by Drew Cordell
“Can anyone take a shot if I try to draw its fire?” I asked, pressing my back against the wall and preparing to jump out. Even with my Hellfire Blade, the automated turret was probably smart enough to target someone else if I tried to bait its shots.
“I might have a shot,” Remi said, looking across from his position in the opposite hallway.
I nodded to him. “Get ready.”
I jumped out, raising my rifle and trying to get a snapshot on the sentry which was a few hundred feet away. My rifle cracked to life, firing several rounds that missed. Energy bolts surged toward me, and I was forced back almost instantly. Remi peeked around the corner, taking a second to aim his heavy rifle before firing several times. The sentry sparked in the distance, but it wasn’t enough. It returned fire on him only a second later. He was forced back too as bolts surged by where he had been only moments ago.
“We’ve got HKs!” someone yelled on comms.
“All teams, retreat. No signs of life here. We’re pushing the mission clock up,” Martinez called. “The Omniscience Engine is hurting for now, but its signal is getting stronger and we don’t know how much longer we can hold it off. You have five minutes to get back to the ODIN II or try to get to a safe spot with your team.”
“There!” Leroy, pointed down the hallway we were standing in. Evelyn Aeoxous stood in a distant door, smiling.
“Remi, get them back to the ship. We’re going after Evelyn!” I screamed. “One of you is going to have to fly if we don’t get back in time. Find a different way back; the way we came is too hot.”
I resisted the urge to put a bullet through her head. Instead, I sprinted forward with Leroy as she closed the door and turned to run.
We passed through the door she had gone through, and a panel of steel lowered itself behind us, sealing us in a large, empty room. Another panel of steel dropped down to cover the only other door in the room which was directly behind the Ascendant. Evelyn stood with her hands in the air, only feet away from me. “It’s over. On your knees,” I screamed as Leroy and I approached with our weapons raised.
“Is it?” she asked, kneeling.
“I should kill you now,” I seethed, rushing forward and placing the barrel of my rifle on her chest. My finger was squeezing the trigger instinctively—I was surprised it hadn’t gone off yet and forced back my anger. We would have justice, but we had to take her alive.
“But you won’t kill me,” she considered. “Not yet at least.”
“Open that door,” I said, pointing to the door behind us. “Remi, we have Evelyn Aeoxous. I’m about to bring her back. Keep the engines running.”
“I can’t do that,” she said. “We’re locked in.”
I toggled my comms channel to global. “This is Jake Ashton with Leroy Smith. We have Supreme Leader Evelyn Aeoxous in custody. We’re working to extract her.”
I felt the gun of Leroy’s rifle press against my back. Fear and understanding surged through me as the terrible pieces connected and presented themselves for what they really were.
23 FINALITY
∆∆∆
“Put down the weapon, Jake. Nice and slow,” Leroy said.
I dropped my rifle, letting it hang from its sling as he started to disarm me, taking my shotgun and headset first.
“Don’t try anything with your Nanotech either. I won’t hesitate to kill you.” He took my sword and rifle and sidearm.
Tears blurred my vision as the reality sunk in. “You died, didn’t you, Leroy?” I demanded.
“Yes, but it wasn’t too late for me. It isn’t too late for you and everyone else either.”
“You betrayed us. The real you never would have done this.”
“It’s not that simple, Jake. What would you do if Mary died? Wouldn’t you do anything to be with her again, even just for a moment? When they brought me back, I knew Caeldra was dead. They told me if I help them—help everyone—I could be with her forever, that we could all be together forever. This is our last chance to live real lives. This invasion plan will never work; you have to know that.”
“You aren’t living,” I spat. “And it’s too late. In five minutes there won’t be an Omniscience Engine here anymore. This country will belong to the Champions of Liberty, and we will be dust.
