The Lost Tribe (Sentinel Series Book 2)

by Richard Flunker

  Kale simply couldn’t relive those memories again.

  And yet, in that brief moment he had caught a glimpse of her body, a few memories flooded his mind. It wasn’t a sexual connection, even if the chemicals had fired naturally in his body. It was something else, something deeper that tugged at his mind. Those brief windows into his past that he had worked so hard to bury. For just a brief moment, he could see her brown eyes.

  Then he was looking directly into her green eyes. Kale quickly turned away.

  “You do not wish to look at me?” he heard her say. He had forgotten he could understand her.

  “You need to get more clothes on, lady,” Kale replied.

  “I remind you of someone?” she asked.

  Kale spun around only to spin right back when he saw her standing up, facing him.

  “You can’t,” he began, stammering, “how could you know that?”

  “The way that you and I can speak. It can show more than just words for the right people,” she said.

  “And we are the right people?” Kale asked, still facing away.

  “We use the Agyota to speak to others at my home that speak different words as well. But the Agyota brings out more in those who have their minds tuned to each other,” she said.

  “Great minds think alike?” Kale asked, without expecting an answer.

  “But your tune is almost the opposite of mine. I feel a chaos in your threads, where mine are quiet. I find your words shout and mine soothe. The only path our threads entwine is in darkness,” she said poetically.

  “I’ve been in some very strange situations. A lot in the last couple of years. But I have to admit, this one is earning its way to the top of that list,” Kale uttered, half as much to himself as to Ulisike.

  “My life has been touched by darkness, as well. You are not the only one that is amazed by our encounter,” she said, echoing his sentiments in her own words.

  Kale wanted to say something smart back to her, but found that he had fully understood her words.

  “What is this room?” he said, trying to change the subject.

  He could almost feel her dejection. She had wanted to say more.

  “This is the window of our Vahe. I came in here to bathe,” she said.

  “Uhm,” Kale said, “and why am I here?”

  “The Vahe wanted you to watch me bathe. Help you understand,” she explained.

  “I don’t think you want me to…” Kale continued to think of how to answer her, “you don’t want me to watch you bathe. It isn’t right.”

  “You may not be able to,” she said.

  Kale, while still looking away, tilted his head just a bit. There was a brief moment and then the room began to grow brighter. He saw his shadow grow in front of him and then vanish entirely in the light that was flooding the room. He turned around and saw her standing directly in the middle of the room. To his amazement, on the far side of the sphere, a window had opened. The sphere itself had opened to the outer space and directly in his view was an incredibly bright yellow sun. The ship must have been in orbit around the star, about as close as the planet Mercury was around Sol.

  As the window continued to open, Kale squinted. Ulisike’s once nearly transparent robe had burst into light. She stood with her arms spread out and up. He could no longer see the shape of her body as the robe appeared to absorb and redisplay the light of the sun. She turned to look at him and he could see two small dark globs covering her eyes. She walked up to him and reached out to him, touching his face. He had been squinting so hard, he didn’t notice her applying something to his eyes. In an instant, the light was tamed and he could see again.

  He took a step back and watched her. She turned again to face the sunlight.

  “Now you can see the spirits flowing out of the well of light and coming to speak to us,” she said.

  Kale watched in awe. He couldn’t explain any of it. Streams of white light were pouring in through the window, towards Ulisike. They flowed through her and out her back like golden white wings. Her skin and hair glowed bright green, and while he could see the shape of her body again, it was wrapped in the flowing light. The dress she wore had changed shape, and now clung more tightly around her body. It appeared thicker. The light had made it a courser dress.

  “Who are you?” Kale shouted. He didn’t have to. The room was silent, but the impact of all that he was seeing was overwhelming. He felt that the visual somehow needed to be accompanied by loud sounds. The flowing light was unlike anything he had ever seen. He had seen wonderfully created digital effects in virtuavids and certainly in all his time flying in space, he had seen wondrous visions. But the flow of lights through and around Ulisike was unlike anything he could compare to.

