An Obsidian Sky Part 12

I ran towards the door and it opened just in time for me to fly through. In a matter of moments I was pounding down the connecting corridor and into the room labelled Air Lock. The air lock door opened without the long delay that I was accustomed to on Eternis System vessels. In fact the Xenith cla.s.s vessel operated with all the comfort and efficiency that I had come to expect from Ascension.

I pressed the red b.u.t.ton and a holo resolved telling me that pressure equalisation was underway. Through the clear Perspex of the outer door I could see the ship pa.s.sing through Ascension's outer membrane and into the stations atmosphere. The Perspex door opened. I was standing feet away from an almighty fall. Trying not to look down I focused my eyes on the infected crew members. They seemed enthralled at the sight of the vessel. With my enhanced vision I could make out the self inflicted damage to their faces. A cold lifeless figure was lying in the middle of them. It was Blue Dawn's avatar.

The Xenith cla.s.s lowered itself into the closest docking bay to them. They seemed to surge towards us. I carefully checked that Adrian was not among their group. Seeing him missing I drew the Promethean Layer into me. Folding the energy in such a way as now felt natural to me. In a time that was shorter than I could tell you my hand filled with an orb of intense light. I must admit that I did marvel at I for a little while before I threw it down at the infected.

An incredible burst of shock wave threw me backwards and my head impacted upon the inner door of the airlock. I felt a wetness dripping down my face. I knew that I was bleeding. But the pain that was beginning to come forth into my head washed away as the Promethean Layer accelerated my healing to near G.o.dlike capabilities. I was able to stand after just a few seconds.

The orb of light had done far more damage than I intended. The infected were certainly very dead. One of the huge docking clamps had been bent out of shape. Jagged edges of metal penetrated outwards from it bulk.

I scanned for Adrian using the Promethean Layer. The Xenith cla.s.s was almost touching the floor of the docks. Its black shining floor reflected the curved architecture of the vessel. I saw the red throbbing glow of a live body. My eyes seemed to focus on the object and zoomed. I could just about make out the face of Adrian hiding inside one of the motors for the docking clamps that had not been damaged in the explosion.

'Adrian come out of there. Its George, everything is going to be okay.'

Adrian emerged from the depths of the motor. His face looked visibly panicked. He ran with a limp towards my outstretch arms. There were tears of joy in his eyes. My heart soared to see that he was going to be okay.

Our hands met and clasp each other firmly. I hauled him onto the airlock platform with ease. I slammed my hand against the control pad which winked from green to red. The Perspex closed and a holo resolved telling us that the air lock was equalising its pressure with the Xenith cla.s.s.

The airlock door opened. And with an arm around Adrian for support we hobbled together towards the Command Centre. The doors swept aside to unite us with Aeniah and Sean.

'Good, you made it safely,' was about all that she said before she turned to Seand and said, 'I have no intention of staying here any longer than I possibly have to. If you would be so kind, please get us the h.e.l.l out of here.'

'Yes Sir,' and this time Sean's voice had reached a level of excitement that I had not realised any person could reach.

The vessel surged backwards and exited Ascension's outer membrane. Once it had a safe enough room to manoeuvre the vessel spun about its axis and faced away from Ascension and began its journey into the stars. The AI cut into what would have been our moment of euphoria.

'This vessel has now exited Ascension management control. You are now three thousand miles from the station. You have reached the minimum safe distance for an FTL jump. Please state your intended destination.'

'Hercula,' I said joyfully, we were nearing our journey's end.

'Hercula, Advanced Archaeological Site of Interest, Salem system. Searching for available FTL gateways. Gateways found. Spooling drive systems. Drive systems spooled. Journey time: one day, eight hours. Faster than light in 3,2,1.' Everyone was thrown off their feet in the process of FTL translation.

We got to our feet happily enough. The world seemed a better place now that we had left Ascension. Our journey was simpler and clearer. I had been united with Adrian. There seemed as though there was nothing at all in the entire world that could ever go wrong.

Aeniah ran over to me and gave me the strongest hug that I had ever felt. I had released the Promethean Layer during my return to the Command Centre and without it I felt that she might break me. There was such a warmth to this gesture though that I put those fears aside instantly and returned her gesture with all the strength I could muster.

I released Aeniah and to my infinite surprise found myself hugged again. This time it was by Adrian. I was so happy to finally have some contact with the guy again. It had been so long since we had even spoken that this action started to fill me with tears.

