Alliance

by Andrew Stride

  Lim had reached the point where he didn’t care. His sadness was turning to anger and he felt like running out into the storm and being taken by it. He was so preoccupied that when something touched his foot he nearly leapt out of his skin.

  “What the hell!”

  They hadn’t moved far from the half-buried RDU and it looked like there was still some life left in it, as it was trying to get up. Now seemed a really good time to be leaving and they distanced themselves from it, while Laja looked out into the storm and tried to determine which direction they should head in.

  Beyond the collapsed building there was evidence of structures, but nothing that would provide better shelter than what they had at the moment. Laja knew this because he had visited most of them while searching for Miar.

  “Laja, Laja, it’s getting up. It’s coming to life,” shouted Lim.

  With its one functioning arm, the RDU had unearthed itself and was now focusing its attention on them. It appeared not to have the power to levitate, so Laja hoped its weapons were also offline and he didn’t want to stick around to find out.

  “Quickly, join hands, we need to move.”

  They left the cover of the building with the RDU still squirming in the dirt and once again faced the elements. They travelled about two hundred metres, before Laja activated the protective shield, to give everyone a break and now inside its protection, they were hardly recognisable. Having endured another sandblasting they were all covered head to foot in greyish white dust and looked like the cast from some zombie horror movie.

  Holding the shield wasn’t a problem and while doing so, Laja was able to assess the situation. If his eyes weren’t deceiving him, there appeared to be a low structure that looked in reasonable shape, near an outcrop of rock.

  “Laja, we’ve got company,” said Joeum, trying to keep his anxiety in check.

  Through the dust and debris swirling around them, they could just make out an object moving in their direction. Laja squinted and then his eyes widened with surprise. It was the RDU.

  “The bloody thing’s following us,” said Clom.

  Laja had everyone link hands again and they were off and after another hundred metres or so, they could see their luck was in. The structure ahead of them looked sound, built to take some punishment and by the looks of it, a bunker of some kind. They moved on steadily, not too fast, so as not to lose anyone else and not too slow either, for fear that the RDU might still be following them.

  They reached the building and Laja lowered the protective shield and then ushered everyone down a few steps and into a featureless tunnel. Laja hesitated, turning to look back into the storm and hoping he wasn’t going to see the RDU. Thankfully there was no sign of it and he breathed a sigh of relief.

  The tunnel was devoid of any decoration. The walls appeared to be made of military strength concrete and had a rather rushed and unfinished look about them. The tunnel was dark; the only light was from a single source above a plain looking door, directly ahead of them.

  The tunnel itself was providing adequate shelter, although the door looked worth investigating, so they made their way towards it. Laja was now more convinced than ever that this was a military bunker, which seemed to contradict the ethos of the Femesumma or at least the picture they had painted of themselves.

  The door showed no sign of wear and the only distinguishing feature on its brushed steel surface was a black panel. This could have easily been a blacked out pane of glass, but Laja had a feeling it was a touch-sensitive screen and when he moved his hand over its surface, it slowly brightened, confirming his suspicions. Some Femesumma script appeared, along with a keypad and it looked like they needed an access code to open the door.

  A sound behind them broke their concentration. Debris no doubt and Laja turned to see not debris, but the RDU pulling itself down the steps and into the tunnel.

  “Oh my god. You see, it was following us,” cried Clom.

  “Laja, tell me you can get this door open,” said Joeum.

  Laja was on it and after a quick internal scan of the circuitry, he delivered some bad news. He was unable to break in and he turned his attention to the approaching RDU. The unit was still pulling itself along with its one good arm and Laja had no doubts that he could take it out and now seemed as good a time as any. Before it got too close to the humans. If it did suddenly fire off a few rounds, then he would be ready to shield them, but if it decided to self-destruct, none of them would stand a chance.

  Laja approached the RDU and it stopped abruptly and fixed him with a cold steely gaze. For a moment it was like time stood still. Like a scene from some old western, but who would be the quickest to draw?

