Spirit Unbreakable

Riumi woke to someone slapping his face and jerked reflexively backwards hitting his head against cold stone. Groaning, he opened his eyes and saw Shanahan hovering over him. His face was riddled with concern which was lessened as Riumi opened his eyes. All at once Riumi felt his body burning and moaned at the pain, his mind reflexively trying to compartmentalize once again.

“Riumi, you don’t have time to go into shock. Do you understand me? Wake up. It’s going to hurt like hell, but I need you lucid,” Shanahan spoke in rapid succession slapping Riumi across the face once again.

Riumi faced a war in his mind. He was completely set on hiding away from the burning pain he felt, yet at the same time wanted acutely to follow Shanahan’s instructions. With a primal roar he fought back to consciousness and pushed Shanahan aside rolling onto his arms and coming to his feet.

Now fully conscious and standing, he realized that he had suffered electric burns over a large portion of his body. His clothing was fused in parts to his skin.

Shanahan came back to Riumi as Sira came into Riumi’s vision. The pain was so intense that he involuntarily threw up the contents of his stomach on Shanahan’s shoes.

“Sira hand me the med kit, we don’t have a lot of time here,” Shanahan commanded. He grabbed the med kit from Sira and opened it, carelessly scattering most of its contents across the floor. Holding an aerosol dispenser he started applying antiseptic to the burns that covered both of Riumi’s arms, the front of his legs and torso. The foam made the areas cold and numb easing the overall pain that Riumi was feeling.

“Riumi this will stop the infection and numb the pain, but it’s going to take a long time for those burns to heal. Time we don’t have. He shoved a backpack into Riumi’s hand and started pulling him through the winding corridors of the LD Division.

“Riumi shuffled along jerkily trying to process everything that was happening. The events leading up to the pain that he felt now suddenly floated to the surface of his mind. The Einstein-Rosen bridge had electrified the room.

“Is everyone okay?” Riumi finally mumbled. He realized that his face felt relatively intact and remembered that as a reflex he had put up his arms to shield his face.

Shanahan looked back at Riumi and faltered a little in his stride. “I’m baffled by your concern, but I am sure the medic crew will be there shortly to help.” Riumi saw Sira suddenly run up behind them. She lifted Riumi’s arm and put it across her shoulder, helping to support most of his weight. Riumi felt grateful if still confused.

“Are your wings all right,” Sira asked as the trio picked up speed through the hallways, Shanahan having followed Sira’s lead in supporting Riumi’s other arm across his own shoulders.

“My wings are fine,” Riumi replied. “What is going on?”

Shanahan gave a sigh of relief. “We are getting you out of here. When we get clear of the building you have to take flight and get as far away from here as possible. Do you understand?”

“Why are you helping me?” Riumi asked. He was holding back the tears in his eyes that threatened to spill. He was unsure if he wanted to cry because of the pain he felt, or if it was because of the kindness of these two humans towards him.

“Hader cut my access to you because we do not see eye to eye on how to handle an intelligent alien species. He thinks you are a threat. I think there is a great potential to learn from your species. I don’t want a war. When that gate exploded I knew it was going to be the only chance I had to get you out of here.”

Riumi closed his eyes to the brightness of the day as they pushed through the emergency exit doors. Sira let go of Riumi and using a hypo-spray injected Riumi with something that made his heart race and gave his body new life.

“What if you’re wrong, Shanahan?” Riumi asked.

“What if I am right?” Shanahan replied. “There is a Flimsy in the backpack that is untraceable. It has coordinates to a place we were attempting to investigate in New Zealand that might lead you to a way home.”

“I don’t know if I want to go back home,” Riumi said. He started to shake suddenly from the unshed tears and bowed his head to the ground to let them drop.

Shanahan put an arm on his shoulder and Riumi looked up into Shanahan’s face. He was smiling. “I know that you will never find out the truth if you stay here. At least go back and find out the truth. If it’s not to your liking, I will make sure there is a place for you here, back on Earth.”

Shanahan let go of Riumi, grabbed the backpack and placed it gently over Riumi’s arms so that it was hugging his chest. “If you don’t leave right now, you are never going to have another chance to find out the truth,” Shanahan finished, “Go!”

Riumi put the steel mask back upon his face to contain his emotions and nodded at Shanahan. He backed away from Sira and Shanahan to give himself enough room to fly and took to the air, leaving his allies behind to deal with the aftermath.

“We are not involving the council in this,” Reniko shouted vehemently, her words directed at both Malik and Detrick. “I will not allow you to stall me in this any longer. I don’t care if I’m the ruler of an entire planet. Right now, I am a young woman who wants to help her family and that is all that matters.”

Malik put a reaffirming hand on Reniko’s shoulder which she shrugged off. “Let us go in your stead. I am sure we can get Riumi back safely,” Malik replied.

