Page 64 of Infiltration

The com beeped its compliance in the nick of time. The room was fading from Mereta’s vision, his dark passenger waking from the mists that turned their attention to Mereta’s consciousness.

He returned to the quiet deep, where the true All awaited him instead of the territorial other-dimensional being his rider had emerged from. Mereta drifted in peace, waiting for the light to beckon him to his next chance to warn the galaxy it had come under attack.

* * * *

Captain Kila’s spyship

Ilid opened his eyes, grateful to escape sleep and its horrors. He discovered greater terror awaiting him in the waking world.

The Darks were everywhere, surrounding the sleeping mat in his quarters aboard Captain Kila’s spyship. Their shadow tentacles slithered across the sheets covering him, reaching for him.

How do you see us? We will open your skull. We will cut your brain to pieces to find out, slice it and dice it until we know the secret.

Ilid screamed, pushing at tentacles his hands passed through, kicking at and through them as well. He screamed as they crawled onto the mat, as they scuttled toward his head where they’d claim control and hurt him…

He screamed and woke up for real, flailing violently to escape the tangle of sweat-drenched sheets. He fell off the bed, landing on his ass on the narrow strip of floor between sleeping mat and wall.

His gaze flew over the room, which he kept illuminated almost fully even as he slept, so when he woke there wouldn’t be shadows to frighten him. Unfortunately, his nightmares provided plenty of darkness.

The instant Ilid recognized there were no Darks in his stark, undecorated room, it was safe to let tears blur his vision. It was safe to cry the tears he should have been ashamed of, he, an adult Dramok.

He consoled himself no one was there to witness his shame, Darks or Kalquorians. He hadn’t admitted to the nightly bouts of childish weeping to the psychologist on board the spyship. Only the nightmares, which refused to grant him peace.

He was beginning to believe the hell in his mind would never be over. He hadn’t escaped the Darks. Not truly.

Once the storm of sobbing ended, Ilid dragged himself to his feet and got dressed in his black fleet uniform. He had given the time a cursory glance and knew it was early yet, but he’d never get back to sleep. He didn’t want to, anyway, though he’d been forbidden stim tabs to combat the two or three hours he was unable to avoid succumbing to each night…more when his exhaustion caught up to him after a week of sleep denial.

Being fully dressed helped his mindset. It meant facing his nightmares was over for a little while. Coffee, the weak but still lovely Earther drink he used in place of stim tabs, would complete the transition. Until his daily therapy session, he’d be able to pretend he was recovering from his ill-fated trip to Bi’is.

Glancing outside the ship, viewing the vast panorama of constellations on an endless field of black space, also helped. Ilid found comfort in no sign of Bi’is, a planet now as dead as those on the ship he’d served aboard. He hadn’t yet really thought about an entire society being erased in a matter of days. His mind was already buckling under the strain of him nearly being eradicated too. Adding the deaths of billions of others was more than he could cope with, so his brain, in a supreme act of self-preservation, refused to truly note the event.

The psychologist on board the ship that had rescued him, the sole survivor of its twin vessel, told him it was perfectly normal to do so. “They’re beyond saving, Ilid. You aren’t. You have to concentrate on yourself and not feel guilty for doing so.”

He looked at the metal frame on the wall. He could have left it on to spot space at a glance, but its comfort often turned to another source of terror. Yes, it was wonderful to no longer see he was in orbit around Bi’is, but it was awful when he thought of what lurked among the stars. Out there existed an unbelievable entity. It had sent its emissaries to torture him, take over his shipmates, and kill the residents of an entire planet.

It was out there. Somewhere.

But not here.“Vid, show exterior view.”

He very nearly screamed at the planet that appeared, filling the vid transmission. Ilid staggered back several steps before he realized it wasn’t Bi’is.

It was Kalquor and its green-tinged seas and greener lands. Kalquor and its five orbiting moons. Kalquor, where Captain Kila was dropping him off before the spyship moved on to its next destination.

Ilid was home at last. Safe at last.

He reached a trembling hand to the vid, as if he could stroke the beautiful world itself.

* * * *

Kalquor

“But sir—” Tranis began a protest.

Rear Admiral Hobato held his hand up for silence. “I know how it appeared, but there have been no reports of trouble from our station orbiting Earth. No sign these Darks arrived there on Captain Kila’s vessel. I see no cause for alarm.”

He didn’t even bother looking at Tranis as he spoke. The younger officer fought off a wave of anger to be summarily dismissed. It wasn’t as if Hobato spoke condescendingly. He simply wasn’t taking the situation seriously.

“I showed the same signs of those who’d been overcome by the Darks. The low blood sugar, absence of memory for a certain amount of time. Identical symptoms.”

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