The Scorpion Riders Of Candakor: Science Fiction

By Brian Carisi

The Scorpion Riders Of Candakor: Science Fiction

by Brian Carisi

 

 

 

 

On the planet Candakor-3 there are two rival groups of human descendants:

The Ada'an are one with nature and hate the Sudori who are entrenched in their cities against them and nature. And now the Sudori are about to break the monopoly of the IMPERIUM OF HUMANITY. The Sudori are developing the forbidden faster-than-light space travel and, because of Candakor's special cosmic position, are endangering the stability of the space-time continuum.

Jon Renard, the sub-imperator's agent, is here to stop that from happening. But he must tread carefully so as not to jeopardize the economic order: The Sudori have been members of the interstellar trade alliance for centuries. But the subimperator has taken precautions and prepared the Ada'an for his servant, in time to one day take advantage of this. For the good of the universe.

Now Jon Renard must prove himself - as this very servant and messenger - and as the long prophesied Messiah from the stars....

• Language: English
• Publisher: BEKKERpublishing
• Release date: Jan 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215535967

Book preview

The Scorpion Riders Of Candakor: Science Fiction

by Brian Carisi

On the planet Candakor-3 there are two rival groups of human descendants:

The Ada'an are one with nature and hate the Sudori who are entrenched in their cities against them and nature. And now the Sudori are about to break the monopoly of the IMPERIUM OF HUMANITY. The Sudori are developing the forbidden faster-than-light space travel and, because of Candakor's special cosmic position, are endangering the stability of the space-time continuum.

Jon Renard, the sub-imperator's agent, is here to stop that from happening. But he must tread carefully so as not to jeopardize the economic order: The Sudori have been members of the interstellar trade alliance for centuries. But the subimperator has taken precautions and prepared the Ada'an for his servant, in time to one day take advantage of this. For the good of the universe.

Now Jon Renard must prove himself - as this very servant and messenger - and as the long prophesied Messiah from the stars....

Part 1

The IMPERIUM OF HUMANITY is based on the prohibition of faster-than-light flight. It sounds paradoxical that effective rule over this unimaginably vast space, billions of light years across, should be based on the immobility of its inhabitants.

Samtong Gordis, an early dissident

*

Now that you know my story, you will become even more aware of what it means to be my servant, said the subimperator in the service of the galaxy-spanning IMPERIUM OF HUMANITY, an empire that had come into being in more than a million years. The subimperator of the local sector had taken the form of a young man.  His long hair fell down to his shoulders. However, his youthful appearance belied his true age. His existence had lasted for ages. Once he had been a man named Richard Berringer, but that was another story. Now he wore the outward appearance of a human being. But someone who had a life of more than a million years behind him could hardly be compared to an ordinary human being.

Rather with a god.

But it's all a matter of scale.

The subimperator continued, It's nothing more, but also nothing less, than maintaining balance in a huge part of the universe.

A balance that is constantly in danger, I concluded. My name is Jon Renard and I am nothing but a tool. A weapon in the service of the Subimperator and thus of the iron, unshakable order that the IMPERIUM OF HUMANITY imposed on the part of the universe that it dominates. 

You said it, the subimperator agreed.

A projection appeared. The three-dimensional image of a solar system.

The location of my next mission?, I asked.

The Candakor System.

Never heard of it.

How could it? It's an insignificant speck of dust in the void...

I see.

However, a speck of dust positioned at a very crucial point in the universe.

In one part of the projection appeared a smaller schematic representation, which contained more detailed information about the system:

CANDAKOR SYSTEM: A TOTAL OF FIVE PLANETS, NUMBER THREE AND FOUR POPULATED BY HUMANS. NUMBER THREE HAS AN OXYGEN-NITROGEN ATMOSPHERE AND TWO-THIRDS OF IT IS COVERED BY LAND. SALTY INLAND SEAS EXIST. CANDAKOR-3 HAS A DRY DESERT CLIMATE WITH TEMPERATURES BETWEEN -20° AND +50° CELSIUS. THE HUMANOID POPULATION IS DIVIDED INTO TWO CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY VERY DIFFERENT GROUPS: THE URBAN SUDORI AND THE NOMADIC ADA'AN. DUE TO THE LOW POPULATION DENSITY, THE TWO GROUPS, WHICH ARRIVED ON THE PLANET IN THE COURSE OF DIFFERENT WAVES OF IMMIGRATION, HAVE HARDLY COME INTO CONTACT WITH EACH OTHER IN THE COURSE OF THE LAST THOUSAND YEARS. CANDAKOR-4, ON THE OTHER HAND, IS AN ATMOSPHERIC ROCK ON WHICH THE SUDORI OF CANDAKOR-3 BUILT SEVERAL DOMED CITIES. PLANET 4'S ORBIT ALSO CONTAINS THE TERMINALS WHERE THE INTERSTELLAR CONTAINER SHIPS ARRIVE.

A rather insignificant system, I agreed.

I wondered about it in so far as my lord and master, the subimperator, had talked about the balance of the universe and similar meaningful things.