“Leroy made the right decision. He chose peace.” Evelyn’s golden eyes drilled into me, sharp and brilliant beneath a lithe ivory face. “Jake, I’m trusting you to make the right decision here. Believe me, there doesn’t have to be a price to forgiveness. Everyone can be made whole.” She walked closer as I stared, feeling the cold steel of Leroy’s rifle pressed against the back of my neck. One move and it would all be over.
“It’s not that simple,” I said, trying to buy time to think—to find a way out of this. The steel panel on the other side of the room lifted and the door opened. Other Ascendants started to fill the room, lining themselves on the back wall.
Evelyn continued as Caeldra, Adam, Bailey, and everyone else we’d lost stood motionless in the background, watching me with cold calculation. “It is. Everyone can go through the conversion process and join us in Olympus as we form the perfect society. We have come so far. Everything you lost—you can have it all back.”
Caeldra stepped forward. “Believe me, Jake. I know where you’re coming from. I thought we were right too. We were always wrong, and that isn’t our fault. Our leaders lied to us. Surely you see that now. This is the only way things can go back to normal.”
I shook my head, pushing back the bitter tears. It hurt to see her again—this sick replication of the amazing person she had been. This thing looked like her, sounded like her and had her memories, but it couldn’t actually be her. “Caeldra, you died. Everyone here did. This isn’t living.”
Caeldra stepped closer to me, tears pooling in the corners of her brilliant eyes, golden instead of the icy blue they should have been. “Jake, I died for a cause we never truly understood. The Champions brought all this pain and suffering. The master plan of this all is to establish an immortal society. One with no uncertainty, no more evil. We can all live—truly live in ascendance. Don’t you get it? This is our second chance.”
I shook my head. “I can’t stand in the way of what has to be done. I understood the risks when I came here.”
Caeldra’s tears were flowing now, all too real. “You will never see Mary again if you don’t help us. She will die, and you will be forced to live with that forever.” Her words cut like a knife. “She will die feeling like you betrayed her, like everything you promised her was a lie. Please, I miss you both so much.”
“Not like this,” I pleaded. Something inside me was unraveling now. My heart ached, a deep, emotional rift forming at the thought of losing the only one who truly mattered to me, the only one I loved in a way words could never hope to describe. To throw it all away was unfathomable. I sunk to my knees, my tears flowing freely now. I wanted to be with Mary—it was the only thing I wanted.
Caeldra stepped back and Evelyn spoke once again, her silky voice gentle. “Call it all off, save everyone, and end this war. Tell them there are human captives here, too many to lose. Tell them you found a way to destroy the Omniscience Engine from the inside without destroying Olympus. All can be forgiven, and you can spend eternity with Mary. Make the right decision and bring peace to us all.” Evelyn extended her hand; my headset rested in her palm.
The door in the back of the room slid open again and more Ascendants came into the light, making themselves known to me before I could take the headset. My parents and Mary’s parents walked in and stood in front of me. Bracken walked in, too. Their presence hurt in a way I had never experienced before.
I remembered the days where I thought about what I would give just to sit down at our dinner table and spend one last meal with my parents, to tell them how much I missed them, how much their love had shaped me into the person I was today. But I had already made my decision; it was too late to change it. Somehow, in the depths of
my being, I drew the resolve to do what had to be done. Selfishness now would be fatal—I couldn’t betray everyone I loved. I knew there wouldn’t be a future for us if the Omniscience Engine wasn’t destroyed, but that didn’t make it any easier. Illusions of a life without pain, without loss called to me, but I knew they were all just beautiful lies, masking the cold, horrible truth.
With a shaking hand, I took the comm link, putting the headset on and adjusting the microphone. Evelyn nodded to me. “You can have everything back. Make the right decision.”
I took a deep breath, trying to act like I was going to speak slowly. Instead, I did the exact opposite, speaking as much as I could as fast as I could.
