Star Force: Legacy of the Ancients (Star Force Universe Book 59) Read online

  1

  June 21, 128547

  Unknown Location

  Beta Temple

  Randy-021 flew through the frigid air for hundreds of miles before slowing and gradually coming down to a spot on the ice that was supposed to contain a Responder. He and a trio of other Archons all landed on top of a thin glacier that had formed when the nearest bodies of water had evaporated, then covered dramatic portions of the Sphere’s interior with compacted snow while leaving others completely bare.

  The entry portal had been in one of the ice regions, and after an unproductive conversation with the ‘welcome’ obelisk telling them it didn’t contain the information they wanted, the two trailblazers had returned with a 374 man team to start setting up camp here while more reinforcements would be arriving in the following months once they could be summoned.

  But for now Randy needed answers. Jack-020 was working with the murals back in the arrival chamber, for he was the only other Essence-capable individual in the expedition fleet, leaving Randy to hunt down one of the Responders…except this one was buried under ice, along with probably all the others within thousands of miles.

  “Alright fellas, start digging…carefully,” the trailblazer said, igniting the death saber blade on his right wrist and dropping the glowing blue flat blade into the ice beneath his feet as he got down on his armored knees and cut out a chunk of ice…then telekinetically lifted and flung it behind him like a piece of trash.

  The other Archons did so as well, but with a little more effort. They might not have Essence, but their psionics were well developed and their Pefbar had no trouble seeing what was below the ice to avoid cutting it. They worked for the better part of an hour before they got down to the top of the small outpost that held a Responder within it.

  A few inches shy of the actual dome structure they stopped using their death sabers and started to bash and shovel the ice, using either their fists, feet, telekinesis, or Jumat. All worked, and slowly there was an ice cloud forming above them as they threw the tiny debris up through the 48 meter deep crater they’d dug.

  Eventually a breakthrough along the edge of the roof got them into the ice-free interior. Randy went in first, sliding down the snowy incline until his feet hit the solid floor and he stood up. The others followed down the impromptu slide, looking back at the doorway that was completely covered in ice from the ancient snows that couldn’t quite reach all the way inside…and standing perfectly preserved in the center was the red obelisk identical to all the ones the Paladin had discovered in the ‘Alpha’ Temple, as Star Force was now labeling them.

  When Randy walked towards the Obelisk he felt it grab hold of him, though he didn’t fight it. It needed to download the language files directly from his mind, and his skills were significantly advanced enough to see where it probed in his mind and where it didn’t. He made sure it didn’t roam through any secrets as it pulled the necessary information, then it released him and spoke in perfect English.

  “I apologize for the intrusion. A language download from your mind was necessary to facilitate communications. I am known as a ‘Responder,’ an automated interface to provide the denizens of the Temple with…”

  “Why is the Temple covered in Ice?” Randy interrupted. “The other one we visited was mostly jungle.”

  “This Temple is in emergency sustainment mode due to lack of resources. The other Temples are providing the most basic levels needed to maintain vital functions, but far greater resources are needed to bring this Temple up to prime standards.”

  “The other Temples are sending resources here?”

  “Yes.”

  “The Vargemma are?”

  “I have no knowledge of the Vargemma. This Temple has never before been inhabited. You are the first to make contact with this interface.”

  “How do you know there are no others in the Temple if you’re not plugged into the information net?”

  “I was activated upon your arrival in the Temple, with the timestamp that suggests you just arrived. Am I in error?”

  “We just arrived, but you’re saying this Temple has never been inhabited before?”

  “If it was, I would have been activated at such a time along with the rest of the infrastructure.”

  “So you’re saying this Temple is brand new?” Randy asked.

  “Its construction date is far in the past, but you are the first travelers to arrive.”

  “Was it built with all this ice?”

  “No. This Temple was constructed to be fully operational, but it is not located within a nebula to draw fuel from. Such fuel must be supplied by other means. Those means have been compromised. Only minimal resources are being delivered by the Caretakers in other Temples.”

  “They are traveling from Temple to Temple?”

  “Yes.”

  “How?”

  “Such knowledge is reserved for varying skill levels of Essence use. Those who do not yet possess it must earn the knowledge through deeds.”

  Randy pulsed his Essence, but apparently that wasn’t enough for the Responder.

  “Essence use confirmed. Please verify skill level,” the obelisk said as one of the six rooms around the central chamber began to alter, with the stone-like walls melting and reforming into a beam that crossed from left to right and was about a meter thick at Randy’s eye level.

  “Verify how?”

  “Transfer some of your Essence into the beam.”

  Randy walked into the chamber and reached out a hand, sending a burst into the dark gray horizontal column.

