The Epherium Chronicles: Crucible

by T. D. Wilson

  “I’ll have more troops sent down to your location to help.” Raf paused for a moment to think. “If it’s already in custody, where do you plan to secure it?”

  Hood response was quick and to the point. “It’s staying right here, Commander. We can’t take it back to the Magellan or the other site. That will just cause a panic, and there’s no way I’m letting that thing on my ship.” Hood glanced behind him toward the shuttle’s exit and then returned to the terminal screen. “We’re going to interrogate it here.” His voice took on a harsh tone Sanchez hadn’t heard from his CO. “Find out what it knows.”

  “Should we alert the other colonists?”

  “No, not yet. I’m having Major McGregor coordinate with his people first. I need the colony’s defenses finished, and that kind of announcement will only incite fear.” Hood sighed. “I want you to send a message to Admiral Tramp and tell him everything I’ve told you. I’ll follow it up with one of my own when I get back to the ship.”

  Sanchez didn’t like where this was going. He had to say something, but if he was too up-front, he might be considered insubordinate. “You’re sure you don’t want to send it yourself, sir? If the Cilik’ti are on planet, that’s no place for you. I can have—”

  “I understand your concern,” Hood interrupted his XO. “Not to worry, I have a few questions I want answered, then I’m heading back.” A Marine entered the shuttle from behind Hood and handed him a data pad. Hood studied the screen and then connected it to his terminal. “Raf, I’m sending you a data file. I need you to get it to Lieutenant Greywalker for analysis.”

  “What’s on it?”

  “I had the Marines here run a check on the colonists’ comm gear. There’s something else other than the canyon interfering with their signals, and I want to know what it is.” He sat down and leaned closer to the terminal’s camera. He looked tired, and Sanchez could see the weariness in his eyes. “There’s something besides the Cilik’ti going on down here. If anyone can run it to ground, it’s Maya.”

  “Will do, Captain.” His terminal beeped as the file transmission completed. “When do you want to bring in the rest of the senior staff on the new Cilik’ti development?”

  “Call a meeting for 0800 tomorrow, and I’ll lay it all out then. In the meantime, continue readiness drills and our sensor sweeps of the system. Have them focus on polar cap regions of the nearby planets. The gravitational forces might mask signatures, and I don’t want any enemy ships sneaking up on us.”

  “We’ll be ready if they try, Captain.”

  Hood smiled at Sanchez’s last comment. “I know we will, Raf. See you in a few hours. Hood out.”

  Sanchez sat in silence for a few moments and organized his thoughts. Hood had turned the tables on him and now he felt lost. Normally he was the impulsive one and yet here was his CO putting himself in a high-risk situation.

  He didn’t like it, but he understood why Hood wanted to be down there. Sanchez had some point-blank questions to ask that bug, as well. So the Cilik’ti had shown themselves. But why only one? Just as important, why now?

  Realizing precious seconds were ticking away, he contacted the Command Deck and ordered three more squads of Marines down to the canyon to assist. Aldridge didn’t ask for an explanation, and he didn’t offer one.

  Sanchez was just about to start his message to Admiral Tramp when he remembered the file Hood had sent. He opened the data file and the information inside was scattered, but he was able make out communication logs mixed with signal IDs and strengths. If this wasn’t related to the Cilik’ti, then what else was going on?

  Then he remembered McCraken was on planet. If anything screwy was going on down there, he was sure that weasel was involved. Sanchez sent out a quick text message to Greywalker’s comm band that told her to meet him here. The Cilik’ti were bad enough, but now there was more trouble. Not to mention an unknown stealth ship was still out there working with someone who really wanted to stick it to Epherium, and they didn’t seem to care who got hurt in the process. Hood was right. Sanchez had gotten to know Maya since she’d come on board. They needed her help to sort out this problem while they handled the Cilik’ti.

  Sanchez turned on the terminal’s recording system and began his message to Admiral Tramp. It was his first report back to EDF Command since he’d joined the Armstrong, but he hated to start it off with bad news.

