Aurora Saga 2 Immortality for Life (32 page)

‘Are you sure?’

‘I am now. Look at that ship!’ Kalrea said, pointing to the monitor. ‘That was at Trafth and so was that one. They’re closing fast.’

Two ships passed in front of the
Aurora
in the distance.

Alarm! Atomic mines detected.

‘Grab hold of something!’ she said urgently to Gulco.

Even though the
Aurora
twisted and turned, it was travelling too fast to avoid all the mines. The ship struck four of them in quick succession. There were jarring bangs on the hull, which echoed throughout the ship. Then the
Aurora
was thrown violently to the side and Kalrea had to grab Gulco to stop him falling over. A mine entered the intake of the starboard event horizon drive. There was a massive explosion and the drive flickered, before the black hole collapsed within it. The drive was silenced.

‘Damn, the speed magnified the mines impact and the pressure from the explosion has damaged the accelerator coils. We’re slowing!’

‘Can we still outrun them?’ Gulco said, with concern written all over his face.

‘Not on one drive we can’t,’ Kalrea replied. ‘It will take me twenty-three minutes to repair the damage.’

‘What do we do?’ Gulco said. He sounded frightened.

The
Aurora
struck more mines as it slowed, loud thuds signalling their impact.

‘Are we sustaining any more damage?’ Gulco asked urgently.

‘No, we’re all right. Those mines will not inflict any significant damage.’

A sleek white ship came into view.

‘That’s Lady Sathodee’s ship, the
De’fego
,’ Kalrea informed Gulco. It came to a stop in the distance.

‘They don’t seem to be getting any closer,’ Gulco commented.

‘Yes, they know that if they do, then I can access their systems and shut down their ship,’ Kalrea replied. ‘They’ll keep far enough away from us for now. We’re being hailed by the
De’fego
.’

Kalrea opened an audio-visual link and Lady Sathodee’s image appeared on the monitor.

Before Kalrea could say anything, Lady Sathodee said angrily, ‘Where is she?’

‘I think that she means me,’ Kalrea said, raising her eyebrows to Gulco. She moved to the monitor so Lady Sathodee could see her. ‘Sathodee, what’s happened to your hair?’

‘Don’t give me that,’ she said back. ‘You know damn well what happened. You blew me up! My hair was incinerated. That’s what happened!’ she shouted at Kalrea.

‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ Kalrea replied, mocking her.

‘You will be!’ Lady Sathodee replied.

Gulco gazed at the many ships now surrounding the
Aurora
.

‘We have to defend ourselves, Kalrea,’ he said panicking. ‘Use whatever you have in those outer event horizon drives to protect us.’

Mute!

‘I could, but it’s too dangerous. I’ve told you before, this is a science ship, not a military ship,’ she said bluntly back to him. ‘It wasn’t supposed to have any weapons.’

‘Kalrea, I want those Agonians. Give them to me and I may allow you to live,’ Lady Sathodee said.

Mute off!

‘Your son made an agreement with Zoren. His life for safe passage away from here.’

‘Zoren made that deal with my son, not me! Anyway, Lord Saylmon had no right to act the way he did,’ Lady Sathodee replied. ‘You tricked him. Now give me what I want!’

‘If you think I tricked him so that Zoren would die, then you’re sadly mistaken.’

‘I have your ship surrounded. I will crush that little ship of yours and then I’ll dissect you; I’ll rip your circuits apart, one by one, to see what you’re made of.’

‘You know nothing of me, this ship or the technology within it. It’s from a galaxy billions of light-years away. You can’t comprehend what the hull is made of, can you? You have no idea of what propulsion system I use or what weapons I have!’

‘You don’t appear to have any weapons. Our scans indicate your ship is defenceless. No shielding, nothing!’

‘So, what else do your scanners show?’

There was a moment of silence.

‘That’s right Sathodee, you can’t penetrate the hull can you? So how do you know I don’t posses any weapons? You know nothing of this ship’s capabilities. Have a look at my working drive. What do your scanners show?’

‘Enough of this crap! You have two minutes before we open fire.’

‘Scan my drive, Sathodee. Do it!’ Kalrea shouted at her.

Lady Sathodee signalled to one of her people. ‘Have a look,’ she said. ‘You have one minute, fifty seconds Kalrea. Time’s running out.’

The man in the background replied. ‘Ma’am, there seems to be a null space within it. It’s registering as a hole in space. In fact, it registers a black hole, but that’s impossible.’

Lady Sathodee seemed unmoved. ‘So what! You have the ability to control a black hole.’

‘You fire on my ship and I will be forced to retaliate,’ Kalrea said sternly.

