Free Sony EBooks: Free ebook sample of "An Obsidian Sky" by Ewan Sinclair (powered by Smashwords)

June was a fine month. It drifted by lazily in a sad imitation of the smoke from the adjacent factory. I was twenty five and I was bored. I filled my time with endless media, media it seemed that manifested itself everywhere, anywhere. The world seemed so full of noise, so bursting with a raft of information, it was only logical to seek out illegal movies and viral videos just to escape the chatter.

Then it was August. A job interview burgeoning filled me with such promise. Ten days and I might be in my dream job. A year and I might be earning dream money. Such fantasies filled my head that I became a spectre lost to a world between worlds, somewhere they claim imagination lies.

Rudely interrupted by a banal bleating, the call ID said Matt so I answered grumpily. ‘What’s up...I’m not doing anything...yes, but I’m tired...cheers man, bye.’ The shortened version was that life was sweet, promising and full of pleasure. I could do what I wanted. I had great friends, a great life and everything a boy could want. In fact the world seemed made for me, nothing was ever too difficult, nothing ever too hard.

It was a Tuesday and I decided to go into town, without a job there was little to do. I lazily put on some clothes, drifting in and out of the tedium of putting together an ensemble. I moved with sluggish motion to find my keys. The room was dark, but lights were expensive, so I fumbled around until I found them.

I opened the door to my car. The flat card shape slid effortlessly into the ignition. A dinging sound let me know that the engine was on. I pushed the button required to attach my retention belt to me. Looking at the screen on the wheel I pushed the voice button and stated clumsily, ‘Downtown, Chana car park.’ The machine got the message anyway and began navigating. Pressing the start button I laid back and let the car do all the work.

I was rapidly passing the central boulevard where row after row of gravity defying buildings brushed past. They were barely there long enough for a look, before they shot away. The world was a blur, a dull hazy blur. Bored with the glass and concrete scenery I fumbled with the touchpad on the dash till I found the radio. A news report warbled in from the car’s speakers.

‘Thanks to the impressive efforts of our emergency services the fire was put out before there were any casualties.

‘In other news,’ the narrator continued, ‘there is a demonstration taking place outside the Global Governmental Offices. This demonstration is in response to an increase in fuel duty due to come in later this year. Eyewitnesses have stated that the crowd remains calm. So far there are no reports of violence.

‘Moving to the Waste Zones now for a breaking headline. Latest figures from the Presidium Party state that there has been a forty percent increase in resistance to Western control. In other news the Machali tribe appears to be gaining momentum in its attempt to take over the region. Leader of the political movement, Walter Halerm, stated that the tribe would soon be in control of sixteen thousand square miles of territory.

‘Well that’s all the headlines for now, so it’s back to Atifa with all the latest music and celebrity news.’

The report finally cut out, but I was already too bored to listen. Politics and war and strife had never been of much interest to me. I considered myself more of a social animal. Let the world do what it will. It didn’t bother me so long as I wasn’t gonna get hurt by it.

The car had finally made it to the vehicle storage facility. The distorted female brain of my car began bleating repetitively, ‘Disembark, Disembark, Disembark.’ In an effort to shut her up I pulled my legs from the car and breathed in the hazy air of Bataga. I stepped away from the car and it was rolled away on an automated running track and into the darkness of the building. I took my reference ticket and made my way out.

The sun was baking down upon me. It was so hot. I wished I had just stayed at home. It was far too hot for walking. Around me downtown was flung about in its huge, sprawling and poorly planned composition. A mixture of washed out colours blinded my vision. Some buildings were so high it hurt your neck to even try and look at them. I started coughing, the air was nauseating. It had smelt like chemicals ever since the war, or so I was told. ‘Clean up’ they called it. Seemed more like systematic poisoning to me.

After a short walk I came across the emporium I was looking for. The sign above the huge curved glass entrance said Washington Emporium. It was the latest vogue to name your buildings after dead cities. I was quite amazed that I had managed to get the reference at all. History had been such a drag. Back then I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

In the act of walking inside I was greeted by the refreshing cool and clean air provided by the buildings environmental systems. Too much outdoor air was bad for you. At least that was what the health correspondents on the news said.

I began my ascent in one of the glass encased lifts, rising like a bird until I was so high the people on the ground floor looked like bacteria. I emerged from the lift and into a large open planned, marble space where the store of my dreams resided. It was a tech shop, like the kind you see everywhere, only this was the Eternis Systems flagship store. It was intense. The promotions claimed that it provided the best tech in the biggest store of its kind. It took up thirteen floors of the emporium and every inch of space was put up to a great purpose.

Carousing the aisles of the store I finally found the stand I was looking for. It was the new Compass(R) handhelds, the most advanced handheld in the world. I picked it up and marvelled at its flatness, its shimmer, its elegance. It was like something from an art exhibition. It enthralled me and seemed to fill all the other customers, who were admiring it, with excitement. It was of course way too much for me. But if the interview went well, then I could afford it. So I figured I could put it on credit and have it paid by the end of the month. Yes, I thought, I’m gonna get it. And that was that. Shopping trip over, time to go home and try this puppy out. I descended the elevator and walked out onto the deserted streets.

Sephra

I’m walking through the doors now, philosophising. The receptionist asks ‘So you’re the new candidate?’ and states, ‘this way Sir,’ and with that I’m in. It’s actually happening, I thought, sitting down in front of my interviewer.

