Heretic

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  The scientists became hysterical now, their death ensured in their eyes. In truth, Roland was pretty confident the water world would be his grave. Malekk had killed Esabelle, defeated Kalian and was probably only minutes away from ripping Sef’s head off.

  Li’ara strode over to Doctor Bal and levelled her gun at his green face. “Wake-them-up.” The Trillik stuttered. “NOW!”

  Roland kept his smile under control, not wanting to undermine Li’ara’s scary persona - but he was kind of impressed… and a little turned on.

  “Best do as she says, Doc.” Roland replaced his Tr-rollers and started searching himself for more explosive hardware.

  The base continued to shake and the internal framework groaned inside the walls. Roland kept one eye on Li’ara, who supervised the Trillik’s work, and one eye on the open doors. The bounty hunter unstrapped the grav-bombs from his arm and threw them into the corridor, beyond the lab. The metallic balls shot out from their casing and stuck to various places along the walls, floor and ceiling. He followed this up with a few mines that would be triggered by movement. Roland assumed that if the base could stand a fight between two Terran, it could handle a few mines.

  “Shut the doors.” Li’ara nodded at them with her chin.

  “Aye aye!” Roland replied mockingly. Using the Terran hilt, the bounty hunter reversed the process and sealed them in. “Len, can you hear me?” He tapped the device in his ear but got no reply.

  “What’s taking so long?” Li’ara was becoming irritated.

  Bal wiped the sweat from his brow. “Our interface with their pods isn’t perfect. It takes time to relay commands.”

  Li’ara swivelled on the red-headed Gomar. “What about her? It’s not the pod that’s keeping her asleep!”

  “Wait!” the Trillik warned, seeing Li’ara march over.

  Li’ara pulled the lines from the Gomar’s hands and neck and tore free the nodes stuck to her temples. Nothing happened. The Gomar remained perfectly still, frozen in her coma.

  The installation shook and the ceiling above their heads cracked, breaking one of the lights. Nobody moved. The almighty crack was followed by silence from above. Roland knew better than to think that Sef had won. The doors vibrated and the walls resounded with a deafening boom. The mines had been tripped outside.

  “That was all the time I could buy us…” Roland looked back at Li’ara, whose stony expression told of her defiance towards death.

  The red-headed Gomar remained asleep, along with her kin.

  The silence following the explosion was filled with whimpers and sparking technical equipment. Roland looked at his Tri-rollers and knew they had never been more useless, but damn if he was going to roll over and die. He’d draw blood first.

  The doors creaked and groaned under the stress of what could only be telekinesis. The bounty hunter steadied himself, ready for his last fight and regretting the lack of alcohol in his blood. Finally, the doors were pushed aside in a crumbling heap and smoke poured into the lab. Roland didn't wait but unleashed both of his Tri-rollers into the gloom. The familiar sound of intrinium bolts being absorbed against a telekinetic field told the bounty hunter of the futility of his actions.

  As Malekk strode into the room, unharmed by the blue bolts, he swiped his arm across the gap between them. A telekinetic wave swept Roland from his feet and thrust him into the wall, hard. The knock to his head was enough to stop him from getting back up, but didn't stop him from observing the infected Terran.

  Malekk stood in the doorway, looking over the two Gomar and the others beyond the glass. He didn't even bother to pause over Li’ara, who in Roland’s mind was the one person he wouldn't want to go up against. Li’ara had survived the explosion of two planets, an encounter with the Beast, Lilander and even Savrick, not mention losing her leg at Protocorps and ploughing through an army of mercenaries between Trantax IV and the capital. She wasn't just a survivor, she was a killer in Roland’s eyes.

  “You won't win,” Li’ara announced, finally getting Malekk’s attention. “Even if you kill the Gomar, we will find a way to oppose you. Kalian will return and when he does -”

  “When he does, he will return to a Conclave devoid of any humans.” Malekk’s voice was unnatural. “He is on the other side of the galaxy. By the time he finds his way back here, there will be nothing for him to do, except die. As all of you will, when I'm done with them.”

