Eden's Revenge (Eden Paradox Book 3)

by Barry Kirwan

  Pierre walked up to Petra and Kat and the three of them embraced as if alone in their home. These past ten days Petra had spent a lot of time with her father, who was apparently better emotionally equipped than when he’d left. Pierre had told him it had been a gift from another Kalarash called Hellera. Ukrull swept past them with his powerful lizard-like gait, his scaly muscular tail flicking from side to side making people stumble out of his way, a smell of rotting grass in his wake.

  Jen approached. “Micah, we’re ready.”

  He wasn’t quite sure who ‘we’ included, hoping she represented Kalaran in some way. They all turned and followed her through to the chamber. Micah knew that her two companions Dimitri and Rashid had not yet come down to the planet. Apparently, teleportation was possible, but was incredibly difficult except across very short distances in the vacuum of space, and consumed vast amounts of energy, even for the Kalarash. Their massive ships were said to need a day to recharge after each single teleportation. Blake harboured a suspicion that one or two of the spiders had been taken up to the ships, though Jen denied any knowledge of it.

  Vasquez and Kilaney were already seated along with the two remaining Ossyrians and the Mannekhi Commander Xenic. Everyone took their seats, except Micah and Jen. Micah waited until a hush settled over the War Council representatives in the inner circle of twelve, and the packed audience seated behind them.

  “Jennifer,” he said, “please…” He’d prepared a short speech, but suddenly thought better of it. “Just tell us what is going on.”

  She pulled something out of her pocket and tossed what looked like a handful of dust and glitter into the air. It didn’t fall, instead spreading out as it took the shape of the Milky Way. She had everyone’s attention. “Here,” she said, moving to a single point of light, “is where we are today.” As her finger approached the single mote, that area of the ‘map’ expanded, and they saw a small solar system: Esperia’s sun as an orange ball, a small grey uninhabited planet closer to their local sun, their home Esperia, and one gas giant and an asteroid belt further out.

  “This was before. And this is now.” She snapped her fingers and the Esperian system suddenly looked as if it had been encased in a ball of glass and dropped repeatedly on the floor; cracks and fractures everywhere. “As some of you have heard, the Shrell were sent here to poison space. Qorall knew the spider population represented a threat, though he did not, and still does not know the nature of that threat. By poisoning space he ensured their containment and ultimate extinction on Esperia –”

  Blake leant forward and interrupted. He was the closest the spiders had to a representative on this Council. “Are you going to tell us what threat they do pose?”

  Jen stared at Blake, and Micah noticed again how she’d changed from when he’d known her eighteen years ago – more confident, but also less egotistical.

  “No,” she said. “I honestly don’t know if they constitute a weapon, only that they are important to Kalaran’s plans to defeat Qorall.” She continued. “Louise had been tasked by Qorall with destroying Esperia, but she failed, thanks to the valiant efforts of many of you here today, and a few no longer here.” Her voice almost caught, but she masked it by clearing her throat.

  Micah knew Jen had been very cut up about Gabriel – in fact no one else had known what had happened to Gabriel and Sister Esma until Jen had arrived five days ago with the news. Petra had been inconsolable for two days, Ramires tight-lipped but proud. Micah felt he owed Gabriel a debt he could never repay.

  Jen regained her composure. “However, Kalaran also wanted the Shrell to proceed, because, you see, Qorall’s back-up plan was this.” She tapped an apparently empty region of space just outside Esperia’s system and Micah’s breathing shallowed. A slug-like creature undulated, its black hide glistening with deep blue crackles of energy. A darker mouth opened, revealing a hint of scarlet fire deep inside its body.

  Kilaney shifted in his seat. “Dark worms, our worst nightmare. We still have no idea how to kill them.”

  “The Kalarash do,” Jen said. “However…” her forefinger traced a circle around the Esperian system and the image enlarged again.

  Shit. Micah saw hundreds of worms patrolling the perimeter. He guessed Kalaran’s strategy, even as Jen confirmed it.

