First Contact Fallout Read online

  For if they could not protect Holloi from Itaru, let alone the galaxy, then they’d do it the service of removing as many traitors as they could in Mak’to’ran’s name. Beyond that the future was Star Force’s. Mario’topa’s end would be here, on Holloi, along with the Era’tran he’d sworn to serve long ago. It wasn’t a good end, but it was far preferable to what most Zen’zat in the galaxy were faced with, for Itaru had decreed that while the V’kit’no’sat races could rejoin them, their Zen’zat could not. All would be killed and replaced with the Zak’de’ron’s superior Bo’ja, and there would be no exceptions.

  After all the Zen’zat had done loyally serving the V’kit’no’sat during their history, that was the ultimate betrayal by the Zak’de’ron, Oso’lon, and the J’gar. The original V’kit’no’sat had now fully cast them out, and a part of Mario’topa wished he’d gone rimward when he’d been offered the chance, but that was long ago and unobtainable now. Best not to look backward. There was killing to be done in the coming years and he needed to make the most of the opportunity. And whatever preparations could be made in the coming weeks should not be squandered. For once the enemy was here there would be no respite.

  Mario’topa studied the scouting reports a bit more, then summoned the Zen’zat units he commanded and began to make preparations with others for an immediate counterattack against the first breach point in the planetary shields…as well as for the defense of the Zor’do facility to which he had been assigned two centuries ago and silently guarded in his isolation. He wouldn’t wait there for the enemy to come to them, but preparations needed to be made in case the Zak’de’ron and their cohorts landed nearby immediately. If not…and he hoped not…maybe the facility would be overlooked for years to come. It would be his personal last line of defense if he didn’t fall prior to it coming under attack, and if he did he needed to make sure those that held the line here were prepared for that fateful day whenever it came to this jungle valley.

  2

  February 22, 128799

  Jamtren System (Era’tran capitol)

  Holloi

  Tu’vac walked out onto the open promenade that sat between the ring of buildings in the Zor’do, looking up at the jungle terrain beyond as his mind was elsewhere. The Era’tran had been wounded in the war, he’d been told, for he had no memory of it. He had woken up here 3 days ago, thrashing around inside a medical center restrained by force fields until he came to his senses…but he hadn’t entirely. There was a chunk of his mind that was missing, and he couldn’t help but search for it, so as he looked at the high ravine walls beyond the Zor’do he was really looking inward, and failing over and over again to find whatever it was he was lacking.

  Tu’vac didn’t know where he was, but he knew a Zor’do was a healing facility for those a Kich’a’kat could not repair. Typically that meant Core issues rather than bodily hardware, but in his case it had been explained to him that his injury had left him in a coma that was fortuitous. Had he woken, the damage to his brain would have caused the Kich’a’kat he wore to replace the brain cells that held most of his memories with new blank ones. But because of the coma those cells were not being used and thus, while ‘damaged’ they were not malfunctioning so the Kich’a’kat had left them alone.

  The missing part of his mind was intentional now, for the healers had locked it down so it would not suffer further damage. He was not wearing a Kich’a’kat, merely a robe with some monitoring equipment built in, and whatever parts of his suppressed mind were trying to be accessed would be the next cells manually revived and repaired. It seemed this was not the first few days since his coma, and that every so often he would have a treatment that would erase his current memories and he’d wake all over again…but with a few more of his old memories and skills recovered.

  He’d been told that if all were unlocked now, the parts that had been permanently lost would create a cascade of malfunctions that would destroy the rest. At first he hadn’t even been able to walk, for pieces of his motor program were suppressed in the coma. Those he had reached for, trying to use, and those pathways were then tagged and manually repaired for the next session. They wouldn’t say how long he had been here, insisting on his need to focus on trying to remember himself, and that whatever they told him he’d forget anyway so there was no need to get too detailed. To Tu’vac it felt like this was the beginning, but apparently he was far along in his treatment.

  How many sessions had he been through? No one here could tell him, for they had all arrived after him. He didn’t converse with many of the other denizens, for most here wanted to be left alone, as he did, but some had sought him out and given him what answers they could. They were all Era’tran, as were most of the healers. A few Zen’zat were around, but no other races. Tu’vac felt that was an important fact, but he couldn’t remember why. Many things bothered him that he could not remember, and more often than not he would roam out here to look at the horizon and the sky, wondering where he was and who he was, for that wasn’t even certain. He had no memory of his past life, but it was there just beyond his reach teasing him.

  Tu’vac pressed for it again in his mind, feeling a stiff resistance that he could not move. He relented, as he always did, but it frustrated him. So much of him was missing, yet he couldn’t even isolate what that was. He’d been told his psionics were suppressed, and that was part of the itching sensation he felt inside his mind. They didn’t want him to hurt himself or others, but they also didn’t want him to damage his skills by trying to use them with incomplete mental software. The pieces of which had not been repaired yet, for they’d been focusing on the barest essentials first and progressing onward with each session.

