The Terran Cycle Boxset

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  Looking at the images flashing up on the glass screen, that question had an ever-changing answer. Hundreds of Conclave planets were under attack and at the mercy of nanocelium ships or infected Shay. The harvesting ship had already claimed two planets, brought one of the core races to the brink of extinction, and destroyed the Sentinel in a single attack.

  A star chart situated on the left of the glass screen showed the harvesting ship to be on course for the capital, having abandoned its next feast and leaving Sordomo to the Shay. The battle over Shandar wasn’t going the way he had hoped. The nanocelium vessels were proving too hard to bring down, unlike the goliath Marillion, which appeared to now be a smoking crater on Shandar’s surface.

  Kovak stepped forward from the group. “Why are we here?” he asked. “That sounds like your side of things, not ours.”

  ALF stood up straight. “You’re here because there’s nothing more to keep from you. The Three are trying to make contact with me…”

  Kalian looked from the apprehensive faces of the Gomar to ALF. “Why would they try to communicate with us?”

  “You have to remember,” ALF explained, “the Three are not entirely nanocelium. They retain their intelligence from their time as humans. They have personalities, needs, wants, desires. The problem we have is that they’re still on course for the capital, despite learning of our exodus. They probably want to threaten us with their increasing size.” The AI looked at them all with a sly grin. “I thought it was about time that we threatened them. Talli, connect us through the AI hub on Evalan.”

  Kalian and the others heard no response from Talli, who was now technically everywhere. The images on the glass screen, however, were quickly replaced by the stars beyond and the lighting took on an even thicker gloom.

  “ALF what’s happening?”

  The AI looked around his control room. “They’re trying to upload a virus through the link. We don’t have long.”

  “No you don’t…” came a voice from all around them. “You have outrun the inevitable for too long, Heretic. You will soon be destroyed, along with your pets.”

  Kalian clenched his fist, doing everything he could to keep his anger in check. He couldn’t believe the Three had ever been human, in whatever stage of evolution that took. The oldest of his kind to exist, perhaps even the oldest beings in the universe, should be pillars of wisdom and knowledge. They should be helping civilisations, not gobbling them up and wiping them all from existence.

  “Can they see us?” Kalian asked.

  ALF waved his hand over the floor and a tall stalk of nanocelium grew forth with a sphere on top. “You want to know what destruction looks like?” the AI addressed the Three, before stepping away from the sphere. “It looks like thirteen highly evolved beings, whose maker DNA can destroy your hold over the nanocelium with a single touch.”

  Kalian kept his eye on the stalk, wondering what they looked like to the Kellekt. He hoped they scared the hell out of them, especially because of everything they had done so far on Corvus and above the capital. Now the twelve Gomar were just as powerful as he was, though maybe a little more time in the super subconducer would be needed.

  “I will make you this one time offer,” Kalian began. “Release the Shay and withdraw all of your ships from Conclave territory or—”

  “Or what?” They asked. “We are not frightened by a few children.”

  Kalian took a breath. “Withdraw now and we won’t come after you.”

  “Come after us? This is not a concept we understand.”

  “Well, if you continue your invasion we will be forced to tear down your armada down and leave you with just a few nanites between you. Then, you’ll run. But there won’t be anywhere you can run to where we won’t find you. No corner of the universe will keep you from suffering under our powers. These are my terms.”

  They waited for a response, standing there and staring into the sphere. He hadn’t meant to offer them terms, but he was confident it was threatening enough to lure them in.

  He hoped…

  “We will be with you shortly…”

  Kalian kept his best poker face on. “Coming to Evalan would be a mistake on your part,” he said. “There are over a hundred thousand humans here. Imagine the chaos they would cause if even one of them were to touch your precious nanocelium.”

  “They will die before the infection spreads. Not that it matters, child. We will bombard your tiny world from space and watch as you thirteen struggle to keep us at bay. Death is coming for you. As for you, Heretic; your annihilation will be a slow process that can only be measured in the life and death of a star.”

  With that, the stalk dropped away and the holograms reappeared over the glass wall. ALF went straight to work, connecting himself to the Forge via a dozen wriggling snakes of nanocelium.

  “I need to purge a few things,” he stated. “Their virus was more aggressive than I thought.”

  Kalian left the AI to his work and focused on the screen of holograms. The harvesting ship was changing course! It was diverting from the flight path that would have taken it to the capital and was now heading for Evalan.

  “They really are human, under all that,” Kalian said. “A true machine wouldn’t be so easily baited by threats.”

  “That, and the Kellekt have never been challenged before,” ALF added. “This whole interaction will be considered new for them. Exciting almost.”

  Vox folded her arms. “They’ll be less excited when we’re ripping their fleet apart.”

  ALF glanced down at the woman. “I hope you can maintain that level of confidence when you see the size of their main ship…”

  Kalian checked the data on the glass wall. The harvesting ship was now so big that it dwarfed any Starforge and most moons. Teleporting into the core of that thing, if that’s where the Three were, would actually be a great distance even if he was standing on the ship’s surface. He had to remind himself that distance was only a unit that applied to beings who couldn’t move through subspace. Once he left this reality, he could technically go anywhere. He just needed to convince himself of that.

