The Human Chronicles Saga Box Set 5

by T. R. Harris

  “You will address me as Kracion,” the Aris said verbally. He could have contacted each of them mentally but chose a more basic form of communication instead. “I am in the transition phase; it will take a short time for my systems to become fully functional. Yet I seek certain clarification on information I have been told.” The Aris lowered himself carefully into a chair, looking fragile and weak.

  He turned his attention to Adam.

  “You are the Human Adam Cain.”

  Adam was caught off guard by the sudden intensity of Kracion’s steady glare.

  “Yes, yes I am.”

  “I am aware of your race.” He looked around the room. “Along with the Formilians and the Juireans.” His gaze lingered on the mutants before returning to Adam. “You told the Klin Leadin Gendius Valin that you have met the Aris, as have others in this room. How is that possible?”

  Adam couldn’t go into detail about why they had found the Aris and how Lila played such an important role in the story. He was holding out hope that Kracion wouldn’t recognize her for what she was—their Apex Being.

  “We came upon the artificial world near the outer boundary of the galaxy. We learned a little of what and who they—you—are and that’s about it.”

  “They were revived at the time?”

  “Yes, they were.”

  Kracion considered this information for a moment before continuing. “How many?”

  “Eighteen, we were told.”

  Kracion nodded. “Was there any mention of me?”

  Adam shook his head. “I’m sorry, but no. Your existence here has come as a surprise to us. We thought all the Aris were gone—”

  “Gone?” Kracion interrupted. “Gone where?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “There is more you are not telling me.”

  “Perhaps I can fill in the blanks,” Panur said from within his interphase bubble.

  Kracion turned to him. “You were there as well?”

  “I was.”

  The Aris regarded the pair behind the shimmering blue screens for a moment before responding. “I am told you are mutations in possession of unique abilities,” he stated. “It was postulated that such abnormalities would form. I would be curious to learn of your origin.”

  “Would you like to hear of the Aris transition to immortality first?”

  “Repeat yourself!”

  “I said the Aris fulfilled their goal of immortality.”

  “The Apex Being….” Kracion said with reverence in his voice.

  “Yes.”

  “Who was it?”

  “A creature named J’nae.”

  “Of what racial combination?”

  There was only the slightest hesitation, but Kracion noticed. “Tell me.”

  “She was a construct, a creation…of mine.”

  “You created an Apex Being? How is that so? The Aris have strived for three billion years for its generation. How long did it take you?”

  “About six years.”

  “You cannot speak the truth. Be aware, I have means of extracting the information directly from your mind.”

  “It is the truth. As with your efforts, J’nae was an experiment on my part.”

  “And the Aris were able to use this creature to seed themselves with the essence of immortality?”

  “As far as I know.”

  “Through which process?”

  Panur was taken aback by the question. “Process? That I do not know.”

  “Adam Cain said the Aris are now gone. Gone where?”

  “That we also don’t know. I imagine you would. What was the plan for the Aris if you ever achieved your ultimate goal?”

  “Each of us had separate ambitions, but that is not a concern of yours. Yet you say all the remaining Aris—the eighteen—have left the station?”

  “Yes.”

  For an advanced being with such an incredible intellect, Kracion took a long time sorting out his thoughts, almost to the point Adam thought the conversation had ended.

  “I imagine after being trapped in this universe for such a long time, you’re anxious to join the others?” Adam ventured to say, hoping to gain some insight into what could be Kracion’s next move.

  He shot a stern look at Adam. “That is not my intention.” He looked next to Panur, an almost manic look on his face. This Aris was much more emotional than the others Adam had met.

  “Can you create another of these J’nae beings?” he barked at Panur.

  Panur grimaced. “I doubt that. She was a combination of unique chemistries and processes which no longer exist. She was one of a kind.”

  “That cannot be so. If you made one, you can make another. You will make another—for me.”

  “I will try, but it could take time.”

  Adam became aware of another of the Aris service modules hovering near the mutants. Kracion took notice as well, staring silently at the orb. Then he rose to his feet and walked gingerly to Lila.

  “A combination of Formilian and Human,” he stated with confidence. He turned and looked at Adam and then Arieel. “A product of your combination.” He turned back to Lila, a thin grin stretching across his face. “You attempt to deceive me. I know not what this J’nae creature was—if it even existed. But before me I see standing the Apex Being, a creature of Aris design, and not some contamination of the process.” He looked at the still-hovering orb. “You have done well to detect the qualities within.”

  “What are you going to do now?” Lila asked evenly. Adam’s heart was pounding, and Arieel was on the verge of tears.

  “I will assimilate you and therefore achieve immortality, just as the others.”

  “Please do not do this,” Arieel cried out.

  “An understandable sentiment,” Kracion said to her. “But fruitless.”

  “By which process will you achieve this?” Lila asked, picking up on something Kracion had asked earlier.

