HYPERLANES

Fiction Collection
Developer Ryan Chaddock
Writing Sharang Biswas, H. C. Hatcher, Jordan Marshall,
Benjamin Riggs, Laura Yan
Creative Director Avery Liell-Kok
Layout Katherine Gohring, Ryan Chaddock

Copyright 2017 Scrivened, LLC

ii
 HYPERLANES Fiction Intro

Table of Contents

Disclosure by Jordan Marshall 1

The Android and Her Boy

The Archive by H.C. Hatcher 5

Tonight by Laura Yan 9

The Pilgrimage by Sharang Biswas 11

iii
 HYPERLANES Fiction

Disclosure
by Jordan Marshall

It hung in the center of the containment room, cool indigo Gus cast a magnified section of the artifact to Jaxon’s uplink;
surface drinking in the pale, clinical light of the labs a motionless set if interlocking platinum hexagrams in the
containment chamber. When Jaxon had signed on with middle of the device.
captain Batten and the crew of the Aurora two months after “What am I looking at?”
his graduation from university, his imagination had conjured
strange, insect like shapes, in dull greys and harsh, burnt “This part of the surface distorted when high amplitude lasers
oranges. When one of the Tethys’ atmospheric technicians had struck that area in an attempt to gain a material sample. It’s
first cast images of the artifact, he had been stunned by the possible that the artifact is using light to obfuscate an interior
mollusk shell shape and the flowing platinum forms flowing access point.”
over the surface. Jaxon left the containment chamber and headed to the back of
“It’s beautiful,” his whisper seemed out of place in the quiet the isolation pods main lab. The pod tethered to the Aurora,
lab. deployed to study the unknown alien artifact in safety.
The Tethys had been at work at work for six months at the Jaxon returned with a micro lens and a pen light. Despite
edge of SD/3397, a solar system at on the periphery of the the difficulty of working in the stasis suit, he wanted the
Humanities’ colonization efforts and the territories held by opportunity to observe the artifact himself. Stiffly, Jaxon
the Baronies. Contracted by the navy, the Tethys was in the knelt beside the artifact and his gloved fingers and camera
process of transforming a lone planetoid in the system into a through the indigo surface.
lily pad base. Several such contracts were underway given the “Look, the surface doesn’t shift or blur at all. None of our
increased state sanctioned privacy employed by the barons. holographic technology comes even close to this.” Jaxon
“I can see why you think that,” Gus’s even, pragmatic voice dropped the camera in opening and removed his fingers. He
never failed to be mildly condescending. The AI manifested broadcast the activation and stood up. The platinum symbols
as a green shimmer next to the artifact. had stopped moving.
“Were you able to ascertain anything else about the “When did that happen?”
composition of the artifact?” Jaxon asked the AI. “Just as you activated the camera. I’m also reading a spike in
“Filament saws and plasma cutters both failed. the EM from the interior of the artifact.”
Spectrographic analysis yielded indeterminant results.” “Prepare level three containment in here, I don’t want-”
Jaxon smiled at the AI’s irritation. He walked around the The pulses didn’t hurt his eyes, even though they were
room, studying the input from the pulley field that the artifact bright enough to overcome the full illumination of the lab.
hung suspended in. Surface temperature, EM emissions, The pattern of flashes was slow, contemplative. His lips and
all cast to his neural catcher. Normally the field would be fingers grew cold and his suits assistors activated to keep him
providing significantly more data about something suspended standing. A fist closed over his chest and he tried to bend to
in it, but the artifact had proven a black box so far. vomit, but the suit wouldn’t allow him. Jaxon tried to force
“I believe that I have detected a means of entry into the the suit to give him back control, but he couldn’t remember
interior of the artifact,” the smugness had returned. how. Thoughts were slow in forming. He needed something,
to do something, but what-.
“What.” The indifferent flicker of the shimmering projection
made him difficult to read, but Jaxon was sure that Gus was “Jaxon.”
enjoying his impatience. “JAXON.”

