by Brett Bam
She stood quickly and rushed to the RHS portal. It irised open and to her perspective the staging area was spinning. She didn't hesitate at a handhold, simply dived through onto the rolling deck opposite. She came out of the spinning module into zero gravity doing a couple of somersaults before she managed to tag a bulkhead with her toe and slow down. She drew her weapon and turned, drifting backwards into the hard foam which still swamped a wall of the staging area, holding the vacuum at bay.
The elder Kulen stepped into the staging area through the spinning portal. With a graceful tap of his foot he was floating still and upright, facing Dalys. “You know, I'm getting tired of you threatening me with that weapon. You can't hurt me Dalys.”
He waved his hand and seemed to shake it at the obstructing lumps of foam, which filled the once spacious staging area. At his gesture, the foam dissolved into dust, and the dust effervesced into smoke, which first filled the room and then cleared the air, leaving behind a faintly sweet odour. There was no sign of the hole in the hull, as if the Ribbontail had healed.
“I mean you no harm Dalys, I know you think that what I've done was the worst atrocity in human history, but you haven't seen my final act yet. The end which justifies the means.”
“Oh? You're going to kill yourself? That's the only way justice could be served. You're a coward, hiding behind the biggest gun of all.”
His eyes glimmered and a wind disturbed the air. Her belt grew hot for a moment and then turned to smoke, which dissipated. Dalys looked shocked, she felt suddenly vulnerable, unarmed and naked.
Kulen laughed at her distress and then said, “Feel for it Dalys, it's still there.”
Dalys put her hand to her belt, but it was gone.
“Not with your fingers, you fool, with your memory, with your mind.”
Dalys closed her eyes and felt the field activate. It formed a solid black oval in the air in front of her, which it had never done before. She leaned in to look at the compressed carbon molecules which made up its mass, and a face emerged, shaped in carbon to mimic her own. It smiled at her and then the oval turned to smoke and swirled around Dalys like her own miniature weather system.
“It's alive now Dalys, or semi-sentient anyway. It's not very intelligent, but it will do whatever you ask of it. Like a loyal pet.”
Dalys held her hands out and the field shaped itself in the air to mimic her actions. Two giant hands hovered in the air and opined her movements exactly. She gathered the field in with a gesture and closed her eyes, thinking of her handgun with its volatile content and its sliding steel, it's unmerciful hardness, and its weight. She felt it take shape in her hand, solid and reassuring as the original had been. When she looked at it, it was identical, except it was a deep black. Then it turned to smoke and disappeared, seeming to implode, leaving no trace. Dalys could see it compressed beyond belief into a small dot in the palm of her hand. When she looked at her palm there was a small blemish, like a freckle, but black. Then it expanded again and flowed around her like a gas, a dark fog which loved her and clung to her.
“I gave each of them such a gift.”
“Who?”
“Your crew. I gave each of them a gift. I gave Moabi his release. I gave Curtis the power to heal, I gave Oscar access to all information everywhere. I gave life to Berea and Berea to Jack. Now I have given you a gift too.”
Dalys looked at her hands again, smothered in mercurial smoke. Her shield slid up and around her, encapsulating her arms, torso and neck. It hardened into something, like a cross between a formal jacket and a steel breastplate, she felt protected. Then she looked the tall dark stranger in his eye and said, “You gave life to Berea?”
“Yes. I plucked her from the dark of space and pulled her back from the land of the dead. She is with Jack Mac now. They are making love even as we speak.”
“What did you give the boy?”
Kulen smiled. He held out his right hand and showed her the glove. It had changed into a large silver ball. He offered it to her. Dalys put her hand out, palm up, and after a moment of slight hesitation, the elder Kulen dropped the machine into her hand. Nothing happened. It looked like a large steel ball nestled in her palm. Kulen held up his own two hands, empty and naked.
“I have heard you ask many times about the nature of this thing.”
