CHAPTER FOURTEEN
King Lomas paced around the obs deck, hands behind his back. He was a patient man but this business was so important that every second of time wasted could cost so much. He was pleased beyond belief that Farra had safely delivered the evidence package to Donaldson but worried about how events on Terramora Prime took an unexpected turn. Questions raced back and forth in his mind but he found answers to none of them but they raced anyway and as he paced, he fretted. Who tried to assassinate Donaldson and most of all, why? Farra saved him from the assassin’s gun but the man himself was still at large according to the message she sent them. Was she in danger? He wanted most of all for her to be safe but she made a specific point in her message of saying they must focus on getting Vincent to safety first and he knew in his heart that he couldn’t let her down. If they failed to find him and secure his return to Terramora he could never be granted his freedom and the stain would never be removed from his record. He knew Farra would never forgive him if he caused that to happen so they raced across the galaxy as fast as the battle cruiser would carry them heading for the Vinbuk System to rescue Vincent. They were almost there and Lomas paced with rising agitation as he waited for his officers to report their arrival.
“Your Majesty, we are arriving at Vinbuk 3 now Sir.” The intercom buzzed and Lomas raced to the bridge of his vessel without bothering to reply. At last, at long last they were here and if luck would smile on them today, they would secure Vincent and be away within hours.
“Thank heavens, I thought we’d never get here,” he puffed as he entered the bridge. “Scan for bio signals immediately.” As he watched his faithful crew obeying his commands without hesitation he suddenly felt very proud of them all and how throughout all of what transpired during the past weeks, not one of them questioned him. One of his officers then announced something that dismayed them all.
“Your Majesty, the Transmortals are on the planet’s surface.”
“What? Oh no, please no don’t let us be too late to save Vincent.” Lomas was horror stricken at this news and thought that Vincent would be bound to be dead by now and all would be lost. How in heaven’s name would Farra receive this news?
His officer interrupted his despairing thoughts again and what he said lifted his spirits a little. “Sir, something’s odd down there,” the officer frowned as he studied his instrument panel. “If I’m interpreting this correctly, it would seem the Transmortals are dying in their thousands. My bio scans are picking up the expected Transmortal bio energy signals by the hundreds of thousands, but as we speak the numbers are falling. The bio signals are just, well Sir they’re just going out, disappearing.” The officer looked at Lomas, puzzled. He was equally puzzled and went to the instrument panel to check for himself. Sure enough the numbers of living Transmortal bio signals were falling rapidly, many thousands a minute at a rough estimate.
“How very odd. I wonder what is happening to them down there,” Lomas said. “Any other bio signals apparent?”
“Yes Sir there are. There are a great number of animal bio signals in the same locality as the dying Transmortal signals and a number of humanoid bio signals one hundred and eleven miles east of this locality,” he reported.
Lomas was almost too afraid to ask the next question but he knew it had to be asked. He took a deep breath. “Is there a Lilean bio signal evident anywhere at all?” He closed his eyes and prayed as he waited for the officer to re adjust his scanner to the known Lilean bio energy frequency and re scan the planet.
“Yes Sir, just the one, and it’s a living signal. He’s alive your Majesty, we’re not too late.” The officer risked a smile at his King, who let out an anguished gasp of relief and almost burst into tears. He sent up a silent word of thanks and sighed deeply.
Immediately he focussed on the task ahead of them. “Where is he,” he asked.
The officer took a second or two to scan for a precise location of the Lilean bio energy signal before looking up at the King with a frown evident once again on his face. “Right in amongst the dying Transmortals Sir. It would seem as if they have him in their custody. Either that or he’s managed to hide out right in the middle of them without being detected, which as we know is quite impossible with their psychic and telepathic powers. If you were to ask me to theorise, I’d say they have him prisoner and we have an extraction mission on our hands. We can’t get to him without either waiting to see if they all die, or going in now, which will inevitably mean engaging them.” Lomas was faced with a terrible choice, either waste valuable time waiting for all the Transmortals to die of whatever it is that’s killing them before going in to get Vincent, and possibly finding that whatever killed them kills him too while they’re waiting, or go in now and use force. He didn’t like either of the choices; he didn’t like them at all.
