Intrinsic: Book One of the Terran Cycle

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  He felt his laugh vibrate through the armour. He couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed. The command module had expanded in size to allow for the extra compliment. All eight hundred of his crew had gathered to witness their final blow against the enemy. He extended his mind feeling every one of them like a beacon of light in the dark. Elandar stood off to the side monitoring readouts from the pilot where he constantly fussed over the vital signs. They couldn’t even feel the explosions as the primitive missiles hit the hull. His initial reaction had been to raise the shields but he decided to let the humans be baffled by the nanocelium that made up the entire ship.

  Let their last thoughts be of chaos and confusion.

  He looked out across his comrades, his brothers and sisters, his family as it were. They all appeared eager for battle, ready to fight and destroy. And didn’t they deserve it? After countless millennia of searching a galaxy that appeared to have no end, after all the systems they had located and the different species found, but never the right one. Didn’t they deserve to feel Terran blood on their hands again?

  “The Novaarians have arrived.” Elandar came to his side with the solid oval column following him as though it rode on a wave across the floor. The holographic scans confirmed his fears; the filthy Terran had survived the supernova, along with the Novaarian ship. He looked to the back of the gathered crew to see the beast standing a good two feet above the rest. He had intended to leave such a mindless creature behind until he saw through its helmet’s visuals that the humans had escaped. In the journey to this new world he had sifted through the information gathered by their scans and the beast’s own view. He now knew this anomaly had a name, Kalian Gaines. Having seen him through the eyes of the beast he knew he was no real threat, he probably had no idea what he was capable of. It was his existence that disgusted him the most. Of all these humans he wanted Kalian Gaines to suffer, just for being what he was.

  His lack of action put all eyes on him. “Would anyone like to take a walk outside?” The resounding chorus was all he needed to hear. “Tear them apart, leave none alive.” He turned back to Elandar as the crew left the module. “Let them have some fun before the Eclipse ends this world.” He could tell Elandar was eager to join his comrades but knew of his duty to the pilot.

  “I will instruct her to launch immediately.” Elandar placed his own intricate helmet over his head in order to interface with the pilot more directly.

  He moved over to the wall on his left as a rectangular panel fizzed to life with a live image of the Novaarian vessel. He left Elandar to his instructions as he gazed out.

  Watch Kalian Gaines; watch as I end you and your petulant race.

  They couldn’t survive this now, not even the Novaarian ship. If it came to it he would ram their vessel with his own and have done with it. The war was nearly over.

  Kalian looked out across the field of stars to the small circular light of Century’s sun, Solson. The force field was obviously dulling the glare of the star and atomic explosions or Kalian couldn’t have tolerated the brightness. The pointed missile dwarfed the majority of UDC ships. Only the Centurion and a few others appeared larger.

  “We need to stop that thing. If it reaches Solson we lose everything.” Li’ara covered her eyes as a particularly close explosion threatened to overload the force field.

  “We need to speak to Telarrek.” Kalian began to head for the door but Li’ara remained where she stood.

  “What are you doing, come on!” Kalian was about to start running.

  “Go to the bridge. I need to get out there.” Li’ara was already making her way back to the Fathom before she finished speaking. Kalian had to jog to catch her up as she strode across the hangar.

  “Where the hell are you going?” He fell into place besides her. “It’s suicide out there Li’ara. If the Centurion can’t scratch it, what’s the Fathom going to do? It’s too small to even be noticed.”

  “Exactly.” Kalian could see the faraway look in her eye. She was planning everything in her head as they spoke. He glanced at the door that would lead to the Valoran’s bridge but he knew he had already made up his mind. After everything they had been through he couldn’t deny the connection he had formed with her, he couldn’t explain the feeling, he just felt vulnerable without her. It probably had something to do with her saving him so many times. Kalian realised how stupid he sounded, to feel safer with someone while knowingly heading into danger.

  Li’ara entered the code into the touchpad on her arm. The Fathom’s hatch opened up and the ramp extended to the floor just in time for them to enter. She turned to close the hatch behind her, only to have Kalian walk into her.

  “What are you doing?” She placed a gloved hand to his chest pushing him away, barring his entry.

  “I’m coming with you.” He surprised himself with the confidence in his voice. From the way Li’ara’s eyebrows shot up he wasn’t the only one surprised.

  “The hell you are. My mandate is to keep you safe, not take you into a warzone.”

  “And yet here we are.” He went to move past her but got pushed back again.

  “No, you’re not.”

  “We’re wasting time.” He’d done it. She stopped herself from saying whatever was on the edge of her lips. Her jaw clenched and she blinked slowly.

  “Fine. But you do-”

  “Everything you tell me too, I heard you the first time.” Kalian moved past her hand and headed straight for the cockpit.

  It was more spacious than Kalian had imagined. It had been built for two, with seats either side in front of a viewport angled down towards the front of the ship, but the glass stretched over the top of the cockpit allowing the occupants to see directly above them. It was divided into three sections with parallel lines cutting down the middle. The chairs looked padded and comfortable with head and armrests. The consoles looked a bit intimidating. Instead of two separate stations it was one holo-touch console that stretched from one side to the other. Everything was lit up in blue, red and yellow lights and miniature holograms. Unlike the Novaarian tech though, the holograms couldn’t be interacted with. Immediately to his left and right were taller consoles attached to the wall, each with a small readout screen. Kalian had no idea what any of it did.