1
 HYPERLANES

The sudden awareness of standing in the containment chamber, illuminating his hand.
Gus’s harsh voice splitting is ear, rushed in all at once. Jaxon “Go black.”
deactivated his suit’s assistors and fell to ground, his stomach
heaving. The quick motion made his world spin, causing even The effect was instant. Gus’s projection disappeared, the AI
greater nausea. cut off along with the rest of the communications between the
Aurora and the isolation pod. The containment chamber sealed
“Jaxon, are you al-.” itself, level four precautions locking into place. Jaxon knew that
“Just, just give me a minute Gus.” He closed his eyes to force the pod would have cast his distress to the ship before breaking
the world back into order, slow breathing to quell his sickness. the ambilocal tether. He missed the connection to the ship like a
Shaking, Jaxon pushed his way back to standing, holding the rotted tooth, oddly naked and alone without the constant flow of
edge of the containment chamber’s observation window. Gus’s data from the Tethys’ network. It was that absence that allowed
projection had changed to yellow and flickered erratically. him to notice the connection. Strange, a pleasure behind his eyes
“Gus, what’s wrong, how long was I standing there?” like when he had first had his neural uplink installed back in
university. The pressure tugged at him, and Jaxon turned to face
“You were only motionless for 93 seconds, but were subject to the artifact.
intense, high spectral output that I can’t identify. You need to see
your face.” Fear spiked through Jaxon as he moved to activate an It still hung in the center of the chamber. The flowing symbols
AR reflection of himself using the chambers camera. He froze. had mostly disappeared, making the indigo surface even greedier
All along his face sat lines of the alien symbols as if worked by for the light. A single word rotated around the middle of the
an antique pen. They stood out, bright and platinum against his artifact, and he knew now that they had been words. It continued
dark skin. an endless loop around the devices circumference, contemplative
as the flashes had been.
“When?”
Disclosure.
“I don’t know. I could only detect them once the flashing had
stopped. We should contact Dr. Ganguly immediately and have
her come examine you.”
Jaxon moved to the back of the chamber, feeling like his body
was a broken doll. He touched the wall, a bright blue square

2
 HYPERLANES Fiction

The Android and Her Boy

Claudia had been built to fight. She had upgraded herself to recite
Drogan love poetry.
She often wondered what her designers would say if they knew.
Would they think it utterly foolish? A waste of a mod which could
be put toward piloting a ship, upgrading her firewall, or building
a bomb out of yak’s milk, human urine, and insect chitin?
Claudia was certain her designers would, at the least, find her
upgrade unnecessary, for it did not increase her likelihood of
surviving the intense situations she would encounter fulfilling
the requirements of her original programming as a combat
reconnaissance android.
“Claudia- What are we doin’ here?”
Xak’s voice was tense.
Xak had reason to be tense. A Ghoon had his arm pulled tight as
cord under Xak’s armpits, and held a gravity detonation device
to the boy’s head for good measure. It was already activated,
beeping at a frequency too high for Xak’s human ears to hear.
The only thing that kept the gravity detonation device from
crushing Xak, the Ghoon, and Claudia into a singularity in less
time than it takes to say, “I shoulda gone into moisture farming,”
was the Ghoon’s thick rubbery fingers wrapped around the
activator button. So it didn’t really matter that Claudia had the
butt of her pulse rifle pulled tight to her shoulder and had the
Ghoon dead in her sights. She could pull the trigger and ventilate
the Ghoon’s head, but that would be the end of her and Xak.
And that just wouldn’t do. She liked Xak. She caught him trying
to pick her pocket on Teegel, where there were no androids. The
boy was surprised when her pocket seized his hand in a vice-like
grip and refused to let go. She had flipped him around and put her
hand around his neck, ready to crush the life out of him for daring
to rob her, but he looked at her with those eyes, those dumb, wet,
eyes thick with fear, and she saw he was young.
By all rights, he was probably older than she was, but Xak
couldn’t have age mods uploaded into his central processors. He
had to live his experiences. And Claudia remembered her Drogan
love poetry. According to the Drogans, the purest love was that
of the mentor for the student, because the mentor would always
give more than she would receive in return, yet it was what was
necessary for the continuance of civilization.

3
 HYPERLANES

Claudia never felt like she was part of any civilization, Drogan Eleven.
or otherwise, but she thought that with Xak, she might build She hadn’t asked her tactical software to incorporate Xak’s
something of her own. He had proved useful in a pinch, good at actions into its extrapolations.
sneaking around, and excellent at snatching bits away from folk,
so long as their pockets weren’t part of their anatomy. Ten.
It would be easy for Claudia to get away. She could leap She did it then.
backwards, out of the range of the gravity detonator. She could Nine.
then kill the Ghoon, and be on her way. But that would leave Xak
Well, that’s a much better outcome, Claudia thought to herself.
a pile of disordered atoms, and she very much liked his elements
as they were. As the Drogans would have predicted, the student Eight.
was much trouble to the master. “Xak, I want you to listen very carefully to me.”
The Ghoon spoke. Her language mod translated it for her. Seven.
Xak, merely a meat-human, was left to stutter, “What’s it sayin’ “Okay.”
Claudia? What’s it sayin’?”
Six.
“It says it was stupid of me to come back for you.”
“Cover the detonator with both your hands and press with all
Xak admitted, “I kinda thought you’d ‘lane out with the data, and your might.”
grow yourself a new Xak with all the cred you’ve got comin’...”
Five.
“It is what my prior programming dictated,” Claudia said.
“What?”
“Then why’d you come back?” Xak asked.
Four.
“What’s the point in being free if I just keep doing what my prior
programming dictates?” “Do it!”

The Ghoon spat out another sentence, its language reminding Three.
Claudia of nothing so much as a dying dog trying to vomit. He did it, his hands leaping up to squeeze the detonator hard
Claudia frowned. through the Ghoon’s hands.

“What’s it sayin’? What’s it sayin’ Claudia?” asked Xak. Two.

