Daylight streamed through the porthole. I slowly cracked one eye open to see a small room. Rays of sun trickled down from a nearby skylight to dance upon the floor below. I groaned, moving about in the thick woollen blankets to hear my bones creak. I swung my hand to hit a nearby wooden shelf covered with an array of salvaged objects. A pile of metal scrap fellow from its resting place ends up on the floor. The loud clang resounded throughout the steel hull, causing me to jump awake. I was in a small wooden cot neatly built into the side of the compartment. A thick fluffy pillow sat at my head while my clothing was a mixture of what I wore before and plastered bandages.
I had a vague memory of being nursed to health and something being skillfully removed from the back of my neck and skull. The sting of operating lights still rang throughout my vision. I smoothed my hand over my tender skin to reveal a healed scar somehow my hair had not been affected by the operation. The point of the incision was still soft and tender, causing my to slightly grimace at the touch.
Sliding to my feet my toes pressed against the cold smooth surface. My shoes and socks were lying at the edge of the bed. I quickly noticed my leg was mended and my hand was roughly bandaged. I could see the bandage pilling with small rips in certain areas. Approaching the door I spun the valve open to hear a faint hiss of depressurization. Sticking my head out slowly I peered into a long metal corridor and began to walk towards the main door. Ahead was a large room, in the center were three control panels each with a chair behind them. Their screens flared with an endless stream of numbers and lettering, a holographic display of the ship could also be observed hovering above the first command deck.
Glowing buttons, radar, makeshift instruments and a single large window overlooking the endless wasteland below made up the rest. I stumbled forward running my hand along the edge of a radar station. The screen emitted a bright red glow and signified four more ships to be in the area. I was about to step towards what looked like an engine core when a rough grunt emitted from the corner. I turned to see a humanoid figure standing over a map. His gray hair reflected in the electric light as his eyes fixed on the weathered parchment tracing a path with his finger.
"Finally awake?" he coughed. It was a horse voice, old yet not lacking any fortitude.
A cane in his hand. He spun around with remarkable speed portraying bright green eyes. His skin was dark and his ears were slightly pointed, almost triangular in shape. His face was an assembly of wrinkles with a kind and wise veneer to his smile. I stood silent for a moment as my mind raced.
“What… what did you do to me?” I asked
Dressed in military fatigues and makeshift metal armour, he had a single insignia on his breast pocket, that of another world. Yet he bore the symbol with a proud demeanour, his chest protruding as he walked.
"You were in a pretty bad shape when I last found you" He began to pace around the room flipping various levers and buttons as he spoke.
"Where did you find me?"
"South of the Aman Marshes, usually a drop zone no idea how you ended up there with no ship"
“What?” I stuttered.
I stumbled back leaning against the wall. Fatigue was spreading against my body.
“Are you an associate of the collective?” he inquired
“No, I, I don’t know” I hesitated, unsure of what to say.
He smiled at that almost laughing at my remark.
"Good, I think you may be confused, either way, sit down"
He pointed to a small chair next to the communication deck. The seat was comfy and sank in as I spoke.
"Do you run this entire ship by yourself?" I asked.
The man returned to scour over the map, placing his elbows firmly on the desk.
"We had a bigger crew once, twenty or so? but yes mainly just me" he replied.
He walked towards a nearby shelf and pulled out a various array of microchips and wires, thrusting them on the desk he awaiting for my response.
"What's this?" I asked.
"What I pulled out of you during surgery, enough Collective implants to start your own factory" he laughed.
He bent forward shifting the microchips as he spoke.
"From what I can see here you were a test subject, standard tracker and encryption module, even an i.d tag, here"
He picked up one of the chips to place it in a small machine nearby. The hologram fizzed for a moment, sparks spewing from the mouth as lights began to blare.
"Is it supposed to do that?" I inquired.
He hit the machine with his cane causing it to spur to life. The light flickered and cast a ray in front to portray a silver hologram. I saw my face eyes open and wide with shock next to a swirling cascade of letters and numbers. I squinted, blinking a few times and recognizing the script as Hypa, the intergalactic lettering system.
