Dark Sentinel: Book one in the Sentinel Series

by Adam Matlow

  “What are we doing?” she asked, looking at Marcus.

  “Shhhhh! Don’t you see that thing?”

  “It’s only a drone. Nothing to worry about, it’s non-functional.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Marcus narrowed his eyes. “I thought I saw it move.”

  “It’s perfectly safe,” said Vana stepping out and walking out into the corridor. “Besides, if it was active, we’d already be dead.”

  “Good to know I suppose.” He cleared his throat and strode out behind Vana.

  He got his first good look at the object as they walked towards it. It was spherical in shape, and about the size of a basketball. Half of its front face was covered by a large black lens, giving it the appearance of a disembodied eyeball. The back was a metallic silver and smooth, with a small square indentation. As they made their way closer it moved slightly, rolling onto its side and rocking back and forth gently.

  Marcus gave out an involuntary yelp and leapt back. Vana laughed and pulled him forward by the arm.

  “Come on, it’s fine.”

  “But it moved,” said Marcus pointing at it.

  “It was probably just us. We disturbed it when we came down the corridor. It could have been there for years before we arrived.”

  Vana walked straight up to the device and picked it up. She turned it around in her hands and examined it closely.

  “What are you looking for?” asked Marcus, the fear in him slowly dissipating as the device remained inert.

  “It doesn’t look damaged,” she replied. “Perhaps it has run out of power. If we can find somewhere to charge it back up, we may be able to bring it online.”

  “Woah there!” Marcus raised his hands. “I thought you said these things were dangerous. Didn’t you say it could kill us without a second thought? Death was definitely mentioned. Why would we want to power it back up?”

  Vana reached into her jacket and produced Jax.

  “Do you think you could take control of this drone if we get it charged up?” she asked him.

  A thin beam of green light projected outward from Jax and scanned over the surface of the drone.

  “I am not detecting any physical damage. I should have no problem interfacing and taking control once it is charged,” replied Jax.

  Marcus coughed politely and raised a finger. “Again, I must ask, why do we want to fix the death ball?”

  “We can use this to scout ahead of us,” said Vana. “We’ll be able to cover much more ground and at the same time make sure we don’t run into any ambushes. Plus, it’s armed with a powerful weapon, should we need to use force.”

  Jax projected a map of the area they were currently in. “The schematics place a drone outlet in the immediate vicinity,” he said. “Just ahead of our current position.” A section on the map pulsed red.

  Vana studied the corridor ahead of them and pointed to a small alcove in the distance. “Let’s check over there,” she said.

  It only took them a few moments to cover the distance to the alcove, and once there found several slots in a recessed section of the wall, which matched perfectly with the indentation in the rear of the drone. Vana held the drone out and brought it close to one of the docking stations, where it jumped from her hand and clipped into the wall with a dull thud. The sudden movement made Marcus flinch.

  “Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I don’t know why I’m so on edge here. There’s something about this place that just… seems to get under my skin. I can’t explain it.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” said Vana. “This must all be a lot to take in at once.”

  “I’m trying not to contemplate our situation too much. I think it’s probably for the best.”

  A soft hum emanated from the alcove, causing the hair on the back of Marcus’s neck to stand on end. He took a step back and looked at Vana.

  “It’s charging,” she said. “I don’t know how long the cycle takes. Jax, are you ready?”

  “I will attempt to interface as soon as the device becomes operational,” he replied.

  “What do you think it was doing laying in the corridor there?” asked Marcus.

  “It’s logical to assume it was trying to return to the alcove to charge, but for whatever reason it didn’t make it. Strange, as I would have expected some of the other drones to help return it to its charging station.”

  Marcus examined the alcove. He counted at least a dozen more charging slots, all of them empty.

  “I assume the rest of those things are out there somewhere?” He looked around nervously. “I hope this doesn’t take too long. I don’t want to be around when its buddies come home.”

  The low hum from the charging station abruptly ended. A quiet, high-pitched whine emanated from the drone as it detached from the wall with a click, and hovered above the ground, a few centimetres from the wall.

