Proteus - The Last Survivor (Book Three)

Proteus: The Last Survivor

The third book in the Proteus Series

and the final part of the Neo Alphius Saga

Second Extended Edition

Copyright © 2017 / 2018 Alexander Nassau

Published by Alexander Nassau at Smashwords

ISBN: 9781370304998

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

"For Stephen Lofthouse.

A friend, a nutter and someone who taught me how to see the world in a unique way."

See More from the Author on my Blog

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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Table of Contents

Previously

Prologue

Chapter One - A Different Point of View

Chapter Two - Waiting

Chapter Three - Best Laid Plans

Chapter Four - Home of the Goddess

Chapter Five - Homecoming

Chapter Six- Familiar Places

Chapter Seven - Down to Business

Chapter Eight- Hunters

Chapter Nine- Awakening

Chapter Ten- From the Brink

Chapter Eleven - The Last Survivor

Chapter Twelve - Plan B

Chapter Thirteen - One Last Jump

Chapter Fourteen - Blue Sun

Epilogue

Preview of Symbiotica - A Matter of Time

More Books from the Author

Proteus Unhinged - Endless (Mini Story)

Retrospective - The Untold Story

About the Author

PREVIOUSLY

Look up in to the night sky, there is more out there than you could imagine, worlds of creatures so familiar and so strange it would leave you in awe and wonder.

Long ago on one particular world called Alphius Prime lived a race of creatures hard to understand. They were a joined race, a partnership of a host and a symbiote. That world faced a terrible fate where the native life would burn in fire, their life giving sun due to collapse in to a dwarf star, the firestorm to come wiping all life from their world. It was this reason the population tried to escape building great ships to flee the end of days.

These were not ships like any you could imagine. They were living creatures designed to save their people. While each ship is an individual life in its own right, they share the family name, the classification given to them by their creators.

They were the Proteus class of starship, but things did not go as planned.

Life for Zenni Quinett is always far from normal.

Recovering from a horrific accident on Alphius Prime she learnt the most terrible truth. Their world was going to end and as a trained pilot she is asked to take charge of the Proteus class vessel Miras. However she soon learns this is not straight forward as this organic ship hides a dark secret.

Like all of her sister ships, she is a sentient life form with a mind of her own.

In a dangerous and desperate move, Miras escapes the disaster believing that all of her sister ships are dead. Struggling to control her wilful and arrogant charge, Zenni find herself on Neo Alphius, a new home world for the twelve thousand survivors aboard Miras. The city of New Meylon slowly grows as the population start to rebuild their civilisation, at the very heart of the city, Miras sitting proudly.

Unfairly blamed for her action, she kept the secret of the Proteus class of ship from everyone by order of the Grand Council. Exiled to the mountains, she goes back to what she loves to do. Growing Borra, a coffee like plant she accepts her punishment however as their civilisation settles, things take a terrible turn. Neo Alphius hid an awful secret, a parasite capable of infesting their victims, turning them in to mindless death like creatures doomed to roam their world. With thousands infected, the few survivors desperately flee to the sanctuary of mountains.

For two hundred years, their people try to survive in the harshest conditions, however hidden in the city below things were transpiring. During a desperate mission to recover vital supplies, Zenni and her friends find themselves presented with series of revelations. Grand Council Orles and Miras had survived the outbreak, working in isolation on a plan to bring new hope their people. Zenni is presented with the impossible, Miras's naturally conceived daughter Saya as her former charge begs her to care and teach the young ship, their goal to save the stricken crew of her sister ship, Terrik having received their distress call sent so long ago.

Barely escaping the Necrotites, the foul monsters hungry for this young ships blood to satisfy their needs, the team manages to learn the parasites weakness. A naturally occurring chemical present in most plant life on the world, as well as in Borra that led has to the survivor's immunity. Working together they come up with a dangerous plan to fight back. Their daring mission succeeds to a degree, delivering the cure to her afflicted people and for the first time in so long, there is hope that they can finally fight back.

However with the cure a slow process, they return to their mission, to rescue Terrik and her crew and to find a new home world free from this awful disease. Travelling in to space, they vow to return as quickly as they can, hopefully bringing some of the greatest minds of Alphius Prime back to help cure their people.

Things are never that easy though. The parasites proved to be more resistant than expected, leaving their plan to cure their people in a dangerous state. While the crew search the stars, Grand Council Orles, elderly and sick is faced with a rebellion from within her own ranks as Council Mara tries to scupper their plan. Faced with seeing all their hand work crumble around them, Orles stops Mara from her devious machinations, but at a cost of her host's life, having to bond with Aliss, a young and kind doctor who offered herself to be her life partner.

