Nemesis

By M. A. Nilles

Since stealing Raea from Valdas and her team of Shirukan, Leksel was never on good terms with the Shirukan general. He sliced her face in the fight to take back the Crystal Keeper. She destroyed his wing in retribution. When circumstances bring them face-to-face through an unlikely source, a truce is tenuous at best. Leksel needs Valdas to guide him to the Keeper that set her free from the du’kir brood ship and to retrieve the Starfire shard on the infamous Annihilator, and Valdas needs Leksel to help her destroy those who betrayed her. Two former Shirukan working together to cut out the heart of the Shirat Empire might be a powerful alliance, if they can overcome their loathing for one another.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Prairie Star Publishing
• Release date: Jan 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9781310866258

M. A. Nilles

M. A. Nilles is the darker side of Melanie Nilles. Her published works under the name Melanie Nilles are young adult and adult romantic science fiction and fantasy, including the Starfire Angels series, the Adronis series, The Luriel Cycle trilogy, and other romantic-leaning works. As M. A. Nilles, she writes dark fantasy and science fiction, including Tiger Born, Spirit Blade, and the Legend of the White Dragon epic. More can be found at www.melanienilles.com.

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Nemesis

(Starfire Angels: Revelations Book 3)

Nemesis is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters, names, and places to real life persons is coincidence.

Nemesis

E-book Copyright © 2016 by Melanie Nilles

Cover by Melanie Nilles

Cover image: ID 11274141 © Christophe.rolland1 | Dreamstime.com

Published by Prairie Star Publishing; Bismarck, North Dakota.

All Rights Reserved.

For information, contact Melanie Nilles at [e-mail] or check www.melanienilles.com for updates.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

_____________________________

Nemesis

Copyright

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Awakening

Chapter 2: Escape

Chapter 3: A New Keeper

Chapter 4: Ghosts

Chapter 5: Fragile Alliance

Chapter 6: To the Bone

Chapter 7: Long-Distance Call

Chapter 8: A New Fight Begins

Chapter 9: Once A Shirukan…

Chapter 10: Candera Elsk

Chapter 11: Adaptation

Chapter 12: Ourwa Trap

Chapter 13: Friend or Foe

Chapter 14: Seeing is Believing

Chapter 15: The Fallen of Ekratch

Chapter 16: Into the Fire

Chapter 17: Annihilator

Chapter 18: The Lesser of Evils

Chapter 19: Shirukan Keeper

Chapter 20: Cracks

Chapter 21: Connections

Chapter 22: Shreds

Chapter 23: One Down

Chapter 24: Alliance

Chapter 25: Conversion

Chapter 26: …Always to Serve

Afterword and Bonus

Other Books by M.A. Nilles/Melanie Nilles

About the Author

Chapter 1

Awakening

Voices blurred into a jumble of nonsense, stirring up dreams and memories: She's ready. Test: positive. Secure her in a pod.

Flashes of color and light and fleeting, unfamiliar faces floated before her with the occasional odd smell or sound and moments of chills or poking and aching discomfort.

Every time Valdas thought she would awaken, another dream began, carrying her on a whirlwind journey of shadows and colors.

Wake up! The faint voice tugged at her mind, a life-line through the murk.

The dreams slowly yielded to light filtering through her eyelids, and the voice vanished.

Ungh! A gagging sensation sent a wave of panic through her. She was drowning!

Alshouan Valdas opened her eyes and reached out to swim to the light, holding her breath and fighting the urge to cough something out of her throat.

Her hands moved more slowly than she expected and touched a warm and fleshy membrane sealing her in a watery tomb. Panic swept through her.

Ready to burst from holding her breath, she reached for her face. Her fingers pressed on something soft and fleshy over her nose and mouth.

Desperate to remove the irritation that felt like it was drowning her, she made an attempt to pull it off. In her effort, she let out her breath and inhaled sharply. Instantly, the sensation of gagging intensified and she realized she breathed. How, she couldn't say, but clearly she was on a respirator of some kind. With that realization, she calmed.

Beneath her body, her wings barely moved, bound somehow.

What is this? Where am I?

She must have been injured and put on some sort of life-support, but not like any she knew. This wasn't Inari made.

She couldn't rid herself of the sensation of gagging and drowning.

A second seemed forever, while all that she remembered passed through her mind. Those last seconds of consciousness…

The pair stood confidently before her. The Crystal Keeper and the traitor of a former Shirukan should have been purged of their miserable lives. And a traitor is unworthy to stand in the presence of Empress Shirat, she responded in anger to something said.

More like parasite Shirat. That's what's controlling the body under the cloak. The former Shirukan spoke with a straight face of perfect calm.

