Chapter 1: https://markcheverton.com/the-algae-voices-of-azule-chapter-1/ 

Chapter 2: https://markcheverton.com/the-algae-voices-of-azule-chapter-2/

Chapter 3: https://markcheverton.com/the-algae-voices-of-azule-chapter-3/

Chapter 4: https://markcheverton.com/the-algae-voices-of-azule-chapter-4/

Chapter 5: https://markcheverton.com/the-algae-voices-of-azule-chapter-5/

Chapter 6: https://markcheverton.com/the-algae-voices-of-azule-chapter-6/

Chapter 7: https://markcheverton.com/the-algae-voices-of-azule-chapter-7/

Chapter 8: https://markcheverton.com/the-algae-voices-of-azule-chapter-8/

Chapter 9: https://markcheverton.com/the-algae-voices-of-azule-chapter-9/

Chapter 10: https://markcheverton.com/the-algae-voices-of-azule-chapter-10/

The Algae Voices of Azule

Chapter 11

They headed out into the Outlands, keeping the Guardians between them and the Inquisitor for as long as possible. The smooth-rolling hills offered few obstacles to the family, with the occasional fallen tree lying here and there. More calliope trees dotted the landscape, their purple-gray leaves standing out against the beige soil. The scent of katharos berries filled the air, their tangy smell signified that they were not ripe yet, the sweet purple berries were a favorite of everyone on Azule. Passing one, Billy reached out and felt the fuzzy green leaves and then plucked one of the berries, his fingertip got stained a deep purple. He licked his fingertip then spat the sour taste from his mouth, wishing he hadn’t done that. Billy started to notice strangler birds in the trees, their long, striped, black-red tails twitching about as the birds looked at the ground from prey, an unwary mouse or escherat. Flash lizards also started to appear, as they moved farther from the city, the bioluminescent creatures flashing bright colors at insects to attract them, then gobble them up with lightning-fast tongues. As they walked, the Outlands seemed to change from a desolate, lifeless plain to an environment teeming with life, and hope.

After about half an hour, Charles checked his wrist computer and changed their direction, heading for the coordinates that Paul Dirac had given them. They continued their journey in silence, Billy pointing out various creatures to Ali with his Gift, Charles remaining stoic and silent.

“It’s starting to get dark,” Ali whispered.

“Yes, its first sunset,” Charles said. “It’ll make it harder for them to see us.”

Billy looked up and could see their yellow sun, Pateras, slowly setting, Gios, the red dwarf, approaching the horizon, but still had some life in it, for a while. As Pateras set, the landscape changed from one of bright colors and dark shadows to a world shaded in warm reds. Ali’s strawberry blond hair looked a deep rosy color, almost glowing with crimson warmth under Gios’ radiance.

“Father, we need to rest,” Ali said, afraid of his response.

“You’re right, let’s rest for a bit,” Charles said. “We have only a few miles to go, and then we’ll be there.”

“Excellent,” Billy said as he looked for a place to sit, choosing a small, half-buried boulder, Ali and Charles followed his lead.

Just as they sat, the sounds of the Outlands, the screech of the strangler birds, the hooting of the rockhoppers and the barking of the weasel-like esherats seemed to evaporate and wrap them in chilling silence. And then it started. A clicking sound started to fill the air, like someone tapping two pieces of hard wood together. But then it was joined by another set of clicks, and then another and another, until the air was resonating with what sounded like a million sources, all coming from where they had just run; the Guardians.

“What was that?” Billy asked, looking into the dim red landscape.

Charles stood and looked in the direction of the sound, but could see nothing, the dim lighting making shadows merge together.

“I can’t see anything,” Charles said, his voice sounding concerned, “and I don’t like this. I’d really like to know what’s out there.”

‘I have an idea,’ Ali thought to Billy.

“What are you going to do?” Billy asked his sister.

She ignored him and just closed her eyes, focusing on her Gift.

“What going on?” Charles asked.

The clicking was getting closer.

