The Good Death Box Set: A Hard SciFi Science Fiction Series

by Doug McGovern

  “Ha! That’s funny because you don’t even question the possibility of how vast your own universe is, much less the fact that the universe is immaterial software that downloads and absorbs ‘realities’ via a holographic process. For every one Galaxy, for every one dimension, there is another way in the expanse of the immaterial lights that corresponds to it. I hail from one such place. That’s why my name is Lucia. I come from the light.” He smiled, twisting and turning the piece of metal.

  “Stop! Father, please!” Andromeda stood up, beating on the glass again. Crying tears of blood.

  Lorraine or Lucia or whoever he was tilted his head to look at her. He smiled, chuckling darkly in his throat.

  “Some part of you is Andromeda, alive from the midst of the orbiting lights. Some part of you is still grounded to all of Caroline Riveaulx’s—or, if you’d prefer her alias, Leona Kelley’s ocean of dead. Jane Lewis was the seed that you sprang from, yet you didn’t fully kill all that she was before. DNA can only be altered, never unmade or erased…” He paused, debating something internally. Then he breathed heavily into his palm like he was blowing a kiss. The Andromeda’s failsafe container shattered. She floated free, grinning impishly.

  “I gave the She-Hitler her wings and she burned all my bridges to her. What would any other caring father do? I had no choice but to radio-transmit my consciousness into the dead body of her biological father. That’s what powers all of these Undead and Altered individuals, you know. A communication, photon-acoustic and therefore material in this world, between their remaining DNA in this life and their souls that have passed into other parts of the Universe. Death is a fascinating science, isn’t it? One that I call good!” Lorraine eased up off of the men, allowing them to sink to the floor. They coughed and sputtered, stupefied.

  “I didn’t come to bring peace. It’s time for the sword to swing, for the proud to join the fools in the equality that is the grave. You can make that happen for me, Andromeda. You are the one who was sacrificed to the hungry serpent of our constant greed. Death. You will bring it to the Earth, my child, to the Zenith of all that is known in heaven. Now, what was considered reality will never be the same.” Lorraine nodded. The Andromeda purred.

  With a shriek that split the night, she shot through the lab’s roof.

  “You let her go?!” Matthews shook himself, finally regaining his breath.

  “Why not? Sooner or later heaven and earth pass away with a fervent heat. Don’t you know your prophecy?” Lorraine laughed and pushed his foot against Matthew’s chest.

  “You’re not human are you?” Matthews tilted his head to the side. Fulton groaned and looked sidelong at Manson who was hyperventilating.

  “What an astute observation, Mr. President! Highly racist remark, as well. No, I’m not human. I’m what humans become when they play with hell-fire too long. There were those in your ancient history who called that being a god. Some called it being a demon. Pretty much the same thing. We’re all demons here, Mr. President. You can call me Professor Lucia, and I’ll be your host and tutor as we see the Parthenon unleashed!”

  Professor Lucia smiled, tossing his head. He looked up through the hole in the ceiling.

  “What the most beautiful Frankenstein does to the She-Hitler will have to be punishment enough for her little rebellion. It’s sad for the dreamers, don’t you think?” Lucia said coldly. “In a pathetic little way, it’s also hilarious. Painfully boring too. It starts with ambition and ends with madness. Ah, even madness loses its color when everyone is mad. My mind rebels against this lack of originality. It’s time that the continuum of all things came to an end, Mr. President. There’s not a damn dollar to be made from it, either. Shame for you. I’ll have to let you live so you can see what I mean.”

  Lucia kicked the President and plucked the still-smoking Cohiba up from the floor. He laughed and turned away, whistling the tune to Wind of Change by The Scorpions.

  They watched him disappear into the lab’s darkness with growing fear. As if he’d called it down somehow, a massive volt of electricity suddenly shot down through the ceiling’s rift. They were ignited by it, clothes catching fire. For a moment they all thought they were dead. Yet they survived. But dear God, what had they survived for?

  *****

  Chapter 6

  They didn’t see her coming, but somehow it didn’t matter. The Medusa never truly pulled back. Not now, when she had multiple windows into the world.

