“Brenner?”
“Evelyn, you've got to listen to me. Whatever you think you're trying to do, it's not the answer. You can't free Ciso. Don't you understand? She's trying to trick you. She'll kill us all!” As she spoke Brenner had been inching towards her, and too late Evelyn realized her friend was no longer her friend.
Brenner's foot shot out, knocking the blaster from her hand, and another man rushed in and kicked her in the head. Her vision distorted for a moment, but Evelyn pushed herself up and smashed her elbow into the man's chin. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he bit into his tongue. She turned to Brenner.
“You're one of them now ...” she took a step towards her.
“I'm sorry, Evelyn, but I can't let you do this.” Brenner turned and ran over to a control panel. She began smashing her fists into it repeatedly. Evelyn rushed to her and pulled her away, but it was too late. The interface was a mess of broken glass and twisted metal. She looked at Brenner's fists. Her fingers stuck out at odd angles and they were bloody up to the wrists.
“You can't connect to her now, Evelyn. This was the only link to Ciso. It's over. The others are coming for you. They will be here any second. You can't fight them all.”
Evelyn stared at her hard. “It's not over.” She grabbed Brenner by the shoulder and spun her around, smashing her own fist into the augment on the back of Brenner's head. The force knocked Brenner out, but Evelyn knew she would heal.
There was only one other way to get to Ciso. She knew she wouldn't make it to one of the elevators now. She guessed she had mere seconds before a horde of higher humans descended on her. She glanced around at the control panels, and found the ones she was looking for. She keyed in the commands, and then, using the butt of her blaster, smashed the panel to pieces.
Somewhere she heard engines roaring.
The massive space station called the Cloud began its descent into Earth's atmosphere.
Evelyn raised her hands as white-clad figures began bursting in through all four doorways.
23
They stared at her silently. They knew they were too late.
Then, leaving one of their number in each doorway, their blasters trained on her, the rest turned and hurried from the control room without a word.
Where were they going? she wondered.
There must be another way to control the ship, a backup control room.
She had to stop them.
She turned slowly, eyeing the four higher humans who watched her expressionlessly. She stood nearly in the center of the room. Each of them was about four paces from her.
“Are you just going to stand there?” she taunted.
Their faces remained as impassive as if they hadn't heard her.
“Fine,” she said, putting on a resigned expression. Suddenly she made as if to dash for the one nearest her, watching him closely. She saw the tendons in his arm tighten as he squeezed the trigger.
Evelyn threw herself to the floor, feeling the air where she had been standing move as the blast passed over her. She was up immediately, launching herself the remaining two paces into the man's knees. They went down together, and she reached for the hand that held the blaster.
A force slammed into her from behind, and her mind fuzzed. Her vision was slipping away. She felt sick. Her limbs weren't responding.
She saw them standing over her, staring down at her with that peculiar blank expression all the higher humans wore.
Then suddenly they lurched over as if an invisible force had knocked them from their feet.
They rose, looking about in confusion. It took Evelyn a few moments to realize they must be entering Earth's gravitational field.
It had worked.
They hadn't been able to stop the ship's descent.
She allowed the swallowing blackness to wash over her.
She awoke to find a familiar face bent over her.
“Evelyn, what have you done?” Brenner said. There was panic in her voice.
“Brenner? Is it you? I mean, really you?”
“If you mean did you destroy my augmentation: yes.” Brenner looked angry now. “What have you done to the Cloud?”
“I've sent it to Earth so we can put a stop to this horrible system Miles Tucker has created.”
Brenner shook her head at her. “Evelyn, you don't know, can never understand what it's like, what they've created here – the augmentations, higher humanity; it's the most wonderful thing I've ever experienced. And you're trying to destroy it!”
“You … you still feel that way? Even now?” Evelyn couldn't believe it. She had thought that Miles Tucker was somehow brainwashing everyone who had the augmentations, or tricking them. It made no difference. “Can't you see how wrong it is what they're doing to those people down there on Earth?”
