“What is that!? What did you do?” Koruk yelled. Oben looked at him in fear, but didn’t respond.

  “Answer me!”

  Koruk ran up to the human, who ducked behind the table, still clutching whatever he had pulled from the table.

  “I had to! The demon tricks!”

  “Well how are we going to know now that you’ve killed it?! You ripped its heart out!”

  “I protect! It bad!”

  “Show me what you took!”

  “No!”

  Koruk chased Oben around the table, but the human dodged away. The orc sighed.

  “This is stupid. I’m sorry for yelling. Sky’s bones this has been some day.”

  “It demon!”

  “Fine! I believe you! Alright? I believe you.” Koruk said. He sat down on the floor. “Can I see the thing now?”

  Cautiously, Oben approached, although he stayed out of arms reach. He opened his hands.

  Cradled between his palms was a small, oval stone of deepest blue. It seemed to pulse slightly, as though it had a heartbeat.

  “Heart of stone…” Koruk mouthed.

  Koruk heard a thumping noise behind him, and a foul tempered curse echoed through the room. He turned, and found Semthak and Moktark hobbling along in the dark. Moktark leaned heavily on the old orc’s shoulder, but Koruk was happy to see him up again.

  “Moktark! Over here!”

  “Damned light went out!” Semthak complained, as the pair approached. The old orc noticed Oben defensively cradling the stone, and then he noticed the puddle of fluid on the floor and the ripped apart tubing.

  “What the hells happened here?”

  Koruk explained what happened. Semthak nodded and scratched his beard, but kept his eye on Oben. The human shifted furtively on his feet.

  “That was idiotic. Who knows what we could have learned from this… oracle. Wasn’t the whole point of this quest to come here and figure out what the visions were about?” Semthak asked. Koruk nodded.

  “Oben seemed to think it was dangerous. It was leading us into a trap, I guess.”

  “And how did the two of you get split up anyways?”

  Koruk described the hallucination in the tunnel, and the vision he experienced. Semthak nodded, and said that they had a similar experience, but the two of them had stayed together.

  “Maybe the oracle wanted the two of you apart. Maybe it figured one of you meant to rip its damn guts out.” Semthak said.

  “It is demon. It speaks tricks!” Oben said.

  “You know it wasn’t too long ago someone was calling you a demon. That skinny imp. Well I guess this whole bloody quest was a waste of time then.” Semthak said, kicking the silent table.

  “What if we put the stone back into it?” Moktark suggested.

  Three pairs of eyes turned on Oben. The human clutched the stone more tightly.

  “Well come on then, give it here.” Semthak ordered, outstretching his open palm. Oben clutched it more tightly. His eyes darted around, as if looking for a place to bolt.

  “What’s with him?” Moktark asked. Koruk shook his head unknowingly.

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  Semthak sighed and closed the gap between himself and Oben with one long stride. He effortlessly wrenched the stone out of Oben’s grip. Oben retaliated by punching him in the jaw, an effort that hurt the human’s hand far more than the orc’s face. Semthak staggered in surprise.

  The old orc’s face split into a fierce snarl, showing all too many sharp teeth. Oben scrambled backwards in fear, fumbling to draw his knife.

  “Stay back monster!”

  “Oben, stop this!” Koruk yelled.

  “Shut up!” Oben yelled back, turning to Koruk. “You are dead! Everyone dead by you! Dubarae! Outsiders! Monsters!”

  Oben took a few additional steps back. Semthak’s snarl turned to a look of bewilderment at the human’s behaviour.

  “I smell your stink many days! I eat your food! I… no! Cave man nightmare not real! This is all wrong! All wrong!”

  Oben paused to catch his ragged breath. Then with one final look into Koruk’s muddy eyes, he turned and bolted into the darkness.

  Semthak gave Koruk a look as it to say “What the hell was that?”

  “Hey don’t look at me.” The young orc raised his hands.

  “You pushed him too much old man.” Moktark said, folding his arms. “Drake! Come back!”

  “Unfortunate. This whole business has gone ugly.” Semthak said, looking into the gently pulsing stone. It felt warm in his hand, and he could almost feel it looking back at him.

  “Tell me what happened again, Koruk. Leave nothing out.”

  ___________________________________________________________________________________

  Oben slumped against the cold stone wall in the blackness. He was an idiot. He knew he was an idiot.

  How had he let himself be rattled so easily? His mental barriers he has erected had completely collapsed, and reality had flooded back in. The life he had known was gone. His home. His love.

  He was alone.

  He was alone and he had let the outsider get under his skin. Get inside his head. Take advantage of his inner weakness. And now he had turned his only allies, such as they were, against him.

  The younger orc, Koruk, still haunted him. He had watched him die. Oben told himself it was just a mind game but somehow it didn’t help. He didn’t seem to be able to keep his mind on reality. On the mission.

  Seeing his wife’s face again had renewed his resolve in his quest. Locate technology. Somehow send a signal to wake up the fleet, assuming there was still anyone alive up there. For all he knew he was the last human being in the universe, but he had to have hope that somehow, someone else had survived the calamity.

  Well, here he was. Surrounded by alien technology. He had some vague notion that this must be outsider tech, but had no idea what he was dealing with specifically. The enigmatic aliens had attacked the colony, and must have left something behind when they were done wiping out his people. A gift in case anyone came back.

  So what was he supposed to do? He had thought, maybe somehow, he could use the power core he had ripped out of the hologram emitter or whatever it was. He didn’t have any real plans with it he supposed, and it was foolish to spark a confrontation with the orcs over it, but when he had held it in his hands…

  It was like holding a link. A link to a world long gone. Maybe the power to get that world back, and he had lost it by losing his nerve in the face of that razor toothed behemoth imitating human form. He had been terrified that whatever ai construct was behind that hologram would tell the orcs of his plans, of what happened to this world- and turn them against him. Ironically he had ended up turning them against himself all on his own.

  He sighed. This was pointless.

  Oben spent some time sitting in silence, staring into space. Trying to clear his mind, as his academy instructor had taught him. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw a flash of light. Just my imagination, he thought. But no, there it was again.

  Oben got to his feet and strained his eyes. There was the faintest trickle of light still running through the weird fluid filled conduits that seemed to snake through this level of the complex. Some last traces of power perhaps, or a short circuit. Still…

  If there was still power, maybe there was still a chance.

  Maybe he could still bring them home.

  Legs still shaking from fading adrenaline, Oben got to his feet. Keeping one hand on the still warm power conduit, he started following it to its source.

  Oben followed the conduits to where they came together in a nexus, clustering together above a low doorway. As he stepped through, he entered a room not unlike the one that housed the hologram table. Power thrummed in the walls still, and crystalline machines were arranged around the space.

  The human examined them for a time, and gradually a smile began to form on his face.

  “This could work...”