Dire Planet by Joel Jenkins

Author:Joel Jenkins [Jenkins, Joel]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: PulpWork Press
Published: 2013-12-10T00:00:00+00:00

The floor shook as chunks of metal exploded outward in a great roiling ball, shrapnel cutting, and spinning from the stone benches, and one shattering the mind-displaying column that stood in front of Ntashia. As it slid into two pieces, and crumbled on the stage, smoke still pouring from the barrel of her pistol, Ntashia looked in astonishment through the flame-rimmed doorway and found that Sved stood unharmed, as though nothing had occurred.

“There is nothing that you can do to harm me,” he said.

“That’s because you’re an illusion,” shouted Garvey, “nothing more than a three-dimensional hologram.”

“Do not underestimate me because of my lack of physical substance. I have the power to burn you to the ground with a mere thought.”

Garvey strode toward Sved who stood his ground amid the flaming wreckage of the exploded wall behind him. His white mane billowed outward as though a sea-breeze were rolling off the ocean.

“You can’t hurt us,” said the astronaut. “You have no physical substance, therefore you can do us no physical harm.”

“That is not quite correct,” answered Sved, his lips turning sardonically. “Do you not recall the power of the laser gauntlet that I wield?”

“Illusion,” stated Garvey. “Just like you.”

Ntashia put her foot down on the scorched area of stage that had been struck by Sved’s laser. She frowned when she saw that it was now her foot that was scorched, and not just the stage. Pulling her foot away, she found that it was as intact as ever—unburned and whole. It was some sort of illusion.

“You have the whole theater wired with holographic projectors,” said Garvey. “You can make it look like anything that you want. You could make a dozen of me appear and kill every one of them, but you can’t kill the real me. You can’t kill the real thing because you’re nothing but a figment of someone’s twisted imagination.”

Rage twisted Sved’s hollow face and he lowered his fist so that it pointed directly at Garvey. For a moment the astronaut wondered if he had been wrong. Then Sved’s face softened, and he lowered his fist sadly. “I’m nothing but a ghost haunting the former glories of a once great city. I keep company with nothing but the rats. Even the vackri have long since left, having gorged themselves on the meat of the fallen until it became withered and tainted.”

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