Spatium Upended--A Trilogy, page 16
He was suddenly yanked away by the same force in the atmosphere. As much as he tried to stay calm, the speed intensified as he braced for an abrupt collision of sorts. He had accepted his fate.
He then suddenly vanished into the pitch-black cloud.
PÊBØ-Œ. KLÎVÄ DEPTH. HŠT.
ÔHRÇ GLIDED THROUGH the impact zone. It had been several weeks since the unfortunate mishap with a yet-to-be-determined cause occurred. The Rhxâ arrived as soon as they could upon being briefed of the incident.
The blue rocky formations of the landscape below made for an enigmatic yet picturesque setting to investigate the mysterious occurrence.
All the crew had arrived safely back to the East çêhń district of Pêbøâ-œ from where the vessel had taken off, save for hbâz, who was last tracked down to the barren frontiers of Klîvä Depth—a canyon type depression close to the moon's South pole that formed during the separation of the Vøhçû-œ.
The fuselage of the Łñîx øāńx powered craft was recovered intact. It had deployed an emergency forward landing gear that activated in extreme cases, such as the one that had occurred.
Ôhrâç landed atop a blue rock boulder. His Rhxâ agents made a startling discovery that he was personally not alarmed by, but one that vindicated his long-held belief that Zÿœhń indeed was being aided by extraterrestrial forces in her bid to undermine his Êlkên subspecies and all they had built.
Three members of the Rhxâ force circled above Ôhrâç's vantage position on the boulder at the edge of a steep drop in the canyon. He motioned for them to join him. They slowly glided downwards and landed at different positions around him.
“How many Qÿêø cowards did you find at the crash site?” He asked, referring to the Qÿêø cultists that were arrested the previous night at the impact site.
“When we arrived at the site, there were about half a dozen of them. We found several more in the makeshift çêhń that housed hûøžâ Zÿœhń's official lunar ship. This tells us she was here in person.” One of his male deputies hummed as he reported back to him.
“Where is the ship now?” Ôhrâç asked him.
“Grounded alongside the AI and øāńx commander. Apparently, they had flown in three Qÿêø members of the Hÿxî to help with the investigation into why the çwûž signals from Vøhçû-œ were misaligning with Pêbøâ-œ's and creating all these problems—” He hummed in response.
“Help? That's not what the Êlkê are known for.” He hummed impulsively. “They obfuscate, and they create problems; not solve them.” He said, peering down at the deep canyon below them.
“A lot of information was found on the ship,” The Rhxâ agent responded.
“What can you prove with any of this information that you found… And tell me, what type of information are we talking about?” Ôhrâç was curious as to the strength of the unfolding case.
“We found a lot of invaluable geo-positional metadata on the ship's frontal memory after prying for more information and getting access. We think we might have a map of her most recent flight path.” The head agent reported.
“Wait, you think you might know where Luella is kept?”
“We weren't able to trace any bio-identifiers of the three named Hÿxî members back to ÊlkêQî or to any other locations on Žøêrhâ for that matter, which tells us they weren't here in the first place.” The Rhxâ agent paused from his hummed report. “I suggest we bring hûøžâ Zÿœhń in for questioning. This needs to be exhaustive in the least.” He added.
“With what you have now, can you definitively state where she is? Or better yet, where she might have been kept lately?“A curious Ôhrâç asked.
“Definitively, not yet, but I will order a raid of the locations we have identified and isolated as soon as you give your blessing.” The agent responded.
“I have to run this by hûøžâ Vÿxhî, but if what you're telling me is that we have the possibility of recovering Qâhnâ, then, by all means, this is what we will do.” Ôhrâç's æńê pulsated as he hummed, which signified tension and giddiness. Then turning to all three agents, he continued. “You have to realize this incident here on the Klîvä Depth is the final act of sedition that will get Zÿœhń and her band of cultists canned. Her Êlkên supporters in the Hÿxî will have nothing to hold onto by the time we are done.” He paused. “Do you have eyes over all of the isolated locations?” He asked.
