Memory Terminal Classification Omega Beta DRK: Begin Upload
I dunno why Ked even makes me do this thing. He says it’s for archives, but I’m the pilot. I just sit in the ship and tune my yukolali. And eat snacks. Before we left I used all my spending money and stocked up on all the local snacks I like from the Academy. Nobody knows about my stash, and I want to keep it that way. Oh, right. Not relevant. Sorry.
The trip off of Manix was a little tense. I didn’t see anything that happened in the factory, but Ked didn’t want to tell me anything and the new guy looked like he had just taken a swim through a river of lava. I filed that under ‘bad’. But on the bright side, nobody was dead this time. Yeah, this time. If those idiots had just listened to me… Then I wouldn’t be on this sweet new ship, piloting for my best friend, living with three girls who are pretty cute. Not that I wasn’t sad about those guys dying or anything, but they kind of deserved it. When you don’t listen to your tech on a highly deadly mission, you’re pretty much asking for it. When you don’t listen to me, well, then you’re begging.
I kicked my feet back as we left the gravity well of Manix. In all honesty, piloting was easy nowadays, with the autopilot and course calculations making sure you didn’t run into a star or get sucked into a black hole or something horrible and stupid. I was just here to reassure everyone that someone knew what they were doing. Or pretended to know, anyway.
“This ship is a distinct upgrade from my last vessel,” the new guy intoned, casually stepping onto the bridge with his hands clasped behind his back. He talked weird. It was like I was listening to my dad talk at a board meeting. It was way too proper, plus it sounded like he was choosing his words five minutes before he said them.
“Yeah,” I agreed, “Shit was on fire, yo.” The new guy’s look was the weirdest combination of confused and unimpressed.
“Shit was certainly on fire,” he noted, “And that shit is all that remains of the Pyrusi race.”
“What’s a Pyrusi?” Elly asked, sauntering into the cabin with her boots unlaced and her leather tunic gone, showing a sweat-stained undershirt that covered way too little for the Academy’s standards, but was just about right for mine.
“Pyrus is — was — the ancient home of the Red Priests,” the new guy explained, sounding astronomically more patient and understanding with Elly than with me. It figured since she was, y’know, Elly, with a couple of gas giants orbiting that system of hers. But as I glanced at his eyes to check his sight lines, it didn’t seem like the new guy was checking out her giants. Damn, I really needed to learn his name. It was something weird, something that sounded like those weird aliens that they killed on Manix.
“The Red Priests?” Elly asked. Xavier? No, there definitely wasn’t a ‘v’ in it. “I thought the Red Priests were a myth, like one of those old parables that you tell kids to get them to quit asking questions about why the planets float around the stars.”
“The Red Priests are far from a myth,” the new guy said with a mix of condescension and indignance, “They were the most powerful men and women in the system. They commanded armies and spread our faith, first across the planet, then through the system. But their fervor was their undoing. Our crusade across the system deposed and replaced many other leaders, fanatics of the worst kind, moon worshipers. A terrorist group fell upon our temple and detonated a charge to cause the planet to crumble and the Red Priests to fall. The explosion set off a chain reaction that caused our two stars to merge and swallow the planet, releasing a wave of energy that incinerated the entire system. But I, Zanti, son of Pyrus, will complete the task of my ancestors and I will restore the Order of the Red Priests to its rightful status above all other non-believers.” Fire burned in his golden eyes. Literally, his irises were shimmering like someone had lit a bonfire behind them. Really, it was unsettling.
“That’s, uh, neat, dude,” I said, turning back to the console. The autopilot hadn’t kicked in yet, which meant I wasn’t off duty. And if I was still on duty, it was still too early in the day to hear about holy wars and extinction-level religious terrorism.
“Bullshit,” Elly challenged Zanti. Zanti. Had to remember that. Going around trying to avoid calling him ‘the new guy’ was way too much effort to be worth it. “People don’t just survive supernovas.”
“It was the will of the stars,” Zanti insisted, “I have a higher purpose. The stars watch over me and protect me.”
“What are the odds that the dude can survive his entire system being merc’d out of the galaxy and then literally throw himself into an oil fire and walk out with golden eyes?” I pointed out from the captain’s chair. “He might actually have a leg to stand on here, y’know?”
“Aren’t you an atheist?” Elly asked. It was a sore point that had come out a few hours into the trip to Sylvas. Apparently, with Elly and Ked being Ravden worshipers and Holly being a fan of her planet’s patron spirit deities, nobody was happy when I pointed out that none of their gods existed.
