The Misbegotten

“I am afraid it is unavoidable, my friend,” said the same man with the broad smile. As in the digital projection, he wore the embroidered Furwah. And, as Estefan had guessed, he wore a stark white Dishdashas underneath. His feet had encased in heavy black boots, a must on Europa.

They appeared mechanized, but without a closer look, Estefan couldn’t be sure.

Flavia seem to have noticed this as well, positioning herself closer to Estefan than she would on normal occasions. She could come between him and their Host in a fraction of a second.

Mechanized boots could do a variety of things. They could increase or decrease gravity, contain tools to assist one when walking over rough terrain. Or, they could conceal weapons (or gases) of any sort as long as it was small enough to fit within.

The Keeper’s Raven was well aware of the potential for danger.

The rest of the Synod stood behind the Keeper, arrayed in an arch. They gave themselves enough space to maneuver should a confrontation break out.

His name was Hamza Ahmed Khali-Bhall. He stood with his hands clasped before him. His attempt at a reassuring expression had fallen flat upon the lot of them. He had told them he was a direct descendant of the Synod’s first contact within the Federation.

But from Estefan could recall of him, Hamza looked nothing like the man. He was too tall, his face too wide and his nose was far too large. His eyes were blue not black. Though he seemed intelligent, he didn’t have the sharp wit and biting intensity of Ali Ibn Bhall. To the Keeper, when he placed the two men side by side, he couldn’t see the resemblance. Even with the generational dilution of characteristics, it didn’t quite add up.

He didn’t quite trust the man either.

“You will not blindfold me, my friend, or any of my wives. That’s all there is too it,” said Estefan, his voice firm.

Hamza’s hand parted his palms up. “Then, I’m afraid we can proceed no further, Your Imminence. It is the law of the Federation that all Infi-,” he caught himself, “…Guests! Yes, guests who visit the surface of our beloved home must go forth blindfolded. Our secrets are now as important to us as our women.” He glanced around at Estefan’s wives, who were all dressed in long flowing robes of black. They covered them from head to foot, hands included. Their faces, on the other hand, were not. Whatever laws may exist for the Muslim women of Europa, they didn’t extend to his wives. It was an agreement worked out hundreds of years in the past.

Besides, the Keeper would never have subjected them to wearing a veil. Even if he’d empathized with their feelings of misuse, trying would’ve got his ass kicked. Once they got him alone, they could prove quite dangerous. Why risk their wrath? Thus, their faces remained exposed.

Hamza’s eyes strayed longer than propriety allowed a Muslim man to look upon another man’s wives.

But, the Keeper ignored his mild ogling. Estefan wasn’t Muslim. In fact, he wasn’t anything, so why should he give a damn? His wives were gorgeous, who couldn’t help but stare a little? He didn’t mind it. He felt sort of complimented by it; after all, there were eight of them.

“When did the Federation decide it was a prudent policy to insult its’ longtime friends? It doesn’t seem to bode well for business, does it? We are the Aegis Synod, or have you forgotten?” asked Estefan, both his tone and inflection even.

The other man stared back as if numb, as though the Keepers’ words had little meaning to him.

This made Estefan scowl.

“It has always been our policy,” he restated his position. His teeth clenched of a sudden.

Was he trying to keep his temper in check?

The Keeper let some emotion creep into his voice. “Hamza Ahmed Khali-Bhall, I don’t mean any disrespect. My wives and I have been coming here since before your grandfather’s, grandfather was born. We have more right to walk about Europa than you do.” Estefan’s face was becoming stony.

This made Flavia edge a bit closer to her ward.

Hamza’s fists clenched, but he didn’t respond.

The Keeper waved a hand in his general direction. “We built this place from the ground up, you know.” He continued to wave his hand about the small ante-room outside the main hall of the maglev station. Though, he wasn’t referring to just the building housing them. No, he meant everything ever built upon the large moon. The Synod had constructed everything imaginable upon Europa for more than two centuries.

What the fuck was this idiot talking about?

“It. Is. The. Law,” replied the man, clipping each word. His head twitched upon his neck, awkward, like a serpent’s. His eyes began to grow wild. He took a scraping, half-step toward Estefan.

The Keeper smiled, thin, lips flattened against one another. “You see, Flavia, I told you this trip was a waste of our time.” Then back toward the man in the long garments. “This seems to have been a mistake, us coming here.”

