by L. J. Suarez
L.J. Suarez
The Uprising
Copyright © 2020 by L.J. Suarez
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Cover art by Tom Edwards Design.
First edition
This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy
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To my parents,
who always believed in me
Contents
Stay Informed
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
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Chapter 1
The Jafner was little more than a tiny speck against the blackness of space as it spun out of control toward Gaia’s atmosphere at hypersonic velocity.
Flashing red warning lights cast a rose-colored flicker inside the Telos Prime colony transport. Damari griped the armrests of his seat until he lost all feeling in his fingers. He braced himself for the terrible fate that surely awaited him and the rest of the Monad passengers aboard the doomed star liner. He watched from his seat with utter dread as the Jafner’s repair nanites attempted to seal the newly formed breach only inches away, exposing the entire main cabin to the vacuum of space. The microscopic machines efforts to repair the damage proved fruitless; pieces of the falling ship’s outer hull continuously broke and bounced off the exposed hull, widening the opening even farther.
The one thing that had saved the lives of Damari and the other remaining passengers were their emergency life support cocoons, which activated the instant the cabin decompressed. Generated from their NanInq implants, the cocoons were a built-in safety mechanism which automatically deployed an artificial atmosphere, enveloping their users within a blue bubble that would shield them from any hazardous environment. Before setting sail on her voyage, the long-range transport’s original crew complement was a dozen passengers, with the pilot and copilot seated in the cockpit module.
Now only half remained.
Three men, a woman, and two children had not been as fortunate as Damari and the others. They were violently sucked out of the ship as soon as the hull was breached, along with all sound. The only noise that existed now was Damari’s own heavy breathing. He saw the look of terror in the eyes of the people he had gotten to know during the trip as they were ripped out through the breached hull while still fastened into their seats. Their desperate cries for help were quickly muted, and now an uncanny quietness presided. The ones who weren’t pulled out of the ship were strapped to their seats. Their bodies were shielded within the cocoons, and they were completely terrified by what was transpiring around them. Damari mourned in silence for the Monads they had lost, even as the ship plummeted toward its inevitable demise.
The nightmare began the moment the Jafner emerged from the Cosmic Tunnel eighty kilometers from Gaia and into the middle of a meteor storm. The pilots clearly hadn’t anticipated this; they had tried to maneuver the ship away from the storm, but it was already too late. The Cosmic Tunnels were a mass transit network that granted interstellar travel. Each tunnel led to dozens of worlds scattered across the galaxy that the Monads had colonized. The tunnels themselves were ring-like structures six kilometers across, generating self-contained, artificial wormholes. Any ship traveling through the tunnel could reach a distant star system in a matter of minutes.
Despite the pilots’ best efforts to navigate through the storm, they were still struck by what seemed like hundreds of meteors of all shapes and sizes. But the ship’s structural integrity had miraculously remained intact. Damari heard through the com link tied from his NI to the cockpit that the copilot was attempting to send out a distress call, but his desperate pleas for help were left unanswered. Ship communication was most likely severed after they entered the meteor storm. Damari was relieved once they had finally cleared the storm. But any shred of hope he held that they’d make it to the home world was shattered the moment one lone meteor tore through the transport’s hull, delivering a final death blow.
Damari and his son Jarzon were on their way to visit family on Gaia, who resided in the city of Nord. His wife Aira would be waiting for them there. Aira. He reminisced about all the wonderful memories they’d shared together back on Telos. Twice the size of Gaia, Damari and Aira had moved to Telos Prime before the ‘Archivist incident.’ The planet was once a frozen world devoid of any lifeforms. Before the Monads colonized it, Damari was part of the engineering team that had successfully terraformed Telos into the tropical haven that existed today. Damari and his family lived on one of the two main continents which made up nearly fifty percent of the planet’s landmass. They frequented the local beach, where he and Jarzon would collect seashells along the shore while Aira prepared snacks. Then they would all sit on the sand together and watch the orange suns set over the horizon. Damari wished he were back there now instead of trapped inside this forsaken vessel of doom. He saw flashes of Aira’s smooth face in his mind’s eye.
I hope to see your face once more, my love.
It was Jarzon’s first time leaving Telos Prime, the only home he had ever known. Damari had told him many stories of their people’s home planet, from where they originated. Jarzon was looking forward to exploring Nord and all it had to offer. Today also marked Jarzon’s eleventh year of birth, which he and his father had intended to celebrate once they arrived at Nord. Damari only wished their circumstances were less dire for such a momentous occasion.
