From the Darkness by Thomas Gilmor

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From the Darkness
Chapter 7

The planet screamed. From the depths of the planet poured lava as volcanoes blew dark dust in to the air. The ground shook and jolted as it moved. Fissures developed and entire landscapes laid to waste as they slid into oblivion.

On the oceans the waves stretched to the sky and crashed against the rocks with the intensity of thunder. The sound almost compared with the real thing that echoed high above, in the ever growing cloud masses. Lighting stuck the land faster than the eye or computer could comprehend. Fires flickered and then came to life, devouring anything in its path. The occasional one was put out due to the rain or the damaging tornadoes that swept it's fuel out of it's way.

Back on Earth these were called Natural Disasters, Freaks of Nature. They were uncontrollable, unpredictable and deadly. But here things were different. The light from the sun dimmed to complete darkness that resembled nightfall as the thick black cloud of dust and water vapour covered the planet. Surprisingly though every living creature survived. After a fire would consume its fuel and move on, a new tree would be in its place with a growth rate thousands of times above normal until it reached the age of the previous tree. Within minutes the landscape returned to its undisturbed state.

Here on this planet these were Natural Disasters of a different kind. They were not unpredictable or uncontrollable and they were not deadly; or not to those things indigenous to the planet.

Fire swept through their old camp that they had laid to ruin. Anything left that was not already burnt, burned and was consumed. The fire was deadly to those not from this world.

***

"Sir, I think you should take a look at this." exclaimed a young crewman from behind the sensor station of the Council ship.

Stewart Camil casually, full of pride and confidence strolled over to the young crewman.

"What is it?"

"The entire planet is clouding up."

"You weren't brought on this mission to bore me with weather reports Crewman. Now back to your job before I reassign you to Mess Hall."

"But Sir you don't understand. The entire planet is clouded over. There isn't as much as a centimetre of clear sky!"

"That is peculiar. What is it's cause?"

"Unknown Sir."

"Well find out!" he dictated as he turned around to return to his command chair

Just as Stewart had finished giving the order the intercom system buzzed. "Medic to Bridge, Medic to Bridge."

"Stewart here, go ahead."

"Sir the boy has started acting very peculiar."

"Specify 'peculiar' Doctor."

"Well Sir, he is making clicking noises and nodding his head side to side, and well Sir somehow he is burrowing through the metal floor."

"Damn you. Has he escaped?"

"Negative sir. As soon as it started we employed the reinforced steel deck plate counter measure."

"Hold on I'll be right there," He turned to his second in command, a short plump middle aged woman. "Keep an eye on things up here." She nodded in acknowledgement.

Stewart made his way to the elevator and proceeded to descend four levels. The bride was located at the uppermost of the twenty levels. The Medic Room was located on the fourth floor. The doors opened and he proceeded down a straight corridor. He turned left and then walked into the Medic Room.

It was a light but low intensity blue coloured room. Very typical for a Council Medic Room. Camil was clearly upset that the boy had started to act this way. He turned to the Chief Medic who had alerted him on the bridge, "Report."

"No change in his condition. Out of the blue he started moving and clicking," said the Medic. The Medic was grey on the sideburns and a small bald spot was developing on his crown. He looked around 45 to 50 years of age.

"I warned you! It's the Terrains!" stated the second Medic that had been standing beside the Chief. Stewart turned to her,

"You have been warned of this before Jodi Russel. You are a member of the Council. We state facts, not opinions. This is your last warning before we jettison you off into space! Do I make my self clear?" screamed Cameron in outrage.

Jodi responded calmly, "Perfectly sir."

Stewart turned to the Chief but said nothing.

"Actually sir, I would have to agree with Russel. There is no plausible explanation for Uly's behaviour."

"Well then what do we do?" replied Stewart coldly.

"There is nothing we can do. We drug him and experiment on him. Hopefully we learn what we need to."

"Then proceed as you suggest. Remember Doctor, failure is not an option." Stewart turned and left the Medic Room.

Stewart retraced his steps that he had taken a few minutes ago and made his way up to the bridge. He had just stepped into the elevator and its doors closed when the entire ship jolted and shuddered. The impact knocked Stewart to his knees. He stood up and directed the elevator to proceed to the bridge. The ship jolted again. This time harder. He was knocked down again. He was off balance and his knee jabbed into is abdomen knocking the breath out of him.

The elevator doors opened to Cameron crouched over in a fetal position. He quickly composed himself despite of the pain and humilation. "What in Blazes is going on! Report."

