“There’s no need for your weapon, Commander Reynard. I am a mouthpiece you would recognize for the Hex Darmight.”
“Who to what now?” Confused, Reynard refuses to relax his grip on his gun.
“Michelle.” JC, still in possession of the crystal, breathes the purpose for them being here.
Reynard scoops the tiny girl into his arms, bringing her away from the corridor.
As he cuts free her bound wrists, he asks, “Where’s Ki-Ton?”
“The measure to ensure protection from a planetwide disaster disrupts telepathy.”
“Did he hurt you?” Reynard asks Michelle.
“I just want to go home,” she whimpers.
He holds her tight. “I share the feeling.”
“What do you know of this place?” JC demands from the cat.
“I have access to the knowledge of the Hex Darmight. But as it has been fragmented, so is the information contained within it,” Samantha explains.
“Why did the orb create you?”
“To guide you to its brother pieces. I’ll aid your finding of the fragments in order to reseal the Sandmen in their dimension.”
“After we get out of here, we’ll re-evaluate dealing with these Sandmen.”
“Commander, it’s not a choice. By using the Hex Darmight to drive the Sandman from your mind, you’ve revealed yourself to them. Perceived as a threat to them, you will be now and you must be prepared to defend yourself.”
Reynard contemplates shooting the cat. He snaps a glass fragment dangling from what was once the display chamber. As he rubs his fingers over the clear substance it doesn’t feel like glass or clear durasteel, but crashing through it will leave bruises. Certainly the chamber was meant to be protected through whatever catastrophe evolved the planet, so why would Ki-Ton damage it now? Reynard slips the ocular eyepiece from his belt, using its recording function to snap pictures of the shattered text now scattered on the floor.
He rolls the containment cylinder with his boot. “How did you know how to operate this device?”
JC waves her hand over the shattered word fragments. “There was strong…mental energy here.”
“Like the stones the witch doctor wears?”
“No. Older. Much more powerful. It called to outside. I was the Hex Darmight. It was inside. I didn’t know it was the seal to keep the Sandmen inside.”
Reynard slides a full clip into his magnum. “I have so many more questions. But we better finish Ki-Ton while he’s weak.” Reynard pockets his eyepiece. “Get Michelle out of here.”
“You’re forgetting the tiger riders.”
“Let them in. Maybe with an open door they’ll forget about us.”
••••••
IN THE CHAMBER beyond the grand room are dozens of cylinders containing a gelatinous mush. On the central raised platform Ki-Ton jams electrodes into the hardening mass of his body. Each moment sends grunts of pain from him. He struggles to pick up the next electrode.
Reynard uses the slowness of his advisory to properly aim. “You’re through, Ki-Ton!”
He turns. Soft flesh cracks where his skin hardens. “You Osirians are quite a stupid species.” Ki-Ton flings a bone spike from his hand.
Reynard leaps. The bone impacts the rock ground.
Can’t argue with you there after chasing you down this rabbit hole. “You could at least explain to me why you want to kill me. You went to an awful lot of trouble to become a part of my crew. With your abilities I could have died at any time at your hand.”
Ki-Ton grows another spike from his arm. “Physical death is not enough for a man like you.” The spike sends shrapnel pelting Reynard’s thigh. It works like buckshot into his skin.
Wet soaks his pants. Reynard ignores the pain. “Now would be as good a time for you to twirl your mustache and explain to me your diabolical motivations.”
“I’ll spare you the long and boring story of my thirst for revenge.” Ki-Ton grips the last electrode.
Reynard hop-skips on his left leg to avoid a third spike. Blood oozes from his wounds. Durasteel shells impale the shape-shifter. “It can’t be a satisfying revenge, if I don’t even know why you want me dead.”
“Your telepath knows. She won’t tell you. She’s known since before I set foot on your precious Dragon. I was going to destroy you.”
“If JC knew, then she would have warned me,” Reynard staggers to the scaffolding rig to climb to the platform.
Ki-Ton’s hand expands into the size of a giant’s hand and scoops Reynard from the floor, slamming him down on the platform next to Ki-Ton. “I seek revenge on you for what you will do to me. The great Admiral Reynard and his teenage telepathic whore.” The fingers shrink to a manageable size, never leaving Reynard’s throat.
Ki-Ton’s fingers harden, preventing him from crushing Reynard’s trachea.
“Know, Commander, these are my people. I was sent from this planet in order to return once the devastation abated. Surrender my life essence in order to revive them. I won’t end my life for these elitists. What I will do is drain what’s left of their life back into me and destroy you.”
Reynard fires durasteel shell after durasteel shell into Ki-Ton’s solidifying flesh. Some exit the mass, releasing a gelatinous substance blackening upon contact with the air. Others deform the humanoid further. One electrode sparks. Ki-Ton touches the controls. Energy surges from the coffins.
A Sandman screams past Reynard, tearing away its mask in order to feed on the growing life force inside Ki-Ton.
Reynard fires at the arm until it shatters. He rolls from the splintering mess, slamming a fresh clip into his weapon. He empties fifteen rounds into the structure under the platform, hoping the streamlined, simplistic-looking edifice houses vital controls to the machine.
Smoke billows from the fresh holes.
Reynard limps from the platform.
Ki-Ton loses focus from a trifecta of energy surging into him, the now-smoldering equipment, and the Sandman ripping into his thoughts.
The sounds of overloading equipment permeate his ears as he hobbles from the chamber.
••••••
JC CUTS REYNARD’S pant leg. Blood seeps from dozens of tiny holes.
“What did he hit you with?”
“Some kind of bone spike. It splintered on impact.”
In an attempt to take his mind off the pain, Reynard says, “Ki-Ton had a super-villain riff moment. He wanted revenge
