The Teristaque Chronicles

by Aaron Frale

  “So why the hell are you causing an incident for something that isn’t even part of your mission?”

  “I have no excuse, sir.”

  “You’re damn right you have no excuse!” Sarge was about to lay into Hayden, but the colonel waved him off.

  “I think your performance was commendable,” Colonel Dodgery said, “However, misguided.”

  Firestorm visibly relaxed. Hayden was more afraid of the punishment from Firestorm than Sarge or the colonel. Sarge would give him grueling workout routines, extra duty, and the worst jobs possible. Firestorm, however, would turn the rest of his unit against him. He would be the one who dragged the rest of them down. It just depended on if the colonel was offering a punishment disguised as a reward.

  “Sir?” Hayden said.

  “You spotted a jajunga transaction with no prior experience or foreknowledge. The local authorities have been looking for these two for quite some time.”

  “It was luck, sir.” Hayden always erred on humbleness.

  “It was more than luck. You have intuition. You can’t train natural instinct, no matter how hard you try. Consider this your notice. We’re sending you two out to one of our mining operations.”

  “Sir?” Hayden said.

  “You heard the man,” Sarge yelled.

  “Sir, yes sir!” Hayden said.

  “Good, your unit ships out at 0800 tomorrow. Dismissed.” Colonel Dodgery waved them out of his office.

  On their way out, Firestorm pulled Hayden aside. “I hope you’re satisfied.”

  Her emerald green eyes pierced him. He could read it on her face; he may have escaped the wrath of the colonel, and maybe even the wrath of Sarge, but Firestorm wasn’t about to forgive him. They were about to leave their duty which had allowed them to let loose during the night, where they didn’t have to worry about the potential threats from the forests. She was not pleased. The troop would also not be pleased. He could read it in her eyes: only fools left the safe walls of Tek to go to the woods.

  2

  The next day, Hayden was on a troop transport on its way out of the city. The transports had a max altitude of one thousand meters, so Hayden got to see the landscape below. The city disappeared quickly, revealing the wilderness. Unlike Earth where only the wealthy owned trees, there were massive forest growths right beyond the walls of the city. The Nigramotoians stacked their cities to avoid building into the forest. Humans adapted the environment to fit them. The Nigramotoians adapted to fit the environment.

  The transport skimmed over the impenetrable woods. They were low enough that the trees rustled as they flew past. A variety of species lived in the forest. It was the most diverse population of plants Hayden had ever seen. Even in Colorado, there wasn’t much diversity. Lots of plants and animals died off over the years on Earth. The few that survived were genetically engineered to grow in a more simplistic ecosystem. The Rocky Mountains had only a few types of trees left. Below, there were probably hundreds, if not thousands, of species.

  “Why don’t the Nigs expand into the forest?” Spider pondered. “The whole damn city is so crowded. They have all this land they ain’t using.”

  “They respect the land,” Sarge said. “They plant a tree for every one they cut down. Clear cutting even a part of the forest is one hell of a lot of trees.”

  “And to think that the humans in the core worlds are packed so close together…”

  “Why aren’t there more humans here?” Hayden asked.

  Sarge chuckled. “You’ll see them soon enough, once the miners go home to their families and start telling stories about this world. You can’t stop the human expansion.”

  “Didn’t you hear?” Spider said. “Teristaques won’t stop until they’ve taken everyone’s home. Meanwhile, most Nigs are living in luxury while I’m in a god damn tent.”

  “You secure that shit,” Sarge scolded Spider.

  Hayden turned towards the open bay doors to watch the scenery pass by.

  _______

  In the evening, when the sun was setting, casting a reddish orange glow over the landscape and refracting off the clouds in a brilliant display of colors, they arrived at the mining operations. There was a giant hole dug into the ground to extract the decrand. The plants near the operations were withering and dying. The trees were diseased, the shrubs were wilted, and the grass was brown. The blight extended from the holes to the landscape beyond.

