The Destinia Apocalypse (The Starguards - Of Humans, Heroes, and Demigods Book 4)

by Raymond Burke

  “Um, Amagesh, may we climb up?” Chalant asked.

  A look of surprise burst from Amagesh. “Of course, my manners, are drodro. You must contemplate me as an alien barbarian. Come, come,” he gesticulated to them. He had a funny sort of staccato movement to him. Alpha Rion admired his already increasing grasp of English, as he and Chalant scrambled up the crater's wall.

  When on solid ground, Amagesh gestured around him, Chalant noticing his long five-fingered hands had extra short vestigial digits on them as if a sixth finger had been lost opposite the thumb.

  Amagesh continued, “These are my hosts on this world. They call themselves the Surge.”

  The metal beings stood silently, their dully coloured metal bodies absorbing the light. However, Amagesh was even more interesting up close, exuding an extraordinary amount of cold from his body. It made Chalant shiver from a meter away even in the opulent heat.

  “We leave before it gets hot,” Amagesh added, peering up at the sky. He still imparted an uncomfortableness in the heat despite his seemingly natural air conditioning.

  “Gets hot!” chorused Alpha Rion and Chalant. They were already roasting.

  “It is only morning beginning,” Amagesh seemed to enjoy their mutual discomfort. “Can either of you fly?” The two newcomers shook their heads. “Well then. Sgx, Sede,” Amagesh indicated two of the metal beings who came forth. From behind they grasped the two travellers under the arms, as one did with Amagesh. There was an initial jolt and they powered into the air.

  An eternity of dead yellow desert stretched below them. Nothing alive, nothing green or watery blue or remotely inviting looking. Parched expanse rolled beyond the horizon, dry gray twisted mountains and black scorched plains separated by deep shrivelled valleys made for an unforgiving domain.

  Presently, a flat plain opened up, an old dead seabed. Within a depressingly small area of disturbance presented itself spoiling the natural desolate scenery: habitation.

  If that was the word for it. Amagesh's camp was not what Alpha Rion and Chalant were expecting. It consisted of one medium-sized building, built of the same surrounding yellow rock.

  “Understand, only I need shelter,” Amagesh called across to them by way of explanation. “The Surge live off energy, so they ugubriathe, er. . .” he grasped for a human word, “imbibe the rays almost all day,” he pointed to the rising white orb of over-generous energy.

  They landed in the middle of the clearing. A few more Surge in the encampment stopped momentarily to inspect their visitors, then returned to the task at hand, which just seemed to consist of basking in the sun rays.

  “It is nourishment time for them. We alight inside,” Amagesh invited them into his abode.

  Chalant took a last look around outside. The world, or at least this part of it, was deader than the Sahara.

  Amagesh's dwelling was not luxurious, but it was mercifully cooler than outside. Two storeys contained six rooms, almost identical and entirely of stone with stone-made furniture. There were no decorations to enhance the drab surroundings. There was no electronic equipment, a bathroom, or curiously, any food.

  Amagesh sensed their curiosity and again elaborated. “Understand, I, like you two, am an explorer. However, I also, like these Surge became trapped here.”

  “What do you mean trapped?” Chalant blurted out before the equally alarmed Alpha Rion could. They were thinking the same thing. There was no way they wanted to get stuck on this world. It was creepy. And hot!

  Amagesh continued. “There is something about this universe which allows entry, but you cannot escape. Understand, I believe this universe is a . . . prison.” He let those words hang in the air then nervously clacked softly at Chalant and Alpha Rion’s uneasiness.

  Was he laughing at them? Chalant thought down-spirited.

  “Understand, I at first thought I was here alone, until I was found by the Surge. They are telepathic and quite empathic, though trapped here, too, lost from their colony after they fell into this dimension from another. They had picked up my thoughts and helped me to assimilate. I tried to escape this universe several times. There are no transgates, mass-ports, di-rifts or substrate-pathways out. I now concede this is my home. I am left alone.” His face became downcast. “But how did you arrive here?” he asked abruptly. “You appeared from nowhere. One trasecc. . . moment, the psi-sphere was plaxt and the next, you were there.”

