by J. N. Chaney
Elon had taken on the full responsibility of overseeing the Orion colony since Arun had been infected with the Legion virus. Stacy and Boss Creed acted as his right hands. Doctor Allbright and Doctor Wong were also helping to shoulder the burden.
Mutt appeared at my side a moment later. He whined up to me as if to ask if I was okay.
“You did good, buddy,” I assured him, ruffling his soft ears then kneeling to check him over for any injuries from the fall. Thankfully there was no blood on him and he moved fine.
I followed Stacy as we made for that tent now, along with a myriad of colonists who wanted to know what was going on.
“Take him in and start talking to him,” Stacy instructed Boss Creed. “I’ll address the mob before they work themselves into a frenzy.” I couldn’t blame them for wanting to know what was going on. An unknown alien had snuck into camp, pulled a gun, then tried to fly away with me attached. They were bound to have questions.
“Got it,” Boss Creed said.
We entered the large green tent. Not to our surprise, Elon was nowhere to be seen. Since Arun had been infected by the Legion virus, either Ricky or Elon were by her side at all times, ready to assist when she needed them.
Boss Creed shoved the Rung to a chair inside the tent. Arun had kept her headquarters simple with a desk and chair on one end, a bookcase along one side, and a table. There were hard light amplifiers set into the corners of the tent as well to allow Iris, the Orion’s Cognitive, to take form if she so chose.
“Iris, are you there?” I asked the empty air in front of me.
“Always,” Iris said, using the hard light amplifiers in the room to give shape to her body. She looked at me. “Sorry, I know you get scared sometimes when I appear out of thin air. You used to ask for a heads up.”
“I’m good,” I told her with a smile. “Guess I’m getting used to it.”
Although Iris was a Cognitive, she looked like an Eternal, from her white skin to her piercing blue eyes. She wore a tight-fitting grey suit.
“Iris, can you translate for us while Tong and Jezra talk to our new friend?” I asked.
“Of course,” Iris said with a nod of her head.
Boss Creed stood beside the seated Rung in case he tried anything. At the moment, the Rung seemed to be no kind of threat and looked nothing short of defeated. His hands were secured behind his back. He hunched forward, eyes directed toward the ground in front of him.
Tong and Jezra stood in front of the Rung. Ricky and I stood further back near the tent entrance with Iris.
Tong started the conversation, his native dialect sounding like hard clicks of his tongue and long “S’s” strung together to form short sentences and even shorter words.
“Tong is asking him how he got inside the wall and what he wants here,” Iris explained to us.
The Rung finally looked up from his perpetual gaze on the ground in front of him. He said something to Tong that rattled the Remboshi if his wide eyes and furtive motions were any indication. Jezra just smiled and nodded, as if she had expected this answer the entire time.
“He says he’s come to broker an alliance.” Iris looked at me, confused. “He says he knows of a way to end Legion for good.”
3
“He knows!” Ricky nearly shouted in disbelief. “He knows a way to cure people from the Legion virus?”
“That’s what he said,” Iris confirmed.
I grabbed at Ricky too late. His love for Arun drove him forward. Without thinking, he lunged at the Rung, grabbing his throat and throttling him.
“Tell us,” Ricky said with a fierce look in his eyes that made Tong and Jezra each take a step back. “Tell us what you know. Tell us how to put a stop to Legion.”
The Rung’s eyes bulged out of his sockets.
Boss Creed and I went over and laid firm hands on Ricky. Each of us could have ripped him off, but we didn’t. We understood the rage that lived inside of him, the anger that arose from having to see Arun suffer for the last month, day in and day out.
“Easy,” I told Ricky as I gripped his left shoulder. “He can’t tell us anything if you kill him.”
Ricky’s eyes were red from lack of sleep, veins crisscrossing the sclera. He swallowed hard, finally releasing his hold on the bound Rung’s throat. The alien gasped then coughed, spitting on the floor. He sucked in a lungful of air, the panic in his eyes leaving as they deflated back to their normal size in the sockets.
