Chapter Nineteen
Aboard the captured cargo ship, Daelon had just witnessed Core’s murder and was becoming an emotional wreck. His fear for his own life was minuscule, compared to his fear for the 36 passengers that were his charge. Getting off his ship and finding out all he could about his captors, had become his top priorities. In an angry rage, he contemplated using a laser pistol to blast his way through the canopy, but knew that such a disturbance would alert the enemy. He also noticed after studying the canopy that the aliens had also retrofitted the bridge ceiling with more of the strange gun barrels, he had encountered in the airlock. It seemed as though they had planned to open fire on Daelon, if he attempted using the canopy to escape, and that all possible escape routes were most likely equipped with the same enemy defense grid.
Daelon was hopelessly confused by the aliens’ tactics. They had teleportation technology, enabling them to come and go from the cargo ship as they pleased. They had the means to instantaneously capture a man and transport him to a confined state, then drain him dry of his blood, only to be thrown into some kind of disposal unit, like trash.
To Daelon, keeping him alive seemed counterproductive for his kidnappers. He found himself mindlessly pacing back and forth across the catwalk. Upon entering the Gate Chamber, he found that its self-sustaining power source had been entirely depleted, because of the lack of connection to another wormhole; the tiny tear in space, most likely still spinning wildly over the ruins of Faul City.
He then returned to the lower deck and began studying the 36 empty life pods, still attached to the concrete walls of the storage chamber. Surprisingly enough, he was able to turn on the bright overhead lights in the compartment. He scanned the empty pods and the wall space around them, not entirely certain of what he was looking for. It was then that he found human blood smeared in a lower corner of the room, beside one of the pods. As he crept closer, he realized that someone had smeared the words, “Launch tubes”, onto the wall, with their own blood.
The pod closest to the smeared message, belonged to a well-respected engineer named Seer Varn; also one of Drellic’s most trusted scientific advisors. Daelon assumed that he was familiar with the design of the cargo ship and possibly aided in its construction. Further assuming that Seer had left the message, his reference to the ship’s launch tubes was only a mystery to Daelon, for a short while. By accessing the ship’s ventilation shaft and using it to make his way inside the ship’s gun turrets, he realized that the weapons’ launch tubes could serve as a discrete means for his escape onto the alien vessel.
Daelon then wondered about the presence of surveillance cameras on board. If his own ship had been fit with an automated defense grid to keep him inside, it seemed logical to assume that he was also being watched at all times. He also knew that the enemy could teleport to his exact location, at a moment’s notice. Furthermore, he realized that the aliens could most likely take control of his weapons systems and disintegrate his body, with a single shot from his own turrets, if he were discovered crawling inside one of them.
After spending a few more minutes weighing his options, Daelon developed a solid theory about his circumstances. He began to suspect that he was part of some kind of behavioral experiment. Since the aliens had captured and killed Core without hesitation, Daelon deduced that his captors had a different fate planned for him; one that he might’ve been able to use to his advantage. In the end, he decided to continue waiting out the situation. It wasn’t long after he came to that conclusion, that he returned to the bridge, to see six of the mysterious creatures standing atop the canopy, staring down at him.
His heart beat rapidly, as he listened to the sound of their heavy gray boots, pounding against the canopy, while they paced over his head. It seemed to Daelon that he was just being mocked at that point. He was beginning to feel insulted. His anger got the better of him and he pulled the top portion of the captain’s chair, from its mounted base. He then glanced up at one of the creatures, who gave a slight head tilt, as if to ponder Daelon’s next move. Daelon then threw the top of the chair with all his might, up into the canopy. Daelon moved to his right, allowing the chair to crash back down to the floor. He then turned his attention back to the creatures overhead. “What are you looking at?!” he screamed.
The aliens did not appear startled by the chair. It was as if they knew exactly what he was going to do and when he was going to do it. Daelon also assumed that they were just emotionless creatures, who wouldn’t give much of a reaction to anything any way. He violently kicked at the base of his control console and walked heavily down the catwalk, towards the aft portion of the ship. Upon re-entering the Gate Chamber, he was cut off by another brilliant flash of green light. One of the creatures appeared before him and put its hand on Daelon’s shoulder. An instant later, they were both consumed by another flash of light.
