The Terran Cycle Boxset

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  After some of the pressure was relieved, Central Parliament had had cities all over the world re-designed to bring back their beauty and restore a dwindling economy. With housing no longer an issue, Central Parliament was even able to reduce the population laws, allowing for families to have two children instead of one. It had never concerned Kalian much since he was an only child like his parents.

  Kalian liked his part of the city. He had moved here after taking his job at the university four years ago. Being closer to the bay it wasn’t as dense, allowing more space for parks and trees. In some of the denser areas, it was hard to even see the clouds through all the sky-bridges and advertising holo-boards.

  The sight always amused him, making him think of his ancestors, centuries before. They had thought everyone would be flown by automated cars across the galaxy, to one of the many worlds they had no doubt terraformed, and that the human lifespan would conquer death with such futuristic medicine; all diseases cured. Well, they had succeeded at a great many feats, including the habitation of the solar system and beyond, as well as expanding the human lifespan, but the sights surrounding him only proved that technology could only progress so fast.

  The streets were as hectic as normal. Kalian saw dozens of automated transports crammed with people. Hundreds of people hurried about in every direction, each just as late for work as he was, judging by the general rush. He couldn’t quite make out the university through all the mag-transports that glided between the buildings on the traverse ways above.

  In his hurried flight, Kalian walked straight into the back of a woman standing still in the moving crowds. With a quick apology, he stole a cursory glance at the screen on her Datapad, wondering what could possibly make someone brave enough to stop in the flow of human traffic. He recognised one of the better-known news reporters, but he didn’t have time for the headlines now, he was really late. Kalian silently cursed his info band at failing to wake him, then he cursed himself for expecting it to after all the others that had spontaneously broken.

  He heard the magnetic hum as someone drove past him at high speed in their mag-car. Some idiot had obviously hacked the safety protocols to put it into manual drive - a feature that was not supposed to be available in the city. He felt his grip tighten around the strap on his satchel.

  Focus, think of something else.

  Kalian’s emotions slowly spun out of control. The unusual speed of the Mag-car brought back the memory. There wasn’t time to push it to the back of his mind like he had practised so many times before. He felt the static on his arms as the hair stood on end. The usual tingling sensation in his spine left his hands feeling numb. The noise above his head had him looking up; the sound of some machine malfunctioning was all too familiar. This time it was one of the servo lamps that hovered above street level. Sparks erupted out of the top before it spun end-over-end. The noise didn’t go unnoticed by the people that surrounded Kalian either. He knew what was coming though. Jumping to the side, he pushed the person in front to create space as it plummeted to the ground, shattering the glass encasing it. Only moments later, a cleaning mech hovered out of its housing unit and began clearing up the glass and debris into its body for recycling.

  The sight of a Mag-car didn’t usually bother him so much; in fact, he barely noticed them among the usual activities of the street. It was the out of control driving that had done it. Kalian was suddenly aware of the disgruntled people around him - the servo lamp could have seriously injured any one of them. The guilt was already setting in, along with some paranoia. Thinking logically, he wasn’t sure what he was worried about; to the casual observer, he hadn’t even touched the servo lamp. His real worry was that he had no idea how he had broken it, but like all the other unexplainable incidents in his life, he knew he was responsible.

  Blending back into the crowd, Kalian moved on, keeping his head down until he didn't recognise the people around him anymore. He could see the reflection of the sun on the domed university exterior now; his lecture theatre was a refuge where he could focus his mind on Earth’s history rather than his own.

  The campus was teeming with students and lecturers as usual. He found himself checking the time on the Info-band again - his wrist was blank.

  Technology hates me...

  He regretted not having the time to take in the beauty of the campus and its surroundings. The position of the university allowed for a clear view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

  What I wouldn’t give to see the old one. To think that bridges used to stand in the water...

  Embarrassingly, Kalian failed to navigate the group of children touring the campus with their school teacher. He tried to blend through the minors, but at waist height, he ended up tangled amid the throng. Keeping calm, Kalian let them pass by, flashing a fake smile to the teacher as she silently apologised. After breaking into a quick march, he found the corridors were fairly clear of students and teachers, with the occasional cleaning mech wiping the floors. The automatic door, made to look like oak, parted in the middle as he approached. He walked straight to his desk while rummaging through his bag in search of his Datapad, where he had stored all the sessions for the day.

  “Sorry, I’m late everyone. Let’s get started, shall we?” The general chatter of the first-year class began to die down immediately. “As I told you yesterday, today we’re going back four hundred and twenty-one years to look at the history of Solar Drive technology.” He took a breath, rolling out his Datapad until it became rigid like a tablet. “Now, who can tell me the significance of this event?” Kalian looked up for the first time since entering the room.

  The lecture theatre was full up to its thirtieth row of eager new starters. It always amused Kalian that history had been a rather dull subject in ancient times. The birth of Solar Drive had changed that. Before Solar Drive, history had comprised of the corporate takeover in the twenty-third century and of course the rise of Central Parliament, which waged war against the corporations in the twenty-fifth century.

