PosTalPack Citadel served as a bastion of power for the KoTry on this frontline region. It's pure existence put constant pressure on the entirety of the Sheosayl stellar border. And none of them still alive had ever seen it.
Preparations were underway to have the citadel moved now that the Sheosayl were all but captured, but this was a slow process by any measure.
It was no secret that KoTry ships were crystalline in nature, favouring natural shapes that often repeated. The regular icosahedron that formed PosTalPack Citadel was no exception. The roughly spherical citadel was massive, but not solid. Each spar incredibly thick with hollow faces between revealing the inside of the citadel. Each vertex where the spars met split off to a fourth spar that descended to the center of the polyhedral station to a central structure, the core of PosTalPack.
Another Icosahedron, solid but translucent, hinting at the watery environment within. A shadow slept within that environment, slowly spinning as it slumbered, colossal tendrils drifting within the waters.
The citadel appeared to be made of polished limestone, gleaming beautifully in the light of its current star. A priceless jewel from far away. From up close? A monstrous creation with a diameter of approximately 3700 kilometres. The central core was a much more modest 460km, roughly an eighth the size of its overall diameter. Each spar, 57km, an eighth again. Where the regularity ceased was the addition of structures around each vertex. The polar points were irregular crystalline shapes extending inwards about 200kms, and the rest wandered anywhere from no larger than the spars connected to them, up to 150km. From each vertex stuck out a single massive red focus stone, a common sight on any structure or ship meant to move between stars.
The citadel had been placed here a decade ago upon the start of the Sheosayl campaign. It remained the staging point for the war of conquest. In the long history of the Platinum Empire, two others of equal strength had been made. Each grand citadel had taken over a century and millions of minds to build, a testament to the crafting might of the KoTry.
Although one of those Citadels had ceased to be. PosTalPack would be replacing it soon.
For the first time in a decade, the shadow moved of its own volition. Flashes of events and implications stirring the Titan from it’s unconscious observations of the KoTryan war efforts. Those wars the KoTry waged for the sake of reinforcing their might, and the war they fought at the only border that mattered.
But something new had happened. A KoTryan Warmind had encountered an unknown element, seemingly with all their senses open to what might come.
The Titan moved a great tentacle, touching an inert egg of potential. It placed a portion of its might and knowledge within the egg, and gave it a purpose. It then placed a fraction of its power in another egg, but this one without mind. Its only purpose would be to send a ship to its destination with all possible haste.
Purpose granted and potential set, the Titan considered the individuals within the Citadel and sent its newest daughter to the chosen Warmind. Newly returned from a successful campaign, NerKeraTor would have no time to rest.
----------------------------------------
Chapter 11
----------------------------------------
> Ustin Vinogradov
>
> ----------------------------------------
The cell door opened to reveal a couple of guards he didn't recognize. Typical blue and purple lizards, but with no green scaled female this time.
With those open backpacks with the battery and the motors whining as they ran, the guards put their hands in his arms and held him upright and frozen stiff. A welcome change from carrying him horizontally. They walked him out of the room to find another pair of guards waiting.
Hardly normal procedure, but after being tossed about and riding through the subspace he knew, Ustin would be more surprised if something hadn’t changed.
A simple stone disk floated just outside the cell. Black obsidian like the tiles lining the floor of the hallways, two more guards stood on the floating platform, more motors giving a persistent whine on their backs. The platform filled much of the large hall and could have carried a few more. They lifted Ustin up and set him near the center of the disk with the crocsnakes surrounding him.
This trip through the halls was utterly different than his previous trips. Many of the walls were still cracked, large fissures marring so many once pristine surfaces. At one point, they floated past a whole twenty-meter section where the outer wall was just gone, open to the void but for whatever means they maintained an atmosphere.
A low whistle on his part made his captors flinch. In response, they locked his head in place and held his jaw still. No more looking around, it seemed.
But he had seen enough. Enough to snap a full resolution image for later. They had parked in the middle of a fleet. Nearly thirty vessels visible in that small window alone. Many of them resembled the same cylinder and double torus that had captured them, but he quickly spotted many variants floating in wait.
