Bender of Worlds

by Isaac Hooke

  “Come on!” Sinive shoved Tane toward the private passageway. “Let’s go!”

  Tane glanced at the dweller. “I can’t leave him.”

  “He’s sacrificing himself for us,” Jed said.

  “Actually, I wasn’t,” G’allanthamas said, still within comm range. “But if you wish to abandon me, I won’t blame you. In fact, maybe it’s for the best. You among all of us must escape, Doomwielder.”

  “I hate it when you guys talk like that,” Tane said. He hesitated a moment longer, then made his choice. “Comms off. We stay with Gall. Take cover: the patrol will pass us by.”

  “Engineer—” Jed began.

  “The patrol will pass us by,” Tane insisted. “Now, comms off. We’re going radio silent.” He disabled his internal comm node before anyone could protest, and then made his way out of the hallway to stand behind the counter in the shop proper.

  Sinive and Jed lingered in the hallway behind him. No doubt they were arguing amongst themselves. Probably trying to decide whether to abandon Tane or to forcefully drag him out of there.

  Tane realized that G’allanthamas had left the security grille at the front wide open, so he deactivated his shield to leap over the front counter. He squeezed past the dweller and dashed to the entrance. He lowered the grille as quietly as possible, cringing at every soft scraping sound that issued from it.

  The moment it touched the floor, he raced back to the far side, vaulted over G’allanthamas and the countertop, and then ducked from view. He reactivated his shield, taking care to give himself enough clearance from the counter. He remembered that the shield came with an autogating mode, but decided that now wasn’t the best time to be experimenting with that.

  Unsurprisingly, Jed and Sinive had chosen to stay: the Volur had become visible for the time being, conserving his stamina perhaps, as he had taken cover on the left side of the counter, while Sinive positioned herself on the far right beside Tane, closer to the wall. Jed and Sinive had drawn their pistols, and were ready to leave cover to open fire. The shadowy globes of the dweller’s blurring Essencework still surrounded Tane, Sinive, and G’allanthamas, but not Jed.

  The Volur promptly shot out the overhead lights, plunging most of the shop into darkness: the front section was still partially lit by the pedway lights outside.

  Tane could have used Essence Sight to keep a bead on the entrance, but he had a different idea in mind. He retrieved his D18 and, still crouching, set it down on the counter—he turned his shield off to do so. He positioned it casually on the countertop and accessed the remote interface so that the feed from the scope was available in the upper right of his vision. Then he angled the weapon until he had a good view of the shop entrance and reactivated his shield.

  The patrol came. Scepter combat robots armed with plasma rifles marched past. Some of the robots shone their laser sights into the room.

  One of them halted. Its laser sight hovered over the display case Tane had cut open to retrieve the personal shield system. It must have communicated the damage to the others, because the entire patrol stopped.

  The robot knelt and lifted the unlocked grille. Then it gestured with one fist and two small exploratory drones flew inside.

  Tane glanced at Jed, but the Volur had become completely invisible in the darkness. Tane wasn’t sure if the sensors in the tiny drones were powerful enough to pick up the blurred party members in the darkness, considering how close they would be getting, but the small scouts seemed to pass right over the main counter without detecting them. The drones proceeded into the back area, and after searching the offices, rapidly swept by on their way back to the front.

  Plasma rifles raised and at the ready, three combat robots entered next.

  Damn.

  Tane wasn’t sure what gave them away. Maybe the scepters wondered why the overhead lights hadn’t automatically turned on when the drones entered. Maybe it was standard operating procedure to follow up a drone pass with a more detailed search. Or maybe the drones had detected something off about the area around the counter.

  Whatever the case, the TSN patrol had decided this particular shop warranted further attention.

  Tane watched through his rifle scope as the three combat robots slowly advanced. They kept their weapons at eye level. Likely they were shining infrared lights from those weapons to illuminate the chamber. Either that, or LIDAR.

  He wasn’t certain whether or not these robots were connected to the TSN mixnet, and thus transmitting commands from a controller somewhere above, but either way Tane was safe from influence while he had his comms down. At least he hoped he was.

  The scepters passed the different displays. One of them paused beside the case Tane had and Sinive had plundered. Tane thought it must be communicating with the other robots, because all three halted for a second, only to resume the advance a moment later.

  The robots were almost upon G’allanthamas. Tane had one of the robots cleanly in his line of sight. He wondered if he should remotely activate the trigger. If Sinive and Jed were targeting the other two robots, that would be perfect. Then again, without communications, he couldn’t know that: the lack of coordination was one of the down sides of going radio silent.

  If he wanted to strike, it was now or never…

  He chose not to. It was too risky.

  He tried to activate smart targeting, but because the way the weapon was positioned against the countertop, the muzzle couldn’t properly track the robot, and it soon left his sight line.

  They won’t notice us. They won’t… they’re going to turn back any second.

  They didn’t turn back.

  Tane deactivated his shield to reach up onto the counter, and searched for the stock. He found it, and slowly adjusted the weapon, wanting to get the robot lined up again.

  But then they reached G’allanthamas.

