“-Told you it wasn’t a good idea.-”
The cuttlefish fired again, this time aiming in front of the smaller Yuon Kwon. The blasts exploded in the thin alleyway ahead, and Felix instinctively made a hard kick-turn to avoid the rain of debris.
“Smooth,” Jack said, and the flyer cooed in response. “I’m all out of ideas, little buddy, so if you’ve got something, I’d love to see it.”
Felix asserted control and came to a halt, then ducked into a deeply shadowed overhang.
“What are we doing?” Lisa asked.
“Not sure,” Jack replied, “but for right now, just have a little faith.”
And they waited for the tiny flyer to make its move.
***
Armed resistance thickened the closer Kai got to the heart of the reactor complex. The cunning bastards had figured out his destination, and fell back behind barricades to wait for him. Every new tunnel was a trap filled with hot lead, and they were taking their toll.
Kai had done an admirable job avoiding their shots, but he could only do so much in tight confines, and now had several bullets lodged in his flesh. His muscles were adaptive, able to reroute around damaged areas and retain functionality, but every bullet also tore swaths out of his uniform, ruining his camouflage. He was becoming an easier target.
Running at maximum output was wearing on him, too. His body temperature hit dangerous levels, and his muscles were cannibalizing themselves for fuel. He was nearing his breaking point, and oddly glad for the challenge.
The deep red lights in this section strobed, and geysers of steam sprayed out from bundles of thick pipes. Kai sprinted down the tunnel, listening to the muffled sound of his feet hitting the floor. A junction loomed up ahead, and his cheerful mission computer was confident the turn led to the control room.
“So I should expect another barricade?”
“But of course, Sinit,” the computer replied. “How exciting!”
“Yes, terribly,” Kai said. “No easy way past.”
As he approached, the fingers of both hands keyed command sequences into his palms, then he curled his left hand into a fist. That hand’s knuckle-guard crackled with energy, while his camouflage faded and began to glow white. It grew brighter until even the light reflecting off the walls was almost too bright to look at.
He ran straight by the corridor and stopped on the other side, out of sight. The rhythmic bark of automatic weapons started and didn’t stop, while shouts of confusion and panic sounded over the roar.
When there was a lull, Kai went back. They were reloading. He jumped at the far wall, planted his heels and thrust against it, rocketing back down the opposite hall like a missile. Blind fire whizzed by and ricocheted around, but little of it came anywhere near him.
He struck the barricade fist first, and his knuckle-guard discharged into the metal. What was solid before became molten liquid spraying out in every direction. The super-heated steel coated the blinded soldiers, and they screamed as they fell to the ground.
Kai landed on the far side sprinted on, whispering an apology to Jack and his noble cause.
***
The cuttlefish hunted in erratic patterns, trying to figure out where its target had slipped off to. All the while, Felix shadowed its every move, hidden just a few meters behind and below. The cuttlefish had a blind spot, and Felix knew exactly how to exploit it.
After a few minutes of fruitless searching, the larger Yuon Kwon broke off and headed back toward the center of the city, apparently satisfied that his target had been destroyed. Jack and Felix followed.
“You’re much more clever than I suspected,” Jack whispered, and Felix purred at his approval.
The fact that the cuttlefish was headed toward the nerve center was a little too lucky in Jack’s opinion, though. The last time he encountered luck like that, things didn’t work out very well, and he wondered what sort of curve ball the universe was about throw him.
The cuttlefish led them right up to the nerve center and then inside, where it finally disappeared into a darkened tunnel while Jack and Felix continued toward the heart. The inside of the nerve bundle was quiet and calm. There was no hint of the distant battle, or buzzing from the Sey Chen as charmed the miniature stars outside. It was peaceful there, and in the midst of mortal combat, that was even more alien.
They came to the core of the Yuon Kwon in no time at all. It was a round chamber shaped like a pumpkin, with bulbous alcoves along the outer wall. At the center of the room was a cradle like those found in every Yuon Kwon, but regal and ornate like a medieval throne. It was set into the floor, and surrounded by a ring of outgrowths shaped like kneeling worshipers.
Felix set down and released his grip on Jack, who stepped out with the others and walked cautiously across the floor.
The silence was deafening.
The others followed behind as he approached the cradle, step by shaking step. The pilot within was very old, his skin hanging loose and wrinkled, and covered with twisting tattoos and strange writing.
Jack had a feeling like when he accidentally walked in on his parents as a kid. He was somewhere he didn’t belong, interrupting something he wasn’t supposed to see.
He stepped between the outgrowths in the floor, reached out and placed his hand on the pilot’s shoulder. It craned its head back from the cradle and looked at him with it’s single, monstrous eye. There was no fear in that eye, only hatred.
“-Remove yourself or be removed,-” Jack said in their language.
The pilot spat on him. At the same time, the room’s defenses moved into position and targeted the group at its center. Jack raised his .45 and put a round in the pilot’s head with one quick motion, and the defenses fell limp.
He didn’t relish it, but it had to be done. There were lives to save.