“Noooo! Noooo, not at all. You can stay, just let us blindfold you and all will be well,” he cajoled. Yet the strange way he stood made the words ring false. They were almost menacing, on the verge of outright conflagration.

Flavia glanced at Estefan.

He just raised his eyebrows.

The rest of the Synod stirred, sharing uneasy looks.

An eerie silence befell them all.

Outside, because of the lack of sound in the immediate area, the Keeper heard a distant “popping”. A string of what sounded like “ratta-tat-tat-tat” followed. His eyes shifted back to Hamza.

His lips were now stretched, rictus, bloodless. His eyes narrowed. He had heard it too.

No one moved.

The sounds outside became louder, more insistent. A faint tremor reached them through the thick ice covering the whole of the moon.

Estefan sighed, tired of the game, raising his hands at the impasse. “Because of your rigid laws, my friend, we will take our leave of you. If you recall, you asked us to come. We didn’t come here of our own accord and have no real desire to be here in the first place. So, there is no need for the breaking any laws on our behalf.” He could feel his wives stiffen. They knew what was coming next. “We will return to our ship and be gone.

“My beloveds, let us go!” commanded Estefan with a flourish of his right arm as he spun on his heel. He began to make his way back down the long corridor back toward the space hangar and their Skycar.

“What makes you think you can leave?” inquired Hamza. He gazed at the Keeper through the lashes on his eyelids, a wide grin spreading across his face.

Estefan froze, not bothering to turn around. His mind erupted with the scene behind him, only from a different perspective.

Ramona was supplying the images. Her mastery of her Mutation allowed for near-perfect mental projections into anyone she chose. She could even do this to those who resisted. Since Estefan was not only willing but well-practiced, it made the process simpler.

He saw everything, she saw down to the slightest detail.

None of the Synod had moved.

Flavia was still somewhat between him and Hamza, the others were still standing in a parabolic line, facing their Host.

The image in Estefan’s head zoomed in as Ramona focused upon the man’s visage.

He was sweating, his body stiffened, poised on the balls of his feet.

The ground shook. No one could deny it this time. Tendrils of dust fell about them all. Some sort of concussion hit the chamber – from far above.

“Hamza Ahmed Khali-Bhall, you wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve heard someone say that to me. The first time, it frightened me to my core. The second time, not so much, but I was still wary. I was young. After the tenth or the eleventh time, maybe it was the twelfth. I lose track.” He stopped, swallowed. “I lost interest, you see. The threat began to bore me. It elicited nothing, caused nothing and made me feel nothing. It didn’t even anger me. I became immune, I guess.

“I have been alive for three hundred and eight-four years. Not a single time was anyone capable of stopping me, although they tried and tried and tried.

“And, from where I’m standing now, it is my contention that you too will wish to try as well.” Only the Keeper’s mouth moved. “Hamza?”

The man was breathing heavy, his chest expanding and contracting to far greater extent than he should be able to do. Shouldn’t his ribcage burst? His orbs were insane. “Yyyeeessss,” he hissed, balling his fists, the cords on his neck to bulging with horrible strain.

Again, the ground vibrated, more violent. Then the building itself creaked and groaned against the onslaught.

“Don’t do this.” Estefan’s voice was just above a whisper. At his side, his fingers flashed for no more than a second.

Flavia shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

Katie held her breath.

Tirza’s head dropped a fraction of an inch.

Sandy and Leda held hands.

Mena closed her eyes.

Ruby splayed her finger, palms facing the floor.

Ramona remained motionless.

“Wh-wh-wh-why?” asked the man through huge gasping gulps of air and thunderous blasts of it seconds later.

The Keeper half-turned to look at Hamza., “Because you will die…”

Hamza giggled like a small girl. “You -.”

The man had said one word when Mena yelled, “NOW!”

“- will die!” he continued, oblivious.

Around him, the Synod was all a flurry of movement.

Katie’s face began to glow furiously.

Flavia, blinding fast, took two steps toward Hamza and leapt into the air.

Ruby seemed to shimmer, indistinct within a fraction of a second.

Tirza charged a step and a half behind the Guardian.

Almost as fast as his one-time step-sister, Estefan pulled a handheld rail-gun from its holster and fired.

