Darkness: Book One of the Oortian Wars

by Iain Richmond

  “Good.” Falco leaned back hard on his chair, lacing his fingers behind his head. “Let’s get the ‘upload’ to Admiral Chen. The Battle-Net on the Qing Long can encrypt it and send it to the rest of 10th Fleet’s boats. Lieutenant Bai.” Falco paused then decided, “Send Station Pluto the ‘upload’ in a Data-Pod ASAP. I want it protected from prying sensors, even on our side of the Oortian field.”

  “Yes, Captain Falco, I will send it via Data-Pod, but…” Bai fell silent.

  “Lieutenant?” Falco had a good idea what she was thinking.

  “Captain, the Oortians were able to access the encrypted signatures of our Data-Pods—”

  “Why does it matter how we send the uploads?” Falco finished.

  “Correct, Captain,” stated Bai.

  “Lieutenant, we have no idea how the Oortians accessed our pod signatures, so for now, we do what we can.”

  Falco marveled at Ensign Holts’s laser-like focus on the COM-Box centered on the massive poly-slab table of the Pluto Room. The rest of his officers were checking and rechecking every added weld, weapon and oxygen line of the newly christened, Battle Station Pluto. Admiral Chen continued to grill Ensign Holts from his command ship the Qing Long that sat in the center of 10th Fleet and stood between Falco’s jerry-rigged battle station and the Oortians’ black field.

  Holts stood confident, hands grabbing the smooth poly-slab as she leaned toward the squawking COM-Box that had finally fell silent. “All I can tell you, Admiral Chen, is that we have uploaded the sensor upgrade. It looks to be working as programmed, the data shows the area around Station Pluto is clear.”

  Falco looked over to his science officer and the co-creator of the aptly named Oortian Detector. Ensign Holts held his gaze and nodded.

  More a sign of support than confidence Falco thought, as I would feel a hell of a lot more confident in the ‘upload’ if it found enemies in waiting, but what if there were only one? As long as the ‘one’ had already been found by prior scans, its surface area would be documented and added to the Battle-Net database.

  A first contact, a single mass without others to compare it to, would be a problem. Cross that bridge when and if it came. At the same time, he was ecstatic that their piece of deep space was Oortian free. Admiral Chen barked another question and a poised Ensign Holts continued to answer after each pause.

  The principle of the Oortian Detector was brilliant in its simplicity. By sheer luck, no Falco thought, it was not luck. It was Ensign Holts looking through fields of data and having the ability to find something out of place.

  The COM-Box rumbled, Chen breaking the silence. “You and Lieutenant Bai both assured me this ‘upload’ will work.” Chen exhaled like a man without choices. “The ‘upload’ is in progress and we have nothing to lose, everything to gain. You have answered all I need, Ensign. Do you have anything to add?”

  For the first time Ensign Holts looked unsure, caught off guard. As well she should, Falco thought, Admiral Chen rarely asks for additional information he did not have the acumen to ask for himself.

  Holts quickly gathered herself. “We estimate the range of the sensor upload to be the equivalent of the long-range debris scanners.” Holts did her best to keep the uncertain tone out of her speech. “2500 to 3000 klicks line of sight, Admiral.”

  “How certain are you?” Chen paused. “Of the range?”

  Holts turned and shot a questioning look toward Falco, “Seventy percent, Admiral, but the ‘upload’ should be effective at the same distance as our debris scanners.”

  “Hmmm.” Admiral Chen’s breath came rasping over the COM-Box. “The debris fields in the outer solar system are vast, Ensign Holts. The Kuiper Belt alone is constantly pushing and pulling objects in and out of its influence.”

  The three officers fell into silence, Falco found himself staring at the COM-Box with Ensign Holts.

  “Continue your preparation of Station Pluto, Captain Falco,” Chen stated. “Captain, we will keep an open-COM to the station and the Anam Cara for as long as we are able. There is no help out here, it is left to us, here, now.”

  The COM-Box light’s green glow faded to black.

