Genesis - the Battle Within (Pillars of Creation Book 1) (24 page)

“Watch your tongue Justice, you forget your place,” he felt himself brim with annoyance at Justice’s attitude. The old Immortal’s anger welled as he shook momentarily before spewing forth like a younger version of his past self.
“
You
will address me properly and respect the Order of your brethren, or I will have you disciplined by the SINAI myself. You may not agree with my philosophies, and you may not believe or even follow the Sacred as I do, but you will respect its rules, including accepting and following your assigned Sovereign’s teachings; at least until you become my equal as a Divine Wielder – this is the way it will be. Don’t you
ever
dare speak to me in such a way again or I swear it will be a day you never forget young Wielder.”

The cockpit fell silent as Osiris still shook, his words reverberating and Justice staring speechless ahead of them. Osiris eventually blinked, he was in nearly as much shock as his pupil. He wasn’t quite sure where it had come from, but he knew deep down he’d wanted to say that for a long time. His pupil had been, for many years, becoming worse in his attitudes towards their Order and rules. What he’d said had needed to be said for his pupil’s own sake … and now it was done.

Osiris used meditation to calm himself, sensing Justice’s embarrassment and frustration at being reprimanded so harshly. He physically neutralised his emotions and outward expressions with just a little effort, a talent that was akin to his kind. He started again, but more calmly this time.

“If you would only listen to my words once in a while young Justice, then you would have long since been given a title above your ranking as a Weapon’s Wielder and finally made as your class dictates, into the next stage of a Divine Wielder. Then you can follow your own damned path, become a damn Elder if you like, but know this,
you will not
speak ill of another Immortal in my presence again, especially one so akin to yourself.”

Justice bristled with these last words as Osiris cursed himself silently. He’d said too much, but being too late he decided to go on, a little pressured to do so and feeling like he should make amends for his outburst.

“Justice … I uh … Genesis is not the only Immortal to be patterned with the signs of a Reborn. Word has reached me that there is another within our time that also shows promise. I was going to wait until you were made a Divine, but due to your lack of patience, I will let you know now.”

Osiris could sense Justice’s bewilderment at his words. He now had his full attention. The old Historian softened as he turned to face Justice fully, who was now staring back intensely. His pupil’s clothing was the general garb of the Immortals, so only a part of his face could be seen through the dark hood. Yet now, up close, not even the darkest of the deepest shadows cast across his face could hide the glint of anticipation in his eyes.

“Yes Justice, look into yourself, I know you can feel it too, you also are suspected by the SINAI to be patterned enough to be of the Reborn.” Osiris let the words hang, allowing them to penetrate fully.

For the first time in years Justice had no answer, he was completely silent, except for his eyes, which were louder to Osiris than any words in existence. His permeating telekinetic fluctuations also clearly gave away his ambition and true feelings, and worryingly to Osiris, his deepest desires.

A-flight interrupted the Historian’s focus on his pupil’s new feelings of ambition, loudly announcing their
imminent
arrival on Pavises – which was still an hour off.

The moment with his pupil had passed, and Osiris, still a little annoyed, dismissively sent the confused and stuttering student to the cargo bay to meditate on his new-found heritage. He also told him to ready himself for the upcoming meeting with the council, which could be quite painful for most Immortals, especially if unprepared. He thought it best to give the young pupil plenty of time to get ready.

He also knew what else Justice would be facing when meeting the Elders, so any rest now would be needed if his pupil was to survive his upcoming tests for the Reborn.

Where on earth was his second personality? Had it decided to take a vacation?

Somehow, he was still conscious, but it felt like a piece of him was missing … yet strangely, a new piece added.

At least I’m alive!
What in the name of the Creator—

The intense pain he’d felt a minuet ago was replaced by – he didn’t know what – as he rose to his feet and started regaining his sensibility. He felt – he couldn’t quite explain it – different. Genesis wiped a hand over his eyes, his vision clearing as he blinked rapidly. He felt refreshing energy washing over his body and throughout his mind, the pain evaporating to its advance—

Almost overwhelming him, he tottered on his feet as for a split second he could see clearly around him; no longer just looking with his eyes! He could feel everything for metres around him … the walls … the floor … absolutely everything! He could even detect the medical officer’s anxious mood in the next room as he went over the many scans and cursed the lights for turning off.

It took a little time for Genesis to recognise the voice calling inside his head, and the strange feeling to shrink as he tried to understand what in hell had just happened. Over his internal HUD, he comprehended Me’lina’s soft voice talking through a crackling link. Moments later she became completely audible and clear. Genesis cocked his head as he listened, perplexed.