"John, Taylor, Human, Male age 28, Blood Type A Currently property of the Collective Division 2134"
I read more, gasping at what I saw.
"Occupation: Test Subject, Harvested on 4321 10 23 in correlation with Earth Accord. Extremely dangerous proceed with caution C-52"
I turned to him, waving my hand through the projection.
"You don't mind if I destroy these of course? I already removed most of the tracking chips but you never know what I.D passes have" he inquired.
I agreed and he purged the rest of the materials in flame.
"What does this mean?" I questioned.
Pulling back his green shirt he revealed similar scars that were twice as faded but still barely visible.
"You were a test subject like me, but you aren't injured, it doesn't make sense" he muttered tossing the cane about in his hands.
"In order to be here you need to have failed the maze, and in order to fail the maze, you need to lose something, a part of your brain gets damaged, destroyed. A part of you rots." He spoke quietly.
"I don't understand"
"You see my leg, I lost it when I dropped, why? Because I failed, it's the same with every test subject. Those mindless you saw, they're the ones who didn't get so lucky when it came to what part of their brain was destroyed"
I shuddered thinking of the astronaut's corpse. Rays of sun trickled through the bridge's window as he hobbled over, I noticed that part of his leg was robotically operated, a rivet of steel installed in the flesh and both his injuries were on the same side his body. He stuck a hand forward gently raising it to my eye level.
“Ouch”
I winced in pain at his touch
“Hold still, I'm checking your brainwaves”
The humm of a computer could be heard as he scrounged through a pile of devices at his feet. I was about to get up when he placed a thin grey pad on my head and connected it to a computer with a few wires. I winced as I felt a slight electric shock. Tapping it twice he viewed a neuro scan of my brain.
"Extremely dangerous makes sense" he coughed.
“It seems you got an upgrade, your memory banks are overloaded, other than that no damage, sit over there, make yourself at home” He shouted over the computer's fans. Various buttons began to glow red across the room as I saw the energy dials surge.
"How old is that thing?" I muttered.
"What do you mean it's brand new? You know how rare it is to have a neural scanner on a freighter?" he questioned.
"No" I responded quickly.
“Where am I?” I asked gently.
The stranger stroked the metal wall with his hand and walked forward.
“This is my ship. The Tobago, I'm Ellis by the way, Ellis Tobago”
He held out a strong weathered hand to shake my own vigorously.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“So tell me how did you escape? Tell me everything, everything that you remember” he questioned.
“A creature was coming, one from my mind," I recalled.
My memory of the event sprung forward, the cold, the mist. It sent shivers down my spine as I spoke. Ellis listened eagerly as I recounted every meticulous detail. He seemed to devour my words trying to get a firm grasp upon every semblance of the maze and the horrors it ensued.
"A synth" he responded.
"What is that?" I questioned.
"It's a monster, a creature your mind creates, the maze was never designed to be beaten, it's a byproduct a step on the scale of life, something all creatures have yet none are made to use. People have gotten past the maze, however, none have gotten past the synths in the end."
"You talk as if many have tried" I questioned.
He walked towards the large port windows staring out into the abyss of trees below. Leaves dotted the horizon as we flew over what seemed to be miles of uninterrupted jungle.
"Many try and hundreds of thousands have failed. So you hunt, the introductory program comes, the fog comes, you fight the birds, tell me how you escaped."
"I knew I couldn't win so I pulled”
“What?” he questioned as if he hardly could believe his ears.
“I pulled the pads off my head, my memory had information on mental displacement, I removed the Neural wiring.”
“Removed it?” he shouted.
For a moment in time, I saw a flicker of confusion. His jaw opened up in perplexed thought. Then fear and terror began to streak across his face. Finally, I saw something else, wonder. A blazing curiosity seeped through his eyes. A smile began to dance upon his lips.
“Yes”
He stepped back for a moment, stroking his chin with a wrinkled hand.
“Are you sure?” the man asked, his voice quivering.
“Yes?” I retorted confusedly.
"This is incredible the Collective must have thought they lost connection, that you were brain dead. Removing the Neural tube, that's crazy, almost makes me think that it's possible… What did you do to grab it?.”