Liar! You would say anything in your desperation. His blasphemy would not go unpunished.

Check her medical records, he said.

She didn't have to check the empress's medical records to prove anything.

However, after the empress's calm in the revelation of the parasite inside the traitor, part of her was curious.

No. It was wrong to question Shirat Marin. The man would say anything to save his mate, the Keeper.

Get them out of my sight, she spat in disgust.

After the shuttle had taken them away to the Devastator, her doubts had lingered, and her trepidations had been noticed…

Surely the empress couldn't be infected. She was Shirat Marin, the leader of those who rejected the Keepers' control of the Starfire.

But she kept her face hidden and her medical records behind tight security measures.

No. Valdas believed in the ideal of a united Starfire under the control of all citizens for the protection of their world.

Her steps faltered through the gray corridors of the flagship, still the only ship of its class with a fully capable main weapon.

If the empress was host to a parasite, her chief medic was part of the cover up.

Forget the lies. If only she could undo hearing the traitor's words.

Renewed in her mission, Valdas continued around another corner monitored by a pair of royal guards in their green and gold-accented on black, hip-length coats over black flightsuits. They made no move to stop her. In the lonely corridor near the center of the ship, she halted at the only door and waited.

A few seconds later, the door opened onto a small entry area, where a single low light cast an eerie glow over the gray walls.

Enter, General Alshouan, an impatient voice said from around the edge of the dividing wall.

Valdas stepped into a shadowy area, which prompted memories of her evaluation at the academy. Along with the black cloak the empress always wore, the darkness of her chambers was unsettling.

Valdas caught the tension tightening her wings behind her and released her breath.

She peered into the black corners but could not see any shapes. Empress, I must speak to you about Prime Commander Roushu.

The rustle of fabric accompanied the appearance of the black shape before her. Say it.

Valdas bowed her head in respect and straightened with her feet shoulder-width apart, the stance she had taken as a cadet under the woman's scrutiny. He and several others murdered two guards covering the prisoners.

The pale chin lifted into the dim light from the entry area a few steps away. I am aware of his measures, General. It was necessary.

Necessary? Valdas blinked. How could she say that about the loyal Shirukan killed by Roushu? How could Marin so casually dismiss their deaths?

Those barely visible lips twitched into a malevolent grin that sent a shiver through Valdas. For the greater good.

Valdas checked herself before questioning the empress and balanced her voice. Excuse me, Empress, but I fail to see what greater good is served by removing two valuable soldiers, especially after the loss of thousands with the destruction of Heffin's Gate. We were never large in numbers, now down to less than ten thousand, hardly a force to take our world, even with this ship as a threat.

The head tipped forward, shadowing the chin exposed. How could the woman see in such darkness and with her eyes covered by the hood? The empress had grown more eccentric throughout the years. Given her support of the royal guards and this, perhaps she was no longer leading them in the direction of a victory over the Keepers. Perhaps there was something else underlying her plans...or using her.

No. The traitor was wrong about the empress. He had lied to cause doubt.

You fail to see, because you were not supposed to. The smooth voice cracked the silence in a deadly jolt of clarity.

Valdas swallowed.

The rustle of fabric disturbed the darkness to the left and behind the empress. Valdas started with realization—they weren't alone!

You disappoint me, General Alshouan. Marin inhaled sharply. But that can be remedied. Medic Reilan.

From the shadows, the woman in red stepped forward, something shining in her hand.

Valdas stepped back, intending to flee—

The warmth of a body stopped her. Hands secured her arms behind her back before she could think to fight.

I serve you, Empress, Valdas pleaded.

No, you serve us.

Valdas twisted to see Commander Sorshael's red eyes glaring down at her from the shadows. Roushu's protégé. Even with the Prime Commander gone, his influence continued. Just as big and perhaps more frightening, the royal guard held her. Except the gold stripes at his collar caught her attention—prime commander. That had been a quick promotion. He probably wanted Roushu out of the way all along, devious as the royal guards were.

Who's 'us'? she asked and returned her attention to the two figures before her. A tug on her arms proved futile; Sorshael was too strong. The royal guards were enhanced far more than any Inari should be. She had always thought that.

Marin's lip twitched. More information you're not meant to know. She lifted a hand, and the medic stepped forward with a syringe.

Please. I'll keep your secrets. She didn't need to be medicated.

Yes, you will.

At the approach of the medic, Valdas struggled. When she tried to lift her wings to throw off the strong arms of the prime commander, his hands clamping her arms pulled them crossed behind her, tearing her shoulders in agony.

