by Paul Grover
“A simple conversion of matter to energy and energy to matter. A party trick if you will.”
Mira did not reply. The dream haunted her. She remembered everything in detail, the star high above, the blood on her hands… staring into Tish’s lifeless gaze as the sparkle left her eyes.
“I… have seen this place before…”
Legion raised an eyebrow.
“Perhaps… The Mothernode is powerful. It has ways of communicating with the corporeal even we cannot understand.”
Footsteps approached from behind her.
“If we keep meeting like this, Thorny, people will talk.” Manson leered at her.
“Sofi sends her best and I told you only my friends call me that.” She raised her middle finger and glared at Manson with defiance seeping from every pore.
“Whatever you say.” He took her rifle and side arm. Finally he wrestled her pack from her.
“Just a precaution,” he said, winking.
“Karl, you have other guests to attend to.”
Manson continued to stare at Mira. He wiggled his tongue in a lewdly suggestive way. Mira shuddered and hoped neither Legion nor Manson saw.
“Go,” Legion ordered. Manson loped off like a chastened dog.
“Out there are the First Ones. The ones who stayed true; the ones who stayed pure. The ones who became Blackened.” Legion pointed toward the star.
Mira could only see the black expanse of the captured system. She did not doubt Legion’s word.
“This system is barren. A few thousand years and they will cease to be. It is as your friends in the collective intended. It is the way of the universe: extinction is the rule, survival the exception.”
“So how do you come and go? You seem to be remarkably mobile.”
Legion faced her, one side of his face in shadow, the other painted sickly yellow by the weak starlight.
“This is as far as I can travel. Some communication is possible. You and I standing here, Thorn, has not come about by accident. All of this was destined to happen.”
Legion pulled his gaze from the star above. A human look of sadness crossed his pallid face.
“I take little pleasure in what happens next. What will be is what needs to be. Come,” he said.
He took her arm and led her down a flight of steps and through a narrow corridor. His grip on her arm was loose, yet there was a coldness where his fingers touched her. There was something familiar about this man… something… it danced out of the reach of her conscious mind.
Following her crash Mira had experienced dead spots in her memory. There were things she ought to know, things she should remember and almost could. Monica had called them dead zones, lost connections between neurones that could never be recreated. The dead zones persisted with the new body. It reminded Mira of a datapad restored from a corrupted backup.
But this was more recent… the dream… he was in my dream… Tish…
They emerged into a long chamber. The roof arched high above, supported by ribs of interwoven root. The air smelt of ozone, the atmosphere darkly oppressive. Mira broke into a sweat and dull pain gathered behind her eyes. She put a hand to her temple.
Her companions were waiting. Alex sat between Zenia and Tish. They both bore minor injuries. Zenia appeared unharmed.
“What have you done to them?” she snarled.
“Nothing, I’ve got a few ideas,” Manson replied.
He leant next to Tish and whispered something. She struggled and tried to push him away. He licked her cheek. Tish snarled and spat in his face. Mira moved forward, her progress halted by an unseen hand.
“Karl!” Legion snapped.
Manson backed off, laughing.
“The Servitors we have under our control are not the gentlest of creatures,” Legion said. “Your friends sustained cuts and bruises during their capture. Nothing serious.”
He motioned for Mira to follow. The Arethon cube rested on the floor close to where her friends sat.
“What happened?” Mira asked.
“One of those things grabbed me,” Tish replied. Her voice trembled. “It dragged me to a square where he was waiting.” She pointed at Manson.
“We ran straight into him,” Alex said. “Mira, there is a kind of transport tube network… it leads out of here.”
“Quiet,” Legion snapped.
“You.” He pointed to Tish. “Stand girl.”
Tish shook her head.
“I can make you, if you wish,” Legion said.
Tish stood. Legion circled her, a smile on his thin lips.
Legion pointed to the Arethon Cube.
Tish glared at the old man, contempt radiating from her.
“Leave her alone,” Mira barked.
Legion snapped his fingers and Mira was flung to the floor by an invisible force. She cursed and dragged herself back to her feet, her body throbbing with pain. She stared at Legion as an involuntary snarl escaped her lips.
Tish walked to the cube and picked it up. She returned and Legion motioned for her to give it to Mira.
It vibrated in her hand. Energy coursed through her body.
“Only you can use the cube, Mira Thorn. It is coded to your DNA,” Legion said. “You hold in your hand the existence of a whole species. Two in fact.”
Legion sat and placed two hands on his cane.
“The Pharn told you the object you are holding was a source of knowledge. Zenia told you it would destroy the Blackened contained here.” He paused and stood. “They were both wrong. Our representative on Arethon, Dr Hart, changed the parameters. We loaded a program into the mind of the human called Jarman. Saskia shot him and the program was uploaded to the core of the machine. As your consciousness was transferred, so was his.”
Legion stood and walked around her.
“The program changed the parameters of the cube. It allowed Zenia to detach and unwittingly become our agent. The cube will do as she wants; it will connect the Pharn to this place. It will destroy this facility, freeing my people. The Pharn will rejoin their collective and they will tell them we are free. They will know their time is short.”
