The Dark Between The Stars

TWENTY-ONE
TAL GALE’NH

The Kolpraxa headed into uncharted space, cutting through the emptiness. In the command nucleus under the open dome showing the vast universe, Tal Gale’nh let himself enjoy the sense of wonder. The unknown was so compelling.

Outside the Spiral Arm, the stars were sparser, and space was emptier, almost devoid of light. The hundreds of Ildiran crewmembers aboard the exploration ship experienced flickers of uneasiness to be so alone, so far from the Empire. Gale’nh felt the tingle of their fear through the thism, but he was strong. He hoped that they could also feel his excitement.

Ildirans were joined with faint racial telepathy, the thism. Their minds had a synergy, their presence was bound together in a complex mental network. Like a gossamer safety net, thism embraced every member of the race and tied them all together. And every strand led back to the Mage-Imperator.

Gale’nh’s mother had told him stories about Earth’s generation ships dispatched centuries ago, following an astonishingly thin thread of hope as they ventured slow and blind in search of other habitable worlds. They knew their journeys would likely take more than a century. In light of what Nira’s people had done, Gale’nh thought, the Kolpraxa’s mission was not so daunting.

Rememberer Ko’sh stood beside him. The screens showed denser stars in a river of celestial light below. “All the stars in the Ildiran Empire are there beneath us. We are so far from them. It makes the rest of space seem emptier.”

Gale’nh raised his chin and gave the tall rememberer a confident smile. “Who else in all of history has had a grander view? Does even the Mage-Imperator have a perspective like this?”

“A valuable insight, Tal… a different way of looking at the darkness to distract us all from our fear.”

“What is there to fear?”

“The darkness. That fear is in our genes, since Ildirans evolved on a planet always bathed in daylight. Only when we ventured to other worlds and star systems did we learn that night even existed.”

“I’ve been to those worlds,” Gale’nh said. “I grew up on Dobro, and our camp had lights shining down. We could see the dark overhead, but I wasn’t frightened by it.”

Ko’sh regarded him for a long moment. “Perhaps your human half gives you strength that the rest of us do not have. Your Ildiran half should remember the Shana Rei, however.”

The others in the command nucleus glanced up from their stations with an involuntary shudder. Gale’nh drew a breath. “There are many questions about the accuracy of those stories. Rememberer Anton Colicos discovered that.”

“That does not prove all the stories are false,” Ko’sh said. “No true Ildiran doubts that the Shana Rei were real.”

Gale’nh had heard about the black ships that swallowed light, monstrous creatures of darkness that had englobed the planet Orryx in shadow so that it remained a wasteland to this day. He knew how the heroic Tal Bria’nh had fought against the Shana Rei using “sun bombs,” but the creatures of darkness were not defeated until Mage-Imperator Xiba’h became a faeros sacrifice, and the cleansing light drove the Shana Rei from the Spiral Arm.

Gale’nh said, “The hydrogues were a more fearsome enemy, and we defeated them.”

Ko’sh sniffed. “With all due respect, Tal, you do not understand the Shana Rei. They are more than black warships—they are blackness itself. They attacked the Ildiran race, and the Ildiran soul, through the thism, through our fears.” He folded his long-fingered hands together. “Let me tell you a story.”

Gale’nh smiled. “You think I am a child to be frightened by simple tales?”

“During the first attacks of the Shana Rei, long ago, the splinter colony of Ahlar was saved by the Solar Navy. A barrage of sun bombs drove away the black ships. The Ahlar Designate rejoiced with his people, celebrated with his nine sons and daughters.

“But part of the Shana Rei remained behind, living in the shadows of space and the night of the world. Unseen, they struck through the Designate’s mind, blackened his hatred, fed his violence, and convinced him that his own children were evil monsters that had to be destroyed.

“After the grand feast, when everyone was smiling and giddy, the Ahlar Designate took his children into a private room where he drew a crystal dagger and prepared to slay them all.” Ko’sh gave a grim nod. “But he was a son of the Mage-Imperator, and so he was stronger than even the Shana Rei expected.

“The Ahlar Designate fought against the madness inside him while his terrified children watched. Eventually, he plunged his hands into a bright fire, which burned his flesh, but the pain and light and heat were strong enough to bring his mind back into focus, and he stopped himself from killing the children.

“But he could still feel the blackness like a parasite inside. The Ahlar Designate took the crystal dagger and drew a long gash in his arms to spill out his lifeblood. And what poured out”—Ko’sh dropped his voice, knowing that everyone else in the command nucleus was listening—”what poured out was black blood. The Designate let it flow down his arms and onto the floor, while he sobbed. The children tried to make him stop, but they could see the blackness oozing out of his body. He needed to drain it all from him.

“Finally when he was near death, the blood flowed true again, and the Designate declared himself free… but he was too weak to recover. Even so, he died satisfied, and the children knew the danger of the Shana Rei, as did all Ildiran people.” Ko’sh tightened his lips as he finished his story.

“That was a brave thing to do.” Gale’nh looked at the intent Ildirans who served aboard the Kolpraxa, then turned his gaze to the sparsely scattered stars. “This ship’s crew can be brave in our own way. Just think of everything out here that has never been seen before: nebulas, stars, planets full of wonders. And as we experience it, the Mage-Imperator is with us. We are casting our racial net of thism wider. Keep studying. Keep exploring.”

“Tal, I detect an anomaly ahead, a dust cloud or a dark nebula,” said a scientist kithman amid the ports and contacts of the Kolpraxa’s scanning devices and telescopes. “No energy signature, but it covers a wide swath.”

The screen showed a prominent emptiness, a swatch of space without any visible stars. “Why didn’t we see it before?” Gale’nh asked.

“There are so few stars out here, Tal, it is difficult to see whether the light is blotted out by dust or just emptiness.”

“Then we will do the brave thing.” He lifted his chin. “We investigate.”

Though he was just a halfbreed, Gale’nh’s Ildiran blood did come from the greatest military hero in the Saga of Seven Suns. He had not known his father, but he had studied Adar Kori’nh so intensely that he felt that the man was his mentor after all, that Kori’nh was truly part of him. And Gale’nh did his best to meet that potential. Maybe the Kolpraxa would give him a chance to make his own mark on the Saga…

As the exploration ship headed toward the anomaly, Gale’nh could see the dark nebula covering even the sparse scattering of stars, like a hole in space, an opaque cloud that eclipsed starlight. It seemed darker than the blackness itself.

Gale’nh stood straighter at the command rail. Rememberer Ko’sh looked deeply fearful, probably frightened by his own stories.

The scientist kithman withdrew from the network of sensors, wearing a perplexed expression on his flat and analytical features. “Tal, our sensors give indefinite readings. It is difficult to measure the extent of the anomaly when there is… nothing there. The cloud is not solid, not vacuum—just a shadow. But the shadow cloud has changed significantly since we first detected it.”

“Changed?” Gale’nh asked. “How?”

“The dark nebula is growing, and moving.”

Ignoring the expression on Rememberer Ko’sh’s face, Gale’nh recalled his duty. “If it is unknown, then the Kolpraxa must investigate. That is the Mage-Imperator’s command.”