by Hao Yang
The trees were stabbing into sky like swords. Layers of branches and leaves stopped the light from reaching the ground and it was dark like night in the deep forest. After walking on the smelly and muddy ground for three hours, Mark reached a huge lake filled with murky red liquid. The surface of the lake was flat and smooth like a mirror. He was confused, because the facility should be right in front of him. As he was checking the map, he heard humming sound from above. Then he looked up and saw a 400 meter long space vessel emerging out of clouds and descending. The liquid swiftly solidified and the vessel touched down on the lake.
Glycans streamed out of the vessel in groups. Then an entrance appeared on the surface of the lake and all Glycans flowed into the lake. The vessel blasted off into the sky. Mark stepped on the surface of the lake and ran to the entrance. But after several steps, he felt the surface was moving. He quickly ran back. When he just jumped back on the shore, the surface turned back to liquid completely.
“That was close.” Mark wheezed. He picked up a branch and threw it to the lake. A stream of murky red liquid formed a huge mouth and swallowed it. Mark let out a sigh and started to walk along the lake, hoping to find another entrance.
Hours later he heard something behind his back. He slowly retreated back to the forest and got his pistol ready. Through his night vision glasses, he saw a Hylocan treading lightly towards the shore of the lake. Suddenly, the Hylocan stopped and gazed in Mark’s direction. Mark held his breath and aimed the pistol at the Hylocan. They were about 10 meters away from each other.
“What are you waiting for? Go ahead and shoot me. I know you are there.” A soft female voice struck Mark.
Mark was shocked. It was dark here and he was hiding behind a tree.
“If you don’t want to shoot me, what do you want?” The Hylocan asked calmly.
Mark stepped out slowly with his gun pointing at the Hylocan, his hands sweating.
“You are not Glycan.” The Hylocan said.
Mark was wondering how she could know that from this distance. Just before he could say anything, he felt a hit on his head. Then he slumped on the ground. Another two Hylocans walked to him and picked him up.
Mark woke up in pain, his head heavy and spinning. It was a small room with a porthole on the wall. He could tell he was on a space vessel right now and it was not a vessel from any second class species. Mark slowly stood up and walked to the door. Just at this moment, the wall on his left turned into a huge window. Three Hylocans were standing on the other side, two females and one male.
“I know you are thinking why you are here right now.” The short female said.
Mark looked at her and caught that her eyes were shining like blue diamonds. He recalled that Hylocans on Hylocan reserve only had yellow electronic eyes. Then he realised that this female Hylocan must have the mind-reading ability.
“He is smart.” The male Hylocan said. He had the same eyes like the short female.
“What are you doing on the Hylocan reserve?” The tall female asked.
“You couldn’t read that?” Mark asked, trying to keep his brain blank.
“It won’t work. How long do you think you can keep your brain like that?” The male Hylocan said easily as he showed Mark his backpack.
Looking at the backpack, Mark had a flashback in the brain. Even though the flashback only lasted less than two seconds, the three Hylocans had learned all his plan. Mark closed his eyes and turned his back to the window.
“That won’t work either. As long as we can see you, we know what you are thinking. Right now, you are thinking a wall.” The male Hylocan said.
Mark rammed fingers into his ears.
The tall female smiled and her blue eyes started to glow.
“If you prefer to communicate in this way, we can do that.” She said coldly.
Mark heard her voice deep in his brain, loud and clear. He gave up and turned around slowly, facing the Hylocans. The taller female’s eyes turned black to shining blue.
“See, now we are both comfortable.” The male Hylocan said happily.
“We hope you can help us to achieve what we both want.” The tall female said.
“You want to know where the Hylocan eyeballs were delivered. We want to know that as well.” The male Hylocan said.
“I am sure you guys can handle this by yourselves.” Mark responded
“Yes, we can. Before we met you, that was what we planned. I know you are thinking why we didn’t kill you.” The tall female said with an evil smile.
“Let me take a guess here. You want to hire me?” Mark asked ironically.
“He is funny.” The male Hylocan said as he looked at the other two Hylocans.
“We found several tracers in your backpack and we are using one of them to track the eyeball. You should thank us for doing your job. That is your plan anyway.” The short female said nicely.
“This way even if they found the tracer, you don’t need to worry about exposing yourself.” Mark sneered.
“If you like to put it this way.” The male Hylocan said coldly.
“What do you want from me?” Mark asked directly.
“Do what you plan to do. Follow the tracer and find it.” The short female said easily.
“You know what, I just had a change of heart. I want to leave.” Mark said firmly.
“You are thinking we will kill you after. I wouldn’t worry about that for now. Because if you don’t help us, we will kill you and your sons. If you help us, you will be just fine.” The tall female said.
Mark thought for a second and nodded.
“Thank you for your cooperation. We appreciate it.” The male Hylocan said happily.
“You are very welcome.” Mark said without any emotion.
“We are currently following Cruiser General Klizan. It has been sixteen hours. Once it arrives at the destination, you just need to go to find your tracer. That’s it.” The tall female said casually.
“OK.”
