Aboard the Fleet Raider Bloody Knife, Mordauk, one of the elite Kojo among the Umpala diviners, sat in his private quarters in a trance, summoning the energy of the Gorhah, the hidden reality. He led a small fleet of ships in pursuit of Naudook and the remnants of Fire Clan. Things had not gone to plan on Athene. Against his express orders as a member of the Sacred Ring, Naudook, Stormlord of the Fire Clan, had fought stubbornly to hold Athene against Shadow Clan, even abandoning the Warrior Code in the process. And someone had even sent an assassin directly against Mordauk, one of the Kojo. He couldn’t imagine even Naudook going that far unless he had backing from another of the Kojo.
Mordauk sat within a circle scribed on the stone tiles, the stone from Torkak a luxury reserved for special passengers aboard the Bloody Knife. About the circle stood several statuettes made of bone, blackstone, and gold depicting the various Avatars through the ages. Around the crown of his head, the intricate red metal coronet crafted by the Urgu vibrated with mystical energies as it aided his mind in exploring the Gorhah. Mordauk attempted now to commune with emissaries of the Ninth Avatar.
The Bloody Knife had practically become his personal ship, ferrying him on his errands as he prepared for the coming of the Ninth Avatar. Since re-embracing the Warrior Code after the Human War, the Umpala had no longer considered Fleet Raiders and Doom Raiders to be respectable ships for warfare, and only the Kojo, those supposedly above Clan politics, could commandeer and use these vessels that for the most part had been mothballed after the war. The Umpala never really liked large space battles where the combat often tended to mainly pit computer against computer instead of warrior against warrior, but they were forced to adapt during the Human War, building starships like Fleet Raiders and Doom Raiders designed to fight the huge capital ships of the humans.
Along with the Bloody Knife, Mordauk brought with him a squadron of the more traditional Raiders, the preferred warship of the Umpala clans. Raiders were smaller than the Fleet Raiders and Doom Raiders, but with their stasis pods, they could transport anywhere form half a legion to sometimes even a full legion in each ship. Mordauk had commandeered several legions and Raiders from Gardodadogaur, Stormlord of Shadow Clan, but he wasn't sure he would need the legions, though. Naudook had already broken the Warrior Code repeatedly, and Mordauk didn’t plan to play any games when he caught up with him. He would use the superior firepower of the Bloody Knife to pound Naudook into dust. It might not sit well with the other Clan leaders or with the other Kojo, but Mordauk intended to stay ahead of the curve from now on as the Warrior Code began to crumble and everyone came to grips with the new galactic order. Much better to defend one’s actions before the Kojo than be the fool staring up in surprise as your entrails spill all over the ground.
Unfortunately, for the moment Naudook seemed to remain further ahead of the curve than himself. Or whomever Naudook plotted with was. The only thing Mordauk could surmise was that another Kojo had struck a deal with Naudook, much like Mordauk’s maneuvering of Shadow Clan. He just had no clue yet who it would be or what their plan was. It did shake his ego a little. He thought himself much cleverer than the other Kojo.
What troubled him the most, though, was he couldn't conceive of another Kojo having any interest in Athene or the human data cores. Not on their own. Mordauk’s own interest had been directed there by a higher power.
Naudook’s interest might mean that a higher power was aiding his enemies as well.
Mordauk hummed the ancient rhythms and watched dreamily as his mind left the Bloody Knife and peered into the Gorhah. Visions attempted to blossom around him, visions of future glory and visions of doom, but he pushed these aside. Today he came not for mystical visions but to commune directly with Kalgardithicus, one of the great beings that roamed the Gorhah and served the Ninth Avatar.
“Kalgardithicus,” he roared into the dreamscape. “I summon you.”
Mordauk felt the ice burn in his lungs and the tips of his fingers. The great being was near. Mordauk shivered once as the ancient cold enveloped his body, and then he focused his mind to shed the pain and discomfort.
The fuzzy dreamscape of thousands of unformed visions rolled back as a crystal clear reality imposed itself — a bright, dune-covered landscape, few shadows escaping the three yellow suns, a world which looked as though it should be unbearably sweltering hot but always proved bitterly cold to Mordauk. Before his mind’s eye, stood upright the mighty Kalgardithicus, a giant fifty yards tall, half-Umpalanoid, half-millipede. His long body curved back and forth up its length, thousands of insect arms quickly undulating while his two huge Umpalanoid legs anchored him upright to the ground. His massive Umpalanoid arms lay crossed against his chest, seeming to beckon challenge to the cosmos. His head, his face, both insectoid and Umpalanoid at the same time while the large, bulbous eyes seemed to glow with a dull red light.
A deep, thunderous voice that shook the ground said, “I answer your summons, Mordauk of the Umpala, brethren of the Kojo. What news do you bring today?”
Mordauk focused his mind to stop his body from shivering, the coldness at the verge of taking his breath away. “Shadow Clan has pushed Fire Clan from Athene, and I have captured the human data cores,” he said. “However, the Stormlord of Fire Clan resisted beyond all reason, and it appears that he must have allied with one of my brethren among the Kojo. They seem to have had designs on the human data cores as well, and they seem intent on interfering.”
Mordauk paused and waited to see if Kalgardithicus would respond to such news. The great being had become his patron, his suggestions setting in motion Mordauk’s attempt to seize his destiny.
After a moment of no response, Mordauk sighed to himself. The great being sometimes seemed eager to discuss plans for the future, and at other times he seemed totally disinterested. Mordauk wasn’t getting a good feeling today.