  Strangely enough, Laja wasn’t detecting any hostility and wondered if it had run out of power and then something unexpected happened. The RDU turned its head and its glowing right eye projected an image onto the wall of the tunnel. The image was that of a perfect snowflake, which stunned everyone.

  Laja turned to the humans. “It is the work of the Harmonic Ones. This RDU means us no harm; it would seem that it is here to help us.”

  No one knew quite what to say. The image of the snowflake faded and was replaced by a blueprint and Laja took a closer look.

  “Ok, this looks like a DIY job. If this RDU is to be of any use to us, then we will have to get it back up and running.”

  “Did you say, we?”

  “Yes, Clom, I did, but don’t worry, we’ve got a set of instructions. I might need an extra pair of hands though.”

  Laja found a small access panel on the back of the RDU and once opened, it revealed some of its inner workings. “Okay, who wants to volunteer?”

  “I’ll do it,” said Lim.

  “Okay, we’re going to try and bring the damaged arm back online first. In the palm of the hand, you should see a circular depression. Do you see it?”

  Lim moved in for a closer look and after turning the limp hand over, he was able to see the recess that Laja was talking about.

  “Okay, got it.”

  “When I say the word, press this area once.”

  Lim was ready and on Laja’s command he pressed the centre of RDU’s hand and an orb of light appeared, floating in the circular depression. He found that he could interact with the orb, which was divided up into segments. The segments glowed with a blueish light, but three were unlit. Laja wanted Lim to touch these unlit segments and once he had done so, the orb glowed evenly.

  “Now push it back in.”

  Lim did as he was asked and the arm suddenly came to life. Laja continued to fiddle at the back of the unit and then stood up, moving back as he did so.

  There was a short pause and then the RDU rolled onto its back and all of its lights went out.

  “What’s it doing?” asked Clom.

  “It’s rebooting itself, just watch,” said Laja.

  They must have done something right because the RDU began to move its arms in a wide arc as if it might be warming up for a workout. Then after a couple of rotations, it brought the palms of its hands together and an electric blue light traced every visible joint on its body. Warmup complete, it slowly rolled upright and as if by magic, rose off the ground a couple of feet. The RDU was now levitating in front of them and apart from a low humming sound, it was silent.

  Its arms had come to rest at its sides and blended almost seamlessly with its body, which was heavily armoured and dull grey in colour. The base of the RDU was rounded and completely seamless and from where they were standing they could see some distortion and bending of light waves. This was normal and simply caused by its gyroscopic, anti-gravity drive.

  Up close the RDU looked menacing, armed with a turret on each shoulder and built to put the fear of God into anyone who was unfortunate enough to come face to face with it. This RDU had seen some action, a few battle scars, and scrapes, but otherwise, it appeared to be in good working order.

  “Does it have a name?” asked Lim.

  “Who cares,”
said Clom. “Next you’ll be wanting to take it home.”

  “It does have something written on its chest plate. UE149R,” said Joeum.

  “Can it talk, Laja?”

  “I’m not sure. They are used primarily for security and battle. Ask it something.”

  “Oh, okay. What is your name?” asked Lim.

  The RDU’s eyes glowed a little brighter. “I am guardian class, UE149R.”

  “UE 149 R,” said Lim thoughtfully. Why don’t we call him Huey for short?”

  “If we must,” said Clom. “I think it’s slightly more important to find out what we’re doing here.”

  “I totally agree,” said Laja.

  “Huey, did the Harmonic Ones send you to help us?” asked Lim.

  “Affirmative, I am familiar with those of whom you speak.”

  “Great, how do we get out of here?” asked Clom.

  Huey did not respond, but instead turned and looked at Lim. “Lim…”

  There was an audible gasp.

  “Did Huey just say my name?”

  “Yes, Lim, it is addressing you personally,” said Laja.

  Lim felt a bit awkward. “What am I meant to say?”