The Keeper knew, Mena could give them as much a seven second advantage. If she concentrated hard enough and the near-future wasn’t muddled with indecision, it was a given. Under normal circumstances, this was all the Aegis Synod would need. Their kills would be swift and clean. The fight would be over before it began. They’d done it so many times, it was routine.

But this time, something was wrong.

Though Mena could see what was going to happen before it happened, the alien nature of the future was so bizarre it stopped her cold. She hesitated. She lost more than half the time – three seconds – before she could react.

Because of it, none of them came close to the Europian.

He struck them as one, the lot of them. Something unnatural, nauseating, gross, slammed into them, throwing them all back. It was unlike anything they had ever felt before. It was icky, inky. It shot through their flesh and bones alike. It touched them everywhere at once, freezing them within its ghastly hold.

Estefan’s weapon fell, useless, to the floor, misfiring and almost striking Flavia.

The Guardian herself seemed caught in the air. Her body was somehow motionless as if some unknown force could hold her entire body in mid-launch.

Tirza blew backward and tumbled to the ground.

The fire in Katie’s face sputtered and winked out.

Ramona’s link to Estefan vanished as she went rigid with what felt like pain.

A moment later, there was no doubt. It was pain. Terrible, torturous agony and they all began to scream. Whatever it was, it had a grip upon them, and it was beginning to rend, to tear them apart.

Crazed, Estefan’s eyes glanced everywhere at once. He hadn’t felt true aguish in so long; he was beside himself with panic.

“You know nothing of who I am!” shrieked the man before them. His blue eyes were no longer in their sockets. He had no eyes now, only gaping scoops of darkness that swam and swirled with something that looked like oil. They were black, without limit, devoid of depth. They were abyss.

The ripping continued.

Their screams became shrill.

The creature’s eyes befell Sandy and Leda.

They both stood staring back at him without expression, their visages placid, stone-like.

“What…?” Hamza asked of them. There was puzzlement and, for a second, the awful shredding faltered. The man’s brow furled and his chest puffed out huge as he was throwing something at them from his body, though there was nothing to see.

For the others, the pain subsided, but was still excruciating. They writhed and moaned, still unable to move.

Outside, the sounds began to take on the guise of battle. Someone was fighting someone else within the constant blizzard of the Europian climate.

“Impossible,” he said with a lisp that hadn’t been there second before. He peered through eyeless sockets made narrow with strain. He was focusing on Sandy and Leda, who seemed unaffected by what seemed to cleave the others.

“You take him the moment you can,” said Sandy to the smaller woman beside her. She hadn’t turned her head. Her attention was for Hamza alone.

Leda nodded.

From Sandy came a shimmering bubble of a million, million gossamer webs. They billowed outward at tremendous speed. The moment it touched the others, they fell slack upon the floor. They seemed like rumpled sacks of flesh, unmoving, but no longer within the grasp of the awful rending.

Leda released Sandy’s hand.

Then, the webs engulfed Hamza. His reaction was anything, but subtle. He exploded with a howling ululation, so loud it hurt.

“Hoooow!” he shrieked, his hands claw-like, his fingers and nails long, impossible for a human. He looked like a puppet, yanked and pulled about. His chest heaved beyond human ability as he tried to bring back the pain, but couldn’t.

As long as Sandy projected her Mutation about the rest of the Synod, he could not touch them.

As a teenager, when her “changes” first began to flower, she known as an Unminder. She was a Human Celeste with the ability to nullify Mutations touching her. Even at the young age of seventeen, she’d been able to make the Celestial powers of others dissipate when they tried to use them upon her. As she grew older and her Mutations matured, she found she could cut off others from their gifts by touching them. As time passed and the decades turned to centuries, Sandy’s Mutation continued to strengthen. One day, roughly a hundred and twenty years ago, she discovered she could project this nullifying ability. She could “shield” others from the manipulative intent of other Celeste’s. That’s what she’d done here, now. She had cleaved Hamza form his Muto ability… and he was going berserk.

Sandy glanced down at Leda. “You take him before he kills himself,” she muttered, out of breath.

Leda moved only her eyes. They widened, the whites made huge.

An instant later, the man stopped. His face slackened, his arms like noodles, but it lasted no more than a moment.

Leda reeled back, in both mind and body, as if she had stumbled upon something abhorrent. Nausea consumed her and she lost her grip. She took a few steps back, stumbling, catching herself before she fell.

Sandy reached out to steady her, the breadth of her web retracting.

