The Terran Cycle Boxset

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  Within minutes they were entering the hangar of the Valoran and leaving the planet far behind. As they departed the patrol ship Kalian just had time to see the solar system become a blur that shifted to the left. As per Telarrek’s orders, the Valoran had entered subspace, leaving nothing but an empty abyss beyond the hangar bay shield.

  11

  Through an exertion of will, Savrick expanded his awareness, feeling the individual atoms and elements that made up the wall he was lodged in. At the speed of thought, he discovered them all and bent them to his will. The wall cracked in several places around his shoulder joint, allowing him to pull free. The Novaarian had used some kind of gravity distortion; how primitive that they had to rely on technology to achieve such feats.

  He turned to the podium with thoughts of retribution for distracting him. The Highclave had all retreated into some structure they obviously thought was safe. The Novaarian female was still lying in rubble and broken chairs. Being of a different species her mind remained closed to his; though he could still feel the different frequencies it gave off. He thought about ending her there and then until two of his crew returned.

  “Savrick.” The helmet parted to reveal Lilander.

  Sef kept his own helmet intact, as always. Lilander was a veteran among their kind and had served their cause since the beginning. He still remembered finding her on the outskirts of Nal-hala being hunted by the Terran. They had lost that particular battle and he had tried to save as many as he could. He arrived with Elandar expecting to find her dead or captured; instead, he found a dozen Terran bodies.

  Her blonde hair was shaved around the edges with a spiky strip on top. Her features were as perfect as the rest of her species, though her bulky armour hid the toned body within. She had an intricate green tattoo that ran down her left cheek stopping at her jaw bone. She looked to the side of his head where he had hit the wall.

  “You are bleeding...” she said it with amazement and he knew it had been too long since he had been in a real fight.

  He now felt the blood trickling down his face and across his cheekbone. Connecting with his body in the way only his kind could, he felt the wound knowing it to be minor. His brain’s own introspection told him he would suffer no effects or concussion. Savrick redirected his thoughts to the wound and dramatically increased the levels of platelets flooding the area. Within a second the bleeding had stopped and he instructed his skin to begin building the connective tissue to seal the wound. His mind could remove the scar while he slept.

  The three of them turned as the cry of the beast could be heard beyond the path of destruction it had created. Savrick’s own rage began to surface as he used the cerebral link to momentarily see through the beast’s helmet. They had gotten away, he had gotten away. He looked up to the spiral of glass high above and screamed as loud as he could, his voice carrying the rage he felt. Lilander and Sef stepped away, afraid of any residual kickback from such a display of emotion. The tons of glass shattered, blowing out into Clave Tower below. The shards that didn’t blow out fell back down on them, some of the pieces as big as the beast. The glass never reached them as it impacted an invisible dome around the three of them. Savrick could feel the intense frequencies that Sef’s brain was pushing out and knew he was the reason they remained unharmed. Sef had only been a boy when Savrick found him, his parents killed for the simple crime of bringing him into the world. To this day, he had never spoken a single word. Loyalty was his language, and that was all Savrick could ask of him.

  In the early half of the war, they had been appointed by the others in their cause to always keep Savrick safe. It had been him they rallied behind making his survival paramount to victory. He had rejected the idea at first, knowing they all had a reason as unique as his own for starting the war. After centuries of near misses on the battlefield, however, he had eventually come to the realisation that his survival was crucial, if only so that he could be there when the last Terran fell.

  “He is more powerful than I thought if he can create organic plasma.” Savrick felt the crater in his armour where the super-heated ball had hit him.

  The metal was charred and still hot to the touch. Through his link, he connected to the central processing unit located in the circular extension below his navel. In his mind’s eye, he saw the command program open to his instructions where he ordered the nanocelium to begin repairing the crater. They were impossible to see with the naked eye as the microscopic machines moved across and within the armour. Upon observation, it would appear as though the armour was spontaneously pushing back out into its pre-programmed state.

  “Did you see his hand, though?” Lilander asked. “He hasn’t mastered his abilities yet, he is still vulnerable.”

  “It was my own arrogance that allowed their escape, I underestimated him.” He looked away unable to meet her eyes, he had wanted to prolong the moment to make Kalian suffer more.

  He was angry to have almost ended it all and failed.

  They could all hear the distant explosions and screams of the Conclave. His brothers and sisters were making a bloody mess of things. He felt a moment of sympathy for his crew, knowing these savages offered no real challenge for them.

  “Where are they now?” Being only one of two such unique beings in the whole tower there was nowhere Kalian could hide from their sensors.

  The pilot relayed the data through Lilander’s link, upon her request, and displayed them via the emitters in the waist of her armour. The hologram was laid out before them, much like the one Savrick had seen earlier with three red dots near the edge of the tower. Lilander silently commanded it to magnify, showing them the erratic movements of the vehicle they had escaped in.

  “There are three of them?” Lilander voiced their confusion.

