“In truth, I had no idea of the strength of your defenses.” Buran replied. “Here, and on other worlds. So I took control of the marauder fleet. I gave them direction, and—”
“Abandoned them.” Myra blurted. She folded her single set of arms on instinct.
Buran paused. He stared. A crunch of dust sounded behind Buran in the dark. His soldiers were still there. Niko and Myra took shallow breaths. Buran’s first, softly spoken word still jolted Myra and Niko as the tension broke.
“True. I made a tactical retreat the other ships, most of them, could not follow. Regrettable, but necessary. Their goal was plunder. Mine is different. I am here to save worlds. You will also benefit. Oddly, that is thanks in part to Hell. But Hell is my ultimate target. When I leave here, I will have the resource I need.”
“You were willing to let the other aliens attack us. Kill us. Just as a means to distract them?” Niko challenged.
“Yes.” Buran said with no emotion.
“Just as you were willing to sacrifice them to the hellship to escape.” Niko continued.
“And yet you gave us welcome?” Myra added. “Why are we even alive?”
Buran’s quick reply shocked them.
“Because I don’t have to kill you.” Buran paused, and stared.
Good verbal communication had not eased tensions. It made differences plain. The translators allowed them all to match words with attitudes and physical traits shared across sentience and emotional creatures. It was clear that Buran was growing frustrated.
“War is a tool. I will destroy your colony to achieve my mission, if I must. I will retreat when I must, and use force to take what I need. Right now, I offer you benefit of my knowledge, my people’s true strength. You can make a truce with your inner fears and voices, your natural hostility to me, and learn what I can teach about this artifact where you rooted your colony. Or, you can scoff and be defiant. Leave with nothing made brighter but your pride. Perhaps this darkness all around you has affected your culture more deeply than you realize, and you wish it to persist inside your mind. Perhaps you mistake ignorance for strength.”
Niko and Myra were silent again.
“Then, if there is anything in you we can trust,” Myra sighed. “Though, I suppose we have no choice.”
“There is choice.” Buran replied. “Just as your people decided to flee a hellship and not fight and die in useless battle. I too must decide when to fight. Now, I decide to enlighten for a sense of legacy, if not kindness. So, choose. Step unto the platform, or leave. Arm your pride, or move your legs.”
A spike of rage rolled in Myra from her brain down her spine. But she had the strength to stop it, just as her people avoided extinction. The future offered hope. For now, defiance would need be hidden, and time used as its cloak.
Myra took a deep breath and a step. Niko followed. Together they stepped onto the light disk.
“You will be safe, but your craft will be destroyed.” Buran raised his voice as a hum grew louder and a vibration intensified across their bodies.
Myra found utter strangeness in his next words as an alien who had invaded her world now spoke to allay her fear.
“You are safe with me. I will ensure you return home.”
All around them the ground began to become brighter far into the distance. The enhancements to Myra and Niko’s eyes were pushed to compensate for light levels they had never seen, even in brightly lit rooms. Dispelled darkness revealed the land features never seen. Regions of color from oxidized elements, ripples, streaks, the tops of small meteorites that were now mostly buried boulders, and micro impacts of particles and one crater from a fallen ship fragment. It all began to shake and crumble.
“The phase projectors from my ship—!” Buran began.
“A weapon?” Niko screeched.
“No. Not precisely.” Buran continued. “They will charge the region and alter the collected matter over the substrate. Its subtraction will reveal the doorway below.”
Doorway? Myra thought. Then the sights around her overwhelmed her questions.
For as far as Myra could see, her world pulsate into a mixed field of rising dust that drifted up on all edges of the light disk. Suddenly it all shot skyward as a rippling, granular curtain. The surrounding stream of matter rushing upwards accelerated. Soon it appeared as a solid wall encasing them within a cylinder. A small, black dot was visible at the top. It shrank in size. Myra realized they were descending.
