“Understood. Carry on.” Jed trusted the Martian to have everything in order by the deadline for launch.
Sam pointed at the Datapad in Jed’s hands. “One hundred thousand souls and six grumpy Raiders accounted for.”
Jed chuckled to himself. “How are they holding up? They’ve only been on board for a day.”
“They’re like six caged animals who want something to hunt. It’s going to take a few days to reach Century and, as far as they’re concerned, there’s going to be nothing to do.” Sam sounded as if she agreed with their way of thinking.
“I’ll talk to them after we hit sub-space,” Jed replied seriously. The last thing he wanted was six highly trained UDC killers getting bored on his ship. “The Corporate War only ended a couple of years ago. There’s every chance the separatists have got people on board if they’re not on Century already. They need to be here.”
Sam shifted her feet on the bulkhead. “The gravity feels a little light.” The commander turned to ensign Markovich, who was standing in front of a glass wall, streaming with readouts. “Marko, check the grav enforcers.”
The ensign acknowledged and retasked his Glass Board.
Jed smiled. “What would I do without you?”
“Float away…” Sam emulated her captain’s smile.
Over the next hour, Captain Holt sat in the middle of the bridge and listened to his crew converse. It was their level of tension that would tell him if anything was wrong with the Paladin. He knew that the sensor dish had taken a knock before they left space dock, but Ensign Sato was working to correct the issue, ensuring their communications were up to scratch. Engineering had already reported that the Solar Drive’s systems were at optimal levels for the distance of their jump. They were almost ready to leave the solar system.
Jed checked the countdown on the screen built into his armrest. They were due to depart in six minutes.
“Commander Vale.” Jed waited for Sam to turn around at her station. “Are we systems go?”
Sam checked her monitor. “The Hub has given us a green light for departure, Captain. All systems are ready for the jump. Communications is still a little iffy, but we can transmit data.”
Jed half-swivelled his chair to face Maloy. “Helmsman Maloy. I trust the problem with our navigation array has been seen to. I would very much like to arrive in Century’s orbit rather than headfirst into a moon….”
The levity eased the bridge crew before they left reality behind. There had never been a problem with using sub-space before, but the idea of slipping into the space between spaces was still a scary thought.
Helmsman Maloy hesitated, looking over his monitor. “Our engineers have looked into it Captain and found no problems on the array’s end. They concluded that it must be a malfunction on our end. It’s most likely just my monitor, sir.”
Jed didn’t like it. He looked at the countdown again. “Commander Vale…”
No specific order was given, nor was it required. Sam’s hands danced across her monitor until she had the required information. “I have the same error code, Captain.”
Jed gave a heavy sigh and puffed out his chest, chewing over the information. They would be pissing off a lot of people if they delayed their departure. But it was his ship, his command. The Paladin wouldn’t move an inch without his say so.
Sam offered, “If the array itself is functioning, then it’s most likely a faulty connection to the bridge terminals.”
Jed mulled it over with his chin resting on his hand. Every face on the bridge was looking to him, waiting for his command. “Can you still plot a course to Century?” Jed directed his question to Maloy.
The helmsman keyed in a few commands before turning back. “Course laid in, Captain.”
Jed sucked in a breath and looked at Sam, who nodded her approval. “Okay.” He raised his voice to be heard by everyone. “Commander Vale, alert our passengers and the crew of our imminent departure. Helmsman Maloy,” Jed flicked his finger across the screen in his chair and sent the countdown to Maloy’s station, “when you see zero, you have my permission to launch.”
The bridge was a flurry of activity, but all measured and controlled. They were a fine crew, the best he could find. Jed spent the next minute going through his usual, physical routine of rolling his head and cracking his neck. He knew it was pointless since he wouldn’t feel anything when the Solar Drive was activated, but habits were habits.
The countdown hit zero and Helmsman Maloy used the physical lever to activate the jump to sub-space. A low rumble rippled through the ship, but it didn’t feel right to the captain. Before he could give any orders, the lights flickered and the monitors were overlaid with a single message, displaying an error code.