The window changed back to a wall. Mark could tell there must be something else going on. One thing he knew for sure was those Hylocans were up to something big. Right now they were risking exposing themselves. On the other hand, Mark didn’t have any plan for himself. But he wasn’t worried about it, because even if he had one, those Hylocans would know it right away.
Chapter 20
Before UWII, Hylocan was one of the strongest species in the universe. Only Glycan, Gieoaio, Haegian and Tizuee were on the same bar with Hylocan. At that time, Hylocan didn’t possess mind-reading ability, but the then Hylocan queen Alanlia started the project and they made the first Helmet like device. Even though at that time other species were very well aware that Hylocans had such devices and forbade them using such devices in any activity, they didn’t know Hylocans later advanced the device and had that device implanted in their eyeballs. When they found it out, it was 33 years after the first device was installed in eyeballs. Other species was furious and condemned Hylocan for their behaviors. They implemented an isolation against Hylocan, but intricate economic and business ties Hylocans had with Gieoaio, Haegian and Tizuee made the isolation stay only on the surface level.
Later other species did came up with different instruments and techniques to counter the device. The queen Alanlia played the hard ball and had the scientists transform the device to an organ and embed the organ’s genetic sequence into all Hylocans’ bodies. It took Hylocan scientists 800 years to achieve this goal. By the time all Hylocans were genetically modified and given the mind-reading ability, the queen Boliana, the granddaughter of queen Alanlia, decided to push the limit. Driven by the ambition to make mind-reading ability more offensive, she tried to further upgrade the ability to control neural activities. During her 200 year regime, excessive studies and researches aimed to achieve that goal drained Hylocan’s wealth and resources. When queen Boliana died, there was still no breakthrough in those areas.
Following Boliana’s step, queen Vioael kept going down the sa
me drain. As she was gathering the leftover resources Hylocan had, a miracle happened. A girl was born with the ability to implant ideas in any subject’s mind and she could do it at a range of 2000 meters without even seeing the target. They called the girl Oracle. Even though there was a range limit, it was good enough for Vioael’s plan. Soon Hylocans received all financial and military supports they needed. Vioael also had the Oracle’s genetic information duplicated to produce clones, but the clones were much less efficient in terms of implanting ideas. They had to keep the target in sight and the operational range was shorter. Queen Vioael had those clones blended into other species. Then she proceeded to eliminate Hylocan’s longtime enemy Glycan.
The prelude of UWII started with Hylocan, Gieoaio, Haegian and Tizuee attacking Glycan simultaneously. Outnumbered and outgunned, Glycan retreated but didn’t collapse. The four species also attacked Estian who had an argument with Hylocan over a disputed planet. Later Estian and Glycan became allies, but they couldn’t draw other species to their side. Instead, other species all stayed neutral. Slowly, the balance of battlefields swifted to the four species. But when Hylocan attempted to drag Uainanese to its side, Uainanese found out Hylocan’s new ability. Furious and worried, Uainanese joined Estain and Glycan. After learning Hylocan’s new ability, some other species began to support the three species but not in a military way. In the middle of UWII, Ajiese and Oireitan joined the fight against the four species…So many battles waged over years but nothing was like the last one: the siege of Akenlys, Hylocan mother planet. The bombardment went on for a whole year and finally a super vessel penetrated the defense layer and dropped the biogenetic bomb on Akenlys. 99.9% of the Hylocan population was eliminated. At the final moment, upon the death of Oracle, she prophesied her return and the end of all other species in the universe.
Mark let out a long sigh. Now Hylocan was back.
The door suddenly opened and the male Hylocan stepped in.
“It is time.” He said coldly.
Mark stood up and walked out of the room. The male Hylocan and the tall female Hylocan took him to a lifeboat like capsule. Mark stepped into the capsule. The male Hylocan handed him his backpack and a set of Glycan uniform.
“Your face transformer will work in most cases. This uniform will make it easier for you to walk around.” The tall female said carelessly.
“Where am I?” Mark asked.
“Cruiser General Klizan has left the planet. That means the eyeballs have been delivered. You will go to the location where the tracer is.” The male Glycan said coldly.
“You can’t read those Glycans on that planet?” Mark scoffed.
“That is none of your concern.” The tall female said.
“What if I was caught by Glycans?” Mark asked in a relaxed tone.
“They will torture you to find out what you know and kill you then.”
“I guess your guys don’t care, right?” Mark asked.
“Good luck.” The tall female said and shut the capsule door. She pressed a button and the capsule slowly left the vessel and flew to the planet.
Through the window, Mark could see the incoming yellow planet Agirue. It was dotted with black spots and looked like a rotten apple. He only wished that he could say goodbye to his two sons and let them know that how much he loved them.
Chapter 21
Glycan considered a strong and healthy body as the most valuable asset. Even though they had cutting-edge sciences and technologies to modify body function and appearance, they had long voted against any alteration on their bodies. They believed body was sacred and should be kept as the way ancestors passed it on.
