Epic of Aravinda 1: The Truth Beyond the Sky

by Andrew M. Crusoe

  Instantly, he was hit with a wave of hot air, and his eyes were nearly overwhelmed by what he saw inside. Strange cylinders and clusters of spheres connected by thousands of narrow tubes covered the floor and walls. On the far end of the triangular room, where it came to a point, was a large cone which contained a rapidly spinning pool of energy. Three cables were connected to the back of it which led down into the floor.

  “Remove the green cables,” Navika said. “Twelve seconds.”

  Zahn grabbed all three of the cables with both hands.

  They wouldn’t budge. He pulled again.

  “Eight seconds.”

  He heard a hissing sound coming from the cone, and a white vapor filled the room.

  He pulled has hard as he could. “5…” Then, he realized that there was a locking mechanism that he had to rotate slightly before they would detach. “3…” He unlocked them as fast as his hands could move.

  “Come on! I have not come this far to fail now!”

  “1.” He pulled all three with both hands and closed his eyes.

  To his relief, they came loose, causing him to tumble backward. As he tumbled, he smacked his head on the hard crystal floor, and a wave of nausea came over him. The room spun around him, and his vision became blurry.

  “Zahn, the flagship is nearly in range. Zahn, are you all right?”

  For a moment, Zahn thought he saw the radiant figure.

  Was this how it ended? Was this how he was going to die? Surely, he had drifted above another shaft and was completely exposed by now. Without an impulse drive, there was no way he could get into position and shoot the Tulari into the wormhole now. His plan had failed.

  He had failed.

  Somehow, he thought he could smell the Ashraya beach within the cabin, but he knew this was impossible.

  He blinked his eyes and was stunned by what he saw. Above him, he thought he saw the radiant figure shining through the smoke, reaching down to him.

  A hand pulled him up to his feet.

  His vision became clear, yet no one else was there. Had he imagined it? Zahn wasn’t sure what was real anymore.

  A new strength came to him. He knew what he had to do, and as he walked back to the command bay, a vile voice filled his mind once more.

  “Do you see the truth yet, Avanian? Have you accepted your parasitic nature? Acceptance is your only choice. Without your impulse drive, you are powerless in space. Your friends are surrounded on all sides. If you allow me to collect you and your weapon, I will let your mother live.”

  Zahn ignored the voice and sat down in the command chair.

  “There you are! I was beginning to get concerned. You have successfully prevented the cascade failure, and we continue to cruise at near maximum impulse speed. However, the Vakragha flagship is heading toward us, and we will arrive above another open shaft in less than a minute, completely exposing us once again.”

  “Understood.”

  Zahn contacted Yantrik and Asha.

  “My impulse drive is out,” Zahn said. “And I can’t maneuver. I only have one option left. I want you to know that I love you all. Each of you has changed my life, and for that I am forever grateful. Now you must all clear away from the planet as quickly as possible. I’m going to destroy this base, one way or another. Mom, I love you. Tell Dad I love him, too. Can you do that?”

  “Zahn! Just wait a minute. What’s your status?” Asha said.

  Zahn didn’t respond. He was high above the planet now, still speeding away from the evasive maneuvers he’d done earlier. Far below him, a section of the crust opened up. In moments, another swarm of small fighters flew out of the planet and headed straight for him.

  “Zahn! What are you doing?” Darshana said.

  “Mending the balance.”

  As he said this, he closed his eyes and imagined a vortex in front of the ship. Behind him, he could hear volleys of plasma bolts impact onto the ship’s hull.

  “If I’ve inferred your plan correctly, it is truly temerarious. But also brave. If we die here, I want you to know that it’s been an honor to know you, Zahn. Perhaps this will work, after all. Or perhaps it will fail spectacularly. In either case, I want you to know that I think Oonak would be proud.”

