Adrift (The Sirilians Book 1) (17 page)

“Is that where you lived?”

“Yes,” he answered sadly. “How long ago did it… disappear?”

“Over seven millennia. There was a massive earthquake that caused the bedrock to become sunken. The heart of the city was leveled; seawater rushed in and formed the lake. Instead of trying to flush it out and rebuild, the people instead lived on its perimeter. Thus began the time of planetary redesign.”

“Redesign?”

“Yes. The people decided to alter the planet’s landscape to provide an optimal chance for survival. They reshaped the mountains to better collect rainwater, altered the sea bed to optimize currents and create a milder climate, the list of changes is lengthy.”

Karo tried to imagine the technology that would have been required to alter an entire planet’s surface, never mind the resources.

“Why would they do that? Why go through the trouble to change an entire planet’s geographical features?”

“Regrettably, the historical records from that time have mostly been lost, but we believe that they did it to stabilize resources so they could concentrate on building ships, and the first space station.”

Anand changed the view on the console to a rendering of a basic space station. “This is what we believe Space One looked like.”

It was much larger than Karo had expected, with docking ports for multiple ships, solar sails, and a huge hydroponics bay. He’d seen designs similar to this during his time at the Department of Space. There had been an entire team dedicated to figuring out how a colony of people could live in space long-term. They hadn’t yet designed anything like the image of Space One, but a few of the design elements were similar. It must have been a massive undertaking, and would have drained their resources pretty quickly.

“My people built this?”

“Yes. Its construction was completed roughly three hundred years after you departed. Do you have an idea as to why half of the population would leave the planet? It doesn’t say in our records.”

Karo took a moment to think. It was difficult to put himself in their place—a lot could happen to a society in three-hundred years—but he had a solid idea.

“The Sirilians were obsessed with eliminating risk, and we had done all we could to make our planet a safe place to live. The month before Scouts were sent into space, we were faced with potential annihilation by a massive solar flare.

“We were forced to watch, while we waited to either be destroyed in its path, or be spared.” Karo shook his head. “There was nothing we could do, and we all felt useless. I’m sure an earthquake had the same effect.”

“So they went into space in the attempt to reduce risk to their population?”

“That’s my guess.” Karo chuckled. “Although life in space is riskier in its own way, you can move a space station out of harm’s way much more easily than a planet.”

Anand looked thoughtful, and Karo took the opportunity to ask a question of his own. “Why has the historical record from that time been lost? What happened?”

“Sadly, Space One was destroyed, along with most of their records. A few hundred people escaped on ships. They later came together and formed what would be the beginning of the Grays.”

“How was it destroyed?”

“A race called the Voro Anim attacked, took the station apart, and either killed or enslaved most of the people onboard.”

Karo’s eyes went wide in shock. “They attacked my ship as well.”

Anand nodded sadly. “They have not changed. Back then they had just escaped Siril, and were in possession of more advanced weaponry than what had been developed on Space One. They were able to take the station with a single ship.”

Karo’s mind spun. Sometimes these people said things matter-of-factly, assuming that Karo knew what they were talking about. Usually they left him more confused than before. 

“Wait, what do you mean they
escaped
Siril? Were they prisoners?”

“No.” Anand was silent a moment before continuing, “I’m told that Chairman Rowe explained how the Sirilians splintered into two groups; the one that was more intellectually-inclined left the planet to eventually become the Grays.”

Karo had a vague memory of him mentioning it, but he nodded anyway.

“The Voro Anim is the group that decided to stay behind on the planet.”

“So they’re my people’s descendants too?” he clarified.

“Yes. We believe that there was a discord on Siril leading up to the completion of Space One. Part of the population believed that their best chance for survival was to leave the planet, but the other refused. The two groups decided to cleanly break apart.

“In space, the one group focused on technological and genetic advancement, while the other spiraled into a tribal-like mentality. They created powerful weapons, and eventually were able to build a ship and attack.”

Karo felt like he needed to sit down. He knew that learning his race’s history was going to be a lot for him to take in, but he never could have expected this news.

Learning that the Sirilians had evolved into the Grays was hard enough to believe, but that they were also the Voro Anim? That was even harder.

“Ok, fast forward through time. So the survivors of Space One come together, form another station, then evolve into your people?”

“Correct.”

“Do you mind me asking how? I mean, we don’t exactly look alike.”

“We are more alike than you think.” Anand brought up an image of Karo’s genome next to what he assumed was one of the Grays.

“We adapted our bodily structure for life in space: less muscle mass, shorter limbs and torso, and our skin color is a byproduct of the lighting our bodies are exposed to. Our heads were enlarged to accommodate a larger brain capacity, and we removed all sexual organs and sexual assignment of male and female.”

