Contents
Title
Copyright
Author’s Note
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
Part Eleven
Author’s Note
About the Author
The Terran Escape
A prequel novelette in The Terran Series
by
Angus Monarch
Copyright 2016 Angus Monarch
All rights reserved.
Author’s Note
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Part One
Pain. Anger. Confusion. Suffering. Agony.
Since leaving from Earth that was all Dawn Merafuentes had known. It surrounded her. It seeped into her body, into each and every fiber of her being until she was pain. Agony was Merafuentes. Merafuentes was suffering.
She knew they had left Earth, but she couldn’t pinpoint when. She knew they had entered another dimension in order to travel faster than light, but she couldn’t pinpoint when. The torture of being in the dimension had always been and always would be. Their arrival simultaneously had happened and would happen.
There was no reference for Merafuentes.
She had no body. The ship she had traveled upon no longer existed. There was a sense of other – the crew and colonists she had traveled with were merely wisps of energy floating around – along with something else, something that lived in this dimension, something she couldn’t comprehend but knew was there.
At some point Merafuentes started to see her surroundings, but “see” wasn’t the right description. An image of her ship, of the crew, formed. She wasn’t part of it, but her mind, however it existed, began to interpret. It was like she watched a movie where something was wrong with the film. Colors were off, and the image was distorted, but it was there. Something was there for her to discern.
There were shadows that ran like water and wafted like smoke. Features weren’t clear, but Merafuentes sensed they were the crew. There was some humanity that she could latch onto. It was surrounded by that other, the entity, but the little strands of human let her block out some of the suffering and alienness that enveloped them.
Whether it was forever or a few seconds, Merafuentes felt that both happened at the same time, she couldn’t take the pain. She had to leave. She had to be relieved. There had to be a way to escape the torture that was this other dimension. It wasn’t worth the reduced amount of time, which didn’t seem to be a concept here, to get somewhere else within the Milky Way.
Merafuentes searched the shadows for Admiral Kaur. Her consciousness flitted from smoky form to smoky form. They all screamed for relief. Their anguish was the same as Merafuentes, but they were lost in the recesses of the other dimension. There was no recognition that Merafuentes touched them or “looked” at them. They were screaming statues for lack of a better term.
Kaur was found conversing with the entity. Her mind wasn’t troubled or looking for solace, and she had more of an obvious, define shape. She seemed to be at home in this dimension. To Merafuentes it was as if the Admiral had been prepared in some manner.
“Admiral Kaur,” said Merafuentes. She didn’t speak as much as think her words. To Merafuentes it was unclear if Kaur had heard her.
Kaur detached herself from the entity. Merafuentes thought she saw the entity give Kaur a push as if it controlled the Admiral.
“Yes?” said Kaur. “What do you need?” She didn’t move her mouth, yet Merafuentes heard her words; the tone was flat, civil. It didn’t hold any hint of compassion or awareness of what might have been happening to the colonial fleet.
“The pain,” said Merafuentes. “I can’t take it anymore. The crew can’t function. They’re too focused on the environment.”
“And yet here you are,” said Kaur. As she spoke her form became more solid, less of a shadow. Merafuentes perceived that Kaur was gaunter, paler, sick looking. Large tufts of her black hair had fallen out. It looked like some kind of writing was on her skin.
“I don’t know how,” said Merafuentes. “I don’t know how to explain. I just…” She trailed off. She didn’t know exactly what she wanted or how she would get it. The need to escape was what drove her.
“You want to leave?” said Kaur.
“Yes,” said Merafuentes. “I didn’t know it was going to be like this.” She thought no one had. “If I’m here much longer I fear I may go mad.”
Merafuentes saw Kaur smile. It wasn’t kind.
“Do you want to leave the mission?” said Kaur.
“No,” she said, recoiling. Her whole life had been spent preparing for a mission to the stars. Hardship had been expected just not like this. “No. I just need to be free of the pain. Free of the suffering.”
“You’re loyal to what we’re doing?” said Kaur. “You’re invested in what we want to accomplish?” She paused. “You’re loyal to me?”
“Yes,” said Merafuentes. “A thousand times yes. We need to reach the stars. We need to be spread out amongst the galaxy if we wish to survive.” She thought back to all of the scientific breakthroughs related to faster than light travel Kaur had been pivotal in discovering. If anyone was going to lead humanity into the vast unknown it was Kaur. “I can’t imagine anyone else leading us.”
Kaur turned from her and melded once more with the entity. Her form disappeared, and she became indistinguishable. Merafuentes sensed Kaur giving over to the entity. They became one.
It concerned Merafuentes. She wasn’t able to block out the torment enough to focus on why it was concerning though. Her main desire was to escape.
Kaur disengaged once more. Her form returned, and she went back to Merafuentes.
“We have something for you to do,” said Kaur.
Merafuentes wanted to ask who the “we” was. Her desire to find out what the “something” was overrode.