Before his second in command had a chance to answer a third jolt hit the ship which knocked all of the bridge crew out of their seats.

The crewman, Max, who had previously been barked by Camil struggled to his panel. "It is growing stronger!"

"What is?" demanded Camil.

"The planets magnetic field. It has been repolarized and its intensity has grown exponentially," replied his second in command.

"And the jolts?"

The crewman turned to look at Cameron "It is the ship passing through the magnetic field."

"Well move us away from it you idiot, full speed," ordered Camil.

Max didn't have time to respond as the forth jolt hit and rocked the ship. From the back a panel exploded and flames jumped up to meet the unfortunate young man standing there.

"Why haven't we cleared the magnetic field?" demanded Camil as he struggled to climb back into the Command Chair.

"It's following us," reported his second in command.

"What? That's impossible!" exclaimed Camil. "A planet can not just change its magnetic field."

Max turned, "Well sir, this one can."

A fifth jolt rocked the ship however this time it did not let the ship go. The Council Ship fought, it's engines expended more fuel in the next few minutes than it had on its entire journey to G889. Alarms rang throughout the ship.

"If we fight the magnetic field we will tear ourselves apart!" exclaimed Max.

"What would happen if we followed the magnetic field?" inquired Stewart clearly exhausted of any ideas to fix this situation.

"We would be dragged into the planet sir. And that's where we are headed."

"Don't give up so quickly crewman. Keep trying."

"Yes sir."

From the side panel another alarm went off and a computer voice added a message:

"Warning, two unidentified vessels approaching."

"What!" cried Camil, "Who in God's name can it be?"

"It's Eden Project Sir, and they are contacting us."

Alonzo was piloting the lead ship, a HR-3, Baines was just behind piloting the secondary ship. John was up with Alonzo with Magnus and Morgan, both with MagPro's in their lap.

"Morgan. Open communications to the Council Ship." asked John.

Morgan wasn't one for taking orders but for once he didn't mind. A government agent he was, an army person he wasn't.

"Visual V.R. lines are now open.." a few seconds passed "they are responding."

Cameron's bruised face appeared on the screen in the lead ship. "You don't look to well there Stewart," John said with a smile.

Stewart was clearly very angry "Is this your doing John? I swear you'll pay for this!" he shouted.

"I don't think your in any position to make threats Stewart. Return the boy without harm and we will convince the Terrains to let go of your ship."

"And if I don't? You're going to let this ship crash? I don't think so John, not while Uly's on board, so go to hell!" Camil cut communications.

"Well so much for the diplomatic route. Magnus, have you determined where Uly is?" asked John.

"According to our scans, and the information the Terrains gave Alonzo he is on the fourth level from the top, deep in the interior."

John opened a communication line to the other ship. "Okay troops this is pay dirt. Remember to keep away from the escape pods in case the Terrains are successful in getting Uly to one of them. Proceed."

John cut the transmission and ordered Morgan to start firing the primary laser cannons. They struck just below the Council's own cannons. The secondary ship also opened fire, careful to watch for the escape pods and the primary ship.

They concentrated their fire on the third deck on the opposite side of the bridge. Baines maintained a respectful distance and provided cover fire for Alonzo. Alonzo piloted the HR-3 close to the Council Ship and manoeuvred it to be along side the three meter hole they had carved out with their blasts.

Alonzo was able to manoeuvre the ship so that the airlock of the HR-3 just covered the hole. Morgan, Magnus and John made their way to the air lock, he looked at Alonzo, then back to the group, "Let's go."

Fire was spreading acrose the bridge as panels exploded. The fire suppression system had become overloaded throughout the ship and it was unable to keep up.

"They are boarding us sir!" cried Max.

"Any progress on getting our weapons back on line?"

"Negative sir it's no use, we are going down!" yelled Max.

Stewart was silent for a moment. He seemed reluctant to accept the inevitable. He tapped on the communication line "Bridge to Medic. Have the boy brought to escape Pod 1 and wait until I arrive."

All that came back from the Medic Room was a muffled "Understood."

Cameron nodded to Max as he opened a general communication line to the entire ship; "All stations, listen carefully. This vessel is going down. Please report to the nearest escape pod with as much equipment as possible. Set the pods to rendezvous at Alpha One. I repeat..." Cameron repeated his message the second time and as soon as he had finished Max and the entire bridge crew moved to the elevator. From there they proceeded to deck two where some of the escape pods were located."

"Grab the kid Jodi, you heard the order," barked the Chief Medic. Jodi had moved to the opposite end of the Medic Room to retrieve something from beneath the counter.

