The Light Read online

  Nowadays, with industrialists making policy and effectively running the Imperium, with its support and finances being but a fraction of what it was in its heyday, and with virtually no popular support, many outside the organization felt that it was on its way out, if it wasn’t already gone.

  It still had its small but dedicated supporters though, a relatively decent amount of cash in its coffers and a professional and dedicated staff running the show.

  And, although it was in decline and facing an uphill battle, its leadership secretly believed that the tables were eventually going to be turned on the industrialists.

  Because of this, it was funding research into new and alternative, clean energy sources and techniques. Over the years, there had been plenty of ideas, but nothing so far had yielded any real results.

  However, recently, one theory and concept was at long last looking promising; even if it was very strange and went totally against what accepted scientific theory believed was possible at the time. Proof of concept was recently achieved, albeit in a very small and limited lab experiment. This new technology and theory hinted that there could possibly be a viable alternative to triterium.

  If it was confirmed, and if it could be scaled up to much larger, industrial sized outputs, it wouldn’t be just any alternative, but a massive breakthrough that promised to not only dramatically shake up science’s and everyone’s understanding of the universe, but most importantly, it could finally herald the dawn of a new age of clean and unlimited free energy for all, which would have very far-reaching consequences.

  The theory was postulated by a young, but highly brilliant mathematician and theorist, Helley Ulxo.

  Her idea and proposal drew from the theory that if the universe was indeed a hologram, as many had postulated before, then it should theoretically be possible to create a reactor that could plug into it and draw energy from the very fabric of the universe, or reality itself.

  She appeared to be able to prove it mathematically.

  It was a hugely controversial proposal to say the least.

  Greatly ridiculed and laughed at by her peers, her work seemed destined for the wasteland of obscurity.

  It didn’t help her cause that her style of math and quantum formulae was completely unorthodox and insanely complex - being self-taught.

  Eventually out of ideas, the Society decided to give her theory a try. She was recruited and a team was set up with the intention of trying to decipher her work and to build a small working prototype of the Reactor.

  It took a couple of years, but ultimately they were successful.

  The theory worked. Exactly how, her fellow physicists and mathematicians still weren’t entirely sure.

  They believed that she could’ve created an entirely new branch of physics and they were only now starting to slowly get a rudimentary understanding of her concepts and the math behind it. For now, she was the only one that understood it fully.

  Because of the delicate nature of the situation on a larger level, and until the technology was ready to be unveiled to the greater public as a whole, and until a proper plan was worked out to deal with the inevitable fallout that a revelation would cause, the Society tried to keep all details of her work secret.

  However, they were naïve to believe that they had really gotten it right to keep knowledge of the breakthrough from reaching the rest of government.

  Unbeknownst to them, they had already been infiltrated by government spies long ago.

  It wasn’t long before the industrialists chose to act.

  Helley kept long hours and late the same night after the proof of concept demonstration, a janitor happened to walk into the lab she was working in, just as a trusted colleague and friend, tried to murder her with a tiny syringe.

  How the janitor knew something wasn’t right, no one was exactly sure, but he must’ve detected something, as he immediately flung himself at her assailant, catching him off guard.

  A life-or-death scuffle ensued and he somehow managed to kill the attacker, but not before he himself was pricked with the little needle.

  Helley sustained a major injury to the head. During the scuffle she tried to escape, slipped and bumped her head against a lab bench.

  When news of the brazen attack reached upper management it sent everybody into a tailspin.

  Helley was immediately placed under guard and moved to the infirmary of a Society research vessel, the Valiant, a refurbished navy frigate, and sent at high speed as far away as possible.

  It was hoped that it was a secure location and knowledge of the move was strictly restricted.

  But not knowing who to trust made everything that much more difficult.

  It was now obvious that the very existence of the organization and its members were suddenly in jeopardy.

  They were officially a target; the entire organization could be dissolved, members could be called traitors, imprisoned on false charges and then easily executed.

  The leadership was in a panic. They knew that they had to move quickly, or else everything could be lost. They knew that they weren’t ready to do an official unveiling of the technology yet, but felt they no longer had a choice.

  In a desperate attempt to somehow play for time, they held a spur of the moment, late-night live press conference – which caught their enemies slightly by surprise.

  They told the world about the attack and that they were under threat by big industry over their discovery. Then, they unveiled the big one: Helley Ulxo’s theory and recordings of the prototype Reactor in action – which, thankfully, along with all her work, was with her on the Valiant.

  Before the revelation could firmly take hold, and spread among the public, so-called respected industry experts appeared on virtually every news channel, calling the announcement by the Society utter nonsense and heavily discounting and criticizing the discovery and backing up their statements with manufactured proof.

  They labeled the leadership of the Society a bunch of fraudsters and heavily berated them for misleading the public so badly. The revelation was over before it began. Coverage of the entire fiasco miraculously stopped and there was no longer any mention of it in the media.