“What?” said Merafuentes. “What is it?” If she had them she would have fallen on her knees and plead with Kaur.
“Beacons,” said Kaur, “need to be set up for other to follow us. We need to make sure that others can follow our path and join us.”
“Yes,” said Merafuentes. “I can do that.” It didn’t sound difficult. She could drag it out to best enjoy the freedom from this dimension. “Can I bring others?”
Kaur reattached momentarily with the entity then came back. Merafuentes picked up that the entity seemed concerned. Kaur mirrored it but said, “Yes. We will send those who are loyal with you.”
Merafuentes felt the gentle tug of something in her mind. It seemed to pull her thoughts like they were a physical object that had form and shape. It was the entity that pulled.
“Thank you,” said Merafuentes. “Thank you.”
Kaur went back with the entity and left Merafuentes alone to her torment.
Part Two
The ship disappeared from around Merafuentes. She felt a pang of regret as they went back into the other dimension. Her forays back to real space to set up the beacons felt right. The anguish of the other dimension washed away. She felt substantive and whole. Every time she crossed back the part that was “her” shed away, and she became something else not quite Merafuentes.
Her crew returned to their other forms: the shadows. Some had gotten better at control.
They didn’t wander without aim. Merafuentes could make out their physical features like she had with Kaur in the beginning. Most could speak with her, but conversation was difficult. The words spread out into the past and the future with any discussion seeming to take place all at once and not at all.
Merafuentes searched for Kaur to find out if there was more that could be done. She followed the tugging and pulling at her mind. To her dismay more of the colonial party had melded with the entity, which Kaur had started to call their Benefactor. According to the Admiral it was this Benefactor that kept them safe in this dimension. Without it they would be adrift and their minds, unable to comprehend their surroundings, would be lost.
It seemed that some had already gone though. When Merafuentes went past them she felt nothing but gibbering madness. They laughed and cried, spouting nonsense, speaking in tongues. Some lashed out at her as she went by but their form held no substance and no damage was done. She prayed she didn’t meet them on the other side.
Merafuentes felt the pull of the entity. It beckoned to her. It tickled at her mind. The Benefactor poked and prodded wanting to be let in. She didn’t know if it was the Benefactor or her subconscious, but the idea of relaxing and sinking into the entity like one sunk into a warm bath after a long day sounded like the height of luxury. The only thing that kept her from doing it was the promise of getting out of this damnable dimension and back into her own to escape the suffering.
“No,” screamed one of the crew, directly in Merafuentes face. The crewmember’s face ran and dripped, but the agony was plainly written across his face.
“What?” said Merafuentes. “What is it?”
The crewmember was gone.
Another swirled around her. It cried and whimpered. “So many dead,” she said. “So many gone.” She was off before Merafuentes could respond.
Her search for Kaur became more desperate. The forms around her were agitated. They vibrated with energy. Something had riled them up. Almost every one of them either wailed or bawled or groaned. The only ones who didn’t seem concerned were those who had joined with the entity. They seemed content. Pleasure and satisfaction radiated from them.
Merafuentes came across one of her crew: Robinson Spanos. He held his form better than the others: black hair, darker skin, scars across his arms from a childhood accident. Shock covered his face as he stared at nothing in particular.
“Spanos, what’s going on?” said Merafuentes.
He turned his head around like an owl. If they hadn’t been in the other dimension it would have broken his neck.
“Didn’t you hear?” said Spanos. “They killed them. Thousands. Sacrificed them because they weren’t loyal.”
“Who?”
“Silva,” said Spanos. “He said they weren’t loyal. He said the Benefactor needed them purged; it needed to know we were devoted to it.”
Merafuentes shook her head. She moved past Spanos. Silva had gone mad. Kaur wouldn’t have let something like that happen. There was no way that one man had killed so many. He would have needed a following to get that done. The planning wouldn’t have gone unnoticed. The Admiral was close to the entity, but she wouldn’t have gone along with a sacrifice. That wouldn’t have happened. Merafuentes couldn’t believe it.
“Captain Merafuentes,” said Kaur. She detached from the entity in front of Merafuentes. Her skin looked paler and her face even more gaunt. Sores had started on her skin. Infection flecked around the rim of her eyes.
“There’ve been murders,” said Merafuentes. Her need to know outweighed any sense of decorum, and she launched right into her questions. “Has Silva really sacrificed people?”
“Yes.”
Merafuentes refused to believe it. It was impossible. The scale at which Silva must have worked couldn’t have been unnoticeable. She couldn’t wrap her mind around how Kaur had missed it.
“What’s going to be done about it?” said Merafuentes.
“Nothing,” said Kaur.
“But he sacrificed people,” said Merafuentes.
“Yes. On my orders,” said Kaur. Her voice was gentle almost motherly.
Merafuentes shrank from Kaur. She didn’t know how to respond. What could she do if her leader had ordered such a heinous act?
