The Terran Cycle Boxset

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  Two of the small hovering cameras flew past, shining miniature spotlights on them. Just how many people were watching this? Thinking about what Telarrek had said about them being perceived as mythical, Kalian equated them to being something like the legends of Atlantis on Earth.

  Small white lights shone up from the floor in a circle around each of them, Kalian felt that they weren’t meant to leave these circles. A chorus of whispers echoed around the stadium, a wave of sound moving up to the higher tiers. Without him noticing, five silhouettes were now sitting in a line across the podium. They must have come from somewhere below. The central figure was instantly recognisable as a Novaarian though distinct in her appearance. She had long flowing tendrils that glittered in purple with golden rings running down each strand. Her face was similar to that of all her kind with dark blue spots around her swirling eyes. All the Novaarians they had encountered so far wore very little in attire with their armoured plating and flowing robes from the waist.

  The Highclave councillor was dressed uniquely with a golden headdress that encompassed the small holes that acted as their ears. She wore a robe that reminded Kalian of the ancient Japanese geishas in a mix of blue, purple and gold. She was definitely the most majestic looking alien he had ever seen and, in the last hour, he had seen a lot.

  She was surrounded on each side by two other aliens that represented their quadrant of space. His eyes immediately fell on the Laronian councillor. Again she was the female of her species, at least he guessed she was. Her face had a feminine quality to it like that of a human woman; her skin glistened as her diamond scales caught the light. Her plunging neckline was covered by a necklace of large crystals.

  The next councillor was a Raalak, as was evident by his large everything. He wore no visible clothing from Kalian’s point of view but his bare chest had two unusual devices attached to it. Both circles of steel were interlaced into his rock-like skin with an orange glow emanating from within. He could only guess at the purpose of such augments.

  The two aliens that occupied the other side of the podium were new to them. He recognised from the data module the small plump body of the Ch’kara next to the Novaarian. The back of its dark green skinned head was encompassed in a mechanical headdress that produced the miniature atmosphere around its face. The Ch’kara had evolved on Ch’ket, a planet with a higher percentage of carbon dioxide as well as methane. Travelling beyond their planets was impossible without their breather gear.

  Kalian could see the air around its face shimmering as the miniature force field kept the gases contained. When he had first read about their kind he was suspicious of their involvement with the aliens that had attacked Earth. Telarrek had said that the force field surrounding the goliath was impossible to make on such a small scale, and hearing of the technology involved with the Ch’kara’s breather gear it seemed plausible of their involvement. Their skill in such technology wasn’t unheard of since they were the largest manufacturers of Solar Drive engines. Their worlds were famous for the magnificent shipyards that surrounded the entire circumference in giant rings. Telarrek had explained though that the fields produced around their faces were only capable of holding in gases and would not hold up against matter. He trusted Telarrek but refused to rule them out.

  The shimmering air couldn’t hide his features. Everything looked too close to Kalian with the yellow eyes and mouth scrunched into the middle. Its mouth was covered in vertical strands of green skin making Kalian wonder how they fit food into their mouths.

  The Shay occupied the furthest chair. Its skin was pale white and a shade darker than the Raalak. Its head curved back to a blunt point that rested on a thin neck. Its frame appeared skeletal with little muscle. Two large eyes sat evenly where Kalian’s did on his own face, though these eyes were very different. Every time it blinked there seemed to be another set of transparent lids in front of them. Its facial features weren’t that different from his own, with a similar mouth and nose. It looked to Kalian like a human face stretched back into an elongated skull. As it moved in its seat he could clearly see the artificial arm on its left side.

  This wasn’t the only augmentation it possessed. The bottom half of the jaw was entirely robotic with small pistons in the place of tendons. Between the large eyes sat a metallic device that linked both together and curved up to rest on the forehead. Small wires and tubes were visibly connecting the device into the eyes, Kalian couldn’t imagine their use. He was sure there would be other such augments that he couldn’t see behind the podium.

  The central Novaarian sat forward taking in the sight of the two humans. Kalian suddenly felt very conscious of his charred clothing and regretted not asking Telarrek for some sort of replacements. He had visions of himself wearing the same style loincloth and armour and thought perhaps he was better the way he was.

  The Novaarian’s upper arms spread out before her. “Shall we begin...?”

  10

  Following the crowds had been easy. The masses led him to the strangest transportation device he had ever seen. In front of him had been row upon row of large rectangular holes in the floor spread out in one section of the ring. He hesitated at first, thinking everyone mad for walking straight into the holes without even looking. After a few minutes observation, he realised everyone was tapping a hologram that floated above different devices in their possession. After interacting with the hologram they appeared to be shown a designated hole to walk over. Roland couldn’t wrap his head around the way in which they flew up to the ring above. There was no mechanism or platform to support them.