“Aaaaaah!” brayed their host, in command of his Mutation once again.

Without preamble he puffed his chest and heaved it toward the wall closest to him. Some unseen force smashed it like balsa wood.

Before either woman could react, he was through the gaping hole. He ran like a lunatic into the blistering, icy landscape of Europa.

Unbelieving, they watched as he began to grow with each step he took – arms, legs, body misshapen, grotesque. Those awful, gangly limbs hacked through his clothing until they were almost nothing. Only tattered ribbons remained. Within a minute, the driving snow and wind swallowed him and he was gone.

Security force fields descended at once. They cut off the Antarctic-like chill threatening to freeze them all.

Sandy, with Leda in tow, walked toward the large gash in the wall. Her eyes darted this way and that at the scene beyond.

There had been a battle raging, only now it seemed to be was waning. The white and blue security Skycars and lesser spacecraft were rocketing heavenward. They chased after hundreds of smaller, more agile vessels. These were black against the ever-billowing whiteness of the air. And they were accelerating form the surface of the moon at an astonishing rate.

Their make was unlike anything Sandy had ever seen. No one in the Sixteen Worlds made craft such as these. They were dark. No, that wasn’t the correct way to describe them. They absorbed the light around them, sucked it in, making the day about them seem all the more dim, dull, lifeless. She couldn’t tell if they were metal or plastic or some Diatainium alloy. Her mind wouldn’t allow her to grasp what she was seeing.

Each vessel bore prongs, forward facing and appeared sharp, even at a distance. They seem to carry no weapons. Yet, bulging hemispheres covered them, distorting the air about them for a micro-second. Then that too would disappear.

Moments later, whatever the hemisphere had been facing ripped apart. This was not an explosion. There was no flame. Whether building or flesh, it was literally ripped to shreds. Whatever fires that started were secondary, and not caused by the initial destructive force.

She watched the dogfighting for a few seconds longer, until the ships passed into the clouds and out of sight.

Below, fires, both large and small, burned with oxygen-rich ferocity. New Jerusalem, or a good part of it, was in flames.

Even as they two women watched, other flying objects, thousands – colored white and red. They came from every which way. They streaked toward the city out of massive underground bunkers hidden beneath the great ice sheet. Some bristled with fire hoses, others with long ladders. Some appeared no more than flying trucks, pulling box-like structures. There were still more jammed with personnel or piles of supplies, some crammed with tools of all sorts. Whatever they were, they brought help and medicine to all who required it.

“What was that thing?” asked Sandy.

“I can’t say exactly,” began Leda, “but it definitely wasn’t human. Its’ mind was so... unnatural.” She shuddered as she said it. “I couldn’t stand it.”

Sandy turned to look at her sister-in-marriage. “The Destro-Mancer?”

“Maybe.” It was only a whisper.

Estefan had just gained his feet when the doors leading to the Main Terminal of the Maglev station burst open.

To their horror, Hamza Ahmed Khali-Bhall strode in with three score guards upon his heels.

Once again, his attire was as they'd seen it back in the Null-ship, his clothes were no longer tattered remains.

How had he mended them so fast? thought Sandy, tilting her head to one side.

“Stop right there!” ordered Flavia, having regained her composure, a wicked looking Katana held with both hands. Overcharged, it glowed in the harsh light provided by remnants of the ultra-efficient, Eco-Halogens.

Hamza froze in his tracks, holding up an arm, fist balled. The security troops stopped on a dime.

Well trained, thought the Keeper as he strode toward the newcomers, fury brooding about his mantle.

“You had better explain yourself this instant or I will have my wife wipe your minds clean as if they’d never existed. Then the rest of us will make it a reality,” threatened Estefan. It had been a long time since he’d been this angry.

The descendant of the towering sands of Arabia placed both of his hands forward, a placating gesture. His dark brown eyes were wide. “We mean you no harm, Great One! We were under attack and came as fast as we could to ensure no harm came to you or your beautiful wives,” he pleaded. His feet he spaced wide as if he anticipated them searching him.

“Under attack?” asked Ruby. “By whom, no one would dare attack the Federation without us knowing about it beforehand!”

His gaze shifted to the tall, narrow-hipped woman. “We are still in the midst of ascertaining that ourselves.”

“Didn’t the planetary defenses give warning?” It was Katie’s turn to ask a question.

He shook his head, his eyes still wide, his breathing was shallow.

