Genesis - the Battle Within (Pillars of Creation Book 1) (16 page)

“Kna’n fast became a planet suited for both SED and Seekers of Truth settlement; it was a well-resourced planet, on the other side of the portal, from which Earth could launch its missions in the search for the other portals. It cut the running costs of the expeditions, and its added revenue assisted in pulling Terithian space free from recession and strife.

“At the time it seemed a blessing for everyone; Kna’n was destined to become a valuable commodity, and within just a short period of time through the combined efforts of both nations, it had established several major cities and a flourishing, teeming with potential, planet. As it flourished, Kna’n also began to colonise its surrounding planets.

“For over thirty-one years the portal linked our worlds and furthered the Way of the Sacred endeavours. Of course trials did come from this sector, which was so far from the Terithian Galaxy, but its worth far outweighed its difficulties. It was a symbol of hope, with access to a place no ship in existence could reach without falling prey to the decay of time.

“The trip through the portal to the Cen’Shur’a sector took only a matter of seconds, engulfing each and any ship of any size, and passing it over to the receiving portal almost instantly. Decades of slip-space travel were eliminated. Kna’n then played its role in housing the influx of traffic and supplies, assisting any vessels in difficulty, and providing protection for all ships entering the sector. It truly was a cornerstone in our religion’s path and faith.”

Osiris changed the image floating over the class, to a slowly orbiting, peculiar-looking facility traversing over Kna’n. He drew their attention to it as he walked out from the podium and moved under the object, speaking into the air and simultaneously defying his earlier attempt to skip over the details.
Damn the clock,
he thought.

“Early on, our research teams worked out that this other Temple facility – the receiving end of our portal – was not to be our second gateway, it was simply built to receive our portal from Terithian space, at Mars Prime, and that was all.

“Although directly linked with our Temple and of a complicated design, which even our SINAI found difficult to understand, it didn’t indicate where the next portal and leg of our journey might be. Yet still, through this facility we did discover one interesting fact; the orbiting Temple of Kna’n was a facility that had direct influence over the power fluctuations of our very own portal …

“This facility, even though more basic than our own, seemed to have a function other than just receiving our ships – simply put, it could turn our portal off. The two Temples seemed connected, two parts of one whole, a Quantum entanglement and place for each end of the portal to be received by the other’s direct and flowing energy. Yes, Quantum entanglement at its finest.

“More to the point, and as we soon learned, if switched off, this inferior facility could bar our portal from functioning just as ours could do the same, which I will use to underpin our final point in my conclusion.”

He abruptly made the image vanish and moved back to his podium, leaning on it as he finished up.

“The majority of the peoples’ inhabiting this other end of the portal in the Cen’Shur’a sector, as mentioned, were from the Seekers of Truth. Their government and the more peaceful colonies drew up the treaties, and upon signing were given sanctuary and peace there. We promised them safe delivery from the Outer Rim territories and permission to continue their religion and colonisation on Kna’n, with the bulk of their peaceful peoples keeping themselves intact – as I spoke of earlier.

“What I didn’t mention earlier was that this of course led to much internal conflict within the Skinks own Order. The treaty was hard won, and, as I explained, was assured by them handing over the ancient Ten’stone that served as the key for our facility on Mars Prime.

“This angered the remaining Skink military forces, which became separatists and converged on the portal, fighting a final battle to stop what they saw as betrayal by their own people. The battle for the Sacred Portal, now known as the Portal Battle, was a short lived, but colossal time of upheaval.

“Nevertheless, the betrayal by the Skink government to their own militia left them at our mercy, and we crushed the opposing force after a time of fierce and merciless warfare. It had been a bold political move by the peaceful splinter of Skinks, and very risky, but the trade-off favoured them and us both.

“Amnesty and colonisation of Kna’n was gifted by us, and the Ten’stone by them. This plan had been carefully devised by the SINAI and Elders, and as long as our forces could oversee Skink projects and trade, their new society would be protected from their fanatics, offering them new beginnings.

“Sadly this is the point I have been leading up to. Devastatingly, those brief few decades of peace were not to last, and strangely it wasn’t the fanatics that brought its end. Over thirty years after the initial Skink colonies arrived within the Cen’Shur’a sector, in 3613, the portal shut on their side. All contact was lost, along with five of our own Immortals, a major portion of our military, and the Skink’s and SED colonies who remained.” Osiris paused allowing the cold severity of this point to sink in.

“Since that day, with the other side of the portal shut down, our portal also has sadly been shut down, with only one apparent way to open it back up; a restart from the orbiting facility above Kna’n is needed, in harmony with our own. This, due to the distance from our galaxy, is why it remains shut today, and is a complete mystery to us all. Our path is now barred.