  It had been three days since he woke, and since then he’d been told to roam and relax. There were training facilities here, therapy pools, and telepathic counselors…the latter of which he could not use. But Tu’vac didn’t feel the need for any of them. He sought out isolation but did not want to be indoors. A part of him yearned for the jungle beyond, but he could not go there. The gates were shut and the guards were not to let anyone out without the healers’ permission, but he felt he needed to go. Something here was not right, for he could not rest. There was a spike in his mind that did not belong, and until he got it free he was vulnerable. His instincts told him that. And if he was vulnerable he did not want to be around anyone else that could take advantage of that weakness.

  “Greetings, Tu’vac,” another Era’tran said vocally, as they all did to him, for his telepathy had been repaired enough to receive, but not to transmit. That too was locked down, but he had some memory of how to use it…which was how he knew it was unresponsive. He reached for that part in his mind but it was as if his mental claws were slippery and missed each time, but still he tried hoping he would eventually have success.

  “I prefer to be alone,” he said stiffly, not looking at the female Era’tran who had been pestering him ever since he woke. She was one of the healers assigned to him, and he did not like her constant questioning.

  “You always say that,” she said, circling around to stand beside him with her tail parallel to his. She was just as large, but without the numerous tattoos that Tu’vac had earned over the course of his life, though he couldn’t remember what they were for, only that they were significant. “But you need the interaction to help you remember. There is only so much you can accomplish alone.”

  “Be quick about it, healer.”

  “What troubles you today?”

  “Can you not read my mind?”

  “I cannot.”

  Tu’vac finally turned his muzzle from the sky and looked at her directly. “Why not?”

  “Your brain will not transmit back. That portion of you is currently disabled.”

  “I have been shielded?”

  “Shielded how?” she prodded.

  “As a Zen’zat…” he said, stopping short as his mind slammed into the barrier again. He pressed against it in frustration, but it would no
t give way.

  “In a way,” the healer said. “Their minds are permanently blocked without losing function. Your block is because you lack function. However the mechanism, the result is the same. I cannot sense your thoughts, so tell me what troubles you.”

  “I do not wish to be near others,” Tu’vac admitted with a sneer as he turned his face back to the sky.

  “Do you fear me?”

  “I do not know who to fear or trust.”

  “You do not remember, but I know you well. You need not fear me. You restoration is my mission, which is why I press you to remember now. The more connections you try to make, the better we will be able to restore that which is essential to you. You are guiding our path, Tu’vac, so you must be prodded to explore the boundaries of your thoughts.”

  “I was doing so before you interrupted me.”

  “What else is bothering you?” she asked, sending a wave of telepathic soothings to him that ate away at his resistance, but the spike in his mind did not relent.

  “I feel there is something inside me that should be removed, but I cannot find it. What was my injury?”

  “Nothing that could leave behind residue. Your brain did not take the hit, your heart did. Lack of blood caused the coma. By the time the Kich’a’kat repaired it and restored the flow, your mind was locked down in emergency survival protocols. Had it not been you would have been reduced to a hatchling and retrained from the beginning. But so long as your memories are there we are going to try to retrieve them…most of them,” the healer corrected. “Some have been permanently lost, but the experience gained over millennia is worth spending some time to recover, for it will be far quicker than starting over again.”

  “I am fatigued but cannot rest, yet I do nothing to be fatigued. I do not understand this.”

  “Then perhaps you do need to do something.”

  “May I go into the jungle?” he asked, looking at her again.

  “To do what?”

  “Explore.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Perhaps so. You have never asked to do that before. Do you promise to stay with me and return when I say?”

  “Bargain accepted.”

  “Very well. Follow me then,” she said, stomping off on her heavy bipedal strides with her tail swaying behind her just above the paved promenade so it would not drag.

  Tu’vac was relieved to follow her, and when they came to the gates and he was allowed to pass through a tiny bit of the resistance in his mind gave way. Most was still there, but he felt freer here than inside as the pair slipped into the foliage and disappeared beneath the greenery on one of several well worn paths.

  “Others come out here?”

  “Zen’zat mostly, but they keep the trails large enough for our use.”

  Tu’vac sniffed the air, which was unprocessed and raw with the scent of life and decay. The Zor’do must have had an atmospheric shield covering it to keep the scents out. Perhaps it also had a…

  He huffed. Yet something else he knew but could not remember.

  “Are you feeling better?” the healer asked after a few minutes of trail hiking, all of which occurred below the canopy in the shade where most of the sunlight could not reach.

  “Moderately so.”

  “Explain please.”

  “A coolness.”

  “In your mind or body?”

  “Mind. It is small, but present.”

  “Interesting. Perhaps I should have brought you outside sooner. Is the terrain familiar to you?”

  “No.”

  “Does it feel safe?”

  “It feels anonymous.”

  “And you wish to run away into it where you can think things through alone?”

  “You said you could not see my thoughts.”