  The dweller decided to take things into its own hands. Or tentacles, as it were.

  Appendages shot outward and tightened around one of the robots. The carapace lifted, and legs shot out, slamming another robot into the wall.

  The third robot was shot down by Sinive.

  According to the overhead map, Jed slid over the counter, still invisible. A moment later he flashed into existence in the pedway outside, his Chrysalium sword slashing through the air.

  Tane heard the crash of metal. He glanced at his overhead map and saw that Jed’s chip had transmitted the locations of two red dots representing the remaining combat robots lurking outside. Those dots quickly turned black as Jed eliminated them.

  But the robots hadn’t only sent troops in from the front… it was the flash of a laser sight passing over Tane’s rear-view feed that saved him.

  Glancing at that feed, he saw two more robots had sneaked inside from the back door and come upon the party from behind. They must have noticed the strange darkness surrounding Tane, because their rifles were pointed directly at him. It looked like they hadn’t swapped out their weapons for rifles that fired energy nets. Then again, maybe these were multipurpose rifles.

  He wasn’t going to take any chances. He activated his shield and released his Melt Metal reserve at the same time. He was careful to exclude his spacesuit and weaponry, as well as Sinive’s.

  The two robots were within the three-meter area of activation, barely. The Dark work wasn’t powerful enough to melt the robots themselves, but it readily liquefied their weapons.

  Sinive must have noticed them on her own rear-view camera feed, because she spun, releasing her pistol twice in rapid succession. The Dark work had apparently melted the robots’ shield generators as well, because her plasma bolts struck their armored chests without encountering an energy field.

  Tane grabbed the beam hilt from his belt and ignited the ax to finish the job. When it was done he returned the hilt to his belt and turned his shield off and on to retrieve his D18 from the counter. He reactivated his comms, choosing a five-meter distance.

  “Well that’s teamwork for y
ou,” G’allanthamas said.

  Jed flashed into view as he vaulted over the counter. “The front entrance is clear. I’ll check the back.”

  He disappeared, and Tane watched on the overhead map as he passed through the back door, returning a moment later. He became visible. “Clear.”

  “We have to go, now,” Sinive said. “Before they can send reinforcements.”

  “You think they got a signal out?” Tane asked.

  “I’m sure of it,” Sinive replied. “It was standard procedure in my day for squads to leave drones behind. If they had enough drones, they’d string them out to act as repeaters, keeping them in contact with the military-grade mixnet formed by the company. If not, the drones would simply retreat until they reinitiated contact with that adhoc mixnet. The goal was to have reinforcements available within five minutes of any disturbance. At all times.”

  “Let’s go!” Jed said, racing toward the front door. He became invisible once more.

  Still enveloped by the dark spheres that blurred them, Tane, Sinive and G’allanthamas followed. Tane started up a new Melt Metal timeline on the run. Just as he left the shop, Jed’s voice came over the comm.

  “Back back back!” Jed said. “Return to the concourse!”

  On the overhead map, his indicator was retreating.

  Tane spotted robot troops in the distance and spun around. His first instinct was to take cover in the shop, and he did so; the blurring must have been working, because the troops would have opened fire if they had spotted the party. Tane wondered how close he could get to the scepters in these lighting conditions before the machines were able to discern him.

  He didn’t want to find out.

  He raced back into the open and retreated in the opposite direction with the others.

  Jed led them to the concourse underneath the last building behind them, and then took a detour through a side pedway. Behind them, more troops were coming down into the concourse from the stairs that led to the streets above.

  The team hurried through the concrete corridor. There were no shops and kiosks here like in the previous pedway, and soon they reached another concourse. Jed swerved north, taking the pedway there and putting them back on the path to their destination.

  The next concourse was full of kraals. These were slightly smaller than their jungle cousins, so that they could easily roam the tunnels of the underground pedway system.

  There was no way the team could pass through, so Jed had them retreat; unfortunately a small patrol of kraals just so happened to be returning to the concourse at that moment, and blocked the way out. Tane and his party were forced to kill them.

  The scent of blood attracted the other kraals, and the horde of alien beasts scrambled to pursue the team. Apparently they could see right through the blurring Essencework G’allanthamas had created. Or rather, they could smell through it—the party members were still covered in the fresh blood of their enemies.

  The dweller turned one of the pursuers into a Dirac: that diverted a substantial portion of the kraals as they fought amongst themselves for the pulsating crystal. However, at least half of the creatures still pursued the fleeing team members. Two of those particular kraals could fit the tight passageways at once—one crawling on the floor, the other the ceiling.

  Jed reached the next concourse. TSN troops were approaching from the pedway that Tane and the others had taken to arrive here in the first place, so Jed swerved toward the opposite pedway on the left side. As Tane entered that pedway, the scepters began to open fire on the kraals, some of which had diverted toward the robots.

  “Doesn’t matter anymore that the TSN can’t see us,” Sinive said. “They know kraals have to be chasing something. Doesn’t take much to figure out that something is us.”

  The party reached another concourse and took a right toward another pedway.

  Tane finished creating Melt Metal and set it in reserve. He pointed his D18 behind him and fired in auto-targeting mode, taking down five kraals in the pursuing vanguard.