“The few remaining military arms of the Skinks in our Terithian sector blamed us of course. They accused us of closing down the other side of the portal to segregate and eliminate the majority of its peoples. They were wrong, yet once again, with what little they had left, they began opposing us, using propaganda to build support and rekindle their numbers.

“The battles once again began, and since that fateful year of 3613 to today, the Skink campaign to finish us has been churning, cultivating a hate with a new found vigour towards all that is the SED, and Way of the Sacred. 

“In truth however, we are still unaware of our brothers in the Cen’Shur’a sector’s true fates. Or of what became of our stranded people and the lost Seekers of Truth colonies. All remains a mystery and is why I stated earlier, our search is now on, and not just for signs of the other portals. Our first step for putting our search back on track, is finding a way back into the Cen’Shur’a sector and re-igniting this original portal. We are diligently working around the clock on this task, and the SINAI now trains much of its Rieft affinity on this one endeavour.

“Not many clues were given for why our portal closed seventy years ago, all that
is
known, is that one message came through the portal that day. Seconds before closing, an unknown entity sent a strange written data package, which I quote to the letter, ‘We know you are here, we are coming, contact denied.’

“From this point, no one knows what happened to the party responsible for the message. Our military, our five Immortals and the millions of civilians who were left stranded on Kna’n – and her surrounding colonies – and their long-kept silence and secret, is all—”

A siren rang out, signalling the end of class. Osiris had gone over time but could see that his captivated audience didn’t mind. He picked up the crushed comm on the podium and slipped it into his robe. He carefully held up his hands, raised his eyebrows, and gave an apologetic grin.

“And that, my disciples, will have to be continued another day, class dismissed and may the Sacred watch over you all.”

×

After speaking emphatically on their history and the religious war, the lecture was thankfully cut short by the chantry’s bell. The disciples begrudgingly began stirring and filing out, grumbling about not hearing his conclusion. Finally, Justice was able to catch his eye as the seats emptied and his view of Osiris became clearer.

Justice was glowering with malice from the back of the theatre. Osiris raised his hand, and motioned him over. He muttered a few curses as he pushed past the many students, who stuttered words of penance for being in the angry Wielder’s way.

Osiris smiled as he approached, looking like he was trying hard not to anger his visibly agitated pupil further.

“Can I help you Justice?” Osiris spoke soothingly.

His answer was purposefully brief; he was beyond angry for being kept so long and was eager to learn more of the recent developments. He was in no mood for suffering his Master’s grinning complacency and complete disregard for protocol in not having his comm open. Justice waited until the last student left the lecture theatre, and spoke in a hushed, doleful tone.

“Master Osiris … a second Temple facility has been found, and not by us; the new portal became active at 06:00 this morning and we are to report immediately to the council of Elders … we should already be on our way.

Genesis ran through the now emblazoned bridge for the main door, but found the blast shields still drawn. He knew he had to act quickly if he was to get out from this mess.

Raising both hands against the shields he found the small seam holding them together and dug his fingers in. Focusing a small amount of his Rieft ability and channelling his psychic energy, he nurtured the power building in his core to disentangle from his physical being. Just as he’d been trained, he began visualising the power’s movement, directing the energies from within to his outer body.

Genesis reigned in all this strength, and with a heave his muscles bunched. They rippled briefly as his veins bulged. Still the door gave up a powerful fight. Just as he was about to give in, the doors finally gave way with a loud screech, just enough for Genesis to scrape through. He released his power as he eased through, and the doors clanged heavily together behind him, and then he did what any other would do in his position – he ran like hell.

He’d only made it a few metres when he felt the tremor of the second volley, far enough away to only make him stumble slightly, but he was still forced to hit the ground momentarily. As he got back up, he got a clear view of the awaiting ambush the Skinks had set up to protect the bridge. As he picked out an accessible pathway, his eyes recognised what little was left of the corpses of the twenty or so Skinks, the first volley clearly making a direct hit.

Mangled and shredded bodies were dangling from destroyed support struts, and blood dripped from the ceiling like rain as he passed through it. Spurred faster by the gruesome sight, he continued into the twisted metal and debris that had torn these poor men apart, remaining focussed on running.

Once passed the sight giving him cause for concern, Genesis brought up Me’lina, remembering his squad. He hoped they were in better shape than the ones he’d just witnessed. His voice betrayed urgency, “Me’lina, have both Delta squads retreat immediately, if I’m not there when they are, they are to leave without me, okay?”

Me’lina’s voice answered within his mind mechanically and calmly. “Genesis, unfortunately there is a negative response from all of Delta 2, and all vitals from them are showing up as negative. Delta 1 is already on the move, back towards their entry ship, ETA thirty seconds and closing. I strongly suggest we tell them to wait at least until we—”

Genesis butted in. “Not now Me’lina, I don’t need an argument and I’m kind of busy if you hadn’t noticed.”