  No one appeared bothered by this as though it was the most regular of occurrences. Either way, he had reasoned that following the crowds was the best of his options. Without his own hologram to manipulate, he had worried about simply falling through the gap. That was when he spotted two different species wearing the same uniform in red and black with a rifle each. One of them was the same as the race that attacked Alpha, the other looked somewhere between an alien and a robot.

  Seeing them gave him cause for action. Moving with the crowd again he stepped off the edge and made the mistake of looking down. The drop was incalculably far; he could see the corresponding gap on the ring below, between the people passing through them. Instead of dropping through he had immediately begun to rise into the air. He moved his arms about as if testing the surrounding air.

  He wasn’t sure if the people around him could hear him through his helmet but he didn’t let that stop him from swearing the whole way. He quickly passed through the gap above and then another six gaps after that. He knew when it was coming to a stop as the momentum slowed when he reached the designated level. He followed suit and simply stepped off. It was this peculiar mode of transport that brought him before the spiralling tower of glass.

  There was nothing else on this level except for the colossal stadium and the glass tower that sat on top of it. He had seen superstructures built on a variety of planets and moons, but he couldn’t help but wonder at the engineering required to keep such an immense building suspended in the air, with only one bridge attaching it to the exterior wall.

  He followed the masses across the beautifully decorated bridge lined with ornate water fountains and small red trees. He had no idea what was going on but he needed information and he needed to blend in. The crowd moved as one, jostling Roland towards the left-hand side of the bridge. He followed their gaze to a distant yellow vehicle floating down to their level and heading around the stadium. He continued to watch as it approached, curious himself as to the intrigue everyone else had.

  Without his helmet, it would have been easy to see his jaw dropping at the sight of two humans sitting in the back of the vehicle. He didn’t recognise either of them but that didn’t mean anything; on Alpha, he had seen a new person every day for six months.

  What were they up to? Why had two humans been taken from the ship and brought here? If they were here to represent them, shouldn’t it be Captain Fey? Or perhaps
it was something more sinister. What if they were being brought out to bait him?

  More encouraged to find answers, he started to push his way through to the entrance taking advantage of everyone’s gawping. By his internal clock, he knew it had been thirty-two minutes before he finally sat down inside the stadium. Much to his annoyance, he had been unarmed on his way through the entrance by a floating robot, coated in scanning equipment. Dozens of them had been scanning people as they passed with green lasers running up and down multiple individuals at once. Upon detection, the laser turned red and several armaments shot out from within the robot’s carapace. Guessing its problem with him he moved his coat aside revealing the stolen weapon. The gun was removed and placed inside a container on the wall. He had no idea what instructions it gave him but he decided to just nod and move on.

  Now in his seat, he counted only eight rows of seats in front of him before a triangular arena was visible. What was this place? He thought the proportions wrong for such a small arena and such expansive seating. It took a moment before he realised that despite the increasing number of people, nobody was making a sound. This would never happen on Earth, humans were just too noisy.

  The next five minutes was a lot to take in. The two humans were escorted in by the weirdest looking alien yet, and that was saying something. He decided he liked the redhead, though. Soon after, five very different aliens ascended from somewhere within the podium that towered over the humans.

  Was this some kind of trial? His sensory reflexes automatically clocked the fourteen guards that lined the triangular arena on a raised platform. He wasn’t consciously aware yet that he was already planning his attack. Whatever his new agenda he couldn’t help but feel a pang of responsibility towards those he had left aboard the alien ship. This was why he preferred his old work, no attachments or need to engage a conscience. He decided his best course of action would be to free these two and find a better way of getting the others back.

  What I wouldn’t do for just a sniff of whiskey.

  How long had he watched her sleep? How many years had he stood over her wondering what could have been? But that life was gone now, robbed from him with any chance of happiness. He regretted using her to power and subsume the ship that had ultimately become their home. He had spent more time on their long journey coming to terms with the way he used her than he had anything else. Every time he reasoned it in his mind he would look at her and the conflict would resume. The truth was that any one of his crew including himself could take her place. The fact was undeniable, however, that she needed the ship as much as the ship needed her.

  During their journey, the crew had spent thousands of years at a time in suspended animation in the Rem-stores, while the ship searched for the appropriate life. While they slept the ship would still need its power source as well as the intelligence to govern its prime objective. Without the Harness, she was truly the only one who could generate the necessary power. He couldn’t help but wonder how much she was really aware of. He was aware of the minor glitches Elandar had been trying to eradicate. Random words and unfinished sentences would appear in holographic form above her. Elandar had reassured him that it could not be her; she was firmly situated inside the virtuality. He ran his fingers over the dark tube that ran directly from the floor into various sections of her body. He only wanted to see her eyes again, to see her open them of her own volition.

  “What does she dream of, Elandar?” He didn’t need to look to know Elandar was watching him very closely.