  “Essence transfer skill confirmed,” the obelisk said as the beam morphed again, this time into a triangle with two corners touching the ceiling and the third the floor just in front of Randy’s feet. A small sphere detached and floated up inside the triangle and hung dead center. “Without touching the object, remove the sphere using only your Essence.”

  Randy could do that in a number of different ways, but he did the simplest method possible and sent out a tentacle of Essence and simply pulled the sphere, moving it a few inches before it stuck in place as he started to pull harder.

  “Translocation skill confirmed,” the obelisk said as the room changed again, this time with a pedestal rising out of the floor with an obsidian-black cube sitting on it as the triangle disappeared into the surrounding walls. “Alter the molecular structure of the cube into a liquid state.”

  “Umm…” Randy mumbled, not knowing how to do that with Essence, so he raised his hand and opened the armor over his left palm and shot a bioplasma stream into it, melting the cube so much that it flowed like water off the pedestal and dripped down onto the floor.

  “Non-Essence technique used. Verification failed,” the obelisk said as the flow suddenly reversed, with the liquid climbing back up the pedestal and reforming the solid cube.

  Randy shrugged as he looked at the other Archons. “Worth a try.”

  “Use only Essence to transform the cube into liquid.”

  “I don’t know how,” the trailblazer admitted.

  “Then you must learn. That is why I exist and the surrounding chambers are for your training benefit. I can instruct you how to learn many techniques, but you must practice. Instruction alone will not grant you the skill.”

  “I have other Essence skills.”

  “Irrelevant. The proper progression must be made.”

  “Can you tell me how the Caretakers are getting minimal resources into the Temple?”

  “Access to the Temple can be achieved in a variety of means. The basic access route that you entered through, known
as the ‘Bridge,’ is for first time arrivals. Other portals have been created to move from Temple to Temple. No map of them is made, for security reasons, but those closest in the Temple network are visible.”

  “Can you show me?”

  The obelisk created a hologram showing the entirety of the Dyson Sphere that they stood within, then a series of dots appeared on the outside of it indicating routes without showing the locations the other Temples were. Randy counted 11 dots in total.

  “Those are 11 other Temples?”

  “These are 11 routes beyond this Temple.”

  “Auxiliary infrastructure like the Bridge endpoint?”

  “You do not have verification high enough for me to elaborate on what is beyond the portals, nor will you be able to access them with your limited Essence skills.”

  “What is needed?”

  “Far more Essence generation is required to charge a portal than you are capable of.”

  “And what if I was able to provide enough?”

  “Your body is incapable of producing enough.”

  “What about over time?”

  “I was referring to over time.”

  “Why can a charge not be slowly attained?”

  “All Essence induced into the system, including the small amount you deposited into this chamber, is prioritized to vital functions. If a portal jump is to be made, the full amount must be deposited immediately. If not, what is delivered will be rerouted to higher priorities so not to be wasted.”

  “It can’t be stored in the portal?”

  “It cannot.”

  “Well that’s odd, because we have Essence storage technology. Why do the portals not possess this?”

  “They are linked to storage devices. They are not storage devices themselves.”

  “Does the portal on the other end have to be charged as well?”

  “To transmit an object through the Essence realm there must be two interactions. One to send, one to receive. Prioritized Essence use is reserved for receiving travelers and other functions.”

  “Why did it let us return through the Bridge?”

  “Bridge travelers are not expected to have sufficient Essence skills.”

  “Where did this Temple get the Essence to send us back?”

  “Storage gained from other Temples.”

  “And if the other Temples have no Essence to send this one?”

  “Then Essence will be collected from the galaxy before the reserves diminish to the point where the Temple network will be cut off from the galaxy.”

  Randy’s face clenched. “Meaning you send the Caretakers out to kill people and harvest their Essence?”

  “The Temples must be preserved. If there are no Essence users inside to provide the necessary Essence, it must be obtained elsewhere.”

  “And what do you do if the Essence users inside don’t feel like donating their Essence?”

  “Essence users will not be harmed directly, but without sufficient Essence to maintain imports of hydrogen, the central reactor will not be able to provide sufficient photonic energy to maintain the ecosystem at preferred levels.”

  “Is this a preferred level?” Randy said, gesturing with a hand to the ice outside.

  “It is not a preferred level, but it is habitable. If hydrogen reserves were cut off entirely, the temperature would drop to a point where the air would become liquid, then solid so long as the artificial gravity remained. If power dropped further, it would cease and surface material would recoil outward, leaving the surface and rendering all unaugmented inhabitants lifeless. This is why Essence levels cannot be allowed to reach zero, for there is no hydrogen outside this Temple to harvest. It must be done so in other locations and transported here.”

  “Why build a Temple without a nebula to feed it?”

  “To remain secret, Temples are not built with familiar geography. They are low mass to avoid drawing the attention of the Core Dwellers, and to prevent them from traveling here using the Temple’s gravity.”

