Terranus: Renaissance: Book two of the 'Terranus: Origins' series.

by Joe Crouch

  “Good day, Sir?” Robin, the driver, asked. He was dressed in a sharp black suit, black glasses and had a pistol under his jacket at all times in case anything ever got out of hand, he trusted Robin with his life, he was but one in his small circle of confidants.

  “You could say that,” Sean joked, relaxing a little as he grabbed a can of pop from the inbuilt fridge.

  “How did the testing go?” Robin quizzed.

  “You know I can’t talk about it, Rob, I know how excited you are about all that stuff but I just can’t, not yet,” he admitted.

  “Very well, Sir,” Robin nodded, “You want to head home?”

  “Yeah, home sounds good right about now, wake me when we’re there,” Sean said as he drifted off…

  Chapter 2

  “Ugh,” Sean yawned, stretching as he rolled onto his back, his eyes adjusting to the morning light, “You couldn’t have given me another thirty minutes, could you?” Turning over he faced the warmth that slept soundly beside him. Taris’ light purple skin had a certain sheen to it while she slept, her long, blonde hair was sprawled out across the pillows in a mess as her chest rhythmically rose and fell with her shallow breath. He took a moment to remind himself that there was still some good in his life amid the sea of shit that seemed to wash over him at the moment. She had decided to live with him early on after the battle for Earth, she was enamoured with everything about the planet from the people to the clothes to the beautiful scenery. The two of them lived happily in a secluded part of the country beside the sea, the delights of the different foods of Earth was still an exciting experience every day for her as she consumed as much as she could, her Ioution metabolism making sure she didn’t lose her tight figure.

  With a kiss on her shoulder he rolled over, dangling his legs out from the black velvet covered bed and let his feet touchdown on the cold laminated flooring, he recoiled for a moment before acclimatising to the change in temperature. At the clicking of his fingers, the heavy cloth curtains split away from the large glass bay doors that led out to a balcony. Sat on the edge of the bed he stared out and watched as the waves crashed with a calming rhythm onto the beach below. The salt in the air always left a buzz on his tongue first thing in the morning as the fresh sea-air rolled in through the open window that was built into the thick red brick wall. Even this early in the morning the sun was out in full force, beating down on the golden sands that rippled out from his house, almost blinding him every time he stared for too long. With a final yawn, he pushed himself up off the bed. Splitting the bay doors open a light cooling breeze rolled in and caressed his warm skin as if inviting him to step outside, to which he obliged.

  Sitting on one of the white metal chairs that bent around a maple table he watched as a tiny servant bot rolled out from the house and placed a mug of coffee down in front of him. For him, these were the most magnificent invention he had ever come across, with the boom in AI since the Ioutions rendered aid, companies were popping up and creating all types of robotic assistants. This one, which he called Freddie, sped around on its twin tracks, it had a temperature controlled unit affixed and three long, spindly arms which extended out from its rounded body, its one purpose was to provide drinks when it was asked. They were still a far cry from the AI the Ioutions employed but he was impressed none-the-less with the leaps Humans made with just a smattering of new technology.

  Looking out across the beach he rose his mug to the family who lived two doors up – The Jones’ - as they strolled with their black and white Shih-Tzu dog across the golden sands. Leaning over he grabbed the newspaper one of his many robots dropped off for him, the front page was a propaganda piece about the Xuron War and how well it was going on the front lines. Scoffing, he turned the page and saw his face scrawled across the paper with the headline ‘Ambassador Shuns Young Girl Asking for Autograph.’ With a clenched first he threw the paper across the balcony and receded into himself, disgusted at the drivel newspapers would print when there were real issues taking place not just on Earth but across the Galaxy.

  “Why do I even bother?” he sighed, taking a sip of his steaming hot drink, inhaling the sweet mixture of fumes that filled the air. I wonder what the Mar’Ell is up to he thought, one assignment to deep space and I never hear from them again, I probably shouldn’t be surprised. He looked out over the calm sea and watched as small ships sailed across the waves while throwing out their fishing nets. Fishing had become obsolete with intensive farming, he knew, but it was still an enjoyable hobby for some. Taking another sip from his mug he watched as the water glistened, he took a deep breath of the sea air and finally relaxed, until his comms unit began to beep, with a click of a button the call was connected.

