The Uprising

by L. J. Suarez

  The holo gases started to change into millions of pieces of rock colliding with one another, forming what appeared to be planetoids. “Helium and hydrogen were the base of most elements at the time, serving as the building blocks of moons, stars—even life as we know it on our world.” As she said those words, the recently formed planets vanished, replaced by a giant representation of Gaia as it floated at the center of the room.

  Ionne paused for a moment; she reminisced on the times her father would give her astronomy lessons back in her childhood home city of Cadon. She was around the same age as the children standing before her. Astronomy was always one of Derix’s favorite subjects, and that passion had passed on to Ionne. The memories of her father brought a welcoming warmth to her heart. “Everything has led to this moment in time.”

  “Dr. Ionne, is it true humans were the first to live on Gaia before Monads?” a curious boy asked.

  Ionne was visibly caught off guard by the question. It had been ages since anyone had spoken about humans after their migration to the Outlands. The subject wasn’t forbidden among Monads, per se; everyone in Empyreum had simply moved on with their lives and focused their attention on other daily matters. “Well, throughout the years we have excavated the ancient world, and we have learned that there were in fact many species that have come and gone from Gaia for centuries. From the diverse group of reptiles known as dinosaurs, to the archaic subspecies of humans called Neanderthals, primates, and of course, Homo sapiens.”

  Before Ionne could continue the lesson, another child raised his hand. “Has anyone seen a human since they left Empyreum?”

  Ionne was silent before responding. She was beginning to realize these children were quite the inquisitive kind. “No. After the Gray Zone was established, both parties felt it was best to sever all ties with one another, so they may live out their lives without any interference from us.”

  The thought of Aaron crept up in her mind. It had been so long since they had seen or spoken to one another. She hoped that he and the rest of the humans were safe and had found peace.

  Ionne noticed the soft blue glow of a holo-screen materializing above her sleeve with a subject line saying that there was an incoming message from Councilor Saavi. Normally she wouldn’t bother with checking an inbound message during the middle of a presentation she was giving. However, all current priorities had just become secondary to the message’s source. Ionne turned to her assistant. “Brax, why don’t you explain to our guests how our people established the first off-world colony?”

  “Certainly, Doctor.”

  The image of Gaia dissolved, and the lights returned to their normal illumination as Ionne stepped away from the group and Brax enthusiastically addressed the children. Standing at the corner of the lab, she swapped the screen, and a new screen appeared with the council leader’s message. Saavi had ordered all councilors to report to the Inner Council Hall immediately for an emergency meeting.

  Judging by the brevity and urgency of the message’s context, it left no doubt that something was wrong.

  Closing the screen, she returned to the group. “My apologies, but unfortunately there is a sudden pressing matter that I must attend to. My assistant will take over from here. Enjoy the rest of your stay at the Institute.”

  The children seemed genuinely upset by the sudden news. With a nod to Brax, Ionne turned and exited the lab.

  * * *

  All the councilors were already gathered inside the conference chamber of the Inner Coucil Hall by the time Ionne arrived. Speaking in hushed tones, they awaited Saavi’s arrival.

  Ionne took the last seat remaining at the circular marble table and gestured Councilor Solmon to her side. “Do you know the nature of this meeting?” she whispered.

  The elder shook his head. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  “It is most unusual for us to be left in the dark like this. I wonder why Saavi would be so cryptic in her message,” Ionne said.

  “We shall find out soon enough,” Solmon said.

  Ionne continued speaking with other councilors around the table until the heavy doors opened behind her. Everyone turned to see Saavi circling the table toward her seat. With each step she took, her boots echoed off the chamber walls. Wearing her standard gray-and-white council robes, Saavi put a hand out to signal the others to remain seated as she took her spot.

  Despite being well into her hundreds, Saavi’s youthful facial features didn’t reveal her true age. Gone were the streaks of white on the tips of her hair, now all a shiny black. The last upgrades made to the NI implants had regenerated the cells of her and the other elders to the point where decades of their lives had been shaved off their faces. Monads had reached a point where their bodies had become ageless. Aside from making the Monads nearly immortal, the NIs were also equipped with built-in safety protocols that prevented any outside source from hacking into the implants’ main interface. Since the Shadow Order incident, the Monads had taken every measure to prevent their citizens from being used as pawns ever again.

  Saavi looked into the eyes of every councilor as she spoke. “Thank you all for coming on such short notice. What I am about to share with you now must not leave these walls.” Every councilor nodded before she continued. “Approximately twelve hours ago, the Jafner, a long-range transport from the Telos Prime colony, crash-landed inside the Gray Zone.”

  Everyone in the room was visibly uneasy after hearing the announcement. Ionne couldn’t take her eyes off Saavi as she went on.

  “A meteor storm was detected on long-range scans within the flight trajectory of the Jafner once the ship emerged from the Cosmic Tunnel. The craft must have inadvertently entered the storm, thus receiving severe damage as it was forced to make an emergency crash-landing within the Outlands. A distress signal was never received. Their communication was likely damaged during the storm. As you all are well aware, it is strictly forbidden for anyone to cross into the zone. However, the lives of our own citizens could very well be in danger. Which is why I have authorized one of our scout drones to enter the zone to locate the Jafner and to search for survivors.”