“Genesis it’s okay … it’s fine, all will be fine. He has shown me that we are finally free and this is the only way. Our fate has been opened, we have survived our first test.”

Genesis went to respond but was cut short as the lights flickered and came back to life. He noticed he was still shaking, but somehow felt almost back to normal. He was having difficulty concentrating as his senses leapt with new, as yet unstable, ability.

In one of these spikes, he felt the med officer’s annoyance as he looked at his data pad and back up to the lights, obviously still displaying the frustration of the lights going off periodically. How Genesis could sense this so clearly he could only put down to the effects of the – he didn’t really know how to explain what had happened … the attack …
bond?
He wasn’t sure if this was the right terminology, but it sure was what the collapse and ensuing experience had felt like; something forcing itself into his body and bonding to his core being—

The lights flickered once more and Genesis reined in his senses, the strange power diminishing as if it was vanquished by him gaining full control over himself and the light passing over him. With a shock, he realised the significance of the lights flickering.

“Slath!”
Genesis cursed aloud. He must have knocked out the entire ship’s electrical grid, at least for the light systems – “Oh crap,” he muttered, “the admiral will not like this, not one bit.” As if in response to his concern, sirens started up, deep within
Aspire
.

Great
, Genesis thought sarcastically,
the admiral won’t be at all suspicious of an Immortal arriving the same time as a mass power outage in his ship …
slath, slath, slath, this is just what I
—

The med officer spoke again over the speakers, startling Genesis as he was trying to recover. Luckily, the officer had not heard the commotion, and the grainy voice was unperturbed, “Um 05, just stand still, I need to take another look at your bio-signs, something’s not adding up here.”

Genesis barely contained his concern as the last words filtered into his ears …
Oh no, this is going to be bad
… he knew if he was found out to be contaminated with the alien’s poison, he would be locked up for months, or at least until the SINAI or Antipatros worked out what to do with him. Genesis opened his thoughts to Me’lina, desperately looking for ideas.

Me’lina tell me you’ve worked out what the hell is going on in there?

There was no answer. Genesis felt his gut tighten – things were even worse than he first feared. If Me’lina was not responding then he truly was in deep trouble, beyond what he’d first assumed –
slath, slath, slath!
He cursed again—

He tried not to flinch as the buzzing started again and the lights worked over him. This time they went much slower, searching deeply for the foreign toxin they must’ve picked up on earlier. The scan went on for an agonisingly slow minute. He waited, his mind racing with all the possibilities of being caught. After the painstaking scan, and to his relief, the officer began talking again.

“Uh … right, um, okay well that’s odd … okay 05, looks like there was some kind of glitch in … well obviously due to the lights … yes, that’s probably why. Okay Genesis you’re free to go, just wait while the room vacuums and you can head up to the bridge. Oh and that’s a direct order from Admiral Antipatros, your escort will be here shortly.”

Genesis felt the med officer’s presence disappear as he walked out of his observation post and off into
Aspire,
not thinking anything more of the scan. Genesis let out a sigh of relief, and tried to work out what had just happened to him, and more importantly, why? He knew something was different – different inside of him – but he wasn’t quite sure what. He needed time to investigate the weird encounter, to scan his systems and find what the hell the alien had been up to with its injection. Something serious was done to him, and he desperately needed to know what
.

The air around Genesis gushed as the twin turbines above him whined and sucked the room clean with great blasts of air, attracting any possible lingering contaminates efficiently into the micro-filters. This also indicated it wouldn’t be long until his escort arrived, and it looked like time was a luxury he was to be afforded for a brief moment only. He decided there was little he could do about the events just gone, so he tried to work on the problems he
could
influence; his impending meeting.

He looked towards the flexi glass, mainly to double check that no mist or lightning was still pouring from his hands or eyes. He absently noted that from the neck down he was still in combat form, still armed from the last mission.

He retracted his suit into one of his preferred civilian modes. He watched as the armour burst into nano-swarms and slowly re-formed, settling like dust as it took shape over him again and seconds later as it draped into dark robes, leaving just his head and arms bare.

Genesis started fretting about his absent personality; he couldn’t begin to fathom what this all meant. His head felt lonely without his protector and religious judicator watching him; he’d forgotten what it was like to have only his own voice in his head – beside Me’lina of course. His head thumped and he couldn’t focus properly, its absence making him struggle to take care of his thoughts, let alone his current situation.