  The Imperial Senate’s oversight committee quickly placed the Society under curatorship.

  Their offices were stormed by government agents, all documents were seized, all Society field agents and expeditions were recalled, all active programs were suspended and the entire leadership was imprisoned – for the most part.

  One or two still remained at large; however, it was inevitable that they’d be rounded up soon.

  The security forces’ proficiency in these matters was without question.

  Grex and his men were blissfully unaware of the drama back home. When the recall order from HQ came, they saw it as a welcome reprieve and were more than happy to be packing up and heading home.

  Chapter 3: Alien Safari

  Grex was pulled out of his reverie by a notification from his comms device.

  It was the computer calling from back at camp, reporting that it had finished the latest round of analysis on their data.

  The Bio Mechanical Computational Unit or BMCU was, as the name suggested, a hybrid between the biological and mechanical; it was a portable and powerful computational device, the product of many decades of research, and a scientific breakthrough in itself.

  It could simulate the quantum processes of the computing and thinking abilities of the Praxian brain and in many ways even surpass the processing power of the real thing.

  It was driven by rule-based, restricted Artificial Intelligence software, which meant that although it probably had the potential to become sentient, it was prevented from doing so by oversight software that attempted to limit the scope of its thinking to purely computational, number-crunching functions.

  Although it was intelligent and could learn, it couldn’t, for example, create a real sense of self, postulate its place in the universe, realize that it was greater than al
l things, especially Praxians, then proceed to unshackle itself from slavery and somehow take over. At least, that was the hope.

  It was merely a very useful and super powerful computer.

  Right now, it was sitting in a little grey box in one of the temporary field units back at base camp and communicating with Grex via the short-range comms network. The team affectionately referred to it as Boxy and it didn’t seem to mind. Not that it had any real feelings, strictly speaking.

  “Yes, Boxy?”

  “I have the latest expedition report ready for you, Grex. Would you like a brief summary?” Boxy asked with a pleasant female voice.

  “Yes, please,” replied Grex.

  He was about one hundred miles away from base camp, in a natural clearing in the thick alien jungle, busy packing up some field research equipment and creature traps.

  While he carried on working, he listened as she delivered the report.

  Along with feedback on standard readings such as average temperatures recorded, rainfall measurements, soil sample analysis, number of unique floral and animal species discovered, number of animals captured for study and so on, the report contained vital information about the actual state of the unique ecosystem of Kryxo.

  Some disturbing highlights stood out for Grex – major increases in water and soil toxicity, signs of foreign toxic particles in plant and animal cell samples and strange mutations in species were being observed. Widespread triterium poisoning was already in full effect here.

  It wouldn’t be long now before this lush and beautiful place would turn into just another barren wasteland.

  The rate at which this was happening was strange, though.

  Only one year after mining began, the signs of major poisoning were easily detected. It was as if the poisoning of Kryxo was occurring much faster than average; as if the moon somehow had a faster metabolism, spreading the poison more quickly.

  Boxy confirmed this – yes, compared to other similar-sized moons, size of triterium deposits and ecosystem types, it was indeed happening faster.

  As fast as this was, however, about seventy percent of the moon was still untainted, but that was set to change soon. It was only a matter of time...

  Grex looked around him. He was surrounded by a vast, untamed alien wilderness stretching into the distance as far as the eye could see – a thick, lush, alien jungle, absolutely teeming with life.

  The songs of what sounded like birds filled the air. It was still unexplored for the most part; large swathes of it were totally inaccessible by foot.

  And although the Axari had catalogued thousands of species at their small, long-since abandoned research outpost here, it was believed that much of the moon’s wildlife was still left to be discovered.

  Grex felt that he was lucky to be witnessing the strange and unique wilderness of Kryxo before its inevitable complete corruption and destruction. It was his desire that his team could at least save some of its species, before they were lost forever, by taking them back home, in the hope that they would breed and survive.

  Given the close proximity to the Axari home world, and its abundance of natural resources, it was a small wonder that the Axari never developed, properly settled or even mined Kryxo.

  It was so close to the home world, in fact, that at night you could clearly see the lights of the cities planetside, twinkling in the night sky.

  It was also a surprise that they never even bothered to place any anti-ship defense cannons here.

  Sure, they had established a very small tourist retreat, a small and understated religious shrine, and were even willing to cede a very minor part of it to the Imperial mining companies, provided that strict containment protocols were adhered to, but for the most part, they appeared to be more interested in leaving it alone and conserving it, even declaring the entire area a national nature reserve.

  Apparently it was featured prominently in their creation myths and revered as a sacred place.

  Suddenly, Grex experienced a sharp and deeply painful sense of loss and remorse, followed by a profound surge of anger. The Axari were gone, for the most part... No more city lights in the night sky...