Where do I start?
Karo wondered as he tried to not look at the naked alien in front of him. He’d never wanted to glance at someone’s crotch so badly in his life.

“No sexual organs?” He hoped the question was generic enough.

“No. We have no need for them. Our bodies are grown in a lab and our consciousness is implanted only when necessary. For instance, this body I occupy has been the host to five different minds.”

Wait, what?!
“You trade your consciousness in and out of bodies?”

“In a manner. We’re only corporeal when it’s necessary, for instance when we’re meeting with another race. The rest of our existence is spent in our Central Ether. There we can exchange information and ideas more efficiently. It is what has allowed us to advance so rapidly.”

“What happens to your body once you leave it?”

“It will either be inhabited by another individual, put into temporary stasis until it’s needed, or recycled to provide material for the next generation of bodies.”

I guess that’s why they all look the same,
Karo thought.

“I don’t mean any offense, but how do you tell each other apart?”

“We are telepathically linked even when in this form, and, in a way of speaking, we do not interpret your world as you do.”

Like most other news, Anand said it with such normalcy; but it actually made sense. That was how Rowe and Lear had moved in unison, and hadn’t needed to discuss anything. If they could link telepathically to their ship, why not each other?

Karo didn’t know if he could take anymore revelations—he was almost numb to them at this point—but he couldn’t help but ask one last thing.

“Who lives on Siril now?”

Anand brought up the image of the planet, and this time enlarged the western shore of the continent. Karo saw figures milling about the sand, and huge darkened spots in the water right off of the shore. “A colony of four-hundred and twenty Earthers live there now.”

Lukas’s people? “How… why are there Earthers there?”

“We created a wormhole over their planet a few millennia ago, to study them. Their technology has advanced to the point that occasionally a vessel will get ensnared by the gravitational funnel. When that happens, we do our best to save the occupants, and deposit them on Aeonas. Over time they’ve formed their own colony. There are even some Arathians living there now.”

Karo was surprised by that news. “Arathians live on my homeworld?”

“Only a few of them, and we believe that there are plans to soon relocate the planet’s inhabitants to Arath.”       

“The Earthers can’t be returned to their homeworld?”

“No, to do so would be against our laws. Earth is not yet aware of other alien races.”

Karo could extrapolate from that statement: the Earthers couldn’t be returned for fear that they’d illuminate the others on what they’d seen and experienced. That could alter the planet’s entire future.

He felt a stab of pain in his temple as a vague image entered his mind. He’d talked about this subject with another person. Not in regards to Earthers—at least he didn’t think so—but he had definitely talked to a woman about other planets, and their limits of interference. Karo tried to hold onto the memory but it receded.

“Karincin?” Anand repeated, pulling Karo back to the present. “Are you alright?”

“Yes of course. I was just thinking that I’m glad Siril is being used for something worth-wile.”

The corners of Anand’s mouth turned into a small smile. “I am relieved to hear you say that. I was not sure if you’d be pleased to hear that there are unfamiliar aliens inhabiting your home.”

Karo shrugged. It wasn’t like he’d be able to begin a new life there. Better someone make it their home than have it sit abandoned. He didn’t feel like it was
his
anyway. Planets didn’t belong to individuals, and if they did, they shouldn’t.

Karo was exhausted. After his conversation with Anand, he’d needed a break to allow his mind to digest all that he’d learned. Hopefully he’d begin to make sense of it… maybe. 

The Grays had given him a private room, but Karo got the feeling that they didn’t have guests often. It was bare of anything except for a single chair and a bed.
At least they’re my size,
he thought, as his eyes wandered around the empty room and lingered on the pulsing blue walls. Walls, ceiling, floor, chair, bed, they were all parts of the bioship… parts of a creature that the Grays had created.

His surroundings made Karo cringe.
Guess I won’t be getting a lot of sleep tonight.

Tired, but too edgy to rest, he instead paced the floor while his mind ran wild.

He wasn’t sure which revelation to dwell on first: the fact that his people had abandoned their planet to live in giant space stations, that the Grays and Voro Anim were his people’s descendants, or that
his
people were truly gone.

He knew—technically—that the Grays were his closest relations, but really, he had much more in common with the Arathians.

Genetics be damned.

Thinking about the Arathians made him wonder how the repairs on his ship were going. Were they making progress?

Thinking of his ship caused a pang in his chest. He tried to ignore it—even tried to convince himself that it was good for him to be spending time outside of its walls—but he couldn’t lie that convincingly to himself. He felt a need to return that was bordering on obsessive.

