Ghosts of the Vale

by Paul Grover

  Today, it was good to be Mira Thorn.

  Mira dozed.

  She dreamt a confused pastiche of images, light and darkness, sounds and voices. A single star shone high above her. She knelt in a dark chamber with walls formed from ceramic roots.

  Her hands were slick with blood.

  Tish was dead.

  Mira awoke with a start. She cursed and blinked herself into full waking. Her hands shook. She let the fear subside, feeling Tish stir in her sleep.

  The dream receded, but the fear lingered. The world had changed.

  The city was alight, but not with the warm artificial daylight; instead the towers and boulevards were lit with a soft blue phosphoresce. The dancing light cast moving shadows on the black structures.

  Mira lay Tish down and stood. Plant like blooms had sprung from the ground, their tips glowing blue-white. The iridescent flowers filled every area of open space, stirring in the artificial breeze.

  A soft ringing filled the air; it rose and fell in pitch, sounding musical to her ears.

  Despite her trepidation she walked toward the closest meadow. As she approached the blooms retracted around her, disappearing into the ground. As she passed, they erupted back to the surface.

  “You’re beautiful,” she said, sweeping her hand over the plants and watching them vanish and return. The fear and sadness of the dream receded from her memory.

  She ducked as the first glowing orb passed over her, then another and another. Orbs of crackling energy moved toward her through the wide city streets, tens, hundreds, thousands… maybe more.

  Ghosts… no souls… no… minds. Individuals bound as one.

  They circled her. The column of light extended upwards into the darkness above. There were so many they appeared as one, yet occasionally Mira could see individual orbs change direction, swoop and dive within the column.

  Pharn… The people from the Ark were here.

  “Mira!” Tish called.

  Tish, Alex and Zenia standing at the edge of the meadow.

  “What’s happening?”

  “I… dunno… Z?” She gestured for her friends to join her. Zenia broke into a run and was the first to arrive at her side.

  “They are here,” Zenia said, her dark eyes tracking the movement of the orbs.

  “Can you communicate with them, Zenia?” Alex asked. He was smiling in the light. Mira remembered her own sense of awe when she had released these beings on Arethon.

  “No, like you I have no connection. They are here; we can use the cube. The Spire will allow me to connect to them and for you to connect to the collective.”

  Mira sensed them in her mind. They did not speak nor paint images. It was a simple feeling of being one, part of something bigger. She knew it was what Zenia wanted. Mira reached into the column of light and orbs danced around her fingers energy passing between them.

  Something is wrong… Mira thought… something is wrong with the Mothernode.

  Fear and uncertainty clouded her mind. The feelings were not her own.

  A chorus of voices spoke at once. “Go Mira! This place is not what it seems… It will be your end and the end of all things. We are cast adrift…”

  The voices cut out. Orbs scattered, disappearing in every direction; like prey on the plains when a predator was amongst them, the blooms retracted. Silence filled the air as darkness descended.

  “What happened?” Tish said, her whispered voice echoing against the silence.

  “They told me to leave… something is wrong… I feel it.”

  Mira balled her hands into fists. Her stomach churned. She bit back on nausea…. The dream returned to haunt her thoughts.

  “Tish… go back to the ship… go… I can’t explain.”

  Tish stood firm. “We all go.”

  A red light flashed on Alex’s wrist computer, an urgent beep sounded in time with each pulse. “Movement, tracks coming in fast from all around us,” he said.

  Mira switched on her shoulder lamp and unslung her weapon. Tish did the same.

  “I can’t see anything,” she said, scanning the dark streets. “Talk to me, Alex!”

  “Multiple inbound contacts, all around us but mostly.” He pointed toward the ship. “That way…”

  “Let’s move!” Mira said. “Head for the Spire.”

  They ran. Tish was at Mira’s side. Alex and Zenia tailed slightly.

  A howl echoed out from the towers, inhuman yet like no animal Mira had ever encountered.