Out in the depths of space, searching for their home world, Saya and Zenni make a surprising discovery as after a month of travel they find themselves at Kelik Station, a trading outpost for many different races of space faring creatures. Discovering they were not the only Alphians to have visited the station, the crew of Koli having passed through over one hundred and fifty years before, they make an awful and potentially promising discovery. In a trading store on the station they find one of their own mark six fusion reactors, stolen from the remains of one of Miras's long dead sisters. Working with Stationmaster Padaran Moss and Ambassador D'Sot from the Lator Consortium, they plan to ambush these pirates and grave robbers, with the hope of finding the location of Alphius Prime. Their plan to capture them fails however thanks to Saya they manage to track where the vessel had been and the way home.

Leaving the station, they travel back to the dead remains of their home star system, all but destroyed when their star collapsed. With Terrik however nowhere to be found, the crew are heartbroken.

Right up to the moment they come face to face with a new and heavily armed Proteus class vessel.

Returning to a strange world called Earth the crew find Koli had already rescued Terrik and her survivors, now living on a small island in the planet's equatorial region. Much to her surprise, Terrik has been given a new body and in addition she has a twin sister, Lunar. However it soon becomes clear that the rescue mission had a terrible cost. Koli had sustained critical injuries during her daring rescue of Terrik and much like Miras, she is dying.

Working with advanced technology, they quickly manage to find the chink in the parasites armour, a way of breaking up the protected nodules. They have discovered a way to kill them quickly, but at an awful cost. The parasites have done serious damage and any survivors cured of them will be paralysed.

As everyone pulls together to create a plan, their task seems almost impossible. With only three hundred of their kind on Earth, they must find a way to save thousands and in a last ditched offer, Saya presents a potential cure to Koli's injuries. A cure that could either allow her to fix herself, or will kill her and her bonded human pilot.

They now have a far harder task ahead of them.

They must return to Neo Alphius, cure and rescue the survivors and take them away from their hellish world, but it seems the answers to their problems lie in the past, with the adventures of a little ship that did big things.

PROLOGUE

Deep Space - Present Day

Zenni stood up from the navigation seat and stretched a little as the crew started the cool down process. They were one more jump away from their destination although they were having to go somewhat slower thanks to Terrik and Luna. They would soon be back on the world she really didn't want to return to.

Through the glass, she could see the other two ships starting their cool down process, their reactor cores cleaning themselves of the exotic particle build up and the ships intercooler systems venting the extraordinary amounts of heat they generated during the jump process. She lingered on them for a moment before turning her attention back to her guest.

Poly Brenner had offered to come along with them to act as the human strategist and liaison, and it had come of something of a surprise she was hosting the rather unexpected Symbling Neolash, the daughter of Kel and Joulik. For so long the Vu'kno had thought they had lost their ability to reproduce, yet it seemed their home world was the root of that misconception and on Earth, they once again could bring new life in to the world. This little one was still finding her feet, but considering how long she had been bonded, she was far more confident for her age than she would expected.

Poly seemed quite comfortable around them, accepting their world without question even if she had a hard time getting used to these small humans. There was nothing per say wrong with them, outside of their species dubious past and tendency for violence. All those she had met so far, bonded or regular humans were in fact very genuine and lovely people.

Still, there were things troubling her about quite how things had surprisingly fallen in to place like they had.

How are you feeling? she asked sympathetically as Poly looked an odd shade of green.

Thankfully Neolash is learning how to keep my lunch where it should be now, she sighed out raising an eyebrow weakly.

I hope Koli is okay. Both myself and Saya didn't like leaving her like that, she said with a little concern looking to Saya who was wracked with worry about her Aunt.

Believe me, she is one tough little ship, Poly sighed with a laugh finding her feet again, She has been through far worse than that during the three hundred years she was searching the stars. I have no doubt she will be stubborn enough to pull through.

It sounds like they had quite the adventure, she mused looking down to Saya reassuringly, That said, considering everything I know now, I find myself curious as to the story behind it. The truth of what really happened while they were out there.

Poly seemed to ponder this for a moment nodding as if she really didn't know that well either.

Neolash has both Kel's and Joulik's genetic memories, she pondered looking to them both, We have a day before the cores on Terrik and Lunar have cooled and are ready to go again. Perhaps we should go get some coffee, take a break and hopefully she will be able to tell us what really happened as they travelled toward Earth. I have to admit, I am curious too.

She looked down at Saya who nodded eagerly before smiling back to Poly.

I'm still not sure on this coffee of yours, but it sounds like a good way to pass the time.

