Exile: Arc Read online

  _.Star Saga._

  Copyright © Jack Lance

  "Let me tell you a story," Arc said, then gripped his hand at her and palmed the starry sky, "A wonderful, terrifying story."

  Please rate/ review as appropriate.

  Part I

  The Citadels Aren’t There

  Blood Money.

  An eye opens, taking in the sight of a hundred thousand stars flying by.

  The blazing fire of the stars burned within the man’s eye.

  He blinked slowly and then turned away as the view ahead cleared, and from the flames a single point of light flickered and glared out of the dark, only to be eclipsed a moment later by a large, bright red and blue planet. It’s surrounding rings angled and stopped, or rather, relatively the ship did so, and then all ahead was still and dead.

  Nine left the observatory, with the man leaving last. He affixed a helmet to an illuminous white suit and cocked a pistol ready, as did the others ahead of him.

  Their vessel slid slowly down into the planets orbit. No alarms sounded, no ships ran to intercept, since the solar defence grid had been fully hacked on approach. The space mainframe would recognize the ship as an innocent mineral hauler no matter what the circumstances that followed.

  From an opening in the side of the titanic bright white craft, the figures stepped out and walked toward the underside. As the ship approached close enough to burn against the atmosphere, it swivelled so to move the figures into the harsh blast.

  They stood within the fire looking at one another through the mockingly deformed animal shaped helmets.

  Once one had nodded to the rest they crouched and leapt up from the ship, falling down toward the planet.

  “Hello and welcome to Cequodus Prime.” the automatic tourist welcome message of the planet fed through as they dived down through the ionosphere, automatically mistaking them for nine visiting space craft. “This is the capital planet of the Cequodus Royal Dynasty. Adopted in 47133 for its central position between particle trade routes, while also being uniquely situated on a Lord layline within less than a light year, the planet has seen generations of Cequodus bring prosperity and hope to this quadrant of Lantis space, and provide goods and services to every species within the Eclipse Empire. We do hope you'll enjoy your stay!”

  The nine listened to or ignored this as they dropped down from the harsh upper air into the cloud belt and down through hills of grey gas. Lightning snarled ahead as they bombed through faster each moment, before suddenly the cloud ended and the ground, so much closer than on many other planets with less intense weather cycles, emerged and closed fast toward them. They dropped between tall, dark mountain peaks covered in black forests toward a palace’s grounds, built into one of the mountainsides.

  Seconds from impact the nine twisted with more power than the greatest of galactic gymnasts, and landed feet first in the courtyard of the Cequodus Dynastic Palace.

  The nano-scale pistons within the suits took all of the force of the fall, dispersing the impact across the wet marble courtyard, shattering it in nine shallow, wide craters.

  The rains continued as if nothing had occurred, as they each crouched in a ball for a moment, to get their bearings. Another snarl of lightning and its close thunder moved through the cloud above.

  They each stood up slowly, and looked around at the rain battered yard before a raised lawn, and the tall palace and mountain beyond it. The leader of the nine nodded again and they began to walk forward through the gardens toward the palace.

  In the main room the lights were on bright and inside through opaque glass could be seen silhouette figures sitting here and there and the sound of discourse between them. The nine moved to the glass wall fronting on to the lawns, and looked inward a moment before walking aside in two rows to the doors.

  At the mark of another nod from the tallest of them they shouldered through the doorways into the room and spread out aiming their wrist weapons and pistols at the seated figures. The one closest to the leader was clearly Pybus Cequodus. His fat, arrogant smile was spread all over his face. The leader shone the laser pointer of his weapon into his eyes and held it there for maximized discomfort, before pulling it away.

  The others looked between their leader and the sitting figures of the Cequodus family. Their leader reached and pressed the face of Pybus with the tips of his fingers and watched as his head fell backward and shattered upon the wooden floor.

  The nine stepped forward to see the rubble of the figurine. Within could be seen a small, old fashioned tape recorder playing back the voice of Pybus.

  “They made us.” one of the two women said. “Let’s get outa…”

  ”Check the vaults.” their leader said quietly, and the two women skipped and ran off toward the back of the building.

  One of the others walked close and whispered “Ace, we have to get out of here now.”

  Insanely, their leader screamed out and opened fire into the room. The others joined him in their frustration, spraying the huge room with hot sparks of plasma. The ceramic figurines of the Cequodus family burst and melted on fire, with the fire then quickly spreading and engulfing the entire room. When they had finally finished they heard over the suit's intercom the voices of the two women.

  “Can you read me?” one shouted. “The vaults are empty. I repeat they cleared em out.”

  “Teleporting in 5, 4, 3, 2…” their leader said, and in a crack of magnesium light all but one of them disappeared.

  Realizing the mistake, the man remained calm and walked out of palace onto the first of the damp lawns. The storm had cleared slightly, and through the gaps in cloud cover he could see their magnificent white ship in orbit. It was suffering a laser barrage from two other enormous ships that now surrounded it. It seemed that the others had taken control and were giving as good as they got, but in the confusion it seemed they hadn’t noticed one of their number had been left behind.