Mordauk continued, “I thought perhaps you could divine who among my brethren in the Sacred Ring plotted against us.”
A thunderous laugh shook the ground. “Mordauk, none of your brethren dare plot against me.”
A twinge of anger shot through Mordauk. He expected the great being to be condescending. Why would a fifty-yard-tall god be anything less? But laughter was different, for whatever reason. It grated Mordauk.
Mordauk tried to steady his voice. “Mighty Kalgardithicus. None of my brethren may be foolish enough to plot against you, but one does plot against me. If you could divine who among the Kojo it is, I could accomplish my plans, and thus our plans, much sooner.”
A soft rumble, a mild chuckle, reverberated through the dunes. “Mordauk, they all plot against you. Even the Doomsayer himself.” Then the voice changed, becoming more serious and deeper. “If you truly desire the power and the glory, you must defeat all who stand in your way. Even the Kojo. Even the Doomsayer. The Ninth Avatar will reward the strong and the brave, while the timid and weak will be ground to dust.”
The chill almost overpowered Mordauk as his heart pound in his chest, not just from the cold, but from the excitement. Kalgardithicus had given his blessing to move against the Doomsayer himself.
“Perhaps,” said Mordauk, trying to keep both the excitement and the shiver out of his voice, “if I knew what was so special about those human data cores…”
Kalgardithicus’s mood turned darker. “An abomination has touched the Gorhah. A mechanical mind. One I believe to be built by the humans, left over from the war and hidden away.”
Mordauk shivered again, but not from the cold. Artificial intelligences were abominations. A cold, heartless machine with no fire, no passion, that yet pretended to live. "The fire of battle forged the soul," declared the First Avatar. A machine could experience no glory in victory, nor no despair in defeat, could never enrich their spirit through combat. Could never even have a spirit. Mordauk couldn't believe a machine had touched the Gorhah. That truly was an abomination if it had learned to interact with the Gorhah. He hadn’t thought that possible.
He was als
o surprised that the humans would have built such an abomination. The humans seemed to have their own taboos against the abominations. He knew, though, that defeat, just the threat of defeat, could quickly change one’s mindset. The Umpala had quickly abandoned the Warrior Code in the Human War, and already they began to abandon it again as the time of the Ninth Avatar approached. The abominations were one of the reasons the Umpala never liked space battles. The temptation to use smarter and smarter computers could push one over the edge and bring an abomination into being. But there had been no evidence that the humans had gone so far during the war. It had been a concern among the Kojo back then during the war, that the humans might unleash an abomination even if just by accident, but no indications of it had been detected.
It did make him wonder though if those strange pulsations in the Gorhah that had been detected recently might be related to this abomination. Some of the diviners pointed to the human worlds as the origin of the pulsations. Mordauk never considered the pulsations that big of concern himself, especially coming from the battered and broken human worlds, but the presence of an abomination, especially one that could actually touch the Gorhah, that was another matter. Humans seemed to be stirring again.
“Command me, almighty Kalgardithicus,” said Mordauk.
The portion of Kalgardithicus’s long millipede body that hung below his Umpalanoid legs slithered like a long tail in big sweeping arcs in the sand dunes. Each time a swath of sand was disturbed, a frenzy of insect creatures hidden just beneath the surface would dig deeper into the sand to avoid the light of day. His godly voice boomed out the words, “bring the data cores to Baltathigard so that they may be searched for more information about the abomination. Proceed first to Nuevo and retrieve a key to help unlock the artifacts.”
“Nuevo?” said Mordauk in mild surprise. “The remnants of Fire Clan are headed to Nuevo as we speak. I’ve been in pursuit. Again, they seem to be one step ahead of me.” He took care not to say, “one step ahead of us,” but it was definitely what he was thinking. At the moment, he and Naudook were both but pawns of higher powers, and Naudook’s master seemed to be a step ahead.
“It may appear to be so,” reverberated Kalgardithicus’s voice through the ground, “but the human world of Nuevo draws storm-clouds of various shades. A storm brews with the energies of many antagonists, many schemes.”
Mordauk held back a sigh. He had enough experience communing with Kalgardithicus to interpret certain meanings. Phrases such as “storm-clouds of various shades” and “many antagonists” did give Mordauk concern. The choice of language seemed to indicate that Kalgardithicus might hold these schemers in higher regard than just his typical disdain. Antagonists that Kalgardithicus himself considered worthy opponents might prove to be extremely dangerous to Mordauk.
“Even the Meddlers may have taken an interest in this world,” said Kalgardithicus, “but your first concern is to retrieve the key.”
Kalgardithicus then leaned forward, going down onto one giant knee, bringing his insectoid-Umpalaloid head with its glowing red eyes forward, right down before Mordauk’s mind’s eye, filling Mordauk’s entire field of view. Mordauk could feel an icy breeze escaping the giant mouth through the rows of black, chitinous teeth, a mouth that could probably devour Mordauk’s entire body in one bite if they were ever to meet in person. The red glowing eyes of his master bore down on Mordauk. “Do not disappoint me,” said Kalgardithicus in a cold, godly whisper as Mordauk thought he could feel his blood begin to freeze. “Achieve this goal, and I will give you your first taste of glory. Fail me, and you will suffer like no other ever has.”
Icy pain stabbing at every nerve ending became unbearable, and the vision vanished in a blink, Mordauk’s mind returning to the guest quarters on the Bloody Knife, to a circle etched in stone, as he shivered uncontrollably and tried to catch his breath. His real body had never left the ship, yet frost had formed on his arms and legs.
But he was one step closer to glory.