Intrinsic: Book One of the Terran Cycle

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  Chaos had erupted inside the Hub’s central command theatre. Alarms on every console were blaring their warning as holograms in every colour erupted across the various terminals. Commander Barnes furiously tapped his fingers against the glass station in an effort to collate all the information. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  “Sir, the Icarus has been breached... Ambassador Arlek is dead.” Barnes scanned through the Icarus sensors and confirmed the cadet’s report for himself. Something had actually penetrated the bridge and killed Arlek in the process. The ship that had fired it was formidable in size and just as alien as the purple ship.

  “Where the hell did that come from?” The Chief Commander slammed his palm onto the glass top.

  “Sensors show it appearing from sub space but there’s no trace of Solar Drive activity, sir.” The nearest cadet answered.

  “How did they move through sub space without a Solar Drive?” Barnes examined the data but couldn’t understand it.

  “What’s the location of the second missile?” The Chief Commander asked. Barnes double checked the data coming in from the Hyperion as it traversed the distance back to Earth from the Sun.

  “It’s missed every ship and satellite. It’s on a straight course for the Sun, sir.”

  “A miss fire?”

  “We don’t know...” The Chief dropped his fist onto the glass again.

  “Any activity from the first ship?” Barnes glanced at the information streaming across the table.

  “None, sir. At this point we have no idea if they’re together.” Lieutenant Walsh strode over with a Datapad in hand.

  “Sir, you need to see this.” She handed the pad to the Chief Commander. Barnes watched him scan through the information with annoyance on his face.

  “I have no idea what this means.”The Chief handed it back to the Lieutenant. Barnes walked over, curious himself.

  “These are the preliminary results from the lab, sir. They’ve been going through the scans we made of Kalian Gaines.” The Chief looked up from the central station for the first time. “His DNA is different. What we have on file from the Birthing Databank doesn’t match these scans.”

  “What DNA was in the message they sent?”

  “It was the same one we have from the databank, sir. That’s why we knew it was Kalian. What we don’t know is why his DNA is different today.”

  “How is it different?” Barnes asked.

  “They don’t know, sir. Apparently it could take years of research to understand, but the scientists looking at it seem very excited.” The Chief rolled his eyes, looking back to the constant stream of holograms.

  “We’ll deal with this later.”

  Barnes turned to the image of the Icarus, its blast shield now covering the hull breach. He could see that the emergency teams were already leaving the hangar, making their way up to the station. He could see that the remains of the team on the bridge were in bad shape. The sensors in Li’ara’s suit showed she was unconscious, but alive.

  “Come on Ducarté, get up.”

  Chapter Three

  Li’ara opened her eyes for the first time since the nightmare had erupted. She had collided with something hard as the sound of rushing air came to a swift end and gravity returned. Her eyes had remained closed to protect her from flying debris but she had managed to remain conscious. As they were being sucked out of the broken view port she had lost her grip on Kalian. It had all happened so fast she only had time to push him as far away from the breach as possible.

  She lay on the floor in an awkward position between a half destroyed console and... She craned her neck to see what her back was against. From the layout of the bridge she knew it should be the view port but now there was just a wall. Li’ara turned her whole body to get a better look. The brown wall covered the entire space where the view port had been, arcing over the ceiling where the glass and tungsten frames hadn’t even been broken. The security walls that formed the outer shell of the command bridge had been activated when the hull was penetrated. All UDC ships had the same design, since the bridge was considered integral for maintaining order; it had to have fail safes for any direct attack.

  Seeing how close she was to the wall Li’ara realised she had only been inches from a blood boiling death. She pulled at her chest plate catching her breath as the air recyclers finished replenishing the oxygen supply.

  Kalian...

  The mission flooded every crevice of her mind: Protect Kalian Gaines. She rose quicker than she knew she should have, her training told her to check herself over first. Li’ara didn’t have time for that. She used the broken console for support and pulled herself up taking in her surroundings as she searched for him.

