Kal's Duty: Teristaque, #3

By Aaron Frale

Destroy her home world to save the galaxy?

Kal's not a murderer like her father. There must be another way. A darkness is poised to destroy worlds, and she's the only one who believes that it's a threat.

To save the galaxy, Kal must broker peace between two warring galactic empires and endure trials that test her strength, mental fortitude, and wits.

She also needs to connect with her father, a man she'd rather launch into the heart of a star.

Find out if Kal has what it takes to destroy what lurks in the dark, waiting to devour the universe, in the third Teristaque novel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aaron Frale
• Release date: Jan 20, 2025
• ISBN: 9798230493419

Aaron Frale

Aaron Frale writes Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy usually with a comedic twist. Time Burrito is the audience favorite. He also hosts the podcast Aaron's Horror Show and screams and plays guitar for the prog/metal band Spiral. He lives with his wife, his son, and two cats in the mountains of Montana.

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THERE IS NOWHERE TO run. The world is dead. The state is watching.

Olson lives in a city that has been sealed from the outside. He’s an Eleven Year and close to citizenship. His life is upended when one of the few adults who cares about him commits suicide - or so it appears at first.

While investigating, Olson meets a girl named Natalie snooping around his school. He soon learns that one of her friends died under similarly mysterious circumstances.

Together, they start looking for answers, and end up discovering the city's darkest secrets.

Claim your free copy Atmospheric Pressure today!

Part X

Kal’s Revelation

1

Grannork glared down at Hayden. The Orcandu’s breath assaulted the human's nose with the smell of burnt meat. The hulking creature grabbed him by the scruff of his neck until they were eye to eye. The muscular beast snarled, I should tear your spine from your body.

Then who’d do movie night? Hayden replied with a grin.

I missed your pizza, Grannork said, and brought in the scrawny human for a hug that was nearly as life-threatening as the other ways an Orcandu could eviscerate a guy.

The moment was surreal. The soldiers who had held them hostage and even beaten Grannork within an inch of his life were now helping them and under Kal’s command. Makiuarnek had given her a code, and his crew had to listen to her. Another group, the people loyal to Sarge, were led by Tomahawk, who seemed to respect Kal’s authority.

It was a motley throng of mercenaries, ex-IF, and escaped convicts assembled in the hangar of the alien megastructure. They all seemed to be gathering in their respective groups, while Kal had disappeared into the Dervish with Maker. Since Hayden didn’t have a place in any group, he gambled that his former shipmates would take him back.

For the most part, it was true. Now that they knew his reasons for joining the Fenrir, most were eager to accept him back. Cid seemed to be one of the holdouts. He regarded Hayden with a special vehemence reserved for people he despised. Hayden had attempted to apologize, but all Cid could muster was, We could have been killed, and he had turned to his bird companion with finality to the conversation.

Cid will come around, Grannork offered, following Hayden’s gaze.

At least he won’t be able to gore me, Hayden said.

They chitchatted about trivial matters, considering that they were in a hangar hidden on a planet that would be swarming with IF by now. If they attempted to leave, they would be noticed, and the entire might of the Interstellar Forces fleet would descend on the place if they hadn’t already.

From his service days, Hayden wagered that the IF had quickly mobilized orbital superiority and scanned the forests of Nigramoto for the Dervish. Even though their ship was the fastest, there was no way they’d break through the blockade waiting for them. They had been lucky when they escaped Earth. Now, the IF knew they were here and wouldn’t let them disappear again.

Tommy told Hayden that the atomic printers still functioned in the ancient alien megacity, so they probably had an endless supply of fish and other aquatic creatures the beings ate. They wouldn’t starve, but they also wouldn’t be able to stay indefinitely.

The megacity was not visible from the miners’ platforms to haul decrand from the interior. However, with the Dervish disappearing entirely from the planet’s surface and disturbance in the flow of decrand, it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that Kal had found another way below the surface. They would send probes to scan the interior of the Dyson sphere and find the megacity.

With limited options for retreat, Hayden hoped Kal and Maker were cooking up a brilliant plan of escape because Hayden was scared for the first time since joining Kal and her crew. However, he didn’t let anyone else see it. He was all smiles and grins, joking with the team and returning to his spot as the guy everyone liked, except Cid, and who knew what the birdman thought about anything.

The Teristaques will come for us, Grannork said, as if reading his thoughts.