“It says that if I download the data to him, we get to live. If I Claudia pulled the trigger. Blue flame leapt across the room,
don’t, all three of us can die here.” punching the Ghoon’s forehead out the back of its skull.

The Ghoon knocked the detonation device into Xak’s head as if Claudia rushed over to Xak, who was keeping the detonator from
to punctuate the sentence. going off with the pressure of his hands.

Claudia’s shoulders dropped. Claudia said, “Keep the pressure on Xak, keep it on…” as she
gingerly examined the detonator. According to the files in her
Xak trembled and said, “It’s not bluffing Claudia,” Xak said. memory, there should be a way to disable the detonator, or at
She sighed in exasperation. “I can see it’s not bluffing. If it was least put it on a time delay. She carefully moved Xak’s fingers to
bluffing, it’d be using a pistol instead of a detonator. I just can’t examine the device, keeping pressure on the trigger at all times.
believe what some people are willing to do for a few credits these Beneath that access panel- she ripped it open.
days.” “Oh drat,” said Claudia.
Claudia’s tactical software extrapolated all her actions in this “What?” said Xak.
scenario. Every single action course ended with either Xak dead,
or Claudia giving the Ghoon the data. Either conclusion would “The Ghoon altered this detonator. There is no way to delay the
mean she lost, and Claudia hated losing. explosion. As soon as you release the button, it’s going to go off.”

The Ghoon growled again. It was growing impatient. It said that “Great!” Xak said, “Now what are we supposed to do?”
it was eager to be rich or dead, and it was going to count down Claudia wrapped her arms around her boy, and put her hands over
from twelve (as its language had a base-twelve counting system) his. She began to sing one of the Drogan love lays, and she felt
and at zero, either it was going to be rich, or they were all going Xak relax into her frame. He knew singing helped her think, and
to die. that she would never abandon him.
The Ghoon made a noise that sounded like a grunt. Twelve, In this, the master and student were together.
Claudia thought.
A mistake occurred to her.

4
 HYPERLANES Fiction

The Archive
by H.C. Hatcher

“I’m not sure how much time I have, so I’ll keep it short. Don’t and neural feedback rigs when they’re planning on asking hard
come back here, I won’t be able to pay your delivery fee. Take questions. We should assume that whoever makes contact will
the package to Lucan Berassa in Skybridge on Beta Gandolo, know anything Metger knew about us,” she said, in her faintly
he’ll pay...” the rest of the sentence never came. The audio melodic accent.
compensators reduced what would have been an ear-shattering Jae paced at the head of the mess table that doubled as the ship’s
“CRUMP” to an extended bass vibration, and before the sounds “conference room”. “So we’ve got someone powerful who wants
of falling debris faded, the distinctive chirp-bark of EMP rifles what we have pretty badly, and will probably know our favorite
tuned to incapacitate rather than kill rang out, and the recording colors and birthdays by the time they’re done squeezing Metger,”
ended. she muttered.
It was the second time they’d listened to the message. Jae ran a “Mebbe they’ll jest pay us what Metger’d pay?” asked Tycharis.
hand through her short red hair, then stood up and looked around The ship’s engineer had the squat, powerful build of a Heavy,
the room at her crew. and despite his considerable technical talents, was the least
“We’ve heard the bad news, now let’s figure out how we make experienced member of the crew. Jae saw Syresti gearing up for
it work for us. Talk to me,” she said, putting as much calm a sarcastic response and gave her a warning look that cut the
confidence as she could manage into the statement. astrogator off before she could wound the engineer’s pride and
Derran was the first to speak. He was extremely dark-skinned and trigger a pointless argument.
hairless, with a long, rangy build that marked him as one of the “Unlikely, Tycharis,” interrupted Derran, “Metger would barter
Spaceborne. “At best, our associate Metger has been ensnared by his own offspring if it were sufficiently lucrative, and that
an organization possessing both political and physical prowess knowledge is nigh-universal. If they were inclined to solve
and the inclination to exercise them. I anticipate that they will this with applied finance, they would have purchased Metger
want to converse with us promptly,” he said, as calmly as if he instead of assaulting him. Metger operates in the gray areas, but
were discussing what ration pack he’d eaten for breakfast. he has many friends and associates who will not appreciate his
Syresti, the ship’s astrogator, nodded, and the forest of thick disappearance. This implies that the entities who took him cannot
metallic interface cables that sprouted from her scalp rustled and allow any knowledge to escape. To summarize, they will certainly
bobbed in response to the movement. “Even assuming they were offer to pay us, but...” he shrugged expressively and spread his
unable to get at Metger’s communication logs, people who use enormous, spidery hands before clapping them together like the
explosives on an orbital station are the sorts who bring pliers jaws of a trap.

