by Paul Tassi
Noah fell into a deep, meditative state after finishing his verbal prayers, as was traditional for the faithful. The world fell away around him, and his mind was full of light and color and nothing else. Then someone whispered in his ear.
Dubai.
Noah jumped, turning around from side to side to see who had spoken. But there was no one. Even the praying sisters were gone now. Continuing to scan the room, he caught a glimpse of one veiled sister staring at him through a half-open doorway across the chapel. As soon as he noticed her, she scurried out of sight. But she was too far away to have been next to him a half second ago.
He didn’t understand why the word had kept coming to him in dreams the past few weeks, and this was the first time he’d heard it during prayer. It sounded familiar for some reason, but he couldn’t place where he’d heard it before.
The ice moon passed over the middle skylight of the cathedral. The hour was late. Noah’s sore legs were thankful that the trip down the stairs was much easier than the way up. As he left, he still felt like he was being watched, a familiar feeling during his time spent at the spire.
Noah gazed up into the trillions of stars as he stepped outside.
May the gods save you, Asha. Wherever you are.
3
Noah woke at 0430 and found Sakai crippled with abdominal pain. It wasn’t a cause for concern; these issues cropped up every so often around the colony. The silvercoats deemed it a forest parasite they couldn’t vaccinate against. They’d give her some meds, tell her to rest, and she’d be back to 100 percent soon after. In this instance, however, it did serve to reassure her that she couldn’t have gone with Noah to Elyria even if it was allowed, which was some small comfort to her.
“Be safe,” she said as she flattened his high-collared formal jacket against his chest. He could see her trying to hide the pain she felt in each movement, but still, she smiled. Noah had mercifully avoided the parasite so far.
Noah let her crawl back into bed, grabbed his travel case, and set out toward the colony docking bay.
The shuttle was already waiting for him, as were the two heavily armed escort ships that would accompany them to Elyria. A guard took his case from him and the hatch of the shuttle opened upward with a hiss. Noah was surprised at who he found inside.
“Hi Theta, I didn’t realize you were coming.”
Alpha’s daughter was sitting across from him with her claws perched delicately on her knees. She had the coveted white coloring of her mother, Zeta, but the gold pupil rings of her father. She was how old now? Thirteen? Her translator collar had been tuned to a higher-pitched tone to match her youth, though there were still traces of a metallic echo.
“Hello Noah, I hope my presence isn’t an inconvenience for you or your brother,” she said meekly.
“Of course not. We’re glad to have you,” Noah replied, though Erik was still nowhere to be found inside the shuttle. “Are you coming to see Alpha?”
Theta nodded.
“Yes, and I believe he requested a visit from the pair of you as well.”
Noah took a seat across from the Xalan. Even though she was far younger than he was, she was only a few inches shorter. Once she was fully grown, he knew he would be looking up to her.
Theta was wise beyond her years as well, and was unquestionably the smartest being employed at the colony. Even at her young age she ran the technology nexus almost single-handedly, teaching the Earthborn both Soran and Xalan schools of science and working on government projects in her free time. Many assignments had her partnering with her parents, as they could easily collaborate from afar. Her presence in the colony was meant to keep her safe. She couldn’t stay on any of the Xalan worlds, which were all too unstable and far away from her parents. At the colony, she was meant to socialize with the Earthborn, who were somewhat close to her age, even if they were of a completely different species. She was shy, but well-liked by the group as an instructor. Noah in particular had made an effort to reach out to her over the last few years since she’d arrived, but to this day she still seemed afraid to think of him as a friend.
“Alright, let’s get a move on,” said Erik as he spilled into the seat next to Theta, not even glancing in her direction. He was in similar formalwear to Noah, but his pants and coat were horribly wrinkled and smelled unwashed. Noah supposed he’d worn them out during one of his many mini-vacations away from the colony.
“Hello, Erik,” Theta said at a volume that registered just above a whisper.
