Extinction: The Will of the Protectors

by Jay Korza

  She had three good sites to start with, so she picked one and started her adventure. The drones still looked for more leads to follow up on if she didn’t find what she was looking for.

  At the second site, Hugesh found what she was looking for. An old mining setup from a race long forgotten, older even than the Cherta had been before their extinction. The mining tunnels had been repurposed by the Cherta scientists and turned into protected laboratories.

  The material being mined was something that only the ancient aliens had had the power and know-how to cut through. The Cherta found some ancient tools left behind that allowed them to shape the interiors of their new labs and carve their own symbols at the entrance to the vault, but that was the extent of their ability to change what was already there. The tools were only small handheld implements, nothing that could be used for all-out mining.

  Hugesh set up her camp at the mouth of the mining tunnel. She was sure the tunnel wouldn’t collapse but she also didn’t want to be trapped inside it if predators, indigenous or otherwise, decided to pay her a visit.

  After her camp was made, Hugesh put together a video message for the emperor.

  “I have found the entrance to a Cherta vault. I’m sure it contains the information we need, but I’m not sure that we will ever be able to access it.

  “The vault is in a mine more ancient than the Cherta and not even their technology could get through this material. My only hope is if I can hack their security system from my side of the door.

  “I have set up a scanner in the tunnel that is mapping every molecule that exists from the entrance to the door itself. If there is a hidden switch, keyhole or other device, I’ll find it. Accessing it is another matter altogether.”

  Hugesh alternated between moments of hopefulness and despair. “I’m sorry for being so manic. I know I must sound crazy, getting excited about something and then in the very same thought, having no confidence at all about my plan. I think it’s because I have been alone on this journey for so long, I have found it difficult to be both realistic and optimistic at the same time.

  “I know for sure that part of the reason is how much I miss you. I want very much to complete this mission for you, not only because you are my emperor and I want to honor and please you, but because you are my one and true love, and I want to be with you again.”

  She shook her head and wiped away her tears. “The nice thing about being on a secret mission for the emperor is, I don’t have to worry about protocol because you will be the only person to ever view this message. I love you and will return as soon as I can.”

  The message was sent, although she was wrong about one thing: the emperor wouldn’t be the one person to view her video. The message was diverted to the stealth ship in orbit and blocked from leaving the system. The Nortes cabal operative wasn’t moved by her sentiment and grew impatient with her lack of progress.

  Several weeks later, Hugesh still hadn’t made any progress with the vault door. She received a faint signal from its interior but she couldn’t connect with it using any of the communications protocols she had.

  She tried explosives—not because she thought they would make a dent in the door, but she hoped it would at least cause some sort of response from the vault. If it automatically radioed for help or even did something defensive, it might help her get a step closer to understanding what she was dealing with. But nothing happened.

  As she stood at the vault door, she recognized the markings at the corners of the door. She had seen them while she visited with the Untuwine tribe. She had no doubt before that she had found a Cherta stronghold, but this just reinforced her resolve to get in.

  The cabal operative who had snuck up behind her was just as flustered as she was, but much less patient.

  “Stand up and turn around slowly.”

  Hugesh had been alone so long that she couldn’t help her reaction to the voice. She popped up and whipped around to face the man.

  “I said slowly! Watch yourself!”

  “Are you an idiot?” she asked matter-of-factly. “You can’t sneak up on someone in a dark tunnel, surprise them, and then expect them to not jump up. That’s just unreasonable.”

  “Uh, fine. But don’t move quickly anymore.” He was obviously taken aback by her lack of wariness over her predicament.

  “Great. Now that we have that out of the way, what do you want?” She knew what he wanted: the same thing she did. It was an astronomically slim chance, if not downright impossible, that he was just a Nortes pirate who happened to be in the area and found her.

  “You know what I want. I want in that vault.”

  “Fantastic,” she said enthusiastically. “Please, be my guest and open it up.”

  His plan was unraveling fast. It wasn’t a good one to begin with and now it was just crap. He hoped to leverage her fear of him into making her a more productive worker and thinker. Sometimes people put under stress came up with solutions they wouldn’t have thought of before. But he started to sense that Hugesh saw him as a welcomed distraction rather than a threat.

  “That’s not how this is going to work. You open it, and it better be soon.”

  “Who sent you?”

  “You don’t get to ask questions.”

  “Oh, but I do. You see, I just did. And I will again. Who sent you?”

  He knew she was egging him on to get him to physically lash out at her. With his gun and distance, she couldn’t win if she tried to fight. But if she could anger him and make him hit her, he would have to close the distance to do so and that would give her a fighting chance.

  “It wouldn’t matter if I told you.”

  “Then tell me, if it won’t matter.”

  He decided he could physically lash out at her, or at least a small portion of her, without getting close. He fired one round into her right foot. Hugesh screamed and collapsed to the ground, instinctively clutching at her injury.

  “You son of a slave whore!” she screamed. “You honorless worm from the deepest pits of the warriors’ shit holes!”

  “Watch your mouth, woman. You still have another foot to be shot. And I’m sure I can find other body parts to shoot that won’t hinder your ability to do your work.”

