by Aaron Frale
The prisoners began filing into the lunchroom, most covered in soot and ashes from the refinery. She scanned the room for Grannork and couldn’t find him. She was prepared to start without him, but he was such a good warrior, she’d rather have him on her side. They would have to detour towards the isolation units to save him. She made a count of the guards on the grates above. There were only about dozen Teristaques. They were pacing back and forth watching the prisoners below. A dozen was nothing compared to the amount of prisoners in the room. If the inmates organized, they could easily take out their captors.
But that was the point of the cycle of violence in the prison. The prisoners were too busy attempting to have a go at each other than to ban together against the real enemy. It was like a game of Rock Ball at home. Everyone was too concerned with their lives to do anything about the real threat in the room. This was why Kal had more power than any of them. She knew the battles that were worth fighting. Today, she would join the fight with her father.
When the last batch of prisoners began to file into the room, she noticed Grannork slip in at the last moment. She was glad to see him. It saved her a trip to find him in the isolation units. He was still pretty damaged from the day before. Grabbing a tray, he pushed his way through the line. It wasn’t unusual behavior for an Orcandu. He came up to Kal and dropped his tray in front of her.
“How did you avoid the isolation units?”
“I told them about an escape plan… in the refinery.”
“One Orcandu protein meal unit coming up,” She smiled and nodded to Seayolar.
Seayolar dropped his tray on the large reptile that Grannork fought on her first day in the prison. The creature roared and diverted the attention of both guard and prisoner alike. Kal turned back to her replicator. Hayden ignored a hungry prisoner and ran towards Kal. All eyes were fixed on the scuffle. They didn’t see the guns being pumped out of Kal’s replicator. Kal threw a weapon towards Grannork, and then Hayden.
By the time a guard turned to see the commotion, it was already too late. Grannork was the first to open fire on the Teristaques upstairs. A stream of projectile fire slammed through the grate. Some of the bullets connected to their targets, others ricocheted off the grate and hit a prisoner. As the guards dropped, the others pulled out their weapons and started firing back.
Once Kal was finished distributing guns to her team, she programmed her replicator to produce weapons continually. The other prisoners saw the mass of weapons piling up and rushed to grab one. The mob jumped the counter, and a swarm appeared around her replicator. She sprayed a round of bullets at the Teristaques upstairs. She saw one of them drop and wondered if she’d killed him. She had never killed anyone in her life. This was nothing like killing the animals who honorably gave her their meat. That guard could have a family if the Teristaques even had families.
She ducked under one of the tables for cover, spraying more bullets at the ceiling. Hayden, Seayolar, and Grannork were pinned down in various locations throughout the room, firing in short spurts. Even Cid had joined the fray. Haath-Nlo had refused a weapon and applied his goop the wounded. Both Teristaques and prisoners avoided firing at him.
The guns firing back at the Teristaques began to multiply. Even though the Teristaques had better training and a variety of projectile, plasma, and laser weapons, the sheer number of inmates was beginning to overwhelm them. She took more calculated shots, surveying the scene and firing whenever she had an opening.
She saw a Teristaque sniper perched on the railing of some stairs. He was picking off the prisoners one-by-one. She saw him point his gun at Haath-Nlo. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Haath-Nlo had done nothing to provoke aggression. She charged Haath-Nlo and knocked him out of the way. The bullet tore through Haath-Nlo’s shoulder, and she tumbled under a table. Haath-Nlo lay in the open, writhing, bleeding to death. She crawled out towards him, and the sniper bullet grazed her hair. Another prisoner tried to assist Haath-Nlo, and his head exploded. She couldn’t believe they would strike down a healer, much less use him as bait, but they did. She remembered her village and the cries of men, women and children. She no longer thought of the Teristaques as just another star species and knew now that they didn’t have families. They couldn’t, because they couldn’t feel love. They were an abomination, and she wanted to annihilate them.