  “Why would they travel here?” Randy baited.

  “Because the Core Dwellers can sense Essence use.”

  “Have they ever done so?”

  “Not at this Temple. Information on the fate of the others is not within my databanks.”

  “What is the protocol if one does arrive?”

  “Depending on Essence levels, a defense of the Temple is possible. Such weaponry requires higher level Essence skills for me to provide details about, as well as higher level skills to operate.”

  Randy frowned, thinking about Thrawn and the others sitting outside Alpha Temple.

  “Can those defenses be used against others than the Core Dwellers?”

  “The Caretakers handle defense of the Temple within. If an incursion is made by the Core Dwellers, the exterior defenses will activate. They will not activate unless an incursion is made.”

  “Will the defense shield affect the Core Dwellers?”

  “Their smaller units cannot pass through it and live. Their larger units can attack the exterior while suffering minimal damage.”

  “What can you tell me of the Core Dwellers, given my limited verification?”

  “What do you wish to know?”

  “What is their name?” Rand asked.

  “They have given none. You refer to them as the Hadarak. Other races have given them their own names, but the Core Dwellers have never told their victims what they call themselves.”

  “What is in the Core of the galaxy? Who controls the Hadarak, or are they all Hadarak?”

  “Their first line of defense is all that I am allowed to inform you of. You do not have the skills to confront the others, thus knowledge of them is restricted until you can do so.”

  “We’ve killed Hadarak already, and we didn’t need Essence to do it.”

  “Essence is required to win the war. Other means are too inefficient.”

  “Can the war be won?”

  “It is a matter of skill level, numbers, and resources. If a sufficient number are obtained, victory is possible.”

  “And what happens when the other Hadarak galaxies send reinforcements?”

  “You continue to fight until they stop or until you are destroyed. This is why the Temples exist as a sanctuary for those that can use Essence to grow their skills and numbers until they are able to stand against the Core Dwellers. To try before one is ready is a quick route to self-annihilation.”

  “Alright, let’s try this the direct way. My people are already in another Temple, and I need to find a way to get to them through this one. How can I do that?”

  “Temple to Temple passage is not allowed until certain criteria are met. Your people cannot access this Temple until an expansion is required, except to go through the Bridge. You cannot reach them until you can fully supply the departure portal, which you cannot based off your current level.”

  “How many of my level would be required to activate the portal?”

  “Several billion.”

  One of the other Archons whistled, and Randy nodded his head in agreement. “Catch 21.”

  “But with gradual Essence donation here, this Temple will begin to return to full function. You can achieve everything here that you require without the other Temples. They are entirely redundant.”

  “Identical?”

  “Other than surface geography and size, yes. Functionality is identical.”

  “Why is there a size difference?”

  “Gravity silhouette must be within certain parameters for the local region to keep gravity-based travel from occurring. The Temples must remain isolated.”

  “The Bridge will not reach the other Temple, so my people there are trapped inside. How can I reach them?”

  “You cannot given your current level.”

  “Can the Caretakers take me there?”

  “They are not programmed to do so. Travel between Temples is restricted for those who have sufficient skills to power the transition themselves.”r />
  “Alright, next question. How can ships move from the interior of the Temple to the exterior?”

  “An Essence technique allows them to transition into the Essence realm and then return. If the range is short, and the destination is known to be clear of obstruction, a time count can be used to deposit the traveler on location. This is a dangerous technique known as Den’gar, and many novices die when attempting to master it. I recommend you do not try until you have completed the necessary prerequisites. At which time I or another Responder will guide you through the safest possible learning method.”

  “I have some friends who can use Den’gar, but they can’t use it to access the other Temple. They are stopped at the Essence shield surrounding the Temple. Why is that?”

  “It is a defense designed to insure only the Bridges are used to access the Temple.”

  “But I’ve seen others get their ships in and out, presumably using Den’gar.”

  “The defense barrier can be reconfigured to allow such transit, but such reconfiguration must be done from the inside.”

  “Permanent reconfiguration, or some form of passcode?”

  “Multiple options are available.”

  “Can you show me how to do that?”

  “No. You do not have sufficient verification of skills.”

  “Nuts,” Randy said, thinking hard how to work this problem. They were right here inside a Temple, but it seemed they were being forced to operate with training wheels on.

  “If I was to bring an Essence container here, could I then power a portal to get to the other Temple?”

  “That would solve the Essence requirement, but not the skill requirement. The portal must be activated manually for such travel. You do not have the skillset to do that.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Lower level skills must be obtained prior to higher level ones. Your lack is therefore presumed due to your recent failure.”

  “What if we learn out of order?”

  “Irrelevant. We will not harbor incomplete teaching. The proper order must be followed.”

  “What if I already possess the ability to activate the portals? Will you block access because I haven’t passed all the other tests?”