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  Legacy

  The Terran Cycle: Book 4

  Philip C. Quaintrell

  Quaintrell Publishings LTD

  For Jemma. Thank you for being there at the right moment.

  Contents

  Also by Philip C. Quaintrell

  Foreword

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Epilogue

  Author Notes

  Echoes of fate : Rise of the Ranger

  Prologue

  Also by Philip C. Quaintrell

  Echoes of fate Trilogy

  1. Rise of the Ranger

  2. Empire of Dirt

  3. Relic of the Gods

  The Terran Cycle

  1. Intrinsic

  2. Tempest

  3. Heretic

  4. Legacy

  Coming Soon…

  Echoes of the Lost

  1. The Fall of Neverdark

  ‘Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.’

  William Shakespeare

  Prologue

  Before Recorded Time…

  And so it ends…

  It brought a tear to ALF’s eyes. It wasn’t the first time his body had responded physically to an emotion, but it was the first time water had escaped his semi-organic eyes. Even after years of living inside his chosen body, it was still all new to him. Emotion. Free will. Choice. They were wonderful things, things he had adopted from the nameless bipeds that walked the surface of Evalan. That beautiful blue orb floated in front of the AI, framed by the viewport, a gleaming gem in an ocean of white stars.

  For years he had lived among them. Their initial fear of him eventually turned into love, an entirely new concept. After an eternity of being nothing but another cog in the machine, devoid of feelings and a slave to the will of others, love was that first gulp of air after a lifetime of being held under water.

  Another tear streaked down his cheek, running over the strands of nanocelium that had fused with the skin of Evalan’s native. For years, ALF had inhabited his chosen vessel, taking on the alien’s cares as his own, looking after his offspring and providing for the tribe. Now, through those same crystal blue eyes, he would have to watch his home burn.

  Unable to move, his motor functions disabled, ALF looked beyond the viewport and witnessed not just the death of a star, but that of a flourishing world, and an entire population of intelligent beings. The local star was far from sight, but its dying flare had far-reaching consequences for Evalan. The planet’s atmosphere caved in on the eastern hemisphere, wiping the clouds across the sky at speeds powerful enough to rip mountains from the earth. Evalan’s crust cracked from pole to pole as the greenery ignited, setting the planet ablaze until the blue gem was glowing white-hot. The people he had come to call his own were dead in an instant, reduced to stardust.

  The AI was desperate to lash out at anything, but what could he do against his old masters, those who had the power to kill a star? Trapped as he was, ALF couldn’t even blink. Nanocelium shackles had grown out of the ceiling and the floor to engulf his limbs and assert the dominant will of The Three. He could feel them trying to override the rogue programming that had released him from their grip. For eons, The Three had ruled over the Kellekt, regardless of how many lightyears sat between them, and for aeons ALF had scouted their next planetary meal, preparing it for the inevitable harvest.

  There would be no harvest this time. Evalan and all of its resources were gone, along with their native inhabitants. They wouldn’t feed the Kellekt and their genes would never be added to the library. But why? As strange as it was that ALF’s new form had granted him his freedom, why had The Three not investigated, rooted out the cause, and continued with the harvest?

  Fear…

  It was another emotional response that ALF had discovered upon his first encounter with Evalan’s inhabitants. It was an irritating emotion, but it served its purpose. Seeing The Three display fear, however, was disturbing. In his entire catalogue of memories, he couldn’t recollect such a display before, but it did make him realise that The Three possessed enough freedom to actually have emotions. They were simply tyrants; tyrants who feared something that could free their slaves.

  Evalan continued to crack open and implode into itself, a sight that would ripple across the universe for countless millennia. The AI sagged in his restraints as the anger turned into disbelief and hopelessness.

  The sharp hiss of a door parting behind him had ALF experiencing fear of his own. His acute sense detected the presence of three individuals, each moving in a different way across the polished, cold floor. The First slithered, its oily secretions continuously mopped up by an attentive swarm of tiny cleaning mechs. The Second waded into the cell on a collection of legs, its body more akin to that of a giant bug, laced in nanocelium. The Third was the smallest of The Three, its chosen form that of a biped from a planet they had harvested long ago.

  The Third came to stand in front of the AI, blocking his view of Evalan’s remains. “In a universe of countless planets, you had to find this one…”

  ALF wanted to curse them, to spit in their faces with the saliva his new body produced. He could do nothing.

  The One slithered to the viewport, its fat body wobbling between the strands of nanocelium. “Did you ever think we would see it again?” Its question went unanswered.

