The Terran Cycle Boxset

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  He had never told Savrick about these little episodes, he dared not. If Savrick thought Esabelle was being harmed or under duress, he would punish Elandar. Like many times in the past, he uploaded a search program packed with hunter nanocelium. He saw the same reaction as always; the program would be accepted and rejected until it was completely erased. He always put it down to the raw power of her mind, he assumed the search was accepted but was unable to activate before Esabelle overwhelmed it.

  He looked at her for a moment rather than the hologram. It was as if she was fighting with herself. He had theorised more than once that she had awareness of her situation and was trying to disconnect from the Gommarian. As her vitals returned to normal the ship’s internal sensors came to life with an alarm blaring in his head. He cut the alarm with his link and commanded a report. The mission couldn’t have gone wrong. He had sent the majority of the crew to dismantle that ship and bring him the human.

  His jaw dropped at the holographic feedback. The Novaarian ship had self-destructed with his brothers and sisters on board. He wasn’t surprised that he felt no shock wave from the blast, but how had the sensors not immediately detected the threat? He brought long-range sensors up and saw hundreds of escape pods leaving the solar system. He commanded scan after scan searching for any traces of his kin.

  There was nothing.

  He dropped to his knees as tears began to fall down his cheeks. They were gone. Savrick had trusted him with their lives and they were gone. He made a quick head-count through internal sensors and found only thirteen Gomar remained aboard. The holograms around him were starting to lose cohesion as he failed to control his emotions. Savrick would end him for this. There would be no getting around that; no Gomar had ever failed him so spectacularly. They were all that was left of the Gomar, the brave and the strong who had survived the war. Now they were a handful.

  He could see from the readouts that the Gommarian was already repairing any damage to the hull. Before he could do anything else, an internal sensor activated another alarm in the bowels of the ship. He quickly ordered a barrage of scans and holographic imagery to tell him more. The feedback flickered into existence but could not keep its cohesion. At the same time, Esabelle began to thrash in her levitated position. He turned back to her sharply, fearing something worse was happening to her. Via his link, he commanded the sensors to continue their scans of the ship but the order was never accepted. He rushed over to Esabelle bringing up her vitals again. Perhaps she was suffering from the supernova?

  She soon calmed after another infusion of drugs. He was careful to ensure her blood toxicity was maintained at optimum levels. If he needed, he could filter her blood at a moment’s notice. What was happening to her? He told himself there was no way she could leave the virtuality. With her fighting his commands he couldn’t acquire accurate sensor feedback. She had on occasion fought with microscopic details of her connection to the ship but never on this level. The timeframe wasn’t lost on him either; he knew her internal rebellion had increased since they arrived in Earth’s orbit.

  Between her and the loss of the crew, he was beginning to feel unhinged. He was losing control. He could blame Esabelle for the losses but Savrick would still punish him. He looked back at the sputtering hologram and feared what the internal sensors had found. Just to be sure he instructed Hol and Nardel to investigate via their links.

  Li’ara woke with a start, gripping her gun in one hand. She was up a second later when she saw that Kalian wasn’t in the cot next to her. Tracing her way back to the lounge she berated herself for not reapplying her armour to her upper body and arms. She blamed Kalian; she had softened her edges around him and was forgetting basic training. Always be prepared they had told her. How do you prepare someone for what she’s been through?

  Li’ara couldn’t deny that circumstances had kept the two of them closer than any of her other assignments. She hated using that word regarding Kalian. He was no longer just some assignment; she began to see him as the man he was. Granted she hadn’t thought much of that man, but he had become something else. He had been through every trial she had since the attack on Earth. But more than that, she thought of everything they had learned in the last twenty-four hours. He was important, and to more than just her. She didn’t like to look so far into the future but she knew he would be pivotal if their race was to thrive in this new environment.

  But even that wasn’t why she still protected him so fiercely. She thought of him in a way she had never taken the time to think of someone. It was this feeling that forced her into a run. She had to know he was safe.

  The circular door became translucent again as she burst through. Kalian was sitting in a chair, surrounded by a hideous machine that enveloped his entire face.

  “Kalian!” She ran to him before ALF formed in front of her. He held out a calming hand but she was not reassured.

  “What are you doing to him?” She looked past the AI to see Kalian sitting perfectly still.

  “He is learning at a speed you couldn’t comprehend.” The machine whirred as the faceplate withdrew and the contraption disappeared into the ceiling.

  Kalian awoke with a deep breath and Li’ara moved passed ALF to check on him. She put her hand over his cheek but pulled away from the heat of his skin.

  “I’m fine, really.” He held her hand for a second longer before getting up.

  The chair melted back into the floor. There was something about the way he held himself, he seemed taller.

  “Come, show me what you know.” ALF was standing on the sparring mat, no longer wearing his robes, but instead a white shirt that stopped at his forearms and white trousers that stopped below the knees.

  The AI wiggled his bare toes on the mat with a wide grin on his face. Kalian made a mocking laugh.

  “You want me to fight a hologram?” he asked.