  “Servitors!” Zenia said. Her voice was calm, her breathing unlabored by exertion.

  A bulky, dark shadow dropped from a tower into the street. A Servitor rose on its hind legs. A blood churning screech came from vents on its neck. The creature’s stance and body language were aggressive.

  The creature had two multi jointed hind legs and four sets of arms. It had a large almost triangular head with bulbous eyes. A prehensile tail extended behind it, bone protruding from it like axe heads. It whipped from side to side and it whistled as it cut through air. The Servitor moved fast and with a grace improbable for its size. A second Servitor scurried down the adjacent tower and joined the first.

  Tish pulled Mira into the small alcove at the base of a tower. Alex and Zenia ran on.

  Both creatures searched, pacing left and right. They sniffed the air. One screeched again. It hurt Mira’s ears.

  “Oh fuck,” Tish said. Mira heard her flick off the safety switch on her weapon.

  “Where are Alex and Zenia?” Mira whispered.

  “I… I don’t know,” Tish replied.

  The creature stalked toward them, its clawed feet making scratching sounds on the ground. The other fell in behind it.

  Mira raised her weapon and fired off a blast of energy. The first creature fell, rolled and stood up.

  “Run!” she screamed, breaking cover. Tish followed.

  They ran in the direction of the Spire. Other creatures scurried to join the chase. Mira glanced behind her and counted six.

  “This has turned into a bad idea!” Mira yelled as Tish fired a concentrated blast, felling one alien; it stayed down. Translucent slime oozed from its split carapace. Mira saw it for a split second as her lamp passed over the scene.

  They ducked into a side street.

  Mira grabbed Tish’s arm. “Come on, we have to keep moving.”

  Laser fire fizzed behind her.

  “Alex!” she yelled.

  She turned to see three Servitors chasing them; their speed was incredible. Mira fired wildly; the energy bolts passed over the creatures’ heads and did little to slow their approach.

  Mira panted as she ran, ducking left then right.

  Tish screamed. Mira whirled, a thick armoured tail wrap around Tish and dragged her upwards

  “Tish!” Mira yelled.

  She fired indiscriminately at the approaching creatures to no avail. Her weapon beeped and entered cool down mode, the aliens were upon her in seconds. The first one slammed into her, knocking her off her feet and winding her. She somehow found the strength to push the creature off.

  She struggled to her feet and scanned the towers. Tish was gone. A Servitor screeched in the darkness. Mira ran.

  Her lungs burned. Her vision was fogged and her mind raced as fast as her heart.

  She tripped and was falling. Her back hit something hard and she tumbled downward for what seemed an eternity. Pain flared through her body and the world went dark.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  MIRA groaned in the darkness. Sitting upright, she flexed her limbs and rolled her shoulders. She was sore but intact. She sucked in a lungful of air and winced at a stabbing pain in her side.

  The cave was bereft of light. She activated her shoulder lamp, it clicked and spun uselessly on its mount.

  “Fuck…” she murmured.

  Mira pulled off her pack, keeping one hand on it at all times. She fumbled with the catch, reached inside and found a strip of glow wands. She pulled one out, shook and sna
pped it. The green electro chemical glow filled the chamber with enough light to find her way.

  Mira swept the wand around, lighting the space with eerie phosphoresce. The chamber resembled a cave, there was a hole in the ceiling through which she had fallen. The ground was uneven. She rested on a shifting pile of bones.

  She scrambled down the pile. The cave was full of bones of different shapes. They were not human, and all were black with age.

  Could these be the remains of the Pharn? Their bodies discarded in exchange for a non-physical existence?

  The walls were black and coarsely woven. She assumed this chamber was part of the recycling or collection system for Pharn biomass. She shuddered.

  “This sure as fuck ain’t Kansas,” she whispered.

  A breeze brushed her cheek. Moving air… a way out.

