Reignor Page 8

  But the universe was also adapting. The lifesprings were creating new upgrades, so it wasn’t exactly the same default settings being replayed. Perhaps you could nudge the default state one way or another over time unwittingly. Maybe the universe itself didn’t know how to achieve the Endgame, and was trying different alterations to the base code in order to find one that worked. Giving the people here different opportunities to see if someone would rise to the challenge before them.

  And in that moment Plausious knew that Star Force was destined to trigger the Endgame, sooner or later. They couldn’t help it. It was the very foundation of their empire, created by those that followed the natural code, without realizing the larger implications of what they were doing.

  “We have to get out of here,” he told the Ren’mak one day, sitting on the porch of their dwelling while keeping a mental eye on the shaft in case the other Hadarak came down it again needing to be shooed back up and away. “There are people out there that need my help.”

  The Ren’mak squawked in fear, with Plausious shaking his head firmly.

  “I am not leaving you here. Where I go, you go. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

  The Ren’mak said an almost audible ‘yes,’ still finding it hard to pronounce Star Force words, for the alterations made to his vocal chords by the Neofan were not yet complete.

  “We could try to use the warship,” he said, referring to the one his opponent had ridden in. Plausious had actually called it down to the planet earlier and went inside the small compartments in its body, vaguely remembering how to order them to be grown, but he did not like the idea of not commanding his own ship and trusting his fate to the ship itself, which could ignore him and do whatever it wanted…or was told to do by the current. “But I think that’s too risky. I’m going to have to grow our own, and I don’t know how to do that yet. I have to learn. But when I do, we’ll use it to leave this planet.”

  The Ren’mak asked where they would go, not having known anything other than this planet given that it had been born here. Somehow Plausious found that sad.

  “We have to find Star Force. They will be the closest. If we can get to them we will be safe, but after that I will have to leave them and return to my people. There will be a fight,” he warned. “And if you want to help me, you have to learn to work with me and not panic. I won’t let you fight with me again until you learn how to do so properly. So let’s start working on your combat training,” he said, standing up and telepathically calling the Ren’mak to his arm.

  The little flyer came as ordered.

  “Good. You listened to me and obeyed, but when you are afraid you do not always obey. I will never betray you, my friend, and you need to trust in my orders. But to do that you need experience rather than faith. And for experience we must have some peril,” he said, looking around and envisioning training apparatus. It didn’t take long for him to mentally plot out what materials to use to make it without having to involve the Hadarak, and soon he was already assigning himself a lot of new work to do.

  But until then, some basic flying would suffice.

  “You have to learn to fly with me, not just behind me, so we’re going to practice,” he said, jumping into the air and getting some height in the mild fog that was far less dense ever since they’d gotten their surface vent. “Start beside me, and keep within my arm’s length.”

  He tossed the Ren’mak off his arm and it hovered nearby, then he started moving and had to coach the Ren’mak into the appropriate position, but this task it learned quickly, and soon they were flying from one treetop to another, swerving around them and darting back across their path in a sort of obstacle course, learning how each moved and responded to the other in the basic building blocks of teamwork rather than the limited spectrum of orders and obedience.

  The Ren’mak learned faster than Plausious did, and his excursions to the surface to interface with the Hadarak and cause them to grow different things, including buildings, was troublesome. It was as if he had only a partial instruction manual, and that was stolen and murky. His new grown tissue did not have any explanation with it, only potential to be altered into what was needed. It did not give options to choose from, which was the most frustrating part of this.

  But there was a pathway here to escape, and Plausious did not hesitate to pursue it. Now that the Hadarak attacks against him had stopped, and he had enough telepathic command to keep them from coming after the Ren’mak, he could spend his time as he wished, and that was a luxury he had thought a distant memory.

  With the inevitable Endgame clock ticking in his mind, he dare not waste a day cycle in matters contrary to their escape from this planet, but in the downtime between tasks he pondered other mysteries of the universe, his own life, and that of his friend. It seemed he had no purpose now, and how many other quadrillions upon quadrillions of people were born into situations where they had no purpose other than to be eaten by others.

  The universe was a very grim place, and the Endgame…whatever it was…did not justify all this suffering, torture, and death. The natural code was not just part of a game, it was an act of defiance against this primitive, natural state. But the natural code seemed to be imbedded in people more than the anti-code. At least the potential for it.

  But then why wasn’t it default? Why was the universe so horrific? He appreciated the challenge before him, perhaps not as much as Star Force did, but he saw it. Yet, what of all of these people that had no clue what was going on and were only trying to survive to see tomorrow?

  Plausious looked at the Ren’mak sitting on a branch as the Neofan ate into the trunk of one of the trees he did not need to grow foodstuffs using his deconstruction ability. His fingertips slowly cut through it as he sent out a gentle pulse, feeling every worm and creature out there with a Core in it. Why were they here? They had no chance of pursuing the Endgame. Were they the precursors for new races like his own billions of years into the future? If that was so, what were all of these people supposed to do other than provide experience for the universe to upgrade their genetics?

