Heretic

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  ALF ignored him. The entire ship was rocked by more weapons fire from the Shifters. It looked to Naydaalan as if the floors and walls were slowly moving, like the waves in an ocean, but he soon realised it was nanocelium, attending the damaged sections of the ship.

  “What’s happening?” he shouted again.

  ALF answered with a single word. “Evolution.”

  The mountain imploded, as ALF’s ship slipped between the gap in reality. To Naydaalan, this felt as if his perspective on the world had been momentarily narrowed and he had been looking down an endless corridor before it snapped back with a gut-wrenching thud. The Novaarian vomited inside his helmet, spraying every inch of his visor. Thankfully the straps released him and he dropped to the floor in exhaustion, despite having exerted no energy. He immediately threw his visor away and tore the long line of nanocelium from his skin.

  Looking up, ALF was quickly attending to the machine encompassing Kalian’s head. The human appeared limp now, his hands hanging off the edge of the rests and his knees buckled. ALF used one arm to support Kalian when the mask spread apart and retreated back into the larger machine. Naydaalan fought off the dizziness and approached them, taking note of the blood pouring out of Kalian’s nose, mouth and ears.

  “Is he alive?” Naydaalan feared the worst.

  “He won't be if I don't operate immediately.” ALF had scooped Kalian up into both arms and waited patiently while a rectangular slab of nanocelium separated from the floor and rose up to lay him on. Dark tendrils snaked out of the darkness above, each ending with a different surgical instrument, not unlike the Conclave’s Medders.

  “Operate? What happened to him? Did he destroy the Shifters?” Naydaalan’s mind was struggling to focus on any one thing.

  “The Shifters are no longer a problem. Kalian’s organs being in the wrong place, however… that’s a problem.”

  “Wrong place?” Naydaalan echoed.

  “It was his first jump and a damn big one at that. This was expected.” ALF raised his arms but never touched the tendrils, as they went to work on cutting Kalian out of his exo-suit.

  “This was expected? Wait! What jump? What happened?” Naydaalan’s lack of understanding was manifesting as anger.

  ALF continued to manipulate the surgical tendrils as if he were conducting an orchestra. “See for yourself.” The AI didn't turn away, but the double doors parted, allowing bright sunlight to flood the ship.

  Naydaalan winced, trying to adjust to the light. It wasn't the same reddish-light emitted by the volcanic atmosphere, but that of two suns. The Novaarian blinked until the horizon took shape in the form of mountains and fields of red grass with arching waves of curved, black rock, overgrown with weeds and colourful plant life. The sky was a pale white, overcast with clouds that only allowed one of the two suns to shine through with clarity.

  The warrior turned back to ALF, who had stripped Kalian of his armour and dived right in with the surgical blades and cutting lasers.

  “I don't understand. Where are we?”

  “According to my initial analysis of the soil, we’re on Hadrok.”

  Chapter 18

  Despite the mounting alien environments, Li’ara continued to come across, she still marvelled at every one while they took her breath away. The Shay homeworld of Shandar was an incredible feat of truly advanced technology. The entire circumference of the planet was encased within a chaotic network of floating towers, each bridged to the next in every direction. The lowest levels, saved for the poorest of the Shay, descended into the exosphere of the dying planet and was enveloped within stormy clouds that never let up.

  Roland had visited the planet a few times in his self-exile from the human race, but for Li’ara it was a first. She stood right up against the viewport and enjoyed the peaceful experience of observing a planet from orbit. Sef’s broad everything was impossible to mistake, as the Gomar appeared by her side without a sound. How somebody so big and covered from head-to-toe in armour could be so quiet, she didn't know.

  “It’s beautiful, isn't it?”

  Sef looked from Li’ara to Shandar. The Terran would have fixed the planet, not left it to die and build around it.

  Li’ara didn't know what to say to that. Sef had seen more of the universe’s wonders than she had, especially during their journey across the galaxy in search of Earth. It was possible that the Gomar saw Shandar as a relatively primitive civilisation.