Her voice cut off in a huff.

Picking up speed, Genesis hurtled himself down the passageways with no regard for the occasional Skink that was scrambling for the depleted life pods; he was running out of options and with the new high pitched sound that was building from within the ship, he knew he was also running out of time.

The second volley must have scored one of the engines, or the power-core of the frigate, as he knew from experience the sound that was building to its devastating climax was the fatal sound of a ship’s engines becoming critical. The effect would blow a ship completely apart from the inside, along with anyone unlucky enough to be nearby.

Starting to feel the pressure, and fearing for his mortal disciples who’d come aboard with him, he queried Me’lina again, “Tell me honestly, how long will it take to get to Delta 1?”

Still sounding offended, Me’lina answered, “Thirty-two seconds at current speed, but considering the output usage on our ion-core we now only have four seconds of maximum speed, so ETA to Delta 1 is 324 seconds in total.”

Genesis heart sank –
Damn!

He felt his pace slow dramatically, he’d pushed the suit’s ion-core too hard for too long – using the core for direct sustained running like this was the quickest way to drain its power. He was now forced to run at a normal sprint, about twice as fast as a normal human due to his physique and DNA infusion. He cocked his head as he gauged the severity of the ship’s increasing sounds and damage.

“Damn,” he spoke aloud, “we aren’t going to make it to Delta in time are we?” Me’lina didn’t bother replying, knowing his question was rhetorical. But Genesis had already thought as much and was glad he’d told them to leave without him. Now though, this decision meant he was faced with a different problem …
how the hell would he get off this ship?

The Immortal came to a dead stop to consider his limited options, made harder by the whining of the ship’s engines that were becoming piercingly loud and distressed as they further deteriorated—

Genesis grabbed a bunch of wiring to hold himself in place. Like a wave along the hull of the entire ship he felt it begin shuddering – shuddering with the power it was desperately fighting and losing to contain. He instantly knew his mind was made up for him.

Damn it … Slath, slath and triple slath …
he knew he had only one option, and he hated unassisted space flight. At this latter thought Me’lina cut abruptly into his mind.

“No, no, Genesis, we are not doing this again, it’s completely reckless and there’s no guarantee or second chances—”

His reply had an edge to it, “Me’lina I told you not to cut my thoughts like that and you know this is our only option, so just do it and tell me when we’re ready.”

Genesis ignored her second huff as he ran back down the passageways the way he’d already come. Before he’d gotten far the lighting of the ship flickered and shut down entirely around him. The swaying Immortal paused briefly, and the blackness was replaced by the dull red glow of emergency lights. He followed the quickest path he remembered leading to the outer hull. His night-vision was rendered almost useless by the sparks that exploded in bright flashes across most of the electronic panels, forcing him to switch the optics off completely.

Aware of his diminishing window for escape, he quickly adapted to the obstacle and relied on his affinity for low light and his recollection from the earlier briefings, which served him well enough to keep his momentum moving with a remnant of his prior haste. A few minutes later, Genesis finally arrived at an outer passage where he remembered seeing viewport windows.

The intermittent flashes lit him up as the shadows that were cast across the passage danced and forced him to traverse the remaining steps more slowly. Regardless of his hindered speed, he saw he’d somehow made it intact, and before the vessel imploded. He relaxed slightly as he saw through the viewport directly ahead of him the mainly white and slightly green glow of the planet they were orbiting.

Thank Sacred for that,
he thought relieved. It was a large rectangular flexi-glass window, easily large enough for him to fit through, common to all spacecraft used by the SED and Skink militia.

As he calculated his jump Me’lina jarringly chimed in yet again, “Genesis, suit status is at full space sustainability, ready when you are, but I really think this is—”

Genesis heard the tiny scrape behind him as he shut out Me’lina, listening intently as his second personality grabbed hold of all his senses …
In the name of the Sacred! That’s impossible, no one’s good enough to sneak up on an Immortal, no one’s that quiet
.

In stark contrast to his thoughts
Genesis was aware of the strange presence far too late as it rushed up behind him. He felt the impact collide with his lower back with devastating brute force and malevolent violence, and he flew forward with enough force to smash painfully into the window a few metres away. Unfortunately, he only cracked the enhanced flexi glass; if he’d broken through escape would’ve been assured.

Landing back on his feet, catlike, Genesis wheeled around, eyes narrowing almost to slits as he regained the wind that had well and truly been kicked out of him. He gasped – standing before him was a majestic and terrifying sight.

The Tel’nagara stood perfectly still. At about two metres tall, the creature looked down upon him, its eyes blazing with white suns at their core. The guttural sound he’d heard before emanated from the creature. Me’lina translated it, and pulled up the data from Earth’s past encounters with the heretics.

