Dark Sentinel: Book one in the Sentinel Series

by Adam Matlow

  “Well, your men were wrong. Besides, I doubt most of your men can count above two anyway.”

  Davon ignored the snipe.

  “No matter.” His gaze returned to Vana. “So, it’s true. Some of you did survive. And how fortunate that you should show yourself at the moment when I need you the most.”

  Marcus turned to Vana, who stood with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. “What’s he talking about?” he asked.

  “I have no idea,” she replied quickly. Too quickly. Marcus cocked his head, but she looked away from him.

  “Oh, come now,” boomed Davon. “Don’t be so modest. You know how you can help me. Perhaps we can come to an arrangement? You tell me where the rest of your people are hiding, and I’ll let you leave here unharmed. I already know they are not on this planet - otherwise you wouldn’t have needed a ship to get here.”

  “Maybe I’m the only one left.”

  “Well for all our sakes, I hope that isn’t true. When I realised that the ship I’d shot down was of J’Darra design I feared I had made a terrible mistake. You don’t know how relieved I was to discover you had survived.”

  Wait a minute,” butted in Marcus. “You lot tried to wipe them out, so why now the sudden interest in her wellbeing? You’ve been trying to kill us since the day I met Vana.”

  “Nonsense. I wasn’t trying to kill her. I was trying to find her. I was just killing everyone who got in my way. You’ve survived longer than most who have opposed me. If the stakes were not so high, I could find our little encounters amusing.”

  “Why is everyone being so cryptic around here. What high-stakes. Will someone start making sense around here?”

  Davon let out a sigh and waved his hand dismissively.

  “I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain everything to you and you wouldn’t understand it even if I did. But I didn’t come here to speak to you.” His eyes found Vana’s again. “So, what will it be? Give up the location of people. I guarantee that they won’t be harmed, or else come with me and I make you the same promise.”

  “I-- I need some time to think,” said Vana shifting on her feet. Marcus couldn’t tell if she was playing for time or if she was seriously considering his offer. They were supposed to be using this time to try and get information from Davon, but so far it seemed to have been a one-sided conversation.

  “We don’t have much time,” said Davon. “Less than an hour by now I expect.”

  Marcus seized upon the opportunity. “Feel free to leave anytime you want. I’m sure you’ve got a way out of here. You must have a ship lurking around here too. That’s how you’re able to get around so fast.”

  “Yes, yes,” said Davon, a note of irritation in his voice. He looked right through Marcus, his eyes locked on Vana. A faint smile appeared on his gaunt face.

  A console near where Vana was standing started to beep urgently. Marcus reached for the weapon tucked into his belt. He rested his hand on it but fought the urge to draw it.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  Vana hurried over to the console and worked it, her hands moving rapidly over the controls. “The ship’s computers, have detected an intrusion. Someone is trying to download all the datastores,” she said.

  They both looked at Davon, who stepped forward and was now inside the ship.

  “What are you doing?” Marcus yelled. Yet more alarms started to sound.

  There was a blur as Charlie burst out of her hiding place in the adjacent room, her shotgun aimed directly at Davon.

  “Back up or I’ll blow your frigging head off,” she snarled.

  “Do you really think your primitive weapon can hurt me?” he said taking another step forward.

  “Vana?” said Marcus, hoping for some clue as to what he should do.

  The beeping from the console became more intense.

  “I’m detecting a transmission from outside,” she yelled back. “The doors! When we opened the doors, we lowered our guard. External signals are normally blocked by the hull, but with the door open--”

  “Then close it!”

  “I can’t, he’s disabled the system.” Vana banged the console with her fists. “I can’t stop him.”

  “To hell with this,” yelled Charlie. She fired the shotgun at point blank range at Davon. Stars filled Marcus’s vision, and his ears rang. He felt dizzy and fell back against the wall. The smell of gunpowder filled the air, and it took a few seconds for him to regain his composure. Davon staggered back a few paces from the shot but remained standing.