  * * *

  Hood pulled back the brush at the cave mouth and peered inside. The Cilik’ti was off to the right, several meters inside the cave. It was just standing there. Four Marines surrounded the alien, but it didn’t seem to notice them or that Hood was staring right at it. He doubted it could see him, since McGregor’s men had stationed several light stands in the small opening where the Cilik’ti stood. The intense light forced him to squint, even from his vantage point. He wasn’t sure if it made the Cilik’ti feel more uncomfortable. Intel reports had concluded that high-intensity light might be a weakness, but unlike many theories about the Cilik’ti, it was untested.

  Sitting on a chair in front of the Cilik’ti was Jillian. She was bent over, and Hood could see her eyes were closed. Her bony elbows appeared as if they would pierce her jumpsuit and stab into her thighs, and her chin rested in her hands. She was deflated, spent.

  McGregor tapped him on the shoulder. “Captain, we finished our perimeter sweeps. There’s no sign of any additional Tikis in the area. I had my boys place comm jammers all along the canyon, but your comm officer says she doubts they’ll work. Something about the Tikis using mental telepathy or something and our gear can’t pick it up, let alone prevent it.”

  Hood’s gaze never left the Cilik’ti. “Good work, Major. I want to keep a tight lid on this situation if we can. Lieutenant Wells is most likely correct. If the Cilik’ti use telepathy to communicate, there’s little we can do to stop it.” He stepped inside the cave, and McGregor followed him.

  Hood walked toward Jillian and stopped between her and the Cilik’ti. The lights heated the cave interior, and Hood could feel himself begin to sweat in his uniform. But it wasn’t just the lights. The confined space made him uneasy. Even though he’d lived in the close quarters of spacecraft for years, he had always felt at ease. Encased in a metal can in space with view ports seemed fine, but in the cave, the walls started to shift.

  As a boy, Hood had struggled with claustrophobia. His father had always pressed the need to keep active and often took him and his friends to a cluster of small caves near the family home. His dad, who’d admitted he, too, had issues with confined spaces, had his son try different techniques to overcome his fear, or at least lessen the effects.

  Hood recalled one of his dad’s tricks. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, but it wasn’t enough. Ironically, any anxiety he’d expected about being in the room with the Cilik’ti was swallowed by his new dilemma. The effect was getting worse, and he had to move and do it fast. He could feel his stomach begin to churn now as the walls started to close in. Desperate, he started to pace back and forth. Shifting his focus to getting information from the alien eased the sensation, and his situation improved the more he walked. The Cilik’ti, on the other hand, showed no ill effects from the lights or the cave and merely tilted its head as it followed his movements. He’d gotten its attention. At least there was that.

  “What are you doing on this planet?” he said, the words nearly blasting from his mouth.

  The rod in the Cilik’ti’s hand glowed again. “Learning, Captain Hood,” the high-pitched voice echoed in the cave.

  “Learning, huh,” Hood mocked and the speed of his pacing increased. “How many of you are there in this system? What is the composition of your forces?”

  The Cilik’ti didn’t respond.

  “I know you can understand me.” He turned his back to the Cilik’ti. The alien still said nothing. He wheeled to face it a
gain. “I want answers!”

  The Cilik’ti recoiled for a moment, and Hood started his pacing again. “Answers. Yes. This one only seeks to understand. As for the things you ask, this one cannot provide that which is not known.”

  Hood stopped. “Understand what? What about humans don’t you understand that you didn’t already find out during your invasion?” He shook his head. “And how do you know my name? Until now, we didn’t even know we could communicate with you.”

  “You are James Hood,” the Cilik’ti began. “Captain, Earth Defense Force cruiser Orion.” The Cilik’ti paused for a moment. “Your name is both respected and cursed among the Shi. This one is honored to meet with you.”

  Hood mind hovered over what the Cilik’ti had said. It still referred to him as the captain of the Orion, not the Armstrong. Whatever intelligence the Cilik’ti worker had, it didn’t seem to be recent, and he wanted to make sure it stayed that way.

