Cydonia Rising

by Dave Walsh

  “I’ve never been to Cyngen,” she said. “I’ll be right up, I want to see this.”

  “Alright, I’ll wait,” he replied. “But be quick, these guys run a tight ship down there, and they aren’t fond of delays.”

  “Okay,” she said. The blast door swung open and she stepped in about as subtle as an oncoming storm. “See? I’m right here.”

  “Good. Strap yourself in then and let’s go.”

  She sat down next to him and strapped herself into the chair without another word. He had warned her before about the gravity difference on Cyngen, but she had simply rolled her eyes at that information like it was common knowledge. The gravity on Cyngen was a little less than on Andlios and a few of the other planets in the core of the system but was still a bit more normal than a lot of the fringe planets. It clocked in somewhere near .8gs compared to Andlios, so everything felt a bit lighter, but not overwhelmingly so.

  “I’ve heard that the Cydonians are amazing architects, I really can’t wait to see what they can do with a whole planet essentially to themselves.”

  “Not the whole planet,” he reminded her. “It’s probably 85% Cymages or so, but there are some regular humans down there as well. There are of course some Helgeans down there in their robes and sandals preaching the word of the Lords as they are prone to do, and some Krigans, Zarr’nid and Omegans looking for new lives as well. It’s a veritable cornucopia, albeit not a huge one. Still.”

  “That many non-Cydonians?” She was a bit taken aback.

  “Yep, and don’t expect to see much down there—these Cymages build some incredible structures, but they aren’t built for looking at or anything, or even looking out of, since they don’t do windows. Hell, they don’t need to do windows considering they can see through walls and all.”

  “Oh, c’mon,” she said. “That’s just another tall tale, there were windows in Cydonia.”

  “Cydonia was ancient, just another city on Andlios before the Cymages rose to power there. This is Cyngen, these guys have had decades to evolve their tech. You’ll see.”

  “How can a man who interacts with Cydonians on such a regular basis still call them Cymages?” She rolled her eyes at him, causing him to feel self-conscious. “I’m surprised they haven’t done crazy experiments on you like all the Cydoniaphobes claim.”

  “Hey, I’m not a Cydoniaphobe or anything.” He felt his stomach turn into a knot and his face turning red. “I have a few good friends that are Cydonians. They are good people, I’m just telling you how they are is all.”

  “I guess you do live a pretty singular life aboard the Pequod all alone like this, you can say whatever you want and no one will care. Don’t worry,” she said. “You won’t have to deal with me for long, alright?”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you are incredibly difficult to deal with?” He turned to her, shaking his head.

  “Once or twice, I guess. I was left a pretty hefty task after my father died, but my brother got in the way. My uncle was really relying on me, but I let him down. I’m sure he’d agree with you.”

  “Sounds like my kind of guy.”

  “You don’t know the half of it.” She grimaced at the increased gravity as the ship began its descent.

  They stayed relatively quiet on the descent down to the planet. The sights were familiar to Jace by now—impressive buildings that looked like giant obelisks reaching up to the sky, breaking through the dusky-colored mountain ranges and sparse flora of Cyngen-like spikes, all without any visible windows and not that many lights. There were a few scattered buildings breaching through the surface, but it almost felt like they were descending into a tomb at first with how little visual movement or stimuli there was on the surface.

  “Told you,” Jace said.

  “What?” She looked over at him briefly before turning back to the window, enraptured by the scene.

  “No windows.” He pointed while the ship maneuvered into a lit landing pad closer to the ground.

  “I guess so,” she said quietly. “Hey, where is everyone? Why is this place so dead?”

  “Didn’t I tell you they were weird?” The ship touched down on the pad before the platform lurched and began slowly descending into the hangar from the surface, being pulled along by the conveyor belt floor. “It’s pretty late so there won’t be a ton of movement on the surface, but pretty much everything on Cyngen is underground. The atmosphere is breathable, so there are a few outcroppings of human settlements, but like I said, 85%.”

