Intrinsic: Book One of the Terran Cycle

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  Both Novaarians left the ship motioning for Kalian and herself to follow. She counted six Novaarians waiting outside the Fathom, each holding a spear in one pair of hands. There was an awkward moment of silence as they all stared at Kalian descending the ramp; Li’ara might as well have been invisible.

  One of the Novaarians stepped forward to face Telarrek. “My Charge,” he presented his bracer showing Telarrek several sensor readings that Li’ara couldn’t make out. Telarrek let out a sharp grunt like he had just been injured.

  “Come quickly!” Telarrek shot off towards the enormous entrance to their hangar. The view was breath taking. Li’ara was certain they could fit a small star-cruiser through the portal. Before they had even got to the edge she could see the Earth and the Moon with the Sun in the background. Of course it was hard to miss the foreboding ship sitting in front of the moon.

  Li’ara wasn’t sure what she was looking through. The portal into the hangar was crystal clear, no glass or membrane to speak of. She was convinced there was nothing between herself and the cold space beyond. She was close to giving in to her curiosity when Kalian reached out and placed his hand into the empty space. The area around his hand became distorted, creating small ripples.

  “It tickles.” He retracted his hand. Li’ara was keenly aware that Kalian would need more medical treatment and soon, she had no idea how the shrapnel had affected his organs.

  “Our sensors are detecting pressure fluctuations within your star.” Telarrek’s words stunned her as he continued to monitor his own bracer. That deep pit returned to Li’ara’s stomach. In all the chaos she had forgotten about the unknown projectile heading for the Sun.

  “That thing, the missile they launched, what was that?” She asked it so fast Li’ara wondered if they had understood.

  “The Valoran scanned the object but we could not discern its purpose; its contents and configuration are alien to us.” Telarrek raised his upper hand getting the attention of one of the other Novaarians. He paused a moment taking another look at his bracer. “Prepare the Starrillium for an emergency jump!” Li’ara had no idea what he was talking about but it sounded like they were about to leave.

  “What’s going on? We can’t leave, you need to stay and help us!” She couldn’t protect Kalian from this, she was losing control.

  “It is too late...” Telarrek replied.

  The Sun imploded in a second.

  In the blink of an eye the solar system experienced true darkness for the first time in over five billion years. As quickly as it had imploded the reaction reversed, exploding in a blinding flare. Li’ara and Kalian covered half of their face watching with just one eye. The supernova continued to expand at a horrifying speed. Mercury and Venus had already been consumed in the growing fire ball. It was human kind’s worst case scenario, they had the determination and will to survive anything the Earth had to throw at them, but they couldn’t outrun the death of their own star. It was like an angry god descending from the heavens and wiping away the life it had nurtured for billions of year.

  Single tears fell from Li’ara’s eyes as she stepped back from the invisible force field. She felt helpless and terrified at once. The field changed as it tinted to dim the glare of the dying star. She was frozen in place as her brain struggled to cope with the choices laid out in front of her in such little time. She wanted to run and hide while at the same time surrender to her fate.

  Nothing could survive this.

  The speed of its expansion was unfathomable giving her no time to make any choice. The Sun had become a wall of fire eclipsing space altogether. She gasped as the Sun touched the edge of the Earth setting the atmosphere alight in the perfect silence of space. She was only half aware of someone shouting behind her before the apocalyptic view jumped to the left and became a blur of streaming stars that melted into the abyss of sub space. Somehow the ship had entered faster-than-light travel without any need of a star spot. If it hadn’t been for the shock she would have questioned that. Instead she looked down at the pressure on her foot. Kalian had collapsed and lay unconscious on the floor with a dark bruise spread across his abdomen.

  Chapter Four

  Kalian’s mind swirled turbulently like a storm. Every lightning flash was an image of the nightmare he had barely escaped. The view port exploding, the corridors imploding, doors bursting off their frames as if they were made of paper and the hangar almost breaking in half with the Commander... his mind couldn’t make sense of that last part. It was all because of that hulking armoured creature. His mind flashed from one violent image to another as the giant marched relentlessly towards him. The plated gauntlet reached out of the darkness to take him.

  The weight of reality tried to burst through his subconscious. The change from dreaming to the real world was confusing and violent. His dreams woke him with a feeling of dread and impending danger. Kalian was on the verge of consciousness as an unused part of his mind seemed to wake up. The feeling was new and all-consuming, as though he no longer had control of his own thoughts. He felt the confines of his body melt away as his mind pulsed into the space beyond.

  He became aware that he was lying flat on a cushioned table or bed, he wasn’t sure. He could feel the size of the room that contained him as if his mind was pushing out and bouncing off the smooth curving walls. As his mind pushed outwards with every pulse, he could tell there were smaller tables and stations in various sections of the room with three equilateral pillars; he was surprised at how keenly aware he was of the exact space between each object as though his mind was filling the gaps between. His brain was alive with every atom in the room in their constant battle, pulling against one another.

  Kalian’s head jerked as his mind connected with something far more complex than a table or surrounding walls. It was more substantial and hard to interpret.