  “I am a Threadweaver. The lone one aboard this Vahe.”

  Kale shook his head. “I don’t know what that means,” he pleaded.

  “I can’t say anymore. Only the elders can.”

  “This light, it will burn me up?”

  “No, the eye of the Vahe keeps the harmful light out.”

  Kale looked down over his arms. The gel over his eyes created a distorted mix of colors across his arms. They were only reflections of the lights coming through the room. None of the flowing wisps of light actually came to him.

  “Why am I here?” Kale asked, in a normal volume.

  “The Vahe wanted you here,” Ulisike began to explain. “She is connected to me. She saw what I saw?”

  “The ship? She saw what?”

  “She saw the pain, the fear, the anger,” she said quietly. “She saw your loss.”

  Kale turned to look away from the overbearing light coming in through this eye. He was beginning to think that the Vahe, the ship, was somehow alive. It made sense considering everything he saw. He sat on the floor and touched the bottom with his bare hand. The smooth floor was warm to the touch here, much warmer than it had been in the hallway.

  “What did you see?” Kale asked.

  “I saw myself,” she replied.

  “Does this machine of yours allow you to see into my mind?” Kale asked, paranoia kicking in.

  “No, the Agyota did. When I touched you for the first time. I saw a child,” Ulisike said.

  “I don’t think I really enjoy the thought of you reading my mind,” Kale said with a bit of disgust.

  “That,” she held back for a moment, “was unexpected. I only wished to speak to you.”

  “Yes, we have similar minds. That wacky side effect. Which makes no sense to me. You are a warrior, a soldier.”

  “You are a warrior, as well. You have fought for so much. You words carry the weight of your own war.”

  “Just because you read my mind, don’t expect to now know me,” Kale spat. He got up and began walking towards the door. He was nearly halfway up when he noticed the light beginning to dim. He rubbed the gel off of his eyes and turned around just in time to see the window closing over the eye. Ulisike was standing there in the middle of the room still. Her dress was now evidently transparent. He turned and finished walking to the door. As he touched the thin film, it vanished. He took a step out into the familiar hallway.

  “I too, feel no desire to live,” she said, the voice echoing through the spherical chamber. Kale stopped and listened.

  “How is it you still keep living?” she added.

  ‘Why do I keep going on?’ he thought to himself.

  ***

  All his crew-mates were gathered together in the Lion. They had finally reached their destination and they were flying the transport out of the alien ship and to whatever the Gadoni was. Ulisike was accompanying them in the ship to provide navigation. These new people either trusted them completely, as they took no guards with her, or she was more than capable of defending herself from them. Kale decided to believe the latter.

  Cruxe though, would remain on the ship. Kale refused to have him on board the transport.

  “Sentinel, how’s the ship?” Kale asked.

&nbs
p; “Everything is good Captain. They never came aboard or even came close to the ship,” the AI informed them.

  Ulisike looked up. “I cannot understand the words your box is saying.”

  “I'm going to call you Uli, ok? Ok. Our box,” Kale stopped as Gheno laughed again in the background, “Our ship, it talks to us like yours talks to you.”

  “The Vahe doesn’t speak to me,” Uli said.

  “Wait. Didn’t you say that it told you what I was thinking?” Kale asked. He was positive that is what he had understood that night.

  “The Vahe knows what I know,” she said.

  “Kale? What are you guys talking about?” Ayia asked.

  Kale waved her off. “Isn’t that the same thing?”

  “The Vahe cannot speak or think. Does your, ship, does it speak?” Uli asked.

  Kale thought for a moment. They weren’t giving up any of their secrets, so he was reluctant to do the same.

  “My ship can tell me what I need to know about its condition. Nothing more,” Kale hid the truth.

  “Oh, he’s not gonna be happy with that explanation,” Gheno chuckled.

