Chapter 13: ‘Split’ (3801 words)

Calito managed to sneak into the Ulmadr home-ship unseen, somehow he can manipulate objects through use of a nanobyte swarm, and now revealed Vievel to be becoming a human.

“You’re going to feel some changes”. The words were washing around his head, as they had been since the human had spoken them, and he still didn’t believe them. “You’re probably going to panic”. Most of them. As Vievel turned the corner, passing by an immaculately-kept stairwell that led to the Ulmadr court, he nodded toward a soldier standing at guard; a stern-eyed Aelfi with long chestnut hair. As she noticed the young lord she straightened up, quickly adjusting from her previous slump and causing her long-spear to clash against her metal greaves. She stared straight forward, offering only a clumsy salute as greeting.

Vievel passed by the court without glancing down at it. His father and the war-company had arrived home exactly an hour ago, but already the Ulmadr quarters were as deserted as they had been in the military's absence. The enlisted were in debriefing and the brass, his father’s leading officers and lords, were assembled in a private council inside the court. No-one was allowed in, and rumours were flying freely about the nature of the sudden meeting. It was all wild speculation - the only people on the ship who knew why the meeting had been called, were the people inside the council.

He shifted his weight, adjusting the knapsack slung over his right shoulder. Whilst dressing Vievel hadn’t felt comfortable leaving the bag, complete with Dwurkn spoils, in his bunkroom. Now it felt like the least of his problems. Right now he couldn’t concern himself with his foolish expedition onto the Dwurkn ship, or even his father, not when the human’s appearance on his bunk was fresh on his mind.

“Whatever you do - don’t panic”. Calito’s attempts to alleviate Vievel’s worries were as useless as his explanations.

A human. Calito had claimed Vievel was going to become just like him but Humans were born, not made. Everything Calito had said flew in the face of what Vievel knew about humanity… but... already proven wrong on the subject several times over, a part of him was beginning to question what he actually knew. He looked down at his hands, bare now that he had changed out of his stolen metillion armour, conspicuous as it was, and into a silvery blue dress-tunic. From the scar on his thumb, won by closing his hand in a drawer as a child, to the very tips of his fingers, they looked the same; humans had claws, ‘nails’, like Dwurkn. His fingers ended in the same soft rounded bumps they always had.

Changes, Vievel mused. The human is just lying, to unsettle me, to mislead me-

“I’m really not kid”. The words sprung from nowhere but he didn’t look for the speaker. He knew where the words were coming from - there was at least one change he couldn’t deny. “Still the silent treatment huh?”

“I’m not listening to you,” Vievel said, speaking aloud to the empty hallway.

“Fine, I’ll talk then. You listen kid”. The disembodied voice was deafening inside his skull, loud enough that Vievel could’ve sworn the man was standing beside him. Calito’s usual boisterousness gave way a calm appeal, and Vievel felt an unusual warmth radiating from his chest. “I know this might be… an adjustment, but I need - you need t’accept this.”

Your needs aren’t my concern, Vievel thought. He didn’t know how, but he needed to excise the man from his mind.

“They will be-”

“Andlátta! How do I get these stupid nanobytes out of my head?” Calito was communicating with him through the swarm of nanoscopic machines, listening to his thoughts and responding as though Vievel was speaking aloud to him. Nothing in his head was private once it came to the fore of his consciousness, and he didn’t know how to block the man from listening to him. Calito was moving through the swarm, living as part of it; for all that Vievel had seen, Calito was the swarm.

The amethyst cell had come back to him whilst he’d sat on his bunk, but it’d taken him longer to make sense of it, even whilst listening to Calito try to explain it. Intense light, brighter than the wildest fire, had burst forward from the man’s body as he’d towered over Vievel, and without a beat, it had rushed toward him; the bright wave of energy, a luminous cloud of nanobytes, was the last thing that Vievel remembered. The cloud had moved away from the cell wall and left in its wake a body; burnt and ragged, with a face far too charred to be recognisable. Whether the body was Calito’s original, or another unwilling host of the human, Vievel didn’t know.