  Recalling any memory was as easy as breathing to them. Savrick thought back to the moments after he was pulled into the wall. The image was crystal clear in his mind despite the distraction of being attacked at the time. If his eyes had ever seen it, then the image lay permanently somewhere in his brain. He remembered seeing another individual drop from the gantry above while shooting at the beast. He analysed the image until he recognised the hands holding the weapons. How this particular human had come to be here was a mystery. Ultimately he didn’t care if he was with Kalian, he would die anyway.

  “Sef,” Savrick turned from the hologram, “Bring them to me, alive.” Sef gave a small nod and set off at a sprint towards the beast. “I will return to the ship.”

  Lilander’s face gave away how torn she was to follow him back. Her duty commanded she escort him but the prospect of the fun she could have here was too much. She had already held back by simply being present for the encounter with Kalian.

  “You worry too much, Lilander. I will not be so easily surprised a second time.” He considered for a moment wiping out the entire Novaarian species for that particular attack. “I will be fine. As the humans say, ‘go break a leg’...” Of course, he was not referring to her own.

  After an incredible burst of telekinesis, Savrick found himself back in the command module with a frantic looking Elandar. His hands were darting from one hologram to another as he stood encapsulated in various nanite-made structures.

  “They are fleeing!” Elandar didn’t need to look to know Savrick had entered.

  Having spent so many years together they were keenly aware of each other’s specific brain waves. Savrick examined the display in front of Elandar, taking note of the trajectory line that cut across the galactic map. The information overlapping the image told him they had retreated to the Novaarian ship.

  He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. How had they escaped Sef? He was growing tired of the slippery nature of this, Kalian Gaines. A quick inquiry through his Link informed him of Elandar’s success regarding his own personal mission.

  “Recall them immediately, all of them!” Their fun would have to wait, the war wasn’t over yet.

  After leaving the hangar Kalian ha
d insisted that they do nothing before getting Li’ara to the med bay. Rather than leave them, Telarrek and Ilyseal followed them along with a small contingent of Novaarian warriors. Kalian had a feeling it was more out of concern for their new guest. They were happy for him to follow them after he offered no protest against the removal of his weapons. Namek was taken to a different med bay as his injuries were more severe. Kalian would thank him the next time he saw him, he had saved their lives twice today.

  The stranger stood to one side with his hands in his pockets as if he was totally at home in this new environment. The mechanical spider descended from its birthing and broke into sections around Li’ara as she sat on the gurney. Being in this room again reminded Kalian of the first time he learned of Earth’s fate.

  The spider’s legs separated into multiple appendages, each with a different tool or implement. Despite her protests, the many arms found the seals in her armour and removed each of the plates. With precision only a machine could manage, it sliced the undersuit around her shoulder and down the broken arm, before stripping it off in one smooth motion. The skin around her humerus was bruised and swollen. The entire arm hung at an unusual angle from her collarbone.

  Another mechanical arm slipped out and scanned the arm from top to bottom with a thin blue line. The embedded wall monitor showed the display of the arm like an x-ray, with a visible fracture in the centre of the bone and a dislocation of the ball and socket joint. Although Li’ara couldn’t see it, one of the arms produced a square red patch from within a hidden compartment. The patch was applied to the back of her deltoid where it instantly scrunched up, sticking to the skin. The red contents disappeared as the skin blushed. Her response was indicative of some kind of analgesia.

  Another arm descended and rotated around the fracture site, spraying what looked like water.

  “I can’t feel my arm.” Li’ara looked distressed for a moment as the same mechanical arm produced a scalpel.

  Ilyseal stepped in to reassure her. “The Medder will first mend the broken bone before relocating the joint. But do not fear, you will not feel anything.”

  When Li’ara looked back the Medder had already cut into the arm and inserted several fine extensions. Another arm wiped away the trickle of blood. The monitor showed the fine extensions rapidly moving across the fracture, filling in the gaps as they did.

  “We have been studying your kind for a long time,” Telarrek interrupted. “We can easily replicate the bone and surrounding tissue.”

  As rapidly as the extensions moved they extracted themselves slotting back into the arm. A small green laser moved over the incision closing the gap which was then covered by a similar red patch to the one on her deltoid.

  “Leave this on for the next day and there will be no scar,” Ilyseal said.

  Another analgesic patch was applied over the scapula and clavicle. Kalian turned away from this part as the Medder formed two arms that lifted Li’ara’s and held onto her shoulder. In one swift motion, it rotated the arm, relocating the joint back into position. Astonishingly Li’ara felt nothing as she started flexing her arm and rotating the joint. The Medder retreated back into its housing, becoming an inverted dome again. Li’ara nodded and gave the Novaarians a small smile of gratitude.

  Kalian walked over and gave her mended shoulder a squeeze. They shared a smile and he was elated to see her well again. Their lives had become so intertwined he couldn’t imagine losing her now.

  “Your hand!” Li’ara gripped his hand in her own and turned it palm up.

  It took Kalian a moment to remember the condition his hand had been in. “I don’t understand...” He examined it himself in disbelief.

  The burn was completely gone without as much as a scar. How was this possible? They must have all seen his display with the strange ball of light he expelled, not to mention the stranger seeing him push the attacker off without touching him. But this rapid healing was new to him as well.

