Chapter Twenty Three
“The Incomplete”, who were once comfortable enough to treat Daelon as though he were a lab experiment, were suddenly doing everything they could to avoid him. Since the halls leading to the ship’s engineering station had been deserted, Yin led Daelon to the control console, responsible for taking control of his captured cargo ship. Yin pointed out a glimmering silver dome, projecting a green outline of Daelon’s ship. As Yin began to explain how to disable it, Daelon interrupted him by smashing the dome shaped console to pieces, with his bare hands.
He then turned his attention to the rest of the engineering station. He saw a single alien soldier standing on a catwalk high above his head, near massive energy conduits that were attached to the ship’s propulsion system. Daelon thought about using his super speed to engage him, but knew it was unnecessary. Instead, he simply looked up at the soldier with a cold, calculating gaze. The soldier immediately teleported out of the room in a quick green flash. Seconds later, Daelon vanished from Yin’s side in the form of a blur and reappeared overhead on the catwalk, beside the conduits. He then ripped every last connection between the ship’s controls and its propulsion system to shreds.
Electrical sparks filled the room, igniting the green glowing circuit boards inside every device in sight. A chain reaction was occurring that would prevent any chance of escape for The Incomplete. Yin told Daelon that there were escape pods on board, but that they were now useless, due to the destruction of the engineering station.
Daelon and Yin exited the room together and made their way to the landing bay. Yin attempted to teleport back to the captured cargo ship with Daelon as they had done before, but something was preventing it from doing so. Yin theorized that the protective shield once guarding the human prisoners, was now spread throughout the entire ship, preventing teleportation. The shield was being controlled from the alien ship’s bridge. The Starblood coursing through Daelon’s veins, allowed him to get a sense of the leader’s plan. He focused on the ship, using a thought process he had learned from watching Drellic in battle, and realized that the aliens were on their way to destroy the cargo ship.
Daelon grabbed Yin and used his super speed to propel them both into the landing bay, within seconds. Daelon was not at all surprised to see nearly two dozen armed alien soldiers, preparing to enter his ship and open fire on its vital systems. The defense grid they had placed inside the cargo ship was controlled from the engineering station. This meant that they would have to destroy Daelon’s ship themselves from the inside, which gave Daelon the perfect opportunity to engage the strongest of his enemies, in one place.
Though they all looked the same from a distance, Daelon recognized the leader at the front of the group, leading the charge into the cargo ship’s airlock. He had a peculiar scar on his wrinkly gray forehead. Although Daelon wasn’t worried in the slightest about a physical confrontation, he was still pleased to see that they hadn’t noticed him yet. He told Yin to hide behind a stack of large metal barrels, leaning against the wall of the landing bay. He then sped off at a supersonic speed, to the entrance to his airlock, cutting off the approaching army.
Daelon then effortlessly brushed his enemies away, sending them flying to opposite ends of the compartment, while their green energy blasts were absorbed harmlessly into his skin. Once the aliens were lying injured and unconscious all around him, Daelon invited Yin to join him on his cargo ship. His plan was to use the ship’s turrets to compromise the alien ship’s hull, causing it to crash into Tyrran, once he was safely inside a pressurized area. However, before Yin could respond with its thoughts, Daelon already knew its answer.
Yin was a rarity amongst The Incomplete. The name that it had bestowed upon its race, reflected its opinion of its own existence. It felt it was a mistake and had fully accepted its own judgment of itself as undeniable truth. Much like Core, Yin was convinced that it had no place in whatever world was awaiting Daelon, and decided to die honorably amongst its people; not as one of them, but in order to rid the universe of the mistake that they were.
Daelon expressed his undying gratitude to the creature that had been a friend to him for the briefest of times, and boarded the cargo ship. Daelon had become the sole survivor of mankind and found himself bound for an unknown planet, alone. He returned to the bridge, sat in his chair and resumed control of his systems. The weapons systems implanted inside his ship by the aliens had been rendered useless, while his weapons systems were fully operational.