  Behind in the palace firebombs were being teleported in to cleanse it of the intruders. Such petty possessions were simple to replace, and one of thousands of palaces that the Cequodus family possessed.

  The man stood watching the sky, trying to remain calm, as the sounds of explosions drew nearer.

  The white ship banked away, ramming one of the Shadow Security ships out of its way, before engaging the backspace-drive and disappearing back into the night sky.

  The man heard slow footsteps approach from behind, and he turned to see the person through his visor.

  “Hello Arc.” Pybus Cequodus said as he stepped toward him on the lawn. His fat, over inflated appearance hissed and fizzed, denoting that it was a holographic projection of the Cequodus prince. A similar holographic projection of Arc and the surrounding place would be seen at the opposite side.

  The prince stepped around the man called Arc and then stood staring at him in his suit. The deformed rabbit shaped helmet grinned back at him insanely, twisted bucked teeth and all. All in all it was not a scene the Cequodus would ideally like to portray to those pre-packaged tourists.

  “Ah. So very bold.” Pybus said leaning toward him slightly, and then faded away.

  Behind where he had stood, at the very far side of the lawn a tiny crack of magnesium light opened a small backspace gap, enough to pass through a firebomb. The object dropped to the lawn with a wet thump, and then a second later it exploded. The walls of the garden blew outwards and the grass and trees burst apart.

  Arc was thrown back from his feet like a ragdoll, and through the now splintering front windows of the palace. He flew into the room amongst a shower of glass, and slid up to the foot of the burning sofa.

  There he lay for a moment, a broken mess inside his suit of armour, before reaching to claw with the last of his meagre energy at the eye plat
e of his helmet. It squeaked against his fingertips slightly, and then he gave up.

  Arc lay panting and staring through the visor at the gaping mess where the front grounds of the palace had been, waiting now for his pain and injuries to take him into death.

  He was delirious but noticed slowly that the garden had become occupied by a large host of cloaked figures. They glided slowly forward through the jagged windowframe and gathered in a group before him. A menacing sight to behold, they were draped from head to heel in a scaled shroud, with what seemed an impossibly thin body and limbs wrapped in a similar scaled fabric, at least so much as could be observed within the cloak. Around their faces it nipped quite tight, suggesting very alien features within, especially at the bulb of the mouth.

  There was a human chuckle, and Pybus walked between them, followed by the rest of his odious family. With no holographic interference this time it seemed they had come to finish him in person.

  “Welcome to Hell.” Pybus grinned nastily, and booted Arc hard in the face, killing him instantly.

  And where do I find my Soul now?

  A sarcophagus lay in the center of a cold room.

  Two hologramatic screens hovering an inch above each of the two halves of its lid chattered and churned through information about the occupant. Most were security analysis readings, with speeded-up checks and cross checks on the mobility of the man. Suddenly the data on the screen flushed red and orange and then disappeared. The room lay silent for a few moments save for the hiss of the nitrogen coolants in the walls spewing icy gas through vents and collecting on the floor all around.

  The lids of the sarcophagus whistled and hissed before moving aside spewing yet more cryo-gasses out to collect at the floor.

  A needle-like camera in the ceiling watched a man sit up and hold his head in his hands. He was mostly bald and pale skinned with a wiry muscular body.

  The camera watched and listened as the man groaned “Where am I?”

  “Where am I?” he yelled up at the camera, having apparently found it already.

  “Oh my word.” he said putting his head back in his hands for a moment, then looked up with wide eyes and spoke almost in a whisper. “Who am I?”

  The funnel shaped speaker beside the camera howled hollowly for a moment as a charge was fed into it. A voice was then heard talking to someone else.

  “Is this some kind of a trick?”

  “No trick, sire. The bullet crushed a lot of the top part of his brain.”

  “Why wasn’t I told about this?” the man complained before clearing his throat and then talking more directly through the speaker.

  “My name is Horald Kinnyck. I am an emissary from the exile colony. I am in charge of… “

  “Who am I?” the man yelled again putting his head back in his hands.

  After a pause Horald Kinnyck said “Your name is Arc Micormic. You are a terrorist and thief from the Lantis Colonies. You were caught while attacking a palace on Cequodus Prime.”

  “The dynasty?” the man said looking up hopelessly. “Oh my word… why would I…”

  “You and your brothers and sisters were attempting to steal diamond stores from the vaults. Our sensors showed there was an error in your ships teleportation cycle and you were stranded. Abandoned by your brothers and sisters. You were taken into custody, and are now being taken to an exile colony under the supervision of Cequodus. You have nothing to worry about, and nobody at the colony will know your name or history if you don’t wish to divulge it. But you will not be able to leave the unit we assign for you. You will stay there until your death. Is this all clear?”

  “Perfect crystal.” the man who had been Arc said, almost sarcastically. “So who am I to be?”

  “Our computers have generated the name Aaron Bailey. You can change this now if you wish.”

  “Anything...” Aaron Bailey said softly and lay back below the mist of his cryo chamber.