After a prick in her shoulder, the medic stepped back.

What had they injected? She didn't feel any different.

Until Sorshael shifted and she felt the tingle at her wrist that she recognized—neutralizer.

You will be very useful... The empress's voice faded with the numbness that raced up her arms to her head.

Valdas wished she hadn't remembered and blinked away the replay of that last moment before the darkness. What had they done to her? Where was she?

Why had they kept her alive? What did they mean that she would be 'useful'?

Blurred visions, mostly sounds and fragments of statements passed through her mind. Normal rejection rate. Maybe this time… Inari immune defenses minimized to increase chances of success… …Necessary traits to ultimate evolution and dominance.

Valdas caught her breath, her mind zeroed in on the last statement from her memories. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't retrieve more than those fragments.

Parasite Shirat… Shirat Marin had one of those parasites in her. The traitor had been right!

No. He couldn't be. She had believed in Marin. Shirat Marin had united much of their world, sought to make the Starfire accessible to all Inari.

Valdas had believed in a lie.

She had been betrayed.

The tube helping her breathe made her gag again. The odd, sickly sweet odor surrounding her only made it worse. They had imprisoned her within her own body by keeping her unconscious. But for what insidious purpose?

Whatever it was couldn't be good. She had to escape.

A shadow fell across the pink, which peeled away with a slurping sound. Dimly lit from behind, the face of an Inari woman appeared.

Help! Valdas gagged on the word so it came out as a cough.

The black and green accents on the black Shirukan uniform matched those of the royal guards. Few women were appointed to the role. For some reason, Empress Shirat had preferred the unnaturally bulked males that her program of treatments had produced. This one was normal for an Inari female and held her gold wings tight to her back. The scowl on the woman looking down at Valdas could have burned a hole through the hull of a vessel.

Behind her loomed tubes of membrane that twisted into a large knot across the ceiling.

Pod four-one-two has malfunctioned. The incubator is awake. The woman spoke the words aside but not in Inari.

Incubator? Was that where she was? Why? Wait. She said that the incubator had awakened.

Valdas didn't like the sound of that.

Prepare a new preservation pod.

Preservation pod? Ahben depths. No. She was not going back into a pod.

She tried to move, but her legs refused to cooperate. She was paralyzed from the waist down, helpless before this woman. No! What had they done to her?!

Something beeped a complex series of notes.

The woman reached outside the barrier of the pod beyond Valdas's line of sight. From around Valdas came the faint squishing sound of something moist. Although she couldn't move her limbs, she peered down her naked body and noticed the slow retraction of tubes from her torso, leaving red marks.

Naked. Not even the dignity of clothes.

Then she noticed the gel in which she laid, which explained the squishing sound as the tubes withdrew through the viscous liquid. Her feathers would be ruined, no matter how little she had lain in that clear syrup.

How long had she been there?

In the next second, Valdas nearly vomited from the breathing tube shriveling in her throat and pulling out with the rest of the mask over her face. Once free of it, the reflex to gag sent her into a fit of dry heaves.

Strong arms lifted her into a sitting position while she continued to heave.

Once her breathing settled, she saw that she was in an amphitheater chamber of tiered membranes through which the shadows of bodies could be seen lying as she had been.

So many…

Her heart sank.

How many incubators did they have? What was that place?

The questions burned to escape, but when she tried to speak, her voice refused to come.

Assistance is required. Send two drones immediately with a gurney.

Something beeped a series of several notes. Valdas followed the noise to the central bulge from the ceiling, from which all the vine-like tubes ran. Some of them seemed to move.

Not vines. More like tentacles.

While the woman held her upright with one hand, her other cradled Valdas's jaw to hold her still while sharp eyes examined her. Clearly frustrated, the woman released her with a huff. The harsh glare turned elsewhere in the room.

Valdas followed the woman's eyes. Light shone from a door that parted open across the room. Two dark figures stepped into the chamber.

The woman looked away. Hurry! The anesthetic will be wearing off soon. She must be reconnected quickly.

Anesthetic wearing off soon! She would be able to move again. She could free herself.

Inspired by the woman's words, Valdas waited for the pair in black and brown coveralls, but they weren't Inari. Rather, they were aliens she didn't recognize with vertical slits where noses and mouths should have been and three pairs of eyes, or what she assumed were eyes above the slits. With two pairs of thick arms, each ending in a three-fingered hand, they deftly unrolled a cloth that locked into position to form a gurney. They then took her arms and legs and hoisted her onto it.

The woman who had freed her produced a simple cloth, which she threw over Valdas, warming her.

"Take her to room ish ni qua. We have empty pods there. Have the attendant plug her in. I'll notify it of your imminent arrival."