The subimperator smiled mildly. Yes, at first glance it may appear so. He let another projection come into being that illustrated the situation of Candakor. A projection that left nothing to be desired in terms of clarity and that also made sense to me at first glance. I drew my eyebrows together into a kind of serpentine line.

The Candakor system is yes...

...In the intergalactic void, the subimperator stated, nodding slightly. Yes, that is true.

How did the first settlers get there?

Maybe half a million years ago with the help of generation ships. Exactly one does not know it any more. Neither do I, by the way, which may actually seem impossible.... The fact remains that there are people there.

I asked the subimperator if the inhabitants of the Candakor system also came from one of the gigantic human factories, such as the planet Earth. But the subimperator answered in the negative.

No, that is not the case. As far as I know, no humans have ever been sent on the millennia-long sublight journey to Candakor in deep sleep.

Why not?

No one has any interest in increasing the population there either. Having people living there at all is not necessarily in the interest of the balance we're trying to keep the universe in.

Oh, no?

You'll understand soon enough.

This seemed to me to be very strange. Had the subimperator just told me that there were people in the Candakor system that no one had ever sent there? For half a million years already? And that he had nevertheless integrated the system into the interstellar trade network of container ships - just for half a million years?

My curiosity grew.

*

The cuboid container ship shimmered cobalt blue as it headed for the large, fully robotic orbital station orbiting the atmosphereless fourth planet of the sun Candakor in a geostationary orbit. The orbital station was located exactly above Gar Dana, one of three domed cities on the barren, rocky surface of Candakor-4. A shuttle flew past the orbital station in sub-light flight and set for landing.

The shuttle was robotically controlled.

There were a total of ten people on board.

All envoys from the Sudori cities on Planet Three.

Bulezos stood at one of the viewing windows and looked out.

The sight of an incoming container ship seems to fascinate you, Envoy Bulezos, a gray-haired man spoke up, his hair cut in a straight line above his eyebrows. Bulezos, a younger man, taller by almost a head, with determined-looking dark eyes, spun around. A thoughtful feature marked his face. His eyebrows formed a sinuous line.

No, fascination is not the appropriate term, Tamrin.

Which term would you prefer?

I don't know. In any case, I think we need to break the dependence on the interstellar trade network of container ships...

An ambitious goal.

Not if we can actually develop faster-than-light flight to the point where we can equip our ships with it as standard equipment.

Tamrin took a deep breath.

He crossed his arms in front of his chest, raised his eyebrows. He also looked through the viewing window. The cobalt-blue container ship slowly pushed forward through the almost completely black space.

These ships must have been on the move for centuries.

Maybe even longer.

They were controlled completely robotically and crept through the vastness of interstellar space in sub-light flight. Their seemingly endless journeys took them even to such remote places as the Candakor system, which floated far away from any matter in the middle of the blackness of space.

A forgotten accumulation of matter between galaxies.

I don't think it's wise to rebel against that power that is able to coordinate these container ships over such vast distances. It must be a gigantic organizational feat! Not only when you look at the spatial dimension, but also in terms of time...

The corners of Bulezos' mouth twisted mockingly.

There is no need for awe at all.

Don't you think?

These lords of the stars are not gods.

Compared to us, it does.

Not if we learn to use faster-than-light flight.

This will mean war.

War? With whom? With the pathetic Ada'an nomads who think that many of our technological achievements are sacrilegious? Bulezos laughed out. Or are you afraid of the mysterious powers beyond the great darkness interfering with our destinies?

Wouldn't that be a reason to be afraid? replied Tamrin with a counter question. His voice sounded absolutely calm.

Bulezos shrugged his shoulders. He despised the hesitation of the elders. For far too long, in his opinion, it had caused stagnation in the cities of the Sudori people. Both on Candakor-3, his homeworld, and on the fourth planet of this system.

Why should we be afraid of a reaction from these distant powers? asked Bulezos then, his mouth twisting in a way that gave his face a slightly cynical look. After all, punishment by the lords over the container ships cannot take effect for several centuries at the earliest.

What makes you so sure? was the skeptical retort.

The assembly of Sudori cities will decide.

Yes, and hopefully considering our future in the process!

Don't worry, the meeting will. In any case, I hope that this time the outdated stubbornness will not prevail.

*

Not far from the Candakor system, I had been launched from the subimperator's ship in a shuttle. A small one-man shuttle, which did not have any technical finesse.

The thing's job was simply to get me, Jon Renard, to Candakor-3 and drop me off safely on the surface.

I had a clearly defined mission.

As always.

There was a faction in the ruling class of the Sudori cities that did everything in its power to develop and unrestrainedly use faster-than-light flight. This could have disastrous consequences for the space-time continuum. For this reason, faster-than-light flight has long been allowed only for the units of the sub-imperators.

Otherwise, there was no faster-than-light space travel. And that had to remain so under all circumstances. As the subimperator had made clear to me.

Possibly the consequences would not have been so serious in any other x-anywhere place in the universe, as the subimperator predicted for the area around the Candakor system.