She held it up and examined it. It was perfectly reflective, and it wobbled slightly. It felt like a water filled balloon, if she pricked it, it would burst and spill silver all over her.
“That, is the compressed knowledge of everything that has ever been under the sun. It is my life's work and my death’s undoing. It is my soul and is a part of me in the deepest way. I would not be here except for this machine, but then, it would not be here except for me. It can manufacture any object you can imagine. It can recall the genetic signature of every person who ever lived. It has watched every moment of the existence of the world you call Earth. It has watched every moment under sunlight. It remembers everything that the light of the sun has ever touched. It is the fabric of screams, Dalys. A thing filled with a torrent of information, every event which has ever taken place across the lifetime of the sun. It is all condensed into there. Everything in history under the sun is preserved, recorded and remembered. Five billion years of pure data, and energy. It is the Sunseed. And Life, Luck and Fate have placed it in my hands.”
He looked intently at her, reading her emotions like a simple book.
“The purpose of a seed is to spread life, Dalys. I will take this seed, this gift from the middle of another sun, I will plant it in the fertile atmosphere of another star, and a door will open. I will give the stars to humanity Dalys. Your children's children will be born on different worlds, across the ocean of stars.”
“Where's Kulen?”
“Here I am, Dalys. It's me. I wasn't kidding about that. It's me. I'm different, not what you expected, I know. I'm a man, not a boy. You will never see that boy again, and for that I'm sorry. For what it's worth, you truly do mean a lot to me. It's been a long couple of centuries, and in the thickest of it, your strength and determination are the memories which pulled me through the hardest parts. I've spent decades remembering you, idolising you, and now here you are.”
Dalys glared at him, afraid and obstinate at once.
“But now you hate me and blame me.” As he spoke his brow became furrowed and there was a hint of shadows wrinkled around his eyes. His mouth drooped. “This has been the culmination of my life's work. I have finally achieved what I set out to do. It has taken centuries to achieve it and I suffered greatly on the way. But it's done now, I'm done. It's all over.” He looked up at Dalys and his eyes were a deep brown, so dark they were almost black.
“So, I inspired the devil to kill humanity.” said Dalys bitterly, “Wonderful.”
There was a flash of dangerous anger on Kulen’s face, but it subsided quickly.
“You must believe that what I did, I did for the greater good.”
Dalys was dangerously angry now. “You killed billions of people!”
“So that trillions more might live, can't you see that? Unless I did what I've already done, mankind would still be locked on Earth, unable to be free in the cosmos. The society that exists here now is billions upon billions of people. A great diversity of humanity which could never have existed before. I am the father of the cataclysm, yes! But I am also the father of the Caramel Culture, the Community of Man, the Korporatsie, and the Protocol. When I finally make my dreams a reality and set humanity out amongst the stars I will be the father of that society as well. One day you will understand that for the Sunseed to be created, some sacrifice had to be made.”
“You think you're God, and you're playing with the lives of everyone and everything I've ever loved. You can't possibly know what's good for humanity because you're not a man. A man bleeds, he suffers and he can die. You're just another part of this machine, a cog in the wheel. You're right. I shouldn't blame you. I should pity you for a fool.”
With that she dropped the globe in her hand. It broke and splashed all over the deck, wetting her boots, but she turned on her heels and walked away. She settled in the RHS at her captain’s chair, and without warning she piled on the thrust. She pushed the Ribbontail harder than ever before, redlining the acceleration helix.
She watched on a monitor as Kulen the elder stood in the staging area, calm and unfazed in the high gravity. Dalys kept the burn going for long minutes, and the elder Kulen never moved. She upped thrust another notch, and even in her gravity-protected captain’s chair, the force pressing her down became too strong. Her vision tunnelled and she gritted her teeth, grimacing against cheeks which were almost 15 times their original weight. She upped the notch once more and darkness closed in all around.