The Drycenians are not a fighting race. Over the millennia they learned to leave the more volatile emotions in the past and have lived as silent, invisible and legendary observers of humanity. With their vastly superior technology they were able to observe the other races in the galaxy as they grew and evolved and began to stretch their wings into space, which meant they were usually able to be the first alien race these new neighbours encountered. The Drycenians believe that as a peaceful friendly race, that first tentative and important meeting was more assured of reaping friendly relations into the future and more times than not, they were proved right. Being a little on the secretive side, due to their awareness of the importance not to interfere with any of their neighbours natural evolutionary cycles by inadvertently passing on advancements in technology or the like, they became the stuff of legends and fireside stories. This does not mean they cannot defend themselves or take a pro active stance, far from it. They are more than capable of being amongst the most fearsome of aggressors, but it goes against their nature and they gain no joy in taking such action. Lomas weighed up the pros and cons in his mind and knew there was only one choice. They would have to go in and engage the Transmortals. The decision made he wasted no more time.
“Battle stance at once, we will engage the Transmortals to secure Vincent’s safety.” He turned and left the bridge and headed for the armoury.
The enormous Drycenian Battle Cruiser landed at the edge of the forest, twenty miles to the east of the Transmortal ship. Within ten minutes thousands of Drycenian Troopers riding battle boards with their King and Prince Toma at their head were racing through the forest towards the dome complex. At three miles out, they stopped and dismounted from their battle boards. Powered by Pulse Wave Energy, these machines allow the Drycenians to travel extremely quickly over great distances at three or four feet off the ground. They are essentially just a flat oval board on which a man can stand and are operated by a relatively simple joystick. They take some practice to use efficiently but once mastered, they are valuable in situations where fast travel and stealth are necessary. Lomas decided they would walk the last three miles and set off at the head of his ever faithful army of Troopers, his son and heir at his side.
He argued with Toma when he announced he was accompanying them. Toma was his only heir and without a King, the Drycenian Nation would lose its continuity and the people could become unsettled. Toma however was not to be dissuaded and Lomas was secretly proud of his son for making such a decision. As a proud young man it was necessary for him to regain some of the dignity he lost by being held prisoner on Moxal 3 and having to be rescued by a female, even one they now loved as much as Farra. As the silent army entered an area of low scrub, where the trees gave way and let a little more light in, they saw the first of the bodies. They approached cautiously and noticed that the corpse seemed to have had its face and throat torn off, as if it had been attacked by some even deadlier enemy than itself. As they continued making their way carefully through the scrub, more bodies lay everywhere and all with the same injuries. Lomas remembered the bio scan that revealed the presence of non human animals in
the area and he wondered if they were the cause of the injuries they were seeing here. His next thought was to wonder if they were in danger themselves from these unknown killers. As they climbed over a small rise and looked down at the dome complex a mile below, he got his answer.
“My god, look at them all,” Toma exclaimed as his eyes took in the scene that his brain refused to believe. Lomas and all the other Drycenians were having the same difficulty believing what they were seeing. All around them and down to the domes themselves lay dead and dying Transmortals, thousands upon thousands of them. Amongst them, going from corpse to corpse were the creatures. They were basically cat like, about the size of a bear with grey furry bodies and hairless tails that sported a tuft of bristly spines at the end that vibrated as they gorged themselves on the sudden and fabulous repast. The Drycenians stood there on the crest of the rise and watched the gory scene below and were so riveted on what they were seeing that they didn’t at first notice the creatures wending their way between them.
“Oh god look,” a Trooper cried from Lomas’ left and they all looked. One of the creatures had come up from behind and joined them on the crest of the rise to look down at the scene below. As they looked at it, another joined them between Lomas and Toma and others, a hundred or more of the creatures stood shoulder to shoulder with the Drycenian army looking down at the hellish scene below. Not once did any of the creatures show aggression to them, they simply stood there with them and watched. The creature at Lomas’ side suddenly looked up at him and their eyes met. He got the distinct feeling that this creature and he were communicating at some deep unknown inner level and if he was pressed on the matter hard enough, he’d have to admit he felt there was intelligence there too, intelligence and understanding way beyond their physical evolution. The creature gave Lomas a slow blink and the spell was broken and as one, the creatures took off down the slope to join their fellows and fill their hungry bellies.