  He laughed as he regained his balance; a wide grin appeared on his face. “I told you it wouldn’t work.”

  “No, but this might,” shouted Marcus pulling out the weapon Vana gave him. He yanked on the trigger. There was a crackling sound as a bolt of blue energy shot from the barrel and hit Davon square in the chest. It sent him crashing back into a bulkhead by the entrance to the ship. For several seconds the only noise was the beeping console Vana was working on.

  “Is he dead?” Asked Marcus. He looked at the weapon in his hand. It was hard to believe that something so small could pack that much punch.

  “God, I hope so,” said Charlie. “He was starting to piss me off.”

  Marcus limped towards the crumpled figure, the weapon aimed at him.

  “He’s not moving, let’s get the hell out of here and-”

  He was cut short by Davon, who rose and pinned Marcus to the wall by the neck. He swiped his hand, knocking the weapon from Marcus grasp. He heard it clatter on the floor some distance away.

  “I see you are not completely stupid after all,” growled Davon.

  Charlie aimed her shotgun at Davon She jostled for position, trying to get a clean shot at Davon, but to no avail. Instead, she dropped the gun and charged at him, who with apparently little effort turned and pushed Charlie away with his free hand. She jerked back violently and smashed against the hull of the ship. All the wind was knocked from her. She lay on the floor and gasped for air.

  Marcus tried to kick himself free, but his vision started to dim and his strength waned. Davon was far too strong for him.

  Vana furiously entered commands into a console.

  “I remember you,” said Davon, who lifted Marcus so as they were face to face.

  “What?” gasped Marcus, who was finding it difficult to breath pinned against the wall.

  “Hey Davon,” yelled Vana, as she pressed a button on the console she was standing next to.

  A new, distinct and even more urgent alarm blared out, everything on the inside of the ship lit up and flashed. Consoles beeped in a cacophony of different sirens and screens filled with walls of alien text, most of it flashing.

  “No!” roared Davon. He dropped Marcus and ran to the console, barging Vana out of the way, hitting her hard across the face with the back of his hand.

  “The pods!” yelled Vana, as she struggled to get to her feet. Marcus staggered across and helped her up and they both fell through the doorway. Charlie sucked in deep breaths as Marcus reached through the doorway and pulled her into the room.

  “What did you do,” shouted Marcus over the din as he helped Charlie into her pod and activated it. “You know how I said we had an hour? Well, we don’t have anymore. Get in your pod and go now.”

  Charlie's pod vanished through a gap in the ceiling, which sealed itself afterwards. Marcus headed to his own and as soon as he was sure Vana was safely in her pod, he activated his own and gritted his teeth. Immediately there was a loud high-pitched screeching noise and a massive burst of acceleration as the pod screamed out of the ship and into the atmosphere.

  “Marcus, are you there? Are you ok?” Vana’s voice crackled through some unknown speaker in the pitch-black pod.

  “I’m here. In one piece. I think.” Marcus' stomach flipped as the pod reached the apex of its trajectory and started plummeting towards the ground.

  “Marcus, what have I done? If Davon uses the information in the ship’s c
omputer to find the rest of my people-- ” she stifled a sob.

  “Vana,” he began, “everything will be alrigh-” there was a deep thud as his pod hit the ground and a second in close succession. He felt a wave of dizziness come over him and held onto the sides of his pod to steady himself. The doors opened, and light streamed in, hurting his eyes. He raised his to shield them from the light and fell from the pod and into the dusty earth. He rolled a few feet away from it and looked back. Despite it being oval at the top and bottom it was standing perfectly upright on its end.

  He saw Vana’s pod open and she stepped out, with far more grace and elegance than he managed himself. She walked over to him and reached out her hand to help him up.

  “Takes a bit of getting used to,” she said. “The pods can mess with your sense of equilibrium.” She sniffed. Her eyes were red and puffy. She’d been crying and trying not to show it.

  Marcus sat and dusted himself off.

