Darren Wearmouth - The Critical Trilogy Box Set

“Humans, you are Charlie, Denver and Layla,” the scion prism to the left said. The one in front of Denver remained silent, its blue glowing strip had dulled to a softly pulsing gray. “It’s time you knew the truth. We will get you air and supplies, but first, you’re to receive an explanation.”

“Don’t believe anything they have to say,” Hagellan croaked out. “They’re damned liars, just like the tredeyans!”

Denver was expecting the croatoan’s throat to be crushed again, but the scion prism ignored him. Instead, the cone extended further up before flipping back. A holographic projection of a humanlike face extended up and regarded them with hollow eyes.

“I am Drone 451, the coordinator of this encounter. If you have questions, ask them. We have just a few of your Earth minutes before we have to leave.”

“What happens then?” Layla asked.

“This vault will be no more.”

“Okay,” Charlie said. “Tell me, what the hell is Hagellan doing here, and why are you torturing him? Not that that bothers me much.”

The face turned to Charlie. “Hagellan was a scion agent… until he cut his algorithm short. He defected back to his race shortly before the invasion of your planet, taking with him artifacts that we had assigned a great deal of resources to procure. That’s why he came back here.”

“Wait,” Denver said. “We came back to destroy the gate to stop the croatoan ship… Hagellan showed it to us. It was going to use the tredeyan gate to jump to Earth.”

The face shook from side to side. “That was a lie. He wanted to destroy the gate to stop us from getting to Earth and reclaiming the lost artifact that he stole from us. He is a traitor to us and his own kind. His plan was to join the Amalgam after his failure on Earth.”

“Like Vingo,” Layla said, looking at his corpse.

“So what about the micro-gate?” Denver asked.

“There is no such thing,” Drone 451 said. “There is only one gate, the one Hagellan had you damage.”

Denver picked up on the language immediately. “Damage? So it’s not destroyed?”

“We currently have our architects fixing it—this”—the holographic display extended an arm to point at the data on the screens—“is what Vingo was hoping to trade; the technical specifications of the gate.”

“You can’t trust them!” Hagellan said, trying to appeal to Charlie directly. “They’re worse than us; they don’t care about your life, your planet. All they want is—”

Denver winced at the sudden burst of gunfire.

A swirl of smoke trailed away from the barrel of Charlie’s rifle as Hagellan’s head exploded under the power of the tredeyan firearm. Shreds of croatoan hide scattered around the room, bouncing off the golden walls. The beast’s yellow blood and dark purple brains splattered against the back wall as pieces of bone and cartilage clattered against the floor.

Hagellan’s great body continued to thrash for a few seconds after until eventually his limbs became still.

“Damn, that felt good,” Charlie said. He turned to Drone 451. “Frankly, I don’t care if what you’re saying is the truth or not. We’re going to die if we don’t get air in the next quarter of a unit. If you have air, then we need it now. After that, we can talk.” He kept the rifle poised in his hands, aimed partly toward the scion drone.

The drone’s blue stripe flashed twice and the smaller ones in front of the screen of data hovered around the group and disappeared through another door behind Denver that he hadn’t spotted originally.

“Follow us,” Drone 451 said. “We have much to discuss.”

Leaving the remains of Hagellan and Vingo behind, Denver followed the scion along with Charlie and Layla, all three of them sharing a ‘what the fuck?’ expression.

LAYLA WOKE ON A SOFT BED, stretched and yawned. A cool draft pumped from a chrome vent in the roof, providing air in the pressurized barrack block. These sparse white rooms attached to the command center were used by humans when serving on Tredeya. It came as no surprise that Vingo didn’t tell them about the area. She wondered if he spoke a word of truth during their whole time together.

The partially split dark blue armor stood at the end of the bed with her helmet propped on top of it and a tredeyan rifle slung over the shoulder. The last two days were the strangest in Layla’s life, but she could see light at the end of the tunnel.

Sleep came easily after being transported back by the scion prisms, who provided clean filters for their suits and promised no harm would come to them. Drone 451 showed them a video of a shocked-looking Mike, Mai and Maria and told them they were safe and Augustus perished in the battle for Unity.

Layla activated a screen at the end of her bed and looked at the still image of their faces again. The drones refused to give more information until they spoke to an agent called Doslin.

It was a relief that the city survived the attack and all three of them lived through it. She found Augustus’ death the most unbelievable. The man was an eternal survivor and seemed to get away with everything he did. Layla assumed he would be a thorn in her side until her dying days.

Reflecting on her post-invasion life, it was the first time she felt real pride about her role in society. It wasn’t like reintegrating human livestock back into civilized life. That was just repairing the damage that she played a part in creating. Augustus forced her, under the threat of death, to work on a farm. Her path for survival involved self-preservation at the expense of others. Those days were over.

Together with Charlie and Denver, they put their lives on the line for Earth.

A female tredeyan, dressed in a peach-colored robe, knocked on the transparent glass door. Layla thumbed the panel by the side of her bed and the door hissed open.

“I am Doslin,” she said. “Follow me to the observation deck.”

“Do I need to put my suit on?”

“No. It’s safe for you to breathe. Please, this way. I will reunite you with your friends.”

“You breathe our air?”

“It’s purer than Tredeya’s. I wouldn’t advise you to try the opposite.”

“I’m well aware of that.”

Doslin led Layla up two flights of stone steps to a dull gray corridor. The caverns looked barely recognizable after a good six hours sleep and a lower threat level. The scion had taken full control, and only their agents were allowed access. Instead of seeing the passages as dark, alien and intimidating, expecting a threat around every corner, Layla took some time to peer in every room and murky corner. She doubted she’d get a chance to see a world like this again.

In one room, two black prisms hovered next to a bank of glass boxes with circuitry and boards inside. Three slaughtered clusps were piled in another. Electronic pads were attached to the smoothly carved walls at regular intervals, some had views to other parts of the cavern system on their screens, others provided security access to sturdy metal doors. None required wiring because of their wireless energy solution. Layla wondered if they could take some of the tech back to Earth for Mike to reverse engineer.

“What do you know about humans?” Layla said.

“I’ve met them here and on one of our mineral planets. I like them.”

“Is that where you learned our language?”

“We learn it as children, along with croatoan since their colonization of our planet. We despise their presence.”

“How does working with the scion help?” Layla said.

“If it means ridding our species of the croatoans, I’m prepared to do it.”

Layla frowned and shook her head. “The scion attacked you and have taken over parts of your planet. Is that what you were working toward? How is that any better than living under croatoan rule?”