Disclaimer: I do not own the race of the Furians, the Necomongers, the Lord Marshall, Riddick and I do not own the character of Terran. However, I do own the name "Terran". I also own Pettra and Kraken.
Please, do read and review. :D
Unknown Origin
To any being other than a Furian, the city of Gorkrish was nothing more than the rough outline of dwellings carved into the face of the cliffs. However, to a member of the race that brought the city into fruition, it was home.
Home was a many-levelled complex hidden inside the cliffs themselves, with living quarters, dining areas and many other places. It was everything a city was supposed to be, and there were many like this one. What made Gorkrish special though, was a certain young Furian that just so happened to live there.
Terran stopped himself from grimacing as he and Kraken entered the room of the latter mentioned. Kraken was not a particularly tidy person, and though such things did not really concern Terran, he did not enjoy the task of having to navigate his way around the many scattered items that Kraken chose to litter his rooms with.
'Another look like that, and I might have to decide I don't like you coming in here.' Kraken jested, catching the distasteful look on Terran's face moments before he was able to hide it. The usually impassive, emotionless Furian tended to only drop his guard when in the presence of his most trusted, and Kraken fell into that category.
'You were saying…' Terran prompted.
'Right, yeah, about my father.' Kraken said, nodding as he slumped onto the tangle of sheets and mattress that served as his bedding. He offered Terran a chair, which the other Furian took, after removing several items of clothing and what appeared to be a bowl of half eaten food from it first.
Terran chose not to pass a comment on the living conditions of his friend, and instead watched the other boy intently; ears pricked and ready to listen.
'Well…you know that my father's on the council?' Kraken started, and Terran nodded silently. 'Yeah, well…the council wanted some spies getting out there,' he gestured with his hand to the window above his bed, and Terran took this indication to mean outer space. 'Apparently, lots of them were against it – you know what the older generations are like. They want to keep us secluded and isolated…'
'We chose not to form alliances with the rest of the galaxies.' Terran said, in defence.
'I know, I know.' Kraken said, waving his hand dismissively. 'I'm not faulting it; I'm just mentioning the key points, right? So yeah…loads of them apposed the idea, but in the end they had to carry the motion because things were getting…shifty…'
'Define that.' Terran requested.
'I dunno exactly, because my father wouldn't go into a lot of detail…something about a few freighter ships passing by that came a little too close for comfort – as in, they were checking out our planet.' Terran's eyes widened at this.
'No scout ships have ever ventured this far out.' He said.
'Exactly,' Kraken said, nodding quickly. 'They don't come out this far – why not? Because they know it's Furian territory. Well, according to the reports, they weren't standard freighters – get this – they were of unknown origin.'
'You mean…'
'Not standard issue – they belong to someone acting outside the control of the "galactic empire".' Kraken said.
'Don't call it that.' Terran said. At the querying look his friend gave him, he elaborated. 'You know what I mean. "Galactic empire". There's no empire.'
'No, but there will be.' Kraken said, gravely. 'And I'm not lying. The way my father talks, we'll be looking at one in the not so distant of futures.'
'Get back to the point.' Terran prompted.
'Right, yeah, the ships…well, so like I said, shifty. If we can't identify where they came from, then who knows who sent them? That's why they sent the scouts out. There were some old transport ships in a bunker not far from here – they sent a few groups out on a sort of…reconnaissance mission.' Kraken paused for effect, but continued when he realised he was only annoying his companion by hesitating with the story. 'Right…so, they came back and said that the ships were operating under orders of a mother ship – something big.'
'That's not very informative.' Terran commented. 'If all we have to go in is that it's "something big", aren't we, technically, defining half the forces of the Universe?'
'Okay, don't get cocky.' Kraken said, shrewdly. 'It's no joking matter. The teams boarded one of the ships and stowed away…took themselves right into the heart of this thing. He said it's some huge great big army of people – they're all very secretive, but they're also insane. From what my father described…well, I dunno…they just sound like they're serious. The team found storage rooms holding tons of junk, like collections of stuff taken from all sort of different races – but the worst bit is, they found who they belonged to, too.'
Terran felt a cold sweep of dread flood his stomach. He was not accustomed to feeling fear or worry; the closest emotion he experienced to those was apprehension. Like when he knew something was going to happen, and there was nothing he could do about it. Inevitability. He hated it.
'This guy, this scout…'
'Scout?' Terran said, blankly. Kraken gave him a confused look. 'You said scout. Singular.'
'Yeah, because only one of them returned.' Kraken said. The feeling in Terran's stomach worsened, like something was twisting inside his abdomen, clutching his internal organs in one almighty clasp…
'There's more, isn't there?' he guessed, by the look of seriousness on Kraken's face. The other Furian nodded, slowly.
'See; only one came back, but he knew what happened to the others. Said the same thing was happening to all of them – all these races. They were being "converted".'
'Into what?' Terran asked.
'One of them. Whatever they call themselves. The ones in the freighters, the ones on the mother ship…something's been done to them. They stop being who they used to be, and become part of the collective.' Kraken sat up straight and shrugged off the oppressing feeling weighing down on his shoulders.
'Where's the scout now?' Terran asked, after a moment of uncomfortable silence.
'Why?'
'I want to see him.'
It was testimony to their close friendship that Kraken even considered the idea of sneaking into the area of Gorkrish sectioned off for the council. However, Kraken and Terran had got themselves into many similar situations before, and a lifetime of narrow escapes had given them both a taste for danger. Besides, they saw it as sharpening their skills.
Not too many years before the present day, there had not been a council. The Furians had existed as more of a barbaric mesh of feral people with no order or structure. Then, came their saviour. A single Furian who saw the destruction his people wrought upon themselves, and stood up to save them all from extinction at their own hands.
His name was Rakis, and he was just one of the seven council members that had taken their positions in order to better the lives of the people. Their mains tasks were really just to sort out things that the rest of the Furians simply could not be bothered to concern themselves with. Politics was not a loved topic amongst any Furian, so it was quite an achievement that they had a council.
All of this history could be read in the tablatures stacked chronologically in their very own chamber of the council's quarters. It was this chamber that the two young Furians chose as their entrance into said area of the city.
By scaling the cliff walls outside, Terran and Kraken managed to climb up to the unprotected window of the tablature's chamber, and slip inside. It was dark and dank and smelled musty because of all the papers. The stones themselves were arranged so carefully, that neither boy dared touch one in case they disrupted everything. Their presence had to be completely undetectable. Even to a Furian.
Terran stepped up to the entrance to the chamber. Gorkrish, like all the Furian cities, had no glass and no wood. There was little technology, yet they survived. This was but one of the reasons why they enjoyed isolation from the rest of the Universe. They were not a people that appreciated other races confronting them with their advanced technology, their pointless gadgets and complex ideas. Simple was sound, to Furians.
The omnipresent gloom of the Furian world meant that the corridor beyond was dark and shadowed. Only Terran's Furian sight let him see through this dimness, and search for guards.
That in itself was not a common thing – guards were a rarity. They were only used to keep precious things safe, and Furians did not covet anything of particular worth.
'Let's go.' He whispered to his companion, and the two of them slipped out into the long stretch of deserted corridor and made their way down the hall, heading in a direction that Kraken was sure was correct.
However, they had barely reached the end and scanned the room beyond, when a voice spoke from behind them.
'And where do you think you're going?'
Thanks for much for reading!
Please R&R, it inspires me. I know I suck at regular updates, but the more response I get, the more I am spurred on to continue my stories…and I really do love the Furian race. It'd be a shame for Terran's story to just…end!
