The 7th Pre-Light

By Brett Mumford

A young Sel researcher is given the challenge to lead the analysis on a newly discovered race: Humans. They are getting closer to developing FTL technology and need to be understood before they take their first steps into the stars.

A senior Sel security technician has been assigned the task to stop a serial killer. What does his case have to do with a 500-year-old secret?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Jan 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9780228868224

Brett Mumford

I was born in the small town of Mount Uniacke in Nova Scotia. I graduated from the University of King's College in Halifax, with a Bachelor's of Arts in Political Science. I spent the next 20 years working in IT. During this time I lived in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Afghanistan, and Malaysia, before coming back to Canada. I got married in 2012 and we moved to Canada in the same year.

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Copyright © 2021 by Brett Mumford

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Tellwell Talent

www.tellwell.ca

ISBN

978-0-2288-6821-7 (Paperback)

978-0-2288-6822-4 (eBook)

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

–Revelation 12:7-9

Contents

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

Prologue

Serla was ninety-eight cycles old and happy with his life. He had managed to achieve the status of a mid-level manager. He had fifty-four individuals working directly for him, and another seventy-five indirectly. He had never had any aptitude for the sciences, the idea of long-range travel left him feeling very uncomfortable, and he could best be described as an average athlete.

When he was being tested for his interests and ambitions, he realized that he did not have any motivation to go and achieve great things. He was happy to have a comfortable life; he was not interested in excitement. When it was suggested that he consider applying for a government logistical position, it sounded good to him. The more they told him about what the job would entail, and what he could hope to achieve for a career, the more he realized that it was for him.

In his free time, he volunteered in the egg chamber to help maintain and socialize with the eggs. He was always careful not to spend too much time with any given egg. When it was time for the hatching, if it was possible, he would make sure that he was available. He enjoyed welcoming the younglings into the world, cleaning them, assisting the medical staff in registering them, and performing the last-minute checks to confirm they were all healthy.

Serla loved the feeling of the air at night. He had discovered at a young age that running just satisfied some primal need within himself. Whenever he was stressed about something at work or if he had been arguing with friends, he could get himself out to one of the parks and just run. Something in the exertions, the physical act of running, put things into perspective for him. At the very least, it seemed to allow him to focus on whatever issue was bothering him, and he could better understand whatever was causing the conflict. He had discovered accidentally that running at night enhanced this feeling of calm and order within himself.

He had come to understand he could evaluate how much frustration he was feeling from the rhythm of his cadence. As he would run, he could hear his cadence change from a strident, rushed pace and slowly evolve to an even, relaxed thump . . . thump . . . thump that meant he was in his zone. Normally by the time he heard that cadence, he found that he had come to an understanding with whatever had been on his mind. It did not mean he had resolved whatever the issue was, but that he had at least come to some kind of decision on the course of action that he needed to take.

Serla’s favourite location to run had to be the canyon park to the north of the city. The paths through the twisting canyons were clearly marked and easily read even in the middle of the night. The canyons added to his sense of peace as their solitary sound reflected back to him as his feet pounded the ground, rhythmically marking his place in time it seemed to him.

The maintenance systems for the park were configured to keep the grounds in as natural a state as possible. This meant the canyons would have small, natural drifts of fine dust in the corners. The walls of the canyons would have the thin growth of creeping vines that grew everywhere here. There was a buzz in the air from the small insects that lived under the vines. The smell of the blossoms filled the air. There were no problems with running in the park outside of town in the middle of the night. There were emergency response pads every hundred metres in the canyons. While the lighting was low, the park’s location this far outside of the city meant there was normally more than sufficient natural lighting from the stars for him to be able to make out the route. All of the intersections in the canyons were well lit, but they only used sporadic lighting, forming pools of light along the corridors.

Serla had noticed that two of the lights along the canyon were broken and figured that youths had come through earlier and been destructive. He knew that if he put in a notice to the park department when he got home, that someone would be out tomorrow to replace the lights. So he did not give it too much thought other than to mentally mark where the lights were, so he could pass on that information in the message.

As he approached the corner, he made a mental note that another light that had been knocked out. Serla barely noticed the other being in the corridor as he came around the darkened corner. He was just turning his head when he felt the impact across his chest. His momentum was too strong to be completely stopped, but the impact did result in him bouncing off the opposite wall and falling heavily to the ground, his chest struggling to get some air. All he could do was lie there, stunned, trying to get his breath back. He was in shock, wondering what could possibly have happened, when he noticed the other being standing there. The being let something drop from his hands, and moved toward him.

