“BIRTH OF PHARAOH” CHAPTER 10

“reunited with an old friend”

COPYRIGHT 2026. CORINNE DEVIN SULLIVAN. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

I see a loose strand of hair on a pillow before I see someone is there. I discover it belongs to a woman I once claimed as my favorite: Wagner. Imagine my surprise at finding her here, in one of the sleeping chambers inside the White Queen’s abode, within this lost ship, the Bonne Valle Quatra.

Yet, there she is.

A vial of pills shows me she has been sleeping in the traditional, sedated way of a space traveler, the way she always did back when we were such close friends on my ever-wandering ship, the Tantlantiatia.

I have to assume Wagner won’t be waking up for a long time.

After believing she was gone for many years, I stare at her pretty face.

She is just a head appearing above exotically sewn covers. It’s so reckless to do things this way, sleeping for years upon a plush bed of feathers, but that’s her. She ought to do something better for her spine because she is going to feel terrible when she wakes up.

I pull things back a bit and find she is wearing nothing. She stirs but doesn’t wake, yet. She must have rinsed herself and then snuck into the bed for a bit of sleep. It’s so petty not to protect herself a little better so she can at least awake when an intruder arrives. She always was a friend, though.

In the old days, I would simply crash next to her, but so many things happened.

I assume Wagner, in her somewhat creepy ways, followed me, crept inside, used the place as her own, found a bed, and decided to sleep like the rest of the crew, when the captain announced things.

I know how to wake her up but something inside me is telling me I am being followed here, to this room, at this moment. I want to see who will arrive.

I sit for quite some time.

There are no windows in this sleeping chamber. It’s a good place for me to surprise anybody from. I can feel the presence, someone’s attention, like gold, upon me.

I step into the main room. No one is there, yet.

I need a stretch. I perform the old daily routine of flexes of each of the muscles to keep my body’s response under my control. It only takes me a few minutes to complete.

When done, I am still, yet, alone, staring into the empty void, yet keeping all my focus on the entrance. Only Wagner’s snoring is keeping me still here in this space instead of seeking out the source of someone who, using telepathy, alerts me to their evil hope for my demise tonight.

I stand when I, at last, use mind control to spot the source. It’s Wagner, in her sleep.

I stand in the doorway. A little smile appears on her lips. Then it melts away.

Poor thing, for how she hates me, still. She always was a good bed-mate.

The ship teeters to one side which is hard for most to detect. Then, she wobbles. There are booming sounds from outside. I hurry to the window, taking care not to come within two feet because, in the treacherous cold outside, windows like this have shattered causing ships to implode. They all should have been shuttered, and checked over, before launching the outer space engines. The risk of not doing this can cost everything.

The Bonne Valle Quatra slows and then starts to zigzag violently from side to side. I kneel so as to remain upright. She is slowing, coming out of the hyper space drive. This goes on for a full day. I am expecting it to end any minute now, the entire time.

Now, I am readying myself to relay advice to the captain. I do this by taking a last look at Wagner asleep in the small service chamber.

Crossing back through the large room to depart and return upstairs, an ominous sound of shattering fills my ears.

Now, I behold an awful sight outside. Men from upstairs (the bridge, perhaps) come floating by the grand window of the deceased White Queen’s quarters. Shocked faces, paralyzed, soon shatter. Bones and blood globules are everywhere. There must be a hundred now, and still the people are coming, floating by. Some are weeping, dying, but all meet the same terrible fate out in the cold of terrible night.

Cursing them all for failing to draw the plates of iron ore before hitting the high speeds of the space drives, I rush into the main corridor, not minding who sees me.

Instantly, I am caught by a blind rage inside. I know this man, though.

Wasted time, Earthboy?

It’s The Slave, and he is mind controlling not just me but everyone on board. They scream at each other, throw knives or what-have-you at each other, and do things that are terrible to see.

I grab my cloak of darkness. It’s a veil inside my mind that leaves me untouched from The Slave’s mental prodding, and I carry forward. I skip the elevators and pods as they might thrust me into harm’s way. I could end up outside the ship if I’m not careful.

Suddenly, a man I remember seeing dining with me, leaps. His body is already mangled. He meant to land upon me but I move away too quickly.