“He’ll tell us,” Boss Creed said with no doubt in his voice. “I know he’ll tell us everything.”
Ricky nodded and moved out of the way, making room for me to crouch in front of the now terrified alien. I leveled a menacing stare at him making sure that he understood me without words.
“Tong,” I said, not averting my eyes. “Tell him that I don’t appreciate him sneaking into our camp and attacking our people. If he wants to live, he better tell us what we want to know.”
Another series of clicks and “s” sounds followed, with Iris translating.
My show of force must have worked because true to Boss Creed’s prediction, as soon as the Rung regained his breath, the interrogation continued, and he told us everything. How he was sent by his people to gauge our commitment to uniting against Legion. How he used the cover of night with his booster pack to get over our wall. Finally, he told us how to kill Legion.
“He says his name is Sulk,” Iris said, listening to the others chat away. “He’s a specialist, or at least that’s what his people call him. He was chosen to bring us the news due to his ability to negotiate with enemies. They have been fighting Legion for the last month. It seems Legion deems them an easier target at the moment than the Orion. The Rung have suffered serious casualties, depleting their forces at a rapid rate.”
“Good,” Boss Creed said quietly. “I haven’t forgotten what you said they did to our expeditionary crew that went out in search of the communication section of the Orion.”
I nodded in agreement. Boss Creed was right. The Rung had slaughtered an entire team that had just gone out to try and recover our communication devices without asking any questions. They also had shot Ricky and nearly cost him his life. I closed my eyes, remembering when my friend’s survival was touch and go. Although the experience made me more appreciative of Ricky, who could be annoying at times, it was something I didn’t want to go through again.
The conversation went on, with Jezra taking the lead.
Iris suddenly perked up. Her bright blue eyes, which were nearly luminescent, were now wide with wonder.
I waited, barely holding in the tension of the moment. Although I didn’t know what they were saying until Iris translated for me, it was clear something of great importance was taking place.
Jezra spoke quickly, leaning in to Sulk as if she didn’t want to miss a word.
For his part, Sulk spoke slowly and intentionally in monotone, as if he were reciting facts he had read from a reference book, though that was hard to ascertain as he wasn’t speaking a language I knew.
“Iris?” Ricky asked, unable to bottle his need for answers. “Iris, what are they saying now?”
“Legion managed to get into their main underground bunker. He killed or turned more than half their number,” Iris said in a low whisper so as to not miss the conversation still taking place between Jezra and Sulk. “Sulk said the Rung survivors have a plan to kill the heart of Legion in the jungle to the North. They have the plan, but they need the manpower.”
So, there it is, I thought to myself. There’s the kicker. They have the plan but need our help to carry out the mission. Which means they want us to share in the dying.
“Are they kidding? The Rung want us to help them clean up their mess,” Boss Creed said, shaking his head in disbelief. He laughed, a short bark with no actual joy in the sound. “Am I the only one that remembers the Rung were the ones that created Legion in the first place? Now their Frankenstein monster has spun out of control and they want us to help them?”<
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The tent grew silent, with everyone lost in his or her own thoughts.
More than anything, I wanted to throw the Rung out over the wall and be done with it, but we had to be smart about this. This could be the one and only olive branch extended before Legion wiped out the Rung. After the symbiot killed the Rung, it was obvious where he was going to go to “recruit.” Legion would fixate on the Orion next.
“Does he have a cure to heal those already infected?” Ricky said, swallowing hard, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
Tong asked Sulk the question.
The Rung answered back in a series of sharp T’s and S’s.
“He said once Legion’s core is destroyed, then those with the virus will be released from his hold,” Iris explained. “Kill Legion, cure those he infected.”
Stunned silence descended on the tent as that news set in.
“Then that’s what we will do, for Arun and everyone that’s infected,” Ricky said abruptly, looking around the tent for support. His gaze fell upon me. “We have to try. We have to do something, figure out a way to kill Legion.”
