by M. R. Forbes
Doctor Hess said the organic structure would only survive a week at most inside the conductive gel. They had already spent two days of it. This had to work.
“Vitals are nominal,” Doctor Hess said.
“Dial it up,” Natalia said.
Lutz increased the variables. The branches started to sway. It took another minute before everything equalized.
“Doctor, how does it look?” Natalia asked.
“Healthy,” he replied. “Cleared to transmit.”
“Lutz, go ahead.”
“Pozz,” Lutz said. He tapped on his keyboard, sending out the predefined packet.
One of the branches swayed and vanished, reappearing a few milliseconds later, the process occurring almost too quickly to observe.
“Well?” Natalia asked.
“Processing,” Lutz said. “Standby.”
Natalia crossed her arms over her chest. Her heart pounded, her mind whirling chaotically through the possible outcomes. If this failed, they were set back hours during which Alpha would be stomping his way toward them. Hours they couldn’t afford to lose.
If it succeeded, she might be able to help Hayden and Grace win this fight.
Of course, this would only be a first step. A baby step in the right direction. It didn’t guarantee a damn thing.
But it was a start.
“How long does it take?” she asked impatiently.
“There’s a lot of data, Governor,” Lutz replied, remaining calm. He understood her plight. “Hold on. It’s starting to come back.”
He leaned over his terminal, reading the different diagnostics the tools reported. He looked up at Natalia, his face calm, expression flat.
“Well?” she said again.
He couldn’t hold it in any longer. His face broke into a wide smile.
“I don’t believe it, but it works.”
Chapter 46
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Doctor Hess said, approaching Natalia and Engineer Lutz. “We think it works. But there’s a long road between a simple test and finding a useful way to take advantage of the system.”
“Of course,” Lutz said. “But a start is a start. And this is a start.” He looked directly at Natalia. Where do we go from here?”
Natalia pointed to the interlink. “My team has been working on the interface, based on the work you’ve done on the transmission. We’ll finish the connection and try sending the same signal through the interlink to confirm we can merge the systems.”
“Sounds good, Governor. Let me get my—”
Lutz stopped talking suddenly, his head whipping toward the terminal that showed the magnified Ick. Natalia noticed it too. The branch they had transmitted through was swinging wildly and dropping in and out of view.
“What’s going on?” Hess asked.
“We’re receiving,” Lutz replied in awe.
“Are you capturing it?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what it means?”
“No idea. We programmed the interface to accept binary. Machine language. Ones and zeroes. It’s going to translate it that way regardless.”
Natalia looked at the other terminal. The screen had already filled with data, but as Lutz said, it was coming in as garbage. Even if the Relyeh happened to be communicating in binary, they couldn’t transform it back into English because the aliens didn’t speak English.
The good news was, if they had sent and were now receiving, it was the best confirmation they could have hoped for that their experiment was a success.
“Keep collecting it, as long as it comes,” Natalia said. She started turning to leave the room.
“Governor, where are you going?” Lutz asked.
“Grace,” Natalia said. “She had some translations in her files. Relyeh to American English. She used it to transcribe some of…” She trailed off, freezing in her motion and staring at the output terminal. The garbage had been replaced with human-readable text.
> WHO ARE YOU? THIS IS MARINE SERGEANT CALEB CARD. PLEASE RESPOND.
Natalia’s heart found a new rapid pace as she glanced over at Lutz. She imagined her expression reflected his.
“What the hell?” she said. “Can we send a message back?”
The text continued to flow across the screen.
> PLEASE RESPOND. PLEASE RESPOND. PLEASE RESPOND.
“It’s an echo,” Lutz said. “The system’s stuck in a feedback loop.”
He started tapping on the keyboard, shaking his head. “Damn it. I must have fucked something up. I need to fix the error and reset.”
“He transmitted in English,” Natalia said. “And he said his name is Caleb Card. There’s another human on the network.”
“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Doctor Hess said. “The enemy might be trying to trick us.”
“Governor, when I reset we’re going to lose it.”
> PLEASE RESPOND. PLEASE RESPOND. PLEASE RESPOND.
“Damn it. What about the interlink? Can we override the terminal from there?”
“Possibly.”
Natalia rushed away from Lutz’s terminal. She stopped at the interlink, turning on the small monitor and pulling out the control pad. The machine was already active, and she quickly initiated the process to connect it to the main system.
> PLEASE RESPOND. PLEASE RESPOND. PLEASE RESPOND.
The words began to appear across her terminal. She killed the process, launching her own to replace it and holding her breath while she waited for further output.
Nothing came.
“Damn it!” she shouted. Whoever Caleb Card was, if he had access to the Collective, they could learn a lot from him in a very short time.
If he was even real, and not a trick like Hess suggested.
“The link is working,” Lutz shouted from across the room. “You overrode my terminal and you’re connected to the Ick. Can you transmit?”
Natalia didn’t have anything ready to transmit. That wasn’t the point of the connection. The test was to interface with the primary system. But they were so close. Would they get this opportunity again?