  “Once the Shrell had done their work,” she said, “Kalaran’s ship and the other one we brought back, together with Hellera’s, were able to energise the Shrell network into a defence grid. Before, the worms would have cut through the strands like a whale ignoring a fishing line. Now… they cannot pass.”

  Micah spoke what he presumed others were also thinking. “Then we, too, are confined here.” Again. And we’ve only just come out of Quarantine!

  Ukrull grunted something to himself. Jen glanced at him, then carried on. “Not entirely, but getting in and out will be dangerous. Now Qorall knows there are three Kalarash ships here, he will focus efforts on Esperia.”

  Micah watched Jen carefully. There’s something she’s not telling us. He walked towards the map. “Show us Savange,” he said.

  All in the circle leaned forward, Kat and Ramires rising from their seats.

  Jen touched a far-flung region of the floating star-map and a blue-mauve planet blossomed out of the star-map. Micah’s brow widened, then furrowed. It was beautiful, rich in water and foliage compared to Esperia. Glinting lights told him there were several small but advanced cities and infrastructure scattered along the oceanic edge of the main continent. A single large orbital station hung above the largest patch of light, presumably where they did commerce with other races. They had come a long way in eighteen years, undoubtedly aided by their Q’Roth patrons. He clenched his jaw – it wasn’t damned fair! He felt his blood pressure rising. The fact that Sister Esma had been killed wasn’t nearly enough consolation. “Close it,” he said, his voice stone. Jen obliged, Savange collapsing back into a small point of light.

  She raised her voice above the growing chatter. “Here are Qorall’s forces.” Half the stars in the galaxy – excluding the central orb of light where the stars were too densely-packed for any sustainable intelligent life – turned red, and on a galactic scale they were already close to Esperia. Savange, in contrast, was far away in neutral space.

  “This is what Kalaran predicts will happen next,” Jen said. Qorall’s wave front held off from Esperia but continued around it, like a closing fist. The far edges of the circular front missed Savange, though not by much.

  Micah interrupted. “We need a ship, Jen, to go and get our people back. One of those hanging above us right now would do, or else something pretty damned close.” Others around him nodded and voiced assent.

  She pursed her lips; evidently she had been expecting the question. But she said nothing.

  Micah was about to speak when he found he was somewhere else.

  He stood on a giant marble, swirling grenadine beneath his feet, mixed with crystalline violet and vermillion striations like blood vessels. Under a pea-green sky he saw other globes, none of them moving. Micah guessed where he was.

  “I thought teleportation used up a lot of energy.” Micah said it to the wind, not expecting a human voice right behind him, especially not that one.

  “But then you ain’t really here, Micah.”

  Spinning around he saw Zack standing two metres away: not the Transpar version, but the original burly friend he’d briefly known and cherished after the fall of Earth.

  “Zack is that –”

  “No, Micah, he’s gone, but I chose this form – forgive me – because you trusted him, and I need you to listen carefully.”

  Micah wanted to shake his hand, even hug Zack, but Micah knew he was being manipulated. He stood back. “I’m listening.”

  Zack squatted. “To defeat Qorall requires an intricate strategy. A rescue mission to Savange would risk everything.”

  Micah squatted too. “I was expecting Jen – or in this case, you – to say that. The bigger picture,
sacrifices must be made, etc.” Anger simmered inside him, stoked up by the images of Savange. He tried to keep his voice even. “I – and we, the people of Esperia – don’t care. Help us to do this if you expect cooperation from us.”

  Zack’s bald head swung in Micah’s direction and gave him a searching look. Micah saw through those eyes and Zack’s expression the sad wisdom of a truly ancient being, one who had seen it all before, countless times. “Micah, is it worth risking trillions of beings’ lives, possibly mine as well, in order to bring sixty souls back, when they may well perish here anyway? The Alicians will side with Qorall under Louise’s leadership. Your friends may be safer there.”

