Under a Starless Sky

Chapter 28

Loxy disappeared. Candace sat up. She let out a scream and laid back down. He now understood. He

couldn’t track Loxy because she was subliminal. Interacting with Candace, especially carrying an

empathic response to her level of pain, was going to take up too much of his focus to be able to sustain

communication with Loxy.

“Try not to move. You broke it,” Shen said.

“No, no, no,” Candace said. “You can’t be here.”

“The correct response is thank you,” Shen said.

“You don’t understand. You’re just a boy…”

“You’re supposed to do this ritual alone, in private, in the dark,” Shen said. “No help.”

Candace forced herself to sit up. She turned so her back was against the tree. Her eyes communicated

horrible pain, but she settled into it. Her back to the tree.

“I promise, no one will know,” Shen said.

“I will know,” Candace said.

“Lie,” Shen said.

“I can’t,” Candace said.

“Everybody lies,” Shen said.

“I don’t,” Candace said.

“And I rest my case,” Shen said. “Look, Candace. Lying is an art. It’s an act of discernment. You will not

survive without help. That’s it.”

“If it’s my turn to die, that’s it,” Candace said.

A chirp sounded the forest.

“Fuck. Get me on my feet,” Candace said.

Shen got her on her foot, as if that would make a difference. The Irk emerged from the shadow into the

fire light. It hissed. Shen’s hand went into his pocket. He touched the orb. The forest went from night

dark to blue light. He saw two other birds, just in the shadows. The three ropes were still hanging, the

closest length shortened because he had robbed from it.

“Can you make it to the rope if I hold them off?” Shen asked.

“It won’t make any difference,” Candace said. “They’ll ‘Sleep’ us both before I get half way up.”

“Probably,” Shen said. “But in a moment, climb as high as you can and tie yourself."

“You’re not going to take on Irks,” Candace said.

Shen stepped forwards. The Irk in front of him hissed, and kicked the tree behind it. It wasn’t a sleeper

tree. It came forwards. The other two came out of the blue darkness and into the firelight. They were

illuminated with heart light, and blue light, while simultaneously ghostly lit by campfire, which was an

odd way of seeing them. The darkness beyond made this seem like a movie set- the only things in the

world were the things that were right here right now. He heard Sacagawea quote inspiration: ‘today is a

good day to die.’ All three birds screeched. The first one was a full adult. The other two looked like

adolescents.

Shen reached into his bag, praying to pull out a firearm. He pulled out a Torch. It baffled him, even

though he recognized it. It was the golden silver torch that had been awarded to Emmitt Sheehan, prior

to his acceptance into Space Force. ‘Emmitt’ was fiction, he was also truth; Emitt was Tammas Parkin

Arblaster-Garcia’s reincarnation. Tammas was John. Jon was John, one layer removed. Suddenly,

every past life, every tangential dream, every story of him made sense, in a universal, comprehensive

way- it was the sudden understanding of a thousand past lives bringing together their strengths, their

weaknesses, and their hard earned wisdom. For the briefest moment he had a flash that he knew

everything, he was connected to everything, and he knew, no matter what the outcome here was,

things would be alright. The trees would welcome him home. ‘Aeneas Rising,’ was a parallel to the

rising of James T Kirk. Kirk was Aeneas. The Federation was Rome. Edith Keeler was Queen Dido.

The Torch was many things, a Soul’s Light, a psychic amplifier, a friend, a pocket starship, a weapon...

He brought it up, staring at it in disbelief. The words ‘Solarchariot’ was written on it.

The Torch was alive in his hand. He heard Loxy’s voice in his head. “Welcome back, Traveler. I got

you.” Loxy, his Loxy, had put a copy of her personality in the Torch. The Torch was AI. The Torch was

Space-Force tech, something old, something borrowed, something new. The crystal inside amplified

the psychic emanations of the wielder. It could replicate matter on demand. It could move matter with a

thought. It was the Torch, the wielder was the Light.

Shen lowered the Torch slightly, staring across it at the Irk. “Depart, or you will die.” He said this firmly.

He was the Dog Whisperer. Animal only knows one thing, the energy you project. He was not

projecting fear. He was projecting strength. He was projecting love. Sentient or not, the Irk understood

the energy, if not the words. It was clearly baffled. He did not wish to harm it, but if it chose battle,

whether that was calculated or instinct, Shen could not compete without escalating this to the point that

one or more would die.

A fourth Irk made itself known. It came from behind the tree. Shen closed his eyes, and saw the world

from a higher perspective. Candace was frozen against the tree. The head of the Irk stretched past her,

its neck was white with freckles and had patches of down and hair. Had she a sword, she could have

decapitated it. Its head sported the feathers of a male, hanging like antennae.

“Depart, or you will die,” Shen said again.

