The Outer Worlds: Book One of the Epherian Chronicles (13 page)

‘
What are you waiting for?’ asked Cynthia.

‘
We can’t climb the ladder. The aliens know about the shaft.
The only way out is the way we came in.’

‘
But there are too many aliens!’ she said. ‘We don’t have time.
Ajax has lost too much blood! He’s losing
consciousness!’

Michael could
see the shadows of the aliens entering the stairwell. He closed his
eyes and remembered back. Vivid memories of his home world flowed
through his mind. Epheria Prime, home of the Epherian Emperor, the
prize of the Epherian Empire, and the first world to be colonised
in the Triangulum Galaxy. He was standing at the height of the
imperial palace at the centre of a large circular terrace which was
made entirely of white marble stone. The bright blue sky glowed
above.

He was only
ten years old. Standing not far away from him was a tall and strong
man wearing a long black cloak. His head was entirely bald, his
face angular, and his skin was dark brown. His strong and dark eyes
were staring down at Michael.

‘
You must always seek the silent place in your mind,’ said
Gereon. ‘A time will come when an endless calamity will descend on
the galaxy. I will teach you to return to the silence. In the
silence you will find the answers.’

‘
Gereon, why must I learn such things?’ he heard his young
voice ask. ‘We don’t need the Lore of the Ancients. It has been
more than twelve thousand years since humanity arrived in the
Triangulum Galaxy. Surely the End Machine would have found us by
now. The machine will never come. These lessons are a waste of
time.’

‘
A waste of time you say,’ said Gereon, looking sternly down at
the young boy.

‘
Yes, nothing but a waste of time,’ repeated Michael, proud of
his own certainty.

Gereon turned
his back and took several steps away. ‘The End Machine has not
forgotten us. One day it will come and when it does everything will
change. It took little more than a year for the machine to destroy
every human world in our former galaxy. Humanity had no answer. One
day someone will have to stand against the machine; the Council of
Ancients knew this. You, Michael, must accept your place in the
cosmos; you must learn the Lore of the Ancients as it was taught to
your ancestors. If you refuse the day of destruction will come and
all you know and love will be taken from you.’

‘
But why can’t I use the power now? You teach me these skills,
yet you tell me to keep the power to myself.’

‘
Your powers are very dangerous. Your power, if misused, would
one day corrupt you. The Lore of the Ancients requires you to keep
your powers hidden until the day the machine arrives in our galaxy,
and if the machine does not arrive in your time then you, and the
next teacher, must pass the Lore of the Ancients to your
descendent. The Lore of the Ancients was developed for one reason:
to defeat the End Machine. You can only use your powers to save
yourself if there is no other way.’

Michael
suddenly opened his eyes and returned his attention to the
stairwell. The aliens were approaching. He lowered his rifle.

‘
We can’t give up!’ said Cynthia.

‘
I’m not giving up,’ he said as he focused.

Three aliens
came into view. Michael stared into their dark eyes as they made
their way down the steps. They stopped in their tracks and pointed
their weapons directly at him, but they didn’t fire. For a moment
they watched him. The walls began to tremble and shake as the dim
light in the room flickered.

Cynthia
watched Michael as she held Ajax who had already lost
consciousness. She thought her mind was playing a trick. Michael
appeared to be transparent. The light in the room was passing
directly through his body. The floor was vibrating and the concrete
walls were shaking. The aliens stood frozen in place and were
transfixed by Michael as he stepped toward them. They stepped back
and fired their weapons. Michael disappeared from sight and
reappeared directly behind the aliens. He grabbed one of them by
the neck and the creature screamed in horror as its life force
drained from its body. He cast aside the dead alien and turned to
face the two others. They dropped their weapons and ran for their
lives.

One of the
aliens let out a shrill scream. Michael raised his hand and the
hideous creature reached up and grasped its head in pain. It fell
and tumbled down the stairs. The other alien suffered the same fate
a second later.

