Epic

by Alexander Strijewski

  “This place reminds me of the last time I threw up my lunch. Honestly, I don’t know why I keep trailing after you with what I have to put up with. And don’t think I’m not aware of how much you’re making in your deals. I know you’re holding out on me.”

  Great! Thought Render, now he would have to find some new ways to deceive his cohort without being caught. He made a mental note of it.

  “Oh it’ll be great, remember half of our last haul from an out of the way gamble planet? We ended up with all kinds of wonders.” offered Render.

  “I thought you said that half of that haul was untradeable? Didn’t we barely break even on that?”

  His attention came off the surface and went onto Render, this wasn’t helping matters.

  “There! That’s out landing zone.”

  Brok peered back outside, there was a series of concentric circles outlining what may have been an irrigation system from thousands of year ago, the first real sign of civilization. Spires reached into the heavens flanked by other architecture which was equally impressive. A massive crater formed a patch of land which stretched for miles across on the left. A sweep of clouds hung ominously close, as if teasing, even goading the interlopers into a landing only to find themselves enveloped in a squall from which they would never escape.

  “Whatever happened, it happened here.” Said Rend.

  “I don’t think this is such a good idea, we should look for somewhere where there is no chance of precipitation. I don’t like the thought of my suit melting into my skin too much.”

  “Relax we have the best eco-suits money can buy. It should protect us. Besides, what we’re looking for will be here. This is the capital of a long lost civilization which inhabited this area. If we go looking at some random spot just because it’s safe we could be pot shooting this planet for the rest of our lives and never find anything. No, all our readouts are leading us to this spot. Let’s pull up over there.”

  Render set the autopilot to maneuver onto a plateau near the crater. His ship, which was a first class scout vessel he won in a trade with some scavengers several years ago, gently angled its stern down to rest several meters away from the precipice. The rear cargo bay opened to release a preliminary survey drone to verify that the surface was safe for travel on foot. All the readouts were yellow, yes it was ok to walk, but not without some risk. It was decided that one of the battle-drones would accompany their jaunt into the unknown. Animal life was evident.

  Brok panned he eyes through panorama which left him both uneasiness and excitement at the same time. Whatever peoples had inhabited this planet, they had been quite advanced. His gaze followed the intricate stone work of the nearby buildings until he was staring at one of the polished spires which seemed to puncture the clouds above in defiance and had endured for centuries. “Capital? Didn’t you say this planet was unsurveyed? What else aren’t you telling me Rend?”

  Render paid more attention to his motion tracker and matter survey readouts. It was evident that there would be something valuable here, as long as they lived through it. There was definitely motion nearby, he had his blaster ready and went over to his drone to enable some defense algorithms in case anything happened.

  “There is something up ahead, but this was the safest place to land. We’re gonna have to do some walking.”

  On and on they trekked. It wasn’t like Render to be so quiet and tense thought Brok, something was up. He kept eyeing his readouts and seemed distant. He was preoccupied with something all right.

  “Is there something in particular your looking for?”

  Render, didn’t answer him. “It’s only a few more meters up ahead.”

  Their path lead them to a clearing which ended is a knoll of man-made proportions. The readouts were going beginning to thrum which only added to the anxiety. Putting his equipment away, Render took out a trowel and began working on the knoll. Brok and the drone then joined in as they unearthed God knows what. After several minutes passed, they could make out what appeared to be some sort of console. Using his brush to prevent further damage, he whisked away the dirt and unveiled a black screen.

  This was the part that Brok always dreaded. They both knew what was about to happen. Render Bulwark, scavenger extraordinaire had amassed quite a bit of wealth in his time. With great wealth he was able to afford some of the finer tools of the trade including an energy induction sphere, which when activated would provide whatever alien technology nearby that required power all the energy needed just by having this floating sphere in its vicinity emanating energy. “Sparky” he called it. It released a field which automatically powered anything and everything it could. Sometimes, that meant activating deadly defense systems. They had lost many a drone in activating all kinds of treacherous and untoward contrivances.

  Brok and Render backed up. “Go get’em boy!” said Brok.

  The sphere flew out over the knoll and starting spinning with its pulsar effect. Brok grimaced, while Render moved his arm over his head for cover. Something was coming to life. They knew it was bad when the battle-drone immediately put up a force screen. Something sparked, but then seemed to go dormant. Good thing they weren’t standing there. After a few minutes of nothing, they tentatively made their way to the monitor, blaster in one hand and combat assessment display in the other.

  More minutes passed, it looked like whatever happened had passed. The drone was on alert but was pulling away from the site. Something else was diverting its attention now, there were creatures showing up on the motion tracker. But when Brok saw Render’s eyes they were monomaniacal, riveted on the characters that were on scrolling on the screen. What could possibly absorb his attention more than creatures that could easily tear him apart, this being a heavy gravity planet? Creatures that were probably headed our way now that we caused this commotion.