  Roland belched on his way onto the bridge and tossed an empty can of beer to one side. It seemed the bounty hunter was back to his old ways. Roland was wearing his usual gear, coat and all, with his trusty Tri-rollers holstered on each thigh. He was readying for a fight if his alcohol consumption was anything to go by.

  “Don't bother with fake ID’s, Len.” Roland dropped into his chair and lifted his hands so the console could swing around. “Take us in all nice and quiet like.”

  “Activating stealthware now…” Ch’len sat across from Roland with his little legs dangling off the edge.

  Li’ara walked up the centre of the bridge. “We should do some recon and plan out our approach. Kel-var is bound to have defences.”

  “Or…” Roland hit a key on his console with dramatic flair. The Rackham’s speaker system immediately exploded with loud music.

  Li’ara rolled her eyes and hoped the heavy beats and club music wouldn't give her a headache. The bounty hunter was insufferable, but annoyingly good at what he did, though right now Li’ara was finding it hard to pinpoint exactly what that was.

  The Rackham shot between the floating towers and weaved between the lanes of traffic and patrolling security forces. Not only was the ship invisible to sensor arrays, but also to the naked eye. Only a keen observer in the lower levels would take note of the thick clouds that parted in its wake.

  The light inside the bridge was entirely artificial while they ploughed through the stormy atmosphere. Li’ara had to shield her eyes when the planet’s surface finally came into view in a panorama of stark white. Devoid of sunlight, the surface was barren and cold. They were greeted by mountains covered in snow for as far as the eye could see.

  “The coordinates from Gor-van’s ship are just there!” Ch’len shouted over the music and brought up a holographic overlay across the viewport.

  Roland cut the music and leaned forward in his seat. Li’ara followed his gaze to the pin-point, nestled between two mountains in the distance. From this height, there was no sign of any activity or artificial structures. That changed as they flew over the rise of the nearest mountain, which had been hiding three massive pillars, each pointed inwards toward the apex.

  “What is that?” Li’ara asked.

  “I don't know,” Ch’len replied, consulting his console. “It’s not where the coordinates lead.” The Ch’kara typed away until more data presented itself. “From these readings, I’d say it’s some kind of array, but’s configuration is unusual…”

  “How so?” Li’ara craned her neck over the viewport to take in as much of the structure as she could before the Rackham overshot it.

  “Well, most arrays are designed to receive and emit signals. From the looks of this, that array can only emit.”

  Sef turned to Li’ara. Do a planet-wide scan…

  Li’ara looked at the Gomar for a second longer, wondering what he could sense. “Len, can the Rackham scan the whole planet?”

  The Ch’kara laughed. “What does this look like, a Nexus Class battlecruiser?”

  Sef audibly sighed inside his helmet. The Gomar held out his hand, once again calling upon the nanocelium inside the ship. Four new columns rose up and presented him with a bank of consoles and holograms. Both Ch’len and Roland made to protest, but Li’ara held up her hand to silence the pair. Sef’s armoured hands danced between the columns until a new hologram was emitted in the middle of the bridge. They all looked upon the floating blue orb that represented Shandar and watched as tiny red blips appeared across the surface. There wasn't one land
mass that didn't have at least a dozen of the red dots.

  “How did he…” Ch’len’s expression crumpled into confusion.

  Li’ara glanced at the consoles before taking a closer look at the hologram. “These are arrays? Like the one down there?”

  Sef nodded silently.

  “They must belong to Protocorps,” Roland added.

  “Why don't you ask them…” Ch’len nodded at the viewport, where a squat-looking facility came into view, dug into the mountainside.

  “Are we still operating under stealthware?” Li’ara knew that if they could see the facility, the facility could see them.

  “Yep!” Roland stood up with one of his Tri-rollers in hand and beaming smile on his face. “Let’s go knock!”

  “Wait!” Li’ara moved to try and stop the bounty hunter from leaving. “We need a plan, Roland.”

