by James Peters
In my cell, a gritty blue food gel had been left on a platter for me. I cleaned up using the water pipe and ate some of the bland but not disgusting food. The water tasted metallic and was room temperature, and a droning sound of something mechanical was just loud enough to annoy me.
As I chewed, my head pounded from the ordeal. What did it all mean? Was I the spike of pain against the balance of things? If so, was it toward the good side or the bad side? Does it matter in this vision of perfect Zero? Could this be some alien version of good versus evil, and if so, where is Christ?
I pressed Rhuldan’s name on my arm. “Hey, Rhuldan, can you hear me?”
The voice sounded a little groggy as if I’d woken him. “Yes. It’s been two standard days. What happened?”
“It’s hard to explain. Are you still on this moon?”
“Yes, but my efforts have been fruitless in finding the ore. I’m starting to believe it was never here.”
“Oh, it’s here. I’ve seen it.”
Rhuldan’s voice grew much louder and clearer. “You’ve seen it?”
“A black sphere, dark as a cave at night, big as my chest, and it looked heavy. When I touched it, I had visions I can’t explain.”
“I’ve heard rumors of some species having an unusual connection with element zero. What you’re describing would be the refined form.”
“I also know what they want to do with it. We thought the migrun were dangerous? These squid-heads want to bring the universe back to a state of balance, and from what I could tell, wipe out all life everywhere.”
“Why?”
Even though he couldn’t see me, I shrugged. “I didn’t have a chance to get into a deep philosophical discussion with them about it. They’re Zeroist, and they seem to find anything good or bad as an annoyance.”
“Don’t they realize that they are part of the life they’d be wiping out?”
“I think these fellows are more worried about the after-life than what happens here.”
Rhuldan paused before saying, “After life is death. It’s not a difficult concept.”
“I take it you’re not a religious man.”
“My beliefs are not important. If they intend to use element zero somehow to wipe out everything, my own sense of self-preservation tells me we have to stop them.”
“I agree,” I said. “But there are at least a hundred of these guys, and one of them is huge. I sincerely doubt they are going to hand it over to me just because I asked them politely.”
“Have you figured out how they got it from the migrun?”
“Other than the dead body I found, I have nothing to go on. My guess would have to be they killed him and stole it.”
“That would be a logical assumption. I think this can be seen as a beneficial situation.”
I snickered at his strange assumption. “I’m going to have to assume you’ve been eating some sacred mushrooms. Did you miss the part where I said they wanted to wipe out everything?”
“The migrun are the single biggest force in this galaxy. The dracnarian fleet is at least a thousand times smaller. If I have to choose an enemy, I’ll pick the smaller one.”
“Yeah, I get that. Do you have any ideas on how we get take this thing from them?”
“I need to do some research and planning. I’ll contact you when I have something figured out.”
“Great, and in the meantime, what should I do?”
“Try to make friends and not give them any idea what we’re after.”
Chapter Twelve
Moby Dick
Ihad the good fortune that the dracnarians decided to keep me alive while they waited for one of their big shots to arrive and then he’d decide my ultimate fate. Meantime, I received two meals a day from a guard I named George. He (or she, I couldn’t be certain) didn’t seem to mind the nickname and often talked with me for a few minutes.
George had volunteered to look after me as he was an interspecies ambassador for the dracnarian people. He considered the Zeroists to be an extremist faction, but since they were officially regarded by the High Council, he had to respect their wishes as long as it didn’t create an incident.
George asked me a lot of questions about earth and humans. He seemed especially interested in our military power and size. I didn’t want to tell him too much detail, so when he asked about our technology and weapons, I just said we had similar power to what I’d seen here. I figured it was safest to let him believe my people could stand their ground against his.
I liked him. He actually cared about my well-being and brought me better food over time the more we talked. Finally, something tasty.
During one visit, I asked about the size difference between George and the Kraken and learned his people never stop growing. Their size is limited by their environment, the food they get, and their age. The Kraken was over two hundred years old and was important, so it received all the food he needed to continue growing, as well as an ever-expanding place to live.
While George was away, I did some calculations to estimate how much the big fellow had to eat. My best guess was in the range of three-hundred to five-hundred pounds of grub a day. They must’ve valued him dearly to dedicate that much to one individual. When my mind wandered to how they dealt with the other end of the equation and got rid of his waste, I recalled cleaning out the first two tanks. I bet he’d clogged them.
“Idiom?” Rhuldan asked over the comms.
“I’m here.”
“Good. How are things on your end?”
The boredom had made me a little slaphappy, so I said, “You know that sounds like a personal question, don’t you?”
“No. I explained to the others what was at stake, and they reluctantly agreed we had to act. In any case, we’ve been working on a plan.”
“Great, what is it?”
“It’s probably best you don’t know the details; in case something goes wrong.”
“So, you called to tell me you have a plan, but you won’t tell me what it is?”
“Yes.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing until you get the signal. Then we need you to get as close as you can to the element zero.”