Serla opened his mouth to ask for help but could not make any sounds yet. He watched as the other being knelt down beside him and put one hand on his chest, firmly but gently, leaning over him. Serla thought it odd that the stranger’s face was blank, completely without expression. He was about to ask for help again when he saw the stranger move his right arm. Something stabbed into his abdomen. The pain was overwhelming but he could not get a breath to move. Then the stranger thrust and again . . . and again . . . and again. Serla felt the burning, tearing, of something stabbing into him, could see blood—his blood—flying up. The stranger’s hand stayed firmly pressed against his chest.

By the time that the stranger stopped stabbing him, Serla had been dead for several minutes. Serla’s abdomen and chest were thoroughly pierced with many stab wounds. The stranger did not say anything, did not take anything. He wiped the blade on Serla’s clothes, got up from the body and walked deeper into the canyons. Serla would be found six hours later by park maintenance staff.

*     *     *

The ship had been in orbit for many day/night cycles, the beings below would have described it as almost two weeks now. The ship had been under orders to be more vigilant than usual; there were to be NO mistakes. The locals would certainly have been alarmed if they could have spotted the ship hanging just outside of the atmosphere.

The Sel exploration ship was designed to be hard to notice, even to other Sel. So the technology available on the planet would have no chance of detecting any of the sleek curves or projecting sensor arrays. The ship used a combination of electronic masking, energy field distortion and an optical manipulation coating on the skin of the ship itself. Taken together, the ship did not even make a hole in space.

The ship normally had a crew of seventy-seven; the mission had necessitated the removal of the security module to attach the secondary data storage units, so it was running with a crew of forty-one. The usual sampling of all electronic communication and written texts was almost finished. The existence of the Internet had been a pleasant surprise. Getting connected to a worldwide-spanning network had made the collection of material very simple.

Once they had gathered all the physical and electronic data they could, the ship would complete the last task, getting a live sample. The Cilik had been briefed very intensely on the complexity of this mission and was under no misconceptions that his performance would be closely monitored.

The Cilik, whose given name was Wynloo, had been on dozens of sampling missions and well over a hundred exploration missions. His briefing prior to leaving on this one had been surprisingly long and thorough. No one had said why everyone was being so detailed in their instructions, as well as reiterating over and over that he be careful.

He had been more surprised when he had been told that for this mission, he would be bringing a backup to the usual restraint capsule, a chemical suppressant. When he had given the medical expert the look that said What am I supposed to do with that? they had reassured him it was only a precaution. That was not a reassuring statement.

Having spent the last few planetary cycles in orbit, and having spent some of the time viewing the data, the Cilik had to admit, this race was a little more inclined to violence than most he had encountered.

The Cilik had noted that the rearing of the young was left almost exclusively to the female of the species, so he had decided he would target a male. He wanted to take one from a more developed state, and he had noted in his report the disparity in education levels from one side of the planet to the other.

That being the case, it looked like the half of the planet with the largest concentration of land mass had entered what appeared to be a warming cycle, and this was provoking a lot more travel by individuals to more isolated areas, at least for some of the states.

The Cilik had identified the parameters to the AI for an ideal candidate and the AI had presented a number of suggestions. The Cilik had gone with the first one: it was as good a sample as any would be. It was a lone male, no habitation or any structures for many li in all directions.

The subject was armed with two projectile weapons and one melee weapon. They would be secured. They were simple chemical-based propellant, easy enough to neutralize. The Cilik had always been interested in bladed melee weapons; he was looking forward to seeing what this race considered a practical blade.

He noted the size of the subject, at least fifty per cent taller than any Sel on the ship. The scans had shown enough to see the subject was likely to be quite strong, and judging by the area and temperatures he was voluntarily operating in, likely quite tough as well.

The subject had set up some form of temporary structure on the lower slope of a dormant volcano. The Cilik had already verified that the volcano would not be going active any time soon. The space around the volcano was a reserve or park according to the AI, and not open to the public yet. Wynloo was not too sure what that meant but had guessed enough from the phrases themselves to accept the recommendation.

The Cilik was notified that all data collection had been finished. He signalled his pilot to initiate the capture.

Chapter 1

Life is warm. Life is heat. First was the darkness, then came Life. Heat brought the light. The darkness ran from the light on silent swift limbs. After a time, the heat and light brought the signs of Life. First were the plants and water, which would use the light and heat to grow. Then Life brought the animals, who would feed on the plants and water. When it was ready, Life brought the Sel, who would feed on the plants and the water and the animals. The Sel were Life made manifest.

—First quotation from The Way of Life.

Liuani knew that the Ostogot, the only pre-light avians yet discovered, had only developed the industrialized presses one hundred cycles ago, but occasionally she wished they used a better medium to write on originally than pressed plant skin. Some of the documents that had been brought back from their planet were almost impossible to read, even with the level of computer enhancement that she used.