  “Establishing interface,” announced Jax. “please wait.”

  The drone turned on its axis, it’s menacing deep black ‘eye’ drifting over first Vana, then Marcus, who was stood slightly further back. Marcus edged away.

  “Um, Vana? Shouldn’t we… you know… hide or something?”

  “I’m sure everything's fine,” said Vana. Her voice wavered slightly. “Isn’t that right Jax?”

  Vana waited for Jax’s reply and when after a few seconds it hadn’t come, she also backed away. Her eyes were locked on the device, as if she was staring into the eyes of a wild animal, one that would attack at the first sign of weakness.

  “Jax?” she asked hopefully.

  The drone rose into the air until it was at about head height. The eye now fixated on Marcus and a ring of blue light appeared in its centre. The hairs on the back of Marcus’s neck stood on end, as static filled the air.

  “This isn’t good,” said Marcus. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “I think you’re right,” replied Vana and turned to run. As she did so, the light in the drone’s eye pulsed brightly.

  “Ah shi...” yelled Marcus. He dove out of the way as a blue bolt of energy shot from the drone’s eye, missing him by inches. Vana scrambled over to him and dragged him to his feet.

  “Run!” she yelled, as a second bolt melted a hole in the floor at the spot Marcus had just vacated. They ran in the direction they had come from and rounded the corner. Vana stopped to look back at the drone. Marcus pulled at her arm and urged her to keep running, but she held up her finger and cocked her head.

  “Wait… It’s stopped chasing us”

  “Who cares?” said Marcus breathlessly. “I’m quite happy to know it isn’t following us. Now come on, we should get out of here while we have the chance.”

  “Just, wait a moment.”

  “For wha…”

  “Connection established,” said Jax nonchalantly. “I apologize for the delay, there was an additional layer of security that I needed to penetrate.”

  “Sorry for the delay?” said Marcus exasperated. “Sorry for the delay? That’s something you say when your food takes a bit longer to arrive than normal. Not when an alien death ball nearly blows your friggin’ head off.”

  “Nevertheless, I now have full control.”

  “I nearly had a heart attack,” said Marcus, resting his hands on his knees and trying to catch his breath.

  The drones eye had returned to a deep inky black, the blue light from its weapon faded from view. It floated silently ahead of them. Cautiously, Marcus straightened up and stepped back out from the corner, with Vana close behind him.

  “Great, can we send it away somewhere?” he said, as he waved his arm in the direction of the corridor. “I don’t like it floating around here. I don’t trust it not to start shooting at us again.”

  Vana consulted the map provided by Jax, and between the two of them, they located an area ahead to send the drone. Silently it turned on the spot to face down the corridor and shot off in a burst of instant acceleration. The only sound came from the air being displaced as it moved. It
was out of sight after a few more seconds. Marcus relaxed slightly and breathed out a long deep breath.

  “Let’s keep moving,” said Vana, as she set off after the drone. “We’re not even halfway yet.”

  ◆◆◆

  “Something’s been bothering me ever since we got here,” said Marcus as they approached a large doorway at the end of the corridor. “How come we haven’t met any real resistance yet? I know we came up against that drone, but it seems, well, a bit too easy. Which sounds ridiculous now I’ve said it out loud. Where are all the Krall?”

  Vana stopped and turned to look at Marcus. “I was beginning to wonder the same thing. I put it down to the size of this place. Davon wouldn’t be able to guard every corridor, but then why should he? Nobody knows we’re here and as far as I know, nobody has ever managed to infiltrate the Sentinel before. There’s no reason for him to waste manpower guarding empty corridors. When we get closer to the tower though… Well, I imagine things will become tougher.”

  “Tower?” Marcus looked at Vana quizzically.

  “The heart of the Sentinel. A giant tower that sits at the centre of this place. That’s where we are heading. It’s close now.”

  “You seem to know a lot about this place, considering you’ve never been here before.”