  ALF walked up to them with purpose in his stride. Unbelievably quick, the AI grabbed Kalian by his top and brought them both to the floor in a tumble of limbs before he ejected Kalian across the mat. Li’ara reacted from instinct. She lunged for the AI, intending to land a blow across the cervical vertebrae at the back of his neck. Her arm passed through the hologram as her momentum forced her to the ground.

  “How is this possible?” Kalian had already recovered.

  “The Conclave created holograms that react to touch but have no substance. The Terran discovered hard-light millennia ago. If we had the time the subconducer could teach you, but there are more important things for you to learn than the intricacies of holographic technology. Your first lesson is combat.”

  ALF assumed a fighting stance Li’ara had never seen before, and she had studied almost every fighting technique there was. To her surprise, Kalian also assumed an unfamiliar stance. What had that machine done to him? She looked at them both and knew she wasn’t to come between them. It felt unnatural to let Kalian fight though, that was her job.

  “Break him and you’ll have to deal with me, robot.” She hoped he took her look seriously.

  To her surprise, he resumed a normal standing posture. “You are quite right, Li’ara. I was going to save this for later, but you might as well learn to move in it.”

  At that moment Telarrek and Namek walked through the translucent fog. They stood to one side, silently watching. Out of the floor, an oval column began to form much like the chair had. It stopped at waist-height next to ALF. The centre of the oval opening was swirling like a galaxy being sucked into a black hole. The darkness birthed an object the size of her palm floated up towards ALF’s own hand. It was matte black and shaped like a triangle with the apex sliced off.

  The oval quickly melted away and ALF walked over to Kalian, holding out the object. Kalian took it and examined both sides of the flat shape.

  “Place it here.” ALF pointed below his own navel, where a belt buckle would normally sit.

  Kalian did as instructed and held the object against the top of his trousers. Li’ara wanted to despe
rately scan the thing first, who knew what it might be? But this was typical Kalian; he just reacts instead of thinking.

  She felt the grip of her gun as she watched the object stick to where he placed it. Everything happened very quickly after that. The black object exploded with activity as a wave of nanocelium covered Kalian’s body. In that same second, she was levelling her weapon at ALF along with both Novaarians.

  Kalian stood amazed, completely coated in matte black armour. It stopped at the top of his neck leaving his head free. His hands were visible but the armour had gone as far as his knuckles. It wasn’t like the armour the Gomar wore, it was more fitted. He didn’t appear bulky or misshapen. The armour was plated as it ran down his arms and abdomen and even his thighs. He had armoured boots that ended at his knees. Everything looked like separate plating but was still all connected as one piece. It was beautifully detailed in an intricate pattern that was raised against the surface.

  “How does it feel?” ALF asked.

  Kalian was smiling as he flexed his limbs, testing his range of movement. “It feels strange.” He ran his fingers over the armoured chest. “It feels hard like metal, but it moves like fabric.”

  “It was made to be durable, but flexible. Standard Terran armour. Incidentally, I hope you weren’t attached to those clothes. I’m afraid they’re gone. The nanocelium will have consumed them and converted the material into energy.”

  Li’ara lowered her gun and the Novaarians did the same. She was actually pleased with this new development. At least he had some protection now.

  “Time for some practical application I think.” ALF motioned for Li’ara to step off the mat so that they could continue.

  They both resumed their new fighting stances. She took a moment to explain to Telarrek and Namek about the unusual concept of hard-light. They both proceeded excitedly to run scans on their bracers.

  Li’ara checked her touchpad and saw that nearly four hours had gone by since the melee had begun. In that time, oval columns had appeared and produced water and food to keep them nourished. She looked at Kalian in amazement. She didn’t know where he found the stamina to keep fighting for so many hours. They never paused or took a breath from the extraordinary fighting style. They used every part of their body as a weapon, often becoming a blur of body parts dancing around each other. They both landed successful blows and often knocked the other back or to the floor.

  Li’ara hated to admit it but she wasn’t confident she could compete in this fight. Even their speed seemed unnatural. More than once she was sure she had seen Kalian force ALF to the floor without actually having made contact. As the hours went on, he began to mix his telekinetic abilities with his fighting style. It was somewhere between impressive and scary to watch. The way he moved and anticipated ALF’s attacks with his own counters made him appear so alien to her. This wasn’t the man she had met in The Hub.

  “Stop,” the AI said calmly.

  He stood back from Kalian with his arm stretched out to stop any further attack. His crystal blue eyes looked around the room and Li’ara knew he was seeing streams of information that was invisible to them. Remarkably, Kalian hadn’t even broken a sweat. She wondered if that was something he could control or if it was a by-product of his evolved metabolism.

  “I’m intercepting communications from Conclave security channels. I’ve realigned my satellites to confirm. There has been a class-three Starrillium rupture in the Trillik system.” ALF turned to Telarrek, who had his strong jaws clamped shut.

  The Novaarian made a small grunt as he lowered his long head, and sat back on the bench. Namek rested his head against his staff as well as making a series of grunting sounds. Their skin colour changed to a light shade of red.

  “I’m retrieving any long-range sat-images, but it will take time to clear up the picture over such a distance.” ALF looked at the Novaarians hesitantly. “I am sorry...”

