First Song

by Blaise Corvin

  None of it made sense, and the Unaleshi who knew about it were still reeling. The orb-wielding human had fought with the proficiency of an experienced mage-master. She had caught the Unaleshi so off balance that they’d been required to make a tactical retreat to continue their mission. The scouting party had not even had time to reclaim the fallen Poran’s body. Kahlek was beginning to realize Moore had probably never forgiven him for suggesting they move on. Of course, there were other aspects to her rage as well.

  The Silver Clouds were justifiably proud of their honed battle skills, but Moore had watched her husband be slaughtered by a primitive alien. Her reaction was proving bothersome, but its source was Unaleshi pride. She is the epitome of that pride, Kahlek noted with grudging approval. Our tribes may be at each other’s throats since leaving our world, but we will never lose our heart. It is the only thing holding us together. The Silver Clouds were a focused warrior tribe, with discipline and a tight chain of command that had won their standing after the Unaleshi escaped the Goddess’ clutches. The Blue Mountain scholars recognized the Silver Cloud's military might and respected it. Martial pursuits had unified their shattered people.

  Kahlek gazed at the stars above as the humans screamed in terror. We were once bright. Now we are nothing but remnants, a legacy, stardust drifing in a forgotten galaxy, he mused.

  Unlike the Silver Clouds, the Blue Mountains focused on spiritual paths. If Kahlek were a full mage, his voice would have weight during the current expedition. The reality was that while Moore delayed their efforts, Kahlek could say nothing. He could not risk his life unnecessarily, either. He and the few remaining scholars were the last holders of the Old Way, passing on knowledge and stories to the next generation of the Unaleshi.

  “Enough,” he wanted to say to Moore. But he was only an apprentice; he couldn't say anything. Kahlek wished his mage-master were still alive. Twenek would not have tolerated this excess. The Blue Mountain leader had been both wise and strong. In many ways, his teacher had been the father Kahlek had wished he’d had. When his mage-master had gone missing on a standard scouting mission to collect human data, and the precious orb had never returned to the ship, Kahlek was the first to hear about it. The orb was meant for him, after all.

  But the Silver Clouds had convinced the High Council to send their warriors with him—politics. Kahlek grew sick of politics. It was obvious to anyone with eyes that the Silver Clouds had sent representatives to find their own treasures, maybe even to take his. Kahlek had no choice but to recover the orb first and attune with it before any of his cousins had the chance. At least he did not need to worry about being murdered, which was a slight relief. If the others returned without him, the High Council would investigate. If foul play was involved, punishment would be swift. Killing another Unaleshi was the highest crime, unforgivable with so few of them left.

  If they take it from me, Kahlek thought with frustration, they would not even give it to one of their experienced warriors. They believe our Blue Mountain goddess orbs are not fit for a warrior. They would just casually gift it to an apprentice. The Silver Clouds do not truly want the orb’s powers, just its secrets—my tribe’s secrets.

  Kahlek shook his head with a slight smile. They don’t even know what it’s capable of. He had to make sure that, no matter what, the orb was claimed by nobody but himself. Once he had been attuned to it, his companions could no longer stop him from returning to the ship. Once he returned, he would suddenly have a voice, be a guide for his people. He could represent the Silver Clouds, and perhaps even receive a share of the human organs farmed from the planet.

  This never would have been a problem if the Silver Clouds hadn't insisted on slowly, selectively farming the humans, he thought. For all their warrior ethos, they lack the guts to take over the entire planet at once. It is baffling. We could just take control, help the humans, give them structure. Then in exchange for our magic and technology, they would give us enough of their people to eat until we learn how to reverse what the goddess did to us. Simple.

  If not for the memories of old technology stored in the Blue Mountain’s orbs, the Unaleshi would not have had the means to locate other life forms on new worlds for sustenance. Over the past several hundred years, they had visited multiple planets that would sustain them for a time but had always needed to move on. Until Earth, the Unaleshi had never encountered such abundant resources. Kahlek never could have imagined that they’d find a world with a nearly endless supply of element X. What’s more, Earth was a true colonization opportunity, a potential new home for his people.

