Heaven's Call: A thrilling military science fiction book (LUMINA Book 3) I.G. Hulme (audio ebook reader .TXT) 📖

chasm of mangled metal. There was no light any more, and not a soul moved. Any sign of those distant figures had melted away, and Ryann was once more utterly alone aboard that vast ship.

The emptiness of the wreck weighed heavily upon him now that the vision of life had been extinguished. It felt as though there weren’t another living soul in all of existence.

This place was nothing like the time that he and Angelique had crept through the empty bowels of the Ibis, stalked by the Spiner. He couldn’t even muster the will to see the irony of how he almost longed to trade places for that familiar, knowable fear and dread. This sensation that assailed him was utterly alien — at once empty, and yet brooding and watchful, as though he were a lone prisoner trapped inside the mind of another.

He took a deep breath and gripped the railing once more to reassure his senses — to ground himself in reality.

He started at a sound of movement echoing high above him and craned his neck upwards, his view hampered by the aperture of his flight helmet.

For a brief moment he saw a light blink on and off in the darkness of a corridor that led from the shaft. At first, Ryann’s overwhelming desire was to turn and run, to flee in terror from any more dream-like visions.

But almost before he knew what was happening, he found himself moving towards the light — those three short flashes, as though somebody were sending out a signal.

Almost delirious with fear and fatigue he staggered on, climbing ever upwards towards that guiding light.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

INFINITE CONNECTIONS

Ryann trudged on through the silent halls in a daze of fatigue and spent fear. It felt as though hours had passed since he had first seen that light signalling to him. But, no matter how he tried, he never seemed to get any nearer.

He climbed up and up through the ship, and each time that he thought he could not take a step farther, those three short flashes would shine out above him spurring him on.

The going was harder now, the innards of the ship a forest of twisted wreckage. He found himself having to clamber over fallen gantries that spanned the dizzying heights, or navigate through tangles of metal and cables that hung down like dense foliage. Often he would come to an area made impassable by a collapsed roof or some sheer chasm. Then, he would have to turn back and seek out a more favourable route.

It was during one of these searches through a maze of girders that he came upon another vision.

The air had been growing steadily brighter for some time, the overlay of light upon the wreckage gaining in solidity with each step Ryann took. Curious wisps of light seemed to play out some scene around him — strange ethereal shapes that swirled upon the edge of his vision. If he reached out to touch them they curled about his arms like trails of mist, before fading back to darkness.

Ryann found himself traversing a narrow crawlspace as he hunted for a way into one of the main shafts that appeared to run almost the height of the ship. He had spent hours climbing the walkways that criss-crossed its depths, but as he neared the summit, the structural damage kept forcing him back into the maze of corridors in an attempt to find a route upwards.

He was nearly back to the upper walkways now, but one more fallen section of wall was impeding him. As he crawled between the crushed girders he suddenly spied the source of the illumination. It emanated from a body wedged in the wreckage of a collapsed corridor.

Ryann crouched in the semi-darkness, searching for any sign of movement, but the figure lay still and silent.

As he moved closer, he was shocked to see that it was one of the Luminal drones he had witnessed in his earlier visions of the ship when it was complete.

He had heard many stories of these Luminal soldiers, and had occasionally seen their bodies tumble from the wreckage of a destroyed craft before they faded back to nothingness. But now, alone on an alien derelict warship, this was the first time that he had ever seen one up close.

He approached it cautiously, his rifle held up in readiness.

It was just as Ryann’s father had described when he had recounted his tale of that strange connection he had made to the Lumina. On that occasion, he and Mellarnne had brought the dying creature aboard their ship, and Grayell had reached out to grasp its hand. And with that touch, Grayell had a vision of being transported right back to the Luminal source. There, his father had witnessed the shared experiences of the crew of the Battleship Oak, those souls trapped by the Luminal entity, their consciousnesses somehow manipulated in order to create the Luminal battle fleet.

Ryann stood looking on in fear.

The drone was humanoid in shape, but its body seemed to be composed of pure light that rippled and shimmered like liquid. Its face was ill-formed — a vague, human mask set with two dark eyes that seemed limitless, as though they contained the depths of the universe itself.

But the creature was barely alive.

It lay upon the floor, its body crushed by a fallen girder. Where its torso was trapped, the flesh seemed to meld into the blackened metal, as though it were fused into the ship.

At the sight of Ryann, the creature looked up in alarm and a faint flicker of electricity played over its skin before fading back to a dim glow. With a great effort, the creature lifted its arm, holding out a hand towards Ryann. Its eyes implored him, and without thinking Ryann lowered his rifle and stepped closer.

Gingerly, he reached out his hand towards the creature. He felt his heart racing in anticipation.

This was what he had risked his life for by coming to this ship.

This was the moment.