nervously. She thought she would be able to
protect herself. She certainly had enough energy, the only question being
could she figure out how to use it. She was scanning space with her mind and
watched as the ships showed up. It didn’t take long for them to disable the
remaining five ships in orbit. A short time later those five joined in the
fleet formation and they went into orbit directly over the palace.
She sighed in relief as they launched over five hundred
shuttles. They wouldn’t launch a ground force like that if they were planning
to destroy them from orbit. They did not try to stop them with ground
defenses, simply allowing them to land. Tiffani wanted to preserve as much
life as possible. It wasn’t their fault they were possessed.
She wondered at the desperate gamble, but she couldn’t think
of a way to stop them either, short of exterminating most life in the
universe. That wouldn’t happen, hope only existed where life lived. If they
failed perhaps someone else would succeed in a few thousand years. Either way
she couldn’t come up with a better plan, they were stuck with Tiffani’s.
She screamed as energy erupted from the floor beneath her,
invading her body. She knew she had a short time and tried to grab the entity
with her power and eject it, before she lost the battle in her mind. She couldn’t
figure it out though. Her last thoughts were of Sylvia, as she watched her go
through the same exact thing. She should have run for Sylvia’s sake. She had
gambled on figuring it out, now they were both lost…
-----------------
Ariella felt unshed tears in her eyes as she turned to
Anise, or what used to be Anise.
She said softly, not wanting the creature to hear the pain
in her voice, “Who are you?”
Anise’s body stretched, “Wow, I am glad we missed a couple
of you Dravii, this is a nice body to have.”
The entity sneered at Ariella and said, “You can protect you
and your crew, for now. But when your energy gets low enough we will take you
all.”
Ariella said, “Why? What is the point?”
The entity laughed, it wasn’t a pretty sound, but completely
absent of warmth and humor. The harshness of it was horribly jarring coming
from Anise’s mouth.
It said, “Why not, you will all be possessed soon. You have
already lost the war. It’s been a hundred millennia in the coming, but the
universe is now ours. We are the Sprisi. No longer are we stuck on our planet
to feed on the measly energy of our atmosphere. We are surrounded now by fear,
sorrow, and hopelessness. We will grow fat on it. Maybe I will keep one of
you as a personal pet, would you like that? I could bond one of you and feed
from you for half a million years…”
Ariella gritted her teeth and said, “But why destroy my
race? Simply because they held the secret of your defeat?”
It snorted. “No. You have no hope. Even if you figured out
the secret that died with them, which you won’t, knowing it wouldn’t help you
at all. We took out all the ancient Dravii of your race. You don’t have the
age, understanding, or power to pull it off. You have lost, despite our
failure to find and destroy Earth you have no chance.”
It sneered at Bill and looked back to Ariella, “But you have
found Earth, so don’t worry, as soon as you run out of energy we will possess
you and find the information. Then we will take care of that loose end
regardless. Any last words before I send thirty of my kind at once to take
you?”
Ariella laughed and said, “Yes, there is one more thing.”
She couldn’t believe Tiffani’s plan actually worked, or at
least partially. They didn’t have the answer, but they now knew where to look
for it. She just wished her plan hadn’t come with such a high price. Her
heart ached for Anise and Sylvia.
It looked at her suspiciously and said, “What?”
She smiled and said, “I am not Ariella, I am just