She was fairly sure that she was eventually going to find confirmation that this batch of texts was proof of the third revision of the religious texts of the largest religion practised by the Ostogot. This revision was responsible, she was sure, for the change in emphasis in their concepts of creation and evolution of their people. She was sure that this would correlate well with the analysis she had performed on the Seralli texts. They, at least, wrote in a more enduring medium, so the older texts were still very legible. It made sense that, living in the water all the time, it would be a necessity to find some way to store information that could resist the eroding effects of the environment.

Either way, this revision by the Ostogot was very close to the Epiphany of W’ys, which was directly responsible for the Seralli to accept the evolution argument that caused the seventh—or was it ninth?—succession war within their only religion. She would have to make sure that she had that fact nailed down before she presented this project.

Liuani was taller than the average Sel. That was unusual, even for others from her birth group. Some of her colleagues had speculated before that this difference was probably one of the reasons she excelled so strongly in her field. Liuani has always felt a compulsion to learn more, do more, understand more. She found her competitive streak at a relatively young age and while she was not outstanding in sports or physical competitions, she reliably did well.

She stood 1.55 metres and had a distinctive colouration to her scales that also helped to make her stand out from her peers. Her peers had the more common blend of soft brown and yellow streaking to their scales with patches of dark brown or black on the back. Her full adult colouring did not come in until late in her development. Liuani had a more uniform base colouring of rich dark brown, but she had bright yellow—some would describe them as golden—streaks on her back with a single spot on the back of her head of the same yellow/gold colour.

She had been born in this city, one of the oldest in the Sel homeworld. You would not know from looking at it that this city dated back some 11,000 cycles. It had been updated as the technology advanced and had been lucky in its placement with no environmental issues to have to adjust to. The city identified its age in its name. Modern cities used a more reasonable naming convention, usually being named after someone who had become distinguished in their field that year. But this city had been named when such things were still done with the whimsical mindset of the early stages of Sel development. It was called Ootha Nasoo, meaning Shifting Wind in one of the older languages.

She had managed to get a break of half a cycle after her last research project, which was a good analysis of the potential of the Rotali. They were the most likely pre-light race to overcome the FTL barrier next. There was a lot of excitement when it was realized that they were experimenting with manipulating quantum entanglement. Their history showed that, for a while, they were focusing on the merits of ion propulsion systems, and they used that method to send drones throughout their own star system. But it was common knowledge that ion propulsion would not generate the necessary speeds for any useful interstellar movement.

However, about forty cycles ago, one of their scientists had a breakthrough, and the results were so significant that the majority of research for translight travel refocused. It did not take much more time before they were able to see the connection to quantum mechanics and the potential there. Currently, they had several competing groups working on putting together a successful test vehicle to try and prove the theory. Judging on how other cultures moved from this point, and on how the Rotali had been evolving in this field, they would achieve this soon.

Current speculation had them no more than ten cycles before they launched their first fold space test drone. That would certainly make life more interesting for them. The Rotali believed there was only a slight chance of life existing elsewhere in the universe. They were not elitist, precisely, just sure that no other race that might exist elsewhere could have endured the trials they had, in order to evolve to this point. Add to that the fact that there were only five planets in their whole system. There were signs that at least three asteroid belts in the system were the remains of planets, the cause of their destruction unknown.

The homeworld of the Rotali had a slightly erratic vacillation to it, which resulted in occasional seasons of extreme cold or heat, and meant that the planet had more active volcanos than any other habitable planet on record. The two moons that orbited the planet would not be a problem normally . . . except that they were locked in sync with each other and orbited the homeworld almost like a single body, one behind the other. This had resulted in a phenomenon that was not completely understood yet, but no one could deny that the planet had survived so far.

Liuani was a little concerned that this would be the fourth project she would present that dealt with a religious issue. She did have to admit that she had always found the mystery of the issue compelling. There was the innate connection between all the discovered races that hinted at some kind of connection between all of them. She knew that there was a large faction in the government that did not like to hear that theory, and that trying to prove something like that would be a quick way to end her career in Cultural Sciences.

It was commonly accepted that the concepts of the various religions of the different races that they studied were nothing more than ignorant attempts to rationalize the things that they did not yet understand. It was a common element to all the civilized races. Some of the races would move past this stage of development sooner than others, but all of the races that had developed faster than light travel had done so.

It was widely accepted that religion served an important function in different societies to allow them to cope with the vast unknown that became more apparent as their sciences opened up the world to them. Most of her colleagues were adherents to the Foloran theory that the purpose of religion was a necessary social construct. It provided a structure that the ignorant races could use to identify and control elements of their environment that they did not otherwise understand.