  The lights dimmed, and a large holographic screen appeared over the table. The image showed an aerial shot of the crashed ship with large chunks of its hull scattered through the sandy surface. “The drone has relayed its findings back to us. What is more puzzling is that the ship was found empty.”

  All the councilors in the room looked at one another in disbelief.

  One councilor asked the obvious. “If no bodies were found, it is clear the passengers survived the crash. But where did they go?”

  “It is unclear at the moment.”

  “What about the flight recorder?” a female council member asked.

  “It has not been recovered yet,” Saavi replied. “It is installed on the cockpit module, but that section is missing. Most likely separated from the rest of the transport during the crash. The drone is attempting to retrieve it. That is not all.”

  The image hovering over the table switched to another overhead shot of what looked like a series of tracks imprinted on the surface.

  “Those look like footprints,” a councilor said.

  “That is because they are. So we have ruled out the possibility of their bodies being consumed by horalos.”

  “What direction were the tracks leading?” Solmon said.

  Saavi paused a moment before answering. “West, farther into the mountains.” The holo-image once again shifted to an extended mountain range.

  The councilors began to all speak at once. “Why didn’t the survivors stay with the ship to await rescue?” one of them spoke out.

  Once again, Saavi raised a hand, and the room fell silent. “I have reason to believe the survivors have received help.”

  Solmon asked the question everyone had in mind but didn’t dare ask out loud. “Are we assuming our people have made contact with the humans?”

  All eyes were now back on Saavi. “That is exactly wh
at we have concluded. If humans have indeed come into contact with the downed ship, it would be logical to assume they were taken inside these mountains. It is a perfect place to construct a colony, and would be untraceable by our satellites.”

  Saavi turned her attention to Ionne. “Dr. Ionne, you developed a personal relationship with the humans when they lived among us. Given the delicacy of the situation, what do you believe our next course of action should be?”

  Ionne now felt all eyes trained on her. She gulped before opening her mouth. “Well, the logical course of action is to first establish communication with the humans living in the Gray Zone, ask them if they indeed have the Jafner survivors, and proceed with arranging an extraction.”

  “We should send a security detail into the Gray Zone to locate their settlement and retrieve the passengers,” one of the councilors said.

  A few of the other councilors nodded in agreement.

  Saavi shook her head. “That would not be wise. Let us not forget that our two peoples have not seen one another in two decades. Such an aggressive move would send the wrong message.”

  A councilor who went by the name Drega was next to speak. “Perhaps we should send the scout drone farther into the mountains and locate their settlement without being detected by the humans.”

  Before Ionne could speak up, Saavi said, “Agreed.”

  Ionne didn’t really care for Drega, and there was little doubt he felt the same about her. She found him to be arrogant and judgmental. He lacked the wisdom of the more elder councilors. He was also only a few years older than her. She wondered how he was able to obtain a seat on the Council when she’d had so much trouble being accepted in the past. Her actions during the Shadow Order incident were the single catalyst that had granted her membership. “I must respectfully object to this course of action,” she said. “If we discover the location of the settlement without their consent, it would be a betrayal of the pact we made with the humans. They do not wish us to know the location of their settlement, and we must honor that. I afraid this could lead to an unwanted conflict.”

  “So be it, then,” Drega said. “They cannot possibly present any threat to us.”

  Ionne glared at Drega, but the other councilor’s expression was blank.

  “Your concerns are valid, Dr. Ionne,” Saavi said. “But if our citizens are in any way injured beyond the extent of their NIs’ capabilities, the humans are not equipped to treat them. Which is why we must locate their settlement at once.”

  “But surely there are other means by which we can find our people without violating the treaty.”

  “Unfortunately, Doctor, the treaty was broken the moment that transport crashed in the zone. And that treaty has been further scattered if humans have indeed come into contact with our people. We shall deploy the drone farther into the Gray Zone to locate the human settlement. In the meantime, Dr. Ionne, I would like you to try and establish communications with the humans by any means necessary, and inform them that we want our citizens returned to us.”

  Ionne looked around the room and noticed that everyone seemed to be in agreement with Saavi; she would not be getting anyone to side in her favor. “Very well,” was all Ionne said. She tried her best to keep the disappointment from crossing her face. She would use the one means she had in her possession to communicate with the one human she trusted the most.

  Ionne only hoped that the Inner Council’s next move wouldn’t bring the Monads into a head-on confrontation that could have lasting consequences.

  Chapter 7

  Mace had his arm wrapped around Ava as they lay in bed under a wool blanket.

  The morning light filtered between the cracks of the blinds inside the hut dorm they shared. Both of their clothes were scattered across the messy floor, with his bow and Ava’s staff hanging on hooks carved into the stone walls. Atop a rectangular wooden table were an assortment of metals and items Ava had recovered from the Outlands, including a twelve-inch statue of a meditating Buddha. A small fire pit that Mace had lit last night still emitted smoke in one corner of the room. Stuck to the wall above the pit was a poster of Giancarlo Stanton. The image of the Yankees’ outfielder had faded with time; a childhood memorabilia he took with him from Old Lazarus.

