The Hidden Tribe
From “The Chronicles of John Alkali”
Published By
Rik Johnston
Copyright 2016
Dark Perceptions Publishing
ISBN: 9781370011285
Digital Edition, License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to a third party. If you would like to share this book with Another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the publisher and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Please note that this is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places or events are purely coincidental.
THE HIDDEN TRIBE
I
From the deep edges of The Sphere The Squigis came, bringing their wrath, their hate and their ruin, cutting a swath of destruction in a wide path through the mighty Human Tribes, single minded in the purpose. Their kind had long suffered a debilitating illness amongst their young, one that could be cured by a substance that grew deep with the seas of the planet Paradiso, harvested by Tribe Tranquilo’s medical scientists and healers. The Sphere prepared for their arrival and their onslaught as best as they could, but were caught off guard by the capabilities of The Squigis and their war machines. The battles had raged for many months, and there were many casualties on both sides. In the end, The Human Tribes were eventually able to defeat The Squigis by overcoming a siege at the fortress city of Sewall, and drove them back to the edge of The Sphere by using The Empyre Omega, a weapon gifted to The Imperatore by The Ichouli Empress Herself. The Squigis retreated, but hate had festered in their hearts, and was taught generationally, exponentially increasing their hate over the course of many millennia.
It was during the Squigis War that one of The Ichouli, known as Luquari saw an opportunity. Luquari had wanted one thing above all else. She had wanted offspring of her own to care for and to give every advantage that the Eight Handmaidens were not able to give their offspring. It had been expressly forbidden by The Empress for any other of The Ichouli to create offspring in the manner that She and her Handmaidens had, particularly since Serendipity had done so, and great plans had to be modified to correct the malicious intent of The Usurper. Because of this, it had been decreed that none of The Ichouli could create offspring during the course of their exile.
But Luquari’s desires were deep, and her need was great, so when the opportunity presented itself, she knew that the time had come for her to have what she was entitled to, the thing that should have never been restricted from her. A dead planet, capable of supporting human life if properly refurbished laid before her, and while the entirety of the attention of The Sphere was focused upon Paradiso, Luquari broke the express command of her Empress.
And it came to pass that Luquari of The Ichouli sent out her Lifepulse and birthed unto The Sphere a Tribe she named after herself, and showered them with every advantage of the other Human Tribes, and gave them abilities that the other Human Tribes did not possess. Healing was given to them, to survive mortal wounds, to give them immunity from any disease, to run faster, lift more, and age very slowly. They were given advantages the other Human Tribes could not dream of, such as wealth and opulence like none had ever imagined. This Human Tribe was set forth inside of The Dark World, never to see the surface or the outside, but to live contained inside with everything that one could ever want. This was their blessing and their curse, for if they were ever discovered by The Empress, her wrath would be brought against them, and they would be utterly destroyed, along with their creator Luquari.
And with the creation of Tribe Luquari, she took her most cherished possession, the memory of her children’s creation, and hid it deep inside the planet core, breathing new life into a dead world.
And the Luquari homeworld, having no atmosphere, became an enclosed ecosystem in which they thrived, and struck balance with one another, for they did not know hate and dissention. And while they knew of outsiders and other Human Tribes, they did not seek fellowship with them, and lived within their world in contentedness for many millennia.
II
Tribe Luquari had lived an opulent life since their conception, but they knew nothing of greed or selfishness. Everybody had everything they could ever want or need, which made everything of equal value for them. There was no squabbling amongst one another, and they lived in peace, as was their function to do so from their inception. But as the millennia wore on, there was one girl in the Tribe named Sh’loree who began to feel the yearnings of exploration. She desperately wanted to know what was beyond her world and see what the rest of The Sphere had to offer.
Sh’loree grew up an inquisitive child. While she had everything that she needed to live a very comfortable lifestyle hidden within their homeworld, she always knew that she wanted something different. She wanted to see The Sphere for herself, to experience it in a way that none in her Tribe had ever done. She wanted to see the places that she had only ever heard of, the great city of Treewall, the palace of The Imperatore on Lionstemia, to find love on the beaches of Hestendra, to take part of The Klim on Nyppatoria, or even take a nomadic trek through the desert on Vinestrus. These things ached at her soul, and being in a Tribe that is hidden from the rest of The Sphere was a first-class way to never find out about any of these things she had only heard of.
