Tempest: Book Two of the Terran Cycle

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  The cargo ship rotated on its thrusters, bringing into view the human vessel. It was unmistakably Terran in design with a structure made entirely from nanocelium.

  “What the hell...?” Li’ara stood up to see over Naydaalan’s tall frame.

  Kalian followed her look of distress and found himself standing as well. There was a trail of bodies leading from the Terran ship to the Translift, all of them Conclave security in full shock armour and rifles.

  “What could have done this?” Naydaalan asked.

  There was no sign of any other bodies among the soldiers. Whoever attacked them did so with no casualties. A horrible thought crept into Kalian’s mind. But there was no way this could be Esabelle. She wouldn’t do this, she had no reason.

  Then they saw him.

  At first he had blended in with the console in the distance, but now he made for the Translift. He was definitely human, but something wasn’t right.

  Kalian pushed his awareness out as well as improving his optic nerves. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, let alone perceiving the dense bundles of nanocelium that made up his body. “Garrett...”

  Li’ara whipped her head back to look at him. “As in, Professor Garrett Jones?”

  They both shared the same expression of dread.

  “The cube.” They ran out of the cockpit and made for the cargo bay. On the way past the med bay, Naydaalan told Ilyseal to get his father to the Medder. Kalian got the feeling that Naydaalan was replacing Li’ara as his new guardian.

  The terminal at the Translift informed them that it had stopped at level 101 in the aft section of the Nova. They didn’t wait for any entourage to appear or backup from another security team. They bundled into the Translift and set a repeat destination.

  “What’s on level 101 in a Nebula-class ship, Naydaalan?” Kalian asked.

  The Novaarian hesitated while he thought over the internal plans of the ship. His golden eyes lit up when he remembered. “The Starrillium.”

  This was becoming a day for worst fears.

  “What would he want with that?” Li’ara checked her rifle over.

  “He could not do anything,” Naydaalan explained. “The Starrillium has strict access; authorisation must come directly from the Charge.”

  “If he’s been affected by the cube he shouldn’t be underestimated.” Kalian had a bad feeling about Garrett’s intentions. The doors opened to more bodies strewn across the corridor. Not all of them security personnel, some were scientists or engineers. The level of violence actually shocked Kalian. One guard was permanently stuck with his back lodged in the ceiling, disrupting the lighting. Blood smeared the walls where Garrett had clearly put his hand through them. Necks were broken with some barely attached anymore.

  “This is... primal almost.” Li’ara carefully stepped over a Nix that had been torn in half.

  “Savagery...” Naydaalan checked the pulse on a Novaarian sitting against the wall. His touch caused the body to slide down, leaving a blood trail from the back of her head across the wall. A scream in the distance gave them speed, Kalian easily taking the lead. The chamber that housed the Starrillium door was operatic in size, and Kalian knew how big it was inside. To his dismay the thick circular door was already open. It had only opened enough to let a person through though, as if the servos were acting against their will. One look at the control panel gave some explanation.

  “What is that?” Naydaalan approached the infected screen. Black tendrils had penetrated the glass and interlaced across the surface like the roots of a plant.

  “Don’t touch it!” Kalian warned. They could hear rushing footsteps coming from the Translift now. “Naydaalan, you have to warn them about this stuff. They can’t be allowed to touch it.”

  “I am coming with you,” he replied defiantly. He had taken his father’s words seriously.

  “If you don’t keep them out, more people will die. You’ve seen what he’s capable of.”

  Naydaalan hesitated, looking back at the approaching troops. He turned to face the soldiers giving Kalian his answer.

  “Don’t even think about it.” Li’ara was already walking into the Starrillium chamber, her rifle raised.

  “As if you’d listen to me.”

  The Starrillium was identical to the one he had seen on the Valoran. The sphere was easily the size of any stadium with thousands of raised circles lining its metallic surface. Most of these circular holes were connected to massive tubes and wires that attached to the chamber walls. It was eerily silent for something that contained the most powerful force in the universe. It was hard to believe that he was only metres away from a blazing artificial star.

