"Soul's Bonds", Chapter 15
Steam steam steam right along. Now we're going to delve into the mystery of the alien assassins that have been a headache for our heroes. Be sure to read the author's note at the end of this chapter, too.
Chapter 15 (Sky)
Commander Cruger called all five of we Rangers to Delta Command after breakfast, where he and Kat were reviewing a large list of data on a screen.
"Now, we'll go over what we know about our enemy and what we have gathered," said Cruger when we were all seated. "Of course, we were only able to analyze the one we managed to capture, so there's a small possibility that the others will be different, but for now, we're assuming they're all the same kind of creatures. Point one: they are definitely not organic, because they do not bleed or... erm, release any other bodily fluids when injured. This seems to be a common trait they all share."
"Uhm... sir?" said Bridge, raising his hand.
"Yes, Cadet Carson?"
"There's got to be... something wrong... with your analysis."
"And why do you say that?" the Commander asked.
"When I was... being held... by that first one. He took off... my gloves... to try and... subdue me," Bridge replied. "I saw... and read... his aura. If he were... a robot... he'd have none. I only... have known... organic creatures... to have auras, sir."
"I thought everything had an aura," I said.
"No. Only... creatures with souls... give them off," he explained. "All things... give off.. their own... kind of energy... of course, but an aura... is different... because it represents-"
"Enough, please, Cadet Carson. Are you sure you weren't mistaken about the aura?" the Commander asked. "It's not that I doubt you," he added when Bridge looked hurt and offended. "You must remember, however, that you were also being held prisoner and were being tortured repeatedly at the time, and what you saw could have been a dream or a hallucination."
"I was... conscious, sir. I know... I was. I saw... an aura. I'm telling you, sir... I didn't... imagine it," Bridge replied stubbornly.
"Hmmm," said Cruger, looking thoughtful. "Think, Bridge- you were the assassin Ka'ladra's prisoner for almost a week. Didn't you hear anything useful from him? Any clue whatsoever as to where he and his comrades came from, how they work, if anybody is directing them?" Bridge shook his head.
"No, sir. He only... appeared... when he tried... to get information... from me. I didn't... even know... he wasn't... the only one... until Sky... got threatened."
"Hmmm," said Cruger again. "If it is true that they have souls, it complicates things even further. We simply cannot know if that's true at this point, though, and right now it's immaterial anyway. Moving on... Point two, the assassins- or at least the armor they always wear- are composed of a very durable metal made from ores found on very few planets, certainly not on Earth. It's the same kind of material my Shadow Saber is made out of, so we know it to be exceptionally tough. That's why our shots have only been doing minimal damage to their bodies." As he went on, I was a little lost. What kind of creatures could they be, if not organic or robot? I glanced around at the others to see their reactions. Z and Syd looked just as lost as I did. Bridge was looking rather miffed, probably because Cruger was dismissing his observations. Tessie was rubbing her chin, and I could hear her muttering to herself,
"Armor... not robots... but they have a soul..." She then shyly raised her hand.
"Cadet Herdman?" Cruger addressed her.
"This is probably completely out there, sir, but it just occurred to me- could the culprit be a parasitic alien species?" she suggested. "Something that could take over, say, a suit of armor or a robot shell with no circuitry in it?"
"What kind of species is capable of controlling inanimate objects, though?" Syd asked. "We did once encounter a criminal like that, but there was only one, and he's long since been contained."
"The only species I know of with that capability is supposed to be long extinct. Let me refresh my memory..." said Cruger, bringing up a data file on the central screen. "They were called the Tri'rym, and were capable of infesting and completely controlling other creatures, and even some inanimate objects; once a group took control of a ship that crash-landed on their planet. The way they worked was never entirely understood, however, because they were never studied very closely. It is known that they were capable of surviving outside a host body via photosynthesis, and that their intelligence level appeared to be very low. This fact, combined with their ability to both infest other creatures and still survive without a host made them a dangerous threat, but fortunately, they were never able to achieve spaceflight, even with the ship they took over. They were also unable to keep any creatures infested for too long, because any host with a strong enough mind could overwhelm the Tri'rym and push it out." An animation showed a tiny, acid-green planet being struck by a meteor almost as big as it, knocking it out of its orbit. "And you can see what the fate of their planet was. Scans of the surface after the fact showed that conditions were no longer favorable for any life to be sustained, therefore it's POSSIBLE some of them survived somewhere, but unlikely. Still, you may be on to something, Miss Herdman. Cadet Carson, what are you doing?" he added, for Bridge had suddenly gotten up out of his seat and stood on his head, like he did whenever he needed to think hard about something. None of us really understood why, but he sometimes came up with good solutions that way.