  “Seventy percent?” Falco stood, looking intensely at Ensign Holts. “That it will scan 2,500 to 3,000 klicks and detect Oortians that are completely powered down?” His jaw tightened, “or that it will work at all?”

  “Yes, Captain, I am seventy percent certain that the sensor upload will detect Oortians within the range of our long-range scanners.”

  Falco swallowed hard. “Good enough.”

  54

  the Creators

  Planet Tzara

  The eleventh shielding pod moved through the field and into the protected chamber of Tzara’s lair. Moments later the smoldering shell split and released its contents.

  Welcome, Creator of the Warruq. Tzara towered over the being that bowed ever so slightly to the leader of the Creators. His carapace wet, glistening from the dampness, appendages hanging loosely with each sinewy length tipped with an almost indestructible piercing end. The Warruq were the foulest of all the clans and by far the most deadly, but also the easiest to control. Warrior’s pride was everything to them.

  One left. Tzara knew the Creator of the Krell would be last and make an entrance for the rest to remember. Flames erupted outside the protective field; a massive pod lay just beyond her lair’s protective veil. Tzara moved back and made room for the last Creator to arrive. Her grand entrance would consist of crossing from the harsh elements into Tzara’s protective lair, and she hoped the pain would make the beast whimper.

  The giant smoldering pod cracked then shattered. The Creator of the Krell hovered, her massive orb of sloughing flesh turning her shape oblong without the frame of her pod to support her girth. Storm-pushed crystals plunged deep into her layered mass, creating a thousand wounds and sadly, Tzara thought, without the slightest whimper. Through the protective field she pushed as slowly as she could until her towering form stood far above the rest.

  Better than expected, Creator of the Krell, thought Tzara, one day you may rise and lead the Creators. But only if the Darkness allows it. Welcome great Creator of the Krell.

  The vast glistening orb shook ever so slightly. Tzara moved a fin in a circular motion. The thirteen Creators slowly moved into a circle, floating higher or sinking depending on their importance among the group. Tzara was the highest followed by the Creator of the Krell then the Creator of the Warruq. The remaining ten hung below them, equals with a vote in matters, but having only a single voice, the Speaker of the Ten.

  Tzara began the meeting. The voices, our new enemy stands in the open prepared to attack or invade the territories. The Darkness has expanded her protective reach as far as her resources allow. She cannot overtake and surround the second fleet that closes in on our border.

  But they will not leave, the Creator of the Krell echoed through the chamber. They look to invade our system. They have destroyed our clans in numbers that will take millions of cycles to replace.

  A hum grew from the ten Creators below. They search for a resolution, Tzara thought, an answer to the invading enemy that carries powerful weapons. Weapons it used without hesitation. A sign of a conquering civilization that must be dealt with. Below her, the hum from the ten Creators changed, pulsated which signaled each was following a separate and private conclusion to an idea or a solution. Tzara waited, the volume from the ten increased, decreased and finally, they succinctly fell silent.

  As was the tradition, the three most powerful Creators remained quiet. The Speaker of the Ten would provide the first option. Her clan were builders, her carapace was small, but from this round shell grew huge appendages, thick and powerful for lifting and towing. She was larger than the Warruq but peaceful and kind. She raised the skull plate out of her shell and communicated for the Ten.

  We have grown the territories as far as our resources will allow. The Speaker looked to the three Creators. Prox, Krell, Warruq and
even some of the lower clans have fulfilled their Oaths to us and traveled to the Realm of Warriors in our defense and preservation. If too many are lost, we become vulnerable to this new enemy with its formidable weapons and what if the Dakkadians return to the furthest frontier?

  Tzara clicked the thick plates under her head, a sign of respect. If too many are lost, she pushed her long carapace forward, floating above the others in the center of their circle, the clans may begin to question their purpose and then they will begin to question ours.

  The hum of the Ten began anew while they searched for a solution to this new and alien threat. Now Tzara or the other highest-ranking Creators could speak freely.