“Yes,” I replied.
He almost leapt from his chair in disbelief.
“You grabbed something you could not see, feel, something not in your plane of existence?”
He suddenly began to laugh. Wheezing as if he had just heard the funniest joke of his entire life. He stumbled about the room trying to control himself as he latched onto the nearest console accidentally hitting a few buttons as he stopped.
"What's so funny?" I asked.
The General placed a firm hand upon the bench, raising himself to his full stature.
"So in the trillions, the Collective has spent on the Orbitor, billions floundered on medical and scientific advancements to beat the maze. Gallons of blood they have spilt, the one time a defect capable of beating the maze is shown they shot it off here" he howled.
I stared blankly.
"Forgive me, you would understand better if you knew more about this place" he responded calmly.
He beckoned for me to come forward, edging towards the main window. The glass was fractured in some places and reflected the glistening sun. Placing a firm hand on my shoulder he pointed into the vast beyond. A sea of nature lay infront. The wind howled against the treetops as a thick canopy of green blanketed the ground below. Various crashed ships, mounds of waste and wreckage sat towering through the leafy undergrowth as we hurdled by, almost as if they had been dropped in by some vengeful god. Specks of blood splattered across the beautiful painting. The sky was still a crimson dawn and I could see a few other ships on the horizon. Freighters and trawlers like ours pierced through the swirling clouds.
"Welcome to Planet Maol. The Collective's main planet for mining, industrial activity, garbage disposal and pretty much anything that can harm the environment. A place full of garbage, test subjects, the Collective's waste, spare parts, pirates, and old soldiers like me.”
“Old soldiers, Test subjects?” I muttered confused.
“You saw the badge coming in?
"United Federation Of Kestle, General, Ellis Tobago. I was once the commander of the second largest fleet in the galaxy. It's been a long time since I was home. He stared out into the sky. Eyes filled with wonder."
"Can you ever go back?" I asked.
"I tried once, went to the Collective SpacePort, took me months to even get the documents to see a representative. I got the same response as I expected. I am the property of the Collective, I have no rights and should try to make myself a life here, find work in the Collective mines or logging industry. They even gave me the choice to enlist in their military until I am called back to the lab for further inspection."
"So no" I replied.
He shrugged.
"The military was tempting at first, but after some wandering, I began to see the truth"
He paused on that note, taking time to breathe in slowly.
"How about your people? Kestle?" I inquired.
"The society has grown from what I heard in Archius but they aren't big enough to take on the collective. I heard rumours they signed a treaty of non-intervention five years ago leaving the collective to its own desires.” He muttered.
“Archius?”
“It's a city, only one for hundreds of kilometres, Has its own civil guard and government, they don't like outsiders much though, usually people like me just whip in and whip out, stocking up on supplies and selling our wares.”
“You mentioned others?”
I looked at him with bewildered eyes.
“Mercenaries, when I first came eleven years before that a group of soldiers from a contract force were stranded here. Apparently exiled for war crimes and a failure to maintain an intergalactic contract. 100,000 of them in total. They run the western wasteland along with many small settlements. Naturally, we have the Collective, of course, the Collectives robotic soldiers are a formidable legion of strength, this entire planet is controlled by their iron grasp no matter what facade the criminals believe. With a single shot from the orbital cannons, an entire city could be decimated in an instant. Nothing left but smouldering remains. Entire segments of the continent can be reduced to mere ash.
As I mentioned earlier they use this planet as an industrial garbage dump keeping the shining towers and blissful gardens of The Collective unscathed by their own rampant destruction. However, I will not say this planet does house the largest miniature star in the solar system. It produces more energy than any other settlement in the galaxy. In the North Continent, a vast majority of Collective cities and permanent settlements do exist. A population of five billion people lives in splendour on this planet. However, they are separated from this wasteland by a radiation field and an orbital defence system that will instantly terminate or reroute all unauthorized flights.
The members of the Collective homeworld see them as lesser citizens of course. Constitutionally they possess the same rights however this planet is envisioned as the garbage dump of the grand utopia, a cesspool of undesirables. Needless to say, the cities present still are quite magnificent and breathtaking to even comprehend.