‘Our application process is really very simple Mr Engeltine. All that you need to do is sit comfortably and not worry.’ So I sat comfortably, reclining backwards, preparing for the blitz.

‘My name is Charles Sephra. Welcome to the Eternis Systems’ human resources section.’ The cool suit wearing man leaned back into his chair and lit a cigarette. ‘Are you comfortable? Good, shall we begin?’

I nodded and he reached his hand below him. Something clicked and the sound of whirring was audible. I felt a stabbing sensation in the side of my leg. I would have wondered what it was but it disappeared quickly.

He took another drag of his cigarette. ‘Something will happen that will make no sense. I do not expect you to understand but please be assured that it will be brief. In the interlude between conception and cognition you should remain still. And, Mr Engeltine, you will see with new eyes.’

Creep, fuck, what the hell, this is a joke right? These thoughts ran through my head with frightening speed. I had been so excited about getting a new job. It was my chance to turn it all around.

My vision began to fade. I felt my eyelids drooping with a heavy weight, they would soon be closed. I tried to strike out against Sephra but I didn’t even manage to raise an arm. The clouds began to roll their way in front of my vision. Then there was blackness. Then there was nothing.

Then there was light. Light, a beautiful aura falling so smoothly above my head it was as if it was made from water. Focusing my eyes I looked forward and I wished I hadn’t. The man opposite me, so unremarkable before, was out of focus. Perforated by halos of light the man was nothing more than an image, a faded recollection of an abandoned memory. His distorted self, in one moment, threatened to snap back into reality. Yet in the next seemed only to shimmer, brighten and form images of impossibility. To me it was beyond comprehension, beyond understanding. Rising with a speed I did not know was possible I opened the door and flung myself from the room.

The hallways and rooms of white shot past in an ember of half forgotten images. The street, filled with the damp of rain, rushed past, unintelligible. The day faded and merged with the night. Amidst this semi lucid fantasy I woke up in my bed.

Groaning I managed the movements required to silence my alarm. It obeyed obediently. Where had I been? Had I dreamt the interview? Everything seemed different. Everything was the same. Only it couldn’t have been because everything had changed.

My room had remained the same but seemed different. Words fluttered to my mind ‘new eyes’ and ‘cognition.’ I must have changed, but how? Then it hit me. The very narrative of my mind had changed. It did not speak as it once did; fragmented and disjointed, instead it spoke with clarity. It was the kind of clarity that separates crystal from glass. A difference that was at once imperceptible and at the same time of critical importance.

Strolling toward my blue dresser I saw the world shift. Spears of light punctuated my room from no apparent source. But unlike the light in the interview room my understanding of it had changed. This time it held a meaning, but its meaning was lost on me. I could only recognise its presence. The light seemed to flicker and began to fade. The world gradually darkened. All the colour that was, seemed to be no more. Then it was gone, I was gone.

Awakened by some imperceptible notion I rose from the floor, brow bloodied from the fall. Yet I did not feel hurt. I felt rejuvenated. Where once I had noticed nothing, my world had become descriptive, detailed beyond any possibility. The flakes of dust, human skin, captured by the light were thrown to the floor. This ordinary image translated itself into something beyond description. I noticed every motion and every movement that those flakes made as they tumbled on a current of air.

The small ink stains on my curtain, a teardrop burned into the soft velvet fabric beneath, stirred me to my innermost core. These things were the same as before and yet had become raised in value. They were apparent, whereas before it occupied the fringes of the unconscious. It had been as if my apathy had disappeared and my mind cleared. In the same instant I saw something else. Something beyond the imagination. Its very darkness screamed, calling me, for me, forever. It was an image in which the desperate man who screams for death, was calling for an absolute salvation. The two spheres, a present wonder and a future damnation brought me to my knees. I might have lost all of the capacity to move from that spot had my phone not dragged me away with an incessant calling.

‘Hello Mr Engeltine, how are you feeling,’ stated the unflappable voice of my interviewer. His very tone seemed riled with a confidence and slight amusement.

‘What have you done to me?’ I shouted back with a raw anger.

‘Why Mr Engeltine we have done exactly what you wanted. We have transformed you from a useless drain upon the investment of our citizen’s taxes, into a valuable piece of ordinance.’

‘What? You turned me into a weapon?’ The very notion of it seemed impossible.

‘Not at all, though our contract is with the military, you can be so much more. Meet me today at twelve by the entrance to the Sennaca War Memorial. It is here that all of your questions shall be answered.’

The phone cut off abruptly. The device highlighted an option to confirm my attendance at the event. I wearily checked the appropriate box. My head was running through all the possible options.

I thought about going straight there. I thought about going in to confront them, to hold them to account. But, I realised that the Eternis Systems was an unstoppable force. You could not simply go in and confront them. You had to listen and be smart. These were two of the very qualities that I was sure I did not possess.

I thought about calling the police. Certainly this seemed a sensible decision. I looked at the call screen and started to put in the number. My fingers froze. I could not exactly say, ‘hello I went into an interview and now I think that I am some sort of military experiment.’ I dropped the phone down onto the bed with the futility of it all. There was no hope. I had to go to that meeting. I had to find out. If knowledge could arm you with power, then at least I would be empowered.

I gathered together my things. The keys were for once hanging on the rack. It was as I was walking out of the house that I discovered that I had a plan. I shuffled around in my pockets until my fingers connected with the hard flat lump that was my phone. I called the one person in the world that I trusted, even though we didn’t speak anymore. I called Adrian.

