Darwhan

Fire was spread across the Fehmadadi sky. There was panic
on the streets. A young mother was frantically searching for her daughter, who
was only four orbits old. The daughter’s point of interest, however, was the
young soldier to whom she had run. His name was Darwhan. His tall stature at 10
dinthets set him several thets above his colleagues. In each of his three sets
of arms, he held a rapid projectile launcher, making him a seemingly
intimidating figure. However, the girl knew better. He was her uncle, a very
kind man who would only hurt someone if it was truly called for. He normally
didn’t even use a weapon. He was a shield engineer, dedicated to preventing
injury. But today, as the sky was burning with the blue flames that this
foreign enemy’s weapons caused upon impact with the Fehmadadi fighters’ ships, he
was being called to the infantry in case of a ground assault.

Darwhan stooped down and set his uppermost weapon in its
holster on his back so he could pick up his niece. “Kahlisa, defri bara?”
‘Kahlisa, what doing?’ he asked.

“Kahlisa jibah felof Darwhan kired.” ‘Kahlisa
wanted see Uncle Darwhan.’ she looked up into his face. His eyes were sad. “Defri
perwha Darwhan kired?” ‘What wrong, Uncle Darwhan?’ This perfect example of
innocence did not understand that the fire in the sky was an attack on the
planet. Kahlisa only knew the joy of celebratory sky-fires. Darwhan smiled at
his niece kindly, hoping at least she would survive this whole ordeal, but as
he looked up at the first ship to reach below the clouds, he knew it would not
be so.

The 50-plinthet-long ship was long and elliptical, much
like a medicinal capsule, but with a bulbous aft. It was 10 plinthets in
diameter along the length of the ship, and the bulb at the end was 20 plinthets
in diameter. There were thousands upon thousands of massive ten-thet guns
constantly raining fire upon the Fehmadadi Defense Force. The propulsion systems
were a crude replica of a Fehmadadi Time Drive, but well-enough made that there
were no apparent signs of singularity erosion. Just when Darwhan thought he had
seen the worst these ships could dish out, he saw them. Emerging from a port in
the back of the ship, thousands of smaller ships were pouring out like a
blizzard of metal. They were as the darkness, silent but fearsome and deadly.
Each smaller ship had two guns that fired hot plasma in small bursts at nearly
30 bursts per camth. They rained fire upon the Fehmadadi fighter ships. The Fehmadadi Defenses had quickly been withered down to a mere ground force.

“Sha filan jibah serai kalaha. Defri kha bara serai
kalaha?” ‘God didn’t want such things. What devil does such things?’
Darwhan’s answer was to be soon at hand, for the enemy’s smaller ships were
returning to their larger ship. When Darwhan looked around for the savior that
caused this retreat, however, he saw only several more of the enemy ships
gathering up their small fighters. It was then that the voice burned down into
his mind and those of his companions and niece. It spoke in the universal language
of ideas.

‘You came to our worlds and fired upon our convoy. It was
then that we took it upon ourselves to fight back. When we disabled your great
time ship, we studied its technology thoroughly until we were able to build our
own ships even greater than yours so that we may destroy such a powerful enemy.
You have been judged by the Great Monarch himself. He has demanded your demise.
We assume this means you are the dreaded Murhans. You must now be destroyed.’

The larger ships retreated then into the sky, and the
voice boomed through the Fehmadadis’ minds again. This phrase was repeated over
and over again: ‘We are Thorlinthia. You are sin. We are justice. You will
die.’ It boomed through everyone’s brains as if the entire civilization was
screaming it at them at the same time. Everyone hit the ground screaming.
Everyone did but Darwhan. He looked up now, Kahlisa screaming in his arms to
make it stop, and he saw one more ship through the clouds. It was far up,
possibly even still in space, but Darwhan knew it was these Thorlinthians’ tool
of supposed judgment. Whatever was about to happen, it was going to be painful.
Darwhan then noticed that next to him was a strange looking creature. It was
some sort of bipedal mammal. It stood tall, taller even than Darwhan. It looked
over at Darwhan, calm and collected. It reached gently into his mind and
silenced the shouting of the Thorlinthians. It then spoke coolly into his mind.
‘I am sorry that this moment has come, but it has come nonetheless. I am
Jil’hanr. I am a member of a group of students of the universe called the Kuli.
You share some of our abilities.’ A flash of strange incidents through
Darwhan’s early life where Darwhan had exhibited unknown talents flashed
through his mind. He had learned to control these abilities at will, but rarely
used them anymore. They seemed unnecessary at most times. ‘You have potential
to become Kuli, and our members are few now, so I cannot allow you to die
today. Come with me.’ A ship shimmered into appearance behind Jil’hanr.