  “Kalian...” the voice was only a whisper. Kalian’s eyes opened as everything contracted back into his mind like an over stretched elastic band. The loss of the connection made him feel blind to his surroundings despite the use of his eyes and ears. For just a moment he had felt more connected to everything than ever before.

  He whipped his head around following the sound of the strained whisper.

  Li’ara!

  She was pinned flat, a foot in the air, against the nearest pillar. She was only suspended there for a moment before landing back on her feet. As she landed, Kalian heard the clatter of several metallic objects hit the ground and tables around the room.

  He began to panic; he could feel his heart beating through his chest. He had done it again, his thing. Only this time he had not only done it in front of someone but to someone. He had never affected another person before, he hadn’t even been aware he could. Up until now it had only been small things or electronics, never anything alive. It must have been the nightmare, that golem reaching out for him must have sent his body into some sort of defensive overdrive.

  Li’ara stood up, brushing her coppery hair out of her face. It wasn’t hard to miss the blotchy red skin around her eyes, she had obviously been crying. Signs of her recent distress broke the dam in his memory as the images of his world ending flooded his brain.

  The Sun had gone supernova.

  He felt that blinding light again as he relived the death of the oldest thing in the solar system. It had actually happened, the worst natural catastrophe imaginable, only it couldn’t have been natural. The Sun was young for a star, billions of years away from death. It had to have been them. He remembered Commander Hawkins’ warning about the unknown object heading for the Sun. He couldn’t recall anything beyond the blinding light, he couldn’t remember... Earth.

  Kalian couldn’t remember seeing the fate of his home but he wasn’t stupid enough to imagine it survived. Nothing could survive a supernova. He had always been surprised when people laughed at the thought of ancient humans worshipping the Sun; after all it had the potential of a god. It has the power to create and support life as well as the power
to completely wipe it away. Had. It had that power, now everything was just star dust.

  The room blurred as tears formed in his eyes, slowly rolling down his face.

  His voice was shaky, “Did it really happen?” He already knew the answer but he had to hear someone else say it. Li’ara was just staring at him in shock, no doubt from being pinned to the pillar, but she understood what he was really asking.

  “Yes... it’s gone, it’s all gone.” She leaned against the pillar sliding down to the floor, he noticed she still had all of her armour on and her gun strapped to her thigh.

  Seeing Li’ara despair made it all so real. The cradle of humanity gone in an instant, his home, his students, the history of everything, it only existed in his mind now. He briefly recalled the touring children on campus and hated himself for not being able to remember their faces.

  He had no living family to mourn, he had been an only child and his parents the same. But how many actual people and families had there been? The last census had it at twenty two billion human beings. The number was unimaginable to Kalian; he had never seen twenty two billion of anything, the number was so big.

  He couldn’t believe how thoughtless he had been, Li’ara had obviously been crying for a long time before he regained consciousness. Did she have family? Or a husband? Or even children? It dawned on him that he didn’t really know anything about his guardian.

  “Did you lose anyone?” He sat up on what he could now see was some sort of medical gurney. Li’ara glanced up at him briefly while she let out a long breath. He couldn’t read her. He imagined in her training she had been instructed never to give private details of her life, she was instead to appear above such trappings and present herself as a UDC soldier and nothing else.

  “How about you tell me what the hell just happened here?” Li’ara stood up brushing her hair out of her face becoming the soldier once more. “You looked like you were having a nightmare, I put my hand out to see if I could wake you and then...” She imitated the sudden blast that had pinned her. Kalian didn’t know what to say, he had never been directly questioned about it.

  “I’m... I have no idea what happened.” He looked down trying to avoid her looks. He was impressed with the skin around his abdomen; there wasn’t as much as a scar where the chunk of metal had struck him.

  I’m naked!

  Seeing his own body he realised the only thing keeping his modesty was a thin piece of fabric draped across his midriff.

  “When did I lose my clothes?” He began looking round the room in hopes of changing the subject, but he couldn’t see them from his vantage, and he had no intention of moving.

  “They removed them before they operated, I say them but really it was that,” Li’ara looked up to the space above Kalian’s bed. It reminded him of a spider, in this case a giant mechanical spider. The centre was a large dark red dome surrounded by robotic arms each with a different device at the end. Some were pointed and sharp, but most of them were unrecognisable with what he assumed was an array of scanners and other surgical equipment.

  “After they laid you down it just hovered over you while it operated, you had some internal bleeding.” Kalian felt a shiver run through his body at the thought of the mechanical spider cutting him open and digging around inside. Li’ara’s movement caught his attention as she approached holding a bundle of clothes. She dumped them unceremoniously on the end of the bed.

  “So, we found your clothes, that thing saved your life, now tell me what the hell is going on?” She had a dangerous glint in her eye. Kalian could sympathise, a lot of unanswered terrible shit had happened today. Kalian’s weirdness was apparently pushing her over the edge.

