Authors: Dhayaa Anbajagane
Twenty seconds
, Elizabeth thought.
Her mind wasted one more of those precious seconds by figuring out that that nowhere close to the time they needed to get down to a thicker atmospheric level.
The intercom opened up, only this time it was a different voice.
“Commander Carlos of Aliea Academy, we’ve located your position,” it said. “ETA in ten seconds.”
The locals
, she thought.
A metal-green spacecraft about the size of a football field positioned itself right next to their white sphere. Its rear hangar door opened up and Q pushed the sphere into the ship. Elizabeth instinctively folded back her wings and they disappeared from her body, becoming invisible.
The first thing she noticed when they were inside was the spotless silver surfaces all around them. And then there were the weird men staring at her and the others.
They wore snow-white, gown-like clothes that extended all the way to their feet. They looked very human, with almost no strange looking mutation.
Maybe it’s because Armorica is similar to the Earth
, she thought.
She smiled a bit. It was very intriguing to her, that every form of alien life was just the product of a natural mutation of a universal race, the Zyxians. Q had told her that Earth had a species called “Early Man” who was supposed to be the Zyxian who helped the human race populate the Earth. It was mystical to think that a similar man came here, and evolved almost identically to the humans of Earth.
“We’re glad you’re all safe,” a tall man broke from the crowd of strange men and greeted them. He didn’t seem to have a limp of any sort, and yet he carried a cane with him. Well, she wasn’t sure if it was a cane or not because it rose up all the way to his eye level. The cane was made of entwining vines that became thicker towards the top and ended in a crystal orb.
The man himself seemed as old as his stick, with his pale skin wrinkled around his cheeks and forehead. He had hardly any facial hair except for some white stubble around his chin but his head compensated for it with a long cut of silvery white hair.
“Thank you, High Priest,” Carlos bowed low, making Elizabeth and the others followed suit.
“Please, raise your heads. The Commander of Aliea is always welcome here,” he said and turned to Q. “The Wielder of Light even more so.”
Q fidgeted a bit from the High Priest’s words. She knew it was because he was still getting used to being acknowledged for his power over the Elementa of light. The nature of such an Elementa made it difficult to control.
The Universe is filled with solid matter that one can touch and feel. This matter also exists simultaneously in the form of waves. A few special beings have a huge amount of life energy within them, and this can be used to manipulate the wave-form of these objects, an act that was commonly called a wave-skill.
With regular Elementa like fire, water, metal, and so on, one would manipulate an object at any distance by interacting with its respective wave. So if a piece of wood were a hundred yards away, it’d be impossible to touch, but its waves would reach for miles and miles. So one could use their life energy and manipulate these waves into say, becoming more energetic and thus heating up. Or they could move the block around by directly moving the wave around. Basically it was like one could form an invisible connection with an object they were trained to manipulate.
Pretty cool right?
But the element of light is special since it doesn’t have a touchable, or feelable form. It basically has no observable mass. That means it exists only as a wave. And
that
means it’s much more difficult to control.
“I’m sure he will benefit greatly from this visit,” Carlos said.
This was for a training camp?
she wondered.
“We shall attend to that shortly,” the High Priest said. “The ship will reach our city in a few minutes’ time. For now we need to scan the area for any potential threats.”
“You think we were attacked?” Carlos asked.
“We do not think. We know,” he said. “For the past few weeks we’ve been having similar attacks on our merchant vessels and we’ve even had small raids happen in Armorica’s capital city.”
“I didn’t expect your race to be capable of something of this sort.”
“The Getafixians would never abandon their morality, however high the gains may be,” he said. “These raids and attacks are caused by the other race.”
“Ah,” Carlos paused. “The Thanonians.”
The High Priest nodded, “They are nothing but poor excuses for intelligent life,” he said. “They’ve been causing us plenty of trouble for the past few months.”
A man scuttled into the room, also dressed in a white gown, “Sire, the scanners picked up a Thanonian vessel in the immediate vicinity.”
The High Priest’s face distorted with disgust, “Initiate contact and capture them if necessary,” he said and turned back towards them. “I’m sorry, Commander, but our trip to the capital might get delayed a bit. But the Thanonian ships are no match for our vessel, so it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”
“No worries, High Priest,” he said.
The High Priest called for two other men, “Guide our guests to my chambers,” he said and turned to Carlos. “I will join you shortly after this. Please rest in my quarters until we reach the city.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Carlos said.
“I insist,” he said with a little more sternness.
Carlos didn’t seem to be intimidated but he obliged anyway.
“Thank you for your generosity,” he said.
Two Getafixian men bowed before them and led them into a corridor. They walked straight ahead, not turning into the paths that branched out.
Elizabeth felt her body shift backward as the ship picked up speed.
“Impressive speed,” the pilot mumbled.
Elizabeth jerked for a second. She had completely forgotten about their pilot. And speaking of the pilot, she seemed to be walking perfectly fine, which meant her legs hadn’t been hurt when that metal block had trapped her.
“Armorica’s tech is usually high class,” Carlos said.
“Better than ours?” Q asked.
“Definitely. This planet has huge sums of money reserved back from its early sponsors. Our sponsors at Aliea Academy can only provide to a certain extent. The tech we invest in is high class, but the Getafixians buy God-level tech. Amazing stuff.”
Elizabeth had to admit she was intrigued at what exactly this planet was. All she knew was that it was like the Earth, and the natives dressed like the Pope.
They finally stopped at the end of the corridor, in front of a sleek double door, each one spanning half the width of the corridor. The men swung open both sides and bowed their heads, which was probably their way of asking them to head in.
