The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three

by Mike Marlinski

  Chapter Six

  A white cloud of engine exhaust blinded Morn’s view of the stars, as he stared lifelessly out a window aboard the Starliner, “Traverser”. The long silver ship, resembling a gigantic arc, slowly propelled itself across the dark void that separated Siren and Tyrran.

  He leaned back against the firm backboard of his seat, his wife and son sitting beside him, trying not to notice Drellic’s tears or Syll’s bitter facial expression.

  Morn had never told his wife the truth about why the family had been forced to leave their life behind. Instead, he opted to blame the abrupt decision to depart Tyrran on Tila, claiming she had tried to seduce him and would ruin his political career if he refused her, which he claimed he did.

  Morn described it as the swift unraveling of a brief affair between him and the Empress. He felt that convincing his wife he had been unfaithful for a short time, was better than admitting to killing the highest member of their society.

  As he glanced around the crowded cabin of the ship, while continuing to avoid Syll’s glare, Morn’s eyes fell upon a familiar blue glow fighting its way through the thick cloud of mist being secreted by the ship’s engines.

  Moments later, the Traverser began to slow down, causing the fog outside the window to dissolve. The beautiful planet, Siren was then revealed behind it. Despite his recent misfortunes, Morn could not help but see a glimmer of hope in the great ocean beneath him that covered the vast majority of his new home.

  Siren was called the “jewel of the galaxy” and held more water than any planetary body known to man. This made it an extraordinary find in a galaxy as desolate as Eizenfar.

  Upon entering Siren’s atmosphere, the Traverser automatically enabled its reentry shield, which allowed the ship to pass seamlessly into the skies over Siren City, without even the slightest hint of friction or turbulence.

  Morn was immediately captivated by the Siren City skyline, gleaming brightly in the sunlight. It was a monstrous network of steel skyscrapers, air transit systems and massive stone monuments, dating back millions of years. Siren’s own rendition of Delendra Tower stood a mile high at the exact center of the city, just as it did on Tyrran. Only Siren City was nearly three times the size of Faul City.

  As they began their descent towards the city dock, Morn noticed the Great Hall standing two thousand feet tall, just to the right of Delendra. This mammoth white stone building, was to be the Kails first stop on the long journey ahead of them. All would be citizens were required to officially declare themselves there upon arrival, before the Prime Minister’s customs committee.

  A few minutes later, the Traverser landed atop a giant platform overlooking the Siren Sea. The Kails exited the ship through a small side portal, awkwardly carrying several suitcases and handbags, as they descended the metal staircase leading down to the platform; a task they were not accustomed to having to perform themselves.

  Morn and Syll were forced to stop for a moment, after noticing that Drellic had stopped in the center of the massing crowd of passengers. As she looked at him more closely, Syll realized that Drellic was admiring the white sandy beaches that extended for thousands of miles along the sea.

  Drellic had never seen such a beautiful sight, though his young fragile heart was still clinging to the thought of Moya. The smell of the salt water calmed him; something both Morn and Syll deduced right away.

  Though they considered hurrying the boy along, they silently decided to place their bags at their feet and stand beside him at the edge of the landing platform. Together, the Kails watched the sun sink into the shimmering waters, uncertain as to what awaited them in the chaotic city at their backs.

  Once the crowd of passengers had thinned, the Kails boarded a slow moving air ferry, which carried them over the majestic cityscape to the rooftop of the Great Hall.

  They were greeted by an entourage of city officials, who seemed to be communicating with an unseen party with their ear piece, mobile devices. Once the ferry landed atop the building and a cloud of steam was ejected into the sky from exhaust ports on the starboard side, the officials immediately pushed passed the flight attendants who were attempting to lead their passengers to the exits.

  While Drellic had no idea what to expect, both Morn and Syll knew why they had come. As if they already knew where they had been seated, the officials quickly walked to the Kail family without taking even the slightest glance around the cabin.

  A young overly assertive looking man stood over Morn, intently glaring down at him, while the pale elderly woman beside him smiled at Drellic, in an attempt to comfort him. But her icy blue eyes and cold wrinkly skin only furthered the child’s discomfort.

  “Would you come with us please, sir? Both you and your family?” the man asked Morn.

  Without ever looking up at the officers that surrounded them, Morn sarcastically asked, “Do we have a choice?”

  Syll tightly gripped Drellic’s trembling hand, as the Kails were taken from the rooftop landing pad, down a dimly lit flight of concrete stairs that seemed to stretch on forever. Morn didn’t want to think about it, but the damp air and musty smell from the stairwell, only reminded him of the time he had spent barricaded beneath the feet of the enforcers that had come to investigate Covlar’s murder, five years prior.

  As his mind drifted further into the memory of that fateful night, he found himself transported back to the familiar feeling of being on the verge of execution. It had always been said that Siren’s democratic government was far more reasonable with its people than Tyrran’s monarchy. Furthermore, Morn had always been under the impression that Siren’s Prime Minister was regarded as both a very patient and understanding man, with very little interest in rumors.

  Still, even feeling like he was on the brink of either death or incarceration, his greatest fear was that his wife and child were minutes away from learning the truth about their exile.

  The group came to an abrupt stop, forcing Morn to rejoin reality. He looked ahead passed the bulky official leading the pack, to see that they had reached a reinforced steel door at the very bottom of the stairwell.