Out of respect for his friend, he fired the engines, retracted the landing gear and hovered in front of Yin. He pointed his forward guns directly at it, making Yin’s death the most quick and painless. Yin transmitted his appreciation, and Daelon opened fire on his friend, disintegrating it instantly and rupturing the hull, clearing a wide path to open space.
Upon being exposed to the vacuum, bodies and debris began flying at the opening at incredible speeds, while other aliens struggled to anchor themselves to the walls and stanchions in the bay. The violent force caused by the abrupt change in pressure, caused the ship’s orbit to decay, rapidly. Without another moment, wasted watching The Incomplete struggle against the pull of space, Daelon fired his rear thrusters, sending his ship rocketing through the giant hole in front of him.
As he sped away from Tyrran, for what he knew would be the last time, he took one last look at the alien ship, as it rapidly descended towards the entrance to The Depths, beneath Faul City. He then turned his attention back to his control consoles and plotted a course for the mysterious planet that Drellic had intended to be his destination.
According to the ship’s computer, even at maximum speed, the journey to the new world would be five years long. Drellic had intended for the crew of the cargo ship to be in a state of suspended animation for that time, but since Daelon had become one with the Blood of Aia, he decided to remain awake for as long as he could without going insane, so he could see the wonders of uncharted space, along the way.
Nearly one week later, Daelon was beginning to lose interest in the stars and could no longer keep his mind occupied with any thoughts worth dwelling on. He sat in the captain’s chair, after having repaired it, reclined it back about six inches and prepared to sleep for the first time, since he had left Yin and The Incomplete to their fate. He leaned back, closed his eyes, and let his mind wander its natural subconscious course.
As he fell into his first Starblood induced dream, he found himself standing beside his brother on the Siren City beach, overlooking the great Siren Sea. Daelon was dressed in his traditional High Archivist’s cloak. The burns and stains had vanished, making it appear brand new. Drellic wore his traditional black overalls; the symbol of unity between the two worlds of man, displayed proudly on his shoulders. The sun was high in the sky, making the clear, calm waters shimmer like glass.
“I tried,” Daelon said. “I tried to see it done.”
“I know you did,” Drellic replied. “You did well. You’ve made me very proud.”
“But how?” Daelon asked, sadly. “I failed you. I wasn’t strong enough, until it was too late.”
Drellic smiled and said, “You could’ve killed Core and saved yourself as soon as you discovered my ship. But you didn’t. You still went back for your people. That’s what it means to be a Kail. Everything we ever did, was for those we led.”
“But they’re all dead,” Daelon sobbed.
“There wasn’t anything you could’ve done,” Drellic assured him. “And you still got justice for them. You ensured the extinction of an infectious species; one that would’ve most likely conquered us as well, had the Architects never arrived.”
“Now I am the last of us,” Daelon said. “And when I am gone, we will be extinct, as well.”
Drellic smiled again and replied, “Oh, you’re not the last. Not yet.”
“What do you mean?” Daelon asked.
“I’ll give you a hint, brother. This isn’t entirely a dream,” Drel
lic replied. Daelon’s eyes widened with confusion. Drellic then placed his hand on his shoulder and said, “You need to open your eyes now. Your course needs adjusting.”
Daelon quickly sat up in his chair, as his dream state abruptly ended. He noticed a red flashing light on the touch screen to his right, indicating a proximity warning. Daelon then turned his attention to the canopy, where he saw a truly magnificent sight. His ship was on a collision course with a giant ice world. Snow blanketed its entire icy surface, making it a sparkling white gem, in a sea of black. It was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
Daelon engaged the forward thrusters, to slow his momentum, then performed a series of maneuvers, placing him in geosynchronous orbit around the planet. This world’s presence was most intriguing to Daelon. It didn’t appear on any of his current star charts and as far as he knew, it hadn’t been there the day before. He was hovering just a few hundred feet above the surface and to his surprise, his computer informed him that he was receiving a radio transmission.
When he turned on his speakers, he was overjoyed to hear the sound of his brother’s voice. “Daelon,” Drellic whispered. “I’m here. I’m trapped. Please help me.” Daelon jumped out of his seat.
