Book 1 - Chapter 1

'What do you desire?'

Callum cracked his eyes open and glanced around. All he could see was silvery mist. 'This again?' he thought with an internal sigh. He heard the whisper again. It was soft, breathy and seemed to come from all directions at once.

What do you desire?

Callum whipped around, trying to see if he could catch the speaker behind him. As always, there was nothing. "Who are you?" he asked. He wasn't angry or frightened, just curious and a little annoyed. This dream was so strange and he seemed to be having it more frequently lately. He could always remember it. All his other dreams slipped away as soon as he awoke but for some reason this one always remained vividly in his memory. The voice didn't answer his question. It never did. Callum idly swatted at the mist. "I don't desire anything," he said. He had his friends, his sister, three meals a day, a job and a place to sleep. He wasn't sure what else there was.

'I can give you power, the voice said,' as if it didn't hear his response. 'Open yourself to me and I can give you the universe.'

"That's alright," Callum said cheerfully. "I don't even know what I'd do with those things." 'What does giving me the universe even mean?' The voice didn't say anything further but Callum could feel the disappointment. The dream faded.

Callum opened his eyes, this time in the real world. Sunlight was already streaming in the window so he closed one eye and then the other as his eyes adjusted. 'Maybe this will convince her,' he thought without much conviction. He wondered how many times he would have to turn down the voice.

Callum stood and stretched, popping various joints. The room he was in was a small one, with enough space to fit he and his sister's bedding and not much else. He picked up his clothing from where he'd tossed it last night. He only had the one set, granted to him just a year ago. It had been a massive boon, since he'd grown rapidly over the last few years. His poor sister had been forced to readjust the size of his old ones a dozen times before he'd qualified for new clothing. Callum was now one of the taller men in the village and years of working in the mines had left him with a strongly muscled body.

He pulled on the stretchy black pants that ended just above the knee and then shrugged into the pale tan robe that also fell to his knees. He tied the waist-belt of the robe loosely. These two garments were the only ones provided by the carcha; the masters that ruled the planet. It was the only kind of clothing Callum had ever worn. Sometimes new arrivals from off-world would complain about having to wear the same thing every day but Callum had never understood that.

Dressed, he headed for the only other room in the house. He could smell the morning's porridge already heating. Catriona was seated at the firepit in the middle of the room gently stirring it. Like him, she had black hair, fair skin and dark blue eyes. Though she was only a year older than him, she always struck him as so much more mature than he was. He figured it was because she had been forced to raise him. His father had died in a mine collapse several years ago and his mother shortly after. The other villagers in Mikana had pitched in to help them where they could, of course, but everyone really only had just enough for themselves. They couldn't afford two extra mouths to feed. Callum still wasn't sure how they'd managed to survive until he was old enough to work in the mines.

There was another person seated at the firepit, chatting amicably with Catriona. Riley, a short young man with dark hair that fell over his eyes, had been Callum's best friend for as long as he could remember. They had been born only a month apart and their fathers had both died in mining accidents, forcing them into work early. Unlike Callum, Riley's mother was still alive. She had, however, badly broken her leg several years ago and was now mostly bedridden. Catriona, an angel if one ever existed, had insisted on taking care of Riley and his mother. Callum loved her for that and so many other things.

Riley spotted him first and grinned. He tossed his head slightly, clearing the bangs away from his dark brown eyes momentarily. His eyes were monolid, unlike Callum's, and usually full of amusement. "Look who's finally up."

Callum laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, I don't know how you two get by on such little sleep." That was especially true of Catriona, who stayed up later than he did but always woke up earlier. Thinking about it, he wasn't sure he'd ever seen her asleep.

"Well, it probably has something to do with the way you attack the mine like you're trying to dig to the center of Ragrun." Riley shook his head. "The rocks aren't going anywhere, Cal."

Callum sat down at the fire, with one knee up and his forearm resting on it. He shrugged. It was a topic they'd broached several times. Callum knew it was irrational but when he had a task before him, he couldn't seem to give less than a hundred percent. There was something inside that just wouldn't let him. "Good morning, Cat," he said.

His sister smiled. Like always, it soothed Callum's soul to see that smile. "Good morning, Cal. Did you sleep well?"

"As always," he responded automatically. He felt a flicker of guilt. It wasn't a lie, exactly. He had slept well. But...he'd never spoken about the dream. Not to her, not even to Riley. There was just something about it. It had been on the tip of his tongue more than once but something always stopped him. He didn't know why. He'd never kept a secret from either one of them before.

