The Agathon: Reign of Arturo (40 page)

She flew away from the fireball. Her display led the way. She knew this was the part that would be the most difficult. The Targlagdu had sealed her in. She knew that now. She would have to fight her way out or resign herself to a planet sized coffin. She placed her arms out in front of her and began firing.

The Agathon

John Barrington stood in the centre of the bridge. His eyes were on the Targlagdu. He had watched in horror as it had closed its equator and sealed his little girl inside. He had been ignoring the alien ship completely. The bridge was deathly quiet. His mind was open. Waiting for some sort of communication from Carrie. It was so quiet. The hum of the engines and computer consoles as they bleeped and chirped filled his ears, like a brass band.

“Sir, something is happening,” Chavel said looking at the screen.

Barrington watched. A definite sign of something happening showed on the surface. Possibly an explosion, but it was difficult to tell. Then without warning, a huge fireball erupted from the surface of the alien planet. A large chunk of the world suddenly broke away and drifted outwards from the planet. As if something had burst its way out from the inside.

“Report!” he said forcefully.

“I’m reading large power fluctuations at its core, sir,” Chavel said, “its power output levels have dropped by sixty percent.”

Carrie!
he shouted in his mind.

Miles of blue flames erupted into space from the hole that had just formed from the explosion.

“Any life form readings!” he shouted at Chavel.

“Hard to tell, sir, it’s a real mess out there. Hang on,” Chavel replied.

There was silence on the bridge once more, as they all looked up at the eruptions forming across the surface of the planet.

“I’ve got something, sir, a single life form reading, headed away from the epicentre of that explosion,” Chavel said.

Without hesitation Barrington replied.

“Set a course!” the captain said.

“Sir, the radiation levels coming from the detonation are too high to remain-” Chavel started to say.

“Charly, get us over there now!” he shouted.

“Aye, sir,” Boyett replied, firing up the engines and looking at Chavel.

And then he heard her.

Permission to come aboard, father
, Carrie said in his mind.

A wave of emotion flooded Barrington’s mind as his heart sped up in his chest.

Granted
, he replied softly, taking a step backwards and collapsing into his chair.

The airlock opened and Carrie stepped onto The Agathon. She was greeted by her father and Chavel. They stood looking at each other for a second. Her father’s puzzled look at her space suit was replaced quickly with a warm embrace, as he swept her off her feet and hugged her tightly. She pressed her head firmly in his neck and allowed the feeling of love that they had for each other, permeate through her soul. She could have stayed in this moment forever. She felt a tear fall from her father’s face and land on hers.

“I’m going to kill you,” he said pulling back and looking into her eyes.

“Can it wait? I’m kinda tired,” she replied smiling.

She looked over at David and smiled.

“That’s some outfit,” he said to her.

“Comes with the job,” she replied, taking his hand.

“We have a lot to discuss,” she said to her father, letting their embrace unravel.

“No shit,” he said, “what the hell is going on?”

A few minutes later they were in the conference room. Chase Meridian had joined them. Carrie had to struggle out of her embrace for fear that she would suffocate her. A quick briefing had brought Carrie up to speed on the death of Jerome Young and the plight of the rest of the humans, back on what was now called Earth One. She was saddened by Jerome Young’s death. There was so much more to talk to him about. She was sorry she hadn’t caught Katrina Padrosa and blamed herself for not being able to sense that much pain. She had been selfish. Unfocused. She had known there was an evil on board. A broken soul and she had not been able to stop her. Or save her. Carrie told them all about the alien planet that Tyrell had brought her to. About the extent of the Targlagdu threat and about how she was able to disable the alien planet. They all listened intently. Chavel’s mouth had remained open for most of the briefing. When she had finished, there was a moment of contemplation from those at the table. Her father was the first to speak.

“So, Tyrell is on board that ship now?” he asked her.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Doing what?” he asked her.

“I really don’t know,” Carrie responded, “what I do know is that Jack has asked me to return with him.”

“Jack?” Meridian said.

“Sorry, that’s what I call him. I had to call him something and it was the first name that came to mind,” Carrie answered.

“So, you just left the galaxy and met an alien called Jack?” Meridian said.

Carrie smiled at her.

“Basically,” Carrie responded.

“What do you mean go back?” Chavel said looking at her.

Carrie felt the sadness of the young lieutenant and knew this was going to be a lot harder than she had originally thought. She sighed and looked at the table.

“Father, there are thousands upon thousands of those things swarming the galaxy. You will not survive. I have to help the others in tackling them if there is any chance of our race surviving,” she said.

“What about the others?” Meridian asked.

“Their ship is faster than ours. A lot faster as you can probably tell. I think I can get them to travel to the others and bring them to your next location,” she replied.

“And where is our next location?” Barrington said.

Carrie smiled.

“You said you found a star map under the ice?” she said turning to Meridian.

“Yes,” Meridian said.

“Well, I know where it is and what it is. It is a planet called Ruthenium. We think it is the home of the Signal Makers. Where we must make our last stand,” Carrie said.

The room went quiet. Carrie turned to her father.

“I will meet you there, trust me,” she said.

Carrie watched as her father placed his hand on hers. He looked at her sadly, but with a respect in his eyes that she had not seen before. He reached over and tapped the comm panel on the desk.

“Bridge, this is the captain,” he said.

“Bridge here, sir,” Boyett sa id.

“Fire up the FTL drive. We’re leaving,” he said smiling at Carrie.

