Vai

I spread my green light towards Captain Axa. My power wasn't obvious like Owen's fire. The Corruption did not know what I could do - well I guess I had just announced it, but they didn't know how I was going to disconnect them from Axa. They didn't realize I could do it without touching Axa.

My green light filtered into the Captain. Neither she nor the Corruption knew it. The Corruption's anatomy was different from anything I had studied. Their tiny bodies were covered in pink microfibers. They weren't exactly nerves, but maybe something similar. They used them to connect to the brain - to communicate their wishes, to distribute pain or pleasure. They were not a hive mind, they were individuals, but their minds were so in sync it was almost like a hive mind. There was no arguments or disagreements between them. There wasn't a set leader or leadership. They just were and they were altogether in similar thought.

My light pulled on them and they clung tighter to the brain. Captain Axa dropped to her knees and grabbed her head. Her scream pierced through the bridge.

The two officers that stood outside came rushing in. Lieutenant Tanpo's light shield kept them away from me. Those on the bridge with the Corruption tried to get to me to stop me, but my friends kept them away. The other bridge crew didn't move. They didn't understand what was happening.

I used Captain Axa's own body system to help me push the Corruption away from her brain and force them outside her through her nose and ears. The pink cloud grew larger above her head. Captain Axa collapsed unconscious to the floor. It had not been an easy separation and I was clumsy as it was my first time trying. My green light was already healing the microscopic tears inside her.

The bridge crew that didn't have the Corruption gasped when they saw the pink cloud. The remaining crew that did have the Corruption rushed out the bridge and away from us.

Minmin and Shel started to follow, but El said, "Let them go for now. They won't get away."

"Zek," my dad said. "Miasmids, the Corruption. An invasive alien species that have permeated the highest ranks of the government. They tried to win with the K'thaktra war, but weren't expecting our new technology at the time - Aether fields. The Aether field on the Shadow is what allowed us to defeat them the first time. Now they are trying again by taking us over quietly until it's too late. We have a new weapon again that they weren't expecting - the light."

The pink, shimmering zek cloud began to float away. Owen stepped up.

"I'll take care of them." Fire formed in his palm. He brought his arm back as if he was going to throw a baseball.

"Wait," I said. Owen paused. The Corruption continued on their path away from us. I closed my eyes and took a breath. I admitted something I didn't want to admit since I discovered I could heal. I knew how to heal, mend, put flesh back together, but I also knew how to take it apart - to destroy it.

I opened my eyes and stretched my green light to the group of Corruption. They tried to scatter, but it didn't matter. My green light stretched until it reached all of them. I took them apart at the molecular level. I heard their combined scream. It cut to my core. I looked to the others, but it was clear no one but me could hear them. The pink cloud fizzled away until there was nothing left.

"What did you do?" Shel asked.

Was my dad still broadcasting all of this?

"Vai." Owen placed a hand on my shoulder. I didn't realize I had dropped to my knees until then.

I took a steadying breath. I clenched my hands into fists to hide the fact they were shaking.

"I took them apart," I said quietly. "Piece by piece."

Minmin nodded her furry head. "Good," she said.

Yes, I told myself. They are the enemy. They will kill or enslave all of us if we don't stop them. But still - their scream had pierced into my soul. And how many souls did they pierce? How many free wills did they capture and hold? My shaking hands stilled. I would defend the Gathering citizens. I wouldn't let the horrors of the K'thaktra war repeat itself.

El moved so she stood above Captain Axa. "Once they have bonded with the Corruption," El said, "the bond cannot be broken even if the Corruption is no longer inside them. They will do anything to get the Corruption back." Her hand glowed red. She knelt beside the captain. She brought down her hand in a chopping motion over the Captain's neck.

"Wait!"

Her hand stopped centimeters away from Captain Axa's neck. A small line of blood had already began to form on Axa's blue skin under El's red hand.

"Wait," I said to her again. I stood and went to Axa. El stood up and grabbed my arm with her blue hand. Her fingers dug into my arm causing sharp pain. I ignored it.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Let me try to heal her," I said. "Let me try to break the bond - permanently."

"It might not be possible," El said.

"I need to try," I said.

Her eyes darted to Owen and Esther who stood side by side as they watched us. Then she turned away from them - from everyone except me - and whispered quietly, "If you succeed after I told them there was no other way but to kill them, it might affect them. They might think they are murderers instead of soldiers in a war."

I looked at Owen and Esther. Truly looked. I searched their eyes for the pain and trepidation that might be, but I only saw hope.

"I think they want me to succeed," I whispered back.

El's lips tightened into a frown. She sighed and said even quieter, "If you succeed, no one will want to kill their loved ones with the Corruption. They will all seek you out and ask you to heal them. You can't heal all of them. It's too much. It would take more time than your lifetime. What toll will it take on you?"

It was something I hadn't thought of. But still, if I could save them, if I could rejoin them with their families as a whole being, didn't I have to try even if it took an entire lifetime?

"I have to do this," I whispered to her.

She looked into my eyes. I didn't look away. She dropped my arm and took a step back. I knelt next to Captain Axa and put her head in my lap. I didn't need to touch to heal, but I wasn't sure what the process was to break the bond with the Corruption. Touch might help me find it faster and it might help give her comfort if she woke up during the process.

The brain was complicated. Of course in school we had learned how the bodies of the different aliens in the Gathering worked, but the brain was still not completely understood. I went on instinct and what the light told me more than my knowledge. It wasn't the dopamine release that I needed to fix. It was the memories that had been ingrained with that - the memories of the pleasure from the Corruption. I had to stop her cravings for it. I had to stop the drive to be willing to do anything for it.

Was it right for me to stop it? If I stopped it would it cause other problems? Well, it was either to stop it or to kill her. She didn't wake with my touch and probing of the light. In fact, it seemed to comfort her and she settled into it as if wrapping herself in a warm, safe blanket.

The memories weren't in one part of her brain. There were several factors. I didn't cut the memories of pleasure completely. Although the pleasure from the Corruption was the most intense and addictive, I couldn't cut the memory of pleasure completely as that might affect her enjoyment of eating for example, but I greatly dulled it. She wouldn't be the same as she was before the Corruption bonded with her, but at least she would still be herself. She wouldn't have the intense cravings for pleasure that the Corruption had given her.

I was going to leave it at that and wake her, but it was there calling to be opened - her blue light - a sky blue. I hesitated. Was it wise to open the light in one that used to be bonded with the Corruption? I was confident that bond had been severed. Her light wanted to be brought out. It pulsed. I barely gave it a tug before it flooded out of her. Her eyes flashed open at the same time. She looked up at me. Her hard, military expression broke for the first time as I saw tears well in her eyes. She swallowed hard and blinked the tears away. She sat up slowly and tried to put the mask of captain up, but there was a softness to her that wasn't there before.

"You opened her light?" El asked in that dangerous tone.

I ignored her. So did Captain Axa. The captain stood up, straightened her uniform and then reached a hand down to me. I grasped it and let her help me up. I was surprised when she hugged me and buried her face in my chest.

"Thank you," she said. "I never thought I would be rid of them. I thought they would always be there even when they weren't there. You've done the impossible."

She took a step away and was the captain again. "Open the light in the rest of the bridge crew," she ordered.

I smiled at El's annoyed face. It had worked. The Shadow and the captain would now be ours in the fight against the Corruption.