Then they retreated further into the ship. Cracks, fissures, gaps, the damage continued until they crossed what must have been the center of the vessel and Ustin could clearly see a hole entering from one side of the hall and exiting from the other, both puncture points spiderwebbed outwards with cracks. And then it was gone as they turned down another corridor. The next few minutes were much less interesting.
Until they brought out Tanaka. A purplish crocsnake stepped down from the platform in front of a sealed portal. They put their hand on the stone and it soon moved out of the way, far quieter than a rolling stone door had any right to be. With his head locked in place, Ustin couldn't get a good look at the process. Still, even from the corner of his eye, Tanaka was easy to identify in this alien ship. The smaller Lunarian floated from the cell and was placed next to Ustin at the center of the disk.
[Tanaka,] Ustin acknowledged, engaging his wireless.
[Ustin-san,] Tanaka replied politely.
Ustin couldn't help but laugh, earning a glance from a guard. He paid it no heed. In another situation, Ustin would never have activated the transceiver. Partly because Lunarian technology was, and always had been a step ahead. One dared not make themselves vulnerable. But now it was different.
The other reason Ustind didn’t like it was that low-powered wireless carried no inflection, no emotion, and that bothered him. It picked up on subvocalization to transmit words but failed to carry most of the nuance. A by-product of the self-control subvocalization required, Ustin had been told. He and Tanaka started with simple reports. Tanaka had gone through his own set of 'interrogations'. Tanaka's experiences had been much less exciting than Ustin's. The Lunarian released a small chuckle at Ustin's report of the altercation with the Captain. At least one of the guards twitched at the unknown sound.
Tanaka then asked a bunch of questions in response to Ustin's description of being healed. They could only guess at the potential applications.
But they still knew little beyond the obvious. Soon the conversation began to dangle as they ran out of subjects to talk about. Ustin and Tanaka chit-chatted lightly about the food, the cell and the boredom until something obvious changed.
[Where are we going?] Tanaka asked in the monotone of his stealth connection. Ustin had no answer.
The floating disk had turned a corner and come up to a large portal set into the wall. The tiles, the gold inlay and the white crystal in the wall all led to this large, ornamental portal. The orange disk was decorated with a black geometric pattern reminiscent of a snowflake. As they watched, a guard stepped down from the disk and placed a hand on the portal. Ustin and Tanaka watched silently as the disk sunk into the wall, then rolled sideways out of sight revealing…
Another portal and a gap. This door led off the ship, but Ustin could see no connecting umbilical between the ship in which they resided and the portal on the other side. It was all empty space.
[Ustin,] Tanak sent, [they are taking us off the ship.]
[Da.]
[Ustin,] Tanaka sent again, [It's just us.]
[...Da. Good news, no? ]
There was room on this black stone disk, it filled nearly the whole corridor. But after Tanaka, these croksnakes had come straight to this apparent exit. No Oria, no Declan. No Seth.
[Good news?] Tanaka replied. [That depends on why they aren't here.]
That thought would sit in their guts for a long while. Like a stone, rough and heavy.
----------------------------------------
Zeek Seer
----------------------------------------
It was a stone he couldn’t drop.
While the other six of the old crew had retreated into the hive to immerse themselves in the imprints of the living and healthy, Zeek couldn’t do the same. His experience in the shadow of Seth’s mind block had broken him.
Except—
His second experience in that shadow, when the same mind block pushed back the screaming reality of high space, had put him back together. The breaks were still there. Zeek felt like a walking pile of shards held together with a bit of honey and some conveniently placed mud, but he knew he could function.
[You choose to stay and help? Then please, obtain a meal from the larder for our guests.]
Zeonova had taken a look into him, even probing his inner shell. Having had her look, she sent him to obtain food for the guests.
He’d found a worker by the name of Vertin and gathered some breadmeal, jelly and water for the two active Humans. Delivering food might be a more appropriate job for the nurses, but they were in the midst of finding cloth for the curtains Shezenna ordered.