  He knelt down opening his universal transcoder and activated it to be able to read the alien language. If the machine was in any way at all correlated to Galactic Core language, which is the standard for the Milky Way and is based on an ancient culture who once upon a time widely propagated this galaxy, he would after a few minutes be able to read it. It just required a proper amount of repetition of characters.

  Another few minutes passed, Brok felt the clouds were stirring, as if our intrusion on an ancient consecrated burial ground would not be left without retribution. In the vast distance, he saw lightning strike. Even with his strength, it was exhausting crossing a planet as heavy as this one on foot. The sooner they were back to a simulated gravity closer to 1.0 Gs the better. He couldn’t imagine how Render must have felt with his smaller frame.

  “Come on! Whatever you’re doing, do it fast. The battle-drone can’t defend a 360 degree sphere.”

  The motion tracker was indicating movement all around them now. But the decoder was almost complete. That is was taking this long meant that there was not text much to decode, not enough patterns. Just a few more seconds…

  What had happened next Brok would never forget.

  He looked at Render’s transcoder pad and started to read the text. Never in their time together had he ever seen him act like this. A crazed look glazed over his eyes, like a conqueror who had finally realized his life’s dream.

  “FINALLY! I’ve found it! FINALLY! After all these YEARS!”

  Brok looked over and read and reread the text, trying to blink out of existence what he saw as he was in disbelief! The message was addressed directly to Render Bulwark from a man named Rintar. The message was dated 2443 AD. Which meant the message was written well over a thousand years ago.

  * * *

  ( 1,213 years earlier )

  Rintar’s patience was slowly whittling away to dry bone. Today he would have to convene a meeting with the Government High Council as to the progress and workability of the unstable substance they had uncovered mining on the far side of their world. It was very dangerous work, and the more he worked on it the more radiation he and his team would be exposed to. A
nd while they had protection, if the fickle matter suddenly decided not to cooperate, he and everyone in the building would not be able to stop its explosive power. Already a couple of his fellow scientists had been irradiated to death.

  But the Council didn’t care about that, just as long as they could use it for military advantage that was all that mattered. He was just another cog in the machine. Any complaints could be filed to the Bureau of I Don’t Care, and any required extensive safety measures were deemed “unnecessary expenses”.

  Knowing what he knew, Rintar figured it was only a matter of time before something went wrong. While not an element, the half-life of the metal seemed to be in the thousands of years. What’s more, it appeared to have a unique characteristic of being able to displace itself temporally when subjected to certain harmonic wavelengths using a various emitters.

  Every day Rintar was learning a little bit more about it, and given its volatility, every day could be his last, and he had a family to think about. They decided to dub it Temporilium. It was a bright green metallic substance which could freeze their watches or make them run faster every time they fiddled with it.

  Rintar packed his bags and wore his best suit. He never thought he would need to wear his cuff links but what did it matter. His days were numbered, his and all his co-workers. He stepped into the auto-transporter and was whisked away the great city that he called his capital. The great spires came to view and he made a note not to forget to take some pictures of himself. He might not be around much longer.

  The transporter let him out at the foot of a massive tower of a building. He made his way inside past the shiny granite floor. He opened the double doors into the conference hall and so lay way to his future or lack thereof sauntering his way to the podium. He put his e-notebook aside and looked over the crowd. The eager look of the military commanders, waiting for the latest news on how we were making us more powerful really made him sick to his stomach. He wished he could somehow erase their existence with the substance.

  “Attempts to contact the near future have thus far been unsuccessful. Only with the very near future could we make any contact at all and by that I mean the next week or so. I’ve discussed the matter with some of the staff to try to figure out why. We came to only one conclusion. The substance is highly unstable and the further we work with it the more likelihood there is of catastrophe. It would appear that the reason we aren’t getting any response is because there is no future. We destroy ourselves by trying to play God sometime within a few years.”

  “Whoa! Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!” Grand Admiral Umbral approached the dais, “Let’s not jump to conclusions here shall we? I’m sure we can find a safer testing facility than what we currently have. No blast can possibly pass through our underground bomb testing grounds. And also might I remind everyone here that this meeting is absolutely top secret. What we need is further funding to reinforce the shelter, isn’t that right Mr. Rintar?” Facing away from the crowd he glared at him with intent eyes that just dared him to disagree.

  “Sir, I… nothing can… yeah, sure. ” It was his family he was thinking of now. Men with power like the Admiral could do anything they wanted without recourse.

  The Grand Admirals very presence alone seemed to be driving him off the stage as Rintar wilted under the pressure.

  “Our shareholders have nothing to worry about. We are set to begin testing on a nearby moon. If we can successfully manipulate the strain of an aphid population at the pupae stage by travelling to the past, before they spread into the present we will then ramp up our efforts by applying our efforts on more serious military affairs. I’m also pleased to announce we have now partnered with the Correllian, Triskar and Komatsu Corporations. Our stocks have also increased five-fold in the last quarter. You can be expecting some great things from us in the near future, despite the risks. I believe that Temporilium may end up winning the war for us if we just continue as we have been.”