  “Where is he?”

  Li’ara’s question was answered by Garrett himself. He dropped down from above the door, landing with a hand on each of them. He was quick, and strong. Without pausing, he launched both of them to opposite sides of the chamber. Kalian’s armour took the brunt of the impact but he knew Li’ara would not be so lucky. Garrett was on him before he could even get to his feet. Kalian was picked up by the throat and thrust into the console against the wall. His grip was reminiscent of the Beast.

  Kalian instinctively tried to pry his fingers away but Garrett unleashed a barrage of punches to his gut. His attacks never paused. As Kalian dropped to the ground Garrett placed a hand on his face and pushed him into the wall again. He dropped to his knees and spat blood, his vision blurring. The next attack was halted by a series of Intrinium bolts slamming into Garrett’s back. Li’ara was using her sidearm. Her right arm looked dislocated. Flesh and clothes exploded from his body, but the effect seemed to only irritate him.

  Kalian’s vision cleared up in time for him to see Garrett approaching Li’ara. The threat to her awoke something in him. The organic plasma flew from his hand, catching Garrett in the back and the leg. It dropped him to one knee but didn’t kill him. Instead the holes in his body began to knit back together with fine strands of nanocelium. The smile he gave Kalian was one of wicked malevolence. It was unnerving.

  His speed was hard to track as Garrett fled the chamber leaving them to live. They both heard the soldiers cry out as he pushed his way past with brute force.

  “Are you alright?” Kalian’s voice was hoarse from Garrett’s grip.

  “My arm’s in a bad way. What about you?”

  “I’ll survive. Why did he leave?” Kalian walked over to her, concern showing for her arm.

  “Why was he even here in the first place?” Kalian looked around realising that was the better question. It was answered by the sounds coming from the Starrillium. The sphere began to hum for the first time as flashes of lightning shot across the surface. The hair on Kalian and Li’ara’s skin stood on end from the charging static electricity in the air.

  “What’s happening?” Kalian looked to the console on their right and saw the cause. More of the dark tendrils had infected the terminal, digging deeper into the internal systems. The pangs of electricity increased, striking the walls around the sphere and showering them in sparks. The metal coating strained under some new pressure as the structure began to expand and contract. One by one the giant cables violently disconnected from the cube, thrashing like dead snakes. A viscous multicoloured liquid poured out of the end covering the floor.

  “He’s overloading the Starrillium!” Li’ara grabbed Kalian’s arm and pulled him to the opening in the door. “We need to get out of here, Kalian! If the shell breaks...”

  “It’ll vaporise the ship from the inside.” Kalian knew then that running was futile. He could feel the energy soaring through the technology around him. The internal force fields had been tampered with; it was only a matter of time. He looked at Li’ara and knew she would never agree to what he knew needed to be done. “We need to get back to the Dawnlighter, now!” The second she passed through the door Kalian took a step back.

  “Kalian?” Li’ara turned and dashed back for him.

  “I’m sorry...” He held up his hand
and clenched his fist, causing the door to fit back together with a resounding boom. He placed a hand on the door, knowing he would never see her again.

  But she will live.

  He turned on the Starrillium, summoning as much courage as he had in him. He had to do this; he had to give it his all. Whole sections of the sphere were crumpling as the internal gravity of the star began to eat its way out. An unusual pressure formed in his ear before he heard ALF’s voice.

  “Are you ready for this?” The nanocelium in the exo-skeleton had formed a new structure behind his head and curved into his ear.

  “I have to be. It’ll kill every life onboard.” Kalian centred himself in the middle of the chamber, directly in front of the Starrillium. All the cables had disconnected now, their liquid contents flowing past his feet.