  “Okay, I have to know something,” he said, taking her hand and standing up.

  “When you first came here you barely spoke a word of English, but you seem to have picked it up incredibly fast. What I want to know is, when the hell did you learn the word ‘equilibrium’?”

  A faint outline of a smile crept onto Vana’s mouth. She wiped a tear from her eye, spreading dust all over her face in the process.

  “No, I’m being serious!” he continued. “I’ve probably only used the word twice in my entire life, and one of them was just now. And I still have no idea what it means.”

  Marcus sat on a nearby rock and beckoned Vana to join him. She wandered over trying not to laugh and sob at the same time.

  “I promise to explain it to you one day,” she sniffed. “And I will make sure to only use small words.”

  Marcus looked down, without even thinking about it he had taken her hand in his. They sat, staring out over the ruins of the city. The pods had landed in the exact spot he’d selected on the map.

  “I hope Charlie’s okay,” he said, looking towards the mountains in the distance.

  “It is time,” said Vana. Marcus shielded his eyes as a bright white light lit up beyond the horizon. Vana stared at it, unblinking. After a few moments, the sound of the blast reached them. At this distance it was a faint low rumble. With the intensity of the explosion gone, Marcus took his hands away from his eyes and squinted into the distance. A mushroom cloud soared into the sky above the impact site.

  Marcus turned to Vana, who remained silent, and wiped a tear from her cheek. The ship was her one link back to her people. Now it was gone. Would she ever be able to return home?

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I will be when this is over.” She wiped the tears off her face with her sleeve.

  “Do you think he made it out before the blast?”

  “He knew what we were doing. He would have had a way out.”

  “Is there any way we can warn your people? Get them a message somehow?”

  “No, not now. The pods only have a short-range communication system. I could have sent a message from the ship, but it’s no longer an option.” She looked at the clouds billowing in the distance. “Besides, I couldn’t take the risk Davon could track the signal to its destination - finding my people. If they haven’t already moved on. I’ve been gone for so long.”

  They spent the next few minutes in silence, watching the sky, and the sun creeping ever closer to the horizon. In the distance, birds were calling from their perches in the ruins of the surrounding buildings. It was peaceful, and Marcus wished the moment would last forever.

  The silence was interrupted by a soft beeping coming from Vana’s neck where Jax still hung.

  “Jax are you okay?” she asked.

  “I am undamaged, thank you Vana. However, I must tell you that my analysis indicates that Davon was able to retrieve over seventy percent of the ship’s database. Chances are high that he will be able to find the rest of the J’Darra once he has decoded the data.”

  Vana punched the side of her pad, and sank to her knees; fresh tears streamed down her face.

  “I wanted to help my people, to stop the destruction of any more worlds at the hands of the Krall. To allow us to come out of hiding. But since I got here, everything has gone wrong. I should never have attempted this alone.”

  “You’re not alone anymore. You have me. We’re going to stop him. He keeps underestimating us. Even after all these years of living amongst us, he fails to see us for what we are. Stubborn sons of bitches. We don’t give up, especially when the odds are against us.”

  Vana seemed to appreciate the sentiment but still appeared downbeat.

  “We should go,” she said. “He probably tracked us to our general location. If he’s even bothering to come after us anymore, now that he has what he wanted.”

  “What should we do with the pods?” asked Marcus when they were ready to go.

  “We shouldn’t leave them out in the open,” said Vana. “Someone might find them. We should find somewhere to hide them.”

  After a little while searching the nearby buildings, they came across one with a basement big enough to accommodate both.

  “How do we go about moving these things?” Asked Marcus, sizing them up. “They look heavy. Perhaps if we could find some rope we could lasso them and drag them--”

  He stopped. Vana gently pushed her pod which glided effortlessly through the air, still upright and hovering a few inches above the ground.

  “How are you doing that? On second thoughts, don’t bother explaining it to me. Let’s go with magic.”