  Now it was the Aris’ turn to be taken aback. “That is but a detail. The others used the facilities of the station to achieve the unification. With them now gone, I will do the same.”

  “You will take me to the Aris station in the Milky Way?”

  “The Milky Way, I do not understand?”

  “It is what the Humans call the home galaxy.”

  Kracion looked at the small cluster of Humans, including Adam, Sherri, Copernicus and Riyad. “Do the Humans rule the galaxy at this time? Do they set the terms and language?”

  “They are among the most-powerful, although the galaxy is divided into many factions.”

  “I must learn of these divisions, before I launch my invasion.”

  “Invasion?” Adam asked. “What invasion?”

  Kracion smiled at him, again, a foreign expression according to Adam’s previous experience with the Aris. He straightened up and flexed his back, appearing to be growing stronger by the moment.

  “I seek not only to return to the home galaxy—this Milky Way—but to rule it. Perhaps I should let you know exactly who I am and how I have shaped all that you have become. Afterwards, your attitudes will change. At that time, you will be like the Klin, my worshipers and my servants, as well you should all be to your creator.”

  Kracion returned to his chair, lowering into it with less effort or pain on his face. He was recovering from his long sleep.

  He looked to Adam. “Was it Nunki you had contact with?”

  Adam nodded, surprised he could remember the name after all these years. He attributed it to his slightly enhanced intelligence, thanks to Panur’s mutant brain cells and their influence on his body.

  “I assumed he would survive. That is a shame. You who have experienced the Aris were only exposed to a segment of our society. As with all civilizations, there were divisions among our kind. Nunki and his associates were the Privileged, the heretical leaders of our race. There were few of them, yet they guided the projects and set the agendas. I am of another class. We are what you would call the technic
ians, the Aris who managed the projects and recorded the progress. When the decision was made to create an Apex Being capable of immortality, it was my class who provided the details and labor necessary for the experiment to come to fruition.” He looked again at the Humans. “It was I who initiated the ancient processes three billion years ago that created your race.”

  Adam shook his head. The memory was more vivid now of his conversation with the Aris.

  “Nunki said it was he who personally stood on Earth and began the experiment.”

  Kracion smirked. “He would, because to him, my class is invisible. I was there, and I have returned many times. A group of us monitors would be revived periodically, after which we would travel the galaxy surveying the progress of the grand plan on thousands of worlds. At each awakening, we would age normally, losing precious time while the Privileged slept. It should also be noted that although our encasement chambers can slow time and evolution, they cannot stop it completely. For periods of a million years or so, the effects are negligible. But over billions of years, even the Aris age. And with us being revived thousands of times, although for relatively brief periods, my kind have aged more than the Privileged. And now you say they achieved their immortality? And what of the twenty-one monitors? You have not spoken of them.”

  “We weren’t told,” Adam said. “Nunki spoke about the one-hundred twenty-four who chose to sleep, and how only eighteen survived.”

  Kracion looked to Panur. “And you provided the eighteen with a form of apex being, if not the Aris creature herself?”

  “That I did.”

  “Amazing, that at the time of this creature’s appearance, the Aris would be presented with two immortal creatures.” Then he narrowed his eyes at Panur. “And you, too, share this ability,” he stated, coming to the sudden realization.

  Panur nodded.

  “Then I, too, am fortunate, yet I will still need the facilities of the station.”

  “But how…how did you come to be here?” Sherri asked. She was usually pretty outspoken in most situations but had sat silent until now, intimidated by the three-billion-year-old alien. She had not been part of the group who originally met the Aris, although she’d heard plenty about them throughout the years.

  “A legitimate question,” said Kracion.

  Adam welcomed the question and the answer. The more information they could draw out of the alien, the better their chance of finding a way to defeat him.

  “As I inferred earlier, time is the enemy of the Aris. Our race had evolved for a million years by the time the grand plan was postulated. Aris have a normal life span of around eight thousand years, yet not from natural processes, but rather from augmentation and supplemental body parts. But even then, at some point there is nothing left to repair. Immortality—true immortality—has always been a dream of the Aris, and when it became accepted that the goal was possible, all the Aris at the time wanted to share in the success. They did not want to leave it to future Aris, who by the time the experiment came to fruition, would not care, having evolved over the billions of years into something entirely different. So, the remaining Aris decided to enter a form of suspended animation. And as also mentioned, I was responsible for making sure the experiment stayed true to the original goal.”

  Kracion grinned again, this time more wickedly. “It was at my last awakening that I began to see signs that the grand experiment could actually work. Our seeds were growing on thousands of worlds, and beginnings of the genetic requirements for immortality were evident. Now for more clarification. The Aris never wanted to create a race of immortals. We wanted to be that race. Another would be a challenge to us. All we sought was one being, the Apex Being, which we could distribute among the survivors. This was to include all the Aris, not just the Privileged. But I saw that that was not to be so. Now I looked into the future and realized the only way for the Apex Being to be created was through interaction between various species. I had found the Klin, the first within the galaxy to form the basis for this integration among the races. To speed up the process, I gave them the secrets of the primitive gravity-drive. It was not the most sophisticated method of travel, but it would do to intermix the races. I also gave them advanced energy and weapon technology, items which served to form the foundation of their growing organization.”

