The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three

by Mike Marlinski

  Chapter Eighteen

  The next morning, Drellic and his advisors gathered on the rooftop of the Great Hall, anxiously awaiting the vehicle that would be transporting them to the Flagship. It was still looming over the city in the exact same position it had assumed when it first arrived, and had yet to make a sound or move any part of its slimy outer hull, since Drellic and his party had announced their decision to meet with the High Overseer.

  Nearly an hour had passed, since the government officials had assembled atop the Great Hall. The sun beat down on them with its scolding hot rays, as Siren City was entering its hottest period of the year. The longer he waited, the more Drellic felt as though he was about to suffocate beneath the thick black fabric of his formal government uniform, proudly displaying the ringed circles upon his right shoulder; the white symbol of unity between Siren and Tyrran, commonly displayed on banners across the two worlds.

  “So where is this ship?” Derg Unidos, the current Secretary of Resources, asked Drellic.

  “All the ambassador said, was that we would be transported promptly,” Drellic answered, noticeably annoyed.

  Derg, a pale, obsese man in his mid-thirties, with foul smelling yellow teeth, then proceeded to bombard Drellic with the Great Hall’s latest gossip. Drellic was about to tell him to be quiet, but was interrupted by a strange tightening sensation around his chest. As time passed, he found it more and more difficult to breath. Derg’s mindless chatter was also becoming quieter, as was all of the sound around him.

  A moment later, things began to feel smaller and further away to Drellic; as if he were being pulled under water. He turned to look at the people around him, but found that he could no longer see them. They appeared as simple outlines in a quickly darkening setting.

  Finally, the pressure on his lungs was squeezing so tightly that he was no longer able to breathe at all. And just when he felt like he was on the verge of passing out, the pressure was relieved and he was able to expand and compress his lungs comfortably again.

  He took a deep breath and took a look around, after noticing that his vision had also returned to normal. But to his surprise, he and his fellow public servants were no longer standing on the rooftop of the Great Hall.

  Drellic and the High Council of Siren had been harnessed by some form of teleportation device and had come to find themselves inside a sealed dome of pulsing, black organic tissue.

  Upon regaining some measure of coherence, Drellic scanned the walls of the compartment and noticed a clear slimy substance streaming down to the floor around them. After further analysis, the compartment reminded him of being inside a giant lung. The thick tissue that encapsulated them was perpetually expanding and contracting, making it even more apparent that they were in fact, inside a gigantic living organism.

  Drellic took a step forward and was about to touch the skin of the chamber, when he suddenly felt something heavy roll against his left foot. When he looked down, he saw Derg lying on his back, gasping for air.

  Drellic and one of his colleagues struggled to help Derg to his feet, allowing him to catch his breath. The relocation process had involved a temporary collapse of his airways, sending the already unhealthy, obese man crashing to the floor, upon his arrival to the Flagship.

  “OK. Not off to a good start,” Derg gasped, in between large gulps of air.

  Drellic continued to suspiciously scan the area, as a few more minutes passed by; the boarding party still anxiously awaiting the arrival of their host.

  “Something’s happening,” Derg whispered, pointing to a widening circular gap in the tissue, overhead.

  Eventually, a steady stream of green light emerged from the opening, instantly brightening the chamber. The stream made contact with the reptilian-like scale pattern on the metallic floor at their feet, and became a fixated flow of constant energy.

  Then, as the light slowly began to dim, the silhouette of a tall human male appeared inside it. It was another obvious hologram. The man’s transparent skin and clothing were nearly overpowered by the cylindrical field of light and energy, surrounding him. The brightness of the light, made it difficult for Drellic to locate the edges of the man’s face and body.

  He looked around thirty years younger than the ambassador, but had very similar facial features. He wore an identical emerald cloak and spoke in nearly the same voice as well. Only a slightly higher pitch in his voice, made it distinguishable from the ambassador’s.

  “All this incredible technology, but no further creativity from its creators. How utterly depressing,” Drellic thought.

  Upon making brief eye contact with Derg, he knew that he had the same thought.

  “Welcome aboard the Flagship,” the man said with a smile. “I am the High Overseer. I’m pleased to meet you all. Shall we begin the tour?”

  The High Overseer took a step forward; the cylindrical field of light, remaining securely wrapped around him with his every step.

  Drellic was about to follow behind him and enter the next chamber of the ship, but chose to stop and interrupt the hologram, instead.

  “Excuse me,” Drellic said, as the Overseer turned to face him. “I just have one question, before we proceed.”

  “Then, ask it,” the Overseer cheerfully replied.

  “Is there any way to physically be in the same room with one of you?” Drellic queried.

  The Overseer paused and stared blankly at Drellic, as if he did not understand his question.

  “What he means is that we’ve never actually seen an Architect in person,” said Derg. “We are all curious as to whether or not that is going to happen soon. That’s all.”

  The Overseer paused again after making eye contact with Derg. He then turned his attention back to Drellic, smiled and replied, “We cannot coexist in the same atmosphere. We have modified our atmosphere in certain chambers to accommodate humans, during the tour. After you leave, we will re-pressurize our ship with our own atmosphere and exit our hibernation chamber.”

