The Heretic (Beyond the Wall Book 1)

by Lucas Bale

  ‘How many people lived on this planet?’ Shepherd asked.

  ‘We don’t know for sure. Perhaps as many as five billion.’

  ‘Five billion?’

  ‘Seems almost impossible, doesn’t it? Now we live on planets spread across a dozen systems, yet there can be no more than a few million of us.’

  ‘How did it happen?’ Shepherd asked. ‘The end of that place. What exactly happened to them?’

  ‘There came a point when Terra couldn’t contain herself. The Magistratus calls it the First Cataclysm. On that, we agree. Some believe Terra sought retribution on those who had abused her generosity. I doubt it—it’s more likely the planet just couldn’t sustain any more damage. Almost the whole human race died in the First Cataclysm, which lasted nearly half a century. Those that survived were reduced to living off the scraps available to them from the dead. But, eventually, even they perished.

  ‘Yet some, powerful men beyond the leaders with wealth and influence, had been wise enough to predict the First Cataclysm. They employed educated men who gave them everything they needed to find a way. And they escaped.’

  ‘The Corporation,’ Shepherd said. ‘As the Magistratus was then known.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘How many died, exactly?’

  ‘Again the Library is incomplete, but we think almost everyone.’ Shepherd closed his eyes, his heart beating just a little faster, but he couldn’t bring himself to even imagine such an event. The preacher continued. ‘Their progress in understanding the way that the universe was built had been considerable—but it still remained an unsolved puzzle until a man came along named Edward Visser.

  ‘Visser?’ Shepherd asked. ‘As in the Visser Tunnels? They were named for a man?’

  ‘Visser’s grandfather had written on the existence of what we now call the Visser Tunnels. It was little more than a theory then, and most thought that travelling through them was impossible. But Edward Visser, like his grandfather, was desperate to prove them wrong. And good that he did. The men who employed him sought to build vessels that could travel through the tunnels and across the universe.’

  ‘The Corporation couldn’t save everyone.’

  ‘So they tell us,’ the preacher said. Before Shepherd could answer, another voice from behind them spoke.

  ‘What is it like?’

  Shepherd turned and saw Jordi on the ramp to Soteria’s hold. He was wrapped in a wool blanket and leaning on a crutch from the medical bay. He limped towards them.

  ‘You should be resting,’ the preacher said.

  ‘I don’t want to sleep anymore,’ Jordi said quietly as he sat down beside them. ‘Being in a tunnel. What does it feel like? What does it look like?’

  Shepherd stared at the fire and remembered what his first time had been like. The first breach, being sucked into the searing azure, white light. The ship had been old, nothing like Soteria. It was heavy and cumbersome, battered and temperamental. It quaked as they shuddered through even the shortest tunnel. He had thought it might tear apart and he’d be hurled into space, his skin and flesh ripped from his bones. He’d watched in terror as tools had fallen from their hooks and bounded around the cabin as he sat, strapped in tight to a tiny wooden bench. He’d gripped the nylon straps so hard they’d bit into his hands and drew blood.

  When the ship finally breached and they dropped into sublight, he’d unclipped himself and staggered on brittle legs to a bathroom, where he threw up and cried.

  He’d been nine years old.

  ‘It’s a rush, kid. Nothing like it.’

  ‘Can you imagine the way it must have changed their world?’ the preacher said. ‘They existed on a single planet, alone, without any understanding of what lay beyond them. And then they were able to travel beyond the walls Mother Terra had created for them.’

  Walls are built for a reason, Shepherd thought.

  ‘What do you know of Terra?’ The preacher stared at Shepherd as he asked this, as if it were a question he had articulated a thousand times before and each answer he’d received was to be collected, analysed and then locked away forever. A measure of how much humankind had progressed.

  ‘Not much. I’ve heard stories, rumour and innuendo, but nothing more.’

  ‘And what do you make of those stories?’

  ‘I can understand why a billion, or even five billion, people living together on one planet wouldn’t last long.’

  ‘You’re a cynic.’

  ‘No more than you.’

  ‘You sensed that, did you?’ The preacher tapped the leaf from his pipe and began to refill it from a small leather pouch that he’d retrieved from inside the folds of his coat. ‘What I know, what I have read over many years, and what I have seen, leads me to believe that we as a species, as we have evolved so far, are destined to exterminate ourselves. And now that we have the ability to spread out across the universe, it will simply take longer.’

  ‘You know the problem with you preachers? You make everyone so fucking miserable.’

  ‘People never want to know the truth. It inconveniences their blissfully ignorant lives. That is why the Core is the way it is. But away from the Magistratus, there is a chance.’

  ‘What actually happened? On Terra.’

  ‘The temperature rose, and the climate began to change. During the First Cataclysm, the planet’s ice caps melted into its northern oceans, with devastating effect. Far from getting warmer, the net result was a rapid cooling of the north. The only possible response for humans was a migration southwards. Yet the change was so abrupt, and came with such ferocious storms, that many died before they could gather possessions enough to make the long journey. They had vehicles of course, but vehicles require power, and as their society collapsed, there was no power to be had, and they could only walk.’

  ‘They froze to death?’

  The preacher shrugged. ‘Some say the storms brought with them a change in the climate that was so severe that the temperatures dropped within days. Others say it took weeks. But on one thing, every piece of information is clear. Human society was so complex, and with so many competing interests, that no one could agree on what course to take. That confusion and delay was enough to hasten the deaths of billions.’

