Annals of the Keepers - Rage

by Christiaan Hile

  “If they return,” Poth Kar countered.

  “Yes, if. If they return and if you are one to be held captive and forced back into submission such as Lintorth Sar would have you believe,” Sontar Jal responded, finishing with a growl.

  They continued their walk farther into the grand space, walking on suspended trusses between racks of weapons that lined each side of the platform.

  Rising high and far beyond the field of view within the chamber of blackened frosted rock were stockpiles of every sort of weapon imaginable.

  This was a museum of Kryth Mahr destruction and dominance, including the weapons of their enemies and the weapons used to defeat them.

  Sontar Jal stopped before a large empty platform. “We are here,” he announced.

  The two generals looked around.

  To their sides were large green stacked containers, row after row of them, as far as their eyes could see.

  Turlon Ti chuckled, “These. You plan to use these? The same bio-weapons used on the Sol System?”

  General Poth Kar grunted his dissatisfaction. “Ludicrous. You will not get these weapons ten sectors from their borders. They would expect it. A worthy adversary learns from past mistakes. We may have surprised them three hundred ronns ago. They are ready for us this time. They know our tactics. You have wasted our time here,” he said, turning and heading back down the truss.

  Sontar Jal just stood there watching Poth Kar leave.

  Turlon Ti approached. “It will never work, Sontar Jal. These weapons have not been maintained and they would be expecting such a move. I agree with General Poth Kar on this.”

  He too turned his back and walked away.

  Sontar Jal waited a moment before calling in their direction, “Did I say it would be these weapons we would use, brothers? You are so hasty.”

  Both generals stopped. Turlon Ti turned, but Poth Kar maintained his gaze, away from Sontar Jal.

  Sontar smiled. “Is not our Third Tenant of War, ‘Be mindful not to assume too much in battle, for too many assumptions will not harm you but make you a fool under the boot of your enemy.’ ”

  Poth Kar turned back around.

  The scowl on his face was enough to remind Sontar Jal that his brother’s patience was waning.

  General Poth Kar walked back, as did Turlon Ti.

  “Explain yourself, Sontar Jal,” Poth Kar demanded in a low voice.

  Sontar turned and pointed with his hand towards a raised control panel near the empty platform to their fronts.

  “This is why I brought you here. There needs to be three to activate the vault to the Blight Apparatus.”

  The faces on the two generals fell open. None had dared use the secret Gashnee weapon.

  “You are a fool, Sontar Jal,” Turlon Ti whispered. “That thing has been in here since the fall of the Gashnee. What, four hundred years now? It collapses wormholes. It is not an offensive weapon. What could you even want with it?”

  Sontar Jal turned to Poth Kar, who was always the better tactician. “What say you, General Poth Kar?”

  “I will listen to what you have to offer, but I will not give my bloodline authentication to activate a vault that will lead to our assured arrest and quick execution.”

  “That is all I ask, general.” Sontar Jal bowed his head in appreciation.”

  Sontar Jal walked over to the podium control panel. “You are correct, General Turlon Ti, when you say this device is meant for closing wormholes. An astute observation, no doubt; but, you see,” He turned back around. “It is much more than that; it is our chance to defeat the Humans and to put us on the Red Throne as the redeemers of the Domain.”

  “How so?” Turlon Ti asked.

  Sontar Jal continued. “The device is of pure dark matter. When placed into a wormhole, it causes a dramatic gravitational shift, thus collapsing the celestial anomaly.”

  “We know this,” Poth Kar reminded his fellow general.

  “Of course, we do. We also know we tried turning it into a weapon. Our reverse engineering methods always came up short, hence its final holding place. Until now.”

  “Get on with it,” Poth Kar fumed.

  “Patience my, brother. Patience.”

  Poth Kar crossed his arms.

  “What if this device was placed into another mass-energy body? Say, a star. What would be the effect?” Sontar asked his comrades.

  Both general’s silence and shrugs bespoke their answer.

  Sonar tsked as a disappointed mentor would, then answered, “The results, you see, would be the same. The dark matter released would cause a gravitational shift and collapse of the star, just as it would to a wormhole.”

  Laughter broke out from Poth Kar. “You plan to launch this into the Mydian star to destroy the Humans? Our probes have only glimpsed a fraction of their defense network. It would be suicide.”

  “You are still assuming, brother. I said nothing about the Mydian star.”

  Sontar’s face split into a devilish grin.

  General Ti’s eyes widened. “You are referring to the Sol star, are you not?”

  Sontar nodded.

  “At least someone understands.”

  “Wait,” Poth Kar said. “What strategic advantage would that be? There’s nothing of value in that system.”

  “Are you so sure, brother?” Sontar asked.

  “It’s their home world,” Turlon said.

  “Indeed. And they have not warned it as off-limits to all races?” Sontar continued. “And, they now have a contingent of Humans on the planet now; non-combatants.”

  “How do you know this?” Poth Kar asked.

  “Pirates. The stories they tell speak volumes, if you have ears to hear them out.”

  “Rumors,” Poth Kar snickered. “Your intelligence is nothing but rumors from lawless scavengers?”

