by Isaac Hooke
“Remember me,” I said. “In the deepest, darkest hours—”
She joined in, lifting her head to stare deeply into my eyes, and our voices rang out in unison:
“When you think you can’t go on. Remember me in the storm, when all hope seems lost.”
“Despite my mistakes and failings, those words, your words, kept me going, Shaw,” I said. “Throughout everything. If I hadn’t met you, if I hadn’t known you, I would have never made it this far. You, Shaw. All of this is because of you.”
“And I wouldn’t be here today, either, if it weren’t for you.” She wrapped her hand around mine. “You said you were broken? That you might not ever be whole again?” She squeezed my hand. “You are whole, Rade. You are.”
She was trembling.
I leaned forward and kissed her.
Somehow our jumpsuits ended up in a dismantled pile on the cave floor around us, cooling undergarments and everything.
Guess I wasn’t too tired to have sex after all.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Tahoe
I stood at the edge of a sunken pool filled with orange-yellow Phants. A lone pillar, set atop a circular shelf and sheathed in Phants of the same color, rose from the center of the pool.
Fret frowned. “How do you know this is the Observer Mind without an aReal to confirm our location?”
“Because it can’t be anything else.” Facehopper draped his rifle strap over one shoulder and stepped forward, holding the EM-emitting bar out with one hand.
The liquid Phants near the edge of the pool retreated.
Facehopper brought the emitter closer and the liquid withdrew further, revealing a concave depression in the floor—the bottom was about a meter down. “We can cross this. We have to. Form up in pairs. TJ and Bomb, lead the way. We’re going to that pillar, mates.”
Holding their EM emitters out front, Bomb and TJ lowered themselves to the bottom of the one-meter depression and into the space the Phants vacated. The glowing liquid formed swaying barriers that reached to the hips of Bomb and TJ on either side.
The rest of us followed in twos. Mauler and I were the last to lower ourselves over the concave edge and we brought up the rear. I hit the floor a little hard, sending a fresh jolt of pain coursing up my tattered legs.
“You all right?” Mauler said quietly. He must have seen me wince.
“Fine.”
The squad formed a tight line and proceeded forward. The liquid Phants parted before us, thanks to the EM-emitting metal bars we held.
The barrier of glowing Phants remained roughly one meter to my left at all times; behind me, the evil liquid slithered into the space I abandoned, again obeying the one-meter rule as the entities sealed our retreat vector.
By then, the squad was hemmed in on all sides by the flowing aliens. It felt like we resided within a fragile bubble: the emitters we held were all that stood between us and incineration.
“Glad we didn’t leave them behind.” Mauler nodded at the steel bar he clenched.
I didn’t say anything; I was too intent on keeping my own emitter firmly in hand. My knuckles were white from the grip, and my palms were sweating—I prayed the metal didn’t slip.
Finally we reached the shelf at the center of the Phant pool. At our approach, the Phants flowed away from the ledge, and the pillar too, revealing a metallic structure underneath.
“What now?” Bomb said from his position beside TJ at point. “Go around?”
“No, not yet.” Facehopper was staring at the pillar. “Let’s get up on that shelf. I want to take a closer look at this thing.”
We climbed onto the ledge in pairs, being careful not to drop our emitters. The shelf was barely wide enough to hold two men at a time, so we were forced to disperse, forming a circle around the pillar. The EM emitters caused the glowing liquid to flow up the metal on all sides, uncovering more of the structure. Fibonacci spirals were etched into the exposed regions.
“Look.” Trace, on the “two o’clock” position beside the pillar, pointed to a tunnel on the far side of the room. It lay beyond the pool. “A way out.”
Facehopper followed his gaze. “Good. We’ll take it shortly. But first . . .” He returned his attention to the exposed pillar and reached out, bringing his bare hand close. The metallic surface seemed to vibrate as his fingers grew near. I heard a humming sound.
“Boss,” Fret said. “Probably not a good idea to touch it.”
Facehopper froze, his fingers just centimeters away. “Probably not.” He withdrew his palm and shook his head as if breaking from a trance. The surface stabilized and the humming faded. “Any ideas on how we can sabotage it, mates?”
“Why bother?” Bomb said. “Like you said already, the nuke is going to vaporize this place anyway.”
“But if we sabotage the Observer Mind now,” Facehopper said, “we take out Bogey 1 all the sooner.”
“What if we stashed our emitters against the pillar?” I said. “Preventing the Phants from interfacing with it? That might be all we need to do.”
Facehopper nodded slowly. “That may just do it. We’d leave behind only a few emitters. Say four. One for each compass point. That should be enough to keep the Phants away from the entire middle region.”
“And what happens to the four of us left without emitters?” Fret said.
“Nothing. We only need four emitters to get out of here. We’ll just have to cram closer together when we cross the Phants, is all.”
“Let’s say we leave the four emitters like Cyclone wants,” Fret said. “That still doesn’t mean we’ll actually disrupt anything. We understand nothing about this alien tech. Don’t the Phants interact with it on a higher dimension or something? Who knows, maybe planting our emitters on the pillar might end up helping them rather than hindering.”
“You’re right, we know absolutely nothing about this tech,” Facehopper conceded. “But we have to try. I’m going to authorize it. Four emitters. Center of the pillar. Ghost, Mauler, TJ, Cyclone, give up your devices. The rest of us will watch your backs. Let’s do this.”