Reniko stood, anger coursing through her. “You don’t understand the state he is in,” Reniko said, her anger suddenly cold and calculated. “I have seen inside his mind. He is hurt, scared and confused. If you show up there without the link I share, either you or him are going to be coming back to me dead. There is no discussion here. Whoever is coming with me, come.” Reniko stormed out of the conference room before Malik or Dertrik could reply. Malik glanced at Dertrik with concern and ran after Reniko. When he caught up to her, he slipped his hand into hers. She responded by squeezing it tightly.

“I will always be here to guard your back,” Malik replied.

Reniko led Malik back to their room so that she could rid herself of her bulky dress and get into more appropriate attire, a tunic and leggings. Once she was clothed, she grabbed a cloak and headed toward level 2 of the Sentralon archives.

“Why are we in the medical centre?” Malik asked.

“I need you to wrap my wings,” Reniko replied grabbing some gauze from a cabinet. She handed it to Malik and he obliged. Reniko folded her wings close to her body and let Malik conceal them. After they were secure, she put the cloak back on and walked back towards the lift.

When the doors to the lift opened at level 5, Reniko saw Rimca, Dertrik and Orric gathered there waiting.

“I’m coming with you,” Dertrik replied. “I am the head of your guard and I am not letting you go to Earth without an escort.” Reniko smiled, pleased with his reply.

Rimca was at the control panel for the gate. “Rae recorded the coordinates of Earth. I would like to send a Kiwessa through before you go. Not only can it relay information back to us, it can also send a holographic image to the other side so that you can communicate with whoever is there without complications.”

“Thank you, Rimca,” Reniko replied.

“I am going to be your link back here,” Orric replied.

“Do you think we will be able to Engage effectively over that distance, it was tenuous at best with Riumi,” Reniko asked.

“Distance has never been a problem in the past,” Orric replied. “Engaging is not like talking, Reniko. It does not diminish over distance. It works more like the ERB, connecting two points instantaneously without delay. In essence, our minds are simultaneously sharing the same space as well as being in separate places. Your tenuous connection was probably due to Riumi’s inexperience.” Reniko smirked at Orric using the word ERB.

“I’m starting to think that Engaging is like a quantum field,” Reniko mumbled to herself while simultaneously Engaging Orric in the finer details of her thoughts. Orric just nodded.

“Let’s do this,” Reniko said deflecting the confused looks on both Rimca and Malik’s faces.

Rimca started up the ERB and sent through the Kiwessa. She expanded the images coming through the gate above the console so that all four of them could see. While the group was distracted, Dertrik placed Imako into Reniko’s hands.

She looked at him, eyes wide. “Do you think that it will be necessary?”

“I think with the level of distress that you said Riumi is in, it would be careless not to take these precautions.” Reniko nodded and secured Imako to her back, hidden by the folds of her cloak.

The image from the Kiwessa showed a room of chaos. Medical teams were helping injured people and there were wires and machine parts sparking all over the place. There was at that moment no bustling activity. Instead, all eyes were on the ERB. They were frozen in anticipation not knowing if they needed to gather arms to fight or if this was going to be a friendly engagement. Reniko motioned for Rimca to step away from the console and instead placed herself in front of it, hitting an icon on the screen that read holographic imaging. She was not expecting what happened next. Almost instantly she was beyond the Earth gate staring into the chaos like she was physically present, the Kiwessa having connected to the nanites in her blood stream. In essence, Reniko was now the hologram that was representing her. She moved her hands to look at them and saw a bluish haze covering them. She looked back up at the room and composed herself.

“What happened here?” She asked trying to assess the situation.

She heard a rapid succession of footsteps suddenly getting closer and soon the room was filled with armed men. She was at a loss for words. These men were not armed with blades or even stun batons, but instead with weapons that looked a lot like weapons that had not been seen on Earth for many centuries. They all had guns in their hands trained on her image. She saw two other people come into the room not long after the soldiers, an Indian woman and a red headed man, who were both breathing heavily. The redheaded man put his hand up in a gesture which she surmised meant “one moment please.”

“Your orders, sir?” The soldier closest to the red headed man asked. Reniko could see the support staff starting to get back to their duties behind the line of the soldiers.

“Hold your position,” the red headed man replied. He came closer to the holographic image of Reniko. “Your gate electrified this room, that’s what happened.” He replied angrily.

“It was not our intention to hurt anyone,” Reniko replied. “Unfortunately, this technology was just recently repaired and we were unaware of the previous emergency protocols installed in the programming.” Reniko’s eyes darted around the room in concern. She focused her attention back on to the red headed man noting he was examining her with a frown.

She watched as something suddenly dawned on him and he spoke. “You are Reniko Dorsalin, are you not?”

Reniko looked nonplussed at hearing him say her name. “I am. Do I know you?”

“No, you don’t, but I know you. I was heavily involved in the investigation of your disappearance and when we found this Einstein-Rosen bridge.”