  “We have a plan, he’s standing right behind you!” The bounty hunter casually gestured to Sef with his gun. “The guerilla opens the door and my Tri-roller here talks our way in.” He turned to leave but faced Sef one last time. “Oh, and don't kill everyone this time! It just sucks the fun right out of this…”

  Kel-var sat on the edge of his bed, his conscience keeping him awake as usual. Malekk had the coordinates now. The Gomar were as good as dead, and with them gone, there would be no one to stop what was coming. The idea of ascension had always been abstract in the Shay’s mind. Something his parents would talk about as if it was thousands of years away, something that could never come to pass in his lifetime. Seeing Malekk and the outcome of the recent test on the Paladin was sobering.

  Ascension looked an awful lot like slavery.

  An alarm Kel-var had never heard before blared from the speakers in the ceiling. The Shay tilted his head and heard it ringing out across the base, as well as in his room. Wearing just his night robe, Kel-var opened his door to find two guards already approaching.

  “Sir, the installation’s under attack!” The two Shay were part of the mercenary group that now worked solely for Protocorps. “We’re enacting the extraction protocol.”

  “You will do no such thing,” Kel-var replied, waving their guiding hands away. “Take me to the control centre.”

  The walk to the control centre was long and Kel-var couldn't get rid of the knot in his gut. The Crucible was one of Protocorps’ best-kept secrets; even the captured board members would die before giving up its location.

  Gor-van…

  Would Gor-van have given up the Crucible as a way of getting back at him? No, Kel-var was certain that even Gor-van would never give it up, unless…

  “Have we identified the intruders?” Kel-var asked the question as soon as the doors opened into the control centre. He suspected their identities would not come as a surprise.

  The nearest Shay brought up the holographic logs from the extensive network of cameras throughout the installation. The outer doors had been blown away, though there was no evidence of an explosion. The next image showed a firefight in the upper tunnels, where two humans and a… Gomar were forcing their way through.

  “That’s not Kalian Gaines,” Kel-var announced. “Look at the armour, his size. That is a Gomar.”

  The Shay lost all hope as one camera after another displayed their advance. Nothing could stop them. Roland North showed his usual brutality, while Li’ara Ducarté utilized precision and moved from cover to cover. The unknown Gomar simply strode down the corridors, as the intrinium bolts bounced off of his armour. Either way, the mercenaries continued to drop.

  “What do we do?” a technician asked.

  The Control centre began to stir with unrest and the mercenaries looked to one another with questioning glances. Kel-var knew he had to take control before chaos ruled, but what could he do? Roland North and Li’ara Ducarté were hard targets on their own, but with a Gomar backing them up…

  “Activate all internal cannons.” Kel-var gave the order without looking away from the monitor. “Those tunnels are lined with cannons, are they not? Wait until they’ve advanced a little further and attack them from all sides. Hammer them!”

  The technician worked in conjunction with a few others before he pressed the button to turn every corridor into a kill box. Nothing happened. The team ran through the diagnostics, checking everything was working as it should, while Kel-var paced behind them.

  “Why aren't they firing?” he finally asked.

  “It must be the Gomar.” The technician changed the image and zoomed in on the armoured being.

  “What is he…” Kel-var narrowed his vision and focused on the Gomar, who had stopped walking and placed a single hand on the wall, while the humans continued to kill the mercenaries.

  After he finished disabling the internal defences, the Gomar looked up at the camera with an intensity that made Kel-var uncomfortable. One armoured hand rose into the air and formed a fist, ending the video feed and their ability to observe the fight.

  Kel-var screamed in frustration and slammed his fists into the console. “Go. Go, all of you just GO! If you can hold a weapon I expect you to leave this room and fight.”

  The technicians looked at each other in disbelief, before turning a pleading expression on Kel-var. Some slowly rose from their seats, while others looked too scared to move.

  “Captain, arm these people and take them to the Translift!” Kel-var turned away from them and listened to the mercenaries haul the technicians from their feet.

  They were all going to die.

