The prospect of fighting the Deathlords again did not sit well with Jack.
“There are so many!” said Jack. “How will we be able to fight through them?”
“I’ll clear a path,” said Shepherd. “But the longer we wait, the harder it will be. Get the Princess… NOW.”
Shepherd recalled his quad-cannons and opened a hole in his shield wall, through which he began to fire at the oncoming Deathlords.
Jack got to his feet and ran down the path toward the temple. He gripped his blaster pistol tightly, the weapon being the only thing that gave him some measure of security in this crazy situation he now found himself in.
As he got closer to the entrance of the temple, he could see Anna and Green nearby. Anna had her back to him, standing before some type of stone kiosk. Green was at her side, looking at a small device in his hands.
“Anna!” yelled Jack. “Professor! We gotta go!”
Professor Green looked up as Jack approached, smiling like nothing was going on. “Ah, Jack!” he said cheerily. “How goes the battle?”
“Not freakin’ good,” said Jack as he came to a stop at the Professor’s side. “Shepherd says we need to get outta here, and I totally agree.”
“Oh, bother,” said Green, furrowing his brow. “That could be a problem…”
“What? Why?” asked Jack.
Green nodded toward Anna. Jack looked and saw her standing before a glowing white orb hovering above the small stone kiosk. Her hands were resting on the orb, her eyes open – white and utterly without pupils.
“The Princess is interacting with the Ancient construct,” said Green. “She’s been trying to unlock the temple. If we were to interrupt her communication with the Ancient device, the sudden disconnect could harm her.”
Anna stood motionless, as if not able to hear them. Jack looked from her to Green and back. He had no idea what the Professor had just said, but whatever it was, it didn’t sound terribly convenient.
Jack looked at the small device the Professor held in his hand.
“Well, can’t you disconnect her?” Jack asked. “What’s that thing do?”
“The Princess is communing with the Ancient interface of this temple,” explained Green. “We’ve been working for the better part of a year to try to decipher the lock on it, with no success. She was hoping that with a program I had written to interact with the temple’s database, I might be able to help her figure out the key to unlocking it, but so far we have found no trigger with which to do so. This connection is just a way for me to monitor the progress of the program.”
Jack glanced back and saw Shepherd firing away at the ever- encroaching Deathlords. There was a purple flash in the distance, heralding the arrival of even more bad guys.
“Professor, we don’t have time for this, we gotta go…” said Jack urgently.
Green scrunched up his face like he was thinking through a physics problem. “Well,” he said thoughtfully. “Normally only the Princess can decide when to sever the connection with Ancient technology; however, we might be able to close down the connection by attempting to interface with the access orb ourselves.”
“Great,” said Jack eagerly. “Let’s do that…”
“Hold on a moment!” said Green. “Normally, it would be safe to interact with the Ancient terminal because only those with royal blood are able to interface with them, but I don’t know what would happen if you were to try and interrupt the flow of one that’s currently in use.”
“Will it kill me?” asked Jack.
“Well, no, I don’t think so…” replied Green.
“Will they?” asked Jack, pointing to the Deathlords.
Green pondered the oncoming alien army for a moment. “Most likely, yes,” he said.
“Sounds safe to me,” said Jack. And before Green could speak again, Jack slapped his hand on the glowing orb.
No sooner had Jack placed his hand on the orb than his muscles tensed up, like an electrical current was running through him. Suddenly, he was aware of every part of his body – his organs, his bones, even his blood cells – as though every part of him was conscious of itself.
A barrage of images flashed before his eyes. Strange numbers, letters, and diagrams seemed to sear themselves into his brain at an alarming rate. As they flashed by, Jack was able to make sense of them, but as new information would come his way, he’d quickly forget whatever it was he’d just seen. Before long, the deluge of information became jumbled, and Jack lost all sense of understanding.
Sounds worked their way in. He heard a million different voices whispering to him, saying all types of things he couldn’t comprehend. Sometimes they would suddenly switch to English, and then back to bizarre languages. And when he could understand what was being said, none of it made any sense.
Then, all the voices began to converge, talking in unison, just as the images flashing before him began to assemble together, forming into a mosaic of epic proportions. The pictures became a solid sphere, rays of light shining from behind it, and in that sphere floated a single, solitary eye that looked at Jack as though it were able to see into his very soul.
In one voice, the chorus in his head sang:
“Eldil Meldilorn.”
Suddenly, all sensation dissipated, and Jack’s vision came into focus on a very surprised looking Anna.
“Jack?” she said.
Jack gazed at her dumbly. His body shivered, and he realized his legs were completely numb just before he collapsed onto the ground.
In moments, Anna and Green were at his side. Anna had him in her arms and Green was opening Jack’s eyes wide with his fingers to check his vital signs.
“Jack, can you hear me?” asked Green.
“What… just… happened?” asked Jack, his head splitting with the mother of all headaches.
“Well, I’ll be darned,” mused Green. “It worked!”
“What worked?” asked Anna. “What did you do?”
“Jack interrupted the flow of data from the access orb so we could safely disconnect you,” said Green happily.
“No, he didn’t,” said Anna.
Green raised an eyebrow. “He didn’t?”