Another, awful thought occurred to Myra. She cast an accusing stare at Buran who stood amused by his ship’s power employed before him. Standing with them, he obviously possessed great confidence in his ship and crew. But what of his crew on Tectus?
“Your soldiers! Did you callously sacrifice them, too?” Myra demanded.
“Oh. Yes. I see your confusion.” Buran spoke but stayed focused on the rushing material around them. “No. They took my shuttle back to the Sword Wing.”
“But you couldn’t spare our hovercraft?” Niko asked.
“No.” Buran answered. The tone of his one syllable carried his obviously disinterest in the issue.
The changing sights rapt Niko and Myra, as well. The surrounding cylinder curtain vanished. Myra and Niko grabbed each other’s arms on instinct to steady themselves at seeing they were in midair. Glancing over the disk’s edge revealed the surface was now far below. Buran stayed standing, calmly. He smiled at what he saw below them. Niko and Myra dared to look down. They were descending into a sudden canyon. Its walls showed the layers gathered by Tectus’ travels like a geologic record of interstellar dust and debris. Myra though she glimpsed a small ship. It was lost in the blur of their descent. The Sword Wing had cut away a vast swathe of accreted crust. Its true surface appeared to be rush up at them.
Myra looked at Buran to get a fix on what focused his doubled stare. Over the edge, she saw a vast circle etched into a black field. From their altitude, she could discern a slight curve of the planet’s original, dark surface. Although, now she questioned if the term planet was a correct description of Tectus. The circle appeared as a gigantic button waiting for a hand the size of Buran’s ship. It struck her mind that this was his doorway. Even with the technology Buran commanded, what they neared was far greater in size. Perhaps it contained far greater power.
Myra’s memory inundated her mind with myths of bottles holding sinister forces being dropped and cracked, forbidden boxes in ignorant hands, and curious creatures caught and slain. Again, life was stranger than myth. Myra wondered what would happen to them, to the lives of their colony, once the massive circle unlocked.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Skon flexed his grip on his rifle. The weapon gave him power, as did his demon limbs. But what he sought was order. Guidance. He had taken control of several small groups of demons scattered by the onboard chaos. He was a recognized leader. Lord Xuxuhr had given him a mind as reward for particular savagery across many worlds. Oddly, having more thoughts seemed to quell his brutality. Slightly. Now his smoldering brain wrestled with impossible circumstance. His horde was enduring losses, not on some alien world, but inside its own ship. Its blazing interior was no longer safe for demons. He thought praise to the Dark Urge, but trusted in his rifle. He had taken a sword from an armory and wore that, too. Demon rifles replicated their bullets. Thus, ammunition was nigh infinite. But, why not take a back-up weapon that also showed power. There was no one to stop him.
Skon lead his forces to prowl the midship interior. He sought others of his horde, or enemies. Even outnumbered, the demons from the other horde had fought well. They inflicted losses against Skon’s horde and the Ignitaur captives. They also fought surprisingly well. Perhaps time in hellfire had strengthened them. Their revolt had spurred the chaos. Before, they forged the chains Lord Xuxuhr used as his personal weapon. Voltris wore a link from a broken length as a symbol of devotion to their General.
Now, Lord Xuxuhr was dead. They had released his head to the Red Giant. Soon after, th
e star and Iron Work threatened to devour the ship. Their Field Master Tobruk was dead. Even Voltris, the wingless Ship Master was a corpse. Strike Leader Trait held command over the horde, or so he said. Now, he was likely dead. Skon was alive and willing to fight. But a plan was needed. He would have to do that dread thing, and think. Or, there may be another way. Perhaps—
A sword blade slid swiftly under his chin. It was a bigger blade than the one on his hip. It was a Field Master’s sword. He looked up along the blade to see its owner stare down at him. He was large and his thorns gilded. He was the Field Master from the other horde. Skon moved his eyes to look across the chamber. A small army of demons was covering the walls and ready to strike. Skon recognized some of the demons, but now they aimed their weapons at him.
