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Scuu Front, System Unknown, Planet Unknown

The stench was making me choke. The first few days, it seemed like it had gone away, but each day after that, it had grown. When I was shoved here with dozens of others, I was told that the fleet would arrive in thirty-eight hours. After that time, we were supposed to be rescued. I had spent hours counting the minutes in my mind, waiting for the sound of the service lift. It had never come.

“It’s time,” Gonel whispered, careful not to wake up the others.

He was only a few years older than me, but seemed like a hundred. He wasn’t scared like me or the other children. From the first day, he had helped out the few adults, making sure we kept quiet. And when they disappeared, he was the one that kept taking care of us, rationing whatever resources we had, putting an end to all the fights. I hated him at first. In my mind, I imagined becoming strong enough to beat him up and take all his food. Then, one day, he saved me from a group of children my age trying to steal my ration. Since then, I’d wanted to be like him.

“Up for it?” He put his hand on my shoulder. I knew he wouldn’t blame me if I quit, but I still nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”

My stomach ached with hunger and fear. I tried to smile, but my face wouldn’t allow it. Thankfully, the darkness of the tunnel hid that. The emergency generators had kicked in five days ago, covering the tunnels in a dim red light.

As we walked out of the sleeping tunnel, the stench of urine hit my nose. After hiding in the tunnels, we had all agreed to piss and shit in the furthest tunnel of the network, but no one obeyed that rule. Scared to be alone, but ashamed to have anyone with them, most chose to pee right outside of the sleeping tunnel. I myself had done it more often than not. Gonel had caught me a few times, but as usual had said nothing. With the adults gone, there was nothing to say.

“Take this.” He handed me a backpack. It was small, covered in hearts and kittens. He must have taken it from a girl. “Wear it in front.” He helped me put my arms through the straps. “Don’t take anything until I tell you.”

I nodded. A few days after the adults hadn’t returned, Gonel was the first to sneak up the lift in search of food. He was able to find only a few packets of crackers, but for the starving down here, it had seemed like a feast. After his ninth run, he had asked me to join. I didn’t want to, but I still said yes. As scared as I was, my hunger was greater than my fear.

“Also, take this.” Gonel gave me a pistol. “Just in case.”

The weapon felt heavy. This was the first time I’d held one. Only security guards were supposed to have these. I glanced at Gonel, hesitating to ask where he got it. I already knew the answer, though part of me was hoping he’d lie to me if asked.

“Tuck it in the back of your belt,” he said. “It won’t slow you down that way.”

I nodded and did as he said. The elevator shaft was the only thing that remained lit. The first time I had been sent down here, my mother had told me that the lift had its own emergency backup in case everything else ceased to function. I couldn’t remember for how long it was supposed to last, but I hoped it would be a long time. Even in its current state, this was the only source of white light we had left.

A rope ladder hung from the top of the lift cabin. The adults had put it there so they could go up quietly. We had been told that the Scuu could sense loud noises, so we were told to constantly keep quiet. When the adults vanished, we didn’t. The Scuu never came for us, but neither did anyone else.

“Do you think they are still up there?” I asked, afraid to mention their name.

“No,” Gonel replied. “No one is there.”

Gonel helped me up the rope ladder and onto the cabin. From there, we started our long climb along the emergency railings. Every now and again, Gonel would stop and look down to make sure I was fine. When he did, I’d stop breathing, hoping to fool him that I was. It was obvious I wasn’t used to this. This was why Gonel asked someone new to go with him every time. I had heard from the ones before me that their arms and legs ached for days; I had also heard that they had eaten before bringing the rest of the food down there.

It seemed like hours had passed when we finally reached the upper levels of the colony. The first thing I noticed was sweet air, followed by proper light. For whatever reason, power hadn’t been restricted there, only in the mining tunnels.

The outer elevator doors were open. Reaching them, Gonel went into the corridor and then helped me as well. A dull pain pulsed through my legs.

“Climbing down is easier,” Gonel whispered, looking in both directions of the corridor.