  “Thank you, Navika. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  Horrendous images of mutilated figures covered in blood suddenly flooded Zahn’s mind. He saw Avani’s oceans turn to black pools of death and the silvery sands burnt to ash. He struggled to push the images away, and the vile voice returned.

  “This is your fate if you resist. Martyrdom will not help your world. Surrender and your mother will live. You are not a man of action, Zahn. You are only an observer after all.”

  “Not anymore.”

  Zahn inhaled deeply and intently held the image of a vortex in his mind. One appeared, and they plunged in.

  CHAPTER 35

  FLOATING IN ETERNITY

  Time stopped.

  Zahn perceived the wormhole folding up underneath him, and then all was radiant nothingness. Space and time no longer had any meaning.

  Ahead of him, he thought he saw a small child.

  After a few moments, Zahn came to his senses and realized that the small child he had seen was actually him. His entire life was passing before his eyes. Visions of moments flashed before him: exploring the Ashraya archipelago trails when he was small, the day his mother had disappeared, the first time he’d walked up Zikhara alone, and the first day he went to work at the observatory. Finally, the replay reached the moment when he’d met Oonak for the first time, and it reminded him of how much he missed him. Oonak had sacrificed himself to save his mother, and that would never be forgotten.

  Soon, he saw their arrival at Rodhas and the battle. He saw it from a higher perspective, and then he saw the white flash: the moment he’d made a timespace jump directly into the wormhole.

  Now that he’d seen this life review, he felt lighter, as if a weight had been lifted off of him. Had he died? Was this what death was like? When the light of the white flash dissolved around him, he realized that he recognized this place. He’d seen the briefest glimpses of it whenever he’d used the gates or the timespace drive.

  He looked around and realized he was floating, completely alone, in the midst of a brilliant radiance. All around him were countless luminous corridors arranged like webs, and in the distance he heard the sound of soft flutes and birds.

  For the first time, he was seeing all of this without being in a starship. He was floating in the midst of timespace itself, and no sign of Navika could be found.

  I’m dead. I’m dead, aren’t I? What about Asha? For that matter, what about Mom and Yantrik? This isn’t how it’s supposed to end.

  In the distance, a white orb of light was approaching him. It spoke to him with the clearest voice he had ever heard.

  “Greetings, Zahn.”

  For a moment, he was silent.

  “Am I dead?” Zahn finally said.

  “You are… intact. You may now relay your desired coordinates within spacetime. However, be aware that there are serious risks and consequences for inserting oneself before one’s own time.”

  “So, I’m alive? I survived the jump into the wormhole?”

  “Technically, you no longer exist in the physical universe at any point after the jump. However, because your vessel contained a piece of my fractal nature, I did everything in my power to coordinate the nexus event so that I could eliminate the anomaly while retaining the integrity of the instrument and its keeper.”

  “Wait a minute. Did you just say that you sealed up the wormhole and saved my life?”

  “It is my purpose.”

  Zahn laughed a laugh of joy and relief. He had done it. They had done it. Together.

  “So you’re the Tulari? But how? How did you save us? And have you always been able to talk?”

  “I am indeed the consciousness of the Tulari, and the precise orchestrations of the event are far be
yond your understanding, I assure you. Suffice to say that I displaced you from that area of spacetime before you or your vessel could be damaged… and yet a part of me is still there, in that last instant, assuring that the wormhole collapsed, is collapsing, will collapse, in on itself.”

  The Tulari paused.

  “I apologize. That may sound confusing to you. Verb tenses are difficult in timespace being that time is far from linear here.”

  Zahn looked around and tried to understand this place, but it was simply too much to take in. All around him, points of light flashed through luminous corridors. But there was so much more. Shapes he couldn’t describe turned in on themselves, and sacred geometry slowly spun around him. He tried to examine the Tulari, but it was too radiant.

  “We are floating in Eternity, you know.”

  “Whoa.”

  The orb of the Tulari pulsed.