  Hood doubted he could get any mineable military intelligence from the Cilik’ti and focused on his last question. “You still didn’t answer about how you can communicate with us. The invasion lasted for years, and nothing. Not until it was over and that brief message sent to a relay station. No voice or picture, just text. So why now?” He pointed to the rod. “I take it that’s your solution.”

  The Cilik’ti held up the rod. “The Hal’ta N’lan commanded that this one learn to understand you and overcome the barriers between our people. This translation device was this one’s best hope. It has allowed this one to listen, to understand. When the other Shi first encountered your people, they spoke, but you could not hear. The Shi mistook the situation and the result was...” The Cilik’ti seemed pressed to find the correct word. “Tragic.”

  Hood closed his eyes. He could see the ships of his fleets blasted apart and the fires consuming them. The tortured screams of the helpless men and women he couldn’t save fueled his resolve. “The brutal slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people isn’t tragic. It’s barbaric.”

  The Cilik’ti seemed almost shaken by Hood’s comments. It glanced at Jillian, then back at Hood. “This one, as well as this one’s entire Shi, grieves for the loss of life on both sides. The events that transpired that day when our two peoples met set many horrible plans into motion.”

  “Captain,” Wells said from her quiet corner inside the cave. She was sitting cross-legged, using her data pad to record the interrogation. “If I may, I would like to ask something.”

  Hood nodded. It seemed more obvious to him that he wasn’t going to get anything from this Cilik’ti worker and, like it or not, he wasn’t about to use force to get it, unless there was no other option.

  “Kree,” Wells began. “That is your name, correct?”

  “Yes,” the Cilik’ti answered as its faceted eyes fell on the Armstrong’s communications officer.

  “You’ve mentioned some things about your people that I want to understand. You spoke of your Hal’ta and Shi. I have a vague picture of what I think they represent, but I would like you to explain them better for me.”

  The Cilik’ti worker bowed its head toward Wells. “Yes. This is what this one had hoped to do. Allow you to understand.” Kree turned back at Hood. “This one believes it will answer your questions as well, Captain.”

  “Very well,” Hood said, still bristling. “Let’s hear it.”

  Kree lowered his body on the cave floor in a somewhat relaxed position. “Do you have a stellar map of this galaxy, Lieutenant Wells?”

  Wells stood and walked over to Kree. After typing a few commands on her data pad, she spun it around and brought it closer for Kree to see.

  Kree examined the map. The location of Earth and Cygni were noted by two flashing green dots in the sea of stars in the vast makeup of the Milky Way galaxy. With one of his small arms, he pointed to a region on the far side of the galaxy’s core. “Enhance this area please.”

  Wells expanded the region Kree had singled out and showed it Kree and then to Hood. “This one’s people lived on a harsh but vibrant world. We were bound to it in harmony. The Shi were united toward the betterment of our people, and we thrived for millennia,” Kree explained. “Each Shi was blessed with purpose and will. The Shi used both gifts to seek out new advances and challenge the stars.”

  Wells broke in. “Kree. The Shi seems to be an important pillar in your society. Are they races or leadership?”

  “Each member of a Shi bears its mark.” Kree traced one of its arms down the long red stripe on the back of his leg. He then raised his head to the ceiling for a moment before he continued. “The Shi have existed for eons in the archives of this one’s people, and this one does not know how to explain them to you. But from what this one has learned from Commander Howard, the closest human correlation would be tribe or clan. This one’s Shi is N’lan and, before the Great Sundering, N’lan was second among the twenty.”

  Jillian opened her eyes and stood. Her face seemed more relaxed now and she walked up next to Hood. “Before you arrived, Kree was beginning to tell me of a tragic calamity that occurred—the Great Sundering.”

  “Yes, Commander Howard,” Kree continued. “The Great Sundering separated us from J’tan, our home world, and scattered us to the stars.” Kree’s arms started to fall almost in sadness. “This one is sorry. J’tan, our Sacred Gift, was never seen by this one’s eyes, and explaining it to you is difficult.”

