|
Outside - The Reflection
:: 01-01-31 ::
Chapter 4: Muser's Dream
Tasiin watched the Scaffold burst into a thousand pieces. The Imperial Taiidan fighters glided by, unscathed by Kharak missile defense. Already the fate of Kharak was sealed. The Imperial Carrier began launching its corvette-sized weapon, which aimed itself at the planet.
Watching the Burning of Kharak was particularly morose activity. Tasiin was not sure why he was doing it, although he suspected the Dream on the Mothership was responsible. Whatever the reason, he felt completely numb.
"Self-inflicted pain can seem noble, but it is often an unheard cry for help," he could remember Datlai saying. He imagined her there, reminding him of the musing.
The atmosphere-deprivation missile arced towards Kharak.
"What do you hope to prove by this?" Datlai asked. "Is this an unconscious penance for turning your back on the Universe?"
Tasiin continued to watch.
"Is this really what you want?"
"Let me be," he replied.
"Such a tragedy. You do not know what you want."
"Let me be."
"Do you remember the realization?"
"This...you never did this to me," Tasiin said.
"But did you do this to me?" Datlai asked.
The missile neared impact. The Taiidan ships positioned themselves, as if spectators of a brutal sport.
"Help us."
"I don't want this!"
"You have the key."
"I don't want it!"
"You have a decision."
"I don't want it!"
The weapon detonated, spreading fire across the planet. In the flash, the entire world fell apart.
*****
Tasiin found himself lying in a bed, his entire body sore. Bandages covered his arms, bruises covered his legs. A doctor with the typical colors of the Sleeper kiith Feisu stood nearby.
"What happened?" he asked in his disorientation.
"You were attacking yourself in your sleep. It was quite a violent reaction even to the Burning. The grief you felt must have been overwhelming."
Tasiin kept to himself that grief had little to do with it. He doubted a Sleeper would react favorably to being told the Burning of Kharak did not matter. Instead it was...
Datlai. She stood in the vicinity, watching him.
"Why are you here?" he asked. The doctor backed away discretely to give some privacy. Datlai came forward.
"They told me you cried out for me in your sleep."
Again, Tasiin kept to himself what he was actually doing. Still the end of the dream was garbled in his memory. What the doctors said might have been possible.
What is happening to me? he thought. I have had no problems for 17 years, but now...
I thought I had moved on.
"Is it evening or morning?"
"It is mid-day."
"The trans-hyperdrive has to be worked on." Tasiin began to sit up, but immediately regretted it when a throbbing headache revealed itself.
"Look at yourself. You are not in a condition to work. Even if you think you are, the doctor and Project Coordinator Kaalel order you to rest today and tomorrow."
Tasiin sighed. He wished they did not have the authority to keep him from his work, from his musings. It seemed...binding. For a moment, he tried to get up again, but his body refused to cooperate.
"Self-inflicted pain can seem noble, but is often an unheard cry for help," she reminded him softly. He could not tell if she actually said or if he was imagining her again. Tasiin closed his eyes again, trying to ignore the world. He wanted its confusion to melt away. But as he tried, Datlai returned to his mind. She acted as if they were still on Kharak, at each other's side. He, even more strangely, was beginning to go alone with the act, wanting to go along, despite how painful it all was.
"Let us find the others of our kiith here tomorrow," he found himself saying. Tasiin drifted off to sleep again, dreaming about the Bentusi he was sure were listening.
*****
"Kiith Soban does offer courses in the martial arts," the Soban at Tasiin Limandatt's first welcoming suggested.
"It is a long story," Datlai explained, following the limping, bandaged, Tasiin at a fair distance.
"A question," Tasiin began. "What honors have you had as a Soban?"
The Soban looked at him indignantly. "During the Hiigaran war, I served aboard the frigate Hero of Kharak, and battled Kadeshi and Taiidan. During the war with the Beast, I commanded the heavy cruiser Tal-Hul and took out a large carrier group with only a minor fighter escort," the Soban said matter-of-factly.
"Just a question," Tasiin said and slowly moved on.
"Here are the others," Datlai said. The other Limandatt were clad in the traditional black, silver, and blue of the kiith. Tasiin, with great effort, sat down opposite of Datlai. The other Kushan greeted them, the ritual verse whispered among them.
"We have heard that you have influenced the project already," one of the others, Kanell Limandatt, said.
"That may be true," Tasiin replied. "I helped work on the trans-hyperdrive of the Beastslayer."
"The most influential ones are the humblest," the fourth Hiigaran, Naela Limandatt remarked. "Do you realize even the Bentusi are surprised with you?"
The Bentusi are surprised with me. The thought ran itself several times through his mind, creating a favorable impression.
"...And they are they only Unbound race we know anything about," Naela added.
"Except the T-Mat," Datlai said. "They have been talked about here."
"Who are the T-Mat?"
"I do not know much. They accompanied the Council's fleet that helped us regain Hiigara," she replied.
After a pause, Tasiin added, "We know some more. A ship of theirs was often detected in hyperspace following the Mothership. They simply...observed.
"We have encountered them since. On every occasion, always with small fleets, they have attacked and destroyed our fleet. We do not know why."
The other Limandatt were silent.
"I overhear things from the other researchers, while I present my work," Tasiin said. During the long, somber quiet that followed, he began thinking again about the Beastslayer's trans-hyperdrive, and how it could be implemented.
"Tasiin, you are quite distant," Kanell said.
"He can be distant," Datlai replied, seeming to understand his way of contemplation. "Just so long as he does not leave us."
In his musing, he heard Datlai and silently thanked her for letting him be.
*****
The entity sensed the focal point of the presences, the center of the light. Some were particularly bright, but the entity could snuff them out at a whim. Instead, it neared the seemingly normal one, the yearning on - the one growing exponentially in brightness now. It had a powerful potential.
One that must be guided.
Come to us.
Come.
|
