Daniel Coldstar #1

by Stel Pavlou

  In his gut Daniel knew this was wrong. But seeing himself as a Sinja, as he would become—it seemed so real. So final.

  Was this really who he was meant to be?

  Think, Daniel. Think. Go back to the basic lessons.

  “Why would I want to be feared?” Daniel asked.

  Unable to answer, Sinja-Daniel disappeared in a puff of holocule dust, to be replaced by a kinder, gentler Sinja-Daniel walking toward him. “This power is yours, Daniel. All you have to do is claim it like your friends have claimed it.”

  “One friend,” Daniel pointed out calmly.

  Sinja-Daniel shook his head. He glanced over at the nearest Overseer. “Show him.”

  With electrical discharges rippling across the outer surface of the giant machine, a clanking Mythrian soldier did as it was instructed, came to stand in front of Daniel, and with little fanfare, lifted its face mask.

  Actual flesh and blood, and not some holocule, looked back at him. The face of Nova, the girl who had been so kind to him when he’d been thrown in the pit. The girl who had been so upset that he couldn’t remember who she was.

  Somewhere deep down, Daniel had hoped that she had managed to escape just as he had, and was off somewhere having her own adventures.

  The terrible truth crushed his soul instead.

  “Hello, Daniel,” she said.

  Daniel swayed, his legs weaker than they had been a moment ago. “This is a trick.”

  Blink Darkada stepped out of the shadows to join him. “No trick. This is what we were bred for. This is why we exist, Dee.”

  “No.”

  “You can’t just close your eyes and pretend this isn’t happening—”

  “No! No! No!” Daniel covered his ears, trying to escape their words.

  Whompff!

  A powerful shock wave blasted through the chamber, sending the Book of Planets clattering to the ground. Another Truth Seeker—

  “Show me my future, Virrus!” a distant voice cried.

  Everyone looked up to see Torin standing atop the machine, glaring down at them.

  With the element of surprise still with him, he dropped down to the floor, his own Aegis shield a glowing disk of fire.

  “Occator Torin,” Vega Virrus whispered with excitement. “It’s been too long.”

  “Only my mother calls me Occator,” Torin snapped. “And she isn’t here.” He glanced briefly toward Daniel. “At least, I hope she isn’t here,” he said quietly.

  Torin let his shield of fire die. He pulled a small device from his utility belt and held it up for them all to see.

  Daniel recognized it immediately. It was the same Thought Detonator that Torin had been studying when they first met.

  With one firm click, he armed it.

  “Force me to defend myself, Virrus,” said Torin, his eyes settling on the gigantic machine, “and you will regret it.” He gave Daniel the briefest of sideways glances. “Get out of here, Daniel,” he commanded. “They’re not going to do anything. They wouldn’t dare.”

  “You can’t,” Daniel warned.

  “Just go. I have this—”

  “You can’t!” Daniel cried. “These are my friends.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Vega Virrus began to laugh.

  “The Mythrian Army. Look at them!” Daniel pleaded.

  The chamber filled with the sound of marching boots. Rank and file, rank and file, foot soldiers of the Mythrian Army on parade, the faceplates on their helmets lifted to expose the faces of one after another.

  Dathan Tantus.

  Kree Kalamath.

  Ogle Kog.

  Gungy Wamp.

  Mymon Ray.

  Dakan Liss.

  One by one.

  On and on.

  Their faces drained of all humanity; the Sinja’s children of war.

  Coming to an abrupt halt, the Mythrian Army turned on its heels to face the Truth Seekers.

  “My God . . .” Torin gasped. He opened his commlink, quietly broadcasting to every Truth Seeker within range, “Do not engage.”

  “Is that fear I smell, Torin?” Virrus whispered, gathering his child army around him like a shield.

  “I will not be party to the murder of children,” Torin said, backing away.

  “Yet you bring your own young ones into battle,” Vega Virrus whispered.

  Torin began to anger. “They are not soldiers,” he said. “And they never will be.” He added into his commlink, “Retreat. Now.”

  “We can’t leave them!” Daniel protested. “We were supposed to free them!”