  Chalant looked at Alpha Rion; a brief inclination to lie quashed. Alpha Rion reluctantly answered. “I can create portals, sometimes big enough to travel through. I think we landed here by accident, unless. . . there are others here like me!” He was hopeful.

  Amagesh had been listening intently, though Chalant now noticed he seemed to have no ears. Slowly he shook his head side to side. “Unfortunately, only myself and the Surge.” He stared at them, a strange look on his face. “Food!” he suddenly shouted, with a mild telepathic projection, changing the subject. “You require sustenance. The Surge live in interstellar space and absorb energy, able to refocus and channel energy, like their psi-transfer abilities when you arrived. We just reflected and amplified your thoughts against yourselves. Energy imbibing is how they feed and protect and keep me alive. I have been here for more than a thousand years.” He smiled, apparently to emphasise his alien youthfulness.

  “A thousand years?” Alpha Rion face could barely contain his surprise.

  “I’m impressed,” Chalant replied. "I wish I could find others of our kind, ones like us, of the mind.” Chalant said. “My mind is in symbiosis with a Chryrian, an ancient psi-being,” she explained to Amagesh, who nodded thoughtfully. “However, we were following a signal from one of Alpha Rion's people, but we seemed to have lost the signal en route.”

  “Ah,” mused Amagesh. “Understand, I have not met or known anyone besides the Surge. Perhaps on their travels they have encountered such beings of the mind. This is a large world.”

  Chalant beamed with pleasure, turning to Alpha Rion. She addressed Amagesh. “Would the Surge be able to confirm any encounters. Could they show us the way?”

  Amagesh was quiet for some time. At first Chalant thought he had not heard her, but then she heard a distinct buzzing in her head. An alien murmur. She could only admire Amagesh even more for his abilities. The Surge may be telepathic, but not only did they possess a different and complex language, but also a slightly different psi-frequency. She could only pick up garbled scraps of conversation. She wondered if a Chryrian would be able to converse with a Surge.

  As for Amagesh, his mind was either more alien than she could imagine or he was deliberately shielding his inner thoughts from her.

  Amagesh tuned back to the physical world of communication. He seemed indifferent to the fact Chalant had tried prying into his mind.

  “Understand, first of all, I do not know exactly where this land is, but it is likely somewhere on the other side of an ocean to the east. I have not seen or felt anyone like Alpha Rion, but Siilii sensed others of the djurnii. . . mind a series of suns past,” Amagesh said, indicating a tall slender blue-coloured Surge. “She does not know where they are now, but they could still be out there. The Surge like to avoid contact with others.” He gave a very human shrug by way of an apology.

  Alpha Rion sighed in disappointment. Amagesh was doing his best to help them. But even if others were out there, they had no way of getting there.

  “Understand, I know what you are thinking, Alpha Rion. Not literally!” Amagesh hastily added as Alpha Rion glared suspiciously at him. “But if I were you, I would wonder how I could get to this land. Well. . .” Amagesh paused, Chalant hearing the incomprehensible psi-chatter again. “Understand, I cannot, and will not, come with you,” Amagesh began, seeing confusion in his guests’ eyes. “This is my home, now," he gestured again in his jerky kind of movement to indicate his rock house. "But over the passing of a star's lifetime, things change, even Surge. The Surge are living metal. They absorb, reflect or negate energy. They also evolve.
Some can now restructure the energy as when they feed me, but these Surge can also restructure themselves, grow things, make things. Take a piece of them and grow it. Anything you want, any shape, any form."

  Alpha Rion and Chalant were baffled as to where Amagesh was leading them, but the alien then announced with a flourish.

  "Understand, I will grow you a Surgeship and you can search for this land. Understand, I do this for you, You must promise not to return or divulge to others you found me. Understand, I desire my private oasis of remoteness. D'vorovikg?”

  “Agreed!” both Chalant and Alpha Rion chimed, understanding his meaning.

  “The Surgeship will take some time to build, at least the rest of the day. Please you should rest.” It sounded more like a command than an invitation.

  “How long are the days on this world?” Chalant asked.

  Amagesh considered. “Roughly eighteen of your hours,” he said. He walked them to another chamber in his stone house. In it was a large and rough stone bed. “Best room in the house,” he announced charmingly.