  Rintar sat by as he went on and on until the other scientists then spoke about our scientific developments. He tuned them out as he brooded about the real future. As lead scientist he knew exactly where this was all headed. He walked out.

  * * *

  They were coordinates leading us over a nearby ridge and beyond, but to what? The battle-drone had already engaged. Whatever life this planet still harbored, it wasn’t really human, at least not the kind that likes to talk and be civilized. In the distance Brok caught a glimpse of one of them, a hulking brute that preferred to walk with a permanent crouch. Hairy and pock marked with what looked like purple war paint, they seemed to be ambush predators, waiting for their moment for them to all pounce at once. But the drone, designed for this kind of attack was able to hold them at bay for the moment. They had further to go and mutually set the coordinates to the map and began the trek.

  Seeing enough, Brok finally hit his limit. All of his 8 foot tall brawny frame came to stand in front of Render and block his path. “Enough! What is this all about!? We’ve got to get back! Can’t you see the clouds are forming? If we go out any further then we might never be able to get back!”

  Render took his eye off the objective long enough to make contact with him. “Look I can’t explain it right now. My finding that message has set things in motion. If I were you, I would be more concerned about those primitives behind you right now that look like they are planning to kill you.”

  Brok turned around and in the same motion unleashed his blaster. The thought of combat in this gravity made every last bit of him ache, these creatures were probably stronger than he was, whatever they were. Never mind fighting, just walking was enough to make him want to quit life. All he wanted to do was leave this godforsaken wreck of a planet. They were clearly setting up for an ambush ahead. He could tell that they thought they hadn’t been seen.

  “Don’t worry. I’ve already called the other two battle-drones to help, they are on the way.”

  Thankfully, drone numbers 4 and 5 came just in time to scatter the predators from their perches and they didn’t have to fight them themselves. But in the distance a could hear a thunderclap.

  Unrelenting, we continued on until we came to a massive structure which was every bit as foreboding as the surface environment. Rather than figure out how to unlock the door, Render just had one of my drones carve out an entrance. Inside was black so we used sparky to guide the way, careful not to trigger any other piece of alien technology. The coordinates finally lead to a pile of rubble and they started digging. After several minutes they came upon a mysterious black box.

  “I got it! OK now we head back…” Just as he was about to finish his sentence a creature jumped out from behind some debris and threw his axe. Quick reflexes were all that kept Render alive. Rolling to his feet he readied his blaster and took aim.

  “Behind you!” yelled Brok. “Damn it where are the drones!”

  Render shot behind him and took one of them out before he could strike. It was dark and he couldn’t see just how many of them there were.

  “There!” Brok pointed out a cluster of more of them just as one of the drones entered the superstructure.

  BLAMMMM!! BLAMMMMMMM!! BLAMMMMMM!! Both Rend and Brok were startled by the drones accuracy and voraciousness. Not letting up on them until it appeared every single one of them was systematically annihilated. It almost seemed like the little robot was making this personal!

  “God that’s hard on the ears! Come on, we have to make it back before the storm.” said Render. He handed the package to one of his drones to carry back.

  “That’s what I’ve been telling this whole time you idiot!”

  After some time they made it back and found their silver gleaming ship open its bay door, unhinging, welcoming them back like a mothers open arms. Just as the corrosive acid rain started, an automated shimmering force field of the ship engaged. Completely exhausted both parties collapsed onto the main lounge settee. With his last bit of strength, Render was able to set the cabin gravity back to
the normal 1G.

  “Man! That was a disaster. I seriously didn’t think we’d make it back alive. And you! You have some serious explaining to do before I take that black box and wrap it around your head!” said a glowering Brok.

  “You could do that, but I doubt you will.” Brok looked at him derisively as he continued “You see if I’m right about what’s inside, you mishandle that box or it gets jarred, and it’s going to take everything in this ship out along with everything else in this whole countryside, or what there is left of this planet anyways. That’s why I had the drone carefully carry it back, that and the fact that I’m completely freaking physically exhausted.”

  Both of them lay unmoving for several minutes. Render lit up one of his exotic cigars while Brok looked with renewed appreciation at the box.

  Render went on “Inside that box is something called Temporilium. It is one of the rarest, most valuable, most dangerous substances in the whole galaxy. It seems to be giving off an energy signature which can only mean one thing, someone has left a message imprint on it, possibly several. And they aren’t recent.”

  Brok brightened up “So we did it! We just got the score of a lifetime! We sell this and we’ll be rich beyond our wildest dreams, we’ll never have to do another scavenge again.”

  “Not exactly. While it’s true that we just made the discovery of a lifetime, Temporilium and all of its derivatives aren’t exactly legal. If we sell it then it would be a very dangerous exchange in the black market at best. No we’re not going to sell it. There are many people that would kill for this. They would kill not only due to its rarity but because of its unique qualities.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Temporilium has the ability to disrupt the time stream.”

  “Wow, I’ve never even heard of that before. I didn’t think that was possible.”