The Path to Loss (Approaching Infinity Book 4)

by Chris Eisenlauer

  She struck him, turning his bone-encased head sharply to one side and setting him to drift in that direction for seconds before he stopped again.

  “Did it mean so little to you?” she snapped.

  “No!” he cried. “It meant—it means—everything to me! Everything that I can give, I’ve given. I know it isn’t enough. It kills me that it isn’t enough. I’m only thankful that you let it be for so long, but it wasn’t fair to keep taking from you.” He shook his head. “I’m so sorry, Hilene. I never wanted to hurt you. And as much as I miss you, it would be wrong to have gone on any longer. You’re angry and hurt that I didn’t fight for our relationship, but nothing would have changed if I had. You deserve more.”

  “Why? Why?” she roared, both arms shaking in demanding appeal.

  “I don’t know!” he shouted back. “Because of a ghost, Hilene. One that neither of us can fight.”

  “I would hate you if you weren’t so honest. And yet, I hate you because you’re so honest.”

  “No, you hate me because I’m broken, Hilene.”

  “Don’t say that,” she said, her voice cracking. “I don’t hate you. I can’t hate you.” She was crying now. “I miss you, probably more than you miss me.”

  He reached out, pulled her towards him, and wrapped his arms around her.

  “This is all I ask, Jav. That you not push me away. Maybe someday you’ll let me in.”

  “It’s not fair to ask that of you.”

  “It’s my decision to make.” When she heard no objection to this, she pursued further. “So you acknowledge that there’s a chance?”

  Jav sighed and said softly, “There’s always a chance, Hilene.”

  • • •

  The strut to which Nils and Icsain had been sent had broken off when the Palace struck it. The jagged end had dragged against the Palace’s exterior for several hundred meters before embedding itself within. Only part of its open end, a gaping black maw, was visible to them on this floor. Engineers on every deck worked to secure the Palace walls from the vacuum of space and those closest to the outer wall were busy cutting the strut free everywhere it penetrated. Similar work was being done on the opposite side of the Palace, further down its length, where Vays and Raus had gone.

  Nils pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he and Icsain stepped up to the breach. Artifacts went a long way to improving human beings, but defects remained defects. Nils could see without his glasses, but not as well as other Shades who were born without impairment. It mattered little to him, though, since when Dark he relied not at all on his eyesight, but on the radar sense that replaced it. Indeed, while Dark his eyes—well, he wasn’t sure what happened to them and didn’t really want to know. His power had always unsettled him a little, the way his body changed, the way it broke each time he underwent the change.

  The Alloyed Splitter, as far as he was concerned, was the best thing that ever happened to him. It made his power clean and simple. He no longer thought of how his limbs twisted and bent, how his bones ripped through his skin to form an armor shell. Now when he changed he was clean and simple steel.

  He hadn’t thought along these lines in many, many years and did so now only because he’d been paired with Icsain, who was as purely elemental as he was himself. More so, even. Nobody liked Icsain, but Nils didn’t care one way or the other. He kept to himself, socialized little, and had none of the negative interactions of which he’d heard others complain. He wondered if the latter would remain true on completion of this assignment, though.

  “In we go, Mr. Porta,” Icsain said.

  With a nod to the engineering crew, Nils went Dark. The Porta Fighter rose up and was quickly swallowed by the darkness of the protruding strut. Icsain leapt easily, following after.

  They found themselves in a stark corridor, one they assumed—based on their studies of the computer projected schematic in the Tether Launch bay—passed down the central length of the strut. Porta had no trouble navigating the zero gravity environment or the total dark in which they found themselves mere minutes after entry. Icsain, too, even without his Artifact, possessed senses that enabled him to perceive his surroundings in the absence of visible light. However, he could only rely on the Relic Cords now, in a base manner far from their intended design, to pull him along as animate ropes with no gravity to ground him.

  Perhaps two and half kilometers down the strut they made a discovery.

  “There are bodies here,” Nils said though his Artifact.

  “I am aware of that, Mr. Porta.” Icsain paused and allowed a number of his Cords to find and make contact with the bodies strewn about.

  “I guess we’re lucky none were dumped into the Palace,” Nils said.

  “Indeed, but let us first make sure that these are not Palace personnel killed and swept inside by the impact.”

  “Oh.” Then after nearly a minute of silence, Nils said, “Well?”

  “No. Most of these are long dead. I rather think that Mr. Holson and Mr. Kapler would compete for these as troops. Some, though are more recently deceased. Strange. . .”

  “What?” Nils was usually quite patient, but there was something eerie about the environment. He could detect the space that surrounded him and all objects within range of his radar with a high degree of detail, but it was not the same as sight. He’d been on many assignments and had never backed away from a single challenge, but this was the first time he found himself on what he considered to be a ghost ship and it made him nervous.

  “There is a recurring wound on the recents characterized by tightly grouped lacerations following an elliptical pattern. It is most likely a bite. The older corpses all suffered localized destruction of tissue with residual burns consistent with energy weapon discharge.”

  “Could the bites have been from scavengers?”

  “Perhaps very large scavengers. But not humans.”