  Drellic remained silent and respectfully nodded to the Overseer, but already had serious doubts about the validity of the Overseer’s delayed explanation for the Architects’ use of holograms, while communicating with humans.

  The Overseer then led the group to the far wall of the chamber, which parted ways, once the Overseer came close enough to it, to be recognized by whatever organic technology was controlling it.

  As the slimy tissue parted ways, clearing a path for the group into the next area, foul smelling vine-like fibers were slowly tugged apart and then snapped back into place along the edges of the parting skin.

  The group was forced to endure an obnoxious slurping sound, until a clear path was formed into the next area, which was another dome like structure, identical to the one they had just exited.

  “It appears that our other guests have arrived,” the Overseer said, while annoying Drellic with his consistently cheerful tone.

  He then moved aside, so that Drellic and his companions could enter the next room, where they found another boarding party, waiting for them. Empress Tila Hevett of Tyrran and Kamael; transported from Kier-en to Siren by the Archiects, were among them.

  Drellic’s first priority was gathering as much information about the Architects as he could. But the presence of both Kamael and Hevett was very discouraging to him. Drellic was sure that being reunited with the woman responsible for banishing the Kails from Tyrran, along with his former executive officer, who had made sure to end his professional relationship with Drellic on harsh terms, would only complicate an already difficult situation.

  To his dismay, Hevett approached him immediately. Drellic no longer had any feelings of camaraderie for Kamael, but would have certainly preferred his company to Tila’s.

  “Drellic Kail,” she said with a smile, pleasantly extending her hand.

  “It’s wonderful to see you all grown up. You’ve made quite a name for yourself.”

  Drellic reluctantly shook her hand,
while mentally restraining his urge to strangle her to death, at that very moment.

  “It’s an honor to finally meet you in person, Empress,” Drellic replied; a forced smile on his lips.

  “How is your father doing?” she asked. “I understand he’s been quite ill for some time now.”

  “He is a Kail,” Drellic proudly replied. “His strength is unwavering, as always.”

  “I’m sure he’ll pull through,” she said with a smirk, while briefly glancing down at the floor.

  “The miserable old woman wants to see my father’s corpse mounted on her wall,” Drellic thought.

  “Mind your tongue, old hag.”

  After a few more false pleasantries were exchanged between them, Tila returned to her own entourage, leaving Drellic to deal with Kamael. But as the Overseer led the two boarding parties into the next chamber, Kamael did not even glance in Drellic’s direction. He decided to stay focused on his own chief advisor and the Overseer instead, determined to ignore Drellic throughout the duration of their time on the Flagship.

  It left an unfortunate awkwardness in the air, but Drellic was pleased to be left in peace, as he mentally detached himself from all the people around him.

  While the other representatives of humanity dutifully followed behind the Overseer, hanging on his every word, Drellic was focused on every aspect of the Architect ship. He noted the shape of each room; the color of the skin, metal and wiring that lined the walls of every corridor and chamber, they came across.

  Eventually, the Overseer led them inside what he referred to as the heart of the ship. A loud pulsing sound, deafened the boarding parties; punishing them with intense vibrations and tones of various pitches.

  The room had been formed in the shape of a hexagon and the walls were lined with white skin tissue; expanding and compressing with the outer hull of the ship. The floor was crafted to look like a large camera lens, which was discovered to be part of an imaging system, capable of producing three dimensional holographic projections that engulfed the room.

  “This is how it was in the beginning,” the Overseer said, pointing to a display of the ancient Architect Planet Farmer fleet, planting the seeds of life onto two desolate looking rocks in a large black abyss.

  As the fast paced evolution of the two worlds was displayed before the boarding parties in vivid detail, it became obvious that they were witnessing the forming of Siren and Tyrran.

  The tentacles of the Planet Farmers surrounding the two worlds were too numerous to count, and resembled interwoven strands of black fabric, covering the majority of the water and land beneath them.

  “A well-conceived fabrication,” Drellic immediately thought.

  In Drellic’s mind, the incredible technology being exposed to him at every turn, gave him even more of a reason to doubt the Architects. He knew that the Architects had the ability to fabricate whatever evidence they needed to support their claims of being mankind’s creators.

  “Excuse me, sir,” Drellic called out to the Overseer, in the middle of his presentation.

  The Overseer then gave Drellic his full attention with his same cheerful smile, which was identical to all of the previous smiles the boarding parties had seen. Drellic almost immediately noticed that both the Overseer and the ambassador, had shown only three or four different facial expressions, since they first encountered humanity.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt. I just have one more question. What is the purpose of your return to our worlds?” Drellic asked.

  “We have only come to marvel at our creations,” the Overseer said. “We never expected to see such intelligence and such technological progress from man. And when we decided to return to this part of the galaxy, we were overjoyed to find that our great experiment had evolved into the sophisticated spacefaring race, we see here today.”

  “Are there others?” Derg asked. “How many other sentient races have you created out there?”

  Before responding to Derg’s question, the Overseer briefly displayed a stern facial expression for the first time, then quickly reverted back to his familiar pleasant nature.