‘Forty seconds, Kalrea!’

Then Gulco asked Kalrea, ‘What are you going to do?’

‘Gulco, you sound worried,’ Lady Sathodee said to him, overhearing his question. ‘I think you need to get Kalrea to do as I say, if not you could all die here.’

Kalrea replied. ‘None of the Agonians are going to die today, I can assure you.’

Incoming!

Six of the ships fired a volley of missiles.

‘Why does she not listen to me,’ Kalrea said angrily to Gulco. She looked to the monitor. ‘Sathodee! Stop firing at my ship.’ She glanced at a worried Gulco as the missiles impacted on the hull. Noises like thunders echoed all around them.

Kalrea stared straight at Lady Sathodee. ‘I will not tell you again. Stop firing at my ship.’

‘You look worried, Kalrea,’ Lady Sathodee said smugly.

‘Yes, I am, but that concern is for you, not me.’

Lady Sathodee laughed.

‘You laugh,’ Kalrea said angrily. ‘You may be immortal, but Hifmo was too. Look at what he is now.’

Lady Sathodee stopped laughing. ‘What you did to him is unforgiveable.’

‘Do you want that to happen to you?’

‘How dare you think that you would even be able do that to me.’ And then addressing her crew ordered, ‘Destroy that ship and everyone on it.’

The intensity of the onslaught increased.

Kalrea glanced at Gulco, and said, ‘If they keep this level of attack up, they will eventually damage the ship. I can’t allow that.’

‘How are you going to stop her?’

‘By doing something I’ll regret for the rest of my life, but she leaves me no choice. You may want to leave the bridge. What I’m about to do, no one should have to witness.’

Gulco looked surprised. ‘Kalrea, I don’t care. I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying here with you.’

‘Keep firing!’ Lady Sathodee ordered.

Kalrea addressed Lady Sathodee. ‘All
you
had to do was to leave us alone. But no, that’s too simple. Your greed and superiority makes you think you can take anything you want. Immortal you may be, but I have news for you Lady Sathodee. When hell arrives, even immortals will perish.’ Kalrea paused for a moment. ‘Well meet hell! It’s staring right at you.’

The outer event horizon drives of the
Aurora
started, but they had a deeper sound to the other.

‘She’s going to try and move her ship. Hit the drives!’ Lady Sathodee ordered.

‘Oh, those aren’t drives, Sathodee.’

The
Aurora
turned towards a group of five ships to the port side.

‘Those are my weapons, and if you value your immortal lives, you would be somewhere else.’

As soon as the
Aurora
came to bear there was a massive vibration, which was felt over the missiles still impacting the ship. A sphere of plasma, over twenty metres in diameter, emerged from the outer port event horizon drive. It screamed away towards the most central of the five ships. Any missile that hit the sphere disappeared. As it neared the ship, the plasma faded away leaving a sphere of dark matter.

‘What’s that?’ the captain of the ship said, just as the dark matter hit the front of his ship passing without resistance through the hull and into its heart.

Gulco’s eyes were fixed on the monitor, watching the events unfold. His mouth fell open in shock.

The ship imploded, as the black hole consumed everything around it. There was a momentary flash of light from the ship’s reactor as it exploded, but it was instantly extinguished as the black hole consumed everything nearby. In a matter of a few seconds, the ship had disappeared.

The other four ships were now being pulled rapidly towards the black hole. Their engines were frantically trying to move them away, but without success. Parts of the ships started to breakaway and explosions filled the void, as they were pulled savagely apart. Then, without warning, the black hole collapsed with a brilliant flash of white light. Sparkling pieces of what was left of the massive ships still moved towards the centre of where the black hole had been.

The noise of missiles impacting on the
Aurora’s
hull ceased.

Kalrea stared at Lady Sathodee. ‘Yes, that was a black hole, Sathodee. Do you feel afraid?’ Kalrea asked her. ‘You should be. Nothing can escape a black hole. That’s a known fact, isn’t it? Not even the body of an immortal. Check your scanners. Everyone on those ships has gone, all of them, even the immortals.’

The man behind Lady Sathodee said, ‘She’s right, both Lord Pawil and Lady Asindee were on those ships, ma’am. I can’t locate their bodies, they’re nowhere!’

Kalrea addressed all the ships around her. ‘I will only say this once, so let me make this very clear. You will leave the Agonian people alone. Anyone who even tries to take one of them, I will kill all those with them, without mercy! Now as captains you all have a choice. You can stay here with Lady Sathodee and go to hell, or you can leave now and live. And if you ever see the
Aurora
again, then I suggest you navigate quickly away from it. I know all your ships and if I see anyone of them, then I will destroy it.’