Genesis felt his boots become slightly lighter, the material changing like the robes he’d chosen to wear. He decided to focus squarely on these adjustments as he tried to remain objective and block out his strange feelings. He adjusted his gun belt, which was now the only item that remained of his retracted armour, and the only portion that showed him as still being a soldier for his religion, apart from his rifle jutting above his right shoulder. His weapons were placed for easy access and his low slung ion-pistols looking almost sinister as they sat just below his hips, ready at a second’s notice to be called to hand.

The Immortal looked at his robes, which were not of religious making. He’d copied the design from a tailor on Harst, which he’d seen just before he’d left on this mission. Like the outfit, he was apart from his religion in a lot of ways, but now … without his religious personality …he was more cut off than ever.

Where the hell is it? It’s not like it could just lift off from my head and wander off.
Genesis pulled back his hood so he could see his full complexion as it was intended, not
modified by the strange powers that had been pouring out of it. He glanced over his features, still searching for any signs that might remain from his experience or give him a clue to what had happened. Seeing none, he lingered a second longer contemplating his form, wanting to keep focussed on tangible things.

His dark hair fell naturally and neatly to one side of his face, longer at the fringe than at the back, which he preferred to the Way of the Sacred’s regulated and much longer cut for Wielder classes. Of course this had also angered the Elders, but he’d seen little point in pleasing them at the time; they already had a list of other complaints and problems with him of late,
which are about to increase
, he thought with a sneer. Genesis used his nanos to draw his hair back, shortening his fringe so as not to cover his right eye and to get a closer look at himself.

His face was young, with a slight edge of wisdom creeping into it; sharp blue eyes and high cheekbones betraying his youth. He had a fresh handsome quality that continued through his angular carved body. Muscular in a sinewy way, but not brawny or excessive, his body carried him with what looked to be a strengthened resolve and a naturally powerful stance. This look was earned, he knew only too well, through use and not sculpting, a leanness that came from extensive apprenticeship and demand from his frequently overstressed—

With a shock, his view went beyond his face, drawn to an object lying behind him. Turning his attention to the object and away from thoughts of his extensive training, he realised that it was in fact not an object at all, it was a metre-wide dent in the nano-steel floor, surrounded by heat scoring. He recognised it as his own design.

“Slath,” Genesis exclaimed aloud, “even an Immortal doesn’t have that kind of strength.” The dent was at least half a metre deep in solid two-metre thick nano-steel,
“Slath”
, he swore again. Whatever the Tel’nagara had done to him, his convulsive and disastrous state had created huge amounts of power, enough to leave a large amount of evidence around him. Genesis glanced around, seeing the damage in the form of the wrecked room and destroyed machinery. He leant forward to examine the dents closely, and made out the slight knuckle imprints with blood smeared across the indents.

His expression twisted in confusion as he muttered aloud, “That’s odd, Me’lina always told me when I was injured, even if only slightly.”

He looked down at his almost completely healed knuckles,
and she’d never healed me without first gaining my approval; even on a subconscious level …

Genesis saw the last of the blood recede into his skin and the flesh start knitting.
Damn it
, he fretted further,
I have to find out what’s going on with her as well
. This was all becoming most concerning, overwhelming and frightening.

Out of concern for his welfare, Genesis reached out and tried to shift some of the nanos within the floor; the area smoothed a little but not enough to hide much of the damage. He raised his eyes and gave up almost immediately as he noticed the full extent of the damage extending across most of the walls and ceiling.

He’d always been praised for his skills in manipulating nanos within foreign compounds – yet he realised even he was ill-equipped for fixing such a large area. Although he knew he wasn’t strong enough to fix the room entirely, he gave it another shot as he didn’t need property damage added to his growing list of problems.

As he concentrated, his eyes widened as the entire room bent and twisted even further from its original shape, his power lashing out dangerously. He was forced to spring back as the overhead vents crashed beside him with an ear-piercing clamour.

The noise subsided just as quickly as it had started. Genesis blinked at the destruction coming from within him, appearing from nowhere. He now understood he was out of control and he’d be best to give up on his use of Rieft powers, at least until the fluctuations were gone, or he knew more of what the Tel’nagara had done to him, and before something else happened, in a more public setting—

Genesis blanched as the side wall materialised into a door, turning as it squealed noisily on its askew frame. Five armoured marines clattered loudly through the space, their combined bulk forcing them to stand in a formal line. Genesis regarded them, trying hard to look casual amidst the carnage around him.