“What’s wrong?” His question was drowned out by the first claxon of an alarm, signalling the emergency diversion of power.
Jed hit the override tab on his armrest and shut the alarm down. His crew was busy at their stations trying to understand the nature of the malfunction. He let them work for a moment before reiterating his question.
“The Solar Drive is still charging!” Ensign Sato reported from behind his glass board.
“What? Why is it still charging?” Captain Holt asked immediately.
“Oh no…” Helmsman Maloy’s quiet voice carried across the bridge.
“Helm, report,” Commander Vale ordered.
“The drive is still charging because it thinks the journey is further away than Century,” Maloy explained, his eyes fixed on his monitor. “The navigation array has plotted a course into deep space, somewhere outside... this arm of the galaxy.”
“Shut down the drive, NOW!” Jed ordered. If the Paladin was shot into deep space, they would travel beyond the point of no return. The ship only had enough solarcite to get them to Century, where they were expected to refuel for the journey back.
There was another flurry of activity across the bridge, all the while the Paladin continued to rumble. Jed looked at Sam, whose grave expression told him everything.
“The drive is non-responsive, Captain…” Maloy’s fingers jabbed at every available space on his monitor.
Sam swivelled back to her screen. “Sending a mayday to The Hub now.”
“I thought the course was laid in, Maloy.” Jed was already trying to contact engineering via the comlink in his chair.
“It was sir, I don’t… When the Solar Drive came online it must have affected the array or…” Maloy groaned in frustration. “I’m completely locked out!”
Jed didn’t have time to pressure the helmsman for answers. Only engineering could help them now. They needed to perform a manual shutdown before the drive threw them into uncharted space.
“Sir…” The voice that came over the comlink wasn’t his chief engineer. “This is acting-chief Grenko. Chief Horlish is… dead.”
The loss of his chief engineer stung, but Jed didn’t have time to mourn now. “What’s going on down there, Grenko?”
“The Chief tried to manually shut down the drive, sir. It overloaded the bulkhead manifold and exploded.”
“Jed…” Sam’s familiar use of his name drew his attention. “The drive is fully charged.”
Captain Holt looked ahead as the rumbling reached its crescendo. The Paladin lurched forward and the stars stretched around the viewport, leaving nothing but the dark, empty abyss of sub-space.
1
Kalian stood in a corridor that he had never been in, looking at a door he had never seen in person before. The foreboding door was circular and constructed entirely from exotic minerals that made it the perfect protection for the cube, parading as the Conclave AI. Reaching out, he placed one hand on the cool metal and pushed his Terran senses beyond the confines of the corridor.
She was inside…
Kalian’s senses easily detected the nanocelium that made up the cube on the other side of the thick door. Its menacing presence responded to his extra-sensing touch with what felt like laughter. Kalian hamm
ered his fist into the vault door with frustration, but it made no mark. The cube knew as well as he did that everything inside that room was about to be vapourised.
Li’ara was about to die.
With both hands outstretched, Kalian reached out with his Terran abilities and pulled on the door with telekinesis. The exotic metal strained and groaned, but it barely moved an inch. It was exhausting. Kalian screamed in anger and went back to hammering the door. His senses detected Li’ara’s heartbeat increasing as the realisation of death set in. It was a feeling he wanted to spare her from, but he was helpless to intervene.
“You can’t save me…” Li’ara’s voice came from behind him.
Kalian turned around and saw the face of the woman he loved. Her startling green eyes and copper ringlets made her pale skin appear all the more beautiful. Now her features were sullen. Li’ara looked at Kalian with an expression of regret, but also of disappointment.
“You can’t save me…” Li’ara whispered, her hand cupping his cheek.
“You can’t save any of us.” Disturbingly, Esabelle was now standing behind Li’ara, her face bruised and bloodied.