“Well, yeah, pretty much based on lack of evidence,” I replied, “But if I meet a dude who doesn’t burn and can ride supernovas like shredding a New Earth sewer pipe, that’s pretty convincing.” Elly had to stop for a moment and realize that I had a point. I flashed both her and Zanti a toothy smile. I won.
“How is my newest recruit doing?” Ked asked, walking onto the bridge and breaking up our contention with each other. Honestly, between this and the religion debate against Holly, sometimes it felt like Ked always kept an eye on the bridge to break things up just when it was getting interesting.
“I’m not your recruit,” Zanti insisted coldly. He was being really weird about that, too. This was like the third time since we lifted off that he corrected someone about that. The first two were when I had asked him if he was ever going to put real clothes on and stop parading around in that torn up ugly golden thing wrapped around his body. Something about that guy really pissed me off. Maybe it was the fact that he talked like those delegates from old United Worlds conferences that we had to watch for Ancient History. Maybe it was the fact that he pretty much made up a religion all on his own, and I was starting to get why some people would want to follow these guys. Or maybe it was the fact that he stole my hairstyle. When he got onto the ship for the first time, he made it onto the bridge before Wendy suggested he shower and clean off some of the grease fire he had just run through. So he comes back fifteen minutes later and he’s shaved the hair off the sides of his head. Of course, it looked horrible, but nobody else thought so. He had this stupid looking mane going down the back of his head. Who shaves just the sides? Not the back, just the sides. But the point was, Zanti was irritating me. And the last thing you wanted was a starship pilot with a temper. I huffed and spun my chair back around to the viewport.
“Yeah yeah we know,” I interrupted, cutting him off before he started another impassioned speech about how his only purpose in life was to cleanse non-believers of their sin in holy fire. It sounded to me like he wanted to burn pretty much the entire galaxy alive, but Wendy told me I was being bigoted. She said it was a metaphor. I said it was a good thing there was only one of him. “You’re a servant of a big ball of plasma in the sky and you aren’t ‘beholden’ to any other ‘mortal’ force until your ‘righteous’ quest is done and you can finally face your ‘judgment’.” Ked glanced at me and Zanti, then turned to Elly.
“That’s pretty much spot on,” she said, and Ked shrugged.
“What I was going to say,” Ked said firmly, “Was that we’ll be arriving back home in about a day and a half, then we can dock and report in with Master Kee. We’ll be on leave until Master Kee gives us our next assignment, which could be the next day or a month from now. We won’t know until we’re planetside. And Zanti and I should have time to go sort out his situation.” I whooped. Getting to stay planetside and go full vacation mode? Score. Getting rid of this pyromaniac jackass? Double score. Possibly getting to hit the Agency’s officers-only beach with Elly? Quadruple score.
“Yeah, but when are we getting paid?” Elly asked, “Doesn’t matter if we’re off-duty if we’re flat broke.” I perked up. That was a good question.
“And what’s our pay scale look like?” I tacked on, “Are we normal officers or do we get paid differently since we’re like a super secret tac-team?”
“We get paid in planets,” Ked said sarcastically, “I got Sylvas. You get Manix. Holly gets the next planet.” His face went from ‘are you kidding me’ to ‘i dunno’. “I have no clue what our pay scale is. I’m guessing it’s probably just the regular one.” Elly got up and headed to the pantry.
“Can you grab me something?” I asked her.
“Get it yourself,” she shot back.
“I can’t,” I said with the perfect amount of snark, “I’m busy flying the ship so we don’t fall back down to the ground and die in a big flaming ball of ‘I told you so’.”
“I’ll take the chair for you, Drek,” Ked cut in, “Grab yourself some food and then would you take Zanti around and give him a tour of the ship? Maybe introduce him a little better to Holly and Wendy. Gods know he and Holly need a better impression of each other.” My jaw dropped, ready to protest, then Ked’s glare made me think better. I gave him a mock salute.
“Aye aye, General,” I said in an overly peppy voice.
“And stop calling me that,” Ked ordered, “It doesn’t even make sense.”
“Sure it does,” I said as I slid out of the captain’s chair and trotted over to the pantry, “I’m the captain of this ship since I do all the flying. You outrank me, but you work on the ground, not in space. That makes you a general.”
“He’s got you there, General,” Elly told Ked, “What does that make me, then?”