He sat, but his eyes darted around the room. It was all wrong: the blue interior, the silence, the smell of the air, even the artificial gravity felt wrong. Anxiety hit him hard, and Karo tried to control his breathing. His fingers dug into the arm of the chair, palms sweaty.

A spear of pain went through his temples and he squeezed his eyes shut tightly. Images flitted through his mind, but they were too fast to clearly make anything out.

He saw glimpses of buildings—some he recognized from Siril, others he’d swear he’d never been to. He saw images of a bedroom—the walls and furniture all draped in vibrant colors; but it was the emotional response Karo experienced that unnerved him the most. He felt drawn to the room, as if being there would ease his distress.

Karo held onto the vision. Real or not this place was peaceful, inviting, and where contentment blossomed. He drank in the feeling, let it consume him.

Soon his hands unclenched, his breathing and heart-rate slowed, and the anxiety began to abate. If his mind was going to hallucinate, at least it’d given him a pleasant image this time.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last.

The more Karo focused on the vision, the more it began to fade. The colors muted, smell dissipated, then the entire image became hazy before disappearing completely.

The peace he’d experienced vanished, replaced by anger. He stood abruptly and stalked around the room, frustration pouring off of him in waves, until he realized that he was also scared.

Am I losing my mind?
Is this what his life was to be like after surviving for eight millennia alone?
Am I doomed to spend the rest of my life onboard my ship, lost in hallucinations?

The thought terrified him.

I don’t want to go insane. I want to have a life
—
to live!
—
but I need help.

He didn’t want to ask for help from the Grays, didn’t want to have to stay here any longer than he already had. The blue pulses that surrounded him weren’t hypnotic any longer. Now they agitated him.

I want to go home.
The thought was more of a plea. “I want to go home,” he said aloud.  

Just making the decision made him feel slightly better. Karo knew that he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life tied to his ship, but this wasn’t exactly logical. First he’d get back, then he’d ask the Arathians for help in dealing with these thoughts.

Decision made, he was ready when Ambassador Lear came to his room. His request was met with shock.

“It would be best if you’d remain here,” Lear argued. “We believe that your place is among your own people.”

Karo took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself before he replied. It wouldn’t do any good to piss off the Grays when he was relying on them to shuttle him back.

“I mean no offense, but you aren’t my people. By your account, the Sirilians are gone. I’m the last, and right now I’d be more comfortable being returned to the Arathian system.”

The ambassador was not pleased with that answer. “Our genetic similarities are undeniable…”

Karo interrupted, unable to keep the aggravation from his voice. “Genetics?! You’ve changed your genome so much that no one—except an expert—would be able to tell that we were once related.”

Lear stood silently, and Karo ran a palm over his head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you and your people. I just… I need to be taken back.” He paused for a moment, but there was no reply. “This has been a lot for me to take in. I need time.”

Karo waited—impatiently—for Lear to say something, knowing that he was telepathically talking to others before giving an answer. Finally, he spoke.

“We understand that this has been difficult for you and that you need time to process. We hope that this will not be your only visit?”

Karo breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m sure it won’t be. Thank you for understanding.”

The ambassador inclined his head. “A shuttle is being prepped now, if you’d follow me.”

He exited the room, and Karo eagerly joined him. This time he was more at ease as he stepped onto the platform and it began its trip through the station.

The Grays weren’t much for fan-fare, so within the hour Karo found himself once again sitting upon an organic chair while a Gray piloted him back to Arathian space. He marveled at the speed with which they traveled, and remembered belatedly to contact Lukas on the comm unit he’d been given to inform him that he was heading back.

“I already see you on long range scans,” Lukas told him. “We’ll be waiting for you in the docking bay.” After the comm unit disconnected its link, Karo felt his first sense of relief. His time with the Grays had been nothing but one revelation after another, coupled with the most “alien” of alien environments he could ever remember seeing.

He’d never fit into that community—even if he’d wanted to—but even after all that he’d learned, a question still lingered.

“Why did you rename Siril?” he suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

The pilot opened his eyes slowly. “To protect it, of course.”

Karo nodded. It was comforting that even after eight millennia his descendants still had ties to their homeworld.

It was in good hands.

He and the pilot remained silent for the rest of the short voyage, and before he knew it the shuttle touched down inside the Arathians’ ship. Excitement surged through him, and Karo had to remind himself to not run out of the opening hatch. The pilot was still seated; it was clear that he would not be accompanying him.

Karo bowed low. “Thank you. I am incredibly grateful to your people for all you’ve done for me.”