  The Reignor could see no purpose for them. None at all. But they were here and they needed help. The natural code demanded he help them, but help them to do what? Keep them alive, obviously, but to what end? What was their mission for him to help them achieve? Did they have a mission? Did they have a purpose?

  What was going on with the universe?

  And the old question of how it all began still remained unanswered. Not even a single plausible theory had been put forth. For when you backtrack to the beginning the inevitable question always formed.

  What happened before that?

  For all his experience and his pre-born skill, he too did not know what was going on. But he could see pieces of it. Pieces that others could not. And the natural code called for him to use those pieces and take advantage of the opportunities he had to help others. To ascend his own abilities. And to fix the wrongness in the galaxy.

  But also, to what end? What was going to happen with the Endgame? He knew it wouldn’t be the end of the universe. But could there even be an end? What would happen after that?

  The beginning and the end were not logical, and with regards to a person’s Core you had no access to either. You came from the Essence realm and returned to it upon death. What happened before and after was unknown, and Plausious reminded himself that he would probably never know the answer to these questions. But he was here, now, and that fact wasn’t dependent on his understanding.

  It was a harsh truth. He had to face today even if he understood nothing…and so did they.

  All the little Essence reflections showed thousands upon thousands of people in the maksack. Some large, some not so much, and others tiny burrowing through the dirt or swimming in the lake. So many people in such primitive bodies. Many so primitive he could not converse with them even using telepathy.

  There was an old Neofan legend of a Master so wise and powerful he had taken the Co
re out of a primitive slug and put it into a Neofan body. How this was done, or if it was just fiction, nobody knew. But the story said after great difficulty the transfer was made, and the person had to learn anew despite the body of an adult being used. It was lethargic, barely able to quiver, but with a lot of telepathic therapy and prodding, the Core began to adjust to the radically advanced body, and little by little learned to use it.

  After a long period of time the person learned to talk, and after she had a good understanding of words, the Master asked the now Neofan what it was like to be a slug.

  The female of course said she remembered nothing, for the slug’s brain and memories had not been transferred, but it was always suspected that some learning occurred in the Core itself and traveled with it. Upon deep reflection the female some time later said that she had remembered something. A long tunnel whose purpose was to travel down it. Always moving forward. Her purpose was to move forward. That much she remembered.

  The Master looked down at his own hands and legs, having an epiphany. All life was meant to move forward. To where he did not know, nor did others. But everything was meant to move, not to remain still or remain the same. Everything moved forward.

  Plausious had always remembered that story, and took it as a reminder now, that he didn’t need to see far ahead or far behind to move forward. He only needed to see one step ahead, and sometimes not even that. He could not know the beginnings of the universe, or even of himself or the Ren’mak, but he could know the next step for both.

  And that next step was training, for them both, enroute to growing a ship of their own…one without a Core in it…and using it to escape this planet. Everything else that he could envision beyond that didn’t matter in the here and now. He would get to those if and when they succeeded. And that knowledge gave him comfort.

  He didn’t need to know what was going on with the universe to live in it. And he was going to live in it regardless, so Plausious didn’t spent too much time in mental wonderings about things he could not observe or investigate. But every now and then he came back to these musings, realizing the magnitude of the mystery everyone so blissfully ignored as they paid attention to their next step.

  The natural code was here, though, and it was a guide for those that could find it and use it…and the more he used it, the more he understood of it. And a good chunk of that was thanks to the Ren’mak, for there were aspects of the Code he had not understood until it had found him and they had bonded against their mutual enemies.

  Whatever was coming in the future, he wanted the Ren’mak with him, but he knew the dangers were great. He would have to find a way, because the Ren’mak deserved more than to be swatted aside as a target of the greater powers. All of them did, Plausious thought as he once again sent out an Essence pulse to see where everyone was. They all deserved better than they got.

  And for that reason, part of him would forever be angry with the universe. That too, he had learned, was part of the natural code. The universe was in violation of it, and such violation could never be tolerated or condoned.

  And sadly, these people stuck in this primitive cage, could never be truly saved. At least Plausious did not know how to save them, other than keeping them alive a bit longer. And a bit longer was never good enough.

  But to the Ren’mak a bit longer had changed everything for it, so Plausious couldn’t just write them off and ignore their plight. Which was why he was still spending time working on the eels. He hoped he’d find a solution for them before it was time to leave here. Both for their sake, and their victims.

  The thought of leaving still didn’t feel real. As if it was just an academic matter after all the time he had spent here. His past life was a shrouded memory, and he had not truly found himself until he was marooned here. A small part of him did not want to leave to return to the other Neofan, but he knew had had to. He had to keep moving forward.

  And something about that scared him.

  9

  Plausious left his dwelling for the last time, leaving it as it was, no tear down, no destruction. He just flew up and out the tunnel to the planet’s surface with the Ren’mak beside him, then across the landscape to the small Hadarak outpost that had grown him a new starship.