  Kalian always wondered what the world would have been like if the corporations had won that war and discovered the Solar Drive in the next century. It was common knowledge that the corporate wars had stunted the growth of technology. However, Central Parliament had done everything it could to get the future back on track.

  The glass board behind him lit up with information on the Solar Drive when it connected with his Datapad. The board showed a quick image of a chunky-looking ship flying towards the sun, before it streaked across the stars, out of sight.

  The glare off the board reflected his image back at him. His dark hair was getting long again, at least by Kalian’s standards. He had strong cheekbones thanks to his father, but from the images stored at home of his parents, he knew he had his mother’s dark eyes.

  Most of his students teased him for his youthful looks but he was young; he had at least two hundred years left. At twenty-eight he had done well to secure his position at the university - his passion for history had driven him academically. Sometimes though, he wished he’d been born centuries earlier, just so he could experience life without all the technology. Doing the math, however, he realised that he would have to go back a thousand years to experience life with minimal technology.

  A student in the middle row spoke up, “That was the year everything changed.”

  A good answer, but Kalian was looking for something more than that. “Care to elaborate?”

  The student hesitated in front of his classmates. “It was the year we discovered faster-than-light-travel.”

  Again, a very accurate answer, but he was only getting snippets from them. Kalian could see he would have to coax them a bit. “True, very true. And discover is probably the right word for it. As I’m sure you all learnt growing up, faster-than-light-travel was discovered on an alien ship on the edge of our solar system.”

  With his Datapad, Kalian used the eyetrak to connect an old video log to the glass board. It showed a huge meteor shower flying through
the solar system.

  “Records taken at the time showed that the meteors ranged in size from that of your hand to entire cities. Two of the asteroids on a collision course for Earth was said to have been world enders. Thanks to the United Defence Corps, the asteroids were knocked off course. The majority of the shower found its way to the surrounding planets and moons. Any meteors that didn’t, began a new journey orbiting the sun.” Kalian knew the footage he was showing them wasn’t new; in fact, every human alive would have seen this footage on the news and in documentaries and even in a few movies.

  “It didn’t take long before exploration and mining began on the rocky remains. The trajectory of the shower indicates that it all came from the same point in space, though it has proven to be too far to reach. Now I find geology to be as exciting as the next guy, but the unknown mineral in these alien rocks was a catalyst for the turning point in human history.” He turned to the next file on his Datapad with a flick of his eyes.

  The images were clearly being shot from a vessel flying over Pluto on the edge of the solar system. The camera moved to focus on Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, where a dark trail could be seen several miles across the crystalline surface. The focus increased until it found the point of the trail, where the alien ship had found its end.

  “After the video log had been spread across the globe, human beings looked up to the stars for the first time and knew they were not alone.” That was his favourite line. He always used it on the freshers. “However, four hundred and twenty-one years went by with no further evidence of other life. Even the ship itself was devoid of any beings to study. But in time, humanity came to terms with this revelation. It then turned its attention to the wonders the ship had to offer.”

  He pulled up some side images of various scientists examining the ship’s engine. Kalian had no real idea how they replicated the technology or figured out that the meteorites contained the necessary fuel, Solarcite, as it was later named. He remembered the mechanics had been somewhat overwhelming in his own years at school. In his lectures, he simply used the term re-engineered - this seemed to suffice.

  “However technical, it was this discovery that led to the creation of the Solar Drive and humanity’s eventual exploration of space beyond our sun’s light.”

  Even though the discovery was primarily scientific, it was still considered to be the most significant event in human history. For this reason, it was one of Kalian’s biggest teaching subjects.

  Damn, he was starting to lose them. To his dismay, the majority of students appeared to have gotten distracted by their own Datapads.

  “Ok guys, let’s try and stay focused.” A girl with frizzy dark hair near the front looked up from her Datapad like she had seen a ghost.

  “Mr Gaines, you need to see this.”

  He was hesitant, on the brink of reprimanding them, but her face was the same as everyone else’s. Kalian walked over as she turned the screen around for him. He couldn’t believe what was on the screen; it was too much of a coincidence.

  “Is this live?” Kalian couldn’t take his eyes away.

  The girl gave a silent nod.

  “Connect it to the glass board.”

  A couple of quick movements of her eyes and the old video log was replaced by the Central News. The larger image caught everyone’s attention. It was clearly being shot from a lens on Earth somewhere, as the backdrop was blue skies. In the centre of the image was some kind of ship. Kalian had seen plenty of UDC ships before, as they were always in the news for something, but this was definitely not UDC. To be seen in such detail from the ground it must be massive in size. The news headline simply read: Unknown Alien Ship Slips Past United Defence Corps. Have They Returned?