Kalian felt tears run down his face when Malekk stepped out of the shadows and wrapped his arms around his mentor’s slender neck. Without pause, the infected Terran snapped Esabelle’s neck with ease. Malekk smiled and strode towards Kalian and Li’ara, who had yet to turn away from Kalian as if none of this was happening. Malekk closed his fingers slowly around Li’ara’s chin and head, all the while watching Kalian.
“NO!” Kalian was frozen in place, unable to move.
Malekk snapped Li’ara’s neck and discarded her like garbage. “We are coming,” the infected Terran hissed. “We are hungry…” Malekk’s hand reached out towards Kalian’s face, blocking out the light.
Kalian shot up in bed, covered in a layer of sweat. He always woke up at the same point. For three months he had been haunted by the same nightmare. Sitting on the edge of his bed, Kalian took a deep breath and focused his mind. Every molecule of sweat slowly lifted from his body as if he were in a vacuum. In moments his skin was dry and the sweat began to evaporate into the air around him.
The desk beside his bed was covered in sheets of paper - some of which had been scrunched into a ball. The drawn image of Li’ara looked back at him, just as he remembered her. His ability to sketch near-perfect images of anything he had seen was new, and apparently a result of his developing Terran memory. Reaching out with a lazy hand, Kalian scrunched up the picture and threw it across the room. When he looked back at the desk, all that remained were the pages full of question marks. He looked at the word Evalan, surrounded by questioning symbols. The word had been engraved in Terran across the cube found by Savrick and the cube found at Trantax IV. The word and its meaning were just one of many mysteries surrounding Kalian’s life right now.
“Your finer control is getting better every day.” ALF was standing in the darkened corner of the room.
Kalian didn’t look shocked, but he rolled his eyes. “How long have you been lurking there?”
“Still room for improvement I see…” The black Terran armour walked out of the shadows. To the casual observer, it would have appeared Kalian was inside, covered from head-to-toe in the nanocelium.
Kalian knew it was hollow, though. Like me, he thought.
“I thought you were overseeing the final stages of the Starforge’s construction.” Kalian stood up without any clothes on and ran his hand through his hair. It would be another hour or so before the images from his nightmare left him alone.
“It’s finished,” ALF announced, his armoured head glancing out the window.
Kalian turned to the vista of stars, beyond the Sentinel, and altered the structure of his eyes to see further than any human could dream. With the backdrop of a distant moon - used as a base for the construction - Kalian could see the crescent moon shape of the Starforge. It was much smaller than the one made by Protocorps, in keeping with the original Terran design. The Starforge in the Helteron Cluster had been designed for something far more sinister and larger. Unravelling that mystery was the whole reason for constructing this new Starforge.
“I returned to the Sentinel when they started bothering me about the nanocelium again.” ALF sounded bored. “They are unaccepting of the fact that it will never respond to anything but Terran or human DNA.”
Kalian generally tried to avoid conversations with the AI, since he trusted him less and less, but he wanted to think about anything else other than his nightmare. “Can you blame them? Nanocelium could revolutionise their entire culture. It can heal humans from almost anything - who knows what it means for their lifespan.”
ALF looked at Kalian with his blank faceplate. “Their lifespan?”
Kalian had heard it too.
“More and more you refer to humans as something apart from you,” ALF observed. “I thought Esabelle taught you not to forget that; that your humanity could be what made you stronger than any Terran?”
“Well Esabelle’s not here,” Kalian quickly replied, never turning from the window.
“Your isolation on this ship has not been good for your mental health,” ALF commented for the hundredth time. “For three months you’ve had no contact with any of your own kind. You barely even speak to any of the crew. I know losing-”
“Don’t,” Kalian interrupted.
ALF emulated a sigh. “What’s left of humanity requires a leader, Kalian. They have Captain Fey for now, but it’s not who they need. You stand for everything they’re going to become. Their evolution is inevitable.”
“How is the Captain?” Kalian changed the subject, but he was interested… to a degree.