Her eyes drifted to the worn seat and the pair of goggles resting on it. The interlink was much more advanced than the simple computers they had used to send the first binary packet. It had been created to support a mind-to-mind connection between humans and goliaths. It wasn’t all that different from the Ick, at least in regards to the basic functionality.
Natalia glanced up at Lutz and Hess. They seemed to read her mind, their expressions switching from giddily surprised to suddenly fearful.
“Governor, don’t,” Lutz said. “You don’t know what will happen.”
Natalia was already moving the goggles and dropping into the seat. Grace had warned her not to use the interlink to communicate with Alpha.
She didn’t say anything about using it to try to enter the Collective.
Natalia started attaching the electrodes. She could hear Lutz coming, running across the room.
“Governor, don’t,” he repeated, coming up beside the interlink.
“This might be the only way to save everything,” she said. “I have to.”
“You could die.”
“We could all die. Help me finish setting up or get the fuck out of the way.”
Lutz didn’t look happy. Natalia didn’t care. She was the damn Governor, not him. Lutz came out of his freeze, tapping on the control pad. “Everything looks good,” he said.
Natalia pulled the goggles on over her eyes. She had no idea what she might see through the system. She had no idea what was going to happen at all. This was utterly reckless, careless, and wild. She knew it, but...it didn’t matter. There were thousands of lives at stake and regardless of anything, her life only counted as one.
She leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. The electrodes were getting warmer against her skin.
“I’m ready,” she said.
“Initiating the link. Now!”
A wave of heat washed through Natalia’s skull.
And then everything changed.
Chapter 47
“Sheriff,” Max said. “I have been processing.”
Hayden shifted his head just enough to glance at Max from the corner of his right eye. The Intellect was sitting stiffly on the passenger side of the car's rear seat, rocking gently with the vehicle as it jostled over the uneven surface of the road.
They had been driving for over an hour, heading southwest toward the coast, where Max insisted there was a road Shurrath had cleared for quick transport between the settlement closest to his position in the mountains—a town called Rose—and the larger border city of Tijuana. And while they had just come from Tijuana, they hadn’t taken the typical path, leaving them navigating a less traveled and less pristine highway rife with potholes, erosion, vegetation and other wear and tear.
At least there weren’t many abandoned vehicles out this way. In fact, there wasn’t much of anything. The rolling, arid hills seemed to go on forever, giving Hayden another reason to miss home. He preferred color in his landscape.
“You’ve been processing?” Hayden said. He turned his head the other way to get a look at Isaac. The Marine had his head propped against the corner between the seat and the window. He was sound asleep. “Should I wake Ike for this?”
“Unnecessary. Let us consider first.”
“Pozz that. Let’s hear it.”
Max leaned forward, putting his head, Cyrus’ head, next to Hayden’s. “I have been processing.”
“You said that already.”
“Consideration. I may be able to assist you beyond this effort to capture Shurrath.”
“That can be taken a lot of ways.”
“Affirmation. Consideration. The Axon are currently losing the conflict against the Hunger, as all other races have lost before them. However, there would be great benefit to the remaining organics to have access to an original Relyeh.”
“I see. How much benefit?”
“Unknown. Consideration. Once Shurrath is captured, I will return to the Axon homeworld with him and present him to the organics as a gift from Sheriff Hayden Duke of Earth, in hopes of cementing an alliance between the Axon and the Earthers.”
Hayden smirked. “That’s an interesting proposition, Max. But why would the Axon agree to an alliance with us? Especially after you bring the only leverage I might get directly to them.”
“Consideration. The Axon have struggled to complete a single victory, at least, that was the case before I arrived here. It’s logical that this is still accurate. Yet, you will have not only defeated a Relyeh ancient; you will have captured him.”
“So you think that will impress your bosses?”
“It is impressive. Consideration. I will broker a deal for assistance from the organics and return to you. Even if the alliance is rejected, they will offer some manner of reward for bringing Shurrath to them.”
“What kind of reward?”
“What do you require?”
“Where do I even start? There’s a city back east with an Axon energy shield around it. I wouldn’t mind a few of those.”
Max was surprised. “An energy shield? The Quantum Dimensional Modulator. I assumed you had only a piece, not access to the entire thing.”
“It isn’t mine,” Hayden said. “It belongs to a man named Stacker.”
“Understanding. The modulators are the most valuable piece of technology the Axon possess. A single device can produce more than all of the potential solar energy provided by your sun. Hahaha. Haha.”
Hayden whistled. “I don’t know how much that is, but it sounds like a whole lot.”
“It is.”
“You think the Axon might part with two or three of them?”
“There would be only one way to know.”
Hayden looked over at Max. “And why would you do that for me? For Earth? What’s in it for you?”
“Decision. I want to be your friend.”
Hayden laughed. “Didn’t we have this talk already?”
“Affirmation. Perhaps it is the damage to my root systems. I have developed an affection for your companionship.”
