by Craig Gaydas
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Ageless,” he responded as if the word explained everything. The rain continued to pound the large tent and the wind dislodged the main flap of the door. He strolled over and secured it before continuing. “I am one of the Twelve Timeless and the Surveyor. My job is to make sure that order and chaos maintain balance in the universe. For millennia sentient beings have used worm holes for many reasons. No matter their reasoning, whether it be good or bad, people have always respected the power they held. The wanton destruction of these portals are frowned upon by the Progenitor, and we are forced to act.”
“Who is this Progenitor?” I asked.
A smile formed on his lips. “In time, you will see. Only then will your eyes truly be open.”
The storm calmed and the rain ceased its endless pelting of the pavilion. “What the heck does that mean?”
Before he could answer a loud commotion sounded outside. One of Embeth's soldiers popped his head into the tent. The golden helmet of the Defense Fleet covered most of his face, but judging by his heaving chest he just finished running back to camp.
“What's wrong, soldier?” Embeth asked, suddenly concerned.
“Sir, I think we have a problem,” he gasped. “You better come outside.”
Concerned looks were passed around the pavilion. Embeth hurried out the door with the rest of us in tow. The camp appeared normal but it wasn't until I looked in the sky, toward the mountains, that I understood the soldier's concern. In the distance were several winged creatures closing in around us. I immediately recalled our earlier encounter on the planet and assumed they were the burrowing owls we faced. As they approached I immediately knew that was not the case. Soldiers scrambled around us and formed a defensive perimeter. Kedge had his staff in hand and Lianne reached for her sword. Embeth and Satou reached for their sidearms. Vayne stood on the ramp of his ship with Wraith not too far behind. Vayne rested his hand on his weapon, but did not draw it from its holster.
“What are they?” Satou asked a nearby soldier holding a scanner. The soldier wore no helmet and the lone antenna centered on his head glowed brightly. He hailed from Exorg-7 and memories of Madoc came flooding back.
“I have no idea,” he responded with a confused look. “According to this, they are not organic in nature.”
“Fascinating,” uttered Vigil. “I would bet that Scribe would love to be here right now.”
I didn't know who “Scribe” was nor did it matter at that moment. The winged beasts were closing in fast. Vayne removed his weapons and were holding them stiffly by his side. I felt Kedge brush up against me and noticed his knuckles were white dots against the staff. If he clutched it any tighter it would snap in half.
The beasts were about two hundred yards and closing fast. They weren't birds at all but humanoid beings with oversized wings sprouting from their backs. From this distance I could see they were mostly gray in color with a dark brown stripe covering the top of their wings, as if someone poured a gallon of melted dark chocolate over them. They had long horns protruding from the sides of their heads which gave them a gazelle-like appearance. Their eyes were a deep red, like blood, and their fingers ended in sharp claws. Demons. All rage seeped from me, quickly replaced with a combination of fear and morbid curiosity. I still held a small place in my heart for exploration and discovery, despite recent events. Soldiers surrounded us as they formed a defensive perimeter around the camp with rifles pointed toward the sky.
The first one landed in a clearing about a hundred yards from camp. The creature studied us intently but made no move toward us. He was unarmed, which was very little relief when I spotted his razor sharp claws. As more of them landed behind the newcomer I noticed they were much smaller in size, no larger than five feet tall, and clutched crude weapons such as hammers and spears. Thirty in all landed and despite their archaic weapons they were no less fearsome.
“Hold the line,” Embeth shouted. Soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder in a semi-circle between us and the beasts.
The largest of the group—the one who landed first—approached us. Despite his stunted legs, he moved quite gracefully, almost gliding across the landscape. When he got closer, I noticed the brown stripe across his wings reflected light and was actually bronze in color, and metallic. Everyone raised their weapons until Vigil cried out.
“No!” he pointed at the claws. “He comes to us unarmed, wait and listen to what he has to say.”
