by T. R. Harris
As far as salvage operations went, the colonists were well on the way of stripping the planet of most of its sellable items. Although most of the Gracilian leaders were locked up in various prisons across the galaxy after the failed attempt to overthrow the government of Aac’or, another tier of natives now reaped the benefits of the salvage operations. They enthusiastically supported the efforts of the colonists.
Adam was on the bridge when the ship landed. He watched the three main monitors at the pilot station, although no one was physically at the station. A dozen colonists ran from the choking exhaust gas that filled a large, dry and dead park outside one of the larger government buildings. Adam was surprised Kanan had come to a city. The huge underground facility that housed the DEmons was located far out in the desert, away from civilization. He was expecting the vault to be hidden away, as well.
Kanan appeared closed to Adam’s right shoulder, startling him.
Come with me; it is time to go. Bring the case.
Adam followed orders, and a moment later, he was standing in the surprisingly cold air of Gracilia, feeling the coming of winter in this part of the planet. He should have worn a coat—if he had a coat to wear.
Curious colonists watched them through broken windows and open doorways. Like all the worlds in the Zone, the structures had suffered from the ravages of time and neglect. The colonists didn’t care. They’d taken a few of the buildings as their living quarters and restored power to them. The rest were in the process of being slowly gutted, with their treasures then crated up and shipped off-planet for sale in other parts of the galaxy.
At first, Kanan led the way, then once a destination was identified, he teleported ahead thirty yards and hovered by a doorway, waiting for Adam to catch up.
“What’s this building?” Adam asked. He wasn’t expecting an answer; the module had been increasingly tight-lipped over the past few days, ignoring Adam’s attempts to engage him in conversation, hoping to get more intel on the orb’s mission.
This was once the research headquarters for Aris artifacts. Aric Jroshin worked from here. It was from the vault that he took his items to store on Liave-3.
Adam looked up at the edifice, making a quick count of the floors. At least twenty, and these were Gracilian floors, which made the building more comparable to a thirty-story Human building.
“I take it there’s more stuff in the vault than just what Jroshin took. What else is in it?”
I do not know, although I suspect.
The pair entered the building, and Kanan led Adam to a stairwell. Power hadn’t been restored to the building; even so, Adam was surprised when Kanan moved to the higher levels. He assumed the vault would be in the basement. Instead, it was somewhere on the upper floors.
“I’m confused,” Adam said. “You don’t know what’s in the vault? But you can teleport through any material. Haven’t you been inside?”
The exterior is protected by an interphase field. I know you know what that is since your mutants used it against my warships.
Adam laughed. “Sounds like the Gracilians didn’t trust you. That must have pissed you off.”
They had their reasons. But now, I have the key. I will be able to gain access.
“How can the interphase field still be active with the power off to the building?”
The vault has a backup source of power, independent of the city’s power grid. Now stop your questioning. It is annoying.
They climbed the rest of the floors in silence until exiting the stairwell on the nineteenth floor. Adam reasoned the vault must not be that big. The building was tall and narrow. He began to wonder how many artifacts could be stored here. He knew they had three dark matter collectors, which didn’t take up much room. What else could there be? And what was this thing Kanan suspected was there but wasn’t sure. Adam grinned. If it wasn’t here, then the service module wasted his fleet for nothing.
It wasn’t much of a leap to figure that the wide, grey wall with the vault-like door set in it was the vault. There were no hinges on the door, just a thin seam outlining its existence. And in the center of the door was a star-shaped cut-out, about six inches in diameter.
Place the case on the floor and then step back.
Adam obeyed. Kanan dropped down until he was only an inch or two from the top of the case. Internal servos began to hum within the case, and a moment later, the lid separated slightly from the base.
Open it.
Adam was curious about what was inside, so he bent over with enthusiasm, opening the case.
Inside was a bed of insulating, foam-like material, black in color, and with a golden object embedded in the center of the pad. It was star-shaped, with a round center and five radiating arms that didn’t come to points, but rather blunt ends.
Place the key in the holder on the door.
Adam took the object in his hand.
“Again, I’m confused. If this lock is electronic, can’t you just hack into it?”
I could circumvent the system if the Gracilians had not pre-planned for such an event. All the circuits terminate at the location of the key. Only by inserting this particular object can the locking mechanism be deactivated, and the interphase field turned off.
“So, once the key is in the door, you don’t actually need to open the door, do you?”
I do if I expect you to remove the Formation for me.
Chapter 20
The way the word Formation sounded in Adam’s mind made him believe it was capitalized.
“The Formation? What’s that?”
It is why we are here. I knew the Gracilians recovered a part of the Formation some time ago; however, I realized they did not have all of it. Then talk began of other discoveries. Since it was in fragments, they did not know what they had at the time. It requires all the parts of the Formation to make it work. Rumors said that containers holding the disks were placed within the vault—this vault. Adam felt Kanan laugh in his mind. All along the Gracilians believed they were keeping the dark matter accumulators from me when they had no idea what incredible power they had within their grasp.
“Again, what is the Formation?” Adam ventured to ask. What the hell, Kanan might tell him.