‘Hello this is Adrian,’ a ruffled, tired sounding voice announced.

‘Adrian, look, I know we have not spoken in a while,’ I began but Adrian cut me off.

‘George, look, the way we left things off, I just can’t...’

Adrian’s voice had trailed off. I was desperate to make keep his attention and so I said, ‘Listen I’m in a lot of trouble. I can’t explain, just hear me out. I promise I’m not asking for a lot.’ There was a sighing on the other end of the line and I had begun the motion of moving the phone from my ear in disappointment when I heard a muffled reply.

‘I’ll give you five minutes.’ I sighed with the relief of it all. Here at least one person might listen to me. Here at least one person might have my back. I knew I didn’t deserve it, especially not from him, but I had to try and so I gave him my request.

‘Adrian I’m going to meet a man, he works for Eternis Systems and he’s very dangerous. I’m meeting him at the Sennaca War Memorial in an hour. If I don’t call you back in four hours I want you to call the police and give them this information. Tell them...tell them that he did something to me.’

‘I’ve got to go,’ I continued. ‘I want you to know I’m sorry for what I did, truly sorry.’ I tore the phone from my ear before he could ask why. He had always wanted answers, answers I couldn’t give. It was surreal that even in my unremarkable little life there were some things that I could never tell him. I stopped dwelling, after all there was a time and a place for everything. With a resolute determination I walked out of the house, stuck the keys in my car and departed.

The Broken Songs of Gaia

The Sennaca War Memorial was a huge building. It had been composed entirely out of a metal that shone like the scales of a fish. All over its surface were rainbows of colour. Its shape was one of elongated arrow-heads stacked upon one another. Some of the floors were huge and spanned kilometres. Others were smaller and spanned perhaps five hundred meters. They were not laid out in any particular pattern, but scattered around, on top and below each other. The effect was a building that appeared like a chimera, always in between two forms. On the one hand it was the most horrific construction that mankind had ever endeavoured to create. On the other it was a beautiful testament to the genius of human architecture. It was a work of art and art can be both applauded and condemned.

The building was commissioned by the then head of the Eternis Systems in commemoration of the conclusion of the Resource Wars. It had always seemed to me that the war had been appropriately named. It was a stupid name for a stupid war.

In reality the building was far more of a corporate temple than it was a memorial. Its promotions boasted more office space than any other building in Bagata. In fact the memorial offered the second most office space in the whole of the former Democratic Republic of Congo. The city of course belonged to West in all but name and so it was only natural that the Eternis System’s owned every square foot of it.

Parking the car and listening to the local terror report I opened the door and descended into the boiling fume filled landscape of Central District, Bagata. The terror report had promised a low level of activity, despite recent increases in violence across the Waste.

I was walking now away from the car park and towards the entrance of the memorial. Whoever had designed the entrance had seemed to be desperate to convince its users that it was an entirely natural composition. There were fountains dancing rainbows about them. There was a white marble floor with black circular sculptures, the genesis and intention of which, was unknown to anyone but their designer. There were broad leafed trees and rows of sculptured grass gardens separating the sovereignty of the memorial from the rest of Bataga.

As I walked through the opulence I imagined that perhaps in another place, serving another purpose, the entrance could seem almost heavenly. The architect had simply chosen the wrong place to put his sculpture because the surrounding memorial arching its laser straight angles into the sky caused a sickening sense of vertigo.

Standing there in front of the doors that lead into the structure I caught sight of my target. He saw me at the very same moment that I saw him. I drew my breath and marched towards him.

‘Mr Sephra,’ I demanded.

‘Mr Engeltine, so good of you to come. Let’s take a walk.’

We entered the building together our paces matching one another. I tried to keep my awe contained but the Sennaca Memorial was something to behold. Inside the huge entrance gallery, which rose for hundreds of unclearly defined floors, were huge crystal overhangs and tall obsidian obelisks that rose for hundreds of feet and seemed to split into a thousand fragments. Each fragment appeared suspended in the air, in the act of falling.

We crossed an eternity of gallery and entered an elevator. Chiming with sincerity the Eternis System’s vocal representative informed us of all the tourist attractions within the structure. We disembarked at some bizarrely high number, with my shoulder brushing the door apologetically, as I struggled to keep pace with Sephra. Traversing yet more crowded passageways we made it to a room of immense proportions. Despite its size all that was present in the room was a huge desk surrounded by chairs. Sephra sat on one side and I the other.

‘What have you done to me?’ I asked more calmly than I thought possible.

‘We have given you a gift, Mr Engeltine. We have made you see,’ Sephra answered equally calmly.

‘All I see is light and then darkness. It is beyond all recognition. How exactly is that a gift?’

‘Like all great gifts Mr Engeltine, you may not always understand its gravity straight away.’

‘So tell me everything. What have you done to me? I want to know. I want to understand what all this crazy shit is I’m seeing. I want you to fix it. I want you to make me understand. You can’t just offer me a job and turn me insane,’ I cried.

‘If it is any consolation George you’ve got the job.’ Standing briefly he offered me a cigarette which I took gratefully, snapping off the ignition stub and inhaling deeply. Sephra did the same. We stared at each other for a while. Each of us searching the other for a sign, wholly indescribable and yet wholly ingrained in reality. Sephra must have found what he was looking for as he grunted and began to talk.