But Liuani liked her job and had no interest in seeing it come to an end to pursue a personal opinion. She knew that her position gave her access to a lot of information that would not otherwise be available to her. She recognized that being sensitive to the opinions of the government was a necessary price to pay to work for them. In return, though, getting access to the information that the research and reconnaissance missions brought back was easily worth it. She loved the opportunity to learn about these different societies. There had never been a time when there were six different pre-light races being monitored simultaneously. This was an unparalleled opportunity for her to study multiple independent societies while they were ignorant of other cultures.

Enough sand-gathering, she needed to focus to get the compilation finished on the Ostogot before she would be able to continue. Food would be good at this point. She put together a search-and-recovery protocol for her AI to retrieve all the information on file for the Ostogot first to fourth revisions, with all information on known political and religious leaders from the same times as the revisions. She decided to include any documentation on known dissident groups or activities that were happening at the same time. Now it was time to get over to the dining section for something sweet. It would take time for that to run and compile the necessary information anyway.

The dining facility was in another building; she figured this would be a good stretch of her legs. She could tell from the stiffness that she was not getting enough activity, but she would just get so busy on the research that time would slip away. Of course, that also explained why she was currently single while living in one of the largest cities on the planet . . . sigh. She never intentionally missed social engagements and appointments, she just got . . . busy.

Though, if she was going to be completely honest with herself, she would have to admit that intimacy was not high on her list of priorities at this time. The time that she spent on the Molir team provided a lot of the socializing that she felt she needed to prevent becoming a complete recluse. But she also knew that if she did not spend some time with her team, the VR matrix would pick up her stiffness and they would be paying for it with her decreased agility. They had managed to get to twelfth in their group of fifty. They were all excited; if they could just get into the top ten for their group, they would earn a slot in the city tournament.

Another body was found in the lower sewage tunnels today. This is the fourth victim since Vociim died in custody five cycles ago. The victim showed the same signs of mutilation and violent attack as the previous victims. The assailant obviously used a sharp-edged weapon of some kind. The authorities believe it to be a weapon with a blade length of between .25 and .4 metres. The victim had been reported missing after not coming home to his mate several weeks ago.

The report continued on as she passed the information terminal in the main antechamber before leaving the building. That was more than a little scary as far as she was concerned. Society had basically gotten past all forms of violent crime as the average level of education increased and poverty decreased. It had become blatantly obvious to all that those two categories were responsible for more social ills than had ever been suspected. The authorities would eventually catch the criminal and the assaults would stop. She hoped it would be sooner rather than later.

Stepping outside let her forget about the news broadcast, as it was a gorgeous day. The sun was high and there was no dust in the air. The sky was that rich blue that only occurred on the absolutely clear days. She could smell the plants, bushes and grasses in the courtyard; the Occrim blossoms were brilliant splashes of purple against the white-grey sandy soil. The scent of them moved with the breeze, giving the whole courtyard the tangy, sweet smell. The dining hall was in a shallow recess, slightly lower than the surrounding area. Today she had plans for eating at the indoor courtyard.

Midday meal was Liuani’s favourite. She had always been a slow starter in the day, so she never cared about what she had for her morning meal; normally, as long as it was hot and savoury, she was satisfied. But for midday, she enjoyed this meal the most, and today was Loa’tall soup and spiced Serath for the daily special. Today had been a productive day and so she figured she could reward herself with a treat afterward.

She sent a message to Rysal’s com. Rysal was supposed to meet her today to share the meal but her superiors would often assign her to complicated analysis due to her almost natural touch. A response came back almost immediately letting her know that Rysal was on her way too. She had met up with Surot, and he had decided to come with her.

She liked Surot; he was always willing to let her know whenever the Reconnaissance and Research teams came back with new information from one of the pre-lights. Surot came from this city as well. He was a cycle younger than Liuani. He had never showed the same interest in academic pursuits that Liuani, and especially Rysal, had. Surot had told her when they were first getting to know one another that he had always been fascinated by space and discovery. He had been an avid fan of the many specials on the entertainment broadcasts that had to do with space travel and exploration when he was quite young. As he got older, that fascination had turned into a powerful drive toward getting involved in any of the agencies that were involved in space exploration. He was one of the youngest to ever be assigned to the position he held. Liuani was sure that he would not be staying there too long; it was one of the paths that would allow interested individuals to take part in the actual reconnaissance missions.

Surot was very average in body colour. His body was an almost uniform brown, with faded yellow spots, each no more than four or five centimetres across, down his back and sides. He was the same