The Dark Between The Stars

SIXTY-EIGHT
OSIRA’H

Adar Zan’nh flew his warliners back to Ildira at top speed, bearing the only survivor of the Kolpraxa.

After rescuing Tal Gale’nh from the command nucleus of the blackencased ship, the uneasy scout team was anxious to depart, fearing the return of the Shana Rei. Zan’nh insisted they remain long enough to scour the ship’s log computers, but all systems had been wiped clean. Gale’nh was the only one who could say what had happened, and he had fallen back into an overwhelmed silence. There were no other survivors.

They marked the position of the Kolpraxa, and abandoned the empty vessel.

During the flight back into the denser star systems of the Spiral Arm, Osira’h did not leave her brother’s side. Except for occasional glimmers of consciousness, pale and ghostly Gale’nh remained in a detached state. The medical kithmen could find no physical damage, no reason for the loss of color in his hair and the bleaching of his skin.

Osira’h wondered if he had been changed by profound and incomprehensible shock, a depth of fear that no other Ildiran could understand. Everyone else aboard the Kolpraxa had been obliterated by it, but her halfbreed brother was different. She understood what it meant to be unique.

As Osira’h reached into his thoughts using her telepathic connection, she began to bring him back from the dark wilderness inside his head. This was a different sort of battle than when she had forced the hydrogues into submission; now she fought against Gale’nh’s own turmoil, tried to take the dark from him.

In his mind, she saw glimpses of the Kolpraxa’s command nucleus, the panic of the crew as the whole ship was engulfed, in murderous shadows, his fellow Ildirans being torn into atoms and winking out of existence. Gale’nh had found an unexpected strength that the rest of his crew did not have, and now Osira’h experienced how he had fought, grabbing a few nearby crewmembers, trying to hold them, save them… and failing.

Then he was left all alone on an empty ship in the infinite dark.

Osira’h took those flashes of memory and tried to ease his mental burden, while fighting the instinctive terror it evoked in her too. She shored up her brother’s strength as the warliners flew back to the Ildiran Empire.

And there could be no doubt: it was the Shana Rei, she sensed it, knew it, though she couldn’t comprehend the details that her brother had buried deep within his mind. Osira’h told Adar Zan’nh what she had learned. Though shocked and disturbed, none of the Ildirans were surprised to hear it.

The Shana Rei.

Eventually, Gale’nh awoke, although he couldn’t yet face the thought of speaking, or even remembering.

Back home under the light of the seven suns, with the comforting blanket of millions of other Ildirans nearby, Gale’nh grew stronger. He spent several days in Mijistra’s primary medical facility.

Osira’h remained with him as much as possible, supporting him by being there, touching him with her thoughts to reinforce his mental armor. Nira came to stand vigil beside her son. Though she had no access to the thism, she read to him for hours, as she had once done as an acolyte to the worldforest. Muree’n hovered at the door of Gale’nh’s room, as if standing guard against the shadows. Rod’h stood next to Osira’h, concerned, angry, and insisting that the Mage-Imperator take some kind of action, though he couldn’t define what that might be. Only Tamo’l was absent, responding to a crisis with her misbreeds on Kuivahr. She had also sensed the terrible stress and sent a deeply concerned message, but she could not abandon the hundreds of tortured lives that depended on her.

Finding no physical damage to treat, the medical kithmen released Gale’nh and sent him back to the Prism Palace. For days he sat looking weak and lost, even as he bathed in the bright magnified light that shone through curved crystal ceilings. He would clasp his siblings’ hands, drawing strength from their presence.

Finally, one afternoon he looked at those gathered around him, shuddered, and began to speak in a halting voice. He looked from Nira to Osira’h, to Adar Zan’nh, who also came to visit him every day, and finally he addressed them all.

“I can’t explain what happened to me or where the rest of my crew went. The Kolpraxa investigated a dark nebula—that was our mission, to explore the unknown. The Mage-Imperator commanded it.” His voice was ragged, his pale face drawn. “And the shadow swallowed us.”

Rod’h asked, “But hundreds of Ildirans were aboard the Kolpraxa—why were you spared? Is it because you are a halfbreed, like us? Were you stronger?”

“The darkness came at us through the thism—that much I remember. The others had nothing else to fall back on.” Gale’nh reached out and clutched Osira’h’s and Rod’h’s hands. “Rememberer Ko’sh knew it before anyone else did, and I dismissed his ideas, but it was the Shana Rei… and they are more fearsome and more incomprehensible than we could ever imagine.”

Adar Zan’nh had brought a crystal sheet coupled with an image projector, which he placed before Gale’nh. “I did not show you this aboard the warliner, because I thought it might be too terrifying—but I need to know. Are you strong enough to see these images? This is what we encountered near Dhula.”

He activated the crystal screen and showed the robot ships escaping from the ice moon. When Gale’nh saw how the shadow cloud engulfed the enemy ships, he turned away. “That is what we encountered.” He shivered, and his breathing quickened. He closed his eyes, then forced them open to look at the images; perspiration stood out in clear beads on his forehead. “It wasn’t a nebula or a dust cloud. It was… alive somehow. It was darkness.”

Rod’h was grim. “It matches the records of the Shana Rei.”

A silence filled the room. No one could argue with the assessment.

Gale’nh gave a slow, weak nod. “They are a darkness in the fabric of the universe, and they are seeping through the cracks, oozing everywhere.” He shivered and held out his hands as if to draw in more of the sunlight. “The Kolpraxa didn’t awaken the Shana Rei—I know that. Something else did. But now the darkness is everywhere.”

Osira’h was concerned. “Is the darkness inside you?”

Rod’h hardened. “And did you bring it back among us?”

Gale’nh touched his chest, his face. “No… but it exists.”

Adar Zan’nh said, “This is a new kind of enemy, and we have to understand it. There must still be plans and designs for the old weapons we used against the Shana Rei.”

Nira said, “When I returned from Theroc after we learned of a mysterious shadow attack on a Roamer skymine, the Mage-Imperator commanded the rememberer kith to comb through the Saga. He asked them to find all information about the Shana Rei.”

Adar Zan’nh nodded. “The Solar Navy fought them before, so we need the details. What weapons were effective? Didn’t Tal Bria’nh use sun bombs at Orryx? How do we build them? We need to know again.”

Osira’h said, “The Saga is not complete in its story of the Shana Rei. Many records were sealed away when other Mage-Imperators rewrote parts of history.”

Nira smiled. “That’s why Jora’h also asked Rememberer Anton Colicos to scour all records from that time, even the ones buried in document crypts. He has a more open mind than most Ildiran rememberers.”

“There is one weapon that no one will find in the ancient records.” Rod’h was edgy, defiant. It seemed important to him that he prove his own worth. He faced Adar Zan’nh. “The Kolpraxa’s crew were not strong enough to resist the Shana Rei, but Gale’nh was. Maybe my sisters and I will be, too.”

He looked at Osira’h and Muree’n, then finally rested his eyes on Nira. “Maybe the Ildiran Empire will once again need the strength of your halfbreed children, Mother.”