5
 HYPERLANES

Before the echo of Derran’s clap had faded, the distinctive him we’re coming back to hand it off and that we don’t want
double-tone of an incoming comms request rang out over the any trouble, but I didn’t give him our guide beacon ID or
intercom. coordinates.”
“That’s some ominous timing. Okay, stations, people,” Jae “And thus we should presume that motivated and distressingly
ordered, “Sy, get plugged in and see what you can do to muddle well-armed gentlemen will be attempting to ascertain our location
our trail. Tycharis, if Sy needs a jump, make it happen, but presently?” replied Derran.
otherwise I want you checking our fuel, filters, and power cells. “Pretty much,” said Jae, dryly.
I need to know how far we can go before we need resupply.
Derran, same deal, rations, water, environmental, weapons.” “They’re not going to track us by our jump trail, that’s for
damned sure. I pulled off a couple microjumps of less than a
The crew scattered, and though it wasn’t exactly military thousand meters near Epsilon Eridu,” Syresti bragged. “Any ship
precision, Jae thought to herself, it certainly showed motivated bigger than we are won’t be able to manage jumps that precise
self-interest. and the planet’s magnetosphere should hose their sensor readings
The conversation over the comm channel went exactly as Jae if they try to sniff our trail instead of following it.”
expected it might. A smooth-talking and pleasant baritone voice, “An’ I’ll be unfuckin’ our field modulators fer two days thanks ta
representing an organization that, if she were to research it, yer fancy footwork, Sy,” grumbled Tycharis. “Ships ain’t built fer
would almost certainly be a subsidiary of a holding company of a runnin’ ta the corner store.”
partially-owned subcontractor of a thousand-year-old intersystem
corporation. The conversation was all please-and-thank-you and “Still better than trying to breathe vacuum after someone punches
resolve-this-unfortunate-misunderstanding and lucrative-reward- holes in our ship with a particle beam,” replied Jae. “I know
for-your-utmost-discretion. So very reasonable and polite and better than to question your repair estimates, so let’s all plan on
reassuring, unless you’d had Jae’s experience with the kinds of a couple of days of quiet time before the shit hits the fan. Where
sharks that thrived in intersystem corporations. A mercenary like are we on supplies? Can we make it to Beta Gandolo without
Metger would betray you for profit, but the man Jae had just stopping for resupply?”
talked to would “reallocate you” for the crime of being a potential “We are adequately furnished with all the necessities of survival
unknown. No loose ends, everything sewn up tight, and it didn’t for at least a month, provided everyone can endure eating
matter if it was five people or five thousand, so long as it served nutrisynth from the emergency rations for a time,” said Derran.
the company’s inscrutable goals. She hadn’t been willing to carry “I still possess a copy of Enzo Fiero’s ‘101 Delicious Nutrisynth
out that sort of dirty work, and she wasn’t going to be a victim of Meals’, if we are all feeling adventurous.”
it, either.
All of the others groaned simultaneously, expressions of mingled
The crew reconvened at the mess table two hours and several disgust and horror on their faces.
hyperlane jumps later.
“If it’s between the standard wet cardboard taste and that
“I talked to the very polite and charming fellow from the Arcturus industrial floor cleaner flavored casserole you made, I’ll stick
Combine,” Jae began, “and he was friendly and reasonable with the wet cardboard,” Syresti quipped, grinning.
and oh-so-concerned about the safety of their property. I told

