Kepler: Humanity's Ark

by Kyle Perkins

  My soldiers and I begin marching down the steep incline into the encampment with our guns to our sides, and so far, no one has thrown one of those pathetic spears. It appears as though they may be willing to hear us out… Or, this could be an ambush. I almost hope for the ambush.

  The king walks out and greets us halfway. He has another formidable looking primitive to his right that is holding a war axe. It looks to be made out of bone. The king appears receptive, though the other man’s knuckles are white around the handle of the axe.

  “So, you must be the leader here?” I ask, raising the visor on my helmet to meet his eyes.

  “I am, of this, and everything that meets the eye,” he replies.

  “So, that would make you my king, then, wouldn’t it?” I smile.

  “Indeed, it does. Some of the transgressions caused by your people are unforgivable. I would prefer to end this all with very little bloodshed. You are their leader, yes?” he asks.

  “I am, now. It seems we share a desire to spare our men. If we can end this whole little debacle without me losing a single man, that would be ideal. Tell me, King. Do you have a place to sit?”

  “I do, please have your men remain where they are. You are a guest in my home, and will not be harmed. I cannot trust the goodwill of your men, however. Given what took place at the Hardez encampment,” he says, walking forward.

  “I understand.” I gesture for my men to fall back.

  We walk a short way until we come to a wooden table perched upon a platform near the center of the compound. It may be where they host banquets with the neighboring tribes. If he is their king, and the other villages only have chieftains, it would make sense. He is the head of the snake.

  “Please, sit.” The king offers a wooden chair.

  I lay my rifle on the table, taking my seat across from the king with his man to my right. His guard doesn’t say a word, and seems to stare right through me, like he’s waiting for me to make a wrong move.

  “So, you have come to offer some sort of peace? What is your proposal?” the king asks.

  “First, what are your names?” I ask, leaning back in my chair.

  “I am Ivaar, and this is Garret. You are?”

  “I am Caius, leader of the last of the humans.”

  “I am curious about your humans. Why did you travel from the stars to our world? What is it you seek to find here, or what is it you want? Are you after some kind of currency? What holds value on your world?” the king asks.

  “They aren’t here for gold or silver; they are here for blood,” Garret says under his breath.

  “Well, I suppose there is no harm in telling you, at this point. We come from a planet called Earth. It is a world much like yours, so far away that your mind couldn’t comprehend the distance.” I smile.

  “If your world is like ours, then what could you possibly need from us? Why travel all of this way?” Ivaar squints his eyes.

  “Our world became inhospitable. The same will happen to yours in time; nothing lasts forever. So, we had to find a way out. Out of all of the planets our people investigated from Earth, yours was the most suitable for the next generation. We hoped not to encounter hostile life, or intelligent life at all. Though, you can see by how well we are armed, we couldn’t take any chances. This is the last of us.”

  “Why do you provoke war, then? Surely, you can’t spare the men, especially if this is your last hope for rebuilding what you’ve lost.”

  “That is why I have come to you in this way, instead of wiping you off of the map. I was hoping we could reach an understanding.” I smirk.

  Garret scoffs and spits on the ground near my feet.

  I’ll let that one slide, for now.

  “Garret, show some respect. The man wishes for peace, this cannot be easy for someone that is so full of pride. Consider how hard it is for you to sit here,” Ivaar says, as Garret nods.

  “As for my proposal, I am willing to grant you forty-eight hours to end things on your own terms. Preferably by nightfall. It is bad enough that we will have to destroy most of the aggressive fauna in this world, we don’t want to have to combat with you, as well,” I say, letting the front legs of my chair hit the platform.

  Garret’s eyes widen and pan over to his king.

  “End things on our own terms? Do you mean, draw up a treaty?” The king tilts his head.

  “No, I mean kill yourselves, so that we don’t have to do it brutally. Start with your very young and old, then the women, finally ending with the men. I think it would be better that way, coming from the people you love. This is an act of mercy.” I smile.

  The king blankly stares at me from across the table for a few moments before responding.

  “If I am understanding correctly, you expect us to not only kill our own people, but then to commit suicide, and hand this world over to you without a fight?” he asks.

  “Preferably, to spare your people any brutality that I am not liable for, should you choose to decline.”

  “Then, I suppose it’s war. Garret, kill him,” the king says as Garret swings his axe towards my head.

  I catch his axe’s blade in the palm of my hand before jerking my arm upward, flinging him about fifty feet through the air into a neighboring hut’s roof. Before the king has a chance to respond, I tear my hand through the wooden table, grabbing his blade, and tossing the axe to my side.

  He makes a feeble attempt to resist me in the fraction of a second it takes me to get my hand around his throat, but with my fingers clinched in, I hear the sound of bones splintering in his neck. I pull his blade from its sheath and stab him in the chest, and begin making sawing motions as I run the knife around the circumference of his body.

  The lower portion of his body falls, along with his entrails, all before his pupils begin to dilate. I stare into them, watching the life leave his body.

  “I gave you a chance to end it on your own terms. Now your people will suffer a fate worse than you have,” I say, breaking sight with his eyes as I toss his carcass to the side.