"Trying to... remember something... sir," he replied, his eyes closed. "I'll need a... minute or three. You all... keep talking."
"Okay. Let's assume for a moment, then, that these assassins are robots or whatever, that are possessed by these parasites," said Z. "That's a huge problem, because if they have no physical bodies, that also means they won't get injured by our attacks, slow down due to tiredness during battle, or anything. That's a major advantage over flesh-and-blood bodies like ours- no matter how fit we are, we still get tired and hurt. If they are Tri-whatsis, and are capable of leaving their host bodies behind too, how are we supposed to fight and destroy them?"
"That's something we can't know until we figure out how they work," said Cruger. "But that is yet another problem in and of itself, because it would be difficult to find such a thing out. We can't interrogate Seragus, for instance- he is far too dangerous to be let out- and there's only so much we can do when he sits in a containment card. Cadet Carson, do you have an idea?" Bridge flipped back onto his feet.
"Just... a hunch, sir," he replied. "If they are Tri'rym... or something similar... I think... they may work... by binding... with their host's souls. They maybe even... have the souls... of dead people... inside of them." All of us looked at him curiously, waiting for him to go on. "OK. Hear me out... before you comment. When I nearly died... I saw a gate. It was the place... between life... and death. Dunno if it was... an illusion... or reality. But. Something told me... it was where all souls go... when a person dies. The voice said... was hard... but not impossible... to get back out. I've dreamt... about this gate... many times... since then, and the last time... the voice said... it wanted... my soul. Because of that... and from... reading Ka'ladra's aura... I can't... shake the feeling... that there are people... within the assassins. I've never seen... an aura... quite like Ka'ladra's, either. It was almost like... there were two people... inside of his body. You said... Tri'rym lacked the intelligence... to hold onto hosts, right, sir? But. If they're bonded... with an intelligent soul... then they become... a deadly adversary." The girls and I all looked at each other now, and I could see that they were skeptical, as was I. Bridge sighed heavily. "Nevermind. Forget... I mentioned it."
"As outlandish as that sounds, it's the only lead we have right now," Cruger admitted. "Unfortunately, it also leaves a lot of questions unanswered. How does a dead person's soul return to life, if that is the case? If these are indeed Tri'rym, how did they survive the destruction of their planet?" He rubbed his chin. "Next time we get in a fight with one of these enemies, we'll have to find some way to capture one and render him harmless to conduct further investigations. Rangers, thank you for your time; you're dismissed." All of us stood up and saluted him before going off to do our duties for the day, the meeting having left us with a lot to think about.
"Hey, you OK?" I asked Bridge, nudging him, as he looked upset.
"Yeah. Just wish... people'd listen t'me... once in a while."
"Well, you have to admit this is all really strange," I said, squeezing his hand. "We've never really dealt with supernatural stuff like this before. Honestly, let's face it, the theory that they're aliens that control inanimate objects, fused with the souls of people- dead or alive- is a little hard to swallow. And we haven't seen what you have, that place between life and death, so we can't really understand it. Heck, you don't know if your visit to... whatever that was... was real or just some weird hallucination you had while you were dying. You know?" He tugged his hand away from mine and turned to go the opposite way.
"Whatever. Nobody... believes me... til I turn out... to be right, then... 's 'Gee, we should... have listened... t'Bridge sooner!'. Gets... tiresome."
"What's the matter with you?" I asked. "I think you're overreacting to a little healthy skepticism, pussycat."
"I've gotta go," he said, walking away. "Lots... t'catch up on."
"Fine. I won't press you." I watched him go, puzzled by his sudden turnaround in behavior. Just a short time ago, he'd been his usual self...
"Something wrong?" Tessie asked as she emerged from Delta Command behind me.
"Mmhmm. Bridge is acting strangely," I said. "He was nice and cheerful just an hour ago. I don't know what upset him."
"I'm surprised he's been as normal as he is after what he went through," she shrugged. "Chances are he's stressed from returnin' to active duty after so long, and to be honest with ya, we might be dismissing what he saw a little too easily. We've dealt with some strange things before, how is this any less believable?"
"I should go talk to him," I said, starting to follow him, but Tessie shook her head.
"Look, uhm, not tryin' to stick my neck where it doesn't belong or anythin', but if I were you, I'd let him be by himself for a while," she said. "Trust me, he probably needs a little space, anyway. Everybody's been smotherin' him almost constantly since he was rescued. When he comes to you, that'll be when you need to be there for him."