A sound like rocks grinding and squealing emanated from one of the aliens. The woman gave a nod and the two bore Valdas away.

Chapter 2

Escape

The aliens moved quickly, taking her from the chamber to a dark hallway, where the walls were composed of tissue and metal. Organics and technology merged, much like Inari computers with their grown neural tendrils housed within metal shells. But this went beyond, with thick trunks branching off into smaller vines along a metal framework and connecting to others in a web along floors, ceilings, and walls.

What was that place?

Why was she there?

How long had she been there?

Amid a melee of strange whispers in her head, her desire to escape pushed through.

Anxious to regain her strength and mobility, Valdas tested her toes. The blanket over them shifted. The woman had been right when she said the anesthetic wore off quickly, more quickly than Valdas had hoped. Perfect.

Soon, she would be back on her feet. But where should she go in the strange place? Was it a ship or planet-bound? A cloud around her blotted out stars.

She blinked away the daydream. Focus! She needed a shuttle. Corridors zipped through her mind to a bay with shuttles.

How…

She would worry about how she knew later and the rest once she lost her wardens. And she would have to do that before reaching the other room, where she expected there to be at least one other, a caretaker like the woman, who might be more than capable of securing her.

The Inari woman had called these creatures drones, implying a mindless obedience. Valdas hoped she was right about that. If so, her best chance of escape might be in their care.

She shifted her leg, bending her knee slightly, and smiled at the control she had regained. The pair carrying her on the gurney continued through the empty corridor, oblivious to the revival of their charge. They probably didn't expect trouble since prisoners were kept unconscious.

She would be the first to escape and didn't expect a second chance.

Uncertain how close the other room was, she shifted her hands on the gurney in preparation.

The ugly creatures continued without a hint of concern. Clearly not too observant. But complacent didn't mean weak. The Shirukan had drilled that into her, as had experience.

Valdas checked the corridor around her to be sure it was clear and gauged the space to act.

After a quick assessment, she flipped herself from the gurney onto her feet. Legs wobbled, but she kept her balance with the support of the nearest wall. Pain stung her sides where the tubes had connected.

She didn't have time for pain and weakness.

The drones stopped and spoke in the grinding and squealing noises they made, then dropped the gurney. A second later, they advanced towards her.

But their movements were clumsy and sluggish.

Inspired by her ability to move, Valdas jumped from the reaching hands of the nearest creature and sprinted away. Two steps from them, her foot slipped from the slimy coating and, after some flailing, she crashed on her side in an agonizing slam.

Her curse never broke the quiet, lost with her voice, but she struggled to her feet and narrowly avoided the many hands reaching for her. Despite her weakness, she slipped through their grasps. This time the slime was a help rather than a hindrance. Thick, clear liquid trailed behind her. However, there was another hindrance. Her body responded too slowly to her will, her muscles atrophied. Crystal fire. How long had she been in the pod?

As weak as she felt, some length of time must have passed. The tubes must have kept her alive, but why? What purpose had they intended for her and the others?

She didn't have time to ponder the question but made a mental note to find the answer later.

The creatures pursued but were sluggish. At her best, she would have left them far behind already, but her present state left her slow.

Naked and dripping, Valdas hurried from the strange creatures pursuing her through the corridors and left a trail of the milky ooze behind for them to follow. At some point, it had to quit dripping.

At an intersection, she hesitated. The creatures closed in.

Which way to escape? How would she escape? She didn't even know where she was, and that place was a maze.

No time.

Ahben depths! The goo on her wings weighed her down. She needed to lighten the load.

Valdas lifted her wings and snapped them out in the limited space of the corridor.

Horrid cries came from behind.

She whirled, ready for trouble, and stared dumbfounded. The creatures covered their faces with their hands and howled in pain.

The goo hurt them!

There was a mistake by those in charge—trusting sensitive beasts like these to such a task. Incompetence would never have been tolerated under her command. Whoever the empress worked with hadn't taken all matters into account when assigning these creatures to a place with substances that could be toxic to them. Her advantage.

Splatters of the ooze on the skin didn't seem to be the problem, however. The creatures seemed alarmed by it on the slits down their faces.

Inspired, Valdas turned her back and shook her wings out again to send the ooze splattering on all surfaces.

Lightened in weight, she moved more freely through the corridor and hurried down intersections that seemed like the right places to go, until she noticed a pulsing color change in the thick tubes of tissue around her.

An alarm? It had to be. Silent but noticeable.

She had to hide, at least until they passed. Someone would be out searching.

