Master of Shadows, Prologue: The Third Scar

So this is what fear looks like, Alice thought to herself.

Starman Alice Montaine was standing on the rooftop of a ruined skyscraper. In the distance a weak sun hovered on the horizon and gave off a tired gray light. The failing sunlight was just barely strong enough to illuminate the towering buildings that surrounded her. At one time, eons ago, the metallic blue structures must have looked majestic. Today there was nothing left of them but empty skeletons. Any glass windows or other furnishings had long since been destroyed by the slow march of endless time.

The whole planet was a vast, forlorn ruin. Alice had been exploring this uncharted world since she first discovered it three months ago and had found no signs of life whatsoever. Aside from this one city (if indeed one could still call it a city) the planet was completely empty. For thousands of miles around there was nothing but an empty desert, littered with strange bits of blue steel. At one time those bits of metal might have been important clues, but countless ages had eroded them into meaningless shards. At 28 years old Alice Montaine had been a Starman for ten years, and she had never seen or even heard of a world that looked this ancient. Even the sun looked tired, as if it barely had the strength to keep giving out light. She knew it was silly but she couldn’t shake the idea that the sun was about to go out at any moment.

Alice pressed a small button on the arm of her suit and immediately a holoscreen appeared in front of her. She knew that the screen was only a trick of light being projected into her eye and that there was nothing really there, but the illusion was quite convincing. After studying the screen for a moment she reached over and gently tapped on a portion of the imaginary screen. The information on the display changed and told her that her starship, the Raptor, was currently in a low planetary orbit. Alice watched her ship for a few moments and then pressed another button that connected her to the communication system on board her ship.

“How’s that survey going, Rachel?” Alice asked. “Are you almost done?”

“Mapping the underground levels of the city is proving to be very tedious,” the ship’s computer replied. “The alien metal is giving off a great deal of interference. I will require at least another twenty minutes before the task will be complete.”

Alice sighed. “I figured as much. Just remember that I do have a meeting with the head of Starlight Enterprise next week. I can’t be late, you know, and it’s a long trip back to Ahmanya. If I’m right about this planet then a lot of lives are at stake.”

“I am aware of your events calendar and will see to it that you arrive on time. Caedmon Starlight will not be kept waiting. Do you require anything else?”

Alice sighed. “I require a lot of things, but it’s nothing you can help with. People have just gotten too complacent. They think that just because the Xenobots are gone there are no other dangers. They’re forgetting their history! Last time they had someone there to rescue them. This time they might not be so lucky.”

“I am afraid that is more than a simple starship can tell. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Just come and get me when you’re done,” Alice replied.

The ship paused for a moment. “Might I remind you that I am quite capable of transporting you off the surface using my wormhole transporter? There is no need for me to land.”

“But you can’t beam me underground from planetary orbit,” Alice pointed out. “That blasted blue metal gives off too much interference. I just want to check out one more thing before we head back to Eagle City.”

“Very good,” the computer replied.

Alice pressed another button on her suit sleeve and the holoscreen vanished. She then made her way back inside the decrepit building and began walking down the empty stairwell. The building had a shaft for an elevator, but if there had ever been one installed it had long since disappeared. As she worked her way down to the surface she shook her head. I just can’t believe I found this place, she thought to herself. All of the home worlds of the First Races have been known for ages and none of them are located anywhere near this place. They weren’t supposed to have any lost settlements.

The early history of the galaxy had been a subject of intense debate for as long as Alice could remember. When the Xenobot race was defeated at Luxa in 2160 the galaxy was finally made safe for exploration. Over the next forty-five years much had changed. By 2205 hundreds of star systems were colonized and countless discoveries were made. In terms of scientific progress it had been a golden age.