A wave of memories, none his own, had struck Vievel with such force that he’d struggled to reorganise his thoughts; even with hours of sleep under his belt his mind still churned, making it difficult to pin down the new memories that swirled around his head. Making it back to the home-ship was an ordeal he would've hardly felt prepared for in his best state, but somehow he had managed it with the human in tow. Calito could come and go as he pleased, but he seemed tethered to Vievel somehow, adamant that the young Aelfr needed him.

“They think they’ve stumbled onto a weapon to win your war, the one against the short grumpy s***s-”

Dwurka, Vievel corrected him, though he wasn’t sure why.

“-Dwurkn,” Calito said. “They haven’t. It’s a trap. You need to stop them.”

“Why should I believe you - why would you help us?” Humans were nearly responsible for wiping out the Aælfir, before their disappearance, and Calito was a stranger to the Ulmadr. It stank. Everything Calito said reeked of agenda.

“Just cos’ some bad stuff happened don’t mean worse has to happen”.

“I don’t believe you,” Vievel said frankly. He waited for the human to reply but the voice inside his head had suddenly gone silent. “Calito?” he broached, waiting for a moment after he spoke. Nothing.

Now you give me some peace, he thought, hoping to goad the human into responding. It wasn’t the first time that Calito had suddenly gone silent; Vievel was incapable of shielding his thoughts from the man - the human was anything but. Calito could, and did, go silent at will. Vievel never had any inclination to what the man was thinking.

As he reached the end of the hallway, Vievel started to suspect that Calito had gone elsewhere again, wherever he went when he left Vievel alone, and frustration swelled beneath his chest. He plotted another provocation, ready to snap at the human - but the impulse faded as he noticed the dirtied state of the hallway walls. He recognised the part of the ship he was in, a well-worn and unkempt forgotten sector.

Instinctively Vievel drew back, walking apart from both of the soiled walls, wary that he would accidentally brush against them and dirty either his dress-tunic or the knapsack slung over his shoulder. From the middle of the corridor, Vievel spotted a mottled and rusted door, recessed into a small alcove. He might have missed it entirely had he not been looking for it - the entrance to Felder’s corner.

Halycen and Ria had discovered the abandoned wing in their youth, at first conspiring to keep it from Vievel as their own private clubhouse. There were plenty of other unused wings of the home-ship like it, but the two Aelfi's desire to keep it a secret had made a young Vievel determined to find it, and one morning, barely into his twelfth long-cycle, he’d managed to follow them until he did. Since then Felder’s corner was where the three of them, and later Eaden, would go whenever they were tired of the watchful eyes of the Aælfir adult population.

A musty odour hung over the air of the forgotten wing, the smell of neglect and wear. Throughout the years the four of them had explored the wing comprehensively, but all they’d found of even the vaguest interest were old transaction records, ledgers filled with inter-house trades conducted in Aælfir gatherings decades past, and a dry stench that seemed to worsen from year to year.

Eaden was sitting on the lip of an opened crate beside the entrance, occupied by a cracked handheld display with a circuit-board haphazardly taped to the back of it.

“What have you got there Ead?” Vievel asked, startling his friend; his eyes snapped up to greet him in surprise.

“Hey-” He mumbled, turning the display around. Lines and lines of financial records decorated the screen, each corresponding to a different transaction, most between houses that no-longer lived on the Ulmadr home-ship, most that had happened before any of the four of them were born. “Reading this,” he said. Vievel scanned the rows on the screen, looking for any houses he recognised. Nothing leapt out at him.

“Why?” Vievel asked. Eaden was prone to getting fixated on the strangest things, and even as Vievel asked the question the young Aelfr shrugged, turning the display back around so he could continue reading.

“Thought it was interesting,” he said, offering up no further explanation. He started to read from the display again, paying little attention to Vievel even though the two hadn’t seen each other in several short-cycles.