  “Is the rest of the C-Sec fleet in position to make the jump?” Kalian asked.

  ALF finally disconnected from the strands of nanocelium and pinched the bridge of his nose as if he were suffering a headache. “Almost. Some have defied their orders and tried to help evacuate more planets.”

  “I can't blame them for wanting to save as many lives as possible,” Kalian commented.

  “There’s a problem inside the capital,” Garrion noted, gesturing to the glass wall.

  The Clave Command Tower was under attack by infected Shay. The aliens were swarming out of the disused tunnels and vents and crawling all over the tower, burrowing their way inside.

  “Will that affect the timing of the fleet’s jump?” Vox asked.

  “No,” ALF assured. “Talli will assume command if he needs to.”

  “That won’t keep everyone inside that tower alive,” Kalian replied. He knew Telarrek was inside that building, along with the new Highclave.

  “You can’t, Kalian,” ALF warned. “I can see you thinking it. You can’t jump to the capital, save everyone and then jump back here to face the Kellekt. It’s too far and too taxing.”

  “The distance is just in my head,” he argued back.

  “Indeed it is,” ALF agreed. “I believe the only reason you can’t master teleportation is because your mind cannot come to terms with the physical distance. The injuries you sustain are likely the result of your mind trying to put limitations on your powers. You’re dissuading yourself, Kalian.”

  “Then maybe I should practice,” Kalian replied, frustrated that every second he wasted talking to the AI was a second in which Telarrek’s life might come to an end.

  “I would normally always encourage practice,” ALF said, “but I’m afraid the time for training is over. It’s war now…”

  25

  The Three emerged from their
shadowy pods and gathered around the floating hologram of the galaxy. By thought alone, the map zoomed in, expanding the area of space belonging to the Conclave. They had met resistance at this level before in five other inhabited regions of the universe, all of which were now part of the Kellekt.

  “We are making a mistake,” the Second announced.

  “I concur,” the First agreed.

  The Third walked around the hologram on its two legs. “You have both assessed the odds, probabilities, and calculations over a million times. We cannot be brought down by thirteen humans.”

  The Second scurried forward on its pincer-like legs, closing the gap between it and the hologram. “We have not openly challenged maker DNA since we left our home world.”

  The First slithered forward. “And there is a reason we left the original Evalan rather than continuing to harvest it.”

  “Yes,” the Third agreed, “we left because a population of billions could challenge us. Thirteen humans cannot free enough nanocelium to undo us; we would sever anything that became corrupted.”

  The Second clicked the nanocelium-coated pincers around its mouth. “I still think we should continue on to their capital planet. Harvest more worlds before destroying the humans.”

  The Third tilted its head. “We already made the decision to alter our course. We cannot alter it again and show fear. Such an emotion belongs to the primitive masses of the universe, not us.”

  The First brought up another hologram above the galaxy map. “We have more than enough Shay on board to overrun this new Evalan,” it said, coming back around to the original plan. “And with half of their fleet assaulting Shandar, any resistance will be minimal.”

  “Yes, but what about the other half?” the Second interjected. “Have you observed their most recent movements? They are pulling back from the core and taking up positions that place them within a single jump of Evalan.”

  The Third expanded the galaxy map again. “The Heretic has made changes to their central AI. We cannot break through.”

  “Do we need to?” the Second asked. “I would calculate that we are being lured into a trap.”

  “If the rest of the fleet were to jump to Evalan, they would be abandoning so many of their worlds,” the First surmised. “This would seem an unlikely strategy given what we know of the Conclave.”

  “Unless it was devised by a human…” the Second added.

  The Third ran through every individual jump possible for the rest of the C-Sec fleet and found that they were likely planning to meet them in the Evalan system. It didn’t bother the Third, however, who could recall so well their previous victories over the eons.

  “Let them lure us in,” it said. “Half of their fleet, or what’s left of it, will make little difference now that we have fed.” And fed they had. The Kellekt now knew everything there was to know about the Raalaks, from their history to their chromosomes.

  “And what of the humans?” the Second asked.

  “Yes,” the First agreed, “what about the evolved ones?”

  The Third looked up from the holograms to meet the eyes of its companions. “They aren’t evolved. The Heretic has simply weaponised them.”

  The First looked from its fat, slithering body to the three stasis pods that lined the walls, each covered with opaque glass. Inside those pods were the original human bodies that had once belonged to their consciousnesses. The First had an idea that was quickly shared with its companions before any further calculations could be made.

  “No.” The Third’s reply was absolute and for good reason. “If we were to alter our original host bodies to mirror those of the Terran, then we would quickly begin to reject the nanocelium in our bloodstreams. Their bodies are smarter than the average intelligent life form, connected to their minds with perfect synergy. We would be individually stronger, yes, but all of this,” the Third gestured to their magnificent ship, “would be separated from us. We would be nothing but biology again.”