30

Earth One

T
hey drifted for several days before reaching Earth One. Aron could not get the image of the two ships exploding into one another out of his mind. He had not expected the explosion to be as large as it had been. The force of the shock wave had almost destroyed the escape pod. It had caused a fire on board the vessel that nearly suffocated them all to death. Nevertheless, they had made it. When they arrived, having limped back to the space stations, they were met at the packed airlock by members of every tribe. During their trip, they had managed to send a transmission to Earth One informing the leaders of each of the tribes what had happened. It seemed in their absence, they had staged a revolt. The Colonial Guards, with no leader to receive instructions from, were rendered useless. A new sense of power swept through the tribes with the news of Arturo’s death and the destruction of The Kandinsky. People were no longer afraid. They rose up and eliminated the guards taking back the station’s primary control centres, and learning the truth behind the atrocities of the forbidden zone. They were met with cheers. The people chanted Aron’s name and whisked him to the chancellor’s office, begging for him to take over as the leader of their fate.

It had taken several days to clear the corridors of the damage and bodies, of what had become known as freedom day. Aron spent
most of his time in Arturo’s old office waiting. Vishal had assured him that it would be possible to unplug those in the power plant, but that it would take time. The entire colony was running off the power grid and they had to compensate by reducing power and in some cases shutting down entire sections of the space station. There were debates on the subject, with Aron hearing from all the leaders of the tribes. Some wanted to unplug them all straight away, regardless of the consequences, while others believed that they should wait until a new power source could be found to sustain the tribes. The situation was getting desperate and Aron felt a great sense of conflict. The sacrifice of a few to save many. There were no habitable worlds within any sort of reachable distance for the space stations. Not for a few thousand years at any rate. The Agathon was months away and they had lost their only sub light ship.

He visited Maya on a daily basis. He talked with her quietly as she lay sleeping in her tank. He tried to imagine what she would have wanted. To remain plugged in or to take her chances. The answers he was looking for didn’t come, as life began to reassemble itself on board the stations. He was about to lose all hope, when two things happened. While sitting in Arturo’s office late one evening, he came across a data file in one of the sealed drawers in Arturo’s desk. Upon activating it, the face of a woman he had never seen before came on the screen. She looked in her late fifties. Tired. It was a visual recording of some sort. The woman began speaking.

“My name is Chancellor Sienna Clarke. I am recording this message for future generations in the hopes that our struggle will not be forgotten. For six years we have drifted through the solar system. Our home world, your home world, was destroyed by an alien signal. The impact of the blast destroyed our nearest neighbour and the only human colony on Mars. There was a ship called The Agathon, it was our last hope for survival. It took a handful of us on board and attempted to find the origin of that signal, in the hopes of finding a new world to call our own. That ship and all the souls on board, were
not heard from again. Her captain, John Barrington, would not have let us down, so we can only assume that they were unsuccessful and that some tragic accident claimed the lives of all those on board. We will continue on our journey, in the hope that someday, our race will find a new home. There is unrest on board the stations. I fear that a power struggle is taking place as there is a rise in violent incidents. We are holding our first free elections. I hope that whomever replaces me can find a solution to the divisions forming in our people. Find strength in each other and know that we never lost hope in you. This is Chancellor Sienna Clarke,” said the woman.

Aron watched the recording over and over trying to get a grasp of what had happened. On the day after he discovered the recording, India Walder had come rushing into his new office shouting.

“We’ve picked up something off the port bow,” she had said to him pointing, “Vishal just detected it. It’s huge. Looks like a ship of some sort.”

He had followed her hand as she pointed out the large window behind him, and sure enough, drifting towards Earth One, was a craft with eight triangular sides, creeping towards the space stations. They had received a transmission from the craft a few minutes later. The visual had shown a young human woman looking at them through the screens. She had introduced herself as Carrie Barrington. She had told them not to worry, that she had been sent by The Agathon to rescue the human race and bring them to a new world and that they were to prepare themselves for immediate evacuation. After several minutes of elation and shock, Aron had run past India towards the entrance of Arturo Verge’s office. India had shouted at him as he approached the door.

“Where the hell are you going?” she had asked him.

He turned to her, out of breath, and felt happiness for the first time in his life. He smiled at her.

“I’m going to wake up my daughter,” he said, laughing.

31

“W
ho’s there?” said Doctor Tyrone Tyrell in the dark. It felt like he was standing on solid ground, but there was no light to tell him what that ground looked like. He could not even see his own hands in front of his face. He could hear someone breathing. He was not sure if it was his own breath or someone else’s. He had been here for an eternity. Wandering around in the dark. He heard voices. One of them sounded like his own. There was something in the dark with him. He was sure of it. It had been here since he had arrived. Watching him. Stopping him from seeing. It felt like he was in a cave with no walls. There were no echoes when he shouted. His voice rippled into nothingness. For a moment, there had been a bright light and Carrie’s face had been looking down at him. He had pleaded with her for help. Then she was gone. The light had been extinguished by whatever was here with him. Holding him prisoner. It felt like he had been here his whole life. Alone in the dark with something. Some unseen monster watching his every move. He felt transparent. There were semblances of thought. Strange imagery that kept filtering into his mind. At one point, he thought he was running through a forest. Had he been speaking to an alien life form? He was sure he had seen Carrie. She looked different. Had they been
free floating in space? He was sure he had been injured somehow and that this was some sort of coma. The images had felt real. There was something behind him. He turned to see nothing. The ground began to vibrate and something approached from behind him. Giant meandering footsteps in the dark getting closer. He began to run. The ground beneath his feet disappeared and he felt like he was suddenly floating. The sound of the approaching giant grew stronger.
Where did the ground go?
he thought to himself. Was he dead?