by

Yanick Champoux (38%)

Lee Watts (18%)

Josip Nað (17%)

Michel Lacombe (16%)

Dorian (4%)

goldkngt55 (3%)

Andrew Avila (2%)

Marten (1%)

Oliver (1%)

Part 29

Lee Watts (1/2/2002)

Ben held himself tightly, his knuckles turning white. A single flashing red light lit the interior of the escape pod. How he had managed to get inside, he could not remember. The explosive decompression of the bridge had knocked him senseless and he was only now regaining them. He did not care that he had soiled him uniform. He was forcing himself to remember. The pain, blood returning to his brain, he floated in zero gravity. But the pain brought forth memories. His brother…Al-Mal…he was dead.

He and Al-Mal had tried to reach the escape pod together. Al-Mal had been dragging his dazed younger brother against the force of escaping air. A hull breech, but why? How? Ben's eye grew wide as a shadow passed across the view port.

That…thing…it attacked the Blessed Anointing. Its maw, an opened gateway to the blackest hell of all hells, had bitten the destroyer in two. Or nearly so. And it was still out there. Oh, Pancreator, it was searching for those who had escaped it. Ben knew that he had to act quickly, to get out of the area.

The gate. He could maneuver the pod to the gate and would appear to be part of it. Uncurling himself, he pushed off to the cockpit controls. Months of 0G training as a cadet had honed his movements. That, plus being team captain of the Academy's 0G Quad-Ball team. He slid into the con position's harness and buckled himself into the chair. A quick glance at the controls, he fired the thrusters maneuvering the pod toward the gate and away for the wreckage of his former ship.

No signs of the creature on the scope. But there had not been signs of it on the destroyer's scope either. He just had to get near the gate. It was too big. It could not attack him near the gate. He forced images of the open maw sucking the pod away from the gate, sucking him into the dark hell his teacher had so often described, from his mind. Such thoughts were not constructive.

A ship appeared on the sensors. This was the outbound vessel they had been ordered to stop. It had slowed to maneuver. Ben looked through the viewing portal. The small, sleek craft maneuvered by the burning and flashing hulk of the Anointed, or what was left of it. A clear half moon had been taken out of the middle of the ship.

The communications board lit up. They were broadcasting. "Attention damaged destroyer. This is the Fearless Baboon. Is anyone receiving this transmission? Please respond." The enemy…offering aid? Why?

"Attention survivors of damaged destroyer, this is the Fearless Baboon. Is anyone receiving this transmission? Please respond."

Byran turned to the Vau known as Shepherd. "There ain't no response. De all be dead. Can I leave da system now?" Byran couldn't tell if Shepherd was in deep thought or having gas problems.

"There must be survivors. At least one. I have seen him in my visions. A youth, of perhaps 20 of your time units." Shepherd turned to consult the other Vau standing in the cramped hallway.

"Well, if'n his out dere, he's not responding to me calls. We best be agoing, b`for da reinforcement arrive."

Shepherd shook his head and faced Byran again. "Proceed. Perhaps the youth is on the other side of the gate." The Shepherd and his fellow Vau turned and left the cockpit.

"About bloody hell time." Byran inserted and turned his key. The think computer lit the navigation screen. Three options appeared on the screen. Byran selected Vera Cruz. A series of lights lit up on the board as strange arcane symbols rapidly scrolled across the screen. A green light lit indicating that the jump engines were charged, the Sathra devise system checks completed, and the final transmission to the gate ready. Byran pressed the corresponding button.

Large cross-pieces on the gate began to move. The gate began to glow, a ball of energy forming where the cross hairs of the gate would be. The ball, growing rapidly, displays the sun and planets in their orbits. Then, the ball implodes, swirling energy coalesces from the inner circle of the ring, forming a whirlpool within the gate. Byran fires the Baboon's thrusters, entering the maelstrom of energy.

Eddies of energies toss the escape pod around, causing Ben to lose control. The eddies throw the small pod violently, colliding with vessel he had been trying to avoid. That is where Ben forgot all about his problems. Everything became white as light erupted from every pore, every atom screamed in unison, "Sathra."

Ben did not exist, physically. His mind was shot across thousands of parsecs of space. On Holy Terra, he stood before the pulpit of the Grand Cathedral as a priest expounded to the great council of bishops on the sins of mankind. "The darkness of every sin committed causes the suns to fade more and more and that the Holy Flame, by which all beings are given life was being shutout"…He stood before the Howling Gargoyle of Nowhere. A crown of tall and powerfully build beings encircled him and the gargoyle. The Gargoyle turned and spoke…He was standing on a plane of pure light. A figure, so brightly lit that he could not look at him directly, reached out a hand. "Ben"…He knew the working of Pentateuch, the flow of essence along it's points being disrupted by new and unplanned cities…The machines of Pandemonium which made the planet habitable were child's toys…His mother, weeping…Running with a herd of Shandors across open planes… All the lost worlds, suspended like marbles before him… The gates and their makers. And before them, their god, Sathra. Ben reached out to touch them…Darkness.

The surrounding darkness was as absorbing as the bright lights had been. It took a few moments as the images and feeling and understanding drained away into the great void of space. All that was left was the emptiness, the void left by the experience of all. A great aching agony of void, wishing to be filled once more. He returned to the fetal ball as before he was born.

Ben wept.