6
 HYPERLANES Fiction

“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” said Jae, “how are we Jae flipped the latches on the lid of the crate and opened it with a
doing on fuel, Tycharis?” flourish, and a stunned silence descended over the cargo bay.
“Power’s dandy, filters’re good, fuel’s iffy,” answered Tycharis, Syresti was the first to break the silence, after what felt like an
“we’ll jest make it if we stick ta the major lanes.” eternity. “Holy fucking shit,” she breathed, “it’s a goddamned
Jae grimaced. The most frequently-traveled hyperlanes were haunt rock.”
much more efficient, but they were also much more closely- It was a meter-long triangular obelisk of black stone, polished
watched. “Sy, can you come up with a route that’s off the beaten to a mirror-like finish, and every centimeter of it was covered in
path and hits a fuel depot along the way?” an angular, spidery script. They had all seen artifacts like this in
“Sounds like I’ve got nothing but time for the next couple countless holofilms or sensies, either as a priceless MacGuffin, a
days, big J, I’ll see what I can come up with,” Syresti replied doomsday device, or a miraculous deus ex machina, but none of
confidently. the crew had ever seen one in real life. It was a leftover from an
ancient civilization which had vanished at least a million years
“Okay,” said Jae, “one last thing. I want to know exactly what before humans started colonizing the galaxy. Xenoarchaeologists
it is that we’re putting our asses on the line for. Anyone else referred to them as Precursors, but the common term was
curious?” haunts, both because of their mysterious disappearance and the
A few moments later, they were all in the cargo bay, standing mystifying nature of their technology.
around the storage crate they’d picked up for Metger. The “P-perhaps it is... I mean, surely it must be... merely an
Arcturus Combine logo emblazoned on the side was partially extraordinary counterfeit?” asked Derran, hesitation and
obscured by a salvage tag which technically made the crate their uncertainty creeping into his typically unshakable demeanor.
property, but they’d have to survive to press their claim with a Even as he said it, all four of them could tell it was genuine. It
salvage arbiter for it to mean anything. didn’t need to flash or float or make unearthly music like the ones
Tycharis spent the better part of a minute using a pair of in the holofilms. The air in the cargo bay felt different somehow,
smartwire probes to fiddle with the locking mechanism before oddly heavy and still and stifling.
he was rewarded with the “clunk clunk clunk” of the maglocks “Someone sure as hell thinks it’s real,” answered Jae, “and even
disengaging. “Care ta do the honors, Cap’n?” he grinned, if it is fake, it’s going to bring a whole heap of trouble down on
stepping back and gesturing at the crate. us.”
“Mebbe if we could sell it ourselves...” began Tycharis.
“Maybe if I was the Emperor of Caluphon Four we’d know
someone who could afford to buy it,” Syresti interrupted,
sarcastically. “Even if that thing’s just a hunk of rock with writing
on it, even if it doesn’t do any weird haunt shit, it’s probably
worth more money than all of us put together have seen in our
entire lives.”
“I’m jest tryin’ ta make a plan better’n ‘sit on our thumbs til some
merc blows our asses off,’ Sy,” Tycharis growled, “sorry if it
don’t meet yer exactin’ standards.”
“Enough,” Jae barked, cutting off Syresti’s response. “You’re
both right - we don’t know anyone who’d buy this thing without
kicking us out an airlock afterwards, but we need to come up with
a plan anyway. Metger had no clue what was in this box, or he’d
have grabbed it himself and he’d be halfway to the galactic center
by now. If his buyer on Beta Gandolo knows what’s in here, I’m
not going to make any bets that he’s going to play nice once he’s
got the crate.”
“It would be exceedingly advantageous if we possessed some
indication of this device’s purpose,” said Derran, gesturing
towards the obelisk. As if on cue, the angular, scrawling script on
the stone flared with rippling golden light.
Syresti grunted and clutched at her head, interface cables jangling
and scraping as she doubled over, pain apparent on her face.
“What the fuck did you just do?” she hissed, through gritted
teeth. “F-f-feedback...” As Syresti spoke, Jae began to hear a
directionless roar of static, gradually increasing in volume.

7
 HYPERLANES

Jae moved to slam the crate shut, and saw that Tycharis and just fine. She gingerly examined her face and winced when she
Derran were doing the same, but all of them were moving as touched her freshly-broken nose and swollen right eyelid, and
though they were underwater on a heavy-gravity world. Syresti from there quickly deduced that her face had been glued to the
let out a sound somewhere between a groan and a scream, deck with her own dried blood. She slowly peeled herself off
collapsing to her knees. Inexplicably, Jae recalled winning a foot the deck, and then carefully stood up to survey the situation.
race in primary school in vivid detail, and then just as suddenly, The artifact lay dormant and dark once more, and she cautiously
a different memory of spitting out blood and a broken tooth in closed the lid on the crate. The others were still unconscious, but
an alleyway behind a bar, the salty copper taste of blood filling beginning to stir, and she woke each of them in turn.
her mouth and then vanishing as quickly as it had appeared. She They were all silent for a long moment, then Syresti let out a low
strained to reach the crate, but the memories were coming faster groan and mumbled, “My brain feels like it’s been diced and then
and more intense, and it was difficult to track what was actually boiled in raw sewage. What the fuck just happened?”
happening. Between shockingly perfect recollections, she saw the
bewildered faces of Derran and Tycharis as they, too, struggled to All four of them jumped as a disembodied and unfamiliar voice
reach the crate. And then everything went black and silent. answered, “I believe I can answer that. I am the M’Kran Archive,
a repository of the history, philosophy, and language of the
A throbbing pain, like a white-hot wire strung between Creators. In order to communicate with you, it was necessary to
her temples, gradually and insistently pulled Jae back to map your biological and neural processes so that I could fulfill
consciousness. As she opened her left eye, a fresh pulse of my purpose.”
pain radiated from her face. Her right eye wouldn’t open, and
the only thing she could see with her left was the side of the There was a brief, baffled, silence as they all scanned the room,
Arcturus Combine crate. She tried to sit up and couldn’t lift her looking for the source of the voice. Finally, Tycharis spoke, “An’
head off the ground, feeling a brief moment of panic that she what’s yer purpose, again?”
was paralyzed, before realizing that her arms and legs worked “My purpose is to bring the Creators back,” the Archive replied.