“Captain Fey sent a message in the night. She wishes you well on your mission and regrets that she can’t be here to see you off.”
Kalian leaned on the window ledge with both hands and watched the smaller vessels return from the Starforge. New supplies and work crews were swapped out of the base on the distant moon regularly.
“Fey’s where she needs to be,” Kalian commented absently. “That floating habitat won’t keep itself in order.”
The artificial habitat, that now housed the remaining seven thousand human beings, was orbiting the Raalak’s homeworld, Arakesh. Kalian had only visited it briefly before leaving with the Sentinel. He was glad the Highclave had seen fit to move them from the orbiting rings around Ch’ket. The new habitat was far more peaceful and accommodating, having been retrofitted with humans in mind.
“I’m afraid it will have to,” ALF said with concern. “Captain Fey’s transmission came from the Nautallon. She’s with High Charge Uthor, responding to a broadcast outside Conclave territory - believed to be human in origin. They believe another ship made it out of your solar system before the Gomar arrived. Personally, I feel it’s a waste of resources. If any human vessel made it out of the system before the Nova, the crew will be dead from dehydration by now.”
Kalian turned back to the Terran armour. “Always looking on the bright side…”
As if reading his mind, ALF walked into Kalian and molded the armour around his naked body, leaving only his head and hands uncovered. Thousands of microscopic nanocelium wormed their way up from the fitted, high collar and nestled behind Kalian’s ear, engulfing the Novaarian translator that was permanently attached to his skin. Through this, ALF could talk to him without anyone else listening in - just the way the secretive AI liked it.
“Has there been any progress tracking Malekk?” Kalian didn’t enjoy thinking about the twisted Terran, but he often thought of nothing but killing him.
“While confined to the armour alone I am unable to access any Conclave systems.”
“It’s like they don’t trust you or something…” Kalian made for the door.
Ignoring his comment, ALF continued, “But I have spoken directly with Charge Ilo between my jaunts to the Starforge. She tells me there have been no sightings of him since he fled the
Helteron Cluster. I predict that Protocorps is hiding him somewhere. Despite the numerous investigations they still have considerable influence and no end of resources. Malekk could be anywhere.”
The idea of the infected Terran moving around the galaxy unchecked disturbed Kalian. Malekk had stated that he was working on behalf of something called the Vanguard. Whatever this person or creature was, it could be placed at the centre of every attack on homo sapiens in the milky way galaxy. It had seen to the downfall of the Terran and sent a cube millions of lightyears to destroy Earth. The Vanguard appeared to be paving the way for something that had yet to be revealed.
Kalian had become so desperate for these answers that he had volunteered to be the first to travel through the new Conclave Starforge and journey into the heart of the galaxy. Perhaps in the home of the Terran, the true origins of mankind, he might unravel the mystery behind the cubes.
Kalian didn’t look back as he exited the sparse living quarters. Outside his room was the usual four alien guards, though not one of them was there to watch Kalian. Having exhibited his abilities several times in the last nine months, the Conclave knew they could do nothing to stop him. Instead, these guards were tasked with escorting ALF between the Sentinel and the Starforge.
The guards followed closely behind after he exited the quiet area of the ship - largely abandoned by the crew and left to Kalian. The Sentinel was an impressive vessel, the flagship of the Conclave fleet. The Highclave had hoped it could rival the Gommarian and bring an end to the leverage humanity held over them. That was before Malekk had used the Helteron Starforge to obliterate it.
In the spacious Translift, Kalian rested the palm of his hand against the wall and opened his senses to the universe. His Terran brain mapped the ship in seconds, feeding back to him the Sentinel’s strengths and weaknesses. There were tremendous amounts of intrinium onboard, but it wasn’t all located in the starrillium, the ship’s engine. Kalian felt as if he could actually touch the warheads sitting in their torpedo tubes. With a concentrated thought, he was sure he could excite the molecules inside the intrinium and activate the warhead.
The Terran Cycle Boxset Page 94
