The Terran Cycle Boxset

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  Moving back towards the viewport again he looked out in hope. There had to be a way to reach the door on the far side of the platform-

  The escape hatch at the back gave three loud bangs. There was someone on the outside. They must have slipped past while he was fitting his new footwear, which now clinked every time he walked like an ancient cowboy.

  Shit!

  If they managed to open that hatch he would be exposed to vacuum. There was nothing for it, he would have to try and take off again. He examined the console and free-floating holograms in vain. Nothing made any sense, so he opted for pressing everything instead. Different images popped up in response to his frantic gestures at moving the holograms and pressing the touch console. The domes disappeared, which couldn’t be good since he had seen they were integral to flying.

  It was too late.

  The lock on the door was disabled with a suction noise as the pressure was changed. He was about to die. The red light above the hatch blinked out which he assumed was a signal that the door could now be opened. He levelled his rifle at the door; if some alien was going to get him killed he would end them too. The circular panel parted into its hidden compartment exposing him to the harsh elements. He held his breath even though he knew it wouldn’t extend his life any, it was just instinct. He knew that even if he didn’t suffocate, the icy temperature of space would do the job.

  Slumped in the co-pilot chair he waited for death with his finger on the trigger pad. Nothing happened. Instead, he was faced with another alien that didn’t look happy to see him. Who knew what this alien was though, it wore a black-domed helmet that sloped down over the face. It had six glowing orange lenses on the front, each a pair with one below the other. It was waving its two arms about while yelling at Roland in yet another type of gibberish. He could see it was wearing a long brown coat that looked to be some kind of animal hide.

  Forgetting about the angry alien he sucked in a breath, testing the air. He felt his lungs fill up before expelling the carbon dioxide. Now he was really confused. From this angle, he couldn’t see the starry background of space but he knew they hadn’t gone inside or passed through an atmosphere. Yet here he was sitting, breathing and not even a little bit cold. The alien’s yelling brought him back to the situation as it stood. In his relief at not dying an icy death, he had missed the alien levelling a pistol at him.

  You’re getting slow.

  Roland had no idea what the alien was angry about but he clearly didn’t like them on his platform. He was no expert in alien culture or fashion, but if he had to guess he would say this particular individual was what some might call a scoundrel. He wasn’t wearing a uniform but Roland possessed a weapon, and he wasn’t afraid to level it at someone. The clothes he wore under the great hide coat looked dirty and torn. In his own assessment, he was confident that he was being confronted by his first alien criminal.

  Roland depressed the trigger pad, sending a blue flash into the criminal’s chest. He must have been wearing some kind of armour over his chest as the shot didn’t carry through and out the other side. He climbed out of the hatch keeping the fallen criminal in his peripheral vision while taking in his surroundings. The platform was big enough to fit at least six or seven more pods this size. The cube containers were stacked to one side, their contents empty. It wasn’t a stretch to assume this platform was probably being used for smuggling of some kind.

  So aliens have crime too...

  He was building as many facts about this new world as possible. If there was crime there would most likely be some form of local security. He opined that the aliens that attacked Alpha were probably something similar to the UDC. Either way, he didn’t want to hang around. No doubt the ship he had escaped from would be searching for him as well as attracting attention from his latest crime.

  Roland looked down at the dead criminal. He had four fingers as well though they were slightly larger in the palm with thick fingers. It didn’t matter anyway; he knew what they looked like now. His training kicked in without him thinking about it. Crouching down he removed the long coat that felt like smooth leather and put it on. He needed to blend in and hide his features from the indigenes. The coat fitted well and dropped to his ankles, giving him plenty of room to conceal weapons. Thinking of this he picked up the pistol dropped by the criminal. It was bulky with a rectangular body and a long cylindrical sight that ran down at an angle to the gun. The trigger pad was the same with a handle slightly longer than his grip. It would be easier to move with a weapon this size rather than the rifle. He relieved the alien of his holster that clipped onto his own belt and strapped it around his thigh.

  The only thing left was his face. That problem was simply resolved by taking the domed helmet off. He noticed the style was different before removing it; instead of angling back to allow for their alien skull, it was round like a human’s. The helmet slipped off with a tug before Roland jumped back at the sight. This was an alien, but not one of those aliens. There was no doubt that this was a different species. Its skin was dark brown and felt tough as he rotated the head around taking in the features. The head was similarly bald but not free of hair. The two large black eyes had tufts of lighter brown hair surrounding the sides. The eyes were bigger than a human’s and the other aliens. There were no pupils or any details for that matter, just black like one giant pupil.

  Roland noticed another small black device, circular in shape, just behind a patch of skin decidedly thinner than the rest. He assumed it to be the ears but couldn’t fathom how they worked, though he was curious about the circular device both species wore. The mouth was in the same place but there were no lips to speak of. Roland resisted the urge to look inside and see what kind of teeth they had. The other aliens had white pointed teeth that stood out when they spoke against their blue exterior. Curiously there was no nose, just skin.