“I dunno,” I said, ducking into the cupboard and pulling out a box of nutrient bars, “Metaphorically, you’d be enlisted, but I think when we graduated we all got put on the officer pay scale. Ked’s higher than me, I think, ’cause he’s a squad lead. I’m higher than you because I’m the tech, and you’re on the same scale as Holly.”
“Then what am I?” Zanti suddenly asked, trying to add himself to the conversation.
“You?” I asked, “You ever seen those war movies that they used to make before they founded the Academy? Yeah, you’re that asshole who walks off the ship first and steps on a pulse mine.” Ked grimaced. He knew exactly what movie I was talking about. It was my favorite war movie, primarily because it was actually filmed during wartime. All the effects were real life. It actually spawned a new rule for the entertainment industry to include a disclaimer saying that none of the actors were killed in the making of the film. “Come on, Human Comet, we’re gonna go for a little walk.”
I stuffed an extra bar into the back of my pants and strolled across the floor to the bridge door. I heard the purposeful footsteps of Zanti following me at a safe distance.
“Welcome to the good starship Omega,” I said, putting on my best tour guide voice. Unsurprisingly, it still sounded tired and fed up with the bullshit of picking up two new members in as many days. “We’re here to make sure you have the best freeloading experience possible!” My teeth flashed as I gave Zanti my prize-winning grin.
“Your sense of humor is most strange,” Zanti commented, “On Pyrus, most humor was derived from erroneous translations and interpretations of our teachings. They were compiled into a book called the Holy Wit.” He smiled, not letting a single tooth escape from behind those lips.
“It’s called sarcasm, dude,” I groaned inwardly. This guy was a nightmare. “Most sentient beings in the galaxy understand it.
“I understand sarcasm,” Zanti intoned, “But false words and misdirection are for the moon.” Really? Casual ridicule of moon worshipers by the sun fanatic. This guy was unbelievable.
“Well, in any case, here’s our rooms,” I said, moving down the hallway to the foyer. “You’ve already been here, obviously. That’s Ked’s, I’m next to him, then the girls are across the hall there, there, and there.” I kept moving, pushing past Zanti to move down the hall. All I wanted was to go back to my room and take a long nap. It was almost eighteen hours until I needed to be back in the captain’s chair for anything important and until then I didn’t want to be disturbed. But first I had to show this idiot around so Ked didn’t chew me out.
“C’mon,” I said, “I’mma take you to the armory and then the tour’s over.” I didn’t get more than two steps before I heard a door open behind me.
“It’s so good to see you’re up and about!” Wendy said, obviously not speaking to me, “It took me a long time to recover after Holly shot a sleep dart into my neck.”
“I said I’m sorry!” Holly insisted, coming out of Wendy’s room behind the other girl, “It was that or leave you to die on the planet!” Wendy turned around and pulled Holly into a tight hug.
“Relax, Hols, I’m just kidding.” Holly had a look of relief on her face that matched that one time I had to pee for the entire hour of our takeoff simulation. Sometimes I wondered what it would be like to care that much about what Wendy said. Then I would realize I didn’t care enough about caring about what Wendy thought of me. Holly blanched as she saw Zanti over Wendy’s shoulder. From what I heard, their first impressions of each other weren’t the best. I got that. If I met a dude who was convinced that he was the third coming of Yahweh and thought the best way to make new friends was to jam a sword down their throat I’d be a little jumpy too. Of course, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t take advantage of the situation.
“Oh, you guys…?” I asked, feigning surprise, “You haven’t talked that out yet? I should let you two do that.” I turned to go back to my room and start my well-earned nap. I was at the door when I heard Zanti’s light voice.
“If I may, you are quite beautiful.” I stopped in my tracks and turned 180 degrees. Holly’s look of shock had turned, and not for the better. The girl was wearing a look of pure terror.
“From this side,” Zanti clarified, as if it made the situation any better, “I was unable to tell back on the planet, but now that you are in front of me, you are, truthfully, stunning.” It seemed like Zanti was the stunning one. I don’t think Holly had moved a centimeter, down to the hairs on her head.
“Bro,” I warned, “You, like, kind of held her hostage. I’m not a lady killer, but I’m pretty sure that’s like number three on the list of things not to do.” Now Holly was opening and closing her mouth. It looked like she was trying to say something, but her vocal cords weren’t working enough to actually spit the words out.