But there was one mystery that no one had been able to solve. Before the Xenobots became an alien menace intent on destroying all other forms of life they were the Lucians – one of the very first races to ever inhabit the galaxy. This magnificent race eventually launched a war against the other First Races. Much of the details had been lost in time but history said the First Races won that war and as a result the Lucians fell and became the Xenobots. The First Races then left the galaxy to pursue a new life somewhere else. After they left a mysterious being known as the Janitor took care of their now-empty worlds in the hope that they would one day come back home.

As these worlds were explored, however, it began to look less and less likely that the First Races had simply relocated. Alice had no trouble believing that the Lucians had lost the war. The once-mighty race had clearly been devastated during the conflict, and it was a very long time before they became the half-robot, half-monster cyborgs that once again threatened the galaxy. It was also true that the thirty-four star systems the First Races left behind showed almost no signs of battle damage.

But Alice could not shake the idea that one day they had simply disappeared. All at once, without warning, in a single moment, the First Races vanished from history. It was a deeply disturbing thought. What could make an entire group of civilizations disappear in an instant – and is that force still around today? Is there really no one out there that knows what really happened? Alice knew that other Starmen had been wondering this since before she was born, but in more than four decades of searching no one had come close to an answer.

Alice at last made it to the ground floor of the empty skyscraper and left the building. Outside a cold wind gently blew down the deserted street, raising small clouds of gritty black dust. On the horizon Alice could see that the faint sun had almost set. It had taken the Starman some time to get used to the world’s 16-hour days, and even now she longed for the normal day/night cycle of home. As she walked down the street toward the edge of town she noticed that the buildings around her were starting to give off a flickering blue light. Parts of their superstructure glowed in the dark, like a candle that had been burning for too long and was about to go out.

I hate this darkness, Alice thought. I know there’s no life on this planet but I just can’t help it. I can feel something evil here. Something malignant. I can’t see it but I know it’s out there.

Alice’s suit beeped. “Yes?” she said aloud.

“The planetary survey you requested has been completed,” her starship reported. “I am now beginning my descent. I should be at your position shortly.”

“Thanks,” Alice responded.

It did not take her long to walk to the outskirts of the city. When she finally left the city limits she couldn’t resist turning around for one last look. In the shadows she could see the dying metropolis as it eerily flickered in the growing darkness. Alice shuddered. At one time the entire city probably glowed in the dark, but that was a long time ago. Now all that remains are hints of what it once was.

Alice turned her attention back to the desert and quietly waited for her starship to arrive. Even though she was standing on this world she still found it difficult to believe that it really existed. Before the war with the Lucians the First Races inhabited star systems very close to the center of the galaxy. Since that was where they once lived that was naturally where the search for clues had begun. But after an entire generation of Starmen searched that sector in vain Alice decided to take a different approach. Using the fabrication equipment on board the Raptor she built and launched thousands of small, inexpensive probes that were dispatched to look where no one else had – at the extreme outer edges of the galaxy’s spiral arms. It was the last place anyone had ever expected to find signs of a race that had once inhabited the core of the galaxy, but after five long years of intense searching that was exactly where Alice had found this planet.

She knew it wasn’t supposed to exist. Everyone had always believed that the Janitor maintained all of the original planets that once belonged to the First Races. In Starlight Academy her own history teacher had taught that the First Races never ventured this far from home. And yet here we are, Alice thought. I wonder what other critical information has been lost to the passage of time.

As the Starman quietly watched the horizon she saw her starship make its final approach. Less than two minutes later the Raptor gently set down right in front of her. The giant red starship was easily three hundred feet long, but the ship’s computer piloted it with exquisite precision.

A door in the ship’s hull slid open and Alice quickly stepped inside. As the door closed behind her she made her way down the hallways and up to the ship’s bridge. When she stepped onto the bridge a hologram of a young lady appeared in front of her. The lady had short red hair, green eyes, and wore an orange uniform, which was the standard attire assigned to the computers of all Starlight Enterprise starships.

Alice sat down in the captain’s chair and relaxed. It’s nice to leave that haunted world and be back in familiar surroundings. Aloud she said, “Thanks for coming to get me, Rachel. Now show me that survey you just completed.”

