Chapter 78

“It makes sense now why your name was so human-like, even down to the spelling. It just wasn’t all of it.”

“Oh, but that’s only because it’s a translation. It’s really [unintelligible].” she replied.

“What? Say that again,” I said, only really picking up a growl-like sound at the beginning and a pop at the end. Whatever was in the middle was unlike any sound I had ever heard. It was also much shorter than the translation was.

She tried again, this time sending it through Mindspeak instead, but it sounded exactly the same.

“If you’re trying to understand it, you needn’t bother. Your father drove me to near insanity over the span of a couple of days trying to understand it. The fact of the matter is that scyftan brains just aren’t capable of understanding how my creators communicated, not many species are. It is sort of like a human trying to understand the noises that a dolphin makes.”

“I guess translation will have to do then.”

“You’re just stalling. What are you worried about?”

“Nothing,” I replied. “Why ask my sisters to leave the room before activating it though? Surely he knows that I’ll fill them in later.”

“I guess you’ll just have to activate it and see, won’t you?”

Sighing, I leaned forward and pulsed my mana at it. Having been activated prior, it was still on but was just waiting for some input. The moment I was done, my father’s image re-coalesced and he grinned.

“I knew it would be you, my boy. After all, there wasn’t really any doubt,” he said. “Abi had never failed me, and I knew she wouldn’t when we came up with the plan to ensure you and your sisters would escape. Up until shortly before the attack commenced, Abi was tagging each and every ship in the system so she could upload a virus to each one simultaneously. That virus would lay dormant until a ship powered weapons, at which point it would mess with that ship’s targeting computers. The key to it all was that the virus would only activate when two particular ships were targeted; yours and the one your sisters were on. While the ships loyal to Kaldrus Dhir thought their shots were on target, they would have been off by several degrees.”

“So now you know how you escaped, you might be wondering why you were sent to Earth and why you spent so much time in stasis. Why not Veria where you would be protected? Why not somewhere closer? Well, the answer to that is that Earth was chosen for how far away it was and the technological level of its inhabitants. We knew that it would be a long journey, and the longer that journey took, the longer it would take you to be discovered.”

“As for why the level of technology possessed by the inhabitants of Earth mattered? That was to ensure that the Spectres would be able to remain hidden and build up in secret. The hope was that when the humans reached a certain level of technology, that they could be approached and recruited to help you when the time came to take the throne that rightfully belongs to you. There was a pretty big wrinkle in there though, which was the fact that no one knew exactly how long it would take for them to reach that point. Two hundred years? Five hundred? A thousand? Oh, there were some among the Spectres ranks that wanted to speed up their rate of development, but it was better to be patient.”

“You see, that is something that Kaldrus Dhir is not. Going back generations, the Dhir family was well known for being obnoxious and foolhardy, but Kaldrus took that to the next level. He could make lifelong enemies just by opening his mouth, and we knew without a doubt that his mouth would get him in trouble, eventually. What were those odds again, Abi? Six to one?”

“Ah, that’s right. We figured the odds would be three to one that Dhir would start a war within the first two hundred years of his rule, which would only give you more room to breath. Knowing this allowed us to put some contingencies in place, but only Abi will know how effective they were. I won’t go into them now since I have limited time, so you’ll need to talk to Abi about that later.”

“Onto other things, which is how I can help you, even from beyond the grave. If you have the tablet handy, activate it by pressing the button on the top. Once it’s on, place your hand on the screen and pulse your mana into it. That will unlock everything, and then we can get to work.”

It booted up a lot faster than I expected, and before long there was a familiar outline of a hand. The moment I placed my hand there and pulsed a little bit of mana into it, there was a quiet chime and the screen changed. Most of the screen was empty, except for seven squares with scyftan text. I recognized the text as the scyftan numbers one through seven, and was about to tap on the first one when my father spoke up.

“Alright, that should have been enough time. You should see seven icons on the screen right now, numbered from one to seven. The first is the contact information for people who can help you. There is no guarantee all of them will be alive, depending on how long it has been, but those that are will be in the position to help you in some way or another. Not included in that is Ercan Warvyn, because Kor Gidres would have introduced you by this point. As soon as you can, I want you to try to get in touch with everyone on the list.”

“The second icon contains a bunch of information that may or may not help you. Again, depending on how long it has been, some of the information contained within might be out of date or it might just be irrelevant. Abi can help you sift through it, but you should probably bring Tesze Inolgeth, Utych Hios and Tich Igdaris in on it. They’ll be able to tell you how best to utilize it.”

“The next four are a little different in that the one marked ‘three’ is for you, while ‘four’ through ‘six’ are for your sisters. Go ahead and tap ‘three’ now,” he said before pausing momentarily so I could do so. Immediately, the seven icons were placed by two different ones. “While that table isn’t capable of projecting a hologram, you can transfer the first file to any device that can. If you’re wondering, it’s a message from your mother. I would prefer you hold off on that temporarily, however, as there are a few more things we need to get to. Go ahead and tap on the second icon.”

This time the screen didn’t change at all, and instead a small compartment in the tablet popped open, revealing two items. The first was clearly a key to something, while the second was a ring. Not just any ring, but a signet ring at that.

