Slave Empire - The Crystal Ship
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Authors: T C Southwell
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Slave Empire II
The Crystal Ship
T C Southwell
Published by T
C Southwell at Smashwords
Copyright ©
2012 by T C Southwell
Smashwords
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Table of
Contents
Chapter One
The red giant was in the last throes of its long life,
and
Rayne studied the dying solar system
that surrounded it
. The ancient star’s
ruddy light bathed seven planets, giving them pink auras. Its heat
was such that the three planets nearest to it were molten. The next
two were hot and barren, and the sixth was a sickly yellow and
orange gas giant. The planets all lined up, orbiting their sun in
perfect synchrony.
The black ship
orbited the seventh planet, and she was able to get a good look at
it for the first time. As it had been at Earth, Endrix was a black
ovoid devoid of reflections, appearing as a featureless area, even
now. A week ago, she had left the Shrike’s station and headed off
into the unknown, not knowing where she was going, only that she
wanted to find Endrix again and get some answers. For three days
her calls, on various frequencies, had received no reply, then a
slaver had appeared, and she had been forced to flee.
Disheartened,
she had slowed to sub-light and resumed her calls, until finally
her guide had dropped out of the transfer Net right next to her, to
Shadowen’s alarm. Endrix had agreed to take her to his masters’
world, then led her into Quadrant Forty-Four. His presence had
reassured her, and she suspected that Endrix himself might be
responsible for the quadrant’s reputation. According to Shadowen,
they were now almost at the very centre of it.
Shadowen went
into orbit near the black ship, and she surveyed the pale green
world. According to the holographic readouts scrolling up from the
consoles, this planet was not as hostile as she had first imagined.
Its atmosphere was breathable, although hot and humid, despite the
dearth of clouds. Its lack of a metallic core made its gravity
almost Earth normal, even though it was twice the size. The huge
ship was almost invisible against space.
Endrix had not
spoken since instructing her to follow him, and she wondered why.
What awaited her on this strange planet, and why were there no
signs of civilisation on the surface? If this was his masters’
world, where did they live? She did not doubt his friendship, only
wondered what weirdness she might find down there.
She addressed
the ship. “I think I’d like you to land, Shadowen. Somehow, the
prospect of going down there alone is unpleasant. Call me chicken
if you like, but I’d rather have you close by.”
“
I agree. This place appears to be abandoned, and although you
insist that this ship is not hostile, I find its age and
construction to be unsettling.”
When Shadowen
had first scanned the black ship with his various instruments, of
which he had an impressive array, he had informed her that Endrix
was several million years old, which had astounded Rayne as much as
it had astonished Shadowen. His analysis of Endrix’s construction
had raised a great many questions, for he could not identify the
substance from which the black ship was built. Considering
Shadowen’s vast database, this was also cause for amazement. He was
now rather wary of Endrix, and inclined to be suspicious.
Shadowen sank
through the thin cloud layer and into an atmosphere tinged with
violet. Below them, the emerald-green expanse stretched away with
billiard table flatness, broken only by occasional circular lakes
of purplish water. Drops of moisture formed on the screens,
testifying to the dampness outside.
The ship
levelled off a few metres above the surface and glided along on its
anti-gravity. Water ran down the screens, condensing on the ship’s
icy skin, which the utter cold of space had frozen. According to
the information in the scrolling holograms, the humidity was
uncomfortable and the heat stifling. A blemish came into view on
the endless green, and Shadowen changed course towards it. He
approached a tall stone monolith and came to a stop a few metres
away.
Rayne said, “I
think this will be a good place to disembark. What do you say,
Shadowen?”
“
I’d rather return to Ironia, personally,” the ship
grumped.
“
I was invited here, although my host seems to have made
himself scarce. I think I can manage without him, if this is some
sort of test.”
The ship sank
lower, hovering bare centimetres off the ground, so the steps could
deploy. Rayne gazed out at the alien monolith in its strange
landscape, on this nameless world lighted by a dying sun, and
wondered at the weirdness of it all. If the scenery was not bad
enough, there was the enigmatic black ship orbiting above, which
named himself Endrix, but she was certain he was not a living
being. Mustering her courage, she walked along the short corridor
to the door, which slid open with a soft hiss and clunk. Hot, damp
air rushed in, carrying a stench of decay and a perfume of cloying
sweetness mingled in a horrendous stink. She recoiled, disgusted,
then forced herself to ignore it, or at least bear it, and
descended the steps.
Rayne stepped
into a calm, deathly silent world. Her flat-heeled black boots sank
into the emerald-green moss that covered everything in a thick
carpet, unmarred by any feature other than the pools and the
monolith. This world was a golf course owner’s dream, she mused;
all he would have to do was dig a few little holes and stick flags
in them.