  Everything was in shades of red and black since the emergency lights had activated. Only a few feet away was a large jagged hole where something had swan dived through the command bridge. She could see the flickering lights and sparking consoles of the next two levels down, the rest was in darkness. How far had it gone?

  She couldn’t put the pieces together. In what universe could a species build that ship but not construct a working missile? She slowly moved passed it making sure to avoid the drop; she didn’t have time to think about it now, she was just glad it hadn’t blown them to stardust.

  The room had filled with smoke as multiple consoles had been fried and split apart. She headed in the direction she had pushed Kalian, praying he hadn’t been sucked through the breach. Li’ara let out a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding. Kalian was lying face down on the floor with various innards of a console scattered over his legs. She quickly knelt down next to him shoving aside the wires and charred panels.

  “Kalian!” Li’ara had to shout over the constant sparks and flames around them. She rolled him over to see his face. He had ash smeared across his skin and clothes; she instantly noticed the cut over his right eyebrow. Her training kicked in again, this time she listened. She visually inspected his airway checking for any obstruction. Her hand was rising and falling with the breathing of his chest.

  “Kalian!” She shouted again. She gave him a quick shake around the shoulders. “Kalian... Kalian you need to get up, now!” The environment had changed, Li’ara no longer felt in control. Her new priority was to get Kalian off the Icarus and planet bound as fast as possible. His eyes flickered for a moment. She gripped his shoulder a little tighter bringing him back to the room. Kalian looked in pain as he lifted his head.

  “What happened?” His voice was groggy. “You’re bleeding.” Li’ara couldn’t help but be a little impressed; most people weren’t able to speak after an explosion, let alone ask questions. She could feel the blood slowly trickling down the side of her face but she ignored it. He had distracted her from finishing the checks, next was circulation.

  She began patting him down moving his clothes and limbs looking for any blood loss.

  Shit!

  Her hands soon found the foreign object under his jacket sticking through the shirt. At first she thought it might be a compound fracture of the ribs but it was situated too low. After moving his jacket aside she realised it was a piece of shrapnel from an exploded console. The blood appeared black under the emergency lighting.

  Li’ara instantly started searching each of the compartments on her belt looking for the med pack. Just ammo and a knife. She chastised herself for leaving it on the rack in the Fathom’s armoury. She had made the split-second decision to take extra ammo charges instead. Such was the influence of Commander Hawkins

  “There’s Medifoam back on the shuttle, I don’t have anything on me.”

  “I don’t understand, what’s...” Kalian tracked Li’ara’s eyes to the shrapnel piercing his abdomen. The alarm on his face was obvious.

  “I don’t know how deep it goes, but if I pull it out I’m going to need Medifoam to stop any bleeding!” She felt confident the foam would do the job, having had need of it herself.

  She would always remember her first time a
s lead on the protection detail for a negotiator from Central Parliament. A rebel faction on Mars had claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks on Earth, their goal- to intimidate Central Parliament into decreeing Mars an independent planet. That wasn’t going to happen. In the appearance of peace a negotiator had been sent to Great Athens at the base of Olympus Mons. Li’ara hadn’t liked it from the start; Great Athens was too big a city with potential rebels everywhere. To make things worse, she was confident Central Parliament had been counting on negotiations to fail. If it was seen that the rebels had no interest in peace, Parliament could use the UDC to remove them without losing face. They were right, it had only taken five minutes before the peace talks fell through and the shooting began.

  The negotiator survived making the mission a success as far as Li’ara was concerned. But if it hadn’t been for Medifoam she wouldn’t have been so lucky. A rebel had configured an ancient buckshot-style weapon. One of the old fashioned projectiles had passed straight through her femoral artery. From her point of view, Medifoam was the only reason she hadn’t bled to death right there and then.