Then everyone was in tears. Adrian was in tears, Aeniah was in tears, I was in tears. Even Sean seemed to weep as his eye blinked rapidly. We were all hugging, laughing and shouting for joy. We all grabbed Sean out of the air and hugged him much to his displeasure at being thrown around.

After about ten minutes or so of tribulations Aeniah suggested that we have a drink. I do not think that I had ever moved as fast in my life as I did then to get my hands on a nice cold beverage. The communal area of the vessel was small but it felt almost like home. Aeniah put in our orders to the machine which began the processes of filling the gla.s.ses. I had let Aeniah choose for me and she soon handed me over a blue frothing c.o.c.ktail. Adrian had gone for the same drink as me. We all placed our gla.s.ses into the air and knocked them against each other for health. Adrian and I gulped down a sip of our drink at the same time. And at the same time we grimaced at the amount of alcohol Aeniah had put into the drinks.

'Oh stop being such babies,' she said and we all laughed.

Later in the evening we had all become quite drunk. Aeniah was regaling us with stories of the United World that were so fantastical that it was almost impossible to imagine. We were all laughing about one of her tales about the time when she was a general and how she kept swearing during an interview with a colonial leader. It was the first time that she had ever let her guard down and we were all taking in her amazing personality.

After several more alcoholic c.o.c.ktails Aeniah suggested that we watch one of the movies in the Xenith cla.s.s's entertainment catalogue. She promised us that United World movies were a good deal more entertaining that the stuff she had had to put up with on Bataga. After some argument we agreed not to watch an action movie, we had all had enough of that to last us a lifetime. Instead we agreed to watch a romantic movie. To Adrian and I it seemed like something out of science fiction but the movie was great. It was about a girl and guy, who despite being from different nations made it together. Everyone was already quite emotional before the movie had started and we were almost cracking up afterwards. The story was so heart warming that I declared that it must have been the best movie ever made. Everyone agreed and we all proposed a toast to the long dead director.

Shortly after the movie's close Aeniah announced that she was going to get some sleep. Sean stated something about an information packet download to get Blue Dawn's datamine out of his head, flew off towards the Command Centre.

When Sean's muttering had been muted by the closing of the Command Centre's doors I realised that they had left Adrian and me alone.

'You want another drink,' I said. At least that is what I hope I said, my words had begun to slur a long time ago. Adrian just nodded in response and shuffled down into the seat.

I went over to the machine that had provided Aeniah with the drinks. My vision was blurred from the alcohol. I struggled to make out the information on the screen. I fumbled my unresponsive hands against the touch pad until the picture of the c.o.c.ktail came up. I pressed the image twice and the machine began to create the beverage.

It took a few moments to produce the two sparkling drinks. I hoped that my fumbling might have managed to reduce their alcohol content. With clumsy hand I picked up both of the drinks and placed them onto the table besides Adrian. He picked up his gla.s.s and pushed it to his lips just as I threw myself besides him.

There was an awkward moment of silence as neither of us knew quite what to say. I sipped upon my drink. He sipped upon his and the silence continued.

I was the one who eventually broke the silence. 'Adrian,' I stuttered, 'I'm so sorry about what happened. I just, I, I thought you were behind me. I didn't want to, to leave you. I just, I just thought that it would never end, what we had I mean. I'm sorry you had to be apart of this mess. I'm sorry that all these bad things have ever happened to you. I never loved anyone else as much as I loved you. I am so, so sorry. I...'

Adrian interrupted by wiping away the tears from my eyes. He spoke to me slowly and carefully emphasising all the right words. 'George, it doesn't matter now, nothing of Earth matters anymore. You came back George, you came back for me. In spite of everything you came back.'

We held each other then, in that small room. The systems hummed all around us like a choir singing out to the heavens. Our hands met and joined in the most triumphant gesture of absolute certainty. We were together and alone at the end of the world.

Our moment of bliss ended as we went to sleep and for the first time in years I dreamed. I dreamed of something special.

16.

In the Hands of the G.o.ds We got up early and talked for a while. The whole universe had shifted. Everything seemed better, filled with a greater life than it had before. I was smiling without a reason to smile. Adrian and I left our quarters hand in hand. Aeniah and Sean were nowhere to be found and so we wandered about the communal area, eating and talking.

'Arrival at Hercula imminent,' the AI announced. Adrian and I looked at one another and made our way into the Command Centre.

'Just on time,' Aeniah stated as we entered. I felt the sudden deceleration as we translated back into real-s.p.a.ce.