“I don’t know,” Billy said, Ali still silent, concentrating.

Billy could feel her gathering her Gift, focusing on something, but he wasn’t sure on what, and then Billy could hear it, a high-pitched whine which was coming from right in front of them. It was faint at first, the clicking getting louder, but then the whine started to grow in volume. Suddenly, a ball of light flared in front of Ali, small at first, but growing as the whine grew. She was forming a ball of air in front of her, but vibrating it at great speeds so that the molecules were rubbing against each other, getting hotter and hotter until the air burst aflame, forming a ball of plasma, white hot. Ali pushed the ball of superheated air high up above them then moved it toward the clicking, the plasma started to grow brighter and brighter, lighting the surrounding, as if it were daylight.

“What was that?” Charles asked. “Did you use your Gift? Are you using your powers?”

Ali didn’t answer, all of her concentration focused on the ball of light. Charles was about to reach out toward her daughter when Billy shouted.

“LOOK!”

Billy stood and pointed toward the newly lit terrain. It was covered with piranha spiders, their spotted bodies scraping against each other, as they warily approached, many emerging from hidden burrows or from under fallen trees. They were each about two feet tall, with eight dark legs sticking out from their round, fat bodies, the sharp points at the end of their legs scraping across rock and piercing soil. The tops of their heads were spotted with bright yellow-orange eyes, at least a dozen of them if not more, looking as if they were randomly placed. The eyes had a sinister look about them; as if the spiders were looking at you from all directions at once. But the worst part was their teeth. They had what seemed like a hundred razor-sharp teeth, all bright white and all exposed, no lips–just teeth. Each spider was gnashing their teeth together, the source of the clicking, in expectation of an approaching meal; Charles and his family.

A shudder ran down Billy’s spine, chilling him to his soul. He was overwhelmed with fear, no not fear, panic and terror, yet too afraid to move. Ali still hadn’t looked, but Billy could tell she could see through her Gift what was near and was beginning to shake, the light from the glowing ball of air starting to flicker as her concentration wavered.

“We have to get out of here!” Charles said, his voice cracking with nervousness. “Come on!”

Charles stood and scooped Ali up into his arms and carried her. He then started to run, Billy just barely able to keep up. The spiders saw their meal starting to escape and scuttled quicker on their little black pointed feet, their teeth gnashing together faster and faster until it sounded like a storm of crickets chasing them.

“Ali, drop the ball of light on them,” Billy said excitedly. “Use it as a weapon.”

Ali nodded, her eyes still closed. She fired the ball of superheated air directly down on a cluster of spiders, causing them to burst into flame, cracking open spider shells and splitting legs. Some of the spiders stopped to eat their comrades, but most continued the pursuit. Forming another plasma ball, she threw that at the horde that was now growing in size, their numbers now at least a hundred and still increasing.

Charles ran as fast as he could with his daughter in his arms, his son running next to him, breathing hard. He found an old dry river bed, and followed it, the occasional boulder or shrub that they had to avoid now gone, letting them increase their pace. Ali’s eyes were closed with concentration; her psychic powers were focused on firing balls of plasma at the giant carnivorous insects. Billy did what he could, also, dropping balls of compressed air behind him, then releasing them at random moments, letting the air within explode and expand outward, hopefully from underneath a piranha spider. He never looked back to see the effects of his little surprises, he just focused on running, his mind nearly overwhelmed with fear. Uncontrolled tears seeped from his eyes, forced out by the terror of what pursued them. He reached up and wiped his cheek clean, hoping his father wouldn’t see him; Billy wanted to look strong in his father’s eyes.

Just then, a spider appeared in front of them, its teeth gnashing together in a syncopated rhythm, like castanets gone crazy. Billy quickly gathered a ball of air and launched it at the beast. It struck the creature hard in the head and knocked it off its little spiky feet, exposing its vulnerable belly. Charles leaped over it, as Billy ran around, staying as far from the nightmare as he could. They heard the creature screech, as those behind fell on the giant insect for an easy meal.