  He unwrapped a sand scarf from around his neck and threw it to her. “Here. Wrap up your foot. Then we’ll go topside so you can grab your medkit and take care of that. Then you’ll get back to work on the door.”

  Hugesh looked at the man’s smug smile and knew that he thought he had just won the moment. And while she was admittedly in a lot of pain, the man had just shown Hugesh that he was not cool under pressure and could be easily manipulated. She just needed to find a way to make that work to her advantage.

  Several days had passed and she was no closer to figuring out how to open the vault than she was before she had a hole in her foot. She had made exceptional progress on her captor, though.

  She continued to be belligerent and pushed him to his limits until he threw a crate at her. She was surprised that he had never closed the distance enough to hit her. Hitting the object of your anger with your own hands was the ultimate in emotional release, but he just wouldn’t do it.

  When she realized he wouldn’t be baited in to getting close, she used the crate attack as the moment when she would allow him to break her. She burst out in tears and begged for his forgiveness and pleaded for him to not shoot her again or hurt her in any way. This made the man smile and feel triumphant.

  From there, it was easy to stroke his ego and drop his guard little by little. At this point, she had found out, in bits and pieces, about the cabal, their secret tattoo, who ran it, and a lot of other information to boot. But she still lacked a few key pieces to the puzzle.

  As she continued to act as if she were working on a solution that she knew would never come, she kept prodding him for intel.

  “I know I’ve said this before, but I feel good about this new direction I’m headed. The last thing I tried got a few frequenc
y changes on that signal from inside.” She lied.

  “Can you toss me my canteen?” Hugesh asked politely.

  “Sure.” He picked it up and sloshed it back and forth. “We’ll have to head back up in a little bit to refill our water. Maybe even get some dinner.”

  “Sounds good. But I’m not that hungry yet. I really want to try this new code I’m putting together.”

  “Okay.” He was very pleased with himself for having broken Hugesh’s will so early on. The arrogance dripped from his words.

  “I still don’t understand,” Hugesh said softly, acting as though she spoke to herself.

  “What don’t you understand?”

  “Huh?”

  “You just said you don’t understand. What don’t you understand?”

  “Oh, I did? Sorry, I didn’t realize I was speaking out loud. I sometimes talk to myself when I’m concentrating on something. Never mind.”

  “It’s not like we have anything else to do down here. Might as well talk if you have something on your mind.” He enjoyed feeling like he was in charge. Believing he was getting Hugesh to do something she didn’t want to do.

  “It’s nothing. I’m sure you don’t even know. I mean, they probably wouldn’t tell you anyway.”

  Hugesh looked up and saw her tormentor’s eyes flare in anger.

  “Don’t get me wrong.” She quickly avoided eye contact to make herself look more frightened. “I just know how field operations work. It’s not that they don’t trust you or think you’re incompetent. You’ve definitely proved you are—competent, that is—but it’s important to keep certain information segregated to protect the mission as a whole. Basic field operatives are usually on a need-to-know basis.”

  “You’d be surprised what I know.” He was taking the bait.

  “Oh. Well, I just don’t understand what they will do once they find the coordinates of the warriors’ birthing planet. If that in fact is what is behind this door.”

  “They will go there and get the warriors, of course.” He couldn’t believe he had to explain this part to Hugesh. “I’ve already told you that our goal is to bring back the old Empire. And you should want that too.”

  “Well, I don’t, to be honest. I mean, I feel like I can be honest with you now. Can’t I? I won’t get beaten or shot for disagreeing, will I?” He loved it when she was meek and she was being as meek as a newborn.

  “Of course you can. I’m not a bad guy, just doing my job. My duty to the empire. If we work at this door long enough, maybe I can get you to see things our way. To work with us on your own and not at gunpoint.”

  “Maybe.” She allowed him to have hope. “But still, the emperor won’t go there and give you access to the planet. And he has to be alive in order for his access to work on the planetary defense system.”

  “We don’t need him. In fact, we couldn’t use him even if he was willing.”

  “Excuse me?”

  The assailant smiled. He knew he finally had a piece of information that Hugesh didn’t and it was a big one. She was on his hook now, even if he didn’t realize he had been on hers for quite some time.

  “The emperor is not of royal blood.”

  “Lies,” she whispered.

  “Truth,” he whispered back with an ugly sneer of contempt.

  He proceeded to tell Hugesh the entire story of an exchanged baby, a royal lie that destroyed an empire. It didn’t change the way she felt about her emperor, but it did change how she felt about the man she loved. The man who hadn’t trusted her enough with the truth.

  “Not so talkative now, are you?” he chided her.

  Hugesh suppressed her anger and managed to put her face into a quizzical expression. “Still. You can’t use the emperor to gain access, and every Nortes child born is DNA tested to determine if they have royal lineage, so we know there aren’t any actual royal descendants in the new empire. You still have no way to gain access to the birthing planet. Its location will do you no good.”

  “You are correct. At least you would be if it wasn’t for the fact that we have genetic material from the royal cousin who was stationed at the birthing planet.”