  “As I said before, you may now relay to me your desired coordinates in spacetime, though be mindful of my earlier warning. You are not the first to call upon my powers, and there are limits to how I may assist you.”

  “Why?”

  “I preserve the integrity of the warp and the weft that makes up the fabric of this Universe. I prevent all manner of paradoxes and incongruities, and I maintain the balance between the two realms. It is my eternal function.”

  “Spacetime and timespace. I must be one of the few that have visited both, aren’t I?”

  “All come here, all depart from here, and a part of all is here.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “For some, this is a place of reflection before a new cycle.”

  Zahn tried to remain focused. If he really was outside of time now, he could find out what happened to Oonak. He might even be able to save him.

  “Did I understand you correctly before? There’s no way I can travel into the past?”

  “As I stated, there are serious risks and consequences for inserting oneself before one’s own time.”

  “What if I just want to observe my past? I don’t want to change it.”

  The Tulari was silent for a moment.

  “That is permissible. If you remain completely hidden and inert, the danger is minimal.”

  “Can you tell me what happened to Oon?”

  “Who is Oon?”

  “He’s my friend. He sacrificed himself for us back on Hataaza Darad. If it wasn’t for him, we never would have escaped with my mother alive.”

  “If you allow me to read your memories of this event, it would increase the probability of me locating him.”

  “Sure.”

  The Tulari came closer, and Zahn could see that it was quite similar to the object that they had retrieved from Taarakalis, except that instead of being solid, this orb was made of pure light. The light moved closer and closer, until it touched his forehead, and for that instant Zahn felt firsthand the Tulari’s great power.

  “I see,” it said. “Such bravery. I shall find him.”

  The Tulari bolted away with incredible speed, and Zahn was left alone in the vastness.

  He looked around and thought he saw a familiar pyramid shape in the distance below him and tried to move. But once he tried, he realized that it was nearly impossible. He could no easier move forward or backward within timespace than he could move forward or backward in time back at home.

  He waited for what seemed like hours. There was no way to measure exactly how long. At first, he thought he might be able to judge the passage of time by the changing of the songs, but the songs blended together perfectly, and he couldn’t tell when one ended and when one began.

  Finally, he saw the white orb in the distance, and in an instant, it was right in front of him.

  “I have found the entity known as Oonak.”

  “Good. What happened to him after he left us?”

  “He is in the midst of collapsing stone. He is saving you and others. He is motionless.”

  “What? He can’t be dead. He’s too smart to get trapped or killed. Look again.”

  “He is dissolving stone. He is meeting a great beast. He is sneaking away.”

  “Yes! Where did he go?”

  “I cannot say.”

  “What do you mean you can’t say? Why not?”

  “I cannot show you anything that has happened after the moment that you entered timespace. It is my duty not to infringe upon the timeline.”

  “But he’s my friend! I need to know where he’ll be.”

  “Does it surprise you when I say that this is not the first time I’ve heard someone say those words? Please, do not be downcast. Remember, you may still see firsthand the events that I have described to you, and not all have that chance.”

  “Then let’s do it. Show me what happened to Oonak after we separated. I know you can’t show me anything after the point we entered timespace, but show me as much as you can.”

  “Granted.”

  CHAPTER 36

  A SLEEPING DRAGON

  The entire scene played out in a series of five short glimpses seen from a distance, as though he were watching it from above through a spotless window.

  In the first glimpse, he saw Oonak run down the path etched into the side of the volcano as two of the beastly Hataazans chased after him. As fast as he could, Oonak followed the path past huge boulders and crumbling rock, but the beasts slowly caught up to him. Zahn watched as Oonak darted into a large opening that led into the ridge.

  In the next glimpse, he saw Oonak in a large cavern, throwing two explosives into a massive, hissing machine which had a mess of cables and pipes protruding from it. The cavern branched off into several narrow tunnels leading back up and out of the volcano. Oonak followed one of the tunnels, which became unstable. As the ceiling collapsed, everything went dark.

