by Chris Fox
“How much further?” Lena asked, the words clipped, with a dose of brevity that Nolan had learned to associate with the Tigris being angry. She was clearly struggling with Atrea’s weight, but had refused to let anyone else carry her.
“Put me down,” Atrea huffed out. She was trembling visibly. “We’re very near the place I’ve sought my entire life. Do you think I’m going to give out in the last few hundred yards, little sister? You know me better than that. I want to walk the rest of the way.”
“We are nearly there,” Thetah fretted, pacing back and forth in the air. “We can rest if absolutely needed, but any delay could be costly.”
“We’ll keep moving,” Atrea said, thwacking Lena on the shoulder with her cane. “Put me down, I said.”
Lena reluctantly set the scholar down, but Nolan could tell she was immediately relieved. She lacked the conditioning the rest of the crew had been building, and it underscored how far he’d come. That used to be him.
“Lead the way, Thetah, but would you mind conversing as we walk?” Atrea said, managing a graceful hobble up the corridor.
“Of course,” Thetah replied. She hovered near Atrea’s shoulder. “I’m sure you have as many questions as I do. Why did we leave clues to the Birthplace? What is the Birthplace? I can’t even imagine what this place must represent to you.”
“It’s humbling to see it,” Atrea said, her weathered face broken by a smile as she stared serenely up at the walls. “This is the true history of my people, the true origin. We don’t even know what world we evolved on, but you can finally lay that to rest. In the midst of all the turmoil, this is a balm.”
“Time permitting, I’d be happy to give you a tour,” Thetah said, zipping around Atrea’s head as she held a tiny scanner aloft. It beeped and hummed, and Thetah nodded happily to herself.
“I’ve got a question,” Nolan interjected, trying to refocus Thetah. He slowed his pace until he was walking next to Atrea. “What are we going to find when we reach the bridge?
“I’ll present you to the lead arbiter, Manda. She’s our military leader, and will decide how to best handle the situation. That’s why it’s imperative we reach the bridge. She’ll need to deal with the Void Wraith you brought aboard.” Thetas’s explanation was delivered matter of factly. She was unlike any VI Nolan had encountered, indistinguishable from a living, breathing, person. “Ahh, here we are. Please, stand in the circle.”
Thetah indicated a ring of golden runes in the middle of an oval room. The far wall was split by two golden doors, each with carvings as intricate as anywhere else in the ship. These were studded with gems, though—expensive-looking gems.
Nolan walked to the ring, stepping inside. The others moved to join him, Thetah floating into the circle near Atrea. A moment later, the runes in the floor flared red, then a hologram sprang up before them. It was another Primo, also female.
She couldn’t have appeared more different than Thetah, though. Instead of robes, she wore curved armor, studded with glowing blue stones. Her skin was light blue, fading to a soft white in a pattern too orderly to be natural. Nolan guessed that the soft whorls along her skin were probably Primo tattoos. Her eyes were a soft white, like shuttered lanterns.
“Who are you?” she demanded, eyes narrowing. “Why have you come to the Forge?” She leaned toward the screen, looking straight at Nolan. “You. You’re clearly the leader. Give me answers, or we will take them.”
“My name is Nolan, of a race called humanity,” Nolan began. He wasn’t a diplomat, but he needed to be one here. He couldn’t afford to antagonize this woman, even if her aggressive attitude chafed. “With me are members of three races. The Tigris.” Nolan gestured at Izzy, then Lena. “And your own descendants. We’ve come because we are being eradicated by the Void Wraith and their masters. This is the third such Eradication, and if you can’t help us, the cycle will probably continue.”
“Manda,” Thetah said, floating up to the hologram. “They came in a harvester. They have Void Wraith troops.”
“They what?” Manda said. Her face paled to a soft pink, and she blinked several times. Then the hologram simply disappeared.
“Oh, my,” Thetah said. “She didn’t take that well at all. I’d prepare yourselves for battle. It’s quite possible Manda could execute all of you.”