He had crept into an ambush and potential slaughter of his followers. Yet, triggers were not pressed, and his throat was intact. He extended the ends of his talons out from his rifle and chiefly its trigger but kept it from falling. He hoped the act would extend his current state of life. Else, he would soon know what his Lord Xuxuhr felt when beheaded.
“I am Uruk, Field Master, and now master of this ship. Do you agree?”
“I agree you can kill me, Uruk. But I serve Lord Xuxuhr.”
“You served that General. Now, he is dead. Will you join him, or me?”
“I can see you offer an alternative from power, not need. I salute that. Yet I too have gathered demon units. I—”
“Then I will take them, too. You have done well, demon.”
“I am named. It is Skon.”
“Then, Skon, I grant you one honor. If you refuse to follow me, then you can challenge me in combat.”
Skon paused, and resisted swallowing. He assumed he would need his larynx pressed by Uruk’s sword.
“One against one? I am not crazy. I am a recognized demon, and strong. But for me to challenge the strength of a Field Master, even an alien one--?”
“I am no alien.”
“True. Yet, though he is dead, I cannot release my fealty to my Lord as easily as a sword stroke across my neck. For it is not only my life that I hold, but all those that follow me.”
“And I cannot long tolerate defiance,” Uruk growled. “We have a ship to take. What did Voltris’ defiance and Trait’s attack against me earn them? Victory? No. Mere death. Worse! Defeat! Will you be like them and see this ship become only a tomb? Or will you see it again become a power among the stars? This is a new age. A new age for demons. One of choice. Choice to win, or choice to die. So join me or become more ashes on the Iron Work. I give you a chance to serve something greater than failure and death.”
Skon’s nostrils flared as he took and instinctive breath. “You are more powerful, Uruk. You have gathered more demons than I have. And you have already beaten me with this ambush. Thus, I follow you, obvious Field Master.”
Uruk’s sword vanished from Skon’s throat.
“Then, Skon, take your place as a Strike Leader among this new, united horde.”
With Uruk’s words, his demons took their aim away from Skon. He swallowed.
“May I have on last moment to question, new leader?” Skon bowed.
“You may.” Uruk nodded.
“Your intention, Field Master, for this ship.”
“Liberate it. Repair it. Bring it to my living General, Lord Anguhr, the Destroyer.”
“Then we of the Ravager’s horde commit to your mission, Uruk.”
“We are now even stronger, Skon. Victory will be ours.”
As they rushed to the giant circle below the light disk, Myra realized she did not feel a rush of air as they dropped. She glanced over at Buran. He still looked pleased as he watched the circle coming closer. He didn’t look back at Myra, but spoke to her.
“You are traveling on an element of their technology. One I have already mastered.” Buran said as if anticipating a question. “It was discovered, deciphered, and replicated within my own solar system.”
Myra and Niko had little time to parse the many layers in Buran’s statements. The astonishing excavation, the passing canyon sides, the approaching, dark surface, the giant circle, and the fact they were sailing down on what appeared only a disk of light was enough awe for the moment.
Buran appeared glad and accepting of it all, as if comparing it to previous experiences. His posture and expression required no translation. He has discipline but happy. Even talkative. It was as if a great weight had been liberated from his mind as well as Tectus.
“Be glad your people had not guessed the truth. Even for just this single world,” Buran said. “If my people had understood our solar system was an artificial construct from the start of our science, many theorists and mathematicians would have been spared madness.”
“Madness?” Myra’s question was less about history and more about Buran’s actions and their current experience.
“Yes,” Buran continued. “We saw physical forces behave in predictable, calculable ways on our homeworld, but the math did not extend to all astronomical observations. Gravity we understood. Locally. But celestial mechanics defied explanation. Bodies held orbits not merely retrograde, but wholly independent of any gravitational link to our main star. Perhaps, some thought, to reality.