Some of the passengers aboard the Jafner had lost consciousness within their cocoons due to the extreme g-force. Past the gaping hole in the cabin, a
vast star field resembled the tiny pebbles of sand on the beaches of Telos. The gray-ish marble making up Gaia had come into view. Damari telepathically commanded his NI to release a drug through his bloodstream to relieve his severe dizziness as the stars and Gaia all merged together, swirling uncontrollably in a clockwise fashion. As his body sank deeper into his seat from the intense force the ship was enduring, Damari managed to twist his head toward Jarzon, who was fixated on his side window. Visible streaks of bright orange flames began to engulf the transport as it penetrated the atmosphere. More pieces of the transport broke off, immediately igniting into mini-fireballs.
Jarzon turned and stared into his father’s eyes; he had a surprisingly calm demeanor. Damari put on the most reassuring face he could muster and reminded his son to keep breathing by demonstrating the motion of his chest moving up and down. Jarzon repeated the breathing exercise from within his cocoon. For the briefest of moments, Damari had forgotten he was on a ship that was on a path of destruction. All he cared about at that moment was the love he had for his son, giving him an inner peace he had never experienced before.
The sound of rushing air slowly flooded into the cabin, and the stars outside were replaced with misty skies. The Jafner ceased spinning, and their rapid descent appeared to gradually subside as they achieved planetary entry. The ship’s engines gave off a high-pitched whine as they strained against the air current. Could the pilot have regained control? Perhaps hope had not been lost after all.
Jarzon jolted in his seat as the ship rocked, a sudden look of panic breaking his unflappable shell.
“Look at me,” Damari said. “Focus only on my face. It will be alright, everything will be fine. Just…breathe.” Damari used his hand once again to remind Jarzon of the breathing exercise. Jarzon took a breath in through his mouth and slowly released it through his nose a few more times as his father instructed. Damari looked past the pilots toward the cockpit module’s forward window, where he could see the shape of a mountain range and a vast ocean of dark, sandy dunes and rock surrounding it. No structures of any kind were in sight, which could only mean one thing—they were going down in the middle of the Outlands.
The pilot’s frantic voice returned over the com link. “Everyone brace yourselves!”
Those would be the last words Damari would hear from the pilot. A violent rumble soon reverberated throughout the cabin. He whipped his head toward the side window and caught a glimpse of the Jafner’s portside wing colliding with a mountainside, ripping an extensive piece from the rest of the ship. He returned his attention to the cockpit window and watched helplessly as the transport’s nose made contact with the rocky surface. His body rocked forward from the impact, and his world faded to black.
* * *
Smoke filled Damari’s nostrils as he came around, and his body ached as if it had been hit by an asteroid. He coughed up the smoke he’d inhaled and tried to get his bearings. How long had I been unconscious for? Damari wondered. He felt the warmth from the blue bubble of his protective cocoon wrapped around his whole body.
The crash?!
The images of the Jafner falling through Gaia’s atmosphere, then going down over the Outlands, flooded his mind like a wave. Dark smoke encompassed the cabin, along with exposed wires and cables hanging from the ceiling. A large chunk of the ship’s port section was missing, exposing the majority of the cabin to the outside elements. Damari touched his forehead and found a drop of fresh blood on his fingertips. He could feel the nanites from his NI already deployed and healing the wounds across his forehead. Howling winds made their way through the large gap and into what was left of the transport. The cockpit module was also gone, and in its place was a rocky wall which seemed to have forced the ship to a halt.
Damari checked on Jarzon and found him unconscious in his seat. He was relieved to see that his chest was still moving, albeit at a slower pace. The rest of the passengers were accounted for, all seemingly unconscious, or perhaps something far worse. Luckily their protective cocoons were still active even after the crash. Damari wasn’t sure if his mind was playing tricks on him, but he could have sworn he had heard the sounds of footsteps against rocks coming from outside.
He heard it again—this time closer. Damari attempted to get out from his seat, but the restraints had him pinned. Then he saw a shadow moving along the outside of the ship. Perhaps it was a rescue team coming to their aid? That was what Damari hoped. It could also very well be one of the Outlands’ wildlife coming to make a meal out of them. If that was the case, then Damari was unsure how much protection the cocoons would provide from the wrath of the fearsome beasts that roamed these parts.
A bipedal figure dressed in dark gray rags with a matching hood emerged into the cabin through the opening. The stranger hovered over one of the unconscious passengers by the front row and carefully reached out its gloved hand over the surface of the cocoon. It quickly retracted it, most likely unsure whether the energy field would cause it harm.
