Legacy: Beyond the Veil

The Child of Curses

"Hey Cai, what does this thing do?" The creature asked, pointing at the EMAS console with its index finger. Cai couldn't think of it as a child, as closely as it might resemble one. Its features shimmered momentarily, then its face took on another form like how a chameleon changes colors.

"Don't touch that." Cai said grumpily, but when he turned to the demon he no longer saw the gleaming boy with golden hair. His place had been taken by a dark-skinned girl of the same age. Like the boy, this girl had been cared for with an immaculate eye for detail. Her long, black hair had been braided with an artistry Cai had not even known was possible, and her skin was completely flawless. A kind of perfection which should not exist outside of myth.

The only thing that had remained the same were the eyes: Those striking gold irises encysting a core of the blackest black. Cai involuntarily stared right into them for the briefest moment, swearing that he could see movement behind the creature's pupils.

By the time he managed to tear his gaze away from the demon's false eyes, its appearance had already shifted back to that of the boy Cai had first met when he woke up.

The creature had been pestering him for nearly twelve hours now. In that period it had briefly changed form about twenty times, assuming the likeness of a different child every time. These transformations never lasted more than a minute before the demon reverted to its original shape, but nevertheless added yet another layer of uncanniness to the apparition's presence. If the Demon was aware that it changed faces every so often, it did not touch on the subject, and he had obviously not asked about it. Discounting his outburst just now, Cai had managed to avoid speaking to the fiend at all, to its apparent frustration. It was the little victories that mattered, hethought wryly.

The Striker Nebula was quiet now that she had reached her destination, almost eerily so. Quieter even than when she had been on her float. Without the muffled, rumbling roar of the powerful engines, it was like an unnatural blanket of silence had descended on the ship. The serenity would have left Cai feeling uncomfortable under normal circumstances. Given his current company, it was nigh-unbearable.

He ignored the Demon's question, and the disappointed pout that followed, to instead take a detailed infrared reading of the alien wormhole the Nebula was posted at. The sensor sweep was ten minutes premature, but Cai simply wanted to make himself seem busy.

The results came back a little blurry, and Cai took a deep sigh to mask his relief. Clearing the picture up would take some time, another excuse for him to not engage with the strange, nightmare-inducing creature.

In truth, he didn't know what to do. The navy had a lot of emergency protocols which told him the exact course of action in nearly any scenario, but first contact with an actual Demon was not among these. Such supernatural beings were the stuff of history books. Before today, Cai might have even secretly doubted their existence.

For not the first time in these past hours, Cai's hand hovered over the comms console on the armrest of his seat. It would only take him a few seconds to beam an emergency lux-transmission to a relay station. Accounting for both light- and bureaucratic delays, the knowledge that the Veil had been compromised could reach officials on Sindrion Tertus in five minutes. About half an hour later, both Primus and Secundus would receive the message as well.

And then– well, Cai didn't know what would follow that. Most likely the small flotilla accompanying them would be ordered to turn their weapons on the Striker Nebula, swiftly eliminating the threat. If he sent that message, he and his crew might be reduced to swiftly cooling space dust less than fifteen minutes from now.

Cai wondered if he owed them an explanation before that happened. How would Veriss react to the knowledge that he'd marked them all for death? How would Harlan?