“I see. What’s the signal?”
“I can’t tell you that. But you’ll recognize it when it happens.”
“So not even a hint?”
“When it happens, you’ll know it and what to do. Get to the element zero and keep your head down. We’ll find you.”
“When can I expect this surprise?”
“Soon. Just be ready to move.”
“I’ll do my best.” Rhuldan disconnected, and I stood there, slack-jawed and raising my arms toward the ceiling. He couldn’t tell me anything about their plan? I’m just supposed to sit here and wait for a signal that I’ll recognize? What do they think I am, anyway? Until they knew their own lives were at stake, they were happy to leave me here to rot. I’m definitely having some strong words with the lot of them! The sound of the door opening surprised me. George shouldn’t be back for several hours.
Three dracnarians stepped in the doorway, and none of them were George. These guys were a little larger, and in their tentacles they held a strange red stick with a gold knob on the end. The center one pointed his baton at me and said, “You will come with us. Any resistance will be met with molecular disruption.”
“I don’t rightly know what you mean by that, but it sounds like something I’d prefer to avoid today. I won’t cause you any trouble.” The three squid-heads spread out, motioning me to join their ranks at the center point probably so any one of them could crack me in the skull with their clubs if I acted up.
They led me back to the big chamber where I’d first seen the element zero. As we entered, I had a moment of brilliance, and I raised my sleeve and tapped my arm until the map identified my location. I held the spot with two fingers long enough for it to remember the position and then I lowered my sleeve. No one seemed to notice my action.
We stopped near the center of the room. A door large enough to allow an average sized whale to swim through opened, and the Kraken entered, which by itself was intimidating. But behind him was an even bigger dracnarian — a pale gray one I dubbed Moby Dick.
Moby Dick had to lower his squid-head to pass through the opening. He slithered up to me, contorting his body sideways to lower clouded tentacle-eyes close enough to get a good look at me. This guy’s breath made the others’ rancid odors smell absolutely delightful, as his was full-on decay, death, and just a hint of sulfur. I tried to control my gag when he said, “This thing is why you brought me here?”
The Kraken said, “Your Imminent Grace, I assure you I wouldn’t have summoned you without due reason. In our vision, we saw a most unusual spike around him. Protocol required me to alert the Archdiocese regarding matters of this nature.”
Moby Dick’s voice bellowed, the putrid air and spittle covered me. “Are you implying that I am unaware of our protocol?”
“My apologies, Your Imminent Grace. Perhaps you should just see for yourself?”
“I have little interest in what this tiny thing may or may not do. What I want to see is this sphere of Holy Essence you’ve had the good fortune to locate. Bring it out for my inspection. Then we’ll package it for loading on my personal daemon.”
“You’re taking it with you?” the Kraken’s voice cracked, his color paled.
“You are a fool to believe I came here because of the vision you reported. The wheels began turning the moment the Archdiocese received the news that this meaningless facility had received the unprocessed ore. I have a fleet of daemons prepared to lay waste to the entire moon and recover the Holy Essence from the debris. You got lucky and stole it first, which does simplify matters with the migrun.”
“You planned on destroying this entire moon? You would have evacuated us first, right?”
“We considered it, but that would have been too risky. The migrun would certainly question why we had our people leave just before a catastrophic accident. You would have been remembered as martyrs.”
A dozen dracnarians rolled the sphere into the room. Moby Dick’s skin darkened into a ruddy brown as he gazed upon the element zero. He moved as if he were a blob of lard rolling off a ladle, and he breathed hard. I couldn’t say for certain if it was due to the effort of him moving, or if it was a reaction to being so close to this “Holy Essence.”
“I trust you’ll find it as described in our official reports,” the Kraken said.
“Yes, of course.” Moby Dick wrapped his tentacles around the ball. His color brightened from the muted tones into deep, shiny bronze.
The Kraken approached the larger dracnarian, stopped, and turned back toward the three surrounded me. “Bring the human. We must show His Imminent Grace.”
This time the experience was more painful, as if either my soul or spine was being ripped from my body. Moby Dick seemed to control the process, and he had no patience nor concern for anyone’s well-being or comfort. He was both brutal and efficient to the point my mind could barely keep up with the images. After some time, the visions slowed until it focused on a single squid-head, and his energy shifted from one end of the spectrum to another. The dracnarian grew over the centuries, and the image became a huge red spike away from zero. His face overwhelmed the vision, lit from below, creating an image of evil.
The image shifted to my life. I tried to resist, but I had no hope of fighting this power. This time I could focus more on my own recent events. I watched myself kill the big Mexican, expecting a red flare to emerge around me, but I saw no change. I witnessed myself with creatures and doing things I have no memory of. This must be my future. After seeing things I couldn’t comprehend, a spike of blue emerged from the center of my body, large enough to rival Moby Dick’s.
