The Terran Cycle Boxset

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  Step off…

  Sef’s words preceded his own step, which took the hulking Gomar beyond the ramp. Roland and Li’ara took a breath and followed him over the edge. The drop was dizzying and the feeling of free falling sent a tingle from Roland’s feet and into his stomach. The bounty hunter tried to keep his body vertical, with his limbs tucked in. Sef dropped quicker than they did and Roland could see the wave approaching, as the Gomar drew ever closer to the platform. A quick glance told of Li’ara’s comfort, or at least her stubbornness to express any discomfort. The air rushed past their ears, preventing any sound of the tumultuous waves from reaching them.

  Sef’s landing was visible from above, due to the dented impact he made on the platform. For just a second, as that was all Roland had, the bounty hunter was concerned that Sef would let them hit the platform with the same kind of velocity. Clearly, the Gomar had slowed his own descent towards the end, but his armour had taken some of the brunt. Roland and Li’ara would be broken in half.

  Finally, both Roland and Li’ara felt the invisible resistance that slowed their descent, and for just a moment, it felt as if they were really flying. Both humans landed on the platform with ease and no broken bones.

  The bounty hunter howled with glee. “We should do that again!”

  Before anyone could reply to the ridiculous comment, four cannons popped out of the platform with incredible speed. The three were instantly surrounded and the cannons unleashed their intrinium without pause. Roland dived to the floor and tucked into a roll, bringing up his Tri-rollers in both hands. Li’ara however, just stood perfectly still without a care. The cannon’s intrinium bolts hammered at an invisible field that surrounded the three intruders. Translucent waves spread out across the field with every blow, but Sef remained in place, with his hands outstretched.

  Roland slowly stood up, realising that his overreaction now appeared somewhat stupid. “How did you know he was going to do that?”

  “Trust…” Li’ara’s smile was unbearable.

  Sef clenched both of his armoured fists and telekinetically crushed the cannons. They imploded in a shower of sparks and miniature explosions.

  The approaching wave blocked out the sun. Roland looked up and saw the Rackham shoot out of the area. He mentally commanded it to activate all stealthware protocols and vanish from sight.

  The Gomar marched towards the other end of the platform and reached out with one hand and made a lifting motion. Roland watched and heard the Translift being wrenched to their level. A flick of Sef’s fingers opened the doors and the three happily stepped inside. It was only a few seconds after the lift dropped into the base that the mighty wave crashed into the facility.

  Doctor’s Bal’s finger hovered over the self-destruct button. After being activated he would have to input his code and verbally command the walls of the installation to explode, killing them all. Gelda, his Atari assistant, stood by his side, frozen in terror, along with the other scientists. There were no guards to protect them, only automated weapons systems. Bal was deflated, aware that those defensive measures had been rigorously tested and that no living Conclave member could survive them.

  But nowhere was Gomar-proof.

  Not an hour earlier had the doctor been contacted by High Charge Uthor and told of the loose Gomar and his human companions. Apparently, a fleet was on the way to assist them, but looking at the progress the intruders were making, Bal knew it wouldn't be in time. He couldn't bring himself to blow up the base, however, and not just because of the great work they were doing, but also because the Trillik just didn't want to die.

  “If they make it to the lab doors… I’ll input my code.” Bal gave the team an apologetic look.

  The red-headed Gomar behind him was still inside her Rem-store, along with the newest test-subject, whom they were yet to prise from their pod. The female had stirred when the base was first attacked, leaving the team no choice but to increase her doses of sedatives. They had been so close to figuring out how to remove the exo-suit; now it would all be for nothing.

  Roland was already promising himself to never go anywhere with a Gomar or a Terran or anyone with special abilities ever again. Besides taking him to some of the worst places the Conclave had to offer, accompanying them into a fight was like marching into battle behind a tank.

  Wait! Sef projected into their mind.

