The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three

by Mike Marlinski

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Drellic’s discovery aboard the Architect Flagship changed the course of human history, by providing ordinary men and women with super strength and speed. It also gave a new lease on life to both the sick and the dying. Those who accepted Drellic’s miracle element into their lives, never again contracted any illness or even aged; making immortality the last of the compound’s benefits to be discovered.

  In response to the destruction of their Flagship, the other Architect vessels used their own electromagnetic pulses to essentially shut down all of human society throughout the galaxy. But the introduction of the miracle element into the general population, made the loss of their use of technology, a miniscule sacrifice.

  As the Architects spent the next several years remaining hidden behind false holographic versions of themselves, and kept man’s ships and weapons in a useless state, more and more people began to follow Drellic’s cause and grew to hate the aliens.

  No one could explain why the Architect fleet was still lingering in human territories, even ten years after the destruction of the Flagship. But Drellic knew that it was because of the powerful compound he had discovered and recently administered to so many of his people, across the four domains of man.

  Drellic believed that The Overseer was studying the immortal army of super-humans that he had created; most likely trying to find a way to reverse the effects of the compound.

  Finally after a decade of silence from the aliens, the Overseer asked to speak privately with Drellic, who had become much more than the Prime Minister of Siren. He had become the most feared and respected human in the galaxy.

  With his fearful wife Moya by his side, who had repeatedly refused to accept Drellic’s miracle element into her body, Drellic met with the Overseer to discuss a cease of hostilities between the two peoples, as well as man regaining control over their technology.

  Drellic left Moya alone in a wooded area on the outskirts of Siren City, as he entered a clearing to speak with the Overseer’s familiar hologram.

  “You are looking well, Drellic Kail,” the Overseer politely remarked; the sun rising behind him.

  “There will be no pleasantries exchanged between us,” Drellic snapped. “We have kept our end of the bargain. We have ceased all hostilities. Now, we ask that you do the same; by returning control over our technology to us.”

  “Make no mistake. It was you who attacked us first,” the Overseer replied. “We came in peace. We have always been of peace.”

  “Is that why you created the compound that has made us into gods?!” Drellic shouted. “Where was your benevolence then? Or are you going to tell me that you weren’t planning on using something like that, against my people!”

  “Your ingesting the element was unprecedented,” the Overseer said. “To be honest, I’m not so sure I know what it will mean for the future of your race. It is an element we have never even fully understood ourselves; even after billions of years.”

  “If that’s true, then what is it?” Drellic asked. “What was its purpose?”

  The Overseer paused and replied, “The element is called Starblood. It is also known as, The Blood of Aia.”

  “Who? What?” Drellic asked, puzzled.

  “Our oldest ancestor; an immortal and all powerful being of pure energy,” the Overseer replied. “You’ve tasted the essence of her life force, as have many other humans. It is possible that your race may belong to her now. That is one of many things that remains to be seen. As I said, this was most unprecedented.”

  “Then, take it back!” Moya screamed, as she entered the clearing behind Drellic.

  Drellic whirled around, giving his wife an angry look of disapproval.

  “I told you to stay back!” Drellic screamed.

  But Moya ignored him and pleaded with the Architect Overseer to find a way to take back the Starblood; the element she felt had poisoned her people.

  “You are not the man I fell in love with!” she screamed at Drellic. “You’ve become a monster! And you’re turning all of our people into mindless monsters as well! The Architects came in peace. They saved us from extinction and you repaid them by starting a senseless war and robbing them of something you don’t even understand!”

  “Your wife has proven herself to be most wise, Drellic Kail,” the Overseer remarked. “You would be wise to accept her judgment as fact. You may have doomed your race without even realizing it. Furthermore, we are a people as old as time itself. And we created you. In time, we will find a way to reclaim the essence of our ancestor. In time, you will see that this is a battle you will never win.”

  “We will see,” Drellic softly replied, while giving his wife an irate glare. “We will see.”

  “For now however, we will relinquish our control over your technology. It is after all, of very little concern to us,” the Overseer said. “Consider it an act of good faith. I sincerely hope you will give one in return. Good day to you both,” he said with a smile, before vanishing into thin air.

  Drellic then turned to Moya and asked, “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? The position you’ve put me in?”

  “No,” Moya sobbed. “What could I have possibly done to the great Drellic?”

  “You’ve revealed yourself to be a threat to me, as well as to our people,” Drellic coldly replied.

  “What are you talking about? I tried to save you,” Moya cried.

