Children of the Aris: Set in The Human Chronicles Universe

by T. R. Harris

  “Can you detect Adam through his ATD?” Sherri asked the mutants. “We just lost contact. If he’d been killed, the ATD would still work, wouldn’t it, at least for a while. It has its own power source, doesn’t it?”

  “That is correct,” said Panur. He’d help build the device; he should know how it works. Still, he turned to Lila. She had more natural telepathic ability than he.

  “I sense the device, but a block has been put on it,” Lila said. “This is undoubtedly the work of Garus. However, the power signal is strong. There does not seem to be a drain, which would signify that the device was not supplementing its power from a living organism. From this, I would conclude my father is still alive.”

  “Can you turn it back on?” Riyad asked.

  “Not remotely,” Lila answered. “But I can locate him. Let us enter the complex. The Enforcers may need our help.”

  Sherri smiled as they set out to join the rest of the Enforcers. She was in good hands, surrounded by Riyad and two of the most powerful creatures in the galaxy. She was content to let them lead the way.

  Adam sprinted down the passageway, bouncing off the walls as dizzy spells hit him. The Formation room was down one level from the Control Center, and he made it there without running into any of the Gracilian soldiers. They were busy elsewhere in the complex.

  Upon entering, Adam focused on the equipment Garus had referred to as the storage unit. It was at the end of the Formation array and was active, with lights and meters on a series of control pads on the surface. Finding nothing else to use, Adam picked up a chair and began bashing the metal boxes with it. He was a mad man, screaming with every blow. If the unit still contained the pent-up quantum beam, then Adam needed to release it somehow, break the containment field, whatever was holding it in place. And he had to do it soon. Garus didn’t have to be in this room to initiate the firing sequence, but he did need the beam.

  Metal seams began to break, as did the chair. Now all Adam held in his hands were two back support rods. He set to work on the box with these, jamming them inside cracks made to the unit. He poked and prodded, trying to destroy the inner workings, to short-circuit what he could. Sparks flew out, burning his arms.

  He then discarded one of the rods and forced the other into the opening, pushing down with all his might while a side panel bent away. The interior of the box was exposed, showing an elaborate series of circuits, power boxes and electronic switches. Many were broken, but still, the unit hummed.

  Power cords ran up the walls before branching off to run the equipment in the room. Adam reached up and took hold of one of the corrugated conduits. He pulled, placing a leg against the wall for more leverage. He gnashed his teeth, groaning from the effort, finally screaming until the cable broke loose at the ceiling, showering him in even more sparks.

  Adam dropped to the floor with the still-sparking wire in his hand. He jabbed it inside the box, initiating an explosion from within the unit. The blast threw him across the room, where his already battered head struck another wall.

  Lights flickered, either from the sporadic power feed or from his intermittent eyesight. But the one thing Adam was sure of: The lights were off in the collection unit. Not only that, but a third of the Formation skeleton was a crumpled mass of bent tubing.

  That’s when Adam noticed all the disks were gone from the stack.

  Dammit, Adam thought. His next target was the Formation. But it did him no good to destroy only the frame. He needed to destroy the disks.

  He had been so busy with the storage unit that he hadn’t noticed the almost constant booms and vibrations that continued to rock the underground complex. The battle was still going on. That was good—as long as the good guys were winning. But Adam wasn’t done with his fight.

  He had no idea if he’d stopped the destruction of Earth or not.

  And that’s when he noticed them; eight elongated cases, placed on a shelf near the front of the Formation.

  Adam rushed to the cases, pushing them off the shelf and onto the floor. Some opened, spilling their contents, while others remained closed. Adam knelt, surveying a variety of broken and twisted pieces of metal that lay on the floor, the product of the explosion. Adam picked up one of the larger rods, a part of the Formation frame.

  For a moment, he looked reverently at the disks on the floor, some of them already broken. Before him were probably the oldest objects in the universe, and the fact that the mutants said they were alive made them even more unique.