  His people stand in shock, not knowing how to react. Almost as if they watched me physically kill their idea of a god.

  “Kill them. Kill all of them,” I say out loud, as my men begin to swarm the village.

  Men with flamethrowers begin burning the encampment. Women and children pour out of their homes, with their skin boiling, as my sharpshooters pick them off one by one. Killing the weakest first sends the men into a panic to protect theirs. They no longer wish to go on the offensive, and instead scramble to protect their kids, revealing their soft underbelly.

  I walk through the chaos, still holding the primitive sword I used to slaughter their king. As I pass by the warriors scrambling to protect their families, I begin gutting them one by one. I take large sweeping motions with the sword, creating a clean cut wherever the blade meets their skin. With the power surging through my suit, time almost seems to slow down. Their attacks are telegraphed, and I can easily deflect them.

  More of the tribals begin to pour out over the hills, like ants.

  This was an ambush, after all. Interesting.

  “Find where they are keeping Orrin, and bring him to me alive!” I shout as I launch myself back into battle.

  Chapter 16

  Orrin

  “Orrin, where have you been?!” Erikk shouts in excitement.

  “It would take all day to explain, and we don’t have the time. I was hoping to find you here.”

  “Someone… Some thing, actually, told me to wait here for you. The species on this planet are remarkable. I’m trying to wrap my head around them being able to predict your arrival back at camp. Did you run into Caius?” he asks.

  “No, but I heard him. Why did you let him escape?”

  “I didn’t really have a choice. He overcharged his suit and broke free, and in the process started a mutiny. I’m lucky to be alive at all. I think he only left me alive to heal their wounds when they return. Orrin, he is coming for you.
I went looking for you, but…” he trails off.

  “You did good staying put. Did he take the entire crew with him?” I ask.

  “All the soldiers, and many others. Looks like they cleaned out most of the equipment and weapons. All that’s left are support staff, E-7 and I. He painted you as a traitor. They all bought it.”

  “It’s not their fault. I am sure you’ve gathered by now that this planet isn’t all that it seems. Something about it is affecting the way they think. The way we all think.”

  “The hallucinations. So, you’re having them, too? Caius has gone off the deep end. He won’t stop until our kind is the only thing left breathing. Not that I can entirely blame him, they haven’t exactly been welcoming.” He casts a sharp look at Aya.

  “Your men slaughtered our people without the courtesy of a greeting first. Did you expect them to thank you?” Aya responds.

  “No, but I didn’t expect you to wage war with an opponent that you could never beat. That’s suicide, and stupid,” Erikk says, turning back to me.

  “They are more powerful than you know, Erikk. They have strengths that we can’t comprehend. Caius will find that out soon,” I explain.

  “How? There is no way that they are beating Caius and the entire crew with a few sticks and stones. So, what are we, two men, a robot, and a blue-haired wildling going to do about it? I can take out a few, at most. I’m sure you’ll fare better, but these two? The botanists and nurses? Be rational.”

  “Don’t worry about that. I already have a plan. You know the thing that Caius did to break free from his cage? I need you to do that for me,” I reply.

  “He hooked up three power supplies to his suit. It’s unstable. The suits aren’t meant to harness that much power. I fear it’s actually expediting whatever the air is doing to him. Changing who he is.”

  “I don’t want you to hook up three power supplies to my suit, I want you to hook up all of them,” I say, flatly.

  “Orrin, are you out of your mind? That will kill you! I don’t care how tough you are, the suit, let alone your body, just can’t handle that.”

  “Good thing I have a doctor, then.” I smile.

  “Is what he says, true?” Aya asks.

  “Aya, I never intended to walk away from this fight. I am severely outnumbered. I’m as good as dead, and that’s how it should be. We should have never come here. The cave told me that.”

  “No,” Aya says, sternly.

  “No? What do you mean, no?” I ask.

  “I will not let you sacrifice yourself for me, Orrin.”

  “This isn’t just for you, this is for all of your people. For people everywhere.”

  “Orrin, I can’t lose you. Not now. Not after all of this. My mother said you needed me, and I needed you. I will figure something out.”

  “Your mother was right, I do need you, and you got me here, but if I don’t do something soon, you lose everything,” I sigh.

  “She is right, there has to be another way,” Erikk butts in.

  “Erikk, do I have to shoot you?” I smile.

  “Come on, Orrin. You can’t ask me to do this.”

  “You’re right. I could never ask a friend to do this. So, as your captain, I order you.”

  “Fuck,” he says as he begins walking over to his medical table.

  “Wait. No. Erikk, right? How do you turn over so easily to him? Don’t do this,” Aya pleads.

  “I don’t know how things work on this world, but when your captain gives you an order, he takes the choice out of the equation. I have a duty to him.”

  “Yes, I know about being forced into something you don’t want to do, all too well…” she says, casting an angry glance in my direction.

  “Aya, I’m sorry,” I say.

  “I thought you were nothing like Garret or my father, and yet, you are just like them. You order your people to do things they do not wish to do, to satisfy your own ends. I thought you were different. Maybe our people have more in common than you think.”