“Good shot, huh?” Billy said to his father, hoping for approval.

“I don’t like it when you do that…use your powers,” Charles said between breaths.

“Would you rather…I just let it come at us?” Billy panted.

“No, you did the right thing,” Charles said, taking a breath. “But I don’t like all this Gifted stuff.”

“But why?” Billy asked. “What have the Gifted ever done to you?”

Charles grunted and looked at his son. Painful memories colored his face—memories from the past that were etched deep in his soul. Charles was about to say something, to explain, when Ali spoke up.

“Look ahead,” she said, as she opened her eyes.

Billy looked away from his father and glanced ahead. The riverbed had led them into a ravine, with dirt walls far too sheer for any of them to climb, well, maybe except for Charles; they were far too steep for the children to scale. The walls were also covered with tangle vines and needle shrubs, the vines almost impossible to climb through for a child, and the needle shrubs aptly named for their needle sharp thorns. Ahead of them, a pile of rubble twenty feet tall blocked their way, the walls of the ravine having fallen in some time ago. They were at a dead end.

Billy looked behind him and noticed that the spiders had stopped at the entrance of the ravine, hesitant for some reason to enter. Ali noticed the same, and sent a burning ball of plasma high into the air and made it float above the ravine. Their red sun, Gios, was still giving off its ruby-red light, but it was low on the horizon now, casting long shadows within the ravine. With Ali’s bright yellow ball of plasma, the ravine was now colored a warm orange, with bright yellow and red shadows, black where the shadows from the two lights overlapped. It seemed strikingly beautiful to Ali, though the sound of a million piranha teeth clicking together clouded the scene a bit.

Looking up to the top of the ravine, Ali could see why the spiders had stopped. A handful of sand runners sat at the top of the ravine peering down at them, their white feathers seemed to glow rosy red under the light of Gios, and their long black beaks sparkled menacingly. They were the natural predator of the piranha spider, their long black beaks able to pierce through the mottled shells with ease. They were large, each at least three feet tall, with stubby wings and long powerful legs. They were called birds only because of their covering of soft white feathers; their short wings unable to support flight. This was what had the spiders concerned, but they weren’t running away. There were only a few dozen sand runners at the top of the ravine, and now maybe a thousand spiders at the entrance, their bodies scraping against each other as they slowly closed in on their prey.

“Maybe we can climb out of here,” Ali said as Charles set her on the ground, her plasma barrage momentarily paused.

“No, it’s too steep, and besides, you two would never make it through the vines and needle shrubs,” Charles warned, looking up to inspect the sheer walls.

“But you could make it, father,” Billy said softly.

“NO!” Charles snapped.

“But Daddy, it’s the only way,” Ali pleaded.

Charles gave her an angry scowl.

“Sorry…Father, it’s the only way.”

“No, I’m staying with you two.”

A flurry of activity suddenly erupted at the top of the ravine. The sand runners stood, their feathers ruffled, then ran away, the flightless birds now having to confront a hundred piranha spiders, and choosing to flee instead. As the birds dispersed, the top of the ravine quickly became ringed with spiders, their clicking teeth echoing in an eerie rhythm.

“Oh no, we’re trapped,” Charles said as he pulled his children to him, putting a strong arm around each.

Billy started to cry, turning his head away from his father to hide his tears. Ali felt tears starting to well up within her, but was suddenly filled with a calm reassuring voice, which seemed to come from a million miles away, but at the same time come from within. The deep, rumbling voice sounded like distant thunder, barely audible, but its words sounded crystal clear within her mind.

“Alison, we are here, we are everywhere,” the voice boomed. “Be at peace!”

Ali looked around as if she’d be able to find the source, but she knew the voice came from inside her mind. She’d heard it before when she had been unconscious inside their brother’s mind.

“Who are you, where are you?” Ali asked aloud, drawing curious stares from her father and brother.

“We are us,” the thundering voice said. “We are the many, we are the one. We are the Blue.”