  “Ah, Mr. Maguire, it’s so good to see you’re awake and well, I hope yesterday wasn’t too stressful,” Omo said in his usual scheming and patronising tone. Omo was an Ioution scientist embedded within the Scimitar program, like most Ioutions that took up residence on Earth, they thought highly of themselves and looked down on Humans with an absolute pity. His silver skin and broad, cocky grin always managed to ruin Sean’s day but Omo was someone he had to endure and put up with, at least for the time being.

  “Morning Omo,” Sean replied while massaging his forehead, “What can I do for you on this previously beautiful day?”

  “I’m glad you asked Human,” the Ioution perked up with a slanted smile that could only spell trouble, “The Scimitar’s aren’t making enough progress and I would like to step up the intensity of simulation training to three times a day.”

  “Three times?” Sean barked, incredulous, “Two is more than enough I think, these damn fighters are already in production, Omo, how much more tweaking and testing can we do to ensure they are ready and safe?”

  “We can tweak and test for the rest of eternity if you like, nothing is ever perfect Sean, you should be well aware of that,” Omo smiled, trying to draw him into retaliating. Leaning back in his chair, Sean took a deep breath, sipped his coffee and replied.

  “Leave me alone, Omo, you’ve ruined a perfectly good morning with your ugly face,” he said while leaning forward and placing his mug on the table, “Oh, and I’m going to be in an hour late today.”

  “An hour late, why?” Omo asked.

  “Because I said so,” Sean replied while closing the communicator and ending the call. “Pfft, three times a day, what do they think I am, some kind of meat bag?” he whispered to himself, shaking his head he stretched out and felt two arms wrap around his chest.

  “Morning,” Taris beamed while looking down into his eyes, with a quick peck on his forehead she moved around, grabbed his half-empty mug of coffee and sat down in a chair wearing nothing more than a long shirt. “Omo?” she quizzed with the mug muffling her speech.

  “Omo,” Sean nodded, “That little punk, next time I see him I’m going to…”

  “You’re going to do nothing,” she declared, smiling, “You’re a soft touch, everybody knows that, I bet you a thousand credits you won’t do a thing.”

  “A thousand credits?” Sean sat up, suddenly interested, “You’re on, I’m going to… I’ll… I’ll switch around his lab coats so he can’t get access to restricted areas.”

  “Oh you bad boy,” Taris smirked, laughing at him, “What are you going to do after that, mix his socks around so he doesn’t have the same colour on? Watch out, I smell a serial killer.” Looking on in frustration he watched as she laughed away to herself and put her feet up on a spare chair, the long scar that ran down her thigh was a reminder to him what could happen in the Galaxy if you crossed the wrong people. He cleared his mind and stood up, waving away her mocking glare before she burst out into another fit of laughter, he played the victim but seeing her happy made him feel as if everything was right and fair in the world once again.

  “You fancy some breakfast?” he asked, looking back over his shoulder.

  “Oh,” Taris squealed, breakfast was her favourite meal of the day with the wide variety of
sweet and savoury snacks on offer for her to try, “What was that long yellow thing you gave me the other day with those odd flake things?”

  “A banana and puffed flakes?” he looked at her puzzled, “You liked that?”

  “I loved that, the fruit had a rich, deep sweetness to it that blended so well with the savoury crunch from the flakes, ugh I want it now,” she demanded while clapping her hands with joy. She was like a child when getting to eat food from Earth, he wasn’t surprised as after surviving on Ioution meals for a while puffed flakes to him tasted like the best thing he had ever eaten. With a nod he strolled off through their messy bedroom and stepped into the living room, as it detected his presence the television flashed into life, changing the channel to the daily sports news. The low volume created a background noise that gave the whole house a certain atmosphere. The red bricks that made up every wall were bathed in a cool glow as lights flicked on overhead, his sweaty feet stuck to the laminated floor underfoot, tearing away with every step he took. They had amassed an extensive collection of vintage music CD’s that sat on different coloured shelves around the room, the large white leather sofa was placed in front of an antique television display, he didn’t want any of the fancy holographics, he just wanted to sit back and relax with his full collection of old shows.

