“Docs, you should come up here and check this out,” Sara said, taking in the skeleton, which was slightly skewed to the side where the body had slumped.
It sat at a desk with a set of monitors arrayed in front of it, facing a screen that was blank except for a cursor blinking in the top left corner. The skeleton’s hand rested on top of a box on the floor next to its chair—a box very similar to the one that had been attached to the tank where they had retrieved the core.
Dr. Hess saw it as well, and his eyes went wide. “Is there a core in that box?”
Sara examined it and found the little scanner pad in the side. The box unlatched, once she pressed her thumb to it. The sudden movement jarred the hand bones, and they fell apart, causing a chain reaction that traveled up the skeleton’s arm to the rest of its body. Sara jumped back as, with a clatter, the skeleton fell apart, bones bouncing on the ground, shattering with the impact.
Once the bones and pieces settled, she leaned in and flipped the lid of the box open. There, sitting loosely in the socket, was a silvery sphere, warping the reflection of Sara's faceplate as she stared into the shiny surface. She could see that the core had been un-cradled, likely when she had pressed on it, and it was loose enough to pull out. She reached down and picked it up, the cool surface as slick as the one in her belt pouch.
She looked to the two doctors, who stared at the sphere like it was a holy object. Alister reached out from where he sat on her shoulder and smacked the top of the sphere with a paw, as if telling her to drop it. His actions weren’t urgent, like she was in danger, but more like he wanted her to put it back. She cocked her head at him, and he smacked the sphere again, then looked at the socket.
Each time Alister smacked the core, the two Elif’s breath caught in their throats. Sara found that a little funny, but understood what Alister was saying. She put the core back in the box and this time pressed it in until it clicked. A ring of lights lit up around the socket, as if it were counting up to full power. Sara realized the core was gaining speed as it actually spun in its cradle; if it were not for the smudge she’d left on it, she would never have noticed it spinning at all.
Suddenly, the control room came to life. All the monitors lit up and started to scroll data across their screens. Sara couldn't read any of it, but the characters seemed almost familiar, as if several different foreign languages were combined into one.
Dr. Romis pulled out a tablet and started recording the words as they flashed across the screen. “It’s a boot log. The system’s coming online.”
“You can read that?” Sara asked, looking at the tablet.
“Oh, yes. We have records of this language from when we were allies. We can understand the spoken language through the translation device,” Dr. Hess said, indicating the small button on his collar that almost all Elif wore. Sara had thought it was some kind of racial emblem, or military device.
“Wait, the Aether doesn’t translate language for you, like it does for humans?” she asked.
She realized this was probably common knowledge, but she’d skipped a lot of the cultural classes in favor of the magical and tactical ones.
Dr. Romis smiled, a far-off look coming to her eye. “Oh, humans have the most amazing abilities. Your connection to the Aether is so ingrained in your souls that the Aether translates for you. It is literally a byproduct of being human and having Aether sensitivity.”
That sounded right to Sara, though she could honestly not remember learning it in school. “So written language is not translated through the Aether?”
“No, because writing is an actual artifact that is put on a screen, whereas spoken language is an intent. The Aether can transform that intent into something the receiver can understand. It’s very similar to how a spellform works. Everyone has their own little twists to a spellform that tells a story about what they want the Aether to do. A fireball spellform looks different from different people.”
“Yes, but there is a perfect way to cast a fireball. There is a true spellform that produces the perfect fireball,” Sara said, thinking of the spellforms Alister gave her and how close to perfect they were.
“That is true, but even when the spellform is not perfect, it carries the intent of a fireball – that is why a fireball is still produced. That’s how language works. You say something, and I receive what I think you mean. Language is imperfect, but it is a medium to communicate. Is there a language that can encompass every subtle meaning and nuance? Perhaps, but we don't know what it is,” Dr. Hess said.
Dr. Romis cut in at that. “It could be argued that spellforms are the perfect language. There is a study being conducted back on the homeworld where…” She trailed off as the system finished its boot sequence and came online fully.
They all leaned in, Dr. Romis holding her tablet up to the screen to show a translated representation. It was a basic interface, similar to what the Elif had introduced to humanity, but there was a window open in the center of the screen that held a paused video of a blurred person leaning in. Sara recognized the banks of servers behind the blurry figure as being the same ones that were behind them.
“That’s them,” she said, pointing at the crumbled skeleton. “I think they left a recording.”
Sara reached for the screen to play back the video, but Dr. Hess grabbed her arm, stopping her.
“Captain,” he hesitated. “I don't know what this person has to say, but just keep in mind there are reasons the High Council kept things from humanity. We were not trying to deceive you, not really. There was just no way to work out the details fast enough for you to listen to us.”
Sara raised an eyebrow, but Dr. Romis continued where she left off. “The Elif are humanity’s allies. We always have been—but in war, some things get muddy. Just understand that whatever is said on this video, it is not how the Elif think anymore. We saw the flaw in our thinking right away, but by then, it was too late,” she said, her head downcast.
