The navigator was peering through a side porthole. “Footprints? I think I see different kinds of footprints all around us. Indications of—”
The first mate’s voice cut in. “I’m detecting some kind of weak heat source over by the far end of that metal slab. That pyramid. It’s…I think it’s moving. Slowly, but yes, definitely moving—multiple heat signatures!”
JaspenTu reached for the throttle. Averik grabbed her arm. “Not yet, captain. I want to see what’s there.”
“You’ll get us killed, you will.” She pushed Averik away and blocked the controls. “Stand by for departure. We won’t take off just yet, but I’m taking zero chances. You certainly don’t seem unsettled by this discovery,” she continued. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“Merely a hunch,” said Averik. “There.” He pointed out the front porthole.
Five creatures shifted on stubby legs, making their way toward the shuttle. The captain activated additional cameras on the front of the spacecraft and zoomed in for clearer viewing on the monitors. The short, hairless bodies of the aliens appeared partially translucent, partially humanoid, partially unidentifiable. Their heads sloped down toward their arms. A few small organs could be seen beneath their flesh, protected by thin bones. Something dark and egg-shaped filled much of their chest cavities, while a small disk was affixed low on their abdomens. One of them shifted an arm, exposing a bat-like wing.
The Tachyon’s crewmembers charged their weapons.
“Stand down,” said Averik. “They don’t appear armed, don’t appear hostile.”
“That’s your opinion,” said the first mate. “I’ve never seen anything like them, some hodgepodge of every being imaginable. Can’t help but notice even though you’re telling us to stand down, you’re carrying a weapon as well. And don’t think I didn’t see you earlier putting some of that explosive paste in your side case.”
“Let me meet them. I’ll go alone.”
JaspenTu gave him a hard look and touched the controls. The ship rumbled.
“No! I’ll take the risk,” said Averik. “It’s imperative—”
The small crew erupted in anger, shouting down Averik. After an intense exchange, they agreed to let him exit the shuttle. The three crewmembers would also disembark, weapons charged, but would remain behind him, observing the encounter and guarding the spacecraft. The captain looked from the video monitors to her passenger. “I make no promises regarding your safety,” she said.
“Understood. My actions, my own responsibility,” said Averik.
JaspenTu activated the spacecraft’s hatch. Averik was first out and stepped several paces forward. The others followed. The Kardr inhabitants shuffled closer, stopping a hundred feet from Averik. He adjusted his airflow.
The Tachyon crew fidgeted behind him. A panicked voice came through his earpiece. “Something’s…helmet seal…possible breach! Slow leak—losing pressure. Losing air!”
Averik smiled and waited. He didn’t bother to check behind him.
“My suit,” came the captain’s weakening voice. “Compromised!” JaspenTu was gasping now. “No, no oxygen—all hands…back…inside…”
Averik turned to watch the crewmembers stumble at the foot of the spacecraft’s ramp. He sensed their fear as they suffocated and their body fluids boiled. In his earpiece came the last signs of life: frantic breathing and choking, barely audible screams of pain. He watched without emotion as they died.
“That was not necessary.”
Averik spun around. Did he just hear one of the aliens in his earpiece? No, not in his earpiece. In his head.
“Yes, Averik. We have nearly perfected our telepathy toward other races. When we speak to you, you will hear us in your own language. Do not be alarmed. We cannot fully read your mind, mostly transmit to it, though once your ship penetrated our solar system, we did sense your presence and collect your data in preparation for your arrival.”
Averik scanned the five aliens. The one in the back, making its way forward, was the one addressing him.
Its voice filled Averik’s head again. “Understand you will not be able to speak to us in the same manner, nor will any conversations among ourselves enter your mind.”
“Can you hear me?” he spoke aloud. “Can you hear me through my suit and helmet?”
“Very clearly.”
“If you know who I am, you know I’m here to drink from the well. You understand my singular purpose. I seek immortality. I am here in the name of the LifeSource.”
