Harbinger

by Ken Lozito

  Sean unmuted the comlink channel. “Aurang, I think we have a way to accommodate your request to come with us.”

  “Fortuitous! I’m eager to hear it,” Aurang said.

  Sean told him.

  “Your caution is acceptable. We will comply,” Aurang said.

  “My helmsman will provide you with the coordinates,” Sean said and transferred the comlink to Lieutenant Edwards.

  Aurang provided the data they requested, including a translation program. Then the Krake ship was guided to the Vigilant’s main hangar.

  “Helm, set a course for beta coordinates in the outer system,” Sean said.

  “Sir, I have a subspace comlink from the Yorktown,” Sansky said.

  “Send it to my personal holoscreen,” Sean replied. A moment later, Major Shelton appeared on his holoscreen.

  “Sir, remind me never to play poker with you,” she said and grinned a little. “I know we're expecting a trap, but I find it suspicious that he expected us to up and go right now.”

  “Maybe the Krake are used to dealing with the Ovarrow. Either way, we’ll have enough transit time to test out the Krake translator he gave us,” Sean said.

  Major Shelton’s eyes widened. “You had already planned to ask him for that, hadn't you?”

  “It was one of the things. I didn’t expect he would share the location of their home world system, but his response was revealing, I think. I don’t think he was expecting it.”

  “No, I think you’re right. He wasn’t expecting it.”

  “I’ll send a copy of the data to you. If there’s anyone else you want to bring in on our analysis of this, let me know. Otherwise, I’m going to keep this between us,” Sean said.

  “Understood, sir.”

  The comlink went dark and they got to work.

  11

  Twenty-four hours had passed and Connor was no closer to finding the Ovarrow. He’d divided the 7th into ten squads and they’d spent the night among the ruins of the Ovarrow capital city. With the use of recon drones, they were covering a lot of ground, but they hadn’t found any evidence of the Ovarrow they’d encountered when retrieving critical pieces of the arch. Recon drones spotted a few ryklar scouts out on the fringes of the city, but they only found older ryklar tracks inside. Mostly they saw various flying creatures, some of which might have been considered birds.

  The night before, they’d seen a large group of bats take to the skies near sunset, which had startled the soldiers on guard duty. The bats that lived in this region were much larger than the similar species on Earth. Connor didn’t know much about them, but Dash, ever curious about New Earth, had enlightened him about them the night before. Bats on Earth were small and harmless, and they liked to eat insects. On New Earth, they weighed six kilograms and had a wingspan of almost two meters, on average. They had a healthy set of canines, which they used to penetrate the green and yellow fruit they preferred to eat, but they also ate insects, which were quite large in this region. Connor had sampled the fruit before. It was bitter and too full of seeds to be enjoyed, so the bats could keep all that fruit they wanted. And the insects were a nonissue since humans weren’t going to eat those either.

  The bats had taken up residence in a few of the tall buildings that the colonists thought were monuments. They thought this because rather than being constructed from bronze, metallic-alloyed plates, these were obsidian on the outside. They were dark but shimmered when the sunlight reflected off them. When hundreds of the giant bats took to the skies at sunset, the sounds of their flapping wings ricocheted off the surrounding buildings like thunder. It was no less impressive than watching several wings of Hellcats take off and fly in formation from a CDF base.

  As they explored the city, the only reports that came in indicated smaller, rodent-sized creatures scurrying throughout the city. Camping there reminded Connor of exploring other ruins with Lenora when he’d been retired from the CDF. The sleeping arrangements had been better back then, but the 7th was filled with a good group of soldiers.

  New Earth was a place that explorers dreamt about. Even after living on this planet for as long as they had, the newness of it hadn't quite worn off. The planet would never be what Earth had been, but most colonists had come to love their new home as much as their old home, and Connor was no exception. Why else would he fight so hard to protect it? New Earth was a world worth protecting. This was his home.

  Connor walked over to the command area where Samson was organizing troop deployments for the search grids they were going to hit that day. The group of squad leaders dispersed once they had their assignments and the comlink to the other camps flickered off.

  “Layton had several squads explore some of the underground tunnels on the western side of the city, but most had cave-ins blocking them,” Samson said.

  The cities they’d explored had extensive sewer systems connected to dormant water treatment facilities. Now, they were little more than an underground river system that connected to major waterways.

  “Were any of the cave-ins recent?” Connor asked.

  “None that they could tell,” Samson replied. “If I were fortifying a city against an invader, I’d block off all the underground entries,” he said and glanced toward where Dash was speaking with the Ovarrow. “Especially if they were sending in their attack dogs.”

  Connor nodded. Ryklars could burrow and squeeze through some tight spaces when they wanted to. “It makes sense, but they wouldn’t have walled themselves off completely, and we still don’t know if they were just guarding the area. They might live somewhere else. I’ve had satellites scouring the area, but the analysts haven’t found anything either.”

  Samson frowned, his mouth forming a grim line while he peered at the map on the holoscreen. “They could have destroyed the arch and then packed up and left.”