Michael
disappeared again and reappeared where he was originally standing
at the bottom of the steps. The light returned to normal and the
walls stopped trembling.

‘
We have to go,’ he said as he helped Cynthia lift Ajax off the
floor.

‘
What did you do? I saw you disappear. The aliens, they’re
dead!’

‘
They’re not all dead; only those inside the building. Cynthia,
don’t speak of this to anyone,’ he said as they ascended the steps
with Dog-Two following closely.

‘
But what happened?’ she asked. ‘That was
impossible.’

‘
I can’t explain,’ he answered as they reached the top room.
Michael lifted his wrist-com. ‘Sara, we need an
extraction.’

‘…
I’m just taking off at the south side of the settlement. I’ve
taken some heavy hits from the alien mobile artillery gun, Captain.
The electronic shield is less than fifteen percent. I have to stay
back; otherwise they will destroy the ship. I’m sorry, Captain, you
have to get clear of the settlement before I can extract
you…’

‘
We will have to fight our way out. Do you have a preferred
landing site?’ he asked stoically.

‘…
On the south side of the rocky hill. Near where I dropped you
off…’

‘
I’ll contact you when we get there.’

Michael turned
to Cynthia. Ajax was unconscious on the floor. He knew that they
wouldn’t be able to carry him out of the settlement and
simultaneously fight the aliens, and he could see that Ajax would
not survive long enough to reach the outskirts.

‘
We have to leave Ajax behind,’ he said. The words were painful
to say, but he knew that there was no other way.

‘
But he’s not dead yet, Captain, and there is no way I’m
leaving anyone behind! I would rather stay here and die with
him!’

‘
We have to go.’

‘
Can’t you use your magic? I saw what you did to those aliens.
You can save us.’

Michael
lowered his eyes. ‘I already took a great risk doing what I did, a
much greater risk than you can possibly understand.’

‘
What risk? You saved us once. Save us again! Captain,
please!’

Michael closed
his eyes and silenced his mind. He looked into time and space and
could feel the darkness was drawing nearer. He could sense the End
Machine was searching for him. It was reaching out across the
galaxy. Using his powers had sent a signal through the stars. Using
them again would be like shining a light beacon in the night and
would surely reveal his location. The machine would descend on the
entire region and hunt him down. He wasn’t ready for such a fight;
he had never finished his training. His mind was weak compared to
the incredible power of the End Machine. The End Machine had been
searching for him ever since the day he was exiled from the
Epherian Empire. Hiding his powers was the only way he could hide
himself.

‘
Cynthia, close your eyes. Don’t open them until I say. You
will feel intense pain, but it won’t last.’

‘
What are you going to do?’ she asked in a low
voice.

‘
I will save us,’ he replied sternly. He lifted his wrist-com.
‘Sara, take the Out Drifter as far as you can away from the
settlement.’

‘…
Captain, I’m still planning to collect the three of
you…’

‘
Go, Sara. That’s an order. Go now or the ship will be
destroyed.’

‘
...But, Captain!...’

‘
Sara, you have to!’

‘…
Yes, Captain…’

Michael lifted
his right hand and the tips of his fingers began to glow. Beams of
bright light blasted out in every direction. He concentrated and
could sense the entire environment surrounding the building. His
mind expanded further and he could see the aliens were preparing to
attack with heavy rocket launchers.

He strained
with all his might as he began converting matter into energy. He
closed his eyes as a shockwave of raw energy was unleashed
throughout the settlement. Cynthia screamed and felt the pain as he
drew her, Ajax and Dog-Two into another spacial dimension. The
entire settlement became an inferno. A flash of blinding white
light ripped apart the life support building and all the
surrounding buildings. The nuclear inferno instantly incinerated
the aliens and their weapons. Everything was on fire, and a massive
shockwave spread outward from the settlement. For at least a minute
they were surrounded by intense heat and flames; but the flames,
radiation and raw energy passed directly through their bodies
without causing them any harm. They were like ghosts in a horrific
scene of fire and smoke.