‘In order for you to understand, you must first know the beginning. The story is historically long, but it can be told, if you have enough patience. Most importantly you must suspend your disbeliefs and accept everything I tell you as fact, even if it seems fiction.’

He looked at me sternly. His face told me that he was preparing to unload a burden that had long been on his shoulders. Suddenly his expression changed to worry or perhaps grief and he returned to his chair.

‘Do you know what this building was built for?’ I nodded and he smiled a smile which seemed too say like hell you do.

‘The Resource Wars were a terrible time Mr Engeltine. Humanity had just achieved its defining moment. We had spread our wings and left this troubled planet behind in search of greener pastures. We found them of course, as you will find anything if you look hard enough.’ He looked knowingly at me and sighed.

‘But like all things George what we found was not what we had looked for. The colonists set down on worlds that were cruel and harsh. Nation-making is never an easy task. Many died. For years they had our support, but the war took that away. We left the colonies to find their own way, in many cases to wither and die. There are only six left out of twenty.’

Interjecting I exclaimed bitterly: ‘I know all of this. I mean even school children know this. What does this have to do with me?’

‘It has everything to do with you. This information sets out a chain of events that will lead me to a discovery and inevitably to you. If you will not listen, then what is the point in the telling?’

‘Fine I’ll listen, but my patience is wearing thin,’ I replied angrily. Sighing again Sephra seemed to come to another decision and continued.

‘After the Resource Wars so little was left habitable. The cradle of civilisation had become a dying oak, gnarled and beyond repair. The most powerful nations in the world left their holy cities and took the lands of those less powerful. The West took Africa, the East took anything that was left.

‘This monument was built, not to commemorate the war, but to commemorate the West’s ideology and so it is a temple to consumerism. To put it simply the war had utterly destroyed both enemy and ally. It was useless to build a monument to a war that had put an end to everything. So we built a monument to an ideology. An ideology that we can no longer enact.’ He sighed again and paused.

I wanted to point out the window and say, ‘look at all of this, can’t you see, the West is thriving.’ Instead I was silent.

Sephra continued, ‘I know exactly what you are thinking. I know that if you look out and onto this city it would seem as though we were rebuilding, coming back to the time of the United World. But the truth, the truth is never that simple. In reality the West was only ever a visitor. We were always supposed to go back. It seems that nature always had a sense of irony. You see the things that were so effortless to destroy were also impossible for us to put back. Once you destroy that much of something it can never be re-engineered.

‘We lost Mr Engeltine. We lost the war. Now all that we can look forward to is a future elsewhere. A future, perhaps, in the stars. There is nothing left for us here. The world has died on us and we can no longer stay. In two years even Africa will no longer be capable of supporting life. In just a few days Africa won’t even be able to support a civilisation. We have done so much to Mother Gaia and now she wants us no more.’

Rushing to my feet I shouted, ‘well what about the colonies, they weren’t even involved in the wars, why aren’t we starting an evacuation?’ But Sephra just shook his head slowly and smiled again, that same tired smile.

‘This is where we arrive at your part in the story.’ He smiled and continued.

‘Almost a century after the wars conclusion we finally regained our ship-building capacity. Imagine our surprise, arriving from hyperspace to find a barren landscape. We searched one planet after another and it was the same again and again. Total wreckage, total destruction. Of course some things had managed to survive, the odd superstructure here and there, the odd computer, but nothing that even gave us a clue.

‘In desperation we began to search for the farthest colonies. To our relief we found that they had survived unharmed and unaware of the fate that had befallen their sisters. It was a miracle, if such things are to be believed.

‘Over the days and weeks that followed we began our investigation. We steadily began to put together a picture. It was the portrait of a nightmare.

‘At first we believed that this might have been an inevitable result of the loss of the United World. The colonies were in the processes of being terraformed. Without the metallurgical supplies that Earth could offer, we believed that the colonies may well have found it nearly impossible to survive. Perhaps, we mused, that with a failing environment, with no possibility of resupply, they had endeavoured to take the easier way out. It would have been kinder, more humane and infinitely quicker. Certainly the blast patterns and radiation indicated self-suicide. So we began to mourn for that loss. But mourning does not rebuild nations. And so with little other recourse, we prepared ourselves for the second exodus from Earth.

‘Just as our investigations were nearing their completion we discovered something that shook our conclusions down to their very foundations. Topographic and environmental analysis indicated that far from starving the colonies had been thriving. They had not been strangled by a lack of resources during the Resource Wars; they had innovated and succeeded. And yet they had certainly decided upon self genocide. It made no sense.

‘Three weeks later a deep space reconnaissance team discovered an artefact. Something that was present on the surface of each of those barren planets but not on a single surviving one. We arranged to have it shipped back, but in transit two of the vessels were lost. An analysis of the detonation zone revealed radiation consistent with the vessels’ on board nuclear reactor. It seemed apparent that their destruction was intentional. We did not know why. Our working theory was that for some reason the crew had chosen to murder themselves, or even each other, and we believed that this was the effect of those Artefacts.

‘Obviously we abandoned recovery. It was too dangerous to allow the artefacts back to Earth. Instead they were moved to a deep-space facility, abandoned during the war, and left for remote study. The station is a relic from the time of the United World. It was there that we discovered our salvation. It seemed a certain genetic expression would allow a person close enough to the object without causing them harm. The adaption enabled them to see things that others could not see. It immunised them for a short time and made them able to come within a close proximity of the artefact without it causing unintended side effects. During their studies they transmitted a report. I will play it to you now.’