  “I’ve known my share of Cydonians.” She sat staring out the window at the giant hangar, a few human crew members operating the equipment, but everything was clean, simple and metallic. “But I’ve never been to one of their settlements like this. Well, outside of Cydonia itself, though.”

  “Oh,” he perked up. “You’ve been to their capital, then?”

  “I was just a kid,” she said. “My dad had business there, so needless to say, we didn’t get to see much outside of official buildings and whatever they wanted us to see.”

  “Official buildings, huh?” He shook his head, wondering what her father had done on Andlios to get an official tour of Cydonia. “Sounds like your dad was an important guy.”

  “No more than the next important guy, I guess.” She kept her gaze away from his. “This is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.”

  “You bet,” he said. “Wait until you see the actual city underground, it’s just breathtaking.”

  They both sat in silence during the rest of the docking, the sound of the large metal clamps locking onto the landing gear and the sliding platform sliding into place in one of the medium-sized bays. Jace flicked the engines off from standby and ran through his final checks before logging out of the dash and taking a deep breath. He turned to Kat and smiled at her, taking a moment before talking to her to take in the sight of her, getting the feeling that they’d get out there and quickly part.

  “So I gotta get down to the cargo hold and open the cargo bay up to get everything sorted out, so you should collect your stuff.”

  “Good idea.” She picked herself up, placing her hands on the back of her hips and stretching out. “I’ll meet you in the cargo bay in five, then?”

  “Yeah, okay,” he said, the question of what she’d do on the tip of his tongue but he didn’t want to seem like he was overly invested in what happened to her, even if he was afraid they’d never see each other again after they stepped off the Pequod.

  Katrijn

  Katrijn gathered up what few things she had left and stuffed them into a bag before heading down the hallway toward the cavernous docking bay. The Cyngen docking bay was a large sterile white room with blinding lights, a few doors, and a few control pads around, but lacking in any sort of human aesthetic. It was so Cydonian that it hurt. She had missed her rendezvous by a period of a solid week at this point, which made everything a lot more ambiguous for her. The life pod she had believed would be her tomb stood ominously inside of the cargo hold of the Pequod, sending a chill down her spine. There was a very real chance that Cronus finally thought he was rid of her for good, which meant maybe she shouldn’t make her rendezvous at all and finally just disappear off the radar entirely. Her uncle would miss her, maybe even her mother would miss her, but the stress of worrying about her would be gone as well and maybe she could live an actual life that didn’t involve being on the run all of the time. She could be someone else, anyone else, and finally give up the life of being Katrijn Freeman.

  She walked down the ramp of the cargo hold to see Jace running through his manifest with a man in a neatly-pressed black uniform. Neither one paid any mind to her walking by them and taking a seat on top of one of the crates. The thought of being normal, of being almost invisible crossed her mind again and was beginning to feel like a viable option. Jace would probably even let her tag along with him if she promised to stay out of his way while she figured out where she wanted to go. The thought was enticing, but she knew her uncle wouldn
’t stop looking for her and she didn’t want to hurt him any more than she had to.

  “Everything appears to be in order, Mr. Krios,” the agent said, swiping on his holoscanner a few times. “I’ve sent you the necessary clearances and documents; enjoy your stay on Cyngen.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Jace nodded to him and smiled, turning back toward Kat, rolling his eyes while tossing his holoscanner aside on top of one of the crates and letting out a deep breath. “I always hate this part, all of the official stuff, you know?”

  “I’m sure,” she laughed, nodding at his feet. “You had to put your boots on.”

  “Oh, get off it.” His face turned red and he turned away, snatching up his holoscanner and absently tapping away on it while she laughed at him.

  “So where are we headed?” She tapped the heels of her boots back and forth against the side of the crate.

  “We? I thought that you had some important meeting here.”

  “It can wait.” She hopped off the crate, dusting herself off. “I’m already late anyway, what’s another few days, right? Plus, you told me you’d give me some sort of tour of this place.”