  Malekk reached out to the Rem-stores behind the glass, but Li’ara’s speech had bought them the time they needed.

  The red-headed Gomar opened her eyes.

  Roland wasn't able to track the movement that followed, but when his eyes caught up, the Gomar’s Rem-store was empty and both she and Malekk were no longer in the lab. More violence erupted around the facility, shaking the very walls. By the time Roland found his feet again, the ceiling above caved in and the Gomar was suddenly flat against the floor, her armour broken in several places. As she rose to her knees, Malekk dropped down between the jagged beams and broken pipes. The infected Terran picked the Gomar up by her hair, leaving her on her knees.

  The bounty hunter held his sore head while searching frantically for his Tri-rollers. He had to do something, no matter how useless it would be. Malekk raised his free fist, preparing to deliver a blow that would most likely kill the Gomar.

  The infected Terran stopped mid-blow, his features creasing into an expression of agony. He groaned and trembled as he stood over the Gomar, unable to move. Roland followed Li’ara’s confused gaze to the glass wall, where nine Gomar had stepped out of their pods. They were all looking at Malekk, some with their hands raised and others with an intense stare. The pod beside Li’ara opened up and the armoured being inside stepped out, focused on Malekk.

  “NO!” Malekk screamed. His eyes never left the kneeling Gomar. “Get… out… of… my head!”

  Whether it was telepathic or telekinetic, Roland couldn't tell - he was just pleased with the outcome. Even more so when Sef returned. The big Gomar limped into the lab, behind Malekk, and brought his fist down directly on top of the Terran’s head. An audible crack preceded Malekk’s collapse to the floor.

  Roland tried to catch his breath in the silence that followed. “Where the hell have you been?”

  Sef ignored his remark and helped the red-headed Gomar to her feet. One-by-one, the Gomar removed their helmets, revealing an array of colourful tattoos across their faces. One from the other side of the glass put his hand to the cold surface and reduced the entire plane to sand. Roland just stared at the sand in disbelief, as the nine entered the room and greeted one another as old friends.

  “Vox!” A male Gomar, with shoulder-length dark hair and an intricate purple tattoo across his left eye, ran over to the red-head and embraced her.

  Vox, as she was called, appeared somewhat battered and bruised, but the red tattoos under her eyes would hide any swelling though. After embracing her friend, Vox turned on Doctor Bal with a look in her eye that Roland had seen before. The Trillik wasn't long for this world.

  “Wait,” Li’ara said, stepping between them. “No more killing.”

  Vox raised her eyebrow, apparently having no intention of listening to the human. As one, the eleven Gomar turned to Sef, but Roland could only watch the group communicate, as he obviously wasn't invited to the silent conversation. Judging by Li’ara’s expression, he wasn't the only one who didn't know what they discussing. Doctor Bal had retreated to the group of scientists, who were all staring at the Gomar with dread.

  When their conversation was over, Vox turned Li’ara. “You helped Sef to find us. That makes you one of us.” The rest of the Gomar nodded in agreement.

  “What about me?” Roland asked, happy to have finally laid eyes on his Tri-rollers.

  Vox scrutinised the bounty hunter and looked back at Sef. Once again, a silent conversation passed between the red-head and the giant, before the Gomar looked back at Roland. “Definitely not.”

  “Brilliant,” he replie
d dryly. “We should probably leave now. Len? Len, can you hear me? Bring the Rackham around.” Roland tapped the earpiece and cursed. “We need to go up.”

  As the group made to leave, Vox locked eyes with the Trillik. Roland hoped he would never be on the other end of that look. The bounty hunter was sure the doctor’s twin-tail disappeared up his leg.

  “I’d choose a different career if I were you…” Roland mock-saluted on his way out.

  Malekk floated between the Gomar, telekinetically dragged back up the facility. It was the first time Roland had actually seen the infected Terran in person. His pale skin was stained with dark veins and his body was naked, but covered in tight bounds of nanocelium. Malekk appeared more machine than Terran now.