“You call that unarmed?” Lianne responded skeptically, gesturing toward its claws.
My first instinct was to believe they were demons sent from the bowels of hell to wipe us sinners off the planet. When I looked at the other creatures I observed a nervousness about them. They continued to stare at our ships like they were creatures themselves. One of them sniffed the air near Vayne's ship and hopped back defensively, unsure if it would attack. It seemed they were as afraid of us as we were of them. Out technology frightened them.
Their “leader” stood approximately ten yards away but would come no closer. He held up a clawed hand and uttered several guttural sounds. The sound reminded me of rolling gravel. Everyone exchanged confused glances before Satou hurried over to a large metal case sitting on a table under a canopy. Opening it hastily, he yanked out a translator headset, however when he offered it to the newcomer he flinched and hopped backwards. He let out a scream that turned my blood to ice. Rows of pointed teeth, the color of obsidian, filled his mouth. Soldiers returned to their defensive position and aimed their weapons at the creature.
“Wait, lower your weapons,” Satou said. “They are as distrustful of us as we are of them. We need to find another way to communicate.”
It appeared the newcomer understood and thrust his hand to the ground. He drew something. Curiosity took over and everyone moved in closer to see. I slipped between Kedge and Lianne and craned my neck forward. On the ground was a large circle. The creature pointed to the circle, uttered several guttural syllables and pointed to the sky. His finger was directed toward the sun.
“It seems our new friend thinks we came from the sun,” Kedge said with mild surprise.
“No, not quite.”
All of us turned as Gard rolled down the ramp past a startled Vayne. “Are you saying you understand him?”
“A little,” Gard replied as he rolled onto the open field between us and our new friend. “The dialect is crude but reminds me of a language I picked up from tribal leaders during a trip to Arkon-2. He believes we were sent by the sun. It appears these creatures worship the sun.”
Gard uttered several guttural syllables in reply. Their leader turned and responded in kind. He gestured toward our vessels and growled a few more syllables while flapping his arms animatedly. Vigil folded his arms across his chest and observed the dialogue with interest. Satou let out a dry chuckle.
“His name is Urlan and he is the leader of the Quark. Those that are with him are his personal guard. From what I can translate, it seems they are mistrustful of our technology. More specifically, our starships.”
“They do appear to be primitive,” Satou agreed.
“I concur. I have run preliminary diagnostic scans and it appears they are inorganic.” Gard rolled up to Urlan who stepped back tentatively. Gard stuck out his clawed hand and touched his arm. Once Urlan realized the robot meant no harm, he relaxed. “It seems his epidermis is comprised of a mineral mixture of sandstone and quartz. I detect organs underneath and blood flow which means he is not entirely made of stone.”
“Well, I guess that's a relief. We have enough stone-heads around here,” quipped Vayne.
Gard ignored him. “Their 'skin' prevents long range life scans. That is why we did not detect life upon initial scans. It also makes for a formidable protective layer.”
Urlan stared at Gard like he was some sort of god who descended a heavenly escalator from the sun to smite them all. I chalked it up to his distrust of technology.
“They would make
fine warriors,” Vigil commented.
Everyone understood the implication of his statement. Our list of allies was small. We would need many in order to fight a two-sided war with the Consortium and the Ascended. I had no idea how many allies we had but we had no more than forty soldiers on Xajax. The Quark would prove useful.
“Gard, ask them what they want from us,” I said.
“I'll try.” He turned to them and uttered several raspy sounds, followed by something between a growl and a choking noise. This went on for several minutes before Gard stopped and turned toward us. “He says curiosity brought them from the mountains which is their home.” Gard pointed skyward, beyond the grove of trees, to the mountain towering on the horizon. “They have not had visitors for several centuries until strangers came riding great silver chariots adorned with metal flags. I am not sure if this is a translation error, but that is the best I could gather from his statement. He insisted that these chariots brought a great flood of other flying vessels, of which many looked different.”
