He ducked under the cannon and sat back in the chair. ALF moved away, giving the machine the room to move into place. The extension parted in different sections before it became a sleek silver mask resting in front of his face.
“Is it going to hurt?”
“It will be... uncomfortable.” With that ALF burst into a nebula of dissipating blue stars, and the subconducer covered Kalian’s face.
Roland estimated they had been running for nearly fifteen minutes and covered almost four kilometres. They could still hear those things chasing them. Not long after exiting the first tunnel they had come to a junction with four offshoots. Three of them were filled with nightmare machines that had spherical bodies and dozens of tentacles that spread across the corridor. They used every surface to propel themselves, while the main body reconfigured to produce hand size cannons.
Fleeing down the only route left to them Roland was starting to feel like they were being led a particular way. Every time they reached a longer corridor the air was filled with ozone as energy weapons were unleashed on both sides. The walls exploded around them as neither side could get an accurate shot while moving so fast. He was impressed with the agility of the Novaarians as they seemed to be constantly dodging the incoming fire of green energy. He knew they must be holding back because of his human speed, his flat-out run looked more like a jog to them.
Looking back he couldn’t see anything through the mass of metallic tentacles lining the wall. Despite the distance they were covering, it was nothing in comparison to the size of the ship.
“Do we know where we’re going?” He shouted over the quick burst of weapon fire.
“Our scans show a cluster of humans in the lower levels, towards the centre of the ship.” Ilyseal replied as she released a bolt of blue plasma from her staff. Roland did a quick calculation in his head; this is when training came in handy. He knew he could keep this speed up for another ten kilometres before his pace began to slow, then he would seriously endanger the group. He also knew that the ship was just over thirty-two kilometres in length. As long as they were heading in the right direction, he estimated that he would begin to slow down about two kilometres, give or take, from where the humans were being kept. He reached for the back of his belt, feeling for the MID. He knew just when to use them.
Over the next hour they continued to cover the distance that Selek’s bracer guided them through. From what he heard over the scattered shoot outs, he gathered that the scans were hard to follow due to the interior constantly changing. More than once he got frustrated and stopped to shoot the pursuing machines. He couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of them blowing to pieces and often damaging the machine next to it. His laugh faltered when he saw the broken pieces gathered up by the rest of them and integrated into their own body. The Novaarians had always given him a tug and brought him back to running speed.
He eventually began to feel fatigue biting at his muscles and his lungs felt like they were burning. He looked ahead and saw a ninety degree bend coming up, that was it. As they turned the sharp corner he ducked the three green bolts that cratered the wall and disappeared out of sight. He would leave them a gift. He used what energy reserves he had left and sprinted to a safer distance. He heard the metallic tapping as the machines rounded the corner, just in time for the MID to detonate.
The reaction was spectacular to watch. The bomb made a sharp sucking noise as everything within sixty metres was pulled into the micro-singularity. The machines and everything around them was violently dragged into the epicentre, revealing other corridors and rooms inside the ship. This only lasted half a second before the kinetic energy from the implosion continued on its journey and exploded outwards. Roland was knocked off his feet, along with one of the warriors. They had attempted to introduce themselves, but Roland had interrupted by explaining that he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. He had come to calling them one, two and three, but he had already called each of them the wrong number.
They were both helped up as they looked back on the now gaping wreckage. Where a corner had been was now a large empty sphere that revealed several levels of the massive ship. Roland let out a long whistle before taking the chance to get his breath back. The Novaarians weren’t even breathing heavily.
“They are close now.” Selek interacted with his left bracer which emitted a small holographic image. They could now see the human life signs were only a kilometre away. Roland didn’t like it. Despite having to run for his life for an hour, it all seemed too easy. Where were the armoured gits? He knew they would prove to be more of a challenge.
Elandar studied the readout intently. The bronze hologram floated above Esabelle, feeding him any and all information on her well being. Her heart-rate had increased along with her blood pressure and respiration rate, but unusually her core temperature was dropping. Some of her muscles flexed under the tubing she was attached to. This wasn’t the first time he had seen vitals change so dramatically. He activated the programs he had installed centuries ago that would infuse the appropriate drugs to bring her levels back to normal.
He had never told Savrick about these little episodes, he dared not. If Savrick thought Esabelle was being harmed or under duress, he would punish Elandar. Like many times in the past he uploaded a search program packed with hunter nanocelium. He saw the same reaction as always; the program would be accepted and rejected until it was completely erased. He always put it down to the raw power of her mind, he assumed the search was accepted but was unable to activate before Esabelle overwhelmed it.
He looked at her for a moment rather than the hologram. It was as if she was fighting with herself. He had theorised more than once that she had awareness of her situation and was trying to disconnect from the Gommarian. As her vitals returned to normal the ship’s internal sensors came to life with an alarm blaring in his head. He cut the alarm with his link and commanded a report. The mission couldn’t have gone wrong. He had sent the majority of the crew to dismantle that ship and bring him the human.
His jaw dropped at the holographic feedback. The Novaarian ship had self destructed with his brothers and sisters onboard. He wasn’t surprised that he felt no shock wave from the blast, but how had the sensors not immediately detected the threat? He brought long range sensors up and saw hundreds of escape pods leaving the solar system. He commanded scan after scan searching for any traces of his kin.