Valdas hastened to find a hiding place in the corridor in which she stood, her heart pounding for an escape. A short distance away was a door with a small oval of web tissue a little larger than her hand next to it. Something about it reminded her of a control pad. At a thought of what may lie beyond, she hesitated, yet something in her mind pushed her to it. She touched a delicate filament and traced her finger along it.

The door slid open to a small, low-lit room. In the center stood a partial cocoon attached from floor to ceiling. Inside it slept an Inari woman with a gel mask over her face. Her hands were folded upon her bare chest, where a deep scar ran from her chin to disappear beneath her hands and the membrane of the cocoon covering the rest of her body. With an injury like that, the woman should have been dead.

Valdas started upon sight of the aquamarine marks on the backs of the folded hands, like some small marine creature with over a dozen spindly legs. She knew those marks—Starburst Marks.

Her skin prickled with irritation. She would have preferred any room but that.

Not seeing any other choice to hide, she stepped aside and searched for a way to close the door. In an incident of luck, it slid shut when she stepped back.

Sensors. Helpful for closing the door but it could mean they could locate her by her bio-signature. Until that happened, she could recover some strength and hope they passed without checking that room. For a while, she was stuck with the Keeper and the reminder that the traitor had been right.

It had all been a lie. Everything Shirat Marin had promised had been a damned lie.

Valdas had fought to eliminate Keepers from their world, sworn her allegiance to Shirat Marin in the belief that Inar'Ahben could be returned to what it was before their species was blended with the Starfire crystal six thousand years ago.

Marin had wanted the shards of the Starfire collected, but Marin was a host to a controlling parasitic creature. Only Keepers could safely contact the Starfire crystal. And they were holding Keepers.

Why? Did the woman in the cocoon have one inside her?

Valdas shuddered, abhorred by the thought of being a host herself and more afraid of what another species might do with control of the Starfire's powers. The Starfire belonged to her world.

She had to stop the parasites.

But she couldn't do it alone.

A voice whispered unintelligibly.

She spun, expecting someone behind her.

No one.

Breathing easier but wary of being found, she slowly returned her attention to the lone occupant in that room.

The woman evoked a sense of familiarity within her. Valdas frowned and approached the cocoon. Like most Inari, she remembered every detail of her life, and she could swear that she had never seen the woman before. So, why did she seem familiar?

Something about this woman piqued her interest. Why did she seem familiar and what was special about her that she wasn't in a pod like Valdas and so many others had been?

Valdas reached out in curiosity. When her finger contacted the woman's hand, a flash like the shock from a power conduit startled her and she jerked back.

Crystal fire. Even in their sleep, Keepers could be dangerous.

Valdas shook her hand and blinked away blobs in her vision.

She had to get out of that room, away from the Keeper and the others, and find help. The new planetary alliance needed to know what was happening to their people. Yet she hesitated, questioning whether to rescue the woman.

Go!

Valdas blinked and looked around, and was reassured no one was hiding.

Go now!

She was going crazy, but the voice was right. Something inside commanded her with an urgency to flee. The Keeper would have to stay behind like all the others. Only by escaping could Valdas be any help to them.

Naked in the room, she should have been freezing, but a moist warmth permeated the air. She could find clothes later and, in a pinch, she could shield herself with her wings. However, given the clinging ooze still coating them and drying into a crust, it wouldn't do her much good. She only hoped she could find something in her escape, a pressure suit, blanket, uniform, anything.

The delay had helped revive her strength, as had something about that shock from the Keeper.

Hurry!

Yes. Hurry, before they cornered her in that room.

Valdas took a breath and shook out her wings—the room was small but still afforded her the space to stretch them nearly to full spread, excessive room for one cocoon.

After a few shakes proved the futility of removing the drying ooze completely, she settled her mangled wings to her back and crept to the door, intending to listen but wary of it opening upon her approach.

She had to turn right outside that door.

Valdas frowned, curious why she would think that, until she remembered that she had come from the opposite direction.

With her wings close to keep her warm, she put her ear to the metal of the door and listened for sounds outside.

Silence.

Either the door was too thick or the corridor outside was empty.

She couldn't wait to be found and made the decision to act. No one was putting General Alshouan Valdas back into one of those pods.

After a quick glance back at the woman reignited the uneasy sense of familiarity, she turned and traced a pattern on a small web next to the door. How she knew it, she couldn't guess, but she wouldn't question what worked.

The door slid open…

Chapter 3

A New Keeper

Winds whipped around them, disturbed by the activity of the swirling black disk high in the sky over the watery surface far below. The black disk hovering over the long drop flashed with energy. Clouds spiraled around the portal's vortex, which churned them into