  With his presence, the kitchen sprung to life as the myriad of appliances all switched on and displayed a list of available ingredients with potential recipes he could construct with what he had. The cold stone floor made him recoil as he tip-toed over to the basket of fruit to pick out some bananas, “Good morning, Sean,” one of the culinary robots said in its default cheerful tone, “What are you and Lady Taris having on this fine morning?”

  “Morning Clive,” Sean muttered as he grabbed the fruit and began peeling, “Nothing special today I’m afraid, we’re having fruit and flakes – Again,” he scoffed, putting the banana on the chopping board, drawing a sharp knife and slicing away.

  “Magnificent,” Clive cheered, “Lady Taris rated that particular meal five stars’ yesterday so I updated your shopping list to reflect her change in taste.”

  “No,” Sean shouted, pointing his finger towards the confused bot, “Do not do that, I want some bacon, eggs, sausages, anything but all this healthy crap.” With a double beep the bot sunk back into its alcove allowing its owner to carry on unabated. Shaking his head, he grabbed the box of flakes from above him, poured a bowl full, dropped the sliced bananas on top, poured some milk out from a dispenser and went to slide the box back into its snug cubby hole. As he pushed the box in, the milk that sat motionless in the bowls began to vibrate gently, a tiny ripple formed across its surface and as he bent down to look closer the vibrations grew until he felt a low rumble rippling through his chest. “What the hell,” he muttered as he picked up their breakfast and strolled out from the kitchen, the vibrations grew so intense that pictures and ornaments fell from their holdings, smashing onto the solid floor. As he walked into the bedroom his heart stopped, he dropped the bowls allowing them to detonate across the entire room covering everything in a thick layer of milk. “Oh… My… God, it can’t be,” he gasped before hopping from heel to heel in excitement.

  Looking out the large bay windows he saw the once pristine sand being kicked and thrown up in every direction by a sleek, metallic shuttle that hovered above his rear balcony. It’s curved, stylish shape was unmistakable to him, he looked over to Taris who sat calmly throughout the storm of sand that assaulted her. He watched on as the humped craft settled down onto the sedimentary surface, it sank in a little as the struts absorbed the weight of the shuttle before finally coming to an equilibrium. His mouth grew dry and his heart began to race as his excitement grew, he knew what was coming but it didn’t make it any less sweet.

  With a familiar pop-hiss a split formed down the curved side that faced them, the two separate parts that formed split away and curled back laying flush up against the ship’s hull. A set of stairs clicked out and snapped down towards the wet surface below. Through the thick cloud of sand that began to settle, the outline of a tall, lanky figure started to take shape. The ghostly framework stepped down the stairs in a slow, languid motion. Sean stood almost bent over his balcony’s railings as he tried to get a closer look. His eyes widened as he saw who it was, his bright shiny silver skin and wide green eyes were unmistakable – Fez.

  “Fez,” Sean let out with the same high-pitched squeal a teenage girl would have seeing their pop-idol, “You’re back,” he paused, feeling different emotions rush over him, “What took you so long,” he barked.

  “You know where I was, Earthling,” Fez replied, taken aback by the stern tone in Sean’s voice, “You’re lucky I came back here to rescue you from a miserable life, I didn’t have to you know.”

  “That’s not the…” Sean began before Taris laid a hand on his shoulder, he took a deep breath and waved Fez up, one of his bots scurried away to open the door for the unwieldy alien. Taris turned, giving him a deathly ice-cold glare, “I won’t bring it up, I promise.”

  “You better not or it won’t only be my fist you’ll have to worry about,” Taris snarled. Through his inner laughter, he heard the door to his house slam shut followed by the rhythmic, crunching footsteps across his newly installed laminated wood flooring.

  “You better have wiped your feet you ogre,” Sean shouted throughout the house, “I only just cleaned.”

