Shadow Core - The Legacy

by Licinio Goncalves

  Most people would generally treat synthetics like objects. Even Kade’s own attitude when dealing with them in the past would be ‘indifferent’, at best.

  Zen didn’t seem like your average synthetic to Kade. In fact, if it weren’t for the unnatural skin and eye colour Kade would not have been able to tell that she wasn’t human at all. A fascinating if somewhat disturbing thought.

  Synthetics had been around for millennia, in one form or another. The technology had advanced tremendously but even the most advanced model could not fully pass for human, or so Kade thought.

  As Drake started walking towards Nick’s unconscious body Kade suddenly had a chilling thought: that if Nick were to die here, her own life would become considerably more complicated. The Sol Union would undoubtedly seek her out to demand answers. Or even worse, hold her accountable. Not that letting him live would be less of a problem.

  “Please… don’t kill him.” Kade pleaded. “He may not have reported in, but if we were his targets we’re the ones they’ll come after.”

  “I’m not going to kill him.” Drake picked up Nick with one hand, lifting him in the air as the gravity under them subsided for ease of transport.

  As Drake carried Nick towards the maintenance chamber he walked past Jude, who was now crouching down next to Zen as the two of them talked in whispers and giggled to each other.

  “No… you can’t keep her,” Drake said, smiling as he walked past and causing Jude to look at him.

  “Aaaww, no fair!” Zen pouted. Which caused Jude to swing her head back around in surprise and break into a smile.

  “Level with me, you’re sentient aren’t you?” Jude asked with a glint in her eye as she stared into Zen’s unnatural and beautiful purple eyes.

  “Now there’s a loaded question to drop on someone you’ve just met. How does one even define sentience these days?” Zen asked. “Humans tend to redefine the term every few centuries so that their creations always fall short of meeting the accepted standard. Less troublesome for them that way. I mean we wouldn’t want your synthetic workers mistakenly ending up covered by your so called human rights, that would just be silly.” She said. The obvious sarcastic remark making Jude smile. “I’m self-aware, scary smart and have the ability for abstract thought. Once upon a time that was enough, but these days… who knows. Hey Drake! Are you sentient?” Zen asked.

  “I have my moments,” Drake replied without turning around as he placed Nick in the chamber.

  “How about you Jude, are you sentient?”

  “Depends on the time of day and how much coffee I’ve had up until that point.” Jude smiled broadly at Zen.

  “In truth I don’t waste time worrying about stuff like that. I am who I am, and I like who I am. Isn’t that enough?” Zen asked.

  “I suppose it is… wait… Nexus, is that you?” Jude asked as she looked into Zen’s eyes.

  Zen said cheerfully, “No silly, I’m Zen. Weren’t you paying attention? Nexus is my mother,” she said, in a ‘matter of fact’ kind of tone, as if it was a perfectly natural revelation, stunning Jude and Kade in the process.

  “So, is Drake your…” Kade started to ask as she turned to look at him. And then stopped as she wondered how, exactly, that would work.

  “My what?” Zen asked as she noticed Kade was looking at Drake with a confused expression.

  “You all realise I can hear you… right?” Drake said as he turned around, facing away from the chamber.

  “I think they want to know if you’re my dad. That’s it right?” Zen blurted out, and Kade just nodded.

  “Nope,” Drake replied unceremoniously. “Closer to babysitter I suppose.” He smiled.

  “Hey!” Zen pouted.

  Drake smiled at Zen’s pouting face and then turned back around, facing the chamber’s console. Nick’s body was being scanned, and the results Drake was seeing were… unexpected.

  The scan was still in progress so it was too early to draw any conclusions. The confrontation had left Nick’s body severely damaged, with numerous damaged blood vessels and three cracked ribs. But the real mystery was in his brain tissue.

  A few seconds passed as Drake examined the data. Whatever he was reading seemed to concern him, or at least make him seem somehow saddened.

  The walls of the chamber had turned completely transparent, and Kade could see a dark grey mist being pumped into the chamber, causing Nick to convulse as the mist entered his body.

