Krikos: The Vertical Horizon

by Rishabh Dubey

  Rush- RUSHed huh? Poor Joke… So, who are these ‘humans’ with ancient technology? Anything else I might need to know?

  Prabarus- I have told everything I can recall. Everything of relevance I mean.

  Rush- We searched inside the Station… there is no such object that you are mentioning. What was the case anyway? What was inside of it? Like you cannot just have a case for keys? How big was it?

  Prabarus- I couldn’t open it to check myself… It was locked away from strangers… But when he was closing the case, an old piece of paper peeked out of it… So he had to properly bundle all of them up…

  Rush- Paper? Real paper? We just have in the museums… are you sure these guys are human?

  Prabarus- Yes, paper… it has become quite abundant on our planet since the arrival of Irinks. They extract it from our trees. Are you sure but that there was no brown case?

  Rush- Weird… it is like suckers came from the past… That aside… We found nothing… And thank you for being co-operative. I got to tell this to the Captain now. And about that stunt with the Captain the other day, don’t do things like that and you’d be released soon. For now, you’d be put back to sleep again. Before that just one thing.

  Prabarus- What else?

  Rush- If you knew we were not the ones looking for you and if you were so very intelligent, why did you attack us and react in such a violent way the first time.

  Prabarus- That was a little bit of acting I pulled off. I was sure that if you think I am not afraid or if even you get a hint of that ‘I know what I am doing’ or ‘I am intentionally doing it’ then you’d have killed me instantly. So, I had to act as surprised as you were.

  Rush- Clever huh? A wise piece of alien I have here. Wait... what if I called you Witty? What say, mate?

  Prabarus- Call me anything but this ‘alien’ thing. It sounds offensive.

  Rush- Okay now... I am off to the Captain’s room now. Behave, good mate. I’d put a letter of recommendation on you. And yes… We come in peace – Rush concluded with a wink and removed the helmet. Without speaking a single word to anyone else, he straightaway went to the central room to see the Captain. He told him everything in all detail. Krawn’s temple shrunk to thoughtful wrinkles.

  He got up and said to everyone present – “People listen up. We have a great problem ahead which I’d come to later that is as soon as we come out of this field. I’d directly tell you all along with the Eutopium. Something unexpected has happened. But for now, I have come to a decision and one that must be enacted instantly. I order the release of Prabarus-Uz Witt the Annaeaxian.”

  Cross questions were thrown at him, but he continued “He shall be released immediately. And also, mind it that it is for the benefit of the mission that, for now, I order that he be released and considered an honorary member of the Epilion. He’d prove a great boon to our mission.”

  They all were shocked out of their seats. But Krawn’s decision and stature didn't change. Rather, he turned around and moved inside his resting chamber.

  Diaries of Flex:

  Episode 5-

  The Stillites... and Flex.

  S

  tillites... The Human Extremists who stood with all their strength to bolster their beliefs. Their beliefs, though, were stupid. They held that the Universe was made serene and was supposed to be Static; But Technology had changed it all and forged mutations onto the Universe, making holy Galacta infuriated. Therefore, any Technical and Scientific advancement, according to them, was the cause for the melancholy of humanity as well as nature. Unlike other Faiths, they didn’t just preach. They soon became obsessive and stubborn. Right from Narma Surja to Flex, all Stillites gave out the stinky stench of immutable and unimpressionable beliefs. Poor Humans… The greatest mind in the field of science to have ever been born… believed that Science was bad. Flex, though, was not a complete typical Stillite. As is evident from his lifetime… he never entirely accepted the faith. Although he was arrogant about his beliefs, they never came in the way of his work. The onset of Liberalism in Stillites… or Was It?

  In 254 A.E. there was a division amongst humans -as if there weren't enough already. The nuclear continents had already caused sufficient civil wars on a global scale for the entire human race. Whereas the ones nucleated had turned desperate and barbaric. This time, it was the greatest division of all. A new race emerged, one which (as mentioned above) did not believe in technology. I could never quit laughing on that. The humans who believed in universal Stillness… who thought that its protection is a responsibility given to humans. What could have they done otherwise? There was hardly anything left to be believed in. The world was at War, with or without a God or a belief. Therefore, they formed a belief based on disbelief.