The adult female facing Shen came forwards. The male rushed her and attacked. The other two

females came at the male. Shen’s torch came to life, a loud report sounded the forest and echoed; a

golden blade of light severed the nearest Irk’s head. The head fell, and the bird kept running. The

second fell by sword light as well, the body simply dropping where it was. The third to fall was due to

death by a male Irk. He had taken the female Irk to the ground, biting its neck, and pinching it shut with

one claw. The female scratched and struggled; they rolled, but she succumbed. The male lumbered up,

clumsily. It coughed like it might die, hacking like a cat with fur ball lodged in its throat, and then spit tar

on the female. It then turned to Shen. It came forward, tentatively, lowering its head to ground level. It

made the softest of noises.

Shen turned off his Light. The sword of gold Light receded back into the blade. The Irk chirped. It was

rhythmic. Two other females emerged, heads lowered, chirping rhythmically. Without fear, without even

a thought, he reached forward and touched its head.

“Thank you,” Shen said.

It purred, loudly, like a cat. Not like a cat. Like a diesel engine in a semi. It was that loud. Shen had

never heard this noise from an Irk before.

“How?” It was the only word Candace could manage.

“Loxy?” Shen asked.

A female materialized into being. It was Loxy. There was joy reflected in Shen’s face. He didn’t care if it

was Solarchariot’s downloaded personality or his inner Tulpa. Loxy was solid and he was no longer

alone on the physical plane of existence. She was very aware of his love for her, but she was also

about business first.

“Hello, Candace. If you will lay down, I can mend your leg,” Loxy said.

“I don’t think so.”

The male Irk hit the tree behind it; Candace slept. Loxy caught her and eased her to ground. She

smiled at the Irk.

“Birds are smarter than you think,” Loxy said. She was dressed in a Space Force Uniform. Space Force

had access to advance healing modalities, as well as tech, and though technically she was a

manifestation of the Torch, she was solid real and came with all the accouterments of Space Force-

hidden upon her. This was not ‘TOS;’ Space Force no longer carried tech, like cell phones, or

‘tricorders’ or weapons; things that get lost or stolen- the only thing Space Force had was the Uniform.

The uniform contained it all. The sensors in her uniform could ‘see’ every cell in a person’s body- her’s

or others around her. She took inventory. She presented information for Shen in a holographic format

so he could understand and witness the healing- his tech was contained in the Torch, and he saw her

projection in his mind because he was tuned into the Torch. The suit could transmit data directly to the

wearer’s brain, giving a virtual overlay so she could see the injury and witness the procedure on

multiple levels. The Torch in Shen’s hand offered the same for him. Torch and Uniform communicated

as if they were two persons- collaborating with Shen and Loxy, two persons.

Loxy said something nice about the quality of the splint, manipulated the leg into place, healed it with

light, and then went straight way to hugging Shen. Once satisfied, she retreated- taking in the physical

world in a new way, from her newly gained perspective. Shen watched her breathing, finding comfort in

the natural rhythm. “You know, I am the Torch’s AI interface, not your Loxy per say.”

“Yeah,” Shen said. “Not confusing at all.”

“Loxy did warn you not make another tulpa, right?” Torch Loxy said. She would become TL for short,

even while knowing that he would forget sometimes. He also knew, the real Loxy would accept the

whole of this without internal conflict. She would accept this as an aspect of herself.

“She did?”

“Oh, maybe you’re not there yet,” TL said. “And you share a Loxy Tulpa with Oa, right? No worries. I

will blend them into me and unify the vectors.”

“You know Oa?” Shen asked.

“Of course,” TL said. “They are one of Earth’s greatest supporters in the Galactic Confederation. Have

you suffered memory loss?” She drew closer to look in his eyes.

Shen pushed her gently away, to a new boundary. “No, but you know, I have been away for a while.”

“Based on your biology, I would say you’re almost twelve,” TL said.

“You can tell that by genetics or the length of the average telomerase?” Shen asked.

“Both of those will get you pretty close,” TL said. “You can also count the number of cells, and do the

math based on the expected number of cells at each year of life, based on the known maturation and

turnover rate of each type of cell and organ structure. Again, not precise to 100 percent validity- but

when you consider all the data together, you look about twelve.”

“I feel much older,” Shen said. “Doesn’t matter. I am not celebrating birthdays here.”

“If I recall, you didn’t celebrate in your other life either, before Loxy that is,” TL said.

Candace made a noise, as if talking in her sleep. TL looked at her then back to Shen.

“She’ll be alright. Just talking to the trees,” TL said. “I suspect you could improve your tree

communication if you slept beneath them.”

TL looked into the darkness.

“There are others?” Shen asked, his hand tightening on the Torch.

“Yeah,” TL said. “Females. Adolescents.” The male bird chirped. TL responded. “Yes, the trees are

aware of the fire and they say its okay. Shen’s got it.”

The birds bobbed their head and retreated, but remained in line of sight in case needed.