  “Maybe, but you can’t cover up the movement of a big group like that. When the ryklars attacked, there were quite a few of them. I think we need to go back to the arch chamber. It might be our best lead. We know they were there and that there were tunnels in the area.”

  “Just say the word. I’ll have the engineers bring equipment to clear a path if we need it,” Samson replied.

  “We’ll need it,” Connor said and was quiet for a few moments while he studied the map.

  Samson shifted his feet. “I can hear the wheels turning.”

  Connor looked at him. “We assumed that they might have been living somewhere in a section of the city itself, but that could be wrong. If they’ve been hiding their presence for . . .” he said and paused, glancing at the Ovarrow for several seconds, “. . . a few hundred years, then maybe they abandoned living on the surface altogether. Living below ground would prevent them from being detected by the casual observer. When the Krake were cycling through different universes, their goal was to identify a place worth scouting. The Ovarrow were definitely monitoring the arch here.”

  Samson rubbed the stubble on the bottom of his chin in thought. “Living underground for years is a bit of a stretch.”

  “I don’t think so. If they never went into stasis, they'd have had to survive the ice age somehow,” Connor said.

  “Wouldn’t they have just migrated south to where it’s warmer?”

  “Maybe, but that would mean bringing a lot of equipment with them, which we’ve never found evidence of, so I’m not sure that explanation works. They could have migrated, but why come back when the ice age was over?”

  “We should ask them,” Samson said, twisting his head toward the Ovarrow.

  Connor shook his head. “They wouldn’t know. Maybe the warlord would but not Cerot or the others. They’re young.”

  “So, we need a reason for them either coming back here or staying here. Maybe they were just guarding the arch?”

  Connor nodded. “It’s the obvious choice. I’m just not sure it’s reason enough for them to stay here. They’d have to feed themselves and train future generations not to abandon their posts,
but that doesn’t tell us why,” Connor said.

  “Why do we guard anything?” Samson said. He had a point.

  “They only destroyed it after they found us scavenging it for parts,” Connor said. “What if they intended to use it? Or what if they'd kept it as a fail-safe in case the Krake came back through that arch we found at New Haven?”

  Dash walked over and looked at them. “Am I interrupting something?”

  “No,” Samson said. “Connor’s just trying to figure out why we haven’t found them yet and why they’d stay here in the first place.”

  Dash’s eyes flicked toward Connor. “Well, given what we’ve seen, I wouldn’t put it past them to figure out a way to survive without giving away their presence to the Krake, or anyone else who might come looking for them.”

  “At some point, the Krake stopped coming here,” Connor said.

  Cerot and the other Ovarrow were standing nearby, and Connor considered them for a few moments. Dash looked at him questioningly and Samson merely waited. Connor scratched his eyebrow. “When we brought them out of stasis and moved them to their city, they went to work making it livable. It’s what we expected them to do, but the Ovarrow here must be different.”

  “Should we recall the search teams then?” Samson asked.

  Connor shook his head. “No, but send them an update to look for anything leading underground—hidden entrances inside buildings or anything we could potentially squeeze through.”

  Samson nodded and opened a broadcast comlink to the rest of the 7th.

  Dash looked at Connor. “That’s going to slow them down.”

  “I’d rather go slower and find something than move quickly and miss something important,” Connor replied.

  Dash smiled and nodded. “The places Cerot or others have checked don’t look like they’ve been used in a while. Esteban and Felix found a few buildings that hadn’t been opened in a long time. With no power, it’s hard to get access to these places. It just makes me think that no one has lived here for a long time.”

  Connor powered off the holoscreen and the map of the city disappeared. “That’s what they want us to think. We wouldn’t have come here in the first place if it hadn't been for Raylore, but he’s not the one in charge anymore.”

  “I’ll stick with Cerot and the others.”

  “I want them with me, so stay close. Just remember to pay attention. They didn’t want us here the first time,” Connor said.

  “Let’s hope they’ll be more willing to talk. I mean . . .” Dash said, glancing at Cerot for a moment, “. . . they should be willing to speak with their own kind, wouldn’t you think?”

  “I’m hoping for that.”

  “And if they don’t?”

  “I’m not leaving until I find them,” Connor replied.

  “Yeah, but if they—”

  “It doesn’t matter. They were here, so we should be able to find evidence of where they went.”

  They left the camp and headed for the area where they’d found the arch. Remnants of a few long spires that ended in jagged edges pierced the skyline, so it wasn’t difficult to find. As they made their way closer to their destination, thick overgrowth covered most of the buildings in the area. Connor wondered whether the overgrowth in the area was a natural occurrence or something the Ovarrow had engineered. The broad leaves of eggplant-colored flora grew on thick vines that blocked much of the sunlight and created natural canopies between the buildings. The air was humid and hot, and there was a faint odor of mold that came from the moist ground. The last time Connor had been there, they’d flown over much of the city to reach their destination, so this was new to him.

  He kept looking for any signs that there were Ovarrow living there, but the city looked like it had been abandoned many years ago. How had these structures survived all the wars that had been fought across the vast continent? Connor remembered seeing evidence of a bombardment at some of the other cities they’d explored but not this one. They hadn’t detected any ryklar deterrent signals, but something had made the creatures abandon the city.