“No!” she replied. “I came out myself after I noticed a sudden shift in the flow of data from the terminal.”
“Wait a minute…” said Green excitedly. “Are you telling me Jack actually interfaced with the orb?”
“I did what now?” asked Jack, feeling starting to return to his body.
“The shift in the flow of data,” said Anna to herself. “That would mean… he unlocked it!”
Anna and Green shared an amazed glance then turned to Jack in unison.
“Jack,” said Anna, “What did you see?”
“I don’t know,” said Jack. “There was so much…”
“Think!” insisted Anna. “Can you remember anything? Anything at all?”
Jack shook his head and said the only thing his over-taxed brain could remember:
“Eldil Meldilorn?”
Suddenly, there was a low rumble. The group turned toward the entrance to the temple. The door before them was slowly sliding open. Jack noticed a symbol on the archway above the door – an orb within an orb. It looked almost exactly like the powerful eye he had seen in his vision.
“Great Scott…” mumbled Green.
Jack could feel Anna gripping his shoulder. He looked up to see her smiling.
“You did it…” she said, as if she were talking to herself. “I was right. There was a connection! To think, after all this time, it just required an Earthman…”
Then, a volley of blaster fire streaked above their heads, interrupting their moment of success. They turned and saw Shepherd a few feet away, still firing through his shield wall at an army of Deathlord soldiers marching relentlessly their way.
“Inside!” Shepherd yelled. “Go! NOW!”
Anna and Green helped Jack to his feet. His legs still felt a little rubbery, but nowhere nearly as bad
as before. The three rushed inside the temple. By the entrance there was a small panel. Anna tried making contact with it, but nothing happened. She pulled Jack to her.
“Jack, touch this panel,” she said.
Jack did as he was told. The panel lit up in response.
“Fascinating,” mused Green, as he watched.
“Now, close the door,” said Anna.
“How?” asked Jack.
“Just think about the door closing,” she said.
Jack remembered what the door looked like when it opened, and tried to picture it going in reverse. With a creak and a moan, the massive door began to move.
“Shepherd!” yelled Anna.
Outside the temple, Shepherd turned to see the door closing. The Deathlord soldiers were almost upon him. Taking his cue, Shepherd forced the shield wall in front of him forward toward his assailants. The shield thrust itself into the front line of the encroaching invaders with powerful velocity, crashing into them like a speeding truck and sending them flying into those behind them, knocking the Dark Soldiers asunder like bowling pins, before dissipating.
Shepherd turned and made a run for the temple door, scattered volleys of Deathlord plasma-fire following him. Most of the shots went wide, but a few found their mark, only to be absorbed by his armor.
The Paragon leapt for the door and dove in. He turned on the ground and let loose a few bolts from his arm cannons to slow down the Deathlords one last time before the door completely shut, plunging the group into the darkness of the temple.
Chapter 14
A small sphere of light flared up in the palm of Shepherd’s hand. He was standing now, and the light of the orb cast enough illumination for the group to see each other.
“Is everyone all right?” asked Shepherd, his voice cold and robotic from behind his helmet.
“We’re fine,” Anna answered. “Are you okay?”
The front part of Shepherd’s helmet retracted, revealing his face. He wasn’t even breathing hard.
“I’m unharmed,” he replied, “but we’re not safe for long. The Deathlords will no doubt be planning to blast down the door soon.”
Jack rolled his eyes, “You gotta be kidding me,” he whined. “These Ancient dudes can build a temple in the core of a planet but not a door that can’t be blown up?”
Shepherd glared at Jack. “Nothing stands for long against the Deathlords, boy,” he said. “I should think you’d have learned that a few minutes ago.”
Jack had a brief flashback to the Deathlord that almost killed him, pulling itself back together from nothing, and felt a pang of fear creep back into his gut.
“The good news is that they won’t be able to break through it very easily, so we have some time,” said Anna. “If we can find the artifact, maybe we can use it against them.”
“If the artifact is indeed the weapon you hope it is,” said Shepherd. “If not, we’ve just backed ourselves into a corner.”
“Listen, I know I’m a little late to the party here,” interrupted Jack. “But would someone PLEASE explain to me what the heck is goin’ on? What weapon? What are those Deathlord things? Who are you people?”
The group turned to Jack. He met Anna’s gaze, her image beautifully haunting in the low light emanating from Shepherd’s glowing sphere.
“In case you haven’t figured out by now, Jack,” said Anna softly, “we’re not from Earth.”
“Yeah, the magical suit of awesome-armor kind of gave that away,” said Jack.
“Princess,” interjected Shepherd. “We don’t have time for this.”
“Then I’ll be quick,” she replied. “He’s earned some answers.”
Anna turned her attention back to Jack. “My real name is Princess Glorianna of the planet Regalus Prime, blood heir to the throne of the Galactic Regalus Empire. This is my protector, Paragon Shepherd.”
“So he’s not really your dad?” asked Jack.
“I’m a Paragon,” said Shepherd. “A disciple of the free mind, one sworn to the service of the royal bloodline.”
“But you guys totally don’t look like aliens,” Jack said. “You look human.”