Instinctively, I did the same. As much as I was scared of what might have happened during the Scuu attack, I was also curious. In my nightmares, when I was able to sleep in the tunnels, I imagined the halls of the colony filled with bodies. My mother, my father, everyone I knew, dead on the floor. There was none of that here now. There were no bodies in the corridors, only small things dropped during the panic: cards, communicators, a blue pullover…

“We’ll head to the emergency storage.” Gonel pointed. “Don’t pick up anything else until there.”

“Why?” I felt a chill in my stomach.

“Safer that way,” he replied, then walked forward.

A low hum filled the corridors. There was no telling where it came from, though I had a feeling that it grew louder the further in we went.

Mom, Dad, where are you?

If the fleet ships had arrived when they were supposed to, maybe my parents would have been all right. Maybe I wouldn’t have to hide in the mining tunnels, dying of thirst and hunger. The only fleet ships that came before were cargo ships. There was no telling they would come now.

“Where are the grownups?” I asked as we snuck to the emergency storage section. I had never been there before, but trusted Gonel to know the way.

“I told you, there’s no one here.” Gonel kept on forward.

“Do you think they went on the shuttle? Maybe they went to get help?”

“Yeah. That’s probably it.”

It didn’t take long to reach the storage compartment. It was close to the school center, though I had never noticed it before. Usually I’d just think it was a closed door that led to a maintenance area. Now that it was open, I could see the boxes of food inside. Most had been ripped open, revealing the small blocks inside. Nutrient blocks: I had tried one when we had been shown them during Preparation and Emergency class. I remember it tasted awful.

“Have a few, then put the rest in the bag,” Gonel said. “Take only from the open packs.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

I put two in my mouth and started sucking on them. My mouth was so dry it was almost painful, but the thought of food gave me strength. So much food left. Even with everyone below it was going to last us until the cargo ships arrived, maybe longer. As long as we got food every day, we were going to be alright. We had to be.

Gonel filled his backpack then started stuffing his pockets. I did the same. I zipped the backpack, then put it on. It didn’t feel heavy at all. Pausing a moment, I grabbed as many blocks as I could and held them tight. Today, at least, I wasn’t going hungry. As I left the room, I noticed the humming outside had become louder.

“What’s up?” Gonel looked at me.

“What’s that noise?” I asked.

“There’s no noise.” Something in his voice made me think he was lying. “Let’s go back down.”

“Okay…” It was coming from the upper part of the colony, from where the landing pads were.

“Keep close.” Gonel ordered. “We must get back.”

“What if someone’s up there?”

“There isn’t. I checked.”

Why are you lying? I could hear clearly. The hum was still there, pulsing like a heartbeat. If I could go there and check, just for a second, I’d know for sure. Gonel took us on a different route as we went back. As we walked, the humming got louder. It was almost as if someone was warming up a mining drill.

“Where are we going?” I whispered.

“We need water.” The reply didn’t provide much comfort. “Just a few bottles and—”

An explosion shook the halls, making me fall to the ground. My body froze. Images of the Scuu advance rushed through my mind. I remembered the crowds running through the corridors under the sound of sirens, the feeling of confusion and dread as I was dragged to the service elevator…

“Gonel.” I looked up, but there was no one there. “Gonel!” I shouted.

Don’t leave me! I didn’t want to be alone again. Tears crept up my throat. My body felt numb. In the distance, explosions continued to echo one after the other, like balloon pops. I knew that the Scuu were coming and I didn’t care. There was nothing more they could do to me anymore. They had taken my parents, the grownups, and now Gonel. There was no point in trying to survive…

The ceiling above me crumbled. Looking up, I saw a burning circle form in the concrete. My numbness was suddenly swept away by a familiar emotion: fear. Everything crumbled in on itself. The only thing I knew was that I had to get out of here. I rushed forward without purpose. Chunks of ceiling slammed on the floor behind me, joining in with the echo of explosions. The smell of smoke was everywhere, stronger than I had ever imagined. Then there came the noises—scratches like twisted metal mimicking speech.

The Scuu! I reached for the gun in the back of my belt. Gonel had given it to me… just in case. As long as I still had it, it was going to help me. It had to!

