Masters of Fate

by A. K. DuBoff

  “Do your thing.” Richardsf gestured toward the console. “We’re under orders to remain on the Sanctum while you take the shuttle to the surface, so you’ll be on your own once you know where you’re going.”

  “Used to it, no problem,” Kaiden said.

  “It doesn’t look like this world is infected by the Darkness, so at least we won’t have to worry about contamination when we come back,” I added while Toran began syncing the equipment with the shuttle.

  “Thank the stars for that,” Kess murmured.

  We fell silent as Toran studied the data feeding into his specialized receiver, using the unique properties of Kaiden and Maris’ pendants to identify resonant signatures on the planet’s surface.

  After two minutes of calibrating the equipment to the Sanctum, Toran sat back and frowned at the screen. “That’s odd.”

  “What now?” Kaiden asked.

  Toran sighed. “Well, every other time we’ve tried this sort of scan, specific crystal locations have been called out. On this world, though, it’s like the entire planet is pinging. But that’s strange, since we had difficulty getting readings on the Darkness-infected worlds unless we were close to one of the crystals.”

  “There’s no evidence of the Darkness here,” I pointed out.

  “True, but I’d expect this planet and the others infected with the Darkness to demonstrate the same properties,” he replied.

  “Maybe there’s something about this planet that isn’t on the others?” Maris suggested. “An ‘x factor’.”

  “I suppose.” Toran examined the visual representation on the screen, illustrating a glow around the planet. “This does support the hypothesis that there’s a civilization here we can’t see.”

  “How are those connected? I thought this detected the presence of crystals,” Maris asked.

  “It’s doesn’t detect crystals precisely,” Toran corrected, “more like it picks up a sign of their presence via unique signatures. But, it’s possible that those signatures aren’t unique to crystals and are actually signs of something else we can’t see.”

  “Higher-dimensional energy?” I supplied.

  Toran took a slow breath. “Perhaps, though I can’t with certainty say it’s connected to the aliens.”

  Worry spread across Richards’ face. “Assuming there are higher dimensional beings, won’t they know we’re here?”

  “Almost certainly,” Toran replied.

  “But, they haven’t attacked us,” Kaiden pointed out. “So, either they don’t care, or they don’t see us as a threat.”

  “Or, they’re waiting for us to walk into a trap,” I said.

  “Regardless, we’re not going to learn anything significant about this planet from here. We need to pick a site and investigate,” Toran stated.

  I nodded. “I’m not disagreeing, but I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

  “Me either, but we don’t have a choice,” Kaiden said.

  “Where do we target, then?” Maris asked.

  “How about an old-fashioned visual survey?” Richards suggested. He modified the front viewport to display a holographic representation of the planet with augmented topographical features. Blue outlines appeared around specific sites, which contained signs of a built environment.

  My brow knit. “City ruins?”

  “Looks like it,” Kess said. “Nature doesn’t make straight lines like that.” She traced her finger over a grid pattern on the largest southern continent.

  “Any sign of a crystal?” Kaiden questioned.

  “No, but the energy readings indicate there could be one at that location, perhaps underground,” Toran replied. “Since the city ruins are more intact there than anywhere else, that’s my suggestion for where to begin our search.”

  “Works for me,” I agreed. Ancient alien city ruins somehow upped the spookiness factor of the mission, but there was no turning back now.

  “All right, let’s get our stuff and head out,” Kaiden said.

  My friends and I climbed down to our shuttle berthed in the belly of the Sanctum, which completely filled the small cargo hold. Richards and Kess remained on the bridge in comm contact.

  “We’ll keep a low orbit, ready to rendezvous whenever you’re ready,” Richards said over the shared comm channel while we entered our shuttle.

  “Shout if you need anything. We’ll be watching,” Kess added.

  “And if the comms don’t work?” Kaiden asked. “We’ve had issues before.”

  Richards didn’t reply immediately. “Then we’ll give you ten hours before we head back to the Evangiel.”

  It sounded like enough time to give us a comfortable buffer. With any luck, we’d complete our task well before that. “Okay, see you soon,” I acknowledged.

  We got situated on the bridge in our usual seats and strapped in. Kaiden took the controls in anticipation of our release from the docking grapples.

  “I have a lock on the destination,” Toran stated from the seat behind me.

  “Confirmed,” Kaiden said. “Nav system is online.”

  “Safe travels,” Richards wished us over the comm. “Releasing the clamps.”

  A shudder passed through the craft as the docking grapple released, and a moment later the view changed to a starscape with the brown-gray planet below.

  “All right, here we go,” Kaiden murmured under his breath, aligning the shuttle for atmospheric entry.

  I gripped my armrests as the shuttle reached the outer boundaries of the atmosphere. At the same moment, I became aware of a strange feeling in the air, almost like an electrical charge.

  “Anyone else feel that?” I asked.

  “Yeah, it’s weird,” Kaiden replied.

  Maris grasped her pendant. “It feels like it did next to the anomaly.”

  “What’s going on?” Richards demanded over the comm.

  “There’s a strange—” I cut off when my comm gave a ‘disconnection’ warning chirp in my ear. “Great.” I leaned forward to try the shuttle’s communication system; only static met my attempts to raise the Sanctum.

