feet clicked on the hard marble floors and behind him bloody footprints marked his path through the science hall. Ahead, drawing him forward like a moth to a fire, brain waves of Doctor Solomon called out to Yen from down the darkened corridors.
“I’m coming,” Yen whispered into the darkness.
Cresting the stairs, Yen found himself in a long hall. Closed doors confronted him on both sides of the hall, but Yen ignored them. They were little more than distractions, set there to lure Yen away from his true purpose. Fearlessly walking down the hall, Yen stepped between the narrow pools of light that were cast by the emergency lights set along his path. Casting only small circles of light, the rest of the hall remained enveloped in a cool and comforting darkness.
Ahead, Yen could sense his prey hiding within a room at the end of the hall. Undaunted by the gloomy darkness around him, Yen walked purposefully forward. So intent was he on the room at the end of the hall that he noticed little else. Yen was caught completely off guard when he heard the safety being switched off on the machine gun to his left.
“Move and I’ll kill you where you stand,” the Terran soldier said.
From his periphery, Yen could see the green glow of the soldier’s night vision goggles. Focused as he was on Doctor Solomon, Yen hadn’t given a second thought to further Terran defenses around the doctor. Freezing in place, Yen sensed another Terran emerging from a doorway behind him.
“Get down on your knees,” the first Terran ordered.
The power bristled beneath the surface. The Terrans were making a huge mistake by ordering Yen around. No one had that power anymore.
“Get down now!” the Terran reiterated, pushing the barrel of his machine gun against Yen’s shoulder. A round fired from that range would kill Yen instantly. Yen had no intention of allowing the Terran to take that shot.
“I don’t think so,” Yen replied coldly. The energy welled inside of him and slithered from his skin like oil. Both Terrans were struck by the tendrils before they knew what had happened. The tendrils passed through the soldiers’ legs and wound up their spines before taking root within their brains. “In fact, I don’t like either of your tones. When speaking to a God, it would do well to remember your manners. So why don’t the two of you bow before me?”
From the corner of his eyes, Yen could see the closest Terran’s body tense as he tried to fight the command. But with Yen’s tendril rooted within the soldier’s mind, he could do little other than obey. Turning around finally, Yen looked at both the Terrans, kneeling in protested reverence. Feeling their overwhelming hatred, Yen frowned. Before he realized what he was saying, Yen felt his lips moving of their own volition.
“Neither of you are worthy to worship me. You’d both be a much better sacrifice in my honor. Go ahead and kill yourselves.”
Their hands shaking, both Terrans turned their weapons upward before cramming them under their chins, the barrels pointing toward their brains. Yen watched as their fingers hesitated on the triggers.
“I don’t have all day,” he said coolly.
The echoing gunshots followed Yen as he turned and walked down the hall. A few feet beyond the two Terran bodies, the reality of his actions slammed into Yen. Doubling over, he felt hot bile spill from his throat as he vomited onto the floor. The pain behind his eyes grew unbearable as it felt like he was burning from within. Hot, salty tears spilled down his face as he dry heaved onto the ground.
Fear finally gripped Yen’s heart. Lifting the monument had been too much for his body to withstand. Now, having pushed his power beyond its limit, he no longer had control. Unwittingly, he had ordered a pair of Terrans to take their own life and, more importantly, they had so willingly obeyed. The thought sickened Yen as it frightened him. If he could so dispassionately order the deaths of the Terran soldiers, what else was he capable of?
Standing weakly, Yen stumbled down the hall. Though Doctor Solomon’s signal was still clearly ahead of him, Yen took a moment to search the rest of the hall. To his amazement, he realized that there was no one else around. No more Terrans waiting in ambush. Finally, it would truly be a private conversation between Yen and the good doctor.
Drawing up short of the door, Yen reached out and pressed the button that should have opened the door. He didn’t expect it to work. He expected Doctor Solomon to have locked himself inside, behind walls of protection. Yet, to his surprise, the door slid quietly open.
In stark contrast to the hallway, the interior of the laboratory was well lit. The bright light only aggravated Yen’s headache, making him squint to make out the details of the room. Rows of tables covered with beakers and vials full of unidentifiable fluids filled the center of the room. View screens, some showing the exterior of the building while many more showed samples of specimens, lined the walls around the room. A single, massive monitor covered the entire far wall, though it stood black and silent.
Standing in the center of the room, an older Terran pulled his white lab coat tighter around his thin frame. Thinning white hair covered his head, though his face carried few of the age lines Yen would have expected from a man of his age; another example of the extents of genetic and biological research that were being conducted within this facility. Yen had no doubt that Doctor Solomon had experimented on himself, granting himself extended youth and virility.
“Yen Xiao,” the man said, his voice strong despite his age. “I have been waiting for you.”
The doctor stood supremely confident, though Yen could still sense the man’s deep fear. Though Yen had yet to say a word, a single thought dominated Solomon’s mind: he knew that he was going to die today.
“Doctor Solomon. We have much to discuss, you and I.”
Solomon shook his head and frowned. “No, we really don’t.”
Yen was taken aback by the doctor’s audacity. He couldn’t help but feel as though he was being led into a trap. But every time he tried to focus on that train of thought, his headache flared anew and drove all thoughts from his head.
Taking advantage of Yen’s hesitation, Doctor Solomon continued. “You were ordered to take me in alive, but you and I both know that you won’t do that. You want me dead, so I don’t see that we really have much to discuss at all. Kill me, and let’s get it done with.”
“That’s not the way this works,” Yen replied, infuriated as the doctor raised his arms in order to expose himself to attack. “You die when and how I say you die! After all you’ve done, there is no way in hell that I’m going to make this quick and painless.”
“Come on and do it already,” Solomon mocked. “You know that if you let me live or, by some miracle I escape, I’ll never stop my research. All the men you’ve lost along the way fighting against the Terrans will be multiplied tenfold if I survive. I will find every biological weapon at my disposal and unleash them on every Alliance planet. I will sit back and laugh as you all die horrible, plague-ridden deaths.”
“Do you have a death wish, old man?” Yen replied, as much confused as he was angry. Whether Solomon had come to terms with his God, he was now fully prepared to die.
“I can’t abide by cowardice,” Solomon said with a grimace. “Either you kill me, or get out of my lab.” Lowering his hands, the doctor leaned forward as though examining Yen for the first time. “You know, I think I was mistaken. You don’t have the guts to kill me. Go ahead. Get out! Come back when you have the balls to do what needs to be done!”
Furiously, Yen sprinted across the room, grabbing Solomon by the front of his jacket. His head spun as the psychic power yearned to be unleashed. It reached out hungrily, nipping playfully at Solomon’s hair and clothes. Try as he might, Yen found himself unable to reel in the probing tendrils. He felt as though his brain were swelling, soon to split his skull apart and spill onto the floor.
“Shut up, you bastard!” Yen growled.
“And if I don’t,” Solomon whispered, inches from his face. He seemed oblivious to the biting tendrils around him. “What are you going to do about it?”
“I’ll tear you limb from limb.” Again, Yen knew that the words weren’t his, but the power bubbled dangerously close to the surface, consuming him from within.
“Then do it already and quit wasting both our time.”
Yen felt his own energy drain from his body as the tendrils grew thicker and sharp fangs protruded from each of their ends. Serpentine, the tendrils whipped back and forth, ready to strike.
“Let him go, Yen,” a familiar voice ordered from the doorway behind where Yen stood holding the doctor.