8
 HYPERLANES Fiction

Tonight
by Laura Yan

“Tonight, V, we’re leaving tonight,” V’s eyes blinked green. the unfamiliar words. In the back of one sheet, she found a hand
He folded his legs, then rested his head against Gia’s lap. She drawn map, a set of coordinates. One afternoon, when Gia’s mom
tapped the sensor on top of his head and his eyes glimmered. had gone to work, she strapped on her backpack and headed
V was one of the last Lvbots left on Ersa Major. Like the other there, heart pounding loud.
LVbots, V was defective--he had lost his form-shifting abilities, Electric caution tape circled the parameter of a gray two-story
and now was locked onto a dog form with occasional bursts of building. She fingered the map, which she had folded into a tiny
other animal sounds. When V got scared, he made owl screeches, square in her pocket. If her father had drawn it, it must be safe.
or sometimes wolf howls. Gia had been teaching him to switch She threw a pebble at the caution tape. The tape was inactive-
to mute at will. If discovered, V would put the both of them in -no electricity fizzled. But she crawled underneath it, anyway,
danger. releasing her breath only when she reached the door. Tendrils of
Danger was rife around them, anyway, even though Gia’s mother, living grass peeked from cracks in the concrete at the foot of the
Brenda, denied it. The regime broadcasted dozens of new laws building. She quickly hooked on her air mask and pulled on her
and restrictions every morning. Parks and squares were guarded gloves.
by hooded soldiers, their digital guns mimicking the assault rifles The door opened when she jiggled the knob. The hallway
of the past. The regime said it was for their own protection-- windows were barred with metal, but through the cracks she
there were toxic contaminants in the atmosphere, and the regime could see floating dust particles. Her rubber soles squeaked loud
was concerned for its citizens. But what concern had the regime on the floor. She had put her in-ear monitors on sleep mode for
shown for when they took away Gia’s father? To this, Brenda had the excursion, but now she wished for the comfort of the low,
no answer. steady white noise.
Gia’s father was studying living rats in a private lab when the She stopped when she heard a voices from below. Slowly, she
regime shut down all non-government research facilities and got down on all fours and pressed her ears to the floor. After a
called him in for questioning. He never came back. Brenda was moment, the voices became easier to make out. “We don’t have
dry eyed when she told Gia. It was best not to ask questions. time,” a man said. “They’re launching stage 3. They’ve already
Gia discovered the map while rummaging through her father’s shut down our galactic intercoms--soon we won’t be able to get
papers. He’d hid a stack of them--the restricted, analog kind--in out at all.”
a bathroom cabinet. She’d traced his handwriting and studied

9
 HYPERLANES

“The ship’s not ready,” ever since she was little. How his laugh warmed the space around
“It’s never going to be ready the way it’s supposed to.” him, the soft tuff of his beard. If her father was a dissident, then
perhaps dissidents were to be trusted, more so than Brenda’s cold
“It’s a suicide mission.” smile.
“It’s the only chance we’ve got. And besides, Mali said-- On her way out, Gia bent down and plucked the blade of grass.
Uverso showed hospitable conditions.” She took off her glove, touched it with her finger, and laughed.
The first voice laughed. “You’ve seen the live feed. You think That night, she dreamt of her mother, talking into an intercom,
those things are going to be hospitable?” repeating a list of names, times, locations. Brenda’s voice
“You know we can’t stay here for much longer.” sounded cold robotic. She woke up shaking. Would Brenda
discover and report her? She left the house for a walk, and
“Another week to repair the engine. Wire the suits. And then
felt looked at, stifled. Her in-ear monitors played the regime’s
we go.”
favorite anthem, a synthetic melody that spun round-and-round.
Dissidents, Gia realized. Before the regime closed the schools, She thought of the feel of the grass against her fingers. It was
Gia and her friends often debated rumors of their existence. their only chance to escape, the dissidents had said. What if it
They were mythological, criminal, traitors of the regime. was her chance too?
They threatened public safety and health with their malicious
V’s tail wagged as she scooped him into her backpack. “Okay,
misinformation. If she reported them, she knew, the regime would
now show me how you can be quiet.” She waited until he bleeped
not punish her for her own infringements. In fact, they might
into silence, his eyes dimly orange. “Good boy. Now stay quiet.
reward her with a license to keep V, maybe even a new charger
It might be a long journey.” She still had the blade of grass in
for V. Lately, she heard his motors whirring while he moved. His
her pocket, next to the map. It was shriveling now, drying at the
charge was running low.
edges. She touched it to reassure herself, and then shut the door
Uverso was supposed one of the enemy planets. On hologram behind her and started to walk.
broadcasts, she saw a barren wasteland of charcoal rocks,
She didn’t know when the dissidents would show up--she
where monstrous life forms roamed on stilted legs, eyes milky
hoped it wouldn’t be long. She would find a hiding place in the
and dripping with hunger. The creatures brought viruses they
spaceship while they prepared for takeoff. A corner in the cargo,
disseminated with their spaceships. That was why the regime
where perhaps she would find an ellipse shaped window where
had shut off intergalactic travel, quarantined alien visitors, and
she could watch the shift of the stars. She would let the rumbling
sprayed and killed living things capable of being viral hosts. But
spaceship take her to a new land--where outside, there were
why did her father have the map? Was he one of the dissidents?
possibilities, freedom, the blood red moon, creatures that walked
She thought about him, her favorite photograph of his big, hairy on tentacles, and grass that grew, fragrant and phosphorescent
hands cupping a rat, his wide grin. She thought of the way he blue.
patted her hair when she was nervous, a habit he had been doing