  Jane was hovering between sleep and waking again, having rejoined the circle of people gathered around the fire. She had been reunited with Lindsey, who was ecstatic to see her despite the news about her horrific death. Dexter’s teenaged sister Ivy was here now too, beaming like a kid at Christmas when she saw Jane.

  “How are you guys even here? Sorry, I’m just so confused.” Jane blinked, laying a hand on either of their faces. They’d already been talking for hours, but Jane was struggling with mental clarity. Harrison and Joseph blamed this on the torture procedures Jane had endured more than the strangely altered humanity she was living in.

  “Dr. Kingsley rescued us from the government safe house, as ironic as that sounds. He found out about the President’s treachery and all of that.” Ivy shrugged, eyes trailing away into the night. She was startled by sounds away in Cuba’s darkness.

  Lindsey cleared her throat, stretching a hand out to where she could feel the military uniform Jane was wearing now.

  “They say that the whole country has gone into a state of martial law. According to Dr. Kingsley and Kendra’s findings, that’s actually more or less civil war. Some of the Guard has been bought off by Leona’s companies, those Fulton guys that own pretty much everything. Then there’re the guys that fight with our Shreveport boys…” Lindsey got quiet, contemplating what she was about to say.

  “Don’t be afraid, Lindsey. Not everyone who carries a gun is a soldier, and not all the people who are fighting this war are doing it with weapons,” said Jane. “This fight is in our bodies and minds. I said it a long time ago…or it feels that way now. This war will be fought by nurses. By people, ready to protect the human race. Matthews promised me he would do that, but it turns out he lied. We need people just like you guys. Ones that won’t lie. Who won’t fail on the home-front when the time comes for you to do your part.” Jane smiled. Maybe it was the power of her altered genetics that had made her able to do it, but she had read her friend’s mind exactly.

  “After all the things you’ve been through…You still believe that? You think that I…I feel like I’ve been standing idly by this whole time…” Lindsey looked at her hands. Jane smiled and laid a hand on her shoulder.

  “What do you believe about yourself? That’s all that’s going to count in the end. Sacrifices are about to be made. It always takes sacrifice. Big things are coming for everybody. Who are you and where do you stand? That’s the question that everyone is going to have to ask themselves.” Jane nodded slowly. She didn’t want Lindsey to get hurt, but somebody was going to have to hold the fort down.

  She hadn’t allowed herself to think about it before. Now she had no choice. Jane knew that she couldn’t always be there to protect the people she cared about. Somehow, she had to indoctrinate them to stay true to their humanity. Somehow, she had to show them how to find the strength they needed on their own, for the days when she was out of their reach.

  Ivy screamed, shattering all of Jane’s concentration. For the night began to glow a deep neon blue. Jane hopped up, standing with her fists clenched at her side.

  The night was filling with duplicates of Leona Kelley. They all held LED wands clenched in their fists. Smoke bombs fell at their feet, causing a mist to surround the camp in confusion and the She-Hitler’s dread.

  “Jane Lewis! Jane Lewis!” The howl rose like a droning anathema from the lips of these undead doubles. As they strode deeper into the camp, the security lights better revealed them. Their faces were painted white like a geisha. Black tear paint, patterned a
fter a cheetah’s markings darkened their cheeks. Their eyes were blazing under the caustic fluorescence of the unlimited neurotoxins Andromeda extract could arouse. The bodies gyrated epileptically, dancing like they were filled with spirits. Smoke rose from their lips, black and sometimes flashing a bright purple.

  “Jane, wait!” Lindsey put out a shaking hand, horrified. She had to do something. So many terrible things had been done to her best friend. So many things that she’d had to stand aside and idly watch happen.

  “It’s okay, Lindsey. Take Ivy and get somewhere safe.” Jane looked down at one of the tables that were forced close against the fire pit. Seeing a Beretta M9 she picked it up and chambered it.

  Lindsey shook her head. Jane felt the back of her hair stand up when she felt Lindsey pick up a small Glock.

  “What? Guys…” Jane swallowed. Was she ready for this stage of defending her friends? Teaching them how to stand up for themselves was scarier than dying for them.