“Right and wrong, those things mean nothing! Being part of the higher humanity – I can't describe it – it's worth every human sacrifice that has ever been made!”
Looking beyond Brenner's fanatical expression, Evelyn finally noticed there was something wrong with the control room. It had tilted almost completely onto its side, and she and Brenner were pressed against a wall. Just beside them was the doorway she had come through. She was aware of a kind of roaring sound, almost a feeling, coming to her through the walls. They were still falling.
They were going to crash into the Earth's surface.
Had she, in trying to save the people in the Colonies, doomed everyone aboard the Cloud to death?
“Listen, we can argue about this later. I think we're going to crash into Earth. We need to get to the others, make sure they're safe.”
Brenner shook her head. “What for? You've already ruined everything.”
“Brenner, you need to snap out of it. Don't you remember what it was like, to be human? We need to help them. They are our friends.”
Brenner pouted, but didn't reply.
“Come on,” Evelyn said, dragging herself towards the doorway. She half climbed, half fell, through it. As she slid down the near-vertical corridor, trying to slow herself with her hands, she glanced up. Brenner was following her.
They scrambled through the next doorway, running along what used to be the wall of the next passageway, doubled over in the low space. They ran over windowed doors and noticed higher humans in the rooms within, strapped into their white beds, cold eyes watching them pass.
Finally they reached the hospital-like chamber in which Evelyn had left the others. There they were, huddled in a corner, looking terrified.
“Evelyn! What's happening?” Clove called, her eyes moving to Brenner when she followed Evelyn into the room. “Is she …?”
“I destroyed her augment,” Evelyn said. “Listen, this ship is heading for Earth, I think it's going to crash. We need to try and strap ourselves in. These beds, they're secured to the floor. Everyone get into one and tie yourself in.”
They nodded and began moving towards the cubicles.
“Hurry!” Evelyn urged, helping Clove. Once she was secure, she went to help Kenji, then Brenner. Matthew had managed to secure himself. The roaring sound had increased in decibels to almost drown out everything else, so that as she reached her bed and began to lift herself into it she didn't hear the sound of the Cloud colliding with the Earth's surface.
She felt it though, and she was thrown into the wall of the cubicle so hard that she could feel her bones, or whatever her skeletal structure was constructed from, crack. All around her the air was filled with ear-splitting shrieks and creaks and explosions that seemed to continue for an impossibly long time. Through it all she stayed conscious, ignoring the pain that flared like fire throughout her entire body, until finally the sounds of the Cloud tearing itself apart began to subside and eventually cease entirely.
Somewhere nearby her the sound of crackling electrical circuits became the only thing she could hear.
Then coughing.
“Is everyone okay?” she called, hoping with all her being they would all resp
ond.
“Okay!” Matthew's voice.
“I … I think I'm fine,” Clove said.
“Yeah, me too,” Brenner.
“Kenji?” Evelyn called, her chest filling with dread.
No answer.
She began trying to push herself up. There was something wrong with her left leg. The lower half was turned at an impossible angle and she found that the knee wasn't responding to her instructions to bend.
“Kenji!” She called again.
“Evelyn?” he finally replied, but there was a peculiar note to his voice. “My … my hand.”
“I'm coming, Kenji. Hang on.” Pushing the pain from her mind, knowing it wasn't real, she hobbled from her cubicle. The Cloud seemed to have come to rest on its belly, for the floor was where it should be: beneath her feet. She passed Matthew, who was busy removing himself from his bed. Kenji was in the next cubicle. She heard him whimper. It was the sound of a frightened animal.
She rounded the corner and her eyes took in the scene immediately. Kenji was still in his bed, but a piece of machinery from the wall had come away during the crash, for it lay now on the floor beside him. There was another, smaller, object on the floor next to it.
Kenji's hand had been torn off at the wrist, and already the wound had healed over with fresh, pink skin.