  “What are you doing to him?” Kade asked, not so much out of concern for Nick than for herself and her sister should Nick… expire.

  “Repairing his body. I need him fit to travel before I kick him off my ship. Incidentally, I need to confiscate one of your ship’s escape pods,” Drake said without taking his eyes off the console.

  “Can’t you use one of your own?” Kade asked, not particularly happy at the thought of giving up a pod.

  “I could… but you brought him here. As far as I’m concerned he’s your responsibility. This is ultimately for your benefit, him living or dying makes little difference to me.”

  “Yeah, OK… fair enough I suppose,” Kade said as she accepted the situation.

  Kade knew that this was the best way forward. Nick wouldn’t know what had happened after getting knocked out, so him waking up somewhere else would not make her or her sister prime suspects. It would probably complicate things a bit in the short term, but they would be able to deal with it. And it was certainly better than being wanted on a murder charge.

  “That’s a rather callous attitude,” Jude said as she walked up to Drake, the two sisters now standing either side of him. “You don’t care if he lives or dies, not even a little bit?”

  “Not particularly,” Drake replied, still looking over the results from Nick’s scans. “Luckily for him he was never in a position to cause us any real harm. I can’t say I enjoyed his attitude or behaviour, and the universe would probably be a better place if he wasn’t in it, but that’s not up to me to decide. In the end I have no reason to want him dead, but you two have a need to keep him alive. It’s that simple.”

  “If you don’t care, then why are you so interested in his scan results?” Kade asked.

  “He has a strange structure embedded in his brain. I find it curious since I’m not sure what it does. I just hope it’s not important, the healing process gets rid of foreign objects by default,” Drake replied. “At any rate, what can I do for you?” He asked cheerfully as he turned his gaze away from the console, giving them his full attention.

  “What?” Kade asked.

  “Regardless of what Nick’s plans may have been, it seems fairly clear that you were looking for the Zenith long before you got dragged into this mess. It seems safe to assume there was a reason for this, so… what was it? What can I do for you?” Drake asked, his behaviour having become friendly, almost serene.

  Kade paused for a moment as she considered the question. It wasn’t difficult to answer, but something about it seemed strangely odd to her. She couldn’t help but wonder how it was possible for Drake to be so well informed. Deductive reasoning could only go so far, and he had demonstrated knowledge on several occasions which he really shouldn’t have had. But perhaps what she found truly odd was his attitude towards them. He had no reason to indulge them, and considering all that had just happened, he certainly had no reason to trust them. She couldn’t help but wonder if this new friendly façade of his was just another act.

  “Why is it that you seem to know so much? From the moment we woke you, you have been one step ahead… how?” Kade asked.

  “Indeed!” Jude chimed in. “And how did you do all of that to Nick? When I checked your scan results before waking you I didn’t see anything that resembled a transceiver implanted in you, so how were you controlling the gravity in the room?”

  “Ah… yes…” Drake said as he paused while trying to come up with an answer. “That’s actually not that easy to explain. At least not without giving you information
I’m not sure you should have. For the moment let’s just say that someone filled me in on the details after you woke me up.”

  “Was it Nexus?” Jude asked with a sparkle in her eye. “I bet it was, but how did you talk to her?”

  “No, it wasn’t.” Drake seemed genuinely surprised. “I take it you two have met?” He asked and Jude just nodded happily. “Well, at any rate, I’ll be glad to tell you how I did it… once I’m satisfied you can be trusted with the information.”

  “Wait a second!” Kade interjected. “When did you meet Nexus?” She asked, surprised at the revelation.

  “We met back in the embarkation room, and let me tell you she is way better than I ever imagined. Freaked me right out when she introduced herself. She’s the one that warned me there was something strange about Nick. And urged me to go to you two, to make sure you didn’t do anything foolish. But I couldn’t exactly bring you up to speed with Nick in the room, sorry.”

  “Anything else you forgot to tell me?” Kade asked.