Behind Eaden sat a towering grand display mounted to the wall, part of the communication system that networked everywhere, albeit a significantly worn and old part of it; where most of the home-ship’s salvage was retrofitted and reverse-engineered to make sure it all looked brand-new, the wall-mounted screen clearly displayed its age. Most of the fabricated casing had long-ago fallen off, exposing the internal parts, and the remaining exterior was lacklustre, bearing a chipped and patchy paint job.

The grand display marked the entrance to Felder’s corner, an entrance which comprised one long corridor, a foul and grimy place which likely hadn’t been visited by cleaners in several long-cycles. Dust lined every surface, from open transcript boxes to forgotten and broken goods stored in metal cages, and fuel had long-ago leaked from a hidden pipe; streaks of purple and black ran down the length of the wall, running behind the wall-mounted screen and ultimately pooling, creating dried stains, around Eaden’s crates.

“Is Halycen here? Is Ria?” He asked, eager to change the subject. The young Aelfr nodded and his eyes lifted up from the device in his hands.

“Did you hear Halycen snuck aboard the Dwurkn frigate?” Vievel nodded. Even if he hadn’t been present, he would’ve known about it by now; Halycen’s exploits were becoming a greater and increasingly more grandiose story each time he overheard them. In one telling she’d defeated an entire Dwurkn platoon herself, nevermind that the frigate hadn’t contained a whole platoon since before the home-ship had first attacked it.

“I’ve heard,” he said, a note of bitterness creeping into his voice. Halycen had somehow come out the whole experience just fine. It wasn’t that he wished a stronger punishment on his cousin, and certainly not that he wanted to see her banished, of all things, but things did always seem to work out for her. It was a cosmic joke only he was privy to. Word of the ‘Cairnknife’, pictured by rumour as a blade twice as tall as an Aelfr or Aelfi, had spread like an engine fire across every quarter. It was exactly the sort of audacious adventure that could earn you the favour of the War Company’s officers, or even the Advance’s rangers.

“Have you seen her?” Vievel asked. Eaden nodded and indicated with his head down the passage, toward the far turn in the corridor. Two Aelfi, one roughly Vievel’s height and the other noticeably taller, were making their way toward the two Aelfr. He didn’t have to squint or call out to recognise them. Halycen was wearing a black single-piece jumpsuit, with a silver belt separating the leggings and vest, and Ria, since he’d last seen her, had changed into a pair of cuffed maroon trousers and a thick woven jumper of a much darker shade.

“Viev!” Halycen rushed towards him, opening her arms for an embrace the moment she was close enough to recognise Vievel. The two collided, knocking the air from Vievel’s stomach as Halycen squeezed tightly.

“You didn’t give me up!” Halycen smiled as she pulled away from Vievel, her hands still on his shoulders. “-and you made it back alone”. A statement of fact, but one tinged with surprise. Eaden and Ria suddenly perked up.

“Vievel?” Ria’s worry was palpable. She moved closer to him, stepping over one of the many piles of stacked circuits that cluttered the floor. “What is she talking about?” Her brow furrowed as she waited for Vievel’s reply but Eaden suddenly jumped up, yelling over the two Aelfi and silencing them both.

“V! Did you get on the Dwurkn ship too?” Eaden hollered excitedly as he stood up. Halycen smirked sheepishly at Vievel, surreptitiously apologising for giving away his involvement in the expedition.

Briefly, he thought about denying it. The urge was fleeting, flitting over his mind in an instant, as he realised all Halycen had to do was point out the knapsack on his shoulders - a knapsack filled with Dwurkn spoils he’d had yet to officially contribute. It was an occasion that he’d been dreading; part of the reason he had yet to turn them over, as was custom, was that it’d draw questions about his expedition. Until he could deal with the Calito issue - the less attention, the better.

“Yes,” he nodded, annoyed that Halycen had outed his part in the expedition. He focused on Eaden, meeting the young Aelfr’s excited grin with an assured grin of his own. “Went aboard, fought a Dwurkn, didn’t get caught”. With his third comment, he flicked an impish smirk toward Halycen, giving her turn to frown instead.