Erik turned to look at her, just now seeming to notice she was there. Only he could overlook a six-foot-tall Xalan sitting next to him.
“Oh, hey,” he replied, but it was enough to make Theta’s white cheeks turn the slightest shade of pink. It was obvious to most that Theta had some sort of affection for Erik, though she never admitted as much. Erik likely had some idea, which was why he was always asking her for favors. Sometimes it was coursework extensions or equipment upgrades, but Noah had a feeling that when the colony’s security grid magically went dark in one quadrant while Erik snuck out, it was her untraceable handiwork.
The hovercraft began to rise and Noah watched the colony fall away behind a six-inch-thick indestructible viewscreen. The two military escort craft could be seen on either side of them, and their own pilot had the dividing screen up. The guards weren’t supposed to get friendly with the Earthborn, lest they be emotionally compromised when it came to their protection. They often came off as cold as a result, but any one of them would trade their life for one of the Earthborn in a heartbeat if need be.
They ascended up the side of the dark mountain that housed the White Spire, and Noah watched it as they passed. Small, pale figures milled around in the gardens and soon turned into mere specks.
From this distance, the colony did look a little like a prison, only the walls were a thick canopy of trees and the closest city was three hundred miles away. Yes, they could leave, but only under heavily armed guard, the way captives would. However, life at the colony had plenty of freedoms to go with its restrictions, and at times it was almost too comfortable. Men younger than Noah were fighting and dying out there in deep space and on foreign worlds, yet he was waking up each day with a beautiful girl under his arm and a full staff of Sorans dedicated to his education and fitness. Lucas and Asha had been allowed to contribute to the war effort. Why couldn’t he? He’d broached the subject many times with Tannon, but was met with increasing hostility each time he brought it up. Noah came to realize that Tannon felt somewhat responsible for Lucas’s death, and he had no plans to let either of his sons meet the same fate. Noah could understand his position, but it didn’t make the situation any less frustrating.
If Erik felt the same way about their removal from the war, he didn’t let on. Truth was, Noah and Erik rarely had anything approaching a serious conversation. Erik never wanted to talk about their parents and seemed to resent them, both living and dead. Lucas had died so that they, and the rest of Sora, would survive. It was hard to hate him for that, but he was gone all the same, and they’d grown up with half a parent at best. Asha had tried, but thought the colony would raise them better than she could. Now she was off on her fool’s quest chasing after a ghost, and the brothers simply had to deal with her absence. It wasn’t just Erik who resented them. Sometimes, Noah had to admit that to himself.
A few hours later, Noah found himself staring up at his father. Lucas’s monument was a hundred feet tall and carved entirely out of one mammoth piece of stone, as were all the other statues that lined the promenade of the Grand Palace. The first two, all the way down by the entrance, were of Kyneth and Zurana themselves. Then, in pairs, the rest watched over the long, ancient path to Elyria. There was Ruul the Conqueror, Ayl the Lord of Starlight, Ulissa Cliffbreaker, Merenes the Martyr, Sha’len the Holy, and dozens more, all known as the greatest warriors of their era and the heroes of tales told to Soran children worldwide.
Now, two new pedestals had been erected. To Noah
’s right stood Lucas, clad in Guardian armor, clutching his famed rifle, Natalie. To Noah’s left was the towering form of Mars Maston, the famous commander and his father’s friend, who was also killed on the mission to Xala. Maston met Lucas’s gaze, his arms folded and a pistol dangling from his hip.
Noah could remember seeing Lucas’s face in person only through deep concentration. He’d been so young when Lucas had left for Xala; there were just mere glimpses of him lodged in his mind, and he wasn’t even sure if those were real. For all he knew, he could have subconsciously absorbed them through the endless number of times Lucas’s face was cycled through the Stream.