  “I guess I did say that, didn’t I?” Jace looked relieved and a bit happy. He was cute when he smiled, she thought while following him along the path toward the door nearest their docking bay. “So we’ll have to get to my buyer through their rapid transport line, but luckily there are windows so we’ll have a nice view of everything.”

  “That works for me.” They walked through the door, which zipped open almost silently, just a slight whoosh of air was all there was to signify that it had opened. On the other side was another—albeit smaller—clean and simple room with a series of doors. None of them were marked but he seemed to know where he was going. “How do you know which door to go to? None of them are marked.”

  “Oh yeah, that probably seems weird to you, huh?” He held out his holoscanner toward her briefly. “It’s marked on here which door to go to. You see, they have these implants where not only are they seeing everything around them, but they have displays that feed them literally any data they can request. Us mere mortals have to check for this information manually and read it off our holoscanners.”

  “Ohhhh.” Things were starting to click into place for her about the Cydonians. “How did I never know about that?”

  “Because they don’t disclose it to anyone, that’s probably why.” Another door slid open, revealing a platform overlooking a giant cavernous city. It all existed under the planet’s surface, accented by ominous stalactites and seemingly random cave passages. Kat felt the air get sucked out of her at the sight. She stood there, awestruck while Jace stepped out onto the metal-and-glass enclosure off to the side, looking back at her. “You coming?”

  “Uh, yeah.” She had to snap herself out of her amazement and step onto the platform, taking a seat but turning around to look at the sheer size of the city. “I’ve just never seen anything like this before. The topside of the planet was fine, you said, right? So why something so elaborate down here? This is just immense.”

  “It was more efficient.” He sat down next to her, leaning back and crossing his leg onto his knee. “The Cydonians are fans of efficiency above all else and an underground city like this was more efficient than dealing with the variable temperatures on the surface and the storms. It’s a bit closer to the sun than Andlios is, so the day is just a bit hotter and the nights are a bit colder. These caves were naturally formed and relatively stable, so they just built and never stopped building.”

  “But…” She stopped to collect her thoughts while the car began to glide effortlessly through the air, zipping past buildings that reached up to the top of the cave and most likely stretched out into the surface—just like those buildings she had seen when they were landing. There were a few more windows throughout, but everything was still clean, immaculate and closed off. The figures she could make out didn’t look Cydonian, just human. “All I’m seeing are humans, I mean, like you or I, not Cydonians.”

  “They don’t really have a ton of reasons to leave home, believe it or not.” He was absently tapping his fingers on the lip of his seat. “I know there aren’t windows or anything, but they have panoramic screens lining the walls that can give a live display out of their window or display whatever they want. Windows are inefficient, I guess, harder to keep the air pressure, temperature and all of that within the confines of glass, even if it’s sturdy enough for space travel. They cite that it’s imperfect, breakable or that it needs to be replaced periodically, so instead they opt for this.”

  “So what, they have cameras mounted everywhere instead?”

  “Every building is mounted with a huge array of microscopic cameras, yeah,” he nodded in beat with his tapping. “It’s the same with their ships. There’s a marked decline in depressurizations, for sure. Granted, that isn’t a common thing, but it happens once in a while.”

  “But there are still some windows out there, though, for humans, right?”

  “Yep,” he said. “They are willing to make exceptions for the right price, it’s just a curiosity to them, well, for the most part.”

  “Where are we headed, anyway?”

  “Now that is a good question,” he said. “We’re going to see a bit of a strange guy by the name of Jol’or.”

  “Jol’or, now that is a weird name.” Her eyes were still stuck to the window, peering out over the horizon. “Cydonian, I assume?”

  “Yep,” he said, still tapping out a rhythm on the car. “He’s using a traditional Zarr’nid name, though.

  “Okay, so I have a question, then.” She turned to face him, Jace making eye contact and immediately pulling away, bashful.

  “Shoot.”