  ‘But not the Corporation.’

  ‘Indeed.’

  ‘The Corporation?’ Jordi asked.

  ‘The Consulate Magistratus wasn’t always known that way,’ Shepherd said. ‘It was a corporation once, with more coin than anyone else. It only became the Magistratus after the Second Cataclysm. It was that war which gave the Magistratus the power they needed—a reason to make citizens submit to them. Fear of what lies beyond the Wall.’

  As they spoke, a noise came from the within the forest, beyond the clearing. And as the flames played across the faces of the small group perched on logs around the fire, two figures emerged from the darkness. The preacher spoke again, this time more quietly.

  ‘It’s time.’

  Help Others Find The Heretic

  It’s a special thing that you chose to read my book. All those hours creating, writing, editing and publishing were worth every second. Without people like you, choosing to read my work, I couldn’t continue. Now you’ve finished, you’ll be wondering whether you should leave a review and tell others how great it was.

  Please, please consider doing so.

  It’s absolutely critical. That two or three minutes you spend writing it has a huge impact on my ability to produce yet more stories that you will love. Seriously – would you buy a book on Amazon that had no reviews?

  Here’s the links to make it even easier: Amazon (UK), Amazon (US) and Goodreads.

  After you’ve done that, join my mailing list to receive updates about my next big thing, and all the small things in between, and receive free short stories too. Or just to stop by and have a chat.

  That’s the only hard sell you’ll ever get from me. If you want to know why it’s important, read on. If not, but you’r
e persuaded, please go and leave a review.

  Right now. Before you forget.

  Why is it important? Mostly, it’s because indie authors like me are both author and publisher. I arrange my own covers, my own editors and I do my own marketing. I designed my website and I write the blog which goes with it. All of this means I get to be closer to my fans. Which is great.

  But it’s not like I have one of the big guys behind me, supporting my every move and writing cheques.

  So I need my fans to help me continue writing great stories. Reviews are one very easy way to do this. Another is to tell all your friends about me, or even random people on the bus. A line I think works perfectly goes something like this:

  “Hey, [insert name of the guy sitting next to you on the bus here], you’ve gotta read this! This guy, he’s the best sci-fi author out there right now. That Hugh Howey fella? Nothing compared to Lucas Bale. Seriously, it’s the best stuff you’ll read this year.”

  Yes, that’s right, I expect my fans to lie for me too – that’s not really such a big deal is it? It’s a great way to meet people. By the way, if you haven’t read Hugh Howey – where have you been? Go buy WOOL right now. And try Jason Gurley and Michael Bunker too.

  Thanks again for reading my debut novel. Really. It means the world to me that you chose it. Please come back for more.

  Acknowledgments

  There are so many people to whom you owe huge debts of humbling gratitude to when you self-publish your first book. They are the people who live with your interminable, and seemingly inane, ramblings about Amazon KDP, about Kobo and iBookstore and all the other distributors, and about ‘discoverability’. Or perhaps they have had to listen to an oratory about characterisation, story beats and plot points. They are saints, because stories, and then books, become so ingrained in who you are as an author that the excitement that comes from writing is all-consuming and intoxicating. The prospect of someone reading your work, and loving it, is heady and dizzying.

  We’re like those London yuppies in the 1980’s who discovered skiing and wouldn’t bloody shut-up about it. Or your next-door neighbour, who drags you to see his new car and forces you to listen as he describes every intricate detail of the climate control system. Yes, we’re like that guy.

  Insufferable.

  So to my darling better-half, first and foremost, thank you. Really, from the bottom of my heart, you’re everything I ever dreamed of in a partner. I could also thank my boys, but they’re four and two so I doubt I annoyed them that much. And when I did, I gave them chocolate, so we’re even.

  Thank you to David Gatewood, my editor, who made me believe in myself and who turned a rough draft into something infinitely more polished. Editors are like demi-gods – you never, ever want to piss them off and when you find one as good as he is, you put his number on speed-dial.

  And to Jason Gurley, whose cover designs are almost as breathtaking and inspiring as his writing.

  Also, to Alex Roddie and S.W. Fairbrother, fantastic authors who always received my emails with a smile.

  To my beta readers. Thank you for taking the time and effort to read and critique this book. It is what it is, because of you.

  Last, but by no means or in any way ‘least’ – to Joss Whedon, whose Firefly series is what started me thinking about Beyond the Wall in the first place. I named Shepherd as a nod to that wonderful show and, Joss, I hope that’s okay with you.

  Lucas Bale

  Copenhagen, Denmark

  About the Author

  Lucas Bale writes the sort of intense, thrilling science-fiction and suspense stories which make you miss your train stop. The sort of stories which dig into what makes us human and scrape at the darkness which hides inside every one of us.

  When he looks up at the stars, he sees the infinite and myriad worlds which are waiting for us, and which need to be explored.

  His debut novel, THE HERETIC, is the gateway to the BEYOND THE WALL series, an epic story about the future of humanity and the discovery of the truth of its past.

  He wasn’t always a writer, but who can say that? He was a barrister for fifteen years before he discovered crime doesn’t pay and turned to something which actually pays even less. No one ever said he was smart, but at least he’s happy.

  He can be found at www.lucasbale.com

  He can be tweeted at https://twitter.com/balespen

  Join INSIDE, his newsletter mailing list at www.lucasbale.com/inside