“Thank you,” Carlos nodded at both the men and walked in, with the others behind him.
The room was dimly lit by blue lava lamps in each corner of the room. On the right side was a large bed, with a canopy and translucent cloth screens around it. On the other side was a semicircular couch, with a circular table in the center. A window stood about five feet above the floor on either side but no light came through.
“Well, this looks like some sort of a royal chamber,” Q said.
“It is in a way,” Carlos said. “The Getafixians follow a sort of monarchy.”
“Really?”
“They elect a High Priest, and then the position is filled until he or she dies.”
“That’s interesting.”
“It’s also how the Vatican works,” Elizabeth chuckled.
A thundering explosion shook the ship, sending waves through the metal walls and floor.
“What was that?” Elizabeth asked as she shifted her weight to balance herself.
Carlos looked at them, his face devoid of emotion, “The Thanonian vessel just destroyed.”
***
“I hope you’re comfortable in here,” the High Priest said as he walked into the room.
Q stood still with the others, contributing to the utter silence that filled the air. The only sound that resonated was the dull ‘glob’ noise from the bubbles in the lava lamp.
The High Priest stood still for another few seconds, his hand gripping his staff, his eyes looking at everyone intently, trying to get someone to say something.
“Commander Carlos,” he said. “Is there a problem?”
Carlos stood up, his face stern, “Was it really necessary to blow that ship up, High Priest?”
The High Priest’s face changed, “Blow up? What in the world are you talking about,” he said. “That Thanonian ship was an attack drone. It self-destructed when we rendered it immobile.”
Now it was Carlos’ turn to change expressions.
Q was surprised that his brother would make such an inaccurate assumption. Although, he had to admit, he’d pretty much thought the same thing. Only difference was that he wasn’t that sure about it, whereas Carlos was very confident about his statement.
“Self-destruction?” he asked, not convinced by the High Priest’s answer.
“The Thanonians do not want us learning about any of their weaponry. So all their ships, satellites, and drones are programmed to self-destruct as soon as they fall into the wrong hands.”
Carlos eased up a bit, but remained silent, hindered by the awkward atmosphere he’d left in the room.
“Do not worry about it, Commander,” The High Priest smiled. “I’d have made the same assumption if I were not familiar with these practices.”
Carlos managed a smile.
“Come,” The High Priest sat down on the U-shaped sofa, and everyone else followed suit.
Q sat down at the edge and stretched his legs out. All that standing had made him feel sore. The regular ‘standing in a ship’ was fine, but this ship was accelerating through space, and that usually made it harder for the body to cope with it.
“Why do you think the Thanonians attacked us?” Elizabeth asked. “Did they think we were one of the Getafixians?”
“I believe so,” The High Priest said. “But we can’t really say for sure. These days the Thanonians have us under a small siege, attacking all sorts of small merchant vessels that head to our planet.”
“Can’t you just threaten them?” Q asked. If the Getafixians had such superior tech then it would make sense to threaten to wipe them out.
“They know we won’t wipe out an entire group of people,” he sighed. “It is not our way of life.”
“Well, I guess you’re in a spot then.”
“Yes,” he clutched his cane. “We’re indeed in a spot. But the positive to all this is that they don’t have high quality ships or drones. So as long as we predict their moves we’ll be fine. But even then, a trivial amount of damage always occurs.”
“How many of their drones have been taken out so far?”
“This week the number is around ten or so. These frequent attacks are the reason we now have our ships orbiting the planet at all times. Constant surveillance is the sole thing that helps us, but every once in a while we have one of our ships taken out by a Thanonian drone swarm.”
“You know,” Q said. “If there’s a significant risk involved should you really be on this ship? Aren’t you kinda important on Armorica?”
As soon as he said it Q realized he hadn’t expressed himself very politely. Frankly, he’d expressed himself in the worst way possible, and Carlos’ subtle glare let him know he was spot on about that.
He opened his mouth to apologize but was cut off by the High Priest’s hoarse laughter.
“The youth these days,” he said. “So direct with everything,” he turned to Q. “Well little one, it is as much a risk for you as it is for me. I wanted to safely bring you to the capital and so I boarded the only surveillance craft that intersected with your entry path. Good thing we planned that whole thing out.”
The door swung open and a younger Getafixian man walked in, “High Priest, we have reached the capital.”
“Wait, we’re on the ground?!” Elizabeth asked
Q could see why she was surprised. He hadn’t felt a single jerk the entire time. Heck, he hadn’t even felt the ship slow down.
And boom, they were on the ground.
Future tech
, he thought.
Well, it wasn’t exactly future tech. This tech was very much in the present. It was just that most of the Universe didn’t have it. He made a mental note to check out the other tech these people had. If space engine drives were this good their day-to-day tech would probably be insane. The High Priest stood up, and his staff’s base softly thudded into the floor, “Shall we get going then?” he said and led them out the door.
The young man led them along and turned into the first corridor that branched out towards the left.
A total maze
, Q thought.
He wondered if these men went through drills just to remember where everything was. Seemed like there was no other way to figure out all these routes.
“I trust the accommodations have been taken care of?” the High Priest asked the man just as they stopped in front of a tall door that seemed to have popped out of nowhere. Its textured metal spanned the entire height of the corridor, making it look like it was a door to one of those high-security prison cells.
“The palace is awaiting their arrival, Sire,” he said and placed his palm on a fingerprint scanner on the side of the door. The door hissed and rose up, allowing rays of light to enter the ship and reflect between the metallic walls.
The High Priest turned around at the doorway and faced them, his hands and staff raised, the light turning him into nothing more than a silhouette.
“Welcome to Armorica.”
***