Suddenly in the midst of the chaos, there was an explosion. A Teristaque trooper had launched a grenade at the replicator, which was still producing guns. The explosion tore through prisoner and machine alike. More Teristaque guards took up strategic positions. The guards were methodically wiping out any armed and unarmed prisoner without cover. Once the supply of guns was halted, the odds tilted back towards the Teristaques. The battle was already lost. She didn’t account for the fact that her enemy simply needed to cut off the supply of weapons. She had lost the will to fight and wanted to be next to Haath-Nlo and help him.
The door leading to the cesspool burst open. Maker stood in the doorway with upwards of twenty weapons spread throughout the cords of his arms. The threads had all separated and untangled into individual strands. Some strands propped and aimed the guns. Others were on the triggers. He was a walking battle station. “Sorry, I’m late. Picking up twenty guns is harder than you’d think.”
Maker opened fire in twenty directions at once. Hayden, Grannork and the handful of living prisoners joined the onslaught. The Teristaques dropped like felled trees under a woodmen’s ax. In a matter of moments, all the guards on the grates above were down. There was an eerie silence from above. The prisoners cried out in a cheer as Kal rushed to Haath-Nlo.
“Where did you get those?” Hayden remarked at Maker’s arsenal.
Maker smiled as the cords began to weave back into his normal arm shape, and the guns clattered to the floor. “After I had hacked the replicators, I had some time, so I made a few spares.”
“A few spares?” Hayden said in disbelief.
Haath-Nlo gripped Kal’s hand. “You must go.”
“No,” Kal said. “I can’t leave you here.”
“You know I can’t make the climb.”
“We must go,” Grannork said.
“One moment,” Kal yelled, and everyone fell silent.
“You have to leave me.”
“He’s right,” Hayden said gently.
“Replicators,” Kal said.
“What? We can’t wait around to hack another one.”
“No, Maker said replicators. As if he had already hacked them all.”
“That’s right,” Maker said. “Why would I only hack one?”
“You mean,” Hayden said, “they all could have been making weapons?”
“I said I could hack one maybe more if I had the time. It turns out I had plenty of time. It’s not my fault that you didn’t check.”
“Quiet,” Kal commanded, and everyone fell silent. “We don’t have a lot of time before they send reinforcements so listen up!”
_______
After replicating some basic supplies and a sling for Grannork to carry Haath-Nlo, they set all replicators to produce weapons until the raw material ran dry. After seeing how useful Maker had been, Grannork didn’t argue with Kal’s decision to take the crippled bug. Some of the prisoners decided to follow Kal and her group. Others went off on their own. It wouldn’t be long before the entire prison would be locked into combat. Some of the prisoners wanted to take over the space station and claim it for themselves.
The Teristaques had massive battle fleets that could wipe out entire worlds. If the prisoners succeeded in taking over the space station, it was only a matter of time before a fleet arrived or they blew up the station. Kal knew that they need to sneak away quickly and quietly, so she let the chaos flow from the cafeteria to the halls. Prisoners began to take arms and skirmishes broke out in all parts of the space station.
There was only one part of the space station that Kal cared about, and that was the doctor’s corridor. While spa
ceships could theoretically dock on just about any part of the station, the doctor’s wing would probably have access to a ship that wasn’t heavily guarded. When Kal and Grannork trashed the Quadhelix research lab, Kal remembered that it took a lot longer than usual for the Teristaque intervention. There also had to be a ship because the doctor seemed always to have fresh batches of medical supplies and new equipment. While she could be leading her team into a dead end, it was better than what was going on in other parts of the station.
They had to cross the egg shaped cellblock to get to the shaft that would lead to the doctor. Riots had broken out at all levels by now, and prisoners were throwing grenades and firebombs into the food slots of the maximum security cells that held Teristaque prisoners. She would have torched a few herself if they weren’t attempting to find the quickest exit. Let them burn for their crimes. In the higher levels, the giant spiral ring of cells was ablaze with gunfire, explosions, plasma waves, and chaos. Teristaques were gunned off their floating discs and prisoners fell from the railings.
