by Ran Vant
Gabriella spoke, “Michael, is it really you? How did you survive the blast?”
“Yes, it’s me. The truds nursed me back to health. They were studying me, trying to find a weakness for the fortress.”
“That’s impossible,” she responded. She turned towards Rex. “It’s not Michael.”
Lightbringer was confused by Gabriella’s response.
“Don’t let him sit in the chair,” she commanded.
“Gabriella, what’s wrong with you? It’s me, Michael.”
Rex spoke up, “Gabriella, all of Magritte’s scans confirm it is him. He must have survived after all. We were wrong.”
Michael was desperate to show that he was speaking the truth, to convince Gabriella that it was him. More importantly, he feared that the distraction below was merely a diversion, and that the real assault could be coming at any moment, just as the woman had told him. He felt an incredible urge to act. He needed to let Rex and Magritte see everything he had seen and run an analysis. It was possible there was a wealth of information that Magritte’s brain could parse and then piece together the trud’s plan for a super weapon.
Martha and Gabriella were talking in hushed tones, though it was clear Gabriella was still upset.
Michael wasn’t sure there was time for a debate as to whether or not he was really Michael. He was certain of who he was. One scan, and the rest would know it too.
Lightbringer proceeded to sit in the chair. “Listen, the truds are developing a weapon that could destroy all of the floating fortresses, and leave the Ancients open to direct assault. Time may be of the essence. Scan me and Magritte will be able to see everything I have seen. I will show you that what I’ve said is true.”
Rex knew Lightbringer was correct. Time could be precious. Though the truds often failed, they were still creative, and thus dangerous. Michael’s information could prove critical. Rex Skyguard gave the mental command to Magritte’s super brain to commence the scan.
The black pads on the chair swung up to either side of Michael’s head, and the warm pulse of the download began.
**
Michael relaxed at the warm pulse of Magritte’s scan. He remembered it all, from the initiation of the mission at his last scan, to the moment he lost consciousness when the jetpacker detonated his pressure bomb, to awakening to the horrible pain of the crude scanner in the bowels of the truds’ base, to the woman releasing him.
Then the pulse began to pound more than it had ever pounded before on Magritte. He began to feel pain. It was reminiscent of the truds’ scanner. He opened his eyes. Michael saw Rex fall to the ground and begin to experience a seizure. Martha ran to Skyguard’s side. Then all of Magritte seemed to shudder and the power flickered on and off. The pain grew more excruciating. Magritte shuddered again, and then started to list to one side. The scan should have stopped by now, but instead it kept going, and seemed to be growing more powerful. Rex continued seizing.
It dawned on Gabriella and Michael at the same moment.
“YOU are their weapon!” she exclaimed, as Magritte’s brain continued to die and with it, the fortress’s systems and their defenses. She raised her gauntleted fist at Michael’s face and let loose with an invisible beam of heat and energy.
96.
Scramble
Damien ran towards the staging area. The time had come sooner than expected. But most of the equipment was in place. The Greendust had been deployed. And soon, he would fly where before only Guardians were allowed to soar. And soon, those who had commanded the heavens for so long would crash to the ground.
Damien had to consciously run slowly, so as not to draw unwanted attention from the other soldiers running to their positions. Cyborgs were fortech for both the gens and the truds, and he didn't have time to explain to any NHA soldiers why it had been necessary. Unlike the Network, they would not understand. They could not understand. Not without having seen it, felt it...
Under the city streets, he entered his assigned tunnel and saw it for the first time: a specially modified combat sled. Niles said the sled for Damien would be something special, one of kind, designed for him, and Damien saw that it was. He trusted Niles and the Network, so he wasn't too surprised. But it wasn't the modified combat sled that stopped him in his tracks. It was what stood ready on both sides of it: organic robots incased in armor. Modology incarnate. A small portion of the Greendust animating bodily forms. Living machines with brains and biocircuitry. Machines that would soon be linked to him. Living machines that would soon be part of Damien as he brought the reign of the gens to an end.
97.
Re-Emergence
Michael huddled in the dark tunnel. The girl, Eve, had said that this was the way out, but he wasn’t so sure anymore. The markings she had made were not always obvious. He had been walking and crawling through the tunnels and pipes for hours and still he had seen no daylight. He had had to backtrack at one point when the branch he took ran out of space, and he must have lost half an hour in the process. Michael knew he had to get to the fortress, to warn Rex and the others about the trud’s impending attack. And yet, there was a tinge of something, some feeling, some thought, that was nearly incomprehensible, as if it were on the edge of his brain, something there, but not definable.
He shook his head. He didn’t have time for extraneous thoughts. He was free now, and once again the mission drove him: protect the Ancients.
He scrambled over the old sewer pipes and then he smelled it. Not the staleness of the tunnels below, but the hint of fresh air somewhere nearby. As he passed an intersection of two low tunnels, the cool movement of air caught him in the face. He turned towards it, and saw the grid pattern of light several meters down the crosswise tunnel. Michael crawled toward it and peered through the metal grating.