  “Show me how to use it, Jane. I want to be brave. Don’t die for nothing because of President Matthews and all of them. I’m still human. You can still keep me and this kid that way.” Lindsey smiled. Sooner or later it was going to have to be said. Whatever Jane was now, it wasn’t natural.

  “Right. Well, both of you, step up here. Firearms training is now in session. Let’s just pray that you don’t have to do this.” Jane looked into the eye of the smoke.

  The Medusa’s forms were gaining ground quickly, crouching down low, springing forward with the strength of young lions. Their teeth were filed, chemically steaming as if it was the caustic agent and the laser-frequency of their hyper-altered neurology that was burning them to fine points. Their ranks began to form a V-formation, tearing through the lineup of Kingsley’s doubles that sprung up from the ground where they crouched in sniper-duds waiting for her approach.

  Out of the apex of the smoke, illuminated by the moon in her horribly white bridal gown, Leona Kelley’s original form strode. The Andromeda’s blood had left permanent stains around her mouth. The blood glowed infrared so intensely that it blinded the nearest double of Kingsley. It doubled over shrieking. Leona pulled out her barber’s razor and slit its throat, cutting its head clean off.

  “No matter, dear. Here comes the bride! Not to worry, I’m only here to collect my dead.” Leona’s eyes rolled as she talked. They were blazing with the same intense fluorescent light, at a bright white wattage. Her hair was standing on static ends now, floating about her face like seaweed caught in the current. She reached into the front of her dress and pulled out a Japanese Inagaki pistol. She started firing rounds sporadically, shooting to scare and not so much to kill.

  “Come with madness, sheer sweet madness! That’s what I came to do. I won’t own the world if I can’t keep it. I’ll burn it all, burn it where none of you ungrateful pigs can have a share of it. The universe is opening for me. My mind is rising, a sheer zenith of control! Pyschotica! I am reborn!” Leona had always had a flare for the dramatic. This time, she was exceeding even her boundaries.

  Jane knew Leona as well as she could be known by now. She took one look at her and realized that the idealistically warped would-be she-dictator was gone, swallowed up in the goddess illusion. This meant that even her worst nightmares were now fun retreats.

  “Alright, guys. If you’re going to stay, stay behind me.” Jane nodded, moving forward.

  “Jane!” Dexter stormed into the fray, making his way to Jane’s side. He swung a HechlerKoch MP5K down from his shoulders, leaping from stone to stone, pouncing down to a defensive status at Jane’s feet.

  “Dex! No, you…Don’t put yourself in the firing line!” Jane’s hair was standing on end. What was the point in protecting her? She was already dead.

  “God himself is my witness, Jane! She will never take you again!” Dexter tossed his head, waiting. Jane was about to argue with him. She felt a surge of magnetic force pass through her. She could force him to stand down, couldn’t she?

  She didn’t realize how alarming her surge of force was until she remembered that it only happened when the Andromeda was close. She gasped. There was a sudden intense bolt of light out of the tree-line. The Andromeda came tearing through the sky, arms flailing like a furious tigress. She landed three feet in front of Dexter, hissing viperously.

  “Stand back! Dexter, it’s okay! Just stand down.” Jane shot the Andromeda point blank in the face. She twitched and her face contorted. An electrical field spread across her face like a snowflake. She swallowed the bullet, crunched it into small pieces, and spit it in various directions. The shards turned to sparks midair and fell to the ground, faint as cigarette ashes.

  Dexter unloaded the MP5K’s rounds, in the Andromeda’s belly. They absorbed into her skin, catching fire and smoking.

  “Place nice. This was your girlfriend’s body once, at the core. Wouldn’t want to abuse her would you?” Andromeda’s voice took on a human tone. Matter of fact, it was the exact tone of Jane. Dexter froze, horrified. The Andromeda used this moment against him and forced him on his face, twisting him on the ground under the weight of her electromagnetic impulses.

  Jane felt her throat constrict. She strangled and clutched at it, flailing as spit foamed around her lips. The Andromeda was trying to call her back into herself. Jane flashed, seeing the light particles that made up whatever was left of her tangible form move frantically and supercharge, like a blue lava lamp.

  “Oh God! Not this time!” Jane tossed her head. The particles bounced back in place. She was horrified when she heard Andromeda’s altered voice speaking out of her.