They had to dodge through the chaos to get to a doorway on the other side. Two Teristaques were guarding the door. Grannork took them out before they even saw Kal’s party coming. Their blood pooled from their thick hide. An explosion took out several levels of the spiral walkway. Bodies and debris rained from above. They all rushed into the shaft while the room collapsed behind them. They each pulled out a floating disc they had looted from the Teristaques and floated upward.
The sound of the firefight had grown distant. The endless corridors to the doctor’s wing were eerily silent. The guards and prisoners avoided the area. It was as Kal thought. People were heading for the control room, the Teristaque living corridors, and the armories. The mad doctor was ignored for the time being. The prisoners would eventually come this way after they secured the station, but by that time the doctor would have escaped unless Kal commandeered his escape method first.
Kal was banking on the fact that the doctor didn’t have any loyalty to the Teristaques and wouldn’t wait for rescue. He was probably packing his precious research into his vessel and would be gone as soon as the fighting grew near. They ventured through the empty corridors, rounding each corner with weapons drawn until they finally arrived at the doctor’s passage.
The doors were ajar, and it was silent. The room where Maker had been imprisoned was still trashed. There were broken instruments and glass scattered around the floor. A low rumble shook the place from another explosion in a distant part of the building. Kal wondered how much more until they breached the hull. There was a rustle from one of the rooms at the end of the corridor. They inched their way forward, guns drawn.
A Teristaque burst forth from one of the rooms, holding a glass tank in one arm and a crate in the other. It saw them and dropped the tank, and the crate. Glass shattered, and an eel flopped on the ground, its gills straining for oxygen. The Teristaque was unarmed and stepped backward. Kal’s group lowered their weapons. She didn’t lower hers. She walked towards the terrified Teristaque.
The tables were now turned. Just as her family had cowered in fear moments before their death, this foul beast was cowering before his end. Kal hated everything this soldier represented. He may not be Makiuarnek, but who knows how many this soldier slaughtered under tyrants like their leader. This Teristaque deserved no pity. No Teristaque did. Kal pressed her gun to the forehead of the trembling creature and pulled the trigger.
The top of the Teristaque’s head exploded, and blood splattered over her face. The others turned away. Kal stood over the body, a feeling of triumph in her heart. The crate he was carrying said “Kal’Da’Hak samples - half-human.” She had heard the doctor correctly. Then she noticed something disturbing about the Teristaque. The thick black hide of the Teristaque wasn’t skin at all. It was armor. She noticed half a human head inside of what used to be a helmet. She recognized the jaw line and the gold and silver teeth with black rot. It was Dr. Feslerk. He had been wearing armor.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she turned to Hayden, half sobbing, half angry.
He attempted to calm her with a gentle touch. “What?”
“I’m half Teristaque.”
_______
They found the doctor’s ship quickly. It was a tiny science craft with some labs and a large airless storage bay. Maker had disabled the security protocols easily enough, and Hayden could pilot the vessel even though it was “clunky and old.” The group was anxious to get a safe distance from the prison. If the Teristaque military fleet arrived, their ship wouldn’t stand a chance.
Once everyone was on board, Hayden detached the ship from the hull, and they began to drift away. The prison was a breathtaking sight from the outside, even though Kal had no room in her heart to marvel at it. The station was a massive structure that dwarfed the size of her village. There were several giant funnels that collected asteroids and broke them down. They were the source of ore for the refinery. There was an asteroid belt near enough to the station to skim the smaller ones from the edge while avoiding the larger ones that could damage the haul. There were several plasma cannons pointed towards the belt to break down any larger rocks that happened to stray. Robotic probes were flinging smaller asteroids from inside the belt towards the collection funnels.