  Could he do this? Could he destroy such a rare and powerful commodity, the creator of life itself, what many would consider to be God?

  Hell, yeah!

  Adam let loose with the rod, crushing the thin wafers into dust. Then he moved to the next box, and then the next. It only took thirty seconds to destroy ten billion years of life contained in the Formation disks.

  Rope ladders were strung from the jagged hole in the metal roof of the hangar. It was a good ninety-foot drop to the main level. Riyad recognized it instantly as the part of the hangar complex that once housed six hundred dark-matter warships. Now it was empty and dark, lit only by illumination balls thrown about by the invading troops. However, all around were empty cots, food containers and spare clothing, left in a rush by the soldiers using the area as a barracks. Riyad made a quick count. There had to be three hundred Gracilians in the complex, and he was sure they were here to guard the place, not to participate in helping Garus build the Formation. These would be warriors, not scientists, and from the brief encounters the Enforcers had had so far with the defenders, they were competent warriors.

  A bandaged Major Kilous ran up to Riyad. He eyed the mutants nervously, knowing who they were before giving his report.

  “Commander, eight main corridors lead away from the hangars and then a series of stairs, elevators and ramps to reach the lower levels. The Gracilians have welded barricades across all but one of the access points, forcing us to take that route. That is where they have concentrated their defenses. We tried to force our way through but had to withdraw. We are going to have to blast our way in, but as we do so, we risk collapsing the tunnel.”

  “Let me help you with that, major,” Panur said.

  He smiled back at Lila and then set off with the officer for the front of the Enforcer line, appearing almost anxious for some flash bolts to his body. He would absorb them with almost sexual pleasure.

  An injured Major Kilous had called in every Enforcer he could spare, both from the surface and in orbit, to form the small army he had, numbering about two hundred troops. He was spitting mad after what happened at the University, frustrated that he had lived while many in his unit had not. He was determined to get revenge. But now he was facing an enemy that was dug in, prepared and outnumbered them almost two-to-one.

  Riyad followed the mutant and the officer, seeing the anger on Kilous’ face. Sherri and Lila trailed behind, showing no such concern.

  The Enforcers were bottled up at a wide vehicle ramp that led off the main spacecraft hangar. There was little cover here except for connecting passageways at the ramp's top and bottom, separated by about fifty yards. The Gracilians had stationed themselves at the base of the ramp, at the next level down. They’d erected two rows of metal barriers across the opening, set back about twenty yards from each other, and giving the defenders plenty of cover. Kilous was right; the only way to get through the barriers would be to send rocket-propelled grenades down the ramp. The explosions would risk collapsing the roof, leaving the Enforcers digging to get through, either here or at the other blocked passageways.

  The Gracilians were disciplined, holding their fire until they had a target to shoot.

  Panur obliged them, beginning a lonely walk down the ramp toward the first barrier.

  The battle scene became graveyard quiet. The Gracilians knew who Panur was, although mainly by reputation. Very few had seen him in person. In the flesh, the nondescript grey alien wasn’t a very intimidating figure. Besides, like all
reputations, the stories could be exaggerated. Nevertheless, no one was willing to take the first shot. Panur was within ten yards of the barrier before the Gracilians finally opened up.

  Twenty natives were manning the barricade, with another twenty stationed at the second barrier. During firefights using flash weapons in tight quarters, many combatants wore thin, pull-down sunglasses to protect against the blinding light. In this case, no degree of sunglasses could safeguard against the star-bright flash of multiple bolts being released simultaneously from twenty Xan-fi rifles and at a single target. Everyone at the top of the ramp turned away, covering their eyes, everyone except Lila.

  In the corridor, Panur instantly glowed white-hot as he arched his back and extended his arms out to his side in a display of ecstasy. It had been a long time since he’d had an energy intake like this, and it was just what his body needed as it was still integrating his free-form brain cells. The energy intake would speed up the process.