“Marwin. There aren’t any survivors. Get Mary to the ship then end it. Tell her I love her and I’m sorry. Tell her—”
My words were cut off as an explosion of pain burst from my chest. Blood, metal, and skin shot forward and splattered the white floor a deep crimson as a bullet punched through both sides of my armored vest. Evelyn screamed in fury. It was a mistake, some sort of fluke. Leroy had shot me.
I struggled for breath that wouldn’t come. White light danced in the corners of my vision as agony washed over me. My mind was elsewhere. The pain didn’t matter—my death wouldn’t matter. I didn’t care if I died, only that Mary made it out alive, that she could have a new life when everything was finished.
Just as I was ready for it all to end, Mary’s voice sounded from the headset I wore through our private lobby with Marwin. “Jake, God, no. Not like this. Talk to me, please,” she begged.
I couldn’t find words, and my throat constricted as I heard the pain in her beautiful voice. She didn’t understand, maybe she never would. In that moment I just hoped she would know how much I loved her, that I was doing this so she could live a meaningful life.
With heartbreaking dread, I realized this is what we always wanted; we both knew this could happen. Somewhere in a different life, maybe we were living on our own somewhere in the abandoned countryside of Vermont, sitting under warm sunshine where there was no pain, no suffering, no loss. The possibility and longing for that reality was crippling, surpassing the pain from the gruesome wound in my chest as I bled.
“Jake, I’m not leaving you. I can’t,” Mary’s voice broke.
My heart was bursting as I desperately searched for words that wouldn’t come. I knew whatever I said would be my last words to her, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find my voice. Instead of speaking, I sobbed uncontrollably, not in fear of my own death, but for how terrified I was that Mary would never forgive me.
“Jake, if you’re listening, I’m getting her to safety,” It was Marwin’s voice, shouting over the sound of gunfire. Mary living was all that mattered now.
Mary was screaming, her words barely intelligible. “No, put me down! I can’t leave him!”
Marwin spoke again. “Jake, I’m sorry. I wish there—”
The headset was ripped off my head, taking Mary away. It would surely be the last time I heard their voices. I dug for semblance of inner peace, something to make this okay. My life would have value; my sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain.
Death didn’t come, not yet at least. Leroy stepped forward and doused the hole in my chest with Biogel. Needles punctured my armor, deftly finding their way between the plates in my armor, taking away the pain and dulling my frantic, agonizing mind in a layer of cottony bliss.
“You will never see any of them again,” Evelyn seethed as strong hands dragged me along the floor.
Tears blurred my vision and spilled down my face as the physical pain faded into the background. I didn’t know where they were taking me, but by the frantic pace it was clear they feared the weapon the Champions wielded.
I smiled as they rushed down empty pristine hallways, laughing maniacally. “You’re scared. It’s all over for you and you know it,” I said, coughing up thick coppery blood and spitting it out so I could talk without choking. “There won’t be anything left after this weapon goes off. Everything you built will fade to dust. It’s over.”
Evelyn didn’t respond, just continued forward with grim determination. “He doesn’t die until we reach the lower levels,” she commanded.
The replicas of everyone I had known were quiet now, focused on survival. I had made my decision, and I had to be content with dealing with the consequences. There was no point in trying to die faster; the bomb would take care of that any minute now. It would probably even be painless.
We were in an elevator now, and my senses were starting to blur together in a painless fuzz. Ringing in my ears drowned out frantic voices as the elevator plunged at breakneck speed. Cold metal continued exploring my arm, and with some difficulty I pivoted my head to see what was happening. It was Leroy holding more shots, sinking the long needles through my arm and staring at me with cruel, calculating eyes. There was no friendliness there anymore, nothing but the determination to keep me alive, even for just a little bit longer so they could accomplish whatever they were trying to do before it was too late. My bloodied fingers searched my belt for anything that could end my life, but they had taken everything from the utility slots. I had no blades, no grenades or weapons I could use on myself or my enemies.