“Let’s go, remain alert.” Lomas gave the order and the Drycenian army started down the slope towards the domes. As they reached the bottom and began to tread their way through the carnage the creatures accepted their presence without a single sign of aggression, intent only on feeding. Here and there amongst the adults youngsters could be seen learning from their parents and feasting on the free food. The first of the vast domes loomed in front of them and Lomas gave the order for them to investigate the perimeter with extreme caution and to fire at will if necessary. Four Troopers approached the dome and began to make their way around the circumference whilst Lomas and the others watched for any sign of Transmortal attack. After a few minutes one of the Troopers hailed Lomas through his communication implant.
“Your majesty, you need to see this Sir. We’re at five o clock from your position, awaiting your arrival.” Lomas set off at a run with the rest of his army following behind. As he approached the position of his Troopers he found them waiting outside an open doorway. The door had been forced and lay in pieces on the ground. This was of little interest to him; what alerted the Troopers and was now shocking the rest who saw it, was the sign above this entranceway.
“Community 1,” the sign read in clear Drycenian script.
“What the fuck?” Toma exclaimed aloud as everyone looked at each other, the shock evident on their faces.
“Drycenian script? We’ve never had an outpost here have we?” Lomas asked.
“No Sir, never,” a Trooper replied.
“No one else in the known galaxy speaks our tongue do they?” Toma said.
“No Sir, no one,” was the emphatic reply.
“But these bodies are not Drycenians. Look at them, they’re clearly Transmortals. What the hell has been going on here?” Toma asked, knowing that his fellows didn’t have the answer.
“Let’s hope we find out inside, come on,” Lomas ordered and cautiously they entered the dome.
They found themselves inside what looked like a reception lounge. There were seating areas and tables upon which books and papers were strewn as though the readers just got up and left. There was a bar whose shelves were still filled with bottles of many sizes and colours. Byron walked over and examined some.
“Sir, look at this. All the bottle labels are written in Drycenian script, just like the sign. Look here’s a bottle called Canto, and there’s one called Silma over there.” Lomas went and examined the bottles with a frown.
“Sir, these books here, and the papers, they’re all in Drycenian too,” a Trooper called from the other side of the large room and Lomas went to look. He examined a few of the papers and found them to be discussing the pros and cons of some kind of medical technique.
“This is getting weirder by the minute,” he remarked to the Trooper, who nodded in agreement. “Get these papers to Doctor Jam, he might be able to understand them more, I’m not a medical man.” The Trooper gathered up the papers and tucked them inside his jacket. They descended to the next floor down, alert for the slightest noise that might signal a Transmortal waiting to ambush them. They found themselves looking along a corridor lined with doors, some of which where standing open. On the floor were several dead Transmortals. As they traversed the corridor examining the rooms they found them to be offices of some sort. Again they noted the presence of many dead Transmortals and the abundance of computer hardware and data chips.
Down on the next floor they found what were obviously living quarters. Each room was obviously occupied as there were belongings strewn about and the beds were unmade. More books and other documents were found and all were written in Drycenian.
“Father, look at this,” Toma called and Lomas went over to find him reading a sheaf of papers describing what looked like some time back in Transmortal history.
“Hang onto it Toma,” Lomas ordered and his son tucked it away safely inside his jacket. In one room the bed was occupied by a not quite dead Transmortal. He was close to death but still just conscious and his laboured breathing and unearthly colour told the Drycenians that his time would come soon. He was no threat to them so they went over to him and as they approached the bed, he opened his eyes and reached out a hand in a beseeching gesture. He strained to speak but could only utter a couple of words before exhaustion took over.
“Water,” he gasped at them imploringly in Drycenian.
Toma looked at his father who nodded slowly. He went to the night stand and poured a glass of water and took it to the dying man. When he opened his eyes again and saw the glass being offered to him, his eyes went wide with terror and he shied away from Toma’s hand as it held the glass out to him.
“Water,” he said again and Toma moved the glass closer.
“This is water. Here, drink it,” he offered the dying man the glass once more but he turned his face away, the fear obvious.