The connection ended an instant, leaving me to fall to the ground, gasping for air and wondering if my heart would explode. I forced my eyes open to see Moby Dick’s body had gone completely white, and he was still. Had the experience killed him? More importantly, would they blame me? The Kraken and his guards raced to his aid, wrapping tentacles around him helping him breathe.
I backed away slowly. At first, I wasn’t trying to escape, just trying to get a little space between us in case he toppled over. But nobody noticed me slipping away, and in a moment, I’d reached the doorway. Everyone remained, tentacles grasping the biggest dracnarian. I turned and fled.
I ran through a maze of corridors sometimes angling upwards and other times going downhill, all the time afraid something would grab me. I rounded a corner at the fastest speed I could run into a squid-head coming right toward me. It might’ve been George, I couldn’t say for certain. All I could do was to lower my shoulder and drive him into the wall, without slowing down. I touched my arm, opened the map, and searched for an exit. I ran like my ass was on fire and my legs were catching, out that exit and into an area occupied by hundreds of aliens busily going about their business.
The corridor had opened into a common area being used as a market filled with of all shapes and forms of creatures. I fought the urge to sneeze as bitter odors filled my nose. To my left, I found a table covered with teal leaves as large as tobacco, and to my right, a glass crate filled with a pile of roiling serpents. Voices called from all around, beckoning me to buy their wares. I slipped into a crowd going in one direction, and I kept my head down and walked.
The hairy alien in front of me came to a quick stop. I did the same. I glanced toward my left to something I wasn’t prepared for. For a brief instant, I stared right in the face of what looked like an old, human woman. Two arms, two legs, nothing weird at all about her, just somebody’s nanna, and she smiled at me. I stopped with my mouth gaping wide and began to say something, but before could, something grunted from behind me and put their orange claws on my shoulders.
“Move or get out of the way,” the alien said.
I stepped aside. The old woman was lost in the crowd. Did I see what I think I saw or was I just searching for a friendly face out here? Maybe I’m not all alone. I wanted to turn around and run after her, but I knew that would cause a commotion, and that was the last thing I needed to do now.
I ducked into a darkened hall off to the side and pressed the call button. “Rhuldan?”
“I’m here.”
“Listen up, buddy. I know you didn’t want to tell me your plan, and I suppose I might understand why you might not want me knowing everything. But we have a new player in this game. The biggest dracnarian on the block is here, now, and he means to take the element zero with him, pronto.”
“You’re not exactly making sense, Idiom.”
“What part did you miss?”
“All of it,” Rhuldan replied.
I sighed in disgust. “Try to keep up. This dracnarian showed up, big as a whale, so I call him Moby Dick. I think they called him ‘His Immense Growth.’ Said he’s got a bunch of demons ready and willing to destroy this moon if the Kraken doesn’t give him the element zero. They’re fixin’ to load it up and disappear. If we’re going to act, it needs to be now.”
“This is important. Did they say demons or daemons?”
“What’s the difference?”
“Demons, as far as I know, don’t exist. But daemons are spaceships, loaded with weapons.”
“It was definitely the latter. I figured they just talked funny.”
“I’ll contact the team. Wait for something big to happen. We’ll track you through the comms. Once we meet up, you’ll need to lead us to the element zero.”
“Got it. Just hurry. Moby Dick has little patience.”
“Understood. Well, sort of understood, I think.”
Chapter Thirteen
Red Alert
Automatic Multimedia recording log SGDF61V, A.I. Designation: Sarge. Trip Code: Red Alert
“Red alert!” Solondrex said as he flipped a series of switches and adjusted a multitude of dials. “Emergency mee
ting in the Situation Room!” He ran faster than normal, arriving at about the same time as everyone else.
Ginnamorana stared down Solondrex. “Are we under attack?”
“Not at the moment.”
“Then what’s the purpose of a red alert? We have no weapons or shields.”
“It seemed like the right thing to say. It was that or ‘hang on to something because we might all die.’”
“When we’re not in immediate danger, maybe you should call orange alert instead?”
“How quickly would everyone arrive for an orange alert? After finishing their game of locurk and having a cup of mellgorn?”
“We’ll talk about this later.”
Jekto eased his way in. A green slurry of foodstuff dripped from his golden horn. “Are we heading into battle?”
Ginnamorana turned to see Jekto, grabbed a towel and wiped the mess from his horn. “You really can’t see that, can you?”
“See what?”
“Your horn is covered with food.”
Jekto shrugged all four arms, mumbling, “Meh.”
Fayye entered. “What exactly is the procedure on this garbage scowl for a red alert?”
Ginnamorana and Solondrex replied in unison. “Hang on to something because we all might die.”
Fayye’s eyes squinted in disgust. “I should have guessed.”
Solondrex climbed upon the center table, his motions so deliberate he seemed to pour himself somehow upward. “Rhuldan tells me there may be a dracnarian fleet of daemons out here ready to attack. I cranked back all our systems to their minimum level in case they’re scanning. I’ll let him explain.”