  The firing only lasted fifteen seconds. The bath of light now blinded targeting computers that had been locked on Panur a moment before, while radiant heat blistered the barricade's metal surface. Gracilian troops shrieked from pain as their skin met the hot metal. But even before this, they were falling back, unable to tolerate the heat coming off the mutant’s glowing body. They tumbled over the next barrier, prompting a wholesale retreat by the Gracilians at both locations.

  Panur walked up to the barrier, finding trouble with his footing as each step sank into the red, near-liquid metal of the floor.

  I believe it is time for us to take over, Lila said to him in his mind.

  I believe you are right. I will retire to an anteroom to cool down and allow you and the others to pass. And, my dear, that was invigorating. You should try it.

  The battle is still early; perhaps I will have the opportunity. I will let you know when we find Adam and Garus.

  Adam sensed a movement behind him. He sighed and then turned around slowly.

  “I did not think you would do it,” Garus said softly. He was remarkably calm, considering what Adam had just done. The Gracilian Crin was standing next to him, looking aghast.

  “It was the only way to stop you.”

  “Master, what are we to do now?” asked the native.

  Garus shrugged. “That is a good question—”

  “He hasn’t told you the truth, Crin,” Adam blurted. Although he was about to die, Adam wanted to take one last stab at Garus, perhaps turn his loyal sidekick against him. “He lied when he said the Gracilians are descended from the Luz. They aren’t. He only said that so you’d help him.”

  Crin hesitated for a moment before anger filled his face. “It is you who lie!”

  Garus stood passively by with a thin grin on his face, letting Adam talk.

  “He’s not Luz; Garus is something called an Alinie—”

  “It is pronounced Al-in-ni,” Garus corrected.

  “Whatever!” Adam yelled. “It just means that he lied to you. He’s been lying to you from the beginning.”

  Confused by Garus’s calm manner, Crin turned to him. “Is this true? Have you lied to me?”

  “It matters not if I have; I have accepted you as my servant, the only one of your race I have done so.”

  “Why would you lie? Is it true; are we not Luz?”

  “I am disappointed in you, Crin. You are supposedly one of Gracilia’s greatest scientists. Have you not realized the fallacy in what I told you?”

  “What fallacy?”

  “Consider, three billion years ago, Gracilia was barely a billion years old. The environment on the planet at that time would be toxic to life forms such as the Luz and the Aris. There is a possibility that the Aris seeded your world, but they surely would not have exiled creatures such as themselves to Gracilia. They would have died. But all this means nothing in today’s reality. I am here now, and you and the Gracilians have been offered a place at my side. Make a decision, Crin. Do you serve me, or do you die here with the rest of the Gracilian fighters?”

  It only took a moment for Crin to pronounce his undying loyalty to the Master. To Adam, the whole scene was sickening.

  “Very good, Crin. And now, with Adam Cain’s mutant friends in the complex, I suggest we leave.” He turned toward the doorway.

  “But what of him; what of Adam Cain? He … he must be purged!”

  Garus looked at Adam and grinned. “I sense this will not be the last we see of each other. I will let him live, for the time being. If he is to die by my hand, I want it to be while he watches something he truly cares for is destroyed. Besides, this timeline is much more interesting with him in it. I will keep a close watch on this one. Now, let us go.”

  And with that, the immortal being—the last surviving remnant of the First Epoch’s dominant lifeform—simply turned and walked away.

  CHAPTER 15

  EVEN WITH PANUR standing in a side corridor, the residual heat at the ramp's base was still problematic, at least until the Enforcers got past the barriers and into cooler air. The Gracilians hadn’t anticipated such a rapid and decisive breakthrough at the barricades, and now they formed impromptu defensive lines at doorways and intersecting corridors as they retreated deeper into the facility.

  Riyad had a Xan-fi rifle and an MK-88 with him, along with a backpack of extra battery packs. He was anxious for some action and forced his way to the front of the Enforcer line. Lila stood back, not wanting to get hit as Panur had. She needed to keep her body cool so she could lead the troops to Adam.