  The Second recoiled at the idea. “I would not return to such a primitive form of life, even for abilities such as theirs.”

  The First glanced at their pods one last time. “Then we will have to hope that our ship will be enough to destroy them.”

  The Third couldn’t believe what it was hearing. “Hope?” It echoed. “Have the two of you already been separated from your nanocelium? Hope and fear are for them. We are the Kellekt. Our own people chose to live as mud dwellers rather than challenge us. We have harvested more civilisations than there are worlds in this galaxy! If you are not up to leading our charge across the universe, then I will take majority control and assign you new tasks for the betterment of the Kellekt.”

  The other two almost backed off, but they knew better than to show any kind of inferiority. This wasn’t the first time the Third had suggested that it assume full control. Instead, they sent messages around the ship to increase speed and prepare the boarded Shay for planet-side deployment.

  The Third was satisfied to see its companions back on track, though it would have happily taken over. It thought to examine the battle of Shandar in more depth, but a preliminary report informed the Third that only a single light craft had successfully penetrated the planet’s atmosphere.

  What could one light craft accomplish against their might?

  26

  Roland hit the throttle and the Rackham shot through the last layer of Shandar’s stormy atmosphere. Bolts of lightning hammered the hull as if the storm itself was angered to have anyone survive its wrath. The bounty hunter cared little for a few bolts of lightning; he was more concerned with the amount of Shay surrounding the Crucible.

  The Rackham’s advanced scanning array was able to penetrate the planet and locate the installation north of their current position. There were Shay troops on the ground, cannons fixed into the canyons around it, and light craft hovering overhead.

  The coordinates he had been given weren’t far from the Crucible. Roland knew in his head that it was simple. All he had to do was deploy the mobile Starforge and wait for the transports to start flooding through. But, it was awfully tempting to do a flyby and pick off a few Shay.

  “Don’t even think about it, Roland!” Ch’len chided. “I can see the stupidity running through your mind. Get us to the coordinates and drop the Starforge. Nothing else.”

  “Just a quick squeeze of the trigger?”

  “No! We’re lucky to have reached this far,” Ch’len pointed out. “Have you seen the horizon?”

  Roland checked the hologram sent his way and looked at the horizon behind the Rackham. The shockwave from the Marillion’s impact was still rolling across the planet, sending a wall of debris as high as the clouds across the surface. The ground was cracking and opening up gorges and ravines so large they descended miles into the planet’s mantle. The Rackham’s AI calculated the edges of the impact, noting that the shockwave would have little to no effect on the Crucible.

  Roland sighed, all too aware that the little Ch’kara was right. They were more than lucky to have survived the nanocelium-based ship and the falling Marillion. Deploying the Starforge would ensure C-Sec boots got on the ground and could potentially end most of this war with a single strike.

  “Well, shit…” The bounty hunter diverted from his direct path to the Crucible and proceeded to the arranged coordinates.

  The dark land, devoid of sunlight, opened up before them, offering the transports a clear field of barren ground on which to land and take off from. A quick scan showed that there were no enemies nearby, and Roland was careful to keep the stealthware operating while they weren’t in combat.

  “Okay, deploy the Forge, Len.”

  The Ch’kara input the commands into his console and frowned. He repeated the commands and frowned again.

  “Talk to me, Len. I feel like I can hear the rolls in your chubby face squeezing together.”

  “It looks like the Starforge has taken some damage,” he replied.

  “Can we still de
ploy it on the ground?” Roland asked, fearing that all they had just done was for nothing.

  “The Rackham can still drop it, but I can’t say for certain whether the Forge will function as it’s supposed to.”

  The bounty hunter decreased the Rackham’s speed, giving him more time to consider his options. The ship was only a few kilometres out from the coordinates now and they had to either drop the Forge and attempt to activate it or return to the Brightstar and report mission failure.

  “Alright,” he said. “We didn’t come this far just to turn back with our tail between our legs.” Roland decreased altitude and brought the Rackham into the flat field of dry ground. “Prepare the Forge. We’re dropping it.”

  “If it doesn’t work we’ll have just dropped the only one we have,” Ch’len reasoned. “Maybe we should just take it back to the Brightstar and have the engineers look it over?”

  “Did you have your eyes closed up there?” Roland fired back. “There isn’t going to be a Brightstar for very long. Hell, half the fleet is probably moments away from being reduced to slag. It’s now or never, Len. Drop it.”

  Ch’len groaned and followed Roland’s command, inputting the codes to release the Starforge from the Rackham’s underbelly. They both heard the releasing mechanisms through the floor and watched on the monitor as the Forge fell away.

  Roland kept one eye on the monitor. “Come on, come on, come on…”

  At the last second, the Forge’s drop functions came to life and the thrusters built into the crescent machine provided just enough reaction force to see it land in the correct position without smashing into a million pieces. Cables shot out of the side and tethered it to the ground, digging deep.