* * *

As Poly sat down in the mass hall, Zenni put a mug of coffee down in front of her, Neolash almost shy to show her face, in a manner of speaking. They were odd creatures at times. Neolash was barely two years old and already she was her best friend. They didn't grow up in the same way as humans did. For a human, it could take five years before you could have a conversation, twenty years before they were old enough, if not wise enough to venture out on their own.

Vu'kno Symblings as they were called were radically different. They had all the genetic memories of the parents if that is what you could call them. With Kel's and Joulik's combined knowledge, she was effectively a genius when she was born but knowledge was only part of the story. One could say a library had the sum of human knowledge in it, but without the ability to use that knowledge, it would be nothing more than words. It was the same thing with Symblings and because of their very nature they struggled. Human children learn by exploring and experiencing the world around them, putting their knowledge to test their surroundings and learning from it. For a Symbling, their hosts were their world and it takes longer for them to realise what and who they are, a process she understood that could take nearly a hundred years before they were in their teenage years so to speak.

Because Neolash was a hybrid, bonded to a human, those rules had to change. She had actually caused quite a lot of trouble through being kind and giving when she had been very young so they had all been teaching her, accelerating the process of learning and acclimatisation. She was still a youngster, but thanks to her friend's efforts, she had found her voice far earlier than was normal.

She took a sip of her coffee, frowning a little at it. Her new friends really did like their coffee extra strong as she reached for the sugar, throwing four spoons in the mug. She smiled as Saya jumped on to Zenni's lap, this strange bond between the young ship and her mentor undeniably sweet as Saya looked at her expectantly.

As she soothed her own partner, she managed to pluck up her courage, her apparition appearing on the seat next to her. It was their way of talking to the others. She could let her take control, but Neolash was still a little afraid of doing that, probably rightfully so. It took a lot of skill and effort for her to control her body and she was quite clumsy as she had found out on more than a few occasions. Easier for her to telepathically project herself in to the minds of those sat around them.

Neolash looked to her as she smiled reassuringly to her, taking in those alien features. She could project her physical form in any shape she wanted to, but unlike the others she saw herself as both human and Vu'kno and as a result, she looked very familiar and quite alien at the same time, soft white skin, tendril hair, but a more human body shape showing. Thankfully she had learnt to project herself wearing clothes now too. It was a little embarrassing when she would appear stark naked next to her!

As everyone sat around them in anticipation, she nuzzled her mind affectionately, Neolash finally finding a smile as she settled herself down.

There is a long and sad story behind how my parents came to Earth, she began, her voice soft and silky as Saya gave her such a loving and excited look, It all starts back on Alphius Prime, when their world was about to see its final moments...

CHAPTER ONE

A Different Point of View

Alphius Prime - three hundred and eight years ago. Shortly before its end

Getting out of the transport, she glanced questioningly to Dorpi at her side. Everything was in place, the final pieces were coming together and with nearly a week left before they were due to depart she couldn't believe that everything had actually gone so smoothly. There was a little tension between them as they walked across towards the large building on the far side of the complex, a large telescope and dishes underlying the nature of this place.

Humour me, Dorpi grumbled as they pushed their way in to Mere Science's stellar observatory control centre.

It had been deserted in here for weeks now and walking inside, the whole world was starting to feel like it wasn't their home anymore and making their way through the empty building like this was just a harsh reminder. She frowned at Dorpi questioningly. She was concerned that communications between the crews was being affected by electromagnetic disturbances and this was something that was not in Killish's prediction plan.

Fine, she sighed shaking her head, But we really should be heading back to Terrik. I still have to plot our first jump course. We were expecting that there was going to be EM interference though.

Call it a gut instinct, Dorpi grumbled at her in a tone that was almost chilling.

She didn't say anything more as they reached the control centre, the monitors around the room eerily still working, relaying data back to the vacant positions. She watched as Dorpi sat down working through the programs, bring the system up and running through the data streaming in from the various satellites they had positioned around their system, her first stop being the Alphius One observatory platform.

This was a waste of time, but as the data refused to come in, she frowned. It wouldn't connect.

It's probably down. The sun's kicking off some nasty energy waves. We did expect it to go offline, she said dismissing its significance.

I'm going to retask the Alphius Two science platform. See if we can get some data from that.

It took a few minutes, but as the images and telemetry came up on the screen, they both frozen to the spot feeling a sense of panic and shock as they absorbed what they were seeing.

Where's Alphius One? she muttered in horror, the detailed scan showing nothing more than a debris field.

She watched as Dorpi rechecked the recorded data, running it back quickly and shaking her head.