  “What’s wrong with the trees?” Hayden asked.

  “Not sure,” Sarge said. “It happens at all the mining sites.”

  In the decimation, there was a town made up of portable gray buildings. The only permanent structure was operations itself. The rest of the town looked as if it was dropped in overnight. The temporary buildings dotted the dusty field. There was various high tech equipment scattered around. A rubble pile of discarded ore that wasn’t fit for use formed a hill in the distance. There were even a couple of volleyball nets set up for recreation.

  Operations was at the center of it all, and it was the only permanent structure in the entire place. It was a several story building in the heart of the portables. Some of the computer equipment was too sensitive for portables, so they had built the structure to run the show. There were also various scanners and antennae on the building.

  The transport circled for its final approach. Hayden and the rest of the troops geared up. Once their helmets were secure, they jumped from the ship when it stopped about fifty feet from the ground. They all landed with a crash, and their boots made an indentation in the dirt. Sarge led them through to mining operations.

  It was a three-story building with various labs and workstations inside. A few unarmored civilians with standard issue exoskeletons entered and exited the building.

  “Thank God you’re here,” one of the men, who had come from the building to meet them, said to Sarge. The man was wearing a button up shirt and tie. He was sweating profusely and looked as if every part of him was straining to keep up with gravity. He was a civilian who probably never left an office, and was marking off the days for when he could return to a more Earth-gravity-like planet. “A krikshek beast has been rampaging a couple of clicks from here. It’s been disrupting mining operations!”

  “Is that all? You can’t take care of a krikshek?” Sarge said.

  “There is also a village. They refuse to move,” the man said. “We got all the paperwork. It’s all legal. Their new development even has running water and a school. We even built each family a modern house! But they want to keep their grass huts.”

  “You know how they are about their land,” Sarge said. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “I don’t care what you do,” the man said. “I got quotas, and I want them gone.”

  “Yes sir,” Sarge said. Hayden could hear the disdain in Sarge’s voice. No one liked the “suits,” the corporate goons in suits and ties, though most only wore a button up shirt these days. The soldiers had to deal with them because they were paying the military’s bill. Hayden could tell Sarge didn’t have any respect for the man but knew the game well. When someone higher up smells like shit, compliment them on their new cologne. Those with money made the rules. Even Hayden knew that.

  Sarge turned to the group and ordered them to bed down for the night. Tomorrow, they were going to have a chat with the village elders. Tonight, they would be sleeping in company barracks. They were small but efficient units. The squad had their space, and as soon as Sarge left for the night to stay in his private unit, the others began complaining.

  “Tony is a blowhard,” Spider said.

  “Yeah, I hate that guy.” Firestorm added.

  Tomahawk was silent as usual. Hayden attempted to join in the conversation.

  “Who’s Tony?” Hayden asked.

  “He’s the suit, newb,” Spider said.

  Firestorm closed the circle of conversation to exclude Hayden from their talk. His mistake in the city alienated him from the others. Even Tomahawk, who ha
d only said a few words to Hayden before, had nothing to say to him now. Hayden tried not to let it get to him. He went over to his bunk and sat down. He unhooked his computer pad from his suit charging in the corner and browsed the library. He fell asleep while reading the book he had selected which also proved to be a mistake.

  _______

  Hayden jumped out of his armor the moment he put his leg in the next day. The others were screaming with laughter when Hayden bounced around the room holding his calf. When he had removed the pad last night, he had forgotten to lock down his armor. He intended to lock it when he had returned the pad, but he never got a chance because he fell asleep while reading. The others decided on a little payback, so they put a Phillastash leech into his armor.

  The Phillastash leech was a painful creature, not only because the chemicals on its skin created a burning sensation on human flesh, but the effects also lasted for days. Hayden doubled over while his calf felt like it was on fire. He peeled the leech from his skin, and his hands began to burn. The watching group only began to laugh harder.