  “I think it likes you. Ask its birth sign or something useful like that. I mean we might as well get intimate, we’ve got nothing else on.”

  Ignoring Clom’s sarcasm and with only one thing on his mind, Lim asked his question. “What happened to Miar?”

  Huey did not answer the question, either because he was unable to or more likely, there was a far more pressing matter to resolve.

  “I can help you,” said Huey.

  “Here we go,” said Clom.

  Huey moved forward and his presence had an immediate effect on the door. A flurry of data flashed up on the black screen, then the door hissed and moved out from its recess and slowly hinged open. The tunnel continued beyond and Huey led the way and after stepping through another identical door, they arrived in a large circular room.

  The room awoke from its dormant state and their eyes were drawn to a large dome, which rose slowly out of the floor. It had a black matt finish and emitted no light of its own and while they stood there wondering what it might be, Huey glided over to a bank of screens and controls.

  Within minutes the dome came to life and it was soon apparent that they were looking at a huge star map.

  “You are here,” joked Clom.

  “This must be the Femesummas’ entire star catalogue,” said Joeum.

  “Imagine what we could learn,” said Lim.

  “The worrying fact is, the Formless Ones have access to all of this,” said Laja.

  “I guess that is one of the reasons why they infiltrated the Femesumma. For their knowledge,” said Joeum.

  “A bonus perhaps, but in the beginning, they were just looking for a way to escape this planet,” said Laja.

  “So what is Huey trying to show us?” asked Lim.

  “I think we’re coming to that. Look,” said Laja.

  The star map began to rotate and a distant blue speck came into focus and they zoomed in on a planet.

  “This is Earth,” announced Huey.

  It was as Joeum remembered it. A beautiful blue orb.

  “Wow. Look at it,” said Clom.

  No one could deny how beautiful planet Earth looked, but it had come a long way. Huey made a few adjustments and the blue orb suddenly lost its colour and they were looking at a young Earth, still being pounded by debris.

  It took a while before the solar system settled down and still in its infancy, the Earth was vulnerable and could do little to defend itself against a stray rock or two. This happened to be good news for life as we know it, since this was how the Earth was seeded.

  Its swamps become oceans and life on this planet evolved, but even so, Earth was a late bloomer in comparison to the other planets in the solar system.

  So far so good, but just when things were looking rosy, a catastrophic event took the shine off this developing planet and its future hung in the balance.

  Huey explained that this was a time before the first race and without their intervention; Earth would look like Venus does today.

  “First race?” questioned Lim.

  They panned out and travelled a bit further away from the sun and came upon another planet, which Joeum could not identify.

  “This is Mars,” said Huey.

  “Mars! But that’s impossible,” said Joeum. “Look at all that water.”

  “It did once have oceans,” said Laja.

  Mars used to be the homeworld for a race called the Aquatics, which Laja was vaguely aware of. They died out when Mars lost its water.

  “Correction,” said Huey. “The Aquatics did not die out as a result of Mars losing its water, but instead travelled to Earth, where they established themselves as the first race.”

  Laja looked a bit puzzled and so did everyone else. Huey continued.

  The catastrophic event that had hit Earth was the result of an occurrence deep within the galaxy. It caused much disruption and sent shockwaves of destructive energy through the system. Some planets suffered more than others, but luckily, the Aquatics had foreseen this event and planned for it. Mars had survived the first onslaught, but like so many, Venus was not so lucky.

  With their planet weakened and more disruption forecast, the Aquatics increased their defences.

  “These Aquatics were an advanced race then?” said Joeum.

  “It depends what you mean by advanced? Advanced relative to what?”

  “Advanced relative to the Femesumma?”

  Huey’s eyes glowed a little brighter as if he might be contemplating Joeum’s question. “They would be evenly matched, their knowledge base being similar.”

  Like the Femesumma, the Aquatics had accumulated a vast amount of information regarding the planets and life in this galaxy and beyond. Despite this, they had not travelled outside of the solar system.