"Yeah... you're right," I said reluctantly. "Well, I've got patrol duty today anyway, so I better get going." As I went down to the parking garage and mounted my motorcycle, I began thinking about what Bridge had said about souls coming back from death - if it really were possible to bring back someone's soul, bind it with a Tri'rym, and attach it to something like a suit of armor...
"No," I said aloud to myself. "Dead people are meant to stay dead. There's a reason it's never been done before." Despite this, against my better judgment, in a tiny corner of my mind I began to fantasize about my father coming back to life in this way as I went to patrol the city. Even years after the fact, when the criminal that had murdered him was contained and sent someplace it was unable to escape from, deep in my heart I wanted nothing more than to have him back. I was happy enough with the way my life was, of course, and felt a little more complete now that I'd found love, but to have Dad with me, to be able to show him that I'd followed in his footsteps, and hear him tell me how proud he was...
Extract from the journal of Sky Tate
When training and duties were over for the day, I went to Bridge to ask him more about the gate between life and death, ostensibly to try and puzzle out the mystery of the assassins and their bodies. However, he was still in a bad mood and wouldn't say much, complaining that his throat was hurting and he'd done enough talking for the day. I wondered if he could sense what I was thinking about, not even through his powers, but he knows how much I miss Dad, how much I would give to see him again.
I realize, though, I should already have known that souls CAN be moved around, even placed in a different vessel- the time an alien called Wootox switched bodies with me, it was likely exchanging our souls. But they logically could not be recovered from the dead, unless... unless maybe they could. If the gate were real, and souls went in and out of there... Bridge had seen it and come back in one piece. It could happen. Stranger things have. Maybe it's just silly, maybe not, but I'm starting to believe that Bridge might be onto something. I usually don't give much thought to trying to understand what he sees with his powers, and I normally don't dwell on my father this much, but I guess all this talk has given me renewed hope, begun again the fantasies of Dad coming back to life that I'd had when I was still young and I hadn't yet accepted death as the way of the world. I guess I probably shouldn't get my hopes up too much, though. The logical part of my brain is telling me that, anyway. Deep inside my heart is a different story.
One author's note: I'm just going to come out and say it right now, the thing about Sky's father possibly coming back to life isn't going to go anywhere, just FYI. It's the last remaining trace of a plot thread I abandoned back when I had to revise the story extensively and which I'll provide more notes on before chapter 16. I'm mentioning it here because the subject comes up again in 16 then kinda vanishes, but I couldn't find a way to excise those scenes from the rest of the story and fill them back in without making it sound choppy and awkward.
Chapter 15 (Sky)
Commander Cruger called all five of we Rangers to Delta Command after breakfast, where he and Kat were reviewing a large list of data on a screen.
"Now, we'll go over what we know about our enemy and what we have gathered," said Cruger when we were all seated. "Of course, we were only able to analyze the one we managed to capture, so there's a small possibility that the others will be different, but for now, we're assuming they're all the same kind of creatures. Point one: they are definitely not organic, because they do not bleed or... erm, release any other bodily fluids when injured. This seems to be a common trait they all share."
"Uhm... sir?" said Bridge, raising his hand.
"Yes, Cadet Carson?"
"There's got to be... something wrong... with your analysis."
"And why do you say that?" the Commander asked.
"When I was... being held... by that first one. He took off... my gloves... to try and... subdue me," Bridge replied. "I saw... and read... his aura. If he were... a robot... he'd have none. I only... have known... organic creatures... to have auras, sir."
"I thought everything had an aura," I said.
"No. Only... creatures with souls... give them off," he explained. "All things... give off.. their own... kind of energy... of course, but an aura... is different... because it represents-"
"Enough, please, Cadet Carson. Are you sure you weren't mistaken about the aura?" the Commander asked. "It's not that I doubt you," he added when Bridge looked hurt and offended. "You must remember, however, that you were also being held prisoner and were being tortured repeatedly at the time, and what you saw could have been a dream or a hallucination."
"I was... conscious, sir. I know... I was. I saw... an aura. I'm telling you, sir... I didn't... imagine it," Bridge replied stubbornly.
"Hmmm," said Cruger, looking thoughtful. "Think, Bridge- you were the assassin Ka'ladra's prisoner for almost a week. Didn't you hear anything useful from him? Any clue whatsoever as to where he and his comrades came from, how they work, if anybody is directing them?" Bridge shook his head.
"No, sir. He only... appeared... when he tried... to get information... from me. I didn't... even know... he wasn't... the only one... until Sky... got threatened."