  “I suppose I have some explaining to do,” Kalian said.

  To his confusion, neither Telarrek nor Ilyseal looked shocked.

  “Later.” Telarrek looked to the stranger in the corner.

  The entrance to the med bay opened as a Novaarian guard entered. He presented a small disc-shaped box to Telarrek who took it and dismissed him. Kalian recognised the container; he was wearing one of its contents behind his ear.

  “I think this might be easier if it came from you.” Telarrek handed the disc to Kalian, who looked at the stranger and then back at Telarrek with a puzzled expression. “Our scans indicate he is human.” Telarrek hesitated before looking at Li’ara. “Human like you.”

  Having seen Savrick and his kind there was now a genetic split. Kalian understood what he meant but didn’t know where this human had come from.

  “You’re going to need one of these if you’re going to understand anything.” Kalian extended his arm, the disc splitting apart to reveal the small circular dot inside. The stranger looked from the Novaarians to the contents of the disc. He was obviously suspicious. “Don’t worry; we’ve got one as well.” Kalian tilted his head to show his own implant.

  His human hands slipped out of his pockets as he lifted the helmet from his head. Neither of them knew what to expect but Kalian felt some elation in seeing another human being, even if he did look a bit rough. His dark hair was cropped short with no sign of any grey. He looked to be somewhere in his early forties but human ageing made it impossible to tell. He had an unkempt appearance with at least a week’s worth of stubble. His hazel eyes moved across the room taking everything in with a quick glance; it almost reminded him of Li’ara.

  “So you’re saying if I put this thing on, I’ll understand what fang boy over there is saying?” His voice was gruff like he hadn’t spoken in a while.

  Kalian gave him an affirming nod while picking up the translator with his finger and thumb. The stranger took it and placed in the same place as Kalian’s. After a few seconds, he looked around as if hearing something distant before moving his tongue around.

  “Its metallic I know, it goes away after a while.” Kalian moved aside as Telarrek came over.

  “Wait...” Li’ara hopped off the gurney and stood before the stranger. “I’d recognise that gear anywhere, you’re UDC...”

  “Commander Roland North, at your service.” He didn’t look too happy with his own name and Kalian didn’t like the way he looked at Li’ara.

  Telarrek bowed his head with the usual greeting. “Greetings of peace, Commander North.” Roland looked dumbstruck for a moment as he took in the alien words. “I am Charge Telarrek. You are aboard my ship, the Valoran.”

  “I think I’ve been aboard enough alien ships to last a lifetime.” Roland moved away as he felt the edges of his translator behind his ear.

  “How did you get here?” Li’ara looked almost hungry for answers. “Were you on Alpha NL-2204?”

  Kalian could see her train of thought. There was only one way another human could get this far into the Conclave, the Laronians. Roland looked suspicious of how they might know about the classified terraforming project.

  “Yeah, I was there until some scaly blue aliens showed up and destroyed everything. They held us in their ship for about a week until I escaped.” He was startled when a floating hologram appeared in front of him due to his proximity to a console. He tried to carry on as if he was taking it all in his stride.

  Kalian was impressed that Roland had managed to escape a Laronian vessel and make his way to Clave Tower.

  “Find the Laronian ship.” At Telarrek’s command, Ilyseal left the med bay to carry out her orders.

  Li’ara faced him again. “I am Lieuten-” She stopped and glanced at Kalian. “I’m Li’ara Ducarté and this is, Kalian Gaines.”

  They could both see the giant elephant in the room. If the Commander had been on Alpha NL-2204 then it stood to reason that he wouldn’t know about the attack on Earth. He remembered back on the Icarus station when Commander H
awkins had told them communications were down as the giant ship appeared. Chances are those same communications were being used to keep the terraforming group in contact. But how do you tell someone their entire civilisation has been destroyed and their species is now endangered?

  Telarrek understood what they were both contemplating. “I will give you the time you need. When you are finished meet me in the Observatory.” With that, he left the med bay.

  “What’s he talking about?” Roland stopped examining a strange surgical implement that looked like a gun.

  Kalian looked to Li’ara. He had no idea where to begin.

  “There’s something you need to know about Earth...” she began.

  They spent the next two hours going through the chain of events that lead them to this very spot. Kalian chose to divulge his secret as Roland wanted to know why a history lecturer was so important, not to mention him already witnessing it firsthand. After hearing this, Kalian felt a tactical mind examining him for threats and weaknesses. At the news of Earth’s destruction, he sat back on the gurney as if he couldn’t take his own weight any more. They tried to answer his questions about this new enemy that looked like humans but even their knowledge was patchy at best. He found it hard to believe that there was a weapon capable of destroying a star, having been in the weapons business himself.

  He was left to swearing after hearing Century had been attacked as well. It didn’t need explaining that there were very few humans left and that a large portion of them was now in Laronian custody. He didn’t have as many questions as Kalian thought he would, but it was possible he was in shock. They offered information regarding some of the things and species he had encountered since his capture, which he quickly absorbed as well as what had been said between them and the Highclave. His silence prompted Kalian to ask some of his own questions.