Then, suddenly, she understood. It was the voice that told her to blow the blue algae onto the Inquisitor’s face; it was the blue algae that permeated her body.

“Yes, it was us.”

‘You hear my thoughts?’

“Yes,” the alien voice rumbled within her head.

‘Can you help us?’ Ali thought. ‘The spiders, they’ll kill us.’

“We are with you, we are always with you,” the million alien voices confirmed, some from within, some from a billion miles away. “The Blue does not kill itself. Make them one with us.”

‘What?’

And then she remembered what the Blue had said to her in the hospital room when that terrible Inquisitor had been getting ready to strike, and realization of what they must do flooded through her. Snapping back to the present, Ali could hear Billy sobbing, her father’s strong arms wrapped around her.

“Billy, listen!” Ali said, yanking on her brother’s arm.

“What?” Billy said, wiping his cheeks dry with his sleeve.

“LISTEN…inside…Listen to the Blue.”

Billy looked confused for a moment, then clarity came over him. Closing his eyes, he listened to the rumbling voice within his mind.

Small stones rolled down the ravine walls, as the spiders started to slowly come down, their pointed feet digging deep into the flesh of Azule to hold them fast. The piranha spiders at the mouth of the ravine slowly moved forward, as those on the walls were approaching, the toothy vise closing terrifyingly slow.

“They’re coming, get behind me!” Charles commanded, eyeing the flood of spiders that were climbing down the walls then shifting his gaze to the piranhas that were slowly advancing at the opening of the ravine.

“Father, we know what to do,” Ali said as she moved to stand in front.

“You aren’t gonna like what we’re gonna do, Father” Billy explained, “but we have to do it.”

“You mean using your…Gift?” their father asked, a look of distaste on his face when he said the word.

“You once told me something, father,” Billy explained. “You said, ‘when you try something hard, don’t let fear of failure taint your efforts. You just have to do whatever it takes to succeed, and you don’t quit until you do succeed. Others may be counting on you, and you can’t let them down. If you keep trying, until you’re successful and never give up, you’ll always be successful. Never accept the possibility of failure.’ That’s what we’re doing now, doing what it takes to be successful, and not accepting the possibility of failure. We need you to do the same, and accept what we must do; use our Gifts to save us.”

Charles sighed and then gave the kids a slight nod.

“Tell me what I need to do.”

“Just watch our backs and tell us where the spiders are at,” Billy explained.

‘Ready?’ Ali thought.

‘Ready.’

‘NOW!’ Ali yelled with her mind.

Billy moved quickly to the tangle vines and needle shrubs that lined the walls of the ravine. He reached deep into the vines with one hand, then blew across the other, spraying spores of blue algae across the plant as if he were drenching them with a hose. The spores sank deep into the cells of the plant, penetrating deep down to the roots, then spreading to the adjacent plants, until all of the vines and shrubs glowed with a blue haze. Billy then gave the plants a command, sent through the Blue. It was a single word, concise and to the point, but it spoke their need, and the plants responded.

“GROW!”

And the plants grew.

The roots drew energy from the soil and accelerated cell growth, mitosis in fast forward. The soil around the roots grew cold and started to frost over as the plants drew more and more energy from the soil, driving the cell growth. The tangle vines grew wildly, their thick appendages reaching out to snag the legs of the approaching spiders. The needle shrubs also grew like a time-lapse movie, the needles getting thicker and longer, as the shrubs ballooned in size, forming a spiked wall. Spiders tried to push their way through the needle shrubs but were quickly impaled by the growing spikes, their mottled shells adding to the barrier as their thin, pointed legs twitched and thrashed, then stilled. The spiders tried to push through the tangle of vines, but they were no match for the thick mesh of growing plants. Their thin, pointed legs quickly became entangled in the vines, adding their hard flailing bodies to the wall of life-saving plants. Spiders from behind tried to climb over their ensnared comrades, but quickly became stuck themselves, until a wall of entangled bodies lined the ravine. The advance down the ravine walls had been stopped.