"Hmmm," said Cruger again. "If it is true that they have souls, it complicates things even further. We simply cannot know if that's true at this point, though, and right now it's immaterial anyway. Moving on... Point two, the assassins- or at least the armor they always wear- are composed of a very durable metal made from ores found on very few planets, certainly not on Earth. It's the same kind of material my Shadow Saber is made out of, so we know it to be exceptionally tough. That's why our shots have only been doing minimal damage to their bodies." As he went on, I was a little lost. What kind of creatures could they be, if not organic or robot? I glanced around at the others to see their reactions. Z and Syd looked just as lost as I did. Bridge was looking rather miffed, probably because Cruger was dismissing his observations. Tessie was rubbing her chin, and I could hear her muttering to herself,
"Armor... not robots... but they have a soul..." She then shyly raised her hand.
"Cadet Herdman?" Cruger addressed her.
"This is probably completely out there, sir, but it just occurred to me- could the culprit be a parasitic alien species?" she suggested. "Something that could take over, say, a suit of armor or a robot shell with no circuitry in it?"
"What kind of species is capable of controlling inanimate objects, though?" Syd asked. "We did once encounter a criminal like that, but there was only one, and he's long since been contained."
"The only species I know of with that capability is supposed to be long extinct. Let me refresh my memory..." said Cruger, bringing up a data file on the central screen. "They were called the Tri'rym, and were capable of infesting and completely controlling other creatures, and even some inanimate objects; once a group took control of a ship that crash-landed on their planet. The way they worked was never entirely understood, however, because they were never studied very closely. It is known that they were capable of surviving outside a host body via photosynthesis, and that their intelligence level appeared to be very low. This fact, combined with their ability to both infest other creatures and still survive without a host made them a dangerous threat, but fortunately, they were never able to achieve spaceflight, even with the ship they took over. They were also unable to keep any creatures infested for too long, because any host with a strong enough mind could overwhelm the Tri'rym and push it out." An animation showed a tiny, acid-green planet being struck by a meteor almost as big as it, knocking it out of its orbit. "And you can see what the fate of their planet was. Scans of the surface after the fact showed that conditions were no longer favorable for any life to be sustained, therefore it's POSSIBLE some of them survived somewhere, but unlikely. Still, you may be on to something, Miss Herdman. Cadet Carson, what are you doing?" he added, for Bridge had suddenly gotten up out of his seat and stood on his head, like he did whenever he needed to think hard about something. None of us really understood why, but he sometimes came up with good solutions that way.
"Trying to... remember something... sir," he replied, his eyes closed. "I'll need a... minute or three. You all... keep talking."
"Okay. Let's assume for a moment, then, that these assassins are robots or whatever, that are possessed by these parasites," said Z. "That's a huge problem, because if they have no physical bodies, that also means they won't get injured by our attacks, slow down due to tiredness during battle, or anything. That's a major advantage over flesh-and-blood bodies like ours- no matter how fit we are, we still get tired and hurt. If they are Tri-whatsis, and are capable of leaving their host bodies behind too, how are we supposed to fight and destroy them?"
"That's something we can't know until we figure out how they work," said Cruger. "But that is yet another problem in and of itself, because it would be difficult to find such a thing out. We can't interrogate Seragus, for instance- he is far too dangerous to be let out- and there's only so much we can do when he sits in a containment card. Cadet Carson, do you have an idea?" Bridge flipped back onto his feet.
"Just... a hunch, sir," he replied. "If they are Tri'rym... or something similar... I think... they may work... by binding... with their host's souls. They maybe even... have the souls... of dead people... inside of them." All of us looked at him curiously, waiting for him to go on. "OK. Hear me out... before you comment. When I nearly died... I saw a gate. It was the place... between life... and death. Dunno if it was... an illusion... or reality. But. Something told me... it was where all souls go... when a person dies. The voice said... was hard... but not impossible... to get back out. I've dreamt... about this gate... many times... since then, and the last time... the voice said... it wanted... my soul. Because of that... and from... reading Ka'ladra's aura... I can't... shake the feeling... that there are people... within the assassins. I've never seen... an aura... quite like Ka'ladra's, either. It was almost like... there were two people... inside of his body. You said... Tri'rym lacked the intelligence... to hold onto hosts, right, sir? But. If they're bonded... with an intelligent soul... then they become... a deadly adversary." The girls and I all looked at each other now, and I could see that they were skeptical, as was I. Bridge sighed heavily. "Nevermind. Forget... I mentioned it."
"As outlandish as that sounds, it's the only lead we have right now," Cruger admitted. "Unfortunately, it also leaves a lot of questions unanswered. How does a dead person's soul return to life, if that is the case? If these are indeed Tri'rym, how did they survive the destruction of their planet?" He rubbed his chin. "Next time we get in a fight with one of these enemies, we'll have to find some way to capture one and render him harmless to conduct further investigations. Rangers, thank you for your time; you're dismissed." All of us stood up and saluted him before going off to do our duties for the day, the meeting having left us with a lot to think about.
