by Barry Solway
Mel shook her head. “No. He wants me, but it won’t be enough. There’s information in Mrtyu, about his medical condition. Doing the gauntlet is the only way to get that data. With it, I know Kathor will help us. Without it…”
“Why is this the first time I’m hearing about this?” Riley said.
“It’s complicated.” Mel sighed. “And it doesn’t matter. Should we wait for the others? Maybe they’ll change their minds.”
“If we wait, the Order will find us,” Gem said. “We have to leave. I must find my brother. A path will open for us, I am sure of it. You must have faith.”
***
Faith was in short supply for Mel. They were at the terminal in Svarga, and Mel held the small data cube that contained the digital documents allowing them to get an interstellar ship to Asadhara. Assuming the Order hadn’t traced it and was just waiting for them to show up. Mel still wondered if Anna had brought the Order to Chosba on purpose, out of revenge for what Mel had done to her.
She shook the thoughts away. There wasn’t any other choice. If the Order tried to catch them, she would go down fighting. Maybe she would die. At this point, it almost sounded like a blessing.
“The ship is leaving soon. We should get inside,” Riley said. Anna had booked a private ship that waited for them at Chandir. A dropship waited to take them up to the wheel world. Mel sat at the bottom of the ramp, looking across the tarmac to the main terminal. It was foolish, but she still held out hope the others would show. At least Evan. He didn’t intend to return to Earth, but would he really abandon her now? She couldn’t remember feeling this alone in her life and, without thinking, she reached up and gripped Riley’s hand.
“Ow, easy there, El Capitán,” Riley said. “You’ve got that cyborg kung-fu fighting grip.”
“Sorry,” Mel said. “I just… I need something to hold on to.”
Riley squatted next to her. “I’m sorry. We’ll figure something out. You and me. And the crazy alien woman. We should go.”
Mel nodded and let Riley pull her to her feet. They walked up the ramp; a moment later it began to retract into the ship.
Mel! Wait!.
Spinning in place, Mel almost jumped back down to the tarmac, but Riley held her back.
“It’s Evan! Did you hear him?”
Riley nodded, a grin on his face. “Yeah, I heard. But it’s not going to help if you fall off the ship. Let’s get the ramp back down first.”
***
Two hours later, they arrived on Chandir and transferred to a private shuttle that took them first to Chota, then to Asadhara. Anna had wanted to do a third jump, but they wouldn’t have been able to make Asadhara in time for the game.
There hadn’t been much to say. Once Evan changed his mind and decided to join Mel and Riley, Beats and Gorgeous had agreed to come along. They knew it would be a matter of time before the Order tracked them to their final destination. The Order would either be waiting for them when they got there or would capture them after the gauntlet, like they almost had on Chota. And they still didn’t know for sure whether Kathor would meet them.
On the second night, as they floated through hyperspace, Mel successfully contacted her clone for the fourth time. The gauntlet was in the morning, and they would barely arrive on time. Connecting with her other self was easier now, and she saw Kathor standing clearly in front of her.
“I’m on my way,” the other Mel said. “Well, she is. She’ll be there in less than twelve hours. You have to go. Please, Kathor.” It felt odd, because she could hear herself and feel herself talking, but at the same time it seemed like someone else talking. Like she didn’t know what she planned to say until she heard herself say it.
Kathor stared at her. “Perhaps I don’t need you anymore.”
“She knows where the library is and she got into a level 3 gauntlet. She’s doing everything you asked for. This is your chance to get the help you need. You have to honor our agreement.”
“Very well. But if you’ve lied to me…” His eyes flashed. “I will not be pleased.”
The other Mel laughed morbidly. “You’re never pleased. You should work on that. Stress causes all kinds of health problems. You know I don’t care about your punishments. Help me, and I’ll help you. I promise, Kathor.” Mel felt a sudden pang of guilt, remembering what she had promised Anna.