  Kaiden let out a long breath. “Here we go again.”

  3

  Even without functional comms, at least we weren’t flying blind, unlike some past journeys.

  Kaiden was able to maintain a nav lock on our target, and we slowly descended toward the city ruins, taking in the surrounding landscape.

  The former city was spread out on the floor of a valley surrounded by mountains and rolling foothills. However, with no vegetation or snow, the landscape was lacking the kind of drama I’d expect from rocky peaks. What appeared to be a dry riverbed bisected the city ruins, the western side seeming to have weathered time better than the east.

  “Land inside or outside the city?” Kaiden asked, circling around at a low elevation so we could scope it out.

  “I like the idea of landing in the open,” Toran replied.

  I raised my hand. “Second that.”

  “Yeah, definitely,” Maris agreed. “This place gives me the creeps even from up here.”

  There was something profoundly disquieting about the ruins. Only gray stone—possibly the remnants of cast concrete—and bits of metal support structures rose from the windswept landscape. I couldn’t see any specific evidence of weapons fire or other attack from afar, but the irregular distribution of destruction around the city suggested that the damage wasn’t simply from natural decay.

  “What do you think happened here?” Maris voiced my own curiosity.

  “Not sure, but whoever used to live here left a long time ago,” Toran replied.

  “Or whatever,” Kaiden emphasized.

  “If it’s sentient, wouldn’t it still be a ‘who’?” Maris questioned.

  I crossed my arms. “I’d rather not think about it.”

  Kaiden selected a landing area half a kilometer beyond the obvious outskirts of the city ruins.

&n
bsp; I suspected that the area had once been a suburb, though only amorphous mounds remained where structures may have once stood. The sense of disquiet welling inside me intensified as the shuttle touched down. I unstrapped my harness and stared out the viewport at the desolate landscape. “I guess we should get to it.”

  “Yeah, the sooner we can get out of here, the better,” Kaiden agreed.

  The four of us shuffled into the common area to grab our packs. I hoped we wouldn’t need any of the extra supplies stashed inside, but I’d rather have them than not.

  Toran checked the readout next to the side hatch. “Atmospheric readings all look to be within tolerance, just like we observed from orbit.”

  “Minus microbes that will gestate inside us and hatch new baby aliens to take over the galaxy,” Maris said.

  I frowned. “Maybe we should wear EVA suits.”

  “If we get into a fight, that will put us at a serious disadvantage,” Kaiden pointed out. “If our enhancements can withstand the Darkness, I don’t think microbes are a huge concern for us.”

  “Yeah, good point,” I conceded.

  “Shall we go, then?” Toran asked.

  I nodded. “Ready.”

  He released the seal, and the hatch folded down and extended a ramp to the ground.

  I stayed in position for several seconds, waiting for the first wafts of the alien air to reach us. True to our equipment readings, we didn’t instantly die. “Let’s see how it is outside.”

  We descended the ramp and then re-sealed the hatch from the outside, not wanting to risk unseen rogue wildlife wandering into the shuttle. Standing on the grainy soil, I could tell the gravity was lighter than I was used to, though not enough to try anything too exciting.

  “I say we head into the center of the ruins,” Kaiden suggested. “That central square we saw might be a good place to start—probably the city center for a reason.”

  I nodded. “Likely a place to find an old crystal.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Maris said, bounding toward the city.

  We ran easily in the lower gravity, making quick time over the flat terrain. As we reached the first toppled structures in the ruins, I realized that I’d missed a crucial observation in our flyby.

  “The scale seems strange with these buildings.”

  My friends studied the structures, slowing their paces along the former boulevard.

  “You’re right,” Toran said. “Everything seems at least fifty percent larger than what we’re used to.”

  “Not just that,” Kaiden added, “but I’m not sure this was designed for a bipedal society.”

  I looked closer at the building he was studying. There did seem to be something off about the design of the stairs—like there were two sets of steps next to each other at alternating intervals. At first I’d thought that the steps had broken in half and shifted vertically, but they were intact upon closer examination. Though I’d seen designs like that on occasion in my own culture, for it to be everywhere was surprising—especially when coupled with the benches staggered along the strip between two flat roadways. The benches each had a distinctive slope at the bottom, joining to a ledge at the height of my shoulders.

  “Maybe those are… sculptures?” Maris offered.

  “I’m not so sure.” My stomach knotted as I thought about the creature I’d seen on the alien ship four days before—an undulating torso, seamlessly transitioning from two to four legs as it skittered through the ship. I could picture the creature perched on the strange bench, as staggering as it was to think about those monstrosities being part of a society that would go for a walk in the park.

  “Maybe we can find some art that shows what they look like,” Kaiden said, picking up his pace.

  “Yeah.” I met his stride.

  We encountered few other clues as we continued toward the city center, most buildings being too decayed to offer insights. I found it strange that there was anything left of the city ruins, but apparently the ravages of time weren’t as harsh without vegetation or significant rainfall.