When she wakened, the Ribbontail was coasting and she was floating in her harness. Zero g, the engines had shut down. Dalys was momentarily overwhelmed by a great throb of pain that washed over her. Then she was blinking to clear her eyes so she could read her instruments. They were still in deep space with nothing around them. She had only been out for a few minutes.
On her monitor, Kulen the elder was in the galley going through the cupboards. She watched him as he pulled everything out of storage. When he had a pile in front of him he sifted through it, selecting what he wanted, what he could use. He started cooking.
The smell which invaded the ship was as overwhelming as the pain from a moment before.
A spicy sweetness with a rich earthy undertone. Her mouth filled with anticipation and she unbuckled and slid out of her couch.
She drifted slowly through the ship, hand over hand along the corridor which now seemed horizontal to her perspective, not vertical. At the galley portal, the smell was thick and it bubbled. Smoke and steam sizzled out of the opening, the ship’s ventilators unable to handle the volume. The elder Kulen came drifting through the veil. He had a small bowl filled with rice and a brown sauce. There was greenery sprinkled over it, it smelled spectacular and her mouth watered. He offered it to her.
“I'm not a monster Dalys. I'm a man, I'm human.” He left the bowl floating in the air and moved away. When he let go, it began a slow tumble and a few grains of rice floated away. Dalys automatically scooped the bowl up and collected the spilled rice.
She hauled her arm back and threw it at him with all her might. Her aim was true, straight at his nose, but he caught it easily. He looked tremendously surprised and then he laughed.
“I'm sorry. I don't mean to be disrespectful, I'm not laughing at you. It's just that I didn't think that would happen. I had no idea. It surprised me. And it's been such a long time since I've been surprised by anything. I've just realised that I've finally moved beyond my own continuum. This really is the future. I have always had the knowledge of what would finally happen. Both times I fell through the sun I knew that I would survive the experience. And no matter what I went through on Earth after the original cataclysm, I always knew that I would survive to return here. I've always had the total reassurance of my own immortality.”
Dalys glared at him.
“I guess I'd better get used to a new paradigm.”
Dalys simply stared at him, malice in her eyes.
He sighed. “And I didn't expect this. I didn't think you would hate me for what I've done.”
She still hadn't blinked.
“Well then, you'll be happy to hear that I'm leaving. I'm going to travel to another star, and then another after that.”
“Running from the consequences of your actions. Coward.”
“You understand that everything will be different now? The protocol will come out here from Earth. I've released it from its obligation on the planet and it will expand now. Gamaridia is alive, it will give birth to thousands of living machines. My machine has made it all possible. It's a paradox made real. Your own ship has the spark of life now too, and you'll eventually meet the personality which now inhabits her. Be gentle with her, she is very beautiful and one day she will be as strong as you.
“The earth has healed and mankind will return home. I hope that you can make a peaceful life there. I hope that my works will bear the fruit I dream of. I wish I could stay and ensure that mankind grows into the full potential I know they possess. But my work is not done, I have much, much, more to do a very long distance away. I must leave it all up to you Dalys. You are to be my envoy to humanity. My agent in this new order.”
“You expect me to work for you?”
“Ha! No, but I'm going to give you something wonderful to care for. It will be the greatest miracle of all and it will touch your life more profoundly than anything ever has or will. You will be enraged at first, but over time you will see the wonder and the beauty of what I give you. Do not be afraid Dalys, embrace your chaos and accept your fate.” He touched her cheek gently with the back of his fingers. He smiled at her. Then he grew bright, too bright too look at, as if a light was shining on him from above. When she shielded her eyes, the light blinked out and he was gone. There was a patch in the hull which glowed hotly. It was in the shape of a man. An alarm sounded and Dalys dropped her data glasses onto her face. There was a proximity alert. She toggled the graphic and the sensor display gave her a wide clear view of the area around the ship. The stars were spectacular in their nebulous rainbow of splattered light. There was a bright dot moving away from them. It grew brighter and hotter as it accelerated away. The sensors zoomed in on the suddenly distant object, and Dalys marvelled as she watched a ship assemble itself inside the light. It grew and changed until it looked just like the Ribbontail. Then it flashed and grew massive, expanding to fill the entire sky and beyond, before flickering out in a wash of rainbow light which faded slowly.