“No, this is not true,” Zenia said. “It cannot be how he describes. They cannot interface with our technology.”
“We have had 10,000 years to find out how. You will be surprised at what we can do.”
“I guess you’ll be disappointed,” Mira whispered. “I am no one's puppet.”
Legion frowned, disappointed rather than angry.
“Humans… I forget how stubborn you can be. You know I was once like you, many hundreds of years ago. I was a soldier. I fought in the Great War. They called it the War to End All Wars.” He laughed, it was humourless punctuation to the lesson. “I am sure the irony of that name is not lost on you, Thorn.”
Legion sat. It seemed the burden of the years had taken its toll. He became a tired old man. He reached into his coat and produced a worn brown box and ancient blue-black handgun. He placed them on the bench next to him.
“Touchstones to my old life. Talismans to remind me of who I once was. They let me keep them… I know not why. As the years pass, they decline in relevance.”
He opened the box and offered it to Mira. Inside was a medal.
“The Victoria Cross,” Legion said. “I could tell you tales of Passchendaele, if time were on our side. Suffice to say the ones you call Blackened offered me a chance to live; far away from the mud and the lead. In exchange I serve them; I became them. I am one and I am all.”
He snapped the box closed.
“Keep it,” Legion said. “Think of it as a gift, from one old soldier to another. We both fought in terrible follies and they brought us here, to this point in history.”
Legion lifted the weapon. It had a deadly lustre in the dim light of the chamber. He flipped the gun and offered it to Alex.
“Here, it is of little use. I cannot fire it. It is a pointless keepsake, a relic from an irrelevant past.”
“Shove
it, I don’t want it,” Alex replied.
Mira shivered as the air cooled around her. The chamber darkened.
Alex’s hand jerked out. His fingers closed around the butt of the weapon and he pulled it from Legion’s hand. His face was shocked and laden with terror.
Alex raised the gun and pointed it at Mira.
“Mira!” Alex cried. “I can’t fight this. He is forcing me to do it!”
Legion stood and turned to Mira.
“You will activate this facility… not for the Pharn; you will do it for the Blackened. You are the Harbinger. You will rain fire up upon your people.”
“Go fuck yourself. Shoot me and this place stays sealed.”
“Mira!” Tish whispered from behind her. She had both hands balled into fists pressing into her forehead. Zenia cowered to one side, her face impossible to read, her body language showing her dejection.
Legion shrugged.
“You are correct. Perhaps you require a greater incentive.”
Alex jerked the gun to his temple, his movements like those of a demented marionette.
Alex’s finger tightened on the trigger, pulling toward the first firing position.
“You will do anything to save your friends… Like I said, I know you Thorn. Wait… I have a better idea.”
Alex jerked the gun from his head and pointed at Tish, two shots echoed around the chamber.
Mira froze, incapable of movement as Tish fell, her chest exploding in a cloud of crimson.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
MIRA screamed. It was a tortured cry as her soul was rent in two. Everything slowed. Blue smoke curled from the barrel of the ancient weapon. Alex’s face was fixed in shock. Zenia recoiled her face covered with Tish’s blood.
The scream died in Mira’s throat, still the world remained frozen. She tried to run toward Tish, yet could not move.
“She is innocent in this… she is…”
She’s dying, Thorn. Her Shadow Sister asserted herself, barging to the front of her conscious mind.
You killed the kid; now you have killed her. You are dangerous; you are toxic. You corrupt and kill everything around you.
Mira recognised the voice in her head… it was not hers. The voice sounded like her but the words were all Amy Flynt’s.
Legion gazed at her, an inhuman smile on his face.
“A captured moment,” he said. “The arrow of time still moves but for them its flight is slower. I can only do this here, where there is an abundance of energy. I do not know how long the moment will last… maybe a thousand years, maybe a few minutes. I suspect the latter.”
The cube vibrated in Mira's hand. Tingles ran though her arm.
“You do not have long Mira Thorn. There is a way out of this. The object you have in your hand will release my people. It will connect the Pharn to this facility.”
Mira tried to steady her breathing.
“Tish…” she whispered, Legion’s words barely registering through her grief.
“Thorn, be silent and listen.” Legion’s voice became a roar of many voices.
“The Pharn have power over life and death. They will bring sweet Tish back to you.”
He paused. “I will bid you farewell. Karl and I have business to attend to. I am sure you will make the right decision. The receptacle for your seal is over there.” He pointed to the far end of the chamber. Legion called for Manson.
Manson swaggered out of shadows.
“I wish you had warned me about that.” He scowled. “You’ve fucked up my hearing for good.”
Manson peered at Tish’s body, frozen mid fall. “Could be worse. Red’s having a fuck of a bad day, eh Thorny?”
“Karl, enough.” Legion put a hand on Manson’s shoulder and they faded into blackness.
Robotically she walked toward the dark end of the chamber. There was no smart way out of this, no clever solution. Her body was numb, her mind empty.
A small platform rose from the floor, at the top was receptacle for the cube. The pillar was formed from twisted fronds. Mira Thorn stood frozen to the spot. Her whole life had led her to this point, this single decision.