  His mage master had discussed terraforming the planet with the Council in preparation for the inevitable return of the goddess. Unfortunately, he had been laughed out of the chambers. “It has been several thousand years since we escaped her clutches,” the others had scoffed. “Why would she chase us after all this time?”

  But they were blind, their memories growing stale. Only the Blue Mountain tribe kept the Old Ways, history preserved through the orbs. Soon, when Kahlek claimed his orb, Twenek’s old orb, he would gain the knowledge of his mage-master—his inheritance. Then he would finally know how his master had died and receive the remaining secrets of his people. Kahlek simply must find the precious object before the Silver Clouds could. The other tribe had helped sustain his people, and were important, but they really did have too much power now, too great a voice on the Council.

  Moore’s barked words interrupted Kahlek’s thoughts. “I need you to translate,” she ordered. Then without warning, she used gravity magic to levitate him forward. He hated when she did that. After he became attuned to his orb, she would ask permission first.

  The final handful of humans in this human tribe, the Red Metal Rope, were pinned to the ground except for one—Moore must have found their leader. The human man floated in the air, vainly fighting the pressure that Moore held him with. Kahlek felt surprised and even impressed that the human still had so much fight, resisting despite the overwhelming power he had been confronted with. The young Blue Mountain Unaleshi noted that all the humans in this group wore black, tanned animal hides. He assumed them to be some kind of crude uniform. Humans already looked so much alike; the matching clothing did not help.

  The man managed to speak under the magical pressure. He forced out words between labored gasps. Kahlek listened and translated to Moore. “He said you destroyed his people, the Red Metal Rope. And he said something else which I believe is an expletive. He has also mistaken you for a prostitute.”

  “Order him to tell me where the orb is,” Moore commanded, twisting her hand, tightening her magical hold on the human.

  Kahlek watched the human man’s struggle and tried to piece together the language lessons that his master had taught him. He turned his attention back to the prisoner, a bald man with a scarred upper lip and asked, “Where is the orb? A sphere object that has…power. Small and important. Your name is Redford, yes? You understand?”

  The human's eyes widened. He grinned nastily, showing his teeth below a split lip, and the he gasped, “So that is what you want. If I tell you, will you let me live?”

  Kahlek glanced at Moore and thought carefully. The Silver Cloud leader’s hatred for humans had not abated at all. In fact, her bloodlust had grown, evolving into pleasure while killing. Kahlek knew with certainty that Moore would not spare the human leader, but the orb was close now. The logical course of action was to lie, so he did.

  The Blue Mountain scholar nodded and said, “If you tell me where the orb is, I will make sure you will live.” He tried his best not to show any excitement—it was difficult. After all this time, after so much travel, they had slowly honed in on the location of the missing orb. This was good timing–they were running out of tracking flowers. If Kahlek had not at least known which continent his mage master had vanished on, the search might have taken much, much longer.

  The bald human glared with spite. “The only thing that tells me I’m alive is pain.” Then he
said a few more things that Kahlek didn’t entirely understand—something about goats, which was probably meant to be vulgar. Moore must not have liked his tone because the bald man visibly spasmed in pain from head to toe before relaxing again. He coughed and said, “Fine. I understand. What you are probably looking for is that way.” The human bobbed his head east towards the deeper forest in the distance. Then he continued, “If you keep going in that direction, you’ll find a building, a cabin. That was the last place I saw the orb. One of my men betrayed me and ran away with it. I haven’t been able to find him yet, but that cabin is where you might find some clues. Now let me go.”

  Kahlek nodded in thought. He carefully, mentally repeated what the human had said to make sure he’d understood. He thought about holding some of the details for himself, but lying to his own people did not sit right with him, and there was also no guarantee that Moore didn’t have another Silver Cloud there who could understand this human language. He mentally shrugged and translated the location information for Moore.

  She smiled.