  “Rumors, no matter how true or false, can be the final piece to an unsolved puzzle; a reward for the opportunistic.”

  Sontar smirked.

  “So, what is your plan, Sontar Jal?” Turlon asked.

  Sontar’s eyes were ablaze with excitement. “I will draw them in by attacking their planet of origin. Once their forces arrive, we will collapse the star and destroy their fleets, planet, and system that is the continual scar on our face. This all started with Lintorth Sol’s…Sar’s failure. You can then take your forces against the Mydian system. I…we will restore honor amongst our ranks and renew fear to all who oppose us.”

  Poth Kar walked around Sontar with arms still crossed. “There is one slight problem with your plan, Sontar Jal.”

  “And what is that?”

  “The risk you ask us to take is too great. It is treason.”

  “Only if you get caught. There is no reward if there is no risk. They go hand-in-hand,” Sontar reasoned. “But, I understand what you seek, brother. You want assurances that if this does not succeed as stated that you and Turlon will not be left to the mercy of the Red Throne.”

  “You have a plan for that as well don’t you. I can see it in your beady eyes,” Poth Kar said.

  “I always have a plan.” Sontar pointed to the console. “There are three key slots. I have entered mine. I will take the biggest risk. The other two must be inserted to gain access to the device below our feet.”

  “And you want our keys?” Turlon asked.

  “No. Not yet. I have two others.”

  They looked upon Sontar with suspicion.

  The general pulled two key tags out of his pocket. “This one is from Colonel Monterrak. If I remember, Turlon, he humiliated your family with the wrongful conviction of your broodmate’s sister in a crime she did not commit.” Sontar placed the tag in the console, activating the second code. “This key here, General Kar, is from Pelcios Gruk of the Tactis Guard. Was he not the one who had your brother killed in a simple training exercise? Did he not label your bloodline as incompetent cowards rather than accept that responsibility? Insult to injury, I would say.”

  Sontar Jal
placed the third and final key in.

  The console board lit up.

  Lights flashed around the platform as the floor parted open.

  Rising from its vault was a one-hundred-meter-tall black cylinder.

  The device had a crimson metallic sheen to its jagged, crystalline appendages that branched out from its surface.

  Poth Kar looked on as it arose. “If this plan fails, you and the other two are blamed?”

  “Indeed,” Sontar Jal acknowledged. “I will take the biggest risk, but have the highest reward if it does succeed. Which, it will.”

  “And what if it does succeed, like you said? What about us. Why bring us here?” Ti gestured to the console.

  Sontar smirked. “I will let you replace the other two keys with your own. I set up a protected script so the system will not know the difference. It will also rewrite your entry into these catacomes with the other generals. My key is the primary lock-out. With this program, we can change the course of the Kryth Mahr Domain forever, ridding ourselves of an enemy who hides in their system behind a veil of camouflaged secrecy.”

  All three stood in the giant cavern of weapons and bone-chilling air.

  Sontar Jal walked up and touched the black-and-red device. “You can’t lose on this proposition, my brothers. If it succeeds, you gain. If it does not, you gain still. The Humans were misguided when they attacked our domain. They were born in Sol, and they will die in Sol.”

  Data Cell 31

  A floor panel opened in a medical lab and a metal table rose from it.

  Upon its stop, the gray slab opened, exposing a yellow-tinged, hairless, alien body.

  A transparent door panel to a transparent, walled room parted open.

  Doctor Solome entered.

  “Computer. Let’s start final muscular graft.”

  [Awaiting your instructions, doctor.]

  Solome approached the side of the table.

  She looked down at the Gashnee body that Kason’s Reaver team had brought back from the wormhole encounter.

  Her hands moved towards the arm of the dead being.

  When they reached the edge of the table, an invisible stasis field flashed around the corpse, indicating something was there as she contacted the unseen bio-protector.

  The stasis field molded around her hands like sterile gloves as they passed through.

  She grabbed a flap of skin around the forearm of the being.

  Peeling it back, she uncovered the muscle tissue underneath.

  “Let me get a muscle graft here, along this section.” She requested from her robotic medical assistant.

  A robotic arm descended from above over the cadaver.

  [Commencing graft, doctor.]

  The arm lowered millimeters above the spot on the forearm. The metal device swiveled around where the doctor was holding open.

  A laser light appeared along the edge of the device as the suspended arm moved in a quick horizontal motion along the muscle.

  [Muscle sample acquired.]

  “Good. Give me one more, please,” she requested.

  The arm moved again along the muscle, making another thin slice.

  [Complete.]

  “Have those samples broken down. Follow the procedures I’ve set for this case.”

  [Yes, doctor.]

  The robotic arm moved up in a rapid motion, disappearing into the ceiling.

  Doctor Solome placed the skin flap back.

  She removed her hands from the stasis field. “Mystery after mystery,” she spoke to the corpse, “Fascinating biology you have their, Gashnee.”

  A dark shadow grew over the body on the table and onto the doctor.

  She jumped, startled.

  On the other side of the glass, looking in, was Commander Shenta Parejas.

  Doctor Solome held her chest in surprised relief.

  She had been in the Reaver complex by herself, after hours.

