The landscape was the most unique terrain I’d ever seen. Long purple grass covered rolling hills; tall yellow trees stretched out into the heavens. I’d never witnessed such majestic plants, and I’d walked redwood parks in California. Gravity was less on Atrron than on Earth or New Spero. Our readouts put it close to that of Mars.
“Over there,” Slate said, pointing as we flew toward the thick treeline.
If I thought the yellow trees we were seeing were large, I now spotted ones twice as high jutting through the canopy, at least a dozen of them. Their immense branches were covered in orange leaves that gave the illusion of a sun hanging in the sky above. It was amazing.
“I think we found the Forest of Knowledge,” I said, still open-mouthed.
Soon we were heading into the treeline, the dark purple grass becoming lighter and sparser as we went. “I can’t see them anymore,” I said, referring to the tall orange-leaved trees that were now hidden beneath the outer forest canopy.
“There,” Mary said, pointing to an opening in the branches above us. I saw the tip of the tree-sun and knew we were on the right path.
I tried to not speculate on what we’d find when we got there. Instead, I took a deep breath of my EVA suit’s oxygen and began to enjoy racing across the distant world. Sarlun had zoomed out a 3D map of the universe, showing us just how far we were from our system. Even with our current ship drives, it would take centuries to make it this far.
Every time we set foot on one of these portal worlds, we were the first humans to do so. I wondered if this was how Neil Armstrong had felt, treading on the bland dust of the moon.
A large bird-like creature perched high in an upcoming yellow tree, its wings smaller than one would expect. I assumed they didn't need as much wingspan on this low-gravity planet. While the landscape was colorful and vibrant, the bird was dark gray, making it stick out like a sore thumb as it sat there watching us.
Now that I’d seen one bird, I picked out dozens of them in the trees as we hovered by. Their thin necks turned to follow us as we passed.
“Life,” Mary said, saying nothing else about them.
Life was a good sign.
Sarlun had told us there were city-like developments on Atrron, but they were far away and still preindustrial in advancement. There were days I longed for the simplicity of that kind of life, but then I remembered the average lifespan, and how a simple thing like a toothache could end in death. Given the options, I’d take our current predicament.
A few other creatures ran along beside us, quickly falling behind our hover scooters. I didn’t get a good look at them; they were just blurs of darkness.
Mary was in the lead, and she slowed after ten minutes.
“It looks like a dwelling,” Slate said.
The building was squat and made from logs, sealed at the seams with a creamy mud. Smoke poured from a crude chimney, letting us know it was occupied.
Following Mary’s lead, I got off the scooter and grabbed my pulse rifle. I really didn’t want to need it, but we had no idea what we’d be up against. Slate went first, his eyes hard and dark behind his mask. He motioned us forward with a hand signal and we spread out, Mary to the right and me to the left as Slate headed for the front of the small structure.
As we neared it, I saw it wasn’t as small as I’d thought. The few hundred-foot-tall trees around it skewed the perspective.
We had the translators on, and I prayed the language Sarlun had programmed in would work properly.
“Greetings,” Slate said firmly. I cringed at his unfriendly tone. The language it translated to sounded like a mix of a snoring bear and a braying donkey.
Mary and I flanked the building, ready to back Slate up if needed. A rustling noise passed through the log walls, like someone was dragging a sack of potatoes across a gravel driveway.
A string of low docile words were spoken from inside the building. “Who there goes?” my earpiece played.
Slate stepped back as a figure emerged from the tall hut. I couldn’t see the front of the building, but Slate looked up, his eyes wide.
I moved forward, and my gaze lifted to see what he was taken aback by. The Atrron being in front of him was at least ten feet tall, its arms long and thin, its legs no thicker than the arms. It was dark gray. Heavy patches of hair grew out of its feet and hands, along with its pelvic area, which told me he was male; otherwise, he was hairless. His head was tall and thin too, small purple eyes looking back to me, his oval mouth partially open.
He repeated the phrase. “Who there goes?”
“Uhm…” Slate stuttered.
“Dean Parker of New Spero,” I said, the words translating to the local guttural language. The giant alien appraised me as if he was looking at a newborn. His thin hand moved toward my head, three pencil-shaped fingers mere inches from my mask.
One of the gray appendages brushed my helmet before he turned to see Mary coming up behind him. “Who there goes?” he asked again, this time to Mary.
“Mary Parker of New Spero,” she said calmly.
He reached for her face. This time, his hand sat on her helmet as he stared her in the eyes. She didn’t break his gaze: an intergalactic staring match. He eventually lifted his arm and moved back to Slate. “Who there goes?”
“Zeke Campbell of New Spero.” This time, Slate found his voice and stood up straight, still not coming up to the creature’s chest.
Seemingly satisfied with hearing our names, he stepped past Slate, away from his hut. Each movement was slow, calculated, like a cautious deer in a meadow with known predators. It made me uneasy.
“I guess we follow him,” I said, staying a few yards behind the Atrron local. Bones pushed against taut skin as the gray creature moved. Every step I took felt strange, the low gravity giving me a slight hop as I lifted each foot off.