The cradle relaxed and the pilot’s lifeless body slid free. Dojer dragged the corpse away with a grimace on his face, while Jack stepped forward and prepared to link up.
“Are you sure about this?” Charlie asked.
“Not at all,” Jack said, “but it’s a little too late to change my mind.”
He wiped the pilots green blood from the cradle, then hunkered down into it and pressed his arms into the gaping orifices. The apparatus tightened around him, and his world disappeared.
***
The reactor control room was full of workers when Kai arrived, but the sight of him riddled with bullet-holes and covered in blood was enough to send them running. He sealed the door behind them and went to work.
He reached behind a terminal and grabbed hold of a shielded cable. He scraped its insulation away to reveal the bare wire within, then lifted a tiny probe from his wrist computer and placed it on the metal.
“Alright, I’m analyzing the network traffic,” the mission computer said. “This will take a moment, Sinit.”
“That’s fine,” he said, “no rush or anything.”
While the AI did its work, Kai slumped down against the wall and tried to catch his breath. His body was on fire and he couldn’t focus his eyes.
“Got it. I’m simulating the client interface and probing their network architecture. How interesting. There are nodes here that were definitely not designed by humans. No matter. I’ve finished mapping the network topology and have acquired root access. Shall I initiate self-destruct, Sinit?”
“Yes,” he said. “Set it for twenty minutes, and revoke all client credentials except your own.”
Emergency klaxons rang throughout the Ark. The computer went on, “Done and done, Sinit. I feel as though I should mention that I’ve calculated Jack Hernandez’s probability of success, and it is vanishingly small. Yet I notice you’re not moving.”
Kai laughed. “Good observation.”
“The foreign hardware has substantially increased their thermonuclear device’s yield. My estimates show that the detonation will annihilate everything inside of this base and for some distance beyond.”
“And?”
“Ahem. That includes you, Sinit.”
“It does.”
“So, you intend to die here?”
“I believe so.”
“You swore to fight the Nefrem to the last drop of your blood, did you not?”
“I did, but look where that got me. I’m responsible for the death of eight billion humans. I’ve done the Nefrem’s work for them.”
“And I will be destroyed as well. The sum of Somari knowledge will be lost and gone forever. Your people will be dead and forgotten, Kai.”
“Maybe it’s time.”
“Perhaps it is at that,” the AI said with resignation. After a pregnant pause, it added, “This has been a very long and strange journey, hasn’t it?”
“It has, but don’t worry,” Kai said to his computer, “it’ll be over soon.”
With that, Kai closed his eyes and tried to relax while the end approached.
Chapter 51:
Symphony
Jack mysteriously found himself alone, standing in a circular room ringed with windows, revealing nothing but whiteness beyond. The floor and ceiling were perfectly reflective, creating a vertical hall of mirrors with Jack trapped in the middle.
He was confused, and getting a little tired of it.
“Hello,” he called out, and his voice echoed back at him. “Is anyone here?”
He walked, but after a few steps, he was pretty sure he hadn’t gone anywhere. He felt like he was moving, but the windows were no closer than before. He ran but with the same result.
He cupped his hands to his mouth and called out, “Hello!?”
There was no response.
His imagination flared. Maybe he never escaped the prison. Maybe they’d been inside his head all along, and the past couple weeks were nothing but an illusion. They showed him the door, and he happily led them straight back to the Ark.
He needed to get a grip. One way or another, the world he was in had to be an illusion. It was a false veneer, hiding something important. What was it?
He tried to recall the past couple hours, but the memories were slick and difficult to get a hold of. They were loose, and came apart like over-boiled meat.
If he could only concentrate, he might be able to figure it out. He closed his eyes, metered his breathing and tried to focus on a single point. His inner voice ran non-stop, full of panic and distress, but he focused and tried to let go. Just let it go.
He breathed in and out, and perfect silence came to him for just an instant. There was peace, and he felt the other there with him. The other was massive and powerful beyond belief.
He opened his eyes and the room was gone, replaced by the simultaneous view from ten thousand eyes, stitched together into a bewildering panorama. A battle raged all around, and flying objects wove complex patterns through the air. Jack felt and saw them all at once, and it was too much. Pain clawed into his head like a hot dagger.
He screamed.
The circular room returned, with its windows looking out on nothingness. It was filled with silence, as a glass overflowing with water. He was alone again, even though he knew the other was there.
He heard another voice in the distance that just barely crept above the silence. “Jack?” the voice said full of worry, “are you okay?”
“I think so,” he said, or maybe he didn’t. He was so confused. “I don’t know.”
He was in some kind of cell, but he wasn’t sure whether it was for the other’s safety, or his own. Maybe both.
“We don’t have much time,” the distant voice said.
Images flashed by so quickly he couldn’t make any of them out, like someone fanned a photo album in front of his face. When the images were gone, he was left with a dull, metallic taste in his mouth.
None of it added up.
He closed his eyes and said, “Again.”
The images flashed by, still too quickly for him to make sense of.
“Slower,” he said. “I can’t keep up.”