37
Short But Scary
The doors hummed, then began to slide open. The squad was already moving, and Hannan barked orders behind Nolan. His rifle snapped to his shoulder, the barrel centered at about waist height.
Unfortunately, the figure that appeared was two feet tall, the same size as Thetah. It would have been comical, but the figure blurred into motion. Tiny plasma blades ignited on her wrists, and she kicked off the floor with incredible strength. As she sailed into the air, Nolan finally understood why Primo legs were shaped as they were: she looked like an angry grasshopper.
The mini-Primo was headed in his direction, so Nolan let off a volley even as he started to dive. The Primo twisted around the blast, flipping through the space his head had occupied a moment earlier. She landed on the deck behind him, kicking off even as Delta and Hannan added their fire. She was too fast, a literal blur. Their shots found nothing but walls.
Nolan ignited his own plasma blade, adopting the same defensive stance he’d used against Fizgig while training. It meant he couldn’t hurt his opponent, but hopefully it would keep this thing off him.
“Oh, dear,” Thetah said, buzzing into the center of the room. “Manda, please. They are allies.”
Manda became a blue blur again, bouncing behind Nolan. He twisted to face her, deflecting her leap with his blade. She bounded off the wall, then the ceiling, then back at him again. Nolan blocked again, just barely.
The blur stopped, and Manda watched him intently. Her breathing was normal, as if none of the exertion had touched her inner reserve. She lowered her wrists, turning off her blades.
“I hope that you are not the best representation of your species’ military abilities,” Manda said. She frowned. “The fact that you found this place suggests that you have some worth, but your incredible stupidity counteracts that. You have no idea the danger you’ve placed us in.”
“Then explain it,” Nolan demanded, turning off his own blades. “Thetah said that the Void Wraith can’t be controlled, but so far we’ve had no problem getting them to attack other Void Wraith. They follow our orders, and some of our troops have even become Alphas.”
“So it began with us,” Manda said, sighing heavily. “We utilized the same tactic. The Void Wraith will attack other Void Wraith, but they will not attack a Gorthian. Gorthians can circumvent their programming at the lowest level. The Void Wraith will conceal the presence of a Gorthian, and can never fire upon them. Worse, all Void Wraith will obey a Gorthian. If one orders your forces to attack us, they will. How many have you brought?”
“Forty-five,” Nolan admitted, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. They could control Edwards? “They’re in the hangar bay, guarding our ship.”
“That is no longer accurate,” Thetah said, floating over to Nolan. “Moments ago, your forces left the hangar. All of them. They’re making for the center of the ship.”
“They’re after the repository,” Manda snarled. She blurred, landing on Nolan’s shoulder. “As I said, you’ve endangered us all. There’s no way the Void Wraith would be acting this way without direct orders. They’re being led by a Gorthian.”
“Sir, you thinking what I am?” Hannan interrupted. She stood eye to eye with Manda, eyeing the Primo quizzically.
“Reid became the new Eye, and we brought him here.” The words burned, but Nolan spoke them anyway.
“He must have smuggled aboard our ship before we broke orbit,” Izzy said, cocking her head. Her ears twitched. “I worried where he might have gone, but I didn’t see him approach the ship.”
“An Eye? You wouldn’t. Even the youngest ones have mastered cloaking,” Manda said
, clenching a tiny fist. “They are damnably tough to kill, though. So tell me, Captain Nolan: you don’t seem surprised the Eye is here. If you did not knowingly bring the creature, how is that possible?”
“We’re only just now putting the pieces together,” Nolan replied, shaking his head. “We knew there was a reason they let us get away from the Torava system, where we found the data on interfacing with a Helios Gate. Now it’s clear why they let us go. They needed us to lead them here, and now the big Eye knows where it is. Manda, what’s in the repository, and why is it so important to them?”
“The repository is the sum of my people’s knowledge. Among the data are instructions not only on controlling the Birthplace, but also on constructing others. Manda leapt from Nolan’s shoulder to the deck. “The Judicators we can deal with. I’ve already ordered Thetah to wake our warriors.”
