An epic space opera by Mark Laporta

Desperate to exact a devastating revenge,  the mutant Quishiks resort to interstellar terror, by assaulting  Earth, the humans’ ancestral home.  In this episode of Infinity Afterglow,  the hook is baited.  Read Infinity Afterglow from the beginning.

Light years away from the Olfdranyi’s machinations, Shol’s valiant quest, and the seemingly hopeless attempt on Seldra to turn the lethal hybrid Caronya into a military asset, the Quishik fleet continued its ravenous rampage. For Plaandrur Quishik Hlalkuhr, the Quishik Cohort leader, these were desperate times. Though her voice had once rattled the souls of millions, she could barely be heard above the sound of her ship’s engines. Though nearly silent, they raised enough of a muted din to offer serious competition.

“Unsustainable,” she rasped. 

Every day, she and her top officers had little more than three hours respite between bouts of unspeakable hunger. That left hardly enough time to complete the basic calculations needed to maintain marginal control over local Probability. Due to the devastating long-term effects of the intricate virus that the biomechanoid Enos created, the most that Plaandrur and the others could do was maintain Current Alignment. The thought of pushing the outcome of recent events closer to their desired goal was overwhelming. Yet this same precise control of Probability was once the proud legacy of her ancestors — the unstinting revenge they’d unleashed, first on the Ootray and then in the universe that created them.

“It is the time of ultimate sacrifice,” she broadcast to her fleet. Too weak to communicate telepathically, as she once had, the proud Cohort Leader was forced to rely on conventional comlinks.

It is to weep and rage, she told herself. 

But in keeping with an old human expression that the humans themselves had recently revived, the writing was on the wall. Instead of hanging on at the fringes of the settled universe and clinging to the hope that the Cohort could restore its health, it was time for the final assault against evil. The war prophesied in the Book of Probability was about to begin! For if the majestic Quishik species was to perish, so would its tormentors. Not satisfied to destroy the leading economies of the universe, Plaandrur vowed to sow the seeds of destruction so deep that life itself could no longer gain a foothold.

Yet undercutting her fierce determination was a grim reality. The physical and psychic energy required to assault the enemy would kill the Quishiks off long before the first pitched battle.

“We must lure them to us,” said Plaandrur. For once, the chorus made up of her previous incarnations, dating back ten thousand years, was in complete agreement. The way forward was clear. The only missing piece was the creation of an atrocity so immense that even the most jaded cultures in the top tier would be forced to react. 

The Quishik leader smiled. How exquisitely the intricacies of Probability, as always, favored the prepared. By choosing to use the low-tech fringes of interstellar civilization as its primary feeding ground, the Quishik fleet had positioned itself near one of the most revered worlds in the Cosmos. It was an unassuming planet, long ago declared off limits for further development, in order to preserve it as a treasured historical relic. Though once the origin of the pre-eminent intergalactic power, its current inhabitants consisted of a select core of academics, including archaeologists, historians, ecologists, biologists, as well as a global force of restorers and grounds keepers. Yet despite the reverence in which it was held, it had a rather unimpressive name.

“Earth!” Plaandrur snorted. It would be destroyed at a deliberate pace to give the humans and their allies time to amass their forces and, ultimately, bring them to slaughter. Yes, their destruction would be all the more delicious when they discovered the terrible weapon that the Quishiks had held in reserve for centuries. The “Cause Inversion Matrix” would scramble the order of everyday events, starting at the sub-atomic level — until every function of energy and matter began chasing its own tail. For the briefest of moments, the universe would seize up tight, before unleashing an unimaginable burst of energy that would produce a new order. 

It was to be a galaxy-engulfing battle intense enough to upend the physical laws of this universe for good. And she, Plaandrur, the last in a noble line of Cohort Leaders, would initiate the assault! For now, though, the call of unquenchable hunger wracked her mind until feeding was, once more, her all and everything. 

“We will triumph!” she rasped. A microsecond later, she led a raid on what had once been the most celebrated of the early human colonies in the Tau Ceti sector. It was to ravage!

^^^

This concludes Episode 31: Interstellar Terror. A new episode of Infinity Afterglow appears every Saturday. Read Episode 32 now.

Read Ungent Draaf’s earlier adventures in Mark Laporta’s novels Probability Shadow and Entropy Refraction, which are available at a bookstore near you, on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble. Mark Laporta is also the author of Orbitals: Journeys to Future Worlds, a collection of short science fiction, which is available as an ebook.

His new novel, from which this episode is excerpted, will be published by Chickadee Prince Books. To pre-order, contact Orders@ChickadeePrince.com. 

Image by Kalyee Srithnam.