  A sound to her right shot her instincts into overdrive. In one swift, smooth motion she had drawn her weapon and levelled it in the direction of the sound. It was only after raising her gun that she registered the noise as a cough. Orientated to the room she knew it had come from the central console. Li’ara recognised the tattooed head of the Commander as a small flame illuminated his shaven scalp through the smoke.

  “Commander Hawkins!” She was relieved to know he had survived. Although she had never worked with him before Li’ara was well aware of his reputation. He didn’t usually do personal security like her; he was bred to fight and nothing else. Nothing was ever confirmed, but if Central Parliament needed a show of force and didn’t want it public, rumours were they sent Commander Hawkins. If he hadn’t been so well known amongst the ranks he would have been an agent by now. When Li’ara was informed of his presence on the mission she knew he was being sent as a failsafe. If everything went wrong and the aliens proved to be hostile the UDC would unleash Commander Hawkins on them.

  “Li’ara is that you?” His voice sounded like he’d inhaled too much smoke. He limped out between the central consoles. She could see a smooth metal pipe lodged in his right leg. The tip pointed out above his kneecap preventing him from bending it. Li’ara performed a quick medical assessment with her eyes, the pipe would stop any blood loss for now and he could handle the pain. Her priority was still Kalian.

  She could account for three of the four members of her party; where was the Ambassador? She looked through the gaps in the smoke hoping to glimpse his large robe.

  “Bridge is clear. Where’s the Ambassador, did you see what happened to him?” Li’ara was still crouched by Kalian and couldn’t see everything. The Commander was shaking his head.

  “Whatever crashed through the view port took him with it, there’s no way he survived.” The Commander was staring at the jagged hole a few feet away. Like Li’ara he had to reprioritise now, the Ambassador had literally been obliterated, Kalian and Li’ara were still alive. Now they had to get off the station and report back to the Chief Commander. He took in Kalian’s prone form from head to toe.

  “Can he walk?” Li’ara knew he was really asking her if they should leave Kalian behind. Before she could answer Kalian slowly twisted his body rolling onto his knees.

  “I might not have the training you two have, but I’m not useless.” He was beginning to surprise her more and more. She remembered thinking what a moron he was when they were first introduced at The Hub. He had no real training she could count on; he wasn’t even an officer of Central Parliament, just an average citizen who should have crumpled under the first sign of stress. He rose to his full height just above her own but couldn’t maintain the posture causing him to hunch over. He stumbled backwards, his head rolling slightly out of control. Grabbing him by the shoulders Li’ara turned him to face her, keeping him upright in her grip.

  “Look at me. I’m going to get you out of here, but you need to focus. Do everything I tell you to and when I tell you to, are you with me?” Li’ara made her tone sharp and to the point like her old drill sergeant, it was a tone you couldn’t ignore. She watched him blink slowly three times as he looked around the room. He let out a long breath and focused on Li’ara’s eyes.

  “I’m with you.”

  I’m going to have to carry him...

  The quick nod from Commander Hawkins suggested he no longer cared. Li’ara knew that if Kalian couldn’t keep up, the Commander wouldn’t hesitate to leave him behind. His priority wasn’t protection, it was action. The sooner they could get back to The Hub the sooner they could mount an offensive.

  “We need to get Earth-side ASAP. I don’t know what hit us but it sure as shit didn’t explode, and I ain’t waiting around to see if it does. Whoever... whatever they are, they haven’t come looking to make friends!” The Commander turned to the exit while Li’ara placed Kalian’s arm around her shoulders. He appeared grateful for the support; as the initial shock wore off, he was obviously starting to feel the pain.

  They had only walked a few steps before Li’ara stopped them both. It was hard to hear everything through the noise of the overhead extinguishers. Pausing a moment longer to confirm her thoughts, she waited for the sound. There it was again, the unmistakable sound of twisting metal under the methodical impact of something heavy. It was definitely getting louder. Li’ara had turned them both to look at the gaping hole in the floor. She looked to Kalian wanting to know if he could hear it. His face was screwed up as he concentrated on the noise too. Commander Hawkins came into view by her side, not believing his own ears.

