Alliance

by Andrew Stride

  The sound crystal suddenly flared, focusing Robin and Qwamma’s attention to what had just occurred. David had been about to enter the realm of the Hidden Ones when the unthinkable happened.

  “Impossible,” uttered Qwamma. Knowing full well that nothing was truly impossible, but neither he nor Robin could fully explain it.

  Desperate to know how this could have possibly happened, Robin and Qwamma looked a little deeper and found that the Harmonic Ones had actually taken control, so this wasn’t a disaster after all.

  The confirmed existence of an unknown dimension had caused the Harmonic Ones to change their plans and this meant a reassignment for the messenger.

  Upon hitting the seething mass, David must have blacked out and then a battle had commenced and his mind had been invaded by demons. Most of us have experienced a demon in the mind at some stage in our lives and being opportunists, they are always waiting for an invitation. The demons that David was battling were no different, except they didn’t need to wait for an invitation, as they were able to break the door down. Once in, they looked for weaknesses that could be used to enslave this soul completely.

  David was strong, stronger than he realised and that strength was needed now more than ever. Every human has the strength and is capable of incredible things. This strength was inherited from the Aquatics, a spark that caught the Formless Ones attention and led to our creation.

  Our programming is designed to lead us down a dark path, but that doesn’t mean we have to take it. The Aquatics know this and have been looking at ways to reverse the work of the Formless Ones and David was the result. In the words of the Aquatics, David was fundamentally different. Modified to repel whatever the Formless Ones threw at him, while the message he carried could be interpreted as a virus, designed to bring down the Formless Ones and ultimately save us all.

  Realising this human was damaged goods, he was rejected. David would remember next to nothing about his encounter, as this was written into the virus and would save him from going insane.

  The images of this battle were fading fast and felt no worse than a bad dream. In any case, he had something fresh to worry about. His body was experiencing intense heat and pressure, which kind of reminded him of his trek in the desert. The only way to be sure, would have been to open his eyes, but he couldn’t manage that right now, so his mind tried to compensate, by filling in the gaps.

  Fumbling for ideas, he pictured an elephant again. Not very original and David was yelling at it, to get off his chest.

  Demons and elephants? David had no idea what was real any more and since nothing was making any sense, he would have to conclude that it was all part of the dream. His mind felt pretty scrambled and despite the images, he was vaguely aware that he was still stuck on the back of the Balacoback.

  The Balacoback had been monitoring David’s condition and was aware that if it wanted to save this human, then it would have to act swiftly. Staying alive was a full-time job and right now the Balacoback was acting on instinct, since it knew nothing about its new surroundings. This environment was like nothing it had ever experienced before. At every turn, there was something new.

  It had seen solid objects disappear in an instant, had travelled through bands of cloud that hung heavy with globules of liquid, resembling oil and was currently negotiating a layer, dotted with islands of melting ice.

  This place was pretty extreme and during its short time here, it had noticed a significant rise in temperature, which was reaching an uncomfortable level. As adaptive as it was, it knew that lengthy exposure to light would affect its ability to keep the human safe. Knowing this and the fact that something was willing the Balacoback to descend, it had been dropping through the layers of cloud, hoping to find somewhere to shelter.

  There was no question about it, this environment was affecting the Balacoback’s senses, either that or there really was an enormous life form in the cloud layer directly below them. The returning pings seemed to confirm the Balacoback’s initial findings and it couldn’t deny that the object’s varying temperature, suggested it to be a living, breathing entity. If this local life form had found a way to survive here, then the Balacoback could learn something from it.

  With a beat of its powerful wings, the Balacoback swept in for a closer look. It had to be sure this life form was happy to share its knowledge, so it approached with caution.

  David was still pretty out of it and the Balacoback was getting desperate and hadn’t seen the two objects emerge from out of the clouds above them until it was almost too late. The objects were on a collision course, with the intent of knocking them out of the sky. Thankfully the manoeuvrability and reactions of the Balacoback were proving enough to keep these aggressors at a safe distance.

  Continuing its evasive manoeuvres, the Balacoback reached its objective. It was like nothing it had ever seen before and flying beneath this thing brought instant relief from the heat. There was still a problem. Their pursuers had not given up and the Balacoback could only wonder what it had done to attract this kind of attention.

  As far as the two male Manui were concerned, this unwelcome stranger was not going to be tolerated and they had joined forces temporarily, in a bid to see it off. The Balacoback knew it couldn’t keep this cat and mouse game up indefinitely, as the human was beginning to suffer from the rapid changes of direction.

  Shade or not, they weren’t welcome here and there followed a couple of gut-wrenching turns and a stomach-churning drop and they were falling like a stone again.

  No longer a threat, the Manui soon gave up the chase and once again turned on each other.