Sara felt a chill run through her, looking at the two of them. They seemed like they wanted to apologize, but about what, she had no clue.
She frowned and started the video.
The image of the person focused as it came to life. Sara was rocked. It all made sense, in some twisted way. She looked to the two scientists, her face tight with anger. Neither one would meet her eye, focusing on the video instead.
The figure was a man. A human man. She could have walked right by him on a sidewalk and never have known he was not from Earth. He looked sickly, with sunken eyes and gray skin. His hands shook slightly as he folded them into his lap. His uniform looked military in nature, very similar to the battlesuit she was wearing at that moment. He was older, maybe fifty, with a gray mustache, and cropped, gray hair. He cleared his throat, which led to a coughing fit. His hand came away from his lips with blood on it.
Staring into the camera, he began to speak, his voice raspy but deep and commanding. “I don't know if anyone will see this, but I feel it is my duty to have a condensed record of what happened here,” he said, taking a deep breath before continuing. “We lost all contact with the fleet two months ago. Our communications were working, but the fleet was not responding. We tried to contact the core, but again there was no answer. For two months, we were on high alert, waiting for the Teifen or Galvox to attack. An attack was the only reasonable explanation for the communications blackout. Then we picked up on ships entering the system. It was the Elif; they had sent two capital ships, along with nearly their entire battle fleet. We thought we were finally saved. We were very wrong.”
The man had another coughing fit, and spit a large amount of blood to the side of the chair. Sara looked down and imagined she could still see the stain it had made. He took another deep breath and continued. “They answered our calls and reassured us that the problem with communications was a local one, and that they would send down ships to evacuate the planet, due to a large Teifen force coming in. They had us gather everyone in designated areas for pickup. When
the ships came down, though, they didn't land. Instead, they let loose a fine mist, coating everyone. The ships didn't even slow down as they sprayed us.
“At first, we were confused, but when the least Aetherically-tuned people started seizing and dying, we understood. The Elif had betrayed us. They were doing what the Teifen could not: using their knowledge of genetic manipulation to destroy us. It took two days to figure out what they had sprayed us with, but our scientists did eventually find the answer; a solution that ate its way into our DNA. It was too late to rectify, unfortunately. It changed us from the inside out, caused us to grow tumors, and mutated our organs to the point that they stopped working. Worst of all, it shut down our ability to connect with the Aether. They shut us out from magic.”
He lapsed into another coughing fit, this one lasting far longer. He was slumped over by the end of it, and Sara thought he had died—as he was in a position strikingly similar to that of what she now knew to be his skeleton—but he came awake with a jerk, wiping his bloody hand over his face. Ignoring the smears on his cheek and forehead, he continued. “The Elif are the only race besides our own who know the art of genetic manipulation. They had to have done this of their own volition; the Teifen could not have had a part in it, and the Galvox are barely better than rodents when it comes to finer sciences. Somehow, the Teifen turned our first and only ally against us. My guess is that the Elif couldn't fight back, and determined they had to save themselves with a deal.”
His eyes lost focus for a second as he thought. “Cowards,” he whispered.
Sara saw both doctors cringe at the word, but they stayed silent.
He took another deep breath to refocus and continued. “I’m the last one. Everyone else is dead, slowly turning into piles of sludge. The pixies that accepted the contract died along with their partners. It seems the gene weapon didn’t affect them, but when their partners died their shared life force was snuffed out as well.
“If anyone finds this, I’ve loaded the entire account onto the core. Take it, then leave this place. And if you see an Elif, do me a favor and slit their throat. We gave them the key to the stars, and they repaid us with treachery.”
He reached up and switched the camera off.
Chapter 31
Thick silence filled the small room as they all stared at the blank screen. Lines of thought blazed their way through Sara’s head, connecting all the little inconsistencies she had come across in dealing with the Elif. While the secrecy had somewhat made sense to her, the man’s last words confused her. He implied that it was humans who had uplifted the Elif, not the other way around. She had been taught that Elif and human relations had started thirty years prior, just a few years before she and Cora were born, but this recording proved that was an enormous lie. The Elif had been the ones to cast humanity from the stars.
She slowly turned to the two doctors, who had taken several steps away from her—out of fear or respect, she was not sure, though she supposed it didn't really matter. Sara popped the side of her forearm open, revealing the interface for programming the armor.
“Load the translation program so I can read this language through the suit’s optics,” she said, extending the arm to Dr. Romis. The doctor jumped forward and, using the tablet, transferred the program into her suit. Sara scrolled through the options to find the new program and, once she initialized it, sat down at the console and began to search through the files.
She quickly found information on the construction of several devices and ships, some of which made anything the United Human Forces were currently using look like dump trucks. She came across plans for a dreadnought that would take more building materials than were currently being utilized in the entire fleet. It was massive and dangerous looking. A planet killer.