“Affirmative, hûøžâ.” The agent responded.
“I want a simultaneous hit. Zero casualties. Keep it clean and quick.” Ôhrâç instructed them.
“Like I explained earlier, hûøžâ, the casualties from the arrest we made last night here in the Klîvä Depth was unfortunate. We swooped in on a very seditious act. We needed to put a final stop to it. Again, I apologize on behalf of my team for the amount of force used.” The agent hummed in a submissive tone, conceivably remorseful for the fatalities sustained by a few members of the Qÿêø cult during the raid and arrest the night prior.
“That's okay as I said, I want a clean hit. Make it quick and report in real time. Don't forget to let me know as soon as the hbâz is recovered, no matter the condition. Get him to me immediately. I will be at the West Canyon çêhń. Get it done.” Ôhrâç directed them with a tone of finality before lunging in the air and piloting his dâhž aerial vehicle away from the scene.
Below their vantage point, hbâz's personal belongings were being recovered from the impact zone. The three Rhxâ agents threw their dâhž vehicles onto the canyon's steep drop and flew toward the bottom, approaching the impact zone.
More than anything, the Rhxâ had become a major power block in the ruling circles. Ôhrâç was bent on restoring the status quo. Although initially created to help nullify the antics of the Qÿêø cultists, their role had since expanded to involve acting as a support and rapid response force to the Tœmńâk, notably under the leadership of Vÿxhî. The fact that she was fond of Ôhrâç and his abilities had played a massive role in the increased responsibilities she had passed on to him.
ÊLKÊQÎ. DISCREET SILO. LATE-HŠT.
HÛŸLØ ASCENDED HIGHER to avoid collision with the army of impressive dâhž aerial vehicles that swooped in on her stationery position several miles above the Red-Crystal Mountain Range on the ÊlkêQî BeltLine.
The intense light spectrum momentarily rendered her blind. She dimmed her æńê to help protect her iris. She did not have time to identify the visitors, which meant they must have traveled at optimum speeds where only plasma bursts of energy intermittently appeared in the night sky when viewed by an onlooker.
While not utterly unusual, it will equally mean these were not the visitors she was expecting, she thought to herself.
“Wrong timing?” Øicârô asked in a sarcastic hum tone as his army of øāńx specialists swarmed the skies around her.
A visibly upset Hûÿlø reduced the dimmer proteins around her æńê. She could now see Øicârô. She banked her wing and surveyed the skies around her. It was a hive of buzzing dâhž suits. She suddenly dipped, then dived away from Øicârô and his team. He plunged after her, both piercing through the skies like crazed birds in a flight for their lives.
He called into her ńœhæ and proceeded to address her. “I suspected I was being followed and tried to lose their tail.” He told her.
She does not seem impressed. “This isn't the time for playing games. I am putting everything on the line to make this pact a reality. Don't make me regret it.” She warned while suddenly stopping mid-air from addressing him face to face.
“Why would you think this was anything but serious? I want Qâhnâ back home, and you want Zÿœhń deposed and to become the leader of the Êlkê. Not too complicated, right?” Øicârô countered, easing the speed on his dâhž vessel to match her position in the air.
“She's being constantly moved. Happens on average about twice, maybe more, and on a daily basis. Zÿœhń knows about you. She knows about Ôhrâç and the Rhxâ. She's expecting you to come for her anytime. She's always prepared. As much as I hate her guts, she's still Zÿœhń, and she won't be herself if she weren't formidable and a tough opponent to fight.” She added.
“What are you trying to tell me? Are you considering going back on our pact? Because that would—” She would not let him complete his hum.
“No, I'm not trying to tell you anything, hûøžâ, and no, I'm not going back on our pact, either. I'm letting you know who it is we're up against.” She hummed.
“Can we move in now? My øāńx wants nothing more but to help bring her back.” He hummed.