  Alpha Rion and Chalant looked at each other. They had no choice. They were tired and hungry. Amagesh made his excuses and left them alone, off to coordinate the ship’s construction. They shuffled onto the bed, deciding to rest. Lying surprisingly comfortably on the warm rock bed, the two travellers did not even have time to talk about the day’s events; they were both asleep within minutes, Alpha Rion dreaming of long-gone family and a faraway home.

  Chalant never dreamed, not in the usual sense. For some psi’s there was nothing, for others there were fleeting glimpses of the future or other visions. Chalant was drifting. She could hear voices, alien tongues, and see shadowy figures. She watched and listened to dark plans she could not understand. Then someone noticed her. And then like a door slamming the voices were cut off. There was blurry movement and Chalant’s intrusion abruptly ended. She slept through the rest of the day, undisturbed.

  “Morning,” Alpha Rion greeted her as she awoke.

  “Morning? You mean evening,” she yawned, feeling better in the cool of the evening.

  “Sure, let's go, smarty pants,” he grunted.

  Refreshed and ready to move out, they left their room. The stony coolness gave way to rising heat as they neared the entrance. The giant sun hung low in the horizon, a sliver of reddish-brown descending across the sky. A dozen or so Surge stood facing the globe with their huge metal bat-like wings stretched out feeding off its energy. They watched entranced by the almost ritualistic ceremony.

  “They are still feeding.”

  Chalant and Alpha Rion started as Amagesh came up behind them. His thin lips in a facsimile of a grin as if pleased he had sneaked up on them unnoticed. “Understand, I hope you rested well?” he said looking somewhat pointedly at Chalant.

  “Well, I did for one,” Chalant answered, Alpha Rion concurring with a nod.

  “Satisfaction for me. Are you hungry?” He pointed to the Surge, “They can feed you as well.”

  Chalant was hesitant, though looked interested. Alpha Rion was far more sceptical of the notion. “How do you know it can work for us?”

  Amagesh gestured with his hands while he talked. “On the Chryrian part of Tera which is pure psionic energy, she would benefit from raw energy as provided by the Surge. The Chryrian would produce the necessary energy to repair, maintain and rejuvenate her human cells.”

  “That's why I age slower and am generally stronger and healthier than normal humans,” Tera stated.

  “Yes, the Chryrians can help you absorb solar energy as sustenance. It is good for you. Would you care to try, Tera?”

  Chalant smiled politely. “Thanks, but I’ll have to decline for now, Amagesh. Maybe another time.”

  Amagesh looked a little disappointed, especially when Alpha Rion waved his hands in refusal. The Celestian could have used his own energy to feed, but was wary of the effects on his portals.

  “Very well. Understand, I imagine you are eager to depart. Let us look at how the surgeship is coming along.”

  Amagesh led them around to the back of the house to where there was a crude staging area of rock and metal. And a small, black, blunt-nosed spacecraft. It hardly looked big enough to hold one, let alone two passengers.

  “Notions are welcome,” said Amagesh, looking pleased at his achievement.

  Chalant was impressed: A grown spaceship—a sleek, black almost organic ship with no discernible exterior features. She looked at Alpha Rion who tried to keep a neutral face, but she could tell that he was impressed too.

  Alpha Rion asked the obvious question: “Is it big enough?”

  Amagesh almost smirked, as much as his lips would allow him. “Ship is psionically controlled. It will follow Tera’s thoughts and conform around her. You communicate your navigation, energy, and other environmental requirements. Like the Surge, it absorbs and expels energy, so no requirement for fuel storage or conventional engines. Command what you require.”

  “Sounds like you’ve done this before,” Alpha Rion said.

  “Understand, I have explored where I have needed. You will be safe. The energy the ship absorbs and harness will enable you to travel as far and as long as you require." Amagesh pointed to the ship, inviting Chalant in. "You will try?”

  Bouncing with anticipation, Chalant obliged, stepping up to the living metal ship.” She stopped short at the smooth exterior of the ship. “There's no entry hatch. How do I get in?” she asked turning back to Amagesh.

