Smaller capital warships deployed from the Battle Core, moving to equidistant positions around the planet. Each of these “smaller” ships was still twice as large as an Airlia mothership. They were large orbs with eight protruding arms bristling with weapons and launch portals. The capital warships descended into the planet’s atmosphere above populated areas until they were at an altitude of ten miles and clearly visible to the frightened humans below.
At this point, the arms on the capital ships spewed out smaller versions of themselves. Over two million drop ships descended on the planet’s surface like black rain. They all touched down at the exact same moment. Portals in the craft opened and the Swarm emerged.
Donnchadh and Gwalcmai’s son watched as one of the craft landed in the field in front of his house. When he saw what emerged, the shock stilled his heart and he died relatively peacefully. He was one of the fortunate ones.
The Swarm began their harvest and in less than six hours there was no human life left on the planet.
10,800 B.C.: THE SOL SYSTEM
Donnchadh and Gwalcmai, along with the other fourteen teams selected for planet infiltration, had been put into deep sleep shortly after liftoff from their planet. Placed inside the black tubes the Airlia had used for the same purpose, they spent most of the interstellar journey unaware of not only what was happening on their home world but events on board the ship. Members of the crew died, children were born, and new generations grew up in the unique environment of the alien spaceship. The only planets they foundcapable of supporting human life were ones that the Airlia had seeded and were still occupied by their enemy, so each time they swooped in close to the star system—but not close enough to be detected by Airlia surveillance—and dispatched one of the system craft with a crew of two to infiltrate the planet.
For those inside the mothership it seemed as if only eighty years had passed, but the relative physics of warp speed was such that much more time passed in the universe around them. Still, when Donnchadh and Gwalcmai were brought out of the deep sleep, they awoke to mostly strangers.
Brought to the control room, they learned that the mothership was looping near the edge of a nine-planet system at sub–light speed. It had come out of light speed over four years earlier, decelerating ever since. Prior to this, four teams had already been deployed in other systems. After each deployment, the mothership took four years at sub–light speed to move in and four years to move far enough out before triggering the warp drive, accounting for a great chunk of the relative time lost.
As Donnchadh and Gwalcmai stood in the control room and studied the solar system, unspoken between them was the acceptance that their son had long ago turned to dust. They did not know his fate, but hoped he had lived a relatively happy life. They also learned that Enan had died over thirty years ago and there was a new ruler on board the ship. They felt distant from the younger generation around them, a generation that had not gone through the Revolution and did not even know what it was to walk on the surface of a planet. They had only each other and the interior of the mothership.
They were relieved when they were sealed into their spacecraft, inside one of the mothership’s holds, as it approached the edge of the solar system. The interior of the ship, which they had named Fynbar after their son, was crowded with weapons, explosives, and technology, most of it appropriated from the Airlia. There was also a considerable amount of food and water crammed into the craft.
The cargo bay door opened and Gwalcmai took the controls. The spacecraft was saucer-shaped, with a bulge in the forward center rising up and two large pods in the rear providing power. The forward bulge was where the two seats for Gwalcmai and Donnchadh were located. The craft’s surface was gray. As soon as the Fynbar was clear of the mothership, the larger craft turned away from the solar system, heading back toward deep space.
The goal was the third planet, the only one in the system capable of supporting human life. It was a long way from where they had been left off to the planet. The two made most of the journey toward the third planet in silence, each lost in his or her own thoughts. From the Master Guardian they had learned how to cloak their ship from Airlia detection and Gwalcmai turned on the shield as soon as they were inside the orbit of the ninth and outermost planet.
They did not electronically probe the planet as they came in because, while they could passively avoid the Airlia scans, any active scanning on their part would bring them to the attention of the Airlia. They did, however, use passive scanning, which boiled down to using the strongest magnification on their forward imagers to study the planet. They detected seven continents, if one included an icebound mass on the southern pole. As they closed on the planet, they spotted the main Airlia outpost on what appeared to be an artificially constructed series of concentric islands in the middle of one of the oceans. On the very center island, surrounded by six strands of alternating land and water, was a massive golden palace stretching up into the sky—exactly the same as the Airlia command center had been on theirown planet. As they closed on the third planet, they passed the fourth, a mostly red one with no apparent water, noting an Airlia outpost on that planet, including an interstellar transmitter array.
As they got closer to the third planet, Donnchadh got up from her seat and began preparing for their arrival. She took two backpacks and filled them with supplies for an initial foray, including a brace of a dozen black daggers that could kill Airlia, small earpieces that would allow them to communicate with each other at distances if separated, and a half dozen explosive charges that she could detonate with a remote the size of a small ball. She also opened a metal case and took out a golden scepter, a foot long and two inches thick. On one end was the head of a lion with ruby red eyes. She slid it into an outside pocket of one of the packs.
Donnchadh took two chains made of fine silver and looped one over her neck, then one over Gwalcmai’s. Two items hung from hers: a golden medallion emblazoned with an eye inside a triangle; and a ka, a device in the shape of two arms held out in supplication. There was only a ka on Gwalcmai’s chain.
“Do you have time to update your ka before we land?” she asked Gwalcmai. “Or do you want to do it after we land?”