Because here the gravitational fields of several galaxies met in a very special, characteristic way. A circumstance that made the Candakor system a particularly sensitive point in the space-time structure from a physical point of view.

It represented a kind of junction. If an event relevant for the existence of the space-time structure took place here, as for example an intensified use of the forbidden overlight flight, then unpleasant effects in every respect and not foreseeable in their consequences were to be expected. As with the stimulation of an acupressure pressure point of the human body also effects on sometimes far distant body areas were provable.

My shuttle reached Candakor-4.

The Gar-Dosan orbital station, which controlled both the traffic of interstellar container ships traveling at sub-light speeds and the Sudori's intra-system space traffic, locked on to the on-board computer, began communicating with it. The ID code that the shuttle computer sent back would ensure that I could pass through without any problems.

My appearance would not attract further attention, would not alert anyone.

The technical capabilities of the Subimperator considerably exceeded those of the Sudori Federation.

And to keep it that way in a certain point, I had been sent here.

Meanwhile, the subimperator's ship was waiting outside the Candakor system. Although I asked myself often enough: Is it really a... ship? Or is it not rather... the Subimperator personally? If one was allowed to use the word personal in such a context at all...

How long will it take us to get to Candakor-3?, I asked the shuttle's on-board computer over the acoustic input.

Three standard days.

I sighed.

But at the same time, of course, I knew that faster transport was not possible. At least not without attracting considerable attention.

I closed my eyes for a few moments, visualizing the role I had to play after landing on Candakor-3.

You will be the emissary of the subimperator, it went through my mind. Recognizable by a star-shaped amulet, the technical inner workings of which will enable me to send out certain psi impulses....

The nomadic Ada'an were undoubtedly of human descent.

But in the eons that had passed since they settled on Candakor-3, they had changed. This was especially true of a certain sector of their brains, which was capable of emitting impulses that the nomads of Candakor used to control the Anfatoi: huge, scorpion-like creatures on whose giant carapaces they built their dwellings. On the back of the Anfatoi, they crossed the dust-dry, barren rocky deserts that covered most of the surface of Candakor-3.

And it was impossible to gain recognition among the Ada'an unless you were able to pilot an Anfatoi. According to legend, the LORD OF THE STARS had subjugated the Anfatoi to the Ada'an eons ago, ensuring the survival of the Ada'an on Candakor-3. A circumstance that had ensured that they worshipped him as a god.

The subimperator, I thought.

He had probably had a hand in the Ada'an's neurological change.

I refrained from checking the information memories of the shuttle computer for this. Possibly such information was not contained in the corresponding databases. And the fact that the subimperator had not told me himself was perhaps justifiable somewhere - even if it was simply because it was not important enough.

In general, as far as sensitive information in the shuttle's information storage was concerned: After all, it had to be expected that the shuttle would fall into the wrong hands after I landed.

At least it could not be completely ruled out.

And connecting with the subimperator was now no longer possible; the risk was simply too great.

The Federation of Sudori Cities was suspicious enough as it was.

Their decision-makers knew very well that they had to keep their plans for obtaining faster-than-light flight secret and that somewhere THERE, in the black infinity of space between galaxies or even farther away, there was a power that sought to prevent just that.

Three days, I thought.

Three days of rest probably remained, if nothing unforeseen happened.

And this was not to be assumed, given the state of affairs.

But then an extremely dangerous mission awaited me.

Me, Jon Renard, the servant of the SUBIMPERATOR, who was worshipped like a god by a part of the population of Candakor-3.

*

Three standard days later... 

Gar Maduna, largest spaceport on Candakor-3 and one of the most important cities of the Sudori Federation...

The great dome of an umbrella of pure energy arched over the city.

The storms of the third Candakor planet were murderous. They raced across the largely flat surface at hundreds of kilometers per hour. Atmospheric turbulence that was hardly slowed down.

There existed only a few notable rock outcrops. Tectonic activity beneath the surface crust of Candakor-3 was not worth mentioning.

Without the massive baffle, the slender buildings of Gar Maduna, stretching upward in cuboid or cylinder shapes, would have been leveled to the ground within a few months.

Only this protective shield ensured that the city remained as it was. An imposing sign of human civilization, far away from any accumulation of matter in the universe.

Another thing made the baffle necessary:

The rapacious Ada'an nomads, the first human settlers on Candakor-3, who still believed they possessed something like the right of first access and regarded the Sudori living in cities as godless sacrilegious against the nature of the universe.

Ruthless, merciless warriors they were, using their monstrous giant scorpions both as mobile dwellings and as weapons.

But an Anfatoi could not penetrate a baffle like that of Gar Maduna, not even with all his strength. That was impossible. And the Ada'an were as often involved in warfare with the Sudori as with their own kind.

For there was sheer anarchy among the various groups and tribes.

None of them would have accepted a supreme leadership or allowed themselves to be dictated to in any way. Again and again, there were bloody battles between them, which the Sudori tried to incite, among other things, by always supplying both opponents with light laser