  The air around Redford rippled, and the human received no other warning. He didn’t have time to scream. In less time than it took to blink, a squelch accompanied his body below the neck being magically crushed to the size of a melon. The human’s torso had become nothing more than tightly compressed meat. When Moore decided to release her power, the compacted matter would expand back into the jumbled mess it had been reduced to. The doomed, human’s head remained alive for a few seemingly endless seconds, mouth working without air. His eyes, full of fear and rage, tracked between Moore and Kahlek before fading in death.

  Kahlek frowned at the use of magic. He did not approve of the Silver Clouds so carelessly using Goddess magics. Unfortunately, harnessing the power was a necessity of survival now. Reminders of the Goddess weighed heavily on his mind. Master believed she is coming back. Those others on the Councils are blind fools! Just more reason I must imprint myself onto that orb!

  Moore’s second-in-command took a step forward and raised his hand. His warrior’s braids declared his rank, a high standing, but nowhere near Moore’s level. He said, “Leader, I offer to go first.” After his display of humility—or ambition—several other Silver Cloud scouts stepped forward to volunteer. Kahlek snarled at their blatant disrespect. For a moment, he forgot his apprentice rank.

  He screamed, “That orb is not yours! That was my master’s. It is my inheritance. I will not let you ruin the last remains of the Old Way. You may have forgotten the history of our people, but I will not let you destroy the last of who we are!”

  Kahlek found himself flat on his back in an instant. His body felt incredibly heavy, gravity magic bearing down, pinning him to the ground. He knew better than to struggle, so he didn’t. Moore stood above him, studying him, then smiled with no humor. She waved to the other Silver Cloud warriors and ordered, “Let him go first. If the humans have discovered again how to bond with a goddess orb, I would like to watch this arrogant Blue Mountain die for this simple speech orb. Any Unaleshi perishing is a travesty of course, but if a Blue Mountain wishes to commit suicide over such a useless object, that would be his choice, no? A speech orb!” She flicked two fingers dismissively. “They are weak, useless except for the histories. Even if this one attunes with it, what is he going to do, talk the humans to death?”

  As the others laughed, the Silver Cloud leader released the pressure on Kahlek and he stood up without complaint. He had made a mistake, allowing his emotions to get the better of him. Despite his bruised pride, he knew he could have suffered worse. Moore’s reaction had been unjust but characteristically direct. No subtlety, he mused as he brushed himself off.

  After situating himself, Kahlek ignored the other Unaleshi and stared in the direction the human had pointed. He flexed his fingers, imagining his new station among his people in the future. He would definitely have some pointed words with Moore, then.

  The orb was the key to his people’s future and for his own. It was time to reclaim his inheritance.

  Chapter 8

  “Testing, testing,” Noah whispered into the radio. He walked around the lab alone—a soundproof wall separated him from Doc in the medical area of the cabin. The signal from the radio had a little static, but sound came through just fine.

  Noah got a, “Roger, roger,” through his radio, a response from Doc.

  The hair on Noah’s neck rose in excitement. His hand touched the cracked orb on the counter next to Doc’s experiments. As soon as he touched it, all the surrounding sound attained perfect clarity. The only new noises are the static of the radios, he thought. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to hear this experiment with the radios. He gently set the orb back on the counter. Noah used to feel anxiety in his stomach every time he parted with the orb, but not anymore. Even though its magic didn’t work for Doc, Noah felt the orb belonged to Doc now too.

  The door to the lab slid open, and Doc Broad ran in to exclaim, “It worked!” Then he gave Noah a hug. The young man twitched, fighting his instinct to push him away.

  Doc seemed to notice and backed off immediately. He pulled out his radio and opened it up. Noah did the same with his, then they both took out their respective batteries, setting them next to Doc’s contraption. Several other batteries that they had charged using Doc’s makeshift generator already sat on the counter. Noah recognized some of the video game console parts that had been used to make Doc’s machinery.