There was nothing.
He dropped to his knees as tears began to fall down his cheeks. They were gone. Savrick had trusted him with their lives and they were gone. He made a quick head-count through internal sensors and found only thirteen Gomar remained aboard. The holograms around him were starting to lose cohesion as he failed to control his emotions. Savrick would end him for this. There would be no getting round that; no Gomar had ever failed him so spectacularly. They were all that was left of the Gomar, the brave and the strong who had survived the war. Now they were a handful.
He could see from the readouts that the Gommarian was already repairing any damage to the hull. Before he could do anything else, an internal sensor activated another alarm in the bowels of the ship. He quickly ordered a barrage of scans and holographic imagery to tell him more. The feedback flickered into existence but could not keep its cohesion. At the same time Esabelle began to thrash in her levitated position. He turned back to her sharply, fearing something worse was happening to her. Via his link he commanded the sensors to continue their scans of the ship but the order was never accepted. He rushed over to Esabelle bringing up her vitals again. Perhaps she was suffering from the supernova?
She soon calmed after another infusion of drugs. He was careful to ensure her blood toxicity was maintained at optimum levels. If he needed, he could filter her blood at a moment’s notice. What was happening to her? He told himself there was no way she could leave the virtuality. With her fighting his commands he couldn’t acquire accurate sensor feedback. She had on occasion fought with microscopic details of her
connection to the ship but never on this level. The timeframe wasn’t lost on him either; he knew her internal rebellion had increased since they arrived in Earth’s orbit.
Between her and the loss of the crew he was beginning to feel unhinged. He was losing control. He could blame Esabelle for the losses but Savrick would still punish him. He looked back at the sputtering hologram and feared what the internal sensors had found. Just to be sure he instructed Hol and Nardel to investigate via their links.
Li’ara woke with a start, gripping her gun in one hand. She was up a second later when she saw that Kalian wasn’t in the cot next to her. Tracing her way back to the lounge she berated herself for not reapplying her armour to her upper body and arms. She blamed Kalian; she had softened her edges around him and was forgetting basic training. Always be prepared they had told her. How do you prepare someone for what she’s been through?
Li’ara couldn’t deny that circumstances had kept the two of them closer than any of her other assignments. She hated using that word regarding Kalian. He was no longer just some assignment; she began to see him as the man he was. Granted she hadn’t thought much of that man, but he had become something else. He had been through every trial she had since the attack on Earth. But more than that, she thought of everything they had learned in the last twenty four hours. He was important, and to more than just her. She didn’t like to look so far into the future but she knew he would be pivotal if their race was to thrive in this new environment.
But even that wasn’t why she still protected him so fiercely. She thought of him in a way she had never taken the time to think of someone. It was this feeling that forced her into a run. She had to know he was safe.
The circular door became translucent again as she burst through. Kalian was sitting in a chair, surrounded by a hideous machine that enveloped his entire face.
“Kalian!” She ran to him before ALF formed in front of her. He held out a calming hand but she was not reassured.
“What are you doing to him?” She looked past the A.I to see Kalian sitting perfectly still.
“He is learning at a speed you couldn’t comprehend.” With that the machine whirred as the faceplate withdrew and the contraption disappeared into the ceiling. Kalian awoke with a deep breath and Li’ara moved passed ALF to check on him. She put her hand over his cheek but pulled away from the heat of his skin.
“I’m fine, really.” He held her hand for a second longer before getting up. The chair melted back into the floor. There was something about the way he held himself, he seemed taller.
“Come, show me what you know.” ALF was standing on the sparring mat, no longer wearing his robes, but instead a white shirt that stopped at his forearms and white trousers that stopped below the knees. The A.I wiggled his bare toes on the mat with a wide grin on his face. Kalian made a mocking laugh.
“You want me to fight a hologram?” He asked. ALF walked up to them with purpose in his stride. Unbelievably quick, the AI grabbed Kalian by his top and brought them both to the floor in a tumble of limbs before he ejected Kalian across the mat. Li’ara reacted from instinct. She lunged for the A.I, intending to land a blow across the cervical vertebrae at the back of his neck. Her arm passed through the hologram as her momentum forced her to the ground.
“How is this possible?” Kalian had already recovered.
“The Conclave created holograms that react to touch, but have no substance. The Terran discovered hard light millennia ago. If we had the time the subconducer could teach you, but there are more important things for you to learn than the intricacies of holographic technology. Your first lesson is combat.” With that, ALF assumed a fighting stance Li’ara had never seen before, and she had studied almost every fighting technique there was. To her surprise Kalian also assumed an unfamiliar stance. What had that machine done to him? She looked at them both and knew she wasn’t to come between them. It felt unnatural to let Kalian fight though, that was her job.
“Break him and you’ll have to deal with me, robot.” She hoped he took her look seriously. To her surprise, he resumed a normal standing posture.
