"Well, Miss 'Nothing.' I've already made a deal with the charming proprietor of this exceptional and reputable establishment to finish the one I'm holding, then leave."
When he finished speaking, he raised his glass to his lips and drained what remained of the purple liquid. Annabelle watched him curiously as he drank, then quickly followed suit. Leo couldn't help but be impressed. She drained her full glass in half the time it would've taken him.
After finishing her drink, she took a deep breath, wiped her mouth with her black, skin-tight shirt sleeve, then replied.
"It was nice of you to help that drunk guy, and one good turn deserves another... My father owns a private club on the other side of the station... On the way there, we could stop by my apartment and sample my collection of fine spirits from the inner colonies."
Leo didn't know what to say. He had not expected her to be so blunt with her advances.
"I have beer..." she finished with a tantalizing whisper.
Leo took a few seconds to consider her offer, torn as he was between his attraction to her and his aversion to social interaction.
Before he could reply, however, a weapon discharge alert blared inside his mind and flashed across his vision. In spite of the warning, he had no time to take action before three bullets zipped through the air and flew past his head.
Screams of fear immediately joined the clattering sound of swift movement as panic erupted in the bar.
As the mayhem of hustling bodies and frantic yells quickly surrounded Leo, he relied on his instincts. Without delay, he rolled over the bar, presenting as small a target as possible.
He was unsure if Annabelle had been hit. If she had, there was nothing he could do about it, for even as concern for her crossed his mind, three more bullets tore through the air above him.
Luckily for him, the second burst of gunfire was targeted at the bartender, who Leo could see huddling fearfully behind the bar ten meters from him.
Leo knew he needed to pinpoint the shooter's position to plan his next move. So, he reached his right palm as high as he could and transferred half of his sight to the ocular implant within it.
The room was revealed to him almost instantly. He was only slightly surprised to see that the licking drunk had returned, weapon in hand, and was apparently hell-bent on exacting revenge against the bartender.
Blood dripped from the drunk's mouth, but he looked stone-cold sober. He moved quickly and with purpose as he walked past Leo. With a glance to the right, Leo watched as the bartender frantically reached into a cabinet next to him.
After the drunk walked past, Leo returned his sight to normal, then slowly stood up and leaned over the bar to check on Annabelle. As he scanned the area where she had been sitting, he realized she was no longer there.
He immediately scanned the entirety of the bar and still couldn't detect her. Most of the terrified bar patrons had fled out the back exit, but a few were still huddled under three of the tables, eyeing the drunk with fear as he walked past them. Annabelle, however, was nowhere to be seen.
She had moved fast, or she was good at hiding, Leo thought with admiration. Then, he turned his attention back to the drunk, who was still advancing, slowly and with calculation on the terrified bartender.
How the drunk had managed to procure a firearm so readily, Leo had no idea. All firearms were outlawed on Osiris, and to get caught with one carried the most severe of penalties, including death. Even he had not been stupid enough to try to bring a weapon onto the station.
As those thoughts crossed Leo's mind, the drunk arrived at the end of the bar and shouted in a high pitched squeal.
"Come out mister barkeep, you useless piece of meat, I have something I want to show you!"
The bartender made no move to obey. Instead, he continued his frenzied search under the bar and cowered in fear.
"I want you to stand up, mister barman," the drunk ordered, now in a sing-song voice. "I can reach over and kill you now if you like, or you can stand up so I can show you something special..."
Leo didn't move. He had ten meters of distance to cover between himself and the drunk, and he had little chance of making it without the drunk noticing his movement, turning, and firing at him.
The bartender slowly acceded to the drunk's demands by standing up, facing him, and placing his hands down on the surface of the bar.
"Fine, asshole, what do you want to show me?" the bartender grunted as he looked straight into the barrel of the pistol.
"My pretty gun," the drunk revealed, "and this too."
The drunk took one hand off the grip of his weapon and pulled up his black shirt to expose his chest. With a look of fearful realization, the bartender took a step back, raised his hands, and began to beg for mercy.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know you were one of them. Please, don't kill me, I'll do anything you want!"
The drunk cackled haughtily before replying. "Hee, hee, hee... No, stupid barkeep, you won't do anything, ever again!"
"Stop!" Leo impulsively shouted.
The drunk turned to Leo while leaving the gun trained on the bartender. He stared quizzically for a second before his face turned up into a grin.
"Ah, it's the nice man! Nice enough to spill his drink on the bar for me! And, nice enough to stop the dumb barman from shocking me to death! You are so nice!"
He then returned his eyes to the bartender but continued speaking to Leo. "You're nice, so I won't kill you now, but try to stop me again, and you'll regret it. I'll kill your little bitch girlfriend and make you watch!"
A pang of terror shot through Leo. The drunk's words had shaken him, but he didn't know why.
Then, Leo heard something he hadn't heard in years.
His eyes slid shut, thought he wanted them to remain open, and a rushing symphony of terrifying noise began to cascade around him.
A pang of sheer terror registered somewhere in Leo's mind. He had felt that way before, and it had been a very, very long time since he had felt it so profoundly.