He was in the retaining wall that ran along the side of a city park. He gazed out upon a green lawn with children, little people he didn’t really understand. The children ran and kicked a ball, screaming and cheering and yelling. He watched them for a moment. Such strange creatures. They often didn’t seem to operate with much logic. They tussled and moved in such a random, unorganized fashion. One moment a herd, the next moment scattered, one moment focused on the ball passing by for a second, the next moment staring at a tree that had been there for decades.
The thought edged in again upon him, but he pushed it back. Again, his resolve returned. He must protect the Ancients.
He popped off the metal grate and prepared to emerge.
98.
Silent Skies
“Phase One appears to be successful. The virus-bearing clonebot worked. No active scans can be detected from any of the fortresses. It rippled throughout the system.”
“Just as planned.”
“Not quite just as planned, but it may be close enough. It beat the original genbot up there, thank goodness, and that’s all that matters for now. The path is now clear for Phase Two. Launch it immediately,” Colonel Red ordered.
“The soldiers are still scrambling-”
“We cannot give them time to recover or repair their systems,” Red explained. “We must attack with Phase Two now and try to hold it or at least disrupt them until we have the charges in place to bring them down. If the brain wasn’t destroyed completely, and they are somehow able to release the machines, all may be in vain unless we can act decisively.”
“But sir, not all units are fully in position yet and it will only be a partial attack-”
“I understand, that’s why I’ve waited as long as I have. But there are enough in place now to hold each station. The others will join Phase Two as soon as they can, with the charges and Phase Three when possible. Enough talking, make it happen.”
“Yes, sir!”
99.
Breathing Again
Lightbringer waited a few seconds after forcing out the metal grate to see if anyone noticed, but no one did. Michael stepped out of the tunnel onto the green lawn and deeply breathed in the fresh air,
as if he was born anew and it was the first fresh breath of his life. He was out of the claustrophobic confines of his prison deep within the belly of the earth. Now he was in the open air, and above him was the sky. He scanned the sky for the characteristic castle outline of Fortress Magritte. It was there, almost directly above him, though strangely leaning a bit to one side. Maybe it was just the odd angle from which he was viewing it, he thought.
He imagined that Magritte had already picked up the temperature anomaly caused by his body. Rex might be briefing the team now based on that anomaly. Magritte always studied objects of human form that had anomalous temperature signatures: they typically meant inorganic robots, modology, or disease; all items of interest. He expected to see Gabriella, Martha, and Dante at any moment.
Michael stared up. After several minutes, he began to wonder if the Fortress had not picked up his heat signature after all. But he had to dismiss that. Magritte couldn’t miss him, standing there on the edge of the open park. Why weren’t they coming to retrieve him? On Magritte’s scanners, his heat signature would stand out like the Fortress itself against a clear blue sky. Magritte always monitored the scanners. That was one of its central purposes. Instead, Fortress Magritte merely hung there in the air, slightly tilting, motionless.
The more he studied it, the more he realized the fortress was at an unusually low altitude. Magritte had settled closer to the ground, even during the short time he had been staring up at it. There was no doubt: it had descended significantly. Though he couldn’t be sure, he thought it might be tilting to the side more than when he first emerged, too.
However unlikely, perhaps he was in a blind spot or some other object was blocking Magritte’s clear reception. Michael hopped up over the wall from which he had recently emerged, and began walking down the city street, the whole while keeping his eyes focused on the strangely tilting Magritte.
100.
Garden Banishment
“Colonel, we found Eve. We got lucky. Street-side cameras happened to nab her right away. Must have used some unknown tunnels to get out.”
One of the guards shoved a bound Eve forward.
“Why, Eve? Why would you let the captured genbot go and try and destroy everything we have worked for?” Red asked. “Now everything is at risk.”
“It can't work. You know it can't work. We will all simply die, just like the rest who have tried to stop the gens. All my friends believed they could stop the gens, and now they are all dead, buried in the rubble or washed off the pavement or just gone.”
“They died fighting for something they believed-”
Eve cut him off. “Well, I don’t want to die. Who wants to die? I'm tired of the dying! And I don’t believe it anymore. It's pointless! The gens are too strong and you can't win. And it doesn't have to be that way. Can’t you see that none of that is necessary anymore? Why do you even want to fight the gens? We can live forever, can’t you see? Why should we have any of that pain or sadness again? We can join them. He told me I could live forever-”
Red shook his head. “You’ve gone crazy, Eve. Eternal life is in the grasp of everyone by other means. You are imagining a world without God, a world without children, a world where we wouldn’t live anymore, a world where we would just exist. If we were like them, we wouldn’t be human anymore.” Red believed half of it.