The tree trunks got thicker as we moved along, and I spotted a few other huts along the way. Each time we neared one, he called out; a war cry or a greeting, I couldn’t tell. Our translators didn’t pick it up. The first time another alien appeared from inside a hut, I nearly grabbed my rifle.
A half hour later, we were still walking. Twenty or so of the tall hosts were in front of us, each methodically placing one hairy gray foot at a time.
“Think they could move any quicker?” Slate asked quietly, muting his translator.
“In a rush to get somewhere?” Mary asked him. “This is fascinating. Do you see all the birds, or whatever they are?” She pointed to the upper branches of the soaring trees. I did see more of the muted-colored animals than before, their watchful eyes following everything that was transpiring on the forest floor below them.
“There are hundreds of them up there,” I said, watching the giant in front of me peek above him before continuing.
The trees around us changed, then progressed into a bare space a hundred feet across.
“Look,” Mary said. Slate and I tilted our heads to see that we were in the center of the immense orange-topped trees we’d seen from far away. The branches didn’t start until at least fifty feet up and kept going for what seemed like a mile. Just looking up at the swaying goliaths nearly had me spinning with vertigo.
The ground here was almost all free of the debris you’d expect in the wilderness. The grass was thick and purple, and the urge to walk on it barefoot, like the Atrron were doing, passed over me. I could almost feel the blades of grass on my skin. As a kid, I would race around our property without socks and shoes all the time, getting scolded by my mother because, God forbid, I might step on a broken piece of glass.
The aliens moved to the middle of the forest opening and stood side by side in a semi-circle, facing us.
“I guess they want to talk,” Mary said, leading us over to them. I noticed how different they each looked. They were of varying heights, and though all had hair on their feet and other areas, a few of them were shaped a little differently. I wondered if those were the females, or if the first one we’d encount
ered was instead. It was possible they didn’t have sexes as we knew them. I’d leave that to the experts. For now, I wanted to see what they knew about the Theos and our mission.
The one we’d met with first spoke before any of the others. He’d become the de facto leader as the original one to make contact with us. It was a good system. “Why you here are?” the translation came.
Mary and Slate waited for me to answer. They’d decided that since the Theos had singled me out, it might be necessary for me to do the talking. Maybe the shadow had left an imprint on me somehow.
“We are on a mission to seek out the Theos. We were sent here by them,” I said. Before the translation finished, I noted how many of them shifted side to side in either anger or excitement.
“Gods you seek?” he asked.
“Yes. They told us to come here first. That you would have the next clue.”
His head tilted to the side, reminding me of Carey for a moment. “Then time it is.”
I waited for more, but all I heard were half-murmurs from the rest of the Atrron people.
“Time for what?” Mary asked them.
“Here stayed we have. Thousands upon thousands, cycles of star. Wait, they told us. Wait for those who seek.” His eyes shone with emotion as he spoke. “We wait. No come one. Creator no come one back. We wait for seekers. When come no one, we more wait.”
My heart went out to them. They looked so sad and tired, not much more than skin and bones, waiting in huts by the edge of the Forest of Knowledge for someone to show up. “They asked you to stay here and wait for the seekers?”
“Yes. So wait we.”
I cut my translator and spoke to Mary and Slate through my mic. “These Theos have quite the nerve. Telling the Atrron that they’re their creators and then convincing them to stay here for God knows how long. Centuries? Thousands of years?”
“Dean, maybe the Theos did create them,” Mary said. I was beginning to worry that her fascination with them was getting a little too deep.
“You don’t really believe that, do you?” I asked, trying to not sound accusing. It didn’t work.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Have you seen what they were capable of? A shadow from thousands of years ago taking your mind to a different plane, to tell you about the quest to find them? What about the Kraski? Didn’t they create hybrids? Who’s to say that wasn’t playing God as well?”
I took a deep breath. “You’re right. I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions.” I flipped my translator back on.
“We want to end this for you. If we move on, will you be free?” I asked, and they all stood up straighter, energized by the word free.
“Free we be will.”
“How many have come to seek before us?” I asked.
He tilted his head again, then looked down the line of people to either side of him. “Just you.”
This floored me. My pulse raced, and I felt the sweat and anxiety I’d been pushing back rise to the surface again. We were the only ones to ever find the clue? The fact that I might be the True thrilled and worried me equally. The days Mary and I had spent on New Spero, just living our lives and being part of a community, were perfect, but the idea we could find the Theos and understand the universe in a metaphysical sense was just too great of a prize. We needed to find them. I needed to find them.
“What do you have for us?”
“In star find you the answer,” he said.
“In star? What does that mean?” Slate asked. “If we have to go into space here, we’re not prepared. There are two stars in the system, but we have no way to go into a star. Blow it up, maybe?” His words translated, and he got a lot of confused looks from the creatures before us.
“Slate, your mind always goes to blowing things up first, doesn’t it?” Mary asked, getting a nod from the big soldier.
“It can be fun to blow things up. Admit it, you like the odd explosion,” he said, getting a laugh from her.