  “And trans-dimensional travel?” Panur asked. He was curious, since at one time he considered TD technology to be his personal domain.

  “I did not give them this technology, but I allowed them to use it. I removed my encasement chamber from the Aris station and placed it safely in another universe.” He looked askew at the mutant. “You did not think the station remained in a single dimension for the entire three billion years? That would have been far too dangerous. No, we shifted between universes, seeking out calmer areas of space from which to live out the long sleep. I did the same, seeking refuge and using the Klin for my maintenance rather than the robots aboard the station.”

  “You abandoned the other Aris and went out on your own?” Copernicus asked. As was his way, he spoke before thinking. It seemed a rather rude statement to make to a grumpy super being sitting in the same room as he.

  “Impertinent Humans, are you not?” said Kracion. Adam tensed, wondering what the alien would do next.

  He laughed.

  “Yes, that is what I did. If I could force the unification of the races, then when the Apex Being appeared, I would have it to myself. Please realize, I enjoyed the adulation of the Klin who knew of my existence. And why would I not? I had created them, and countless others. Without me, life in your Milky Way would still be struggling to stand, to speak, to advance. I directed your evolution, creating life in my own image.”

  Adam could see the words forming on Coop’s face. Don’t say it, he thought through his ATD.

  Kracion smiled. “Yes, I can monitor your interface devices, Adam Cain. And I realize your associate was about to say…in the image of the Aris, and not me personally. That is true, yet it was I who guided the process. It was I who chose the winners and the losers. When it became obvious a race would not fulfill our needs, I would often destroy it. Others I would let die off naturally. So, you see, Adam Cain, I am a god, by every definition of the word. Yet I am missing one vital element in the equation.”

  “Immortality.”

  “Correct. What good is lording over your domain when there is a time limit. Your offspring—more correctly, my offspring—will provide me with the last ingredient.”

  Kracion laughed again. Adam could see the signs of instability in a creature who should have been the most stable, from a race of beings who had survived through a million years of evolution without killing themselves, and now another three billion through the power of their technology. Perhaps his frequent awakenings and recovery processes had fried his brain. Whatever it was, this Aris wasn’t right in the head.

  “And now you have provided the means for me to return to my home galaxy, to access the abandoned Aris station and for assimilating the Apex Being—and to come at the head of an army of willing servants, both the Klin and this new race, the Olypon. As I remain out of my encasement chamber I will age, a consequence I have feared for so long. But no longer. I have the Apex Being. I will become immortal. And I will have a galaxy under my control for which I can not only play god, but I can be God.”

  He looked around at the stunned faces in the room. “I see now that you respect my power and my vision. I thank you for bringing the Apex Being to me. I will be sure to make appropriate use of her.”

  Responding to an unseen signal, several armed Klin entered the room. They carried energy rifles of a unique design. They weren’t Xan-fi; the weapons manufacture didn’t exist at the time the Klin were trapped in this universe. But Adam reasoned they would be just as effective, if not more so.

  “Bring those two,” said Kracion, indicating Lila and Panur. “And that pair as well.” It was Adam and Arieel. He wanted the birth parents of the Apex Being with him,
for whatever reason. Perhaps to make another Lila if he screwed up the first one? Adam didn’t know if it worked like that.

  Adam was hustled toward the door, getting the opportunity to look into the desperate eyes of his friends Sherri, Riyad and Copernicus. Tidus stood with his jaw firm, looking defiant, yet resigned, to his fate.

  “And the others?” asked the lead Klin.

  “You will find a history of your ancestral galaxy where the exploits of the Humans and Juireans will read prominently in the fate of the ancient Klin. You may do what you wish with them.”

  “Take them with us,” Adam called out. “Like they say, keep your enemy close.”

  Kracion laughed. “I have no enemy here, only reluctant subjects. Their lives mean nothing to me. And neither will yours once I have assimilated. But it will be amusing to keep you around to witness the fate of your offspring. Take them away.”

  Lila!

  Father, came his daughter’s clear voice in his mind. This was true telepathy and not thoughts filtered through the ATD—something the Aris could hear.

  What are we going to do? Adam asked the mutant genius.

  You will do what you must to save yourselves. Kracion will bring Panur and I back to the Milky Way and then locate the Aris space station. It has been four thousand years since he last knew of its location. He will do nothing to us until he finds it. Do your best to rescue the others. I will serve as a communications conduit. But on this you must hurry. I fear that once the Olypon have more opportunity to spread the history of the Klin, this local sect will be quite anxious to make amends, at least to a small degree.