  He had tasked him countless centuries ago with the care of their pilot. He monitored her vitals and nutrient uptake as well as the energy output she poured into the ship. He maintained the precise levels required to keep the equilibrium between her needs and the ship’s needs. He knew that interacting with the tubes would put Elandar on edge. He was a true brother of the cause as well as a friend.

  “I created a virtual world for her to live in and explore.” He ran his fingers across an adjacent hologram checking her heart rate. “You’re there, as well as...” Elandar didn’t finish his sentence.

  It had been a long time since either of them had said that particular name. Elandar knew that name above all others would fuel his leader’s rage.

  The cerebral link attached to the back of his neck informed him they were dropping out of the slip-stream. Feeding his thoughts back through the link, the command module began to transform. To their eyes, it appeared as though the entire front half of the module was breaking away to the vacuum of space. He knew it wasn’t of course, the giant hologram created the image that would be seen, had there not been over a mile of bulkhead between them. The clarity was perfect, however, giving most cause for hesitation before walking around.

  This wasn’t the first time he had looked upon the broken world of the Conclave’s capital planet. He marvelled for a moment at their technological feat at manipulating the planet, for primitives anyway. His own people had the power to manipulate and transform entire star systems with multitudes of planets. Their first encounter with this collective had been thousands of years ago after the ship had detected their transmissions across the cosmos. They had nothing the ship couldn’t provide and a cursory scan of their AI showed no homo sapiens in their society.

  The ship had automatically entered stealth mode before emerging into real space. The hologram highlighted specific ships in the distance that would retaliate if attacked; their armaments were impressive but not threatening. He sent a silent command, searching for the Novaarian ship that contained his prey. The pilot found it in less than a second and magnified the hologram until it was visible on the outer reaches beyond one of the broken moons. It was surrounded by three red warships that had formed a barrier blocking its advance. After another command, he was quickly informed that there were no humans on board.

  “Where are you hiding?”

  The pilot responded to his needs by emitting a system-wide scan in one neutrino burst. As always, her mind was able to collate the information in just over a second before filtering for the required information. As a result, the hologram removed the Novaarian ship and focused on the central tower in the middle of the planet. A side note appeared in his mind informing him it was called; Clave Tower. The clarity of the image shifted to a more digital one as the tower became transparent revealing its many layers. In the centre ring were two small red dots that pulsed with life.

  Found you...

  Before he could give his next command the pilot sent him a message. The hologram moved to the left, making it appear as though the ship was changing course. A magnification presented them with the image of another ship that had two large engines on each side. Another side note appeared telling him it was Laronian in origin. Before he could ask its relevance, the ship took on the same digital appearance as the tower. The ship’s outline was instantly blurred by the thousands of red dots pulsating from within.

  He couldn’t help but laugh at his fortune. He looked to Elandar who only appeared confused at the sound of his master’s glee, or perhaps it was that he had forgotten the sound of laughter.

  “Our alien friends have saved us some travelling.”

  He sent a message through his link to the rest of his crew informing them of everything he knew. He felt their elation in response. In his mind’s eye, he saw another message waiting for him from the pilot. He accessed it commanding the hologram to show him the details. There was a strong signal coming from one of the buildings in close proximity to the tower. The signal was being emitted on all channels and impossible to miss even with the most primitive of technology. It was a beacon. He understood instantly what they were doing; they were calling to all the stray humans that might have survived his attacks. He silently informed his crew of the development and commanded that they leave the building intact to continue its message.

  “Let’s announce ourselves properly, shall we?”

  Through his link, he brought up the schematics for one of the red warships not far off
their bow. He couldn’t quite believe the data in front of him. Were they really stupid enough to put a star inside the heart of their ships? He couldn’t help but smile at his own thoughts. He gave the pilot the mental image of what he wanted, as well as informing the crew of what was about to happen. The hologram showed the ships advancement as they gathered speed towards the warship.

  “What about the others on the Laronian ship?” Elandar asked.

  He sent him the image through his link of what he wanted Elandar to do once they had begun their attack on the tower. Elandar simply nodded and returned to monitoring the pilot. He looked at the sleeping pilot again, hiding the concern he felt. He was afraid this next manoeuvre might cause her some stress.

  Leaving Elandar to his tasks he left the command module having instructed the pilot with his needs. The new joining room was bare except for the reclining chair in the middle. He relaxed into it as a liquid-like hologram appeared above the armrest. He called up the relevant language and selected it for instalment. The ceiling parted into eight sections revealing a machine that resembled the barrel of a cannon.

  The machine descended until it rested above his seat, rotating the cannon to face him. Several extensions parted from the main structure, with each piece coming back together to form a mask that covered his neck and head. A language as simple as this would only take a minute to fully download and comprehend. After it was finished he left the room and returned to the command module, testing his new words as he did.