  “Control. Control it,” Amagesh replied, as if it were an obvious thing to do.

  Chalant nodded and thought about getting in. A rectangular hatch started to split the hull open in front of her, like a soundless tear in paper. It lowered down in front of her like a ramp. The cavity inside was absolutely bare. Chalant stepped in, the strong metallic smell hitting her immediately. The hatch closed behind her. There was just enough room to stand up in, a slight luminescence emanating from the metal walls.

  There’s nowhere to sit! thought Chalant. Where are the seats?

  Just as the thought formed, a seat rose on a single pedestal from the metal floor. “Oh, cool, that’s how it works.” She looked around, “Let me see outside,” she said aloud as she thought it.

  A one meter square section of the wall became seemingly invisible, but as Chalant touched it, she could see that the metal had only become transparent. She could see Alpha Rion and Amagesh outside, Alpha Rion looking somewhat apprehensive. She smiled at the thought of having him at her mercy and she turn as she heard a noise behind her, a low platform rising at the rear of the ship—a bed. She giggled to herself and let the thought flitter from her mind as the bed melded back into the ship's floor. She looked back outside and waved to them, but though they were looking in her direction, they didn’t wave back.

  One way, assumed Chalant.

  Now for the final test. All she did was think. >Hover<

  There was a gentle jolt and as she watched out the ‘window’ she could see the ground receding a few meters.

  >Turn around< she thought to herself. She only had to picture it in her mind and the craft swivelled a few times. After a few minutes of demonstration, the sensation of flying became unsettling, though rather exhilarating, as she had never flown before.

  >Okay, that's enough. Land<

  The craft stopped spinning and came to land softly outside the house. Chalant thought the hatch open. The ramp lowered letting heat and dust pour in.

  She bounded out. “That was great!” she yelled excitedly. “We’ll be fine in that, Alpha Rion.” She tried to assure him, but he looked doubtful.

  “So, are we ready to go then?” he asked, quite ready to leave, doubts and all.

  “Yeah, why not? I’m eager to explore a new world. You don’t mind, Amagesh, us leaving so soon?”

  “No,” though his voice sounded sad. “Understand, I have grown accustomed to my solitude. Though your presence has been. . . eventfully pleasant. Do not worry about me. Und
erstand I will not be alone.” He pointed to Siilii, Sede and Sgx standing beside his house.

  “I can see that,” Chalant made herself smile. “Well, I suppose then, it’s time to go.”

  She stuck out her hand. Amagesh looked down at it. Comprehending he grasped it in his own, Chalant feeling more than a slight tingle of energy from his very cold pitch-black palm. Alpha Rion likewise shook the alien's mottled hand.

  “Thank you for your hospitality and help, Amagesh,” Chalant said. “I hope we all find what we need. Goodbye.”

  “Bvo. Journey well,” Amagesh replied, splaying out his fingers ahead of him.

  The two travellers walked over to the surgeship. Chalant demonstrated her skills to Alpha Rion. She touched the side of the ship and the hatch opened for her. As Alpha Rion stepped in behind her, Chalant produced two seats near the front of the ship which curved downward. She heard Alpha Rion curse beneath his breath.

  “Is this it?” he asked, scepticism tingeing his voice. “Is it safe?” He tapped the dark metal walls, trying to be more positive.

  “It’s alright, Alpha Rion, really. The ship and I 'talk’ to each other. I control what it does. Don’t you trust me?” She knew he did.

  “Of course.” He only had to look at her to voice their joint concerns. They trusted each other, not Amagesh. Not entirely.

  They sat in the surprisingly comfortable metal seats. Without having to manufacture and manipulate flight controls, Chalant commanded the surgeship into the air and up through the sky though remaining below the clouds. Night was closing in.

  Amagesh watched impassively from below as the surgeship disappeared into the air.

  A flash of movement to his side caught his attention. He turned to see a figure standing in the shadow of the house, almost a mirror image of himself. The air around him turned colder in the newcomer's presence.

  “Techmoses,” Amagesh addressed the visitor, his voice firmer and surer. “They arrived, as predicted. Understand, I intercepted them and gifted them with the surgeship, as instructed. They will discover and the others in hiding, as foreseen.”