  “My people can pass memories between each other. You’ve seen it for yourself when I showed you the golden city. I have bits of memories from someone who was here before. When this place was first discovered.”

  Marcus nodded. He looked at the doorway looming ahead of them.

  “Shall we go?”

  Vana reached to the side of the doorway and pressed her hand to a section of the wall. The doorway in front of them slid into the ground silently and they walked through.

  They emerged into a large circular room, in the middle was a wide column, covered in lights, which pulsated hypnotically. At the base of the column, some fifty or so meters away was a small platform, attached to a vertical rail running to the top.

  “Up there,” Vana pointed. “The way into the Tower is through there.”

  They made their way over to the platform and stood on it. It was only a couple of meters square, and Marcus noticed a conspicuous lack of a guardrail, or indeed anything to prevent them from tumbling over the edge once it got going.

  “Are you sure this thing is safe?” he asked, looking around for something, anything, to hold onto.

  “Perfectly,” she replied. “Are you ready?”

  “Not really,” he said, the colour draining from his face. “There’s nothing to stop us from falling off this thing. You know me. I’m not exactly graceful. I’ll probably fall off the bloody thing.”

  “You can’t fall off,” said Vana. She pointed to the platform. “It has its own gravity field surrounding it. You’re perfectly safe.”

  “Fine, I’ll just bet my life on an invisible magic wall,” Marcus sighed. “Never mind, let’s get it over with.” Cautiously he stepped on. His hands reached out to find something to hold onto but met nothing but air. Vana joined him seconds later, and stood to one side, perilously close to the edge of the platform. Too close for Marcus’s liking.

  Without any warning the platform started to move up, slowly at first before gaining speed. Marcus had his hands balled into fists and was squeezing them hard, his knuckles turning white.

  “Shouldn’t you come away from the edge?” said Marcus. He held out his hand towards her. Vana smiled and leaned back which caused Marcus to flinch, grabbing her arm so she didn’t topple over the side.

  “What are you doing? Are you mad?” yelled Marcus. “You nearly fell!”

  Vana laughed. “I told you, there’s a grav-field here. Look.” She took Marcus’s hand and moved it to the edge of the platform. “Now, push.”

  “What?”

  “Just, push your hand out.”

  Marcus repositioned himself on the platform, crouching slightly to lower his centre of gravity and slowly extended his arm. It met resistance as if he was lifting a heavy weight. When he relaxed, his arm was naturally pushed back out.

  He pulled his arm back and examined his hand, his mouth agog. He looked over at Vana, who was leaning against nothing but air, a perilous drop of several hundred meters below them. She giggled as Marcus tried to regain some composure.

  “That’s right. Laugh at the Neanderthal with his tiny brain.”

  “I don’t mean to. It’s just to me, this is technology; easily understandable. But to you--”

  “Yeah, yeah. I get the point. If you see some fire you’ll be sure to stop to remind me it’s hot, right?”

  “No, I don’t mean it like--”

  “Never mind, but do you have to lean against the air like that? It’s freaking me out.”

  “If it makes you feel better, I will. But you needn’t worry. The field will prevent most accidental falls.”

  “Most? You’re telling me this now?”

  “The field extends a meter or so past the platform and applies a gravitational force in the opposite direction to anything trying to pass through it. Essentially creating a sort of wall. You can get past this if you move fast enough. If you can overcome the force of gravity for that meter, you’ll leave the field and the ambient gravity will take over. So I wouldn’t recommend jumping off, or anything like that.”

  “You’ll get no arguments from me,” Marcus replied. Relief washed over him as the platform slid to a halt at the top of the column, and he could step off onto solid ground again. Ahead of them, a narrow walkway joined the column to a wall some tens of meters away. He was happy to see this walkway was equipped with railings. He trusted things he could physically see and hold over those grav-fields any day.

  “Where’s this thing we need to break,” said Marcus looking around. “There doesn’t seem to be much around here.”

  “In the tower. Like I said.” She waved her hand towards the walkway.