Eve pleaded, “I’m not crazy; you’re the one who’s crazy! Death doesn’t have to-”
Red didn't have time for this. But his subordinates were watching. And he needed to finish this distraction and move on to things that still mattered. He cut her off midsentence: “Your actions freeing the genbot meant we had to release the first assault clone early to ensure it arrived at the fortress before the genbot you released. You jeopardized the entire operation, lifetimes of planning. You would have rendered worthless the sacrifices of all your friends. But the weaponized clone was released, it got there first, the genbot that you thought would grant you eternal life is apparently lost somewhere in the forgotten tunnels and caverns, and you’ve been captured.”
Red paused before driving it home. “But here is where you are most wrong: we will win. Your friends did not die for nothing. We will win. And soon. When we will have reversed the Event, it will be the gens who are gone forever. No one will be around to grant you eternal life. Instead, you're likely to be spending the rest of your limited lifespan in a cell.”
He turned away from her and spoke to the guards. “Take her away to General Win’s Condor Team, we don’t have time to deal with her. Have them process her per the regs, so long as it doesn’t interrupt the operation; I never want to see her again.”
The guards took her away.
“She should understand that death is natural-” someone said.
“No, death is not natural,” Red interrupted. “It was not how we were intended to be. Every human knows there is something wrong about death. We are eternal beings. But her way of seeking it was wrong.”
101.
The Study Subject
“Maren, I've been looking everywhere for you. Is it true? Has the genbot clone been released?” Jack asked.
“Yes, when Colonel Red gave the order for Phase One, we all did exactly as we had been told,” Maren said, rubbing her pendant, adrenaline still coursing through her blood as she thought of all of the battles her simple action had presumably set in motion. “I released the clonebot, told it the lie about needing to warn the gens about our new weapon and attack plans, and pointed it to the quickest way out. It promised I would be rewarded and left through the tunnels for the surface.”
“Then everything we can do is done. The genbot copy is out. It will either make it there first and our assault has a possibility of success, or it's already too late for all of us. People will come for you now, and we need to leave.”
“Why do we need to leave? The safest place to be during the battle is down here.”
“Maren, I need to explain something. When Doctor Psycho died, I was the first to get to his files. And after learning what was in those files, I know it isn't safe for us here anymore. I was curious about a few things, and needed a few answers, so I did something I wasn't supposed to do, but that I don't regret. I saw the mind scans. Those scans told me more than I thought possible.”
“What did you see in the genbot scans?”
“It wasn't the genbot's scans I saw,” Jack explained.
“Then whose were they?”
“You don't know?”
“No.”
Jack studied her for a moment, looking for any sign that she wasn't telling the truth. She was either a good liar or believed it.
“Maren, they were not the scans of Michael. They were scans of you.”
Maren wasn't sure she heard him correctly. “What? Did you say the scans were mine?”
Jack slowly nodded his head, his face dead serious.
“That's impossible,” Maren said. “I have never been scanned. You'd have to be crazy to undergo one of those. You must have seen Lightbringer's scans.”
“No, I'm afraid they weren't Lightbringer's scans,” Jack said slowly but confidently. “Doctor Psycho was not studying Michael Lightbringer; he was using Lightbringer to study you.”
Maren's brow furrowed. It didn't make any sense. Why would Doctor Psycho want to study her? No, it wasn't possible. “I don't believe it. Why would he want to study me?”
“Why would he, indeed. Why would one of the best doctors in the world be interested in a country girl from the R.T.? But that's just the start. Why would Red take a personal interest in you? Why would Colonel Red protect you all these years? How would he know a girl was under attack by a band of Fanatics way out in the grasslands and why would he send a team to rescue her? Why would Red assign me to get you to join and then monitor you as a private in the Organization? Why should he have me research you for years and not tell me why? And why should Blue be so curious in this little project of Red's, namely you.”
“You're scaring
me, Jack. What are you talking about?”
“You know what,” Jack said, challenging her. He didn't want to see that she knew, he didn't want to see that she had been lying to him for all these years, but he wanted the truth. He thought he was the one with the information, the one in control. But maybe she was the one with access to greater secrets and power all along. He didn’t want that to be the truth, but maybe it was. Before going further, he needed to test her again, to see that she was innocent of the knowledge.
“No, Jack, I don't,” she answered.
“I am sure you know. You must. There won't be a place here for you anymore once the attack is over,” he pressed.
“And why is that? This is my home now as much as any other place.”
“No gens allowed,” Jack said.
“What's that got to do with anything?”
Jack said nothing, merely looking Maren in the eye.
Maren half laughed. She couldn't believe that Jack was entertaining such a ridiculous notion. “Are you crazy? Are you suggesting that I am...” Maren couldn't complete the sentence. Finally, she said flatly, “I am not a gen.” Maren shook her head in disbelief. What had gotten into Jack's head? “This must be a joke. A horrible, horrible joke.”
“It is not a joke. And it is true that you are not a gen strictly speaking. But you are the daughter of one.” Jack looked down at the ground, the way Maren knew he always did when he had to tell someone something that he knew they didn't want to hear.