  The laughter was cut short when Sarge entered the room and crushed the squirming leech with his giant boot. Everyone shut up and stood like a child with an angry father bearing down on them. Sarge walked up to Hayden and said, “Why aren’t you in your armor?”

  “No excuse, sir,” Hayden said. He tried not to curl his hands in pain. The burning was intense, and there were two red, raw spots where he had come in contact with the leech. Sarge barked his punishment, and Hayden had to endure the torture a little longer.

  After dropping for twenty agonizing push-ups, Hayden scrambled to put on his armor. Once he was fully suited up, the armor detected pain, and it began to inject painkillers in the spots where the leech left its chemical cocktail.

  “You’re up front with Spider,” Sarge said.

  Spider griped about his marching partner, and they set off towards the forest. They were going towards the village. They would get to the krikshek tomorrow. When they walked far enough from the mining site, Hayden could see the forest life begin to replace the dead wood. At first, it was a bush here and there, maybe a husk of a tree that was dying, or the occasional animal scampering through the debris. Then the landscape began to change to a thick canopy with intense undergrowth. The forest was alive with sounds and noises.

  There were so many different creatures, bugs, and plants. Even the Colorado Rockies didn’t have this much variety. Most of the plants and animals left on Earth were maintained by humans, even in the wilderness areas. About ninety-five percent of the species of plants and animals from Earth were extinct from human activity. At first, it was over hunting. Birds like the passenger pigeon were wiped out for food, but humans realized they needed to set limits. The next species to go was the mosquito because its bite caused disease. They were eradicated when genetically modified male versions were released in the wild to produce unviable offspring.

  Soon, species that were considered a nuisance to humans were modified to kill themselves off. Important pieces of the ecological whole were removed. Other species who used bugs like the cockroach as a food source began to die. The bees died from environmental disasters. Pesticides engineered into the plants caused hives to collapse. There was always a technological solution to fill the gaps. Tiny drones would pollinate plants, but only the ones humans used, like fruit trees. The other plants were lost as they began to die without the proper bug to pollinate them. More food sources died, causing more species to go extinct.

  The extinction cycle caused by humans didn’t happen all at once. It wasn’t a mass extinction caused by an asteroid impact. It was a subtle event that happened over hundreds and hundreds of years. An orchid kept alive by drones would die because a trust for the orchid ran out of funds and the pollinator drones would be shut down. A bug that laid its eggs in the orchid would die when the last of their home withered. A bird that fed on the bug would die. Earth lost its biodiversity, not with a big event, but with a slow eroding of species.

  By Hayden’s time, the Colorado Rockies were a manufactured wilderness, kept alive by the public trust. Unlike the travelers of the past, there were no bugs in your tent or threat of a black bear getting into the food supply. There was no fishing because there were no fish. The trees were abundant and similar. It was nothing like Nigramoto. Hayden saw wilderness for the first time.

  Just as quickly as the wilderness started, Hayden encountered an odd sight. There were rows of newly constructed houses in a clearing in the forest. It looked as if a developer came in the night to create a town. There was a meeting hall, a school, and even a main street. It was designed like a typical small town from Earth’s past that Hayden had only encountered via holographic walkthroughs in school. Hayden felt like he was stepping into the past with one big difference. This town was made for the tribal Nigramotoians.

  The Nigramotoians were like any other civilization before the invention of interstellar travel. There were pockets of people who lived like their ancestors because the forces of civilization were too distant to affect their daily life. They may receive aid from the city, and much of them wore second-hand city dweller clothing. However, the same force of nature that let the tribal Nigramotoians go untouched by their culture was also the exact reason why the human culture came to Nigramoto: the decrand.

  The Nigramotoians, like humans, created their civilization near water. Not only was it the source of life but also the source of trade and idea exchange. It was no wonder that Earth’s largest and most influential cities were all located near an ocean. The harbor brought them wealth and ideas. It wasn’t until the invention of flight and motorized transportation that a city could have risen without access to a waterway, and by then all the most power cities had a one-hundred-year head start.