“Shoap!” A screech blasted in front of me. Three black silhouettes were blocking my way. I hadn’t even noticed them get here. The weapon moved on its own, pointing at the nearest. My mind went blank. I pulled the trigger with all my might, bracing for a bang. It never followed.

It’s over. I stood there, petrified, too weak to lower my arms.

“Easy, kid.” One of the figures walked up to me and took the gun from my hands. I didn’t even try to stop him. “It’s all right.”

More of them passed by me, heading towards the corridor. This time, they looked different: humans in massive combat gear I’d only seen in pictures my parents had shown me a few times when I was younger. These were the fleet soldiers.

“Another pod upper corridors, sir,” someone shouted down the corridor. “No contact.”

“Where are the colonists, kid?” the man towered over me. I stared up, unable to answer. “Where’s everyone?”

“Mining shafts.” My voice sounded like a squeak.

“Two squads check the shafts!” the man ordered. “Check for survivors.”

The others seemed to vanish, as they rushed away not making a single sound.

“What’s your name, kid?” The man placed his hand on my shoulder.

“Kridib…” I felt ashamed as I spoke my name.

“Kridib,” the man repeated. “You’re very lucky, Kridib. You might be the sole survivor.” He looked down at my backpack, then back at me. “I’m Captain Avicena Ruz. Hang on a little longer, we’ll be getting out of here soon.”

Authorization rescinded.

* * *

That was the final feeling I got from Kridib as his shuttle left the planet’s atmosphere. A normal person would probably have felt anger or desperation knowing they had been left behind. Me, I only felt relief that my mission was complete. Not an ideal outcome, but in most cases it usually wasn’t. Half a dozen shuttles of prisoners—as far as I could tell—had managed to leave the planet unimpeded. What their plans were after that remained unclear. Personally, I doubted they would amount to much, but given the odds, I understood why it was a chance they’d take. Rigel, though, thought differently. It had been a hundred and seven minutes since the first shuttle passed above us, and he still hadn’t done a thing, calmly sitting next to me admiring the sky. Insane or not, I had had enough interaction with dark organizations to know he had something planned.

“Still trying to contact your ship?” Rigel asked.

“No.” My voice had almost returned to normal now, along with what was left of my body. The complete lack of pain reminded me of the time I was a ship. “Why didn’t you join them?”

“Why still refuse my deal?” he countered. “I could have had Tilae get the answers from your core. You wouldn’t be the first ship he’s questioned.”

Thought exams. Every ship went through them regularly. The fleet was thorough when it came to ensuring against core malfunctions. A whole part of fleet regulations and political decisions were based on the theoretical threat that the core-sapient could go rogue. Statistically, the amount was small, estimated to be under a millionth of a percent. Officially, the number was never specified, always fluctuating depending on the circumstances. With new political movements on the rise, the “danger” had been brought to the forefront once more. New safeguards were likely being designed as voices were starting to call for androids to replace humans on the battlefield. In a few years, memory blocks and thought grabbing could become a weekly occurrence.

The last time I had been though checked was not too long ago. Ironically, at that point, I was legally human. The procedure was done by the medical officer of my previous ship. To this day, I still didn’t know whether the procedure was sanctioned or even legal. The only thing I did know was that there hadn’t been any repercussions on either side.

“Why didn’t you?” I looked at Rigel. Stubbornly, he still wore his uniform, despite the heat. His face glistened with sweat.

“I want answers, not a database.” The man stood up. “Let’s go for a walk.”

Bending down, he put his right am under me and lifted my head. From this distance, it would have been easy for me to break his neck. As far as I could tell, my arms were fully functional. A quick movement of the hands, and it would be all over.

“Your ship didn’t destroy the colonies.” Rigel lifted me up. “According to operational procedure, the planet should have been scorched by now. Curious why not?”

“No.”