  Ava slowly moved the tip of her finger up and down Mace’s bare chest. “I can lay here all day,” she said as she snuggled her head on top of his chest.

  Mace took a swig of wine from his jug, which left red residue across his lips. The settlers had nicknamed the New Lazarus fermented wine slurma, for the fact that after drinking a cup of it, one would begin to slur their words. Mace wiped his lips as he silently stared at the ceiling.

  “You’re awfully quiet this morning,” Ava said.

  “Just got a lot on my mind.”

  “Like?”

  Mace opened his mouth, then closed it. He had waited to have a talk with Ava about her actions with the Monad survivors, to try and find a way to say what he wanted to say without losing his temper. He’d wanted to spill his guts when he arrived home last night, but Ava had a way of lowering his defenses when they are alone together. Mace seemed to be no match for her seductive black magic. Despite that, he could no longer hold back.

  “Come on, spill it,” Ava pushed.

  Taking a breath in, Mace said, “Why did you bring the Nads here?”

  Ava pulled away from Mace and propped herself up in bed. “I knew it,” she said in a frustrated tone. Ava moved one of the bangs of her hair away from her face. “What was I supposed to do? They needed help. It was getting dark, and there was no way of knowing when they’d be rescued. There were kids with them. I wasn’t gonna leave them there to die.”

  Mace placed his arm behind his head to prop it up farther. “Your heart was in the right place. But these are Nads we’re talking about here.”

  Ava let out a sigh as she climbed out of the bunk. “I really hate that name.” She said under her breath.

  “For all you know,” Mace went on, “Empyreum Security would have arrived in time to rescue them. All of this would have been for nothing.”

  Ava said nothing as she picked her clothes up from the floor.

  Mace sat up in bed and watched as Ava got dressed. “After everything that’s happened, they can’t be trusted. You know that better than anyone.”

  “Why are you so afraid of them?” Ava blurted.

  Mace glowered at her. “Who says I’m afraid?”

  A hint of regret showed on Ava’s face for her poor choice of words. She changed her approach. “I know that you blame them for the virus that nearly killed us back in Empyreum. For all the friends and family that’ve have died since we moved out here. I get it. But that was the Shadow Order’s doing. Those Monads I brought here last night are not our enemy, Mace. If you would take the time to speak to them, get to know who they are, you’ll know that they’re good people who were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t get so close to them. It’s obviously affecting your thinking. Besides, they’ll be out of our hair soon enough. Good riddance, if you ask me.” With that, Mace lay back in bed.

  He could feel Ava’s eyes stabbing him like icicles. After she finished dressing, she grabbed her gear and stormed out of the hut.

  Mace let out a long sigh, regretting his harshness. But he meant everything he’d said about them. Seeing the Monads again after all this time, right in his backyard, had reignited a fire within him that had lain dormant for a long time. Just hearing their name spoken aloud brought him pain. He would never forget or forgive all that they put them through when the humans lived among them in Empyreum, and the hardships his people had suffered in the Outlands since the events that transpired forced them to leave.

  Much blood had been spilled to build New Lazarus into the growing community it was today. Mace reminisced on his mother. Both she and his father had gone to great lengths to protect him and everyone else when first setting up the village. Mace had held a resentme
nt against Aaron for a while after what happened to his mother, to the point of not speaking to one another. They had since somewhat patched up their fragile relationship only a year ago. Mace had realized Aaron had no other choice but to leave Empyreum after the Shadow Order incident. He was merely protecting his family, even though part of Mace wished they had stayed and fought back against the Nads who had wronged them. Especially the one who was behind it all; Gideron. Instead of sending him straight to hell where he belonged, Aaron had spared that monster’s life – a decision Mace could never forgive him for. Mace could still remember his mother’s angelic smile.

  He reached out to the makeshift table by his bunk and grabbed a small, cylindrical disk. Resting it on his chest, Mace clicked a button on the disk’s side. A holographic image appeared over the disk; it was a family portrait of his parents, taken back when they still lived in Empyreum. His ten-year-old self was sandwiched in between them. They all looked so happy. But that was another life long past. Mace took another swig of his wine and made a fist to the point his hand became numb. A single tear ran down his cheek.

  I miss ya, Mom.

  * * *

  The scout drone had found what its masters were seeking. As it hovered idly, partially covered behind a rock, the drone’s camera zoomed on dozens of structures ten kilometers down a valley with a river running through it. The structures were nested between a series of mountains. The drone kept a safe distance to avoid detection, just as its masters had ordered. Through its central node, the drone saw stacks on top of some of the structures, blowing dark smoke into the air. A windmill moved in a clockwise fashion. There was no doubt that this was the human settlement. The drone wasted no time in relaying the images, as well as the settlement’s coordinates, back to Empyreum.