“We will,” I promised. “We’re going to help Arun, Ricky. We just have to go about this the right way. You know there are a lot of people who aren’t infected, and we have to think about them first.”
The spark in my friend’s eyes dimmed for a moment. As passionate as he was about finding a cure for the woman he loved, he understood what it meant for the rest of the colonists. Not just a fight but a war was at our doorstep. The Orion survivors who had already been through so much hardship were about to be asked to go through even more.
“We need more information and Elon needs to be told about what’s going on as well,” Boss Creed said, looking over to me. “I’ll stay here with Tong and Jezra. You two should go let him know what we’re dealing with.”
“I’ll tell Stacy and meet you there,” Ricky said with a quick nod.
I could see the hope in my friend’s eyes again and I sincerely wanted it to be well-founded. Ricky was doing his best to put on a strong front for Arun, but I knew how much my friend was hurting inside. The Eternal had come to mean a lot to him, just as Stacy had to me.
Outside the tent Stacy was finishing up speaking to the gathered group of survivors. She had a contingent of Civil Authority Officers with her and I felt a moment’s pride at the view.
“And that’s all we know at the moment,” Stacy was saying. “I understand that we’ve had to hold information back in the past for the betterment of our people, but not anymore. As soon as we find out more, we’ll address you again and update you with what’s going on. We’re in this together. We’ll all survive together.”
The crowd seemed oddly satisfied with Stacy’s blunt truth. There hadn’t been a lot of honest communication between those leading the expedition and the colonists until now. They had been kept in the dark about the reason for the crash and even our alien friends until recently. That really wasn’t fair, or, as had been found out, effective as a safety measure. In the attacks that occurred, the colonists were blindsided and unable to properly defend themselves. They needed to be prepared in all instances, which they couldn’t be if we spoon fed them bits of information.
Stacy ran the show differently now. She tackled the hard topics head on, and for that, I was grateful. The community had come together and seemed to have more faith in us now.
As soon as she was finished, Stacy opened up the conversation for questions, much like an official press conference. Neither of us had been ready for our current positions, but she’d settled into hers just fine. I was still floundering; at least it felt that way.
“I’ll wait until she’s finished to tell her,” Ricky said, bobbing his head up and down enthusiastically. “You go and tell Elon and Arun. The sooner we get everyone on the same page, the sooner we can gather our forces and link up with the Rung to take out Legion.”
“Rick,” I said, taking in a long breath. The way I said his name made my friend stop in his tracks. He gave me his full attention.
“What’s wrong?” Ricky asked. “Are you hurt or something?”
“No, nothing like that,” I said, clearing my throat. Bringing the words to my mouth was nearly painful. It was harder than taking a blow or lifting a physical weight. “I—you know I’m here for you, right? I mean, if you need to talk about everything going on.”
Ricky gave me a sideways look and nodded. “Dean, are you feeling okay?”
“Yep.” I cleared my throat. “I just know you’ve been through a lot. I’m hoping for the best just like you, but if Arun doesn’t get healed from the virus, I don’t want you... Look, just know I’m here for you buddy.”
Ricky nodded, gratitude causing the corner of his mouth to tug up into a smile. “Thanks, Dean. You’ve always been a good friend.”
We looked at each other for another moment, then it turned awkward.
“So, do we hug now or something?” Ricky joked.
“No, no. I can pass on that,” I laughed, putting my hands up in front of me to stop him, just in case.
“Okay, yeah, yeah, good.” Ricky shrugged unconvincingly. “Sure, I didn’t want a hug anyway.”
We both grinned at each other before I left to go find Elon and Arun. For a long time, Ricky had been my only friend. I knew I’d do anything I could to cure Arun, not only for her sake but for his too.
Thoughts about what an open war with Legion would mean raced through my mind. I headed for Arun’s tent, pressed up against the giant half of the Orion.