  “I didn’t mean—”

  “The bite radius is too large and the wound is, in almost every case, too low.”

  “—humans.”

  • • •

  Raus and Vays found that the further they proceeded along the course of their strut the closer conditions approached one standard gravity. There were faint traces of oxygen remaining as well, but neither were in need of it while Dark. Their passage had been difficult at first because of the absence of gravity, but both had made due, Raus by means of a constant static charge, Vays by willing hooked spikes to issue from the soles of his heavy, metal boots. The floor of the corridor they travelled showed a fresh trail of ruin where Vays had been up until the gravity was sufficient to keep him down, but aside from that, the strut, if this corridor was representative, was in fairly good repair and only gave the appearance of having been long-abandoned, at least for the kilometer they’d traveled so far.

  “You know,” Vays said, “the last time I investigated a derelict facility, I got blown up by Gun Golems.”

  Raus snorted. “Is there anything we should be looking for? Should we be checking other levels?”

  Vays shrugged. “You have been, haven’t you? No corpses so far, right? If this strut had been inhabited—even by squatters—when we struck it, we’d be seeing some morbid results.

  “The air’s gotten thicker, though. And warmer. Can you hear that?”

  Raus paused and tried to listen carefully. “A generator?”

  “Looks like there’s some light up ahead,” Vays said.

  “Hey, yeah,” Raus said, squinting. “And some structural damage.”

  As they proceeded down the corridor, they noted how the ceiling had been torn away, leaving an edge like torn paper, black with scorch marks and which rose ever higher into the vault. The walls to either side were gone now. The floor to the right, immediately beyond the corridor’s width, was one level lower, while that to the left seemed altogether absent, making a yawning chasm of inscrutable blackness. Neither could shrug off the feeling that they were walking within a vast underground cavern i
nstead of a hollowed out steel shell in the emptiness of intergalactic space.

  The corridor was now a raised walkway. Both Shades turned in circles, continuing, and tried to peer through the depths to take in all that surrounded them. The sound they’d heard was louder here and coming from below. It pulsed with a clear rhythm and was accompanied by a weak glow that dimmed and brightened in synchronization. When the glow came, it gave hints of what the cavern-like environment housed at its borders.

  Raus stopped for a moment and stared up into the pitchy heights. He could make out long, narrow beams depending from the ceiling or some network connected to it. These had probably been supports for other levels, but their outlines were irregular. He wondered if it were due to superheating—if something had blasted the interior of the strut to this condition—or corrosion or something else. And then he thought he saw movement there.

  Something had caught Vays’s attention as well. He’d paused further down the walkway and was staring towards the lesser chasm to the right. The source of the intermittent glow suffusing the space, they now realized, was ascending. More and more of the light shone above the walkway, dimly exposing the recesses of the cavernous hall to their superior senses with each pulse. Vays saw the right wall, far away and partly blotted by his own immense shadow, and tried to make sense of its mottled appearance. There were thousands upon thousands of nodules, which at first he mistook for beads of cooled and hardened molten metal, but which he could no longer deny were squirming with life.

  There was a shuffling sound from above as the glow light faded and its source began the cycle of descent. Raus watched countless indistinct shapes raining down from the beams above until they were too close to focus properly and he was beset. He felt teeth sink into his breast, into his left thigh, and into his right calf. He felt soft, fleshy scrabbling things snagged or repelled by the bolts running along the backs of his arms, but no teeth assailed either of those limbs. He felt instantly dizzy as powerful suction drew his blood out through his three sets of wounds. He took a step back and managed to focus his vision on what was fastened to his chest.

  A quadruped with a squat, one-meter-long body, translucent skin, and strangely hooked claws stared up at him pumping blood through its locked jaws into its body. Raus could see the fluid rushing beneath the creature’s skin to fill pods upon its back which swelled like balloons with his blood until the creature itself suddenly exploded like an overfilled balloon. He dropped to one knee as similar fates befell the other two creatures attached to him. He was wet with gore, teeth still lodged in his skin or clinging to him by virtue of the sticky mess. Upon the walkway, the pods—a total of thirty-eight—were writhing sluggishly, sprouting short, stubby legs, stretching their snouts to the various scents nearby, and working their jaws with little teeth poking through glistening gums. He noted that their sluggishness was probably more due to the nature of his blood than to the fact that they were newborns. They were grayer than their parents and looked dead already, though they continued to grow and move about slowly.

  Raus stood shakily, wiping the muck from him with several sweeps of each hand. He glanced at Vays who appeared to have been shocked into inaction. “I’ll keep the current low, but I’m turning it on whether or not you’re in range.”

  “Yeah, sure. Whatever,” Vays said. Several of the full-grown creatures surrounded him and were attempting, unsuccessfully, to bite through the armor of the Titan Star.

  Electric current enveloped Raus and filled the air for several meters around with small, bright free-floating arcs that lit the immediate area to sudden brilliance. Many of the full-grown creatures subjected to the current blackened and died, smoking with a distinct and foul odor, but just as many panted and exploded when the pods on their backs expanded enough to complete the reproductive cycle.

  “That confirms it,” Vays said. “You’re a father.”