‘Why are you giving them a choice?’ Gulco said. ‘Destroy them now, Kalrea! They’ll come looking for us.’

Kalrea was not amused by Gulco’s order.

‘Don’t you think there’s been enough killing,’ she said angrily towards him. ‘Are you no better than them? There were over nine hundred people on those ships I destroyed. They are all dead now!’

Gulco looked sheepish.

Kalrea placed her hand on Gulco’s shoulder, and lowered her voice. ‘Don’t hate those who have made you suffer. Pity them, Gulco.’

Ten of the ships are moving away. That leaves Sathodee’s ship and one other.

‘What are you doing? Come back here,’ Lady Sathodee shouted.

Kalrea contacted the other remaining ship. ‘Captain, you seem to want to die today.’

She was surprised to see Lord Saylmon appear on the monitor.

‘Saylmon, I wasn’t expecting to see you here,’ Kalrea said. ‘A brave man gave his life to you. I can’t believe that means nothing to you. You will die here.’

‘I’m not staying, Kalrea. I wanted to-’

Lady Sathodee interrupted him. ‘Are you a coward, Saylmon? You can’t leave your mother here. I need help!’

‘Mother, shut up! Kalrea, I know I have immortality now, but...’ He paused a moment, as if he was embarrassed at what he was about to say. ‘It seems too high a price to take someone’s life to get it. I wish now I hadn’t.’

‘You seem a good man, Saylmon,’ Kalrea said. ‘Make sure you use the gift Zoren has bestowed on you wisely.’

‘Goodbye mother,’ Lord Saylmon said, as his ship turned away and accelerated into the distance.

‘Just you and me now,’ Kalrea said to Lady Sathodee. ‘Are you ready to die?’

Lady Sathodee’s ship started to turn, to try to escape.

‘No, it seems you are not ready.’

Kalrea fired the outside starboard event horizon drive at Lady Sathodee’s ship.

‘Damn you, Kalrea!’ Lady Sathodee said.

‘No, damn you!’ Kalrea replied.

The monitors onboard the
Aurora
went blank.

‘I wanted to see her ship destroyed,’ Gulco said sounding disappointed.

‘Haven’t you seen enough killing?’ Kalrea replied. ‘She’s gone, all right! I never wanted this. Why couldn’t she have left us alone?’

Gulco looked uneasy and said, ‘I hope you didn’t think I enjoyed that. I… I wanted to make sure Lady Sathodee was dead. After all, she instigated the whole thing.’

‘Gulco, it’s time we got far away from this area of space. Trust me, where we’re going they’ll never find you, and even if they did, they would have to get past me first.’

The eight-month journey to Kalzor went smoothly and without incidents.

As if driven by a natural predisposition, the Agonians formed an even closer community. Those children who had lost their parents were adopted by others, and families joined together voluntarily to share living spaces. Every day all the Agonians came together to eat within the cargo bay and to talk about how they would make Kalzor their home. They even transformed the seatra, where Zoren laid, into a shrine, adorning it with colourful hand woven sheets draped over it.

Kalrea became very close to Supora and her children, Asnica and Doine, who began to look to Kalrea as an aunt. She spent much time teaching them and the other children, and telling stories of her encounters with other races and worlds. She enlightened the Agonians to the vastness of space and the many races and cultures that exist.

For Kalrea this was the happiest she had ever been. The Agonians treated her like one of them and she spent all her time amongst them, rather than staying on the bridge on her own, as she used to. Gulco never once talked about Kalrea being an artificial intelligence; instead, they worked together making plans on how they would found their new world.

But as they arrived at Kalzor, Kalrea had mixed feelings about leaving the Agonians. Part of her wanted to stay with them; after all, she felt loved and respected, but she also had the overwhelming urge to explore and seek out new friends in other parts of the galaxy. She decided to leave the Agonians, but since she had promised Zoren that she would protect them, she made plans to leave one of her inactive drones.

The
Aurora
descended slowly beneath the clouds of Kalzor and then flew over the light-blue ocean that led to one of the southern continents. They were soon flying over a rolling countryside bathed in bright star-light, and the lush green and picturesque landscape seemed to go on forever. As the
Aurora
passed over a small clearing, a herd of wild animals scattered and a flock of birds lifted from the treetops.

‘There aren’t many places to put down a ship this size,’ Kalrea commented to Gulco, as they both stood viewing images of Kalzor from the bridge.

Gulco seemed completely engrossed and nodded slowly.