  The Translift was beyond cramped with twelve Gomar, Li’ara, Malekk and Roland filling its four walls. The bounty hunter felt very small standing between them and he did his best not to stare at the gorgeous blonde Gomar, pushed up against him.

  “Roland?” Ch’len’s alarming voice came through his earpiece.

  “Len?” Roland could hardly hear him.

  “Roland?” The Ch’kara’s next words were garbled.

  The doors opened onto the platform, where Malekk’s ship was standing. The next gargantuous wave was growing taller in the distance, giving them only minutes.

  “Oh shit…” Li’ara wasn't looking at the wave, however, but gazing beyond it, to the fleet of Conclave ships hurtling towards them.

  A squadron of red Darts flew overhead and circled back around, lining up the platform. Within seconds the facility was surrounded by dozens of ships, each pointing an array of cannons at the group.

  “We can't fight…” Li’ara directed her words at Sef, who appeared to be in charge of the remaining Gomar. “We talked about this. We can only move forward if we work together.”

  Roland could see where this was going. “Len?” he said under his breath.

  “There you are! I've been trying to get hold of you for ages! Listen, there’s an entire fleet here!”

  The bounty hunter rolled his eyes. “On point as ever, Len.” Smaller ships dropped out of the larger ones descending towards them. “Listen, I’m going to hand over control of the Rackham to you.”

  Ch’len’s silence spoke volumes.

  “If you don't come for me, I will hunt you down you little gas cloud.” Roland used his mental link to hand over manual control to Ch’len and wondered if he’d ever see the Rackham again.

  Chapter 21

  Kalian lost track of how long he had been inside the super subconducer. The machine opened up virtual realities inside his mind, keeping him occupied while his brain chemistry was altered further. Most of these realities were spent in one-to-one sessions with Alai, the first Terran immortal. Before Savrick turned him into a beast, Alai had been the closest thing ALF had to a friend. Kalian wondered how much the AI had really told the Terran. Did Alai know about ALF’s history? Where he came from? How the Terran truly came to be?

  For the most part, Kalian was content to sit with this artificial Alai and be taken through various meditation techniques. It was in these quietest of moments that he learned finer aspects of his connection to the world around him. From the heartbeat of an insect to the waves of stellar radiation, everything was connected to the same dimension, swirling together in the same soup.

  “You are distracted…” Alai commented in the silence of Kalian’s mind.

  “Sorry, I'm just thinking about… everything I guess.”

  “You’re thinking about the Paladin. You are excited by their arrival, hopeful even, but you are also terrified of the responsibility. Now you have a hundred thousand more souls on your shoulders.” Alai’s voice was soothing.

  “How could you know that?” Kalian asked. “You’re just a construct, created by the subconducer. If anything - and I've tried to ignore it - you’re probably ALF.”

  Alai smiled. “I am indeed a construct, but I am not ALF. I am you.”

  “You’re me?” Kalian was lost.

  “The subconducer hasn't created this reality, you have.” Alai gestured at the white room, bathed in soft light. To their left was an open view of familiar green fields and massive trees. They were on Evalan…

  “Why am I here then? If I’m plugged into the machine I should be practicing the jumps.” Kalian was indeed feeling the pressure to use his new level of power.

  “You will leave this place when you are ready,” Alai replied. “When the subconducer has altered the appropriate areas and supplied you with the required energy, you will know it.”

  Kalian eyed the Terran construct with curiosity. “So you’re what… my subconscious?”

  Alai responded with a gentle laugh. “Something like that. Your mind, our mind, is so much more than just consciousness and subconsciousness. Those barriers no longer exist, Kalian. It’s not just you and me in here.”

  The open view began to fill with hundreds of Kalians, then thousands. Eventually, they filled the entire landscape, each an exact replica of Kalian.