  Myths still hold that it wasn’t the first time that an organization had risen against technology and science. Humanity has always followed a pattern. -Evolution, Science, War, Religion, More War on Religion, Evolution- This eternal cycle shall ever go on. Legends say there was one which preached that the ‘Earth is Flat’. There isn’t any scale-of-stupidity, is there? They would have scored not much lesser than the Stillites.

  Flex, though a first-grade engineer and physicist, was also a dedicated Stillite. There were incidences of him destroying even an easy project of his to serve his faith. This had brought him to the top of the grudge list of the Eutopium, but Flex never lost hope.

  Once I was going through his journals, as requested by the dead him… Surprisingly, because he always hated me interfering with his work; and I found a chapter entitled “Galacta Cantos- Volume II”. ‘Maybe the continuation to the Volume 1” I thought. It was in the form of some chant. I guess Flex was quite moody while writing it. -

  GALACTA CANTOS VOLUME II: Etiamnum Triumphos.

  When the axioms were all blue but all be gone.

  It was dark in times; fidelity had yet not formed.

  When time’s across a distance all apart,

  It is all just wailing.

  We fall on the Holy Earth and depart,

  The faith all trailing.

  The creator, the Forgiver, we pray thee in our minds.

  Absolve us off the Gallows, Galacta has us in binds.

  We raise our hands held all too still,

  From her shall we learn?

  That fate acquaints us ‘not to kill’

  But to ‘let them burn’.

  Time halts for the time when they shall rise.

  Krikos the inferno to nature’s demise.

  In flesh, Kronos shall ‘guise again,

  What’s said was done.

  We will fight, and we shall bear the pain

  Till we have won.

  It’s war, it’s destruction,

  It is the eternal wrath.

  But we want Salvation.

  Galacta shows us the path.

  We raise our hands held all too still,

  From her shall we learn?

  That fate acquaints us ‘not to kill’,

  Just to ‘let them burn’.

  Into The Dimension:

  Episode 5-

  The Krydon.

  H

  ope… the one difference between failure and success. Even the faintest of Hopes can manipulate a man to action. The action which can advance his survival as the sands of time pour to an inevitable end. Krydon, the bearer of Hope; the son of the Goddess of Hope, Galacta. Known to have slain the God who created the destroyer of civilisations, that is ‘time’, or his very own brother ‘Kronos’; Krydon had been also known as the symbolism of the last icicle of hope. In some cases, even the bearer of improbable hope. It was rather known famously through the phrase “The Krydon rests in the Shadow”, which meant that ‘as long as you have a shadow, you have hope’. But was this bearer of Hope going to come to the aid of the Epilionians? Where could it have cast its shadow in that darkness? From where could have this Hope emerged?

  The Epilion ex
ited the magnetic flux to find itself stranded in a far different part of the Universe than it was heading toward. Prabarus-Uz Witt had been accepted as an honorary aide to help them past the ‘other’ humans he had been referring to. But the closest one to him on the Epilion, that is Rush Demilzo, also had the closest eye of doubt on him. He had been monitoring his activities all along which primarily involved just a little more than disliking their food and sleeping. Though all seemed well and good, Krawn knew that they were on the path towards the worse, the worse being in its tentative stages then. For them, the greatest problem right then was to recalculate their coordinates and headings. And Krawn and crew were very anxious to do away with it. Muster and Ram had been working on the Hexkon Thrust Module of the ship and reprogramming it for a long jump. Gart had been working on the coordinates while Krawn had been trying to contact the Eutopium with no leads whatsoever.

  “Why can’t we reach the Genetrix? We are past the Magnetic Field, aren’t we? Ram, after you’re done, help me out with the secondary communications. We got to tell them about Prabarus.” Krawn said.

  “Sir I have everything I need to resolve the problem. But the problem is that I can’t identify the problem nor can the Visi-Scanner. And as long as I don’t know the problem I can’t do anything about it” Ram said as he typed through the H.T. programmer.