Kalrea smiled to herself and thought,
He can’t take his eyes off the monitor. He appears apprehensive but also excited
. She observed the other Agonians, who were all gathered around the monitors within the accommodation space and cargo bay, gazing at their new world. Everyone was filled with awe, and observing a buzz of expectation from them she thought that they all appeared to be ready for a new life.

Kalrea decided to set the
Aurora
down on a large beach. The ship hovered and the landing legs slowly descended from beneath the hull. Then it touched down with the rear landing legs submerged beneath the calm blue-green water.

‘Welcome to Kalzor,’ Kalrea said cheerfully to Gulco.

She was feeling great excitement herself, but she also knew that this was the end of their time together. She had made a lot of friends during their journey and leaving them was going to be hard. However, the Agonians had taught her many things, not least how she could interact as an equal using the drone. She was accepted as a person, even though she was held prisoner inside the
Aurora
. The drone gave her a freedom, a new purpose in life and she now wanted to use it to explore new worlds and meet new races.

‘Blue seas! Green vegetation! Now that’s going to take some time to get used to,’ Gulco said.

Kalrea thought that Gulco seemed full of enthusiasm. She did not want to dampen that enthusiasm, but she wanted to warn him about any potential risks and so began a long speech instructing him on everything she knew about the planet and nearby area.

After almost two hours of talking, she went on to say,

‘…Oh, and don’t forget there are also three poisonous plants you need to be aware of. The-’

‘Please stop, Kalrea,’ Gulco said interrupting her. ‘My mind is already bursting with too much information. We want to discover things for ourselves. We know we’ll make mistakes and some of us may even die alone the way, but it’s not your responsibility. Anyway, you’ve done enough for us already and we’ll never be able to repay you.’

Spoken like a true leader.

‘I understand, Gulco,’ Kalrea replied. ‘If you want, I could stick around for a while?’

‘Kalrea, to us you’re one of the family and you’ll always be welcome, but you don’t have to stay and look after us. You have a life to live, galaxies to explore. You should go and enjoy yourself. We’ll be fine.’

‘All right, but I want to leave a seatra with one of my deactivated drones here with you.’

Gulco had the look of disappointment on his face.

‘Gulco, I won’t take no for an answer on this. If ever you’re in danger, then I can activate it to help you.’

Gulco shook his head. ‘But that means the
Aurora
has to stay nearby.’

‘I’ll still go out to explore new worlds, I swear, but I also promised Zoren that I’d be there if you needed me. I’ve configured the seatra to relay a signal to the
Aurora
should anything approach the planet. Yes, the
Aurora
will have to stay close, but there are many worlds in this sector. They should keep me occupied for at least the next thousand years.’

‘Ok Kalrea, you can leave the seatra and drone, but I’m sure they will just gather dust.’

Kalrea smiled as she thought back to when she first met Zoren, before saying, ‘Dust is fine.’

‘I think we should join the others and help them disembark,’ Gulco said.

‘But they’re already on the surface and have moved the supplies to the tree-line at the top of the beach.’

‘Oh! We’d better go and join them.’

Kalrea nodded and, as they ambled into the Pojin lift, said,

‘The seatra will also have Zoren’s body within it.’

‘Don’t worry, Kalrea, we’ll look after both of you.’

The lift door opened onto the surface. Kalrea was greeted with a breeze, which carried the fresh scent of vegetation like just after a downpour. She could hear the chatter of birds in some nearby trees.

This place is exactly as I remember it
.

‘Kalzor looks an amazing world,’ Gulco said, as they strolled up the gravel beach towards a thick forest of trees.

‘I know!’ she replied and stopped walking short of the trees.

Gulco carried on a few more steps before realising she was not beside him any longer. He turned.

‘You’re not coming to say goodbye to everyone then?’ Gulco said.

Kalrea shook her head. ‘No. I don’t think so... I don’t like goodbyes. They seem too permanent and... I’d only get emotional. Anyway, they all have a lot on their minds now. Tell them I said I’ll always be there if they need me.’

‘So, this is where we go our separate ways,’ Gulco said, looking sad.

‘I suppose it is.’

Gulco held up his hand to show Kalrea the telementor. ‘Would you mind helping me?’

Kalrea smiled and nodded. ‘Yes, of course,’ she replied, before removing the telementor from his wrist. She placed it in her pocket and then gazed over at the others, who were already exploring their new surroundings and disappearing into the tree-line. She held out her hand and Gulco shook it.

‘Thank you, Kalrea.’

‘My pleasure. I wish you all a good life,’ she said, before turning and strolling back to the Pojin lift.

I’m going to miss them, all of them,
she thought and knowing she would never see them again brought a tear to her eye.