  “There are an infinite amount of Kalians all working on an infinite amount of jobs inside your mind. They all work together in harmony, aware of your needs and desires. You can recall any second of your life, be it touch, sight, sound or taste. You can command an individual cell to move through your bloodstream or multiply if you wish. Mountains can be reshaped at your fingertips and stars exhausted from your will. You can remember your birth in vivid detail, and if one day, when you truly understand the mechanics of this universe, you will even be able to glimpse your death…”

  Kalian felt a wave of nausea pass over him and he stumbled back from his sitting position on the floor. He rolled to the side and picked himself up on all fours, as every word sank into his mind in a way that felt it could never be forgotten.

  “I can't… I can't…”

  Alai raised his hand and the Kalians vanished, replaced with the beautiful vista of Evalan’s forestry. “What I have described is dizzying, I know. It is a future gleaned from our calculations inside the subconducer, as well as a few documented accounts from Terran history.”

  Kalian slumped into a seating position again. “What you’re talking about is… god-like.”

  “Indeed, but unlike a god, you have a few grounding factors that keep you human.” Alai’s eyes shifted to his left, where a large, circular door sat in the middle of the white wall.

  Kalian knew that door. Behind it was everything related to Li’ara, including a great deal of his emotions towards her.

  “Li’ara is on the other side of that door,” Alai continued. “You will have to open it before you can truly embrace your power.”

  Kalian walked over to the door and pulled on its thick handle. For all his strength, the door wouldn't budge an inch. He followed up with telekinesis, but the effect was the same.

  “You’re not ready to see what’s on the other side of that door, yet.”

  “What does that mean?” Kalian was becoming frustrated with himself.

  Alai smiled. “If you spent a little more time in here you would understand. Parts of your mind have already glimpsed what lies on the other side of that door, but you haven't found a way to integrate your conscious mind with the rest yet. Until then, you are unable to see everything your mind can perceive.”

  Before Kalian could reply to himself, a feeling of great strength filled his body. He examined his fist and felt as if he could punch through a planet if he wanted. He was ready to jump again.

  “Keep it local,” Alai added. “You’re just practicing, remember?”

  Kalian nodded. “Thanks, me.”

  The destination he had in his mind’s eye was clear. Kalian knew exactly where he wanted to go.

  Moments later, the subconducer’s helmet was being lifted from his head and the gloom of ALF’s ship surrounded him again. Naydaalan doubled over in front of him and vomited on the floor, with all four of his arms supporting him. Multiple tubes and strands of nanocelium r
eleased Kalian, detaching from his suit and skin. Without their support, he fell forwards and landed face-first onto the floor.

  “Take it slowly…” ALF’s large hands picked him up by the shoulders, steadying him.

  “I feel dizzy.” Kalian couldn't focus his vision and his senses were taking in too much information again.

  “Concentrate.” ALF’s voice started to drift away, along with the light...

  “He’s waking up.” The voice was deep, but Kalian couldn't identify it.

  “Indeed. Give him a moment.” ALF’s voice came through with distinction.

  Kalian opened his eyes, once again finding himself on the hovering slab in front of the subconducer. He looked to ALF, but the AI shook his head, answering the unasked question regarding surgery.

  “You coped better this time,” ALF explained. “Everything was where it was supposed to be, you just felt a little overwhelmed by it all, I suspect. You need to keep practicing.”

  Naydaalan walked over and placed a hand on Kalian’s shoulder. “You did well. I know that you can get us back to the Conclave.”

  Kalian nodded. “Thanks…”

  The light filtering through the tall, slender doors was that of Hadrok’s two suns. Kalian tested the strength in his legs and made for the light - he already knew where they were. The red grass was still present in every direction, with the arcing black rock dotted between. To the right of the ship was a sight Kalian had only seen in Savrick’s memories. The once beautiful city of Kaldor was now a broken relic, marring the natural landscape. Its towers and spires had all but vanished, and its gleaming walls were reduced to piles of rock. Almost every foot of the city was overgrown with red weeds and green vines.

  If Kaldor was to his right, then Kalian knew what was to his left. The mountain, where Savrick had raised Esabelle and found the damaged cube, dominated the horizon. It wasn't exactly as Kalian had seen it, two-hundred thousand years ago, however. The top half of the mountain was simply gone, reducing its overall height.