As Zeek arrived at the room of the male, trays held in his secondary work arms, nurse Lesha arrived at the same time with a roll of cloth from a weaver.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Oh, hey there!” the Human commented. He lifted himself up from the padded sleeping pit, moving clumsily with strange objects in his hands. In one hand he held a strange little stick, in the other, a sheave of square shaped leaves. He shuffled himself forwards until he was sitting on the edge of the bowl.
Zeek approached the Human slowly, still unnerved by the mind block. At three arm-lengths, Zeek almost couldn’t move, his legs feeling as if they’d frozen in place.
The corners of the Human’s mouth turned downwards and Zeek felt the mindblock shift and warp. Zeek couldn’t feel anything through the block, but it did remind him of the trip through highspace, when Zeek could feel the fear, concern, guilt and determination of the Seth, even as he sheltered them all within his influence. Eless had made the difference, and allowed Zeek to see.
Zeek took the last few steps, lowering his left second arm to give the Human his meal.
“Porridge and jam?”
Zeek tilted his head, slowly trying to put together the meaning of the sounds. Finally, Zeek nodded, understanding the words to mean something like food. He took a few steps back as the Human accepted the tray and looked at the tray with a look Zeek couldn’t decipher. The Human’s eyes wandered, drawing Zeek’s attention as well. He was looking at Lesha as she unrolled the cloth, using telekinesis to lift it into place to block the doorway.
More specifically, he was looking at her nectar pouches.
[He looks like he wants some nectar,] Zeek sent to Lesha.
She turned her orange head, regarding Zeek with large red eyes. She glanced over at the Human in time to see his eyes shift upwards. With a mental shrug, she approached with tentative steps until the mind block was too much for her. She raised her prime hands up to her nectar pouches and kneaded them for a moment.
“Uhh.”
Lesha leaned her head forward and regurgitated a blob of golden nectar into her mouth, then rolled her long tongue out with the nectar formed into a ball. She raised her hands and cupped them under the ball of liquid and held it out to him.
“Uhhhhhh,” His expression made no sense, then Zeek remembered.
[He doesn’t have telekinesis, they only have the mind block I think,] Zeek told Lesha. [They are much like nymphs who can only use their hands and mouths.]
[Oh, yes!] Lesha pulsed her understanding. She concentrated on the ball, hardening the outer surface and forming a nub that the human could use as a spout. That done she took a quick step forward, deposited the orb on his tray and stepped back, quickly moving back to her task of mounting the curtain. Zeek couldn’t have managed the hardening of the liquid. That skill lay in the realm of inborn talents particular to specialized castes.
“Th-thanks…” The Human still seemed unsure, but Zeek supposed that would be normal for seeing unfamiliar food. The male balanced the tray on his knees and leaned over to start rifling through his sack of things. He dropped the strange stack of leaves in the process. On the very first leaf Zeek could see a strange image. His head tilted further as he leaned in to look closer. It looked like a simpler copy of a Sheosayl, with the same segmented body, abdomen and four arms of a worker caste, although the form of it was incomplete, the legs still missing.
“Interested?”
The tone of his voice seemed friendly, but with the Human’s attention came a heavy wave of darkness that made Zeek flinch away.
The expression of the Human fell, but Zeek couldn’t help himself. Shaking his head, Zeek pointed at the tray still in his left secondary arm and then pointed at the door.
“Ah, for Oria? Okay then, thanks for the food,” the Human said, baring his teeth and going back to searching through the bag. He made a sound of relief as he pulled out two thin metal objects and immediately dipped one of them into the breadmeal to scoop a portion of it into his mouth. A tool for moving food.
Just how many simple tasks did the Humans need tools to accomplish?
Zeek left the room and the strange Human behind, pulsing a note of respect to Lesha as he stepped past her while sweeping the curtain out of his way.
In the next room, nurse Nooshy had just finished hanging the curtain for the female Human. Zeek spent several very long moments just looking at the room with eyes and senses, gathering himself to explore into this block as well.
Finally, Zeek pulsed his presence to Nooshy and also gave the mind block a push.
“Oh!” the Human exclaimed with a jump as Zeek stepped into the room. Her mind block had recoiled slightly at his contact, but it didn’t jump forward to smother him.