Its function and origin are far beyond your capacity to comprehend. Now step back. The door is about to open.
The thick, metal panel moved silently, extending out from the wall before slipping to the side. Lights popped on inside the vault, confirming Adam’s belief that the room wasn’t very big. But for its size, it was packed full of a hodge-podge of miscellaneous items, and without apparent organization. For all the reverence Kanan placed on the vault, Adam thought it looked more like someone’s unkempt garage, with crap thrown helter-skelter, rather than a repository for the lost relics of the greatest civilization in galactic history. Parallel aisles separated the clutter from other clutter made up of crates, glass boxes and racks piled high with an assortment of old, musty and even encrusted artifacts.
“This is where you hope to find the ultimate power in the galaxy?” Adam asked with a laugh.
That is an apt description, Adam Cain. Now follow me inside.
So, this Formation thing isn’t very big, Adam reasoned, keeping his thoughts to himself. And it certainly wasn’t afforded a place of prestige within the disorganized mess, that was for sure.
Kanan floated forward; Adam followed.
Over here, removed this stack.
Adam moved a pile of smaller cases and set them on a shelf of a nearby rack. Kanan dropped down lower and scanned the contents of the open container.
No, move on.
Adam noticed a long metal rod, coated in the same green patina as Kanan. He picked it up.
“What’s this?” he asked. “It looks like it’s made out of the same stuff as you are?”
Set that down. It is a memory rod for a source module. It is hardly made of the same material as I am. It is simply old.
Adam shrugged and set the four-foot-long-rod ba
ck on the pile.
He passed three of the missing dark matter collectors, imagining how much destructive power they contained. Two-hundred seventy cubes; holy crap! If they were placed in sequence and the microscopic dark matter particles made to spin, the resulting event could suck the entire Milky Way Galaxy into the resulting singularity. Adam shuddered, awed by the incredible potential of the cubes that were only three feet away. Power enough to destroy a galaxy.
And supposedly, what Kanan was looking for was even more powerful than that.
This crate, move it aside, Kanan ordered.
Adam moved along the narrow aisle until he came to the crate. It wasn’t heavy, but it did take hands and arms to move. Adam snickered at the helpless orb. Not as powerful as you think you are, dickhead, he thought—to himself.
Yes, open the case.
“This is it, the Formation?” Adam asked.
No, it is not; however, it is still something quite interesting. Service modules had these … before.
Within the case were hundreds of tiny shiny metal cubes, each about half-an-inch square. Immediately upon opening the box, the cubes began to lift out and attach themselves to Kanan’s metal body. They appeared to be magnetic, and they built upon themselves, expanding Kanan’s body in layer upon layer like Legos, a set of silver appendages growing by the second.
I did not know they found these.
“What are they?”
As you see; accessories, designed to give added utility to the service modules.
Such as arms and hands! Adam suddenly realized. Kanan’s shape looked more like a metal octopus at this point, with the longer strings of cubes waving in the air hypnotically, taking on a life of their own.
Mesmerized, Adam began to worry about his utility.
There is more. Behind the case, move that box.
Adam stepped forward quickly, showing Kanan than he was still needed. Beyond was a brown wooden container, not much more than eight inches long and three deep.
There will be more, seven to be exact.
Adam stepped over a large crate until he could reach another stack of boxes. He began to rummage through what to him looked like junk. Even so, his efforts were rewarded when he discovered more of the containers.
There is one more. Find it! Kanan commanded.
The weird metal octopus looking over his shoulder was becoming more emotional by the second. These boxes had to hold the separate parts of the Formation, stored in ornately carved wooden containers that couldn’t possibly be made of wood. They couldn’t have lasted three billion years if they were. This was was something else.
Find it!
“I’m looking!” Adam yelled back. “Get off my back. Give me some room.”
Kanan obliged. Seven of the containers were stacked on a rack nearby with the module’s newly formed body hovering over them, three long tentacles swaying like a Hulu dancer.
Adam shuffled through the artifacts, looking for the missing container. Kanan mentioned that the Gracilians didn’t know what they had and that the parts had been found at different times. The missing box could be anywhere. In fact, there was a possibility it wasn’t even in the vault. For all anyone knew, it could have been used as a paperweight on Aric Jroshin’s desk. Adam could only hope that was the case.
Although he could anticipate what Kanan would do to him once the last box was found, he continued to search. With Kanan’s newly acquired arms, the module could carry the containers out of the vault himself. That was why when Adam saw the edge of the last container, he shifted his body around so Kanan couldn’t see.
“I think I see something over there,” Adam said, pointing to a spot on the other side of the aisle.
With his newly-acquired appendages, it was easier to see where Kanan was looking. He was still engrossed in the other containers Adam already recovered and paid the Human little attention. That was good because Adam had a plan.
Shifting his body slightly, Adam reached out and took the four-foot-long memory rod in his right hand. Then with his left, he opened the palm, concentrating on forming a static electricity ball as fast as possible. To his surprise, the object flashed into existence, catching Adam by surprise. He credited the upgraded ATD for the speed of the accumulation.