  “Why are there windows on this tram?” she smirked, sitting back with her arms crossed.

  “I bet you are proud of that one.” He shook his head and jabbed his tongue into the side of his mouth. “It’s because it was designed for humans and by humans. Cydonians don’t travel all that much and when they do, they tend to take their own ground transportation. This was mainly for the workers who can’t afford their own vehicles or don’t have the space to store them.”

  “So we are slumming it, then?”

  “Pretty much,” he said, still trying to seem at ease. “We’re almost there now. That over there,” he pointed.

  “Wait, what?” She looked out at the approaching compound, it serving as a stark contrast to much of the Cyngen landscape. The building looked like it was out of a history book, that was transferred, bit by bit, from old Earth to Cyngen, then meticulously reassembled.

  “I know.” He took a deep breath in and slowly let it out before continuing. “As I said before, Jol’or is a bit of a strange guy. Calls himself a Renaissance man, believe it or not.”

  “And he’s a Cydonian?”

  “Oh yeah, through-and-through.”

  “Then how…”

  “How and why does he have a home that looks like something out of a holobook from those old Earth palaces? That’s a really good question that I’m not sure I have an answer to.”

  They silently approached the tram docking station where they’d get off while the view of what could only be described as a temple grew closer and closer. It featured a lush garden, meticulously groomed shrubbery and a large series of buildings with sharply steeped roofs. She was racking her mind to remember the era and nationality. China—that was it—it looked like an ancient Chinese palace.

  005. The Mad King

  O’Neil

  O’Neil sat on the couch in his office with his repair case lying open next to him, meticulously sorting through it. There were a few tools, diagnostic equipment and a small canister of lubricant inside. Most of his implants were supposed to be able to go for long stretches of time without needing much maintenance, but he still sat down nightly to run diagnostics on them and ensure that everything was in working order. Cydonian technology was still very alien to him, eve
n if there was a growing percentage of it occupying vital space inside his body. He had often wondered if he was just doing this so often because of how uncomfortable he was with having said augmentations inside of him.

  He tugged at the buttons on his shirt slowly, pulling it open button by button to reveal his slight paunch, accented by what looked like half a shirt made of flexible steel running up the left side of his ribs up to his collarbone. Krigan culture and mentality still reigned supreme on Andlios and the fear of Cydonian technology wasn’t going anywhere for the time being. Cydonians were a vital part of Andliosian affairs and many had benefited from Cydonian implants in medical emergencies, but among the ruling class, it was seen as a sign of weakness or dishonor to accept such technology into one’s body. Like any other historical ignorance, everything apparently led back to some dispute between Jarl Quorthon and Am’ranth, the original Cydonian, but it all seemed ancient and silly to still matter.

  After a few taps on the keypad, he heard the few beeps he was accustomed to and pulled the cable out from the diagnostic computer in his kit and plugged it into the port on the side of his chest next to the panel. O’Neil had been involved in an accident ten cycles prior when someone had attempted to assassinate the emperor with an explosive. Luckily enough for Cronus, the would-be assassin had faulty intel and instead of wiring the emperor’s door with an explosive at their hunting lodge, it was O’Neil’s.

  The emperor’s guard had Cronus immediately evacuated without checking to see who might have been injured, leaving O’Neil laying there, left to die. There were a host of Cydonians in the area, including Trallex. Trallex was the one who discovered O’Neil and had immediately arranged for a pick-up, whisking him away to one of their facilities in nearby Cydonia. O’Neil had come around to the idea of dying there, of not having to deal with the idea of serving his friend’s tyrannical son and watching their shared vision for humanity’s future turned into the mockery that it was, but Trallex had other plans. Trallex had never asked him for anything and they never spoke of that again, but the reminder would always be there for O’Neil, especially while his life lasted just a bit longer than it would have naturally while his artificial lungs and heart continued to pump. There was always a part of O’Neil that felt he owed Trallex and the Cydonians a debt of gratitude and wondered if they’d ever come to collect.