  Hugesh’s mouth gaped. “That can’t be—it’s not possible…”

  He laughed. “But it is. The royal cousin G’Pleh hated the emperor of that time. In fact, he figured out the coup before it happened but no one would listen to him because of his eccentricities. But it was just those eccentricities that will let the empire live again.”

  “How so?” Hugesh was terrified that this was all true, but there was no logical argument to keep her from believing it.

  “He allowed his seed to be smuggled off the planet and hidden away. We haven’t used it yet to create a child, but once we have the location of the birthing planet, we will make the next true emperor or empress.”

  Hugesh couldn’t bear to look him in the eyes any longer. “It’s true. I know it is. And the cabal symbol, now I recognize it. It was G’Pleh’s royal seal.”

  “Yes, it is,” he said to both points. “Now maybe you’ll start to see things our way. There’s no point to holding on to these abominable ideals.”

  “But you could just approach the warriors that are still out there, give them a true emperor and they’ll obey.” She wasn’t sure why she gave him any ideas; the thought just escaped her lips.

  “We aren’t sure what the secession might have done to them. They may not trust a royal at this point. The only safe way is to take back the birthing planet and get new warriors. If the old warriors can be integrated back into the fold, then they will be. Otherwise we’ll just destroy them all.”

  “Of course you would.” Hugesh now felt truly broken. Her emperor wasn’t the true emperor, and her love had lied to her.

  She barely noticed the operative had closed the distance between them. It was the first time he had let his guard down this far. Maybe he felt sorry for her. Maybe he saw an opportunity to get something from her now that she was at rock bottom. Whatever the case, he finally got to where she had wanted him all along.

  Hugesh moved her hand back and forth in the dirt, looking as if she were just absentmindedly fidgeting. Once he was close enough, she grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it into his face.

  It only blinded him for a second but that was enough for her to sweep out her other arm, grab behind his ankle and yank him off his feet. He fell flat on his back and accidentally discharged his weapon into the ceiling. The rock ricocheted the bullet several times before it finally stopped inside one of the crates. Hugesh was thankful it hadn’t been her body that stopped it.

  The fight was on. He was larger, stronger, and didn’t have a relatively new bullet hole in his foot. Hugesh was smaller, faster, more skilled, and had more incentive to win. The match was even after everything was factored in.

  Minutes passed with both combatants spilling more and more blood. They were both getting tired and it was anyone’s guess as to who was winning.

  Finally, Hugesh took a punch to her chest that sent her sprawling back into the vault door. The air was knocked from her and she couldn’t get up. As she caught her breath, she could see the cabal operative look for and eventually find his weapon. She had lost.

  As he turned to face her, the vault door opened and she fell through. The door closed as bullets harmlessly panged off the outside of it. Hugesh lay on the floor, the nice cool and comforting floor, and decided it was time to pass out.

  When she awoke, she was in the same place, the door was still closed, and she was still safe from her hostage taker. She heard a faint voice, calling her down deeper in to the tunnel. She had nowhere else to go, and she had just spent a very long time trying to get to where she was now, so she decided to follow the voice.

  Once she reached the laboratory, she found a Cherta hologram that greeted her.

  “Hello, Hugesh.”

  “How do you know my name?”

  “I have been monitoring the events transpiring outside of this room.�
�

  “Where are you? I mean the real you? Where is the person on the other side of this transmission?”

  “There is no transmission. I am a holographic representation of the computer system in this facility. I am not connected to any outside systems at all.”

  “Why did you open the door? Why did you save me?”

  “I need you to do something for me and then I will answer all of your questions and more.”

  “I can’t make any promises before I hear the request, but I’ll try to help if I can.”

  “Good. I need you to kill the man outside of this chamber.”

  “In case you didn’t notice, I have been trying and not doing so well.”

  “Yes, this is true. However, I can give you access to a weapon that is in this room and I will open the door for you. The surprise will be enough to catch him off-guard and you will have the upper hand. I am confident you will win.”

  “Why do you need him dead?” She wasn’t opposed to the arrangement, but she wanted to know what she was getting into before she became an executioner for an alien hologram.

  “He told you of his conspirators’ plans. He cannot be allowed to leave and report back what he has learned. I have no exterior automated defenses to stop him myself. You must do it, and quickly. For both our sakes.”

  “Okay. Where is this weapon you promised?”

  With weapon in hand, Hugesh walked back to the upper level and stood near the door. She waited until the computer told her it was the optimal time to attack. The door opened; she saw her target look at her with befuddlement, and then she fired and watched the man crumple to the ground. It was over.

  The door closed before Hugesh realized that she was now going to be trapped on the inside of the vault rather than the outside. It was a change of scenery, but she wasn’t sure if it was going to be worth it.

  Hugesh went back down to the lab and found the hologram patiently waiting for her.

  “Now what?” she asked.

  “Now, I answer your questions. Although, if you would like, the floor below this one contains staffing quarters with areas to clean yourself up with and some clothing that might be able to fit you with some minor adjustments.”