“My apologies,” Zanti began, “I have obviously overwhelmed you. We can discuss this later, preferably over dinner once we arrive at your Academy.” He turned to me, ignoring the now panic-stricken Holly and gave me a curt nod. “Thank you for the tour, however truncated it may have been. I’ll be retiring to my quarters.” He gave me what appeared to be a robotic wink. “And don’t worry, if the General asks, I’ll inform him that you showed me around with a smile on your face and a fire in your heart.” He retreated to his quarters, silently closing the door behind him. I squinted my eyes at the spot where Zanti had been, trying to make sense of what had just happened.
“What even,” I said, not bothering to speak in even fragments of sentences, “What. Even.”
“I… I…” Holly tried, her eyes blinking rapidly, “I…”
“Shh,” Wendy said, wrapping her arms around Holly’s shoulders and squeezing her, “He’s gone.”
“What, you’ve never been held at swordpoint for a date before?” I joked. Wendy shot me a look that could have killed a small animal.
“That’s not funny,” she chastised, “Holly could have died.”
“And I could have crashed our ship,” I pointed out, “Neither thing happened. You don’t see me curled up in a ball in the captain’s chair because I could’ve killed us.”
“Have you ever come close to something like what happened to Holly?” Wendy asked, her temper flaring. Her voice was getting louder; the last thing I wanted was Ked to come and chew me out again.
“No,” I said in a level voice slightly louder than a whisper like I was trying to explain to a six-year-old, “That’s why I signed up for this job. I don’t get my life threatened.” Wendy let go of Holly and strode across the room to square up against me. It was at that exact moment when I realized how tall Wendy was. For the last few days, she had hung back at the walls all the time or I had been sitting, which meant we never were standing next to each other. But now, standing directly in front of me, I realized that we were almost the exact same height. It was kind of unsettling.
“You don’t put yourself out on the front lines,” Wendy began, enunciating every word just so I would get the point. Either her temper had faded or she had jumped past yelling and gone straight back to being quiet, which was way scarier. “So you can’t pass judgment on Holly for risking her own life. She’s braver than you ever will be and you mock her for it.”
“Woah, chill,” I said, taking a step back. Wendy stepped forward.
“Wendy, stop!” Holly finally said. Wendy turned around, surprised by Holly’s intervention. I leaned sideways to look around Wendy, just as surprised. “It’s not worth getting upset over,” she said, “Let him go.”
“But he,” Wendy started.
“It doesn’t matter,” Holly insisted, “He’s just being a jerk.” Wendy glared me down and I gave her a sheepish smile.
“Fine,” Wendy said, turned back but not beaten. She stalked back into her room and slammed the door.
“Thanks, Holly,” I said, giving her a warm smile.
“Don’t mention it,” Holly replied with all the affection of an icicle. We had run into each other a few times at the Academy, had each other for training and tests, but we’d never been what you’d call particularly close. There really wasn’t anything between us, no friendship like me and Ked, no rivalry like Ked and Wil, not even this weird new one-sided animosity that was growing between me and Zanti. My smile faltered and I quickly excused myself from Holly’s silent judgemental stare. I slipped into my room and received the best news I had gotten all day: my bed was empty and the covers were already pulled back, ready for me to nap the hell out of it.
I was awoken rather rudely by a loud alarm over my head. Obviously, the computer didn’t like that I was taking some personal time. I sat up, rubbing my eyes. I definitely didn’t feel anywhere close to rested, so I probably was only asleep for a few hours. But that alarm meant something, and in my experience with big flashing red alarms, it meant something bad. I slid out of bed, threw on a pair of pants, and ran for the bridge.
“What’s happening?” I shouted as I dashed onto the bridge, “Are we on a collision course with something?” I stopped talking when I noticed Master Kee on the screen.
“Really, guys? Waking me up to say hi to Master Kee? We’ll see him tomorrow morning anyway.” I almost turned around to go back to my room. And then I noticed the blood.
“I think I’ve lost them,” Master Kee whispered. As I watched the transmission, it got worse and worse. His hair was matted down on one side where a head wound was freely bleeding. There was the beginning of a nasty-looking bruise around his throat, done by a hand that was way too big to be human. And his breathing was ragged and strained like he had been screaming.
“Lost who?” Ked asked. His voice was hushed and reverent, trying not to startle Master Kee or even alert his pursuers.
“I don’t know,” Master Kee said, “They’re giant and green and they have tusks like pigs.”
“Xanthrels,” Elly muttered. For once her expression was thoughtful and disturbed. That was as bad a sign as the blood pouring from Master Kee’s temple.