  “It is our opinion that you are not yet ready to be given that information. All I can tell you is that there are others. And you will come to know them in time,” replied the Overseer.

  Drellic was becoming more suspicious by the second. He was about to question the Overseer’s response regarding the other sentient races they had designed, but was interrupted by a bright flash of light, which brought an end to the three dimensional Planet Farming presentation.

  Hours later, after a lengthy, mind numbing walk through dozens of identical corridors and skin covered dome-like structures, Drellic noticed a horizontal beam of green energy, held in between two short metallic pole shaped stabilizers.

  He spotted it after discretely working his way to the back of the group, placing him several feet behind the Overseer. He periodically turned around; each time verifying that no one was following him; at least not that he could see.

  The sparking beam of energy was at the other end of a narrow corridor to his left, and was the only source of light he could see anywhere at that end of the ship. His elevating heart rate made his legs shake, as he contemplated sneaking away from the group to investigate the beam.

  Drellic was fully aware that he was most likely being monitored by an unseen security system, but he also knew that he could make the situation appear innocent, if he were caught wandering off.

  It was then that he decided to ignore his thoughts of the potential consequences for his actions, and carefully make his way to the other side of the ship. Drellic quietly stopped and dropped to one knee, in order to tie his shoe, allowing the group to walk several paces ahead of him.

  He then waited for the group to pass out of sight, before returning to his feet. Once he stood up, he pretended to look around in a confused manner, as if to search for the rest of the boarding party. After a few more seconds passed by, Drellic quickliy darted down the narrow corridor and walked fifty feet to the strange fixated beam of light, which seemed to act as a laser protection system, guarding a large square shaped steel door.

  As Drellic came closer to the beam, the sparks that danced around it, jumped higher and then joined together. They formed a second, serpent-shaped trail of energy, which lashed out at Drellic once he came to the end of the hallway. It was undoubtedly part of a security system of some kind, and someone or something was trying to prevent him from getting any closer to the thick steel door in front of him.

  Drellic nervously checked the dark hall behind him and found that he was still not being followed. He then got the urge to test the beam’s accuracy, by approaching the door again.

  Once again, he was nearly shocked by the same snake-like extension of electrical energy and was forced to quickly back away into the corridor.

  It was then that the ambassador appeared before him, projected from a small circular opening in the ceiling, directly over his head.

  “Is there something I can help you find, Drellic Kail?” he asked in a quiet, respectful tone.

  “Yes, sir,” Drellic answered, startled by the abruptness of the ambassador’s entrance. “I just got separated from the group. That’s all.”

  “We are aware,” he quickly replied with a smile. “The others have already been notified and are waiting for you at the other end of the hallway.”

  “Thank you. I’ll just go back the way I came then,” Drellic stuttered, as he turned around.

  A moment later, the ambassador vanished and Drellic could see the light from the Overseer’s projection at the far end of the hall. Unwilling to further agitate the situation, Drellic started back towards his entourage, but not before he heard a faint whisper coming from the guarded steel door, behind him.

  He hesitantly stopped and turned to face the door, fearful that the ambassador would notice and reappear. When nothing happened, Drellic decided to take a few extra seconds to wait for the quiet voice i
n the distance to return.

  Another moment later, Drellic was convinced he heard a young woman whispering his name from inside the protected chamber. It caused him to carelessly take a step back towards the door, which alerted the ambassador and caused him to reappear before him.

  Only once the hologram returned, it was displaying an emotionless expression and gave a series of monotone commands.

  “Drellic Kail, this area is off limits to visitors,” the ambassador said. “Return to your group, at once, for your own safety. Your failure to comply will result in your prompt expulsion from the ship.”

  Drellic knew that it was in his best interest to follow the alien’s instructions, but his pride was beginning to overpower his capacity for rational thought again.

  “What is back there?” Drellic asked.

  “It is none of your concern,” the ambassador harshly replied.

  “With all due respect, I am the Prime Minister. I am responsible for the wellbeing of the people of Siren. You claim to be a peaceful people. I would think that you would be willing to address any safety concerns I might have,” Drellic snapped.

  “The contents of that chamber are not a threat to anyone. They are simply none of your concern,” the ambassador said, condescendingly.

  Drellic scoffed, then slowly began walking to the far end of the hallway to rejoin his party. But he only made it halfway there, before stopping and turning to face the ambassador again, who had been following him the entire time.

  “I’m sorry, sir. But that’s just not good enough,” Drellic said in an aggressive tone.

  The ambassador paused and asked, “What are you referring to?”

  “I said, I do not accept your answer. I demand to know what it is in that room, for the sake of my people’s safety,” Drellic coldly demanded.

  The ambassador paused again, then reverted to his emotionless expression and monotone voice.

  “Then you have chosen expulsion,” the alien said, as Drellic could feel intense pressure tightening around his lungs again.

  Both the silence and darkness that accompanied the Architect’s relocation process returned to overpower Drellic, and once his senses returned to normal a few minutes later, he found himself standing alone on the rooftop of the Great Hall, in the dead of night.