“What star were they speaking of?” she asked the giant, getting no response. “A lot of good they are. Okay, a star. Is there a tree in the shape of a star, or a symbol on the ground, maybe carved somewhere?” She started to walk around the perimeter of the forest bed, running a hand along a large tree trunk that was at least forty feet wide.
She looked up, and my gaze followed hers as she lingered on the orange ball of leaves where the treetops connected far above. “A star. Dean, doesn’t that look like a sun to you?” Mary asked.
“I thought just that when we first spotted it from a distance,” I said.
Mary smiled at us. “I think we found our star.”
Seven
The creatures all looked up, and their energy changed, like they finally understood the ancient riddle they’d been left with. They had their “aha” moment.
“In star find you the answer,” they all repeated at the same time.
“That gave me chills,” Mary said.
“Great work, Mary. Now how do we get to the top?” I asked, but Slate was already backing up.
“I’ll bring our gear,” he said, running the way we’d come.
The Atrron watched him go with interest.
“Don’t worry, he will return. We’re going to solve this little puzzle, and you can get on with your lives,” I said. “Do you ever visit the cities?”
“Cities?” Our first guide repeated the word as if he didn’t understand it.
“Large towns where your kind live and love,” Mary said.
“Understand not we do.”
“Mary, I don’t think they’ve been in contact with their own people. The Theos must have seen to it.” That they could force a group of living intelligent beings to stand guard for something so trivial as a game of hide and seek angered me.
“We’ll show you when this is all over.” This seemed to calm them, and soon the sound of a hover scooter approaching echoed to us.
Slate showed up, parking his scooter outside the opening in the copse. He carried two of the thrust packs. “Should be easy to get up there in this gravity,” he said.
“Who goes and who stays?” I asked them.
“Why don’t you and Slate go for this one? He’ll watch your back, and I’ll see what I can learn from them.” Mary motioned to the group of twenty Atrron observing us with interest.
Slate handed me a pack that was lighter than normal, and I slung it onto my back, fastening it with the clamps on my suit.
“Be careful,” Mary said, and I wished I could give her a kiss before venturing into the sky. I leaned forward, letting my helmet touch hers. It was as intimate a moment as I could share with her.
“I love you. See you soon,” I said quietly, and when I looked back, the Atrron were closer, extremely curious about our interaction. “It’s okay, she’s my wife.”
They repeated the translated word as if it meant nothing to them.
Slate didn’t wait around; instead, he powered up and activated his thrusters. I did the same as he lifted off the ground, heading slowly upward to the sky-high orange leaves far above us.
My feet left the ground, and I felt the adrenaline of solving the first stop on the map to the Theos. I cranked my thruster, catching up to Slate, and we soared at the same speed, ten feet separating us from each other. Below us, Mary and the Atrron became specks in the distance as we carried on.
The treetops grew closer and closer, and I immersed myself in the thrill of being able to fly around like a superhero for a few seconds. It was cut short when I heard an odd noise coming from all angles around us.
“Slate, buddy, what the hell is that?” I asked as a cacophony of sound surrounded us, vibrating through my earpiece.
“Don’t get startled,” he said, his voice tense.
“Why?”
“Remember those birds?” he asked.
“Of course.”
“They’re here, and they brought friends.”
I could see them now, thousands of them in thick swarms heading toward us fr
om every direction.
“This can’t be good.”
“Keep going. Remember the trick I pulled when we first arrived at New Spero?” he asked.
I did. He’d stolen a ship and erratically flown away, getting the base distracted, allowing our escape. “It’s too dangerous,” I called to him, but it was too late. He changed trajectories, heading sideways rather than upwards.
“I’ll be quick,” I said and cranked my thrust controls, shooting like a bat out of hell toward the treetops. Orange rushed at me, and now I spotted individual branches. When I looked toward Slate, he was a speck being chased by a thick cloud of bird-creatures. A few were still making their way toward me, so I ducked and weaved past thick undergrowth. I didn’t know where to go, so I worked my way into the center of the trees, the apex of the fake sun of leaves.
I slowed, hovering in mid-air, the maddening noise of the horde of flying attackers still carrying over the distance. “What’s happening up there?” Mary asked, her voice crystal-clear in my earpiece.
“Just a few thousand birds chasing Slate around. Slate, what’s your status?” I asked.
“This is insane! Did you find anything?” His voice was a yell.
“Not yet,” I said before seeing a platform of intertwining twigs above me. “Wait, I found something.”
I hovered to it and lowered myself onto the woven wood. It took my body weight without so much as a creak.
In the middle of the ten-by-ten platform was an orange crystal box. I bent to pick it up, and a familiar smoke poured out of it. The Theos symbol rose in the air, the same pattern from the gemstone cube. As soon as I wondered if it would take the shadow man shape, it did.
“Greetings, seeker. Are you the True?” it asked. The black mist figure’s head turned toward me, then away.
This was a crucial moment. I knew what I had to do. “I am the True. Please allow me passage to the next phase. I will follow the path until I find the ones I seek: the Theos.” My heart pounded harder every few beats.
The Survivors Box Set Page 69