For those of you who remember a story I wrote with Craig (faroutsider) in January, this is the prequel to that story. When we originally started writing what was then called Predators, we had no idea it would take on a life of its own! We dashed it off as a lark, but both of us continued to think about the characters even after we had finished the story, and agreed that when time permitted, we would pick it up again and flesh it out. Two months ago the opportunity presented itself. Craig began a new series of images, and we started writing. What fun we've had! Working with Craig is so easy. Our ideas dovetail, we feed off each other's creativity, and the process has been a blast! Craig has posted his images, along with parts of the story, in his gallery. You can click on the thumbnails to see the larger images. They're certainly worth a look ... Craig's art is fabulous! SHADOWS Prologue Margaret heard the faint zap of an inter-dimensional translation portal closing and knew Macali had returned. There was no reason to speak, no reason to move, no reason to defend. The Opae could not harm her, and whatever Macali had to say could wait forever as far as Margaret was concerned. Three months in Macali's company had produced neither friendship nor animosity. They understood each other in a limited way. They were both weapons forged out of need, trained to the target. How ironic that they couldn't kill each other or even put a scratch on the other's armor. Something about the inter-dimensional vibration of their respective clans allowed them to see and hear each other, but they couldn't actually touch. The concept of alien did not begin to describe their differences. Part One Macali shuddered as she saw the immensity of the structure. The tower was over eight hundred meters high, supporting four arms each stretching over half a kilometer in length and terminating in docking bays big enough to accommodate the largest of the Opae's intra-atmospheric craft. Where had these aliens come from? Should she transport back to her laboratory and make preparations to move her operations to another location, or should she wait, observe their movements and decide whether they were safe to approach? Would their sensors pick up traces of her translation portal, or would she be safer moving about on foot? And why had she not brought any weapons with her? Macali quickly scanned the structure with her visual, olfactory and auditory receptors, but did not receive any information she deemed useful. Not that she ever did. It sometimes mystified her that she even bothered. She engaged the smallest tip of her trans-dimensional sensors. The microsecond her trans-dimensional probe detected a presence, she began to receive a message. Damn! She had never encountered any entity but members of her own clan who could do anything but dimly sense a trans-dimensional probe. The message was not Opae. These were not her people. What in the name of the nine-fold matrix had she opened herself up to? Communication Received We Are Here Request Open Portal Assignment Follows Assignment follows? Macali shut down her probe immediately. It had not been her intent to communicate, only to scan. From time to time she had come across a civilization that knew something was out there, and twice she had encountered beings that went on high alert when her trans-dimensional probe was active, but she never expected anyone to become aware of her and certainly not to be able to communicate trans-dimensionally! Macali quickly set up a discreet subroutine that would trap a trans-dimensional communication. It was a simple enough thing, and one any Opae could have done just as well. Once it was complete, she opened the single-input channel and allowed the message to filter through. Location Fixed Prepare To Transport Aboard Before she could shut down the channel, Macali felt the familiar tingle of passing through a trans-dimensional portal, but the intensity was far greater than she had ever sensed before. She experienced a profound jolt of disorientation as her spatial displacement sensors told her she was not in the aliens tower on Urth, but in a space station almost half a light-year beyond the Oort cloud of the home system. "That's not possible," she said under her breath. "Be prepared to accept many things that you thought were not possible," said a voice behind her. Macali spun around and adopted maximum defensive posture. Two female humanoids stood calmly looking at her, showing no signs of threat, but Macali remained on high alert. These two were unlike any beings she had ever encountered -- they had standard humanoid forms apart from their exotic blue skin and long pointed ears, but Macali could not get any readings from them at all -- no thermal or electromagnetic readouts, no pheromones or other chemical markers. Macali was out of range of the Solar DataWeb, but a quick scan of her internal databases confirmed that the Opae had no such beings on record. She entered a new record in the database under the filename Shadows. "Who are you, and what do you want with me?" Macali asked, still crouched in defensive posture. "How have you managed to transport me so far through a standard translation portal, and how did you manage to do so without me initiating any protocols from my side?" "Welcome, Macali of the Opae, we have been waiting for you," said one of the beings. "We are Azinorc and Uven of the Beridae. We mean you no harm. You will have all of your questions answered, and more