“Death, water,” he gasped again, “water, death.”
His eyes glazed and as the life left him the Drycenians looked at each other and then at the glass held in Toma’s hand. Lomas immediately communicated with his officers and told them that in no circumstances was anyone to drink the water here. Once he received assurances that the order would be followed by all, he signalled a Trooper to take a sample and have it scanned immediately. The Trooper obeyed without hesitation. Lomas then ordered some Troopers to remove the body back to their ship for analysis so they could work out if the water had killed him or if something else was to blame. They made their way down to the next floor and found three rooms that were recognisable as medical bays. In one room there was even a skeleton still on the table. As the Drycenian group approached the table and took in what they were seeing, they all looked at each other, unable to speak for the shock they were all feeling. Toma expressed what they all felt.
“Shit. Oh my god. Oh shit look at it. It’s a Drycenian. It’s one of us father. What the fuck was going on here?”
Lomas was nonplussed and couldn’t answer right away. He searched his mind for understa
nding but found nothing more than a few threads. “I haven’t the faintest idea my son but I aim to find out.” He looked around the room and saw something that gave him some hope. “Look at that,” he indicated a shelf on the opposite side of the room. Below it was a data scanner that they recognised. “That’s a scanner, an old type for sure, but I recognise it, and those chips up on the shelf, look there must be fifty or more of them. If they all have information on them we might get some answers to our questions. Gather up all data chips you find, all of them mind, don’t leave one behind. I want answers and I mean to have them,” he ordered.
“Yes Sir,” came the reply immediately.
“Now let’s see what’s down on the next floor,” he said as he strode purposefully towards the stairs. On the lower floor they found one large room that looked like a gathering place. There was a large seat at one end which one accessed by climbing a couple of steps. All around the walls were paintings depicting battle scenes with the Transmortals always triumphant.
“Look at this here,” a Trooper called and they all went to look. “This must be a depiction of the Lilean attack; these dead bodies all have the Lilean star on their chests.”
“So Vincent must be here in this painting somewhere,” Lomas said and searched until he saw a depiction of a Transmortal holding a baby aloft by its feet. All around were hundreds of Lileans beseeching the triumphant Transmortal to spare the life of the child, their hands raised towards it, despair etched on their faces. “Here, here he is, look,” he pointed out the scene to the group who all gathered around to look. “I want all of these paintings photographed, don’t miss a single detail out. Now let’s check the next dome.” They made their way back up to the surface and went through the same procedure with the next dome and the one after that.
It was during their search of the fourth dome that they found Vincent. As they descended to the bottom floor to find themselves in yet another large gathering area with painted walls they were stunned to find two examination tables in the centre of the room, both tilted at forty five degrees so that the bodies upon them were almost in a standing position. One was clearly a Transmortal and the other was Vincent.
“It’s Vincent, he’s here,” Toma ran over to him and saw the Lilean star on his chest. He laid a hand on his chest and closed his eyes. After a few seconds the faint heartbeat could just be detected. “He’s alive, quick get the Doctor down here now,” he screamed at the Troopers who ran from the room shouting into their communication implants. Lomas went over to the Transmortal body and checked it for signs of life. There were none and he breathed a sigh of relief. He noticed something glinting on the body and reached over to look. It was a large medallion in the shape of a sun and had clearly recognisable symbols on it.
He was stunned, amazed, delighted and humbled all at the same time and as he spoke to his crew, they noticed he had tears in his eyes. “He did it, Vincent did it. He’s fulfilled the prophecy and ended the Transmortal threat forever. He’s killed their leader, look,” he held up the medallion for all to see and there was a stunned silence as they looked at the King’s Crest that lay around the dead Transmortals throat. The very same King’s Crest that their own beloved King Lomas wore around his own throat at all times. It was his badge of office, the sign of his Kingship and symbol of the continuity of the Drycenian Nation as it was handed down from King to King through the generations. He ripped it from the Transmortals body and went over to where Vincent’s body lay. Laying a hand upon his brow he leaned down to him and whispered into his ear. “Vincent, you are safe now. We are your friends and we are going to help you. You have triumphed in your great task here. Now we will care for you and return you to full health. Fear not.”