  Micah stood up and walked away a few paces, biting down on his lip. He turned around, folding his arms. “A ship, that’s all we’re asking. One ship. We can’t desert them. We’ve already lost too much.” Micah felt his muscles tense; he wanted to strike something, but there was nothing to hit. “First, our entire race is almost extinguished. Then we barely make do on a difficult world, scratching out a living on an almost barren planet, and then we’re attacked again, all the while co-locating with a species we can’t relate to who obviously have more importance in your grand scheme than us. We’re just a damned pawn –” He stopped himself, aware he was ranting, unfolded his arms and put his hands in his pockets. The real Zack wouldn’t be impressed, even if he understood Micah’s anger. Kalaran had indeed chosen the best personality from Micah’s mind for this ‘interview’. Micah tried a different tack. “If they had been killed, or were going to be killed, it… it would be easier in some respects.” He withdrew his hands, and pointed away from him. “But they’re not dead. They’re out there, they’ll be kept alive for decades as genetic factories, allowing the Alicians to procreate so their progeny can come back one day and finish off the job they started.” Micah softened his voice, stared directly into Zack’s eyes, trying to reach the super-being behind the façade. “If one of yours was taken – a Kalarash – wouldn’t you go after them?”

  Zack stood up, gazed out to one of the distant spheres, and spoke. “What do you think?”

  Micah was nonplussed until he heard another voice, distant, distinctly female, an unholy choir whose intonations were all off-key. It didn’t sound human.

  “Show him,” the unseen female said. “He needs to see it.”

  Zack pointed to the floor beneath Micah’s feet. As Micah looked down, the swirling cocktail haze cleared into a black space. But it wasn’t empty. He saw a ball, dull ochre in colour, drifting towards a green planet. Micah’s resident supplied a name and details for the indigenous species – Wagramanian, Level Seven, forest-dwelling tripeds, famed artists, fierce soldiers. He recalled that this race were to be the relief for Esperia in three months time. Micah saw gigantic ships like indigo fir trees on intercept towards the ball. But he guessed they should turn about and flee.

  “They never run,” Zack said. “Even when they know what is coming.”

  Micah watched the ships fire at the ball, but all that happened was that it brightened and grew fractionally. Several ships rammed it, but were absorbed as if it was liquid. His resident – no doubt being controlled by Kalaran – told him that that was exactly what it was: fluid organic metal, but highly processed: intelligent; nascent; hungry. Micah shivered.

  As the indigenous population realised they could not stop the ball and that it was on a collision course, massive transports lifted off from the planet’s surface. But even those on the opposite side of the planet were caught in powerful gravimetric tides that either sent them plummeting back to the ground or tore them apart, spilling their occupants into space.

  The ball broke into a shower of billions of droplets that rained down on the planet. The view zoomed in. The inhabitants ran, hid. But each time one was touched by a droplet, the poor wretch froze, transforming, silently screaming before their skin turned an ochre colour and their eyes turned blood red. It worked fast.

  “They are Qorall’s now,” Zack said, head bowed.

  Where the drops touched the ground, they dispersed into gas, spreading faster. Their former kinsmen hunted those Wagramanians who went into hiding, until the entire population was Qorall’s. The floor resumed its cloudlike haze, and Micah was relieved.

  “This is what is coming, Micah. It has taken Qorall this long to perfect the weapon, to adapt it to the template underpinning this galaxy’s species. But from here on his progress will accelerate.” Zack looked beyond Micah, behind him. “Micah, it is best if you don’t turn around.”

  The other voice sounded to Micah as if it was right behind him. The skin on the back of his neck crawled. He’d had a debriefing from Pierre, and guessed who or what was speaking; Hellera, the other Kalarash.

  “The Scintarelli are still ours. I will send a ship. I must attend others, try to protect them.” There was a pause. “I am glad you came back, Kalaran.”

  There was a sudden stillness behind Micah, and he knew she was gone, if she’d ever really been there at all.

  Zack’s heavy eyes tracked back to Micah. “You will have your ship. But you will have an additional task, one that must take priority.” Zack walked a few paces away and beckoned. Micah wasn’t that surprised by what he saw walking towards him. The four-legged spider stood next to Zack/Kalaran, who stroked its black, furry top fondly. The spider’s communication band soothed a tranquil turquoise, a colour Micah had never seen on any of them before.