  Mars was their second home and now it seemed they would be moving on again. Either that or perish with their planet. From what they knew and had observed, Venus was beyond saving, but Earth could provide them with a long-term and stable home if they could reverse the damage it had sustained.

  They could have left the solar system altogether, but ruled against this idea and took a closer look at Earth.

  Earth was going to require some work to bring it back from the brink because it was turning toxic and life that had survived the event, was struggling. Was Earth worth saving?

  “Why couldn’t they have just stayed on Mars and weathered the event? Surely that would have been better than risking everything on Earth?” said Clom.

  “Earth was able to generate a natural defence, due to the composition of its core, something that set it apart from other rocky planets like Venus and Mars. Since it had survived one bout, it was reasoned that with help, it should be able to survive subsequent ones.”

  “I see, I think,” said Clom. “So Mars was in trouble?"

  “Critically. Its core had been damaged.”

  The Aquatics spent a bit of time going over the details of what it was going to take to pull this off and concluded that it was possible, but they would have to work quickly.

  They needed a vessel capable of transporting them and an ocean of water, so they could survive the journey and remain in orbit until the Earth was suitable for colonisation. Since this wasn’t the first time they had relocated, they had just the thing and it was parked in a wide elliptic orbit around Mars. A moon.

  This moon was quite substantial and had been built for the job. It wasn’t any old moon either; it is the one we see every night.

  “Are you sure this RDU isn’t faulty?” asked Clom.

  Joeum was inclined to agree with him. “You are suggesting the Earth’s moon was built and once orbited Mars?”

  “Those are facts, not suggestions,” responded Huey.

  “What are these Aquatics anyway? Dolphins or something?” laughed Clom.


  “No, Com, they are aquatic humanoids.”

  “Mermaids! Jesus, what next. And my name’s Clom, not Com.”

  “Most myths can be traced back to something factual, Com,” continued Huey.

  “I’ve never heard of this aquatic race. There is no record of such a race on Earth,” said Joeum.

  “They chose to remain hidden, although there is some evidence of their existence, even though it is not openly accepted.”

  Satisfied he’d answered everyone’s questions for the moment, Huey returned his attention back to the star map and they were once again orbiting a young Earth. The Earth back then looked far from inviting. Thick clouds blanketed the globe, holding in heat and slowly suffocating the planet.

  The Moon was in position, having travelled from Mars with its cargo of water and a handful of Aquatics.

  “What happened to the rest of them?” asked Lim.

  In the end, the Aquatics chose to send only a handful of technicians. This meant that they could still develop as a race on Mars and then journey to their new home when it was ready. Conditions on Mars would be a bit crowded for a while, since they had sent sixty percent of its water to Earth and with Mars deteriorating, they were forced below ground to survive.

  It was a risky strategy, but it did pay off because in the years that followed, they made a technological leap, literally, with advancements in their water portal capabilities.

  The Aquatics were no strangers to water portals, having long ago developed the ability to transport themselves and large quantities of water across their homeworld. Only now they were able to do this over vast distances and within a decade they established a link with the Moon in Earth’s orbit.

  A connection that resulted in a steady flow of Aquatics to and from the Moon.

  “What if the gamble hadn’t paid off?” asked Joeum.

  “I don’t think it was much of a gamble. The Aquatics were confident and if all else failed, they had a second moon at their disposal, Phoebus. Created as a lifeboat.”

  Phoebus was a lot smaller than the moon orbiting Earth, but in an emergency, it would have enabled the Aquatics to leave Mars for a lengthy voyage in an induced comatose state.

  The group’s attention returned to the image of Earth and the introduction of a large body, like the Moon, did cause some upheaval. It was all part of the process to stabilise the planet and the replenishing of Earth’s water was another major step. Fifty percent of the Moon’s cargo was unloaded, helping to maintain Earth’s tectonics.