  They finally entered a familiar, wide-open area, and Connor led them across the way. Three intertwining triangles adorned the entrance to the building they were headed for. It hadn’t changed all that much—still bronze-colored and seemingly reinforced with thick plating. It was an Ovarrow military research center, but there were no latent lockdown systems waiting to ambush them. A ramp led downward. Several soldiers took point and the rest of them followed. Recon drones were already scouting ahead of them.

  They headed inside and Connor used his implants to check the recon drones. They hadn’t detected any energy signatures. The place was still dead.

  The ramp curved around, leading them deeper into the building, and soon they were underground. There were no plants this far into the facility, and the wide doors they passed through were already open from the last time they’d been there. The first time, they'd had to force the doors open. They continued for twenty minutes until they reached a vast, open area. Their lights penetrated the darkness, but the CDF soldiers also had implants with night vision. Across the way were the remains of the arch that had been there. Connor ordered flares to be shot to the far side of the room so the Ovarrow could see better. As red flares ignited in the distance, large, intact pieces of the arch reflected the light along the ground in glistening pools.

  Connor glanced to the side, scanning for the elevated platform to the right of the arch.

  “Looks like they took out the command center,” Dash said.

  Where the elevated platform should have been there was only a heap of twisted metal blackened by scorch marks. Connor looked at Samson and gestured toward the remains of the command center. “It looks like they used some kind of explosive material. Have a team run an analysis on it.”

  Samson sent a team over while the rest of them made a sweep of the area.

  “What are they looking for?” Dash asked.

  “The type of accelerant used in the explosive. We might be able to track them with it,” Connor replied.

  Dash considered this for a few moments and nodded. Then his eyebrows drew up in concern. “Do you think they set traps for us?”

  Connor twitched his head to the side once. “Now you’re thinking like one of us.”

  Cerot had been watching the exchange and read the translation on the wrist computer each Ovarrow had been provided. “Mekaal tactics include the use of sabotage. We’ll help watch for this.”

  Connor thanked him. “If you notice anything, let us know and we’ll investigate it.”

  The rooms on the other side of the chamber were structurally intact, but the consoles had been destroyed. Dash had extracted all the data from those consoles the last time they’d been there, so there wasn’t a loss. The fact that these Ovarrow were covering their tracks was indication enough as to their intentions. They must have hidden for so long that it had become part of their culture. Getting them to communicate might prove more difficult than it had been with the Ovarrow who’d slept in stasis pods for hundreds of years.

  “I’ll need your help when we find them,” Connor said to Cerot.

  “I understand, General.”

  Connor walked over to the remains of the arch that the CDF had taken components from for their own arch. The Ovarrow had left it intact for hundreds of years, only to destroy it now. Connor couldn’t rationalize it. The components they’d taken from it would have prevented it from being used even if the Ovarrow had somehow restored power to it. Why destroy what remained? They might have anticipated that the colonists would return there, so preventing them from using the arch might have been one of the reasons. But that couldn’t be the only one. Were they afraid the Krake would discover its existence and use it as a way to come to this universe?

  Connor turned toward Samson and Dash. “I don’t get it. Why destroy the arch?”

  Samson shrugged. “They don’t want us to use it.”

  “I thought of that, to
o, but that can’t be the only reason.” Connor looked at Dash. “Were you able to find anything in the data you got from the consoles the last time we were here?”

  Dash frowned in thought for a few moments. “Just log entries—old ones—and some of the data was corrupt. We know they used the arch. I showed Cerot and the others some of that data on our way here. They said they were maintenance logs. They could have been testing it.”

  Connor nodded. “They spent who knows how long trying to reverse-engineer it, so that might make sense,” he said and pressed his lips together in thought. “I can understand testing the arch to see if they could make it work. How much of a stretch would it be that they actually used it?”

  Samson shook his head. “Not that much. They used it. They must have.”

  Connor gestured toward the wreckage of the arch. “Paints all this in a new light.”

  “How so?” Dash asked.

  “Think about it. We debated whether we should use the arch, and they probably did the same. So, they could have destroyed this one to prevent us from using it and . . ." He paused for a second. “Or they did it to prevent other Ovarrow from using it—either the ones we’ve been bringing out of stasis or perhaps among themselves.”

  Samson exhaled forcefully and shook his head. “And you want to talk to them?”

  “We need to.”

  “I’m going to see about opening a few of those hidden doors you suspected existed the last time you were here,” Samson said and walked away.

  Dash waited a few moments and then said, “Why is he upset?”

  “Trust me, you’ll know if Samson is upset. He just prefers a straight-up fight. We used to work together before . . . before the colony. Anticipating group activities was the whole intelligence-gathering part of the job.”

  It wasn’t difficult to identify the hidden doors. They used a sonic-wave generator to cause subtle vibrations. If an echo was detected, the indication was a passageway beyond. They found five of them. Two of the passageways angled back the way they’d already come. The remaining three appeared to be intact. Recon drones flew down the passageways, scanning for ryklars, and the data they sent back was used to map the area. These tunnels connected with other tunnels.