The seed ship was cracked in half like an egg. On top of that, it had landed on its side when it crashed onto Genesis. The tent I made my way toward now was more of a lean-to. Elon had repurposed an exposed room on the ground floor to accommodate his sister. The front portion was a tent and the back half of the room led into the Orion itself.
I stopped at the tent entrance, clearing my throat to make myself known.
“Elon, Arun? It’s Dean,” I said. “Can I come in?”
Nothing.
“Hey, I’m coming in. It’s Dean,” I shouted.
Still no response.
A cold prickle raced over my skin, raising goosebumps. I had been to visit Arun as much as I could over the last month. Someone was always there, and someone always answered.
I removed the tent flap and went through the front of the tent portion, where a wash basin and cleaning supplies were held. Another flap led into the portion of the living quarters housed in the Orion itself.
“Arun? Elon?” I asked as I drew back the next tent flap.
Elon’s body slumped in a chair.
Arun stood over him. Her eyes weren’t her own. The bright blue irises I was so used to seeing were gone. The black orbs of Legion had replaced them.
4
I didn’t have time to call out for help. Arun sprang at me the second she saw me enter. She bullied me backward, clenching her jaw as if she were going to break her own teeth.
Her hands reached for my throat.
“Arun, stop!” I shouted at her, grabbing her wrists tightly in my hands. “This isn’t you! You have to stop!”
She was too far gone at the moment to let any kind of words sink in. The Eternal struggled forward, trying to drive me back the way I came. She opened her mouth now as if she were going to say something. No words came out. She stood with her mouth gaping open, black eyes open wide in surprise.
Elon jumped to his feet and secured an arm around his sister’s neck, trying to pull her off me.
I was shocked and relieved that he was still alive. When I saw Arun standing over him, I’d feared the worst.
“Arun, stop. You need to fight this,” Elon said just below a shout. “Listen to my voice. This isn’t you. Remember who you are.”
The fight went out of Arun a moment later and her arms went limp. She stopped trying to grab at my neck. As if by some kind of magic, the black orbs that had become her eyes transitioned back to bright blue.
A
run fell to her knees.
“Dean, Dean, I’m so sorry.” Arun shook her head as if she were trying to dismiss a bad dream. “I don’t—I can’t…” her voice trailed off. I thought she might be crying, but I couldn’t be sure.
Elon glanced at me apologetically. I took a good look at him, still keeping an eye on Arun, who could possibly regress any second. His eyes were bloodshot with bags hanging under them. His normally tidy hair and clothes were wrinkled and mussed.
He knelt beside his sister, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Elon said. “It’s not you. We know that’s not you.”
I looked on, still recovering from the shock of what had just transpired. I knew Arun was doing badly but not this badly. I had been to visit her a few days before. She had been herself. Certainly weak but nothing had suggested this might happen. Neither Ricky nor Elon had told me about changes like this happening to her, where she completely lost control.
“Come on,” Elon said coaxingly. “Let’s get you back into the bed.”
I moved in to help. Together, we lifted Arun to her feet. She was shaky and seemed drained in contrast to how strong she had been when grabbing my throat. She felt small and fragile in my hands, like I could break her if I wasn’t careful. I could nearly wrap my hand around her upper arm.
“I’m so sorry, Dean,” Arun said again, her eyes finding mine. “I could have hurt you.”
“No offense, Arun,” I said to her, gently laying her down, “but there isn’t an alternate universe that exists where you hurt me in a hand-to-hand fight. Go easy on yourself.”
Her lips twisted up into a ghost of a smile.
“I had no idea it was this bad,” I said out loud. “I’m sorry, no one told me. I should have been checking on you every day.”
“It’s not your job to check on me,” Arun said, shaking her head.
“These full transitions just started,” Elon said, rubbing at his tired eyes. “This is only the second time.”
“I should be tied down,” Arun said dully. “The Legion virus is growing in me, getting stronger and stronger every day. I don’t—I don’t know how much longer I can fight it. It’s a miracle I’ve been able to keep it at bay this long. It’s only because of my Eternal DNA that I’ve stood a chance at all.”