  “Not to worry, Janey dear.” The Andromeda twisted her neck and suddenly she was Jane. Jane exactly as she had looked the day that she died.

  “I’m not here for you. I’ve been sent to wreak havoc and obtain justice on my creator.” She smiled as blood began to ooze from her mouth.

  “Please!” Dexter sat up, hand flying over his mouth. Jane felt the bile shoot to the base of her throat. The blood was pouring from Andromeda’s mouth. All of the wounds that Leona had inflicted upon her the day that she died were surfacing in the Andromeda’s form. Now Dexter was forced to see exactly how Jane had died for him.

  “Stop! This is nuts! Don’t make them watch.” Jane shook her fist, her whole body trembling now where she couldn’t aim her gun. Lindsey sobbed, but forced Ivy to her knees and pressed her face against her side, where she couldn’t be compelled to look and witness this.

  “Janey, you never did recover from the beautiful death that overtook you. We are only vivid illusions. Holograms formed by light particles magnetically attracting carbons and proteins to photons and forming a physical frame to replace the dead one. We are no more than fallen stars, for whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever.”

  Andromeda breathed a cloud of purple-green gaseous substance. It caught fire in the air. This was the first time a celestial body was born on Earth, wreathing Andromeda in a dark halo.

  “It’s all true. But you won’t take her back into the darkness with you before it’s time. We have a commission and we’re going to chase. It’s a full torque, full throttle highway to hell!” Vincent appeared, out of the blackest part of the battlefield. He threw up his hand. Somehow magnetism from his core held the Andromeda in place. His eyes took on the color of Jupiter falling straight out of heaven. His whole body was wreathed in fire.

  “Ah, yes…It’s you. The Hell-Walker, the one who shut Purgatory up in its coffin. Damn you! You’re the reason the Geryon never released them from their holds in the data of the Earth!” Andromeda ground her teeth now. The Jane-image flickered going out like a candle, revealing Andromeda’s metallic dust stained face. Her lips smoked, charred by her own fire. She shrieked. He was overpowering her.

  “I can’t keep you from doing what you came to do. But my daughter will rest in peace.” Vincent sent out a wave of magnetic force, projecting Andromeda like a heat-seeker missile into the midst of the chaos.
<
br />   He turned to face Jane and Dexter, huffing.

  “Whew, I’m getting old for this. Come on, Jane. We’ve got to head out as fast as we can or this whole thing is forfeit.”

  *****

  Chapter 7

  Vincent raced Jane, Dexter, Lindsey and Ivy through the combat zone, making for the extreme edge of the camp. Helicopters drowned out the night.

  “Way to go. We’ve alerted the Cuban Special Forces to our position. They’ll be here any minute now to capitalize on the war profits Medusa and Andromeda blow up.” Vincent growled, swinging a set of Serbian Yakut blades through the throats of two Medusa doubles.

  Jane kicked one of the Medusa’s down and ripped her bowie knife out of her belt, slicing through her wrists with it. The thing gasped and fell to the ground, thrashing in a wild seizure. She smoked instead of bled.

  “Yeah. That’s my fault, sorry.”

  “No, Jane. That’s Leona Kelley and Kelley Pharmaceuticals fault. You died back on Dolly Island.” Vincent glared over his shoulder at his daughter, eyes bloodshot with horror at the image of her graphic death.

  “Ah, so you got the down-low on that, yeah?” Jane cringed. She looked over at Dexter and Lindsey who turned to shoot at the Medusa’s crowding kamikaze near them. Ivy had picked up a Mossberg MVP patrol rifle that a Medusa-double had dropped, but she didn’t have the first clue about how to fire it. She whipped a Medusa hard across the belly with its butt instead.

  Reilly stepped out of one of the tents that were on the path leading down to the beach. She was swilling a Coca-Cola until six Medusa’s started closing in on her. She held up a finger as if she was telling them to wait, polished off the soda, and then hurled the bottle at one of their faces. She pulled a matching pair of Colt Anaconda’s out of the waistband of her sweat bands and opened up on the Medusa doubles. They dropped like dominoes, some of their weapons discharging and blowing stakes out of the surrounding tents.