  “We have a lot more in common than you think. I am sorry I am not the man you thought I was, but that matters very little to me now. All I care about is stopping Caius by any means necessary.”

  “Fine, hide behind your cause like a coward. My father does the same, for the ‘greater good,’ he calls it. My heart breaks for the death of who I thought you were.”

  “Hearts mend, extinction doesn’t. Now shut up, and be of some use,” I say, growing irritated.

  “I will shut up, but I won’t help you to kill yourself,” she says, defiantly sitting on the ground.

  Erikk pulls up a chair and a medical table and gestures for me to lay down. I climb onto the table, and look up at the reddened sky as I listen to him, dragging power source after power source in a circular pattern around me.

  “Sir, I have finished with my calculations and your survival chances are—” E-7 is cut off by the motion of my hand.

  “I never asked you to do those calculations, E-7.”

  “You should listen to your shiny stone,” Aya mutters.

  “I am not composed of stone. I am a lightweight carbon fiber alloy, with titanium plating. Though my circuitry—” I wave my hand to shut him up again.

  “You might as well be speaking another language, E-7,” I say.

  “I am speaking their language, sir,” he says.

  “I assure you, you aren’t.”

  “Do not just dismiss me like I am some kind of ignorant beast, Orrin,” Aya says, running her fingers through the grass. Erikk pulls up a tray and sits down next to the table, and out of the corner of my eye, I notice an array of syringes.

  “Erikk, you’d better not be pulling a fast one and planning on knocking me out.”

  “It’s adrenaline, and it’s literally your only hope for survival. This whole process is going to hurt, and weigh on your body. It’s going to feel like a thousand shipwrecks at once, and will permanently damage your body. If you can stay on your feet for more than a few minutes, I’d be surprised,” he sighs.

  “I can take it.” I have to.

  “You sound so foolish right now. I wasted my time coming this far to help you. To help you kill yourself. If what your friend says is true, you may not even make it back to my home. Then what? I am left to fight your men alone,” Aya protests.

  “Aya, I will make it. And even if I didn’t, there is an incredible power inside of you, just waiting to come out. I am only plan B. We’re just doing it in reverse. I am expendable, you’re not,” I say.

  “Who are you to decide the value of my life, or yours?”

  “I am a captain, and I have to assign a numerical value to everyone’s life onboard. Some people are just more valuable than others. That’s how life works, and you’re more valuable than I am. I don’t expect you to understand.”

  “Yes, because after all, I am just a dumb savage, what do I know?” she says, and with her words, the wind picks up.

  I can’t risk upsetting her. Her power is more than she can possibly know right now, and she is completely unaware of it, and her worth. It’s sad to see something so beautiful and pure be beaten into submission by a long life of oppression. I hope one day she can overcome it, and see her true value.

  “Orrin, are you ready?” Erikk says, with two cables in his hand.

  “All of the power sources are plugged in and combined into those two cables?” I ask.

  “I’m not exactly an amateur. This will work. As for you surviving it… I can make no guarantees.”

  “I don’t need a guarantee. I need unrelenting power. Hook me up,” I say, casting another glance at Aya, hoping she can read the sorrow in my face.

  I wish she could understand that I’m not doing this to her, but for her. I hope that one day she can forgive me, but if not, that’s okay. I am not doing all of this for a medal. The safety of her and her people are my primary objective, her feelings on the matter come second.

  Erikk hooks the cables into my suit, then slides over on
the table and pulls down a large lever, kicking on the power supply. I feel an immense amount of power, like nothing I could have ever envisioned, nor prepared myself for.

  I sit up in my seat, looking towards the sky, as it takes on all of the colors of the rainbow, as well as some that I don’t have names for.

  I look over to the forest, in the direction that the settlement is in, and see smoke rising above the trees. The light coming off of it dazzles, like an aurora in the sky. My senses sharpen, and time around me slows down to a crawl. I can hear the heartbeats in the chests of small woodland creatures that are miles away. I feel at one with the universe, like I am it, and it is me.

  I close my eyes, but the world is still there, like I never closed my eyes at all. I can see through them, and see my surroundings, as if I’m here and everywhere at the same time.

  Small pebbles lift off of the ground around the table, and levitate around me. Aya and Erikk take a few steps back, giving me the space I need. As my power grows, the winds around me become more turbulent. Pebbles turn to rocks, and plants start uprooting around me, causing a vortex of blinding organic matter.

  I step out of my body, walking through the storm to wait with the others, and as I approach them, their faces drop.

  “How are you here, and there?” Erikk asks.

  “I can’t explain it, but I am everywhere. My body is already being crushed under the weight of this power. You need to go, Erikk. Hit me with all of the adrenaline you have,” I say.

  “I won’t make it. The matter flying around you at that velocity, not even our suits could stand that,” he explains.

  “Take Aya,” I say, pointing to her with my astral form.

  “A half-naked woman, that’s rich,” he says.

  Aya grabs his hand without saying a word, and her long blue hair begins to lift off of her shoulders. Shockwaves leave the spot where she is standing, and her familiar violet shield creates a barrier over the two.