good, good. More time for them to learn to fear our retribution.’ He frowned. ‘I only wish Poseidon and Hades were here to die with their brother, Bremmer was a fool, Fire!’

  Tae opened the second bead feeling the same vibration under her feet. She had been edging nearer to the door pretending to be horror-struck by what was happening. When she was in position she surreptitiously emptied the Ithacian White on the floor, then she had another idea. After all that the vicious, sick shit Jalek and his brother had done to her and her family, she wanted revenge. Not just for herself, but for everyone they had hurt.

  It’s time for some payback, bitches. Before she could think too closely about what she was about to do she called out softly. ‘Jalek.’

  He swung around, seemingly surprised to find she had shifted position.

  ‘I have a little message the gods insisted I pass on to you personally.’ She grinned painfully, raised her broken arm and waved at him.

  Jalek’s eyes went from questioning to insane in a millisecond at the reminder of what she had done to his brother, he took a menacing stride toward her. ‘Now we’ll see how smart you are you murderous little whore’ he said raising his closed fist.

  That was all she needed to see, she dumped the sea salt onto the powder she had already dropped then turned and sprinted out the door, heading straight for the turbo lift down the corridor.

  She didn’t stay to see Jalek step unknowingly into the powder as he lunged for her, it ate through his foot within seconds before travelling quickly up the rest of his body. As he fell his last conscious thoughts through the searing agony were; No, please, not me, NOT ME!

  Tae bolted down the short corridor, passing two surprised techs that were obviously on their way to the bridge. As she approached them the larger of the two looked as though he were about to try to stop her so she started yelling. ‘There’s been an accident on the bridge, we’ve lost all communications.’

  By the time she’d finished her sentence she’d run straight past them and into the lift. Screams began echoing down the corridor after her. The techs turned and tried to jump into the lift with her, luckily the doors closed when they were still a step away.

  Tae breathed a sigh of relief at her narrow escape. She knew she’d been damn lucky the techs hadn’t just grabbed her instead of listening to her. Another slight vibration ran through her which could only mean one thing, the ship had fired again. She breathed deeply through her mouth, in an effort to bring the pain from her throbbing arm and face under control, but it only seemed to exacerbate the problem. The lift continued to descend smoothly at first then, alarmingly; it started to shudder. Tae’s eyes widened in fright as she thought she heard the decompression doors dropping behind her.

  She was running out of time, she placed the palm of her good hand against the lifts doors ‘Come on, come on,’ she said to the lift in encouragement, it shuddered violently one more time then came to a halt at eleven, the door slid open halfway then stopped.

  It was close enough. Tae leapt through the opening just as she felt the lift starting to move downwards again. She stopped momentarily to look around for the closest jumper. Sirens were now starting to wail, while people rushed across the hangar. It wasn’t pandemonium quite yet, but she knew it soon would be. Fortunately the growing panic was working in her favor, as no-one had even noticed her abrupt arrival.

  The ship lurched sideways and she knew she was almost out of time. She sprinted across the floor to the jumper she had arrived in, knocking a tech flying as she ran. Her arm and face were jolted and pain exploded through her body. She cried out in agony, but kept going; she needed to get out of here before it was too late. People were beginning to panic, only now were they starting to realize that something was terribly wrong. She entered the jumper and hit the door release, closing off the hangar completely, her first thought being to save herself from decompression, or being ejected straight into space should a hole open up, which was very possible. Catching her breath she made her way to the pilot’
s seat and sat down to study the controls. The only time she had seen a jumper actually flown was on her way to the Island, but she had watched carefully in an effort to draw her mind away from her fear of heights. She had also studied manuals on flight theory in school, in case she managed to get a position as a tech when she left. All she could do now was pray she remembered at least a little of what she had seen and read.

  Although her mind was still foggy around the edges, fear had sharpened her senses enough for her to be able to function sufficiently. She pressed the automatic harness to strap herself in, then pressed what she thought was the ignition button. She was relieved to hear the soft whine of the reactors as they engaged, as a view screen dropped down in front of her, she shook her head and tried to concentrate on what she was doing.