“Oh, yeah,” Thetah said, winking out.
“What is the Birthplace?” Lena asked, tail held in both hands. “The term is utterly ambiguous in all the texts.”
“That’s a complicated topic, but the short answer is that it allows us to manipulate time,” Manda said. “We draw on the singularity’s event horizon, using the immense forces to either speed or slow time. We can use the Birthplace to make millennia pass, while seconds go by in the rest of the galaxy. Or, we can slow time, as we did to ensure our survival until another Eradication. Only a handful of years have passed from our perspective.”
“That’s how you won,” Nolan said, laughing as he finally understood the advantage the Birthplace conveyed. “You could create entire fleets in an instant, being everywhere you needed to be.”
“Regrettably, it wasn’t quite that easy,” Manda said, eyes filling with emotion. “Many mistakes were made. We were overconfident, and lost nearly everything before the end. We barely retained enough to propel our offspring to their own destiny. I’m pleased to see that our efforts there bore fruit.” She nodded up at Atrea.
“Manda,” the scholar began, smoothing her robes as she seemed to gather strength. “Why are you so different in form than me? Is it something the Void Wraith did? Are we some twisted echo?”
“You were created by us,” Manda replied. “We needed larger, stronger bodies to fight the Void Wraith. We called you warforms. The genetic scan the Forge conducted on you revealed that your DNA is much more similar to ours than expected, and also that there was tampering at the genetic level. Had you succeeded more fully, odds are good you’d be no taller than I.”
“Manda,” Thetah said, popping into existence near the Primo. “I’ve woken the others. They are moving to intercept the Void Wraith.”
“Let us help you,” Nolan offered. “If we brought this problem on you, then the least we can do is help solve it.”
38
Battle for the Core
Nolan was both surprised and impressed by the Primo defenses. The Forge’s core was much different than the library’s had been. It had been designed for beauty, more form than function. This room had been built for defense, built by a people that knew they could be overwhelmed, and that if they were they could fall back to this room. They would sell their lives in its defense.
There were two entrances, one a wide set of double doors, the other a tiny two-foot door at the opposite end of the room. The tiny Primo could reinforce or, if need be, flee. Their larger enemies were constricted to the one choke point, and the defenses were built around that fact.
Nolan couldn’t even see the cube, which was housed in a bunker-like structure at the center of the room. Several terminals surrounded it, each occupied by a tiny Primo tech. Their hands flew across holographic keyboards, tapping sigils with immense precision.
Ringing the bunker were a series of silver pillars, about waist high. They created a flowing blue energy field that surrounded the center portion of the room. A number of defensive platforms sat behind the energy, allowing the Primo defenders to fire from cover. There were perhaps twenty in all, each armed with a tiny plasma rifle.
Their discipline was impressive. Not a single one spoke, instead watching the open double doors with the intensity of hardened warriors who knew that they were about to fight.
“Nolan, which is your field commander?” Manda asked, gesturing at the squad.
“Sergeant Hannan is in charge. You’ll want to coordinate your efforts with her.” Nolan nodded in Hannan’s direction.
“Hannan, your height presents difficulty, as our defenses aren’t designed with you in mind,” Manda began, shifting her gaze to the defenses. “Use the core’s housing as additional cover, and fire over it. Its casing will protect you against anything the Void Wraith can bring to bear.”
“Yes, sir,” Hannan replied, nodding to the others. “Delta, Izzy, Captain, get into cover.” She trotted after them, and the squad crouched behind the bunker containing the cube.
“Nolan, if the opportunity affords itself to take a shot at the Eye, you’ll need to use this,” Manda said. She gestured to a tech, who carried over a two-inch black cylinder, struggling under the weight. The top had a red sigil on it, shaped like a Primo skull.
“What is this?” he asked, accepting the device from the tech. It weighed at least ten pounds, far more than he’d expect of something that small.