“What! No way!” Eaden’s eyes were wide open as he savoured every word. “How many Dwurkn did you kill?” he asked, his glee suddenly sounding inappropriate to Vievel’s ear.

“Oh-uh… none,” Vievel answered. “I didn’t kill any”. The Aelfr slumped back, the excitement vanishing from his face. He sat down on the lip of the storage crate again, visibly disappointed.

“Vievel you could’ve died!” Ria snapped, horrified. Her disapproval stung, more than Vievel expected it to. “I’m okay,” he said. “Halycen was there too,” he added, not sure whether he meant the addition to lump her in with him, or to reassure Ria.

“Halycen can take care of her-” Ria said, all too quickly. She caught herself off as her cheeks flushed a prominent red.

“Halycen did kill fifteen Dwurka,” Eaden said, matter-of-factly. Halycen laughed, an abrupt and almost-teasing sound that caused the three of them to turn in her direction. As she noticed their gazes Halycen smiled proudly and nodded.

“Yes, yes I-”.

“You did no such thing-” Vievel interrupted, talking over Halycen. “You were with me when that single naked Dwurkn fled, and we were lucky to get away from that!”

“Fine, okay-” Halycen grumbled. “No, I didn’t kill any of them”.

“So nobody killed anything?” Eaden asked. Vievel shook his head, Halycen following a moment later with some reluctance.

“Did you see anything cool at least?” the young Aelfr asked, changing tact. Vievel’s mind briefly travelled back across the ship, flying through the maintenance tunnel, accelerating around the stone corridors, and investigating every chamber in the red ward; his recollection halted before he found the amethyst cell, stopping as he lit the Dwurkn etchings with his flashlight.

“Yeah,” Vievel nodded. “These markings the Dwurkn carved into the corridor walls, a script that told stories and listed things. They were incredible to behold”. They really had been incredible, though he’d struggled to appreciate that at the time. The craftsmanship that went into them, Illandr be damned, the craftwork that went into carving a starship from stone in the first place. Nobody could deny the Dwurkn their place as master artisans.

“The etchings?” Halycen said, evidently disagreeing with him. “Those etchings were the nonsense of savages, carved at random into the rock face”. She turned toward Vievel, a bemused look crossing her face. “Shall I scratch at the walls and stun you with my art as well?” she mocked.

“No,” Vievel said, rolling his eyes.

Savages. They were savages. Everything he knew about them confirmed that. Vievel shook his head slightly, trying to clear the confusion from his mind. As he glanced up again he noticed Eaden opening his mouth to ask another question.

“Okay well, what about-”

“Sorry Ead, later, okay?” Vievel said, cutting the Aelfr off. He turned toward Halycen, finally sick of waiting for her to explain herself.

“Hallie, why are we here?”

Ria stiffened immediately, turning to face Halycen. A curious look settled upon her face, as though she was debating something with herself.

Whatever it is, she knows, Vievel thought. Halycen seemed to hesitate, waiting for a moment as she picked her words carefully. Even Eaden was interested, his eyes staying fixed on Halycen instead of travelling back to the screen in his hand, though he didn’t place the device aside.

“I overheard something,” Halycen said. Her voice grew quiet, to an almost whisper save for that she was still trying to be heard by the four of them.

“What?” Vievel said, raising an eyebrow.

“The Dwurkn frigate wasn’t a random target - the Advance were looking for something-” Halycen said. Vievel’s throat caught.

Calito. He’d overheard the rumours, the whispers. They were looking for the human. Did they know he was onboard, or did they believe the man to still be on the starship? Could they link him to Calito and what did-

“-and they found it”.

Vievel’s face made a poor show of concealing his relief. Halycen gave him a peculiar look before continuing, but the other two were too intently focused on her to notice.

“I overheard the marshall-”

“Sera Odill!” Eaden piped up. He nodded profusely for a moment before catching stares from Vievel, Halycen, and Ria. “Sorry,” he murmured, looking crestfallen.