  The floor of the hangar tilted abruptly and she watched as the grounded jumpers started to slide sideways into the wall and each other. She had no more time, she needed to go now. Resting her hands on the two drive bars that sat slightly above the com-panel, she pressed her thumb softly on what she was pretty sure was the lift button. The jumper lifted off the hangar floor and stabilized as the rest of the jumpers continued their slide into the wall.

  A massive hole suddenly appeared in the outer wall of the hangar, quickly followed by another. Damn, that was an explosion, Tae thought in rising hysteria. It wasn’t the Beastie; someone was firing directly on the Hindishah. She watched in horror as the hangar techs, along with anything else loose, was ejected into the vacuum of space, straight through the massive holes rent in the side of the ship as the hangar bay quickly decompressed. Tae knew she only had seconds to escape before the hangar was destroyed.

  Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, she thought over and over as she looked at the gaping hole ahead of her. She pressed her thumb down heavily on a small button situated to the right and the jumper leapt forward, she felt herself squashed backwards from the sudden acceleration and nearly passed out again from the pain in her face.

  The hangar bay had started to collapse around her as he jumper shot straight for the opening in the ship. Another massive hit struck the crippled ship just as her jumper burst through the jagged opening in the thick hangar wall. She hit open space and immediately eased of the acceleration so the g-forces didn’t render her unconscious. Then she started to search her view screen to find out what was happening.

  The Olympus was moving slowly, her enormous pulse cannons blazing as they spat out deadly bolts of pure energy. In full battle mode the ship was aweinspiring, and something Tae had thought never to see in her lifetime, unfortunately this delivered her yet another problem to overcome. The crew wouldn’t recognize her and might fire on her. If they did Tae would become just another speck of debris floating around out here.

  All in all she was still in deep shit because, despite her miraculous escape, she had absolutely no idea how to land or dock a jumper, or how to switch its force field on. Not knowing how to turn on its artificial gravity system or the inertial dampeners wasn’t helping her confidence much either. One problem at a time Tae, just take it one problem at a time. She chanted silently.

  She quickly experimented with the controls, finding out how to decelerate without putting herself through the front of the jumper, which was good enough for the moment. Swinging the little ship around in a wide arc, she tried desperately to avoid all the debris from the stricken ship, some of which could still punch a hole in the jumper and kill her. As it was she was pretty sure she had hit two or three bodies in her wide turn, but she hadn’t holed her ship and that was all that mattered, for the moment.

  Her face and arm were aching and she had no idea of what to do next, she just knew she couldn’t keep flying around out here as if she were taking a casual stroll. The Olympus was bound to start targeting her as soon as they finished pulverizing the Hindishah. She briefly thought of trying to get back to Earth but discarded the idea because of that pesky landing she’d have to attempt.

  She closed her eyes briefly and almost passed out, it made her realize her that mind and body were starting to fail her, despite the adrenalin pumping through her veins. The pain in her arm and face was unrelenting; she knew she wasn’t going be able to hold on much longer, so she did the only thing she could think of, she headed for the pavilion.

  She thought that if she were stuck to its side like glue they mightn’t risk firing upon her, just in case they damaged the pavilion. Well, she hoped not anyway. Easing the jumper around Tae pressed her thumb gently on the acceleration control, careful not to put on to much thrust as she shot forward. When she was within close distance of the pavilion she decelerated heavily and came to a stop, maneuvering as best she could through trial and error until she was right beside a docking port.

  She tried to think of what to do next but her brain was becoming increasingly fuzzy. Taking some deep breaths she attempted to regain some focus, but all she could think of was the pain. She wanted to give in to the threatening darkness that was now stalking her, she wanted to escape, if only for a moment. Her arm ached, and not only did her jaw throb, but her whole face along with it. Her lip felt like it had swollen to twice its normal size, and she could barely see out her right eye. Worst of all, her head felt like it were close to exploding and now, to top it all off, she was beginning to feel woozy again. She felt like she was going to pass out very soon.