  Following her lead, Riyad pressed forward. The Gracilians still outnumbered the Enforcers, but in narrow, underground corridors, that didn’t matter. Only so many guns could be brought to bear on the advancing troops. And the Enforcers had mutants. That demolished the confidence of the defenders. No matter what they did, they would not be able to kill the immortals. At this point, they were simply fighting for their lives.

  Only token resistance met the Enforcers at each bottleneck. Riyad and the others would saturate the air with flash bolts, giving the defenders an excuse to fall back. They dropped down through stairways and ramps, seeking refuge in the deeper depths of the complex.

  Riyad had no idea it went down this far. But he continued to follow, with Lila telling him through his ATD that they were on the right path to finding Adam. The signal was stationary and about a hundred yards ahead and two levels down.

  Eventually, someone in the Gracilian force took command and told everyone to surrender. They were burying themselves deeper in the complex with no way out and against an unbeatable foe. Riyad’s Enforcers rushed ahead and began to disarm the Gracilians. For a moment, the passageways became cluttered with prisoners and their guards, impeding any forward progress. Riyad shouted to make way, and a path was cleared for him, Sherri and Lila.

  Lila stepped forward, leading the way. She knew where she was going.

  When the trio entered the Formation room, they didn’t notice Adam at first. He was slumped down on the floor, surrounded by the crushed remains of the Formation disks.

  Lila stepped up to him.

  “Are you okay, father?”

  He nodded. He was bloody, his uniform torn and smelling of vomit, which was becoming a habit for Adam Cain. His head felt as if it were about to explode, and his vision was questionable.

  Sherri and Riyad knelt next to him, examining his head and other injuries. After a moment, he brushed away their annoying hands.

  “I’m okay, dammit. I just need some sleep.”

  “Not with a concussion like that,” Sherri said. “We need to get you back to Lanacon and a hospital.”

  “For what good that will do,” Riyad said. “We need a place that knows how to treat Humans. The Garrison back on Navarus is the closest.”

  “I will help tend to him here,” Lila said. “There are medical facilities in the complex.” She wasn’t looking at her father, but rather the shattered remains of the Formation disks.

  “This appears to h
ave been a deliberate act, father.”

  “It was,” Adam admitted. “I knew you’d be pissed, but Garus was using the Formation to refine quantum beams.”

  “What for?” Sherri asked.

  “So he could connect stars anywhere in the galaxy and cause both of them to explode. He was set on destroying all Aris-created life in the galaxy using the beams. I couldn’t let that happen.”

  “Why would he want to do that? I thought he was going to recreate the Luz race?” Riyad asked.

  Adam shook his head, which made him wince and close his eyes. The room was already spinning enough.

  “That wasn’t it; I came to find out. It seems our friend Garus was not Luz after all, but something called an Allanni, the people who built the Formation in the first place.”

  “The Allanni built the Formation?” Lila asked. “The documents said the Luz created the Masters using the Formation, making them out of Luz organic material.”

  “To a point. But the Allanni already had the three Masters programmed into the disks. They were the first to emerge so they could provide Allanni genetic material to resurrect not the Luz or the Aris, but the Allanni. Yeah, the Masters have a little Luz in them, but not enough to make a difference.”

  “What does this have to do with Garus destroying life in the galaxy?” Sherri asked.

  “He wants to start the process all over again, take us back to the beginning of the Second Epoch when it was supposed to be Allanni and nothing but the Allanni.”

  “What stopped that from happening?” Lila asked. “I have not read any of this in the Aris documents.”

  “He didn’t know either. One day, he and the other two Masters just appeared, and most of the Second Epoch was over, with the Aris in control. By the way, it’s masters with a lowercase ‘m’, not uppercase as in a leader. They were to be the source of all the genetic material to make a new race. That’s why they’re immortal.”

  “Where is he?” Lila asked, her voice firm. “And the others?”