THE SKIES OVER ÊlkêQî was dense as Ôhrâç, and about a thousand Rhxâ agents pulled up deep in the sky above Øicârô and Hûÿlø. They hovered in dead silence while observing the unfolding drama below them.
From below, only faint bursts of plasma energy fields moving at speeds and in directions defiant of the laws of motion, were discernible.
Ôhrâç zoomed in on Øicârô and Hûÿlø through an opening in the sky between several of Øicârô's øāńx agents.
“We only move when those two start to move.” He hummed to his senior agent.
“I will stick with the original plan and move the agents to the South bank of the Red-Crystal Range.” The agent hummed back in response to him.
“The original plan actuates only when those two make a move. Now, we watch and we listen.” He hummed to the agent.
About five other øāńx agents glided over to join them both.
“There's activity on the base of South-Eastern part of the range; sonar movements, deep intensity, northward heading.” One of the agents addressed the both of them.
“That tells me there’s a substantial çêhń activity deep within the range.”
“Did you collect any bio identifiers?” Ôhrâç asked. His øûhçæ hum belied his reservations about delegating enormous responsibilities to the øāńx agents.
Ôhrâç preferred to handle it all on his own. He trusted his instinct and agency more than any other living being on the entire hñêø Nebula, and this shone through in his very stringent leadership style.
Although he principally controlled the minds and, to a large extent, the actions of the øāńx agents under his control—he updated the implanted algorithm that determined their daily schedule as a single force—he still fashioned his role better served when he was personally involved. Hence, not taking a break after recently arriving from an extended lunar mission to the Žøêrhâ moon, Pêbøâ-œ.
“We did. The majority of them were Qÿêø. There were also a few Êlkên activists.” The agent responded.
“Was the main target in their midst?” Ôhrâç asked.
“No, she wasn’t, but we did record an intense sonar spectrum in the deeper layers of the çêhń. We know a larger Qÿêø presence is active in there.” The agent responded.
At about the same time, Ôhrâç spotted Øicârô and Hûÿlø suddenly dived deeper away from their stationary positions. He opened geo-positional trackers on both their æńê tracking systems—these were a series of unique geo-locating and bio-identifying microscopic electrodes implanted at the base of the æńê that interacted with the neurons in the Êlkâr brain.
The trackers trailed the duo until they landed atop the Mountain Range’s NorthEastern edge, which was the lowest from ground level.
“Now move,” Ôhrâç instructed his top agent.
In a short few moments, the order was in, and a thousand dâhž vessels buzzed away in a tactical flying formation from their stationary position. They were headed in a southeasterly direction.
Ôhrâç and his top three agents ascended higher and then disappeared into the starry skies. Three of Žøêrhâ’s moons were full on this night, painting the night sky in a cascade of colors—electric-blue, purple, and orange.
ØICARÔ AND HÛŸLØ disappeared from view, free-falling precipitously through the steep drop on the South-eastern end of the Mountain range. This occurrence took Ôhrâç by surprise who had now lost visual contact but still had geo-positional trackers on both their æńê.
He flung his arm in the air. His claws morphed into a single giant claw. He then proceeded to sketch the shape of a heptagon in the space in front of his æńê. The screen was instantly populated by characters who streamed into the center from all the seven sides of the heptagon.
He focused on a set of numbers that continued to stream into the middle from the screen's left top corner. He then motioned for his lead agent to join him. Together, they continued to scan the screen, and both their æńê copied the information being relayed on the translucent display.
“They're in,” The lead agent said to Ôhrâç.
“Yes, they are but not yet with the target. We wait until she leads him to Qâhnâ, then we move. Until then, we collect more data on how they operate.” Ôhrâç responded.
Hûÿlø suddenly appeared from the edge of the drop and continued to ascend higher, eventually joining Øicârô's waiting øāńx agents.
Ôhrâç and his top agent have restored visual contact. They both zoomed their sights into the skies below them to get a crisp, clear image of the unfolding drama below.