"Council Member you were given an order! We don't have much time," he yelled.

"I know." Jodi turned with a miniature MagPro in hand aimed at the Chief Medic.

"What.... what is the meaning of this Jodi?"

"You said it yourself asshole! We are running out of time. You know as well as I do that there have not been any non Syndrome births on Earth in the past seven years. The human race is going extinct."

"That is why we need to secure the boy! Let's go!"

"I don't think so," she said waving the MagPro. "If all of you would start using your genetically altered heads you might figure out what is actually happening here! The planet is responding to us taking the boy. We have lost! Can't you see!"

The Chief Medic just stood there blinking. He was obviously trying to figure a way out of this situation but he couldn't find any.

"The only way to save the thousands of people already on their way here is to return the boy to his group, to the Terrains!"

"You're mad!" he exclaimed and he lunged for her. A small but bright blue steam of energy poured from the weapon intercepting the Chief Medic in mid pounce, it ripped through him as he crashed on to the floor.

John was surprised with the relatively little resistance he had encountered thus far. He soon came to understand though as he heard the general evacuation orders. Most had headed to the evacuation pods on deck two just as John had predicted.

They had turned the corridor and plasma bolts had screamed over their heads just missing all of them. The set up in a triangular formation behind the bulkhead firing at their aggressors. Alonzo came in through the Gear.

"John, the ship is going down."

"Well tell your Terrain friends to slow things down a bit until we get off this sinking piece of metal!"

"I can't fly and communicate with them at the same time! If I do I risk losing our position, or worse, destroying our ship!"

John cursed under his breath, "Understood."

The firing eventually stopped and they proceeded cautiously to the next bulk head, then to the elevating device that would take them down one level to where they believed Uly was kept. John and Morgan had taken the far side while Magnus had taken the nearside of the elevating device. Their MagPros were running low on energy due to the prolonged fire fight.

The doors swung open and John ordered Magnus to stay behind to keep their escape route clear of any disgruntled Council Members. Morgan and John proceeded the to the deck beneath them. They both stood with MagPro's ready for what ever lay beyond the doors.

They opened and Morgan fired. The bolt exploded in the far wall of the corridor.

"Morgan! Why did you fire!"

"I thought I saw someone! I swear," sputtered Morgan.

"Be more careful next time. Come on lets move!"

They proceeded to the Medic Room and they cautiously entered the room and saw a plasma bolt fly across the room and rip an middle aged gentlemen through the gut. He crashed to the ground with a loud thud.

Morgan and John raised their weapons ready to fire on Jodi who hadn't yet noticed their arrival.

"Don't move!" John yelled.

Jodi turned and fired and the bolt of energy screamed over their heads. Morgan fired back to provide cover for John who raced across the room to remove Uly from his shackles. The flying debris from Jodi's shot made John's task more difficult. Uly was no longer in his Terrain state but he clearly looked in shock but managed to say:

"Stop she tried to save me!"

Morgan looked at John as if to ask "Well do I fire?"

John had Uly in is arms and he settled him down.

"Who are you?" John asked as he turned to face Jodi.

Jodi who had been hiding behind what was left of a Med Bed stood up from behind the bed. She tossed her weapon towards them to indicate that she was no longer a threat.

"My name is Jodi. You better hurry and get out of here. It won't be long before this ship starts to burn up in the atmosphere."

John smiled. Picked up her weapon and handed it to her. Morgan's eye's bulged from their sockets when he did this. But John knew what he was doing.

"Let's go," he said.

The four of them made their way back to the elevator. The computer was now stating the time remaining until the ship entered the atmosphere. They had about forty seconds. They emerged on deck three, Magnus was just before them with her weapon ready.

"Move it people!" John yelled.

John had Uly in is arms. Magnus ran ahead and Morgan and Jodi pulled up the rear. There was no resistance at this point. Anyone they met in the corridors was to consumed with the thought of saving their own lives than to worry about the intruders. As they turned the corner Morgan radioed to Alonzo,

"Open the doors we are coming in!"

They bolted through the airlock which quickly closed behind them. Alonzo didn't wait for a second. He saw that they had all returned safely albeit with an extra person and he quickly moved away from the Council Ship. No sooner had he cleared the ship than it started to burn up.

"That was too close," said Alonzo relieved while wiping the sweat from his brow. They all turned to look out the window. There was silence. The Council ship fell into the darkness of the clouded planet below with a reddish white glow as it burned.

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