The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three

by Mike Marlinski

  Chapter Thirteen

  Unbeknownst to Drellic and his crew, the pulsating plethora of organic technology facing the Salvation’s bow, was an Architect Planet Farmer. The particular model slithering over the surface of the water moon, was an ancient relic, felt underused by its designers.

  It was that exact ship that was part of a large fleet of similar ships, responsible for the conception of life on Siren and Tyrran. But even with all its abilities, both creative and destructive, its living features were useless without its crew, whose number and physical appearance remain unknown to us.

  As we now live in a time of much greater understanding with regard to our ancestors in Eizenfar, the most compelling mystery to date is the physical appearance of the Architects.

  The typical and most widely accepted assumption, is that they built their fear inducing sea monster ships, in their own image; as a sort of testament to their own dominance over their own ecosystem.

  Perhaps that is the case, and it truly was merely their egos at work, but I believe that these masters of bio-technology and genetic manipulation, had an entirely different perspective and reasoning, for the need for chariots of such designs.

  Metal can be melted or cracked. Energy shields can be penetrated. But a ship with a living skin, capable of almost instant regeneration, can never be killed or even damaged, so long as it has a crew to operate it. That being said, I’m not ready to write the Architects off as an egomaniacal race of bullies that sped around the universe inside gigantic versions of themselves. Such assumptions have always struck me as, disrespectful.

  By the time Salvation came to view the main body of the ship, Drellic was already well into the planning stages of an exit strategy for Salvation; including a rescue operation for his landing party on the moon, below.

  At the end of the lengthy tentacle like extremities, Drellic saw a scaly shell of rock, covering an intricate network of black, oily skin covered coils, a bulky torso and a light green haze that seemed to cover every inch of the ship; pulsating in the form of an electrical charge, around the tentacles, once leaked into open space. It was the only non-organic looking part of the vessel and was putting Drellic even more on edge.

  The closer the tentacles came to Salvation, the greater the crew could feel the pull of an invisible tractor beam, keeping Salvation held firmly in place. It was as if they were being held over a campfire, to be cooked and devoured by the approaching monster.

  “Whoever you are, you’ll have to wait,” Drellic thought to himself.

  He then ordered his crew to begin the rescue operation. Salvation had a tractor beam of its own. Since communication between the Salvation and its shuttles had been cut off by the incursion of the Planet Farmer, there was no way to warn the landing party about the upcoming extraction process.

  Moments later, the shuttles were given a slight tug by Drellic’s tractor beam, as a means to announce to the landing party, that they needed to board their ships.

  Once Drellic saw that all of his people were safely inside the shuttles, with an abundance of water ice locked in storage, the tractor beam was switched to full power; sending the shuttles hurling towards the entrance to Salvation’s landing bay, at a very problematic velocity.

  The small pick-up truck sized shuttles, skipped over the hard metallic runway, like pebbles over a pond. When they finally came to a stop, Drellic ordered that the landing bay be sealed and re-pressurized, before his exit strategy could come into play.

  All attempts to communicate with the Architects had failed and the glowing, brightening electrical charge of the Planet Farmer’s tentacles, was just a few dozen kilometers from reaching Salvation’s hull.

  Drellic had hoped to avoid a violent confrontation with the first alien race to ever discover humanity, or vice versa, but as he felt his mission and crew were both in jeopardy, Drellic ordered his tactical specialist to fire every energy weapon that lined Salvation’s topside and underbelly, in order to break free and escape.

  Then, as if to mock Drellic’s efforts, every burst of blue energy emitted by Salvation, dissolved in the form of ripples in water, upon the Planet Farmer’s unflawed outer skin.

  “This is it. This is the exact moment of my failure. I’m so sorry,” Drellic thought to himself, as he fell backwards into the commander’s chair; silently apologizing to his family, shipmates and species.

  It was seconds later, that a bright red flash filled the bridge compartment, briefly blinding all those within view. It was a glitch in the holographic projection that displayed the approaching electrical charge.

  Once the glitch was corrected, a solid image returned, giving the crew an opportunity to adjust their vision. Once Drellic’s eyes had adjusted, he looked into the three dimensional image of the moon and stars before him, and saw no alien ship tainting the star-scape, ahead.

  By no action of his own, Drellic and his crew were safe, at least for the time being, and the Architects had seemingly vanished without a trace.

  “What manner of trickery is this?” thought Drellic, as he climbed out of the commander’s chair, to more closely inspect the projection.

  He ordered his navigators to utilize every external camera on Salvation at once, to give him a three hundred and sixty degree picture of their surroundings.

  A moment later, the red hologram expanded, forming a ring around the bridge compartment and crew. The nervous officers and technicians frantically spun around, searching the circular data stream for any sign of the aliens.

  As luck would have it, the Architects were nowhere to be found anywhere in the region, leaving the entire crew of Salvation awestruck, while still in fear for their lives.

  Slow hours dragged by on board, as the men and women of Salvation struggled to make sense of their recent circumstances. In that time, Drellic had retired to his quarters, where he was soon after visited by Kamael; his executive officer.

  Kamael was an older and paler man than Drellic, with short dark hair and a bright red scar, stretched across his wrinkled brow. His icy blue eyes scanned the room, after he received Drellic’s permission to enter.

  Upon entering, he immediately noticed the broken crystal model on the floor to his left, which Drellic chose not to explain.

  “You know what that was, don’t you?” Kamael insinuatingly asked.

  “What makes you say that?” Drellic asked, sternly.

  “Just a feeling,” Kamael answered. “While we were all confused beyond measure; unable to process a single rational thought, you were deep in thought; sharper than you’ve been this entire trip.”

  “Not that it’s any of your business, but you are wrong,” Drellic grunted.

  Kamael let out a frustrated exhale, before rolling his eyes and angrily replying, “It is very much my business, sir. As your Second, I am obligated to replace you, should you be deemed by the crew to be incompetent, should you become incapacitated, or should you meet your death. All that being said, if I am a potential commander of the ship, I need to know the nature of the danger we face.”

  “I am just as much confused beyond measure as the rest of you, XO. I assure you,” Drellic insisted. “As for my competence, as well as my health, don’t assume you’ll ever be lifting the stat bars from my uniform, Kamael. I prefer you to be right where you are.”

  An awkward pause, followed by a dutiful nod was all Kamael would offer in response to Drellic’s confident defense. But after Kamael exited the room and the doors closed behind him, Drellic immediately turned his attention to the small sub space transmitter sitting on his desk.

  He immediately entered a sequence of commands onto the keypad on the back of the device, which caused it to immediately begin recording and transmitting his words.

  “Father,” Drellic whispered into the transmitter’s microphone. “Father, I don’t know if you will hear this. But I need you to know something.”

  Drellic was then taking panicky breaths, nearly in perfect rhythm with the flashing red recording light
atop the transmitter.

  “I need you to know that you were right. There are monsters out here, father. And I think they were waiting for me.”