But then, his fear evaporated, and he felt only emptiness within himself.
With a push of his subconscious mind, Leo instinctually called out to the emptiness, and it called back to him. Like a divine beacon, it instantly guided him through the time and space surrounding the duo at the other end of the bar.
As Leo sensed the muscles in the drunk's neck tighten, the quiet roar rose to a terrible, destructive crescendo. It was all Leo could hear, or would ever hear again. It was all that mattered.
Then, Leo felt the drunk pull the trigger.
Like a bomb of unimaginable magnitude going off, the nothingness within Leo exploded around him. He should have felt fear, he should have fallen to his knees and begged for mercy, but he didn't.
To Leo, the utter emptiness was pure bliss. There was no pain and no love; no life, and no death. Everything he was, and every terrible thing he had done ceased to exist for a trillion years, or perhaps a few milliseconds, for even time had ceased to exist.
There was nothing left...
There was only the Void...
Then, the titanic roar quieted, but it remained as a dull hum in the back of his mind.
Leo opened his eyes, and he saw the gun go off. He saw the tungsten projectile exit the barrel of the firearm and travel halfway to the bartender's sweat-covered forehead.
But then, the bullet wasn't there, as if it had never existed in the first place.
The bartender suddenly jumped aside as though shocked into the movement. Then, he ducked his head and dashed towards the double doors at the far end of the bar.
Leo watched calmly as disbelief and terror grew on the drunk's face.
Suddenly, the euphoria that washed over Leo fled from him and was replaced by terrible dread.
The last time Leo had something similar, he had destroyed an entire ship and nearly killed himself in the process. He had gotten lucky that time, and he had just gotten lucky again, but those who sought him would detect what he ha
d just done, and they would use it to find him.
Leo's heart raced as he surveyed the drunk and prepared to bolt.
However, instead of following the bartender, looking around to try to figure out what had happened, or inspecting his firearm, the drunk immediately turned to Leo, a look of rage and suspicion in his eyes as he raised his gun.
"I'll kill everyone, you fuck!" the drunk shrieked as he fired at Leo.
Even though Leo commanded his body to dodge and run away with every conscious fiber of his being, he instead stood still as his eyes slid shut once again.
As the darkness surrounded Leo, a cracking, slashing cataclysm, slightly stronger than the one that had occurred moments before, ripped through everyone, and everything, and nothing.
This time, Leo ignored the euphoria that accompanied it, and as it passed through him, he seemed to be trapped in an endless sea of bright light for a time that could have been 10,000 years or just a single second.
Then, as quickly as it had come, it was gone. Leo was once again present, in the bar, as he watched the drunk fire the gun at him.
Except, the drunk didn't have a gun anymore, or a hand at the end of his right arm either. Instead, he was standing ten meters from Leo and screaming in pain.
A look of horror and torment marred the drunk's face as he held the bloody, spurting, mangled stump that used to be his right hand with his remaining and unharmed left.
Leo didn't wait any longer. The Void had fled from him, and he intended to flee along with it.
He immediately turned, vaulted over the bar and ran to the front exit. He was sure that someone would make a move to stop him, but he reached it without trouble and watched gratefully as the door slid open before him.
Once outside the bar, he heard the doors close behind him with a hissing clunk, but he didn't look back. He continued running as fast as he could, past the shops and slum apartments that occupied the same alley as O'Hearn's.
He caught the attention of many people as he ran by, but he paid them no mind. His sole purpose was to reach his ship and leave Osiris Station as soon as possible.
Chapter 2
As Alice passed through the shimmery silver liquid, it passed through her. It covered her eyes and stole away her sight. It filled her ears with a low, dull throbbing, and through every pore of her skin, she could feel its coldness enter her. As her vision went dark, she was sure she was about to die.
Then, a sense of rapid movement suddenly struck her. She felt herself being carried forward at a fantastic speed, though the utter darkness prevented her from seeing where she was.
After only a few seconds, her sense of movement instantly ceased, and all was still. She looked around wildly and saw that Redden had disappeared.
Alice was alone in the darkness. She wondered if she would be there forever, if she had just died, or if perhaps her consciousness had been transferred to a Council archive. Maybe she was now merely a piece of information to be called upon and referenced when needed.
Her abstract conceptions of what might have happened to her were interrupted when several shining figures suddenly appeared in the distance. As she watched, they began to slide rapidly toward her.
Within just a few seconds, they covered the distance and she could make out their appearance. All of them wore white, skin-tight nano-suits, and clasped their hands behind their backs.
Alice felt anger grow within her. The Council itself stood before her, and that was a sight few could claim to have seen. For hundreds of years, they had governed the Solar system. They were the most powerful people in existence, and for whatever good they had done, they had also committed the greatest crimes in human history.
Two members of the Council, a man and a woman, suddenly resumed sliding until they were just a few meters from Alice. The rest remained where they were.
