The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three

by Mike Marlinski

Chapter Five

  Daelon had made it to Delendra’s 157th floor, before demanding to stop and rest. Fortunately for him, Core was also winded, and the stench of the burnt corpses that filled the tower, was overwhelming them both. Core was doing his best to appear unfazed, by the 1,000 foot climb he had just made up the winding concrete staircase. He sternly ordered Daelon to take a seat on the 157th landing, and masked his own fatigue, while insisting that he was allowing ten minutes of rest, solely for Daelon’s benefit.

  The staircase itself was constructed for maintenance purposes, and was never intended to be a means of ascending from the tower’s base, to its summit. Aside from the inclusion of a small square shaped glass window, on a single wall, on every other landing, the mile high stairwell was completely enclosed and was still very dark.

  From the window of the 157th landing, Daelon could see the sun rising over Faul City, and the mighty tentacles of an Architect Planet Farmer, as they stretched across the sky, erasing the sunlight, as quickly as it had arrived.

  “Do you see, you incompetent fool?” Daelon asked Core with a smile, as he pointed towards the pulsating monstrosity in the sky above. “Tell me, Core. What good could a few extra drops of Starblood have done against that?” he added, as Core was consequently charged with the task of masking fatigue and fear as well.

  “When we get to the top, it will all make sense,” Core boasted, with a hint of derangement. “Trust me. You may be my hero’s brother. You may be the Emperor of this dead world. You may even be the most intelligent human left in the universe. But I still possess that which you’ve never had and never will.”

  “What’s that?” Daelon asked, as he propped himself up against the concrete wall of the stairwell, and complacently gazed out at the extending reach of the Architect ships.

  Core just smiled maniacally and replied, “I have the courage to do what is necessary, to vanquish my enemies.”

  Daelon began to laugh hysterically at Core’s words, causing Core to spring up to his feet and pull Daelon up on to his. But despite the abruptness of Core’s actions, Daelon never stopped laughing. “What the hell are you laughing at, you little runt?” Core snapped, as he inadvertently spit in Daelon’s face, yet again.

  Daelon calmly wiped Core’s saliva from his brow and through his laughter replied, “We still have 4,000 feet left to climb. What makes you think we’ll even reach the top? Weren’t you on Siren when they took it? Didn’t you watch my brother take his own life, rather than run from the inevitable? They’re going to scorch every inch of sky, land and sea long before we reach the gate! Perhaps my brother was right! Perhaps a running leap into certain death is a true feat of courage!”

  With those last words, Daelon aggressively pushed Core out of his way, but not before snatching the Talin from him and running for the glass window. He used the Talin to break the window and hopped up on the ledge, preparing to jump to his death, with the Talin firmly in his grasp.

  Core whirled around, after having the wind knocked out of him and lunged at Daelon, who quickly jumped back inside the tower and pushed Core out of the window, as he was in mid-air. Daelon then fell to the floor and quickly turned back towards the window, to see Core dangling over the devastated streets below, by one hand.

  On his own, Daelon would not have been strong enough to break through the thick concrete walls of the stairwell, but using the Talin’s dense outer shell, he repeatedly smashed the area of the wall beneath the open window, until he had separated the section that Core was clinging on to, from the rest of the building. He then heard Core scream with fear, as he plummeted towards the planet’s surface. Knowing that time was running out for his race, he found Core’s flashlight on the floor and used it guide his way back down the stairwell. He was running so fast that he tripped and fell several times onto the next few landings. But a few cuts and bruises weren’t going to stop him from finishing what he started.

  A secret entrance to The Depths was located beneath the main foyer of Delendra, on the bottom floor. Daelon was determined to use the very last of his adrenaline, to send the archives of humanity to a place where the Architects’ fire breathing ships could not burn it. He seemed to pick up speed every time he saw the numerical markings on the wall, indicating he had one less floor to go down. He ran faster and faster, until he reached the 100th landing, where he quickly turned a corner, only to be met by a powerful fist, which struck him in the face and sent him crashing back down to the concrete.

  He then immediately lost his grip on the Talin and his flashlight, sending them bouncing off to the far corner of the landing. His vision was blurred for a moment and blood was gushing from his nose. And when he was finally able to focus, he saw Core standing over him.

  Core had only fallen a few levels, before getting a hold of another window ledge and breaking his way into a lower landing. Before Daelon could say a word, Core raised his giant black combat boot over Daelon’s face and slammed it down on his head, as hard as he could, instantly knocking Daelon unconscious.