“I’m here! I’m going to get you out! I promise!” he screamed into his microphone. Daelon used his ship’s infrared lens to pinpoint Drellic’s heat signature, which was located at the exact center of the ice world. “Those slimy bastards couldn’t snuff you out, could they?!” Daelon yelled at the top of his lungs, as he reprogrammed his forward turrets to produce one continuous laser burst of intense heat.
A moment later, he opened fire and proceeded to drill a hole into the ice. Daelon’s plan was to burrow down with his lasers, until he was nearly at the planet’s core, and then fly his ship into the tunnel he was crafting, in order to limit Drellic’s exposure to space. From what Daelon could see on his instruments, there was something else at the core of the ice world, producing pressure and a suitable atmosphere for Drellic. This gave Daelon a target for the cargo ship’s airlock to hit. He continued to cut his way into the ice planet, while continuing to scream and jump for joy.
It wasn’t until he reached the midway point in his burrowing task that he noticed a discouraging shadow being cast over the glimmering sphere before him. He remained steadfast and continued firing into the rock and ice, while not even the slightest bit concerned about draining the last of the ship’s weapons’ power.
As he tried his best to ignore the shadow, the shape of the shadow caused his heart to race and his mood to sour. Dark tentacle shaped silhouettes, appeared over the sparkling ice. Daelon watched his weapons’ power levels reach near depletion, while he heard Drellic’s voice crackling through over his speakers. “It’s too late, brother. You must leave,” Drellic insisted. “The enemy is here. Save yourself.”
“No!” Daelon yelled, as he continued firing his continuous laser burst, until the depletion of his power forced the forward turrets to shut down completely. Daelon had reached the desired depth with his cutting, but found himself unable to charge forward into the tunnel he had created. Daelon heard a loud thud overhead on his canopy, and saw the bottom of a slimy, slithering tentacle from the Architect Planet Farmer, which had a firm grasp on the cargo ship.
From within the ice world, Drellic had sensed that Daelon had been captured. “I told you leave, brother,” Drellic said, as the Starblood transmitted his words into Daelon’s speaker system.
“I know,” Daelon replied. “But a Kail does not abandon his people, let alone his own family. I love you, brother.”
The Planet Farmer tightened its grip on the cargo ship, crushing into into bits. Daelon’s body was left spinning out into space. His body glowed yellow like the sun, as the vacuum of space was beginning to overpower the Starblood that was struggling to keep him alive. But with no other matter to merge with that could sustain his life, and the relatively small dose he had ingested in the first place, the Starblood failed and Daelon’s body imploded.
From within the ice world, Drellic screamed in agony and wept for his brother. He then gave a loud war cry to his enemies, challenging the Architects to engage him. But the Architects knew all too well that Drellic was for some reason unknown to them, a force that could only be contained and not killed. This was the reason they had imprisoned him in the ice, in the first place. Drellic was the only sentient being in the universe with the unfathomable power to conquer the Architects. And so, he was left to the elements, encased in a sphere of ice and rock, where he would spend the next fifteen billion years.
Unbeknownst to Drellic, Daelon and the Architects, Aia had observed the fall of mankind, from afar. She had taken a particular interest in Daelon’s journey during his final days, and was saddened by his passing. She was even tempted to interfere and prevent Daelon’s execution, but was still bound by her own laws, to not mettle with her children’s affairs.
Drellic had become the last being in the universe that possessed Aia’s essence. She had the power to absorb the Starblood within Drellic and leave him for dead. She could have even had him released and safely transported to another world, where the Architects had no influence. But on that day, because she was bound by her oath, she left things exactly as they were. And although it was her right to reclaim her essence, she left Drellic with the great power that had been bestowed upon him, in the hopes that he might one day use them to benefit others, if ever released. This was her way of honoring Daelon’s sacrifice; by leaving her ultimate power with the part of Drellic that would always be good and kind hearted; the only part that Daelon ever cared to see in his beloved brother.
Part Three: Of Truth
The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three Page 46