Hopefully, Kal will have a plan.

She didn’t say anything?

No, not much.

During their ride on a platform back to the surface, Kal had been quiet. She was in one of her moods where Hayden knew it was better not to speak unless spoken to. Whatever happened in the singularity had profoundly affected her. Hayden had never seen her so grim and businesslike. She normally didn’t joke around too much, though Hayden had increased her appreciation of a well-placed one-liner. But now, there was obviously something on her mind. However, the best way to find out would be to wait for her to talk about it. Which, hopefully, wouldn’t be too long because she emerged from the Dervish with Maker.

Grannork’s voice cut through the chatter and echoed in the cavernous blue walls surrounding them. Everyone, listen up.

Kal addressed the assembled crews. It’s time to put aside your differences. I know we were enemies just moments ago, but what is waiting for us on the other side doesn’t care if you are a Human or Shusharhian, IF or independent. We are all in this together, and if we remain divided, we will fall, and if we do not rise to this occasion, every sentient being in the galaxy will be at risk.

A murmur swept through the crowd. Grannork silenced them. Hayden couldn’t stand it anymore. He had to know what had happened to her on the other side. What’s inside the singularity? he asked.

A shadow fell over Kal’s face.

The death of every sentient species.

2

Sarge, Makiuarnek and Kal nearly fell off the platform into the abyss beyond when it came to a halt on the other side of the singularity. Unlike the sphere that had enclosed the phenomenon on their side, there seemed to be nothing until they arrived at the mouth of a tunnel. Several platforms like theirs were waiting in a line where alien devices were producing the decrand stacks that would be sent to the other side.

Kal checked the oxygen supply on her suit. She had about twenty-four hours. The operation was a combination of ore smelter and atomic printer. The red-hot liquid was poured into a mold. It cooled almost as quickly as it was run, then was stacked on a platform.

It didn’t seem like the beings who created the setup intended on anyone coming through because the three had to jump quickly before the liquid decrand spewed towards them. Makiuarnek scooped up a decrand bar and jumped from the platform. He dashed toward the other end of the assembly, away from the liquid decrand, and jammed the bar into a gear, halting the works.

Kal and Sarge glanced at him, and Sarge muttered, We are gonna need that to get back, you know.

Makiuarnek responded, We’ll figure out a way back. In the meantime, let’s look around. 

Once on the other side of the decrand-producing machinery, they sized up the place. The space was cavernous, easily larger than the biggest Teristaque vessel. Either the beings were giants, or the tunnel was intended to move more than just the decrand through. The tunnel walls were bony, black, and looked more like the esophagus of some demonic creature than a structure created by a sentient species.

There was a series of bridges and larger platforms off to either side of the tunnel. They didn’t have the same architecture as the walls, as if they were built by a different species. It was metal scaffolding with curves and bowed structures rather than bony.

Sarge scanned the area with a computer display that hovered above his arm and said, Definitely ain’t human.

Makiuarnek frowned and said, I forgot how literal you are. Does the architecture remind you of any particular species?

As I’ve been hiding in the woods fighting for my goddamn life, how would I know?

It’s a simple question.

Kal charged her plasma rifle and said, Stop before I reconsider patricide.

Kal had gone from having zero fathers to two too many. While her genetic father was a psychopath who killed her mom and her village, he was useful for the time being. They were in a situation where a man of his talents might be the only way to survive. While Sarge felt more like a father figure, she had a hard time forgiving him, too. She understood now that the tracking device he had given her was disabled, but he had still led her on and then left her when she needed him most.

It didn’t take much to see that she was truly Makiuarnek’s offspring genetically. She had light green skin and black hair. While her skin tone could have come from Makiuarnek and the hair color from Sarge, as there were cases of two males both contributing to the genetics in the offspring of her species if coupling happened quickly enough, she didn’t need a genetic test to see that her features, skin, and probably even off-colored hair came from Makiuarnek.

What baffled her most was not the fact that both of them had abandoned her as a child. She realized that neither of them knew her mother had a kid. She could forgive something done out of ignorance. The part that perplexed her was how both reacted to the news that they had a child. Makiuarnek slaughtered her village and spared her. Sarge just pretended like he didn’t know what was going on.

The most unsettling aspect for her was that she almost understood Makiuarnek's decision. The man was a killer that would do anything to get what he wanted. She could see that side of him in herself, although she would like to believe she would never murder innocent people to achieve her goals.

