Legacy

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  As interesting as they were, his mind was distracted by the pulsing of a triad of brainwaves in the centre of the chamber. The Three were standing around a dais of holograms, all plugged into the central console by a web of nanocelium tubes.

  They were grotesque.

  One was similar to a giant bug, with horrific mandibles and terrible scars. Another was simply a car-sized slug with nanocelium veins. The third stood upright with two arms and legs, but Kalian didn’t recognise the species it had chosen for its host body.

  Their intelligent brains pulsed outwards, visible to Kalian as golden waves that formed glowing orbs of light. He couldn’t help himself. With an astral finger, he dipped his own consciousness into the bipedal Kellekt. Although jarring, this wasn’t a new experience to Kalian, who had performed this very feat before inside Li’ara’s mind, and it was a close variation on the form of communication he shared with Sef, but this creature wasn’t quite the same anymore. Its brainwaves were part alien and part human, and it was old, ancient in fact.

  There were whole sections of the alien mind that rejected the intrusion, but the human parts felt like infinite-archives of data. There were so many memories he couldn’t filter them all, or keep them back for that matter. Flashes of the Kellekt dominated Kalian’s astral view, filling his head with images of worlds long consumed and forgotten by the rest of the universe. He wanted to dip farther and explore the memories at the bottom, hoping to glimpse something of the original Evalan, before the creation of nanocelium.

  The Kellekt’s conscious mind flared like a beacon, drawing him in like a moth to a flame. Kalian could see the barrier between him and the biped’s active mind, where its thoughts and feelings lived. If he pushed through to that place… could he communicate with them?

  The curious nature that would forever live inside all humans, be they Terran, Gomar, or from Evalan, pushed Kalian to investigate further. He probed the light and felt his own consciousness being absorbed by the Kellekt. It was a struggle to maintain some semblance of control and remind himself of who he was. Swimming into the storm, he could feel thousands of eyes on him.

  This is most impressive, came a voice from the shadows.

  “Wait until you see what I do next,” Kalian replied.

  The Heretic has made great strides in altering our original DNA, the Kellekt continued. But no level of evolution will surpass our own. You will be harvested and added to our collection like everything else before you.

  “You’re attacking your own descendants!” Kalian argued. “We’ve all come from the same place.”

  I was born on Evalan during a time in which the universe could be called young. You and the rest of the Heretic’s experiments were born on a variety of planets in a different galaxy, eons after my time. There is no connection between us, Kalian Gaines.

  “So you’re the evolved ones?” Kalian asked sarcastically. “The ones who trample over the universe, destroying anything that is deemed less intelligent.”

  The universe is a well of knowledge very few are worthy of. We have fought off others over the countless millennia who would collect it all for themselves. We always emerged the victor. We will consume everything this universe has to offer.

  “Then what?” Kalian asked the storm around him. “You’ll preside over an empty universe like gods?”

  When this universe has yielded all of its secrets… we will simply move on to the next.

  That wasn’t even a concept Kalian had given any thought to. The Kellekt were so powerful and intelligent that it was only a matter of time before they figured out how to navigate the multiverse. How many universes, how many civilisations and families would be consumed by their hunger before someone finally stopped them?

  If they could be stopped. Kalian would soon learn the outcome of his own plan.

  We are surprised by your presence here, the voice said. You have always displayed a sacrificial nature when it came to your mate, yet now you leave her to die.

  That grabbed every scrap of Kalian’s attention. He released his hold on the universe and reality snapped back in an instant. Back in his physical body, his eyes opened to ALF’s gloomy bridge where he could see Evalan beyond. Without a care, Kalian launched himself forward into flight, damaging the railing and the walkway before he punched through the glass viewport.

  ALF screamed something in alarm, but Kalian missed his exact words, noting only that the AI remained safe thanks to his nanocelium tethers. The Forge erected a small force field to fix the jagged breach in the viewport and maintain the pressure inside the bridge.

  By the time ALF was stabilised in his harness, Kalian was already halfway back to New Genesis. Evalan swelled in front of him until he could see nothing but cloud cover.

  He was coming in fast.

  Li’ara was left with no choice but to usher the family into the main street now. The Starforge was so close, but they could only access it if they left the narrow alleys and the safety of the buildings.

  She ran out first, firing her rifle at the Shay who were only around the corner. Blood splattered across her suit and face as her trigger finger maintained its pressure.

  “Come on!” she called.

  The family followed her out and she caught sight of more Shay coming up the alley behind them. Li’ara hung back and threw her last grenade into the narrow space before running to catch up with the family. The explosion sent limbs and debris into the road, bombarding the Shay already sprinting towards them.

  “Keep running!” Li’ara ordered.

  There were no more Walkers in sight and the Gomar were busy taking down the towers surrounding the city. The Starforge, however, was in front of them and the last few of their population were running through. Captain Fey remained by the side of the machine, gesturing for them all to get through. She saw Li’ara and the family and waved for them to run faster.

  Li’ara glanced over her shoulder and saw the horde had tripled in size. The infected aliens were gnashing their cybernetic teeth and clawing at the ground to get at them. She fired her rifle over her shoulder, putting round upon round into the masses with little need to aim. The family had made it into the gardens now and were only metres away from the wormhole, but pausing to fire over her shoulder had slowed down Li’ara.