“I can see you’re disturbed, but they weren’t loyal to us,” said Kaur. She moved towards Merafuentes who had to force herself to not draw back even more. “You have nothing to fear if you stay devoted.”
Merafuentes felt a hand brush through her hair.
“I know it’s difficult to understand now but in time you will,” said Kaur. The tickling in Merafuentes’ mind strengthened as Kaur moved closer. “In time you will.”
Merafuentes still didn’t know what to say. Kaur had gone mad. It must have been her time with the entity. She couldn’t think of anything else. If leadership went insane the whole mission was lost.
“I know,” said Merafuentes. She tried to appear meek but still willing lest the admiral’s wrath turn on her. “Are there more beacons to be placed?”
Kaur radiated pleasure like a proud parent. She nodded and returned to the entity’s embrace. A ship coalesced around Merafuentes. Her crew appeared around her, and without input they moved through the portal from the other dimension back to theirs.
The coating of the other dimension oozed away as Merafuentes physical form returned. The cloud of torment disappeared, and the sounds and atmosphere of being on the bridge of a ship returned. She collapsed into her chair and ran a hand through her close cropped hair.
There was no way she could go back. Admiral Kaur had ordered the execution of thousands. To return would be suicide. Merafuentes couldn’t serve under a madman.
“Captain, what is our destination?” said helm.
Merafuentes rubbed her eyes. She didn’t know how loyal anyone on her crew was to her.
There was no way she returned under her own will. There was no way she continued to serve under a murdering lunatic. Merafuentes made up her mind whether her crew came willingly or not because it was now or never. She tried to ignore the pull in her mind, the niggling in her thoughts. Those were attachments to Kaur and her Benefactor, and if she was to succeed she had to ignore them.
She had to ignore them because they were deserting.
Part Three
Merafuentes stood on the bridge of the ship. Her crew looked back at her or listened over the intercom. They hadn’t said anything since she called them to attention. Dead air buzzed over the speakers and through the room.
She took a deep breath. In the small amount of time since they’d left the other dimension Merafuentes had spent almost all of it trying to decide on what she would say. Now that the moment had come she couldn’t think of any words.
“You’re probably wondering why I called all of you over together,” said Merafuentes. She mentally kicked herself for starting off so cliché.
“Is this about the sacrifices?” said Spanos.
Spanos had always been straight and to the point. It was part of the reason why Merafuentes had requested him for her second in command. Where she might have beaten around the bush she knew Spanos would plow ahead and do what needed to be done.
“Yes,” said Merafuentes.
She tried to avoid the nervous stares of the crew. They shifted back and forth on their feet. The atmosphere on the bridge became tense and uncomfortable. Merafuentes sensed that everyone wanted to say something but no one wanted to be the first.
“On the orders of Admiral Kaur, carried out by Commander Silva, people were sacrificed to the entity,” said Merafuentes. She decided to take a page from Spanos’ book: plow ahead. Rip off the Band-Aid. Don’t be gentle.
“Sacrificed or executed?” said Crosby, a young faced engineer.
“Sacrificed,” said Merafuentes. “Confirmed by Admiral Kaur.”
A chorus of shock and disbelief rippled through the small crew. Merafuentes gave them a few minutes then held up her hands and tried to bring th
e attention back to her.
“What are we going to do about it?” said Spanos.
Merafuentes pursed her lips then licked them. Her throat was dry and her voice cracked the first time she tried to speak. She was condemning everyone on the ship to desertion. If for some reason they didn’t coalesce their support around her then she’d be lucky to be tossed out an airlock.
“We run,” said Merafuentes. “We don’t go back.”
“You’re talking mutiny,” said Spanos.
“She may…” said Merafuentes. She wasn’t positive what Kaur would do.
“What can we do?” said Crosby. “We don’t have FTL and if we go back into the other dimension we’ll be found out. We’re stuck in this system.”
“We have a habitable planet where we’re supposed to put the beacon,” said Merafuentes. “We can hide there.”
“And then what?” said Spanos. “We don’t have the tools for a settlement. We don’t know where we are. We don’t know if Kaur will come after us. We don’t know how to leave. We don’t know much of anything.” His tone started professional and ended with frustration.
“I know,” said Merafuentes, “but I can’t go back. On Kaur’s word thousands were killed. Thousands.” She knew the magnitude of that action hadn’t hit her yet. The first time alone with her thoughts wasn’t going to be pleasant. “I would rather die here trying to do something than sit on my haunches, follow a madman or whatever has happened to Kaur, and hope she doesn’t decide to kill me too.
“So, no, I don’t know what we’re going to do now, but I know I’m not going back to Kaur and that thing she calls our benefactor.”
The remaining crew shuffled their feet. Merafuentes thought they looked ready to follow her but something stopped them from committing fully.
“We can’t go back,” she said. “I’m sorry, but I know Silva is going to alert Kaur as soon as we get back.”
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