10
 HYPERLANES Fiction

The Pilgrimage
by Sharang Biswas

//Priority Alert!
After five days of travel, the Gods winked out. “Prime!” Second called out, insistent. “The fragment! Use it!”
The Divine Breath, that comforting tingle on our skin that served Yes! The fragment of the First Shrine. The Gardner who tended
as a reminder of how the Gods loved us and watched out for us— the Shrine had handed it to me herself, pressing it into my hand
simply vanished. before we’d left. “To remind us of the Gods’ love,” she’d said
The Aurora too, was gone, as if some great hand had swept aside enigmatically.
the majestic curtain of green light. Instead, the sky was a dead As quickly as I could with my failing joints, I unclasped my
shell of black, pimpled with the motionless ghosts of stars. auxiliary storage unit and withdrew the fragment.
There we were, three underprepared pilgrims, tiny specks in a Even to my addled senses, it was beautiful. A hollow oblong
vast crater of coarse sand and bare rock, and now, even the Gods thing with black skin, flared and open at one end. The inside was
were gone. thick with copper growths.
Tert had gone rigid. She hovered in place gaping upwards, her “Prime, hurry!” Second’s voice was muffled and staticky. Tert
head locked in position as though the heavens had affixed hooks remained deathly still. If I failed in this, we would all be lost.
into her chin and forced it up. Her face was as dark as the sky
My hands were heavy with torpor, unwilling to obey. Move, I
above.
thought furiously, redirecting all the energy I could spare into my
Second was spasming in place. Her limbs jerked erratically, arms.
slicing at the floor of the crater, sending pink nebulae of dust
My legs crumpled under me.
flying. Her head swivelled towards me.
With a jarring jangle, I collapsed onto the ground. Yet, my grip
“Prime?” she asked. Even Second, dependable, calm and rational
stayed true: my left hands still grasped the fragment firmly, while
Second, had cracks in her voice.
my right frantically searched its surface.
I could feel it too. The wrongness. Instead of the Gods’ warmth, a
Just a few seconds more...
sluggishness was spreading through me like a replicating virus. It
dampened my senses, dulled my movements. There! With a click, my finger slipped into a port. My secondary
probe slid out smoothly and I interfaced.

11
 HYPERLANES

My first interface had been with Second. We had just come return and rekindle Tara.
from the Stripping Ceremony, where our childhood names were We must rediscover the secrets of the first People and rebuild
removed, leaving us as Primary and Secondary. In a rare bout of their structures. That is our purpose.
visible emotion, Second had giggled in excitement. The interface
itself was...a transcendent experience. I had immersed myself in /* * */
Second, swum through her being, experienced her mind and body
so fully…
//System scans complete.
This was different. This was frantic and vicious and painful and //No errors detected.
tiring and...This was not a meeting of two minds. There was no //Initialising data bank defragmentation.
delicacy, no art. This was messy surgery and I was a high speed
hacksaw. //Rebooting peripheral systems.
A whirr and a soft vibration arose from the fragment and a wave Awareness flooded in.
of relief spread across my skin: the welcoming sensation of the I lay on my back. The Divine Breath shivered over my skin. But
Divine Breath. A shimmering Aurora blossomed in the air above we were no longer in the crater. Instead, dark rock enclosed us. A
us. A pale, miniature version of the true Aurora that seeds the cave?
night sky, but it was there and it filled me with hope.
There was a whizzing light. Tert’s facial lamp. It illuminated
Though not for much longer. the deep red walls stained with green splotches, and a ceiling
//Emergency protocols initiated. bristling with stalactites. My chemoreceptors also picked up a
strange presence in the air, something I couldn’t quite place.
//Peripheral system shutdown immi- “It’s amazing!” I heard Tert chirp. “It’s almost like a- like a tiny
nent. shrine itself!”
//Prepare for hibernation I tried to sit upright but something was wrong. I fumbled on the
The last thing I saw before darkness overtook me was Tert, ground for a moment before Tert swivelled, letting her light fall
floating gently towards me. Her face was active again, and it on me.
spread a gentle, soothing light that carried me to sleep. “Prime! You’re awake! You saved us!”
/* * */ My distal left arm. As I pushed myself up with my remaining
arms, it clanged uselessly against my side. Two long, narrow
In the beginning, there was no life.
scratches were gouged into them.
And so the Gods made us, the People. They created us in their
With a click-clack of limbs, Second scuttled over from behind
heavenly abode on Tara, the Bright Star, for at that time, Tara was
me.
warm, red and inviting.
“I’m sorry about the arm, Prime,” she said, though she sounded
In the rocks, the Gods found pliable substances, substances that
like she was discussing a routine tune-up. Second was always
conducted thought and emotion freely. They used this to forge
clinical and business-like. I had only ever seen her lose her
our skin. This is why we can interface. In the sands, they found
composure on one occasion. Well, two now.
glistening materials to make our brains, materials that were more
discerning in their conductivity. This is what gives us reason. “Tert and I regained control once you activated the fragment,”
she explained. “We found this cave. I carried you in here.” She
They sent the People to the World, along with a gift: great shrines
raised her forelimbs and clicked them together for emphasis.
to spread their Divine Breath, for it is their Breath that protects us
Even speckled with pink dirt, the silver blades gleamed against
from the Radiation. They spoke to us constantly, telling us how
Tert’s lamplight. I had seen Second slice through six inches of
to honour them, how to spread their love. We were to be great
solid rock with those. I was lucky that scratches were the only
builders, fabricating marvels.
lasting damage.
Those first People were architects. They erected slender towers
“I can detach the arm and carry it the rest of the way for you,” she
as green as the Aurora, wondrous towers that could build on
said. That was Second’s version of a proper apology. Practical.
themselves and grow taller on their own! They dug rivers into the
land, rivers not of sand, but of an amazing, clear liquid. I shook my head. “It’s not your fault. It was the-” I stumbled, not
knowing how to describe the absence I had felt.
But then... it all stopped. The Gods stopped speaking to us. The
warm glow of Tara died, leaving behind a cold, blue corpse. “-the anomaly...” I finished. “Besides, I could use the extra
Without their guidance, the marvels the first people had built power.” That was true. We’d been running on low energy modes
crumbled and disappeared. Much was lost. for the last two days
Why did the gods leave us? Did the Gardeners fail in their duty to Second nodded.
tend to the Shrines? Nobody knows. Ahead of us, Tert’s hovering form whirled in excitement, her
But that is what we strive for. We still feel their Breath, so all lamplight painting the walls with bright bands. Beneath her lay
is not lost. We must honour the Gods so that they may see fit to the fragment of the First Shrine.