I had remembered reading about Hercula at school. So little had been know about it. In fact all that we really knew was that Hercula had a green atmosphere and it supported a dense tropical belt of life along its equator. The rest of the world was not thought to be habitable by humans.

'Okay,' I said 'so where do we go from here?'

Sean was the one to deliver the information this time. 'Blue Dawn stated that Carvelle made many of his discoveries in an archaeological site.

'Before the Resource Wars Hercula was a site of great importance to the international communities. There were many digs, all showed some evidence of a highly evolved society that was thought to have become extinct when the environmental conditions on the planet suddenly shifted six thousand nine hundred years ago. As a result of this shift colonisation was not thought possible. The air is breathable but the planet is too geologically unstable to support a civilisation. The equatorial area is anomalously stable considering the rest of the planet and so it was there that the majority of research occurred. The dense forestation in the area made it difficult for many science teams because of the labour intensive nature of setting up a clearing through which to conduct research. Quite surprisingly and in spite of this there are over two hundred dig sites.

'I have now discerned the location of the dig that Carvelle attended. Working through the night I a.n.a.lysed this ship's database. It appears that this vessel is the very same one that Carvelle took to find the Eye of Orion. Cross referencing this data with the scans of the planet taken by Blue Dawn I have found the likely location of the research site.' Sean faced a terminal and stared intently at it. The holo of the planet that we were rapidly approaching spun and zoomed in on the site of interest.

'As you can see,' Sean continued, 'there is little data available on the planet.' A chime sounded and a square zoomed onto the location Sean was emphasising. 'The ship has found a landing site and is preparing its descent,' he remarked The holo switched back to the real-time feed. The ship was clearly entering the atmosphere because a red trail of flames could be seen on the lowest part of the image. We were now crossing the northern hemisphere. The ground below was a stale mustard colour and there were angry red rivers of lava running along their surfaces. This world was a violent and deadly place.

But just as quick as this observation was the planet responded by slowly revealing its greener colours. From small patches of isolated green to the now entire rainforest, like those that I had only ever seen in stories, rushed up to meet us. Within a matter of minutes the vessel was clipping the tree tops and we were beginning to land.

We stepped out of the vessel and into a green sky. Everything was incredible; there were reds and blues calling out to us, tempting us. The canopy of tangible delights was set out against the background of a watery green sky. No moon clouded its ocean of slowly moving clouds, and no sun blocked out the lightning striking between them. I swear that I thought I was looking at heaven.

Hercula had none of the fatal unreality of Ascension. If the station was the finest example of anything man had ever created then this was the finest example of something that nature had ever created. I wondered for a moment if the United World had been right. I wondered if it was true that there was a G.o.d. But I dismissed this notion out of hand. No G.o.d would have allowed us Ascension, no G.o.d would have allowed us to execute our own destruction. If a G.o.d existed then it was a cruel and bitter tyrant.

Adrian was staring up into the canopy with amazement too. I saw Aeniah doing the same. For once it was me that had the responsibility of keeping everybody moving. I tapped Aeniah on the shoulder, she nodded, and we began to walk into the undergrowth.

We were tracking a position on Aeniah's holo display. The foliage made it a difficult task to get anywhere quickly. The heat was such that in a moment I felt as though I had sweated all the water from my body. The moisture was so intense that even with no water in my body my mouth overflowed. Thankfully we were not that far away now. The holo said we were nearly on top of it. With all the overgrowth it was difficult to see an opening into the dig of any kind.

After another half hour we finally found the entrance. It was a cave like structure that looked as though it might collapse at any moment. It was unlit and so I went first using the night vision of my scope to descend into the darkness below.

After a while the cave began to widen and then it levelled off and went into a small room. There was a small DCN in the corner just about visible through my scope. Remembering how we turned on Ascension's DCN, I repeated the procedure and soon the lights in the room began to glow.

The light revealed a small room, furnished with a desk and some scientific equipment. At the end of the room was an elevator that I a.s.sumed would lead us down into the site of interest itself.

Carvelle had clearly not been here for a long time. The papers strewn all over the place were cracked and brown. I read a few of them but they contained nothing but some ravings about a civilisation more powerful than his own, a technology that would free the world, and a political theory that would ravish millions. There were pieces of technology everywhere, clues as to the existence of new life. I wondered why Carvelle had not told anyone of the aliens, for he would surely have made the greatest find in all of history. But then I realised how Carvelle was motivated. The revelation of the evidence that this site contained would have made it available to anyone. He wanted a monopoly over the technology, and he wanted it for the same reasons powerful men want things, he wanted more power. So many people had died for the sake of his vanity. He clearly thought that he was a G.o.d.

