Chasms: Revival

Chasms Revival

Book Three of the Chasms Series

Jacob Seykans

Viccara Press 2016

Copyright © 2016 by Jacob Seykans

Published by Viccara Press at Smashwords

Cover design © 2016 by Vila Design

Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. Any names or characters, businesses or places, events or incidents, are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Ancient History

Chapter One: Distant Memories

Chapter Two: Time Can’t Heal All Wounds

Chapter Three: Resurrections

Chapter Four: Cautious Alliance

Chapter Five: Change of Heart

Chapter Six: Old Friends

Chapter Seven: Return to Pernith

Chapter Eight: The Unexpected

Chapter Nine: Moment of Crisis

Chapter Ten: To Solve a Riddle

Chapter Eleven: Secret Garden

Chapter Twelve: Ice Land

Chapter Thirteen: An Endless Winter

Chapter Fourteen: Thaw Out

Chapter Fifteen: Collision Course

Chapter Sixteen: Unwelcome Guest

Chapter Seventeen: Reminisce

Chapter Eighteen: Full Circle

Chapter Nineteen: Reckoning

Chapter Twenty: Season of Change

Chapter Twenty-One: New Beginnings

Epilogue: Generations

Dedication

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Books by Jacob Seykans

Prologue

Ancient History

In the beginning, when the universe was still in the dawn of its infancy, the distance between stars and planets paled in comparison to the vastness that separates them today. The constellations were still young, and they were littered not only by hurtling asteroids and comets, but also by immense amounts of scattered particles that drifted aimlessly as space dust—miniscule specks floating freely in space—that would someday congeal together to form the very core of the galaxies.

It was during this early period immediately following the birth of the universe that dimensional space and time were intertwined into a convoluted network of channels that transversed the heavens. It was also during this time that what many would describe as life began its unrelenting quest to explore and understand the universe in which it existed. But sentience at this time was not as we understand it today, as an intricate and complex collaboration between energy, chemistry, and matter. Life in its early stages existed as a pure form of energy, capable of absorbing, recording, and adapting to the universe around it.

For eons, this living energy roamed the expanding reaches of space, undisturbed and unaltered. It traveled not as a single entity, but as a colossal colony, comprised of millions upon millions of energy polyps that recorded the workings of the universe, and each individual polyp was assigned the task of storing within itself a unique knowledge of the natural world. The living colony of energy observed unobtrusively from afar as dust and debris coalesced into stars and planets—which then clustered themselves into whole galaxies. By astronomical standards of chronology, soon there were more galaxies in the heavens then the energy colony could ever have envisioned. But even more intriguing was the sentient life that began to emerge on many of these planets, blooming forward from the simple foundations of ash and dust.

Intrigued by this development, the energy polyps ceased their nomadic travels and settled into a new home on a planet that orbited around two suns. The planet was only beginning to experience the early stages of complex life. The colony had chosen this planet carefully, adapting itself to obtain shelter and sustenance from the unique gems formed deep within the planet’s crust. Its sole purpose was to experience and bear witness to the evolution of life on this planet. It could never have predicted how its very presence would profoundly affect the planet’s destiny, and how it would perpetually become a part of this world, a world known today as Pernith.

For billions of years, the energy colony lived and evolved in tandem with the other life forms that inhabited Pernith. It bore dutiful observance as creatures sprang forth from the water to crawl on land. It patiently watched as life expanded to the treetops and even took to the air. In some instances, life returned to the sea for millions of years before making a second and third attempt to walk on dry land again. The energy polyps were present when pinthras had only four legs instead of six and lators had webbing on their paws to chase after fish gliding through shallow streams. And it was during this time period when some of the creatures on Pernith looked to the stars, stood tall, and began to walk upright.

These bipedal creatures grew more intelligent with each passing century. Their communication became more structured and complex, and they began to explore the world around them, crafting the resources found within their environment into tools. After the passing of only a few more millennia, these creatures, these Pernithians, even learned how to gather together the various gems on Pernith to create and harness energy. This made the colony of pure energy grow nervous and uneasy.

Preoccupied with the pace of evolution on Pernith and perhaps distracted by its growing angst, the colony failed to consider that life on other planets could evolve at an even faster rate; this was a blind negligence would soon cost the colony and the entire world of Pernith dearly.