She entered the Pojin lift, but as the door was about to close she heard a familiar voice shouting to her.

‘Wait! Kalrea!’

Asnica ran over to the lift.

‘Where are you going?’

‘I... I have to leave, Asnica,’ Kalrea said, and staring at Asnica’s happy face thought,

I wish I could stay a while, but it wouldn’t be right. They need to start a new life on their own and forget what happened to them.

Asnica rushed into the lift with her arms wide open. Kalrea knelt down and Asnica gave her a hug.

Now why did she have to do that?

Kalrea now felt very emotional. With tears in her eyes she looked at Asnica and said,

‘Make sure you and the other children look after the Glonvis. In time there’ll be enough of them so that you will be able to release them into the wild.’

‘We’ll take good care of them, Kalrea. I promise!’

‘Good!’

Supora was watching from a distance.

‘Promise me, you’ll also take good care of your mother.’

Asnica glanced over her shoulder and smiled at Supora. She then turned back to Kalrea and nodded, before asking, ‘Will you come back?’

‘Maybe, one day,’ Kalrea said sadly, knowing that Asnica would probably be old or have died by then, ‘but one of my deactivated drones will always be with you.’

‘Can I talk to it?’

‘Of course you can. I’m afraid it won’t be able to reply, but it will hear everything you say.’

Asnica smiled and then said, ‘Goodbye, Kalrea,’ before running back to her mother. She took hold of her mother’s hand and turned to look at Kalrea.

As the lift door closed, Supora put her hand up and Kalrea acknowledged her.

Kalrea wandered out onto the bridge. She watched as the Agonian people moved off into the thick wood, but Gulco and his wife stopped at the edge.

Goodbye Gulco, I expect we’ll never see each other again.

Supora also appeared next to them, with Asnica and Doine holding each of her hands.

The
Aurora
lifted gracefully into the air. Seeing they were waving, Kalrea dipped the front of the ship in acknowledgement, before she turned it and headed up through the atmosphere.

Alone again,
she thought sadly.

She viewed the interior of the
Aurora
. The spaces that were buzzing with people only a few hours before, were now empty. Construction drones were starting to tidy everything. Kalrea sat down in one of the console seats.

With this body I can experience wonderful things. I’m going to explore this area of the galaxy, meet new people, new friends. I should be happy, yet, I feel so alone.

Kalrea got up and moved over to the seatra on the bridge. The lid rose up.

Lex, I feel so guilty for keeping you here all this time. I should have let you die centuries ago. Your wife, Karunet, and son, Jameilo, souls have long since passed into another place. It was not right of me to keep you like this. I’m sorry! You always wanted to get home, back to Qintaino to them, but it’s too far; it’s always been too far. It’s time I let you go, Lex.

Lex suddenly drew a breath as he awoke from the seatra. Kalrea moved quickly back to sit at the console.

‘Kalrea, are you there?’ Lex said immediately and then rubbed his eyes.

‘Yes Lex, I’m here,’ Kalrea replied over the ship’s address system. ‘I’ve always been here.’

‘I don’t feel too good,’ Lex said. ‘My chest, it’s starting to feel tight.’

I don’t know what to tell him.

‘Where are we?’ he questioned her.

Kalrea felt she needed to lie to him.

‘We’re home, Lex. We’ve arrived at Qintaino.’

‘We’re
home?
’ Lex pulled himself upright, so he could see the monitor. An image of Qintaino was being shown by Kalrea. He noticed a young woman sitting at the console.

‘Londuo! What are you doing here?’

Kalrea’s drone turned around and replied with Londuo’s voice. ‘Lex, I came over to meet you. Karunet and Jameilo are waiting for you.’

‘But, you’re so young, Londuo! You should be old... No dead by now… You look just like when I left you. I’m confused...’

The seatra’s indicating his heart is now failing. This is it!

Kalrea acting as Londuo, smiled back at him. She got up from her seat and walked to the seatra.

‘I… I feel weak. I need… need… to rest,’ Lex said and laid back down in the seatra. ‘Where’s Karunet? I need to see Karunet.’

Kalrea reached in and took Lex’s hand in hers. ‘You’ll soon be with her, Lex,’ she said softly.

Lex stared into the eyes of Kalrea’s drone. ‘Londuo, I feel strange... faint… I think I’m...’ His eyes now stared into space and his breathing stopped abruptly.

Kalrea released his hand and started to cry. ‘Oh, Lex… Lex… I love you so much.’

As the tears flowed, she reached down and gently closed his eyes.

Now you’re at peace, with your wife and son. But I don’t know when I will join you.