  Li’ara pushed past him, bringing him back to the moment. Now that he was here he really didn’t know what he could do to help.

  “Strap in and don’t touch anything unless I tell you, I don’t want you breaking the ship before we can even lift off.” Kalian detected the dark humour in her voice this time.

  The seats really were comfortable. He slid in as the padded synthetic leather moulded to his shape, looking around for the straps Li’ara had spoken of but couldn’t find any. He noted that she hadn’t attempted to either. He stopped himself from asking where they were, when he realised it was just an expression.

  Li’ara’s hands danced around the console as she typed in various commands to the ship. A quick high pitched hum told him the engines were coming online. The mechanical thud from under their feet clicked into place as the landing gear had packed itself away. Kalian now felt the familiar sensation as the grav-enforcers created the artificial gravity during flight mode. The Fathom rose above the other ships that surrounded it, turning towards the force field as it did.

  They could both see the group of Novaarians below that had rushed to their ship in response to its sudden movement. A few of them were waving their many hands in the air trying to signal them to stop.

  “It’s one way; they can’t see us in here.” As she spoke two joysticks flicked up from their compartment, hidden within the console. Li’ara gripped them both and pulled back. Kalian expected to feel the tug in his seat but there was no such reaction thanks to the compensators. The Fathom made a steady approach towards the force field.

  “Can we even pass through that?” The thought had only just occurred to him. He had visions of the ship coming to a violent stop as the field proved stubborn
. “What if it can you know, solidify?” He didn’t sound as confident anymore.

  “It won’t.” Li’ara placed her finger tips over a smooth blue touch-pad raised above the rest of the console. It had lines running across with different numbers next to them. Putting her fingers at the top of the dial, she moved her hand down slowly. The ship immediately increased in speed towards the invisible field.

  The Fathom flew straight through the centre creating small ripple effects around its edge. Kalian made a sigh of relief. He looked at Li’ara in astonishment at their luck.

  “How did you know that would work?” He expected some cocky soldier-like reply about her training or something.

  “Because you’re on board.” Her tone was flat as she concentrated on readouts in front of her.

  “You knew they wouldn’t let me get hurt,” had she used him to get off the ship? “That’s it, isn’t it? They knew it could have killed me if they didn’t let us leave.” He wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or impressed at her quick planning.

  “Try not to cry about it... we might still get killed anyway.” Before he could reply to her dry retort, Li’ara pulled down on the speed control and rotated the joysticks. The Fathom didn’t feel like it was moving, but the raging fight ahead of them appeared to move up the view port, encompassing the entire screen. She had dropped the ship into a dive only to smoothly pull back on the control soon after.

  “What are you doing?” Kalian held on to the console in front as if to brace against a force that never came.

  “We’re going under it.” She was constantly checking readouts about the temperature in the engines and the efficiency of the compensators.

  “I thought you wanted to fight?” He really had no idea what the plan was. Li’ara whipped her head around at him like he was an idiot.

  “Does that look like a fight this ship can have any impact on?” Kalian just shook his head as if he had already come to that conclusion. He turned to his right as something huge caught his peripheral vision.

  Century.

  It was more beautiful than the pictures he had seen. It reminded him of ancient Earth, the twenty third or fourth century perhaps. It had more green and blue than his memory of Earth had. It was similar in some ways though, even from here he could see the sprawl of networks the hyper-ways created. There were millions of lights on the dark side with clusters where the major cities were. Kalian found that novel in a way; back on Earth it had become impossible to define one city from the other. It was easy to see why so many people were moving here each year with the Sol system becoming so crowded.

  “Kalian!” How long had she been saying his name?

  “Sorry, what?” He followed her eyes up to the battle; he had to crane his neck slightly to see it. They had launched it, they were too late. There were no visible thrusters as it silently shot off down the side of black ship. Several missiles and rail gun fire struck the side but had little or no impact.

  “What do we do now?” Kalian could only watch as the silent impacts and explosions continued around them. Li’ara immediately began punching in different commands to the touch-pad that lay between them. Responding to her commands, a hand-sized sphere in the centre of the main console rose a few centimetres into the air. A blue hologram emitted from the top, relaying an image of the battle up ahead. In green was the star-bound rocket and the Fathom was represented in red. In the blink of an eye small red lines extended from the Fathom and arced up into the battle, heading into a straight line towards the rocket.

  “Please don’t tell me that’s our flight path.” A red holographic square was flashing over the section that passed through the fighting. In the centre one word was flashing yellow, hazard. That was one way of putting it, he thought.

  “If we follow this flight path we’ll reach it halfway to Solson.” Li’ara had already pulled back on the control aligning the Fathom with the calculated flight path.

  “What are we going do when we get there, ask it to turn around? I don’t know if you noticed but everything just bounces off that...” he lost his train of thought as he remembered the scans Telarrek had shown them. Then he knew. “No... you’re not serious?” He was watching her face for any reaction. Her look was that of fearless determination.