  “You are entering the atmosphere of your new home, Mr Bailey.” Kinnyck said. “Please stay in that position for a moment.”

  Bailey leaned his head up through the mist and asked “Why? What’s the….hey!”

  The lids closed again over him and he could feel the sarcophagus being moved in the direction of the wall. It moved on runners into the wall and then a launch tube, fitting into it with a dull thud.

  Above the icy landscape of planet Narcosia the robotically piloted ship angled itself with its roaring jets and fired the sarcophagus out and into the deep snow. A burst of wet snow sprayed up and out over the jet white walls of the prison unit.

  Figures in woolly, hooded jackets ran down from an open door in the massive wall, gathering up the sarcophagus between them and carrying it back into the place.

  One turned to watch as the ship banked away and blasted off toward the fast flowing snow clouds above.

  “Let me out of here!” Aaron Bailey hammered his fists on the insides of the lids.

  The room within the unit was a dank green mouldy enclosure behind the toppling waters of a fall. It was dark and looked nasty and natural, but for the portcullis in the smooth stone wall at the rear, that led from the real atmosphere outside.

  The figures pulled back their hoods once inside the open doorway. Behind them the snow blizzard fell into the room, while the heat from the place before them began to thaw the two shivering men. The white portcullis slowly lowered to the ground locking out the icy winds.

  The two men were from the colony, while the other, who was very much the one in command here, was a tall robot. It’s clear crystal encased computer brain flickered varying colours over the dull gold metal of its body, from its chin down to its feet. The metal moved like a canvas as the robot carried the heavy coffin to an area of clean rock near the falling water. The coffin lay in the light from behind the falls as the three figures stood back and looked it over.

  “Ok, everyone. Ready?” the robot looked around at the two men, although it was difficult to make out any features in it’s face. The steady black dots of it’s eyes were buried deep within the alternating colours of the positronic lights.

  The two men nodded, and watched as the robot leaned over the coffin and pulled aside the lids. Bailey sat up and grabbed the robot by the throat as the robot grabbed Bailey more gently by the throat and shoulders. Bailey glanced around at the scene within the robotic lightshow in the murky place.

  The robot pressed Bailey back down onto the cushions within the casket.

  “How are you?” the robot said very amiably. “What is your name?”

  “I’m… I’m… Aaron Bailey.” he said weakly and relaxed his grip.

  The robot let go and watched him a moment to make sure he had backed down, then went back beside the two men and waited to see what Bailey would do.

  Bailey leant his leg over the side of the lid and pulled himself out onto the muddy floor in his bare feet. He was wearing only a clinical overall which he had apparently been frozen in for transport.

  “Please don’t be afraid. We are all here to help you get well. Whatever you need…” the robot said.

  The two men nodded roughly, although something within Bailey found them unconvincing somehow.

  Bailey, half ignoring these words stepped closer to the ledge beside the casket and looked out over the drop of the waterfall. Through the water he could see a pool at the base of the falls, and then beyond that the room seemed to turn jet black strangely although he could see some folks milling around down there. Above was what could only be the scarlet canopies of tropical trees sourced from the planet Lantis, in lines on either side of the enclosure below. There was clearly some kind of memory still left behind he felt.

  “You must kneel on the line.” he heard the robot say, and he turned back to look at them.

  The robot was pointing at a white line in the rock plateau just behind his bare feet.

  Bailey thought for a moment then took a step back and lowered himself down, groaning quietly against the stiffness and aches t
hat still remained from his slumber.

  Bailey glanced over his shoulder at the three people.

  Aside from the simple minded robot were the two thuggish men, that had the look and feel of a security detail.

  The first was a huge man with a deep rouge complexion. His eyes seemed trained on Bailey as if to denote that he meant business whoever he was. The other was a shorter man with a rat like face that looked more nurture than nature. Bailey couldn’t remember who or what he had been before he came here, but he seemed to have deduced a whole lot about these two already.

  The robot looked like it belonged in some old fashioned science fiction novel; only this wasn’t, and it was really happening, and in the only way it ever could.

  The robot gestured to the men.

  “These are Border Security officers. They are exiles just like yourself, but have earned a trustee role within the security force here in the unit. They will be your officers during your adjustment period. I am Zep Teppi, a robot as you will have guessed. I control this alteration unit here on Narcosia.”

  “Good good.” Bailey said, and then gathered thoughts that he found now raced through his mind. “How long was I in cryo stasis?”

  “We can’t say for sure.” Zep said. “But you were in orbit for over a week. They had to wait out a window in the weather warm enough to air drop you.”

  “Over a week. Ouch.” Bailey said.

  The robot droned on “The officers and I will show you your cell. It has already been assigned. They will be basic grade quarters to begin with, upgrading to better grades as you earn more levels and credits. It’s a system I invented…”

  Bailey looked at the robot square and said “Riiiiight.”

  There were no more words from the robot or the two men. They gestured for Bailey to stand and then guided him down one of two flights of stone steps at either side of the plateau. They led around the central line of falling water, and through another curtain of water that on passing through gave him a slightly better perspective on his situation.