Although Kanan didn’t have eyes, he did have sensors. He noticed either the heat or the sound of the flickering ball almost the second Adam conjured it up. But then with a flick of his hand, Adam sent the blue and white shot of lightning racing toward the orb.
Kanan became enveloped in a cracking coating of electricity, his artificial limbs now gyrating wildly as several of the cubes fell off and tinkled on the metal floor of the vault.
In an instant, Adam had the four-foot-long memory rod gripped firmly by both hands, coiled and ready to go.
“Did I mention that I played baseball in high school? I was pretty good.” Adam groaned as he unleashed a homerun hitting swing at the hanging curveball that was the hovering service module.
Adam made solid contact, sending Kanan crashing to the back of the vault and throwing most—if not all—of his metal accessories cascading into the piles of ancient Aris artifacts.
Adam didn’t wait to analyze the result of his attack. He knew it probably wouldn’t kill the orb, but it felt good to be doing something. He leaned over a pile of crates and snatched up the last container holding the Formation and bolted for the exit. Through his ATD, he accessed the controls to the door. Now that the key was in the holder, the circuits were active. Mentally, Adam severed an electronic circuit, and the door began to cycle closed, tripped by an automatic response when the contact was broken. Adam prayed that this also reactivated the interphase field. If it did, then Kanan could be trapped in the vault.
A moment later, Kanan zipped through the opening, only a fraction of a second before the door closed.
Adam smirked. So much for having his prayers answered.
He scrambled for the stairwell as electric bolts splashed around him. One struck his left arm, causing his ATD to begin heating up. The quantum singularity was active, venting the energy. While in the launch bay of the dark-energy starship, Adam took three direct hits from Kanan, and yet he lived. He knew he could survive that many. He began counting, noting the grazing blow as half a hit.
Inside the stairwell, Adam made a spur of the moment decision. He headed up instead of down.
Kanan was caught off guard. He’d teleported farther down the stairs and had to adjust. Adam barreled through a door and onto the roof of the building just as Kanan appeared before him.
Instinctively, Adam lifted his arms for protection against the excruciating electric shock he knew was coming. His ATD may be able to absorb the energy, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like a bitch.
But no shock was forthcoming.
Adam squinted around his arms, seeing Kanan hovering about six feet away. What was he waiting for?
That’s when Adam realized he still had the container in his hands, using it for cover. The Formation parts must be delicate, or at least susceptible to electric shock. Kanan didn’t want to damage or destroy any of the parts.
Adam backed away.
You cannot escape, Adam Cain. Place the container on the floor, and I will allow you to live.
“Is that because you need all the parts to make your superweapon work?”
That may be so, but I will acquire the case. Does your life not have value?
“It’s because it does that I don’t trust you. Human—biologic life—means nothing to you. You cannot relate to my desire to live; you’re only promising not to kill me because that’s what you think I want to hear.”
That’s when Adam felt the sensation of suffocating again, as he had on Mt. Zocor, just as Panur activated his interphase beam. But this was different, stronger. Kanan’s metal body began to vibrate, not a lot, but enough that Adam noticed.
He looked around the rooftop frantically, seeing if Panur was there—and alive. Adam smirked. Of course, P
anur would be alive, even as Mt. Zocor evaporated. The damn mutant’s immortal. But could he have survived the dark matter event and followed Adam here? And if so, were the others alive, as well?
Adam didn’t take the time to consider any more of the possibilities. Kanan was in some kind of strong suspension field; however, the service module could still move and fire deadly electric bolts. He just couldn’t teleport. Now, it was time for Adam to find out how fast an ancient service module could fly.
Adam spun around and ran for the edge of the roof. He stumbled as he took a solid electric shot to the back, but quickly regained his balance. Without hesitation, Adam dove off the top of the twenty-story building, performing a perfect swan dive in the process.
Chapter 21
At the time, it seemed like a good idea to jump off the roof; however, Adam was having second thoughts at the moment.
Conjuring up a dense cloud of air to ride on was possible; he’d done it several times before. However, it took a lot of concentration. And at the moment, he was preoccupied, falling as he was toward the ground like a rock, and with only a couple of seconds to make whatever was going to happen happen.
He closed his eyes, hoping that that would help his concentration. All it did was make him more paranoid. The air was rushing past his ears, reminding him of where he was. He tried to let out a breath to calm himself, but that was virtually impossible. All he wanted to do was scream.
He still held the container for the Formation in one hand, thinking that he needed to create a static electricity ball in the other. But that wasn’t right. He wasn’t trying to make a ball, but a containment field, something to trap and compress the air into a near-solid form. For that, all he needed was his mind.
The image began to form in his head, that of a flying carpet of air. He felt his ATD warming up, even more than before. Something was happening, but would it happen in time?
He already felt air rushing across his face and body, the oversized Gracilian uniform flopping in the wind. Then the force became stronger. And then the sound of the rushing wind stopped. His eyes were still closed; now, he risked opening them, knowing he had to be only feet from the ground.