  In the third glimpse, he saw Oonak rub his head, activate his suit’s lights, and begin searching the tunnels for a way out. As he searched, Zahn saw him eat some kavasa berries, and after many hours Oonak discovered a huge creature that was also trapped in the cavern mazes. When Zahn saw the creature, he was stunned. Oonak was standing beside an enormous winged lizard with silver, scintillating scales. It was a star dragon, and this one didn’t appear to be a hologram at all. Oonak melted the collar around the dragon’s neck with his resonator, and when it fell, its scales glowed faintly.

  In the fourth glimpse, Oonak and the dragon were fighting dozens of beasts within the caverns. The star dragon blew a stream of blue fire onto them, catching most of them ablaze. As the dragon did this, Oonak took care of any beasts that got too close. The ones that got set on fire ran around in mad circles, eventually running away in terror.

  In the fifth glimpse, he saw Oonak step into a large pocket over the dragon’s belly where there appeared to be plenty of air. Behind them was the same gate that Zahn and Asha had used to get back to the stolen moon, and a few seconds later the dragon stepped into the vortex. After that, the vision faded.

  “That is all you are permitted to see,” the Tulari said.

  “Why?”

  “As I have already explained, I cannot show you anything that has happened after the moment that you arrived here. The current slice of spacetime you have just seen is all preceding the instant that the nexus event occurred.”

  “By nexus event, you mean how you took me here to timespace, don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “I didn’t even get a chance to see where he jumped to.”

  “Zahn, this cycle is now complete. I must now return you to spacetime at the exact moment at which you left.”

  “What? But we could both be destroyed! With the wormhole gone, who knows what will happen in the aftermath.”

  “Timing is paramount with regard to free will. Space, on the other hand, can be bent.”

  “So we can reappear in another location as long as it’s the same instant we left? Can we jump anywhere in the Universe?”

  There was a long pause.

  “Not precisely. For o
ur purposes, my range is limited to the Aravinda Galaxy. If you create a clear enough picture of your destination in your mind, then I could send you anywhere within your galaxy. Knowing what you now know about the events leading up to the nexus event, I advise you to choose your home, or nearby. Remember, your impulse drive is still offline.”

  “Right. By the way, did I hear you correctly? Did you call our galaxy the Aravinda Galaxy? Who calls it that?”

  “The Eternal Ones.”

  “Out of all names, why did they choose that one?”

  “Aravinda is a name signifying expansion and growth. I see that on your world there is a kind of flower that you call a lotus. This flower begins under layers of mud, yet overcomes this obstacle to reach the sun. This is the meaning of Aravinda.”

  “What a beautiful metaphor…” Once again Zahn tried to study the surface of the shimmering orb, but its radiance was overwhelming. “The Taarakani didn’t create you, did they? They were just protecting you. You’re much older than their civilization, aren’t you?”

  “Remember, once we reenter spacetime I can no longer see time rolled out like a carpet beneath your feet. I will be where you left me, on your vessel. But in my dormant state, you will be on your own.”

  “Wait, so if this ever happens again, can I use you again?”

  “Of course, but the Vakragha seldom employ the same strategy twice. What is your choice, Zahn?”

  Two possibilities clashed in Zahn’s mind. On one hand, going back to Avani would get him and Navika home safely, but what about everyone else? He recalled Asha and his mother retreating to behind the eighth moon.

  He sighed.

  As much as he didn’t want them to worry about him, the Tulari was right; going directly home was the safest choice.

  “Let’s go home, Tulari. It’s time for a reunion.”

  CHAPTER 37

  AS GLASS SHATTERING

  What Darshana, Yantrik, and Asha saw was a truly spectacular sight. The moment after Zahn jumped into the wormhole, there was a flash unlike any the Kuvela system had seen in aeons. So bright it was, that the windows on Asha’s and Yantrik’s ships polarized to full opacity within a fraction of a second to avoid harming their eyes.