On a nearby planet, known today as Odara, its own inhabitants had learned to cultivate and manipulate their planet’s resources long before the Pernithians. Their lust for natural resources led them to become a civilization that became centered around the mining of precious ore. Once their home world, Odara, was ravaged and pillaged of its own resources, they went in search of a fresh supply of wealth. A single ship, capable of navigating the stars, carried three hundred Odarians and set forth from Odara to search the galaxy for precious minerals. Naturally, they set course for the nearest known planet to their own, a neighboring world called Pernith, and found that it was abundant with jewels and gems that could be harvested for their inherently unique physical and chemical properties. Primitive in comparison to their invaders, the Pernithians were quickly enslaved and forced to work in cold, dark tunnels burrowing deep into Pernith’s mantle.

Five generations of Pernithians toiled in these mines in search of precious stones for their captors whilst destroying their beloved homeworld in the process. The once lush landscape of Pernith became peppered with mountains of dredged soil, while thousands of black pits marked the entrances to long mining shafts that carved through the planet itself. The pristine air had become thick with smog and reeked of soot and ash. The slaves who worked in these wastelands nicknamed the area Kovana, which in Pernithian simply meant hopeless. The Odarians themselves were also trapped in Kovana, severed from their homeworld, until they had fully fulfilled their commitment to Odara. Launching their ship into the vacuum of space was a monumental task, and each troop of miners sent from Odara spent half their lifetime in the mountains of Kovana, gathering as much ore as they could, before another cargo ship would descend onto Pernith to relieve them of their tour.

To its own amazement, the colony of energy discovered that the billions of years it had spent on this planet resulted in a deep connection between itself and Pernith that transcended beyond that of mere observer. The mining and destruction of the planet was felt by the colony itself. Hurt and appalled at Pernith’s annihilation, the energy polyps made an unheralded decision to intervene in an attempt to save the world they had come to love. Together, the entire colony contained the immense wisdom and power of the universe, more than enough to defeat the Odarians. But the colony still required a vessel to channel its energies.

The polyp colony chose a Pernithian, an orphaned slave boy, who knew nothing of life outside the despair of the mines. It was on a fateful day long ago that the boy stumbled upon the colony by accident as he attempted to hide from his slave masters. He cowered in the darkness, keeping as still as the rockface itself. But the faint sounds of his labored breathing and an irrepressible cough triggered by the dirt lodged within his lungs quickly gave his location away to his pursuers.

"There you are. you little tarthput," the leader of the Odarian squad said, using an Odarian term referring to a diminutive pest. The burly Odarian laughed as he menacingly hovered over the young boy. Odarians were large and heavily built. Their skin was gray and colorless, a result of generations spent crawling through the darkness of caves. Their bodies were covered by fleshy wriggling villi that sensed the cavern walls by touch as they navigated through the dark. Their eyes were large and yellow, adept at absorbing even the faintest traces of light, allowing them to see in the pitch black. They had tough finger pads with bony stubs that could be used to shovel away loose dirt and gravel. And they smelt awful, reeking of a wretched odor that helped them find each other in the absence of light.

My name is Anule, the boy whimpered with his head tightly clenched between his knees to hide the fear in his face.

You can call yourself whatever you want, but to us, all you Pernithians are tarthputs. And what do we do with tarthputs? asked the Odarian.

We exterminate them! replied his partner, who was both bigger and smellier than his cohort.

As the Odarians lifted their lashes to strike, they failed to notice the tiny glowing polyps that emerged from the cavern wall behind Anule’s head and entered him below the base of his skull. Anule’s eyes turned bright red.

Are your eyes bleeding already? We haven’t even begun to beat you yet, declared the larger Odarian, who became astonished by the red glow radiating from Anule’s eyes. His partner laughed maliciously in contempt of the slave.

I’ll just have to whip that sorcery out of you, said the larger Odarian as he again lifted the barbed tether in his hand. But he suddenly fell to his knees before he could strike. He lay convulsing as the blood in his body became thick and viscous. He quickly met his demise as his vital organs were deprived of both blood and oxygen. His equally wretched partner managed only a few steps toward Anule before he too succumbed to a similar fate.

Anule’s eyes returned to their dull green hue as the energy colony exited his body—all except for one polyp, which resided inside him as a delegate for the colony and offered him the chance to utilize the power of the colony to liberate his people and expunge the Odarians from Pernith.

