Start with Episode 01 of Kaylynn Five
Kar-Al-Lynn lead Alendar out of a cavern and into a vast chamber. A handful of Heragul installed lamps filled the chamber with a dim glow. Alendar walked to the edge of a cliff and peered over the ledge. Several Meters below, there was no ice. Liquid water boiled, spitting vapor in the vacuum surrounding them. The gas spit into the air and froze as each droplet contacted the chamber walls. Alendar’s suit chirped and his hud flashed at the high levels of radioactivity coming from the water below. Deep within the black boiling lagoon, multiple faint purple lights pulsed in a breathing rhythm.
“What is down there?” Alendar asked.
“That is what I have been trying to figure out. Something about these mountains made the radiation levels appear like a diffuse field from our warships above, but clearly we are dealing with a relatively small point source. The half life of the material must be relatively short as its heat is boiling the water.”
“Does this pool of water connect elsewhere throughout the tunnels?”
“It does. Several underground passages are sending the heated water through the caverns.” Kar-Al-Lynn replied.
“And the Purple Lights?” the Krylan questioned.
“I do not know yet. They have been here as long as I have been here. What ever are, they have been here for a long time. Radiological dating places the age of the youngest rocks around here at a million years, but the radioactivity has only been around for a short time. The last full scan seven years did not make any mention of the anomaly.”
A shimmer of red light cut between the Krylan and the Heragul. Kar-Al-Lynn motioned off towards the corner of the chamber and Alendar followed behind. The Krylan reached to the back of his suit, removing a rectangle device and attached it to the wall before exiting the large chamber. The two raced down the passage before rounding another corner before siting to the ground.
Kar-Al-Lynn glanced around, viewing the world through a thermal lens. Alendar stood out only slightly warmer than the walls encasing them. With the Surakari so close, Kar-Al-Lynn didn’t engage radio communication with the Krylan. Instead, he just watched his partner move his head around as if the Krylan was watching something move around. The Heragul remained silent and leaned his head back.
Two hours of Kar-Al-Lynn’s deep thinking was shattered by the voice of the Krylan, “The Surakari have been gone for about an hour now.”
“How do you know,” the Heragul asked.
“I have been watching them. Before leaving the chamber, I placed a full angle camera on the wall. It records the entire field of view and by moving my helmet, I can effectively move the camera.”
“What were they doing?”
“They pulled something out of the water. It looked like a fighter craft. On its nose, a small purple light was slowly pulsing.”
“There is a squadron of fighters in that ice?”
“There might be. The Surakari just left the thing sitting there,” the Krylan answered.
“Well, I guess this dig just went beyond my expertise. What do we do now,” Kar-Al-Lynn questioned.
“We hope someone finds us before the Surakari do. That is all we can do,” Alendar responded.
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“Do you know how serious this situation is?” Hal-Ax-Ti’s lawyer asked.
Hal-Ax-Ti lifted his head from his hands, “Isn’t this all the judges fault? He is letting that Krylan manipulate him.”
“Its not that simple to blame a Ky-Lon Family judge. The record is clear. It looks like you lied to the Krylan. What you told him differs from your log entry. Here is the latest evidence in the case,” The lawyer slid over a tablet.
Hal-Ax-Ti darted his eyes back and forth across the screen, “Alendar recorded our conversation! How is this legal? The Heragul Empire has banned one party consent audio recording.”
“Not in the Albion Prefecture,” the lawyer added, “Local laws override anything in the Empire standard legal code.”
“Do I have any options?” Hal-Ax-Ti wondered.
“Well, Kar-Al-Lynn and Alendar were rescued. You are lucky Mali-Lon had some powerful friends and left the right sensors in place to detect when the Surakari forces left. I might be able to get the abandonment charges dropped, but there is the mess of your academic career.”
“What about it?”
“It is in even worse shape. The university has not filed any sort of criminal charges, but it looks like your career is over.”
“Why?”
“Your rivalry with Kar-Al-Lynn is very well known. He won several prestigious awards instead of you. Even if I can get you cleared of the other criminal charges, your university sees this situation as an attempt to get rid of your top competitor in the field. Your sabotaged your own career.”
The End
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