Anna will be fine. Stop distracting me.
Sorry.
“You have a look of guilt about you,” Kathor said.
The Mel on the ship smiled sweetly. “It’s because I feel so bad for all the effort you’re going through. You know I hate to disturb your work.” That’s actually true. If he’s working, he leaves me alone. Mel couldn’t help but laugh.
“Very well. We should arrive on Asadhara in thirteen hours,” Kathor said.
“I need to know exactly when. And where,” the other Mel said.
The Order knows we’ll be there, Mel said.
How?
They traced Anna.
Kathor looked down at his tablet. “We can arrive an hour after the start of the gauntlet. There is a tower in Mrtyu that survived the war, and it can be reached from the tunnels underneath. It is the tallest standing building there. You need to be at the top floor. The window of time will be short. If you fail to show, then I will leave you behind.”
“I understand,” the other Mel said. “You should be aware that the Order knows we’ll be there. Surviving for an hour may be difficult.”
“Interesting. How did they find out?” Kathor asked.
“Anna may have told them,” Mel said.
She didn’t tell them. At least, I don’t think she did.
She probably did.
Maybe. I deserve it. I’m a horrible person.
Shush.
“Ah. Our lovely Anna is causing mischief again. I wonder why? Time will tell. I’ll set a course. You should get some rest.” Kathor faded away as Mel tried to hold onto the connection. Damn. She wished she could control it better.
Kathor would be there, an hour after the game started, in the highest tower in the city. Going to this tower would require they throw out the original plan that Anna had created. What were the odds of that going well?
Chapter 34
Add stuff about architect and level 3 ritual
Add scene with Mel in the library
Mel couldn’t think of a more horrifying or appropriate city to host a gauntlet. As she stepped off the ship, the devastation was obvious. Sparse vegetation clung to broken buildings, although she supposed that could be an issue with the climate in the area as much as any remnants of radiation. Dark gray clouds hung low in the sky above. Along with an intermittent wind that howled through the husks of old buildings, it gave the place an eerie, deathlike quality.
Even worse were the signs that this had once been a great city. Hundreds of broken skyscrapers dotted the horizon, and even ignoring the collapsed buildings, the skyline was several times the size of New York City. Like hulking skeletons, twisted steel beams and crumbling floors showed through in every structure. All that remained of one building was the south wall, climbing hundreds of feet into the air. Mel had no idea how it was still standing.
“This is vaguely depressing,” Riley said.
“It looks dead,” Gorgeous replied. “We should get underground. I don’t trust that there’s no danger from the radiation.”
“Where to, fearless leader?” Riley asked.
Mel took in the view of the city skyline. About a mile away was a freakishly tall building, like a thin needle touching the sky. Mel thought if that building were to fall towards them, the tip of it might actually land at their feet. It was clearly the tallest building, though, and should be where Kathor would meet them.
A mile in the wrong direction. They had an hour. If they left now and went directly across the surface, they could make it there in fifteen or twenty minutes. The command room they had to defend was located a quarter mile to their left. The way to the com
mand center was underground, and everyone was eager to get out of the city’s wreckage. Mel needed to get to the command center in order to access the old computers and do a search for the information she would need for Kathor. But as soon as she had that information, she needed to get them to that tower. Her first challenge was preparing the team to leave the underground bunker, and that preparation needed to start now.
Mel took out her map and spread it. “The command center is here. That’s the blue zone or ‘mountain’ that we have to occupy and hold. The plan is to get there and try to tap into the old video system they put in place after the city moved underground. If we can get it powered and back on, we can use it to detect either the Order or Kathor. Everyone knows the plan. We try to convert the spent power cells in the command room into a bomb and use the video to track the other team, the Order, and Kathor. Then we escape and blow the command center. In the confusion of actually blowing up the ‘mountain,’ we’ll slip away and get to Kathor’s ship.” Everyone knew the plan, but Mel let it sink in anyway.