When the light faded, Daelon found himself in new surroundings with the alien. The creature had come to transport him to a chamber aboard the enemy ship. Daelon tried to back away, but the alien forcefully grabbed his shoulder again. It was then that Daelon’s mind became immersed in a stream of thoughts and feelings from the alien. Using a form of telepathy, Daelon’s companion was sending him a series of its memories and its feelings about them. He immediately got the sense that this particular alien was not like the others in its company. In fact, it seemed as though the creature was planning to help him escape.
Daelon’s mind was then fed images of a field, containing thousands of oval shaped cocoons that glowed purple and were being deposited onto the ground, by long black tentacle-like extremities. Once the tentacles retracted themselves, the cocoons began to open simultaneously, revealing their contents. Each cocoon held a single alien, identical to the creatures that had taken Daelon prisoner. Essentially, Daelon was witnessing the birth of their species.
The memories being flooded into Daelon’s mind, were fixated on one cocoon in particular. It didn’t take him long to realize that the newborn, adult-sized creature, crawling out from its slimy purple womb, was the same creature he was currently in the company of. Evidently, these creatures were being born fully mature and with basic knowledge of their surroundings, including ideas for future spacefaring endeavors and conquest. They were bred to be conquerors of the stars. “But, bred by whom?” Daelon wondered.
He was seeing the field of newborn creatures through the eyes of his companion, and saw the truth behind their conception. The extremities that had initially deposited the cocoons onto the ground, were attached to a massive Architect Planet Farmer, hovering overhead. Daelon knew by that time, that these aliens had been genetically engineered by the Architects, just as his ancestors had been, on Siren and Tyrran.
The stream of memories then fast forwarded to a few years later in the aliens’ history. The entire population of their race lived in a single city on their home world. By that time, they were only numbering in the hundreds. They hadn’t yet begun reproducing on their own and were being trained by those more endowed, with a sense of superiority and purpose, to fight and build energy weapons. A fleet of smaller Architect scout ships, hovered overhead in the distance, as if to oversee their creations’ progress without interfering any further.
The city was a seemingly random arrangement of square shaped dwellings, energy weapon factories and shipyards, where ships resembling Daelon’s current place of residence, were being constructed. Daelon was informed by his companion, who was still tightly gripping his shoulder that the technology used in the creation of their ships and weapons, was a product of suggestions made by the Architects, based on what minerals and fuel sources were naturally available on his companion’s home world. Once the Architects saw that the creatures were on the desired track, they faded into the background, allowing them to pursue a goal of domination over nearby worlds, which were inhabited by naturally evolved life forms.
The Architects had bred these creatures to enslave and consume, as a testament to their own wisdom and power.
But there was an abrupt halt to their momentum. Up until that time, the aliens had relied on the Architects for nourishment and were given weekly rations of life sustaining chemicals. It was necessary, since the Architects were only a few years into the project, and hadn’t deposited any plant or animal life on the planet, for the indigenous sentient life to feed off of. There was no ecosystem in place. But one day, the Architects mysteriously vanished, leaving the aliens to have to fend for themselves.
Fearing that their race was on the verge of extinction, the greater minds on the planet gathered their entire species onto the single battleship that was flight ready. Of all the ships under construction, only one had been completed, and it just so happened to be the ship that Daelon was currently being detained on.
They headed out for the stars, in search of the parents that had abandoned them. Eventually, they learned of their location. The Architects had abandoned these aliens, in order to aid their armada in the war on humanity, on Siren and Tyrran. From a certain point of view, Drellic’s uprising was responsible for Daelon’s companion’s race, being left incomplete on a desolate rock.
The alien then released Daelon’s shoulder. Daelon was left taking panicky breaths and with tears streaming down his face, after sharing the alien’s emotional response to its being abandoned. Daelon was given the impression that this particular alien had been endowed with a higher capacity for independent thought. It never felt right about being born into a society, destined to go to war with its neighbors, and was disgusted by the true origins of its people; feeling that the very existence of its race, was a tragic mistake.
It then communicated its intentions to help Daelon escape. But before he could leave, Daelon was still faced with his obligation to locate and attempt rescuing the 36 human survivors, whom Drellic had entrusted to him. The alien agreed to lead Daelon to their last known location aboard the ship, knowing that the other aliens were already aware of Daelon’s escape from his cargo ship, and were searching for him.
The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three Page 42