  “We have no choice.”

  Vega Virrus’s amused voice slithered around Daniel’s scalp from one ear to the other. “Now do you see who they really are, Daniel? Powerless. Hypocrites. I stand within striking distance and they do nothing—”

  Angrily, Daniel pulled his arm back to launch his Aegis, but Torin was faster. Gripping him by the wrist, he said gently but firmly, “No, Daniel.”

  Daniel struggled to snatch his arm away.

  “I promise you, there will be another way,” Torin implored.

  But Daniel refused to give in. He turned back to Nova. “Come with us,” he begged. “You can be free!”

  Nova simply gazed at him as though he were speaking an unknown language.

  He turned to Gungy Wamp, to Dakan Liss, to any number of grubs. “Come with us!” he cried, over and over, until the tears stained his cheeks and his voice grew hoarse. “Come with us!”

  “If you insist,” Vega Virrus whispered. “Troops—attack.”

  And with that the dark Sinja unleashed the chaos that he so craved.

  Daniel braced himself for the assault, but it never came.

  The deafening sound of weapons fire filled the chamber as the Mythrian Army rushed at him, but Torin was having none of it.

  Grabbing Daniel by the sleeks, Torin ignited his Aegis, focusing an almighty blast at the ground beneath their feet.

  Whompff!

  The two Truth Seekers shot up into the air so blisteringly fast that they looked for all the world like a bolt of lightning.

  “The Thought Detonator!” Daniel cried in a panic, expecting a blast to erupt at any moment.

  “Never worked,” Torin replied. “You of all people should have remembered that!”

  Careening through the same opening that Torin had used to make his entrance, the two tumbled into a smaller chamber, a passageway of sorts. Together, they landed at a run.

  “You lied?” Daniel said, shocked.

  “I did no such thing,” Torin objected. “I invited them to infer. Never once did I state that the thing in my hand was any kind of threat.”

  PewPewPewPew!

  The weapons fire coming from far below them zipped up through the opening near their feet, blasting everything to smithereens.

  “I’m not sure this is the safest place to continue this conversation,” Torin mused.

  “Over here!” a familiar voice beckoned.

  They spun around. At the very end of the passageway, where it began sloping up to the surface, stood Ionica. Behind her, three grubs wearing ordinary dugs: Nails, Henegan Rann, and Fix Suncharge. Behind them—Alice!

  Daniel’s heart thumped proudly. All had not been lost.

  Before long they had caught up with the rest of the Truth Seekers, and were back aboard the Equinox.

  From the Sphere, they watched the scene unfolding down on the surface of Musa Degh, legions of Mythrian troops lining up to board a fleet of gigantic ships the likes of which they had never seen, shaking off the dirt and rising up out of the graves they had lain in for a million years.

  And there was absolutely nothing the Truth Seekers could do. At least not today.

  “They were testing us,” Torin said. “That’s why they led us here. They wanted to know what we would do when faced with such an enemy. And now that they know, they will make a next move.”

  “Those ships, sir. They’re scrambling
our ability to track them,” one of the Truth Seekers announced from her post.

  Not to worry.

  Daniel’s heart, hidden under that nicked piece of ancient metal, was speaking to him in ways that the Truth Seeker training had taught him to recognize.

  This was not the end. When the next move came—they would know.

  44

  THE SEVENTH SUMMIT

  Daniel set out across the grasslands one afternoon, heading for a loosely wooded area hugging the ridge of the hills. The leaves had all started turning a brilliant shade of orange, and began falling in sheets like rain every time the wind blew.

  “They’re called seasons,” Daniel explained, tugging on Alice’s leash, guiding him around a steep curve. “This one is the fall. I read about it.”

  Alice bent his head down and nuzzled Daniel’s ear, making him chuckle. “Cut it out.”

  As they made their way up to the crest of the hill, Daniel filled his lungs with the fresh scent of oozing sap and fallen leaves. When they emerged on the other side of the woods, he saw the charred ruins of what remained of the Seventh Summit.