  Raus lowered his head in defeat.

  Vays sighed, and after pulling the Titan Saber free from his helmet, he proceeded to stick as many of the creatures with its point as he could reach. These, as well as those still living, he kicked from the walkway, sending them squealing into the black depths. Once again he turned in a circle, this time to take in the sheer scale of the nest in which they found themselves.

  Vays reported their findings and concerns through the Tether Launch control. If any of the creatures had found their way into the Palace at or around the time of impact, they might be looking at a potential infestation. There had been no reports at either of the breach sites of any such creature, but that meant little. There were plenty of places for them to hide, on purpose or by accident.

  10,810.302.0745

  Jav and Hilene had encountered nothing in the transit tube, but had come to the end of the line. A massive wall, dotted with sealed access ways, greeted them. One of these access ways was open and led to a corridor along with the beginnings of artificial gravity. After several hundred meters, the corridor broke into a vast chamber. They listened to Vays’s report as they entered and were struck by the similarities between what he was describing and what they were seeing. Before Vays was finished, Jav and Hilene were set upon. Fat shapes darted from the shadows, but neither felt the bite of teeth. Though the creatures were fast when hungry, the Shades were faster. Jav caught one in the air by the throat, breaking its neck with only the sudden reversal of velocity. He flung this away, and rent another with a claw hand. Their own little claws enabled them to cling to steel, it seemed, and they were leaping from all heights, including from the ceiling. Hilene ran her spear hands through several before the attacks required her to use the Ten Deaths as an expedient.

  The chamber had walls which pulsed with glistening life. They understood that this was due to the translucent skin catching the feeble light from the disused but still tenable systems. Thousands if not millions of the creatures clung to the walls, still dormant and ignorant of their presence, though many yet remained which sought to reproduce.

  Jav and Hilene shared a moment of unspoken communication—something that had become somewhat routine with them in certain circumstances—and slaughtered in silence every creature that came at them and any that stirred from slumber.

  To maintain silence, Jav spoke through his Artifact. “What do you think, Hilene? Can we get through without waking the whole nest?”

  “Yes. Or at least I could. But what would be the fun in that? Or the point?”

  Jav nodded. “Let’s head back.”

  When they’d gotten far enough away from the nest, Jav used his Tether Launch control to contact Witchlan and the other Shades. “Minister, I realize that you must be very busy at the moment, but how close are we to freeing the Vine from the struts?”

  “The quadrant-four breach, which we assume was not infected with grotesque little quadrupeds, is clear and closed off with temporary seals. Demolition crews have planted charges to reduce any potential threat the strut might offer through further drift,” Witchlan said. “The quadrant two breach is taking more time.”

  “Minister, please hold off on the explosives. The fastest way back for Icsain and Nils is the way they came. Nils, Icsain, hurry back. Identify your re-entry point and coordinate with engineering crews to minimize damage. Raus, Vays, you two head back as well.”

  • • •

  Though it had only been hours since the collision, word of the little monsters had in fact come a bit late to the Palace. Several of them had been wandering the corridors of the strut and had been drawn to the break by simple inertia along with the outrush of air. Most of these were pulverized either by impacting into any number of obstacles, or by being ground between steel and the hard skin of the Vine, but three living specimens had managed to drift through the ruptured strut into the Root Palace. Finding gravity and purchase for their little claws, they sought out the nearest source of warmth. They, like most living things, were possessed of the biological imperative to reproduce and so continued on in the vein that had sent them from their
nest in the first place.

  The bodies of their first two victims were hidden, not through cunning but by circumstance, under fallen debris in a largely inaccessible cavity overlooked by the engineers and repair crews. There was a power junction there, tended to by the two dead technicians, which attracted the third creature since no other living prey remained nearby. Thus it was that a small colony of the little creatures came into being in a very short time. Feeding off the remains of their parents and the power supplied by the chewed-through live wire issuing from the junction, they multiplied and soon could be counted in the hundreds. They crammed the hemmed-in space, clinging to the walls and every other surface, giving the appearance of a polyp-ridden membrane, which pulsed in waves with their breathing. Some still vied for access to the junction, but the majority slipped into hibernation, lulled by a synchronous heartbeat and made insensible by the pleasant warmth of proximity. Some could not find a comfortable place to settle, though, and these set off singly on lone quests for food and reproduction as their forebears had, exiting through gaps in the debris further into the Palace.

  One of these strays happened upon a repair crew consisting of ten men. Now, those who made their lives in the Palace, despite being on the Empire’s ever-expanding frontier, were not accustomed to up-close encounters with alien life of any sort—that was the bailiwick of Shades, who saw that all such life was wiped out before any normal stepped foot beyond the Palace walls. So when a member of the crew spotted the creature moving beneath some fallen partitions, he was stunned into mute fascination. Acting on his curiosity, he approached the waddling creature, bending to get a closer look. Busy with their own tasks, his fellows paid no attention to his distraction, and he gave no alert as the creature leapt at his bent form, latching onto his neck and chest with its powerful jaws, crushing his vocal cords and snapping his cervical vertebrae with the same locking bite.