Evelyn didn't know what to do. She stared at Kenji in horror and sorrow. He looked at her, and to her surprise she saw the familiar twinkle of amusement in his eyes. “Can you give me a hand?” he asked, glancing down at the straps around his torso. “I'm one short.”
Evelyn couldn't help herself: she laughed. She was so relieved that they were all alive. As she helped Kenji from his bed and the others all came to help him up she realized that with her laughter had come tears.
Kenji picked his severed hand up from the floor, waving it about importantly. “I'd better take this with, it could come in handy later.”
“Jesus, Kenji,” Matthew said, shaking his head at him.
“Oh, come on, you've got to hand it to me: that was a good pun!” By now Kenji was in hysterics, and Evelyn supposed he must be in shock.
Clove turned away, looking queasy. “God, would you put that away? I can't handle this.”
Kenji stared at her looking hurt, then slowly broke into a grin again. “Hey, hey that was good. That was a good one. Can't hand-le it. Well played!” Then, still laughing, he held up his stump, examined the pink flesh at the end for a second, and promptly fainted.
Matthew caught him. Together they all maneuvered him back onto the bed. It was then that Clove noticed Evelyn's leg.
“Evelyn, you're hurt too.”
Evelyn glanced down at her horribly twisted leg and frowned. “Yeah. I … I think we need to twist it back. Can you …?” She looked at the others.
Clove turned green. “I don't think I can.”
Matthew blinked several times. He too was looking a bit pale. “I'll do it. What do you want me to do?”
“Just … Just twist it. Your dad said I have some kind of NAMs in my body too, so they should fix anything that's damaged, but we need to put it in the correct position.”
“Right.” Matthew slowly went down on one knee, placing one hand gently on her ankle and another on her calf. He glanced up at her and she nodded.
His grip tightened, and he began to twist. Evelyn gripped the edge of the bed to steady herself, pushing the opposite direction. There was an awful grinding sound from her knee and then a snap.
“Oh Bloom, did I break it?” Matthew said, releasing her leg and backing away in horror.
“No, no I think you fixed it.” Evelyn looked down at her foot, which now faced forward again instead of off to the left. There was a strange tingling sensation in the limb, and she knew the NAMs in her body were doing their job.
“Mama? Mm-mama's milk?” Kenji said. They all turned to frown at him as his eyes fluttered.
“He's coming round.” Matthew said unnecessarily.
Kenji's eyes opened slowly and he looked up at them with a bemused smile on his face. “Heeey you guys all came to my birthday. That's really sweet of you.” Then his eyes filled with surprise. “Behind you!” He shouted.
Evelyn spun just as a woman swung a heavy piece of twisted metal at her head. She saw it coming at the last second, but there was nowhere for her to move in the crowded cubicle. If she ducked the woman's blow would strike Brenner. She did the only thing she could think of: she stepped forward sharply, smashing her forehead into the woman's face. The woman fell back, and the shard of metal she had picked up hit Brenner in the arm, but the power was gone from the blow. As she hit the floor, Evelyn looked towards the doorway, where two more of the white-clad higher humans had appeared. One of them held a blaster. He raised it, but before he could squeeze the trigger Evelyn heard an electric pulse behind her and the man and his companion were hurled back through the doorway. Evelyn turned. Matthew stood holding a blaster aimed at the doorway.
“Good shot,” she said. “They'll all be coming for us now. We need to get out of this ship and get to Ciso.” The higher humans knew what she planned to do, and she was certain they would do everything in their power to stop her.
“Evelyn, you can't,” Brenner begged. “We can still fix this, we can rebuild the Cloud. And … And we could be anywhere on Earth. There may be no Colonies for miles!”
“Brenner?” Matthew said, looking confused.
“I'm sorry Brenner,” Evelyn said, “but I'm going to stop this. You can come with us, or you can stay here. It's up to you.”