  Vana stopped and looked at him, wide-eyed, “Not magic, technology.” She stopped for a moment, eyeing him up. “Let me show you something.”

  She beckoned Marcus closer to her and reached out and took his hands. She drew closer and closed her eyes. He felt compelled to do the same.

  The world dropped away, to be replaced by endless banks of clouds. He flew, disembodied, but unafraid. The chill of the wind as it rushed past invigorated him, and his path twisted and turned as he weaved between the thick blankets of grey. He began to slow, and the clouds parted. Out of the mists appeared a city of silver and gold, lit by two suns, one high in the sky, one nearer the horizon.

  Two towers so high they pierced the clouds above, stood resolutely against the hazy sky, casting pairs of long shadows over boundless fields of green and purple which stretched to the horizon. A wide river wound its way through the centre of the city, crossed by gleaming bridges and walkways which connected the towers on either side.

  Sleek starships slid silently across the skies and wound effortlessly between the buildings. And at the centre, a tower much taller than the rest rose to a needle-sharp point with a glowing ball of light at its tip.

  “What is this?” thought Marcus.

  He didn’t hear the reply, somehow, he knew the answer.

  A memory of what was.

  As he passed the city a golden light spread across the towers and cast dark shadows on the landscape below. He rose higher and he did, he could see this was one of many cities which dotted the landscape, all connected to one another by shafts of light that emanated from their central towers. He continued to rise until he was swallowed once again by thick clouds, and the image faded away. A cold darkness came over him, and he felt as if a great hand was pressing down on his chest. A hand reached out from the darkness and took his, and he felt himself being pulled out, towards a bright light.

  He found himself back by the pods, the dust and decay of this world stood in stark contrast to the beauty of the world Vana let him see. She took her hands from him and turned away.

  “How’d you do… I mean that was- that was beautiful,” he managed. He couldn’t think of any other way to describe the experience and now that it was gone, he found he missed it.

  “We’ve lost so much,” she said quietly. “All we have now is a memory, one that’s not even mine.”

  Her voice changed, stronger, mo
re determined.

  “I will end this,” she said as she turned back to Marcus. She clenched her fists and stood tall.

  “No more running. It’s time to fight back.”

  Chapter Ten

  After making sure the escape pods were well hidden, Marcus and Vana set off in the direction of New Hope. Marcus carried the items Vana had salvaged from the crash site in a small backpack, slung over one shoulder. They were only a couple of hours walk away from town, but with the sun already low on the horizon, he held out little hope they would arrive before nightfall.

  They walked along in silence. The memory Vana had shared with him was foremost on his mind. He had a million questions, but they would have to wait. Vana had confessed to being exhausted, the experience had sapped her mentally.

  Marcus was the first to break the silence.

  “I assume you have a plan on how we’re going to stop Davon?”

  “Getting on board Sentinel is the hard part,” she said as she marched steadfastly forward. “Once I get there I have a plan to sabotage it. If I’m lucky it will be destroyed.”

  “And if you’re not lucky?” asked Marcus.

  “It will merely be damaged, but it would at least buy us more time. Decades probably. The Krall only have a limited understanding of how the Sentinel works. Repairing it, if it even can be repaired, will not be easy.”

  “I can’t believe that all you need to build this… portal can fit into one small bag.” He tugged on the backpack’s strap, pushing his shoulder forward.

  “I only brought the things that we wouldn’t be able to replicate here with the technology you have available. Everything else, we should be able to manufacture ourselves. That’s if this ‘Doc’ is as good as you say he is.”

  “He likes to tell me he is,” said Marcus, with a gleam in his eye. “But seriously he’s a genius. Just don’t tell him I said so.”

  “We’ll have to work fast. Davon will most certainly be looking for us.”

  “Yeah, he doesn’t strike me as the kinda guy who likes to be beaten. With the resources he has on hand… well, we’re going to need a great deal of luck on our side.” Marcus kicked a rusty can from his path and it clattered across the rocky ground. “Do you think there is any way he tracked the pods?”