  The horde was right behind her now.

  The gardens were so close, but she couldn’t hear the wormhole over the screeching, an unnatural sound for any Shay. They were like animals who had found their first scrap of food for months.

  Then she saw them…

  A group of four Shay who had found a way into the northern quadrant and were entering the gardens from the east. All four of them were holding C-Sec rifles. Li’ara could see the aliens taking aim at Captain Fay and the family, who were unaware of the danger they were in. She had a choice to make, a decision that only took her half a second to make. Rather than keep running and firing roughly in their direction, Li’ara stopped, levelled her rifle, and squeezed the trigger four times. Every shot blasted one of the Shay each, knocking them down or injuring them and stealing their attention.

  Li’ara had just enough time to turn back and see the horrific fate that awaited her. The horde of Shay were so close that the nearest were already leaping through the air to take her down. She had heard many times that people saw their lives flash before their eyes in the moment of their death. That didn’t happen. As it was, there wasn’t any part of Li’ara Ducarté that was willing to accept death was imminent. Instead of showing her glimpses of the past, her mind unleashed a feral state that would see her fight tooth and nail to the very end.

  Kalian was moving so fast now that any sound he made was left far behind. He approached New Genesis from the north, flying low to bring himself between the buildings and directly into the main street. The Starforge and last remaining survivors were running through the wormhole in slow motion, but his immediate attention was on Li’ara, who was just outside the edge of the gardens and seconds away from being mobbed by
wild Shay.

  Gritting his teeth, Kalian touched down on the gelcrete with the force of a god. He focused his power in one direction, slamming the horde of Shay with a wave of hardened air that threw them all backwards. Before any of their infected bodies could touch the ground, half a dozen of the Gomar landed amidst the horde and added their own power to the bombardment.

  It was the sound of a single Intrinium round that made Kalian freeze.

  He whipped his head around and felt his whole world slipping out from under him. Li’ara’s face slowly lost all expression as she crumpled to the ground, blood spreading across her chest. Beyond her in the gardens, a lone Shay stood with a levelled rifle and a smoking barrel.

  Kalian reached out for Li’ara with one hand while the other gestured towards the lone Shay. As he caught her limp body, his free hand formed a tight fist and the Shay’s body burst apart, rifle and all.

  “Li’ara!” Kalian fell into a crouch and held her in his arms. “Li’ara…”

  His Terran mind soon found the damage inside her body. The Intrinium round had found a gap in her armoured plates and blasted part of her ribcage, taking a chunk of her heart with it.

  She wasn’t moving.

  “Li’ara!” Kalian had seen the expression of a dead person far too many times, but his brain couldn’t reconcile what he knew with what he was seeing.

  Her green eyes were looking back at him, but there was no life behind them. Her unique brainwaves were nowhere to be found, offering him no way of getting inside of her. She was gone. Li’ara was gone…

  The sound of the crazed Shay rang in his ears as they challenged the Gomar behind him. Kalian could only hold Li’ara close, his emotions stuck somewhere between despair and rage. Their screeches assaulted his ears and the sounds of the Gomar unleashing their newfound Terran abilities washed over the city.

  “No, no, no, no…” Kalian couldn’t accept it. She just couldn’t be dead.

  He wouldn’t allow it.

  With one hand under her head, he placed the other over her broken chest and roared with all the rage that fought to explode from within him. The universe could do nothing but bow to his demands as he reached out into the cosmic soup and pulled everything in. Kalian could feel every particle of organic life that surrounded him. He could feel the temperamental balance of life; the transfer of energy that saw things grow and wither.

  He took it. He took it all.

  Kalian barely registered that every Shay in the city had come to a stop, their bodies shaking, vibrating almost. The Gomar halted their attack and watched this new spectacle.

  It took a greater level of concentration to pick out the Gomar and the remaining humans, but Kalian managed to filter them out from the Shay and the plant life. With a firm hold on both, he used himself as the converter that took their energy and gave it to Li’ara. The process was slow and agonising for the aliens, but they eventually began to disintegrate, their bodies reduced to ash in the breeze. All plant life withered and shrivelled into almost nothing, leaving the gardens around the Forge barren and black.

  Still, he roared.

  Kalian gave it all to Li’ara as he rebuilt her ribs and heart, careful to realign all the blood vessels. Once they were repaired, he had the energy course through every particle of her being. Behind him, the cybernetic augments that made up almost half of every Shay began to drop to the ground, bereft of their organic counterparts.

  So many lives were coming to an end, and Kalian could feel every one of them winking out of existence; their pale flesh flaking off and blowing away, their life-force his now.

  He didn’t stop pouring it into Li’ara until her eyes snapped open and she gasped a deep breath. Kalian pulled her in and embraced her with everything he had to give.

  “Kalian…” she whispered.

  He pulled back and tore his gaze from her emerald eyes to see what she was looking at behind him. The Gomar were standing in the middle of the main road surrounded by hundreds of cybernetic limbs and internal enhancements. It was a graveyard of parts.

