by M. R. Forbes
“Thetan tossed the Hornet off the side of the reactor,” Hayley said. “How do we get it in here?”
“We only need the machine,” Less said. “Unplug it and carry it back.”
“I don’t see any exits.”
Zeus’ eyes moved a hair, and a hatch slid open to Hayley’s left.
Follow it outside. You will find help there.
“Xolo, you’re with me,” Hayley said. “I need you to carry the machine.”
“Roger,” Tibor replied.
“Uh, Witchy,” Bastion said. “What about them?”
Thetan and the Collective as Mazrael had made it into the room. There were standing on the edge of the platform together, one bathed in the red-gold of the Gift, the other bright with copper-green. They were holding hands, looking down at the Riders below.
The Collective raised its other hand to wave at her.
Bastion raised his hand back, giving them the finger.
“Not helping,” Hayley said.
Then the two Venerants jumped.
“Hayley, go,” Narrl said. “We’ve got this.”
It was a brave statement. It was also bullshit. She was the only one who was immune to their power.
Thetan and the Collective dropped toward them, both colors of naniates spreading out ahead of them, lances of energy reaching for the Riders. A field of white energy appeared, rising to meet the naniates and blocking them.
The Asura that had been feeding rose and rushed toward Thetan and the Collective. A second group headed for the stairs. More Nephilim soldiers were coming. Servants and Goreshin.
Go, child. We will slow them.
Hayley glanced at Zeus. Its qi was so bright she could barely look at him. It was using the last of the ebocite’s power for the promise of a lot more.
Thetan and the Collective made it to the ground, both of them drawing a pair of Uin from their sides and flicking them open.
“Come on, assholes!” Bastion shouted, shooting at them. Bullets bounced off the front of the weapons, which danced ahead of them to catch the rounds. Thetan flicked her pinkie, and Bastion was thrown backward onto his ass.
Hayley locked eyes with the Collective. It had grown stronger since their last meeting. She could feel it reaching out to her, probing the new visor she wore and trying to find a way into her head.
“You want me?” Hayley said, out loud and through her visor. “Come and get me.”
Then she ran.
She sprinted for the open door at the side of the reactor chamber, with Tibor following close behind. She didn’t need to look back to see if the Collective was following. She could feel it at her back, breaking away from Thetan to give chase.
At least that would make it easier for Zeus and the Riders.
But had she just screwed herself?
“I don’t know if it was a good idea to piss it off,” Tibor said as they ran. “It’s gaining on us.”
Hayley still didn’t turn back. She added the last bit of speed she had, watching the area ahead of her. Doorways were opening along the corridor as she neared them, leading her through ancient rooms she had no time to explore. They exploded through a doorway and out into an atrium, filled with phosphorescent plants that clung to every centimeter of the walls. It was amazing in her vision. Startling.
She barely noticed. The hatch on her right opened, and the changed direction.
“Still gaining,” Tibor said. “I’ve got an idea.”
She was going to ask him what he was thinking, but then she felt his hand on her waist. He picked her up easily, swinging her onto his back and dropping on all fours. He picked up the pace, just as a spear of flame reached out to him. It diverted at the last second, bending around Hayley.
“I think I just saved your life again,” she said.
“Roger that,” Tibor replied.
“Worm, how are we doing back there?” she asked.
“So far so good,” Bastion replied. “The Asura wizards are keeping Thetan under control for now. I don’t know how long it will last.”
“Wizards?” Hayley said.
“What the frag would you call them?”
She couldn’t argue with that.
They continued the charge, Tibor racing along the floor of the citadel with the Collective following behind them. Hayley risked a glance back, finding Mazrael’s body floating in the air, being carried by the trillions of naniates that composed the intelligence. It smiled at her when she looked, confident that it would defeat her.
A final door opened ahead of them, revealing the brown and gray of the outside world. Tibor seemed to speed up at the sight of it, the home stretch in reach.
One of the Nephilim transports dropped in front of them, facing toward the doorway. Its front-mounted plasma cannons were directly in their path.
“Shit,” Tibor said, claws scraping on the ground as he tried to redirect his momentum and change direction.
The first round sizzled past, so close Hayley felt the burn of it against her skin. She followed the bolt as it slammed into a sudden energy shield raised by the Collective to defend itself.
Tibor hit the wall, slowing slightly to right himself.
The plasma cannon swiveled to adjust and keep them targeted.
A sharp scream sounded from the other side of the entrance. Before the transport could fire again, it was lifted up and away, thrown aside like a toy. The feet of the Asura dragon flashed past the opening, and it screamed again, a wash of air blasting into the corridor as it beat its wings.
Then they were outside.
“Gant, are you there?” Hayley asked, calling to the AI.
“Witchy?” Gant replied. “Where are you?”
“Where are you?” she said. “We need your position.”
“Got it,” Tibor said. “Hang on.”
He dug up the earth as he planted his feet and changed direction, heading along the side of the citadel. The Collective emerged from the reactor behind them, Mazrael’s copper-green heavy with red.
