Condition Evolution 4 by Kevin Sinclair (parable of the sower read online .txt) 📗

have to work in the dark mines?” Koparr laughed and slapped him on the back, then looked at me with a smile on his face. “I’ll stay here as the guide torch. You can all go and look around.”

“Calegg makes a good point. You shouldn’t wait alone. Anything could happen,” I replied.

“I’ll stay,” Mick offered. “I’ll be the least useful if we find anything other than enemies.”

“Thanks, Mick, we won't be long,” I said, before beckoning everyone to move off into the cavernous darkness.

To say our search was anticlimactic was an understatement. The whole damn place was empty. And while we could see tunnels leading away from the expansive room, I had no inclination to travel them at the minute.

“Come on, people, there's nothing here that’s of any use to us today. We should head back and just focus on finding FSUs, and settling in the section that actually has power first. We can make more concerted efforts to map this place out once we have consolidated a base for ourselves.”

“Yes. I’m with you, Ember,” Elyek said in agreement. “If we consider the extent of Beler 3103, we’ll have seen less than a 100th of this station.”

“That's terrifying,” Calegg said. “There could actually be people on here somewhere and we’d never know.”

“Jezai said these places were unmanned, so it’s more than likely we’re completely alone. My hope is that there’s an evacuation ship somewhere that we can use to escape. Once we’re safe and settled, that should be our main objective.”

“It would be so cool if there was a way to fly this beast!” Calegg added. “Imagine if we could fill it with crew! We would be unstoppable.”

“Nice dream, Calegg,” I laughed. “Unless we fought the Apochros who, if I don’t miss my guess, have at least four thousand and eight of these things!”

“Maybe,” he answered, “but they don’t have them filled with the Uprising!”

“It is certainly something we could look into,” Elyek said, surprising me. “I mean, there must be some form of propulsion system somewhere. It may require a vast amount of energy and therefore not be feasible.”

“Worth checking out at some point,” I said, walking back over towards Koparr and Mick.

Ogun started laughing. “It’s a joy to be back amongst you. I see your new crew has developed a similar ethos to dealing with insurmountable odds as you and Shaun.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“Your outlook on life,” he explained. “Your spirit that refuses to be beaten.”

I shrugged. “You're only beaten when you admit it, and that won’t do any of us any good.” I was about to leave it at that, but realised Ogun could probably use the moral support, much like the rest of us fickle humans. Whether he showed it or not. “It’s good to have you back with us too, Ogun.”

“I’m grateful to still be welcome, by most anyway. Astrid appears to have felt my departure the most keenly as a betrayal.”

“She’ll come round, I’m sure,” I replied as we reached our tunnel.

“Anything?” Mick asked.

“Sweet fuck all. The whole damn room was empty from what we could see. We're just going to go back now.”

He nodded acceptance, and we set off again down the epic corridor. I walked alongside Ogun so I could speak with him some more. “Why do you stand back when there are situations between us to deal with? You did it a lot on the Thoth, and don’t give me the usual shit about how you want us to do it for ourselves. While that may be true to some extent, it's only a small part of it.”

He looked at me with a huge smile. “Can you not guess?”

“Not really, no.”

“Our race craves power above all else. If I assumed the role of leader over the role of teacher, it would only be a matter of time before I was little more than another Fystr despot and you would be in the same situation I tried to free you all from.”

“The Apochros seem to have managed to forego those tendencies,” I replied.

“Really?” he said, gesturing to our surroundings. “It seems they have just put a different title.”

“Well, all I know is that the fucking weasels better get in touch with us soon and tell us what the hell’s going on.”

By the time we made it back to the hall, six of the teams had returned. They had found a canteen and an area that had more developed living facilities than the rooms we had been stored in. I was eager to go to the areas they had found, but we would have to wait for everyone to return. Not having any kind of communication devices was very fucking irritating.

As the groups slowly came in, the pattern of news was clear. Corridors and domed halls like this one for a few miles, until they reached doors that were unpassable. The last team to return had found a docking bay, only it too was completely empty; no ships, no nothing. With no other options, we went to settle in the living quarters. The rest would have to wait.

Chapter 9

Astridoid

I found the quarters were typical of what we’d seen so far. Not as nice as the Thoth and Seshat’s, and even less again than the Uprising. Nonetheless it was a weight off to have a comfortable base and access to basics. Acclo organized everyone as best they could, although as they stood in front of me now, I could see not having a data pad to write and store information on was fraying their nerves far more than being stranded on a weird alien space station.

“We need to decide where to store the prisoners,” they said to me.

“Yes, we do. Can we lock any doors yet?” I asked.

“No. The systems still remain unresponsive.”

“We’ll need to find a workaround. I’d rather not keep them unconscious. Not to mention feeding them and the other bodily functions.”

“I’m confident we can find an alternative.”

“Thank you, Acclo. I don’t know where I’d be without