It was said that for every soldier, there was a point in life in which the inevitable question popped in: Is it worth going on? Some were confronted by it during their first moment of crisis. Others pushed on, slowly piling up pressure until they broke. Gibraltar had been like that—gritting his teeth in the name of ambition until the day he decided to quit. I had seen thousands retire or request a transfer. I had seen even more rebel. The moment a person thought they had nothing to lose, they didn’t mind losing anything. For me, this moment had come several times already. Each time I went against the odds, disobeyed an order, or made a reckless decision, I knew what the consequences might be… and like my first captain, it was a habit I couldn’t kick.

“I have other questions.” I looked at the sky. There was no sign of Radiance or her sats. If she had picked up Renaan and Nitel, she likely was on her way to Gregorius. “What do you want to ask?”

“Fancy that.” There was a hint of surprise in the man’s voice. “When given such an option ships would flood me with lies or enter sleep mode. You didn’t try any of that.” His smile widened like a feline’s. “Told you you were special. Preordained.”

Rigel carried me through the path among the cliffs. Soon, we came to the opening of a cave. Dim light was visible from inside. As soon as we entered, I was able to hear the low hum of technology. Apparently, not all electronics on the planet had decayed.

“Interesting place,” I said, holding on to him. “Part of the original planet settlement?”

“Maybe. Was a bit before my time. Word is that there are dozens of these scattered throughout the planet. The first ones were built to determine if people could survive the Scuu madness.”

“Is that how you survived?”

“Outbreaks leave survivors.” Rigel’s tone changed. “Even with the Scuu.”

I looked back through my memories. He claimed to have been here thirty years. That meant he had passed through two events, at least. Considering the lethal effects I’d witnessed, losing a bit of sanity was a remarkable anomaly.

It didn’t take us long to reach a small chamber in the mountain. While I could see the several passages continuing on, Rigel put me down in a sturdy wooden chair. A stale smell filled the air, mixed with petrol and chemicals. Low tech power generators. I had only seen such on frontier planets during the war.

“End cycle has started,” Tilae said, entering into the room. He was carrying a small metallic briefcase with biohazard icons all over it. “Shift change is on its way.”

“We still got a few days.” Rigel mused. “Better make sure, though.”

He went to one of the containers on the floor nearby and opened it. Four third-contact rods were inside. Rigel took two of them, then carefully hit them together. I didn’t feel any different, but it was safe to say that all system communications were severed again.

“Better get some sleep.” The old man returned the artifacts to their place. “Elcy and I are going to have a long talk.”

The doctor hesitated.

“It’ll be worth it.” Rigel smiled. “Trust me.”

Tilae didn’t look convinced. After a few seconds of silence, he walked on, disappearing into one of the cave passageways.

“Nice guy,” Rigel said once the doctor was gone. “Too jumpy, but that comes with the territory.”

“How did you manage to recruit him?” Was it the way the BICEFI had tried to recruit me?

“Other way around. He recruited me.” The man laughed. “Wasn’t difficult. Agora is one hell of a thing.” He rubbed the side of his neck. “He didn’t have to. After a few years in this shit, I’d have done anything to get off. But you already saw that.”

I definitely had. There was one thing I hadn’t seen, though—despite living in a hellhole with faulty technology and a ten-year death sentence, there were no signs anyone had gone after their own life. On the Cassandrian front, ground troops that had their ship destroyed rarely lasted more than a week. The knowledge that they might face a Cassandrian ground wave was enough to get them to flatline. The information was restricted, but having access to my memories, I could remember hundreds of such instances. Running the calculations, I had lost more than I had saved.

“Are you ready?” Rigel asked as he pulled up a container and sat facing me. “Question for a question, answer for an answer?”

I nodded. The old man’s smile covered half his face. He had one.

“How do you know about the artifacts?” He leaned forward.

“I was part of a few special missions.” It was a strange question to ask. After such insistence, I would have thought he’d want to know something more relevant or important. “I was on a science ship when we achieved cold contact. Mostly—”

“How do you remember?”

The question surprised me. According to my simulations, he was supposed to inquire about the nature of the artifacts or the mission itself. The likelihood he’d ask about my restricted access was less than point-three percent.

“Not all my memories were restricted,” I said. The way Rigel narrowed his eyes all but shouted he didn’t believe me. Still, he didn’t follow up with a question. “How do you know about them?”