  “I’m always serious.” He let his head fall into the rest behind. They were going to board it. The scans had shown a small airlock of some kind situated on the top right hemisphere. As the Fathom was hurtling towards the battle Kalian was desperately thinking ahead.

  “How are we going to even dock with it? It’s an alien ship, thing!” He couldn’t imagine how they would ever connect the two very different vessels.

  “This ship can do more than you know.” Her reply was cryptic but he assumed she was concentrating on the controls. The approaching fire fight made Kalian forget any docking procedures for the moment. Besides, they might not even make it that far.

  They were so close now he could clearly make out the names of the attacking ships. The first vessel they passed was the Dauntless. It was at least ten times the size of the Fathom shaped like a fork with the engines at the prongs. Guided missiles were being launched from every side while being reinforced with rail gun fire. The rail guns themselves looked as big as the ship he was sitting in.

  Li’ara followed the flight plan perfectly, dodging the streaking missiles that swirled around them. She pushed the control, ducking under the Intrepid, almost flying parallel to a newly launched missile. As they got closer to the great ship the Fathom was shaken by concussive shockwaves from the many impacts. Kalian could see the sweat forming on Li’ara’s brow.

  As they passed from under the Intrepid, Kalian looked up at the black ship. Even on its flat side it was bigger than any mega skyscrapers. It must be able to accommodate several million crew at least. Gliding over the top, the Centurion came into view far above. Like the others it hadn’t taken any damage in the fight.

  “Why isn’t it fighting back? It’s just letting them hit it with everything they’ve got.” It was obvious the beast could take it, but Kalian couldn’t understand why it would even allow it.

  “Maybe it’s because they don’t need to, fire one of those things,” Li’ara nodded towards the holographic image of the rocket, “and the whole fight’s over with; there wouldn’t even be any stragglers to deal with.”

  Li’ara’s belt began to beep softly. They both recognised the sound this time, though Li’ara made no move to do anything. Kalian saw the look on her face; she didn’t have time for a speech from Telarrek about his safety.

  “Li’ara...” She gave him a sideways glance but nothing else. “They might have some advice on you know... how to break into an alien rocket ship.” He hoped by saying it out loud she would realise how ridiculous it sounded.

  “Fine.” She pulled it from her pouch and slapped it onto the console. As before a life size Novaarian head materialized above the device.

  “Telarrek!” Kalian couldn’t hide the relief in his voice. “We need some advice here, we’re going-”

  “You must return at once, both of you.” His voice sounded more gravelly than normal. “The Valoran will attack them, but you must return at once. You’re ship has little defences and no shields, I cannot allow you to be caught in the crossfire.” The Fathom banked to starboard trying to avoid a particularly large explosion on the hull of the massive ship.

  “Just fire everything you’ve got!” Li’ara dropped her fist through the hologram and on to the device’s activation button. Telarrek’s head disappeared as it flew off the console and onto the floor.

  “Right then...” Kalian couldn’t think of anything else to say. Li’ara banked upwards, if there is such a thing in space. Solson’s light shone between the warring ships. Any other setting and Kalian would have found it beautiful. “You know they could have helped if you let them, they are more advanced you know.”

  Li’ara turned to him for a second, “You want me to put my fist through your head?” Befor
e he could reply the console made a strange affirmative sound. The image magnified as they were now on the straight path directly to the rocket.

  “We’re almost there, once we get out of this mess it should be a smooth ride.” Li’ara was talking as well as frowning at a new readout.

  “Providing we survive this mess.” Kalians fingers started hurting, he wasn’t sure at what point he had dug his hands into the armrests.

  “What the hell is this?” Kalian didn’t like the edge in her voice. He leaned over to see the readout she was talking about. According to the sensors the hull of the colossal ship was changing in small sections all over. They both looked out the port side to see the new configurations. Like the change that took place for the launch of the rocket, the hull was deteriorating inwards to form small holes. Each one shone from inside a tiny luminous green light.

  “What is that?” There were so many Kalian couldn’t count them all.

  “They’re- oh shit!” She yanked the control to port trying to create as much distance between them. Again Kalian felt nothing, only the view shifted to the left.

  Three hundred and sixty degrees of chaos erupted. At that exact moment the Valoran unleashed its powerful weapons on the enemy, as intense beams containing every colour burst from the port side of the Novaarian ship, striking the massive vessel. Kalian didn’t have the chance to see what damage it caused as the enemy ship released its own form of attack. At first Kalian wasn’t sure what he was seeing, until one flew past only metres away from the view port. He swore at the sight of what was clearly a bipedal creature identical to the one that attacked the Icarus. The light from surrounding explosions shone off their dark plated armour.

  Every UDC ship was impacted by at least one of the destructive monsters. Their thick hulls appeared no match for the speed and force of the alien creatures. Each one dived head-first into different sections of the ships. Through the chaos they could see individual crew being sucked out of the holes into cold vacuum. Between the Valoran’s attacks, the constant barrage of missiles from the UDC ships and the brutality of the alien foe, Kalian lost sight of the rocket.