The elevator came to an abrupt stop, the sudden deceleration sending a rush of blood away from my still bleeding wound and into my head. My skull dipped back as blackness swam in my vision, but Leroy caught it with a quick hand and kept it from bouncing on the metal floor of the elevator. The doors opened and I was pulled along the floor, even faster now. Another set of doors opened, and I tried to keep track of the searing lights overhead that burned black specks into my vision as we moved deeper into the facility.
We reached the final destination. I didn’t know where the room was, but the function was clear. Something glass-like and cylindrical rose from the floor with a pressurized hiss, a pod where my consciousness would be uploaded to the Omniscience Engine and I would physically depart my body. I recognized it as the thing that had ended Bracken’s life.
“No,” I begged. “Kill me.” I struggled for breath as I was lifted. I was stripped of my clothes and armor.
A cold needle waited for me as I slid inside the pod, plunging through the bottom of my neck and into my spine as I was pressed into the metallic exoskeleton anchored to the interior of the pod. As thick chemicals were pumped into my blood, the feeling of fire and ice surged through me in agonizing waves. The numbing from whatever Leroy had injected me with was gone now, swallowed by the titanic force of unimaginable suffering. Neuropads extended from the head restraint and stuck to my head on all sides.
As the door of the glass pod slid closed, Evelyn approached and smiled. “There will be no death for you.” She turned away from me. “Initiate the process.”
One of the other Ascendants in the room moved to one of the consoles next to me as I struggled in vain against the rigid restraints which bound me, screaming as the chemicals burned. I searched the crowd in front of me as they watched with a sense of reverence as I began the process of transcending humanity. I found who I was looking for—Bracken, or what had replaced him. This is what had happened to him at his trial when the Omniscience Engine found him guilty. I started to think about how it would feel when the pain finally stopped, when the upload was complete. I had to believe whatever was extracted would only be a close approximation of who I had been, that the real me would find some kind of peace when I died.
I thought of Mary then, recollecting the best of my memories with her, surprised to find myself thinking about how awkward I had been around her when we were still friends, when I was still too nervous to tell her how I really felt. Despite the pain, despite everything, I smiled. There was no pain in those memories, nothing to worry about anymore. I thought about our relationship, how despite everything we always had each other. I knew that when Mary got out of Olympus, when this was all over, I would be okay and most importantly, she would be okay. Even if I was uploa
ded to the Omniscience Engine, those memories were mine to keep and cherish forever. Nothing would take them away from me.
An enormous force reverberated overhead, shaking the entire building and sending new waves of pain shooting through my body as the needle anchored in my spine shifted. Darkness swallowed the room, but there were still voices, dulled and distorted through the thick glass.
“Everything is offline!” a voice shouted. “It’s all gone.”
“The upload, is it complete?” Evelyn demanded.
“I don’t know. He’s still alive,” a voice answered.
The softness of Evelyn’s voice made it through the glass, but the words in their conversation weren’t loud enough for me to make out. Seconds later there was an undeniable emptiness in my surroundings; they were gone. Another blast boomed overhead, and its impact pulled me into unconsciousness.
My eyes started to sting and I squeezed them shut, stuck between the threshold of sleep. Sweat had plastered my hair to my forehead, and it was sliding into my eyes now, stinging. My mouth was dry, and I spat out bloody goop which congealed in my mouth as I slept. I was still alive at least, which meant the upload process had failed.
I struggled against my restraints, sucking in a deep breath of stale air and silently suffering through an intense wave of pain as the needle in my spine shifted again. I tried moving my arms while keeping my back still, but they wouldn’t move. The metal clamps around my wrists were too strong, even as my courage grew and I applied more pressure at the expense of moving the needle in my back.
Even after hours, I wasn’t able to see in the complete darkness. The air in my pod was stale. For now I would live, but there was no question that it was getting hotter here in the depths of the facility. It wasn’t safe to assume the air would last. Eventually, without circulation, I would consume all of it, maybe even before I died of dehydration in this glass coffin.