  Kale shot him a serious look. He turned and sat back down on the Captain’s chair. Under the transport, the alien ship began to open up like a fold. It opened up until there was enough space to move the transport through it. Uli let them know it was ok to move down through the opening. Everyone shot her a look. There had been no communication that they were aware and no one inside of the transport could see anything other than the dark hangar directly in front of them.

  “The ship knows what you know?” Kale asked, “Does that mean you know what the ship knows?”

  Uli nodded. She then told the Captain to drop the ship down and that the Vahe would guide them out.

  The ship entered a small channel through the larger alien ship and traversed through it for nearly five minutes. It was completely dark inside that channel, and the transport guided itself through its own sensors and Sentinel's guidance. Inside, in the cabin, the Captain, the crew and his lone passenger remained silent. The cabin was lit up by the dim lights of the screens and buttons, but the main light was off. That darkness was erased immediately when the transport finally exited the larger alien ship.

  Light flooded the cabin for five full seconds before the AI darkened the windshield. Everyone had turned their heads at the shock of the bright light and were now slowly turning to look out. The sight was stunning.

  Directly ahead of them was a large planet. Kale's initial thought was that it was larger than Earth, but he also knew perspective was off with the change in light. The planet itself was remarkably colorful. Through the layers of white clouds were blues and greens typical of a living planet, but this planet also had large amounts of purple. There was a large storm swirling just under them in one of the oceans, with the very edge of the storm touching the land on one of the continents. There was a mountain range that ran along the spine of the continent, and Kale could see some white at the tips of it.

  As the transport turned away from the planet, the source of the light came into view. There were three separate suns.

  "It’s a ternary system," Karai said, almost breathless.

  Finding a planet of any kind within a binary system was exceedingly rare. Finding one that had life had appeared impossible. None had been discovered yet. It was believed that the wild and inconsistent gravitational elements presented within a binary system presented too many problems for the development of life. Explorers had doubts about ever finding one.

  Ternary systems were equally as rare. There were some that had been scoped, but they were far out of the range of even a Gora hook. Despite all that, here they were in a system with a very large planet exploding with life and around it were three suns. One was larger, and whiter than the other two; they were the traditional yellow. The light from the all three of the suns were hitting the planet from all sides, engulfing it in an endless day.

  Karai jumped forward into one of the consoles and began typing furiously.

  “This is, incredible. There are anomalies everywhere in this system,” she cried out, almost in excited tears. “Oh, and look. The suns, the way they orbit each other.”

  Gheno was leaning over her shoulder and taking in the information as he usually did.

  “They orbit each other like the micro holes in a Hausen reactor,” he pointed out.

  Karai looked back up at him then back down at the data. She let it run for a bit longer and realized that the teenager was correct.

  “You're right,” she exclaimed, “that can’t be a coincidence, can it?” She turned around to get confirmation from anyone else. Kale just shrugged her shoulder and Ayia was still staring out of the window.

  “The planet, it’s beautiful,” she said. “This is your home?” she asked of Uli.

  “It is Gadoni,” she beamed with pride.

  “We are going down to it?” she asked again.

  “Yes.”

  “I'm counting over one hundred of those gravitational anomalies in the system, and there's more,” Karai shook with excitement. “Can’t we just stay up here a little longer?”

  “Can you get readings on the planet?” Kale asked.

  “Well, yes, but…”

  “Then you get readings from down there.”

  Karai spun around and kept typing furiously into the console. Uli asked them if they could map the planet from the ship, and Kale brought up the imaging system. Uli smiled as she recognized the landmarks on her home and pointed to the far side of the continent they were over.

  “This is where we will go. Your box can get us there?” she asked.

  “I’ll get us there,” Sentinel chirped in Kale’s ear.