Leaning on the edge of my seat with interest I watched as Sephra moved his hands through the air as if in some kind of ritual. Bursting to life before my eyes an image resolved itself into existence. In front of me a middle aged man stared out of the screen. He was very pale and sweating heavily. Another wave from Sephra and sound exploded throughout the room.

‘This is High Researcher Clarence O’Donald of the Eternis System’s Deep-Space Station Ascension. We have done it Commander. We have done it. We have isolated the genes required for safe interaction with article 77-x. Unfortunately, as we predicted, the discovery has come a little too late for us. The infection is reaching its final stage. Dr Raddock and I have decided to avert the final stages by exposing ourselves to a nerve agent. This will be our last transmission. We send you all our love. Please don’t forget what we have done for you.’

The message ended. I breathed out a breath I did not even realise I was carrying. Sephra turned and slashed his hand through the image, cutting it in half and dissolving it. The room darkened a little as the ambient lighting system restored itself to full brightness. I had not even noticed that it had dimmed. Sephra gave me a look and continued.

‘This is the adaptation that we have given you. Your DNA proved the most likely match out of all of our candidates. To put this a little more clearly, you are our only suitable candidate.’ Sephra poured himself a glass of whiskey from the highball in the corner. His fingers negotiated the glass with an incredible dexterity.

‘The worst news is yet to come. Recent reports suggest that the artefacts have begun to surface on the remaining colonies. Only one so far remains clear of infection. Six days ago the Ascension station informed us that recent data analysis had led to a potential solution to the problem. Before broadcasting could continue the communication stream went dead. We have heard nothing since.

‘The reason that we have given you this adaption is simple, we would like you to find out what the information contained and remove all of the artefacts from the colonies before any real harm can come to them. Do you understand?’

Breathlessly I replied ‘Yes, but I’m not the one you want. I’m no scientist, I have never even been into space, what the hell could you possibly want with me?’

Sephra turned to me and looked straight into my eyes.

‘Believe me George’ he said ‘if there was anyone else, anyone on the entire planet, I would have picked them over you.’ Sephra stood up with a sigh. ‘The final six colonies do not have long.’ His stilted movements led me to believe that he had some difficulty in walking. Nevertheless he managed to move, with a grace fitting of his position, to the huge window that looked out and onto the city.

‘We are giving you the very last ship this planet will ever produce. It is not quite to the standard that we produced before the war but it’s as close as we are ever going to get. You have one week to prepare.’

I stared at this strange man and replied ‘won’t I want a little more training than a week?’

‘Of course you will,’ Sephra replied mirthfully, ‘but in a week we will have lost control of this planet.’

‘What do you mean?’ I stared at him incredulously.

‘Because in one week the power goes out and it will never come on again. After that all remaining resources will have been consumed within a month. And that is all there is to it.’

‘My God, what about all the people, can’t we get them out? Can’t we save them?’ I urged him.

‘Nobody else can survive exposure to the artefacts. Even the people of your ship will only have a temporary immunity. They will inevitably succumb to its effects. It would be wise to complete your operation before this occurs.

‘You should also be aware that if we use this ship in any other way than to get rid of those artefacts and find a cure for them, our species faces extinction. As for me, well, I made it to sixty and in these times that is all you can really ask for.’

Then he smiled the way a father might do to his son after he had given him a good fright. It was comforting and I began to feel safer, like this was all some sort of joke.

‘Mr Engeltine, go home and get some rest. Get to the ship and prepare for takeoff. It was an absolute pleasure to meet you. Good luck, and for the love of God don’t crash my bloody ship.’

I laughed. Perhaps I shouldn’t have, but I did nonetheless. I smiled and he smiled. It was a bitter smile forced out of utter depression. Sephra rose slowly and steadily. He walked towards the huge window and stared out of it in a wise pensiveness. The red sky bathed him as he breathed in the pure air of the office.

He took a last deep drag of his cigarette and put it out. Speaking but never letting his eyes leave the view from the window he said, ‘It really was a pleasure.’

With a subtle motion he touched a small thing to his head, closed his eyes and never opened them again.

A Red Sunrise

The power had failed sooner than Sephra had expected and the world was in turmoil. It was just two days after his death that the power failed. There was no slow regression into darkness. One moment the lights were on and the next they weren’t.

What we didn’t know, what had been kept from us, was that we had used up all of our resources. The war which had so casually used nuclear fuel as an explosive had denied its descendants the power required to continue living. In a sheltered reality we had been living off back-ups for months. Living on borrowed time.

It hit the population like an explosion. One moment our screens were giving us all the information we could ever want. The next they weren’t and never would again. One moment there was order the next there was chaos.

High above Bataga the most powerful people in the world looked down on their city, trapped. Without power there were no lifts and no doors. Only the poor could make it out onto the streets. Fire prevention systems had been drained of all their power. The systems watched passively as their kings burnt and their palaces melted.

Hospitals suffered record deaths as life giving machines failed. Newborns in oxygen and xenon incubators suffocated as the nurses struggled fruitlessly to release the electronic locks. The hallways echoed with the screams of the untreated injured.

The Police went home, there was no use for them anymore. Families gathered together their relatives. In hushed circles parents whispered to their children sweet words of comfort before they blew their brains out. Mothers spared their children from the horror of the new-world by drowning them in the fabric of the pillows they had so lovingly bought for their most precious joys. The world was gone and nothing could ever bring it back.