“Oh, I’ve been calling it an ERB,” Reniko said reflexively and felt her cheeks redden in response.

“Well that’s easier than saying the whole thing,” the red-headed man replied.

“Not to intrude or anything,” the Indian woman said tapping the red headed man on the shoulder, “but, I think there are bigger issues here.”

Reniko and the red headed man both nodded their heads in agreement.

“Is it possible to speak with the leaders of the UNG in regards to these developments?” Reniko asked.

“I’m sorry, but what exactly are the developments here?” The red head asked.

“I guess you knowing me as a citizen of Earth makes it a little more difficult to understand,” Reniko replied. “I am the leader of Vespen, the planet that you have connected this ERB gate to, Reniko of Sentralon.”

“I’m Shanahan O’Reilly, currently in charge of this LD division of the UNG,” Shanahan replied. “Did you say you are the ruler of Vespen?”

Reniko straightened her spine and tugged nervously on her tunic. “I am. Would I be able to arrange a meeting with your leaders in regards to this LD Division, the ERB gate, and one of my citizens that has been trapped on Earth.”

“You know about Riumi?” Shanahan asked.

“It has recently come to my attention that there is one of my people, Riumi Odasell, has been on Earth. I would like to retrieve him.”

“This might get rather complicated, My Lady,” Shanahan replied.

“I’m sure it will, Mr. O’Reilly, but nevertheless, this is the position we are in, we need to move forward as quickly as we can.”

Shanahan took a deep breath. “Well, it’s a good thing that the actual person in charge of this division in incapacitated at the moment, or I am sure this conversation would be a lot less civil and a little more –” Shanahan paused and looked at the soldiers with their guns trained on the holographic image of Reniko.

“I didn’t realize that Earth was developing guns again,” Reniko replied. Her disappointment was evident.

“Nor was I,” Shanahan replied.

“How much time do you need until you can gather your leaders for a summit?” Reniko asked.

“A couple of hours I suppose,” Shanahan replied.

“Do I have your assurance that in 2 hours’ time, when I and my envoy step through the ERB, we will have diplomatic privileges?”

“You have my word, My Lady,” Shanahan said bowing his head.

“My title is Wayann, you may call me that,” Reniko replied before severing the connection with the Kiwessa. Shanahan watched the gate grow dark and looked towards Sira.

“You better hope Hader doesn’t wake up any time soon,” Sira said to him. Shanahan ruffled his hair and sighed.

“I will leave it up to you to make sure he doesn’t, Sira. In the meantime, I have a summit to convene.” Shanahan walked past the soldiers still staring worriedly at the weapons they held. All laser guns, like those he had been trying for years to keep from being developed. Hader really was ready for a war.

Riumi dropped from the sky and landed ungracefully on the sandy beach below. He had spotted a craggy cavern on this stretch of beach and as the stimulant Sira had given him was starting to wear off, and the anesthetic that Shanahan had covered his wounds with, he thought it was the best place at the moment to stop and take care of his wounds. His limbs felt like they were made of stone as he crawled up into the shelter of the cave. He peeled the backpack off his chest and slowly eased it to the floor, his arms screaming in protest at each small movement. His spilled the contents onto the floor. A med kit and bandages spilled out first, followed by a black riding suite and undergarments.

Riumi opened the med kit. The hard case opened up to reveal ointment for severe burns. Slowly he began to peel off the shirt and pants that he was currently wearing. He had to cut around the burns not wanting to peel his skin off with the clothing. Once he had tossed those aside he looked closely at the foam that had hardened over his wounds. He took one of the wound cleansers out of the med kit and sprayed it over the wounds on his right arm, watching the spray dissolve the foam. He took deep breaths as the pain overcame him and steadied himself for more pain to come when he peeled the fabric and skin from around each wound. Minutes later, bathed in a cold sweat, he began to apply the burn ointment over the wounds and cover them with gauze. Each wound he doctored made him that much closer to easing the pain.

Exhausted from administering his own medical care, he lay shivering on the cave floor, too tired to do anything more. Get up Riumi, just get the riding suit on or you are going to die of hypothermia. He said this over and over in his head until his tired limbs finally grabbed at the clothes and he began to put them on. He cursed a little, forgetting about his wings and the disadvantage that they caused to him wearing the riding suit. He was thankful when he realized that Shanahan had provided him with an adaptive suite and grinned. It meant that this riding suit could be cut and it would ‘heal’ the wound in the fabric much like platelets sealing a wound. He cut slits in the back of the jacket and taking his time pushed his wings through them. He hit the button on the left cuff and felt the jacket conform to his body, sealing around his wings, climbing up them a few inches before stopping. Riumi could feel the riding suit adapting to the temperature around him. His limbs tingled with the sensation of warmth returning to them, pricking with pain from the temperature change. Once he realized he was going to be okay, he allowed himself to slip into unconsciousness.