The most perplexing part was why Sarge didn’t say anything. While she was not the master of human emotions, or even her own, she couldn’t understand why he’d bottled up something like that inside. Life would be so much easier if people would just come out and say it. She wasn’t going to keep things inside anymore.

Kal programmed the med pack on her suit to take a blood sample. It produced a cartridge, and she presented it to Sarge.

Can you scan this? she asked.

Sarge frowned and said, Yeah, what are you looking for?

DNA. I want to settle this once and for all because I don’t need you two competing for my affection.

I was doing nothing of the sort, Makiuarnek protested.

Don’t even think I can’t see through your attempts to make Sarge look foolish. Let’s do a DNA test and settle this once and for all.

Makiuarnek plucked a hair from his head and said, If you think I put such petty concerns above the survival of our species, then you are mistaken. But let’s do this if it lets you focus on the task at hand.

Kal seethed with rage because he turned his back on her. She would have held him under the molten decrand for her mother if not for the fact that she knew that her mother and her people would rather see her practice forgiveness. Even though the high road was a difficult path to walk, she’d do it for her mother. She took the hair and gave it to Sarge.

He took a spot of his own blood and fed all the samples into the med pack on his suit, then confirmed the results. Makiuarnek was indeed her father, and Sarge only matched in the way a human compared with any other human. But despite not sharing DNA, she knew whose side he was on if Makiuarnek ever became a problem.

If Makiuarnek was affected by the results, he didn’t show it. The man was under the delusion that he was merely training her to be a tool to cross the threshold of the singularity, while the reality was that if he needed a Nigramotoian to cross, any would do. No, the reason he let her survive the murder of her village was that deep down in his dark soul, he loved her. She didn’t love him back.

One more thing, Kal said. Consider this a promotion.

She grabbed Sarge’s hand and connected to the med port on his suit. She had several brain implants available for field promotions. She transferred it to him, and his suit injected it into his body. It will help us communicate, she explained.

Right, dads, Kal said. Want to see where this dark and foreboding tunnel leads? She pointed her gun into the distance.

Makiuarnek pulled a piece of gear from a utility belt. It was a tiny probe shaped like an insect. He activated it, and the thing disappeared into the darkness at incredible speed. After a few moments, he said, The tunnel goes on for quite a ways. It’s safe to assume that if we want to get to the other end, we’ll need to acquire a lift.

He shared the drone’s display with her, and Kal could see its progress through her implant. The walls of the tunnel were a blur. They spread out to search for a means of transportation. In the meantime, Makiuarnek’s drone got farther and farther along, with no end in sight.

They made their way onto the large platforms connected by stairs crisscrossing up either side of the tunnel. It reminded Kal of the scaffolding she had seen around ships in orbital shipyards. Whatever ship might be coming through here could be massive. Easily the size of a floating city.

There was what might be a control panel in the center of each platform, but it was just a large bowed hexagonal pillar with holes on different sides.

Eventually, the probe thing had flown the distance it would take for them to walk in a day. Either they had to figure out how to get one of the platforms moving, or they would be heading back with more questions than answers.

Kal was surprised that no one had come to check on the broken decrand works by now. There was also a possibility that no one was coming. Perhaps the apocalypse Makiuarnek saw in his vision from Guardian would never come to pass. The evil that lurked on the other side of the singularity could be as dead as the Guardians. Either way, the liquid decrand supply was piped from somewhere and finding out where could ensure the safety of the people of her planet.

They were just at the point of going to the next platform when Kal realized the holes were controls. She had brushed against the bowed pillar, and it opened to reveal three globular bubbles embedded under the holes. The bubbles were white, red and green, with the white giving off a faint glow.

The interior of the holes was biological and slimy. It was about the width of her finger, and she stuck the tip into one, but it wasn’t until she put her middle finger in the other one when the light turned from white to red.

I think I found something, Kal said. She wiggled her fingers that were about halfway inside and could feel soft and hard spaces. It feels like an interface.

I haven’t seen controls like these before, Sarge said.

Many species use biological interfaces, Makiuarnek said. The Casothurmps have computer control stations that are the equivalent of sticking your head into a bowl of pink gelatin. Perhaps there are more interfaces like these on the machines that produce the decrand.

