Red Shift: A Military Sci-Fi Fantasy Novel (Infinite Spark Book 4) by E. L. Strife & Elysia Lumen Strife

Author:E. L. Strife & Elysia Lumen Strife [Strife, E. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22: Atana

ATANA’S HEAD POUNDED. She rested it in the nook of an arm. Dark ink swirled through her thoughts. Atana surfaced and caught a glimpse of the white shield swirling around her before she submerged again. The world pulsed and swayed and slowed and launched. Images of battle pelted her mind. The ink broke the scenes up, bleeding in and blotting out her awareness.

Numbness and silence consumed her. A tug on her arms woke her for only a second. Her eyes lifted to a light show of warring empires outside a luminescent red weave that had bridged the holes on the deck. Atana’s head rolled until it hung away from the pedestal, and she sank into emptiness again.

A twinge in her knee made the darkness flicker red. Her left foot tingled. Both shoulders and wrists screamed. She blinked and squinted at the upside-down room. The pedestal had rotated above her. Her left foot grazed the apex of the white shield, making it crackle. The ship whipped around, and she slammed into the stone.

Atana grunted, and the world switched off again. There was no Ether there, no dreams, no more thoughts. It was a simple existence to experience and not think, to notice the emptiness but not be able to speak to it or even to herself. It was there, and she was in it without seeing or feeling or hearing, only knowing.

Her eyelids gradually filled with a red light, then orange. She sensed warmth against her and listened as voices became clearer.

“She functions optimally when she’s unconscious,” a voice said behind her.

“But not at her peak power,” the captain countered.

The skies were quiet again without a sign of Linétens except for the debris around the Agutra.

“Webbing complete,” a crew member reported.

“Is she awake now?” the captain asked.

“Yes.”

The captain commanded them through a gate. A chill crept into Atana. She ran a cosmic marathon without moving a muscle, sending them lurching through a short slashgate.

They exited into an area of pitchy space, leaving Azure behind. In less than a second, he was gone. Now, he was in another galaxy altogether. Atana, realizing she had no idea how long she’d been out, wondered if he was simply one galaxy away or more.

Too many were dead because of her. All she wanted to do was stop the cycle of Suanoan rule.

The cost is too much.

Isn’t it? the captain replied.

She snorted between rasping breaths. It was clear he had plenty of stored power. What reason was there to keep her?

Trying to tame me, kill me, or control me?

You're a tool, like every kiatna, as you call them. Kiatna are workers, or they are food to us.

Atana glanced at the Warruk that had recently eaten a prime. You clearly have a different concept of purpose than that of your kind of you wouldn’t be keeping me alive. What is it really that you want from me?

The captain sighed and canted toward the aimid on his left. We must work on a device for blocking thoughts.

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