“You do know I’m married, right Max?”
“There is much opportunity for me here. Out there, I am simply one of millions fated to end in the war against the Hunger. I require more.”
“Require, or desire?” Hayden asked.
“I am unable to make a distinction.”
“That’s a start then, isn’t it?”
“Confusion.”
“Whatever happened to you, maybe you’re starting to think for yourself.”
“That is a technical impossibility. My actions are dictated by programming and logic. I am capable of mimicking emotion, but it is not real. I am incapable of feeling.”
“And yet you’re on the verge of making a decision that goes against that programming.”
“Because my logic systems are damaged. I am erratic.”
“You want to know something, Max?”
“Affirmation.”
“I like you better erratic.”
Max stared at Hayden a moment before looking at the road ahead. “I have been processing something else.”
“Don’t hold back on me now.”
“I was not completely truthful with you regarding my request to safeguard the nodule.”
Hayden shook his head. “I would say I’m shocked, but I’m not. I figured you had an angle.”
“Affirmation. I can draw power from the nodule for internal use.”
“Like an upgrade?”
“To specific systems. Consideration. I can use the nodule to devise an energy field similar to the field you described, only on a smaller scale. If you can get close enough to Shurrath to use it, we can trap him within the field.”
Hayden’s smirk grew into a full-blown smile. “Now you’re talking. What’s the catch?”
“Confusion. What do you mean?”
“That sounds almost too easy.”
“I do not believe it will be easy to get close enough to Shurrath to use it.”
“How close do you mean?”
“You must be within a meter of him.”
“That’s not that close.”
“I have scanned Cyrus Salk’s memories, Sheriff. Shurrath abandoned him to move into a superior form.”
“What kind of superior form?”
“Unknown. Shurrath banished Cyrus from his vicinity because of their connection. He sent him to hunt Intellects.”
“Did he find any?”
“Two. Both were destroyed. Cyrus was sufficiently strong-willed. Hahaha. Haha.”
“Okay, so we need to get close to whatever Shurrath turned himself into to use the energy cage. Is that what you’re saying?”
“Affirmation.”
“And once we have him, then what?”
“I can utilize the nodule to power a portal and return to the Axon homeworld. I will bring Shurrath to the organics, and then I will return with your reward.”
“Which may or may not include an alliance?”
“Pozz.”
“What if your people renege? Or decide we don’t deserve a reward?”
“Conceivable, but unlikely. The Axon are losing the war. They can use any ally they can get.”
“Your words or theirs?”
“Admittance. Theirs. But they are not short-sighted.”
“Let’s hope not. Okay, we’ll plan it that way. How long do you need to make the cage?”
“It is nearly complete.”
“I thought you were processing? What if I’d said no?”
Max moved away from Hayden, leaning back into the seat.
“Max, what if I said no?”
“You did not. Hahahaha. Hahaha.”
“Max. You—”
Hayden stopped talking as he picked up a deep vibration rising from his left, a tumbling rumble growing steadily in intensity.
&
nbsp; “Stampede!” Max shouted, loudly enough to jog Isaac from his slumber. “Hahaha. Haha.”
Chapter 48
“What the hell?” Isaac said, sitting straight up and turning his head in the direction of the rumble.
“Drive faster,” Max recommended.
Hayden didn’t hesitate. He pressed his foot down on the gas, the engine roaring as it fought to get the heavy modbox moving faster. He glanced to the left again. A cloud of dust was rising from behind the hills.
“Don’t tell me it’s a stampede of trife,” Isaac said. “How can Shurrath possibly know we’re out here?”
Hayden’s foot rose from the gas pedal at the remark, the car immediately slowing again.
“Sheriff, what are you doing?” Isaac said, leaning forward.
“He can’t know we’re here,” Hayden said. “What if those trife are headed north? What if they’re going to join the goliath or finish slaughtering the people in Haven?”
“Possible,” Max said.
“What are we supposed to do about it?” Isaac asked. “There are only three of us.”
“Max, you have the battery,” Hayden said. “Can’t you blast them?”
“Affirmation. And weaken the cage.”
“Cage?” Isaac said. “What cage?”
“I’ll fill you in later,” Hayden said.
The rumbling was getting stronger. The front line of trife appeared at the top of the most distant rise, a line of them nearly a hundred across that caused Hayden to stare in awe and fear. These weren’t typical trife. They weren’t the super-trife either. They were somewhere in between. Moderately sized, more heavily muscled, with longer limbs that seemed to carry them along at a faster pace. They raced toward the car like cats, bounding on four legs.
“Consideration,” Max said. “Capturing Shurrath is the most efficient means of preventing this slick from causing harm to your people.”
Hayden’s head whipped toward the Intellect. He was right, of course. His foot dropped onto the gas pedal again, carrying them perpendicular to the mass.
He split his attention between the road ahead, the trife to their left, and the accelerometer on the dashboard of the modbox. They were at thirty-five and gaining slowly, the engine struggling to move the heavy car.