He remembered being very cold in a wooden house with a fireplace. Sitting on Lucas’s lap, his father was telling him something, but he could never hear his voice. Rather, Noah had to be content with the farewell Lucas had recorded on his Final before he’d landed on Xala. Noah used to watch it every day when he was little. Then it was once a week. Then once a month. Now, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d played it, or even where the file was saved in his datacluster. But by this point he’d memorized most of it.
“Lead them,” his father had said in the video, assuming Sora would revere the young Noah someday.
“And look out for your mother and brother.”
It made Noah sad to think he’d failed to do either. Asha was racing through the stars with an apparent death wish. Erik pursued every possible chance to rebel, and hardly looked up to his quiet big brother in any way other than literal. Sora adored Noah from afar, but the only thing he’d managed to lead so far had been the tiny cluster of Earthborn at the colony. Even then he still answered to a slew of instructors, guards, and Watchman Vale.
Noah hadn’t been paying attention to whatever Madric Stoller was saying, nor to the massive crowd that was assembled before them. Mercifully, they weren’t making him speak this year. He was just supposed to be scenery, a reminder that the offspring of the Earthborn were still alive and well and contributing members of society. Though that last bit was certainly a farce.
Stoller winning the High Chancellorship had made him twenty years younger, somehow. He’d easily shed fifty pounds, but was still built like a tree trunk. Even at well over a hundred years old he hadn’t allowed his mustache and hair to turn white, and likely never would. The man had simply stopped aging thanks to the best treatments and genes money could buy, as well as quite a few new replacement organs along the way, if the rumors were true.
Since his rise to power, Stoller had brought something of an iron fist down on Sora. His first priority after taking office had been to make sure any and all government opposition groups were smashed and dismantled. He claimed it was to avoid another Fourth Order nightmare scenario, where they had collaborated with the Xalans to subvert the Soran government. But if the Stream was accurate, there were reports that even peaceful antigovernment organizations were being harassed and their leaders were mysteriously disappearing. These days the Stream didn’t say much to that effect, but Noah suspected it was because Stoller had taken a more personal investment in what did or didn’t air on the Stream regarding his administration. A few overly critical newsmen had ended up missing as well. Still, the people celebrated Stoller’s rule as a return to order for a planet thrown into chaos by Talis Vale’s treachery. With internal strife quelled by force, Sora’s full attention could be devoted to the more urgent war with Xala.
Noah hadn’t had much personal interaction with Stoller himself other than at state affairs where he was pressed about colony life or recent sakala highlights as small talk. Rather, Noah was more familiar with Stoller’s son, Finn, who had taken a shine to Erik and was one of his more frequent partying pals whenever his brother made his escapes. Finn was present on the promenade and was whispering to Erik as his father spoke. Mercifully, he looked nothing like the elder Stoller, and instead had rather angular features with light auburn hair and blue eyes. He was thin as a rail, but was handsome enough thanks to a combination of good genes from his now-deceased actress mother and better genes that Stoller had paid a fortune to inject into his embryo, as the rich so often did with their progenies. Noah didn’t particularly care for Finn. He credited him as a bad influence on Erik, but he had to concede that maybe it was the other way around.
Noah looked up at the statue of his father once more. High Chancellor Stoller had claimed that he and Lucas were good friends, and he used that to his benefit whenever possible, always invoking the fallen war hero’s name when it was required to make a political point. “And I know if Lucas, Savior of Sora, were here today, he would be proud of the way our military has secured his adopted homeworld, and how we’ve driven the monstrous Xalan hordes back to their dying planet.”
Funny, Noah had never heard Stoller refer to Alpha or Zeta as the “Saviors of Sora,” despite the fact that it was their work that sparked the Xalan colony uprisings. But he supposed they were part of “monstrous horde,” and couldn’t be given such credit. He was glad Theta wasn’t there to hear this.
Noah wondered what Lucas would actually make of all this if he were standing next to him, not as a statue, but in the flesh. It was hard to know the mind of a man he could barely remember meeting. All he had were stories and all those seemed to say that Lucas probably wouldn’t like Stoller’s chancellorship very much at all.