Catriona passed out the serving of porridge and Callum wolfed his down. He didn't know how but his sister's porridge was the best he'd ever tasted. It shouldn't have been possible. They all received the same ingredients after all. Ragrun's environment wasn't conducive to plant growth, so they only had access to what the carcha gave them. In fact, Ragrun wasn't conducive to any type of life at all. Once, when he was very young, his father had taken him on a trek to see the tower that produced a gigantic bubble of breathable atmosphere that let biological organisms live on Ragrun. The fact that carcha had created such a thing spoke to how valuable the mines on Ragrun were.

Once he and Riley were finished, they headed for the exit. There wasn't a specific time that any person had to get to the mines but since supplies were provided to the village as a whole based upon production, nobody wanted to be perceived as shirking their duty. "Don't forget to come back early today," Catriona called out to them as they slipped on their sandals and walked out the door.

Callum glanced back quizzically but then remembered. "Oh, that's right. The new Odontas is visiting today," he said. "Man, how many is that in the last few years?" he asked Riley.

"I told you," Riley said, shaking his head. "This posting is bottom of the barrel for them. They are looking for a way out before they even start." Callum couldn't argue. Mostly because he knew almost nothing about the politics of the carcha. He didn't think Riley really did either but there was no point in saying so.

They wound their way through the small village on the only path out of it. Mikana consisted of about fifty small houses, all made of the same red mudbrick. A little over a hundred people lived in the village and about half of those worked in the mines in some capacity or another. There weren't a lot of children because of how difficult it was to feed mouths that weren't contributing. Siblings as close in age as he and Catriona were extremely rare. The elderly were also rare, especially men. Mine work was a dangerous business. He and Riley were far from the only ones to have lost a father in an accident.

On the outskirts of the village, they met up with Valencia. She was of an age with the two of them though she looked younger. She was short and slight but clean-limbed and well-proportioned. Well, except for her breasts, which had never really developed. Riley made fun of her for that a lot, though the time he suggested it was because of her premature birth, Callum had had to spend days patching up their friendship. In Callum's opinion, whatever she lacked physically, she made up for in spirit. She greeted them with a brilliant smile as always. Her bright blue eyes shined with effervescence and her long golden hair was tied up into twin tails as usual. Like the two of them and everybody else on Ragrun, she was wearing black short pants and a beige robe. "Good morning!"

As she joined them and they continued toward the mines, she and Riley got into a discussion about what the new Odontas might be like and why Ragrun had seen so many in such a short time. Callum admired their ability to have a conversation based entirely on baseless speculation. The only news from off-Ragrun they ever got came from new humans exiled here from the wider empire of the carcha. Few of them even really knew much. Instead, Callum found himself studying the giant planet Algnen that dominated the sky. Ragrun was a moon of Algnen. He'd seen it nearly every day of his life but he still found the shifting patterns of green, yellow and brown to be fascinating. There was also a blue spot that moved along the equator of the planet. His father had told him it was a never-ending storm and there was a rumor that it housed a prison where some of the worst criminals of the empire ended up.

All too soon they were at the mines. Mikana, like all the villages on Ragrun, was set at the base of the gigantic mountain range that the humans of Ragrun had mined for generations. Callum and Riley collected their supplies. A hard-hat with a headlamp attached, hard-toed boots, a canteen of water and a pickaxe. Valencia stayed behind as they headed into the depths of the mines. Very few women actually mined and Valencia was much too small to consider it. Instead she did all kinds of odd-jobs around the mines. Repairing equipment, running fresh canteens, helping with the midday meal and several other necessary tasks to keep the mine running.

After decades and decades of mining without any kind of overall direction or oversight, the mine had a hundred different tunnels and anyone was free to go down whichever one they liked. Most worked in teams of two or three. He and Riley always worked together, mining the same tunnel they had for years. It had been good to them. The mountains, or at least the area the villagers of Mikana mined, was rich in platinum and its sister-metals. He and Riley had discovered that silvery sheen on many occasions down their chosen tunnel.

Callum got to work right away, chipping away with his pickaxe with a single-minded relentlessness. Riley was quite a bit more judicious. Especially now. The village received supplies on a monthly basis and they'd already reached their quota for this month. More metal would not lead to more supplies. Callum understood the sense of that but he couldn't make himself stop. Everything just sort of drifted away and he lost himself in the repetitive motions. As he worked, the dream entered his mind again. What do you desire? He'd said he desired nothing and that was true but...'am I wrong? Should I desire something more?' He knew Riley would, which was one reason he never mentioned the dream to him. And Catriona...he'd never told her even though he had never before kept anything from her. Was he afraid of what she would say?