Doctor Jam arrived panting and sweating and ran to Vincent’s side. “Oh my dear friend what have they done to you?” he said as he took a mobile body scanning device from his pocket and ran it up and down all over Vincent’s body. The little device bleeped and blinked and for a full five minutes no one uttered a sound. When it was finished he put the device away and scratched his head. “Hmmm,” he muttered to himself out loud. Lomas and the others were more than a little impatient for news.
“Well?” Lomas yelled a little too harshly and was instantly sorry. “I’m sorry Doctor Jam, forgive me for my impatience.”
“Of course Your Majesty,” the doctor replied, “I understand completely. This will be a little difficult; it’s not just a case of lifting his body from this table and getting him into a tank back on the ship,” he explained in as clear a language as he could.
“Why not? What’s the problem?” Toma enquired for all of them.
“Look here, at this,” he said as he indicated something at the very back of Vincent’s head as it lay on the table. Everyone gathered closer to see what the doctor was showing them and from what they could see, there was some kind of device attached to the back of Vincent’s head that was also attached to the table itself. The doctor continued explaining. “He has something implanted into his brain and this device is receiving commands from somewhere; my guess would be that dead Transmortal on the next table.” He looked at Lomas as he explained all this to him.
Lomas looked puzzled. “But how can it be receiving commands from a dead body, a dead brain?” he asked, hoping the doctor would know the answer.
“What we know of Transmortal dogma tells us that they become the way they are by going to the very edge of death itself and holding there until all soul memory is wiped clean. When they are then returned to waking life they are effectively a blank canvas ready to be uploaded with a new identity, a new set of beliefs and new soul memory.” The doctor looked around the group to see that they were all still following him. Nods all around told him they were and he continued. “This Transmortal was somewhere within that process with Vincent when he died, leaving the process unfinished.” He looked at Lomas, hoping he understood what the ramifications were without him having to take more time spelling it out for him. The King’s vacant look told him to continue explaining. “Which means that he is therefore unable to return him to waking life. Vincent is now permanently stuck somewhere between waking life and the very edge of death.”
“Oh no, that can’t be,” Lomas declared as if by commanding that it be so, it would be so. “There must be a way around it, there has to be.” He looked at Jam imploringly.
The doctor scratched his chin and thought for a few moments before looking up at Lomas. “In theory it’s simple; we just reverse the process he’s already gone through.”
“And how do we do that?” Lomas asked.
“As I say, in theory it’s simple. We alter the device so that it undoes everything it’s done so far. We put it into reverse if you like. But we can talk this through on board the ship; the first thing is to get Vincent on board and at the moment where Vincent goes, the table must go also.” The group jumped into action. With the use of several of the Troopers battle boards and with much heaving and shoving, several banged elbows and trapped fingers; they got Vincent and table back up to ground level. After several minutes rest to get their wind, stretch sore backs and massage painful fingers, they connected a bank of battle boards together and managed to fly the table with Vincent still on it, back to the ship where he was immediately installed within the medical bay. Back in his own space with his own equipment at his disposal, the doctor felt much more at ease and in control of the situation and sat down to think.
As the doctor sat in the medical bay pouring over ideas and theories for hour after hour, Lomas and the Troopers stripped the dome complex of every data chip, book and document they could find. Then they took the body of the Transmortal leader up to the surface and laid it upon the ground. A fire was burning fiercely nearby and every single Drycenian except the doctor, stood to attention row on row. Lomas approached the body.
“I speak now for all those lost at your hands in all the worlds upon which your stain has
remained. Too long has the universe given you shelter while you spread your evil. I stand over you now representing those nations still weeping and those of whom none remain to weep at the desecration you brought to their lands. We are a peaceful nation who finds no joy at the extinction of a race. We travel the galaxy extending the hand of friendship to all with whom we come into contact in the hope of forging unbreakable bonds of compassion and unity. As I stand over you now in your hour of extinction I let it be known across the universe that we will weep with those who lost so much at your hands, we will weep with all who mourn for those you took from them. As I stand over you now I let it be known across the universe that we will not weep for you, we will not mourn at your passing and as your memory fades into the grey mists of the past so shall all that you stood for be forgotten forever.” He took a step back, removed the fabulously ornate dagger that hung from his hip and raising it high into the air cried. “The prophecy is fulfilled and the prophesied one has triumphed.” With one single powerful blow, he brought his dagger down and took the Transmortal Pzolgons head cleanly off his body. Stooping down he lifted it high into the air as the crowd cheered and whooped and wept with happiness. Stepping over to the now blazing fire, he thrust it into the flames.