Estefan could sense the man understood the threat. He knew it was real.

“They attacked from within.”

“What?!?” It was a question and a demand. The Keeper took a few steps toward the so-called man, Hamza.

Flavia kept pace with him. They remained side-by-side. She wouldn’t allow her ward to get in front of her. He could inadvertently prevent her from moving unencumbered.

“They were already here… somehow, my Lord. They came from everywhere at once,” he explained, his voice pained.

Estefan was beginning to comprehend this was more out of embarrassment than fear. They were Guests of Honor, and their treatment had been poor and on his watch. He felt scandalized.

“And they attacked the moment our Skycar touched down?” stated Mena with a question.

“H-how did you know that?” he asked, astounded.

“You were about to tell us the exact same thing,” she answered as if her reply was as ordinary as apple pie.

“Is this true?” queried the Keeper, realigning the man’s focus.

“Well, yes, I was as a matter of fact, but she said it first.” His eyes darted back and forth between the Estefan and Mena.

Behind his troops began to shuffle, the tension forcing them to move, though their training was screaming otherwise.

Of a sudden, an image popped into Estefan’s mind. It was unusual, strange in comparison to those he usually saw projected into his head by Ramona. The images were split-screen or “two-up”, as a professional photographer would term it. On the left hand side, he saw Hamza and on the right he saw yet another representation of the man. For a moment, there was only confusion. He almost turned toward his wife to ask her the meaning of the dual image. Then he saw it, or rather… saw them. The Hamza on the left had blue eyes, the Hamza on the right had dark brown. Three Hundred and eighty-four years of living hadn’t dampened his memory in the least.

The Hamza he’d seen on the sim-screen in the Null-ship had dark brown eyes.

The blue-eyes version was an imposter!

But, who the hell would want to -? was the thought he almost finished.

Flavia exclaimed of a sudden. “We have a breach in the security protocols originating from the Gathering!”

“What”, “How?”, “When?” All were questions resounding at once.

The Guardian waved her ‘Swarm to life, her fingers flying over the simulated word-keys.

“Who?” asked the Keeper when the din had died down, his voice stern, carrying.

A second passed, then another.

As abrupt as she started, Flavia stopped typing, her eyes as wide as saucers. She gazed at Estefan, tears welling. “Jacob. It’s Jacob. Someone got to Jacob and made him talk,” she replied her voice trembling.

The Keeper’s face turned to a mask of twisted granite. “Did the chip explode?” He almost regretted having the frequency of the ‘Spiders attuned to Flavia’s ‘Swarm alone. He hadn’t anticipated someone triggering them. He trusted the Synod and the High Command implicitly. A scenario of this sort hadn’t entered his mind. He should’ve known better!

She tapped a few more keys floating in the air. Then, she stopped, abject terror behind her expression. “No.”

“Oh my god,” murmured Tirza.

“Son of a bitch!” cursed Katie.

The Keeper took half a minute to think. Time seemed to stand still.

“My friend, Hamza, it seems our timetable has accelerated. Take us to the package at once. We must leave this place within the hour!” he ordered as if the other man was his lackey.

Hamza jerked as if poked with an electrical prod. “Yes, my Lord! Follow me!” He was so eager to please, he seemed more like a child than a man.

Estefan ignored him. Someone had got to his cousin. Despite all the firepower they had sent into the Kuiper Belt, someone had still managed to get to him. Who, though? Was it this mysterious specter of a man who attacked us here? Was this the Destro-Mancer? Was this our enemy? Was this is being we should fear? Or was this something else? Were there more than one?

He let that percolate for a few moments, and then spun to face his wives.

Hamza doled out commands to his men.

There was movement all about them.

“I was wrong,” he began, taking time to look into the eyes of each of them. “You were right. This is our concern.”

They shifted on uncertain feet. Estefan almost never admitted a fault. When he did, it made them all feel uncomfortable.

“Now, though, it is more than mere concern. This motherfucker took my cousin, your brother-in-arms. And when someone does that to the Aegis Synod… that means fucking WAR!”

They cringed, shifting on ground that had grown unsteady within moments.

Estefan continued. “Let’s get what we came here to get and secure it.” His eyes gleamed with murder. “Then we are going to tear this goddamned solar system apart until we find Jacob!”

He twirled around and was gone through the portal leading to the Maglev terminal.

Behind him, his wives followed.