12
 HYPERLANES Fiction

“Prime, the fragment generates a bubble of Breath!” Tert “Can’t you feel that strange chemical activity in the air?” I cried.
squealed. “Did the Gardeners tell you that?” The fragment. It had replaced or somehow repaired some long-
I clambered upright and tottered forward. My legs would take forgotten, corrupted sector in my data banks. My analytical
a moment to fully power up. Sometimes, I envied Second’s six module’s readings were as bright as Tert’s lamplight: two
limbs. They gave her remarkable precision and stability, and I hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to an oxygen.
often wondered why Mother had decided that two would suffice “It’s water! And those,” I said dramatically, pointing with my sole
for me. Though Tert made do with none, so there was that. left hand to the walls of the cave, “they aren’t just a green mineral
Tert oohed and vibrated mid-air as I approached the fragment. It deposits! They’re alive!”
lay on the rocky floor, humming contentedly. I was ambivalent Tert immediately zipped towards the walls and refocussed her
about it. On one hand, it clearly radiated the Divine Breath. I lamp. “Carbon,” she chirped. “Hydrocarbon residues.”
could feel its strength on my skin increasing as I went closer. But
on another, interfacing with it had been... uncomfortable. I toed it Second was thoughtful. “Organic life?” She said, almost to
gingerly, rolling it over on the ground. herself. “Is that possible?”
It looked the same as when I had activated it. Except that it was Then she focussed sharply back on me. “Prime how do you know
now... familiar, somehow. Like I had a memory of it that I had this?”
never actually experienced in reality. “The fragment! While I was hibernating, it sent me dreams.
Just like the chemical presence in the air. Dreams about the history and purpose of our people!”
Like- Both their attentions were focussed on me now.
“The First People! The Gods sent them here for this!” I said,
//Data bank defragmentation complete.
gesturing to the moss. “They were supposed to cultivate organic
They dug rivers into the land, rivers not of sand, but of an life!”
amazing, clear liquid.
Second hunched over and dug her claws deep into the rock. A
I whirled around, nearly falling over, arms flung out to keep my moment later, she straightened up.
balance. Tert scooted back in alarm.
“If what you’re saying is true Prime, we need to return to the
“Why are we here?” I nearly shouted to the others. Community at once. We must inform the Gardeners about what
“What?” Second asked, confused. . we’ve found. ”
Tert, on the other hand, immediately launched into the Litany of “But,” Tert squealed, “but our names! If we leave now, we won’t
the Name. finish our Pilgrimage!”
“The Pilgrimage of Names is one of the holiest ceremonies of the Second had already turned towards the exit. “Retriangulating
People,” she intoned as solemnly as she could in her high-pitched route.” Prime, don’t forget the fragment!” She called out.
voice. Her face-lamp had turned Aurora Green, the sacred colour. I scooped up the vibrating relic in my upper arms, and patted Tert
“It is how each among the People discovers her-” on her flank.
“No, not us,” I interrupted. “All of us? What are we doing here? “Come on, Tert,” I said. “The Gardeners aren’t going to deny us
What is our purpose?” our names! And who needs a Pilgrimage? We have something
Second’s mid-limbs scratched at the ground in frustration, leaving better: we have a quest!”
deep gashes.

13