Intrinsic: Book One of the Terran Cycle

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  Li’ara wasn’t speaking anymore; she was a constant flurry of movement over the console. The view was rotating in every direction as she tried to avoid every form of attack. They could finally see the end of the black ship and the space beyond.

  “We’re almost clear!” Li’ara was too focused to reply.

  Kalian saw the UDC ship Noble above them to starboard. It had stopped firing any missiles and the rail guns appeared to have shut down. He could see the charred entry point where one of the invaders had penetrated it. The ship began to explode from the inside. Debris and crew were vented like a wounded animal being drained of its blood. A pit opened up in his stomach at the sight of all the people disappearing into space. The lights flickered until they went out completely. The ship seemed to drift off its course as it was caught in Century’s gravity well. Before they flew out of sight, he craned his head to see the armoured creature burst from the innards of the ship. A trail of debris could be seen above the Fathom as it landed on another ship. They were literally leaping from ship to ship and tearing them apart from the inside. How did they get their momentum? There were no obvious attachments to their armour.

  Kalian refocused on the path ahead as they miraculously cleared the fight and the view port levelled out.

  “There it is.” Li’ara took an audible breath. Kalian wondered if she had been holding her breath as long as he had. The rocket was the size of his thumb hurtling towards Solson. From behind, it looked to be a simple brass coloured ball. She keyed in some more commands into the console and the view port dimmed in tone, blocking the glare from the approaching star.

  “Reverting power to main engines, manoeuvring thrusters offline,” Li’ara had a dangerous glint in her eye as she looked up at their prey, “Time to punch it.” The Fathom made a mechanical noise as the small manoeuvring thrusters folded back into the hull. The touch pad that controlled speed began moving further down the dial on its own. It was hard to gauge speed in space with so little around, but the rocket was clearly getting bigger in the view port.

  They could no longer see the raging battle behind them, but it wasn’t hard to imagine it. Those UDC ships wouldn’t stand a chance against those things. Thinking about their method of attack Kalian could only come to one conclusion; they liked it. Knowing that their weapon would do the job of obliterating all life and still deciding to attack in person; this must be fun for them.

  “So what happens now?” Kalian no longer felt comfortable sitting down, the thought of what was to come pumped him with adrenaline.

  “We find that airlock and attach the emergency hatch to it.” Li’ara thumbed in the direction of the main cabin behind them. Kalian recalled his memory of the cabin and couldn’t remember seeing any emergency hatch, there had only been one door in and out. Seeing his quizzical look Li’ara explained.

  “It’s in the centre of the ceiling. You didn’t notice the round hatch?” Kalian was embarrassed at not noticing something that had been above his head for hours. He quickly got out of his seat and opened the cockpit door. In his defence the hatch was set into the ceiling creating a smooth appearance. It still didn’t convince him of their plan though; it only looked big enough for one person to fit through.

  “How is that going to attach to the airlock? From the Valoran’s scans it looked as big as the main door.” Li’ara sat back in her chair for the first time since they left the hangar. The hologram of their projected flight calculated two minutes until both vessels were aligned.

  “There’s a square outlay on top of the Fathom, it surrounds the hatch. Using magnetic seals the outline will extend for two metres until it makes contact, so we’re going to get pretty close.” Kalian couldn’t picture what she was saying; the ship wasn’t big enough to extend that far.

  “How does it extend, where does the extra metal come from?”

  “It’s a micro tungsten filament folded into the ship’s hull. We can pressurise the space between and walk across.” Li’ara explained it like a walk in the park.

  “So...” Kalian wished he was wrong, “there’s going to be a thin material between us and, space?”

  “Do you need to change your pants?” Li’ara enquired. He sat back in his chair putting on a tough exterior.

  “Just wanted to be clear.” He looked around hopelessly for something to distract him.

  The minutes seemed to pass in seconds. The rocket had eclipsed the entire view port, blocking out the light. The Fathom’s sensors had detected the airlock after Li’ara focused the array on one section of its giant hull. Setting the ship to emergency docking procedures was all she needed to do as the Fathom took over.

  “Come with me.” Li’ara left the cockpit and headed into the armoury. Depressing one of the lower drawers, it slid out to reveal a similar holster to the one she wore. “Put this on, it straps round like this.” Extending her leg Kalian could see the stiff material wrapped around the thigh with a small clip on the inside. On the outside was a raised circle just smaller than his palm, he had seen Li’ara fix her gun to it earlier. Turning to the wall behind her she picked up a side arm off its rail. It looked like a similar model to Li’ara’s, only with less accessories. She handled the weapon expertly, holding it up to the light for inspection.

  “You ever held one of these?” Kalian silently shook his head. “Good, you shouldn’t have.” She looked down the cylindrical barrel checking the sight on it. “This is an LX 14-02. It’s the standard sidearm to any band five UDC operative. It fires charged photon particles at speeds you can’t comprehend.” Kalian was sure she was reeling off a speech she had been given by some drill sergeant. “It has its advantages and disadvantages; if you shoot someone with it, they will not get back up. Since it fires particles and not projectiles, it’s got five thousand shots before reloading is required. On the downside; if you fire too many shots in a small space of time it will begin to overheat. If you continue to shoot before it can cool down,” she paused to ensure his attention, “it will explode.” Kalian couldn’t help but look surprised; that seemed a bit of an extreme reaction for a gun.