Their midday meal was the same as it always was; a small loaf of dark bread packed with nuts and seeds along with a bowl of fish and seaweed stew. It was easily the most nutrient-rich meal anyone on Ragrun got to eat and was rationed exclusively for the miners. Callum had heard that the fare used to be quite a bit worse even for miners back in the day but enough of them had eventually collapsed that the carcha had seen the value of increasing the nutrition of the food given to the humans, even if it was only to the miners and only for one meal a day. 'If I had more power, could I get better food?' That was an enticing thought but Callum didn't see how it would be possible.

As soon as he was finished, Callum was back at it, hammering away on a wall. He was so into it that he initially didn't hear Riley speaking to him. Once it penetrated that his friend was talking to him, Callum lowered his pickaxe and asked, "What?"

Riley shook his head slightly and said, "I was just saying that you've seemed really obsessed with that one spot these last few days."

Callum blinked. He glanced at the spot he'd just been working on. 'Have I been?' He hadn't noticed. "Huh. I don't know. I guess it just seems like a good spot, you know?"

"I don't," Riley said with slightly narrowed eyes. Then he shrugged. "But I don't know why you're working at all. Me? I'm gonna have a little nap. Try and keep the hammering down, will you?"

"I'll do my best!" Callum said brightly. Riley sighed. He slumped down against the wall and closed his eyes. Callum turned back to the area he'd been working on. 'Maybe I should switch it up.' He couldn't though. Something was pulling him to the spot. 'There is something there.' How he knew, he didn't know. Yet he was certain. He began hammering again, redoubling his efforts. His heart pounded in his chest and he couldn't seem to chip away at the rock fast enough. 'What is happening?' A part of him knew that he was acting completely irrationally but a stronger part was certain he was close. Close to what, he didn't know. But he was damn close.

He hefted his pickaxe and took a huge swing with all of his power behind it. The point of the axe sank all the way up to the haft. Callum's mouth dropped open. He wrenched the axe back and saw that he had opened a hole. 'Another tunnel?' He squatted down and peered through the hole. There was only darkness, of course. 'What could this be? An old tunnel, maybe?' There had been plenty of cave-ins that closed off old passages. He doubted it belonged to one of the other villages. They were spaced around the mountains at too great a distance. It could be a natural cave. 'But how did I know that it was here?'

Callum spent the next few minutes busting through the rock and creating a hole large enough for him to crawl through. Then he squatted next to Riley and shook his friend's shoulder. "What?" Riley said, jerking up. He hissed. "Oh, shit, I actually fell asleep." He rolled his shoulders. "Ah, my back. Damn it."

"Forget that. Look what I found!" Callum said excitedly. He twisted around so Riley could see the hold he'd made leading into a tunnel.

"What is that?"

"No idea!" Callum's eyes flashed. "I'm gonna go check it out." He stood up.

"Why?" Riley asked, also getting to his feet. Then he sighed. "Look who I am asking. Of course, you want to check it out." Callum was bouncing on his toes, eager to be off. "Alright, alright. Let me get a couple of the boys and I'll come with you."

"Naw, it's fine," Callum said, waving a hand. "Not much time left before we gotta get back. I'll just poke around a bit. Just stay at the entrance so I can use your headlamp to find my way back."

"I don't know if that's a great idea…" Riley began.

"It's fine. In and out!" Before Riley could argue anymore, Callum scampered to the hole and squirmed inside. He felt like he was going to explode if he didn't get going. Once he was through, he stood up very slowly so he didn't accidentally bash his head. He reached his full height without hitting the ceiling of the tunnel. He whistled. "This is a big tunnel," he said. He reached out and felt the wall. It was very rough. "I think this is natural. I think this is a natural cave."

"Fascinating." Riley said in an exaggeratedly bored tone.

"Right?" Callum said, electing not to notice. With one hand on the wall, he walked forward. "There might be some valuable veins in here."

"Don't wander off too far," Riley said. Callum nodded impatiently. Whatever had been compelling him earlier was still doing so. There was something to find in here. What it could possibly be, he couldn't even imagine. Ragrun was a lifeless moon other than the artificial bubble created by the carcha. It wasn't like he was going to stumble on some ancient ruin. Yet something was here, he felt it in his bones. "Yo, Callum!" Riley shouted. "I can barely see your light! Get back here!"

Callum glanced back and saw that Riley's light was indeed a dull spot in the distance. I should go back. He went forward. 'Just a few more steps. Just a few...' His light flashed across something red. Callum froze. This was the first color he'd seen other than the gray of the rocks. 'This is it.' He lifted his head, playing his light over whatever he'd found. It was hard to make out when he could only see a little area at a time. He edged around it trying to expose as much of it as he could. After he'd made a half-circle around it, Callum had a pretty good idea. It left him in a cold sweat.