Planet Etitaeg was one of the three planets designated for the selection of Glycans. It was the tests ground for 18 years old Glycans. The selection would last five days, during which time young Glycans not only must finish physical tests in endurance, strength, flexibility, speed and balance but also must pass intelligence tests in reasoning, logic thinking and problem solving. Those Glycans who completed all tests in five days could leave the planet using the space vessel at the finishing line. Those who didn’t finish it in time would die. The rain season started at the end of the fifth day and it would wake up monsters hibernating underground. In the history of Glycan, they never found a survivor after the rain season.
There were over 100,000 Glycan teenagers gathering at the great hall. Gloria had never seen so many Glycans. Most of them were waiting alone nervously. Some of them gathered in groups and talked away their anxiety. Nobody knew what would happen next. Nobody knew whether he or she would survive or not.
Klaycon walked to Gloria and said, “Gloria, how do you feel?”
“What do you think?” Gloria said coldly.
“You will be alright.” Klaycon said confidently.
“And how do you know that?”
“You finished second in the last selection when we were 14.”
Gloria didn’t say anything. She could tell Klaycon liked her, but she didn’t like him at all.
“I am thinking, you can come to my celebration party after this.” Klaycon said proudly.
“You sure you can survive?” Gloria sneered.
“I will be the champion the third time.” Klaycon said firmly.
Gloria flashed a brittle smile. She could tell Klaycon got this confidence from his family. It also reminded her that Klaycon’s grandfather, General Klizan, was one of the few generals that sentenced her grandfather General Gien to death.
“What do you say?” Klaycon asked nicely.
“I am the granddaughter of General Gien and you are the grandson of General Klizan. What do you think?” Gloria said angrily.
“I don’t care.”
Gloria was surprised to hear this. She stared at Klaycon.
“I don’t care.” Klaycon repeated.
“Not everyone has the privilege you have.” Gloria said coldly. She felt a very light touch on her back. As she turned around, she saw Carila grabbing Klaycon’s arm.
“Klaycon, come on, what are you doing here?” Carila asked unhappily.
“Carila, I will catch you later.” Klaycon said gently. But Carila still stood there.
“You should join her.” Gloria said hastily and walked away. She couldn’t see the colorless liquid on her back started to spread.
“Think about it, OK? Let me know.” Klaycon shouted as he waved to Gloria. Carila glanced over at Gloria and flashed an evil smile.
Gloria looked up at the high ceiling. She was thinking about Jason. The desire to see him again was so overwhelming that she couldn’t think anything else but him. She remembered when she met him on that movie night, the joy busted out like a volcano eruption. She never had such feeling before. At first, she was struggling to find why, but later the reason didn’t matter anymore.
Just at this moment, her family badge was flashing. Gloria knew it was Jason calling her. As she was about to answer the call, she noticed the ceiling was descending very fast. Then the ground below her suddenly disappeared and all Glycans fell into a huge hole. After a long fall, Gloria ditched in water. The pain on her chest almost knocked her out, but she managed to come up to the surface and stay floated. Some Glycans around her were trying to catch their breath. Some swam around nervously and some were dead already. The water level was rising and the ceiling had covered the hole completely. Gloria took a deep breath and dived into the water. When she reached bottom, she could see hundreds of outlets. She simply picked the closest one and swam as fast as she could. The outlet opened to some kind of tube and the water flow carried forward. Soon she resurfaced in a lake in the middle of a desert. She stumbled onto the shore and called Jason, “Jason. Jason. Are you there? Can you hear me?”
The badge looked fine. Then she realized that they might block all communications as the selection started. Gloria tried again, but the line couldn’t get through. She thought for several seconds, but there was nothing she could do.
Other Glycans kept coming out of the l
ake and none of them stopped to take a break. Gloria quickly got herself together and ran behind other Glycans. A sandstorm was approaching them from several kilometers away and it soon swallowed the slow ones. Gloria got into a white forest right before the storm reached her. The white color was from the balloon like leaves hanging on branches. All trees were connecting with each other as if they were holding hands together. Gloria had no time to appreciate the beauty. Her throat was dry and her mouth was burning. She went further into the forest and saw something like a small pool. Just before she jumped into the pool, her family badge was flashing. She stopped and answered the call.
“Gloria …are…doing?” It was Jason’s voice. But the line was being cut off.
“Jason. I am all right. I am all right.” Gloria shouted happily.
“You…”
“Jason. Jason. I can’t hear you.”
“I…you…I…” The line went off. Gloria smiled and put back the badge. Right at this moment, two Glycans ran into the pool and dipped their heads in it. Suddenly the pool shut like a mouth. After about three seconds, it reopened slowly and a piece of cloth was floating in the center. Gloria froze there for several seconds. When she came back to consciousness, she placed a kiss on her badge and moved on.
Chapter 22
Standing 280 billion light years away from Gloria, Jason was holding the badge in his hand. He couldn’t really tell what Gloria just said, but her voice alone make he feel relieved. He put the badge into the pocket next to his heart as Erikon and Lucis walked into the dorm.
Erikon sensed something but he slumped into his bed without saying a word.
“I guess that was why you left early after the dinner.” Lucis said gently.
“It’s nothing. Just a call.” Jason said.
“You called that Glycan girl?” Erikon asked excitedly.
“Yea.” Jason nodded.