Four of the aliens remained in place while the fifth continued to advance toward him. Its arms swayed, the fleshy wings more visible. Averik saw it had no nose, just a mouth that was rhythmically opening and closing, like that of a fish. Its two eyes were set at ninety-degree angles, almost on the sides of its head. In place of hands and fingers were multiple thin tentacles that curled and uncurled. “Yes, you are here for the LifeSource. We are pleased you have traveled so far before determining our price.”
“I’ll pay what it’s worth. I’ve brought multiple rare minerals for exchange.” Averik assumed his negotiating stance and made no move toward the creature, waiting instead for it to come to him. Asserting dominance and authority were crucial from the start in any of his business transactions. “Is there a protocol when meeting your—what is your race?”
“No protocol,” it said. “I am a Hlokou. We are known as the Hlokou-hai. In our own language, Hlokou means ‘Exile.’ Long ago—a stretch of time your people would measure in multiple eons, what we refer to as six memories ago—we were banished from our home planet Orpole. In that way, our history is similar yours. Did you know your race was long ago banished for ‘crimes against humanity’ from a planet your ancestors called Earth?”
“For all I know, we’ve always been evolving on planet Vel,” Averik shrugged. “That’s of no consequence here. I’ll have plenty of time for history lessons after I reach the LifeSource.”
The Hlokou’s tentacles curled. Gills atop its slanted shoulders fluttered. “Of course.”
It looked back to its companions. Averik heard something like metal scraping underwater, followed by a cacophony of similar sounds, barely audible in the thin atmosphere. He watched as the Hlokou-hai conversed among themselves.
The first Hlokou spoke again to him. “We do not use telepathy toward each other. As you heard, we speak in our own language, out loud.” It gestured toward the pyramid. “The LifeSource is there. We will shelter your spacecraft and equipment while you perform the ritual and drink from the well. There is no danger to your shuttle from wind or other weather with so little atmosphere, but we will keep watch over it. Expect the ritual to take the equivalent of four or five of your days.”
“Hlokou-hai don’t need any kind of spacesuits?”
“We have adapted, but we cannot remain long on the surface.”
The five Hlokou-hai continued their warbling metallic chatter as they led Averik to the far end of the pyramid. Averik glanced back with an uneasy feeling to find his spacecraft and the bodies of the crewmembers already gone.
“How long have you been here on Kardr?”
“Did you not understand when I said I and my fellow Hlokou-hai were banished from Orpole? We have been here for six memories.”
Averik stopped. He studied the aliens. “You’ve been here the entire time? You aren’t a ten-thousandth or even one-thousandth generation of the original settlers? You’re the original exiles? The original keepers of the LifeSource?”
The Hlokou made a slow nodding gesture. Its gills rippled. “From the first. We do not have the capability to reproduce, but we are what you consider immortal. One of our kind sacrificed itself for the good of all Hlokou-hai when we established the colony. Since that time, we’ve numbered two hundred forty-nine. Any seen around you have been here from the beginning. When we were exiled, we were banished to the Kardr moon of Planet Yeko. Yeko would be too harsh for survival, were we able to travel there, and even on Kardr, we must spend mo
st of our time underground due to solar radiation and the meager atmosphere.” It folded its arms against its chest, tentacles intertwined. “This is the only life we have known for six memories. Our destiny is to remain here as protectors and cultivators of the LifeSource. For eternity.”
The Hlokou-hai led him to the center of the short side of the pyramid where they started down a spiral slope. The entrance sealed behind them. Soft light radiated from the ceiling and walls as they descended.
“You may take off your helmet. We have altered the mix of air for your arrival and you will find enough oxygen to be comfortable. For now, we are reliant primarily on methane for our own existence, but the increased oxygen will not harm us, and will even be necessary for some in the near future.”
Averik hesitated before unlocking the seal. He stood for moment, hands at the control, waiting for any effects, then removed his helmet. The six of them continued down the spiral, into the main corridor of the colony, while he surveyed his surroundings. A wave of déjà vu nearly toppled him as he took in the images that had been appearing in his dreams, night after night. His voice pitched higher in excitement.