  “You only just cleaned,” Taris looked on, puzzled, “You sure about that, champ?” Waving away the protest he stood with a stoic posture between the glass doors and waited for his friend to arrive. Moments later the large figure appeared through his bedroom doors, ducking his head under the average height Earth door frame, the two locked eyes, weighing one another up. He couldn’t contain his excitement any longer though as he rushed forwards and wrapped his arms around the hulking Ioution captain.

  “Oh, you’ve been working out,” Sean said with his arms still firmly wrapped around Fez’s waist, he worked his hands up the alien’s body and felt the muscles across his arms and back, “You’ve done a lot of work, I hope it wasn’t all for pretty ‘ole me,” he smiled, pulling away from the awkward Ioution.

  “No,” Fez replied in his usual monotone voice, anyone else could have mistaken it for apathy but he knew better, “I am glad to see you, Sean, you’ve gotten…”

  “Better looking?” Sean added.

  “Fatter,” Fez finished, looking the Human up and down and with a broad, toothy smile he picked up the relatively weightless husk of a man and carried him outside to a waiting Taris. He threw Sean into a chair and nodded his head to Taris who replied in kind, “It’s good to see you again Lady Taris,” Fez said, “I hope life on Earth is treating you well.”

  “No need for the Lady title these days Feghouli, you know that,” she smiled, “But yes, this planet just may be my favourite out of every one I’ve visited, it has a certain… charm to it,” she said, smiling towards Sean. With a wave of his hand, the Human ordered a bot to fetch a drink for their guest whom he offered one of his small selection of Ioution sized chairs to.

  “So, how’s life, Fez? You’ve obviously taken care of yourself, you look great,” Sean admired, envious of the commitment he had to a task he wished he could keep up with.

  “I’m well and here on important business,” Fez paused to look out across the smooth sands of the beach which had now settled, “You were not wrong in your communications, Taris, this location is visually pleasing.” With a pride in her home, Taris nodded and gave him a warm smile.

  “This business,” Sean interrupted the silence, “It wouldn’t have anything to do with you scurrying away to the other end of the Galaxy, would it?” He doubted he would get an answer, he knew the Ioution High Council had tight lips on anything they didn’t want outsiders to know about, especially secret missions. Fez pondered for a few moments before grabbing the hot cup of coffee the bot brought to him, taking a sip his eyes lit up in amazement.


  “This is your version of Mieno?” he asked, “Wow, you didn’t lie about the vast breadth of flavours on this world, Sean,” he said before quickly gulping down the rest of the mug, to which his company looked on in amazement. “But yes, business,” he frowned with a distaste towards the entire thing, “I can’t give specifics just yet, you know what they’re like,” he said, receiving an acknowledging nod from Sean, “But we didn’t even make it anywhere close to the edge of the Galaxy.”

  “But what were you even doing out there?” Sean asked, “There’s nothing out that way, right? At least from what I could tell on the limited access I had to Mar’Ell records.” Fez sat back putting one leg over the other and ordered a second cup of coffee.

  “You’re mostly right,” he admitted, “But there’s still plenty to explore in the Galaxy, we’ve been around a long time but to survey every planet and system would take thousands upon thousands of years.” Sean nodded his understanding and waved for him to continue, “But now and then something crops up in the borderlands that intrigues us, this mission was to observe one of these oddities.”

  “But you didn’t make it out there, did you?” Sean asked while sitting forwards, fully engaged with the story, Taris watched him and couldn’t help but share his excitement.

  “There’s nothing in the borderlands,” Taris spoke up, “Reject planets that no one wants to even bid for, the furthest I’ve even bothered to explore is only a fraction within its enormous borders.”

  “Again, you’re mostly right, but there are always some odd readings coming from out there that we haven’t located the source of yet, obviously the High Council are concerned that it’s a Xuron threat or something new,” Fez said.

  “So, why are you here?” Sean asked, cautious of the answer he was going to get.

  “Well…” Fez trailed off, taking a deep breath and exhaling, “We lost track of the signal, it was there one minute and gone the next, so we abandoned the mission and began our return to base.” Sean was deflated, he slumped back into his chair, the ideas of what it could have been flooded his mind as he stared into nothingness.