Maker and Hayden decided to maneuver the ship to drift at the same course and speed as a larger asteroid, so that when the Teristaque fleet arrived, their presence would not be detected. Then they would drift until they could use their engines again. They waited for Kal’s approval of the plan, but her mind was occupied elsewhere. Maker and Hayden decided to let her rest and proceeded on their own. Seayolar and Grannork asked Kal about her plan for getting the tracking devices removed from their bodies. Kal didn’t respond, and they decided to ask her another time.
Kal wandered to the only bedroom on the ship where Haath-Nlo was recovering from his wound. Luckily, the bullet had passed right through him, so they only needed to patch him up and wait for the goop to heal the wounds. He was asleep. She sat down on a chair and pulled up a computer station, typing in a search command. She clicked on the first document she found. It was an article on the origin of the word Teristaque. It was an Egradrenial word for the Great Terrorizer. Unlike the articles in the prison library, this article didn’t leave anything out.
“The human empire spans over three hundred systems. The Egradren were some of the first races to fall, and the name of their oppressors have stuck ever since. Teristaques are feared throughout the galaxy, and they expand their territory through force, subterfuge, and crushing economic might. Their society favors only those at the top and exploits even the humans at the bottom. While the word Teristaque is usually reserved for the humans in armor, make no mistake. A human without armor can be just as dangerous.”
Kal turned off the screen and sat on the floor next to Haath-Nlo. She pulled out her father’s patch. This was the patch of the Teristaque army. Her eyes were heavy, and she felt drained. It didn’t take long for her to drift to sleep. This time, her dream wasn’t about the massacre of her village or the torture from Dr. Feslerk. She had a nightmare about herself. She wore the Teristaque armor, and the body of her mother was at her feet.
Part III
Hayden’s Mistake
1
Hayden’s craft landed on Tek’Tu’Pat’s landing platform on the ocean. Tek was the wealthiest city of Nigramoto, and the landing platform was the largest on the entire planet. At a few hundred kilometers long and one hundred wide, it handled all the off-world transport. Every commercial, civilian, and military craft landed in different sections of the mega platform. It was the largest structure on the planet, and its silver sheen could be seen from orbit.
Freighters packed with the black decrand ore were lined in rows waiting for their military escorts for their trip into space. Frigates and squadrons of fighters flew in formation around each freighter. Since humans had spread to over three hundred systems, the energy requirements for civil
ization required more than a star could produce. Decrand could generate one thousand times more power than solar panels could collect. The human race was powered by decrand, and Hayden was here to protect it.
Hayden was packed into a troop transport with several of his brothers-and-sisters-in-arms. A quick release belt kept him from being tossed from his seat when they dropped from orbit. His troop was a mean looking bunch with scars and the eyes of soldiers who had seen too much. Their power armor made them look larger than life. However, since they weren’t wearing their helmets, their heads looked small compared to their bodies. Sarge’s suit clanged against the metal floor as he stomped through the troops. Underneath the armor, Sarge was bald, built, and mean looking. He was almost more intimidating without the battle gear.
“Everybody suit up!” Sarge yelled, “You think you’re here for a vacation. We are here to work!”
Hayden fumbled for his helmet, and he wasn’t as quick to gear up. Sarge spotted his fumble and put his face close to Hayden.
“What’s a matter babyface? You need your mom to help dress you?”
Everyone called Hayden babyface, partially because Hayden looked like he should be in a boy band, and also because he was the new guy. No one liked him, but he knew it was more because he hadn’t earned their respect yet. Until he had a chance to prove himself, he would be the butt of their jokes.
“No, sir!” Hayden said, “There is no excuse for this recruit not to be ready, sir!”
“Recruit?” Sarge laughed, “You’re still in boot camp? Last I heard you were a soldier!”
Sarge narrowed his eyes and came so close that Hayden could smell the tobacco on his breath. Hayden didn’t flinch and looked Sarge in the eyes.