  She pulled on her pack. The ache of fresh bruises and scrapes added to the sting of the flash burns. She was certain she had popped a rib, maybe two, during the fall. Ahead of her she could make out a darker area and walked toward it. It led into an arched tunnel. The floor was more even than the chamber, the walls lined with black ridges.

  She walked onward and her thoughts turned to Tish; she had to be out there somewhere.

  What if she isn’t? What if one of those creatures is tearing her body apart with its claws? Her Shadow Sister whispered.

  Then I climb to the top of a tower and throw myself off. If I die, you die too.

  Her dark half fell silent. Her Shadow Sister kept trying to assert her dominance but Mira was too strong for her now. Were it not for her fears for Tish, she would have savoured the knowledge.

  The tunnel ran straight for a long way. Mira had been walking for an hour. It rose slightly and emerged into a circular chamber.

  A staircase hewn from black materials circled the outer wall. It spiralled upward to a point beyond Mira’s vision.

  In the centre of the room was a curved wall. It was covered in pictograms, which glowed with blue light.

  She walked toward it. The wall was taller than she first thought. She studied the abstract designs. They depicted events from what she assumed was Pharn history; sometimes they were accompanied by text in an unknown language.

  The wall shimmered and darkened. Images danced over its surface. A planet with two moons, home to an industrial society. She watched as rockets launched to the satellites. Blue skinned humanoids colonised their star system, their machines similar to old human vessels.

  They discovered how to reach the stars and an empire was born. It expanded at an ever-increasing rate. New species joined the collective. Mira saw aliens from beyond her imagination; deep red crablike creatures from a planet covered in water, fur covered apelike bipeds standing close to four metres tall and other forms unrecognisable by human norms.

  Mira was transported to worlds with dense jungles, others with rolling oceans and soaring cities reaching into the clouds.

  War broke out, Pharn against Pharn.

  The collective split into factions. One continued to expand, the other retreated deep into the Vale, vanquished, humble and afraid.

  “They became Blackened.”

  The voice startled her. The images froze. She turned.

  An old man in a black frock coat stood behind her, watching her with dark eyes and an amused smile on his face.

  The man walked forward. His cane clicked on the woven floor.

  “I am glad you found the archive. It saves so much tedious explanation. The information you learned on Arethon was incomplete and somewhat biased,” he said. “I hope we can use this opportunity to set the record straight.”

  The man’s skin was parchment thin, his hair fine and combed back from his forehead.

  “Who are you? Where did you come from?”

  “My name is Legion. I am one and I am all. I come from many places.”

  “Manson said he worked for you. You are Blackened?”

  Legion’s licked his lips and paused as if in thought.

  “What I am will depend on context.” He laughed. “I would pay little heed to Karl; he serves a purpose, although he did somewhat fail me on his last mission.”

  “I was there. A kid blew his head off.”

  “Karl is upset about it. I told him not to take it out on sweet Tish… but he is unpredictable.”

  Mira took a step forward and froze, unable to move.

  “Pardon me, Mira… may I call you Mira? I sometimes speak out of turn. Karl knows if he harms Tish or any of your friends he will answer for it. Whatever you might do to him, I can inflict agonies far worse.”

  The vice like grip on her body relaxed.

  “You can trust me Mira. I think it important you understand both sides in this war.”

  “I’m not given to trusting people who appear out of thin air and talk in riddles.”

  Legion rested on his cane. “I am many things but never a liar. I only speak truth.” He pointed to the wall. “Let’s continue with the lesson.”

  Out of the darkness a ship appeared. Mira recognised it as the vessel from her dreams. Another then another crept forward from the dark space of the Vale.

  “We knew the Pharn would not leave us to pursue our own existence. They saw us as abhorrent. We saw them the same way. They took the purity of our species and corrupted it with others. They thought it gave them strength; we knew it made them weak. How do you manage so many cultures? So many competing interests?”

  “We do,” Mira replied.

  “Really?” He dabbed his eyes. Mira saw no tears. The mocking in his tone conveyed the emotion missing from his face. “You sound so convinced Mira. I thought you of all people would know better.”