  Nothing was really protected—wires stuck out everywhere, exposed. Doc had explained that cosmetics and housing would be the last things he’d work on after Noah left. Next to the generator were several copies of schematics in large plastic bags. The detailed drawings and notes illustrated how to create new generators to work with the orb, along with Doc’s plans for communicating between forts, towns, and settlements. Noah agreed with Doc’s plans to unify the country once more, and perhaps humanity after that.

  “With these,” the trim man said, pocketing one of the batteries, “we’ll be able to connect people to each other again. Maybe by doing that, we can all find ourselves again.”

  Noah had grown fond of Doc’s random philosophical musings. Somehow, the man’s brilliant, insane mind had been able to recreate electricity with the orb. He thought a bit of soul-speak was a small price to pay. As he pondered philosophy, Noah gave the machinery another once-over and noticed a weird box underneath the generator. He had seen it several times but had never asked the Doc what it was. “What’s in there?”

  Doc’s expression turned grave. “Those, my young friend, are C4 explosives. Redford dropped them off here a while ago in case I ever could make electricity work again. See, for the last two years, even pressure wouldn’t work on this stuff, so people have just been using it to cook food. Luckily, we've never been able to use this stuff until now.”

  Noah studied the box warily. “Is that stuff going to explode?”

  Doc laughed. “No, they need to have energy wired through as well as some kind of catalyst. Nothing works the same as it used to anymore. Even if these batteries were right next to them, they wouldn't set off the explosives, at least I don’t think so. Let’s hold off any experiments though, okay?” The man smiled.

  Noah picked up his backpack and put the batteries inside, but left one on the table. He gave Doc an uncertain look. “You should keep at least one. Also, are you sure you don't want to come with me?”

  Doc shrugged and scooped up the battery before shaking his head. “I’d love to. But I need to stay here for a least another week before I catch up with you. If Redford comes back, or one of his people notice I’m gone, then he could track me down and find you as well. It’s better if we split up. The map I gave you should help you get to Smalltown. You should have enough batteries to make the journey easier, too. Along with the orb and a flashlight, you should be set. You can also take any of those MRE’s the Chain brought for me before. They’ll keep you going.”

  Noah frowned at the mention o
f the military “food.” He frowned in doubt but shrugged. At least he could make sure he took all the candy with him. As he began going through the tan MRE bags, he realized that he and Doc hadn’t really said their goodbyes yet. They’d actually spent the last few weeks avoiding the subject. Noah didn’t want to drag it out, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave it at a simple thank you, either.

  Before the Shift, he had never been good at saying what he felt. Unsurprisingly, it hadn’t magically gotten easier for him. Doc hadn’t just saved his life, he’d given it purpose. He had granted Noah back his humanity. The least Noah could do now for Doc was to take his work to Smalltown and get the communication network running.

  The young man grabbed the orb from the counter, inspecting its crack. This thing brought me good luck, bad luck, and a new chance for a better life, he mused. The words ‘Thanks, Doc,’ were on the way from his mind to his mouth when he felt a sudden, savage pulse through the orb. His hearing sharpened on its own accord like it had only a few times before, and he cocked his head. It took a moment for him to realize what he was hearing, but then his eyes widened in confusion. He whispered, “I just heard footsteps land. I didn't hear them approach at all. It’s like they jumped here.”

  Doc Broad’s jaw tightened, but he moved quickly, pulling magazines from a nearby, tattered stack. He calmly said, “Get inside the cubby while I close up the lab. I’m going to stand out in the medical area in case they force their way in to make it look like I was surprised. If the newcomers know about the lab, catching me with some old nudie mags might help distract from all the stuff in here.”

  Noah tried to smile at the joke, but something felt off about these newcomers. The air weighed heavily on his skin, like the world was holding its breath. Even with his enhanced hearing, it was hard for him to get many details about who was coming, and an odd distortion surrounded the cabin, putting him on edge. He hesitated for half a second, but shook his head. He trusted Doc—the man hadn’t steered them wrong yet. Noah took a deep breath and scrambled into the cubby, his home for the last few months, and closed the door after himself.