  “I thought this was it? This thing we’re stood on fits my definition of a huge tower.”

  “Not even close,” replied Vana. “Come on, you’ll see.”

  Vana headed for the walkway and Marcus followed. His grip on the handrail was like iron and he resisted the urge to look down. Once over, they proceeded through a high vaulted doorway. The sight that greeted Marcus took him aback. He took a sharp intake of breath and held it instinctively

  “What the...? How-- is this possible?” stammered Marcus.

  Above him there was no ceiling and some distance ahead the platform stopped. No walls, only the deep black of space. A bright band of stars spread across the whole of Marcus’s vision. Below them was a planet, awash with purples and blues. Thick clouds formed swirling patterns over much of the surface and Marcus thought he saw the flash of lightning coming from some of the denser patches.

  Then there was the Tower. Directly ahead and floating majestically. It loomed over him, for what looked like miles above, and stretched out below just as far.

  “Remember those grav fields I told you about?” said Vana, “A similar process is going on here. The gravity fields keep the air in, and our feet on the ground. It stretches quite some distance into space above us, and the same below.”

  “I can’t believe what I am seeing,” said Marcus, his eyes darting over the vista before him. “I can’t believe I’m on a gigantic space station, orbiting an alien planet, billions of miles away from home. Now this is what I was expecting!”

  Vana walked beside him and joined him in gazing out at the sights before them. “Many trillions of miles away from your Earth,” said Vana, as she stared at the stars.

  “And to think, it took us all of five seconds to get here,” said Marcus, shaking his head. He couldn’t even begin to wrap his mind around the enormity of what he was seeing, or the vastness of the numbers involved. In his whole life, he’d never been more than a couple of hundred kilometres from home. Now, he had travelled further than any human had ever travelled before. Except for the people who had accompani
ed him here.

  “So that’s the tower then. How do we get inside?”

  Vana pointed towards something in the distance. Marcus strained his eyes and barely made out a thin line bridging the side they were on and the tower at the midpoint.

  “There are four points around the perimeter leading to the tower. We’re not far from one of these junctions now. If Davon was going to guard anything, it would be those, so we need to be careful.”

  There was a soft beep from Jax and Vana held him out in the palm of her hand.

  “The drone is approaching the junction now. I will relay the video feed here.”

  The air above Jax became a circle of light and an image faded in from the drone’s perspective. It slowly advanced on the junction, looking upon it from a great height. The junction looked like the entranceway to a tunnel, at least twenty meters wide and just as tall. At the entrance stood a carriage, attached by the top to a monorail. The junction to the tower had no sides, only large columns spaced every hundred meters or so along its entire length. Presumably all held together with more grav-fields.

  Piles of crates dotted the entrance and in the area adjacent to it. Some appeared opened and empty, whilst others were untouched. Supplies, bound for the tower perhaps, thought Marcus. If there were bringing supplies in here, perhaps there was a ship nearby. If so, it could be their ride home.

  Marcus pointed to a small black dot on the image. “Can we zoom in a bit on that?” he asked.

  The image switched to a much tighter angle, revealing four figures stood by the entrance. They were tall and slender but did not look as if they were in any way weak. A Smooth black surface covered their torso and arms up to the elbow. Marcus couldn’t tell if it was part of their body or some kind of armour. It occurred to him it could be both. Below the elbow, a silvery grey skinned arm, slightly longer than one you would find on a human, ended in a four-fingered hand. The fingers themselves long and spider-like, with sharp claws. Their heads, flat and wide like a squashed ball sat atop and was home to four eyes, two on each side of their faces. They flicked back and forth, seemingly independently, looking in multiple directions at once. They had no obvious nose, but there were small slits where it should have been - and a mouth, circular in shape and full of rows of sharp teeth. But the worst part for Marcus was how they moved, with jagged motions and twitches. Their heads snapping from one direction to another without seeming to traverse the distance between. Each one carried a weapon at the ready, the length of their forearms and as black as their body armour.