  “We have spoken many times before. From those talks I know some of your thoughts because you have told me of them. I am extrapolating now. I cannot let you go alone, but we can run if that would help?”

  “Will you let me lead?”

  “Stay on the paths,” she said, stepping aside and crushing brush to make room for him to slide past.

  Tu’vac didn’t hesitate, and that surprised him. It was almost as if his body moved on its own while his mind struggled to process. Before he knew it he was running with heavy strides in the…high gravity. That he could remember. He wasn’t tired, the gravity here was heavier than most planets, but it was no different than inside the Zor’do. Why hadn’t it been altered there?

  He ducked down to travel underneath a branch as thick as his arm that had not been removed, his muzzle staying parallel to the ground as his back flattened out. It was an old trick that caused him to stumble now, but his feet felt the curvature of the stones in the crude pathway that appeared to have been hand laid in a somewhat erratic pattern, and with that feel came an immediate response adjusting his stride.

  “Good. Your balance is improving,” the healer said from behind as she kept pace.

  Tu’vac ignored her and continued to run through twists and turns until he came to a long downward slope that was more or less straight. He stretched out his legs and increased speed, feeling his muscles warm in protest until halfway down where their fatigue did manifest and caused him to misstep. Tu’vac’s right foot caught one of the tiny stones, prying it out of the ground as he crash/rolled forward and spun multiple times before his tail slapping on the ground stopped his momentum.

  His head hit the ground multiple times, and he almost felt like the spike in his mind was coming loose when it did…but then the firmness returned as did his vision and balance.

  “Can you get up?” the healer asked.

  Tu’vac huffed, then stood back up easily. He thumped his tail twice on the ground to insure his balance held, then before the healer could ask another question he took off running downhill again, this time at a more secure pace.

  The Era’tran ran and ran until his legs could take no more. Tu’vac knew they should, that they were weak beyond the norm, but he had to kneel down and lean back as he breathed heavily, looking up through the trees and the tiny pinpricks of sunlight that made their way down through them.

  He stayed there for more than a minute, unmoving aside from the heaving of his chest, then the healer reached out and tapped him on the side of the neck with her claw.

  No response.

  “Tu’vac?” she asked, tapping harder, but he stood staring at the sky lost in thought as he had many times before. His mind was now in an endless loop that could not be broken, meaning he had reached for something new and didn’t find enough pieces to process it, but enough to stick on.

  There was nothing she could do to bring him out of it. They’d have to take him back to the lab and do another restart.

  Mario’topa, she said telepathically to the jungle, knowing the Zen’zat would be somewhere nearby.

  I am here.

  Bring a barge. He has seized up again.

  That was fast.

  He has not wanted to run before. I believe too many memories are tied to it. This session will be a longer one.

  The more progress the better. We are on our way now.

  The healer waited until a floating platform slightly wider than the trail pushed its way to them, carving out new sidewalls as it did. A combination of the healer’s telekinesis and the muscle of the Zen’zat precluded her need to drag Tu’vac onto the barge, instead allowing him to be somewhat respectfully floated there and set down as his eyes continued to stare out into nothing as his mind fought to work its way around the lockdown.

  “How far away are they?” she asked the Zen’zat.

  “Vitolor is under assault. I do not think it will last the year, but they are not passing beyond it yet. I think they want to eliminate the strongpoint before sweeping up the easier targets.”

  “I need more time.”

  “I do not know how to give it to you,” the Zen’zat said apologetically as 6 of his kin took up guard positions around the barge as they disappeared into th
e jungle, with far more others out in a defensive perimeter around the facility. “How soon do you want to evacuate?”

  “I cannot take the equipment with us, so we stay as long as possible. Evacuate the others when you deem necessary.”

  Mario’topa nodded. “They can stay a while longer, but when they leave I will make sure it looks as if we are abandoning the facility. Maybe Itaru’s forces will pass us by if they believe so.”

  “Try,” she said, stepping up onto the barge and flying it down the pathway so not to destroy the tree cover overhead. They might need it later if they had to abandon the facility on foot.

  3

  May 3, 128800

  Jamtren System (Era’tran capitol)

  Holloi

  Sol’an knew they were at the end, but she still couldn’t believe it as she ran down from the central control building and out across a piece of the promenade to the entrance into another building as the sky was bathed with anti-air fire. The first Itaru ship…she would not call the traitors V’kit’no’sat…had been caught off guard by the ‘abandoned’ facility and forced down in the nearby jungle. The Zen’zat defense team had then intercepted and terminated the survivors, but hours later more troop transports had arrived to replace them. Too many for the defenses to hold out against.

  The main turret was unopposed, as the transports were coming in low and mostly skimming beneath its field of fire up to the western ridgeline that was shielding them. There they were depositing an assortment of infantry from the Zak’de’ron servants, which the Zen’zat were harassing as best they could as they approached the facility to give Sol’an time to get Tu’vac out of here.