“You can imagine the obsessions and insanity caused in trying to unite and justify theories and models. We created some exotic mathematics. But we only began to guess and gather clues once he ascended beyond the canopy of our atmosphere and traveled space.
“We could see these odd paths of mass-bearing objects. Some, as asteroids, were quite natural in origin, but they and others created a sort of bubble or sphere around our star. Impossible. In nature. Not impossible when you control mass, gravity, and other aspects of spacetime. Physics. So we called them the Physic.”
“Called who, the Physic?” Myra asked.
“The powerful, ancient, and long-departed engineers who shaped the galaxy. They built my solar system, and cast my world inside it. They built your planet.” Buran turned and nodded to the shocked Niko and Myra.
“So, Tectus is a ship?” Niko asked, and then finally closed his slacked jaw.
“No. A vessel, though. A traveling data node. A container of information. A—”
“A library book?” Myra blurted.
Buran paused as he considered the translation, and then lit with glee. “Yes! I like that description. But bigger. You essentially live on a library.”
Niko stared down. From their altitude, the revealed surface appeared as a curve of black with earthen patches. So far, he could only imagine a painful, terminal impact at the end of the rapid fall.
“It is both an entry point, and a trap.”
“A trap?” Niko shouted.
“Yes. Once inside, we must answer all the questions correctly. If not, we will never be seen again.” Buran faced Myra and Niko. He smiled and extended his arms as an expression of camaraderie. “Small price to pay for such awe, though. Don’t you both agree?”
“No.” Niko and Myra answered in flat-toned unison.
Myra looked back at the approaching surface between the sudden canyon walls. It was deep black and seemingly metallic. It appeared to have rust across the exposed black and within the circle. As they came closer, Myra saw that the rust was flattened and fused crustal remains left from the Sword Wing’s astonishing excavation. Even closer, the black surface appeared distant from the crustal rust. It felt as if she was falling into starless space. It was strange. But Myra reasoned if one could pass through a world to its opposite side, that person would end up eventually traveling up to the sky above that hemisphere.
As they came even closer, Myra could only see an arc of the massive circle. She noticed it was not an etched within the black metal. It seemed to float above the dark surface as a ring similar to many found around some gas giant planets. This ring appeared to be altering its flat surface. Its level plane seemed to deepen and drift down to form a gigantic tube. After a second more of desc
ent, she stared at the wide arc of its distant, circular wall. They were within the doorway.
It’s all— Myra began a thought.
They weren’t moving. They had entered the interior of the circle and were transported from inside it to—nothing. They stood, but Buran’s disk had vanished. They held the same invisible plane in a chamber, or infinite space. Perhaps it was a small universe without dimension understood by living minds. All around was absolute blackness, yet they could all see in comfortable light.
“Impossible.” Myra finished her thought, aloud.
At home, Myra had an image folder of insects and other creatures, some similar to a small version of Buran, caught in blueshale or fossilized sap. She could move, but wondered if she had become a fly caught in obsidian.
“Yes, and you will see more things, thus.” Buran said.
“Did you answer wrong?” Niko asked with widened eyes.
“The questions have not started,” Buran answered and smiled. “I believe it has let us in. It must appreciate technological species. Plural, of course.”
“It?” Niko demanded as he failed his arms and looked around.
“It has an operating system,” Buran said. “Have patience. You may not be in the same timeframe as Tectus. So we likely have many hours to enjoy that virtue.”
“Or not,” Myra said as her large, dark eyes squinted.
A curtain of diaphanous, white light appeared before Myra, Niko, and Buran. As it appeared, so did a stone floor under their feet. A portal opened at the curtain’s center. It revealed a narrow hall flanked by smooth, highly polished, white walls capped by an arched ceiling. At the hall’s end was another perpendicular passage. The wall of the perpendicular hall reflected across the arched hallway facing the three. However, the facing hallway had no bottom. The reflected image of the end wall suggested a transparent floor. Visible through the floor-like reflection was a scene of outer space with stars brighter than any in the skies of Tectus.
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