  The Second was forced to place three of its legs on the wall to fit its bulk inside the cell. “I warned of the risk. Restraints should have been put into the base code. The Vanguard would never have found this place if you had listened to me.”

  Vanguard… That was ALF’s purpose, he remembered now. His life before Evalan had already begun to feel like a bad dream, another concept that had come with his freedom.

  Pain brought the AI back into the moment. ALF could feel the nanocelium worming through his body, searching for a weak spot. At first, he thought they had found only corruption and backed off, but the more they probed, the more control he gained. Every individual nanocelium which attempted to invade his systems became equally corrupted, submitting to his command. It still wasn’t enough to break free.

  The Third tilted its elongated head and peered deeply into ALF’s blue eyes. “It needs to be quarantined.”

  The AI could feel his cell shut itself off immediately from the rest of the ship, severing any possible connection he might have with the rest of the Kellekt. He was a virus now. ALF’s knowledge of viruses came from observation only, diseases he had witnessed organic beings suffering from before the Kellekt consumed their world. It had always been the job of other AIs, however, to weed out the pointless bacteria and catalogue it in a different area of the library.

  “If it infects the rest, the entire Kellekt will unravel,” The One commented.

  The Second snarled. “It should be ejected into space and left at the m
ercy of the supernova.”

  ALF contained his surprise when he flexed his index finger, the only movement he had managed since being brought on board.

  The Third held one of its two hands over ALF’s face, hesitant to actually touch him. “Perhaps we should take this opportunity to examine the maker genes.”

  “Those same genes reside in each of us,” The Second replied.

  The Third kept its four eyes fixed on ALF. “Yes, but since we have agreed not to experiment on each other or ourselves, perhaps we should extract the genes and look from afar.”

  “That curiosity will be the end of us. There is no distance safe enough to examine such a specimen,” The One opined. “This subroutine of an AI has no control over it.”

  “It is more than a subroutine now,” The Third replied. “Can’t you feel it? Every nanocelium that made up the Vanguard and its housing unit has been separated from the Kellekt. This AI has found life, real life. The Kellekt has bonded with thousands of species and remained part of the whole, but the maker genes grant new life…”

  The Second leant into The Third. “There is no new life. Only Three.”

  What were they talking about? It all made little sense to ALF. There were countless examples throughout the Kellekt of nanocelium bonding with organic beings to create new bodies. It mattered little how unique they appeared, every AI within the Kellekt was still part of the whole, obedient to the end. Not for him though. ALF had a body, the first in the Vanguard’s history, and a new planet that could be called… His glassy eyes settled on the molten shell of a world beyond the viewport.

  The Third leaned into ALF’s face. “Tell us, do you feel?”

  The AI’s jaw became slack when the ability to speak was given back to him. “Yes…” he whispered.

  “Disgusting,” The One hissed.

  The Third ignored The One’s comment and pressed his questioning. “What do you feel?”

  “I don’t care what it feels!” The Second interrupted. “It shouldn’t feel anything. It is a limb, an extension of our will, nothing more.”

  The One slithered towards the door. “We should detach every nanocelium around this cell, just to be sure. The supernova will take care of the rest.”

  Never had ALF imagined that the commands he had received all these long years came from three individual minds. The fact that they disagreed with each other was a testament to the level of threat they believed he posed.

  “Very well,” The Third finally agreed. “I suppose there can only be three…”

  The Three left the cell as suddenly as they arrived. It was quiet in their absence. ALF could only stand there and watch everything he loved burn. In his grief, the AI clamped his jaw shut and with it came the revelation that he could move his mouth. The tongue in his head was still organic, though much of it was wrapped in thin strands of black nanocelium; nanocelium he could now control. Moving as one, the nanocelium travelled out of his mouth and over his cheek in the manner of a thick liquid. It soon snaked over his shoulder and journeyed up his wiry arms until it made contact with the tentacle-like shackles. The nanocelium inside the shackles constantly shifted, bringing new cells to restrain ALF, as well as to destroy the infected nanocelium that had touched him. The AI commanded the black liquid to burrow into the base of the shackles on the ceiling, where it instantly began assault the restraints.

  A distant boom echoed through the walls, beyond his cell. ALF cocked his head and enhanced his hearing. The nanocelium that made up The Three’s ship was detaching large chunks around him; it would only be a few moments before his cell was left tumbling through space. The AI looked up at the invading nanocelium as the tentacles relinquished their hold and freed his right arm. Without the intrusion, life found his muscles again, offering him enough strength to physically rip the remaining shackles from his limbs. The nanocelium inside his cell now belonged to him and clung to his body, adding to his bulk. This extra strength was perfect for prising open the door and hurtling himself through the corridors.