“It’s all so true, all real. I’ve walked this hall, breathed this air, run my hand along these pink walls. I—I’ve found life everlasting, arrived at the LifeSource. So much of this was in my dreams.”
He looked again at the aliens around him. While everything else was precisely as he’d recalled, the aliens themselves were not. The Hlokou-hai were similar to what he pictured, close enough to be recognized, but not exactly as he’d dreamed. Now that he considered it, even in his clearest visions, they were never fully revealed and seemed to undergo a continuous, slow change in their appearance over the years. He was never able to draw them faithfully in his dream log.
Averik scanned his surroundings again. A row of elongated pods rested on one side of the wide corridor floor, perpendicular to the wall, each with one hose connecting to the wall, and smaller lines linking all of them at the sides, from one into the next. He slowed to get a better look at the pods, but couldn’t discern the figures under the dark glass lids, just as in his dreams. The row of containers continued down a darkened hallway, beyond his line of sight.
“How often do you sleep?” he asked. “How much sleep does an eternal being need?”
“Time for explanations later.” Averik twitched at the voice in his head. It was a different voice from earlier, a different Hlokou talking to him in a lower register. “For now,” it said, “you will meet most of us and explain why you assassinated your traveling companions.”
The Hlokou pointed to a side archway leading into a massive cavern filled with more than a hundred Hlokou-hai. Averik looked upward as he was escorted in. The ceiling seemed higher than possible and appeared to extend higher than they’d descended, even beyond the apex of the pyramid. They made their way toward the front of the assembly, to an altar furnished with a long red table and one chair.
“Sit.”
Averik did as instructed as the others stood near his sides.
“Some kind of town hall meeting,” he muttered to himself. Averik turned to the Hlokou who last spoke to him. “You assembled all of your kind?”
“Nearly all. Some are at their rotation at the regeneration station. Some are at the transmission station. Others are working below us or resting.” The Hlokou faced the assembled mass and spoke, its voice loud in the compressed air, warbling like thin sheets of metal flexing underwater. After a moment’s pause, Averik’s head filled with the voices of more than a hundred Hlokou-hai as they welcomed him to Kardr.
Their voices had a contrived soothing tone, putting Averik on edge. Were they hiding something? He studied the Hlokou-hai. All were similar to the five from the scouting crew, yet no two identical. Many had a small appendage—a dorsal fin—on their backs. Others had a more snakelike appearance, with soft scales and flickering tongues. A few bore feathers and pincers. All were translucent, with lines or veins following their spines into their brains, and all carried something dark and egg-shaped within their chests.
One of the original five Hlokou-hai who’d met him on the surface spoke.
“Explain why you subverted and murdered your fellow travelers.”
Averik hadn’t expected they’d notice or care, but answered as calmly as when he’d lied to JaspenTu and her crew. “They were ‘surplus to needs,’ as we say in business on my planet. I don’t believe in sentimentality, if you’re familiar with that emotion. Once they discovered the true purpose of my mission, they would’ve demanded to drink from the well and return home with me. My plan from the start was sabotage; was to be the sole immortal returning from this voyage. I will allow no equal on Vel.”
“That was not yours to determine. They would have been welcome to partake in the LifeSource, just as you are.”
The room erupted in scrapings and squawking as the Hlokou-hai learned of the loss of the three crewmembers.
“You see, Averik? They are unhappy you chose to terminate those lives. Though we are keepers of the well and protectors of LifeSource, even we cannot raise the dead. The dead have no use on Kardr.”
As the Hlokou spoke, another carried a large chalice to the table. Averik’s eyes dilated, his hands trembled at the sight. Eternal life, unrivaled power…. “Mine.” The word escaped his lips before he realized he’d even spoken it. He reached for the cup.
“No,” said one of the Hlokou-hai. “Not yet. The ritual is as vital as the drink. Or do you not wish to drink from the well?”