They came again, but this time he caught sight of a few. Vessels like sea-shells, being torn apart in space by invaders. The images flew through his head again and again, until they finished with a roar that knocked Jack off his feet.
When he opened his eyes, he was still standing. The other had shown him an invasion. It was a war against an unstoppable enemy who ate the dead.
Jack could feel the other’s anger. It was all around him, a giant set of jaws that were slowly closing. He was on trial.
He closed his eyes again and concentrated, but this time had a different focus. His thoughts were still slippery, but he reached down into them and dragged out every memory he could find. He brought to mind the face of every man, woman and child he’d helped during his career with the Corps. Every sad refugee and bleeding wound. Every last one. It got easier as he went, and soon the images came on their own.
Then he changed course, veering into the wastes of China where the aliens built piles of the dead and left them to rot. He remembered the family he found in the cellar, and all the refugees who joined his pilgrimage to the West. He remembered his first glimpse of blue sky after months traveling through the dust, and the pain he felt when he learned his whole world had been smashed apart.
Finally, he remembered standing in the alien city, willing to kill his own rather than let the enemy’s innocent children die.
Then he was back in that damn silence filled room. At least he knew why he was there, now.
“You’ve done to us what they did to you. Are you satisfied now?”
His voice didn’t echo this time. It stopped dead.
“Are you listening to me?”
He closed his eyes and sought out the silence, and just like last time, the ten thousand eyes all over the creature flooded into him, but this time he was ready. The pain struck, and he felt like white water rapids were trying to sweep him away, but he clung on and focused. Focused.
There. He fought against the tide and shut out all the other eyes. He found the one he wanted. Out beyond the battle line, a hundred million human refugees streamed out of the Ark. They were running for their lives, and would never make it far enough in time. Neither would any of the soldiers still fighting on the line.
Jack imagined a white hot blast followed by a mushroom cloud, and hoped the image was clear enough.
The other turned from anger to panic. It couldn’t understand why. It dug through Jack’s head trying to find an answer, but he held the answer close and wouldn’t let it out. He wanted to let the other sweat for a little while.
Then he spoke slowly, unsure of precisely how the other understood him. “Because this war will destroy us all. It will slowly bleed both sides dry until there’s no one left to bury the dead.”
The other listened.
“Unless we can find some kind of peace. Some way to work together. All I’ve done is make the threat more immediate, and now you have an opportunity to change the rules of the game. You can save millions of innocent lives from their own weapon, and create an opportunity to build a different tomorrow. Together.”
It wasn’t sure.
“Neither am I, but the only other option is to do nothing and watch everyone die. I’m not convinced that’s such a bad idea, but the choice is yours.”
It wanted to know how.
Jack imagined the silver robed Sey Chen all throughout the city, gathered in crowds around their miniature stars. Then he brought to mind an image of their shiny defensive membranes.
Jack’s mind was suddenly flooded with information from all over the Yuon Kwon, and he cried out. The other stopped, and Jack was back in the safe-room.
“Not all at once. I need you to help me.”
All was quiet for a moment, and then the other tried again but with only a trickle instead of a flood, while Jack gritted his teeth and held on for dear life. It wasn’t enough. He couldn’t keep his head above water. He was swept away against his best efforts, and the two became one.
Chapter 52:
The Quiet
Amira Saladin stopped firing as the humongous alien disc flew overhead and filled the sky. Its passing was followed by a pressure wave that knocked everyone—human and alien alike—off their feet. At the same time, all of the shiny metallic bubbles disappeared from around her opponents, leaving them unshielded. Something was happening. Something important.
“What’s going on?” she demanded over the command channel.
The channel was full of chatter and she couldn’t tell if anyone answered. Then she noticed a group of words that kept repeating. “Nuke. Get down!”
She crawled toward the edge of the battlement and watched the disc go by, then saw the wave of panicked refugees flooding across the burnt landscape between the Ark and their line. More came out of the fortress every second. It was a stampede, and it was coming right for her.
Then she saw the most amazing and inexplicable thing she could ever imagine. Bolts of lightning crawled all over the Ark, and the metal hatches began to glow red. The disc stopped above it, and thousands upon thousands of liquid metal tentacles reached down and stabbed into the hillside. They tore through the fortress, rooted around inside and came back with a dense chunk of over-wrought machinery covered in billowing clouds of steam.
The bolts of lightning clung to that machine, as if trying to drag it back into the hole.
With the machine held beneath it, the disc blasted up into the heavens and disappeared. A moment later, the sky was filled with a blinding flash as intense as the midday sun. Sal hadn’t seen anything remotely like it since she was five years old, when the Sirius supernova filled the sky.
Seconds later, she realized how close to being annihilated they had all come. Judging by the quiet all along the line, she wasn’t alone in that.
***
Space. The upper edge of the atmosphere was so pristine and beautiful. So empty, perfect and still.
Amiasha Aum-Samaraya had barely escaped the terrible explosion. The Sey Chen within had worked their magics and shielded him from most of the blast, but he was still badly wounded. His outer shell was cracked and smoking, and there was so much pain everywhere, outside and in, that he could think of nothing else.
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