  “I would like to see the sky,” Telarrek said.

  Li’ara wondered if it was some Novaarian grieving ritual she had never seen, she thought about looking it up on the data module later. ALF told them to follow the lights as another door opened up on the far side.

  “The Valoran, everyone, even Roland... they’re all gone.” Kalian physically sagged.

  She knew that look; he felt defeated. The odds were mounting against him and he was in the middle of it all. The lights flickered a fraction as Kalian clenched his fists. He paced the mat shaking his head in frustration.

  “It’s not right!” he growled. “Billions of lives have been lost because of the decisions you made aeons ago!” He pointed at ALF, who appeared unfazed. “If you had found a better way to help the Gomar instead segregating them, Savrick’s wife would still be alive and you wouldn’t have had a rebellion!”

  The lights continued to flicker; Li’ara knew if she’d blinked she would have missed seeing ALF lose cohesion for a moment.

  “Now we’re stuck in the middle of a conflict that should never have even begun. Your IQ can’t be quantified right? But you couldn’t see this outcome after millions of years of overseeing Terran life?” Kalian faced ALF like a man ready for a fight. Li’ara assumed he still had a fair amount of adrenaline and testosterone surging through his blood.

  She looked down at her touchpad in the fabric of her sleeve and saw that it was no longer responding. It had to be Kalian. Despite his drastic change in emotions she had to agree with him. She thought about her father and felt angry herself. Savrick had pulled the trigger but everything he did could be laid at ALF’s feet. The AI had made bad choices and trillions, including the Terran civilisation, had suffered for it. And now a completely separate society that had nothing to do with the Terran was paying the price. They had come between Savrick and them with nothing but death to show for it.

  “I think it’s time for another lesson.” ALF gestured to the descending subconducer while eyeing the flickering lights. “Your combat technique is predictable,” he went on as if Kalian had said nothing. “You need to master your emotions and learn control. These micro EMPs you throw off are dangerous. Once you have an understanding of your capabilities, you can integrate the two efficiently. You must have a complete mind-body connection.” The chair had fully formed, just as before. “When you face Savrick or any of the Gomar, they will not hold back. They are each veterans of a war they were strong enough to win. You must be better.”

  Kalian strode over to the machine without hesitating. She respected him for that; to put everything aside in view of the bigger picture, the more immediate issue. She could see the difference on his face. This was no longer the man she had met only a week ago, he would do whatever he had to. She tried to bury the thought, but she had seen the way he looked at her. She had seen how angry he became after Savrick hurt her in the Highclave chamber.

  “He needs to rest!” she objected. “He hasn’t slept and you’ve been fighting for hours. He needs food, water, and sleep.”

  Kalian stopped before sitting in the chair. He turned his head but didn’t make eye contact. “Do it...”

  He sat back in the chair and allowed the faceplate to cover his head. Light poured out of the edges around his head as the machine began the next download.

  “I have made mistakes, unforgivable choices.” ALF surprised her by not simply vanishing. “But with Kalian there may be a way to wipe the slate clean and start again, to do things right. He must be better, Li’ara.”

  “You’re going to kill him if you push him too far. You don’t know how much of this machine he can take,” she retorted.

  “It goes both ways.” ALF tapped the subconducer. “Kalian can see into the machine and the machine can see into him.”

  “You mean you can see into him.” Li’ara would not be led astray by his choice of words.

  “Yes, I can. There’s a very fortified part of his mind that contains something he feels is precious to him. Do you know what’s inside that part?”

  Li’ara already knew the
answer.

  “I calculate that he considers you more important than the entire Conclave. It seems you’ve made quite the impression. But don’t worry, it’s a good thing. You give him strength; he’s going to need that.”

  Li’ara didn’t like the idea of him being inside Kalian’s head. “Do you have a point to make, robot?”

  ALF gave her a coy smile. “His sense of control is acutely connected to his emotions, Miss Ducarté. Something I believe you should be keenly aware of in the coming conflict.”

  “Stay out of his head, and mine.” She didn’t want to enter into a mind game with an AI.

  Li’ara would keep Kalian alive, whatever the cost; she didn’t need ALF to make her aware of anything. He moved around the machine until they were side by side.

  “Savrick is only the beginning. I believe that something worse is coming, something older. If Kalian isn’t strong enough to beat him then I fear everything will soon come to an end.”

  Li’ara wasn’t sure what ALF was hinting at but she had a sinking feeling in her stomach. “What do you mean, something worse? And from what I’ve seen Savrick isn’t the beginning, he’s the end.”

  “Before the war, I discovered several artefacts on the outer reach of the Norma Arm. Naturally, I began investigations into their origins. Based upon the level of surrounding rock I believe they were ancient probes from before my time, possibly even before the Terran. Before I could confirm my findings, however, Savrick attacked the Larena system with the Gommarian. He destroyed the entire system with a single strike. I had to leave the investigation to smaller programmes and concentrate on the war. But there was no mistaking the comparison. The ancient probes were made of the same material as the central processing unit at the heart of the Gommarian. The Avatar’s findings proved that much.”

  “What are you saying, Savrick found some ancient technology that predates the Terran? Something worse than him?”