“It’s a micro-singularity bomb,” Manda explained. “See the dial around the lip under the sigil? That controls the strength. This one is at the lowest setting, and you’ll need to keep it there. Even that much will tear a hole in the Forge, destroying the surrounding area for a hundred meters or more. At its highest setting, it could tear the Forge in half.”
“Thank you,” Nolan said, studying the device.
“Captain,” Delta said, moving to stand next to him. “May I? If we’re taking a shot at Reid, I’d like to be the one pressing that button.”
“Sure,” Nolan agreed, handing the device to the big man. Delta nodded gratefully.
Nolan rested his rifle atop the bunker, aiming it at the still-open doorway. In the distance he could hear metal feet striking the deck. Judicators approaching. They weren’t making any effort at stealth, instead opting for speed. They were advancing quickly, at just shy of a run, Nolan guessed.
“Ready yourselves,” Manda roared, her voice booming despite her diminutive size. Plasma weapons snapped up, and the Primo soldiers tensed.
Then the clanking of Judicators grew louder, followed by the telltale shimmer of cloaking devices. A volley of tiny blue beams lanced out from the Primo ranks. The first few Judicators shimmered into sight, body parts flying as they were blasted apart by shots to their joints. The Primo had surgical precision, and focused their fire with a level of teamwork Nolan had never witnessed.
Nolan held his fire, waiting for Hannan to give the word.
“Party favors,” she said, ducking even further into cover as she fished a satchel from her pouch. She tore open the Velcro seal, exposing a tray of foam with several grenades nestled there. They were conventional human weaponry, but they’d still be effective in tight quarters. “Everyone take one. Let’s show these little guys what we can do.”
Nolan plucked a grenade from the foam, resting his trigger finger on the arming mechanism. Izzy and Delta each grabbed one as well, then Hannan took the last. She dropped the empty packaging to the ground. “Okay, on three. One, two, three.”
They leaned up over cover, all four lobbing their grenades through the doorway. More Judicators had come around the corner, their return fire keeping many of the Primo in cover. The four grenades clinked through their ranks, scattering in all directions. The resulting explosions sent Judicator parts sailing through the room; a leg bounced off the Primo’s energy shield in a spray of flame and debris.
The Primo let up a ragged cheer, and began vaulting over the energy barrier. They holstered weaponry, instead igniting the tiny energy blades that mirrored Nolan’s own. Manda was at their head, bounding into the smoke. All Nolan could see were flashes as the Primo descended on the Judica
tors like a swarm of wasps.
Nolan eased his finger off the trigger, glancing at Hannan. She shook her head. “Not until we have clear shots again. These Primo can fight, but I’m not sure that abandoning a tactically fortified position was wise.”
As if to punctuate her words, a Primo body came sailing out of the smoke. It impacted with the energy field, sagging down into a heap. Primo cries came up from the corridor, and the warriors streamed back into the room. Most bounded back behind the energy field, but more than one was picked off while trying to retreat.
Manda was the last, rolling to the side to dodge a blast. She leapt over the barricade, landing not far from Nolan. “Get your people ready, Battle Commander Hannan. This is the part we’ll need you for. If we are lucky, the Eye will join the assault.”
Nolan’s eyes widened in understanding. He watched as a pair of Alphas lumbered into view, three more behind them. Manda had just sacrificed thirty percent of her forces to bait the enemy into a hasty frontal assault. It had worked.
Massive booms sounded from the smoke, familiar balls of blue energy striking the energy field behind which the Primo were taking cover. Wherever the plasma hit, concentric rings rippled; the energy field was clearly struggling to sustain itself.
Behind the Judicators, lurking in the smoke, Nolan caught a glimpse of a pale white body. Tendrils poured from its back, many holding plasma rifles. The weapons streamed continuous fire at the weakest part of the shields. Finally, the shield flickered and died.
“They’ve broken through. Ready yourselves,” Manda yelled, thrusting a fist into the air.
“For the Birthplace,” the Primo chorused.
Then the Alphas charged their position. One of them was Edwards.