At the same time, Ali faced the attacking horde of spiders that were advancing into the ravine. She stepped forward to face the creatures. Charles reached out and tried to pull her back, but she shrugged off his arm and moved a step closer to the spiders. Suddenly, Billy was at her side, his sense of strength and confidence buoying her courage. They both knelt as the spiders approached, one hand held out straight and blew.

The cloud of blue algae spores hit the first spider in the face, its fiery yellow-orange eyes instantly changing to a cobalt blue. It stopped, confused at all the voices, thundering through its tiny brain, then the cloud of algae struck those in the second rank and the third, and the fourth…until a hundred piranha spiders were infected with the Blue, all now motionless, confused. Ali then reached out with her Gift and gave the spiders—her spiders—a single command, DEFEND. The Blue spiders spun around and charged into the attacking army, sharp teeth and pointed legs thrusting and slashing at their adversaries.

“One’s getting through the tangle vines!” Charles shouted.

Billy spun, targeted the spider, and threw a ball of hardened air at the giant insect, the ball cracking its spotted shell. It flopped on the ground for a second and then died. Charles had collected a pile of stones and was throwing them at spiders that were trying to make it through the tangle vines, snapping a leg here, crushing an eye there, having little effect but feeling like he was part of the solution. Another spider pushed its way through the vines and was met by another ball of air, the spider’s legs smashed.

Billy nodded to his father and turned back to the ravine opening. The Blue spiders were driving into the melee of attackers but were completely outnumbered and falling before a crashing wave of slashing teeth and piercing legs. They were being driven back, dying as they slowly retreated.

“There’s too many of them!” Billy yelled over the din of battle. “We have to back up!”

“Another one’s getting through!” Charles yelled.

Ali spun and fired a ball of plasma at the escaping spider. It burst into flame, thrashed on the ground, then charged in panic back into the tangle vine. The plants started to burn, ringing the ravine in flame. That had the effect of stopping the advance of the spiders on the walls of the ravine, but it also started to fill the air with acrid spoke, making breathing difficult.

“We have to get out of here before we suffocate,” Charles yelled, throwing another rock at a spider that was still trying to charge through the flames.

“ALI!” Billy yelled.

Ali turned and saw what Billy saw. Most of the Blue spiders lay on the ground, dead, their numbers completely overwhelmed. Billy was kneeling and blowing more blue spores at the spiders, but the piranhas were falling on the Blues so quickly from behind, that it was almost having no effect.

“Ali, what do we do? This isn’t working.”

Ali thought for a moment, considering the problem.

“We have to infect more spiders with the Blue,” Ali said calmly as if considering a puzzle on a Sunday afternoon. “We need to get the spiders at the back infected, as well as those at the front.”

Billy sighed as he realized what must be done.

“I know what we must do,” he said, motioning for his father to join them. “Father, you need to pick me up and throw me out there. When I land on the ground, I can infect the spiders with the blue algae while Ali infects the spiders here. We’ll have Blue spiders at the front and back of this pack. They’ll close in like a vise and trap those in between.”

“No!” Charles barked. “You won’t survive that.”

“Better two surviving than none; ‘You just have to do whatever it takes to succeed, and you don’t quit until you do succeed.’ That’s what you taught me, Father; that’s what we have to do. This is the only way. We have to move fast before we’re overrun and then we’re all dead. You know my plan will succeed, I can see it in your mind. Now come on, let’s do this.”

Charles sighed, and a tear rolled down his cheek. He knew his son was right, but how could he sentence his son to this fate? But then he looked down at his daughter, kneeling before the spiders, blowing her weapon of blue algae into the voracious attacking faces. He couldn’t bear to have both of them perish; the truth of his son’s plan drawing more tears from his hardened face. Looking at his son, he nodded and moved to pick him up for one last time. Billy shook with fear, knowing what was about to happen, the razor-sharp teeth of the spiders tearing into him, the sharp-pointed feet piercing his flesh, but he had to do it, had to save his father and sister. He’d keep the image of them in his mind until his last moments of life, and then …