Michael held
them back for as long as he could. He strained to the limits of his
strength. He then had to release them as he couldn’t hold them back
any longer. They transitioned back into normal three-dimensional
space and waited among the ruins as the residual radiation and heat
scorched them. Cynthia opened her eyes and looked around at the
scene of destruction. Plumes of smoke rose up from the ruined
settlement. Everything around them was on fire. It was a scene of
utter devastation.

‘
Sara,’ he spoke as his vision was fading.

‘…
Captain, there has been an explosion. Are you all
right?...’

‘
The aliens are gone. You can safely land the ship. Come and
get us.’

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘
What happened down there? Were you carrying nuclear weapons?’
asked Ethan.

‘
I wasn’t,’ replied Michael as he sat up.

Ivan had been
treating their injuries in the cargo bay since they had been
collected from the blast zone. He was using the handheld skin
refabricator to treat their burns. Ajax had been placed in deep
sleep as the available medical equipment was not able to treat his
severe injuries and could only prevent him from dying. They
intended to take him to the nearest advanced medical unit as soon
as possible. Ethan had an injured left arm which was covered by an
advanced wound dressing. The wound dressing released painkillers
whilst nano-bots worked on subduing the bleeding and healing the
damaged tissue.

‘
I don’t understand,’ said Ethan, shaking his head. ‘And I have
no idea how you survived the blast. You were at the central point
of the explosion; you should have been vaporised, but here you are,
and you only have some minor burns. What happened?’

‘
That’s what I want to know,’ said Sara as she stepped into the
cargo bay. ‘I saw the entire station light up. The explosion
destroyed everything within a radius of five kilometres. I thought
you were dead, Captain, and then a few minutes later you are on the
com asking for me to come and get you. Your survival defies the
laws of physics. How did you survive the explosion?’

Michael didn’t
answer. He looked over to where Cynthia was sitting against the
wall. She was staring directly at him, bewilderment and shock
evident in her eyes.

Sara turned to
Cynthia. ‘What happened, Cynthia?’

‘
Even if I could say I wouldn’t know how to explain what I saw,
and he told me not to tell you,’ replied Cynthia.

Sara’s eyes
darted back to Michael. ‘You have to tell me what’s going on.
Captain, you have to explain.’

Michael lay
back down and stared up at the ceiling. ‘It’s better that you don’t
know, Sara,’ he said in a low voice. ‘The only thing that’s
important at this moment is that we get as far away from Herman
Beta as we possibly can. When we arrive at Zeno Par and find
Acacius Trifon I will explain everything.’

‘
I reset the course to Zeno Par,’ said Sara.

‘
I have already revealed too much, but I will tell you this
much. Your minds are like beacons in the darkness of space; your
thoughts are not hidden from prying eyes.’

‘
What are you trying to say?’ asked Sara, raising an eyebrow.
‘There are no machines that can read thoughts directly.’

‘
We have not reached that level of technological advancement
yet; nevertheless, our ancient ancestors were far more advanced
than us,’ said Michael. ‘They developed machines beyond any we know
of. Their technological knowledge was hidden from humanity at the
time of the first arrival in the Triangulum Galaxy in order to stop
us ever developing such machines again.’

‘
Are you saying these machines exist in the Triangulum Galaxy?’
asked Ethan.

‘
You may have heard of the time before humanity arrived in this
galaxy. One machine rose up and turned against humanity. The human
race faced imminent extinction. We escaped our former galaxy, yet
that machine has searched for us for thousands of years. It is a
singular consciousness with power beyond imagining. The End Machine
will not rest until it has consumed us all.’

**

An enormous
swirling shadow was advancing through space at a blistering rate.
It sucked out the light and energy of stars as it made its way
toward Herman Beta. The shadow had detected a glimmer of light
across the galactic expanse. Such light would need to be
extinguished before it could grow in power and brightness.