Demon Star by Larson B. V. & VanDyke David

Author:Larson, B. V. & VanDyke, David [Larson, B. V.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Fireball Press
Published: 2015-08-03T07:00:00+00:00

-19-

Vertigo assailed me and nausea welled up in my throat.

“I’m okay,” I gasped. “I’m okay.”

But I wasn’t. A universe of visions crashed into my brain, as if I’d acquired an entirely new sense that I’d never used before—which I probably had.

“Captain, you must take that off immediately!” Galen’s voice cut through my distress. “You’ll harm yourself! It takes training to be able to use such a device!”

“Go to hell,” I rasped. “If you can do it, I can do it.”

Shapes and colors whirled around me as if someone had stuck me inside a giant kaleidoscope, and I leaned over and vomited thin bile onto the deck. As this station apparently didn’t have smart metal floors to absorb and recycle everything, the smell came back to make me want to hurl again.

Oddly, the nasty aroma turned out to be something to hold onto, an anchor of normalcy that helped me make sense of what was going on inside my brain.

“I see things,” I said through gritted teeth. “I’m getting it under control.”

The shapes and colors slowed and stabilized. Eventually I lifted my head and stared with eyes wide open, even though that didn’t actually matter.

What did matter was that I was looking straight at Kwon standing in front of me, his hands on his armored hips. I couldn’t see details, but his bulk was unmistakable. The weird thing was I could see through Kwon—into his bones. His skeleton was a shadowy network of thick interlocking pieces.

I began to realize what this thing was—a sensor-array.

The big shock came when I looked at Galen. He didn’t look like Kwon at all. The overall shape was that of human, but…he didn’t appear to have any bones.

“Galen?” I asked. “Is this thing your eyes?”

“Essentially, yes,” Galen said. His voice was stiff and irritated. “May I have them back, please?”

“No, not yet.”

I surveyed the other Elladans. They were the same. Human-shaped blobs without bones inside. I recalled seeing Argos warp when he folded himself into the seat of his tiny ship. Could it be these beings who I’d always assumed were nearly human weren’t like us at all?

“You’re not humans,” I said firmly. “No bones. I don’t even see veins…”

“We never said we were,” Galen answered. “Now, if you don’t mind…”

He extended a hand toward me, reaching for the medallion. His fingers grasped the air, groping.

I frowned. “You’re blind without this thing? Without an artificial sensory system?”

“Not entirely, but we can’t perceive the world the way you do.”

I heaved a sigh. I’d already been planning to keep the medallion until my eyes repaired themselves, but it wouldn’t be right to blind Galen in the process. Besides, the perceptive capabilities were pretty limited. I preferred good old fashioned stereoscopic color vision.

Finally, I handed back the medallion. Galen thanked me and returned to huddle with the other prisoners.

Valiant contacted me soon thereafter. “We’ve withdrawn from the battle zone, Captain. Greyhound and Marvin are here with us. Stalker and the Nano frigates have left us and gone to engage the Demons.

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