“Great silver chariots adorned with flags?” Kedge repeated and scratched his chin. “I came here with the Lumagom a while ago to set up a base camp, but our ships looked nothing like what he describes.”
“I wonder if he means the Scarlet Moon,” I offered, remembering our encounter in space. Their ships reminded me of pirate ships except their sails were silver and comprised of some unearthly metal which made them appear like they were sailing in space.
Embeth nodded. “That could very well be. Which would mean our enemies are here.”
“More reason to endear ourselves to the natives,” Vigil grunted. “Our forces are a bit thin at the moment.”
No one argued his point. When I surveyed our camp I knew our handful of soldiers could not repel a full assault from our enemies. Embeth and Lianne were veteran soldiers, skilled at the art of defense and warfare and were more than capable of holding the camp against smaller groups, but if either the Consortium or Corvus' forces attacked, we wouldn't have the manpower to repel them.
Embeth turned to Gard. “Do you think you can explain to them who we are and why we are here?”
He nodded. “Urlan, we mean you no harm. We must set up camp here because we are in trouble. We are former members of an organization called the Consortium, but we turned against them when they did something unspeakable. We need your help.”
Urlan cocked his head and sniffed the air, as if our stench would answer all his questions. Showers have been at a premium lately so he would have to make do with stale sweat and grime. His eyes fell upon the object in Satou's hand—the translator headset. He pointed and growled.
Gard rolled over to Satou and took the headset from him. After grunting out a few words, he placed the headset on his head. Urlan nodded and approached. Gard handed the headset to him and he placed it gingerly on his head. Because of the horns sprouting from each side of his head, it hung at an awkward angle.
“A strange device,” Urlan growled before gesturing his contingent to move closer. Soon the Quark surrounded us. Dark orbs studied us from behind their gargoyle-like faces. “We are simple people who live peacefully in the mountain. We have no desire to enter your conflict but we will allow you to stay as long you do not bring the pain of warfare here. Rest your weary and tend to your wounded, we shall leave you at peace.”
With that, Urlan's forces took to the sky. When they were nothing more than dots in the sky, Vayne turned to Vigil. “Well that went well,” he remarked sarcastically.
Vigil groaned and fixed him with an angry look. “Shouldn't you be counting gold coins or admiring your paintings or something?”
Vayne smiled. “Perhaps,” he replied nonchalantly. “I give you my leave so you can continue playing in the grass.”
Vayne strolled up the ramp and disappeared within his ship. Vigil clenched his fists and fumed. It didn't take a genius to see there had been no love lost between the two. “Let us discuss our next move,” he stated gruffly before disappearing inside the pavilion.
I watched the Urlan and his posse disappear into the mountain. Long after they were gone I continued to study at the mountaintops, watching as the sun glistened off its snowy peaks. I have not received the full story of what happened since my kidnapping, but if we were attempting to recruit strange beasts from alien worlds to our cause, than the situation must be dire. I felt a knot in the pit of my stomach and I started chewing on my bottom lip.
“Nathan, are you feeling okay?” Kedge's hand fell upon my shoulder.
“I need to go back to Earth,” I replied without turning from the skyline. “I need to know what happened.”
He let out a long sigh. “I'm not sure I like that idea.” I turned to protest but he stopped me with a raised hand. “But there is a lot you should know, and a trip to Earth will give me the time to explain.”
Hope filled my heart. “Do you have a ship?”
Kedge looked away and I followed his gaze. He was looking at Vayne's ship and that was when I spied the name upon its hull—Talon. “Are you suggesting—,” I began.
“I'm suggesting we hitchhike a ride with the only person in this camp that has been itching to get out of here.” He turned to face me. “You saw the dislike between Vigil and Vayne. Perhaps we can use that to our advantage.”
“So what do we do?”
Kedge laughed. “You grab Gard and hop aboard. I will grab some people who I think will help us.”