While Kal fiddled with the controls, Sarge and Makiuarnek went up and down one level and found more of the three globs and two holes on other platforms and on all the machines. They were trotting back towards Kal when her fidgeting made the red-light flicker. They heard a noise from the tunnel. It sounded like the rushing wind.

What’d you do? Sarge asked.

I wiggled my fingers and must have activated something. It’s hard to tell because I feel only hard and soft in my space suit.

The wind got louder. Sarge sized up the void and said, I don’t like it. Can you change it back?

Kal attempted to reverse what she had done but nothing happened. The roar was getting louder. She tried to pull her fingers free, but they were locked into place.

A little, help? Kal implored. Please.

The sound of wind grew in intensity as Makiuarnek and Sarge tried to free her. They scrambled to get her fingers free from the slot. The feed from the drone cut out, and the roar of the wind was deafening. A light appeared deep in the tunnel and grew quickly in size.

The phenomenon that roared through the tunnel toward them seemed like it would knock them back into the oblivion of the singularity. However, it stopped just a couple of meters from their location. A shock wave from the braking motion blasted anything that wasn’t secured. A shimmering barrier protected them from being flung from the platform. A bar of unsecured decrand flew off towards the singularity.

The bar hit the event horizon and disappeared as if it were passing through a viscous membrane, along with molecules displaced by the incoming object. Space wasn’t as empty as some thought. A ship going fast enough would collect particles, mostly hydrogen, and engineers had to figure out how a ship going faster-than-light wouldn’t get shredded by them.

The barrier that had protected her disappeared the moment the displacement settled. The slots let her fingers go, and the third glob now glowed green.

What had arrived was a new platform with the same structure as the other ones on the scaffolding. It had stopped a few levels above theirs, farther down the tunnel. They trotted up to the new one and found it was identical to the others. It was empty, other than the pillar in the center of the platform that went up to about shoulder level. Kal waved her hands, and another panel opened.

It was the same three bulbous lights and two finger holes. The green one was lit, and the red and white were dark. Kal went to stick her fingers in the holes, and Sarge grabbed them.

You sure it’s safe? he asked.

There’s only one way to find out. She yanked her hand away and thrust her fingers into the sockets. She wiggled what she thought was the activation sequence, and nothing happened. She tried a couple more iterations, and the platform buzzed. There were a couple more warning buzzers, then the unit lurched away from the scaffolding towards the tunnel.

It was slow at first, but without warning the thing took off at an incredible pace. However, the microgravity generators were powerful enough to prevent them from feeling like they were in motion at all. The indication they were moving was the glow caused by particles hitting a barrier and the deafening roar of the wind.

Just as with the first one, Kal’s fingers became locked in place, and the red bubble was lit. After a few minutes of travel, they reached their destination, as evidenced by the seemingly instantaneous halting of the transit and the same blast of air.

A set of stairs unfurled on the other side and rose from their field of view. Kal’s fingers were released, and they moved to the platform’s edge to explore. It was the other end of the tunnel, with a sheer wall on the other side, and a hexagonal door a little over midway up. The stairs led right to the door.

Sarge did a few scans and whistled.

What? Kal said.

Seems we are about 5.4 light years from our original location, he said and showed the results on his scanner.

That can’t be right, Kal said. Even my ship can’t travel that fast.

There could be a fold in space, Sarge suggested.

My drone would have gone through it, Makiuarnek said. It had been gone for hours with still no end of the tunnel in sight. This platform crossed the distance in a fraction of the time.

You’re saying this is a five-light-year-long tunnel? Who has the decrand to pull that off?

They have enough to give it away.

Either way, Kal reminded them, they are more advanced than any of us. I suggest we do enough recon to plan our next move and get out of here as fast as possible.

Agreed, Sarge said. Seems like there is atmosphere beyond that door. It’d sure be nice to get out of this helmet.

Makiuarnek nodded even though he didn’t need a suit. The mutations caused by the green metal flowing through his blood had granted him some resiliency that would be useful so long as he didn’t turn it against Kal. Despite their temporary alliance, Kal would be a fool to trust him fully.

Let’s open it, Kal said. Makiuarnek, will you do the honors?

A natural leader. The Captain of the Fenrir grinned back at her as they began climbing the stairs with him at the lead. I’d expect no less of my daughter.

If they were going to spend prolonged time together, she would have to talk with him about his need to constantly remind her of her parentage.

At the top of the steps, Makiuarnek waved his hand on the side of the door until he uncovered another panel. However, this