Brenner looked at her hard for a moment then looked away. Evelyn didn't see the calculating look on her face when she replied softly. “I'll come with you.”
“Then let's go.” Evelyn went to peer around the door. The corridor was deserted save for the two unconscious figures on the floor. As she led the others from the room they heard a muted explosion from somewhere on the downed space station and a split-second later the floor shook violently. Sounds of screaming reached them from down the corridor.
“We'll go this way,” Evelyn said, leading them away from the explosion. She was hoping they would find a rupture in the ship's hull through which they could escape. It was unlikely there would be any doorways leading outside, since they were aboard a space station, and even if there were they would probably require power to open.
As they passed rooms along the passageway Evelyn glanced through the windowed doors. The first one was a gruesome scene of mutilated bodies, and half the ceiling had fallen in. The second one contained a group of higher humans who were tending to a wounded companion. Evelyn remembered what Miles Tucker had said about the NAMs only working on adults away from Earth's magnetic field. They couldn't heal down here. One of the higher humans in the room saw her face and alerted the others.
“Run,” Evelyn yelled, ushering the others past her. She took up the rear, keeping her blaster ready and looking over her shoulder. She saw the door open, saw a man step out, and fired her weapon down the passageway. He ducked back into the room and she kept running.
“Which way?” Matthew called from up ahead, where the passageway split left and right.
Evelyn looked ahead. She had no idea which way to choose, but as a group of higher humans burst from a doorway along the right-hand passageway the choice was made for them.
“Left!” she shouted.
They dashed down the left passageway, Evelyn firing her blaster over her shoulder as she ran.
“Where are we going, Evelyn?” Matthew called from the front.
“I don't know, just try to find a way out!”
Evelyn looked back. The higher humans had entered their passageway and were in hot pursuit. She fired at them again, knocking their leader back into his companions. Suddenly she ran right into Clove, nearly knocking them both to the ground.
“What the–?”
“Back! Go back!” Matthew shouted from the front. His voice carried a note of panic.
Turning h
er attention ahead Evelyn saw why they had stopped. Matthew's father stood twenty paces ahead of them, blocking the passageway with a team of higher humans behind him. He glowered at them angrily. There was blood on his face.
“We can't go back,” Evelyn said. “They're behind us as well.”
Clove grabbed Evelyn's arm. “What do we do?”
Evelyn didn't know.
Miles Tucker had stopped ten paces ahead of them. “You will pay for what you've done, all of you” he said, and Evelyn shuddered. His voice no longer carried the aloof tone that all the higher humans seemed to possess when they spoke; it was now cold as steel. He glared at them. “You have undone centuries of work in one act of foolishness. You will pay!”
Whirling around, Evelyn searched for options, but there were none. They were outnumbered and completely trapped. Suddenly she noticed a strange sensation on the right-hand side of her face, a kind of burning. She reached a hand out towards and air duct that ran along the wall at head-height. It was piping hot. And it was vibrating with building tension ...
“Guys,” she said softly, “When I say 'now', drop to the floor.”
The others looked at her in confusion.
“Trust me,” she said. The vibration of the air duct had reached a manic intensity.
Matthew's father was still speaking. “Drop your weapons. Don't make this any worse for yourselves than it needs to be.”
Evelyn wasn't listening. All her senses were trained on the air duct beside her. The steel rivets holding it together were creaking under the building pressure, and she knew it was ready. “Now!” she shouted.
Time seemed to slow as she hurled herself to the ground, pulling Clove with her. She fired her blaster at the air duct as she fell, and it split open along its entire length, erupting in a snake of fire that spread out into the corridor, hungry for oxygen. The heat of it was unbearable. She shut her eyes against it, and the inside of her lids glowed red. She felt fire penetrating her nostrils, and she forced herself not to breath for fear that she would burn from the inside out. The ringing in her ears began to fade and she picked up screams and shrieks of agony replacing the dying roar of the explosion.
The Cloud Page 22