  It had to be alien. It was just too, well... alien. Kalian couldn’t quite make out any defining features from this distance, but it looked to be purple. A smaller headline appeared at the bottom of the screen explaining that the ship was directly over San Francisco. He had to stop his jaw from dropping. It was above this very city. En masse, all thirty rows jumped up from their seats and crowded around the panoramic window next to Kalian’s desk. People were pushing past each other to try and catch a glimpse of the alien visitors.

  Kalian looked back at the ship on the screen. Alien? Yes. Returned? He wasn’t so sure. He was no expert in ship design but this one looked nothing like the crashed ship on Charon; it was much bigger for starters. The other one had been bulkier and not so smooth in appearance. The door to the lecture theatre opened, stopping his train of thought. Four men in black and grey UDC uniforms entered the lecture theatre.

  “Sir, we’re with the UDC. Are you Kalian Gaines?”

  Kalian was speechless.

  What the hell do they want with me?

  “Sir?” The soldier had a feeling of urgency about him.

  Kalian hesitated. “Yes, I’m Kalian Gaines.”

  Before he had even finished the sentence one of the soldiers broke away and approached him. He held up a small transparent square to Kalian’s eye and the glass lit up with a picture of his face and several personal details about his life.

  “ID’s confirmed sir - this is him.”

  A small nod from their commanding officer was all they needed to proceed. As one, they surrounded Kalian and grabbed him by the arms, not rough but firm. A couple of the students looked to protest, but Kalian held up a hand to calm them.

  “Mr Gaines, my men and I have orders to escort you off campus.” Before Kalian could ask any questions, the commanding officer simply stated, “As you can see,” he pointed to the soldiers either side of the lecturer, “this isn’t optional.”

  As Kalian was forced out of the room, he noticed one of the soldiers packing his Datapad into a bag. He didn’t know why since there was nothing but lecture material on it. Waiting outside on one of the campus lawns was a large UDC craft, bigger than any Mag-transport. Everyone around them was almost oblivious to his predicament, completely distracted by the looming alien ship. Only the group of touring children stopped to look at him before returning to the view above.

  “Where off campus are we going exactly?” Kalian could see the thrusters underneath; this was designed for flying not driving.

  Only the UDC had permission to use air-space for travel. Kalian could see the logic in it; this way they could respond to emergency situations without worrying about mid-air collisions, as well as air superiority. That’s why the Mag Hyperways had been built across the oceans five hundred years ago.

  The commanding officer didn’t halt his stride. “It’s a matter of planetary security, sir.” That was a phrase Kalian had only ever heard in movies.

  It occurred to Kalian that he had only flown once before, as a child. It was on a school trip to Armstrong, the capital city of the moon. At least on that trip, he knew what awaited him on the other side, this was somewhat scarier.

  Kalian was directed to his seat and the soldiers took their positions either side of him.

  Am I a prisoner?

  The craft rose vertically into the sky, creating a strange sense of pressure that passed from head to toe.

  One of the soldiers in front of Kalian noticed his expression of discomfort. “It’s just the Grav Enforcers.” He looked down to the floor. “It stops us from sliding all over the place.”

  The lecturer nodded in understanding, well at least the theory of it.

  It felt to Kalian as if they had been travelling for a lifetime, but he realised it had probably been less than an hour - anxiety could do that. He had bombarded the soldiers with questions about where they were taking him and why, but their expressions never changed. There was always the chance that the soldiers didn’t even know why they had been ordered to retrieve him.

  Just keep calm and stay in control.

  Kalian kept thinking it like a mantra, over and over in his head. The craft shuddered and a loud thud came from underneath.

  “Clear to disembark.” The pilot’s voice came through the spea
kers above them.

  The heavy side door slid open and sunlight flooded the cabin. Walking into the shadow of the ship were two more soldiers wearing UDC uniforms, each bearing a rifle that looked too heavy to hold.

  They instantly noticed Kalian. “Who’s the civilian?” The lack of uniform was a dead giveaway.

  The commanding officer stepped out first. “Orders from the Chief Commander himself. He’s a Priority One.”

  The guard checked his Info-band to confirm the orders were legitimate. The spherical emitters inside produced a miniature holographic image above his wrist.

  “Order confirmed. Proceed.” The guard pointed somewhere out of sight.

  Kalian stepped out of the craft and instantly felt the heat of the sun engulf him. The air was dry, making it initially hard to breathe.

  I’m definitely not in San Francisco.

  Taking in the view, Kalian felt his lips part involuntarily. It couldn’t be what he thought it was. It looked as if he had been brought to a UDC base, and judging from its size it couldn’t have been just any base; this was central command.

  “The Hub...” the words barely left his dry lips.

  The name had always seemed appropriate to Kalian since this was the base from which all security protocols were made. From security patrols in the cities to orbital defence ships in space - all orders came from here. Kalian had heard it mentioned on the news whenever a new security act had been passed through Central Parliament. He could see why they didn’t need to keep the place a secret, it was a fortress. It was at least five miles in length.