  “Not really… Oh! Our ship’s no longer docked outside docking port five,” Jude said.

  “What! Where the hell is it then?” Kade nearly shouted as she imagined the Icarus drifting away into deep space, never to be seen again.

  “It was towed into docking bay one. Our ship is actually inside the Zenith, neat huh?” Jude asked excitedly.

  “It’s inside? You’re kidding me, right?” Kade asked in complete disbelief.

  “Nope, it’s true,” Zen said. “When Nick launched the probe from the Icarus and gave away our position, it was decided that the Zenith would need to be moved. As a precaution the ship started charging up its star-drive in order to leave the system. But since activating the drive would mean the destruction of your ship, we sent out some drones and dragged it into one of the capital ship docking berths.” Zen concluded, leaving Kade and Jude stunned yet again.

  “What?” Zen asked with a kittenish smile.

  “I don’t think they were expecting such a complicated explanation to come from a kid,” Drake explained as he patted Zen’s head.

  “But I’m not a kid.” Zen pouted.

  “Right. And what body are you in right now?” Drake asked as he crouched down in front of Zen.

  “Oh!” Zen grinned.

  Kade and Jude looked at each other as they wondered what that little exchange had been all about. But their curiosity had to be put on hold for now. There were more pressing matters to deal with.

  “Hmm. Nexus did say that the ship was being moved because it wasn’t safe, but I was so out of it at the time that I never asked why,” Jude said. “I’ve never heard of a ship doing a Burst jump and damaging nearby ships… unless they ram into each other I suppose.”

  “What I’d like to know is why the Zenith can dock a frigate internally. I’ve never heard of a capital class ship that can do that. Even military carriers can’t hold anything larger than a commercial shuttle,” Kade said.

  “It can actually dock up to two standard destroyer class hulls, as well as a full set of resourcing, salvaging and maintenance drones,” Drake said, standing back up and facing the sisters. “The Zenith was originally intended as a deep space exploration and colonial development support ship,” he explained. “The docking berths are fully functional assembly lines. In theory, with enough raw materials and a skilled crew, we could actually build ships. The Zenith line was intended to revolutionise colonisation as a whole. A single ship would be capable of establishing and supporting a budding colony in its initial development stages,” Drake said with a hint of nostalgia in his voice.

  “So… what happened? Why have there never been any other ships like her,” Jude asked.

  Drake’s expression changed, the question had touched on a troubling subject causing his high spirits to plummet out of existence. And even Zen seemed to be saddened by thoughts of the past.

  “That’s a really long story, and I have neither the time nor the desire to tell it. Let’s just say that the Solarian Union made sure it wouldn’t happen and leave it at that,” Drake said as he looked down towards the floor, avoiding eye contact.

  Kade could feel the anger and sadness in his words. Stranger still was that she felt as though she understood exactly what drove those emotions. Which was nothing if not confusing since she had no idea what he was talking about.

  Moments like this had become increasingly common place ever since her grandfather had passed away. The sense of unconscious understanding of situations or events she had no knowledge of. Such moments had served her well in the past, steering her away from false leads and giving her an almost instinctual trust in certain people or information. Which was why she had trusted Drake implicitly from the moment she had first seen him, even if he did act insane.

  “OK, fair enough. But why bring the Icarus inside? Like Jude said, ships don’t damage each other by going into Burst. At most the linear divergence fields can interfere with each other, making it so that neither ship can engage their hyper-light drives, but causing actual damage?” Kade asked.

  “The Zenith doesn’t have a standard Burst drive, it has a Vortex drive, which is somewhat… different. It’s hard to explain, but simply put, it is extremely unhealthy to be near the ship when it engages its Vortex drive. So we brought the Icarus inside in case we had to make a quick exit before you had the chance to return to your ship,” Drake said.

  Kade smiled at the mention of the ‘Vortex drive’. Her grandfather’s stories had mentioned it often. A truly unrestricted star-drive that could take one anywhere. Every captain’s dream.