  Roland stopped at the next corner with his Tri-rollers either side of his head. Li’ara’s rifle was still smoking from the fight between them and the never-ending pop-out cannons. Thankfully Sef had disabled most with directed EMPs.

  “What’s wrong?” Li’ara asked, crouching beside Roland.

  The walls are lined with explosives. On every level… Sef sat down on the floor and rested his hands on his knees.

  “What are you doing?” Roland hissed.

  I will disable the bombs, but there are too many for me to continue fighting at the same time. My skills have never required such acute direction. I must concentrate if I am to prevent them all from exploding.

  “Acute direction?” Roland mouthed at Li’ara.

  “Savrick used him, and most of the Gomar, like blunt instruments. Even Kalian has finer control than they do.”

  “Whatever, let’s just get on with it. Shooting machines is boring as fuck!”

  The humans ran on, leaving Sef to deal with the unseen threat of implosion. They had already descended into the bowels of the installation; more than once they came across a terrified scientist, running for cover or trying desperately to seal the door between them. It was clear when they had reached the chamber housing the Gomar.

  “Why is there always a big fuck-off door?” Roland tapped the barrel of his Tri-roller against the shiny surface. “It’s like they’ll never learn that we just don't give a shit.”

  Li’ara raised both her eyebrows in surprise. “And how exactly are we getting through this door?”

  “By being good at what I do!” Roland removed the Terran blade from the base of his back. “I don't keep that methane cloud around for nothing, you know. I’ve always got Len working on my shit… especially after encountering that door at Protocorps.”

  The bounty hunter thrust the base of the hilt into the console beside the heavy door. Black veins sprouted from the end and zig-zagged across the glass screen. The glass cracked where the nanocelium entered the hardware and went to work on gutting the system.

  “This’ll just take a minute…” Roland leaned against the wall.

  The lights inside the console flickered and the inner workings of the door rotated this way and that until a hiss was produced at the seams. It turned out that the door was actually three doors, one layered behind the other.

  Two more cannons dropped out of the ceiling and opened fire immediately.

  Roland dashed to the side of the door, retrieving his Terran hilt, and bringing up one of his Tri-rollers. Li’ara copied his movements on the other side of the door, except she had managed to get a shot off before taking cover. One of the cannons was damaged, unable to rotate and move between targets.

  “There’s just no thrill in blowing these things up!” Roland dived across the threshold and fired both of his guns at once. The intrinium bolts reduced the undamaged cannon to slag, leaving the broken cannon to continue its barrage against the wall. Roland strolled into the lab and casually shot the machine.

  Inside the lab, a Trillik scientist was fervently pressing a solid button on his console and verbally ordering something to self-destruct. The other scientists and a particularly attractive Atari were all cowering at the far end of the room with nowhere to escape. Roland’s assessment of these people was fleeting, due to the centrepiece of the lab. A typically beautiful Gomar was upright, inside her Rem-store, and connected to an array of machines via intravenous lines. Another stood beside her, but still hidden inside their armour and Rem-store.

  Li’ara followed the bounty hunter in. “Well, that was easier than the last place we broke into…”r />
  Roland cornered the Trillik. “You can't blame the eggheads, Red. They don't know any better! I realise that secret bases are best-kept secret when as few people know about it as possible, but you can't replace grunts with static cannons. They’re just… predictable!”

  Li’ara glanced at Roland, before focusing on the two Gomar. “Didn't your mother teach you not to play with your food?”

  Roland was inches from the terrified Trillik. “Where’s the fun in that?”

  “Where are the other Gomar?” Li’ara asked.

  The Trillik held up his hands and slowly reached for one of the holograms above the console. The glass wall behind him changed from translucent to transparent, revealing the other nine pods.

  “What are you going to do with them?” the Trillik asked.

  Li’ara looked from the pods to the scientist. “We’ll start by waking them up - all of them.”

  “Doctor Bal!” the Atari cried.

