Happy Tuesday, everyone! Since it's the beginning of the week, and those are usually pretty rough for me, I thought I'd share a little peek at the type of day Petri can have. I don't know about you, but sometimes a reminder that things could be worse helps me feel better. Enjoy! 😉
She pulled up information on Zanzibar. It was a
well-developed world with several major metropolitan centers. It wasn't a planet-spanning
city like Upworld, but it wasn't a ghost town like Sheol and Dunia either.
"Sounds good," she conceded.
"I'm pleased you approve," was his sarcasm-laden
answer. "Though, you won't be seeing much of Zanzibar, since you can't
pass their customs testing."
"We've been through this!" Petri growled.
"Yes. We have. And nothing has changed."
She leapt to her feet with her fists clenched at her side.
Standing, she just barely matched Daji's height as he sat in the Captain's
chair. A fact that only fueled her aggravation. "I will not agree
to live my life on some backwater, deserted, no-man's-land
world-that-time-forgot surrounded only by dust and semi-sentient
troglodytes!"
"Considering the cesspool you came from, I would think
anything would be an improvement!" Daji snarled.
Petri opened her mouth to let out another scathing retort
when a voice boomed in her head. "Why do you bicker with the creature,
child?"
Blinking, she looked around, confused, and swallowed.
"What? What was that?"
Daji just looked at her as if she lacked all mental
competence and Chessie looked concerned.
"Didn't you hear that?"
Chessie shook her head. "I didn't hear anything,
hun."
"All I heard were the shrill tones of your harpy's
voice," sneered Daji.
Petri bared her teeth at him and stretched out her mind
trying to find the source of the voice. She didn't have to go far before she
found an energy that left her breathless; she had never encountered anything
like it before. It was like stepping out of a dark cave and staring directly
into the sun. The sensation left her stunned and all she could do was gasp and
gape at Daji and Chessie.
Her brow furrowed, Chessie hurried over to her friend. Petri
clung to the back of one of the passenger chairs, barely staying on her feet.
Her jaw worked as if her throat was blocked and she was trying to draw breath
past the obstruction. When she turned her wide eyes towards Chessie, the older
woman could read both terror and wonder in them.
Putting her hands on Petri's shoulders, Chessie turned the
younger woman towards her and helped her sit. "What's wrong, hun? Are you
hurt?"
Blinking rapidly, all Petri could do was point to a spot
beyond the viewport. The only thing that showed through the portal was a field
of stars, but Petri could feel the danger that lay in wait.
Swiveling his chair back towards the control panel, Daji
checked his instruments. "There is nothing there except the wormhole and
it is inactive at the moment."
Before Petri could recover herself enough to respond, the
voice boomed again. "Child, why do you waste your time arguing with
inferiors? Simply declare your will and make them carry it out."
Daji and Chessie flinched.
"You heard," Petri whispered.
They nodded.
His hands flashing over the control panel faster than
Petri's eyes could follow, Daji tried to locate and identify the source of the
voice.
Shaking her head, her voice heavy with dread, Petri said,
"Don't bother. It's them."
"Them?" inquired Daji, his hands never slowing.
"The Arcanum."
Daji froze and both he and Chessie stared at her.
"How do you know, hun?"
Before Petri could answer, a brilliant golden light filled
the cockpit. After a minute, the light resolved into the slight figure of a
member of the most hated and feared species in the galaxy. The small alien
looked around, seeming to study the three other occupants of the cockpit.
Shaking off his momentary paralysis, Daji leapt to his feet
and swung one long arm towards the intruder. He never connected. Instead, he
found himself flying backwards through the air to land in a heap against the
wall next to the door. When he tried to rise, he found that he was pinned by an
invisible grip.
"Daji!" cried Chessie.
She tried to run to him, but found herself picked up and
hurled against the wall next to the control panel.
Petri stood and gasped. "Chess!"
"Remain where you are, child. I would converse with
you like civilized beings. Your pets are not harmed."
Blinking, Petri stared at the creature who was even smaller
than her. "Pets?"