She needed to experience The Sphere for herself, so her mind began racing with the possibilities on how to accomplish this. When an idea had at last occurred to her, it took weeks of planning on her part, and she premeditated it down to the minutest of details. If she could make the council believe that they needed something from one of the other Human Tribes that they did not already possess, then she might be able to convince them that she could be a suitable candidate to go and retrieve such an item, or items. The only problem was getting the council to agree to her departure.
When her planning was complete, and she had thought that she had covered every detail, she went before the Council and laid out her plan before them. She had heard that Tribe Lartey had created breathtaking pieces of art, and that art was one of the things that was certainly missing from Tribe Luquari, so this would be her bait to place upon the hook.
She had arrived at the Council Chamber, and waited nervously for her turn to be called forward. Many of the people appearing before her had long litigation regarding development of new areas, and remodeling of others. It all seemed too much of the same for her, and she wasn’t happy about the long wait. The longer it took to get to her, the more nervous she became. When at last the Council had called her name, she stepped forward to address them, her hands shaking so visibly that she could hardly hold the plan that she was about to present to them.
“Good Folk of the Council of Tribe Luquari,” She addressed in as regal and professional tone as she could muster. “I come before you with a proposition, one that will give us something we do not have, and one that will expand our information of everything we know.”
The Council Members interest piqued somewhat at the opening of her proposition, and while they were not a greedy folk, they were always interested in something new. “Proceed.” The Chancellor of the Council spoke, his voice booming throughout the chamber.
“We have wealth, we have everything we could ever want here, but there is something we do not have.” She stated, trying to keep her facts as straight as she could.
“And what would that be, young lady?” The Chancellor asked inquisitively.
After a short pause, Sh’loree dared to look at each of the Council Members in the eye. “We d
o not have art.”
One of the Council Members spoke up, “What do we need art for? We have everything we need.”
Sh’loree cleared her throat, feeling her bravery rise inside of her. “Art gives us something we do not have. It gives us the ability to look at something and form an opinion, to awaken a passion we have never known.”
The third Council Member spoke up. “Why do we need this? What good will it do for our Tribe?”
The Chancellor chimed in with his observations “I see what is going on here. You are asking for something no member of this Tribe has ever asked.”
“And what is that?” Sh’loree asked, trying not to lose what small amount of composure she had managed to conjure up.
“I see that you do not want to bring art to this world, as much as you’re looking to leave this world.” He stated, seeing right through her plan. “You cannot hook a fish if it isn’t looking to feed, and we don’t have need for art.”
“Yes, it is true.” Sh’loree conceded. “I want to see what’s beyond our world, and bring back information to make our world a better place. I want to experience more than I’ve been allowed to, and want to see what’s beyond our world.”
“It is forbidden by law.” The Chancellor said, his voice raising significantly. “No one has ever left this world, and no one ever will. If we are discovered, it will mean the end of our Tribe, and we cannot risk it. My answer is no. You will not be allowed to leave.”
Sh’loree felt the tears well up in her eyes, but did not allow them to fall. Instead she walked away, feeling her heart break into pieces, leaving a trail on the floor.
III
Many years had passed since Sh’loree had asked the Council to leave Luquari, but her passion for doing so had not grown dimmer. She had taken a job monitoring the star system their planet was a part of, looking for signs that other Human Tribes might come close to discovering them. It was a thankless job that required years of sitting behind monitors that would never display anything, and communication arrays that would never speak to them. Each day, she wished she would sight something beyond a comet or a rogue asteroid, but year after year, it wasn’t meant to be. And that is just the way that Tribe Luquari preferred it.
Until one day, almost 32 years to the day that she had approached the Council, something did arrive. She couldn’t believe it; it was an expedition ship! And on her watch! As she monitored the situation, her colleagues were busy with other things, not taking notice of what was happening on the display before them. She knew she needed to get their attention, but how? How would she do this with others in the room? She needed a distraction, and fast.
Without thinking, she went over to the other side of the room and prepped the fire suppression system, putting it on a timer, then calmly returned to her chair. A moment later, the alarms blared their one note warning, and everybody evacuated the room, well, almost everybody.
Sh’loree frantically worked on sending out a homing signal so that the passing ship would be attracted to it, and would come and investigate. When she sent the signal, the alarm cut back off, so she went back across the room and began to fall in with the other employees as they returned to the room. Fortunately for her, nobody even noticed that she hadn’t left the room.
She didn’t go back to that workstation for the remainder of the afternoon, but kept an eye on it from across the room. Most of the employees she worked with didn’t even bother to monitor it because nothing had ever come. For a Tribe who was working so hard to stay hidden, monitoring incoming vessels was one of the lowest priority jobs on the planet.