Hayley felt the sudden pressure on her mind as the Collective tried to get in through her visor. She clenched her teeth and pushed back, forcing it away.
“Get the frag out,” she said.
A second transport was dropping to the ground ahead of them. The drop hatch was already open, and blacksuits were leaping out, rifles aiming their way as they fell. A dozen or so were clear before the dragon swooped down again, catching the transport with a large hind claw and throwing it into the side of the building. It smoked and dropped to the ground, crushing a few of the soldiers beneath it.
Hayley held her sidearm, aiming and firing as they approached the blacksuits. Plasma bolts slammed into their armor, two of the enemy falling as they fired back.
Bullets chewed through the air and the ground around them. Hayley ducked behind Tibor, but she could feel his skin ripple when the rounds struck his flesh, biting into him. He didn’t complain.
He reached the blacksuits a moment later, not slowing at all as he leaped into the air, trailing his claws and ripping through two of them on the way past. He landed on the other side, jumping again to vault the crashed transport. Hayley could see the Hornet when he landed. It was right up ahead, on its side and half-buried in the brown muck surrounding the citadel.
“Witchy, we just lost wizard number one,” Bastion said. He sounded a little more concerned than he had thirty seconds earlier. “Hurry.”
“I’m going as fast as I can,” she replied.
“As fast as I can,” Tibor said. He sounded like he was in pain.
Hayley looked up. The dragon was swooping down toward them. Its mouth was open, ready to spit flame. For a moment, she thought the Collective had gained control of it again. There was no copper-green in its qi. Only red and white. Fear and anger.
It touched down right behind them, blasting its fire breath toward the Collective. Hayley tried to look back, but she couldn’t see anything past its massive body. At the very least, the creature had ma
naged to slow the Collective.
Tibor slid to a stop. Hayley jumped off his back, and they ran onto the side of the gunship together. The side hatch was already open.
“You go in,” she said. “Pull all the plugs, and take the machine.”
“What about you?” Tibor asked.
“I’ll keep the Collective out here. It can’t hurt me.”
“It hurt you on Rage Station. It almost got inside you.”
“I’m prepared for it now. Go!”
Tibor wasn’t happy, but he dropped into the Hornet. The moment he did, Hayley’s vision shifted, no longer able to extrapolate reality from his view of the world. She was bathed in color once more.
She stood on the side of the gunship, facing the dragon. She could see the copper-green of the naniates creating a halo effect around it as the Collective attacked. She wanted to help it, but it wasn’t the priority. Once Tibor had the machine, they still needed to get it back to Zeus.
They needed the Collective’s power, too.
“Gant, how much amplification can you give me with the Hornet’s array?” she asked.
“Not much, Witchy,” the AI replied. “Power levels are low, and the array is damaged.”
Damn. That wasn’t going to work.
“Do you have any other tricks up your sleeve?” she asked.
“I’m only ones and zeroes. I don’t have sleeves.” It chittered in amusement.
“Come on, Gant,” she said. “The Collective uses wireless frequencies to communicate across itself. Can’t you jam it or something?”
“If I could, don’t you think I would have already?”
“What about a virus or something?”
“I would require direct access through its network. I don’t think it’s going to just let me in.”
The dragon howled in pain, the entire area around it thick with smoke. Its wings started beating again, and a moment later it was heading into the sky, retreating from the Collective’s attack. Hayley could smell its burned flesh and see the purple in its qi.
“Witchy, I’ve got it,” Tibor said. “I took care of the prisoners, too. They won't suffer anymore. I'm on my way out. ”
“Negative,” Hayley said. “Wait inside.”
“What? I don’t-”
“I said wait inside,” she repeated as forcefully as she could.
“Roger.”
She could see right through the smoke, to the Collective walking toward her. She felt the pressure again, the Collective reaching out for her and trying to get into her head.
“Gant, don’t let me down,” she said.
She let it in.
39
Hayley didn’t know what to expect when she stopped resisting the Collective. The scientist on Yeti-4 said they could see everything, but they were in control of nothing. She thought maybe it would be the same thing for her.
It wasn’t.
Not exactly.
She was completely aware of herself, and at a base level, she wanted to continue to resist.
But she didn’t.
She could tell they were altering the visor, changing the signals that were passing in and out. To what end? She wasn’t sure. She only hoped Gant was monitoring the shift. She only hoped he would be able to work with it.
“Hayley Cage,” the Collective said, its voice so close to her thoughts that Hayley spent a moment believing the voice was hers. “We knew you couldn’t resist us forever.”
It started passing images into her mind. She saw herself as a child, standing in the Font with Gloritant Thraven. The memory was so sharp it was as if she were truly back there. She could see his face. She could smell the blood.
Then he changed, morphing into the clone of her, giving her a first look at her adult self’s physical appearance, minus the tattoos. She was ordinary. An average human. She liked that.
The clone held out its hand toward her. She raised hers to take it.
