The Earth is compromised and forbidden. The human Imperium
stretches throughout the galaxy. It terraforms planets with indigenous life,
destroying it. An organization fights against these terraforming projects, and
it is pronounced a terrorist organization by the government and the Imperator.
JO WARWICK, the heiress of Warwick Galactic Enterprises, is
on an archeological mission on the forbidden Earth. She contracts an unknown
disease, and her expedition leaves Earth. While in space, the disease kills
everyone on board but her, as she seems protected by an invisible shield.
Captain TOSHI HUNTER and his crew are activists fighting
against the terraformation projects, and after a failed attack on one of these
projects, they are pursued by the imperial ships. The chase goes on, but they
manage to escape.
And by chance, they discover the unmoving, silent ship of Jo
Warwick. They board it and see the massacre inside, but manage to save Jo.
1.
The Red Tattoo
The archeology team was busy and noisy inside the Bats Cave. The huge
boulders blocking the entrance of the dry, large, very deep cave had not been a
real deterrent for Jo Warwick. Young, strong, and
beautiful, she was not used to rejection or defeat.
The cave was a
hidden gem discovered recently in the Carpathian Mountains on Earth. The entire
place seemed to be a treasure trove. And “discovered recently” meant after
the interdiction against stepping on Earth had been put in place. After the
interdiction and especially the defense mechanism had been put into place. But
that was not something to keep Jo’s family, the powerful Warwicks, away. Not
even the imperator could stop a Warwick if they put their mind to doing
something.
The co-op students
were giggling as they worked, sometimes louder than they thought they were.
With the help of electrical lamps they were collecting and cataloging ceramic
pieces, stone tools, animal remains. Next to them, real archeologists were
slowly carving into the floor after more remains. The cave was full to the brim
with signs of a very old civilization. A civilization that Jo hoped to prove
was part of the Vinca culture. The project of her life.
Professor Hannigan, a corpulent man of about sixty, was studying some cave paintings. He
tried not to expose them to too much light, or heat, or sweat, or anything else
for that matter. He was mumbling while studying. His custom, as Jo knew, adding
to the general noise in the confined space of the cave. It was becoming quite
claustrophobic.
Jo was in her
mid-twenties, athletic, newly graduated from the university, and already in
charge of her first dig. She knew how students could get, but that didn’t mean
she agreed with the practice and the indulgences.
She approached the
walls with paintings, or more accurately, pictographs. One of them in
particular had drawn her attention. The drawn figures were vaguely human. Most
had huge round eyes and concentric circular shapes on their bodies. That was
specific to the Vinca culture, to the fashion or aesthetics of their times.
That was why she could barely contain her enthusiasm, her joy—she was
ninety-nine percent sure she’d just made the discovery of her life.
The pictograph that
had drawn her attention was part of a group, representing small humanlike
figures interacting with huge masked beings in weird, ritualistic suits. In the
first panel in the group, the humans bowed to the masked figures, obviously
their deities. There were no written sources for the Vinca culture, so nothing
was known of their religion or mythology.
Jo got closer to the
drawings.
“Silence!” she
barked over the background noise in the cave. Everyone looked at her and shut
up. She was known for a frightful temper and no one wanted to enter into a
conflict with her.
“They’re just
students on their first practicum,” said Hannigan in a low voice only the two
of them could hear. He was like a grandfather to everyone on the team, always
ready to indulge them and spoil them.
“Not on my money,
they’re not,” said Jo. “They’re students in their first practice and one day
they could brag about the experience they got here. They could brag and get the
best paid gigs because of this.”
“Yes, but young
people…” Hannigan hesitated, looking at Jo. Then, probably realizing he was
talking to a young person, he gave up.
The best practice
was to ignore the old man and leave it be. She had to put up with all his
eccentricities because he was the best in the field and expert on this period
of time in Earth’s history. And he was easy to satisfy in terms of credits and
accolades. He valued money above all else.
So Jo returned to
the pictographs. She got closer to the next one. In it, a man with a wolf head
shot stars through some sort of weapon toward one of the masked figures. The
masked figure’s body was covered in symbols and shone a bright red.
In the next panel,
the masked figure had collapsed, probably dead. His body was still covered in
unknown symbols.
Jo returned to the
previous panel. The weapon looked like a bone, a real bone encrusted in stone.
The stars shooting from it had started to sparkle and fluctuate. What the…
Jo got even closer and tried to discern what could make it sparkle like that.
There didn’t seem to be anything on the stone base but the painting. She
extended her hand and held it above the sparks. No heat. She then touched the
bone embedded in the stone. Dry, porous bone. She walked her fingers over the
sparks and the shooting stars and then, a red spark passed from the stone to Jo’s
skin.
Where it touched the
skin a red impression, like a tattoo, spread on Jo’s skin. It had happened so
fast that Jo couldn’t do anything else but watch the whole thing with
curiosity. She lifted her camera to take a picture, but froze. The tattoo had
spread up her arm and down her other arm and she realized it was all over her
body, flickering on her skin. It felt like an electric shock. Jo shuddered and
collapsed.
Costi’s fiction has appeared in Canada, the US,
and Europe. He has sold 8 books and over 50 stories for which he has won 32
awards. He was three times a finalist for the Canadian Aurora Awards.
His latest sales include the anthologies Tesseracts 17, The Mammoth Book of
Dieselpunk, Dark Horizons, Street Magick, Water, and Alice Unbound.
His bestselling novel RecipeArium has won three awards (Kult, Nemira, and Vladimir Colin) and was a 2018
finalist for the Aurora Awards.
His novels, “Servitude”, “Green Corrosion”, “Pink Corrosion”, and
“Black Corrosion” were published in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. And his latest
novel “The Cursed” was launched on April 1st, 2026.
“Green Corrosion” has won four awards (Book Excellence, The Typesmith
Writers, The International Impact Book, and the Maincrest Media Award).
“Black Corrosion” has been an Amazon Bestseller for three weeks and is
a finalist for Canreads Awards 2026.
To find out more about Costi Gurgu visit https://costigurgu.com/
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