“Your time is at an end Wielder, they are coming and they know you are here, they know where you are and like those before, you will be their reclamation. You will submit now, your resistance is over, you
will
bend to my cause human.” As the last words pierced the air, the Tel’nagara flared its twin, pure psychic blades ceremoniously to life, illuminating the passage with silver light and bathing both combatants in its eerie glow.

Bewildered and fascinated by the exalted sight, Genesis didn’t flinch as he took in every detail in a cursory glance – a talent from his years of training. As he raced through the details he took a snapshot and examined it in his split mind while staying on task.

The creature had powerfully muscular horse-like legs, folding back on themselves before straightening towards the ground, and which it had obviously used to devastating effect – his back was aching and he was still short of breath.

The alien’s torso and upper body resembled a human’s, but with elongated appendages and a long thin abdomen that rose into a muscular chest. Its shoulders were pointier than a human’s, but were also strong and muscular, with long biceps and forearms extended and moulded perfectly into tight bands of muscle, right down to its large three-fingered powerful hands. The creature had longer, thicker fingers than a human, but with similar-looking functions.

Genesis noted a third protrusion from its heel, giving the foot a total of three large toe appendages, for what looked like superior stability. Two at the front and one at the back, and each was easily as wide as a regular man’s foot. Genesis figured it would be nearly impossible to knock the creature down. The Tel’nagara’s head and face was shaped like a human’s, but with a thinner longer forehead and glowing white eyes.

But the main feature Genesis was drawn to, and what separated the creature from a human most of all, was its mouth. Attached to the jaw were four insect-like, but curved, mandibles, with rows of sharp teeth giving the creature a predatory look. Its grey skin had a texture similar to that of a reptile – gleaming, hard, smooth and tough looking. The smoothness, Genesis noted, was aided by its complete lack of hair, apart from a black mass on the very back of its head that looked more like tubular leather cords than hair. It was pulled together by some kind of ornamental and mechanical ring-like object that held the cords into a long tail that draped halfway down the creature’s back.

Genesis became aware that the creature intrigued him so much that he’d still not drawn his own weapon. But something was off to him – the creature almost looked too perfect, too real – Genesis couldn’t put a finger on it, but he knew something wasn’t right here.

Disturbing him further, was the difference between this creature and the pictures he’d seen on file of other Tel’nagara. Unlike the silky scarlet-clothed ones he’d seen before, this one was wearing highly technical, mottle green armour that was quite spectacular, with intricate inscriptions of alien dialect covering each piece. As a combatant, Genesis assessed each piece for weaknesses all within the brief seconds before each of them moved—

The Tel’nagara, standing as still as he was, regarded him just as thoroughly.

Strangely, the armour only lightly covered certain parts of the creature’s body, leaving the rest seemingly exposed and inadequately prepared for the task usually assigned to amour. Genesis noted the casings had separate pieces as well – its legs completely enclosed with three parts protecting the cannon, hock and thigh. Its loin area had a separate piece that attached to the leg, which arched up over the creature’s pointed hips and was fastened at the front with a small glowing green orb. From this point up, its abdomen was completely exposed, while its chest was covered in a breastplate front to back, with a second, larger, orb that blazed in alteration with the creature’s flashing eyes.

Genesis was puzzled by how such armour could be anything more than a hindrance. Even the largest chest piece covered only the small upper section of its body and seemed an unqualified design, with its shoulders jutting out, exposed, along with its arms, long neck and head. All points Genesis would surely be able to take advantage of.

Finishing his analysis, Genesis decided it looked ceremonial, rather than functional, especially the bands of armour which decoratively arched high over its shoulders and curved into the orb crystals on its chest and belt … his eyes followed the bands upwards, and he noted even more strangely, that these raised pieces ended ornately towards the creature’s head, forming yet another ineffective looking helm that covered only two thirds of the alien’s face and cranium—

The creature moved its weapon, which hummed through the air, as it changed its stance and stepped a little closer.

Genesis stepped back, moving his thoughts to battle perspective as he considered its blade intently. He saw that its weapons ran straight from its flesh, out of two apertures on its skin. He knew from his studies that these apertures ran the Tel’nagara’s psychic energies; channelling their own core Rieft and power magnificently. The blade even now seemed to flare more brightly as he gazed upon it.

Genesis watched fascinated and a little jealous, as seemingly endless Rieft energy washed out of the apertures like an everlasting flow of water. It spilled over the hands of the Tel’nagara, engulfing them and transforming them into clutching grasps. The creature pulled the Rieft together through a small convoluted tube, which somehow captured the shimmering potency and shaped it into twin-pronged, menacing weapons.