Humanity or the girl I love?
The one or the many? My future or theirs?
She thought of Alex, Monica, Rich and Rosa. She thought of her parents, her brother, her sister. The fate of everyone and everything was in her hands.
Vanessa Meyer’s words came back to her.
Choices do not have to be binary…
Releasing the Blackened would start a war on a scale unimagined in human history.
To win we will need all of humanity, no divisions. No Core Systems and Frontier, no rich and poor, strong and weak. It will take all of us.
I can save them.
I will start by saving one. The rest I’ll work out as I go along.
I am no one's puppet, no one's fool.
I am Mira Thorn, born in London, raised in the Namib desert. I am who I choose to be.
I choose to save Tish and I choose to live.
She raised the cube, studying the colours dancing beneath its black surface.
Mira slammed the artefact into the receptacle. Fronds grew and surrounded the device.
No one dies today.
A discharge of energy blasted Mira off her feet. She landed hard on the deck. Pain rippled through her. The only sound was her breathing.
Mira pulled herself to her feet. Nothing had changed. The chamber shuddered, gently at first, then a much stronger tremor ran through the structure.
The plinth glowed white and the chamber filled with light. It coalesced into a rotating sphere above her. Energy arced between it and the walls.
A familiar presence entered her mind, probing her thoughts and memories.
“Do not fear us, Mira Thorn,” a voice said from the light ball. “We are Pharn,”
“Is it true? What Legion said about you?” Mira asked, her voice heavy with sorrow.
“Yes… but he plays with words; he manipulates. The Blackened are agents of chaos. We bring order.”
“Your order.”
“Order is order. The universe needs balance. We balance the chaotic forces of nature and bring forth stability. We are one and we are all.”
“I am getting pissed off hearing that,” she replied.
The collective continued to rotate. Reds and purples flared within its core.
“I need you to save her. You have to save Tish. She is not part of your game.”
“We choose not to. Your usefulness is at an end… One life does not matter.”
“What about Zenia? She is one of you.”
“The Zenia unit was part of this collective. It is corrupted and cannot return. It has become their tool. As have you.”
“I don’t fight for you or them. I fight for humanity. We’ll outlast you all.”
“It is unlikely. The Blackened will return… you may prevail or you may lose yourselves on the journey. The system is in flux. Chaos has triumphed over order.”
“And what of you?”
“You have connected us to the wider network. We have energy and a pathway to the collective. Our plans will change, evolve. We are grateful to you Mira Thorn but your choice was not rational.”
Alex screamed.
Mira spun. The time bubble collapsed, freeing her friends. Tish fell to the floor. Alex knelt next to her. He continued to scream.
Mira ran to them, then stopped.
She turned to face the collective.
“Save her… I connected you to your people, now save her!” she yelled.
“No. This will be your lesson. Your burden.”
“You owe me. I gave you your freedom… something given has no value… you said as much… pay your fucking debt!” Mira lost control of her emotions.
She fell to her knees.
“Please… she is everything to me.”
“You chose her over your people. You chose her over our interests.” The collective’s voice was devoid
of emotion yet still they sounded as if they were mocking her.
“I did it to save my people… I will find away. Human’s take care of each other; it’s what we do,” Mira whispered, her voice hoarse and the fight going out of her.
Zenia approached and stared into the ball of light. The collective spun faster and winked out of existence.
Zenia knelt next to Mira. “I am sorry. I did not mean for this to happen… they used me.”
Mira’s rage boiled. She contained it, reigned it back. She pushed the alien out of her way and ran to Tish. Alex was applying pressure to her wounds with bloodied hands.
“I’m sorry Mira. I couldn’t stop it, he… I was… I am so sorry.”
Tish’s wounds whistled as her chest cavity filled with air. Her lips were blue.
“We have to get her to the ship, to Monica.”
“She won’t make it, Mira. She’s dying,” Alex said, his voice soft.
“No… she can’t.” Mira could barely speak, the words caught in her throat.
Mira took Tish’s hand; it was cold and trembling. Tish’s eyelids flickered.
Her voice was a gurgling whisper. “I’m scared. When I go, don’t be alone. Think of me but don’t… be alone.” She coughed; the sparkle lingering in her eyes. “They are wrong… you can fight them. Do it for me. I’m sorry I broke my promise.”
Tish’s eyelids flickered as she sighed a final breath.
“No…” Mira sobbed.
Her mouth was dry. Her breath trapped in her lungs.
“Alex, go… get back to the ship. Take everyone home.”
“No…”
The chamber shook.
“Go!” she screamed.
Alex squeezed her shoulder and stood. Zenia went with him. Their footsteps faded. Silence pressed in.
Mira lay next to Tish; she held her and stroked her hair. “I’m sorry, Tish… I love you. Don’t worry about the promise… I’ll break mine too.”
The revolver lay on the floor close to her. She reached out and picked it up, feeling the cool steel in her hand.
The grip of the ancient weapon was warm her palm. The blue of the finish was worn in places. Mira opened the chamber. Four bullets. She only needed one. With a steady hand she put the barrel under her chin and closed her eyes.