  The ship began to descend quickly right to the barrier of the atmosphere. It slowed down as it approached the edge of the air and the ship began to skim around the planet. It would go around the planet one time in order to enter at precisely the right location. As they went around the planet, they got a better view of the other suns, as well as the planet itself. They saw two more large continents and an impressive mountain range that crossed one of the continents and ended in a smattering of dotted islands in the ocean. The unique purple coloring continued wherever there was land, mixed in with the green and brown of the land.

  They also came across other aliens ships. Each was unique; there was no set pattern for the make of the ships. Most were gigantic in size, reminding the crew of another behemoth they had encountered in the past. The ships were graceful and organic. They encompassed many shapes.

  As they came around the planet they approached their entry point and saw the squid-like ship that had saved them and brought them here. It was moving towards a large almost eel-like ship that appeared to flutter in imaginary space wind. Gheno had been so busy reading over Karai’s readings, taking mental notes, that he almost missed it. He looked up for a brief moment, and then spotted the anomaly.

  “Is that…” he began, squinting, “that looks familiar.”

  There was a ship, large in size, although still dwarfed by the squid and eel ships.

  “I know that ship!” he exclaimed. “Kale. That’s the Galaxy. That’s an Alioth ship!”

  Kale stood up, trying to see it. He sat back down and brought up the optics to zoom into it. He had only seen pictures of the pride of the new Alioth navy, but it clearly resembled what they had seen.

  “That is the Galaxy. What is it doing here?” he turned to ask of Uli.

  The confused look on her face gave it away. “I do not know of this ship. I would like to know, though.”

  They watched the speck of silver glinting in the light of three suns as they began descending into the atmosphere of Gadoni. The black of space quickly gave way to the familiar blue of a living planet. They floated down through the clouds, thick with moisture. Water condensed quickly against the hull of the ship, and they had just entered the atmosphere. The readings showed that they were still at seventy thousand fee
t. The atmosphere of the planet was incredibly thick at that high altitude.

  It took them nearly an hour of descending slow enough not to burn up when the broke through the clouds and saw a dazzling turquoise ocean in front of them, and the coast on their left. Uli pointed out a city, tall spindly towers that looked like weeds. The rest of the land was heavily forested, and they began to see that many of the trees had purple leaves. The mixture of colors was something out of a fantasy virtuavid.

  They sped off along the coast until they reached the small city. The towers they had seen in the distance appeared to be large trees that towered several hundred feet in the air. Gheno swore that he could see them swaying in the wind. The city itself seemed to grow directly out of the forest. They could make out buildings spread out around a large radius, but only caught glimpses of many other buildings under the dense foliage.

  They were joined by two small ships, about the size of a small land vehicle. They were shaped like saucers with two large fins pointing up and down from the saucer. A transparent dome clearly showed men inside of these flying crafts. The ships appeared to be of the same material as the Vahe, but were painted in dramatic colors and symbols. The fins fluttered in the wind and appeared to move organically along the hull of the ships, going from top down formations to the sides of the saucers, like wings. They moved alongside the transport, forming an escort.

  As they got closer, Uli pointed out what appeared to be a rudimentary landing pad, sticking out into the coastal waters. Waves crashed along the rocks that were the foundation of the landing pad. As Sentinel maneuvered the transport just above the pad, the whole thing started rising up, meeting them halfway. They were surprised by the sudden jolt as they landed.

  As they got up and began getting ready to exit, Kale asked Uli if they would have any more surprises, just like on board the Vahe.

  “The spirit that was on board the Vahe is the same one here,” she said.

  “Spirits? Ok, could there be any other, say, spirits, that could harm us?” he asked, trying to use her choice of words.

  “I cannot say.”

  “I thought so,” he said. He went back into the mess hall and came with a small case. He opened it up and pulled out multiple syringes of the nano-antibodies. He handed them out, along with a small wrist band. They would wear them and Sentinel could monitor their bodies to warn them of any impending biological entities. The nano-bodies they had injected the first time were supposed to last them a long time, months maybe, but this was a completely foreign planet, which clearly already was home to a dangerous biological agent. No risk would be taken.