Rachel nodded and a holoscreen appeared in midair in front of Alice. She stared at it for a moment and then used her hand to manipulate the image. After navigating through several different sections of the city she was finally satisfied.

“So that chamber we discovered really is at the lowest level,” Alice said at last.

“That is correct,” Rachel replied. “The underground levels appear to be almost entirely intact. I see few signs of damage.”

Alice nodded. “It doesn’t look like there’s any way to get down there either.”

“That is also correct. It appears that the underground section was designed to be separate and distinct from the city above it. There are no connecting passages and the two are separated by more than a half-mile of solid rock. The only means of entrance is by wormhole transporter.”

“Which is exactly what we thought,” Alice said. “Curious. Have you reached any conclusions about their relative ages?”

“An exact reading is not possible, but both the city and the underground layers appear to have been built with the same technology. It is not unreasonable to conclude that they were constructed at the same time.”

“Which makes sense, I guess. My theory is that the city was built to guard whatever is being kept in that chamber. The underground section has simply fared better because it’s been sealed off. It hasn’t been eaten away by that awful atmosphere.”

“The atmosphere is not toxic,” Rachel pointed out. “It is quite amenable to human life and has minimal corrosive properties.”

“Sure, from a strictly biological standpoint,” Alice retorted. “But it’s creepy. I’m telling you there is something out there. Something is alive in those deserts. Those lights just aren’t natural.”

“That observation cannot be verified,” Rachel replied.

“I know, I know,” Alice said, sighing. “Anyway. I know we need to be going, but can you beam me to that chamber one more time?”

“I cannot transport you directly into the chamber,” Rachel replied. “All I can do is transport you to a location nearby. As you know the chamber itself is impenetrable. All of our efforts to see what is inside have failed.”

“C’mon, Rachel, you know what I mean. Just beam me down there. I’ll let you know when I’m ready to go. I won’t be long.”

“Very good,” Rachel replied. Alice stood up and was immediately enveloped in a brilliant white light. She felt a strange sensation of movement, and a moment later she found herself standing in front of a giant airlock.

Alice had spent days in this room. She was almost a mile underground, at the end of a long hallway that sloped down to the deepest part of the underground passageways. The walls, ceiling, and floor were made of the same blue metal she had seen on the surface. A gentle white light filled the area, coming from no visible source. That technology was common in the cities built by the First Races, but an omnipresent light that cast no shadows still filled her with awe.

The focus of her attention was on the airlock itself. Embedded in the end of the hallway was a pair of giant doors that were almost thirty feet tall. Instead of being made of blue steel, however, they were fashioned out of an incredibly strong translucent material. Even though the white metal was partially transparent she still couldn’t quite see what was on the other side of the doors.

All of her attempts to open them had failed. The material itself was unknown and had resisted her every attempt to analyze it. Experience had taught her that it was impervious to lasers and every other tool she had with her on the Raptor. The walls on either side of the airlock doors had no obvious controls of any kind. Over the past three months she had conducted a detailed search of the underground portion of the city, and while she had found many computer systems none of them appeared to be connected to this chamber. As far as she could tell it was sealed off from the rest of the city.

The Starman turned her attention to the wall on the right side of the door. As she stared at the blue steel she caught her breath. Embedded into the wall were three long, jagged scars where the metal had been violently torn away. Beneath the metal she could see the same impenetrable white material that guarded the airlock.

Alice already knew that the entire chamber in front of her was made of the same white material. The blue metal plating on either side of the airlock was simply for decorative purposes. What chilled Alice was that when she had last been down here two days ago there were only two gashes in the wall. Today there were three.

So there is someone else down here, Alice thought. Fear clutched at her heart as she realized the implications. We can’t see them with our sensors but they’re here, and they want to release the evil that is on the other side of that door. If that happens – if it is set free – then we’re all dead. The First Races aren’t here to defeat it a second time. I’ve got to act before it’s too late!