Welcome to Illara
(Based on the novel Bound to You by AR DeClerck)
“Welcome! Please, come closer, gather around.” The tour
guide stood at the giant set of doors, her arms held wide. She smiled, the
customary slim pants and dark red top of the Ferrell Terraforming Inc. uniform
complimenting her dark hair and swarthy complexion. “There are wonders to see
inside, so come!”
She turned as the doors opened, and the crowd gasped at the
room before them. It was empty.
“What kind of joke is this?” one man called out, “We paid to
see the ancient civilization.”
“Enter,” the tour guide urged, waving them on, “and see it!”
The crowd moved inside and the doors closed silently behind
them. Their hushed voices were hollow in the cavernous room. Suddenly, the
lights dimmed and the floor vibrated with energy.
“Now,” the guide’s voice held a hint of mischief as she
spoke over the alarmed murmurs, “You will see all you were promised.”
The walls around the group shimmered, and the holograph
panels covering every inch of the room came to life in a shower of light and
sound. The narration track began, the man’s voice a deep baritone as he told
the story of the ancient people of Illara.
Long ago an advanced race of people inhabited this planet
you now visit. Their cities were grand, their people full of hope and promise.
The crowd ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ as the plasma panels
lightened. They stood in a massive open-air market, surrounded by the bustle of
a busy city. The sky, orange above them, was bright as the sun beat down on them
from above. Tall buildings of gleaming metal blinked in the light as the people
moved in the streets. A woman from the touring crowd gasped as the hologram
moved by her, brushing her arm. The crowd watched as the Illaran people moved
around them in the midst of their daily lives.
The men were tall and broad with long hair adorned in
sparkling crystals. Their chests were bare, golden circlets around their biceps
and low-slung pants encasing slim hips. The women were shorter, curvy bodies
with ample hips were draped in fabrics resembling silk, wrapped and tied to
allow for movement and the elegant flow of the material as they walked. Their
jewels glinted against their cocoa skin, their hair covered in nets of bright,
finely-woven gold and silver.
But life on Illara was growing more difficult. An energy
crisis had come, and the Illaran people were scrambling for new ways to light
their homes and carry their goods.
The scene faded, a laboratory appearing. Illaran men and
women moved about quickly from com to com, their faces stony with
disappointment as data scrolled by.
And then, like a miracle, the answer appeared in the sky.
The roof to the laboratory opened, showing the dark sky
above. The tour group gasped at the sparkle of the stars in the clear sky, but
cried out as the light grew brighter and an undulating vortex of light
appeared. The scientists took up their equipment and began to study it as the
group from the future looked on in amazement.
The Illarans learned to harness the energy from the vortex,
piping it to their homes. With the crisis averted, life on Illara seemed
utopian.
The scene shifted again, leaving the tour group inside a
small home. A fire burned merrily in the rounded hearth as a small child lay
near it, reading. A shaggy animal with four legs lounged near, its long tail
moving contentedly. The home was cozy, the adobe and brick lovingly painted
with intricate designs on every wall. Comfortable pillows and small tables sat
here and there, offering space to sit, to eat and converse. Woven rugs and
heavy curtains in bright colors made it inviting. The child looked up as an
older man and a woman, his parents most likely, entered with steaming bowls.
They waved for him to join them around the low, round table and family ate,
appearing happy and carefree. The tour group’s whispers of “lovely”, and “how
quaint” met the ears of the tour guide and she grinned as the scene changed
again.
But, all was not well in Illara. The energy source was
alien, and with it came danger. It began with the children, as sleep became
impossible. They could not close their eyes for the nightmares they saw were
too horrible to imagine.
The small boy lay in bed, crying out for his mother and
father, who looked on with horror. He had grown thin and pale, his face
streaked with tears as they held him. The tour group gasped at the change,
their eyes wide.
The called the sickness Verhagnis. A virus so invasive, so
virulent, that the infected’s mind became a playground for his greatest fears.
No one was safe, and yet, the Illaran government refused to warn its citizens.
Without their newfound way of powering their planet, all would be lost.
The tour group cried out as the boy’s bedroom became the
same open-air market from the start of the tour. Now, instead of happy, content
people the market was filled with crowds of raging, violent citizens. The scene
froze as the tour guide spoke up,
“Please avert your eyes or request to leave the room if you
feel this is too graphic. This is, however, the fate of the Illaran people you
so graciously requested to see.”
The crowd was silent, so she raised her hand and resumed the
playback. The screams of the Illarans were animalistic, and several of the
tourists shivered in response. They attacked each other, biting and savaging
each other and the tourists covered their mouths in horror at the scene. They
all breathed an audible sigh of relief as the narrator spoke again and the
scene began to blur.
Verhagnis was strong. He invaded the Illaran people through
their power grid, inserting himself into their homes and their minds through
the very energy they needed to maintain their society. He enjoyed their pain,
and fed from their bioelectric energy, gorging himself on their fear and their
pain.
“Wait! You said ‘he’, was Verhagnis an alien?” a petite
woman who’d paled at the violent scene questioned.
“Indeed,” the guide answered, “Verhagnis was a creature made
of energy. Something wholly foreign and he was hungry.”
The Illaran people realized that Verhagnis could control
them, and that he wanted to spread his infection through the universe, gorging
himself on the life and destroying all civilization in his wake. And so, they
tried to fight back.
The panels around them became a dark series of twisting
tunnels. As they moved, the tunnels opened into a large underground laboratory,
staffed by a few Illarans. They were all similar, and the tour group began to
whisper among themselves that they were all members of the same family. The
view focused in on a machine at the center of the room, a long bed with a domed
cover. The room shook, the ceiling pouring down dust as the Illarans cried out
in terror, and a few of the tourists followed with the same.
But their work could never be tested. The neighboring
planet, Ritaria, had discovered the horrors on Illara, and they had decided to
intervene. Before the Illarans could test their machine, Ritaria dropped a
tectonic explosive on the planet. A few Illarans were saved, but the rest of
the planet was seized with destructive earthquakes, and the Illaran
civilization was buried.
From high above the planet the tour group saw the land rise
up and enfold itself, pulling the remains of the Illaran civilization far below
the surface, burying it.
“That can’t be the end,” one tourist said as the lights went
up and the panels went dark. Once again they stood in a large, empty room.
“Verhagnis wasn’t destroyed. Surely something else happened, or we wouldn’t be
standing here now.”
The tour guide smiled as a tall man with long dark hair and
faded blue eyes stepped to her side. She smiled up at him, with love in her
eyes.
“Should we tell them the story?” she asked.
He chuckled, and dropped an arm around her shoulders. He was
glowing subtly, the tourists began to realize, a light shining from within him
and casting them all in shadow.
“I guess we could,” he answered, “it was a helluva ride!”
READ THE STORY OF VERHAGNIS AND THE FATE OF ILLARA IN BOUND
TO YOU BY AR DECLERCK
Love is the greatest adventure.
AR DeClerck is an adventure romance writer who lives in
Illinois with her husband, 2 daughters, 2 crazy dogs and a sneaky cat. She
works hard as a dialysis technician when she’s not writing. AR enjoys reading,
listening to music, her favorite tv shows, and movies. AR is the author of several
novels in many genres, including scifi romance, steampunk and fantasy romance.
Her favorite characters are the real ones, with flaws and crazy schemes, and
she always gives them an adventure on the road to love.
Follow AR here:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/authoramydeclerck
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/@ARDeClerck
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