She sat in her resting nest as well, but while the male had played with his strange stick and leaves, this Human had acquired some friends. A handful of coonoodles were currently making her into a comfortable hiding place, settling into her lap and at her sides and quietly cooing their contentment.
Zeek blinked in surprise. But after a pulse, he realized it made sense. The furry, long bodied little creatures were always looking for comfortable hiding spots and such spots didn’t get any better than a combination mind and presence block. And the white coonoodle in her lap was making an endless stream of happying cooing noises as she scratched its head.
Her eyes met Zeek’s.
“Oh my god! What are these little weasel things called? They’re so cute!”
The way her voice peaked suggested nothing more than innocent delight.
Zeek looked at Nooshy.
[A pack found her right away and they have only moved to tell friends about the spot,] Nooshy explained, her antennae twitching with amusement. [It is unfortunate that her excitement strengthens the mind block, but the coonoodles are more than happy with the situation.]
Interacting with the pets consumed the entirety of her attention, and Zeek envied her the pile of happy cooing animals curled up around her. Envied how easily they adapted to the smothering darkness. They looked happy.
Zeek stepped in and gently lowered the tray.
“Food? Thank you!” she responded, accepting the tray. She stared at the tray for a long moment, then shifted her head to consider the bag sitting at the far end of the sleeping nest.
Zeek felt Nooshy’s amusement rise at the same time as his. The Humans really were like Nymphs in some ways. Wanting something in their hands that they had to get up to obtain, while not wanting to move, was very childlike.
Sending out a feeler, Zeek lifted the bag from the floor and floated it over. He had to suppress the uncomfortable shiver of touching something lacking any sort of imprint, but fortunately, it wasn’t within his touch for long.
Zeek set it down gently by her side, causing one of the coonoodles to peep with annoyance as the bag squished the animal under its bulk. Otherwise unbothered, the fuzzy thing wiggled it’s way loose and wrapped itself around the Human’s ankle.
“You read my mind,” she said with a smile before awkwardly starting to explore in the bag.
A presence drew him upwards, gathering his mind within it’s fold. Shezenna gathered Zeek, the nurses, Zeonova from the next room over, and everyone else within the city.
Zeek looked upwards, closed his eyes and surrendered to the Unity. In mere moments, Zeek was little more than a part of Shezenna.
“Hello?” a voice sounded from the physical world next to him. In the midst of the Unity, it seemed to come from a greater distance.
Just in time to see the strikes coming down.
Meteors fell from space, thrown at Wellrack from the KoTryan fleet in orbit. The rocks screamed with heat and power, each one of them aiming for the center of the thick barrier surrounding the city.
Unities Osha and Mozzan acted first, gathering the strength of the ships holding position around Wellrack. Powerfully charged stones fired upwards to shatter the incoming meteorites before they could land. Every successful impact shook the air, but so many meteorites were falling.
Zeek was only one of many, but he was a Sensor, and with the rest of the Sensors under her control, they saw the hidden risk. His portion of the Unity tugged at Shezenna like something straddling the line between instinct and waking observation, the sensors in her thrall drawing her attention to the varying targets of the meteors. She didn’t hesitate to react.
[Osha, Mozzan, they are targeting your ships, leave the barrier to me.]
[Yes Matron Shezenna!]
Shezenna fortified herself and her barrier as her allies worked to defend themselves. Her mind shook with every impact, the meteorites sending matching but muted shockwaves into the city with every strike. With the barrier to take the brunt of the force, Shezenna’s people only suffered the shaking of a minor earthquake, but she could feel their fear bubbling up to the surface as they were faced with the power of the KoTry.
A pair of arms grabbed Zeek and shook him in place, but it was the mind block that dragged him from the Unity.
“Hey! Look at me!”
He focused his eyes on the female Human holding onto him with remarkable strength. The concern in her eyes was unmistakable. Slowly he realized the coonoodles had all scattered, many of them still peeping indignantly as their safe spot had suddenly moved.
“It’s a big one! It’s still in orbit but it’s coming down!”