  She waved him in.

  The doors parted open and the commander entered.

  “Sorry to startle you, doctor.”

  “No, not your fault. I thought I was alone. I wasn’t expecting anyone this evening.”

  Parejas approached the table. “I apologize for my abrupt visit.”

  “That’s okay, commander. I was just finishing up my autopsy. I was going to send out my final holo-brief on what I found regarding our friend here. So, what brings you here at this hour?”

  Parejas looked over the alien body. “I had a few things to discuss with you regarding the Sentinel program. But, before we get to that, what can you tell me about our Gashnee visitor?”

  “Oh, yes…well, they look to be enhanced, as far as their biology, like the Reavers.”

  “How so?”

  Doctor Solome activated a holo-image of the Gashnee alien that appeared above the table between them. “Their internals look to be engineered on a level like the Reavers, with increased muscle and bone density along with self-repairing tissue. Although, this technology is far more advanced than what we have.”

  “Why the yellowing of the skin?”

  “This began once we took them out of their suits. From the DNA results, it looks like the suits are keeping them alive. The Annals show the Gashnee race as we are, free of any life support systems when we first had contact with them back on Earth. This may be due to them dying out. It seems like there is DNA degradation and they are susceptible to diseases that would otherwise not pose a threat. The tissue is even breaking down upon contact with oxygen molecules.”

  “Oxygen?”

  “Yes. Here’s what I mean,” she said, activating a recorded image. “You can see here their exoskeleton suit and body as we separated them. The clear layer is a gel-like substance that acts as a buffer between the two. It’s the gel that takes in the oxygen for them, passing it through their system. They’ve bypassed the main contact with oxygen within their environments. They do need it to live no doubt, but direct contact seems to speed up the breakdown of their tissue. Their lungs are also encased in this gel. It just slows the process of degradation, allowing them to live longer. It doesn’t stop whatever may be afflicting their DNA. We are still trying to lock that down.”

  “Sounds like we have a few weaknesses,” Parejas commented.

  “My team is looking for anything we could use in case they return.”

  “Excellent work. I look forward to the brief. Now, the purpose I came here.”

  Doctor Solome waved her hand across a console near the table.

  The medical slab descended back into the floor, closing behind and sealing the shaft.

  “You don’t mind if I clean up while you tell me what that is, do you, commander?”

  “Please. I don’t mean to impede your work.”

  She began cleaning up the instruments from the tables around the medical room.

  “I wanted to discuss, as I stated earlier, the Sentinel program,” Parejas said as he followed her around the room.

  “What about it?”

  “It’s come back up since my visit to the Adytum and speaking with Antiquity. You see, I was unaware that any Sentient-5 artificial program would be used in the Sentinel program.”

  She turned with a confused look. “I know…before you say anything, I am aware of the main report on the Sentinel program that you authorized.”

  The doctor crossed her arms, waiting for what she knew the commander was going to levy on her regarding her mother’s Sent-5 program.

  “I understand, doctor, but I need to clarify something. I did authorize a new artificial to be integrated into the Ordinance’s grid-centric command structure. I had you head the initiative that you and the science enclave would come up with a solution and implement the latest artificial intelligence into our security apparatus.”

  “I’m aware of the report, commander. What’s the question?” She was upset that the commander was about to bring up her mother’s lifelong work with A.I., and she knew how he felt about it.

  “I’ve gon
e back over the report. I see where the Sentinel program is mentioned, it should be listed as the Sent-5 initiative. It looks as though the two programs were switched in the language of the final document. I did not catch this upon authorization of the program. This was changed after the approval.”

  “Are you suggesting, commander, that I had something to do with this? That I switched the wording between the programs?” she snapped.

  “No. I’m suggesting someone did, as the current report is not the original, doctor.”

  She moved closer to the commander, incensed at his accusations. “You don’t need to come in here and accuse me of anything. You know how I feel about my mother’s work and I know how suspect you are of it. You don’t just come in here and start with me on this topic, questioning me as such. You have no right–”

  “I have all the right, doctor,” the commander interrupted, raising his tone. “It’s my position to question matters of security for the colony. I will question who I want and when I want. I do not take these things lightly, doctor.” He paused, staring her down to make his point. He continued, “We may have a new threat with the same being you now dissect on your table and, when I see something out of place like Antiquity in the Annals chambers, I will have questions and I will continue to question until I find the answers to my concerns and am assured the matter is not a threat to the colony. Do I make myself clear, doctor?”

  Solome knew Parejas. She knew he was serious, moreso than usual. He was not one to raise his voice often. “Clear, sir.”

  Her shoulders and brow relaxed. “I’m sorry. You know how I feel about my mother’s work. May I look at the report?”

  Parejas opened his holo-pad, activating it.

  A document appeared in the air.

  She took the device from him and started to wave up the floating text. She read and looked it over.

  After a few moments, she handed the holo-pad back to the commander. “This isn’t the document I remember.”

  “That’s because this is the original document I wrote. I am one of few people who still write things down in long-hand instead of holo-script.” He turned the pad back to her, switching documents. “Now read this one.”

  The doctor took it and began reading the second document.