  The Darkness cannot be extended beyond its current borders until our resources are replenished. We need her protection from our enemy’s weapons, they are too powerful. We must move the clans within the mass of the Darkness. Tzara waited.

  Feed the Darkness! The Creator of the Krell bellowed in deep, wet rasps. Feed her the weaker clans! The lower clans! The worker clans! Use their mass to protect the warrior clans! And grow the Darkness!

  The ten Creators shot towards the Creator of the Krell who met their tentacles, fins and bony spikes in the center of the circle with her fleshy mass glowing and ready to ignite.

  Enough! Tzara roared, the Creators stopped their aggressive posturing and slowly reformed the circle. The Darkness will have its resources soon enough! The clans will meet the enemy in the Void as we did in the days of old, when we were a single clan with a lone world without the protection of the Darkness. She looked down on the twelve Creators, pushing herself higher above them. The clans are needed, their moment has arrived and they will earn the right to travel to the Realm of Warriors. They will fight in the Void and we will expand the territories!

  That is not enough. The Speaker of the Ten moved toward the middle of the circle, hovering below Tzara. A chance to reach the Realm of Warriors will spur the bloodlust and warrior’s rage in many, but the clans will need protection in the Void.

  The Darkness is not ready to expand, Speaker of the Ten. Tzara lowered herself and looked directly into the ocular sensors beneath her curved skull plate. The Leader of Ten was Creator of the Chakook clan. Peaceful builders, but they were also willful. Tzara’s lower carapace hung below the Speaker’s thick appendages that could carry and move immense amounts of material. They were miners and builders, engineers and farmers. Without the Chakook, all the Creators’ worlds would be barren, without structure, food or minerals. And they were almost impossible to kill… almost, Tzara thought, floating back to her position above the group.

  The Speaker of the Ten began thumping her thick limbs together, faster and faster. Here it comes, Tzara waited, the drumming and pounding speeding to a deep drone. Say it, Speaker of the Ten, let it be your idea, you will close the circle and the Creators will be as one.

  The droning stopped. Yes, mighty Tzara, your Darkness awaits its feeding. But we still have our shields and their endless stalks, and the warrior strongholds they carry! The Creator of the Chakook clan raised her stout limbs and began to spin in the center of the group. Release the shields! Release the shields! she spat, spinning faster and faster, creating a living tool that could dig through rock, ice and ore.

  Tzara curiously watched the display below her. The spinning blur of the Speaker of the Ten slowed her rotation. Tzara was impressed with the needed spectacle. I will release the shields and the clans will use their massive cover and immense resources to reach the enemy in the Void. Tzara looked to the Creator of the Warruq. And a LOR will lead them!

  Plates clicked, bony spikes clattered and flesh vibrated; Tzara worked the Creators into a blind warrior’s rage. She clicked her chest plates, hardened her carapace, did everything she knew the uncontrollable warrior’s rage would cause. Tzara sensed the drip and tight push of the thick substance beginning to course through her systems and she remained completely in control while the Creators below her could barely keep from killing one another. She slowed her movements, relaxed her armored plates, and the Creators followed until all was quiet, the stench of gasses and fluids from them, filling Tzara’s lair.

  The clans will die – the thought hung in Tzara’s mind, plucked and placed there by another. She was here, the Darkness was in control. You will die by the thousands and your broken, ragged remains will replenish my resources and I will grow.

  55

  LOR and the Shields

  the Darkness

  The upload from the Creators slowed, pulsed and stopped. The eldest of the living Warruq was now elevated to LOR, his time had come to lead the clans after endless cycles waiting in the Frontier. The Creators had already released the ancient shields and soon the massive guardians would carry thousands of warriors from many of the clans into the great Void. The shields’ protection came at a cost.

  LOR had swum under one of the massive shields after his awakening millions of cycles ago and followed its protected umbilical stalk to his own warrior stronghold. There were many of the beasts then but now only a few were left. Shields consumed far more sustenance than the Darkness could provide.