For a brief moment, Zeek felt her emotions burst through, concern and fear pushing at him like a powerful wind. Fear and concern for him. For the Sheosayl. It was only for a moment, then the mind block reasserted itself.
Zeek blinked a few more times, the words not making sense to him. But he wasn’t the best person to understand. He nodded and stepped back to pull away from her mind block. Free of the dark fog, Zeek pushed the words with as much force as he could muster into Zeonova’s mind, trying to shock her out of her place in Shezenna’s gestalt. Only for a moment, but only a moment was needed.
He felt Zeonova drop out, confusion rippling through her emotions. Then the words sunk in as Zeonova deciphered the meaning. When understanding arrived, Zeek felt a shock run down his spine and into his abdomen and his antennae rose with alarm. He rejoined the Unity along with Zeonova.
The whole of Shezenna twitched as the two returning minds brought their dire warning. She hardened the barrier further, adding thickness as she disregarded the attacks she could see.
Pushing the limits of her sensors through the upper bounds of the atmosphere, she quickly found what had so alarmed the Human. Another meteorite, but so much larger than the others, surrounded by an imprint of empty void.
She gathered her strength, pulling a dense mass of stone from the ground outside the city and starting the process of packing telekinetic power into her counterstrike.
The attack was well calculated. If she’d noticed it too late, the strike could still be stopped, but the desperate nature of her defence would certainly have rendered much of her support unconscious with burn out. It was dangerous to pull too much, too quickly. Even forewarned, the impacts shattering against the barrier were still taking a toll on her reserves.
Shezenna fired back, launching her own massive rock. Unlike the KoTry who just had to drop their meteors, Shezenna had to continue pushing the mass of stone upwards through the atmosphere. All too quickly, the two rocks smashed into each other.
If Shezenna had dared to look upon the strike with her eyes, she would have gone temporarily blind as it flashed with light. The impact rippled through the air, exploding outwards with a flash shockwave of noise followed by a ripple of heat and smaller shards of rock. The damage was far greater than expected and almost stunned Shezenna for a moment. But she wasn’t done. Straining as she reached, she worked to shift as many of the falling stones away from Wellrack as possible, pushing rocks away or sometimes tossing them at each other to reduce the energy they carried.
The attack was over though, no more meteors falling from the sky.
But then, the KoTry weren’t in any great rush. They had the power advantage and the superior position. It was only a matter of how many of her people Shezenna could gather before making a break for a neighbouring system. And not all of them would make it out of the system.
Shezenna started releasing the greater Unity as she surveyed the damage. Wellbeck was only in the initial stages of reformation to be suitable for Sheosayls life. The impact and explosion had wiped out what little vegetation had managed to take hold in the surroundings.
While considering whether she wanted to convert any of the remaining egg stock into regulators, Shezenna released more of her people, including Zeonova and Zeek.
The first thing Zeek noticed was the sound. A strange rising and falling sound that moved with purpose and pulled him along with it. It soothed his nervous mind and helped ease his return to personal agency.
Zeek was sitting down, leaning against another Sheosayl with a naturally warm and comforting imprint to her. Zeek would have expected to have flopped down onto the floor, instead he was nestled into nurse Nooshy’s side. He could feel her waking up at the same time, with the same note of confusion.
The sound was coming from the Human female. Shiftly slowly, groggy with fatigue, Zeek and Nooshy looked at their guest.
She sat close to them, just close enough to feel a touch of her mind block, but she appeared as an island of calm. She was creating the comforting sound, making something within her closed mouth vibrate gently to create the soothing effect. The coonoodles had gathered once again, piling into her lap about around her side as she made the sounds, and some of them even seemed to be trying to join her in the effort.
As Zeek and Nooshy shifted and slowly climbed back to their feet, she let the sound drift into silence. As her comforting noises ceased, the mind block started to come back to its full strength.
“You did it.”
Zeek guessed at her statement and nodded, but he couldn’t stay. As exhausted as he was now, he’d hit his limit. He stepped back, pulsed a polite goodbye to the stunned Nooshy and quickly left the room. He couldn’t stand the mind block anymore. Not right now.
But thanks to the Humans, he would have a chance.
----------------------------------------