  “Got it.” Even he wasn’t convinced at how confident he sounded. Hesitantly she passed him the weapon, handle first. It felt heavy in his hand. He moved it around, inspecting it just because he thought he should. The handle dropped half an inch below his grip. He noticed a small rectangular screen on the left side at the back of the barrel. Seeing his inspection Li’ara elaborated.

  “It’s the heat level; keep an eye on that in a fire fight.” She held up her own gun displaying the left hand side. “See the impression?” He saw the small circle depressed into the gun and noted his own had the same. She clipped her gun into the identical raised circle on her holster. Kalian strapped his to his right leg and did the same. The weapon made him feel empowered and more confident.

  Li’ara turned to leave and picked up another weapon off the rack as big as his arm. She put the strap over her head and let it rest on her back.

  “Do I get one of those?”

  “No.” Probably just as well, he thought, he hadn’t even fired the smaller one yet.

  Opening a compartment next to the door, Li’ara removed what looked like two face masks. From its shape it would fit over the mouth and nose and sit over the wearer’s cheeks and jaw. She threw one over to Kalian and kept one for herself.

  “We don’t know what the atmosphere is over there, so keep it on until we know for sure.” The circular hatch in the cabin moved into the cabin and slid to the side, remaining on the ceiling. Looking up they could both see the brass coloured hull of the rocket. Answering Kalian’s question of how they actually got up there, Li’ara lifted a hidden compartment in the floor. The compartment was long and blended into the floor perfectly. Kalian was happy to see something low tech for a change. Li’ara removed a ladder from the floor and placed it against the hatch above.

  Putting on their masks, they ascended the ladder into the pressurised section between the two vessels. It was exactly
as Li’ara had explained. The magnetic seal had secured itself around the airlock with what appeared to be a golden fabric connecting it to the Fathom. Once stretched to its limit, the tungsten filament felt hard under-foot, allowing them to step on it. It didn’t make it any easier to know that it was the only thing between them and an icy death. Thinking of the cold Kalian was glad he remembered his jacket, despite a few scorch marks and tears. They experienced a disorientating sensation as they passed the threshold of the Fathom. Gravity vanished, making them float over to the rocket. Kalian was unaccustomed to the movement required to navigate direction and speed. Li’ara on the other hand looked quite comfortable as she pushed herself across.

  She frantically moved her hands over the alien alloy in different sections around the edges.

  “What’s wrong?” He was eager to get through this particular part of the plan.

  “There’s no handle, not even a touchpad.” Her voice sounded tinny through the filter in the mask. They hadn’t thought about this, the door was so alien it didn’t even work the way the Novaarian ones did. There was no hand print to touch or handle to pull.

  “What do we do now?” He had to put his hands up to stop himself from head butting the filament. Li’ara checked the information on her armour.

  “We have twenty six minutes until we reach the corona.” Kalian remembered the term from his physics lessons, although it did have some cross over into his own lectures. Once they reached the corona they would be on the outer edge of Solson. It was the region in which all Solar Drive powered ships would sit while charging the Solarcite. He also knew it was the point of no return. All UDC ships were built to withstand the heat at that distance, but any further was futile. Also he wasn’t sure what the limits were on the tungsten filament. He didn’t want to think about that while he was floating inside it.

  He gently pushed off the filament towards the alien door, putting his hands out in front to stop himself. The moment he made contact with the rough metal they both heard a heavy click from the other side. Afraid of what it might be he pushed off instantly, his momentum carrying him into the filament wall. The airlock pulled back into the rocket and split in two down the middle, though the dividing line was a mystery in itself. The door was at least three feet thick and there was nothing but darkness beyond.

  Li’ara had her hand on her sidearm as she looked at Kalian in shock.

  “How did you do that?” She kept looking from him to the open airlock. Kalian looked at his own hands in shock.

  “I have no idea...” But it scared him.

  “Is this one of your things?” She had completely disconnected her gun from its holster now.

  “No, it’s usually the opposite of this sort of thing.” Li’ara looked at her readout again.

  “Whatever it was we need to get moving.” She pushed off towards the rocket in a dive position. Kalian winced as her body passed through the alien threshold and plummeted to the floor in a clatter of metal on metal.

  “Are you ok?” The answer was evident as she was already standing up.

  “I’m fine. Just... come on.” She switched on the dual torches on either side of her mask. Kalian decided to leave the subject alone and passed over the threshold himself, feet first. Entering slightly higher than he wanted, he had a small drop to the floor.

  “Gravity seems alright.” He tapped his foot on the floor. Before Li’ara could answer the area was flooded with lights from above. They were on a walkway in front of a T-junction. The walls were a light copper colour and smoother than the exterior of the rocket. Turning off the torches Li’ara checked her wrist pad.