  “You’re going to need to find somewhere inside your mind where you can stay. You need to switch everything else off; you can’t afford to feel pain. This is going to be the most exhausting thing you’ve ever done, Kalian. Remember, when you feel like giving up - she dies.” It wasn’t the first time the artificial intelligence had tried this tack to help him survive.

  “Get out of my head.” With that, the nanocelium withdrew back into his collar. He expanded his awareness one last time and felt Li’ara banging on the door as security personnel pulled her away.

  At once the noise stopped for a second as the miniature lightning storm came to a halt. In that same second Kalian brought up the strongest telekinetic field he could muster. It simultaneously surrounded him while also grounding him to the spot. He would have to contend not only with the unfettered heat and blinding light, but also the gravity.

  Once he was secure he immediately threw a field around the sphere before the ferocious implosion. The sound was sucked out of the room in the same instant the light wiped out every shadow. Like an unshackled god the star blazed with raw energy. He almost lost it in that first second alone. The light instantly burned out his eyes leaving burnt craters of searing agony. The exposed skin on his face and hands were at the mercy of the heat. He realised then that the radiance of the star could never have been prepared for. A moment too late he disconnected his pain receptors and pushed into his defences. The heat was kept at bay but the receptors in his skin told him that he was still burning, just slowly. He would be lucky if his suit didn’t cook him from the inside.

  In those faltering seconds the star had burst beyond his field and lashed out at the chamber with solar flares. The room was becoming a giant microwave as the radiation exploded into every crevice. He concentrated on the shape of the star and continued to build on the wall around it. He had to trust that the engineers were finding another way to shut it down while he contained it.

  The floor around him was melting and he realised he was on his knees, his hands out at his side channelling his power. He shut off every sense he had, cutting off the smell of burning skin and hair that had reached his nostrils. Heeding ALF’s word he began to burrow deeper into himself, a place he couldn’t feel the stress his body was under. He was seeing the room through his mind’s eye, with his awareness pulsing through every particle. He didn’t want to think about the state his eyes and skin were in. In those moments he felt almost ethereal, his corporeal body becoming a memory with his life-force surging around the star.

  The door behind him was becoming convex, slave to the gravity as the unyielding force pulled it from the servo motors. Kalian screamed in his head as he focused more and more on the star. The more power he put into the shield, the more he lost his own defences. There would be nothing left of him by the time he was finished. He made peace with that thought, knowing that he would die saving so many, saving her.

  Time had no meaning anymore. He didn’t know if he had been containing the star for a minute or his entire life. Kalian felt his energy ebbing as the star fought to be free. That safe place inside his mind began to slip away with his concentration, the pain returning. Molten metal fell from the ceiling like a waterfall as it poured over his telekinetic field, weakening him more. He could feel the heat and radiation pulsing through the gaps in the star’s field and wreaking havoc beyond the chamber. He no longer had the energy to find Li’ara inside the ship; he could only hope Naydaalan had pulled her to a safe distance.

  He thought of her to try and regain his focus but found it hard to recall her face or even her voice. What was he doing? Why was he here? He wasn’t allowed to fail but he couldn’t remember why. His mind began to wander with exhaustion, causing his personal field to falter. The wave of fire eviscerated another layer of flesh bringing his return to the torturous present. This was it; he had finally reached the end of his abilities, he could push himself no further. The star continued to shine as the protective wall he placed around it wavered.

  He was going to die.

  The storm on Trantax IV continued to rage as Garrett dragged the cube through the dirt. He kicked the bodies of the dead soldiers out of the way. They had tried to stop him from entering the cave system but underestimated his power.

  No!

  The thought repulsed him. It had felt like his own but he regained enough consciousness to know it couldn’t be him. Still, his body waded through the blood and dirt as the rain hammered his infected skin. He screamed in his mind, trying to pull against the will that pushed on. The entity that possessed him stumbled, losing its grip on the cube. He dared to hope.

  It is no use fighting us.