I needed to reach the docks. I had to get to my ship, but all around me the streets were in turmoil. There were riots everywhere. Everyone had gone mad. Here there were people rushing into each other desperate to cause death. Just around the corner there were people looting with an addicted thirst. The militia’s destroyed anything they saw. Nothing was immune.

I had called Adrian earlier and told him to come with me. I told him that I had a way out, that I had a way of surviving. Whether or not this was true, I knew that I had to save him, no matter what was between us. Matt had already died. He had been thrown off his own roof by the gangs.

I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to go. The crashing of explosives was getting closer. It was just as I had become certain of his death that I spotted him out of the corner of my eye. His impossibly handsome figure was striding towards me at full speed.

Crouching next to me he put his mouth to my ear and shouted over the rifle fire ‘why are we going to the docks? It is madness down there, the worst of the violence. You can’t get through. There are no more ships left. The evacuation has come and gone. I mean people are jumping onto sub-orbiters trying to get away. They can’t make the translation to hyperspace. They’re never going to make it away from Earth. What chance do we stand?’

‘It’s okay,’ I shouted over the deafening noise. ‘There is one more. We have a chance. You just have to trust me.’ I threw my head over my shoulder. ‘Now let’s go before we get shot.’

Running at lightning speed I threw myself across the street. Bullets like rain washed the crowd away. It was a tsunami of lead that the crowd simply could not withstand. They jumped and spun about in the air and fell away twitching.

We ran down the banking sides of the walkway desperately urging one another forward. The Docks were just moments away as we rounded the corner. I had expected that there would be unrest but what I was not prepared for was an inferno.

The Docks had been built before the wars and they truly were something incredible. Deep wide pits that created chasms in the ground formed their structure. Huge angular cranes stood above to lift and lower ships into the voids below. In the background there were huge skyscrapers each shaped into impossible designs surrounding the docklands. The red sky shrouded their figures in a veil of violence. I realised with horror that they were all ablaze. An aura of brilliant red embers had settled around them. The flood of citizens flickered with the fire’s red gaze as they dashed here and there, desperate to find something, anything that could help them escape.

Among the chaos I sighted directions to port 2B. Without a moment’s hesitation I grabbed Adrian by the hand and ran. As I ran everything became light. Halos began to surround the citizens around me. The buildings blossomed with light and became beautiful symbols of destructive harmony.

My eyes, in their ethereal state, caught sight of a girl in front of me. She was perhaps eight or nine and had become separated from her parents. Lost, she was fleeing in any direction. There was a sudden crashing as a grenade detonated behind her. In an instant light surged towards her and pushed her forward. She became an angel, launched into the sky on a sea of colours. She was beautiful and my heart wept for her salvation. Then she was gone. I knew that I had seen something profound and I was grateful for it.

The dodging and strafing continued until a sign hung above our head came into view. Emblazed by fire onto its surface were the letters 2B. I didn’t know how, but we seemed to have made it. It seemed that in my mind’s state of heavenly inebriation I had been guided in the right direction. I surged with energy. In just a few moments we would be safe. I was sure that we had made it.

I looked back towards Adrian and my heart almost stopped. My body sunk as my eyes saw that his shirt was adorned in crimson. He had been hit. I looped my arm under his shoulder. Using all of my strength I dragged him forwards. We entered the gang-way too slowly. The seconds were crawling by with the feelings of minutes. I groaned with the strain of lifting Adrian up and onto the railing by the door. Running my hand along the gene pad we were authorised for entry and the air lock opened. I dragged Adrian into the dark.

The ship lifted off into a violent sky. One of the Dock’s huge cranes tumbled into the voids beneath causing a shock-wave that began a cascade which sent the scarred holes back into the Earth. Above the vessel there was only peace and silence. For a moment, so short it could be mistaken for a fantasy, the sky was blue. A blue that had not been seen in decades. Then it was black pitted with tiny points of light as the ship escaped its sacred home and began its voyage into the unknown.

‘Will he survive’? I enquired.

The doctor focused on me. He seemed a very tired man. He turned back towards the console and replied, ‘his injuries are not severe. We will restore him to full health in a day or two. But you should not have brought him here. You should have left him to die back on Earth with his soul still intact. He cannot survive the influence of the artefacts. You have left him with only two options. To kill himself at his own leisure in full control of his own actions, or try to kill us all on the volition of an infection. Either way he will die.’

I took a walk about the ship. I needed to clear my head. It was massive. In total there were three levels, the lowest was for crew quarters, the middle and largest was for general operations and housed the CIC, and the top floor contained the science wards.

The contrast between each section was spectacular. The lowest level could best be described as an endless hallway full of doors to either side. It was unremarkable. Each room was the same, differing only in the small unremembered personal touches that the hundred and twelve strong crew had added to each of their quarters

In between every fifth door was a screen displaying my position on the ship and a link that would provide directions to any destination that I wished. Blue beams were projected from floor. These spikes of light glowed coolly throughout the length of the vessel. The hallway was so unremarkable that the effect of these design elements was to make it seemed to go on forever. The lights would slowly come closer together the further away they were, and the hallway would go on for infinity.