  As Core lifted Daelon off the ground and put him over his shoulder, he noticed the darkening skies in the window. He paused for a moment, to take in the view of the slimy, scaly tentacles stretching over the city, as if they were the extremities of a giant sea creature or spider. He imagined that a similar scene was taking place over every human settlement on Tyrran. If things played out the same way they did on Siren, Core knew that the planet was surrounded, and that the tentacles of every Architect ship would eventually bond together, forming a spherical blanket around the entire world.

  He knew the toxins to be released by the ships, would then ignite Tyrran’s atmosphere shortly after. He had 90 minutes at most, before the Architects could complete their linking process, and so using pure adrenaline and athleticism, began sprinting up the stairwell, with Daelon pressed firmly across his shoulders.

  He expertly navigated the sharp turns and steep inclines, without even remotely needing his hands to help guide him. Each time he passed a glass window, he would take a quick glance at the smothered sky and remember it for what it once was.

  Siren and Tyrran were once two glimmering jewels in a plain of desolate space that stretched for thousands of light years. It was only then, in Tyrran’s final hour that he made an honest connection with Daelon’s point of view. In the end, it was the memory of what the two worlds once were that pushed him up the stairs faster and faster, until he had cleared the 300th level without even realizing it.

  Core still had 3,000 feet of stairs left to climb, but still would not let Daelon’s weight, the darkness, his aching legs, or his collapsing lungs, stop him from reaching the only thing that could allow him to have his revenge. Luckily, there was still just enough light coming in the windows, to show the way.

  Core was startled by a bright flash of lightning and a loud clap of thunder outside, but remained consistent, as he moved. As the thousands of tentacles slithered above the outer atmosphere, across the entire planet, a worldwide electrical storm was beginning to form. As violent and unsettling as the raging thunderstorm was, the lightning was providing Core with more than enough light, for him to safely find his way to the top of the tower.

  Thirty minutes later, he finally reached the entrance to The Emperor’s Gate and dropped Daelon’s body, as he himself collapsed to the floor. The Gate Chamber before him, was a spinning metal platform, attached to six long curved metal beams that surrounded and stabilized a miniature Black Hole, with a magnetic field.

  When the tower was first built, the beams were charged by the long fusion conduits that stretched down the tower’s central shaft, from the very top, down into The Depths. However, once scientists had discovered that the wormhole could no longer be closed, the energy of the Black Hole itself, powered the chamber that was stabilizing it.

  Core’s plan was simple. He no longer suffered from any delusion that the human race could somehow be spared. However, he did know a way that the Talin’s power could be amplif
ied, to the point where it could destroy the entire Architect fleet. He had planned to destroy the Gate Chamber, causing the Black Hole to become unstable. He would then simply toss the Talin inside the wormhole, hoping that the violent gravitational force and immeasurable energy, would breach the Talin’s reactor, expanding the wormhole, and crushing the Architect forces into dust.

  Core only needed two things to ensure his plan’s success. The Gate Chamber was surrounded by a dome, made of a transparent version of the same alloy, created to encase the Talin. He needed an access code to open it, which he knew Daelon had. He also had to wait until all of the Planet Farmers surrounding Tyrran, were joined together. Provided they followed the same attack pattern they had used on Siren, Core knew that once the ships were joined, it would be impossible for them to escape the pull of a Starblood powered Black Hole.

  The storm outside was getting worse and Daelon had finally regained consciousness. He was once again faced with the familiar sight of Core standing tall over him. However, it seemed as though Core’s usual look of dominance had been replaced by that of desperation. Core reached down to the floor, then raised the gleaming Talin before Daelon’s eyes. Daelon gazed up at his life’s work, too weak to pull Core’s massive legs out from under him and reclaim it, as badly as he wanted to do so.

  Core then proceeded to pull Daelon’s nearly lifeless body, over to the control console, which sat just a few feet in front of the dome. “Open it!” Core demanded. Daelon had been bleeding profusely the entire time Core had been carrying him up the stairs. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he rolled away from the console. Core aggressively repositioned Daelon’s body, pulling his right hand onto the numbered keypad, in front of him. “Open it, or tell me the combination! I don’t care! Now!” Core screamed at the top of his lungs.

  Blood then bubbled from Daelon’s lips, as he whispered, “Why? Why do they need to die with us? What makes our lives so much more important than theirs? We started this war, any way.”

  Right after he spoke, Daelon passed out again. Core was enraged beyond even his own belief and began mercilessly smashing the control console to pieces with the Talin, hoping it would somehow open the dome. Finally, after a series of sparks and LED flickers, the thin crease that stretched over the center of the dome, holding its two halves together, split in two, just wide enough for a person to squeeze inside.