Chapter Sixty-Eight

We are taught from birth to never let our guard down, and how to protect ourselves against mortal enemies. But this aggression, I never anticipated.

—Tesh Kori

Tesh had been stunned to find another entity—one she saw as a looming, shadowy form—take control of the podship away from her and send it in wild, spinning dives through space, finally locking onto a course for Canopa. It had been a surprise takeover.

Now Tesh went through the ritualistic steps involved with occupying this sacred chamber, this womb within a womb, and she uttered a litany of ancient benedictios, the guidance-and-control phrases her people had employed for millions of years.

The podship quivered, and started to respond to her commands, but only for a few seconds before it stopped, as the intruder fought for control.

This was unlike any battle Tesh had ever experienced, as she faced a specter that kept coming at her and neutralizing her strength. She never felt her foe touch her, only the numbing effects of its ghostly power.

Normally, when a Parvii entered a sectoid chamber that was enough to control the creature. If they used ancient words and a gentle touch anyplace on a sectoid wall, the commands were understood. Now, however, the podship was confused, as it was receiving conflicting orders from different entities, different galactic races. Her opponent was not a Parvii. She knew that for certain, but little else. She didn’t think it was a Tulyan, either, for she had never known them to behave this way.

The powerful phantom stood inside the sectoid chamber, but details of its body were not discernible. Only a distorted shadow of whatever it was. It almost looked Human in shape, but with gross distortions on the head and appendages, as if something had pulled it, stretching it out.

Scurrying along the wall in front of the shadow, Tesh gained access to the core of the creature’s body by pressing her hands hard on a small, bright green wall section of the sectoid chamber, which was the nerve center of the creature. This technique, known as the “Parvii Hold,” was used by the wranglers of wild pods out in the galaxy, to tame particularly rebellious pods. She’d learned it from an old veteran. On the downside, the trick would only work for a few minutes before the pod shifted the location of its nerve center, moving the bright patch of color to another place.

But that might just be enough time.

As she pressed against the tough flesh with both hands, pushing this way and that to steer and send acceleration signals, the pod finally began to follow her commands.

Tesh needed to focus all of her considerable powers, not letting up for even a fraction of a second. By means of her connection, she saw through the visual sensors of the pod creature. Ahead, the faint green strands of the web seemed limitless, although an ancient legend said they did stop somewhere, at the end of the galaxy.

She saw the intruder’s shadow move. Focusing, she tried again to see bodily and facial features, but none were apparent. Her adversary—she couldn’t determine the gender—seemed much larger than she was, but she could not even tell if it had a face, in the common sense. From the humanoid shadow, she wondered if it might be a rogue Parvii using some sort of modified magnification mechanism. Looking around carefully, she saw no evidence of this. But her opponent continued to cause her trouble.

Receiving mental impulses from Tesh’s mysterious opponent, the pod began to slow. She pressed even harder on the green nerve center, which had not shifted position yet. The podship shuddered, and resumed the speed she wanted.

Tesh felt no more opposition, and she saw no sign of the shadowy form. She hoped it was gone, but kept her guard up. It took only a few minutes for her to cross space, but seemed like much longer.

Feeling uneasy, she guided the craft to a remote pod station, not on the busiest podways. As she pulled into the main docking bay of the station, she saw no other spacecraft at all, exactly as she had anticipated. Tesh needed to keep control of this pod, and did not want any distractions.

The podship seemed edgy. It didn’t shift its nerve center, but if it did she vowed to locate it again, doing whatever was necessary to maintain the upper hand.

The pod station orbited over a world that had not been inhabited for more than three hundred years. It no longer had shuttle service, so anyone wishing to go down to the surface needed to bring their own landing craft, which she didn’t have. She just wanted to focus on the podship, keeping it from breaking free of her, or from falling under the control of her unseen competitor.

Where was that shadowy form now? She saw no sign of it. Perhaps on the journey across space it had fallen away, and would no longer be any trouble to her. Either that, or it had died in the struggle to oppose her superior powers.

Looking through the visual sensors of the agitated podship, Tesh saw that the station was as she recalled it from earlier in her life, an unadorned structure orbiting over the tundra of a small, icy planet.