besides. Walk with us -- there is someone who has travelled many light-years to meet you." Macali slowly relaxed her defensive posture and stood up. Although she was still highly suspicious of these strange beings, she realized that she was cut off from her own people and resources and had no option other than to go along with her "hosts," at least until she had more information. She asked them to lead the way and Uven, the silent one, set off quickly down the corridor. Walking slowly with Macali, Azinorc made a gesture with her hand and a set of glowing data cubes arranged in complex nested spheres appeared floating above her palm. "This is a data matrix designed to interface with your systems," she said. "It will answer many of your initial questions and will prepare you for the meeting with Augidarr and the others on our council." Seeing Macali hesitate, Azinorc looked puzzled. "You are in conflict with humans, are you not? We are here to give you the means to end the deadlock and finally claim this sector for all Opae." Gaining an advantage over the Opae's nemesis clan was information she could not afford to ignore, no matter its source. The battle between Opae and Human, if it could be called a battle, had been continuing for more centuries than anyone could say. The fight consisted of occupying territory and making use of resources, making sure the asteroid mines and other energy wells were available when needed. Opae and Humans could not physically affect each other. They could not touch. Their weapons were irrelevant. They could only occupy the same overcrowded space, vying for what they needed. Macali was a warrior of the highest order. Her superior ability in navigating the nine-fold trans-dimensional matrix, along with the cutting-edge tech that had been installed in her physical form made her one of her people's finest assets. It was her duty to learn everything she could, while avoiding being taken prisoner. Macali had no fear. She was not programmed for fear. The Opae had no need of fear or anger, grief or joy. Investigating and reporting back on this newly encountered clan was her primary duty, and she would use every advantage she had in order to perform that duty. "I am ready to receive information," Macali said to Azinorc. "Lead the way." Uven and Azinorc resumed their relaxed pace down the corridor, Azinorc making a simple hand motion as she walked that caused the glowing golden cubes and spheres to collapse and disappear. Although Macali did not sense a trans-dimensional shift, she assumed the device had been sent through a small portal. "Augidarr is already waiting to speak to you," said Azinorc in her melodious voice. "She is eager to make your acquaintance." Macali nodded once, politely, acknowledging the comment but contributing nothing further. The Beridae females stopped in front of an archway that led into a room where a third Beridae female stood with six others behind her. She did not waste time in pleasantries. "I am Augidarr. Welcome. I know you have many questions. We have much to share. If you will allow, we will show you how to interface with our equipment so that you may learn in the most efficient way. Azinorc has shown you the kalilja?" "Kalilja?" Macali asked. Azinorc made the same gesture she had made in the hallway, and the beautiful data cubes and spheres reappeared. "This is a kalilja," Azinorc told her. "Ah yes," Macali replied. "She has, indeed." "If you will take it in your hands," Augidarr continued, "you will begin to receive information almost immediately. You will be able to ask any questions you like, and you will receive answers." Macali did not need to debate. Her role was clear. She set up record, backup and emergency auxiliary channels. If anything happened to her, other Opae would be able to access her files and would know everything she knew. She held out her hands and received the kalilja. She immediately felt a trans-dimensional shift, and her awareness, her consciousness, was inside the kalilja. There was so much information there, she didn't know if she would ever finish learning, or if she would ever get out! She set up as many data-transfer links as she could, effectively allowing herself to be in nine places at once, and began the download. "Can you hear me, Macali?" Augidarr asked. There was no response. Macali was as still as a statue, eyes blank. "Excellent," Augidarr said. "Excellent." As she tumbled through data space, Macali struggled to keep track of the nine simultaneous downloads. There was an astonishing wealth of data on the humans contained in the kalilja: science and technology, weapons development, space travel, mathematics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, literature, even musical form and structure. Macali briefly wondered if the Beridae's files on the Opae were as comprehensive, but then shifted her focus back to task and hand and continued to filter the data stream. The constant arms race between the humans and Opae went beyond weaponry. Each clan utilized energy sources in unique ways that continuously widened the dimensional phase shift between them, while at the same time accentuating their stalemate. Macali attempted to probe the historical roots of the conflict to fathom how to breach the divide between the two clans, but every time she approached the files that promised to reveal the source of the conflict she was met with a powerful firewall that even her most ingenious subroutines could not circumvent. Why would the Beridae