  The Trillik raised his hand to silence her. “You can't be serious? You know better than anyone in the Conclave what these monsters are capable of. They destroyed your entire civilisation!”

  “You know how it is Doc,” Roland twirled his gun in the alien’s face, “the enemy of my enemy…”

  All four of Doctor Bal’s black eyes narrowed, pulling on his brow. “What does that mean?”

  “It’s… you know…” Roland couldn't be bothered explaining the human phrase. “Just wake -”

  The entire facility shook and the overhead lights flickered on and off.

  “Was that a wave?” Roland asked, looking back at Li’ara.

  Doctor Bal slowly shook his head. “That’s never happened before…” The Trillik started to access the camera feeds around the installation. Roland was sure to keep his Tri-roller aimed at the alien.

  “The bombs?” Li’ara asked with some alarm.

  “No,” the Trillik answered. “Your friend has seen to those apparently.”

  The holographic feed showed a new ship on the platform above. It had no insignia or designation to indicate its purpose.

  “Supply run?” Roland asked.

  Doctor Bal shook his head and his twin-tail coiled around his leg. “We just had one. Besides, it wouldn't explain the tremor.”

  The installation shook again, more violently this time. The lights flickered and the consoles cut out for a second. Roland gripped the scientist by his coat and pressed the Tri-roller into his back, ensuring no attempts at escape. Doctor Bal raised his hands again, before going back to the console. Li’ara looked around the Rem-stores and checked on the other scientists.

  The Trillik gasped, drawing their attention to the holographic screen above the console. Sef was easily identified in his hulking armour, but it wasn't the sight of him that opened a pit in Roland’s stomach.

  Sef was having his ass handed to him by Malekk.

  The infected Terran dented the nanocelium armour with every blow, knocking the Gomar to his knees. Sef fired balls of super-heated plasma into Malekk’s chest, but the Terran absorbed every hit, allowing the plasma to burn away the flesh. Sef slammed his fists into the floor, clearly enraged, and launched his whole body down the corridor. The feed blinked out and the facility shook once again, almost knocking them all off their feet.

  The scientists became hysterical now, their death ensured in their eyes. In truth, Roland was pretty confident the water world would be his grave. Malekk had killed Esabelle, defeated Kalian and was probably only minutes away from ripping Sef’s head off.

  Li’ara strode over to Doctor Bal and levelled her gun at his green face. “Wake-them-up.” The Trillik stuttered. “NOW!”

  Roland kept his smile under control, not wanting to undermine Li’ara’s scary persona - but he was kind of impressed… and a little turned on.

  “Best do as she says, Doc.” Roland replaced his Tr-rollers and started searching himself for more explosive hardware.

  The base continued to shake and the internal framework groaned inside the walls. Roland kept one eye on Li’ara, who supervised the Trillik’s work, and one eye on the open doors. The bounty hunter unstrapped the grav-bombs from his arm and threw them into the corridor, beyond the lab. The metallic balls shot out from their casing and stuck to various places along the walls, floor and ceiling. He followed this up with a few mines that would be triggered by movement. Roland assumed that if the base could stand a fight between two Terran, it could handle a few mines.

  “Shut the doors.” Li’ara nodded at them with her chin.

  “Aye aye!” Roland replied mockingly. Using the Terran hilt, the bounty hunter reversed the process and sealed them in. “Len, can you hear me?” He tapped the device in his ear but got no reply.

  “What’s taking so long?” Li’ara was becoming irritated.

  Bal wiped the sweat from his brow. “Our interface with their pods isn’t perfect. It takes time to relay commands.”

  Li’ara swivelled on the red-headed Gomar. “What about her? It’s not the pod that’s keeping her asleep!”

  “Wait!” the Trillik warned, seeing Li’ara march over.

  Li’ara pulled the lines from the Gomar’s hands and neck and tore free the nodes stuck to her temples. Nothing happened. The Gomar remained perfectly still, frozen in her coma.

