Dreams

Dreams



A vast battlefield stretched for as far as the eye could see.

From a small hill, a tall figure watched as heavily armoured humanoid warriors attacked a fortified city at the base of a mountain. He literally glowed with power, ornate armour plates inlaid with intricate designs which gave off an eerie green light.

Below him, surrounding the walls of the city, legions of warriors butchered each other in a frenzy. The air rang with battle-cries, screams of the wounded, the ring of metal-on-metal, and one could almost taste the blood in the gusting winds around the open plains.

Massive siege engines hurled destruction at the walls, splashing against impenetrable defences in places, crashing through already weakened areas in others. Scores of warriors lined the wall tops, hurling spears, rocks and other projectiles down at the attackers beneath, whilst enormous teams of armoured near-humans manoeuvred lofty towers and ladders into position beneath the walls.

From seemingly nowhere, a bolt of fire lanced from a previously solid section of wall, catching one of the siege towers and setting it ablaze. Another bolt appeared, scorching a line down the side of the tower next to the flaming siege engine before arcing onto the battlefield below, exploding as it hit and throwing body parts into the air.

The armoured figure on the hill frowned at the scene, before reacting in sad anger as it was repeated along the length of the walls.

"Haar'chak," he whispered to himself. "Ori dush."

He knelt, settling himself down onto his knees, lowering his head and closing his eyes. The glow from his armour began to pulse, brightening with each flash.

On the plains below, the sporadic fighting taking place between the abandoned defenders outside the walls and the armoured warriors began to falter as the ground beneath their feet began to vibrate. It came in waves, subtle at first, barely tingling the soles of their armoured feet, but as each rumble came, it became stronger, until after a few minutes it felt as though a leviathan was heading their way. Many of the defenders threw down their arms, using the distraction to race back to the heavily fortified closed gates of the city, banging on them in a futile attempt to be let back in. The armoured warriors cast around in confusion, all activity stopping as they attempted to find the source of the disturbances. Many of them fell back, forming themselves into tight formations, getting ready to defend against what could possibly be another potential, and as yet unseen, foe.

The rumbles abruptly stopped before they were fierce enough to throw the combatants from their feet. Yelled orders sounded over the wind, reforming some of the battle lines and organising the warriors into more ordered lines. Nothing came from the walls, no projectiles, no insults, no calls for surrender, nothing.

All the while, the figure remained knelt on the hill, eyes closed, hands folder in his lap.

A single titanic jolt threw every warrior on the plain onto the floor, with not a single figure able to stay on their feet from the force of it. Several secondary rumbles came from inside the city walls as some buildings collapsed, their foundations already weakened by the previous seismic disturbances, and more than a few of the defenders were thrown from their perches on top of the armoured walls, both back inside the walls and out onto the battlefield below.

Even as the two sides began to pick themselves up and get themselves organised again, the rumbling started again, deeper this time and building from a barely-noticeable vibration into an earthquake which forced everyone onto their knees.

Then the top of the mountain exploded.

Ash and rock were thrown kilometres into the air, and debris began raining down onto the city and plains below. Clouds of superheated gas and molten rock began to flow down the mountain, causing panic in the city, crowds beginning to form by the braced and fortified gates. The warriors outside the walls began to run as fast as they could away from the city, all moving in an amorphous mass, flowing around hill upon which the figure still knelt. But now, his eyes were open, staring with bright intensity up onto the sky.

His gaze turned, fixing me with it, gripping my consciousness tightly and not letting go, drilling deep into my soul and-

Jay awoke with a start.

He was in his bunk on board the Tracyn'senaar, and, despite the cold air around him, he was sweating. Closing his eyes, he lay still for long minutes, trying his best to slow his hammering heart, controlling his breathing, his chest pumping in long breaths as he did so.

Eventually, he pulled himself back and up, propping up his head against the bulkhead behind him. As he did so, he caught sight of the woman seated at the end of his bed.

"You shouldn't be here," he rasped, coughing slightly as his vocal chords protested at their first words of what he assumed was a new day.

"Technically, neither should you," she replied. "You should have burned up in the exploding remains of the Indomitable, but, somehow, you didn't."

"First command above all others imprinted into those controlled by the...thing, the obelisk, was to preserve the life of the vessel containing the, I don't know, the 'prime' consciousness. When the clones realised I intended to stay on-board whilst it rammed that asteroid, some of the forced me into that escape pod whilst the rest carried out my orders."

"So it's still in there?"

Jay paused, unsure as to how to answer. Should he be honest with the woman, a woman he knew to be an apparition of some kind, or should be deny it? All he stood to gain from such a denial would be to deny it to himself as much as to her, as though trying to convince himself that it wasn't true.

"Yes," he said quietly.

"Can it control you? Can you control it?"

"You talk about it as though it's a separate entity inside my mind. It's not, it's a part of me. It is me, as much as my skill at slicing is, as much as Jaro's use of the Force is a part of him. It controls me and I control it. There is no dominant personality, as such."

"Can you still do the stuff you could do while on the Indomitable?"

In response, Jay raised a hand, his organic one, and sent his bed-sheets flying across the room, barely missing the woman on their journey.

He swung his feet around and rested his head in his hands, trying to rub the tiredness from his eyes, and missed the woman's satisfied-looking grin.

"That could be useful," she said.

"So is a tail, but it gets in the way just as much as this."

"Very funny. How does it get in the way? Seems like it would be more of a help than a hindrance."

"It's funny, I used to dream of being a Jedi when I was a kid. But now I have their powers, I don't really want them, not like this. I don't feel I've earned them, not like the Jedi."

"Me'ven?" laughed the woman. "The Jedi didn't earn their powers, di'kut. They're just winners in a genetic lottery, heirs to a decadent tradition that kidnaps children and brain-washes them into becoming so-called warrior-diplomats, wise and all-powerful in ways we mere common folk can never understand."

"I know that now, I've heard it all from Arkaan. Hypocrites, liars, haughty and uptight, stuck up their own shebs and unable to see the real world from their lofty position."

"I'm impressed, Jay, I never knew you had it in you."

"Yeah, well, I need a shower. You going to watch or go bug one of the others?"

"Jaro's drunk and Arkaan's asleep, the others I don't talk to. But, if you're offering your services..."

A datapad flew through her face, and she laughed as it bounced off the bulkhead behind her.