She scanned through the plans, uploading everything to the core as she went. The list was impossibly long and full of things she had never dreamed could be possible: drives that would instantly transverse huge distances, instead of having to warp through the space between, cannons that used anti-matter generators to create tiny black holes that could be shot at the enemy to rip them apart, theoretical teleporters, and on and on. She marveled at it all, but slammed her fist onto the desk in frustration when she could find nothing on the construction of cores. She uploaded everything, the whole system, and, to her surprise, it fit in the core. All of it. She wondered why they even needed the servers, but dismissed the thought, not knowing enough to understand what the advantages would be.
When it was all done, she found the connecting cables to the core’s box and unplugged them. Using the suit’s increased strength, she lifted the whole thing from its cradle and carried it out of the room. The box was not so large that it was a problem to carry, but it was large enough she had to move it side to side to see down the stairs.
She made her way out, through the rows of the dead, and back to the elevator. The two Elif followed closely behind, and were able to get on the lift before the doors closed.
At the moment, Sara wasn't sure she cared if they made it.
The lift shot up its shaft, and the ride up was uncomfortably silent. The doctors shuffled their feet like scolded children.
The doors slid open, and Sara stepped out, heading out of the basement and into a cloudy afternoon. The rain had finally let up, and she was greeted with gray skies, much like she would find in the Midwest back on Earth.
“Baxter, meet me back at the dropships,” she said into her comm.
Not waiting for a response, she trudged the box across the temporary city to the clearing where the three dropships waited, her boots sinking into the wet ground and squelching mud up around them. Alister hunkered down on her shoulder, throwing glances at every Elif they passed.
Baxter met her halfway to the ship and fell in beside her. “What’s in the box, Captain?”
“Everything, Baxter. Everything is in this box. We need to get this up to the Raven right now, and I need our best people working on it. This is a core loaded with every bit of knowledge this planet had. There are plans for warships and tech we can only imagine,” she said, making her way up the ramp. She set the box in a cargo slot and began strapping it down.
“How are we supposed to get to the info?”
“Just plug in a monitor and start the thing up. I left the core in its cradle, and I'm pretty sure it is still running. If they can just get an image from it, they will have access to everything. I need them to find a way to make a new core that will work with Cora's tank. Have them spend as much time as they need; they have my permission to try anything Cora deems safe.”
“You want me to take it up? Why don't we have one of the specialists do it? There could be an attack while I'm gone, and running errands is not where I will be most helpful,” Baxter said, cocking his head to the side.
Sara thought on it, and he was right. It would be a waste of resources to send him; she didn't need to send anyone but the pilot.
“I’m sorry, you’re right, of course,” she said, turning to go down the ramp, but keeping an eye on the box the whole time. “Send for the pilot, and have them take this up to Grimms right now. I don't want there to be a chance for an attack to keep us from getting it to the Raven.”
Baxter nodded, and from his body language she knew he was talking to the pilot. Sara sent a request to Grimms on a private channel and waited for him to pick up.
Ten seconds later, a window opened in her HUD, and Grimms slid into view, sitting at the desk in the ready room.
“I saw the call was private, so I came in here. How are things on the surface?” he asked, his face more round in the quarter gravity of the moon.
“The defense is nearly complete, and the locals are cooperating. In fact, they are cooperating so well that I think they just violated official Elif orders. Grimms, you’re not going to believe this,” she said, shaking her head at the enormity of it all.
“What?” he said, his eyebrows rising slowly.
Sara checked to be su
re the call was encrypted and that her external speakers were turned off. She took a breath. “Humans were the first race to make it into space. We found the Elif and uplifted them not the other way around. We’ve been around a lot longer than we’ve been led to believe.”
“What? That makes no sense, Captain,” he said, confusion causing his eyes to dart for answers.
“I don’t think Earth is our homeworld, Commander,” Sara said, her voice low.
Grimms was silent for a moment considering her words. The fact that he didn’t immediately call her crazy said more about him as a leader than anything she had seen form him so far. “How do you know this?” he finally asked.
“It’s all on a core I’m sending up. All you have to do is plug its case into a monitor of some kind,” she said as the pilot came running up to the dropship. She waved for him to come closer, and flipped open her data port, indicating he should do the same. She began transferring the translation program. “I’m sending a translation program from the Elif with… Tanners,” she told Grimms, glancing at the pilot’s name tag. “You will need to run the program to read the files. I couldn't find plans for making a new core, but I didn't have much time to look. Find out what you can, and get Cora fixed up as quickly as possible.” She took a breath, trying to think like a captain. “Grimms, keep this to a small, trusted group. The last thing we need right now is for humans to start distrusting the Elif before we really know what happened. There is a video file on the screen you need to watch by yourself before anyone else sees it. Once you do, show it to Cora. She always knows what’s best.”
Tanners turned to leave once the program was loaded, but Sara grabbed his arm and took off the pouch she was wearing with the first core in it and handed it to him. “Give this to Commander Grimms as soon as you get aboard. Do not, under any circumstances, touch it. It will shock you unconscious. You understand?”
War Mage Chronicles- Part One Page 19