'Nothing here,' I said.

'Looks like it's the lift then,' Aeniah sighed. I had a feeling that after the amount of alcohol she had drank the night before she had wanted a bit of a break.

We all walked over to the lift and prepared ourselves for what we would see. I imagined great wonders and fantastic things that maybe I wouldn't even understand. As I fantasised the lift began to descend. I thought of beings who looked like us but could throw fire from their hands and heal you with just a touch. The lift began to slow. I thought of sprits and temples and all the wonders of a star.

The lift doors opened and I was very wrong. In the centre of the room was the artefact and there was little else. The artefact was the only thing that was unlike anything I could have imagined. The object was a seven foot tall obelisk, with carvings of animals and beings that I could not even begin to describe all over its skin. The colour was no colour, it seemed to absorb all light in a shimmer of half revealed things. Nearby the artefact were a few pieces of dried up technology. The technology had obviously been alive at some point. Through the half decayed crystalline structure I could see the remnants of organs and arteries.

'Amazing!' Sean said. 'Organic technology! I never thought I'd see the day.' He whistled merrily as he floated around the dig site taking everything in.

The artefact was clearly alive. It pulsed and throbbed as though it had a heartbeat. I walked over to it. Bracing myself for some awful thing to pop out and get me, I touched the skin of the object. But nothing happened. In fact nothing seemed to be happening at all. There were no screens, nor any evidence that there ever had been. In fact there seemed to be no way of interfacing with the artefact at all. It just seemed to be a living, but very much inert, statue.

'I can't see anything, how am I supposed to shut it down if I can't even communicate with it. Blue Dawn couldn't even destroy it, so how am I supposed to?'

Aeniah placed a hand on my shoulder. 'George,' she said kindly, 'if there has even been one constant between our lives and theirs, it was the Promethean Layer. Carvelle once said to me that the road to Ascension could only be travelled by the enlightened. So go ahead and connect. All, I am sure, will be revealed.'

I looked for that star again and found it much more easily than I had on Ascension. It was so much brighter and so much more powerful. I grasped onto it and became connected.

Here was something I would have had to have seen to understand. This cold and barren room was not barren at all. Everywhere there was noise, thoughts, brainwaves. I looked at the artefact and it showed me everything. I did not need a screen to interface with it, everything I could have ever been shown was already there, before I even realised that I could ask for it. I could see the energy being broadcast out of it. I could see the very Promethean Layer itself. The Layer was a universe of pure light, pure bliss and was the very closest example of heaven I think I will ever find.

'Aeniah, Adrian, this is...it's beyond words. You're never going to be able to understand...this.' Neither of them responded. They both seemed to know exactly what I was seeing, it was as though my face told the entire story.

I looked at those emaciated little machines and with their dying thoughts they told me the truth. By now I had realised that these beings had evolved beyond the need for standard communication. Their lives existed in between worlds, always connected to the Promethean Layer and always planted firmly in reality. This was the world that they saw, the world that they had made. No wonder that I could not see anything without the connection, because without the connection it did not exist.

I also knew, what I must always have known, the truth. I knew what the artefacts were for. I always had. They were a means of terra-forming. They created the conditions necessary for their connection to the Promethean Layer and so their survival. And they knew that it would kill us. The artefact showed me images of the genes required for the connection to the Layer, my genes.

I saw how to shut it down. It was almost too simple. The device simply required that someone would will it silent. The artefact explained through images and concepts that it was the master hub and that shutting this down would severe the connection to the others. The entire network would shut down. All that a person had to do to complete this operation was to want it, to truly want it.

I could not say that I did. This vision was something that I could not let hold of, something that I simply could not will out of existence. Carvelle might have turned them on, and ordered them to begin terra-forming the colonies, but I didn't want to be the one to turn them off.

It was then that I saw Adrian in the periphery of my vision. He was bathed in pure light. He was the very image of perfection. Suddenly the light of the Promethean Layer did not shine so brightly. This star, my star, outshined all others. I could see in a moment of pure contemplation the very essence of his soul, his good nature, his love, the reasons that I loved him; and they were all a greater bliss than anything Ascension could ever offer.