  “Now what?” With all the ash on his head Li’ara could no longer see where the Commanders tattoo started and ended. He had dozens of small cuts across one side of his face from an exploded console.

  “I don’t understand, didn’t we get hit by a missile or-” Kalian’s words were cut off by a distinctly alien hand grasping his shoulder. The Commander reached for his sidearm but Li’ara recognised the hand. She turned Kalian and herself so they could see behind them. Li’ara couldn’t believe it, in all the chaos and confusion she had forgotten about the Novaarians. She reasoned that they must have jumped to safety on the other side of the central console. There were only three of them now.

  “Kalian Gaines...” Telarrek reached out but didn’t touch him. Instead his metallic bracer lit up as it scanned Kalian’s body. “He is injured.” Li’ara noticed the features on his face appear to soften as he took in the sight of Kalian’s hunched form.

  “We’ve got bigger problems,” the Commander had lowered his weapon but didn’t holster it. “Hear that, you have any idea what that is?”

  “We have already tried scanning whatever it is. There is a low level electromagnetic pulse emanating from within the hole, deflecting our sensors.” It had been Numanon that replied. Li’ara found it astonishing that they had such different voices considering their similarity in appearance.

  Kalian lifted his head, “There were four of you.” He wasn’t asking.

  “Youl was taken from us,” Telarrek looked to the broken view port. There was a note of sadness in his voice. Li’ara filed the information away, it was only small, but they obviously shared similar human emotions. It hadn’t escaped her that Youl’s fate had been very close to her own either.

  “We shall think on his passing later; now we must get to safety, My Charge.” Li’ara couldn’t help but be surprised. It had obviously been Ilyseal that had spoken but the voice was definitely female. Li’ara inspected the Novaarian a little closer. In the emergency lighting it was impossible to pick out real detail. The only thing she remembered was the slight difference in Ilyseal’s hair, but under the light everything looked red.

  Telarrek lifted his head sharply, “You must come with us to the Valoran, it is the safest place right now.”

  “You can go
back to your shiny ship,” the Commander was pulling something off the back of his belt. “We’re going back to Earth, right now.” Li’ara recognised the object he had pulled free from his belt, a grenade. She watched him dial the level up to its maximum setting. The Novaarians recognised the object for what it was as they took a step back.

  “I would not recommend that course of-” before Numanon could finish his warning the Commander threw the grenade under arm into the hole.

  “Time to bug out!” Commander Hawkins had already started limping for the exit before the explosive unleashed its payload. The floor shook beneath them as a giant gust of smoke and debris flew out of the hole. They lingered for a moment waiting to see if everything held up under the new stress. Li’ara wanted to check that the ascending noise had stopped but the Commander ordered her to follow.

  By the time they had all caught up the Commander had opened the door revealing the corridor back to the hangar bay. The emergency lighting had only taken effect on the command bridge; the corridor was still well lit in black and white panels. It was like walking through a portal into a world of colour. It took Li’ara’s eyes a moment to adjust to the brightness. Telarrek and Ilyseal had gone ahead of them while Numanon took up the rear. Li’ara knew the formation well; they were creating a protective barrier around them, no not them, Kalian. She had seen Telarrek’s concern for him; with their current circumstances, she feared they might never learn of the Novaarians’ interest in him.

  In the light it was clear the Novaarians had suffered similar wounds to them. Telarrek had what could only be described as a split lip, despite the absence of lips. To Li’ara’s surprise the blood surrounding the edges of the cut was red. As were all their other injuries, they had all been caught by flying debris and glass. Just like them the Novaarians were covered in ash and rubble, the fabric that flowed from their waist was singed and torn in places. Li’ara could now see the red tendrils that were intermingled between Ilyseal’s milky white strands. She wondered for a moment if that was typical of all Novaarian females.