  Having lost their pursuers, they continued to descend and the human’s condition started to improve, even more so when they dropped into a layer of thick cloud, which was noticeably cooler and laden with moisture. The Balacoback took full advantage of this and began rehydrating itself by filtering water from the air around it.

  Their descent through the thick cloud was proving to be something of a lifesaver and a noticeable change in air pressure forced the Balacoback to apply the brakes.

  Flying through this planet’s atmosphere was quite a challenge and much of what the Balacoback had seen and experienced, could not easily be explained. Take the cloud layer they were travelling through, it looked normal, but it was out of place and this prompted the Balacoback to investigate.

  It began by sending frequent pings on several frequencies and the results were even more confusing. The surface of the planet should still be miles below them, but the returning pings told a different story, except the density was all wrong.

  The Balacoback formed a mental picture, which told it that it was approaching a huge body of liquid, an ocean perhaps, except this ocean was not in touch with the ground. What it had discovered was another layer and although it contained water, it couldn’t completely identify its composition. All it knew was that this body of liquid completely covered the planet.

  The moment they emerged from out of the thick cloud, the surface of this strange layer came into view and the Balacoback levelled off and tried to make sense of what it was seeing. The layer was perfectly flat and completely featureless and to the untrained eye, its white, mostly opaque colour, could have easily been mistaken for an expanse of ice.

  The Balacoback dropped in altitude and established that the layer was covered in a membrane that reacted to changes in temperature. Like the slightly cooler air created by the downdraft of the Balacoback’s wings, giving the white surface the appearance of skin forming on cooling milk.

  This vast featureless expanse stretched off to the horizon and there was nothing here that would make a weary traveller stop and linger. Except perhaps the conditions, which were as close to normal as they had experienced since their arrival and David finally opened his eyes.

  David’s body ached and he felt pretty awful. He was soaked to the skin and the cool air and his damp clothing, made him shiver. The Balacoback reacted in response to this, releasing som
e of its body heat to help dry him out. Even David’s mental request for water was heard loud and clear and this appeared in the form of water droplets on the Balacoback’s long strands of black hair. The water tasted fine, considering and David was too thirsty to worry about its purity.

  David had recovered enough to start asking himself some serious questions, like what had happened to the others and how had he got here? The Balacoback picked up on David anxiety and responded with bubbles of sound, which vibrated through David’s body and helped calm him. This calm state didn’t last long, because he started to worry about how he would land this beast on his own and not just that, but where were they exactly?

  The last thing David could remember was diving towards the cathedral and then a blank. It occurred to him that he was probably worrying over nothing and he had actually arrived in the realm of the Hidden Ones.

  The truth, of course, was a lot stranger and as far as the Formless Ones were concerned, they had successfully neutralised the threat and transported it to Ruma, where it was rejected by the network and left to the mercy of the planet’s hostile, upper atmosphere.

  Since dropping below the dense cloud, the Balacoback had been trying its best to communicate with David, but without success. The Balacoback would keep trying, as they had to be synchronised for the next stage of their journey and that meant penetrating the strange layer below them. The problem was that this human’s mind was as tight as a drum. A side-effect of its conditioning.

  The Balacoback knew what David was thinking almost before he did and it had tried to demonstrate this to him by adjusting its direction according to David’s focus. David was mildly aware of this and it gave him the chills to think this animal could look inside his head. Rather than him opening up, it had started to make him conscious of his thoughts, to the point where he was trying not to think.

  Then came an outside suggestion that he should say something. The suggestion had obviously come from the Balacoback and David wondered if it was feeling lonely. This could not have been further from the truth and the Balacoback continued its attempts to communicate with him.

  David was too busy searching the featureless expanse for an answer, to see that he was actually sitting on it and the Balacoback would just keep trying, because they weren’t going anywhere until David realised this.

  The strange layer they were flying over was called The Divide, for obvious reasons and they needed to travel through it, in order to reach Ruma’s lower atmosphere.

  “Travel through The Divide,” David said to himself, thoughtfully.

  What did that mean? It meant that the Balacoback had finally made itself heard and now that it had established a connection, it wanted to be sure David wasn’t going to shut it out again.

  The idea that this animal was talking to him come as quite a shock and it was now obvious that it had been trying for a while, since the bubbling sensation he was feeling, would always signal the beginning of a line of communication.

  David was being asked to relax, which he really had to work at for a few minutes, slowing his breathing right down until he felt a shift in his consciousness. The Balacoback then educated him to the true nature of The Divide and he was able to see what the Balacoback had in mind. A solution for travelling through to the other side.

  “You’re going to create one of those portal things?”

  Apparently it was the only way and having been made aware that The Divide was mostly made up of water, it kind of made sense; however, The Divide wasn’t pure water, there was a mix of gasses trapped in there too and this added an element of unpredictability.

  “Unpredictability!” David didn’t like the sound of that.

  The impurity meant that if the Balacoback created a water portal to take them through, David might get left behind, but if they synchronised, it would improve their chances.