  Not yet, Tae thought. Please, not yet, they don’t know it’s me. Tears of pain mixed with the blood still oozing from her lip and nose, it made a path down her face to drip in a steady rhythm onto her chest. Tae had managed to get the jumper reasonably close to the pavilion. She was so close to safety that she wanted to scream in frustration when she realized she had no hope of staying conscious long enough to work out how to turn on communications. Already she felt on the verge of passing out, she could hear the strange buzzing noise in her head again, except this time, instead of being faint, it was slowly getting louder. In desperation she turned to the only thing she could think of, something anyone that knew her would understand. Putting her hand on the com-panel in front of her she called up Earth’s History Museum’s music centre. If she were going to pass out she had to have some way of letting the Olympus know it was her, what better way than her music.

  She found what she was looking for straight away and uploaded it to the panel. The buzzing noise intensified and the black dots formed at the edges of her vision. Breathing deeply, trying to keep conscious for just a little longer, she set her upload into a loop pattern. With the last of her strength she set the jumper to play it through the internal speakers at full volume. Hopefully someone would pick up the internal noise when they scanned her – if they scanned her that is, either way it was the best she could do. Closing her eyes Tae slumped back in her seat and let the encroaching darkness take her.

  Chapter 9

  Tannan stood on the bridge, his fangs and claws fully extended in barely controlled rage. He was watching helplessly as the Hindishah fired upon the pavilion. He swore to himself that if it were the last thing he ever did, he would find the stinking thalien who had the audacity to broadcast his assault on the gods. He didn’t care how long it took, what he would have to do, or who he had to kill to find him. He was going to let the bastard know, in agonizingly slow detail, just who he was, and why he was killing him.

  He grimaced as the Hindishah fired again, the extra crystals he had installed as a failsafe had kept the force field active, but it wouldn’t take much more of this punishment. It was beginning to buckle; even from here he noticed variations in the now dark reddish brown haze start to form as it tried to bleed off some of the energy from the bolts of plasma being slammed into it.

  ‘Jalek.’

  Tannan heard Tae’s whisper from one of the smaller com-screens, he turned to see Tae staring at the thalien. She didn’t look good, the side of her face and lip were swelling quickly from the last hit she had taken, and her nose and eyes looked a mess.

  ‘I have a little message that th
e gods insisted I pass on to you personally.’

  Tannan frowned. What is she talking about? He saw her right hand shift forward as she grinned while raising her left. Then she started to wave awkwardly. The thalien screamed at her in rage as she threw something down on the floor. Then she turned and sprinted out the door.

  Tannan watched, dumbfounded for a second as the thalien’s leg started to disintegrate, quickly followed by the rest of him. When it finally dawned on him exactly what had happened he broke into raucous laughter. The bridge crew looked from him to the screen in shock.

  I just might be a little in love with this girl and her wicked sense of humor he thought, his fangs still fully extended and his eyes wild.

  The rest of the bridge crew watched him in surprise. Elite Commander Tannan was normally staid, unemotional, dispassionate, this was astounding. He ignored them and watched avidly as the Ithacian White ate through the bridge of the Hindishah. He started laughing again as the Hindishah’ bridge crew, having nowhere to escape to, were quickly consumed as it expanded. Victory had just been snatched from the jaws of defeat. Their enemies had been vanquished, and like any warrior, he was exultant.

  ‘Elite Commander Tannan.’ A voice interrupted over the now semi-functioning communications network. ‘We have reactor one at seven per cent power. We can move again, albeit very slowly, it will take another two hours to bring it fully back online, sir.’

  ‘Excellent. Keep working until it’s fully operational, we don’t have to go far to finish this.’ Tannan flicked another switch, watching as the Hindishah continued to disintegrate. ‘Captain Arden, bring us within firing range of the Hindishah.’

  The captain immediately started issuing orders to the crew.

  Lieutenant Kell came online. ‘Elite Commander Tannan, we have retaken pulse cannon control and have them at full power, the insurgents didn’t have enough time to cut the links to their power core. It seems the techs put up one hell of a fight. They managed to lock them out of the system before they gained control of the facility. We have also retaken the force field generation section, but that’s going to take a while longer to bring back online. I have techs in there now looking at it. We did get lucky though, the inertial dampeners are still online as is our artificial gravity, if they had of got to them we wouldn’t be able to do anything for a while.’