‘May Darwhan take Kahlisa with?’ Darwhan asked. ‘Kahlisa
has exhibited the same mind-speak ability Darwhan has, and Darwhan feels that
more abilities are beginning to show.’

‘Only if, on your command, she is able to shut away the
pain the Thorlinthians are inflicting on her. You must be quick, however. Time
is not on our side.’ Jil’hanr stepped toward his ship, seeming anxious to
leave.

Darwhan reached into Kahlisa’s mind and told her to shut
off the pain and follow him. She asked how, and he told her that she would just
have to know how to do it herself. She immediately lifted her head and stopped
screaming, drying her own tears and said, “Kahlisa berof.” ‘Kahlisa is ready.’
Darwhan walked into the ship.

Jil’hanr closed the door. It stepped towards the main
console in the center of the entry room, which seemed to be the only room. ‘The
Thorlinthians have mistaken your race for mine, I’m afraid. They have been
brainwashed, it seems, to wish revenge for being lunged into a new universe. We
don’t know what has happened in the past few star-cries, but your race seems to
have reopened the Galaxy Tear, and provoked the aggression of the now bitter
Thorlinthians. We should leave now.’ When its phalanges touched the console,
the walls lit up into a piloting display more advanced than Darwhan had ever
seen.

The ship quickly and silently rose up into the upper
atmosphere, where Darwhan could better see the Thorlinthians’ Armada. There
were at least 200 of the large ships. When Darwhan saw this, he gasped.
Jil’hanr spoke again, ‘The Kuli fleet was once a hundred times larger, but when
the Galaxy Tear first opened, its trembling in space-time destroyed most of it.
Only a few ships remain, and we are not in a position where we can yet expand
our fleet once more. We are rebuilding our numbers once more, but we are not
yet enough to stand up to the Thorlinthians. They were once a peaceful
civilization billions of years ahead of your technology, but the Galaxy Tear
destroyed their star system’s equilibrium. No one could have predicted that the
peaceful Linthians would become these bloodthirsty scavengers.’

Darwhan had a hard time believing these devils were once
a peaceful people. He then saw the judgment ship again. It had a bright red orb
hovering directly above it. As soon as Darwhan thought that it might just
explode, and his people would be saved, Jil’hanr turned to him, shook its head,
and said, ‘Watch.’

Darwhan watched as the orb descended into the ship,
pressing into a disk of light. The ship then began to spin rapidly, causing the
disk to expand. Darwhan noticed that another disk was expanding on the other
side of his homeworld. When the disk had expanded beyond the breadth of the
planet, the ship passed through the disk. The disk then fell like cloth around
the planet, covering an entire hemisphere. The other disk covered the second
hemisphere. When the light faded away, all signs of the planet having borne
life at any point were gone. Its oceans had been frozen into two icecaps, its
green terrain had turned red due to oxidation, and the great buildings that had
once stood tall in the cities had turned to dust.

‘This is a power of the Deceiver, an opponent of the Kuli
that has existed since our rise to power. They had been killed by the Galaxy
Tear but for one student who had only just learned this ability, which they
call Glascing. It is only one of their powers. Its destructive power is great,
but it comes at an even greater price. Every Thorlinthian on those two ships is
now in a comatose state and will die in eight days.’ Jil’hanr’s face expressed
what Darwhan could only describe as an avid disgust. The expression was only
there for a moment, but it was as intense as Darwhan’s newly-founded nausea for
this Deceiver. Then it was gone. Jil’hanr spoke. ‘We are about to enter
worm-space. It is a bit more turbulence-ridden than your Time Drives, but it is
faster, and it does not involve damaging the universal balances. You will learn
about those in your studies. Brace yourselves.’

