The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three

by Mike Marlinski

Chapter Nine

  Several minutes before the fall of Tyrran, the blackened surface of neighboring planet Siren, was briefly visited by the slightest flicker of bright red light. To an objective cosmic bystander, Siren would’ve appeared as a blank canvas, traveling aimlessly through the solar system, with no purpose, other than to take up space and influence the path of the smaller inanimate objects, nearby.

  Against the black ash and rock, riddled with bits of metal and crumbled cement from the demolished skyscrapers of Siren City, the brief flicker of red light seemed to momentarily shock some life back into the great dead form. It illuminated the fallen city and violently shook the ground beneath its point of origin, as if it were a tiny heart defibrillator, with no hope of reviving a deceased giant.

  The source of the light was a miniature singularity that resided in the rear compartment of a long and bulky cargo ship. The compartment was retrofitted to stabilize the wormhole, with a rotating platform of super conductors and an electro-magnetic field. It was nearly identical to the Gate Chamber at the top of Tyrran’s Delendra Tower.

  The ship was wedged in between two massive boulders that had been ejected from deep underground, by the Architect attack. It had a gleaming silver hull and a thick glass dome on the top side of its rear compartment, allowing for the Gate Chamber inside, to be visible from space. The inside of the ship was pitch black, until illuminated by the quick flash of red from the wormhole’s center. Seconds later, the platform abruptly stopped spinning, allowing for Daelon and Core to be safely flung through an open path between two of the metal beams. Their bodies landed and slid across the floor, coming to a halt, just shy of the concrete wall on the opposite side of the room.

  They got to their feet and looked upon one another, uncertain if they should continue their physical altercation. Core saw it was an opportune time to confine Daelon to the chamber, giving him a chance to make it to the ship’s bridge and assess the situation. But before he could finish putting his thought process together, they were both startled by the sound of the Gate Chamber platform, resuming its spin cycle.

  Daelon took advantage of Core’s surprise and darted out of the room, without thinking to lock the hatchway behind him. Core chased him down a narrow corridor which presumably led to the ship’s bridge. As their feet clattered across the steel catwalk beneath them, a series of motion sensor lights began turning on over their heads, lighting their way to an open hatch way at the other end of the corridor, which appeared to lead into the bridge.

  Daelon ran for his life, all the while wondering where the Talin had landed, or if it had made it through at all. He quickly made it through the hatch way and sealed it behind him. He was unfamiliar with the design of the locking mechanism, but was able to secure the hatch from the inside, by holding down two small green buttons at the same time, before Core had a chance to figure out how to open the hatch on his end.

  A thick, glass circular window at the top of the hatch, provided Daelon with a glimpse of the intensity in Core’s eyes. After a few more seconds of exchanging angry and confused expressions through the hatch, Core paused for a moment and then quickly walked back towards the Gate Chamber. Daelon feared that Core would find the Talin and use it to destroy the Gate Chamber on the ship, destabilizing and super charging the wormhole. But even in his delusional state, Daelon hoped that Core would realize that the Architects were too far away to be compromised by such a plan.

  Daelon also feared that if Core did find the Talin, he could use it to at the very least, break down the shiny steel hatch that separated them. But Daelon’s instincts had led him to this unfamiliar ship that had somehow survived the incineration of Siren. Knowing that he had very little time to learn the purpose for his surroundings, Daelon sat in the tall, rotating red leather chair in the center of the room and leaned over the complex control consoles before him.

  There were four slanted panels of controls at his disposal. The two middle panels were filled with confusing multi-colored LED lit buttons that were marked with abbreviations, unfamiliar to him. The outer panels were large rectangular touch screens that displayed fluctuating power readings, presumably from the Gate Chamber behind him.

  Daelon had no idea as to the origins of the ship, it seemed he was going to have to learn to operate, if he wanted to stop Core from destroying the legacy of his people. He had never been informed of a special cargo ship carrying a Gate Chamber before, or how it could’ve been linked to the chamber he had just left behind on Tyrran. After a quick file search, Daelon found the technical schematics of the vessel and found that the ship itself was of a long and bulky design, which seemed disproportionate and alien to him.