  At last, the structures became larger and more elaborate, indicating we were entering a part of the city that may have once been the center of the economy. Most of the buildings were now piles of rubble standing three stories tall, but some rusted metal superstructures rose ten stories or more—the last remnants of what used to be. Unfortunately, it was impossible to get a proper sense of the culture’s design aesthetic with so few intact elements.

  “The town square should be just up ahead,” Toran announced, breaking the eerie silence of the place.

  “It’s so similar to one of our cities,” Maris murmured. “I thought it would be more… alien.”

  That did seem odd to me, too. While certain features did strike me as being designed for a different sort of creature, the overall layout of the place was bizarrely similar to what I’d expect from one of the Hegemony’s worlds. It was almost like the city had been taken over and retrofit.

  “Wait… what if this wasn’t originally an alien city?” I said.

  “Like, they invaded it?” Maris asked.

  “Yeah, like they made some changes to suit them, but didn’t change everything,” I clarified.

  Toran stroked his chin. “An interesting thought. I suppose this could have been a world they invaded before they mastered how to transmit the Darkness through the crystals.”

  “But if this is their homeworld now, of sorts, wouldn’t they have gone back to transform it now that they do have that tech?” Kaiden asked.

  “Not if they didn’t need to,” I replied. “Maybe the Darkness isn’t for bio-optimization at all. Maybe we’ve been looking at everything the wrong way.”

  Kaiden frowned. “What happened to the native population here?”

  I shrugged. “No clue. Maybe they enslaved them, or ate them, or transformed them in some way.”

  “Or they didn’t need physical forms anymore.” Toran shuddered. “They’re probably watching us right now, laughing at us feebly trying to put together the pieces.”

  Maris paled. “Yeah… maybe let’s not talk about it anymore?”

  “Wait, look.” Kaiden pointed ahead of us. A distinctive tower was visible over the top of a nearby rubble pile.

  “That’s the monument in the town square,” Toran said. “Come on.”

  We picked up our pace, eager to complete our mission as quickly as possible. I hated the notion that unseen beings may be watching us—creatures beyond my comprehension, existing outside the flow of time as I knew it.

  As we rounded a bend in the street we’d been following, the central square came into view. Six roadways intersected like spokes on a massive wheel with a tower at its center. The top had appeared smooth from a distance, but I now saw that it was broken. It appeared that a statue had once been perched atop it, though the figure was now only broken shards around the base.

  “I bet that would have given us some clues,” I said with a sigh.

  “There’s still a lot to see.” Toran peered at the tower’s base. “I believe that may be a doorway.”

  I took another look behind the rubble, spotting the archway he was referencing. It did, indeed, look to be an opening. The tower itself was only five meters in diameter, so there couldn’t be a chamber of any substantial size inside. However, if it went down…

  “Do you think the crystal is underneath there?” I asked.

  “As good a guess as any,” Kaiden replied

  Maris rummaged in her pack and produced a flashlight, grinning. “And, we’re finally prepared.”

  Kaiden conjured a light orb in his palm. “Really, Maris? I thought more of you.”

  “Hey, if you want to serve as a living beacon of magical energy, go for it. Personally, I’d rather try to blend in.”

  He extinguished the light and swung his backpack forward over his shoulder to get inside. “On second thought…”

  “I’m not sure how i
ncognito we can be with these artifacts, but I suppose some precautions wouldn’t be a bad thing,” I realized. My instinct had been to draw my sword to have it in hand, but that might enhance its signature. I decided to wait until there were clear signs of a threat before I activated the weapon.

  Toran and I also retrieved our flashlights as we approached the archway, climbing over small piles of debris. I kept an eye on the rubble for clues about what type of figure had topped the column, though I saw no remaining evidence of its form. The only hints were recesses in textured pieces of stone with an intricate organic pattern that reminded me of moss—or the fibrous webbing I’d previously observed inside the alien ship. The fragments were too small and eroded to tell for sure, so I decided to keep the observation to myself.

  The archway was framed by an ornate rendering of twisting vines reaching toward stars and planets above. Maybe I wasn’t reading too much into the other fragments after all. “Does that remind anyone else of anything?”

  “Our visit to Windau,” Maris stated without hesitation. “I’ll never forget those horrifying vines that attacked us.”

  A rotted wooden door still hung in the recesses of the archway, but when Toran pushed against it, the remaining fragments turned to dust. “Looks like we have our way in,” he said, shining his light into the blackness within. “There appears to be a path down.”

  I couldn’t help thinking back to the Valor world and the strange staircase in the tower that didn’t obey spatial reality as I knew it. It was possible that this passageway itself was a dimensional transition point. “I’ll lead the way,” I volunteered, figuring that my combined skills made me the best prepared to react to any threat.

  “No argument here.” Maris took a step back, allowing Kaiden to follow behind me and have Toran take the rear.

  I steeled myself for whatever we might find and stepped inside.

  The interior was adorned with similar motifs to the exterior carvings, with vines snaking along the walls and a celestial representation overhead. Rather than a staircase, as I’d expected, a ramp spiraled downward along a central axis, leaving clearance for even Toran’s tall frame. Beginning the descent, I held my flashlight in one hand while keeping the other on my sword’s hilt.