“Shouldn't Vayne and his crew be enough?” I asked.
Kedge's smile faded and he shook his head. “I have a feeling Vayne will take us there.” He dropped a hand on my shoulder. “Let me form an exploration party,” he hesitated before adding, “One last time for the Explorer's League.”
Calypso
“Already the time lines have split,” Calypso muttered. He was mad at Corvus for being reckless and enraged at Meta for attacking Earth but when he observed Vayne carving a path of destruction aboard his ship another emotion took over. Fear. This was something he hadn't felt in a long time. Their actions have awoken forces that were better off asleep.
“I'm sorry?” Sam asked who had been busy plotting a course into the navigational computer.
“The universe is a living entity, Sam. Meta's attack scarred it, but it will heal.” Calypso hunched over the shuttle's steering controls and acknowledge the waypoint that Sam entered. When finished, he turned and faced his copilot, who studied him intently. “We are nothing more than a virus that needs to be expunged from its system.”
Sam cocked an eyebrow. “Is that who attacked us? Some sort of universal immune system?” he scoffed. “That was no entity, it was simply a man with guile who caught us by surprise.”
“Fool!” Calypso growled before continuing. “It is his impatience that has cost us. I told Corvus to gather his forces quietly and give me more time to sow seeds of doubt within the Consortium. We had the Universal Map, we had the transceivers and we had the planets. He could have continued bringing his forces through the Richat Structure while I gathered more allies.”
Sam acknowledged his point with a slow nod. “I agree. He may have been too quick to show his hand.”
Calypso slumped in the seat and stared off into space. “No one could have foreseen Meta's attack on Earth,” he conceded. “I'm afraid I erred in snatching Nathan. Perhaps he could have prevented the attack in some way.”
Sam did not respond, instead choosing to pour over the control panel and enter additional coordinates. Calypso glanced at him and noticed the fluorescent lights of the shuttle reflecting off the corners of his eyes. Could they be tears or just a trick of the light? He could have been imagining things but he was aware of their friendship.
“I know this must be hard.” He spoke so softly that Sam cocked his head in order to hear. “But Nathan is so damn stubborn. He needs to be on our side and I know how much that means to you.”
Sam stopped fussing over the control panel, closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “Yea
h,” he muttered before reaching into his shirt pocket. He lifted a box of Marlboro cigarettes out of his pocket and shoved one in his mouth. He produced a lighter from his pants pocket and lit it. Calypso had been amused the first time he laid eyes upon it. The lighter was a miniature human skull forged from bronze. The mouth of the skull spat the flame that lit his cigarette. He inhaled deeply and shoved both skull and pack into his pocket.
Corvus. Just thinking of him made Calypso boil with anger. Too many mistakes have been made. Calypso's counsel fell upon deaf ears, and sometimes it seemed Corvus would go out of his way to do the opposite of what he suggested. It all came down to Calypso's son, Draeger, who became a general in the Defense Fleet. A General who some suggested would replace Embeth on the Council. Draeger, the man who questioned the Consortium when he found out how deeply the High Prince's corruption ran. The son who never got his chance because he was sent to die on some hostile planet during a meaningless exploration mission before the High Prince could be questioned.
Of course all of that happened during Corvus' time period. In the present, Draeger was four years old, safely bundled in his mother's arms probably watching the sun set over Charr. His thoughts drifted to his wife, Simone. They met during an Explorer's League meeting on Charr long before he had been named to the Council. He was just a captain sailing around space. She was an event coordinator and the head of the tourism department for the Charr Civics Council. He remembered the first day they met. Her hair had been so red it had looked like it was kissed by fire and her skin was pale and smooth like fresh milk. They were introduced by his father who was head of the Charr Mining Company—sponsors of the event. When their lips met for the first time it was like the heavens opened and fireworks fell from the sky. When Draeger was born, he felt like their life had been complete. He came into the world with one red eye and one blue eye, a sign from each of them.