  “Oxygen levels are normal too.” She didn’t sound like she quite believed it. She took off her mask and inhaled a breath. “So they breathe oxygen too.”

  “Yeah but so do the Novaarians.” At this point they couldn’t really build a picture of this new species. Kalian took off his own mask and left it by the door. “Do you even have a plan beyond this point?”

  “Yep, we’re going to blow it to hell.” She tapped a chunky pouch on her hip. He hadn’t even seen her pick up any explosives.

  “Great plan, but this thing looked as big as the Centurion. How do we even know what to blow up?” They walked into the middle of the T-junction.

  “Now we’re inside I can actually get some readings off this thing.” She examined her wrist pad for a moment. “There appears to be a large chamber in the centre. The sensors don’t really know what they’re looking at. Everything being fed back is coming up as unknown.” Li’ara looked up to the left hand corridor. “If the telemetry’s right we’re on a walkway that reaches all the way around. Fifty metres up there is what looks like an access door, which should lead us in.” Without hesitating she began a quick jog down the corridor.

  “Into what..?”

  The corridor was dark with sparse overhead lighting. The walkway beneath them was a grated mesh that rattled under their feet. Looking down they could see silver pipes that ran along the walkway. The rocket was so colossal in its circumference that neither of them could see the curve up ahead. For such an advanced race it seemed devoid of technology.

  They soon arrived at the large copper door that opened with their proximity.

  He was wrong about the technology.

  There was no mistaking the impressive vista before them. The chamber was beyond massive, seeing it from the inside Kalian couldn’t believe it was mostly hollow. The central piece occupied most of the space but both Kalian and Li’ara were puzzled as to what they were really looking at. The two pyramids that met in the centre of the chamber were bigger than the ancient pyramids of Earth. One pyramid was at the bottom stretching up to the same level they were on, and the second pyramid reached down from the domed ceiling. Where the two met was a small gap, but from this distance it was hard to say how small it was. Both structures were cut with dark gradients from top to bottom giving them smaller levels as they reached the apex. It gave the top tier the appearance of being a smaller individual pyramid.

  Everything was lit by giant spotlights around the bases of each structure. The pyramids themselves had a slight green tinge to them. From their position they could see three walkways that bridged the gap to the point where the pyramids met.

  “What is this?” The Li’ara who normally took everything in while looking for exits, hostiles and any weak points could not keep her mouth closed. They were going to need more explosives.

  “Have you ever seen anything like this?” Kalian hoped in all her travels and training she might have seen something similar.

  “No...” Li’ara slid a different screen onto her touchpad. “Twenty three minutes, let’s go.” With time running out she sprinted to the nearest bridge twenty metres away. The bridge itself wasn’t exactly small; they had to run flat out for two minutes before they reached the centre. The fact that there were no rails didn’t make it easier. Kalian avoided the urge to look down into the abyss below.

  Standing at the apex of the lower pyramid, they could see that the higher one was at least thirty feet up. Kalian walked to the edge and examined the top of the lower pyramid. It wasn’t pointed as it looked from afar. The top was a flat surface with a black hole in the centre. He was sure he could have fit his entire apartment in that hole. Kalian could see they were on one of four platforms that surrounded the structure. Unlike the walkways it was a solid black semicircle that resembled marble stone.

  He saw Li’ara searching the immediate area and he came to the same conclusion.

  “There’s no consoles, no touchpads, nothing.” She was right; there was no clear way of seeing how this thing was controlled. With the closing time frame they both frantically moved from one side to the other, searching the giant chamber for any sign of hope.

  “Ok so...” Kalian turned to Li’ara, “Where else can we put the explosives?” He was no demolition expert but he was sure she must have blown some stuff up before. Li’ara faced away from the edge back to Kalian who was standing in
the middle. He noticed her eyes fixed on his feet and followed her look. The black marble around him was shimmering like a desert heat. The area took on the appearance of liquid like a black moat forming around him.

  “Whoa!” He froze somewhere between fear and curiosity as the floor raised up in columns around him. The liquid began to solidify as the columns formed from the ground up. He counted seven oval shaped columns, each one a different size but all higher at the back tilting down towards him. Fully formed they were now in an arc around him, they looked solid and inextinguishable from the black floor. As one they all lit up with different symbols in bright white light. Each apparent console had different displays on it. One to his left had a row of symbols six characters long. The symbol at the end was constantly changing until it disappeared completely. A couple of the others had graphs and shapes on them that were obviously supposed to be telling him something.

  Li’ara marched round to his side to inspect the strange protrusions.

  “What the hell did you do now?” She looked over every symbol and graph but understood as much as Kalian.

  “I didn’t do anything, I don’t even know where they came from!” Kalian stepped away from them allowing Li’ara more room to examine.

  Was that me?

  She held her arm over them while reading the information being relayed into her touchpad. She cursed under her breath before sliding the screen again.

  “Fourteen minutes.” Kalian had the sudden urge to run.

  “Can you figure any of this out?” He waved at the consoles generally.

  “How can I? It’s all gibberish! I was taught to read the same language as you!”

  “You translated that word back on the Valoran!” They were both becoming slightly irate in their frustration.