Damari tried to say something, but some pain and dizziness still persisted. All he could do was watch the figure checking on a few more passengers at the front section of the cabin before going through the various compartments along the side wall and studying their contents. The figure appeared to be over two feet shorter than Damari. A small bag hung over its belt, and a long metal staff was holstered around its back. Judging by the garments and the way it searched every inch of the ship, Damari ascertained that the figure was some kind of scavenger. It moved down the aisle toward him when it realized he was awake. The stranger inched its face close to Damari, stopping only an inch away from the cocoon’s surface. Its eyes were masked with goggles, and the mouth with a thin cloth. It briefly turned to the unconscious Jarzon before turning back to Damari.
“Are you alright?” the stranger said in a female voice.
The accent and language she used took Damari by surprise. Though not totally fluent, Damari had studied the ancient language back on Telos, which was just one of sixty-five hundred in total. What was equally amazing was that the language hadn’t been spoken in decades, and it belonged to only one race that hadn’t been seen since.
“Can you understand me?” she asked.
Damari slowly nodded.
The stranger proceeded to remove the hood as well as the goggles and cloth wrapped around her mouth. Damari was completely taken aback by what he saw next—an unusual face he never imagined he would see in his lifetime.
The mysterious scavenger staring back at him…was human.
Chapter 2
Ava couldn’t quite make out what she’d just seen.
At first she heard what sounded like a loud rumble echoing above her, and looked up to see a large fireball hurtling across the sky surrounded by several other smaller pieces. An explosion soon followed, trembling the ground beneath her feet after the object disappeared over a hill a thousand yards from her position. Ava couldn’t tell if the larger object encircled in flames was a rock or made of metal.
Probably just another meteor, she figured. It wasn’t uncommon for meteors to touch down throughout the Outlands. She’d seen plenty of them while scavenging the old world in hopes of stumbling upon something with any sort of value. She’d also hunted some of the wildlife game that resided within this part of the Outlands using all kinds of tools for the hunt, such as her trusty staff, pocket knife, and even a custom body-grip trap she’d concocted herself. Ava considered the trap a more humane kill for her captured prey. When the animal triggered the trap, two rotating metal jaws closed on its neck or chest—a sort of giant-sized rat trap. She was hailed by the others back home as an expert in trapping horalos with her contraption.
For the most part, Ava mainly trekked out here to clear her mind. She couldn’t help but feel an unusual serenity when traversing alone within the barren land—perhaps feeling a connection to the past. There were cities that once stood here, where humans like her had lived in vast numbers.
Ava stared at the hill for a
long moment, then turned toward the west where she needed to go. A part of Ava told her to forget whatever it was that had crashed nearby and head back. After all, it would be dark soon. The Outlands was even more dangerous at night, with nasty critters coming out to hunt for any easy prey they could sink their teeth into. Another part of her needed to know for sure what it was that fell from the sky.
Ah, what the hell.
Her curiosity winning out, Ava moved in for a closer look. She kicked off the rocks and sand with her feet while clutching her bag wrapped around her waist. Reaching the top of the steep hill, Ava had a perfect bird’s eye view of the other side of the surrounding terrain. She spotted the downed object several kilometers away. A long smoke trail slowly rose from the back of the object. The wind picked up the smoke and blew it vertically toward the north, extending it for miles on end.
From this distance, she had a much better view of the mystery object as the smoke dissipated. It was a good twenty meters long, with silver-chrome skin as well as patches of scorch marks along its smooth surface. The object was shaped like the blade of a sharp, flip-out razor. Small glass windows were aligned along the outside surface, and what appeared to be the wings were wrapped around either side of the object. Ava realized the meteor that had crashed wasn’t a meteor at all. It was, in fact, some kind of spacecraft, and it looked to have taken one hell of a beating. Since none of her people had the technology to construct such a thing, either past or present, it could only mean that it was Monad.
Ava’s luck had finally taken a much-needed turn. All these years she’d spent rummaging out here with barely anything to show for it, and now a Monad spaceship had literally fallen right into her lap. She could only imagine what valuable pieces of hardware she could extract from it and take back with her. What’re you doing all the way out here?
This region of the Outlands, designated ‘the Gray Zone,’ was established as a no-fly zone. It had been restricted for the last twenty years, ever since humanity’s exodus from Empyreum. It was all part of an initiative to divide humans and Monads—that way, both races could live in harmony on the same planet without cohabiting or intermingling with one another. Ava was only ten when a viral outbreak killed over twelve thousand of her people back in Empyreum, during a time when humans and Monads cohabitated. The incident led to the split of the two peoples. She was one of the lucky ones who survived the outbreak long enough for a cure to be found, and what was left of humankind was spared a second extinction. It was all thanks to one man who saved them all. That man’s name was Aaron Cooper.