  “What did you do?” Li’ara asked, feeling her chest.

  “I couldn’t let you go,” Kalian replied softly, overjoyed to hear her speak again.

  Vox walked over and collapsed her helmet into her exosuit. “What did you do here, Kalian? I’ve never…”

  Kalian helped Li’ara to stand up, noticing the ravaged gardens for the first time. The city was quiet now, the nanocelium towers emptied of their vicious occupants. This was a conversion of energy he hadn’t even known he was capable of.

  “All life is energy,” he explained to a bewildered-looking Li’ara. “I just tipped the balance. I wasn’t going to lose you again.”

  Kalian pulled her in and brought their heads together. He just needed to be close, to smell her, to see her pupils reacting, and to feel her breath on his skin. She was wholly alive again and he would never let her go.

  “Thank you,” she whispered, still in shock it seemed.

  Captain Fey’s voice came from the edge of the gardens. “This is… new. Is everyone okay?”

  Li’ara stepped back from Kalian and glanced over her body. “We are now.”

  Fey looked at Kalian. “Are you sweating?” she asked in disbelief. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you sweat.”

  Kalian wiped his brow with the back of his hand. “It’s a day of firsts, Captain.”

  “Kalian…” ALF’s voice sounded in his ear. “The fleet is retreating closer to Evalan up here. The harvesting ship is pushing them back. You don’t have long before it hits the planet…”

  Kalian looked up at the sky, where the faintest of lights could be seen beyond the blue. He still had a job to do.

  “I have to go.” He tried to step away from the group but Li’ara squeezed his hand. “I know,” he said to her. “The fight isn’t over, not yet. All of you need to get aboard the Boundless. Wait on the edge of the system. This should all be over soon.”

  Li’ara turned her back on the group and faced him directly. “You once stepped across the entire galaxy in a single jump. You did it because you found me. Look for me again and take that step. Find me, Kalian, and get out of that damn ship before it kills you. Do you hear me?”

  Kalian mustered a small smile, though, in truth, he had just been happy to have Li’ara talk at him again. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll see you soon.” They embraced for one last kiss before he stepped away.

  He glanced over them all before he launched into the sky, his gaze lingering a second longer over Li’ara.

  Kalian. Sef’s voice sounded clearly in his mind as he ascended. I failed you. If it were not for you, Li’ara would still be dead. I will accept whatever punishment you—

  No punishment, Sef. Just keep her safe, keep them all safe.

  Kalian shut down the communication as he pulled away from Evalan’s uppermost atmosphere. Inside his helmet he was still sweating, though he refused to admit that he was a little out of breath. Bringing Li’ara back to life was very different to regrowing part of her leg.

  “Are we going to talk about what just happened?” ALF asked in his ear.

  “I did what I had to, ALF. Nothing else.”

  “I’m talking about your reckless exit from my bridge! I was nearly sucked out into space!”

  Kalian rolled his eyes, but he was thankful that the AI had accepted his motivations and made a joke of something else. This wasn’t the moment to get hung up on any new powers or potentially god-like nature of them. He had to focus his energy into a single task. Everything else could wait.

  Chapter 33

  Roland threw himself forward and thrust the Splicer rifle towards the ceiling, narrowly avoiding the first two shots. Blue crystals impaled the ceiling and continued to fire out of the Splicer at every angle as the bounty hunter fought for control of it. The Shay fell back and the pair pushed and pulled at the weapon, knocking each other into the walls until they both tripped down the short stairs and on to the walkway that ran along the
spine of the Rackham.

  “You. Are. Really. Starting. To. Piss. Me. Off!” Roland stopped tugging on the rifle and pushed, using the Shay’s pulling momentum against it. The rifle slammed into the alien’s face and loosened its grip on the Splicer enough for him to tear it free.

  Before he could turn the weapon on the infected Shay, a cybernetic leg shot out and hammered Roland’s chest, sending him farther down the walkway. Even so, the bounty hunter was aiming the Splicer before he even came to a stop. The first two crystals went wide, but the third caught the Shay in the chest, a killing shot.

  If it were anyone else…

  The Shay ignored the crystal protruding out of its chest and advanced on Roland, who was lying flat on his back now. To the bounty hunter’s dismay, the rifle was empty. That didn’t mean he couldn’t use it, though.

  “Catch!” He threw the Splicer up at the Shay, who caught it easily enough, but it missed Roland’s foot, which swiped at the alien’s legs. As the Shay fell over, he found his feet and wasted no time retrieving his Tri-Rollers from their holsters.

  He succeeded in firing off a round from each pistol before the alien flipped unnaturally on to its feet and flicked the Rollers from his grip. A swift punch to the face knocked Roland off balance and, before he knew it, a pair of cybernetic hands was tossing him through the kitchen door. He slid across the kitchen counter, smashing glasses and bottles, and smothering himself in whatever food Ch’len had left out to rot.

  The bounty hunter landed awkwardly on the low table and his hand hit the music system one of the Raiders had installed. Exhausted from so much combat, he would have been satisfied to stay strewn across the table and floor, but the late twentieth-century rock music that blared out of the ship’s speakers roused him well enough to see the incoming boot.