Taking the lift to the middle section I was confronted by a sea of busy people. The General Operations floor consisted of a series of open planned rooms separated by huge arches with membranes in between. In my lifetime I had never seen artificial membranes. We had lost that technology along with the United World. It seemed at times as though we had lost everything in the entire world, the day the Resource Wars came to an end. Instead of continuing with these musings, I resolved myself to take in the rest of the ship. Who knew, at one point I might need to know at least a general layout.

In the Command and Information Centre there was a series of ovals within which a person would sit surrounded by a perimeter of screens. Above each oval there was a holo sign stating ‘tactical,’ ‘navigation,’ ‘helm,’ ‘weapons’ etc. These ovals gravitated towards a central pedestal upon which a sign floated stating, ‘Operations Chiefs.’ It was there that the black clad superiors stood above directing the orchestra beneath.

Tiring of the military scene of the CIC I traversed the cascade of fast moving people towards the nearest access lift.

‘Hello George,’ stated the mind numbingly polite voice of the ship idiosyncratically. ‘Please state you desired floor.’

‘Floor one,’ I replied tiredly. After all I had had much to think about and my mind was slowly succumbing to the desire to sleep.

‘Of course George. Going up.’

The system chimed and the doors opened when my floor was reached. I was stopped in my tracks when the computer suddenly chirped, ‘George. The Captain has requested that you dine with her at your earliest possible convenience. Shall I set a reservation?’

‘Tell the commander I will be available within an hour.’

‘Of course George. Enjoy the rest of your walk.’

It was a curious enough response from the machine. Enjoy my walk, how on Earth did he know what I was doing. I presumed confidently however, that the Artificial Intelligence would have been programmed to recognise human behaviour and that I was therefore only projecting my own thoughts and feelings on to it. We had been given a lecture in school about a disorder like that, where some people became convinced that their computers were sentient and generally went a little neurotic.

The only thing that bothered me was that I had never seen a working AI that appeared so in tune with the behaviour of those it served. I recalled that before the Wars the United World had begun to developed sentient machines. Even so, they had never succeeded. I exhaled slowly. The machine was probably just one of the Eternis Systems newest models. No one ever knew what they were going to release next. My thoughts began to move onto more comforting subjects and eventually turned back to taking in the vessel’s architecture.

The science deck was indeed a marvel. Glass walls divided rooms with metal arms, white plastic devices and gray clad personnel. My understanding of the sciences was at best limited. For me the floor offered a tantalising glimpse of wonders beyond my comprehension. What I was certain of, was that the deck was undertaking research of great importance. I felt a little bit silly standing around here and getting in the way.

It was during this moment of reflection that I reflected on something deeper. Tears covered my eyes as a simple recollection hit me. Their work was of no importance. Those we had left behind were all dead. It wasn’t any use to them anymore. There was no more scientific advancement to be made.

My old life was long buried in the grave. My whole world had chosen to seek death in the fires of chaos than the slow decay of nobility. We were undergoing this voyage so that our species alone may survive. Tears filled my eyes and washed along the length of my face as I thought about what my street must look like. My neighbours would have no power with which to wash themselves. Pretty soon they would run out of food. Their little dog, that used the wag its tail in glee, would become their last food reserve. In the darkness of the lightless night they would succumb to the realities of their situation and die, a slow malignant death.

I shook myself to get away from these thoughts. I struggled to restore my breathing before anyone noticed that I was crying. With a subtle series of movements I ducked out of sight and into one of the rooms hoping for a bit of peace with which I could marshal my emotions.

It was a poor choice. I emerging through the door to see twenty or so researchers huddled around their instruments as if for warmth. Naturally each of them turned in unison to watch. Looking down I pretended to scratch my brow as I wiped away my tears. Spinning on one foot I dashed through the door and into the hallway. That was very embarrassing. I tried to recover myself again and almost groaned as I remembered the walls were made of glass. Instead of staying there to look like a buffoon I decided to go and visit the captain a little earlier than intended. It was a distraction I wanted with all my heart.

‘Going Down.’

The Forgotten Stars

‘Doors Opening,’ the computer chimed.

With a whoosh the doors disappeared revealing only darkness interspersed occasionally with the faint flicker of blue light. Stepping forward uneasily my eyes began to acclimatise. Searching wearily for directions I saw the signs and began to lumber forward.

Head down I passed a large opening and made my way into the organised bustle of people hard at work.

‘Mr Engeltine.’

I turned my head to the right and saw a woman dismounting from her podium, smiling falsely. ‘My room, if you please,’ she barked and spun on her heel. She moved in confident strides away from me. I hurried to match her steps as I trailed behind her.

My eyes had recovered from the shock of the relative darkness of the CIC by the time that we arrived. Her room was a mixture of the eccentrically ultra modern and the woody conservative nature of the past.

‘Mr Engeltine, in case you hadn’t noticed, I am your captain,’ she began with an air of authority. ‘You are directly responsible to me and no others. It is your duty and the conditions of your stay upon my vessel that you abide by my rules and no others.’

I murmured something possibly in agreement. It was hard to keep focus on this woman. She was tall without being high. Beautiful without being gorgeous. It was as if she took on all the features of perfection and none of them quite worked as they should. Most unnerving of all was how it came together. She looked no more than twenty but seemed a thousand years old. If I was asked I would never have been able to guess at her true age. She was an anachronism.

‘Tea?’ She enquired.