Later in the day, the ship did receive the homing signal, and did turn course to Luquari. It was only later in the evening on the next shift that somebody realized that their planet was about to be landed on.
The alarms rocked the cities in the planet, but Sh’loree knew that the ship was going to come to where her city was, because that’s the coordinates she gave them. She prepared for their arrival, and when they came, she would slip out to their ship in the commotion. She was done with Luquari, and would never come back.
IV
The explorers from Tribe Lastrada landed safely on the surface of an unknown planet, brought there by a homing signal of mysterious origin. Two of the crew decided to depart from the ship to investigate, while the Captain and co-pilot stayed on board.
It is in the blood of Tribe Lastrada to explore each and every thing they find within The Sphere. It is their purpose and what they are made for. Whether it is the smallest sub-atomic particles, to new solar systems, Tribe Lastrada is excited for the thrill of each and every discovery. But to find an actual homing signal coming from what appeared to be a dead planet defied all logic to them, and so their curious nature got the better of them.
When the exploration team had reached the coordinates embedded within the homing signal, they found something that they did not expect. Inside a cave, they found an airlock that appeared to head into a passage beyond it. Upon entry of that airlock, they moved down the passage to a large chamber, and found Humans there. A lot of Humans. This was truly a major discovery. Who were these people? Was this a colony of some kind? Were they criminals hiding out? What was their story? The members of Tribe Lastrada had a feeling that they were about to discover the answers to all their questions, as it came in the form of twenty armed guards, who began to removing their environmental suits from them to take them before the Council.
While everybody was so focused upon the arrest of the interlopers they had hardly taken any notice of Sh’loree desperately collecting parts of their environmental suits so she could slip out and onto the ship. When the inquisitive crowd had dispersed, they had followed the guards and their captives to the Council Chamber. Sh’loree pulled the environmental suit into the corridor and began frantically clothing herself with it in an attempt to get out of the airlock before anybody could notice what was going on. She hadn’t thought this far ahead on her plan, and what she was going to do next. Did she think that she was just going to get on an alien ship and fly away like they would all be best buddies? No, she needed to help free their companions, because it was likely that the pilots wouldn’t leave without them. And she couldn’t have them telling the Council about the homing signal, that would be disastrous.
She decided that she would have to go and give herself to the aliens as a prisoner, and hope that the answers she would give them would earn her enough trust to earn a ride off Luquari. With a feeling of excitement, she stepped into the airlock, and soon found herself inside the cave. She had never been on the surface before, so it took a few moments to acclimate to the change in gravity and air density, or lack thereof. She toddled out of the cave and made an approach to the ship where she was contacted by the co-pilot though the suit’s communication device.
She explained that she was trying to escape from the colony and was not a criminal. Some dialogue went on about the location of the crew members and she promised that she would explain the situation to them when she was on board and out of the suit. The pilot agreed to the terms and allowed her to come aboard.
V
There was much discussion onboard the ship as to the identity of the woman who had come back in the suit. The Captain interrogated her for what seemed like the better part of an hour, and seemed truly concerned about the location of his men. She couldn’t keep the smile off her face throughout the questioning. She was sitting inside something that wasn’t made on this world, and she kept looking around, trying to soak it all in. Even if she didn’t get off this rock, she was the first to visit a vessel from a foreign planet, and that made her happy to no end.
But the Captain was insistent on getting his men back, and so Sh’loree gave them the means to communicate directly with the Council, to see if an arrangement could be made. She didn’t want to go back, and she made that plain to the Captain, but told him that she could be used for a prisoner exchange if need be. She di
dn’t relish the idea of spending the rest of her years locked up in the stockade, but if it was the right thing to do then she would accept it.
The Captain wouldn’t hear of a prisoner exchange, in fact, he didn’t even want them to know that she was there. He sent her from the room, and made contact with the Council, and told the Chancellor that he could send his men back out and he would forget he ever discovered their world, or he could return with a fleet and collect his men by force. The Chancellor agreed to release the prisoners.
When the prisoners were released, one of their environmental suits was missing, and couldn’t be found. The Captain pressed his advantage, and told them they were due to leave soon, and couldn’t wait for them to find the missing suit, and to give the prisoner on of their own. Tribe Luquari was so eager to be compliant and keep their existence a secret that they gave up the suit without a fight.
The crewmen returned safely to the ship and it wasn’t long before the dead planet was nothing more than a memory. True to his word, the Captain didn’t log his discovery, beyond having landed there to rescue a downed craft in which one woman had survived.