  “Only in your delusional mind,” Drellic snapped. “But you’ve left me no choice now. I have to make an example of you.”

  Drellic’s final look of disgust and anger, before dragging his wife back to the city at supersonic speeds, was enhanced by a yellow shimmering in his eyes; common among those infused with Starblood.

  That same night, while the sun sank into the Siren Sea, Drellic publicly executed Moya. The event was witnessed by all of humanity and as her body crashed to the metal platform at Drellic’s feet, a smoking laser pistol gripped firmly in his hand, the thousands of Starblood infused citizens in attendance, actually cheered her death.

  Afterwards, Drellic was consoled by his father, whom he had saved from death with Starblood, ten years before.

  “It was treason, son,” Morn assured Drellic, the same yellow shimmer in the old man’s healthy eyes. “It had to be done. She sold us out. You did the right thing.”

  But even while spending the next several decades continuing to wage his war against the Architects, and nurturing his already enormous ego, he wasn’t so sure.

  Sixty years later, Syll, who had also given into temptation and accepted Starblood out of her unconditional love for her family, gave birth to Daelon Kail.

  Unfortunately for Daelon, he had been born during a time when man’s Starblood resources had already been depleted; condemning him to a mortal life, along with the rest of his generation.

  After graduating at the top of his class at his academy, in the fields of bio-molecular technology and human history, Morn and Syll sent him to live on Tyrran, where he would later become the planet’s High Archivist.

  By that time, the Architect War had taken a violent turn, and was primarily focused on Siren, as it had been from the beginning. This made Tyrran an ideal place to send Drellic’s much younger brother, and was also becoming a safe haven for the younger, mortal generations of man.

  While Daelon remained on Tyrran to follow his path, Drellic and Core, Drellic’s first lieutenant, waged battle after battle against the aliens; only to have them end in stalemates, each time.

  The Architect ships were impervious to human weapons and were no longer susceptible to organic hull penetrations from human boarding parties. While at the same time, any humans directly engaged in the war were infused with Starblood and could not be killed by means other than exposure to the vacuum of space.

  Within a century, Drellic had turned the majority of humanity into a race of potential tyrants, capable of one day claiming the galaxy for their own.

  While the Arch
itects had never intended to go to war with mankind, their entire race was not always in agreement. Certain Architect factions elsewhere in the galaxy, were in fact breeding genetically engineered armies of sentient beings, created for the sole purpose of conquering naturally evolved sentient beings.

  Or, in some cases, certain Architects would genetically engineer two different sentient races, and then train them to fight and conquer one another, just to see which race would win.

  In short, they did not always share the same values, but they did agree on one thing; the fate of mankind. And it wasn’t until Drellic realized that the end was near, that he finally began to see the error of his ways.

  More importantly, it made him realize that the Architects had had the ability to wipe out mankind, since the day they first appeared over their worlds. But those particular Architects, including the Overseer, loved humanity and wanted to see them prosper. They didn’t want to annihilate them. But Drellic Kail had sparked a sadistic trend that the immortal members of his race seemed to be adamant on following.

  All living Architects at that time agreed that in order to prevent mankind from one day using Starblood to conquer all life in the galaxy, possibly including the Architects themselves, they all needed to meet their end, in the vacuum of space; the one place Starblood infused humans could be killed.

  So, as Drellic Kail was finally on the verge of declaring his intentions to surrender to the Architects, his first lieutenant, Core, a young, mortal and extremely bitter man, betrayed him and flushed him out into space.

  At the time, Drellic was fleeing from a deformed Siren, on the brink of destruction, and was on his way to find his brother, Daelon on Tyrran and initiate a last ditch effort to save mankind from extinction.

  He watched as the Architect Planet Farmers wrapped their tentacles around the outer atmosphere of the planet, burning Siren from the outside in.

  Then, just as he convinced himself that he still had a chance to salvage the legacy of his once great people, after losing everyone that had ever mattered to him in his life, he knew he had been betrayed.

  Core sealed and depressurized the cabin from the pilot’s seat, sending Drellic and five other soldiers into space without pressure suits. But as Core watched Drellic’s body soar across the gap between his ship and the nearest Planet Farmer, he watched it briefly take on the form of a miniature shooting star, glowing bright yellow like the sun and eventually dissolving against the skin of the Planet Farmer’s organic hull.

  Drellic had vanished and was presumed dead. But as it had always been Drellic’s nature to endure and thrive after even the most savage of beatings, he awoke hours later, aboard the Planet Farmer, ready to see the true face of his ancient enemies, for the first time.