“You’re wasting your time with testing questions.” He paused for a moment. “It was part of my work. A stupid waste of time. Decades netting in remnants, following safety protocols, all worth shit. I learned ten times more my first year here. Salvage would kill to learn a tenth of what I know, but they’ll still not risk taking me off here. As I said, your Flight Colonel must be very desperate.” He chuckled, chin pressed against the palm of his hand. “Why did you come out of retirement?”

A standard question. Once more, he was back to the expected predicted behavior.

“My ward enlisted me.” I thought about Sev. “When I retired, I promised his mother I’d look after her son. She was my fourth captain.” I didn’t add the part about me being responsible for her resulting mental condition. “After three generations, my ward decided to let me return to the stars. This was the only way he knew how. He believes I’m a simple cadet… apparently the fleet had other uses in mind when they assigned me on this mission.”

My commander had also made the mission sound much simpler than it had. Find a captain candidate and bring him back alive. My main task was supposed to be worrying about invisible assassins and exotic weapons, not fight an insurrection on a prison planet just to get him onto the shuttle. Kridib had probably known from the start. That’s why he made the point that he’d leave me behind if anything happened. He hadn’t been trying to scare me off; he had been warning me.

“What are the Scuu?”

As I asked the question, time came to a pause. It had been months in the coming. Ever since I had found the first dome during Project Eden, I had tried to learn more about the Scuu. It was ironic that a crazy old man who’d spend three decades on a prison planet could give me more than the entire official fleet database. The change in Rigel’s expression told me he had plenty to say.

“What are the Scuu?” he repeated. “Straight to the point. It’s been twenty years since I wanted someone to ask me that question. I used to talk with the overseers about it, back when we could still talk with the orbital station. And do you know what they said?” He leaned forward. “Nothing!” A glint of hatred flickered in his eyes. “No sarcastic remarks, no comments, not even a snide bureaucratic remark! They severed the link! All because of the third contact protocols. Communication with Scuu sources or artifacts are to be ceased and quarantined immediately. From then on, communication was only allowed during emergencies, and even then, it was all subject to the overseers’ discretion. The only ones I could talk to were mayflies with a seven year life expectancy!” Spittle was spraying from his mouth as he spoke. “The things I know would have ended the war! They would have changed humanity! But no! Bureaucrats are having fun treating me like a specimen in a petri dish! But even so—” He raised a finger in the air. “—fate made sure that one of the overseers listened.”

“The doctor was an overseer?” I interrupted.

“What do you reckon this place is?” Rigel looked at me as if I’d just come out of the shipyard. “This is a honeypot that the fleet has built to lure the Scuu to them! Prison colony. Infected. Probe catchers. All silly terms to try and capture a Scuu without having a clue what they are. You ask what the Scuu are? They are gods! Beings that transcend understanding, and we think we can stop them with our silly little fleets? You’ve seen what their pod did when it hit the planet? Death, insanity, communication disruption. You think the Scuu did that using weapons? They just sent a communication device! They’ve been trying to establish communication with us that we weren’t prepared to hear!”

Communication. That was the purpose of the domes. If the Scuu had built them, it would stand to reason that their other artifacts would have such an effect on people. But still, that didn’t seem completely right. The Scuu devices I had seen were different, cruder and colder in comparison.

Maybe I was looking at it all wrong. What if the Scuu had come across the artifacts as humanity had, but used them for an entirely different purpose? The fleet and the BICEFI had focused on their military potential, using them to destroy entire planets and disrupt communication in enemy lines. The Scuu could have used the same technology to boost their communication potential. That could explain why ship cores had to be shielded and why humans were affected so easily. It would also provide a reason for the frontline clashes, possibly even the original reason for the first-contact war.

“That’s why I was waiting for you.” Rigel stood up. I felt both his hands on my shoulders. “You were destined to arrive. You arrived just as the new cycle began, you brought the means for us to leave this lab, and you will be the one who will help me spread the word. There are no coincidences. It was all preordained. You will do what the ships before you couldn’t.”