“...yes-” Halycen continued. “-Odill. He said, in front of me, that the Advance was looking for an object. So I hung around on the ship, eavesdropped on a few soldiers and rangers when they got back-”

“Hallie!” Ria interrupted. “You didn’t tell me that part. You’re in enough trouble, what by Ganymede possessed you to do such a stupid thing?”

“Does it matter?” Halycen frowned. The two exchanged scowls briefly until Ria glanced away and cleared her throat. Halycen didn’t back down, glaring towards her friend even as she looked elsewhere.

“I overheard from an officer, someone amongst the rangers, that the ‘coordinate’ had been found,” Halycen said.

“The coordinate?” Eaden asked. “What’s that?”

“How do I know?” Halycen replied, finally looking away from Ria. The three groaned. “Don’t you think it’s weird though?” she asked.

“Weird how?” Vievel spoke up, frowning. “What does any of this matter?”

There are so many more important things I could be doing, Vievel thought, frustrated by the time he’d taken to come out to Felder’s corner.

“The official line, even amongst the military, was that the Dwurkn frigate was home to a… you-know. That they came across it by chance. How could either of those things be true if they were looking for something else?” Halycen explained. Vievel frowned. It did raise questions in his mind, but he wasn’t sure that they were questions he was interested in having answered. “What if the coordinate leads to something dangerous?” Halycen asked.

“What if indeed?” Calito’s voice echoed inside Vievel’s head.

Now you’re here? Vievel asked. He focused on keeping his face unmoving, nodding every now and again as Halycen argued with the others over what the coordinate could be.

“I told you. Your ship has found something dangerous. You need my help”. Calito seemed earnest, his voice taking on an almost begging quality.

Do you know what this coordinate is? Calito was silent again, disappearing as he willed. Calito! Vievel screamed internally, to no avail.

“Stand by. Hostile action in progress”. Static crackled over an unseen speaker, the dull monotone recording distracting Vievel from Calito. The grand display flickered to life, a sharp clicking noise causing three of the four Aælfir teenagers to jump. Ria let slip a slight yelp, and Eaden almost fell off the crate he was perched upon. Vievel’s hand shot down to his waist, imagining a holster for a revolver that hadn’t been present since the Dwurkn ship. Only Halycen stood unflinching in the face of the alert - even Calito, who Vievel could suddenly feel stirring somewhere in the back of his mind again, was intrigued by the sudden interruption.

The grand display was on, a red light at the base of the unit indicating it was receiving a picture, but for a moment Vievel assumed the old display was broken, its receiver confused. A few seconds later, however, he realised the display was transmitting a picture of the outside, of the deep and the dark, and the shadow displayed was just the great void that they swam in. The picture panned quickly, travelling across the blackness of space in an instant, and fixated on a large stone starship with a hole torn in its starboard side.

“Oh Andlátta! They’re going to frag it!” The young Aelfr leapt down from the crate entirely, turning on the spot to take up watch with the three older Aælfir.

“Eaden! Language!” Ria scolded. Despite her harsh tone, she couldn’t take her eyes off of the grand display, and neither could Vievel. Fragmentation. The last stage of salvaging a dead ship, and the Dwurkn frigate, with its systems now long-since disabled and the crew either eliminated or asphyxiated, was certainly dead. Blow the whole thing to horizon-come and send in the drones to scavenge the smallest raw scrap materials still usable. It was rare to see a fragmentation. Usually, the sound of the mag-cannon firing would be the only part witnessed by others; his father must be in a distinctly good mood.

“Can’t say I’ll miss it,” Calito hummed inside Vievel’s head. Vievel didn’t answer, instead watching the Dwurkn frigate on the display. A powerful mechanical grinding echoed throughout the walls, the sound of tens of thousands of moving parts working in concert to accomplish a monumental task before a muffled explosion silenced it.

The screen was silent; a bolt of light passed through the Dwurkn starship, so fast that it may as well have been instantaneous. One moment Vievel could see the Dwurkn frigate, a damaged but whole stone vessel masked against the black backdrop, and the next it was two halves sitting inside a swirling storm-cloud of metal and stone, pieces flying through the emptiness in all directions.