  “I’m just different,” he couldn’t think of a better word. “I’ve always been this way, if it helps I have no idea how I did it, I’ve never affected another person before.” Kalian felt a wave of relief as he said the words out loud, he always expected to feel trapped and out of control but it actually felt good to tell someone.

  “Different? What does that even mean?” Li’ara was pacing the length of the bed. “You just pushed me and lifted half the stuff in this room without even moving!” Her eyes looked everywhere as she tried to come up with a logical reason for it, perhaps for some alien device she hadn’t noticed. “I know the UDC toyed with the idea to create super soldiers, but that was centuries ago. But it obviously never worked out...” Kalian wasn’t sure if she was speaking to him anymore or just rattling off ideas.

  “How do you know it didn’t work?” Kalian had fanciful ideas of how he might be a rogue experiment that worked and he was made to be some super spy for the UDC.

  “Because if it worked, I’d be the one pushing you around wouldn’t I?” Kalian felt he was back to being the moron again. “How long have you been able to do stuff like that?” She whirled her hand in the air.

  “Since I was kid, it was worst when I was a teenager though. And it mostly affects electrical things anyway. If I had a C-cred for every Info-band I’ve broke...” Li’ara was just staring at him; it reminded him of the way Telarrek and the other Novaarians looked at him, a combination of wonder and suspicion.

  “Is this why they wanted to meet you?” She looked away for a moment trying to put everything together. “That’s why they made you a condition, it must be! Why else would they travel across the galaxy to meet a history lecturer from San Francisco?” Kalian could see the connection too now; it was the only thing that made sense. Somehow these Novaarians knew about his, weirdness. But what did they want from him? How did they even find out in the first place? Another fantasy emerged from his imagination; what if he had been abducted as a child and given these weird abilities by aliens?

  Don’t say that one out loud...

  He tried to change the subject, “What about them?” Kalian was talking about the others, the ones that obliterated Earth without as much as a warning. “Don’t you think it’s a bit strange that another alien ship appears at the same time as the Novaarians?” Kalian knew the topic of his weirdness wasn’t over but he thought they had more pressing matters to deal with. He had no idea what their next step should be but the notion was sobering. The switch in topics hadn’t escaped Li’ara’s notice but the soldier in her clearly agreed that there were bigger concerns right now.

  “We need to make contact with the UDC.” Li’ara started for the door on the far side of the room.

  “How? The Hub was destroyed along with the Chief Commander and half the fleet!” Kalian instantly regretted saying it as Li’ara gave him a quick glance back. He didn’t know much about Li’ara but he was willing to bet she had just lost a lot of friends in the UDC, Earth too. Kalian being the loner he was, could only empathise with her situation.

  “We need to get to Century ASAP, if they were jamming our communications they might not even be aware of what’s happened. We need to establish a chain of command and coordinate all remaining UDC ships.” It was like he had never made the comment, she was back to being the soldier again.

  As Li’ara walked away Kalian began to actually take in the view of the room. He felt like he already knew its lay out and shape from that peculiar experience when he woke up. But seeing the room with his eyes reminded him he really was on an alien ship. Everything had a soft glow to it, he almost felt like he was in a dream. It was obviously some kind of medical bay; everything was perfectly clean and sterile. On the wall at the base of his bed was a large screen with the outline of a human body in the centre. He could see the entirety of the circulatory system being pumped around by a glowing red heart in the chest. Various lines were pointing at different sections of the body each with some alien script underlined. Kalian couldn’t make sense of it, but he realised it must be scans of his own body from the procedure.

  Before Li’ara could reach the circular door Ilyseal entered the room. She was instantly recognisable from the red in her long tendrils. As she walked through the door Ilyseal almost appeared to be the same height as them but Kalian
realised all the doors on a Novaarian ship must be pretty tall. She was so graceful Kalian wasn’t sure if she walked in or glided over the floor.

  “Greetings of peace,” she bowed her head. “It is pleasing to see you are well again Kalian Gaines, many of our crew were concerned for your health.” Kalian absently reached behind his ear to feel the circular device attached to his skin. Her voice still had guttural undertones but it had a feminine quality that was melodic and almost human.

  Kalian still wasn’t used to the sight of aliens let alone talking to them. “Well, thank you for...” he awkwardly pointed to the mechanical spider above him. Ilyseal simply bowed her head again. Li’ara did an almost undetectable shake of her head in despair of him and his awkwardness. He wasn’t sure how much time Li’ara had spent among the Novaarians while he was unconscious, but she had obviously acclimatised to their presence. She sharply turned back on Ilyseal.

  “We need to get to Century as soon as possible.” Ilyseal’s golden eyes met with Li’ara’s.

  “Charge Telarrek requests your presence on the bridge.” It was impossible to tell what Ilyseal was thinking. Her face was too alien to pick up on any subtle changes that would be obvious on a human.

  “Fine, let’s go.” Li’ara and Ilyseal stood looking at Kalian.

  “What?” He had done nothing but listen.

  “You might want to put some clothes on,” Kalian followed Li’ara’s eyes to the flimsy material covering his waist.

  “Oh...” he gripped the material a little tighter.