  The bulky official punched in a sequence of numbers and letters on a keypad above the door handle. A transparent horizontal bar at the top of the pad was then illuminated by a bright blue light, and a harsh buzzing sound echoed off the close walls of the stairwell, startling Drellic and his mother.

  The official then opened the door but did not enter the next chamber. Instead, he held the door open so that the Kails could pass by him, while the other officials also stepped to the side.

  Morn reluctantly entered the room, Syll and Drellic following closely behind him. Once the three of them were inside, the door was quickly slammed shut and locked. But before they could react, the commanding voice of a tall, strong middle aged man at the far end of the room, requested that they be seated.

  Three chairs had been placed in the center of the dimly lit, gray brick room. One of them was much lower to the ground than the other two, and was obviously meant for young Drellic.

  Aside from the three chairs and the silhouette of the man standing in front of them, the room was completely empty. The man, presumably a higher government official, had undoubtedly been expecting the Kail’s for at the very least, the length of their flight between worlds.

  Morn, Syll and Drellic took their seats, as the man stepped out from the shadows and addressed them. It was Jin Callos, Prime Minister of Siren; a tall formally dressed ex-war general, with a darker olive skin tone that reminded Drellic of Moya.

  His short, dark curly hair, dripped with sweat, as it was nearly one hundred degrees Fahrenheit inside the room. Morn was becoming more and more uneasy about the blatant secrecy of the meeting, and Jin’s unprecedented solo appearance, along with the intense humidity in the room, was not helping.

  “I can see that this is just as uncomfortable for you, as it is for me,” Jin said with a slight smile. “I apologize for these conditions, but it is
imperative that this conversation be kept a secret. It is a matter of planetary security.”

  Morn and Syll were then beyond confused, and Drellic had never been more terrified; not even on his darker days with his father’s temper.

  As the deafening silence that followed began to smother him, the boy began to cry.

  “Don’t be afraid,” Syll said in a comforting voice, holding him close.

  “Sir, with respect, what exactly is happening here?” Morn asked Jin. “Why lock the four of us down in this cellar?”

  Jin pulled a fourth chair from the back of the room and sat in front of the Kails, folding his hands on his lap while conveying sympathy with his eyes.

  ”I’ve recently spoken with Empress Hevett. Frankly, she had nothing but great things to say about you and your lovely family, Master Kail,” Jin assured Morn with a smile.

  No words were coming to aid Morn with a response to what the Prime Minister had just said. Instead he just stared blankly at him, waiting for a quick change in attitude to reveal Jin’s true thoughts.

  “You weren’t expecting that?” Jin asked Morn, puzzled. “That baffles me, to be honest. Tila has always spoken very highly of Kail House. She said that your departure from Tyrran was due to personal matters that were out of your control. I know all too well how unpredictable life can be, and so I whole heartily sympathize.”

  “What is she doing? What kind of game is she playing?” Morn asked himself, referring to the Empress.

  Jin’s comments about Tila’s kind words made Syll cringe, as she tightened her grip around Drellic’s shoulders. She was still wrestling with the thought that Morn had betrayed her, naturally unbeknownst to Jin.

  “I don’t wish to prolong your confusion, or your discomfort,” Jin continued. “So I’ll be happy to cut through the small talk and declare my intentions to the three of you. This will help shed some light on the nature of our current surroundings.”

  The Prime Minister then rose to his feet and looked upon the Kails with his familiar authoritative expression.

  “Though the insurgency have been silent for some time, I have reason to suspect that they are not only still at work, but that they have operatives within my government,” he began. “The people who brought you to me are some of my most trusted cabinet members, so you needn’t worry about them. But I have suspected for some time that key members of the terrorist threat have been controlling their network from within these walls, and the walls of our Delendra Tower.”

  At that moment, Morn realized that he and his kin were not being threatened at all. In fact, it appeared as though the outcome of this meeting would be quite the opposite.

  “Like I said, Tila has done nothing but vouche for you,” Jin said. “That being said, I know I can trust you. You did great things for the Tyrranese government. I can only hope you can bring the same insight to Siren in these uncertain times. I’ve arranged for immediate accommodations for your family, while you and I go over the logistics of it all.”

  “Sir, are you offering me a job?” Morn asked with a baffled expression.

  “I can’t promise you a position as high as chief advisor, Kail,” Jin answered. “At least, not right now. But I can start you from the ground up.”

  “Of course, sir,” Morn answered with a stutter. Syll was beginning to finally feel some relief, while Drellic could sense the tension in the room lifting and calmed himself.

  “What did you have in mind?” Morn queried.

  A moment later, the harsh buzzing tone returned from behind them. The Kails turned around in their chairs to see Gallon Vez, Siren’s Secretary of Resources, enter the room.

  He was relatively short, only six and a half feet tall, and wore the traditional blue hooded cloak, commonly worn by scholars and archivists on both worlds.

  Jin announced that Morn would be working with Gallon on a project that would involve the tracking of missing mineral resources across Siren, Tyrran and Bouldon; a space station colony the size of both worlds combined, that was home to the majority of mankind’s hard laborers.

  It was believed that the insurgency was stealing precious elements from hundreds of factories in the three human domains, and using them to both build and charge their energy weapons.

  While Jin, Morn and Gallon went over the details, Syll and Drellic were escorted to a safe house at the far end of Siren City; a place they would be referring to as the new Kail House for many years to come.