  That thought took a while to sink in but was ultimately overridden by the fear of his own death. He sat in one of the empty chairs, head sinking into his chest further and further under the weight of his mistakes. They had underestimated the humans. Kel-var could now see why they had been targeted so thoroughly.

  It took some time, but eventually, the doors of the control centre were torn from their servo motors and thrown away. A beaming Roland North was closely followed by the red-head and the towering Gomar.

  Kel-var remained seated, refusing to stand and show any fear. To the trained eyes of these particular killers, it was probably evident enough.

  “Kel-var…” Roland purred. “Have you been avoiding my calls?” Shay blood was splattered against his face and long coat.

  The Gomar came to stand in front of him, a wall of unstoppable force. Li’ara appeared less interested in him, however, and made for the adjacent consoles. Her stubby, human fingers dashed across the holographics, searching.

  “I love what you’ve done with the place,” Roland continued. “The whole secret base in the mountains-thing… has a dastardly evil touch to it. And kicking the planet’s inhabitants off the surface! Protocorps is badass!” Roland back-handed Kel-var with his Tri-roller.

  The Shay fell to the floor in a sprawling of limbs and shooting pain. Kel-var simply wasn't accustomed to pain, having lived a life of privilege in the tallest of Conclave towers. Tasting his own blood was new to him.

  “This place is a gold mine,” Li’ara commented. “It looks like Protocorps use this place to back-up most of their data.” The human continued to sift through the information, her agitation growing. “There’s too much! It could take me days, months to find the coordinates.”

  Kel-var got as far as his knees before Roland placed the end of his gun to the Shay’s head. “Where are the coordinates to the Gomar? We know Gor-van sent them to you. He’s dead by the way.”

  Kel-var was about to reply with a wicked retort, the pain in his lip stoking his anger, when the humans looked away, towards the Gomar. Nothing was said, but it looked to the Shay as if some information was being shared.

  “Of course!” Li’ara replied to nothing. “The base emits data, it doesn't receive. Where’s his personal array?”

  Roland, who was apparently in charge of Kel-var’s interrogation, picked the Shay up by his robes and forced him back into the chair. “You heard the lady, dip-shit; where’s your personal array?”

  Kel-var wanted to te
ll them to exactly what he thought of the extended Terran race, but his survival instincts kicked in. “If I give you what you want, I will need something in return. I want…”

  The Gomar suddenly walked away, without notice. The giant’s direction told the Shay exactly where he was going. Kel-var stuttered and stumbled over his words, distracted by the Gomar entering his private office. A moment later, the god-like figure emerged with a rectangular box in his hand and torn wires poking out of the end.

  Roland laughed, though the joke hadn't been said out loud. “Nice one, Sef! Looks like negotiations aren't required, after all, Kel-var.” The bounty hunter levelled his weapon at the Shay’s head again.

  “Wait!” Kel-var pleaded, too afraid to care about begging. “I can tell you what this place is. What it was designed for.”

  Roland bit his lip and turned to Li’ara, who went back to work on the console. After a minute she replied with a satisfied smile and slowly hit a single button on the glass screen.

  Li’ara explained, “The Gomar are our priority. Whatever this place is, the Conclave will figure it out. Thanks to the huge amount of arrays this facility is connected to, I’ve just uploaded everything in its databanks to the social hubs on every planet. Protocorps no longer has any secrets.”

  With that, she gave Roland a different kind of look. Had Kel-var survived the next second, he would have deduced that it was an expression of permission.

  Elondrasa, the Novaarian Highclave member, removed her floating headdress and relaxed into the comfortable seat on their personal transport. They had just announced the new Starforges that would soon be constructed and placed on the surface of every world in the Conclave. This particular announcement was the first of many in the new campaign, and judging by the reaction of the crowds, they were going to be revolutionary.

  Of course, the knowledge that the new technology had been supplied by the humans had been met with a certain amount of distrust. Thankfully, the protestors, both for and against the humans, had been kept well at bay from the announcement. In the end, the opportunities the Starforges offered would outweigh the origin of their creation.