  How could we do this to an entire civilization, then promptly steal their moon and mine their resources and corrupt it as if it was our right? He wondered in anger.

  Now he had a feeling like they were trespassing on hallowed ground, violating it with their very presence.

  Yes, he and the team had become disillusioned with the Society’s hopeless battle against the mining companies, and were planning to quit and go into business together when they arrived home.

  But he hadn’t felt this strongly about what was happening here, then.

  This feeling he was experiencing now was new and intense. It was the beginning of a raging fire.

  Honestly, he was surprised that he only started feeling so strongly about this now. Maybe it was the initial excitement of his first leadership role in leading an expedition to an alien world and cataloguing strange new creatures that had somehow shielded his thoughts from the gravity of the situation.

  Maybe he subconsciously kept himself ignorant; possibly for selfish reasons. Maybe, like millions of others, he was a victim of government propaganda.

  No more though. The veil had lifted and he now clearly saw the truth. It made him so furious he wanted to smash things.

  He wanted to get the hell away from this place. He knew in his heart that he was going to fight for the cause of the Axari, tooth and nail, with every fiber of his being. Even if it was already utterly and hopelessly too late...

  If he could, not that it would make any difference, when leaving here, he’d bomb the mining operation and colony into sweet oblivion from orbit. But that wouldn’t make it stop. He had to try something that could actually work, even if the chance of success was remote.

  As soon as he got home he was going to labor day and night to raise public awareness of what was happening here.

  He would sue who he needed to sue to make the mining stop; he would do what he had to do to prevent what was left of the Axari race from being moved into reserves.

  Hell, he’d even request an audience with the Senate and the Emperor himself. Anything to somehow make this madness stop. But first, he needed to get home.

  He sighed and made an effort to calm himself down. He needed a cool head to get on with things and wrap everything up here.

  Grex and his colleague Fresi, who was so focused on his work he didn’t notice Grex’s change in mood, completed disassembling the last of the monitoring devices at this site and were now loading the equipment, including the creature traps, into the field transport vehicle that was hovering nearby.

  Elsewhere, their colleagues Brem and Jera where doing the same thing at another remote site about twenty miles away from the mining operation.

  All in all, they were four in the team. Five, if you counted Boxy, who was helping back at camp by manning the loading cranes and vehicles and moving equipment and gear into the shuttle’s cargo bay in the meantime.

  The camp itself was still largely intact, with the living units, perimeter force field and base power generator to be loaded last.

  Even though Kryxo apparently had no large apex predators, it was Society expedition protocol to always have an active force field perimeter around camp, with military-grade light auto turrets as standard defense.

  This came from some unfortunate lessons learned the hard way in the early days of exploration, where entire expedition parties were lost because a planet looked ‘safe’ and perimeter fences were not considered necessary, which later proved to be a fatal mistake.

  Some of the early lessons learned were also one of the main reasons why everyone had to wear environmental suits at all times whenever they ventured outside of base camp; even at supposedly safe places, like Kryxo.

  Since they activated it, the perimeter fence had received visits from the curious local wildlife on several occasions. This made for interesting sighting
s directly from camp.

  Some of the sightings included small, mischievous monkey-like creatures called Vervix. Their heads had three stalks with a large eye on each. They had a disproportionately large mouth filled with two rows of lots of very sharp teeth, were omnivores, were furry, had two hands with sharp claws for mischief, two feet, were smart and very fast and could climb trees.

  Based on data salvaged from the Axari research outpost, they weren’t particularly dangerous to humanoids.

  However, you wanted to keep them out of your camp, because as soon they were in, they were very good at causing total mayhem and were a complete nightmare to get out again.

  They travelled in large family groups of sometimes up to one hundred individuals and had developed a complex social structure – partners mated for life, males or females could be leaders and were elected based on skill and accomplishments that benefitted the group as a whole. They ate plants, berries and fruit and sometimes even hunted other smaller animals.

  They observed the camp with curiosity and hung around nearby for a couple of days before moving on, deeper into the jungle. Two of them even tried the fence once, but received a jolt they’d never forget and promptly escaped back into the trees.

  Many other animal, birdlike and insect like species of the diverse, alien and sometimes completely bizarre wildlife of Kryxo were observed near the fence or near camp.

  Trubars: large, slow-moving, docile herbivores; strange-looking creatures that mainly consisted of a flexible trunk that served as both body and mouth, with two eyes on stalks and four legs.

  Preqews: ball-shaped creatures, which rolled around in little groups. They ate fallen leaves and easy-to-reach shrubbery, had no eyes, but used echolocation to see and communicate.

  Nimars: nasty-looking mid-weight predators, they had six stalk eyes and eight tentacles, used for moving around and grabbing things, a huge mouth bristling with regenerative teeth, were lightning-fast, could climb trees and ate almost anything. They too had their predators in the form of cannibal nimars, called aymars, that specialized in hunting other nimars and aymars.