Everyone Forgets the Beginning (BattleR Saga Story 1)
Third Chant

Enemy of my Enemy should beware

Imagine, what would happen if there ismore than one of you?

What if, in a neighboring galaxy,there exists an individual so similar to yourself that it would be impossiblefor anyone to tell the difference?

What would happen if, at some point intheir life, those two identical individuals meet?

What if they resemble each other notas much as they thought they should?

What would happen if, even though theylooked and lived similarly, their characters were so different that theirideals would crush one another?

“Master, we’ve reached Tech-nom IV,and the leaders are ready to negotiate conditions of their surrender.”

“Magnificent.” A tall young man smiledin his commander chair. “We’re rolling boys. Send the troops to all big cities.When negotiations end, we’ll finally be able to reach the Milky Way.”

“Ye’sir!”

The tall commander stood up. He wore along, crimson-black coat that reached to the floor. He slowly approached theteleporting circle and put on his half-faced mask and wide hood. He looked backat the window and glanced one last time at the metallic landscape ofskyscrapers and traffic-jammed airways - highways made suspended in mid-air.While the ship passed the highest and the biggest building of the Capitol, themysterious man snapped his fingers and was teleported to the roof of thatbuilding, where dozen of soldiers, the King of Tech-nom System and his advisershave been waiting for the man.

“Klaah hajkaal kulikkau.” King ofTech-nom spoke in an unknown dialect, and bowed before the approaching man.“Callyps kallak kalia kilka. Kolkkai hjallkaj jaklie uklila ieil ikii.”

“It’s good to see you in person too,King Kelliuk. And please, drop this dialect, I don’t particularly like it,”said the man.

“Lakkiul… I mean, of course, sir.”

“Please follow me, King, Sir,” saidthe short adviser standing behind the King.

As the mysterious man entered the hugebuilding with the King and his men, hundreds of small ships separated from thegigantic ship above the city, and, with half the speed of light, flew in alldirections across the planet. Cities purely made of metal, with only waterbelow, reflected the sunlight from the nearby star, slightly blinding pilots ofsmall transporting ships.

“So, King Kelliuk, what do youpropose?” asked the masked, hooded man. He was so tall that he had to slouch toprevent his head from hitting the metal ceiling.

“Well…” The King wasn't sure how torespond.

He knew that he must surrender toprevent his planets from further destruction, even though there was no otherrace so advanced in technology as them.

“Let me, my lord.” The short, bald,and blue-skinned adviser showed up from nowhere. “Commander, sir, our nation isa very peaceful and loving race, devoted to technology and science development.We know how strong and fearless the Ta-imu race is, and we would appreciatecessation of assaults on our planets, thus giving away leadership of our Systemto you, sir. We don’t want any more blood to be shed, and more scientists todie without fulfilling their lifelong wish.”

“And what wish is that, Likuli?” askedthe mysterious man as he entered the royal chamber after the King.

“To reach the unreachable and discoverthe undiscovered. That’s our race’s motto.”

“To reach the unreachable…” the maskedman repeated as he sat on the King’s throne and took of his hood. “Yes. I’dlike to hear more about that…”

A few minutes later, in every city onthe planet, huge screens appeared high on the sky. There was the Commander ofTa-imu with his mask on sitting on the throne of King Kelliuk. On his feet werethe King and his adviser bowing.

“Citizens!” emanated a loud voice fromthe screen. “Your King, Kelliuk Iklia, surrendered, and hereby I, Commander ofTa-imu, will be the government of this System. Do not be afraid though; yourwar has ended now. You are free to research however you want. I promise,nothing bad will happen to you as long as you become part of Ta-imu GallaxianEmpire. In every city on every planet, a branch of my army will be stationed toprotect and serve. Live in peace, my dear scientists. Live in name of science…and Mine!”

Black troop soldiers jumped from theships in every city of Tech-nom IV.

“Now, my friend,” the masked man saidas he leaned over the bowing ex-king, “tell me: when will I reach theunreachable? Tell me about the Milky Way.”

(end of part 1)

part 2

“Hurry up, Meg. We’re not heresightseeing you know. If we don’t end it quick, we might not catch up toTherraN-1 before it reaches the Solar System East 23…”

“I know sir, just… It looks reallyweird. Empty rooms with only lights. A green light in the hangar but there wasno one who opened it. An abandoned ship but with technology much more developedthan ours…”

“I know it seems weird. That’s why wemust replace the bridge fast.” I looked at the floor plan on the wall. “And Ithink we’re getting close.”

