Ishtar howled with frustration when her blast of heat sputtered harmlessly into nothing. The ifrit growled back at her and fired another burst of razor sharp flachettes from its rifle. She tried to raise a wall of heat in front of her to immolate the projectiles but ended up taking part of the blast to her face and screamed in pain. She fired a burst from Apotheosis Rag as she went down, but it was Euk who killed the ifrit, striking it repeatedly with the butt of her shotgun.

“We need our skullforts, Captain,” Euk said into her vam.

“No,” Ishtar whimpered, “we need our radiance.” She felt herself healing, but much more slowly and painfully than normal.

“Status?” Cat asked over their vams.

“Ish got hit, but she’s recovering.”

“To the ships then. As quickly as you can. Reev is sending you the coordinates where Zep and Flea landed.”

“Got it.” Euk kneeled down and helped Ishtar to her feet. “Let me see.”

Ishtar took her hand off her face.

Euk made an exaggerated grimace. “Yikes. I better finish you off.”

“Try it. We can be twins.”

Euk smirked. “Let’s go.”

Zep and Flea found a clever place to land; a massive cave mouth hidden by thick foliage and a ring of steep, rocky hills.

“Ish, baby!” said Ru.

“Is it really bad?”

“It was a lot worse before,” said Euk.

Reev came down H1’s ramp and waved them in. Both teams were crammed into H1’s galley. Forge had a distant look in his eyes that worried Ishtar.

Cat asked the ship’s computer to display the schematics of the salamder device. There were bundles of wire spread like veins, a core processor for a skull, antennae placed on limb-like rods as extremities and channeling nodes spread like a pried open ribcage.

“Its function’s even more disturbing than its looks,” said Cat.

Ishtar shuddered. Her hand wandered upnto her still scarred face. “It’s interfering with our radiance?”

“But how?” asked Ru.

“Is it distracting us somehow?” asked Silhouette.

“No,” said Cat.

Forge had tucked himself in a corner, cross-legged on the floor. He stood as Cat spoke, and the distant, stupefied gaze in his eyes faded away, replaced by an unnerving focus.

Ishtar was wedged between Mangonel and Revol, who, while shorter than any other man in the room, was still very broad. She felt suddenly aware of how cramped the room was and was struck by an urge to leave as the air grew hot and stifling.

“They caught a mind node of the Surge,” Forge said.

Though he looked as if he tried to hide the reaction, Ishtar could see Cat cringe.

“Orak’s troops got their hands on some sort of Surge mass?” Revol asked.

“Yes,” Forge replied. He blinked suddenly and shook his head. “The Surge… I don’t fully understand, but the Surge emit a signal, neither biological nor mechanical. Photonic, I think. I don’t understand the mechanics of it yet, but Orak’s troops are using it against us.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

The image of the effigy flickered, and a gloved hand appeared, pushing its way through the pulpy mass of wires inside the opened ribs to produce a blob of glistening white flesh. A web of thin filaments clung to it, and the mass bled a sallow fluid when the hand jerked it free.

Forge continued. “When I pulled it free it instantly began to decay. Quite rapidly as you can see here. It turned to powder shortly after we made this recording. The powder is highly conductive, but other than that we don’t know much. The mechanical components were all salvaged from vessels on our side of the Verge, but the biological material is exotic. Even Netz doesn’t recognize it.”

“Where is she?” asked Silhouette.

There was something about her Ishtar liked; something homey, familiar.

“She’s shy,” said Revol.

Ishtar noticed a softly glowing cyan light in the hallway. She chanced a discreet wave and the light flickered. A couple members of team Five saw her and looked down the hallway, causing Netz to back away and duck around a corner.

“So how do we counter this device?” asked Red Ten. “Is there a central node we can neutralize? Or do we have to eliminate them one by one? Do we have an estimate of their numbers?”

Ishtar felt her heartbeat quicken.

“Gathering intel is a process, Captain,” said Euk.

“So that’s why here, then? Strictly recon? It sounded to me like we were storming the castle.”

“Oh, we’ll get there,” said Reev.

“Mm hmm. Just us? Sixteen operators and a shy robot?”

“I’m not a machine,” said Netz, hiding just inside the entryway.

“What you are is foreign, and new. Cat, with all respect, this op is ill-advised. I recommend we wait for command approval.”

Ishtar felt her cheeks flush, while at the same time her temper stirred.

It was Zep who spoke up. “Colonel Vala sent a quantum ping. Reinforcements are on their way.”

Red looked peeved. “Hell of a way to relay that information, pilot.”

“Ping came through while you were en route, sir. Things are happening a little fast right now.”

“Red,” said Cat.

The captains held each other’s eyes for a moment. Red’s jaw was visibly clenched while Cat’s eyes pleaded for him to calm down.

“It might help me if I understood a few things a little better, Catalyst.”

Cat nodded to the other captain. “Go ahead.”

“We were sent to scout for the world Orak is hiding on. We turn up nothin’, world after world, then you tell us Orak’s on the moon, but he ain’t, and now we here, somehow, on the planet that when scanned showed nuthin’ but storms. But it’s actually kinda nice, except for the enemy, who you said was on the moon.” He paced around what little space there was around the table, stopping at Zep. “Like my man here says, things moving a little quick. Can you please explain the situation in a little more detail, captain sir?”

“I’ll do my best,” Cat responded. “You’re mor aware than anyone else that something happened to us. We still don’t understand it ourselves, but it happened. Forge can now slip into a conduit of photons that, because of his skill as an engineer, he knows how to interperate. But how, and why he sees what he sees, he can’t explain. Just as I can’t explain how Orak communicates with me. What I can tell you is that you’re fortunate you aren’t the one hearing him. But somehow I can, and I’ve learned to listen for more than what he wants me to hear. But I can’t explain the physics of Ulro, or why Orak can project them in some ways and not in others. I only know that he can, and because he and I are linked I knew that he had inverted the data coming from our probes. So here we are, right where we need to be, and as Zep told you, reinforcements are on the way. In the meantime, we’ll be disabling their means of suppressing our radiance." Red stood still for a moment, then nodded. “Bear with me Captain. There’s a lot goin’ on we not used to.”

The plan was drafted, with everyone there but Ergheiz offering insight. He sat quietly on his small section of countertop, leaning back with his arms folded. His face, with its small eyes, heavy brow, lantern jaw and wide, thin-lipped mouth, remained as still as the bulkhead he leaned against.

Harbinger Five went to their own ship after the brief to gear up. Ishtar watched them leave, wishing for a chance to talk with their captain, and hoping for a chance to show him her mettle on the op.

She felt cold and shuddered, hugged herself, then ran outside.

“Ish?” called a voice. “Hey.”

Once protozoa, the eels wandered, the wild harvesters, wandered and wander still. But to where?

The tower rose above the clouds, drinking starlight. In dark chasms lightning carried hate from soul to soul and a river of fire belched acid below, rising as the worlds converged.

Somewhere, distant but not distant enough, an eel died and when it died the Child screamed.

“Hey, Ish.” It was Reev. He had his hands on her shoulders and was searching her eyes. “She’s okay! Come on, let’s gear up.”

“I saw…” She felt suddenly embarassed.

“It’s okay. We all went through it. She’s okay! Come on, Ish.”

He put his hand between her scapula and gently urged her back onto H1.