  It had taken a long time to learn how, and even longer to gather the necessary resources and craft them into what he needed, for there was no genetic blueprint in the Hadarak codex that he could just activate. He had to design it based off of what was already there, mixing and matching, and rewriting…all of which he had to teach himself how to do.

  The landscape was littered with his experiments. Small chunks of biotech, partial hulls of ships, and large sheets of armor that hadn’t developed properly. Rather than recycle it he just left it there and got new components from the Hadarak supply lines, but he always had to divert them personally, for if there was a way to implement planet-wide orders into the Hadarak command system, he hadn’t figured out how yet.

  But he no longer needed to. His ship was complete, and had already done a remote test run around the star system and come back to him. His own foodstuffs were loaded up inside, and final fueling of the biomatter the ship itself would need to eat during their one-way journey across the galaxy had been completed last day cycle. All that was left to do was get onboard and go.

  Ironically the Neofan was having a harder time leaving than the Ren’mak, who just wanted to be wherever Plausious was. The Reignor had been holding himself together for so long, he didn’t realize how much until he was at the point of release. He should not have survived, and still did not know how he had long, long ago. He had grown so much in his time here, it felt like a second life…a real life after having sleepwalked through his first one.

  The Temples were not his true home. And Utovi where he had been born was now lost to the Neofan. This makeshift dwelling in this maksack was the only real home he had now, and he was willingly leaving it behind, never to return again.

  He knew he had to, but something about it didn’t feel right.

  He considered that as he flew across the planet, with the other Hadarak keeping clear of his telepathic presence as the Ren’mak kept close to him. If it strayed it would still come under attack, for Plausious hadn’t figured out how to unmark it. Somehow they identified it as deviant, even when Plausious assumed command of it. That was one mystery, among many, that he was also leaving behind.

  The flight took a while, and he wasn’t rushing. By the time he got in sight of the ship, which was larger than most Hadarak warships, he was still far from the massive growth. Plausious had had to add extra engines to get it up to decent speed, for the Hadarak were slow, and this journey was not going to be without danger. He also had added large cargo holds to carry their extra food, not knowing how long their trip would take. The quicker the travel could take place the better, and without a map all he could do was head for the Core or for the Rim, and the only sure way of finding Star Force was to head for the rim and eventually run into their Grand Border.

  He knew approximately where this system was, and it was a long way to the Grand Border. If his ship malfunctioned, was damaged, or grew ill, they would die with it, and he did all the checks he could think of except ordering it to go interstellar on its own. There was no person at the controls, and he did not know how to preprogram it sufficiently for that type of test. While in this system he could reach out to it through massive telepathic transmitters in various Hadarak across the system. Through them he could control the ship and bring it back to the planet, and had done so flawlessly, so there was really nothing else to do to maximize their odds…other than build a second ship.

  But that was not a practical endeavor. He needed to return, even if part of him was clinging to this planet. He did not want to return to the Neofan and that stagnant life, but he had a responsibility as Reignor, even in exile, and his race had to take its rightful place in the war to come.

  And they were far from ready.

  Plausiou
s flew up to the top of the elongated ship, built similar to Star Force designs with a large amount of armor on the nose and less elsewhere to deal with debris during jumps. With no shields those jumps would be considerably more dangerous, which was why he had made the armor thicker than he thought necessary.

  He might have to stop off in other systems to make repairs…which meant finding resources for the ship to eat and use to heal itself. Hopefully that wouldn’t be necessary, and he had planned out enough supplies to hopefully keep moving constant until they found a Star Force system.

  “Are you ready?” he asked the Ren’mak as they flew the last few seconds on this planet.

  “I am,” it said with a heavy accent. “Are you afraid?”

  “No. But I feel uneasy.”

  “Does it hurt?” the Ren’mak asked as they landed on the biologically armored hull.

  “Does what hurt?”

  “Flying in space.”

  “No. Not if we stay inside the ship. But if we go outside it we die. I have traveled through space many times. It is boring. Do you want to stay?”

  “I want to stay with you. The Hadarak want me dead. If I stay alone, they will kill me.”

  “I know that. But if they would accept you, would you want to stay?”

  The Ren’mak thought for a moment. “No. I want to see another planet. A planet where they will not kill me.”

  Plausious smiled. “Very well, my brave little friend. Another planet it will be,” he said, telepathically triggering the top orifice to peel open. “Go inside.”

  The Ren’mak hopped into a hover, then ducked down inside leaving the Reignor one last look at this bit of enemy territory that he was now welcome in. At least from the locals. He doubted their masters would permit him to live if they ever passed back this way.

  And if Star Force and the Veloqueen were truly assaulting the Core, he doubted they would be back here again. Which meant he could effectively keep this conquered world if he wanted, and a bit of him wanted to and leave the other Neofan out of his path.