Gwalcmai checked the control console. “Let’s do it now. We have a while before we get into orbit.”
To the rear of the two command chairs, crammed among the supplies, were two black tubes, Airlia in design. They were the same as deep sleep tubes, with console extensions on one end. A body lay inside each—clones of Donnchadh and Gwalcmai. Set into the rear wall was a vat of green fluid in which another clone of either one of them was already gestating.
On each of the bodies in the tubes was a skullcap from which several dozen wires ran to a main line that fed to acommand console between the two tubes. The eyes on each body were open, but betrayed no hint of intelligence or awareness. Donnchadh opened the top of each tube and removed the skullcaps and leads. She took the ka from around her neck and slid it into two small holes on the right side of the console. A light glowed orange, indicating it was in place. She then set one of the skullcaps onto Gwalcmai’s head as he sat in the pilot’s seat, she then tapped out a sequence on the hexagonal display.
Nanoprobes slid out of the skullcap into Gwalcmai’s brain. They were so thin, barely five molecules in width, they caused no pain as they pierced flesh and bone. His memories and experiences were quickly uploaded and transferred to the ka. It took all of ten seconds, then the nanoprobes withdrew. The skullcap was taken off and put back on the body in the tube. Gwalcmai performed the same procedure on Donnchadh. Both kas were now updated to the present.
“Once we land—” Donnchadh began, but halted.
“Yes?” Gwalcmai was unconsciously rubbing his head. Even though he’d felt nothing when the probes went in, there was still a part of him that sensed the violation.
“We will have to keep power settings on the ship at a minimum,” Donnchadh said. “The bodies will be maintained, but to kee
p the memories viable in the main console will require an unacceptable level of power consumption.” This was an issue she had thought long and hard about during their flight into the star system.
Gwalcmai digested this, then realized what she was getting at. “So our memories, our selves, will only be in the kas?”
“Yes.”
“And if we both are killed?” The machine had a fail-safe system. It could be set to inject the memories and personalities of a person into the clone after a certain amount of time. This was the pinnacle of Airlia technology—not only didthey have a virus in their blood that allowed them almost immortal life spans and could regenerate their flesh, they also had the ability to regenerate their personality via the machinery. But Donnchadh had just told him that they couldn’t afford the power to maintain the fail-safe.
“Then it is over.”
“Then let us not both be killed,” Gwalcmai said as he took the pilot’s seat once more.
Donnchadh took the seat next to him as they closed on the third planet.
“They will have a Grail here,” Donnchadh said after a long silence.
“Most likely,” Gwalcmai agreed.
“We could do what we failed to do on our planet,” she continued. “There will most likely also be a mothership somewhere on the planet.”
“That is not our mandate,” Gwalcmai reminded her. “Our mission is to try to work to subvert the Airlia so that these humans can eventually defeat them without suffering the losses and damage to the planet our world did.”
“Still—” Donnchadh said no more, leaving the issue open.
They came into orbit around the third planet and circled it several times, studying the surface. There was no mistaking the main Airlia base on the planet now—set on an island in the center of an ocean between two continents. The concentric rings of land and water surrounded a magnificent city. On the large hill in the exact center was a golden palace over a mile wide at the base and stretching three thousand feet into the sky. The land in the surrounding rings boasted bountiful crops and many villages. They had seen the exact same type of building on their own planet.
On the other continents there was abundant life—and humans. Their technological level was depressingly low—some places did not even have the wheel. Of major concern to Gwalcmai was the fact that the most sophisticated weaponry was swords, spears, and bows. While, as a highly trained God-killer, he was an expert with the sword, he still preferred the range of projectile weapons.
“It will be a very long time before they have the weapons necessary to fight the Airlia,” Gwalcmai noted as they circled the planet another time.
“We can help accelerate that process as much as possible,” Donnchadh said.
Gwalcmai directed the spacecraft to a large island to the northeast of the Airlia-controlled capital. They flew over the southern shore and inland until they were over a large plain of tall grass. The sky above was gray and rainy. A river ran across the plain, cutting deep into the ground.
Gwalcmai brought the spacecraft down, the skin of the craft glowing red from its entry through the atmosphere. He flew back and forth across the plain, searching for just the right spot. Once he found it, he flew north to a mountainous area, halting above a jumble of boulders on the side of a mountain. He activated a cutting beam, shaping three of the boulders into large rectangular shapes. Then he used a tractor beam to lift them off the ground. He flew back to the plain, the three large stones in tow.
Gwalcmai flew back to the river and laid the stones down on the plain about sixty feet away before moving back to the river. He dropped altitude until the Fynbar was just above the water, the heat emanating from the spacecraft’s skin causing steam to rise from the river. The forward edge of the craft touched the riverbank and the two pod engines whined with exertion as the narrow forward edge of the craft dug into the ground. Ever so slowly, Gwalcmai dug the craft into the dirt and rock, angling down and burying it until only the engine pod and the rear edge of the craft were visible. He rocked it back and forth, widening the cavity it had dug in the earth. As the ship moved, the heat from the spacecraft’s surface fused the limestone, creating a cavern. He then backed the spaceship out of the large hole he had created and landed on the plain above.