"Hey, you OK?" I asked Bridge, nudging him, as he looked upset.
"Yeah. Just wish... people'd listen t'me... once in a while."
"Well, you have to admit this is all really strange," I said, squeezing his hand. "We've never really dealt with supernatural stuff like this before. Honestly, let's face it, the theory that they're aliens that control inanimate objects, fused with the souls of people- dead or alive- is a little hard to swallow. And we haven't seen what you have, that place between life and death, so we can't really understand it. Heck, you don't know if your visit to... whatever that was... was real or just some weird hallucination you had while you were dying. You know?" He tugged his hand away from mine and turned to go the opposite way.
"Whatever. Nobody... believes me... til I turn out... to be right, then... 's 'Gee, we should... have listened... t'Bridge sooner!'. Gets... tiresome."
"What's the matter with you?" I asked. "I think you're overreacting to a little healthy skepticism, pussycat."
"I've gotta go," he said, walking away. "Lots... t'catch up on."
"Fine. I won't press you." I watched him go, puzzled by his sudden turnaround in behavior. Just a short time ago, he'd been his usual self...
"Something wrong?" Tessie asked as she emerged from Delta Command behind me.
"Mmhmm. Bridge is acting strangely," I said. "He was nice and cheerful just an hour ago. I don't know what upset him."
"I'm surprised he's been as normal as he is after what he went through," she shrugged. "Chances are he's stressed from returnin' to active duty after so long, and to be honest with ya, we might be dismissing what he saw a little too easily. We've dealt with some strange things before, how is this any less believable?"
"I should go talk to him," I said, starting to follow him, but Tessie shook her head.
"Look, uhm, not tryin' to stick my neck where it doesn't belong or anythin', but if I were you, I'd let him be by himself for a while," she said. "Trust me, he probably needs a little space, anyway. Everybody's been smotherin' him almost constantly since he was rescued. When he comes to you, that'll be when you need to be there for him."
"Yeah... you're right," I said reluctantly. "Well, I've got patrol duty today anyway, so I better get going." As I went down to the parking garage and mounted my motorcycle, I began thinking about what Bridge had said about souls coming back from death - if it really were possible to bring back someone's soul, bind it with a Tri'rym, and attach it to something like a suit of armor...
"No," I said aloud to myself. "Dead people are meant to stay dead. There's a reason it's never been done before." Despite this, against my better judgment, in a tiny corner of my mind I began to fantasize about my father coming back to life in this way as I went to patrol the city. Even years after the fact, when the criminal that had murdered him was contained and sent someplace it was unable to escape from, deep in my heart I wanted nothing more than to have him back. I was happy enough with the way my life was, of course, and felt a little more complete now that I'd found love, but to have Dad with me, to be able to show him that I'd followed in his footsteps, and hear him tell me how proud he was...
Extract from the journal of Sky Tate
When training and duties were over for the day, I went to Bridge to ask him more about the gate between life and death, ostensibly to try and puzzle out the mystery of the assassins and their bodies. However, he was still in a bad mood and wouldn't say much, complaining that his throat was hurting and he'd done enough talking for the day. I wondered if he could sense what I was thinking about, not even through his powers, but he knows how much I miss Dad, how much I would give to see him again.
I realize, though, I should already have known that souls CAN be moved around, even placed in a different vessel- the time an alien called Wootox switched bodies with me, it was likely exchanging our souls. But they logically could not be recovered from the dead, unless... unless maybe they could. If the gate were real, and souls went in and out of there... Bridge had seen it and come back in one piece. It could happen. Stranger things have. Maybe it's just silly, maybe not, but I'm starting to believe that Bridge might be onto something. I usually don't give much thought to trying to understand what he sees with his powers, and I normally don't dwell on my father this much, but I guess all this talk has given me renewed hope, begun again the fantasies of Dad coming back to life that I'd had when I was still young and I hadn't yet accepted death as the way of the world. I guess I probably shouldn't get my hopes up too much, though. The logical part of my brain is telling me that, anyway. Deep inside my heart is a different story.
One author's note: I'm just going to come out and say it right now, the thing about Sky's father possibly coming back to life isn't going to go anywhere, just FYI. It's the last remaining trace of a plot thread I abandoned back when I had to revise the story extensively and which I'll provide more notes on before chapter 16. I'm mentioning it here because the subject comes up again in 16 then kinda vanishes, but I couldn't find a way to excise those scenes from the rest of the story and fill them back in without making it sound choppy and awkward.