Mel looked around the city again, pretending to think. “Now that we’re here, I’m wondering about our plan. See that building over there? The tall one that looks like it’s getting ready to fall over?”
“They all look like they’re going to fall over,” Riley said.
“Yeah, we see it. What about it?” Evan asked.
“What if we could get to the top of it? It’s in the opposite direction of the blue zone, so it reduces the risk of an encounter with the other team. It’s the tallest building here, so we’ll have a view of the entire city and can see any ships coming.”
“You mean abandon Anna’s plan?” Gorgeous asked.
Mel shrugged. “Modify it. The plan is the plan until something or other. But we need to stay flexible and respond to the situation on the ground.”
“What about the camera system?” Gem asked.
“That was always a long shot,” Mel countered. “Seriously, what’s the chance that we can get power to those cameras after all this time? Or that any of them even work? And we’ll be stuck ten floors down with no visibility if any ships come. I really have to say that I don’t like the idea of going underground. No visibility or lines of sight, lots of opportunities for traps and ambushes. I’d rather just avoid it all.”
Riley nodded. “I can get behind that.”
“I’d prefer to follow the original plan we worked out,” Beats said. “Unless there’s an obvious reason it won’t work. If it ends up the cameras really don’t function, we could change course then.” Gorgeous and Evan agreed with him.
Mel looked at Gem. “What do you think?”
Gem shook her head. “I came here to find my brother. I must confront the other team.”
“The command center it is.” That worked out about the way she’d expected. She quickly donned the backpack and set off towards the entrance to the lower levels. “Let’s hurry. We have no idea when Kathor or the Order will get here.”
***
It took ten minutes to find an entrance and climb down ten levels. The lower levels of the city were a warren of small tunnels that felt like a submarine. The tunnels were just large enough for Beats and Gem, but not by much. Mel felt like she was in a tomb, every corner and doorway a potential deathtrap. There were no lights except what they brought, and she jumped at every flicker of shadow.
With the maze of passageways, Mel wasn’t even sure the map was accurate. Finally, they came to two large doors, and Beats and Gem managed to pry them apart.
They entered a large room with a ceiling that rose three floors above. Chairs faced a computer cluster and several large screens decorated the walls. Dust covered everything, and every step stirred up a mini whirlwind that threatened to make Mel sneeze. The eerie silence began to get to her. She looked at her watch and saw that they only had forty minutes to get to the top of the other tower. They were running out of time.
“Let’s go, everyone. We had thirty minutes to get here and set up before the other team can start, so there’s only ten minutes left. Beats, Gorgeous, and I are going to do a sweep of the area around the command center. Gem, Riley, you’re on the camera feeds and computer systems. Evan, you’re on the power cells. Let’s see if we can get this thing turned on.” Mel wished she could have brought Anna with them, but they left her back on the ship with Jon. They had considered trying to hide Anna’s processor in one of Mel’s or Evan’s limbs, but given the damage Anna had already taken, they weren’t willing to bring her into a combat area.
Mel, Beats, and Gorgeous walked back into the hallway. “Split up. We have ten minutes until the other team can engage, so you’re safe for now,” Mel said. “Just scan the area and make sure there’s nothing obvious that we didn’t prepare for. Be back in eight minutes.”
Beats and Gorgeous headed to the right and Mel quickly turned and jogged to the left. She had eight minutes to ascend up a level, get to the library, find whatever information on Kathor’s procedure she could find, and get back down.
***
Mel… are… the hell… hurry!
Mel tried to ignore the sporadic voice coming through her translator. She raced down the hallway and skidded through the doors of the command room, almost running into Beats.
“Get the doors closed,” she yelled at Beats.
“What happened to ‘be back in eight minutes’?” Gorgeous said, with a strange twisting of her mouth that translated as intense anger.
“Sorry. I got lost,” Mel said. She peeled back a small portion of her cybernetic arm and quickly popped a small data cube into it. Gorgeous caught the action and looked at her strangely, but Mel brushed past her.