Terrified, I know there’s only one solution left. However, I might end up dead if I’m not careful about who’s behind me.

I make my way towards the passageway Palyo Lyle showed me. Eventually, I am at the barricaded door. My necklace and my muscle gains me entrance through the massive door. I hurry onto the catwalk to find that all of the men there are shivering in the cold, wondering what is going on.

The Slave’s prodding is greater than mind.

I want to see what’s going on, he whimpers.

I can’t stand this. I shove him out. Immediately, three of the Na’ Halien men relax and stand. Still, the cold is awful.

Etra faxis, I say through my mind, and they turn their heads up. It’s the ancient Na’ Halien greeting. And I trip every lock in their way to freedom.

The men immediately surge forward, together, carrying the carcass of one who is deceased. Perhaps it was from the mighty cold that is seeping everywhere. They seem to know where to go. I leap from the catwalk to join them.

“Our good friend!” They say to me with such sweet relief that I smile though we may all together die any moment now.

“The ship is compromised. Maybe a window has cracked. Fools just had this thing up to space drive with the windows left undone everywhere. Now, there is some crack. Let’s get this fixed.”

But they are not at their best. The time in captivity made them weak. Worse, in the last two days, their bodies have been horribly wrenched by the ship’s moves in outer space. And they rightfully can’t leave their brother without a sad good-bye. He is rested against a wall. Hopefully, there will be a return to him for a proper send-off.

Another jolt through my brain seeks to drive my body mad. I see the men are transfixed. Like me, The Training brings them some peace despite The Slave’s antics.

Follow me, I say to them all, telepathically, and we move ahead.

There is some time spent protecting ourselves from the people going mad everywhere on the vessel. Whilst doing so, we have managed to isolate the breach as the servants quarters.

We head towards the Bridge, but not without finding coats for the Na’ Halien to wear so that, now, they look like a team of scientists scurrying after me as we find the auxiliary stair room and run like the wind towards the ship’s bridge.

There, everything is frozen in time. Our captain’s mindless worry is exaggerated in everything he touches. His tight-knit crew seem to physically draw blood, only to have open wounds reseal themselves before all our eyes.

“It’s mind control!” I shout, using my voice to crack through.

There’s not a lot of response. I tear into the captain’s clothing to find the key that unlocks a certain panel. This will dissolve our worries, for the time being. Even though we are locked inside a crash course to hell, I aim to lock down all of the windows.

“Trigger the warning. Tell them to stand back from the windows. Make him.” I say to the Na’ Halien, who take the captain’s arms.

Like some zombie, the captain says words into the loud speaker that go, “Here’s my warning. Stand back from the windows.”

The captain states this over and over again until, abruptly, one of the Na’ Halien men takes away the speaker device from him, and another one ushers him into a chair.

I am able to divine the meaning of the trappings before me to successfully close the ship’s shutters. It’s my only hope that no one was caught by the dropping shutters throughout the vessel.

The hole in the ship’s side is now barricaded. The vessel rights itself. We feel a sudden mixture of hate for what’s before us, plus pangs of hunger, mixed in.

With the danger of instant death staved, the strange ringing and whining caused by The Slave’s mind control is dominant. I know that all on-board are in misery.

I instruct two of the Na’ Halien to remain. They’re in control of the ship’s crew from that moment onward.

Next, I bring one of them back downstairs to the White Queen’s deck. He will need to remain with me in order to protect me while I search for The Slave using the only tracking instrument I know will surely find him: my mind.

“This is pricey,” he says when we enter the foyer.

“Grab yourself a ruby, there, from the box,” I reply, and so he does.

I find a square patch of fabric and put this onto the carpet. I kneel on it, my hands thrust forward, as if for balance but, really, it’s just to steady the movement of my mind.

My brother, the Na’ Halien, stands to one side, quick to answer any request I might make. Without form or ceremony, I launch into a type of prayer. All the while, I slow my thoughts.

Now, it’s time to find The Slave. He must be on the vessel. I can’t see him, though, yet.

Incredibly, Wagner sleeps on.

TO CONTINUE THE ADVENTURE READ RENEYT - EPISODE 2 - A HERO RETURNS.