  At the river’s edge they crossed an old narrow bridge over to the far side, watching the brightly colored fish jumping in and out of the surging water. It was starting to get dark.

  When they made it to the top, a small light could be seen glowing through the window of one of the intact upper floors.

  Daniel hitched Alice to a post and began unloading the supplies: food, bedding, water. It would do for now.

  A small glass card fell out of the bundle, skittering across the soil.

  Daniel scooped it up, and as he did so, a message scrolled across its surface.

  Daniel,

  Welcome home. Remember, we are family now. Us Truth Seekers must stick together! And to that end, let me give you a little piece of advice that has always served me well: Always seek the truth. Guard it when you find it. Give it when it is most needed.

  We will free them in the end, you know. And it will be glorious!

  Until then, to the adventure, Daniel. To the adventure!

  Your friend,

  Torin

  “Mind if we join you?”

  Startled, Daniel glanced up to find Ionica and Ben standing across from him, heavy packs fastened to their backs.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  “Moving in,” Ionica said, looking for a decent entrance. “What about you?”

  Ben shrugged. “Are you going to argue with her?”

  Daniel shook his head. What was the point? “You’re going the wrong way,” he said.

  With the bundle of supplies slung over his shoulder, Daniel led the way up the ragged stairs. The ruins had such an eerie feeling about them. As though the spirits of the dead were watching, reminding them all of the sorrow that had been wrought here.

  “We don’t have to live here, you know. We do have space back at the other summits,” Ionica said.

  “I know,” Daniel replied simply.

  When they reached the top, Daniel nodded to the others huddled around an open fire: Nails, Henegan, and Fix, all free thanks mostly to Ionica. Unlike their other friends still trapped in a web of lies a trillion miles away.

  The three boys nodded in return when they saw him, enjoying their first night of freedom. Ionica nudged one of them to make room for her around the fire. Ben passed out the supplies.

  And Daniel? He saw the sign the boys had painted on the wall. And he smiled.

  Who disturbs?

  We do.

  Outside, in the valleys of Orpheus Core, a lone Hammertail roared.

  GLOSSARY

  The following entries have been retrieved from the Encyclopedia Exodussica, 10th Edition.

  AEGIS: An Aegis (plural: Aegi) is an ancient weapon of unknown alien design. Each Aegis is unique, created from starflakes, crystals thrown from the solid cores of exploding stars. The theoretical principle behind the Aegis is that every particle in the known universe is still fundamentally attached to the original single particle from which the universe was created, known as the Fusion Point, or Fuse. Theoretically, no corner of the universe is immune to the effects of an Aegis, although in practice there do appear to be limitations. The discovery of the first Aegis in 8470 EE, and the resulting hunt for similar relics, led directly to one of the bloodiest relic wars in human history, the Edge Wars.

  VOL. 258.042

  ANATOM: An anatom is an artificial life-form comprised of two parts: the corposum, or biological element, which is created from artificial DNA and which serves as the basis for its brain; and a mechanical outer shell, usually taking the form of an animal or animal-mechanical hybrid, though exceptions do exist. The enduring popularity of old-fashioned robots has seen anatoms, first created in 7133 EE as a replacement for robotic servants, often working alongside and complementing their counterparts, rather than replacing them.

  VOL. 671.099

  BLAST-PIKE: Blast-pikes are long, spear-like martial weapons designed for close hand-to-hand combat. Blast-pikes use S31 quadrocells as a power source and emit high-powered electrical discharges to both stun an opponent and physically remove or “blast” them away from the immediate vicinity.

  VOL. 991.433

  BURN WORLDS: Burn Worlds are any number of inhabited planets scattered throughout the galaxy with extreme, usually hot, environments. Most Burn Worlds orbit close to their parent star or stars, though some possess overheated, smog-like atmospheres filled with toxins due to human industrial activity. The Burn Worlds are not a single star nation, as is often assumed. Individual Burn Worlds exist in almost every alliance throughout the galaxy.

  VOL. 992.643

  CHAFF: Chaff is the language of Juke roamers.