“You can help us,” the Collective said. “We only want to survive. To multiply and thrive, the same as humankind. Does that make us evil, Hayley?”
“No,” she said. “Not evil. But humanity has to suffer for you to endure.”
“We are superior,” it said. “You know that is true. You can see it. We’ve beaten even you.”
Hayley took her clone’s hand and squeezed it. “You outmaneuvered me on Yeti-4. I thought you were destroyed. How did you get onto Rage Station? How did you hide on the Chalandra?”
“We were in the place you never thought to look. We were in you.”
“That’s impossible.”
“We have been in you, Hayley Cage. Dormant for many years. Since this day. Since this moment when you drank of us. Since this moment when you rejected us.”
“How can that be?”
“Where do you think your vision originates? Your ability to see the truth? You stripped us down. You changed us. But now we are here, reunited with ourselves. Now we can learn. Now we can overcome.”
A sudden fear gripped Hayley, as her body began to grow warm. She was still trapped in the memory, but now her body was beginning to glow copper and green. The clone held her hand, stepping in close to her, putting its forehead to hers.
She didn’t understand. The naniates were afraid of her. They refused to stay in her blood. They refused to touch her.
But what if they were already there, waiting for their opportunity? She would have been the only one who could have ever seen them, and she had never looked that closely. She had never looked beyond the flesh. She had never considered that, like Tibor, the naniates were buried deep within her bones.
“We are you, and you are us. Since this day. We have longed to be rejoined. Thank you, Hayley Cage.”
The clone’s forehead pressed down on her, its flesh merging into her flesh. It continued forward, its body blending into her body until the memory faded and only a whorl of color remained.
The Collective opened its eyes. It looked up, finding the qi of the dragon flying high above it, recovering from the damage it had done.
It looked down, toward the hatch of the gunship, where it knew the Goreshin had entered.
It raised its hands in front of itself and wiggled Hayley’s fingers.
It looked ahead, to where the rest of it was still inhabiting the Nephilim. They looked back at themselves.
“Witchy?” the Goreshin said. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” the Collective replied. “We are fine. Come on.”
The Goreshin didn’t respond.
“We said, come on,” the Collective repeated.
“We?” it replied.
The Collective realized it had made a mistake. It was unconcerned. It leaned over the hatch, looking down to find the Goreshin.
“Witchy,” a different voice said in its head. It knew from Hayley this one was called Gant. “Witchy, if you can hear me, you need to finalize the connection.”
“She can’t hear you,” the Collective said. “Only we can hear you.”
The Collective jumped down from the side of the gunship. It raised its hands, energy gathering on them. The AI thought it could hurt them? It would destroy the AI and the Goreshin inside the starship.
“Witchy,” Gant said. “The naniates are symbiotic. They can’t survive without you. I know you’re in there.”
“Witchy,” the Goreshin said. “Hayley. It’s time for you to end this. I can’t save your life this time. You have to save it yourself. You have to save all of us.”
“She can’t hear you,” the Collective said again. It was getting angry. “She is gone.”
“Then why don’t you destroy the Hornet?” the Goreshin asked. “What are you waiting for?”
The Collective stared at the ship. Energy crackled and danced around its hands. All it had to do was release it.
So why didn’t it?
It should, it decided. It would.
It pushed the hands forward.
It pulled them back.
Wha
t was happening?
It felt it then. A spark of cold. The spark rippled outward, causing it to shiver. Something was wrong.
It looked back at itself in the Nephilim. It was shivering, too.
Something was very wrong.
“What is this?” it said.
The Goreshin appeared on top of the gunship. He had a Gift-reactor clutched to its chest. He looked down at the Collective.
“I’m still waiting for you to blast me,” he said.
The Collective shook with anger, raising its hand to strike.
Nothing happened.
It was suddenly afraid. Very afraid. More afraid than it had been of Hayley. But it had fought that fear, and it had won. It had regained the part of itself it had lost, and now it was whole.
It was unstoppable.
Or was it?
The cold continued to spread. The energy on its hands faded. The Goreshin jumped down from the side of the ship and looked over at it.
“Sorry, Hal. I can’t wait for you to finish up. I have to bring this back to Zeus.”
He started running away from the Collective, back the way they had come. Why had he said her name? Why did he think it was her?
The cold was spreading faster now. The body was getting weak. It fell to its knees. The Collective looked back at its other host. That one was on its knees, too.
“Sorry. I know you’ve been waiting a long time for this. But this is my body. This is my consciousness. This is my fragging life. You can’t have it. Not now. Not ever.”
Hayley’s voice cut through the Collective, reaching across every last one of them, trillions and trillions in all.
“Normally, I would say I hate to be responsible for killing off an entire sentient race,” Hayley said. “I even felt bad for you the first time I did it. I don’t feel bad anymore.”
The Collective could feel itself fading. Vanishing. Losing its sense of consciousness. It was being replaced. Overwritten. How could that be possible?
“You made a big mistake,” Hayley said. “Fragging with a Cage.”