The duo's appearance was nondescript apart from their attire. Both seemed to be of middle-age, were of medium skin tone, and had shiny brownish hair that flowed down to their waists. Their eyes were no particular color, although Alice thought they could have been blue, or brown, or green depending on how you looked at them. They were tall, but not imposingly so, and their faces held neither a smile nor a frown.
The woman spoke first. Her voice was even and calm, but stern, as if she was a mother confronting a misbehaving child.
"Hello Alice, I am Zary, and this is Mir. Thank you for traveling so far speak with us."
Zary gestured ever so slightly to the man who stood at her right. He said nothing and fixed his eyes on Alice. After a few seconds, he clasped his hands together against his chest and bowed ever so slightly.
Alice tried to think of something to say, or of some question to ask, but the woman continued speaking without pause.
"Mir and I encompass the totality of thought within the Council, so we shall speak for the Council in this matter. You, Alice, will speak for yourself."
Zary fell silent, and as a few seconds passed, Alice realized that she was being allowed to speak. Filled with the gravity of the moment, she hastily blurted out two of the hundreds of questions swirling in her mind.
"Where is Executive Director Redden? What is this place?"
Mir's voice cut through the darkness, and Alice felt a pang of regret. His voice called back memories of Shonn. It was deep, warm in timbre, and filled with what could only be described as love.
"The Director's opinion on the matters we will discuss today is known to the Council, and it is irrelevant."
Zary picked up where Mir left off. "This is where we guide and watch over humanity, free of constant and frivolous distractions."
It was Mir's turn again as he drove the conversation in the direction the Council desired. "Delay is not beneficial to humanity in this matter, so let us answer your most important question. Why have we called you here?"
The two members of the Origins Council spoke one after the other in a seamless exchange. They continued together as if one person and Alice realized that whichever mouth their words originated from did not matter. The thoughts that inspired their words obviously came from the same source.
"You, Alice, completed the grim task of victory on Ganymede, and that is why you are here. Because of your success in surviving Ganymede, we believe you are uniquely suited to survive a similar mission."
The duo looked pointedly at Alice, and both spoke in unison. "There is another mission you must complete if we are to avoid a fate worse than Ganymede."
Their words echoed in Alice's head, and she felt for a moment that she might lose consciousness. They had a mission for her. That was why they had called her there.
A cold sense of apathy and hopelessness spread over her. After all that she had seen, and all she had done, she wasn't there for her final punishment or further study. It was just another goddamned mission.
Alice's shoulders slumped, and the bated breath that had been building within her slowly hissed from her lungs.
"What kind of mission? And, what in this universe gives you the idea that I have any interest in doing it?"
Zary nodded and began to explain. "A mission that carries the weight of our species' survival. A mission that will prevent the death of every single human being. This is far more important than any of your previous endeavors, or indeed, any endeavor ever undertaken by humanity before. It also happens to be an endeavor that only you are likely to succeed in. You see, the magnitude of the events on Ganymede does not go unnoticed by us, and this mission is connected with the terrible incident that occurred there."
Alice looked up at the duo before her. She didn't know how much of their human bodies remained and how much had been replaced by technology. In spite of that, they appeared to be just as human as she was.
If they were human, she wondered, how could they speak of Ganymede in such a manner? After all, they had orchestrated it.
It was their damned pursuit of technology that had caused it, Alice thought, as her ire built into a rage. And, after all that death
, what had they learned? She didn't know, but she had been forever scarred, and she would not be easily convinced to follow the Council again.
"Our words ring hollow in your ears..." the two said in unison. "And so they should. How can any words we speak ring truly and with meaning in the aftermath of Ganymede?"
The two turned their backs to Alice, still in unison, and faced the other ten members of the Origin Council. Then, the entirety of the Council began to sing. It was a haunting melody that started low in a minor key, before ascending to higher registers and soaring over the darkness. There, it lilted high above, like a hawk flying over a field of death, surveying the destruction on the ground below.
Ganymede the day reckoning
for our foes and for ourselves
the cost of peace
was death incarnate
the price was paid
though by not by us
with the weight of this
we carry on as we must
As the last echoes of their plaintive melody rang through the darkness, Zary and Mir turned back to Alice. She was surprised to see tears streaming from their eyes.
Zary spoke alone this time, and her voice nearly broke with sadness and regret as she uttered words that Alice did not expect to hear. "The disaster of Ganymede was our fault, and ours alone. I'm sorry for the guilt you have had to bear, Alice. I truly am."
Alice closed her eyes and spoke in barely a whisper. "I'm sorry too, but what good can words do?"
Silence fell within the darkness, and Alice remembered those she had killed. As the silence settled upon her, images of children and families falling into piles of barren ash flashed through her mind.
Mir broke the silence; his voice was intense with passion and anger. "Words can do nothing, but actions can! We cannot undo the loss of life we caused, but together, we can ensure that such an event never happens again!"
"We have chosen you to help us, Alice, because there is one known to us that seeks to replicate the loss of life on Ganymede, but this time on a much larger scale, and using much more brutal and inventive means. We cannot allow this individual to succeed, and that is why we believe that you will help us. You must!"
The Ganymede Legacy Page 3