  He stood up with the helmet in hand. Where was he? Now there were two aliens, and apparently living together. He was yet to meet a non-human who didn’t want to kill him. A shadow passed quickly overhead grabbing his attention. The view was dizzying. He was near the base of the main tower and surrounded by colossal spires and other towers that were easily bigger than any one structure built by man. Roland saw ships and smaller vehicles flying in between the giant landscape that seemed to go on until he looked across at the horizon. Space was clearly visible between the planet’s two halves, making his ability to breathe even more of a mystery. That combined with the fact that he could hear the ships passing by and the buzz of activity coming from the streets below. He reasoned that there must be some kind of artificial atmosphere; everything was so annoyingly alien to him.

  Turning away from the metropolis to head for the rectangular door on the platform, he felt like a sitting duck out here. The tower he was on was so expansive that he couldn’t even see the curve. He didn’t know where he would go but it had to be better than out here. Before entering, he fitted the helmet over his own head to conceal his own alien features. The world shifted into shades of orange as he was now looking through the optical domes on the faceplate. He wasn’t sure what the extra four domes did as he only needed the two much like the helmet’s former occupant. The visor automatically began to outline different things around him with information he couldn’t understand. He entered a small cargo bay filled with identical containers to the ones on the platform. Information appeared above them with an outline around various crates.

  He was more interested in the door to his left. The door was large enough to obviously fit the crates and other storage items through. He couldn’t see any security features or locks, there weren’t even anymore guards. He wasted no time passing through it. He needed to get as far away from this area as possible.

  He wasn’t prepared for what he found on the other side. He was immediately immersed into a crowd of aliens, all walking in different directions. It was a good thing they couldn’t see his face as he stared in astonishment at the variety of life forms in front of h
im. He recognised the other two he had already encountered, but that was only a fraction of what he was seeing now. He clumsily backed up until he found a wall behind him. He felt better with a wall at his back. Suddenly conscious of himself he stuck his hands into the coat pockets concealing his unique looking hands.

  He stood there for a few minutes trying to acclimatise to the view. He was out of his element in a big way. He had been sent into every kind of environment and situation over his four decades of service, but nothing could prepare a person for this. Most were similar in shape and size to him but others were more animal-like. Something he couldn’t identify walked past him on four legs that looked akin to a slab of stone with a large flat head.

  Shit, I’m never gonna have sex again...

  Everyone was going somewhere and they weren’t slow about it. This place moved with speed and he had to be quick to move with it. A few minutes after being jostled around and bumped into, he managed to make his way to the edge. He was stopped by a transparent barrier at chest height which he guessed to be made of some type of plastic. He couldn’t find the right words for the view. He could see now that he was on a circular platform that looked big enough to wrap around the moon. He could see that above and below were identical ringed platforms that became narrower towards the middle. He could only see this from a particular angle as the space between the rings was filled with smaller platforms of different sizes and shapes. Each one had several bridges that connected the floating islands. He saw massive parks filled with a variety of coloured grass and trees he had never seen before. There were stalls lining the bridges in front of him and below with aliens of all kinds browsing the goods.

  Each level looked like a self-contained city with thousands of people going about their business. Vehicles not unlike the ones on Earth were passing by using some type of anti-gravity technology. The inside was actually busier than the outside. It was all so alien, yet so familiar. He saw them walking hand in hand and eating at restaurants, others were shopping for clothes and technology; children even ran past, looking like one of the scaly aliens with a toy ship in one of their hands. As alien as it was, it reminded him of any other human city.

  All at once the buzz came to a silent stop as the plastic barrier he was leaning on came to life. Every panel showed an alien head and shoulders with unreadable symbols beneath at the bottom of the screen. The alien had a long jaw with two small fangs protruding from its lower lip. The eyes were a golden swirl set against a black background with long milky tendrils flowing from its head. He had no idea what it was saying but it had everyone’s attention. As if in response to the video his visor changed allowing him to see in full colour again. The image of the head changed to a long purple ship covered in arcing spikes. He looked around as the masses watched the images on the barrier or on their own devices. As quickly as the alien appeared it vanished leaving the barrier’s transparent again.

  The buzz of activity doubled after that and huge groups started to form, all heading the same way. He had no idea where he was but he knew it would be harder to find him in a large moving crowd. He decided to blend in and go with the flow. He had no clue what had gotten everyone so excited.

  Before the viewport was eclipsed by the Conclave, three ships moved into a blockade position across the bow of the Valoran. All three had a polished deep red hull with visible cannons and torpedo tubes. The backs of the ships were haloed in blue light that emanated from their engines. Kalian had seen this design of ship in the data module and recalled Li’ara telling him they were Conclave security. She had explained it as one force that represented the Conclave and was made up of all species not just one. They were created to remove any bias between disputes or crimes committed by a particular race. They patrolled all Conclave borders and were not restricted by jurisdiction. Each Nebula Class ship such as these had the required armaments to obliterate a planet in a single strike.

  “We are being hailed, Charge Telarrek,” said Ilyseal.