Stoller said something else, then motioned toward Noah and Erik. The crowd gathered before them went wild, letting out cheers and raising fists in the air. The brothers shared a knowing look, but each forced a smile for the swirling camerabots. They might as well just make the next pair of statues the two of them, so they wouldn’t have to keep coming to these things.
Thankfully, Noah and Erik were allowed to skip the stuffy dinner at the Grand Palace following the ceremony. Though Noah remembered snippets of his time spent living at the palace in his youth, he wasn’t particularly fond of visiting after Tannon Vale had left office and Madric Stoller sat in the metaphorical throne. Instead, Erik convinced their escort to swing by downtown Elyria for a rack of roasted Yutta ribs, which they ate on the ride to their final destination.
A few miles outside Elyria, the Merenes Military Base was very old but was constantly being upgraded to maintain its distinction as the most advanced weapons research facility on the planet. Though Alpha worked at many installations both on- and off-world, this was his most frequent haunt.
A pair of Soran Defense Initiative dreadnoughts were docked at the base when they arrived, each getting fitted for their pair of white null cores. It had taken just over a decade to synthesize the proper element that allowed Sora’s SDI troops to travel further and faster in space than ever before. It was perhaps Alpha’s most valuable contribution to the Soran war effort. It allowed Sora’s ships not only to respond to Xalan threats faster but also to reach their enemy’s five conquered colony worlds—all once inhabited by human civilizations in millennia past—to assist in the uprisings that were taking place there.
The Xalans had possessed the advanced technology of the white null core for ages, and it allowed them to expand without consequence and gain the upper hand in the war, even against such a resource-rich planet as Sora. The white core was also what allowed them to invade Noah’s homeworld of Earth in the first place. The fact that Alpha had gifted the knowledge to the Sorans should have gotten him his own statue, but the Xalan didn’t care about such things. The SDI had spent the last five years fitting every possible ship with a white core. Winning the war on the back of that advancement would be reward enough for Alpha, he always said. Still, neither he nor the SDI were satisfied with just faster ships, and he’d been designing weapons and defense systems for them in the interim while the null element synthesized.
Their hovercraft landed and Theta was there to meet them at the gate.
“I trust your event was suitably exciting?” she asked, her gold eyes darting between them.
“Oh, it was a joy,” replied Erik as he carelessly tossed a Yutta bone to the g
round.
“I am delighted to hear it,” answered Theta, who still hadn’t managed to grasp the concept of sarcasm. Noah knew that Theta would have loved to have been in attendance on the palace promenade—a place she’d more than once remarked was breathtaking—but of course Stoller would never allow that.
“My father will be pleased to see you,” she said, motioning them to come inside. “He is always renewed by your visits.”
Alpha’s section of the base was blocked by endless security checkpoints, all of which they were waved through after careful molecular screening. Their Earth DNA was something of an all-access pass in and of itself most places, though the rest of the Earthborn wouldn’t be privileged to see this base if they were visiting. It was one of the most secure installations on the planet.
They passed rows and rows of rooms where Alpha’s assigned Soran technicians were bringing his many projects to life. Noah saw prototype energy weapons test fired and hulking mech suits stumbling around, but most doors were locked tight, embedded in thick walls with no windows.
The final door at the end of the hall led to a massive circular chamber. It was a far cry from the sort of cramped quarters Alpha was normally known to work in, but he’d done his best to make it crowded by filling the room with mountains of machinery. Noah didn’t know what more than one or two devices around him actually did, even with Theta’s technological tutoring.
Alpha stood up from behind his massive curved desk when he saw them.
“Greetings!” he said heartily and walked around to welcome each of them with a claw clasp to the shoulder. Noah heard the seams in Eric’s jacket rip and saw him wince. Alpha had probably inadvertently broken skin with the six-fingered metal appendage that had replaced his lost left hand.
Alpha released his grip and played with a few controls, which powered down some of the noisier machines in the room.