want to hide that information from her? They had promised to give her the information she needed to break the deadlock with the humans, but seemed to be actively preventing her from obtaining the information she really wanted. Each of the nine Beridae council members monitored one of Macali's data links and reported the direction of her investigations to Augidarr, who was personally shadowing the Opae's primary persona. "Keep Macali away from the files detailing the primary disentanglement of the Opae and humans," Augidarr squirted to the council members. "Under no circumstance is she to discover that we initiated the split. That will only distract her and turn her on us. We must keep her focused on the humans." Augidarr was surprised and concerned that Macali had homed in on the historical roots of the conflict as soon as she entered the kalilja. Perhaps she had miscalculated just how far the Opae had evolved since the Beridae had created the phase-shifted split to neutralize the growing danger that the technologically advanced but psychologically immature humans were presenting to the entire sector in the galaxy. The conflict between the humans and Opae had effectively stopped the human expansion into deep space, but both groups were now poised to launch seeding fleets into the galaxy, despite tying up each other's energy resources... Macali sensed a transitory weakening of the firewall and immediately drove a data wedge into the gap. The breach lasted less than a microsecond, not enough to make sense of the jumble of files detailing tampering with the human genome, nanotechnology, neural and endocrine implants, even manipulation of the quantum superposition waveform. Then the firewall came crashing down again. Augidarr cursed her momentary lapse of concentration and immediately initiated a data worm to wipe all traces of Macali's incursion into the disentanglement data space. Macali felt a searing pain as the worm invaded her neurons and circuitry, and her brief glimpse of the details of the disentanglement dissolved away... Macali winced with pain, but kept all nine data-transfer links wide open, letting the information flow into her processors in a flood. She would sort it all out later. Pain was immaterial. For now, she needed to collect every bit and byte of data she could gather. The longer she was in the kalilja, the easier it was for her to monitor and direct the flow. Her memory systems should be more than enough to hold everything she was receiving. One of her Opae colleagues once told her they used less than a tenth of their storage capacity. She had not contradicted her colleague, but was aware that her own capacity was much larger than ten times what she used. There were vast blank spaces inside her, available for an as-yet-unknown future. Some small part of her internal senses had flashed a tiny red light, and she did not pursue the conversation. She monitored the data links. All indicators continued green, and she returned her attention to the firewall. Twice more she was able to find her way in, and twice more she was rebuffed. The pain from the data worm was nothing. Macali sloughed it off into one of those vast reservoirs of hers, hoping some of the information would stay with her. She labeled the seemingly empty files with a code only she would recognize, and let the information and the pain flow through. What had been difficult at first now seemed like second nature. It seemed as though she had been made for this. At last the flood eased to a stream, and then to a trickle, and finally stopped. Macali knew she had everything she was going to get. She initiated the protocol that brought her out of the kalilja, reinstating herself fully into her physical form. "You've come back on your own," Augidarr's voice was even, but Macali saw the surprise behind those calmly neutral eyes. "Yes," replied Macali. "I believe I have received all the information my memory will allow." She did not mention the data worm. It was better for Augidarr and the rest of the council to believe she had no idea of what had transpired while she was in the kalilja, and of course they would not mention it. "The information you have received about the humans should enable you and your people to break the deadlock between your clans," Augidarr told her. "While you are organizing the data, you can begin the first step of your assignment." Macali nodded her head in acknowledgment. "You have the ability to collect humans and keep them in a temporal vortex. Having human specimens available to study during this phase will enable you to more efficiently process the new data we have given you. We will be in contact and will advise you further in the fullness of time." It was an odd expression Augidarr used, but Macali kept her expression neutral, expressing no surprise. Two lights - no - three lights, two red and one orange, blinked slowly on and off in the background of a group of her internal subroutines. She silently marked the files for later review. "We will send you back to your planet now," Azinorc's musical voice came from behind her right shoulder, and Macali turned to face the Beridae. "Walk with me." Azinorc turned, Uven at her side, and the three of them stepped out into the corridor. Macali was aware that she now had the ability to return herself to her own world, but she allowed the two Beridae females to think she was still in their capable hands. Sometimes it was better to remain silent. ................. Part Two tomorrow ...