The utter
silence hung like a shroud, well suited to a planet that lacked a
hot core to thrust up mountains, or weather to stir its stale air.
No life other than the moss would ever exist here, and she
suspected that the moss was not indigenous. The heat made sweat pop
out all over her in a sticky rash, and her hair wilted in the
dampness. She pushed it behind her ears and plucked at her damp
clothes, glad she wore a plain dark grey sleeveless top and black
stretch jeans.
Pink clouds
sat quite still in a deep magenta sky and a moon drifted like a
silver Frisbee above the flat horizon. The dying sun glared down
like a great red eye, with only the moss to challenge its monotone
colour scheme.
Shadowen spoke through her implant, which was located just
behind her left ear.
Are you all
right?
“
Fine, just admiring the scenery,” she said.
Rayne
approached the black-streaked golden monolith, whose weathered
appearance was incongruous on a planet that had none. The emerald
moss made a valiant attempt to cover this last bastion of bareness,
and had succeeded in climbing about half a metre up the stone.
There it had died from lack of moisture, its dried grey remains
crumbling. The monolith stood about three metres tall, and an
oblong of hairline cracks outlined what appeared to be a
featureless door at its base. It swung inwards when she pushed on
it, revealing a room lighted by a golden glow that reminded her of
the energy sphere Endrix had used aboard the scout ship. She
stepped inside, and the floor dropped beneath her. After a moment
of disquiet, she realised it must be a kind of lift. Featureless
walls rose on all sides, and the pink glow of the doorway receded
to a tiny rectangle high above.
Another door
appeared at floor level and rose to head height before the lift
stopped, and she peered out into a vast hall lighted by the same
golden glow. Cool, arid air dried her sweat and clothes and made
her shiver.
Rayne stepped
into a chamber of celestial proportions and monkish plainness, a
simple corridor of unembellished grey stone that stretched away to
a pair of vast doors at its end. As she strode along the echoing
expanse, centuries of dust stirred under her feet, undisturbed
until now. She wondered how long her footprints would remain here
after she was gone, perhaps until the end of time. From the look of
this place, it had been here since the beginning. The silver doors
appeared to be made from an impervious alloy, as smooth and shiny
as the day they had been made.
Stopping in
front of them, she found nothing that looked like a handle or
interface that might open the giant portal. The doors were probably
a metre thick and built to withstand a supernova, so she did not
think banging on them would do any good.
“
Endrix, I’m here. Are you going to let me in?”
A soft grating
was followed by a whine of ancient machinery. The doors swung
inwards, drawn back by two vast arms that became visible as they
opened. Bright light flooded out, making her squint. Just inside
the doors, a force field of milky light reached from floor to
ceiling. Whoever, or whatever, had built this place had intended it
to be impregnable.
“
Now what, Endrix?” she enquired.
The force
field vanished with a hiss, and a familiar voice spoke from
within.
“
Welcome.”
Although not
large, the room gave the impression of vastness and antiquity,
perhaps because of the dozens of cathedral-like columns of glowing
crystal that reached to the ceiling. They were linked by brilliant
laser beams to a facetted, spherical diamond a metre in diameter,
sitting atop a squat column of pitch-black rock. It shone with
golden Net energy, filaments of power crawling through it in a web
of scintillating light. The smooth white floor was spotless.
The ancient
entity, which she assumed was Endrix, could be compared to nothing
she had ever encountered before. The lasers flicked from one
crystal column to another, lighting each as they touched it. Behind
the diamond sphere, two more huge crystal columns blazed with green
light, and the conduits of brilliance that linked these to the
sphere were unwavering. Rayne recognised the crystals as the kind
used to store power, pale blue when empty; green when filled with
Net power. The core crystal that powered Shadowen when he was not
linked to the Net was only a fraction of the size of one of these,
so there must be enough power here to last for several centuries.
At the same time, she was certain this entity had a permanent link
to the Net.
Rayne’s gaze
came to rest on the sphere. “Endrix?”
“
Indeed. Welcome to Farlaw.” His voice now issued from the
sphere, banishing the last of her doubts.
“
What are you?”
“
Ah, a good question. You could describe me as a bodiless
being, an incorporeal entity, or even a ghost in a machine. I am
not a machine, however, or a robot, and certainly not a computer.
My consciousness came into existence three million, seven hundred
and fifty-five thousand, one hundred and eighty-four years ago. I
cannot describe myself any more accurately to you, just as you
cannot define your own spiritual existence.
“
Perhaps I am a soul without a body, summoned from the ethers
of beyond by my masters. Or perhaps I am a creation of their
collective consciousness, brought into being by their willpower. I
have been content even without a name, until you asked me, for I
was just me, and satisfied with that. Now you have given me
something else to ponder. Perhaps in a couple of million years I
will be able to answer that question.”