All necessary pollution, hazardous wastes and dangerous factories are constructed here. If it can harm the planet it takes place here and not on the homeworld. A few Collective outposts do exist in the portion of the waste. Left to monitor side effects and maintain a semblance of order. They hardly do any charity or civil, of course. Instead, they simply abduct documents or execute those they deemed threats or persons of interest.
The wastes are where they dump all of their garbage, and old test subjects and serve as a general storage area. This planet has the most enormous selection of species in the galaxy which makes it a great harvesting place.
The planet Maol is remotely fresh in use however, If you take an eye out for the series of small moons that orbit the planet Tautaran, that was the original plane of garbage disposal. Once they had finally filled it and spoiled the land with toxins they moved on ultimately harvesting this world seems to be their current decision, but this time sparing the upper half due to former colonies being located on its coast.”
He heaved before standing up and striding towards the porthole, raising his hand to point to the open sky.
You looked out the window, that thing the size of a small moon is where they keep us, study us and most of their prominent scientists live. The Orbitor.
With a grand armada capable of taking out entire civilizations in one fell swoop they are a hauntingly formidable force.
They control twelve solar systems and could control a lot more but their focus was never conquest, always immortality"
He stopped speaking to gaze into the heavens above. For a moment we stood in silence.
“You know if you ever want a job I could always do with help on my ship, you owe me for saving your life anyway”
“Job?”
The term almost seemed alien to me, a thought from a past now forgotten.
“Payment would be a minimum wage of credits, food, lodgings and maybe a few parts of equipment here and there plus I’ll show you the ropes”
He looked around the room, muttering as he began to flick an array of buttons.
"As you can notice I'm in need a crew"
I scanned my surroundings considering them the empty abyss of chaos that lay below.
“Do I have a choice?” I asked.
He paced around the room, trying to give his response great thought.
"Well considering your options I could give you a lift to the nearest town? It's not far from here, only an hour's ride" he questioned.
I paused for a moment contemplating my next move.
"Sure I'll join when I start?"
“Today, one rule is to follow my direct orders no matter what and just don't touch anything, you can quit anytime, just do it at a port I don't want to have to drag you around for a while”
“Okay follow orders don't touch anything, simple”
“It's never simple. Here put this on its makeshift armour, put the vest over your clothes it will protect you” He stuttered.
He shoved a black vest covered in scrap metal and intricate instruments into my hands and pointed to a dark hallway of steel.
“The ship was engineered to be a transport freighter. I bought it from a smuggler in the depths of a slum city San Contino. Almost lost an eye doing it, it's hardly a city more than a clump of ancient ships clustered together. It's also where we go to get fuel and sell the scrap we salvage.”
“Salvage?” I asked.
“That's about the only thing you can do on this planet that's legal without working for the Collective. The entire place is one big rust bucket of supplies. We're in the waste right now. A land that is mostly ruined. To the north, there are the collectives strongholds and cities protected by the radiation grounds and thousands of defence systems which cut off the hemisphere, the west mercenaries, the south Archius and the east, nothing but wildlife. The rest of the planet is all water and the landmass is less than 1⁄4. Never swim in any water, it's irradiated, the oceans are where most of the toxic stuff leaks, it's the main trash container in this place…” he whispered
I stumbled forwards a bit shocked by the information, the man continued, babbling about the world.
“The sun is getting low. Dump your belongings in cabin 4 and meet me on the aft deck where we can talk.” Ellis chortled
I stumbled down the dimly lit hallway past towering piles of junk, random disassembled weapons and unravelled coils of salvaged wiring. There were four small cabins that fashioned the living quarters. One was the General's, its window was re-enforced and padlocked, the other when I pushed the door open the beds and cabinets had been removed. In the center was a large work table welding materials and tool kits were strewn across the room, on top of the table lay a metallic robot, the grey body of a human with a blue visor for eyes and one large antenna sprouting from the back of its head. It was oddly humanoid, fascinating in appearance. The entire room had a feeling as if it was frozen in time, a surgery undertaking that had paused long ago.