Anule despised the Odarians. He wanted nothing more than to eradicate them, not just from Pernith, but from existence. Although he never knew life beyond slavery, he knew it had to be better than what he’d known. With this power, he could free all the Pernithians and return their world to them. Without hesitation, he accepted the polyp’s offer. The terms were simple. The colony would bond with him and reveal to him the secrets of the universe and how to harness their power to vanquish the Odarians from Pernith. But once this task was done, he must relinquish his power and free the colony from his will and control.

The energy polyps kept their end of the bargain as Anule unleashed a power that decimated the Odarian intruders. The unwelcome visitors that pillaged Pernith had never before experienced such masterful manipulation of biology, chemistry, physics, and energy. Most of the Odarians fled Pernith. The slaves were set free to begin a new chapter in Pernith’s history, one that the Pernithians could write for themselves. Those Odarians left behind, stranded by their people, were forced to sail across Ta Lan Nesire, The Great Sea, to escape Anule’s fury. But Anule was not content with merely his liberation—or the sovereignty of his people. In an insidious betrayal of their agreement, Anule refused to relinquish the power bestowed upon him, thereby depriving the energy colony of its own freedom.

Corrupted by power, Anule left Pernith to its own as he traveled the universe in a conflicted state, departing on an endless quest to quench his thirst for purpose and power. Held against their will, the energy polyps helplessly watched as Anule used their power to conquer civilization upon civilization in a misguided attempt to restore balance to the universe. But even that was not enough to appease Anule.

After hundreds of years, tired and unsatisfied, Anule returned to Pernith. He had hoped that by becoming the master of his homeworld, his birthplace, it would finally bring him the peace he so desperately sought. As expected, his own people, the Pernithians, who had tirelessly toiled to create a thriving civilization of their own on Pernith, resisted his attempts to reign over them. To Anule, a few hundred years was merely a grain of sand on the beach of time. But for the Pernithians, many generations had since passed, and Anule’s contribution to their liberation from the Odarians had mostly been forgotten, recounted only in bedtime stories passed down from parents to their children. Bewildered by their lack of appreciation and lapsing memory, Anule lashed out at his own people in fury. He was unaware that his actions would only result in the deepening of his feelings of betrayal.

Near defeat and unable to withstand Anule’s power, the Pernithians elected a leader—the very first Ta Nirios, who was forced to make an unholy pact between his people and their former slave masters. In fear of Anule’s wrath, the Odarians, who had fled across the sea, had spent centuries relentlessly searching for a way to contain his power. A foreboding alliance was formed when the Pernithians, who no longer feared the Odarians, saw Anule as a greater threat to their civilization. With a common enemy between them, the Pernithians and Odarians joined forces together to oppose Anule’s might.

After many years of war that cost the lives of countless Pernithians and Odarians, a startling discovery was made. A rare and ancient mineral was discovered deep inside the ancient mines of Kovana. It was the very same type of stone that the energy colony had once made its home and source of nourishment. By chance, the Pernithian scientists discovered that this mineral could extract the very energy polyps dwelling within Anule when the tip of a single Pernithian soldier’s spear had unexpectedly sapped a tiny fragment of energy from within Anule.

The mineral was gathered from the mines and fashioned into a large gem that could drain the energy polyps from Anule’s body and imprison the matter inside. In a climactic battle for Pernith’s fate, most of the energy polyps were indeed pulled from Anule’s body. But Anule furiously lashed out with the energy remaining inside him, fracturing the gem into three distinct pieces. One piece was shattered completely, and the polyps trapped inside fled—hiding in Pernith’s core or escaping through extra-dimensional space to avoid capture. But the other two fractured remnants of the gem remained intact, and the energy polyps within were imprisoned as a swirling red matter.

Deprived of his symbiotic coupling, Anule was left powerless to defend himself and soon succumbed to the combined onslaught of the Pernithian and Odarian forces. In an odd twist of fate, Anule was betrayed by his own people, just as he had once betrayed the colony of energy residing within him.

Chapter 1

Distant Memories

Two years, two months, and seventeen days. That was how much time had passed since the day Vince, Allison, and Christine had returned to the city of Trenton with Vince’s older brother, Tony. It had also been the last time they’d seen Trevor. It seemed like only yesterday that they were still on Pernith, fighting besides Ta Nirios, Meline, and Arthis in an attempt to rescue Tony from the clutches of Teluks-Carn and The Wrath—a battle that had ended up claiming the life of Kyle Pratt, one of their dearest friends.