“Ah! Well, that would be because of our hologuises,” said Green. He then reached out his arm and tapped a few keys on his calculator wristwatch. Suddenly, the shell of what was Professor Green faded away, and what was left in its place was something… well, very different.
It actually still somewhat resembled the Professor. It was wearing his same goofy clothes, had the same long neck, lanky arms, and shock of white hair. Its skin, however, was a scaly green, and its head was large and flat, much like a turtle’s, but with big brown eyes that stuck out the side of its head. It had a wide, toothy grin and a tuft of bristly white hair jutting from its chin.
There were many ways Jack could have reacted to his Physics teacher morphing into a mutant man-turtle before his eyes, but he just blinked solemnly and looked at Anna.
“Um… do you look like that, too?” he asked as diplomatically as he could.
Anna smiled. She tapped a petite gold bracelet on her wrist, and there was a fading of her image around her as well. But instead of turning into a green alien thing, she looked very much the same. In fact, she actually looked better than she did before. Her eyes were a more brilliant blue; her golden hair seemed to shimmer; her skin appeared smooth, soft, and perfect. And other than the fact that her ears were slightly pointy, she was still pretty much the same girl Jack had always known.
“Professor Green is part of a race of beings known as the Trundel. Paragon Shepherd and I are of a race that is descended from the Ancients who built this place,” explained Anna. “Earthlings and Regals actually aren’t that different, it turns out. When the Professor first came across your planet in his travels, he believed that Earth was some sort of far removed Ancient colony, and that your species evolved from them much like ours did.”
“You can imagine my surprise when I came across your planet,” said Green. “This area of the galaxy had long been thought to be devoid of life. I only came out here in search of a possible location for a Great Seal I’d found referenced in some recently uncovered Ancient ruins. But instead, I found you!”
“Great Seal?” asked Jack.
“Yes, an area of Ancient technology which is an expertise of mine,” replied Green, not bothering to clarify. “I didn’t find the seal, but the presence of your species did intrigue me. It wasn’t until I began my research into your people that I found you evolved naturally from this planet. Which was quite shocking, considering your similarities to Ancient DNA. But once I discovered the portgate to the Ancient temple in your town, everything began to make sense.”
“Please,” said Jack. “I’ll take anything that makes sense right now.”
“Well,” said Green. “You have a foundation of Ancient technology at the very core of your planet! It stands to reason that the things that grew from this planet were influenced by it in some way. If my estimations of the age of this temple are correct, its creation coincides with a period where your species was transitioning to behavioral modernity with the development of symbolic culture, language, and specialized lithic technology.”
Jack had no idea what that meant.
“The temple made cavemen evolve into what you are today,” said Green plainly.
“Ah,” said Jack, finally getting it. “But I thought you said this place was a weapon?”
“We hope it houses a weapon,” clarified Anna. “I’ve spent years searching the galaxy looking for Ancient Artifacts, hoping to find something to aid us in our fight. The Deathlords are a powerful force that has been devastating our galaxy. Their technology is… well, it’s more advanced than anything we’ve ever seen, next to the Ancients.”
“Every attempt to fight the Deathlords has either failed or been won at too great a cost,” said Shepherd. “They cannot be killed.”
“But you were shooting them,” said Jack. “They were exploding! I saw.”
; “We don’t know much about Deathlord anatomy,” said Green. “But they’re not flesh and blood. They don’t exist or perish in the same way we do. Best we can theorize is that they are made up of some type of nanotechnology beyond any known application.”
“Uh… nanotechnology?” asked Jack.
“Microscopic robots,” clarified Green. “Tiny machines that come together to form a solid mass. We theorize that each Deathlord is made up of trillions and trillions of them, unified by a central energy source which serves as the primary consciousness for the Deathlord it forms.”
“Some Deathlords have a stronger energy source than others,” said Shepherd, “as you saw with the one who was able to reform himself. Most Deathlords are mindless drones with weak energy sources. They can be dispatched by disrupting that source with a more powerful energy, like plasma blasts or some type of electrical weaponry.”
“That’s why the Dark Soldiers you’ve seen aren’t very bright,” said Anna. “They have the weakest energy source and, therefore, the least amount of self-awareness.”
“But that’s also why they’re so formidable,” said Shepherd. “They do exactly as they’re told. They cannot feel pain, grow tired, or experience fear. Wave after wave can be sent to be destroyed, and they just come right back.”
“How?” asked Jack. “Do they all re-form like that ugly one did?”
“No,” said Green. “We believe the Deathlords are able to simply construct as many bodies as necessary.”
“So, in essence, you’re saying they’re basically killer robots?” said Jack.
“Oh, were that the case!” said Green. “If they were robotic, it would be a simple matter of using electro-magnetic pulses to defeat them by shutting down their power source!”
“Yeah,” muttered Jack, wondering what exactly an electro-magnetic pulse was. “Simple.”
“You can never really destroy energy, you see,” said Green. “So even though their bodies are destroyed, the core of the Deathlord survives. It could very well be the case that the new Deathlords are constructed with the same consciousness as the ones that were defeated.”
“Resurrection,” said Anna. “An army that never dies.”
Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet Page 13