  Zack’s gaze returned to Micah. “The one called Louise sent one of her crew to kidnap a spider and take it with her just before she left. Quite a smart move. It will be a strong bargaining chip with Qorall.” Zack’s eyes grew fiery. “You must bring it back, Micah, or it must be utterly destroyed, so that nothing remains. Not a single strand of its DNA can be allowed to fall into Qorall’s hands.”

  Micah thought about Qorall’s weapon, transforming races into his own. He imagined those ochre balls spreading across the galaxy like a virus. When he had talked to Pierre, Kat had been there, too, and said that Qorall favoured biological weaponry. Something clicked in Micah’s head.

  “An antibody. The spiders, they’re like an antibody, aren’t they? They can’t be transformed by Qorall.”

  Zack’s face did not react. “The ship you will have is far faster than the Q’Roth destroyer carrying your friends and this one’s brother.” Zack patted the spider. “You will arrive a few days after they reach Savange. Louise cannot contact Qorall while onboard the Q’Roth vessel.” Zack approached Micah, within arm’s reach. “You will have three days for your rescue attempt. If you have not succeeded by then, I will send another, and it will be best if you are no longer there.”

  Micah’s mind raced. “How will you know if I’ve succeeded?”

  “You will have a Hohash onboard. Besides, Hellera is giving you a sentient ship.”

  Micah sensed an opportunity. “If we do succeed…” Micah turned and paced. It had been on his mind the past few weeks; no, the past eighteen years. He faced Zack. “Will you overturn the Tla Beth ruling on us, that all our children, all future generations have to be upgraded?”

  Zack smiled. “This is a first, I believe. You don’t want elevation?”

  Micah held his course. “We want the choice. Some – including me – now feel the price may be too high.”

  “It will be difficult for your people without such advantage.”

  “We’ll manage.”

  “Very well – if you succeed, Micah. Now, is all that I have said to you clear?”

  “Yes, and… thank you.” Micah gave a small bow.

  “Good, we are finished here. We will not meet again.” He paused. “It is customary when we meet someone to offer a gift in these circumstances.”

  “You’re giving me a ship,” Micah said.

  “Hellera is giving you a ship.”

  Zack’s eyes closed, his face relaxing, and suddenly he looked so much like the real Zack again. He beamed at Micah and held out his hand. Micah took a ca
utious pace towards Zack, and shook the warm, fleshy palm. Zack pulled him into a bear hug, then let go. “Well, look at you, Micah, starting to go grey!”

  All the things Micah wanted to say collided, and got stuck in his throat. Before, when they’d lost Zack to the trial, there were two words he’d not had time to say.

  Zack grinned, laid his hands on Micah’s shoulders. “Don’t sweat it, Micah, it was for the best. Hey, make sure you toast that bitch Louise this time, okay?”

  Micah found himself back in the Council Chamber, his lips apart as if about to speak. He closed his mouth. Goodbye, Zack. All eyes were on him, though it seemed barely a second had passed since he’d ‘left’ the Council chamber. He collected himself, and held up his hand until there was silence.

  Jen gave him a knowing look – she’d obviously had similar encounters with Kalaran, and had presumably been forewarned of the result of this one. She spoke. “You will have your ship in three weeks, Micah. Pick five crew.”

  She left, followed by a bored-looking Ukrull. In the ensuing noise Micah found Kat and Ramires next to him. “Of course,” he said, “with pleasure.”

  “Good,” Kat said, “as otherwise that ship would be looking for a new captain.”

  He smiled, glanced over to Petra, but she looked away; he’d have to talk to her later. Micah moved over instead to consult Blake and the others. By the time he’d finished, Petra was gone.

  Micah found her at the top of Hazzards’ Ridge. She sat on the coarse grass, her legs stretched out in front of her, propped up on straightened arms.

  “I’d have signed you up if you’d have asked,” Micah offered.