  Telarrek bowed his head and Ilyseal reacted appropriately, by pressing something on the floating console in front of her. The console itself was spherical with a ninety-degree angle removed from its surface. From this gap was displayed an orange holographic screen that reacted to her touch.

  Telarrek remained in his podium but the platform remained grounded in its housing. The space in front of them distorted for a moment before a full-colour hologram appeared from nowhere. Kalian and Li’ara looked but could not see the emitters that projected it. The image sharpened until it was almost indistinguishable from a real form.

  Standing before them was a being as tall as any Novaarian but triple the width. Its head was thick and elongated up to a flat hairless circular top. It had two small eyes where you would expect them to be, though they were overshadowed by a hanging brow. The nose was a large pitted hole set high into the face almost between the eyes. Its mouth was like that of a cave with nothing but darkness inside when it spoke. Broad shoulders flowed into heavyset arms and three thick stubby fingers. The skin reminded Kalian of marble with streaks of grey and blue across a white rocky background. He imagined to bump into this individual would be like bumping into a rock face.

  “Greetings of peace, Charge Telarrek.” The voice was deep with a small echo to it. “You and your expedition have become the only topic of conversation of late. You have been gone many cycles, in secret no less.” The hologram began to pace the floor in front of them.

  Everything below the waist was just as alien. At the thighs, the legs divided allowing for another pair of legs to extend to the floor. It walked upright but the back legs were always at an angle with inverted knees like the Novaarians’ high set ankles. The feet weren’t covered and they could see the front pair was spread between two marble toes and the rear feet were similar to hooves. Most of the body was dressed in a red tunic with black trousers that covered both pairs of legs. Kalian noticed a gold chain that hooked onto the high collar and the chest. Beneath this was a holographic display of medals and insignias.

  He was trying to recall everything about this particular race but always got them confused with the Revaneen, another species that inhabited the sector of space dominated by the Laronians, though they weren’t on the Highclave. Then it came to him, the being before him was a Raalak, one of the five races’ that did rule on the Highclave.

  “What we have found High Charge Uthor, is of great importance.” Telarrek made a sweeping gesture to take them both in. “The Highclave requests the presence of this individual, Kalian Gaines. We shall dock at Clave Tower and present-”

  Uthor cut him off. “The Valoran will remain where it is.” The High Charge moved to stand before the small humans. “I am sending a shuttle for you all to board. Together, we will escort you to the council chamber. We are still processing all the information you sent us on their kind. Until we are satisfied with that information they will remain under my guard.” He paused at Telarrek’s podium before striding back to his space in the middle. “A warning from one old friend to another, the council members are not happy with Nova Prime’s concealment of your mission. Someone will have to take the fall for this; it breaks the Conclave’s pact on sharing information. Tread carefully, Telarrek...” His image imploded on itself in a ball of light.

  Telarrek looked at Kalian. “I am afraid what happens next is out of all our control.”

  Kalian gave Li’ara’s hand a tight squeeze.

  Not long after they found themselves in the hangar with Telarrek, Ilyseal and Namek who had been waiting for them. Kalian noticed the Fathom on the far side. It looked better than new with an exquisite shine and no sign of any damage.

  The shuttle Uthor spoke of was already at the end of the bay with two guards either side of the descended ramp. One guard, he recognised instantly as a Laronian with their glittered scale-like skin. They had done a lot of research into them on their journey here. They both wanted to get a better idea of who the terraforming team were dealing with and whether they were a
threat. Just thinking about it made Kalian’s spine tingle with that particular feeling.

  Their information had been endless thanks to the openness of the Conclave rules regarding each species. They knew the Laronians were one of the founding members of the Conclave. They also knew that the Laronian borders held the most Intrinium deposits this side of the galaxy. Everything was to be shared in the Conclave, but Kalian would bet that a lot of deals were done in the shadows concerning who saw the profits. Their culture was heavily based on material gain and wealth. They often considered themselves above most other species, leaving Conclave security to deal with disputes between them and the Revaneen or the Atari who also lived within their space.

  In a way, it was thanks to their greed and want of monetary gains that led to Kalian even being here. If he tracked it back, the only reason he was alive was because the Novaarians had detected their Solar Drive, which humans wouldn’t have if the mining ship hadn’t crashed on Earth’s doorstep. Telarrek had told them that it was the secrecy of their find that had kept the other species from discovering humanity. It felt to Li’ara, and Kalian agreed, that they seemed like a race who always liked to have the upper hand. For this reason, neither of them liked the idea of the Laronians finding the terraforming project.

  The other guard was a biped but a new alien all the same. Li’ara reminded him on their way over that it was called a Tularon, who lived within the sector of space belonging to the Shay. He, if it was indeed a he, was bald with rough brown skin and large black eyes surrounded by a tuft of fur-like hair. High Charge Uthor waited at the top of the ramp with his stubby fingers clasped behind his back. Telarrek informed them on their way down of the history between Uthor and himself. Telarrek had spent two centuries prior to his expedition serving in the Conclave security as Charge-of-a-ship. Telarrek had stepped away from his promotion as High Charge in preference for the observation mission of humanity. It was he who had recommended Uthor for the position.