  Nigramoto was like Earth in a lot of ways. Seaside villages prospered and turned into towns, then turned into cities. However, unlike Earth, democracy was an innate form of government. They always consulted everyone, debated issues, and reached a group consensus. They were slow to adapt and change, but Nigramoto didn’t have a violent history as a result. The people who didn’t want to join the cultures near the oceans were left alone until the humans came.

  Decrand deposits were always inland in mountainous areas. The decrand promoted intense forest growth. The wildlife adapted to use the granular amounts in the soil as a nutrient. The plants became hearty, and the wildlife even heartier. Building cities and large civilizations in the deep woods was difficult at best and near impossible with what would be the equivalent of twentieth century Earth technology, so the tribal villages didn’t grow like their ocean counterparts. While the occasional explorer, social worker, and television crew would venture to see them, the villagers didn’t see much activity until recently.

  The humans, or Teristaques as commonly used by the villagers, set up operations shortly after the Liberation Wars. They brought large machinery and workers from many different species. Soldiers patrolled to keep order. The locals were well compensated by Earth standards. A small village and a single-family dwelling would be expensive and rare. Most people who lived on Earth lived in giant buildings housing thousands of people. People had to pay for space since there was so little of it.

  On Nigramoto, the villagers were given so much space in exchange for the land underneath their feet. They lived like kings when compared to the average dwelling for a human. Now that Hayden saw the village, he could scarcely believe it. The oddest part was that it was empty. There was no one living in the village. It was a new, ghost town.

  “The Nigs are ungrateful for what they got. Look at all this, and they want to live in a grass hut!” Spider said to Hayden. “Nigs live better than humans, and they treat us like we are the bad guys. We saved them from the Shusharshian Collective. They could have been slaves mining their planet till it was dust. At least we’ll give it back to them when we are done. In better condition than when we got here, I might add.”

  Hayden had seen al
l the videos before. A fleet descended on an idyllic planet. The population enslaved or destroyed. Shusharshian Overlords terrorized the galaxy, and humans were one of the few races to stand up to them. The Liberation Wars spanned many planets and many systems. Earth was too deep to see any war up close, but there were interactive holograms, video games, and much media about the conflict. The Shusharshians were a multi-raced coalition with dreams of conquest. The humans put a stop to their advancement but didn’t topple them entirely. The border was only a few light-years away from Nigramoto. Not that they would attack. The Shusharhian Collective and the UPE settled on a comfortable stalemate with a heavily armed border.

  The Nigramotoians were just another pre- interstellar flight civilization caught in the war. Hayden understood why they would be upset; he just didn’t understand why they didn’t know how bad it could have been had the humans not won control of the planet. Hayden assumed that the wounds were too fresh. Parents who fought in the war told their children stories. Either way, Hayden felt their discomfort. No matter how many times they were told that humans weren’t an occupying force but a peacekeeping force, Hayden still felt like the occupier.

  “That’s enough,” Sarge barked. “The village ain’t far now.”

  Hayden continued to walk. He wanted to get out of the empty town as soon as possible. It made him uneasy. The empty houses looked like they were watching him, forlorn and abandoned.

  _______

  A few hours later they came across a village. There were multi-story structures with thatched roofs built in a semi-circle around a common area. There was a field for sporting events, and even a school. It didn’t have running water or electricity, and the thatched roofs needed repair every year. The villagers were milling about doing various tasks when they arrived. Their hair ranged from different shades of blue, silver, and orange. Hayden had heard about the wild Nigramotoians who weren’t yet touched by civilization. He heard they fought fiercely and lived violent, brutal lives. Now that he was seeing these people for the first time, he couldn’t understand where the rumors came from. They seemed peaceful and passive, nothing like he was led to believe. As he approached, the Nigramotoians seemed nervous. The children were hidden from sight, and most did not make eye contact.