  “You don’t know me.”

  Legion’s smile evaporated.

  “I know enough… maybe more than you suspect. Pills, alcohol, razor blades… the six times you tried to end your life….” Legion waved his hand. “We’ll continue.”

  The wall shimmered. Mira stood before a great city of glass and gold. It was spring; the trees were in blossom. Airborne vehicles flitted between the towers. Over the burble of fountains drifted the murmur of a thousand conversations.

  It was the city, her city. The city she wandered in her dreams.

  In this city Zenia and I are one… we share the same memory.

  The world ended and darkness fell.

  Pharn stepped forward; other species surrounded them. They dissolved into blue light; a single pulsing orb rose to the top of the wall. It spawned other smaller orbs. One by one they were encased in black ovoids. The large orb faded, leaving only the Arks. They scattered to the edges of the wall and disappeared.

  “They call this the Second Great Division,” Legion said. His voice was calm, giving her the impression of a schoolmaster. “The Pharn you restored were sent in Arks to prepare for the future. It is their role to destroy us and prepare for the collective to return.”

  The image on the wall moved on: giant battles fought in interstellar space; both sides fought in hybrid ships born of machine and organic life.

  “The remaining Pharn fought hard. We had to adapt. We learned how to detach from our physical forms as the Pharn did. We chose to remain physical but discovered we could transfer our minds into new bodies. It gave us a chance but was also our undoing.”

  He gestured to the wall.

  Giant spheres enclosed systems, sealing the Blackened away from the Galaxy. Mira watched the now familiar root forms, weaving megastructures around stars.

  A single glowing sphere occupied the wall. Only Pharn remained, unified in a post physical existence. It pulsed.

  “Ancient history…” Legion said.

  The wall lightened and the pictograms reappeared.

  Legion gazed at her with dark rheumy eyes. They were too close together and his nose long and thin. He reminded her of a villain in a fairy tale… No, he was more like a charlatan, travelling the old west, peddling snake oil to fools.

  “So as you see a game is being
played out. We came first and we maintained our purity. Our kin called us Blackened while they polluted themselves with lesser life.” He spat the words out. “We fought them. We were winning yet they sacrificed all they were to beat us… forcing us to do the same. Our forces were sealed here and the weakened collective slunk off, waiting for their plan to unfold.”

  Legion gave a chuckle.

  “Humans in their naivety found one of these facilities and released those imprisoned there… we are returning and we will bend the galaxy to our will. We have already started. We are cleaning the space you know as the Frontier, using Pharn technology to create our own energy nodes, adapting your worlds for our use. Human biomass will be repurposed for our needs.”

  “Good luck,” Mira replied. “Your buddies in the collective did a good job of sealing you in and we’re no pushover.” It was her turn to laugh.

  “We will see. They were genuine in their desire for you to lead the fight against us. I see in you what they did. You are loyal. You care and you have spirit. None of that can help you now.”

  “So what now?” she asked. “Is this it? You kill me and go back to scaring little kids?”

  Legion seemed disappointed, as if she failed to take a lesson from the story.

  “No, I applaud your bravado. I know it’s fake.”

  Maybe he did. She no longer cared.

  “What about my friends?” she asked.

  “I will take you to them. No one has to die, Mira. I want you to understand us… to understand the Pharn. I have a use for you, Mira, and your friends are a part of it.”

  Legion raised his hand in an oddly antiquated gesture.

  “I’m not touching you,” Mira said.

  Legion cocked his head. “I am not infectious. The spire is 60 kilometres high and I have no intention of walking to the top. Looking at the state of you I doubt you would relish the climb.”

  Part of her was tempted to scale the staircase to teach this unusual man a lesson. She acquiesced and took his outstretched hand with her finger tips.

  Legion took two steps forward.

  The world shimmered and Mira was standing in the centre of a circular room. The domed ceiling was transparent and a sole star shone above her. Mira assumed she was at the top of the spire. Legion released her hand.