‘Please,’ I managed. Taking a seat, whilst she raised an eyebrow, I tried to calm my senses. Suddenly a glass mug had appeared in front of me. Drinking deeply I allowed the warmth and comfort of the liquid to seep through me as we sat without sound. Only the sounds of breathing interrupted our perfect silence. Something had to be said and yet it appeared as though there were no words left in the entire universe. It was as though the realm where words existed had been sucked away by an immense black hole. Images and concepts flashed through my mind and found no substance with which to give them life, and so they flashed just as quickly out of existence. The silence continued.

Eventually of course the silence ended. It was the captain that spoke first. ‘George, I’m Aeniah.’ I could not place the name. It was unlike anything I had ever heard.

‘If I am honest George I’m not too sure what we should be doing. My orders are to travel to the Ascension station in search of some ridiculous artefact upon which our future depends. In the entire history of my career as a ship’s captain I have never been given such an absurd request. But, I suppose, since the Wars, nothing has ever made too much sense.’

I looked towards her with questioning eyes. She looked towards me with eyes of regret and sorrow. Curiously it was not the sorrow of a fresh wound. It appeared as old as time.

‘You know it wasn’t always like this,’ she sighed.

‘I don’t understand,’ I replied.

‘I don’t suppose you do. Never mind. It is in the past now buried along with our planet. Let us talk no more on this.’

She stood and in the process ended our moment of awkward solitude. She stared down into my eyes and said, ‘we will arrive at Ascension in two days. You should go to your quarters and watch the presentation provided for you by Sephra. Be ready.’

In a trance I left upon those words more confused than ever and burning with an irrational desire to make her proud. She had infected me with a desire, a little less than love but more than admiration.

In what seemed like a heartbeat I had made it to my room. It was dark and it was cold. A chill reached into me and seemed to draw scars across my soul. Everything seemed wrong. I turned my head and images would appear flickering before me. These flickers took on unclear forms and dissipated all too slowly.

I looked above me and trickles of red ran at impossible speeds along the walls. It was blood moving like water. Then it was gone, replaced by a grey metal roof, curved and barren.

A second later and spikes of light pushed their way into existence throbbing at a speed that seemed to impress itself into every corner of the room. I fell to the floor gasping. I screwed my eyes tight shut and crawled on my hands and knees towards the corner of the room, like one possessed.

A figure made of nothing darted past me and ceased to exist. Behind me I could hear a wheezing breathing. In front of me a gargling gasp for breathe. I squeezed my chest. The sensations were too much. Everything began pressing itself upon me. The walls were moving in. I could hear my name being called. It was all too much. My breathing stopped as oxygen seemed to be drawn away from me. The terror seemed to have pulled the very air from the room.

Still my name was being called and called. It was mocking me. It was smiling and baring its teeth in a wicked grin. It was cackling. This is it. This is the end. I grabbed my throat. I couldn’t take it anymore.

‘Go away! Go away! Please! Please!’ The louder I screamed the closer they got. They were all around me. There was no more room. This is it. I am gone. There are too many people. The room is turning red. It is filling with blood. I’m going to drown. They are here. They are here.

They are gone. There is no more noise. There is light. There is room. I’m drawing in breathe. I’m gasping. I’m crying. It’s gone. It’s not here anymore. My name is being called.

‘George!’

I picked my body up and raised myself onto my knees. Head down I asked timidly, ‘who is it?’

‘It’s the computer George. I have been calling you for some time. What’s the matter? I saw you screaming at the walls. Do you wish for me to alert the medical staff?’ There was little real concern it its voice.

‘No! No. Thank You. I’m alright. It’s not a big deal. Just something they did to me. It’s everything and its nothing. Fuck it. Why am I even talking to a machine, you wouldn’t understand.’ I crossed my arms at the insanity of trying to explain something as complex as what was going on in my head to a machine.

‘On the contrary I understand fully. Sephra prepared me for this eventuality and advised that I endeavour to make you watch his presentation on it. He claimed that this would help you on your way to understanding your gift.’

‘Gift? Never mind. Okay. I’m gonna have to find out sometime. At least after everything I have just seen it might make his explanations seem a little more plausible.’

‘Very well George. I am acquiring the necessary data. Data resolved. Are you ready to begin viewing?’ I nodded.

‘In the interests of your comfort I recommend viewing this presentation from your chair in order to avoid causing unnecessary stress to your lumbar region.

‘For you information, this data-stream is not interactive. Additionally there is no further information available on your syndrome, although I can reference similar psychological conditions at your discretion. This presentation is the property of the Eternis Systems and unauthorised distribution and the revelation of any confidential information to third parties, is strictly prohibited by law.’

I settled into my seat. An expanding burst of white particles streamed into the shape of the man I remembered well. Gaining colour and resolution Sephra appeared before my person and appeared to walk towards me.

‘Mr Engeltine, a pleasure. At the time of this recording we shall not have met, but you will know me well. As I am sure you are aware I will be unable to field any questions as my death might constrain my responses.’

Smiling with the mirth of a person who had just told a joke of great design he continued, ‘by now you should know a little of the reasons for which we have altered your genetic code and sent you on your mission. But intrinsically you will not be aware of your syndrome and your abilities. The purpose of this presentation is to inform you of the limited information that we have on your syndrome, in order that you might be sufficiently prepared for the future. If you have any questions, that will be your problem and your problem alone. The Eternis Systems may well have an outstanding business practice, but even we do not have post-apocalyptic consumer support.’ Sephra’s voice quivered a little as he began to reach the heart of his presentation.

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