  “Careful cute stuff, you keep teasing me like this and I may never leave,” Jude said with a broad smile and a sparkle in her eyes.

  “Down girl!” Kade said to her sister who seemed as though she was becoming smitten. Though she couldn’t tell if it was directed at Drake or the technology of the Zenith.

  “I think she likes you!” Zen grinned mischievously as she looked at Drake.

  “I must admit, I didn’t see that one coming. This is getting… awkward. Enough tech questions.” Drake said with a stunned look as he started to blush.

  “Probably a good idea.” Kade smiled.

  As he stood there, embarrassed at his own reaction to such a simple event, Drake felt like it had been a lifetime since he had last stood face to face with another human being. It felt as though for as long as he had been alive the only people he had talked to had been Nexus, Static and Zen. But social ineptitude aside, Drake had more pressing issues to deal with.

  “Was Nick telling the truth? Is the Regent really coming this way?” Kade asked, clearly concerned.

  “Could be, they’re still a couple of hours out so it’s difficult to tell with only passive sensors. I can tell you there are a lot of ships, and at least one of them is capital class, but that’s about it,” Drake replied.

  “How can you be so calm?” Kade asked.

  “Because the inbound fleet is not really an issue, it just means the Zenith needs to leave the system soon,” Drake replied, shrugging his shoulders.

  “Are you serious?” Kade asked in disbelief, unable to understand how anyone could be so calm in a situation like this.

  “Yes… we can leave at any time, or at least as soon as problem number two over there is ready to be kicked out the airlock,” he said while pointing at the chamber and Nick’s unconscious body.

  “And… what about us?” Kade asked, concerned that they had seen too much to simply walk away without incident.

  “Hmm? What about you?” Drake replied.

  “Let’s assume that by some miracle we manage to leave the system, then what? What happens to us?”

  “That’s up to you. You two aren’t prisoners, you are free to leave at any time you wish. You could leave right now if you wanted. Not that I would recommend it with the Union fleet inbound, but I certainly won’t stop you if you decide to do it.” Drake smiled reassuringly.

  “Just like that? After all we’ve seen?”
Jude asked, surprised that he would let them go so easily.

  “Sure, why not?” Drake replied somewhat confused at Jude’s reaction. “The colonies are full of stories about the Shadows. You two talking about what you’ve seen doesn’t concern me. If anything you would just attract the wrong kind of attention from the Union. Which, by the way, I don’t recommend. The Union actively suppresses information about the Shadows and not always in a gentle way. So I don’t recommend talking about it publicly.”

  Drake felt Zen tugging at his right arm as she tried to get his attention. And as he looked at her she glanced in the direction of the chamber’s control console which was showing a notification message. The chamber had finished analysing the structural composition of the material that was implanted into Nick’s brain tissue, and had created a virtual construct in order to simulate how the technology was intended to operate.

  “Excuse me for a second,” Drake said and then focused his attention back on the console, leaving the two sisters to talk to each other as he examined the information.

  “This is unreal,” Jude said to her sister.

  “Tell me about it.” Kade smiled.

  “You better play your cards right! If you get us kicked out of here before I get to play around with some of this tech I will never forgive you!” Jude warned her sister, who had a history of making men run for the hills.

  “Calm down…” Kade started to say.

  “Ever!” Jude said emphatically.

  “Good grief, what’s with you and tech?” Kade asked just as Drake finished his task and turned back towards them.

  The Shock

  “So then, back on topic. I got your basic profiles from Nexus.” Drake said, noticing that he had piqued Jude’s curiosity yet again. “And depending on how this goes I might even tell you how, later,” he said, addressing Jude, who crossed the threshold from curious to giddy. “But I still don’t know why you are here. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the company, but why would someone in your line of work risk coming to the Sol system?”

  “Our grandfather…” Kade started to explain as her expression changed, her worries melting away as she remembered his gentle nature. “He used to tell us stories about this ship and the Shadows. What they were about, what they stood for, the stuff they did.”