“Did you guys spot anything?”
The doors to the command center grinded closed, then Beats followed her and Gorgeous further into the command room. “I passed some industrial robots,” Beats said. “Covered in dust and two of them looked rusted out. Loading bots, I think, like in a manufacturing facility. Strange they’re on this level. They barely fit with these ceilings.”
Mel grunted, not really listening. “Okay, that’s good. I didn’t really see anything. How are the rest of us doing? Gem, Riley?”
“Still waiting for power to come up,” Riley said.
“Damn. Where’s Evan?” Mel asked. Riley pointed to a door at the back of the command center.
Mel estimated it would take them more than twenty minutes to get to the large tower. That left them ten minutes to try out the cameras and hope they didn’t work. Mel walked quickly back to see how far Evan had progressed.
The main city had been powered by a geothermal system that extended miles underground, with a large cluster of batteries to store extra power for peak use. The command room should have had its own backup generator, and Anna thought the power cells would still be functional, even after hundreds of years. Much like Kathor’s ship, the technology when this city was built was much more advanced and robust than what most of the Order had today. There was an advantage to being locked underground for several hundred years, away from the ravages of the weather. It gave them a slim chance to turn the system back on. Mel hoped it wouldn’t work.
Evan was hunched over a control panel on the generator, pressing buttons, with no apparent effect.
“How’s it coming?”
Evan didn’t look up. “The control panel itself is dead. I’m going to give it a jumpstart, and we’ll see if the main power cells are still good.” He pulled back a strip from his right arm to reveal a plug attached to a roll of wire. He pulled the wire out and pressed the plug into a slot at the bottom of the control panel. A moment later, a dim yellow light flickered. Mel smelled burning dust.
“Got it. Let’s see if we can fire this thing up,” Evan said.
He traced his finger over the screen and a click echoed through the control room. Several lights popped on. Some of them immediately blew, but there was suddenly enough light to see by, and it was jarring. Even worse, the light filaments were cov
ered in layers of dust that cast everything in a murky gloom.
“We did it! It’s running,” Evan said. “I have no idea for how long, but hopefully enough to get the cameras up. I’ll set up the overload protocol. Given the size of these power cells, it might blow this whole level.”
Mel looked at her watch. Less than ten minutes. “Well, let’s hop to it. Any idea how long it will take?”
Evan shrugged. “No way to know. We need to work as fast as we can. Samor and Junkyard are good with tech, and so is Bodysuit. They picked a strong team for this environment. I’m concerned they’ll figure out a way to tap into the generators from the outside.”
Mel nodded and left Evan to finish up with the power cells. Gorgeous and Gem were already at the computer console trying to turn the cameras on.
Gem turned as Mel approached. “The system is booting up. This may take a while.”
“You think? How long?” Mel asked.
Gem frowned. “Another ten minutes.”
Mel put a hand to her temple, trying to fight off a headache. “We can’t wait ten more minutes.”
“What’s the hurry?” Gorgeous asked.
“We have no idea when Kathor’s coming. He could be outside right now, and we’re stuck down here in the dark. We need to get outside, get to that tower I pointed out. Hell, get anywhere where we can see what’s going on.”
“Anna thought this was a better idea,” Gorgeous said.
Mel suddenly wondered about that. She had been very careful not to order Anna to do anything else, other than honor the original command. It didn’t make up for Mel’s betrayal, but she was trying not to make it worse. There was no guarantee that Anna had provided them with the best course of action. Certainly, Anna would want them to escape, but Mel knew how much Anna hated Kathor and didn’t want to go back to his ship. Would Anna have sabotaged their mission just to avoid Kathor? Mel hadn’t considered that until now.
“We’re running out of time,” Mel said. “We’ve been down here for over thirty minutes with nothing to show for it. I really think we should head back to the surface.”