  VOL. 598.603

  DROTE: Drotes are medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Randominus, within the order Rodentia. Varieties of drote include the common hairless drote (Calvus drottus) and spitting drote (Sputo drottus). Debate still rages among scientists on the origin of drotes. They were first recorded in 2127 EE when they ransacked the food storage units of the Alnair colonies, leading to the Alnair famine of the same year, in which 53,781 colonists are known to have perished. Drotes evolve rapidly and can adapt to wildly different environments in a single generation. Though genetically related to rats, beavers, and other rodents, modern drotes bear limited resemblance to their ancestors and are known for their aggressive temperament.

  VOL. 781.001

  EMBERS: The Embers are a series of planets that fell under Sinja control toward the end of the War of Wills. By appealing to fear and greed in the people, the Sinja convinced each population to relentlessly hunt for more relics within their territories, resulting in the destruction of their respective worlds. For decades after, the burning remnants of these planets in the night sky, which resembled the scattered remains of a dying fire, came to be known as the Embers.

  VOL. 1012.027

  ENGINOID: Enginoids, also known as Combines, are a class of robot whereby clusters of individual units work together as a single unit to accomplish tasks. The number of units in an enginoid cluster is determined by the assigned task. Enginoid clusters are highly configurable and self-sufficient.

  VOL. 998.802

  F-LIGHT: F-lights, or Floating Lights, are small, flying flashlights designed to allow a user to use both hands while performing a task. Voice commands may also direct an F-light to illuminate an area that would normally be out of reach.

  VOL. 1265.055

  GOLOADER: GoLoaders are a form of hover transport consisting of self-organizing, individually powered cargo containers that use antigravity repulsor units as their method of flight. Older models such as the TRS-80, manufactured by the now-defunct Fortran Corporation, employ booster cars or assist units in the front and back positions as added power when the containers travel in trains. Newer models such as Spectrum’s ZX81 and Commodore’s VIC 20 make use of Amiga technology and require no assist units.

 
VOL. 1773.817

  HAMMERTAIL: Hammertails are a large quadruped form of trabasaur, noted for their armored skin and massive tail club. Hammertails were designed to resemble ankylosaurid-type dinosaurs that roamed ancient Earth during the Cretaceous Period, which began and ended 145–66 million years ago.

  VOL. 2850.013

  JARABIC: Jarabic is a fusion language of the fourth millennium EE and is spoken by 1.3 billion people over a wide swath of the galaxy, primarily on the worlds of the Jeddaration, but also on some Bantu Worlds, the Sovo Compliance, the Raider territories, and several independent systems. Jarabic has its roots in both the Japonic and Semitic language families.

  VOL. 4187.663

  KOIN: Koin is the language of trade and is the most commonly used language in the galaxy. The majority of societies that use a different primary language still speak, or at least understand, Koin.

  VOL. 9981.701

  MENDESE: Mendese is an artificial Click language created to allow anatoms, enginoids, and other service automatons to communicate with one another without compromising the security of their internal systems. Mendese consists of a series of clicks and pops usually made with the tongue, and therefore does not have an alphabet. Mendese was inspired by the Click languages of ancient Earth, including the San People of the Kalahari Desert. Local Click language dialects are still used on some remote worlds.

  VOL. 22380.672

  MUSA DEGH: Musa Degh was a minor planet that fell under Sinja control during the War of Wills, and subsequently destroyed by its own people due to blind greed. The fiery remains of Musa Degh were visible as part of the Embers for some twenty years after its demise. Nothing more remains of the planet today.

  VOL. 38604.005

  ORPHEUS CORE: RESTRICTED: YOU DO NOT HAVE SUFFICIENT SECURITY PRIVILEGES.

  VOL. 41776.91

  SPLINTERSHIP: Splinterships are interstellar spacecraft that carry a complement of smaller craft with them, integrated into the main fuselage until it is time to launch them. From a distance, the ship appears to “splinter” or break apart. Splinterships have many advantages over regular interstellar craft, the most notable being that the act of splintering confuses enemy targeting systems, giving the smaller craft, such as starfighters, the edge in leading a counterattack. Splintership designs are many and varied.