The pilot inclined his head. “You are welcome Karincin.” He held out a small sphere. “This is for you. It will allow you to contact us if the need arises, and also contains a historical record. Anand thought you might like to look more closely at the events of the past.”

“Thank you.” Karo bowed once more before taking the item and descending the ramp. He saw Lukas, Jayda, Deian, and Doctor Notani waiting for him. He felt immense relief, and walked quickly to them.

Jayda and Lukas were dressed in their formfitting flightsuits, probably having just come back from another training flight. He approached, and Jayda immediately enveloped him in a quick hug, before holding him at arm’s length and looking him over.

“You alright?” she asked.

“I’m okay.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Notani said. She walked around him and began running a handheld scanner over his body. Karo didn’t mind.

Lukas clapped him on his shoulder. “It’s good to have you back.”

Karo watched as the Gray’s shuttle exited the bay, then streaked across their field of view. He felt no remorse at their leaving.

“It’s good to be back,” he replied honestly and smiled.

“I’m surprised you’d want to return to us lowly Arathians, after getting a chance to see inside a Gray’s space station,” Deian teased. Karo smiled.
If they only knew…

“Are we allowed to ask what it was like?” Lukas inquired. “They seem to go out of their way to keep everything they do a secret.”

“Yeah, I bet they had some awesome tech!” Deian added.

“They did.” Karo thought for a moment as the group began walking. “But from what I’ve seen, technology does not equate to living a full, meaningful life. I’d much rather be here… as long as that’s alright with you three?” he quickly added.

“Of course it is!” Jayda exclaimed. “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you’d like.”

“Unless you’d like to keep exploring the galaxy, once we get your ship repaired?” Deian added.

“No!” Karo softened his voice. “No, I think it would be nice to stay in one place for a while.”

“It’s a good thing you have us then,” Deian replied. He smiled in jest, but Karo completely agreed with him. 

*****

“Your cells are looking much better!” Doctor Notani exclaimed as she scrolled through Karo’s latest medical scan. “It looks like the treatments have been working perfectly. Any adverse reactions?”

“No.”
As long as you don’t count my numerous hallucinations.
He thought that last part to himself, not wanting the Doc—or anyone for that matter—to find out about the visions he’d been having. He was sure—he was hoping—that they’d go away soon, and he could begin to feel like himself again.

“I don’t see any reason you need to remain in the Medical Center, since you don’t need to be monitored. General Bogaard approved your personal quarters. Would you like to go see them?”

His own room? With four walls and a door that closed? He was more than ready. “Yes! I’ll go gather my things.”

He eagerly rushed to his small room and packed everything he had into a bag. It wasn’t much: some clothes from his ship and the ones Lukas had given him, a few toiletries, and the sphere from the Grays. When he exited the space, Notani was waiting to escort him.

They headed down the hall together, and something she’d said caught in Karo’s mind. “It wasn’t General Bogaard’s idea to give me this room, was it?” She glanced over at him and saw his look of incredulity.

“Not exactly.”

He waited patiently for her to elaborate.

“It was more of a royal request.”

And there it was.
He didn’t think the general would have given him allowances, such as the dismissal of his security entourage, or his own room onboard. No, he was sure that the royal trio had quite a lot to do with it.

It’s nice to have friends in high places.

A short ride on the lift, and soon Notani was placing his hand on a scanner outside of a door, and programing his identity into the commands. The door opened and she motioned for him to enter. Automatic illumination brightened the space and allowed him to look around.

It wasn’t huge like the room he’d been given during his short time with the Grays, but this one was furnished—with
actual
furniture, not biological material. For that he was grateful.

The room had a small sitting area, kitchen, and dining table big enough to fit a few people; a cleansing chamber and bed were separated from the main area by a half wall.

The doctor showed him how to use the room’s features and replicator before turning to him. “Is there anything else you’ll be needing?”

Karo thought quickly. “I don’t think so.”

She turned to leave, but Karo stopped her. He bowed his head respectfully. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”

Her face lit up in a smile. “You’re welcome.” She began to leave but stopped herself. “Please come back and see me if you start experiencing any new symptoms… or if you just need to talk.”

He smiled gratefully. “Thank you. I will.”

The door automatically closed, and Karo turned to face his room.
Alone again.
At least that was something he was used to, but he’d grown accustomed to the constant hum of activity while staying in the Medical Center. Now there was silence.

For a while he was able to keep himself busy by exploring the quarters and unpacking. He even replicated himself a few changes of clothes to have on hand—just in case.

He used the cleansing stall, changed into new clothes, then found himself standing in the center of the room. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had nothing to do. Boredom was not part of his life.

Silence.
Now that was something he was all-too familiar with.