“While one is a key and the other is a ring that has been passed down from Kidravia to Kidravia, it, too, is a key. A key to a lock that is very, very far away from here and one that will likely be very difficult to access. You’ve probably already guessed what the key is for from what I’ve said, so make sure to have it on you when you eventually go. I cannot stress how important it is for you to recover Abi’s brothers and sisters, with the sooner the better. As for the other key, I’ll get back to that in a moment.”

“You don’t need to go ahead and look at it right now because it is quite lengthy, but the seventh icon contains all of the plans I had for the future. No one but your mother and Abi knew this, and it’s also why I asked your sisters to leave the room, but I’ve always had the feeling that something was coming, ever since I was a small boy.”

“I would wake up in a sweat, screaming about nightmares that were too vivid to not be real. I saw fleet after fleet be destroyed and an uncountable number of people tortured, among other things. I felt the frustration of searching entire galaxies for something, but not being able to find it, and the pure hatred for a species that now only exists in memory.”

“I believe, now, that whoever, or whomever I am linked to is searching for Abi’s brothers and sisters, or technology left behind by their creators. Whether that is to use them or destroy them, I do not know. You need to get to them first, and you need to keep them safe by any means necessary. Whoever they are, they are extremely powerful and they are coming. It’s not an if, but a when.”

“I would have gone back for them myself, but it would have been impossible to do so in any sort of numbers. Our ships were simply too slow, and we were never sure if our new shields would stand up against the aliens that forced us from our home galaxy. By now I would expect that that has changed. That last file also details what should be done when you’ve recovered the crystals. You should read it in its entirety and begin implementing as much of it as you can, just for a head start.”

“That’s it, I believe. Am I missing anything, Abi?”

“Just the other three keys.”

“Oh, right! The key in your hand isn’t a normal key. In fact, it isn’t a key to anything unless you’ve got the other three parts that make up the whole. You’ve got one part of the key, while the other three parts will be given to your sisters. Only when the four of you are together will you be able to access what the key unlocks. Abi can guide you, but unfortunately much must be done, and there isn’t a whole lot time. I love you, my son. Make me proud,” he finished.

A moment later the projector shut off and I sat there with the tablet in one hand, and the ring and key in the other. After setting down the tablet and sliding the ring onto my left pinky and having it automatically resize to fit, I turned my attention to the key. It was long and flat with nearly a dozen teeth, but there were easily that many missing as well. More interestingly, some of the teeth looked like they were cut in half vertically, making them seem very fragile.

“So what does this key open when you have the other four parts?” I asked Abi.

“Well, how about you join your sisters in the other room and you’ll all find out together?”

I opened the accordion door and saw all three of my sisters pop their heads up from what used to be our parents’ bed. Vixa was curled up beside them, but had no interest in doing anything other than sleep.

“So?” Leenah asked.

I filled them in on as much as I could, leaving out the part about the aliens that could be on their way, for the time being. After that, Abi walked me through transferring the corresponding files to the girls’ communicators, but not before they each got their part of the key. Passing the tablet to them, each took a turn pressing the button to reveal the same small compartment. Each time, a different part of the key appeared, and soon we had it put together.

Abi still wouldn’t tell us what it opened, but had us head downstairs and out the door. It was when I saw the door directly opposite the one we entered that I had an idea, but that proved to be false. It required all four of us placing our hands on it and channeling our mana into it simultaneously, just like the other one did, and then it began sliding open. However, what was on the other side of the door was very different.

“Is that a vault?” Lucia asked.

“Indeed,” Abi replied. “It took a large portion of the time your father had to free it from where it had been deep beneath the palace, but the moment it was, it was brought to me. Anything and everything your parents wanted to keep safe was placed within, and it’s been in my dimensional storage until somewhat recently. As you can see, it isn’t exactly small.”

She was right about that, even with about three meters of room to walk around it, it was still about thirty meters wide and ten meters tall, with a door more than big enough to drive something into it. Most surprising was the fact that aside from it’s absurd size, it looked very normal. Instead of a tumbler it had a spot for a key, but otherwise had a handwheel like older vaults did on Earth.

“So the lock might look normal, but it’s quite a bit different than what you’re used to. When you insert the key, you’ll only be able to push it halfway in. At that point, rotate it clockwise one hundred and eighty degrees, and then you’ll be able to push it in the rest of the way. A full counterclockwise turn later, and it will be unlocked. Give it a try,” Abi said.

I passed the key over to Leksi and she stepped forward to insert it into the lock. It proved to be a little stiff after being unused for so long, but after the first half turn, everything worked like it was new. There was an easily audible thud when she gave the key the final turn, and I helped her out by turning the handwheel.

Pulling the massive door open was easier than I ever would have expected, or it was just my attribute-enhanced strength that was making the difference. And the door was truly massive, not just in size, but also in how thick it was. When the door was as wide open as it could go, I saw that the door was easily a meter thick, with bolts that were a good thirty-five to forty centimeters in diameter, at a minimum. The walls were just as thick as the door, and I had a feeling that it wasn’t something that you could cut into.