  His mother’s image confronted him in the void again. Her pleasant smile was no comfort to him as it only reminded him of the twisted being that used her memory like a puppet. He looked through his eyes again to see his body strengthening its grip around the cube’s edges.

  “Why are you doing this?” He thought about the chaos he had wrought on the starship. That Starrillium was going to rupture and when it did everyone onboard would die, including Kalian and Li’ara. His mother slowly circled him like a shark assessing its prey.

  We will locate this biological anomaly, in time, and we will eradicate it.

  Garrett looked at himself, grasping the entity’s meaning.

  “You mean me? You’re trying to find me?” what was it about his continued existence inside his subsumed body that troubled the alien so much? How could it take over so much but not his subconscious? Or was it his cognitive synapses? The soul perhaps? Whatever it was, it certainly irked the entity.

  The image of his mother vanished, leaving him alone again. With his enhanced strength Garrett was now approaching the Terran vessel, pushing the cube easily through the lightning strikes that were attracted to its surface. He had no idea why the entity had retrieved the cube in the first place. He could see and feel its actions, but its intent was hidden from him.

  Movement to the left caught his attention. A Laronian soldier was crawling through the mud, a nearby rifle his motive. The apparent threat gave the entity no alarm as he continued to plough through the other bodies towards the ship. At the last second, with a quick exertion of strength, Garrett lifted the cube just enough to raise it above the Laronian’s prone form. The thunder masked the sound of his head being crushed under the weight.

  The feeling of regret seemed too small to describe how Garrett felt about his previous curiosity. How many deaths was he responsible for now?

  Chapter Eight

  Their entrance hadn’t been as inconspicuous as Esabelle would have liked. Disabling the automated barrier to allow them entrance had been easy, but she had underestimated the scanners thereafter. The connecting walk-bridge had detected their false skins and deactivated them with a laser-guided EMP. At least now she didn’t have to hold back by being sneaky. Now she could finally exercise her mind. Sparring with Kalian was fun, but they both had to hold back.

  “You need to get across that bridge before they seal the main building off!” Ch’len’s voice came through their earpiece.

  They sprinted across the long walkway like salmon swimming upstream. The alarms, combin
ed with their human exterior, had terrified the employees traversing the distance to and from the main building. With the door already descending from the ceiling everyone was jostling to reach the car park. Most gave them a wide berth as they ran the opposite way, with only a few too clumsy to get out of the way. Roland was more than happy to push them out of the way with violent glee.

  When they finally got some space the brilliant view returned through the glass walkway. They could see the rest of Clave Tower sprawling beneath them from their dizzying height. Thousands of vehicles flew in every direction as the A.I. controlled the flow of traffic between the floating archipelagos.

  Roland slowed down as the door fitted into place, blocking their path. Esabelle had no intention of slowing down. Extending her arm at the last second, she pushed every molecule between her and the door, condensing them into a telekinetic barrage. The unseen force slammed into the door and blew it from the hidden servo-motors in the wall. The metal slab continued along its momentum for another twenty feet on the other side, scraping across the polished floors. The frame around the doorway was bent out of shape as they passed through into the stark atrium.

  “I was just about to do that...” Roland eyed the broken door.

  Esabelle smiled at his humour, feeling the adrenaline rushing through her veins. She revelled in her power like a bird set free to fly. Had she grown up on Albadar, or any other Terran planet, she would have used her abilities with the same reflexes she used to breath. Being around so many inferior species, including the less evolved humans, she was forced to keep her natural talents in check so as not to scare them. With her thoughts wandering, Esabelle reminded herself of the seriousness of their situation. She had to get to the bottom of this conspiracy.

  They crossed the atrium, keeping a close eye on the employees that ran for cover. It seemed the door had crushed the only guard on its way into the room. The twitching legs of a Shay could be seen poking out from underneath. The panel next to the row of Translifts indicated that they were on the sixty-fifth floor.