  Its silver hull shimmered in the sunlight and almost seemed to have a transparent or liquid look to it. The bridge portion of the ship was much wider and bulkier than the middle section, which housed the narrow corridor connecting the bridge to the wormhole compartment.

  From bow to stern, the cargo vessel was nearly three hundred feet long. The rear compartment was divided into two sections. The foremost section that housed the Gate Chamber, was much narrower than the aft most section, which provided a gleaming silver casing for the ship’s propulsion system. The propulsion system was made up of eight tube-like rocket engines that were divided into two rows of four. The top row was barely visible over the tops of the two boulders that still had a strong vice grip on the craft. The bottom row it seemed, was buried in the ashy terrain beneath them.

  As Daelon continued to study the ship’s design, he was also moving on to learning how to use the ship’s functions. More specifically, he was learning how to fly the ship, as well as how to separate one compartment from another, in case he got an opportunity to strand Core out in space, or possibly leave him behind on Siren. It was an option that didn’t yet seem possible to Daelon, amidst his studies.

  As he continued reading through the digital manual at his fingertips, he could hear the echo of footsteps, pounding against the catwalk behind him. He knew that Core had returned, most likely with the Talin in hand.

  Daelon finished reading through all of the vital information he would need to pilot the ship, and prepared to attempt breaking free from the gargantuan slabs of rock, surrounding him. He struck a series of buttons on the two middle control panels in a particular sequence, and felt the rumble of the mighty engines, vibrating throughout the entire craft. The soothing sound of progress, was then drowned out by the sound of a violent banging on the hatch, just inches behind Daelon’s chair. He spun around to face the hatch, after realizing the engines needed some time to heat up, and saw Core proudly displaying the Talin to him, through the hatch window. Core then reached back and effortlessly smashed through the ten inches of solid glass. He then retracted the Talin and pushed himself up through the window, which was just wide enough to allow him access to the bridge.

  By this time, after everything he had already experienced, Daelon had become numb to his fears of Core and lunged at him from his chair. He pushed against Core’s long nappy hair and muscly arms, as hard as he could, and forced him out the window and onto his back, against the steel catwalk. Core was shocked at Daelon’s display of strength and watched as Daelon stuck his head through the broken window and boasted, “We’re going for a ride, my old friend! You’d better hold on!”

  Daelon then jumped back into his chair, saw that the engines were in perfect order and ready to be fired. He then promptly charged all eight rocket tubes, which simultaneously ignited the eight fusion based fuel cells, behind the spinning Gate Chamber, sending the ship thrusting forward. Upon activation of the ship’s engines, the Gate Chamber automatically shut down and the wormhole vanished without a trace. It was a safety feature that Daelon wasn’t aware of, but was immensely grateful for.

  The ship plowed through the boulders that had pinned it to the surface and broke free of the grasp of an obliterated Siren City. Daelon climbed for open space, turning the vessel completely vertical. This sent Core sliding down the
catwalk, back towards the Gate Chamber. He struggled to hold on to the steel railing at his side, but lost his grip and slammed head first into the open hatchway, just before trickling down towards the stationary wormhole platform. He struck his head once more, on one of the tall metal beams and had become wedged in between one of the platform’s metal beams and a concrete wall, unconscious and bleeding profusely from his forehead.

  The ship continued its climb into space, as Daelon witnessed the destruction of Tyrran from behind the thick canopy above him. He watched as the tangled organic web of Architect Planet Farmers, burnt the entire planet to a crisp, from the outer atmosphere, down to the surface. He then realized that he was one of the last few survivors of humanity, and that it had become more important than ever for him to complete his mission. Tears filled his eyes, as his rush of emotions was interrupted by a flashing red warning light to his left that produced an annoying, intermittent squawking sound. Daelon couldn’t figure out how to turn the alarm off, until he noticed that the warning light itself, was a button. He pushed it down and the alarm stopped. Seconds later, the images on the touch screen to his left vanished and were replaced by a white screen covered with bold black text. The message read:

  DAELON-

  THIS SHIP WAS MEANT FOR YOU. IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THEN YOU HAVE ARRIVED WHERE YOU WERE MEANT TO. MY WORLD IS DOOMED, AS IS YOURS. BUT ALL DOES NOT HAVE TO BE LOST FOREVER. I HAD INTENDED TO DELIVER THIS MESSAGE TO YOU IN PERSON. BUT IF YOU ARE READING THIS, IT MEANS THAT I AM DEAD. IT IS TRUE THAT OUR FAMILY STARTED THIS WAR, BUT IN OUR FINAL DAYS, I HAVE COME TO REALIZE THAT WE ARE FACING AN ENEMY THAT CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED. AS POWERFUL AS WE HAVE BECOME THROUGH THEIR BLOOD, THEY WILL NEVER RETREAT. THEY WILL NEVER BOW TO US, AS WE HAVE BEEN MADE TO BOW TO THEM. I KNOW THIS NOW. THIS SHIP WAS ONE OF MANY DESIGNED TO EVACUATE OUR PEOPLE TO A DISTANT WORLD, BUT THEY WERE DESTROYED BY OUR ENEMY, LONG BEFORE THEY HAD THE CHANCE TO FULFILL THEIR PURPOSE.

  THIS LAST SHIP WAS CAREFULLY HIDDEN IN OUR GREAT CAVERNS, BENEATH SIREN CITY. IT IS MADE FROM THE SAME ALLOY AS THE TALIN AND HAS BEEN ENRICHED WITH A SMALL AMOUNT OF STARBLOOD. IT WAS THE VERY LAST THAT I HAD, AND I USED IT SPECIFICALLY TO ENSURE THIS SHIP’S SURVIVAL. I CAN ONLY HOPE THAT OUR ENEMIES WILL NOT THINK TO RETURN TO A WORLD THEY’VE ALREADY DESTROYED, TO FIND IT.

  I AM NOW HEADING INTO WHAT WILL MOST LIKELY BE MY FINAL BATTLE WITH OUR GREAT ENEMY. I AM LEAVING THIS SHIP BEHIND, IN THE HOPES THAT THEY WILL NOT FIND IT. INSTEAD I AM LEAVING FOR TYRRAN TO FIND YOU ABOARD ONE OF OUR MORE PRIMITIVE VESSELS, AND WITH MORTAL MEN. WITH LUCK, WE WILL LAND UNDETECTED AND I WILL BE ABLE TO GUIDE YOU SAFELY TO THIS SHIP, SO WE CAN TAKE WHAT FEW SURVIVORS WE HAVE OUT INTO THE STARS, AFTER OUR ENEMY LEAVES OUR FALLEN SOCIETIES BEHIND.

  IRONICALLY, I PRESENTLY FEEL MORE AFRAID OF YOUNG CORE, THAN I DO THE ARCHITECTS. HE IS A BITTER YOUTH WITH DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR, THAT EVEN I MYSELF HAVE NEVER BEEN GUILTY OF BEING BURDENED BY. RUMORS HAVE BEEN SPREADING OF HIS DESIRE TO KILL ME, AND IN THE VACUUM OF SPACE, I MIGHT BE MORE VULNERABLE THAN I CARE TO REALIZE. NEVERTHELESS, I MUST TRAVEL WITH HIM, IN ORDER TO AVOID STANDING OUT TO OUR ENEMY.

  HOWEVER IF YOU ARE READING THIS MESSAGE, THAN I CAN ONLY GIVE TWO POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS FOR MY ABSENCE. EITHER OUR ENEMY HAS KILLED ME OR CORE HAS. IN EITHER CASE, HE CANNOT BE TRUSTED.

  THE PRESENCE OF YOUR DNA ON THESE KEYPADS, HAS TRIGGERED THIS MESSAGE. I PRAY THAT YOUR EYES ARE SEEING THESE WORDS. BUT IF I AM GONE AND YOU FIND CORE TO BE RESPONSIBLE, THEN YOU MUST SET ASIDE YOUR PACIFIST WAYS. YOU MUST AVENGE ME AND THEN RETURN TO TYRRAN. ANOTHER MESSAGE AWAITS YOU IN THE DEPTHS, BENEATH FAUL CITY.

  -DRELLIC