  LOR fired a quick energy bloom and left the edge of the Void and entered the Darkness. A current formed and carried LOR at incredible speeds. He hardened his carapace and drew in his appendages. The mass of the current thickened and slowed his pace. LOR crossed a vast black arching plain. His journey continued in front of a shadow the size of a small moon, only the slightest bit darker than the Darkness herself, but there it was, the shield’s protective plate.

  The current slowed, carrying LOR across the surface of the shield and finally dropped off the edge and flowed to the center of its soft fleshy underside, releasing LOR at the stalk. Warrior strongholds were clustered beginning at the base of the stalk where it connected to the underside of the shield until the stalk ended far below. Each sac would only open for its intended warrior.

  The cool mass of the Darkness rejuvenated LOR’s systems, coursing through every joint of his armored carapace. He softened his carapace, extended his appendages and allowed them to be taken in the current, freely moving while the current spiraled down the shield’s stalk, passing grouping after grouping of various sized pods.

  Too many cycles, LOR thought, too long since he last moved through her healing mass. His Warruq clan spent most of their time positioned outside of the Darkness just beyond her Veil, only returning for fuel and the gases for their respiration.

  The Darkness diluted the current he rode to a gray mist, enabling the clans following the stalks to their protected strongholds to see. His optical sensors were able to pick up endless faint shadows while his warrior’s migration continued. Pride filled his systems, the Warruq clans were well represented.

  He toggled between the open thought-stream that allowed him to track the locations and movements of his clans and his own private stream. The ability to use his vision within the Darkness, even poorly, had rarely been allowed, but she gives us a gift on our way to destroy the invaders.

  Her secrets were her own, but the Darkness had always aided the Warruq clans. There were even legends of her bringing back the most heroic of the fighters from the Realm of Warriors. After millions of cycles the Warruqs had learned many things. Each lesson aided the whole and filtered back to the Creators and their clans through the Darkness herself. LOR slowed his sinewy-appendages until their movement ceased and the flowing mist of the Darkness slid over and around his plated carapace. Slowly turning, LOR took in the shield’s stalk. Infinite fibrous tendrils woven and braided into an endless, living trunk. Even the warrior strongholds moved, pulsed and expanded with life. Interesting, LOR pondered, the small fibers that created the stalk looked similar to his own, smaller, but the shape was exact.

  LOR’s muscles contracted and stretched as instinct pushed past curiosity and again he was pushing his fins ahead of the smoky flow. Another gelatinous group of pods clung to the massive stalk. Each orb contained precisely enough room f
or its designed contents to fit within its protective walls. Each orb constricted and stretched to its contents mass.

  LOR slowed as one of the empty spheres was sized for a Warruq, but again this was not his stronghold. The orifice that lay at the strongholds furthest point from the stalk did not open at his arrival, so he pushed on without the aid of the Darkness, as she no longer gave him a current to ride.

  Shadows loomed ahead and LOR came upon a cluster of mammoth strongholds. He swam close to the outer layer and the stench of fear filled his sensors. They were Krell and would play a key role in the coming battle. Knowing these tortured creatures were part of the attack was comforting, but realizing there was an entire planet of them was not.

  LOR learned much of these abominations from the history of the previous engagement. An engagement that silenced his predecessor's thought-stream. Krell were powerful creatures that must be honored for their strength and pitied for their cowardice. There is something else; LOR came to a gliding stop above another of the large orbs.

  He gently settled into its gelatinous skin, allowing his carapace to sink into its wet, spongy armor. The emanating fear was clouding its thoughts, but there are distinct and separate thought-streams within. LOR remained still and quieted his systems, rotating through the millions of thought-streams that flowed through the territories; each connecting various clans and groups for different purposes.

  Twelve, there are twelve joined with this Krell. No, he thought, they are inside of it. There are twelve Seekers inside of this Krell. Prox would fight to the death before giving their Seekers to another. How this was possible or why, LOR had no collective knowledge of, another first by the Creators.