  The installation shook and the ceiling above their heads cracked, breaking one of the lights. Nobody moved. The almighty crack was followed by silence from above. Roland knew better than to think that Sef had won. The doors vibrated and the walls resounded with a deafening boom. The mines had been tripped outside.

  “That was all the time I could buy us…” Roland looked back at Li’ara, whose stony expression told of her defiance towards death.

  The red-headed Gomar remained asleep, along with her kin.

  The silence following the explosion was filled with whimpers and sparking technical equipment. Roland looked at his Tri-rollers and knew they had never been more useless, but damn if he was going to roll over and die. He’d draw blood first.

  The doors creaked and groaned under the stress of what could only be telekinesis. The bounty hunter steadied himself, ready for his last fight and regretting the lack of alcohol in his blood. Finally, the doors were pushed aside in a crumbling heap and smoke poured into the lab. Roland didn't wait but unleashed both of his Tri-rollers into the gloom. The familiar sound of intrinium bolts being absorbed against a telekinetic field told the bounty hunter of the futility of his actions.

  As Malekk strode into the room, unharmed by the blue bolts, he swiped his arm across the gap between them. A telekinetic wave swept Roland from his feet and thrust him into the wall, hard. The knock to his head was enough to stop him from getting back up, but didn't stop him from observing the infected Terran.

  Malekk stood in the doorway, looking over the two Gomar and the others beyond the glass. He didn't even bother to pause over Li’ara, who in Roland’s mind was the one person he wouldn't want to go up against. Li’ara had survived the explosion of two planets, an encounter with the Beast, Lilander and even Savrick, not mention losing her leg at Protocorps and ploughing through an army of mercenaries between Trantax IV and the capital. She wasn't just a survivor, she was a killer in Roland’s eyes.

  “You won't win,” Li’ara announced, finally getting Malekk’s attention. “Even if you kill the Gomar, we will find a way to oppose you. Kalian will return and when he does -”

  “When he does, he will return to a Conclave devoid of any humans.” Malekk’s voice was unnatural. “He is on the other side of the galaxy. By the time he finds his way back here, there will be nothing for him to do, except die. As all of you will, when I'm done with them.”

  Malekk reached out to the Rem-stores behind the glass, but Li’ara’s speech had bought them the time they needed.

  The red-headed Gomar opened her eyes.

  Roland wasn't able to track the movement that followed, but when his eyes caught up, the Gomar’s Rem-store was empty and both she and
Malekk were no longer in the lab. More violence erupted around the facility, shaking the very walls. By the time Roland found his feet again, the ceiling above caved in and the Gomar was suddenly flat against the floor, her armour broken in several places. As she rose to her knees, Malekk dropped down between the jagged beams and broken pipes. The infected Terran picked the Gomar up by her hair, leaving her on her knees.

  The bounty hunter held his sore head while searching frantically for his Tri-rollers. He had to do something, no matter how useless it would be. Malekk raised his free fist, preparing to deliver a blow that would most likely kill the Gomar.

  The infected Terran stopped mid-blow, his features creasing into an expression of agony. He groaned and trembled as he stood over the Gomar, unable to move. Roland followed Li’ara’s confused gaze to the glass wall, where nine Gomar had stepped out of their pods. They were all looking at Malekk, some with their hands raised and others with an intense stare. The pod beside Li’ara opened up and the armoured being inside stepped out, focused on Malekk.

  “NO!” Malekk screamed. His eyes never left the kneeling Gomar. “Get… out… of… my head!”

  Whether it was telepathic or telekinetic, Roland couldn't tell - he was just pleased with the outcome. Even more so when Sef returned. The big Gomar limped into the lab, behind Malekk, and brought his fist down directly on top of the Terran’s head. An audible crack preceded Malekk’s collapse to the floor.

  Roland tried to catch his breath in the silence that followed. “Where the hell have you been?”