A graceful arm indicated where Daji and Chessie lay
immobilized. "These."
"Why are you holding them?"
"As I said, I wish to converse with you, and you
have failed to train them in proper behavior."
Her mind whirling, Petri said, "I don't
understand."
"That is to be expected. But all will be made clear
in time. Now it is time for you to come home."
Thoughts and questions spiraled through Petri's head faster
than she could register them. She felt like if she could just catch hold of
one, the spinning ball would unravel and everything would make sense again. But
try as she might, she couldn't seem to follow any one train of thought to its
conclusion. Indecision paralyzed her.
She knew what she wanted; to get herself and her friends
away from the terrifying alien as quickly as possible without anyone getting
hurt. But things had changed too fast for her to process the new situation
properly, and she didn't know where to start. All she could do was stand and
wonder at the weight of menace such a small, unprepossessing, apparently
innocuous creature could convey.
Petri had never seen an Arcanum before. Few had and lived to
tell of it. But, in spite of their reclusive nature, every now and again a
member of another species would escape with their life from an encounter with
the Arcanum. So, there were plenty of tales about what they looked like. And,
Petri noted, some of those stories even approached the truth.
On its surface, the Arcanum didn't appear dangerous. It was
short, much shorter than even her own four-foot-two-inch height, and
exceedingly slender. The creature's arms and legs looked like delicate twigs
that could easily be snapped in two by an average-sized human. But its head was
enormous, bulbous with large, lidless eyes, slits for a nose, and no mouth.
Perched atop its reedy neck, the head had an almost farcical appearance. Like a
child's balloon with a face drawn on it.
But, despite its almost comical appearance, the Arcanum was
shrouded in a miasma of danger. It wasn't hostility so much as supreme
indifference. There would be no threat from the Arcanum. It would simply
exterminate them. With no more thought than she would give to stepping on a
bug.
The alien was cadaverously slender and, since it wore no
clothing, Petri could see that it bore no obvious signs of the being's gender.
Its skin was pale and sickly looking, like one of the corpses that were pulled
from the underworld gutters every morning, and it added to the eerie quality of
the creature. A baleful, golden glow smoldered in the Arcanum's eyes.
Those glowing eyes were one of the few elements that were
consistent between the scattered accounts of encounters with the Arcanum.
Petri's own eyes glowed when she was in the grip of strong emotions and when
she used her power. That trait was what had betrayed her on Upworld. No other
known species had such eyes, and now Petri knew why others found them so
memorable. The light in the alien's eyes held her transfixed; it was as if she
were looking into the fabled torment that awaited sinners in every religious
mythology anyone had ever tried to sell her. But, unlike those stories, the
Arcanum's eyes made her believe.
"I don't understand," she repeated.
The alien gestured at the viewport. The field of stars had
disappeared to be replaced with an impenetrable darkness. "You will
come home. It is time for you to be evaluated."
"Evaluated?" That penetrated the fog that seemed
to be filling Petri's mind. "You mean like a test?"
"We must determine if you are one of us or if you
are less. That can only be determined by the Collective. You will be evaluated
and a consensus reached. Then we will decide what is to be done."
"Done? With me, you mean? What about my friends? Will
you let them go?"
"The lesser beings will be kept, for the time being,
to encourage your cooperation. You have been too long outside the Collective;
there is some concern that you will resist melding."
"Are you going to hurt us?"
"You will not be harmed, at this time. Any further
decisions will be contingent upon your evaluation. The fate of the lesser
beings will be determined based on the level of your cooperation. If you wish
to preserve their well-being, you must submit yourself to your evaluation and
strive to convince the Collective that you are sentient."
"I'm a person, of course I'm sentient!"
"Your claim to both of those statuses remains to be
determined. The evaluation will take place soon. Until then, you will remain
here in the company of the lesser beings."
The Arcanum flashed with the same golden light as before.
"Wait!" cried Petri. "I have more
questions!"
But it was too late. When the light faded the alien had disappeared.
Want to find out if Petri passes her tests? Grab your copy at the link below. Happy Reading! 😊