Indeed we were. An emptied bridge withhalf of the equipment the crashed to the floor awaited us behind huge, halvedwooden doors. We entered without a sound. The Omd brothers went to check thecommunication status and electricity supplies. Meg and I scouted the rest ofthe working machines.

“Wait.” Meg stopped me when I wasabout to turn one of monitors on.

“What now?”

“Mah, turn the lights out,” Megcommanded, but Mah looked at me before following the order.

“What is it? Have you noticedsomething?” I asked when the lights went off.

“Yes,” she answered peacefully.“Look.”

She was pointing her finger on thescreen I was about to get running. There were weird symbols, different than anylanguages we've ever seen. The letters were written with some kind offluorescence paint. Below there were six numbers.

11, 23, 254, 101, 5874, 7

“What are those sir?” Meh came closerleaving his brother next to light switch.

“I’m not sure but…”

They look somehow familiar. I touchedthe letters and numbers. Still sticky. It cannot be paint.

“Who painted it?”

“It’s not painted. It’s written.” Ismelled the paint-like substance from my fingers. “It’s not paint. It’s blood.”

“And those numbers?”

“Meg, scan them for me. Meh, Mah,search for other messages. There must be more of them here.”

We searched the whole bridge but noother message was found. I sat on the floor and took out my bottle filled withwater. While I was drinking, I looked up. What I saw shocked me. The wholeceiling was covered by words written with blood. Only few were readable. Milky,Way, and Callyps - whatever the latter means.

“Meg. Scan that too. Then let’s lightenthis place a little.”

After the lights were back on, Iswitched on the messaged monitor but there was no data left - only ship plansand a few working monitoring cameras. On one of the screens something moved.Looked like a humanoid creature, only thinner.

“Isn’t that the hangar with our ship?”

“Looks like it, sir.”

“Meg, Mah, you two stay here.” I gavethem earphones to keep in touch.

“Meh, we're going there to check outwhat, or who that is.”

“Yes sir.”

As we were heading downstairs in theelevator, Meg informed me of the position of the creature. When we reached ourship, the creature was still in the hangar.

“Meh, do exactly what I tell you.Otherwise it might get nasty.”

I gave instructions to Meh whoinstantaneously jumped on the ship and started mumbling some chants. I took thehood off, sat on the ground and closed my eyes. In this dark I wouldn't replace acholder – an elephant like animal from my home planet, Ellemia II – even ifit'd stand before me.

“Oooi! Whoever you are, I’m unharmed!”I screamed with eyes closed.

After the echo silenced, I heard somemotion below the engines. I pricked up my ears and waited for the creature tomake a sound. After a few minutes of sitting on the ground without moving amuscle, the creature came closer from behind me. I whispered the lightning-eyeschant to see everything nearby clearly for a few seconds.

“Lightning Element. Chant #14. ThunderVision.” I opened my eyes.

I saw everything in a yellow and lightblue aura. The creature was right behind me. I turned around and grabbed itwith one hand. It was just some kid. He must've lived on this ship alone forsome time now. The second I grabbed him, I lost my vision, but I heard Mehjumping down from the ship and felt metal covering the boy and my hand.

“Great, you blocked me with him, Meh.”

“Sorry sir. I didn't mean to.” Hereleased my hand from the metal coffin covering the boy.

“Meg, do you hear me? Is there anyother movement seen on the screens except ourselves?”

”No sir, lights are on everywhere butin the hangar, and there is definitely no one else beside us here.”

“Copy. Come here with Mah and thescans of those weird writings. We’ll give them to Khail for translation.”

“Yes sir, we’ll be right there.”

“As for you, kid,” I said as I lookedat the boy's head bound by metal. “Do you understand what I’m saying? Do youknow my language? Say something.”

Meh released his mouth so he could beheard speaking aloud.

“Klakk iliulla. Liaulijk killij kolaku.”

“What? Sir, what is this dialect?”

“I don’t know, Meh… It’s veryinteresting though…”

Meg and Mah met us inside the Sniffer.All was set and we were ready to fly off. The problem was how to open thehangar. Meg went to ask the kid even though I said it’s pointless. When the kidsaw her face he looked surprised, and started to cry, mumbling some word,"klaija”. Meg freaked out and stepped back. The kid stopped crying, smiledand closed his eyes. The green light shone from inside his metal coffin and thehangar opened. We flew out with more questions than when we entered.