“You are quite right, Li’ara. I was going to save this for later, but you might as well learn to move in it.” At that moment Telarrek and Namek walked through the translucent fog. They stood to one side, silently watching. Out of the floor an oval column began to form much like the chair had. It stopped at waist-height next to ALF. The centre of the oval opening was swirling like a galaxy being sucked into a black hole. Out of the darkness an object the size of her palm floated up towards ALF’s own hand. It was matte black and shaped like a triangle with the apex sliced off.
The oval quickly melted away and ALF walked over to Kalian, holding out the object. Kalian took it and examined both sides of the flat shape.
“Place it here.” ALF pointed below his own navel, where a belt buckle would normally sit. Kalian did as instructed and held the object against the top of his trousers. Li’ara wanted to desperately scan the thing first, who knew what it might be? But this was typical Kalian; he just reacts instead of thinking.
She felt the grip of her gun as she watched the object stick to where he placed it. Everything happened very quickly after that. The black object exploded with activity as a wave of nanocelium covered Kalian’s body. In that same second she was levelling her weapon at ALF along with both Novaarians.
Kalian stood amazed, completely coated in matte black armour. It stopped at the top of his neck leaving his head free. His hands were visible but the armour had gone as far as his knuckles. It wasn’t like the armour the Gomar wore, it was more fitted. He didn’t appear bulky or misshapen. The armour was plated as it ran down his arms and abdomen and even his thighs. He had armoured boots that ended at his knees. Everything looked like separate plating but was still all connected as one piece. It was beautifully detailed in an intricate pattern that was raised against the surface.
“How does it feel?” ALF asked. Kalian was smiling at his new outfit. He flexed his limbs testing his range of movement.
“It feels strange.” He ran his fingers over the armoured chest. “It feels hard like metal, but it moves like fabric.”
“It was made to be durable, but flexible. Standard Terran armour. Incidentally, I hope you weren’t attached to those clothes. I’m afraid they’re gone, the nanocelium will have consumed them and converted the material into energy.”
Li’ara lowered her gun and the Novaarians did the same. She was actually pleased with this new development. At least he had some protection now.
“Time for some practical application I think.” ALF motioned for Li’ara to step off the mat so that they could continue. They both resumed their new fighting stances. She took a moment to explain to Telarrek and Namek about the unusual concept of hard light. They both proceeded excitedly to run scans on their bracers.
Li’ara checked her touchpad and saw that nearly four hours had gone by since the melee had begun. In that time, oval columns had appeared and produced water and food to keep them nourished. She looked at Kalian in amazement. She didn’t know where he found the stamina to keep fighting for so many hours. They never paused or took a breath from the extraordinary fighting style. They used every part of their body as a weapon, often becoming a blur of body parts dancing around each other. They both landed successful blows and often knocked the other back or to the floor.
Li’ara hated to admit it but she wasn’t confident she could compete in this fight. Even their speed seemed unnatural. More than once she was sure she had seen Kalian force ALF to the floor without actually having made contact. As the hours went on, he began to mix his telekinetic abilities with his fighting style. It was somewhere between impressive and scary to watch. The way he moved and anticipated ALF’s attacks with his own counters made him appear so alien to her. This wasn’t the man she had met in The Hub.
“Stop,” the AI said calmly.
He stood back from Kalian with his arm stretched out to stop any fu
rther attack. His crystal blue eyes looked about the room and Li’ara knew he was seeing streams of information that was invisible to them. Remarkably, Kalian hadn’t even broken a sweat. She wondered if that was something he could control or if it was a by-product of his evolved metabolism.
“I’m intercepting communications from Conclave security channels. I’ve realigned my satellites to confirm. There has been a class-three Starrillium rupture in the Trillik system.” ALF turned to Telarrek, who had his strong jaws clamped shut. He made a small grunt as he lowered his long head, and sat back on the bench. Namek rested his head against his staff as well as making a series of grunting sounds. Their skin colour changed to a light shade of red.
“I’m retrieving any long range sat-images, but it will take time to clear up the picture over such a distance.” ALF looked at the Novaarians hesitantly, “I am sorry...”
“I would like to see the sky,” Telarrek said. Li’ara wondered if it was some Novaarian grieving ritual she had never seen, she thought about looking it up on the data module later. ALF told them to follow the lights as another door opened up on the far side.
“The Valoran, everyone, even Roland... they’re all gone.” Kalian physically sagged. She knew that look; he felt defeated. The odds were mounting against him and he was in the middle of it all. The lights flickered a fraction as Kalian clenched his fists. He paced the mat shaking his head in frustration.
“It’s not right!” He growled. “Billions of lives have been lost because of the decisions you made eons ago!” He pointed at ALF, who appeared unfazed. “If you had found a better way to help the Gomar instead segregating them, Savrick’s wife would still be alive and you wouldn’t have had a rebellion!” The lights continued to flicker; Li’ara knew if she’d blinked she would have missed seeing ALF lose cohesion for a moment. “Now we’re stuck in the middle of a conflict that should never have even begun. Your IQ can’t be quantified right? But you couldn’t see this outcome after millions of years of overseeing Terran life?” He faced ALF like a man looking for a fight. Li’ara assumed he still had a fair amount of adrenaline and testosterone surging through his blood.
Intrinsic: Book One of the Terran Cycle Page 38