“I can almost certainly bet the øāńx aren't taking orders from her. She's the enemy.” The top agent protested.
“At this moment, no, she isn't. They see Øicârô and not her. You do know how this works, don't you?” Ôhrâç responded sarcastically.
“Unfortunately, I do.” The agent responded. He paused and then glanced over at Ôhrâç. “We aren't only machines, you know? The Êlkên half never died.” He added.
“Then perhaps these are the ones with the Êlkê half.” Ôhrâç's hum spoke to his sarcastic nature.
“Hmm, This is true.” The agent responded.
“It is true. Now, again, you might be right. Look, she's leaving, but not alone.” He added.
The formidable-looking force of øāńx agents flying at gravity defying speeds in their respective dâhž air suits suddenly disappeared from view as if vanished into thin air. The force field they left in their wake momentarily destabilized Hûÿlø's formal glide. She regained her bearing and continued to glide away.
Back on the screen, Ôhrâç and his top agent tracked their movements, following in the invisible forcefields left in their path.
THE ØÃŃX AGENTS disappeared into an opening with a bright purple spectrum that opened in the ground beside the steep mountain drop from which they had just descended. One by one, they plunged through the hatch door on the floor, leaving a suction whoosh sound in their wake. The entire thousand-strong army disappeared in a few seconds.
Once in the çêhń, their respective dâhž suits are enveloped in the intensity of the purple light spectrum. They gathered in the air in a tactical formation. Øicârô appeared from an intense array that shone through a corner of the çêhń.
“Who controls the çêhń door?” Øicârô's top agent asked him.
“I do now. Hûÿlø isn't back until we are done here. Qâhnâ is in here somewhere. I do have approximate geo-positional maps, but it's just that. She's being moved around on a constant basis. This is a good starting point.” Øicârô responded.
“Follow the spectrum. Key in Hûÿlø's æńê protein simulation and gain entrance to the different living spaces in the çêhń. Neutralize any opposing force. Bring Qâhnâ unscathed. This upload is still valid, I'm guessing.” The top agent asked him.
“We don't guess, soldier. We know. Any new uploads would have been deployed and running by now. That is the current plan to execute. Results, soldier. Results.” Øicârô said as he turned his vessel and slowly glided away.
“Results it is, hûøžâ. Results it is.” The agent responded.
In a few more seconds, the agent motioned to his øāńx force. They all disappeared into the thousands of light spectrums that beamed from the space around them.
ØICRÔ'S TØP AGÊNT and three others glided through in a large hatch door. An intensive spectrum of white light oozed from it. They surveyed the ample space and traced the intense light to its source at the bottom of the area, below their vantage position.
The top agent suddenly let out a brisk painful hum and then dropped as if pulled toward the light spectrum below them. His concerned øāńx agents all instinctively dived alongside him as he continued to fall freely under his weight.
All four of them dived deeper into the space below them. Suddenly, the dâhž suits on the other three agents started to flicker—yellow, green, and then finally, intermittent blue flickers of energy balls escaped from the outfits. They all winced in pain and discomfort. It all happened so fast.
Their æńê from underneath the suits around where the most flickering activity emanated, was intensely bloodied up in pain and rage. They too soon lost consciousness. They collapsed from their tactical flying formations around their top agent.
As they fell under the combined weight of their air suits and body weights, several Qÿêø cultists suddenly emerged from within the blinding light spectrum below. They encircled the falling øāńx agents and guided the four dâhž vessels into the spot with the most intensive light beam. A few more moments had passed into the fall and the dâhž air vessels appeared to be tethered and suspended in mid-air.
“Extract all their geo-positional metadata and keep their çwûž spectrum shut. No one should be able to find them here.” Rœhš hummed from a distance as she buzzed into view from within the bright lights.
Like the dozen other Qÿêø cultists buzzing around the dâhž air vessels frozen in space and time, they were clad in their battle regalia made from the Mœk flower bud. This phenomenon, like the flower itself, made them appear invisible to their enemy on the battlefield.
