Chapter 25 Flaming Fear

“Ah, our sweet Tensartis! Every time it’s the same, my lord, you keep on forgetting to mention the high percentage of hydrogen in the air! Poor boy! Hurry, the shooting will start again any minute!” Pieris drags me into the hole, with Kallitris helping with a remorseful expression on his face. He sure is lovely even when he is upset!

I pass out briefly, knocked out by the winds of Ashtarma, but I can still hear their voices.

“So what did you find?”

“A weird machine, my lord! All we can see from here – is every now and then it emits unexplainable streams of energy of orange color, and the city loses its mind with fear. Ever since that machine appeared we’re drowning with fear. My heart can’t take this anymore. I think it’s the end…”

Just before I open my eyes I have a vision of Lynn Relemill on the base ship. He is in a small, brightly lit room. Several erahis walk there and back with some instruments, Salix is standing over him with a puzzled look on his face, and another erahi sits by a microscope.

Lynn wakes up and starts coughing blood. The room erupts in action, the creatures run up to wipe the blood off his face, and give him water. I have a bad feeling about it, a menacing feeling, but I can’t put it to words.

“Tensartis, let’s go!”

I see Pieris and Kallitris by a rocky wall. The view behind them is breathtaking. We are inside of a massive cave with a big lake in the middle. All around it are buildings, made of dark green glass. These buildings go as far as the eye can see, and into the big dark tonnels. They are mostly transparent, somehow lit from within, full of creatures, looking exactly like Pieris. They are busy inside, and a lot of them constantly fly in and out from holes in the green walls.

“Why do you keep calling me this name, and how do you know I was here before?” I get up and look at out host.

“Because this is your name, and because we already had the honor of you helping us in the time of trouble!” Pieris gives me a resemblance of a smile and walks towards one of the buildings.

The air smells like nitrogen, but the added gases no longer hurt my lungs. I follow Pieris, and Kallitris takes my hand very carefully and lovingly, enough to make my heart melt yet again.

“If I helped them before, then how come I do not remember what happened?” I ask my friend.

“Because it hasn’t happened yet, Demi. It’s hard to explain. You guys all run in circles. By the way, I reprogrammed you for hydrogen and nitrogen intake and kriber language. It will be easier to understand everyone, once we start the meeting.”

“Aren’t they “sheirers”, like you?” I follow Kallitris, eager to touch the green glass and find out what it really is.

“No. They are kribers. I’m an evolved kriber, by now a different species.”

I want to ask something else, but a loud, fierce blow, accompanied by piercing high-pitched sound makes the ceiling of the cave tremble, sending shock waves throughout, including my body. The creatures fly and run out of the buildings, and take off into the tunnels.

Apparently there is a screen on the ceiling showing the panoramic view of the outside environment. It lights up and I can see the shiny planes, just like the one that attacked us, throwing balls of fire, but this time the fire looks almost black. Stunned at the fantastic and horrible view I don’t even see how Kallitris grabs me, spreads his wings and flies into the nearest tunnel.

So, this is how the shooting feels from inside. Scary. What is scarier are the faces of kribers flying along with us. They seem to have lost their minds with panic. You’d think by now they’d be used to the bombings. Something does not add up.

There is nothing but darkness ahead of us, but the air feels fresh, with less nitrogen in it. I feel that we’re flying deeper and deeper into the tunnel. Then, there is a light on the very bottom. The tunnel curves down to a large sparkling revolving star. The kribers fly into it through narrow openings in the sides, but it does not seem to make them feel any better.

“We must make it to this star. It is guaranteed to withstand any bombing.” Kallitris whispers in my ear, while holding me tight with his enormously strong hands. I feel secure in his embrace, maybe that’s why I’m the only one who is not scared. Well, if I knew what was coming next, I would be good’n’scared like hell.

“Why are they panicking so?” I wonder aloud.

“Because the Blisps are using much heavier bombs. The cave might not be able to survive this time.”

Suddenly a whole big crowd of flying kribers pushes us from behind, and another blow shakes the cave. Startled, the kribers rush to the star. They are all around us, and in this hustle I realize that I’m no longer in sheirer’s hands. I’m falling. Alone. I miss the sparkling star by an inch, and fall in the opening between it and the floor of the tunnel.

The last thing I hear is Kallitris screaming loudly. He tries to get through after me, but the opening is too small for him.

I’m falling for what feels like several minutes, and then I hit the bottom.

Leot sure builds sturdy creatures. I haven’t broken anything, but my butt and the whole left side hurt so much I can’t get up. Damn, it is painful. Maybe I should lay here until Kallitris finds a way to save me. So I lay there, quite helpless, because it is easy to get used to a powerful being always caring for you.

The reason I get up at all is because I hear a whisper right behind me. I can’t make out words, but the words were spoken nevertheless. Immediately I know it’s not an animal. It is something intelligent enough to speak a language.

Well, I can see in the dark. All I need to do is to switch from human eyes to the bio-sonar, a wave generator in my forehead. It transmits the image into my brain. God only knows what critter Leot scraped that gene from to insert it into a human. But it helps.

I turn around as quickly as I can and shoot the space with many waves. Moving hurts, but the only thing holding me back from screaming in pain is fear. I look around, processing the returning waves. All I see is just the walls made from the same granite-type material as the rest of the cave. There is no one around. However some waves left me and did not come back, disappearing in a hole in the wall farthest from where I’m standing.

Whatever whispered around me just darted into that black hole. I saw it because one of my escaping waves grazed that thing. Actually, I don’t know what I saw. The blurred image of something on the generator did not give me much to work with. At this point I’m so scared, I forget about the pain. Yes, it is quite hard to kill me. My grandfather Arileot survived a lot of things and at least one crash-landing, but that does not help my spirit.

I face the unknown. Completely unknown. I’m alone in the depths of the planet I know next to nothing about and any vicious life form can jump at me from this gaping hole at any moment. I don’t even know if I can get a hold of all-knowing and all-seeing Immaul on this planet. He hated Kallitris so much he stopped communicating with me since we went to rescue Relemill.

I feel a draft of air coming from the hole. That makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I need to calm down. Now… calm down. As I try to do just that I see a bright orange flame in the darkness of that opening in the wall.

Orange flame? Orange energy… Could it be the same energy Pieris was talking about? The energy that comes out of the strange, unknown device just outside of the cave?

The whispering behind my back starts again. This time I can understand.

“Relemill will die.” I hear.

I turn and blast everything around me with a myriad of waves from my sonar. The image that comes back chills me to the bone.

Actually, I have a theory, that one can’t be afraid endlessly. Fear, I figure, has an end. And I just reached that end, where all that is left is to look Fear straight in the eyes. If there is any.

What is in front of me is not exactly a creature, as it is only slightly denser than a fabric. Or a sheet of very thin paper, ripped at the ends. The ends float in the air as if weightless. Probably they are. It has no shape. But it can see me, and just contacted me. More so, it read my mind. How to put it all together?

“No, he will not, if I can help it." Sure, I have to say something to this darned apparition, why not!

“Then follow me.” Is the answer.