As the Drycenian battle cruiser raced across the galaxy on its way back to Terramora Prime Lomas addressed his crew.
“Friends, we made a solemn vow when our blessed friend Farra saved my son. We vowed to give her every aid in her quest to ensure Vincent’s name is cleared of the stain it has never deserved. As our good doctor still works to find a way to bring him back to us, we affirm our vow. Vincent will be there to have his name cleared and gain the freedom that is rightfully his. If he walks into the hearing himself or if we have to carry him there ourselves on that table, he will be there and he will have his freedom. Does anyone disagree?” He allowed several long seconds of silence to go by before continuing. “Now we all need to help the doctor find a cure. Search through the data chips and papers we took from the planet. Anything that may give us a clue as to how to reverse that device, the slightest little thing. No matter how small an idea, flag it up to the doctor. Now let’s get at it.”
As the hours passed and the data chips, papers and journals were scanned and their information digested, the Drycenians found a truth so utterly surprising that they didn’t know how to react to it. In the earliest years when the Transmortals were perfecting their transformation technique, they found a planet inhabited by very primitive and savage humanoids. They took them all to an uninhabited planet they set up as their new base and used them in their first mass transformation experiments. They took care to bring along trees and plants that these primitive savages would recognise and feel at home with. It didn't go to plan though and after five thousand years, the Transmortals gave up trying to transform these humanoids. The ones they experimented on were returned to their original planet and left there. These changed humanoids flourished and evolved at an alarming rate, so much so that they had technology vastly superior to any to be found anywhere else. They were peaceful and friendly and kept themselves to themselves. They became the stuff of legends. They became the Drycenian Nation. They were so shocked at this discovery that they didn’t know how to even begin to discuss it. Four hours later they were still pouring over data streams and pieces of paper littered the floor on the obs deck. Lomas was almost asleep when the intercom buzzed.
“Your Majesty,” Doctor Jam sounded excited. “Come to the medical facility quickly please.” Everyone looked up and exchanged glances, then as one the group lunged for the door. As they burst in through the door of the medical facility they were met with Doctor Jam who was wearing the biggest smile they had ever seen. “Welcome your Majesty, please come in. May I present Vincent Richard Domenico.” As the doctor moved aside Lomas saw the familiar tank. He approached cautiously and peered inside through the liquid that was gently cradling him in its healing depths. He moved around to the rear of the tank to try to see the back of his head. The device was gone. Lomas looked up at the doctor in complete surprise as his jaw dropped and his eyebrows shot upwards.
The doctor smiled broadly and explained how he found the answer. “It came to me all of a sudden. I was pouring over medical texts and theories until my brain was numb and I was about to despair. As I began to sink into a fit of anger and depression at my own impotence I let my thoughts wander to Vincent and his life. I remembered all that we’ve learned about him from Farra, his life and his experiences and I thought of his birth. It was then that it hit me and I almost fell off my seat. You see, we know that the Transmortal process involves taking the victim to the edge of death and holding them there don’t we?” Everyone nodded. “And we also know that the process only works once, the Transmortal process doesn’t work on anyone who has already been to the edge of death, to the place they call The Veil. With me so far?” More nods. “Vincent was murdered just after birth. He will have gone not only to the edge of death but a way over it before being brought back by the Lilean spirit people.” As the doctor looked at his friends he noticed mouths begin to open and eyes begin to widen as understanding began to take hold. “This means that the device attached to his head wasn’t able to do its job at all. There was no process that needs reversing because that process cannot happen to him. He is immune to the Transmortal process. All I had to do was surgically remove it and repair the damaged neural pathways. A few days in the tank and he’ll be as good as new. Why your Majesty are you all right Sir?” the doctor asked.
“Yes Doctor,” Lomas sobbed. “Yes indeed I’m okay.
*****