Flight of the Oracle

”Haka! ” The last soldier alive of all those who had been assigned to her detail screamed to bring his Mistress out of her shock. ”Damnit! ” His shout reverberated down the corridor as the fortified fortress shuddered around them. Part of Hakas mind was somewhat aware of it as the stench of death, blood, and the unique piquant of divine wrath filtered through her perceptions.

Somewhere out there, outside of the shield, her older sister Angel had died erecting, Chukwu himself hurled the full fury of his wrath upon the final bastion of the Alluran. Chukwu was the being that was believed by most sentient beings to actually be the one true God. Somehow, he had turned the humans against Haka and her kin.

For twenty-five thousand years, the Alluran race had slowly rebuilt their civilization after the last time Chukwu had tried to eliminate this perceived threat to his supremacy. Half-brothers! She mentally snorted while her body was still dazed. It might have been funny if it hadn been so tragic. Mother was captured and trapped in the Eye of Eidon, Angel was dead. The Alluran Imperium had fallen. Now was the time of Man.

Tired! Haka was so tired. But the soldier wouldn let her rest. She was three thousand years old, weary despite her appearance of physical youth. He was all of thirty-five. Very thirty-five. Grabbing her roughly by the collar Marcus swung his Lady Liege round and slammed her bodily up against the partially slagged metal of the base wall. With an almost surreal detachment, Haka watched one beefy hand pull back atop a powerful and well-formed arm.

”Snap out of it! ” Spittle and some small amount of blood from a trickling wound on Marcuss lip splattered across Hakas face as Marcus screamed one last time before slapping her face. The force of the blow snapped her head around to the side. It was stunning. And it did the trick. Blinking, Haka finally shook off the malaise that had gripped her as she felt first her mother, then her older sister blink out of the universe.

”Thank…. Thank you! ” She stuttered. Haka hadn stuttered since she was nine. It was on that first visit she had made to visit her Human father on Earth since she had left at the age of three.

”Focus Oracle! ” Damn that psychic link! Haka had never much cared for the penchant her kind had for linking so effortlessly with any old male who happened to be her soul mate. More than once she had wondered at how this young thing (young compared to her) could possibly be her soul mate. But that was why she had lived so long. The perfect mate intended for her by fate wasn born for over three thousand years after her. It was a pity that she would be gone soon, and he would be dead.

”Thats not going to happen! ” The guard shouted over his shoulder as he pulled her along behind her. ”With Angel gone the Allura will jump to you as soon as Chukwu executes your mother…, ” He grunted as the Oracle stumbled and he had to catch her and keep the weary woman from falling. How could such a being of Divinity and Grace be meant for him? The newly formed link between their panicked minds frantically sought to secure its proper place.

The Allura was the indestructible weapon of the Alluran. So long as one woman from that goddess-like species still lived, the Allura would be reincarnated. ”But it will kill me! ” His mistress panted. ”I never had my crystal heart removed. If I become host now I won be able to stop the reincarnation cycle. ” Marcus knew what that meant.

The Allura parasite…? Spirit…? Whatever it was, didn want to play second fiddle in a full-grown body with its own established consciousness. It preferred to be reborn in an infant body that it could mature to whatever stage of development suited it. Haka would be consumed in the fire of its rebirth unless he could interrupt the transmission from her mother by sending her across the divine divide.

”Im sending you to the other side. ” Haka faltered in her step at the news. That wasn surprising to Marcus.

”How? ” While the process of crossing over between the matter and antimatter halves of the universe was not known to most sentient species, the Alluran had invented the most stable way through. Stable for mortals that is; for Alluran there were sometimes unforeseen consequences. There were other ways as well, but there was no guarantee that she would arrive in the time or place where she intended.

”I was aiming for the Chronos Vault ” Marcus explained. ”If we can make it to the entrance in time… ” Yet even as he spoke both knew that it was too late. The planet was crumbling around them. The individuals inside this base were the only ones still