And then Dalys was sailing simply through the vacuum, alone again with her ship.
Look for me in the sky Dalys. I will show you a sign.
The words murmured themselves into the air around her, hardly more than a whisper. Dalys sat in her chair and placed her hands on the pads, her tattoos interfaced and she leaned into them, increasing thrust.
Dalys was going home.
Epilogue
Earth
7 years after the flare
Dalys Xristian was walking in a park, enjoying the sun on her face, the breeze in her hair, and the wind in the trees. She was holding the hand of a little girl in a blue dress, with hair that draped in long dark curls. The little hand folded in hers made her smile, it was so small and delicate.
The little girl skipped along happily beside her.
They were on the ground at the bottom of the gravity well, under the atmosphere of Earth. They were walking over newly cut grass beneath a bloodwood forest on the east coast of Australia, in what had once been New South Wales. Dalys loved the forest. It was such a wildly foreign and alien environment. The tall slender trees with their delicate canopies that rained sticks and leaves in the wind.
There were koalas in the gum trees and kangaroos among the saplings and grass. Birds sang and fluttered from tree to tree. A spider crawled over a blade of grass, looking for a place to spin a new web. It was marvellous. What a gift to be able to walk here.
The recovery of Earth was proceeding apace. When the Worldstorm abated, the planet was fresh and new, clean and green, and filled with all the old life. The success of the Protocol was as surprising as the advent of a second cataclysm. Millions of people came here as refugees, only to be given the keys to paradise. Once news had spread that Earth was healed and open, free for all, the diaspora of man was reversed, and humans walked the world once more. The Harbour had been replaced with a smaller facility, one more suited to a large flow of people.
The Protocol had proven to be very amicable and open to the repopulation of Earth, and with the easiest of access, the renewed home of man united the solar system as never before.
The Korporatsie on Mars fell apart when the majority of its citizens opted to return to Earth. The endless war in the wake of the red planet subsided, and fin
ally died out completely.
Water was cheap and plentiful for the first time ever. The Protocol revealed a new design of propulsion which made an Earth to Saturn run possible in just ten days. Everywhere across the Community of Man, machines were coming to life. There were two species in the world now, men, and the children of men. Life was good, times were prosperous. It was an exciting time to be alive.
Dalys was looking at the sky when a star flashed in the blue expanse. It was the middle of a bright day; no star should be visible at this time. The star flickered and changed colours, flashing through the spectrum. It was beautiful. All around the world, people stopped whatever they were doing and looked to brightness lighting up the blue.
The little girl pulled at her hand. “Look Mommy, its Daddy.”
“What did you say?” Dalys bent forward to see the face of her six-year-old daughter.
The little girl blinked, and for the barest moment, a rainbow flashed in her eyes.
The End
Q&A with first time author Brett Bam about his new book:
The Sunseed Saga
What is the Sunseed saga about?
It’s a science fiction super hero story. One of the lead characters is my idea of what an all-powerful human is capable of. How would such a person impact our society and what changes may come about because of his abilities and his motivations. It’s a story of the possibilities of what we can achieve if we’re not limited by hum-drum things like physics. It’s a positive take on a post-apocalyptic, space-bound society.
In the story, Earth has been abandoned after a Coronal Mass Ejection nearly wipes out humanity, and people have spread out to the rest of the solar system. There are various societies with vastly different ideals who govern each planet. Into this mix comes a man who is capable of anything, he’s able to bend reality to his will and his appearance on the solar stage has profound effects on billions of people. We follow events through the experiences of a water pirate and the crew of the ship she captains. Their encounter with this powerful person changes them all in very dramatic ways.