“Yes, Xanthrels, that’s what they called themselves,” Master Kee said, “How do you know about them?”
“They were the disturbance on Manix, sir,” Ked reported, “Why are they attacking the Academy?” Master Kee’s head snapped around to look over his shoulder. I didn’t hear anything, but I wasn’t there with him. Satisfied by what he saw, or didn’t see, he turned back.
“I don’t know,” he admitted, “They showed up in the thousands on these ships. We tried to shoot them down when they seemed intent on landing without clearance, but most of them managed to land. I’ve been lucky enough to avoid them.” He winced and his hand came up to brush the darkening bruise on his neck. “Mostly.”
“Master Kee, we’re coming to you on the double,” I promised, running to the control panel and engaging all backup boosters, “Just hold out until we get there.”
“I’ll try,” Master Kee said, then the screen froze. The picture grayed out and no sound came through the speakers.
“Blast it!” I cursed, slapping the console, “We’ve lost the feed.”
“Wait, no we haven’t,” Holly noticed, “Look, Master Kee’s head is still bleeding. Master Kee, can you hear us?” Master Kee didn’t move.
“Okay, I’ll try to get color back,” I said, tapping across the console.
“Oh, don’t bother,” a new voice rang out. Everyone’s heads turned to the screen. Master Kee was still standing there, gray blood sheeting from his gray head to fall on a black background. But this voice wasn’t Master Kee’s. It was deep, commanding, with none of the casual familiarity that our superior’s voice held. Master Kee twitched on our screen.
“Did I tell you that you could move?” the voice asked. Master Kee shuddered, then collapsed, dead. The screen whipped past as it fell from his lifeless hand, but before it hit the ground and lost the connection, it stabilized. The view from the communicator showed an empty black hallway, but as it transmitted the picture regained color. The cream tile floor was stained red with the blood of Master Kee. The communicator turned and we saw his assailant.
The hallway around him held all of its previous colors, the white stone of the walls, the blue and silver banners that adorned the crossways, but the man standing in front of us was gray. His skin was a sickly whitish-grey color like someone had propped up a corpse in front of us. He was bald, his bare scalp exposing the same deathly color of his face. His clothes were black, but patches and spots held a dark gray color. I had an unhappy suspicion that his clothes were stained with Master Kee’s blood.
“Am I correct in assuming I am speaking with the Omega Squad?” the man asked. His booming voice crackled as it passed through our speakers.
“How do you know about the Omega Squad?” Ked challenged, “We’re a secret team.”
“Uh, Ked?” I asked quietly, “Maybe now’s not the best time.”
“Oh, I know everything about your Jetstream Agency,” the man said condescendingly, “From its most humble beginnings to this grandiose mess it has become.” He smiled and showed us his pointed teeth.
“Who are you?” Ked demanded. Again, we probably weren’t in the best position to be making demands.
“Who am I?” the man repeated, like it was some kind of hilarious joke, “Have they forgotten me already? I am the Grey Man, I am the Vampire, I am the Shadow.” Something clicked in my mind. An old memory of my mother, telling me bedtime stories. And the scariest one meant to frighten me into obedience.
“You’re the Shadow,” I realized, “You’re the reason that Jetstream existed in the first place. You were so evil that you brought all the good in the galaxy together to fight against you, and that’s why the Agency formed.”
“Once, my tale could have been a great work of literature,” the Shadow lamented, “And now it is so simplistic as to be a fairy tale.”
“It is,” I said, “You’re a myth. You’re just something that people’s mothers tell them to scare them.”
“Oh, I am so much more than that,” the Shadow said, baring his teeth in another satisfied smile, “I am the Jetstream Agency’s Alpha, and I will be its Omega. And I assure you, I am very, very real.”
“Why are you attacking the Academy?” Ked asked, almost desperate now. The Shadow must have heard that in his voice because his smile grew wider.
“Why not pay a visit and find out, Ked Davras?” Ked’s look of shock served only to widen the already sickeningly elated look on the Shadow’s face. “You and your band of misfits would be the perfect audience to the destruction of this Academy.”
“You’re not going to destroy the Academy!” Ked roared. The Academy was our home; it was where we grew up, where we became best friends, where we became the Omega Squad. We were the most recent class to leave the Academy, but it was part of us as much as any other Jetstream Agent.
“Then come and stop me,” the Shadow mocked him, “Come to the Academy and challenge me, the Shadow, the Grey Man, Lord Zentrial.”
Vid Writes 