It was then that Darwhan realized Kahlisa had been
listening as well. She had also located securing mounts on one side of the room
and positioned herself into one. Before Darwhan could do the same, Jil’hanr
lifted one set of phalanges up into the air, curled them into a ball, and
plunged it into the console. The console began to rapidly wrap itself up around
its arm like a vine. Once it had wrapped itself sufficiently around Jil’hanr’s
arm, it hardened again, and the ship imploded.

Or at least it felt like it. It had actually entered
another field of space-time. Darwhan had not been prepared for this and was now
being thrown violently around the ship as it wove its way through what seemed
to be a sort of asteroid field. ‘This is worm-space. Space correlates randomly
to each of these gateways. Only by using the mind-feel ability that all Kuli
are trained to use can one navigate worm-space. Flying in worm-space prevents
enemies from following us. We are almost there.’ Upon these words, the ship
flew straight into one of the asteroids and imploded again.

The first thing Darwhan noticed was that it was very
bright. Then he realized that he was not being tossed around anymore. After
that, he noticed that he was on a sort of bedding-like nest that was very
comfortable. He looked around for Kahlisa. He didn’t have to look for long. She
was in the nest next to him, sleeping. He then looked for Jil’hanr. It was
standing behind him, talking to another member of his species in a very
aggressive manner. They were not using the mind-speak, so Darwhan had no idea
what the topic of their discussion was, but it was apparent that they did not
agree at all.

“I don’t care what was about to happen to their planet;
the members of that planet aren’t ready to be taken in for Kuli training! These
creatures are not advanced enough in their development. Now if they fail the
Entry Carbint, they will have nowhere to go.” These were the sounds coming from
the creature, but Darwhan had no idea what they meant.

“I think the larger one is ready, and the little one
would not make a bad Soretto for him. We used to be protectors of the Great
Galaxy, but now that our own handiwork has been turned on others, we aren’t
going to clean up after ourselves?! We helped create the Thorlinthians, and we
should help destroy them!” Jil’hanr was adamant about whatever they were
talking about.

Darwhan attempted to communicate with Jil’hanr’s
conversation partner, “Garf’kan, Jil’hanr farjin Darwhan.” ‘Excuse me, Jil’hanr
saved us and we have no home left – we must stay.’ Upon this apparently
unexpected use of the mind-speak, the creature turned to Darwhan surprised and
said, ‘My friend, that is exactly the problem here. I am afraid your people
were not yet advanced enough to be brought here and the initiation required to
stay may kill you. If you do not go through the training, then you will surely
die as this is only a monitoring station with limited facilities – making the
training a requirement if you stay.’ Darwhan was saddened with this creature’s
lack of hope for them.

Darwhan said, ‘My people don’t believe in fear in the
face of ultimate choices. If the choice is mortal danger or death, we choose
mortal danger.’ Darwhan was quite adamant at this point. After seeing his
planet turned to rust, he had nowhere to go. The entire Fehmadadi fleet had been
brought back to Fehmadad to stand up to those Thorlinthians, whose aggression was apparently
due to these Kuli. ‘The other members of my race are all dead because of your
people, and I ask that we be given the chance to live!’

Now Jil’hanr spoke. ‘Darwhan, you have every right, in my
opinion, to become Kuli, as does your niece.’ Jil’hanr proceeded to speak to
the other, “I will administer the Entry Carbint myself. There is no need to
worry about either of them failing.” It nodded, now willing.

As the creature walked away, Jil’hanr turned to Darwhan
and said, ‘The Watcher is very strict, but he will remain true to his word.
You’ll be given your chance to live.’ As the Watcher entered his private
chamber, he grinned. His son acted and thought exactly as he, J’Homria, did at
that age. Exasperated, he began to chuckle. This Darwhan was indeed from a wise
race. It was a shame his niece would be the only Fehmadadi Kuli.