For several moments, Gwalcmai and Donnchadh sat still in their command chairs. They wore black jumpsuits, marked only by the insignia of their respective units from the Revolution sewn onto the left chest.
“Shall we?” Gwalcmai asked.
Donnchadh nodded. They unstrapped from their chairs and moved to the ladder leading to the top forward hatch. Gwalcmai led the way, unsealing the hatch. With a hiss of slight pressure equalization, it opened. He was greeted by drops of rain splashing onto his face. He paused, breathing in the fresh, moist air. Sensing Donnchadh’s impatience, he climbed up, his partner following. They stood on top of the ship, faces turned up, letting the water course over their skin, soaking their suits. It was the first time they’d breathed anything but regenerated ship’s air since departing their home world.
For a moment all their sorrow was forgotten. Donnchadh raised her arms and danced, twirling about. Gwalcmai watched her with a rare smile on his face. He spent precious moments soaking up her joy along with the rain, then duty called. He went to a hatch on the hull and opened the door. He pulled out a bundle of red web netting, which he carried to the rear and draped over one of the engine pods. He did the same to the other engine, connecting the two nets. Donnchadh finally joined him and they completely covered the craft with the antidetection netting they had appropriated from the Airlia.
Once done, Donnchadh climbed off the craft onto the plain. She took off her boots, savoring the feel of grass and dirt beneath her feet. Gwalcmai went back inside the craft. He used the Fynbar to lift the stones, positioning them on the plain above the cavern he had gouged out. Two stones went upright, while the third was placed across the top as a lintel piece.
Once the stones were in place, Gwalcmai piloted the Fynbarinto the cavern, setting it at rest inside. He sealed the opening to the cavern with explosives, isolating the ship. He then used more Airlia technology they had brought from their world to partially hollow out the left stone above the ship, cutting a door in the stone that could only be opened with a special medallion and emplacing a small lift to give access from the ship to the stone.
Once this was done, Gwalcmai took his leave of the ship, carrying a large pack on his back and another in his arms. He exited the stone, the door sealing behind him. He gave one of the packs to Donnchadh. They stared at the stones for several moments, then Gwalcmai pointed, and they set off across the plain.
They were on Earth and their mission had begun.
IV
10,500 B.C.: EARTH
Donnchadh and Gwalcmai had regenerated eight times via the ka and black tubes since their arrival on Earth. They had walked the entire large island on which they had landed, from the south shore to the wild and bitterly cold north where men with blue faces fought amongst themselves. They’d even taken voyage on a boat across the sea to the smaller, neighboring isle. They also spent the multiple lifetimes meeting the local people and learning the languages of those they encountered. They’d discovered that envoys from Atlantis visited every decade collecting tribute in the form of metals and children, a pattern that matched the ancient history of their own planet. It had never been clearly determined whether the Airlia did this because they needed what they collected or merely as a means of making sure their control was exerted beyond the colony.
The humans outside of Atlantis were like cattle allowed to range free. They were wild and knew little of the Airlia, just vague legends and myths, and the tributes paid. They warred among themselves, tribe against tribe, something which Donnchadh realized probably fit well into the Airlia’s ultimate plan for the humans. Her own planet had had a history of warfare among nations until the greater cause of the Revolution had united mankind. She knew it would be a long hard road to
accomplish the same here.
Satisfied that they could fit into the population, Donnchadh and Gwalcmai took passage on a trading vessel that was one of the few willing to venture out into open water beyond the sight of land. The crew was from the mainland to the east of the island where they had landed their craft— large men with long blonde hair who armed themselves with axes and swords. These men prided themselves on both their sailing ability and martial skills. Their language was different, but like all they had encountered so far, rooted in the Airlia tongue to some extent.
Gwalcmai won their respect by sparring with their leader and fighting him to a draw. Donnchadh knew her partner had held back and was easily capable of beating the leader. With the martial arts training he had received on their home world, his combat experience, and the numerous lifetimes he had had to hone his craft, his skills far exceeded what any human could achieve in a single lifetime. She also knew that the leader could see he was outmatched and respected and appreciated Gwalcmai’s discretion and restraint.
It was a cold and rainy day when they left the southern shore of their island with the men whose distant ancestors would one day be known as Vikings and sailed west along the coast, until they came to the sea that separated the larger island from its smaller partner to the west. The trip to what would be called Ireland took three days. For Donnchadh it was a strange and humbling journey. Having crossed light-years in the mothership and across a solar system in the Fynbar, to move on top of the water at the whim of the winds made her realize the gap that these people had to bridge even to attempt to battle the Airlia. This world must have been seeded long after her own. There would be no possibility of freedom here anytime soon.
It was three weeks before they saw land again. Actually, it was not land they first sighted, but the golden tower ofAtlantis poking above the horizon to the west. As they drew closer, its scale became clearer as land appeared beneath it. Only the Airlia and their high priests were allowed in the palace, while humans tilled the land around it. Donnchadh asked the sailors on her ship to heave to and wait until night-fall before approaching the outer ring. They did as she requested and made landfall several hours after darkness had fallen along an empty stretch of coastline.
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