  “Okay, I guess. If it’s the only way to reach the Hidden Ones.”

  The Balacoback then realised David had no idea where he was and it addressed this with a brief explanation. This was Ruma, the planet of the Formless Ones and David along with an untold number of humans had been brought here and many others would follow unless they did something to stop it.

  “But the cathedral? The message?”

  All the Balacoback would say was that it had been instructed to take him to Ruma’s lower atmosphere, where he would then deliver the message.

  “Are the Hidden Ones coming here?”

  The Balacoback could not answer this question, but once they were in the lower atmosphere, it hoped all would become clear.

  “Okay,” but David didn’t feel okay. “What do I have to do?”

  Their voices needed to be synchronised, so upon activation of the portal, they would travel safely through together.

  “I can’t sing.”

  Apparently and perhaps thankfully, David didn’t need to be a good singer. The Balacoback would create a note, which David would see in his mind as an image and all he had to do was focus on this for their voices to synchronise. The idea that this might be possible, sounded crazy and he couldn’t even keep that thought to himself.

  Without going into any further detail, the Balacoback increased its speed and shot up almost vertically into the thick cloud. It was impossible to tell how high they climbed, before the Balacoback banked and they were falling at speed, towards The Divide.

  For some reason David was holding his breath and then the Balacoback began to sing and he felt a tingling sensation travelling through his body and the most incredible image came into his mind. The image was that of a droplet of water causing a circular ripple on an otherwise undisturbed expanse of water. David’s mouth must have dropped open because he was suddenly aware that he too was making the same identical sound as the Balacoback. Their combined efforts sent circular ripples across the membrane and at the centre of this disturbance a portal opened and they flew into it.

  David wasn’t too sure what to expect from their journey through The Divide, but it had been pretty instant, at least for the Balacoback. The Balacoback could not have foreseen the outcome for the human once it had passed through The Divide. David had made it through, only not in one piece.

  He had felt no pain and with his physical and spiritual body now separate, David was experiencing something close to a dream. Both parts of him were in a suspended state, while he waited to be processed. A process that befell every human brought to Ruma. Total separation would not occur until a soul was needed and in David’s case, this could not happen, because he was fundamentally different. Without his luggage label, his being here should not have been possible, but the Harmonic Ones had got him in through a back door. Now that David was here, he could not be ejected, but to deliver the message, he would need to become whole again.

  This dimension may have been outside of the Harmonic Ones jurisdiction, but with David on the inside, they could finally see the Formless Ones master plan. A plan that would see them reinstated and with an army of human souls at their disposal, their terms were clear.

  Unable to reverse the damage of the past, Ruma had remained in shackles and it was now between a rock and a hard place. Refusal would be costly, but to comply was out of the question. In the final hours, only one thing would prevent the unthinkable from happening, the delivery of the message, but that had to happen soon because the Formless Ones were growing in strength and would soon be unstoppable.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Alliance

  Fortunately for Huey, his operating system had gone into safe mode; otherwise his circuits would have been fried. He hadn’t escaped unscathed, but it was nothing that a reboot couldn’t fix and feeling marginally better, he helped Laja away from the area.

  Laja didn’t have the luxury of being able to reboot, so his recovery was going to take a bit longer and his head was still buzzing from the electromagnetic pulse.

  What they had experienced was far from normal heart activity, of that there was no doubt. The Formless Ones had act
ually caused the Manui to have the equivalent of a heart attack, which had created just enough chaos for them to snatch the humans away.

  Their encounter with the Ohzits must have alerted the Formless Ones of their position.

  “We should have seen this coming,” said Laja, still weary from the experience.

  Laja was right of course and the humans that had been in their care all this time were now in the hands of the Formless Ones.

  “To stand any chance of helping the humans we must get to that sphere,” said Huey and they still had the Ohzits to contend with.

  They were heading back in the direction of the main tube and Huey had been slowly bringing his systems back up to speed. During this time he hadn’t been able to do much in the way of processing and now that he was almost there, he was running some likely scenarios for when they encountered the Ohzits again.

  Huey had enough firepower at his disposal to get through the Ohzits; however, firepower was not the answer. To effectively use the network and break through The Divide, no harm could befall the Manui. The most favourable scenario was if Huey acted as a decoy, but even if Laja made it to the sphere, the job of tapping into the network would still be ahead of him.

  They must have been nearing the end of the tube because they could hear the chirping of the Ohzits and Huey announced his intentions about acting as a decoy. Laja couldn’t think of a better idea, not that Huey acting as a decoy was a good idea, but they were at the end of the tube and out of options.

  Huey prepared himself before opening the valve and as soon as he slipped through, the chirping intensified and a wave of metallic bodies descended on his position. Huey’s lights looked particularly bright and this was intentional, as he wanted to be sure to gather up every Ohzit, leaving Laja a clear run to the birthing chamber.