The artefact shut down. A flurry of concepts and images flashed across my mental paradise. The lights in the room went out. The artefact stopped pulsing, and yet the room didn't darken at all, because the light shining from Adrian never faded.

As the network faded so did the Promethean Layer. I let it go with a mixture of regret and relief. I was very aware of just how addicted one could have gotten to that sight.

'It is done.' With those words we turned. Aeniah, Adrian and I reached the surface, linked arms and walked back to the vessel. We all sat comfortably in the communal area and told the ship to reach the atmosphere and break orbit.

We were lounging around not saying very much as the vessel lifted its little self up and into the cosmos. Aeniah spoke for the first time and seemed to be smiling at some private joke. 'So guys, you wanna take a look at my little contribution to our stories end,' she announced innocently. A holo resolved of the planet. She pulled a small canister from her pocket. 'You know, I've been carrying this around ever since the wars, and I never found a use for it until now.'

She pulled a little rip cord out of the canister and pointed to the holo. At first I couldn't see it, but then it grew in size and took on the form of a blast of light that would eradicate a small section of the continent. 'Planted the charge right next to that b.a.s.t.a.r.d artefact, even if it survives don't think anyone's gonna dig far enough down to find it.'

Despite ourselves we all laughed. 'So where to now?' I asked.

Adrian was the first to reply, 'to the colonies.'

The little ship, this Xenith cla.s.s vessel bolted out and into the night sky. The starlight twinkled about the vessel as it crossed the rivers of emptiness and into our future. We all sat around that table and discussed the worlds we hoped we'd find. We sat there and promised ourselves a quiet life, tending the grapes in a sunlit field. With delight I held onto Adrian's arm, and kissed him.

Epilogue.

After a little bit of searching we found the only colony left that still had life. In fact it actually still held a civilisation. They listened to our story and believed our every word, for they knew it to be the truth. The artefacts had yet to do much damage to their society. What limited activation there had been had done little damage to their population.

The incredible thing was that this colony had held on to themselves far better than our planet ever had. They understood how to maintain and repair the Blue Clarity generators. They had great cities that were as beautiful as they were large. They lived upon an ocean of promise and they welcomed us with all their hearts. Were we not treated as guests, or immigrants, or invaders, we were treated as one of them.

After the first year Adrian and I bought a house, not a large one, but large enough for the both of us. In my interaction with the artefact I had gained a sizable amount of knowledge through which I was able to help the people of Aurelia build up their technology.

Aeniah popped round once a week for tea. We would all sit around the stone table and talk of the great adventure that we had been on. We would laugh at all the stupid things we did and she would tell us about the world she had grown up in. The sun would always shine a little brighter when we were all together.

Aeniah and Sean had used the components of the Xenith cla.s.s to design and develop an FTL capable vessel for the people of Aurelia. They were just a few weeks away from completion of the project. Everyone was getting quite excited by it.

I had a proper job for the first time in my life, working as the head of Deep s.p.a.ce Observations, keeping watch over the stars for signs of life.

It was four years now since we had shut down the Artefact and Adrian and I were eating breakfast together. It was bright outside and the plants rustled in the warm ocean breeze.

'Did you see the Conem's destroy the Deneut's last night? It was awesome they never stood a chance. Four to one, brilliant!' Adrian pushed his fist into the air in triumph.

'That's fantastic, wish this place had a concept of commerce so that I could have put some money on it.' We both laughed.

I was clearing away the plates when the phone rang. I almost dropped them all with the shock. I pressed the air where the answer b.u.t.ton for the phone had resolved. An image of John Cueson appeared. He had worked for me at the Deep s.p.a.ce Observation Centre since I had joined.

'Sir,' he said a little timidly, 'you need to come in right now sir. This is an Alpha Protocol alert.'

Alpha Protocol I thought. What the h.e.l.l, and in the middle of a dishwashing. I kissed Adrian on the forehead and rushed for my sub-orbiter. The journey through the outer atmosphere was a tense one, a thousand thousand thoughts rushed through my head. What if it was another meteor or something else?

I burst through the doors of the DSOC and was confronted with a ma.s.s of people throwing themselves at one another, trying desperately to bark information at one another. John was right by my side in an instant.

'Sir, Aeniah is on the line for you, the President is also on call. They and the supreme cabinet are waiting for you in the control centre.'

I ran through the departments, at some points physically pushing people out of the way. There was an energy in the building that told me all that I needed to know.

In the control centre was a holo of all the people that John had informed me would be there. Aeniah looked tense.