  As Jed and Sinive also mowed down the kraals, he realized that if the TSN didn’t know what the kraals were chasing before, they certainly would now: those plasma-riddled bodies were a dead giveaway.

  A moment later he and the others were in the next pedway. Jed and G’allanthamas took the lead, Tane the middle, and Sinive brought up the rear. Even though the party had downed quite a few of them, the kraals kept coming, and were fast closing. Tane considered tossing a grenade to slow them down, but decided it was best to save his final two.

  He had another idea instead.

  He slowed, allowing Sinive to pass him.

  “Outrimmer!” Sinive said. “What are you doing?”

  He slowed even further, until the two lead kraals were almost on him. Then he gripped his beam hilt for an Endurance boost, stepped into the Essence through the hilt, and created a Persistent Flame. He let it flare into a superheated stream two meters behind him, igniting the lead pursuers.

  He released the flame and ramped up his speed again, breaking into a sprint; he was almost hit by the burning bodies in the process—the kraals had become frantic now that they were on fire.

  Tane pumped up the output on his suit’s servos and quickly rejoined Sinive. Behind him, the burning kraals finally collapsed. Their fiery corpses clogged the pedway, halting the other kraals beyond them, at least for the time being.

  Tane stepped out of the White Essence and released the beam hilt. The use of the Essence, combined with the intense run, left him feeling exhausted. And yet despite how tired he felt, he still had to keep running. He couldn’t stop now.

  He’d gone only about ten meters when the remaining kraals began leaping through the flames. They were probably being spurred on by the TSN, whose robots were no doubt assailing the rear ranks.

  Jed burst into the grav tram station. He dashed toward the translucent polycarbonate that walled off the grav tunnel, and slammed his Chrysalium sword into it. He quickly cut away a large ellipse capable of fitting not just the humans, but also the dweller in his environmental suit.

  Jed leaped through as the polycarbonate ellipse fell inward, and G’allanthamas followed behind him. Tane and Sinive vaulted inside after them, landing in the tunnel. Dim light from overhead glow panels illuminated the tracks.

  The dweller had ample room this time, as the tunnel was big enough to fit a grav tram. Once more Tane held his D18 behind him, and unleashed a thirty-round burst as howling kraals bounded inside after him.

  G’allanthamas turned another dweller into a Dirac, but this time the kraals ignored it entirely. They had a different prey in mind, and they were driven crazy with the urge to capture it. If dwellers were indeed descended from kraals, he could see why they liked to hunt other species’ for sport, if they were as voracious as this bunch.

  The tunnel curved inward, and Tane struggled to keep up with the others. He kept the beam hilt equipped in one hand—if he let go of it now, the drop in his Endurance would probably floor him. He constantly glanced at his overhead map. All that was keeping him going at the moment, other than his energy reserves, was the flashing green dot on the map marking off his target. It was less than a hundred meters away now. A hundred meters.

  I can last another hundred meters.

  One of the lead kraals turned upon another in the vanguard, and the pair fought, no doubt thanks to G’allanthamas, but those in behind simply streamed past them.

  Tane released his Fingers of Ruin reserve, and took down another kraal. He was too weary to begin preparing a replacement timeline.

  “It’s not here,” Jed announced from the forefront.

  “What do you mean it’s not here?” Tane said. “It has to be!”

  Tane glanced at the map. Jed had arrived. He was standing right on the section containing the green dot.

  G’allanthamas reached the area. “Kraals sometimes pass through these tunnels. They must have accidentally moved it during one of their runs. The lens can’t be
far! Don’t stop!”

  The party continued running.

  Meanwhile, the kraals closed behind them. Those wormlike heads darted out, trying to bite at Tane and Sinive with their sideways-oriented jaws.

  Tane’s weapon recharged and he unleashed several more rounds.

  “Found it!” Jed said. “We’ll hold them, Engineer. Take us back!”

  Tane shut down his shield to squeeze past G’allanthamas, who had halted. Jed meanwhile vaulted over the dweller’s suited carapace, Chrysalium sword sweeping into the incoming kraals.

  Tane saw the large lens floating in front of him. Elliptical in shape, it spanned nearly from the bottom of the grav tram to the very top. The lower portion hovered a full hand above the floor. It seemed to absorb the light coming from the ceiling glow panels, making the tunnel here darker than the previous segment. The edges of the lens appeared solid and fully substantial, but immediately surrounding the lens, the view of the tunnel beyond was distorted, just as if the light reflecting from the distant walls was being bent. It was different than the general blurriness that accompanied most objects in this universe, and more like spacetime itself was being distorted.

  The threads emerging from Tane’s body had thickened and become more substantial, and led directly to the darkness in front of him. Those filaments entered the lens at equidistant intervals along the left and right sides, reminding Tane of tentacles.

  Black blood splattered him from behind as Jed tore through a kraal with such force that the fluid passed right over G’allanthamas, who remained directly behind Tane.

  Ignoring the blood, Tane reached toward the lens.

  Time to leave this universe behind. For a little while.