Gravitational tidal forces, was all she managed to stammer out, looking up at her as her own heart started to race, It's... gone. A large piece of it had already hit the sun. It's started the cascade reaction already.

They didn't say anything else.

They were now down to minutes as they ran out of the complex and with no way to warn the fleet they were running for everyone's lives.

* * *

You! Sit down, Joulik barked angrily as she stared down at them looking like a pair of Symbling being told off.

Verish for the first time ever looked positively annoyed as she glared at Shomis.

Explain to me why I shouldn't just throw you both off the ship? she questioned looking at them both with enough anger to strike fear in to the heart of a Kinar beast.

I didn't do anything, for a change, Verish grumbled, sticking her tongue out at Shomis.

Oh, so who put water all over my bed? Shomis huffed back angrily.

I dunno, Verish muttered sarcastically, Maybe Koli did it because you're a Poophead.

Neither of you are making a good argument here. It has only been an hour since I caught you both going at it over the itching powder, she sighed shaking her head as her tendrils tickled her back a little.

I didn't do anything! Verish growled, I have been in the engineering core working on installing the matter replication system. You can check Koli's logs if you want. I have not been near Officer Poophead's room!

She looked at them both frowning hard. As much as she didn't want to admit it Verish was making a good point. If anything she was always honest, if out of her mind. She would positively take credit for practical jokes just to make sure she was acknowledged as being the mastermind behind them.

As for putting water on a bed? That wasn't her style, far too simple and obvious.

Fine, she grumbled staring them both down. I don't want another peep out of either of you for the next two days. One more joke, one more session of you chasing each other around the bridge and I will personally throw you both head first off the ship and shut the door.

Shomis sighed nodded respectfully, even if she looked quite annoyed. Verish on the other hand stuck her tongue out at Shomis again petulantly.

Both of you are going to have to learn to get on, she sighed relaxing a little, We have at least a few years in space before we find a new home. If neither of you can behave around each other, it is going to end up as a long and frustrating trip for everyone onboard. Now, for the love of the goddess, go do something productive, please...

Watching the pair of them it was almost comical as they huffed at each other, slowly dragging themselves up of their chairs, giving each other an extra hard scowl before mooching away in opposite directions. She could not help her desire to knock both their heads together however there were more pressing matters at hand. It was perhaps hard to be that annoyed with them though feeling Lish's amusement at the pair of them. She never really understood why Lish was so forgiving of their dreadful behaviour. Perhaps it was her mothering side?

Walking on to the bridge she looked around. Killish was sitting in a dark corner as usual playing with Xixu, her little stuffed toy. It made her sad to see her little sister like this, but at least here she was safe.

How's things going? she asked looking over to Lyphius working on one of the terminals.

Coras is on her way now to take a look at these intercooler issues, she replied giving her a gentle if stern look, And perhaps you may want to use your less scary voice in future. Koli is quite small and your voice really does travel a long way.

I will be more softly spoken when those two idiots start acting their age. Seriously, Verish is over six thousand years old and she behaves like a Symbling at times, she retorted feeling a little shamed.

In that case, it will be my pleasure to teach you how to use your quiet voice, she laughed affectionately giving her that mothering look she reserved only for her.

Lyphius was her oldest friend, the Dean of the Lyrr Institute and had been a key member of the design team for Proteus, the living ships designed to take their people away from this world. It was something that still in its own way shamed her, having lost her seat on the Seleke Council for being one of the so called Insurrectionists who had broken every ethical rule in the book, creating living sentient ships. Still, she knew in her heart what she had done was right, otherwise in less than a week their world would have burnt with them on it.

I suppose we all need to learn to calm down a little, she replied in a more conciliatory tone, None of this still seems real.

Lyphius sighed looking up from her work, walking over to her and giving her a weak smile as she put her hand on her shoulder.

I don't think it will be real for me even when we step foot on our new home world. Still though, we did it. You should feel a little pride in that. We have managed to save our people, she replied softly.

It didn't feel like a victory. This was their home and they were having to leave it behind.

Call me a pessimist if you want, but I will feel pride when I know our people are safe.

A soft noise from across the bridge distracted them both, Lyphius looking over to the console questioning before shrugging her shoulders, heading over to it, quickly bring the source of the alert up.

That's odd. Koli is saying there is a transport heading towards us at considerable speed, she mused glancing questioningly over to her.

Is it Coras?

No, if I remember right she said she was taking the monorail, Lyphius replied with a hint of confusion in her voice.

* * *

It felt too quiet as she looked across the shipyards, waiting for the monorail to arrive. Of course it was still a maelstrom of activity, people