  “You get the H.T. running and Muster you go handle your department. Bear directions from the last projectile. Trace our footsteps back to the Krikos. We need a backup plan,” Krawn Commanded.

  Suddenly, the scanners of the Epilion detected a strange Photonic and Phononic Activity in its Surrounding Space, and the computer sounded the alarm.

  "What's that? Don’t say we got another alien… already.” Muster said.

  “Whoa… Look at that,” said Castino looking out of the observation frame.

  “What is it?” Krawn said as he moved toward the frame.

  They all drifted fast toward the outlook and found a whirlpool of light in front of them. It seemed like a tiny Aurora nearing them. Rush succumbed to the sounding alarm along with Prabarus and came to the control room. Krawn ordered to turn down the Epilion’s reactor because he suspected that it could be a heavy Distortion-Flux. All of a sudden, the Aurora melted away into open space. They all became frightened yet inquisitive and gazed into the evanescence of the Vortex. It was apparent that the condition had stabilised, so Krawn ordered to bump the reactors again. But when Ram went to the Emergency Pad to switch it on, he was unable to do so. When he told that to Krawn, the latter himself went there to assess the situation and then ordered Ram to boost up the reactor manually.

  Ram moved to the lower Reactor chamber while Krawn and the rest of the crew assembled in the control room. Till then, they all had been ignorant of the small anomalies that fate and space had thrown at them. But this time, it had caught their nerves, and they all began to question Krawn’s Authority and Supervision, though not directly on his face. Rush, Mira, Steffy and Castino knew about Krawn’s capabilities, so they chose to remain silent. Meanwhile, Krawn tried to decipher the destination coordinates and also ways to reach the Eutopium using his personal Data Pad. A loud Explosion was heard and felt through the Floor tremors. It seemed to have come from the Reactor Chamber. All of them moved down to find the Storage chamber in flames, and Ram lying in the reactor chamber next to it completely unconscious and deeply wounded. Krawn carried him to the Infirmary, and Mira attended to him while Rush, Prabarus, Cantor, Gart, Castino, Steffy, and Muster tried to quell off the Fire below. Krawn moved to the reactor chamber to start the generator. The generator started and the ship’s engines become online, but as soon as it happened, the alarm started again. Krawn ordered the rest to be involved in their work downstairs while he moved to the control room to check out the situation. He found that the ship’s radar had detected an asteroid field ahead. “The problem just got from worst to the ‘most’ worst” thought the ever-whimsical hypothetical observer. Krawn called up Gart to help him out through the asteroid field. Initially, they did well to manoeuvre, but suddenly the ship’s radar again detected something. But this time, it was not an asteroid. It was something that was changing its direction irregularly and voluntarily, therefore suggesting that it was something with locomotive capabilities. Not an asteroid for sure. That new spatial mass was seen to trail the Epilion, but Krawn couldn’t identify it. Then a very loud sound was heard through the ship's radar as if the space entity was sending some signal. But when the sound ceased, the power of the Epilion also went down, and it began to drift in space with its prevalent pace. The fire below had been extinguished, and the whole crew assembled in the control room (except for Mira who was attending Ram). They all moved to the different outlooks but didn’t find anything initially. All of a sudden, the rear outlook was illuminated by a bright light. They all stood still, in the prominent silence, waiting to see what was going to happen. A moment of sigh indeed. But this moment was broken by a very loud explosion in the side engines of the Epilion. The blast overwhelmed the east end of the Epilion. There was popular negativity in the Epilion, which began to drift away from its course into a huge asteroid. The bright light faded. Krawn rushed to the generator chamber to check on it so that he could reset the course of the Epilion. And the others moved to the east wing to see the damage and its aftermath.

  “Why Galacta? Tell me it’s a nightmare… TELL ME,” Krawn murmured to himself as he tried to boost up the Generator.

  “Sir, there was a blockade at the Infirmary. We can’t get past,” said Muster as he came in, running behind Krawn.

  “What? You look to the generators… Where is Rush? Where is he?” Krawn speaks.