“Yes. Yes, of course. It was in my dreams. I must prepare. It was foolish of me to forget.” He lay the palms of his hands flat on the table, lowered his head, and began the chant. It came to him in words he didn’t understand, flowed through his body without hesitation. The Hlokou-hai joined in, their metallic sounds drowning out his voice until he closed his mouth, the incantation complete.
The table beneath Averik’s hands had turned cold. Behind him, the light brightened. He twisted to see a polished red obelisk rising through the floor. Its sides were nearly one hundred feet wide and carved with tens of thousands of languages, in untold and indecipherable scripts, glyphs, cuneiforms, drawings, dots, and images Averik couldn’t describe. When the obelisk stopped rising, Averik’s eyes were pulled to something engraved not far from the bottom, something written in his own language, a name he recognized.
“…Nerotus. Can it be? Nerotus? The history books say he was one of the first to tell of the well of eternity. They claim he lost his way and never found it.”
“There are eight others from your planet Vel showing on our monument.”
Averik moved toward the obelisk.
“Stop! You may read it. You may study it. Only the Carvers may touch it.”
Averik stood at the base and looked up, but could not see to the top of the memorial. “How many have been here before me?”
“The first name at the top of the monument is the Hlokou who gave its life for the rest of us. There are millions since then. There will be millions more. From as far as two gigaparsecs or more away. They were all receptive to our telepathic transmissions. They hungered for immortality at any cost. They responded to the call of the LifeSource, no matter the length of the journey or its cost.
“The red stone you see before you is one of the hardest substances in the universe,” continued the Hlokou, “known as ockniq. It does not exist in your galaxy. The ockniq was cut from the core of our moon, taking more than three memories to complete. It extends down nearly to the center of Kardr, allowing room for additional explorers’ names for nearly all time to come. The Carvers require the equivalent of one of your years to etch a single name, but once carved, a name can never be removed. It will be there for eternity, immortalized in ockniq.”
Averik walked the front of the massive monument. Yes, eternity. The time has come. He envisioned his name on the stone, bolder than all the others.
He pointed above his head. “There, I see another in my
language. Her name was also in the history records. A madwoman who spoke of powerful dreams and claimed she knew the secret to everlasting life. It’s believed she discovered the location of the well of eternity.” He turned to the Hlokou nearest him. “Where are they? Where are these people from my planet? Nothing’s known of their fate. Did they never return to Vel?”
“They came to Kardr and drank from the well. They found the LifeSource. They achieved their goal.” The Hlokou said nothing further.
The evasive response unnerved Averik. He eyed the chalice on the table. Should he risk it? Would he, too, be lost to history? Were the Hlokou-hai playing? His mind coursed through all possibilities, but always returned to the temptation of everlasting life and unequaled power. A single choice to set his fate: drink from the well or remain a mortal fool. He hesitated. What might become of him? Desire and hunger had driven him here, but it wasn’t too late, even after traveling so far. He could reclaim the Tachyon shuttle and escape Kardr without sipping from the chalice. He let his hand drop to where he still carried his weapon. His heart pounded louder.
The Hlokou-hai chanting began again, softly at first. Averik swayed to the irregular rhythm. No, he wouldn’t deny the power that awaited him. Couldn’t deny immortality. He would be unstoppable. Unbreakable. It was his destiny. The chanting grew louder. He turned and grasped the chalice with both hands.
He stood before the table and raised the cup to his lips. The chanting continued, urging him on. He tilted the cup, let the amber liquid flow over his tongue. It felt lighter than water and tasted as it had in his dreams: bitter, then sweet, then acidic, and sweet again. He drained the cup and lifted it above his head as the chanting reached a crescendo.
Averik’s vision blurred. The sounds around him became muffled as his throat spasmed and burned.
He awoke in dim light on a slab of stone, unable to determine his surroundings. This had never appeared in any of his visions. A Hlokou’s voice entered his head. “You have been resting.”
Space Bound: A Dragon Soul Press Anthology Page 35