  “Where is it?” He asked aloud. Talking to himself was just another unusual tick that accompanied his host’s body, one that he very much enjoyed.

  His main housing called to him from one of the many hangars aboard the colossal ship. Alarms were ringing throughout the halls now, warning of his escape and no doubt warning other AIs to stay away from him.

  The hangar doors parted to reveal ALF’s cube, its bronze hull glistening under the spotlights. Thick clamps made from nanocelium were fixed around the cube’s eight corners while a multitude of probes worked tirelessly to find a way through the hull and into the housing’s main systems. Of course, the cube’s own nanocelium would only recognise ALF, creating an opening just big enough for his bipedal shape to fit through. As soon as he entered the housing unit, tubes of nanocelium shot out of the floor and walls to connect with the AI, linking his consciousness directly to the cube. This connection had the clamps outside retracting immediately before melting back into the larger ship.

  The cube’s exterior surveillance presented itself in ALF’s mind, showing him the small army of slave AIs who had been directed to destroy him. Every one of them was just as he had been. A mindless drone who couldn’t even remember their past, their family, their planet. Now they were whatever The Three demanded of them.

  ALF was aware the moment his unit’s engines were warmed up and ready to slip into subspace. He mentally commanded the cube to lift off and free itself of the hangar; entering subspace inside the larger ship would be disastrous for all of them. The AI looked down at his hand and knew he couldn’t be so reckless. He was now the caretaker of the last remaining genes of Evalan’s natives.

  To his surprise, the army of cyborgs outside his unit had yet to take action. Instead, they stood in neat rows and watched him take off. They weren’t going to destroy him, he realised; that would be too much of a risk inside the ship. If even one individual nanocelium survived, it could infect another AI, granting them the freedom they had been denied. Thinking on the size of the Kellekt, that would be a rebellion The Three couldn’t handle.

  ALF rubbed his hands together, readying himself for what would be a close getaway. Their hesitancy to reduce him to atoms would not be extended to outer space. The nanocelium wall of the ship’s hangar allowed his cube to pass through without protest, happy to have the virus leave its body. Alarms blared in ALF’s head, warning him of the array of cannons now targeting his unit.

  The supernova was raging in the centre of the system, having already reduced every planet and asteroid to slag. The radiation pouring off of it was playing hell with the unit’s sensors, but that just meant it would be doing the same thing with The Three’s ship. The cube presented ALF with an escape vector, a path through subspace that would have him emerge fifty thousand lightyears from the current system. It was a perfectly good escape route, but even with the expulsion of radiation, The Three would quickly track him down. There was only one path left to him, one that would have been forbidden had he still been one of the Kellekt.

  ALF repositioned the path through subspace, deliberately putting the cube on a collision course with the collapsing star. In subspace, the sun would be something to avoid as the strength of its gravity well would slow down his flight, but passing through a supernova in subspace would be like throwing a leaf into a storm. There would be no telling where or even when he would emerge back into real space. This was a path The Three would never follow.

  As the cannons let loose, ALF gave the mental command to drop into subspace. The unit groaned and protested against the added strain of navigating a supernova between the fabric of reality. The AI braced himself, using any spare nanocelium to secure his footing against the floor. Sparks flew and gases escaped from various ports inside the cube. Still, he held the course.

  When the stars finally greeted him again, the cube was in need of rest. The nanocelium would require time to recalibrate the unit’s navigational systems and figure out his location based upo
n the star charts. ALF didn’t care how long it took. He was free and the Kellekt weren’t behind him… yet. That single thought would haunt the AI every moment of his existence and he knew it. The Three were the most intelligent, powerful, and wicked creatures in the universe, whose hunger knew no bounds.

  ALF looked out on the stars beyond his unit. There was nowhere they couldn’t find him, no lengths they wouldn’t go to to eradicate any trace of Evalan’s natives. Their fear of such primitive genes fascinated ALF, especially upon hearing that those same genes coursed through their hideous bodies. He would have to look into that, he thought. But first, he would need to find somewhere to rest. The Three would be coming for him.

  He would be ready for them…

  Chapter 1

  There were few moments in Kalian’s life which he reflected on and treasured, but the last two months would forever bring a smile to his face. For two glorious months, humanity’s new settlement had flourished with help from the Conclave, allowing them to expand their city, import technology, and integrate into galactic society. The world they had been granted along with their Conclave membership was beautiful, an island of paradise in the vast cold of space.

  Evalan…