Kira screamed her fellow warrior's name. She started forward, but David grabbed her arm.
"Don't," he said. "You can't help him that way."
"Then what do we do?" Kira's voice broke. "How do we fight something that uses our strength against us?"
David's mind raced. He had studied ancient warfare back when he was a military historian for Earth's defense forces, before the incident that got him discharged. Before he met Kira and left all of that behind.
"Physical weapons," he said suddenly. "Old-style weapons that don't use energy."
"That's primitive," a soldier spat. "Useless against real threats."
"More useless than weapons that make the enemy stronger?" David shot back.
He drew his sword. The blade caught the emergency lighting, reflecting it in strange patterns. For just a moment, David thought he saw those patterns form words. Ancient words in a language he didn't know but somehow understood: Strike true.
One of the shadow creatures noticed him. It flowed toward him like smoke, ignoring the warriors with their plasma weapons. David's mouth went dry. Every instinct screamed at him to run. But he thought of Kira. He thought of all the people dying because energy weapons were useless. He thought of Roth's mocking words about human weakness.
Then he stepped forward and swung his sword. The blade passed through the shadow creature's form. David expected it to do nothing. But where the sword touched, the shadow recoiled. Not destroyed, but hurt. Definitely hurt. The creature made a sound like tearing metal and pulled away from him. It retreated into the darkness, leaving behind a smell like ozone and decay.
Everyone stared at David, at his sword, at the place where the shadow creature had fled.
"How?" Kira whispered.
David looked at his blade. It was glowing now, just faintly. A soft blue light that seemed to push back the darkness. "I don't know, but it worked."
Roth pulled himself free from the shadow that had been draining him. The draconian warrior looked weak, his scales dull, and his breathing labored. But he was alive. He stared at David with new eyes.
"Your weapon? It has no power source."
"It's just steel," David said, "forged on Earth centuries ago."
"Not just steel," a new voice said.
An old woman appeared from a side corridor, leaning on a staff. She wore robes that marked her as an elder, one of the ancient beings who guided the coalition.
"That blade carries something far older than steel. Something the void fears."
"Elder Cirrus," Kira bowed her head in respect. "What are you doing here?"
"Waiting," the old woman said, her eyes fixed on David. "Waiting for someone to remember what was forgotten. Young human, your ancestors fought these creatures before. Long before space travel, long before the coalition existed."
"That's impossible," David said. "Humans only reached the stars 200 years ago."
"You reached them again," Elder Cirrus corrected. "Your people have risen and fallen before. And each time you fought the void, each time you won, not with energy or advanced technology, but with something simpler, something pure." She gestured to his sword. "That blade is a key, one of many. The void has returned because the old locks are failing and only humans can forge them anew."
A roar echoed through the corridor. More shadows were coming, drawn by the commotion. Dozens of them, maybe hundreds. The surviving warriors grouped together, but without their energy weapons, they were nearly helpless.
David looked at his sword, then at Kira's frightened face. He thought about running, letting someone else be the hero. He was just a historian after all, a weak human in a galaxy of warriors. But his hand tightened on the sword's grip, and it grew brighter, warm, almost alive.
"Get everyone to the ship," he told Kira. "I'll buy you time."
"David, no."
"Trust me," he said, meeting her eyes. "For once, let me protect you."
Before she could argue, he ran toward the advancing shadows. His sword blazed with light cutting through the darkness. Behind him, he heard Kira shouting orders, organizing the retreat. David didn't know if he would survive. But for the first time since entering coalition space, he felt strong. Not despite being human, because of it.
3 days passed after the disaster at Outpost Delta 9. David spent most of that time in the medical bay. Not because he was injured, but because scientists wanted to study his sword. They ran every test they could think of and found nothing special. Just old steel and leather grip. Yet, everyone had seen it glow. Everyone had seen the shadows retreat from it.