Fall of the Cerberus

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

                   Arriah could sense the team somewhere down east of her position. Like all other Shold, she had inherited many unusual abilities, including an odd sixth sense. Just as humans had the ability to detect the general position of a planet’s northern pole, so did the Shold have the ability to pinpoint six directions throughout the universe.

                   The first Shold had been wildly unsure of what to make of it, and had bleakly named four of them after the cardinal rose: north, south, east, and west. The last two directions had been just slightly more creatively designated point-major and point-minor. Most scholars had been astounded by this odd perception, many still refusing to believe the Shold even held such an awareness, despite amazing navigational achievements.

                   Yet others, mainly philosophers, argued that these “cardinal senses”, as they were now christened, proved that the universe was much more organized than first believed, that the three dimensions were a constant throughout the multi-verse.

                   Few Shold, however, cared to mention the fourth.

                   Most humans knew that her species had inherited psionisis from their Abarri ancestors, the ability to manipulate the physical world with naught but the mind. Of course, none really knew how it worked; they could only speculate.

                   The Shold didn’t make use of psionisis directly through the physical world however. Through meditation, they could somehow…detach…their minds from their bodies, subsisting as a “spirit”, if the word could apply.

         The mind however, existed in its own domain, a dimension apart from the body. In this world, the mental world, Arriah wasn’t limited to mere sight; she could sense the very embodiment of every object in the physical realm. It was beyond sight. Arriah had cried with happiness for hours after the first time she had managed to enter the ethereal world. She had witnessed the secrets of the universe, secrets beyond words, beyond comprehension.

         The Ethereal realm was also oddly connected to the normal universe. Although space and time were heavily distorted there (time ran rather spontaneously, and space seemed to have little meaning), Arriah still maintained her cardinal senses. Odder yet was a strong longing to head point-north, an almost feverish desire. Yet even in a realm where distance was of little consequence, this “point of origin”, or so Shold called it, was far indeed.

         Needless to say, Arriah still felt a tie to her physical body whenever she “transversed”. It was as though all her senses and emotions were left in a corner of her mind, as though another’s perceptions. Unfortunately, she couldn’t exactly exert complete control over her body when fully in the mental realm, her conscious having left it.

         Of course, the most distinct characteristic of the mental world was its ability to manipulate the “real” world. The ethereal realm flowed with energy as an ocean flows with water; pure, unadulterated energy. This probably confused Arriah the most, as she could simply not bring herself to be able to describe it. In the end, however, her ethereal spirit could, with a bit of concentration, control these flows of energy, and somehow channel them into the physical realm. Thus she could cause an object to move, combust, or even ripple space-time itself. The potential was utterly breathtaking.

         For the moment, however, Arriah remained in the waking world, trying to fix her skiff’s radar. Though able to scan the Cerberus for hostiles in her ethereal form, she was fairly inexperienced, only able to really make sense of anything within the immediate area of her body. At forty-three years of age, she was still seen as an adolescent in the eyes of many Shold, as it wasn’t uncommon for their kind to live up to three-hundred years. It was perhaps one of the reasons she didn’t mind hanging about humans, who seemed to respect her for her limited wisdom.

         Even so, she kept one eye open as the human saying went, her mind peeking into the ethereal world. She wouldn’t be able to perform psionisis, but at least she could keep track of her platoon. Well, more or less Marks. His MIU gave off pretty distinct emissions, easy to detect in the hectic jargon that was the mental world.

         The platoon had just started turning away from her direction after a few minutes at a rest. Arriah continued to fine-tune the radar, trying to filter out static left by the EMP. With luck she’d be able to get the damn thing working correctly. Right now all it could detect was a huge cloud of fuzz Arriah could barely translate as the Cerberus.

         “Arriah.” Drinn’s voice cackled over the com-link. Arriah’s attention promptly left the radar.

         “Yes captain?”

         “I need you to contact the Dauntess and secure the lock-down codes for all service elevators.” Drinn’s voice seemed a bit tired, though Arriah could sense some frustration.

         She sighed heavily and hit the return button on her com-link. “Captain, you know I can’t do that. We’re supposed to maintain radio silence for the duration.”

         The com sat silent for a moment, as though the headset itself was thinking.

         “Just get the codes, otherwise radio silence won’t matter.”

         Arriah sat back and gave a slight tug on her ponytail. Contacting the Dauntess risked giving away their position, but Drinn would have realized what he was asking of her.
Leaning forward, Arriah typed the codes necessary to access the Dauntess’s database. The skiff appeared to have a different idea, however.

         “Captain, I can’t get a lock on the Dauntess,” Arriah reported, perplexed. The skiff should have been able to connect to the flagship, no matter how much interference the EMP caused. “Hell, I can’t even get a trace. It might as well have left the system.”

         The com-link went silent once again.

         “EMP?” The reply asked simply, sounding rather grave.

         “Doubt it. But then again, I’ve been wrong before.” Arriah would kiss her own ass if she was wrong now.

         “Sensors indicate the Brackston isn’t too far off. I’ll see if I can’t bum your codes off of it.”

         “Understood.”

         Arriah completed the transaction, relaying the codes from the Brackston to Marks’s MIU.

         She only hoped that the feeling in her gut was the human emotion of paranoia.