  “What happened?” Jillian asked softly.

  “The star that shone on our world had begun to change. Every few solar cycles, it would release an energy pulse, far less powerful than larger pulsars in the galaxy, but enough that it would damage our world and the other planets in our solar system.” With one of his front legs, he drew an outline of the five-planet system in the dirt of the cave floor. “At first, the effects were short disruptions of our technology, but each year as the level increased, the effects began to unravel our atmosphere. In a desperate attempt to stop the damage, the Shi council instructed our greatest scientists to reverse the star’s perceived degradation and return it to normal.” A great sigh came from the rod. “But power of that magnitude is too difficult to control.”

  “They accelerated the process by accident, didn’t they,” Hood added. Hood could barely admit it to himself, but he started to feel sympathy. Earth had almost chosen the same path in attempting to alter its sun.

  “Yes. Our great plan to save our world only hastened its doom.” Kree wiped out the drawing on the floor with a fast swipe of his leg. “Our star began an unrecoverable degeneration that led to a supernova event. When it was over, nothing remained of our cherished world and those surrounding it.”

  Jillian left Hood’s side and approached Kree. She had no fear, even after her loss of innocence to what Kree was. She sat beside him and drew the picture again in dirt.

  Kree watched her recreate the diagram as he continued. “Fortunately, our people had time to leave our world, to venture for the stars and escape annihilation. The Shi council organized a complete evacuation of our home system, and each Shi went in search of a new home to call their own. And like you, we believed we might be alone in this great universe.”

  “Your people encountered other beings on those worlds, didn’t they?” Wells asked, anxious to hear Kree’s answer.

  Kree bowed its head toward Wells. “Yes, Lieutenant. One Shi did—the lost Shi.” Kree extended the rod toward Hood.

  Unsure of the gesture, Hood didn’t move, but Kree carefully placed the rod in his hand and Hood grasped it with nervous fingers.

  The rod glowed again as Kree’s voice spoke. “This one’s people do not speak as you do. Members of the Shis speak to one another by thought, but it was not always as it is now.”

  Hood studied the rod. It was smooth and cool to the touch. When Kree spoke through it, Hood felt as if something tingled in his spine. He handed
the device to Jillian, but he wanted to throw it away, far away, and shatter it. The Cilik’ti had made this, the very same monsters that wreaked so much death and destruction. But Kree’s almost innocent demeanor stopped him. He needed to know more and if it meant using this Cilik’ti and this new communication device to do it, he was willing to take the risk.

  “So you do speak telepathically,” Wells added, completely fascinated. “But if you can use telepathy to communicate, shouldn’t you be able to hear my thoughts? You said your people spoke, but we didn’t hear. Perhaps your telepathy is limited to your own kind.”

  “Yes, it is true that you could not hear us and we could not understand you as well,” Kree replied. “However, when your great ship arrived on this world, the Hal’ta ordered this one to learn. Upon arrival, this one was able to hear those who had landed. It was difficult at first. Images and feelings were all that could be sensed, but after long periods of concentration, surface thoughts could be understood.” Kree offered one if its hands to Jillian. The alien helped her to her feet, and she handed him the communication device.

  The high-pitched voice from the device continued as Kree turned his attention back to Hood. “In these caves, this one waited and watched before discovery. Since then, this one has spent hours learning and listening to the thoughts of Commander Howard and her friends. But you, Captain Hood, this one cannot hear. Nor can this one hear those who have traveled with you on your ship.”

  Hood thought about what the Cilik’ti said for a few moments then motioned for McGregor to join him outside. As they exited the brush-covered entrance, Hood pulled him away from the camp. “This is going to sound crazy, Major, but I believe that Cilik’ti.”

  “Are ya barkin’ mad, sir?” McGregor protested. “Don’t tell me that Tiki’s gone and brainwashed ya?”

  Hood made a quick check of the cave entrance. No one had followed them out. “No, Major. But I think I understand what’s going on. During their voyage here, the colonists all had their brain patterns modified, some completely recreated for the new personalities.”