  “Sir, he is helping out with the fire in the East Wing,” he replied. Krawn moved up to the East Wing and found the others there.

  “Gart you move to the control. The generators may be fixed at any time.” He said “And Rush you help me out with this door… why is it jammed?”

  “The fire may have gotten the East Wing Hydraulics sir,” Rush replied.

  “Yes… we might be under attack…” Krawn said.

  “By what?” Rush questioned.

  “Whatever it may be… either your friend’s suggestions were wrong or misinterpreted… or the archaic technology in use here is way more advanced than ours… Where is he… Prabarus…” Krawn said.

  “Where??? He was right here helping me to get through to them on the other side…” Rush said.

  “Mira… Ram… You okay in there? Miraaa.” Krawn shouted. He tried to get through but was unable to do so, so he asked Rush to bring his Magnus Gladius.

  “I will get through here no matter what… Why isn’t she replying?” he said.

  “Sir it is possible that the fire may have gotten through to it. We must hurry,” said Cantor.

  “Open this door. Open this. Cantor… you move down to the generator and help out Muster… Why the hell is the power not up yet?” Krawn said.

  Suddenly, Gart came in “Sir if the power isn’t up in fifteen seconds, then we are going to collide.”

  “What? I am coming… Where is Rush with my sword?” He said.

  “Here it is sir.” Rush came in.

  Krawn moved to the generator chamber to see the condition. Muster told him that the generators were down permanently. So, he became restless and took out his Gladius. He turned its core on and moved inside the Fusion chamber and pushed the sword into the Ship’s Core Reactor. The power fluctuated, and Gart tried to change the ship’s direction in the control room as Krawn held the Sword still in the ship’s core. A bright flash was seen again with a descending Epilion… and a loud reverberation “Miraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.”

  ♦♦♦

  The Royal Zone D1Z5. In that zone was present the Eutopia, the council headquarters for the Eutopium. The Eutopium council sat there awaiting contact from the Epilion. There had been no response for 88 hours straight. The majority of the council believed the mission to
be as yet another failure. But there was someone on the council who had placed his complete trust in Krawn Xanethius the Captain. Dragomir Lunarte, the first speaker of the council. The man with the eternal and omnipotent voice. Popular beliefs demanded otherwise. To him, he was Krawn, but to them, the Xanethius. So, what could he have done? Declare the mission as failed?

  Kridious had been troubling the Epilion Mission Control with his frequent visits. But, since there had been no response for more than 72 hours, he had taken up the job to himself as per the Code of the Sentinels. Their Vice-Captain being Kridious. He couldn’t have been inadvertent to the disappearance of his comrades and his dear mentor, the Xanethius. He began assembling the sentinels, and to his great fortune, they all were present in the D1 district. But why? Why assemble a combat crew? It was all because of the old librarian Verdo Hoko. He had convinced Kridious with the possibility of a critical threat awaiting Krawn.

  Dragomir Lunarte stood alone with the hope of success. He was informed that none of the Rimors was ready for departure. So, he took a rash decision. He informed the Hexagon Commander-in-Chief Denso Well to ready an Alpha class Salvator for a mission. The commander didn't understand since there wasn’t any ready backup crew. But to his great boon, came the remainder of the disbanded sentinels. They all knocked at the Eutopium’s door. When they assembled against the council, they clarified that they were there to rescue their Captain Krawn Xanethius. When cross-questioned, the First Speaker put forward their Curriculum Vitae-

  Commander VIN-die Kridious- the one with peak human capabilities with a record of completing all of his 389 solo missions successfully. The holder of the Purple Magnus Gladius di-DUX and the winner of the two Sai Gladiuses. Manager Raymor Dene- The chief manager of the Krikos. Sniper Fusa Rendo- Hexagon Commander. Navigator Tref Damiens- who learned navigation under Vret Michaelzo, the greatest navigator in history. He could have manually navigated through spatial coordinates. Chief Engineer Colo Jissard- The creator of Visi Technology. Physician, Psychiatrist, Xenologist and Anthropologist Demo Urn- the chief of Krikos’ Hospital Staff.