Mauler and I gave TJ a boost while he duct-taped his EM emitter vertically to the pillar. We repeated this three more times, edging past our brothers on the shelf, and had TJ tape an emitter to each compass point. He was careful never to touch the pillar with his bare skin, though he got close enough to make it vibrate quite loudly a few times.
Once finished, we paused to observe our handiwork. Because of the four emitters, the Phants avoided the entire central region of the pillar and instead crowded the upper portion; the displaced entities sagged in places there, forming blister-like lumps.
“I’m not sure we actually did anything other than force them upward,” Fret said.
“Time will tell,” Facehopper said. “Speaking of which, anyone have an idea on how long before the nukes go off? TJ, you have the best internal clock among us.”
TJ shrugged. “Maybe an hour.”
An hour. And we hadn’t even escaped the vaporization zone yet, let alone found a suitable side tunnel to block off.
I glanced at the microexplosives taped to Bomb’s torso. At least he still had them—without those we’d never seal ourselves off from the main blast wave.
Facehopper turned toward the far side of the room, where that smaller tunnel provided a way out. “We’re going to have to walk off this shelf sideways. Form up along the edge, mates! Ass to nuts, just like we used to do in training to keep warm. You do remember ‘sea immersion,’ don’t you?”
“Fondly,” Fret said.
EM emitters distributed in pairs, we squeezed together along the edge of the shelf, forming a convex line four people wide by two deep. All of us faced to the right.
Mauler and I stood on the right hand side, which would be the “front.” I held our assigned emitter in my right hand, and be
side me Mauler gripped it in his left.
“Tighter!” Facehopper said.
I brought my elbows in and moved closer to Mauler until our shoulders touched.
Behind and slightly to the left of me on the shelf, Bomb latched one arm around my midriff and pulled me in tight, while Ghost did the same to Mauler. Bomb pressed into my tattered legs, causing fresh jolts of pain.
“Good,” Facehopper said. “Now off the shelf, mates! Two at a time. Maintain the huddle at all costs. When you touch the bottom, let those behind you climb down in turn. Mauler, Cyclone, lead the way.”
Ghost and Bomb helped lower Mauler and me into the pool of orange-yellow Phants. The liquid parted before us, leaving far less room to spare than I would have liked: rather than a full meter, I had only a ruler’s length of space in front and beside my body. Maybe it hadn’t been the best idea to leave behind half our emitters.
Mauler and I waited at the bottom of the pool as Ghost and Bomb used our respective shoulders to support their weight while they descended behind us. When they touched the bottom and wrapped their arms around our midriffs again, we took a step forward and paused until the next rank came down. Then we took one more step and waited for the drag men to drop.
When everyone was down, Mauler and I turned toward the destination tunnel and proceeded through the parting Phants.
I kept both feet relatively close together and both arms tight to my side, barely staying within the ruler’s width of space the shared emitter provided.
“Maintain the huddle!” Facehopper said. “If you feel someone drifting away behind you, then slow down. If the mate in front of you starts to pull ahead, haul him right back. Ass to nuts!”
As I moved forward, my gaze drifted downward to the parting liquid. That orange-yellow glow seemed beautiful, somehow. It was hard to believe that something so seemingly innocent could be so deadly. Maybe these Phants were different, and not like the others?
Maybe they were the spirits I had been seeking in vain for my entire life. The spirits I had tried to explain away with science and physics for as long as I could remember. Yes, they must be. The spirits. They would guide me. Set me free. Raise me to a higher level of consciousness. Enlightenment.
I had this incredible urge to leap into that mass and become one with the spirits.
To walk with the wind.
All I had to do was let go of the steel bar . . .
Bomb rudely shoved me from behind, breaking the trance.
“Don’t look at them too long!” Facehopper said. “Keep your eyes forward, on the target tunnel. Eyes forward!”
Stunned, and somewhat ashamed of what I had nearly done, I lifted my gaze and stared resolutely ahead. If I had released the emitter and dived into the Phants, I might have drawn Bomb with me. And the only enlightenment either of us would have had was disintegration.
There are no spirits, I told myself determinedly. There is no spirit world.
I reached the far side of the cavern; the Phants at the edge of the pool parted, revealing the concave surface that delineated the area. Bomb let go of my waist and gave me a boost, while Ghost did likewise for Mauler beside me. With their help, the two of us pulled ourselves onto the solid ground by the exit without dropping the emitter. Switching hands on the metal bar between us, we turned around to aid Bomb and Ghost.
When everyone was out of the pool, I looked back at the pillar one last time, and at the orange-yellow Phants held at bay above it by our EM technology.
“Nizhónígo Nee Ado’ááł,” I said, in Navajo.
“What’s that mean?” Ghost said. “May your death be slow and agonizing?”
“No. Have a nice day.”
“Oh.”
We approached the exit tunnel. It was three meters wide by two meters tall—at least none of us would have to duck in there, not even Fret, the tallest among us.
“Uh, guys,” Mauler said, pointing behind us.
The orange-yellow Phants were spilling from the pool, following as closely as the emitters allowed.
“Not an issue,” Facehopper said. “Get into the passage.”
At first I thought he meant to collapse the opening with Bomb’s microexplosives. That would doom us in the long run because this area was still within the second nuke’s vaporization zone, and without more explosives, we’d have nothing to form a protective seal against the blast wave.
Instead, once we were in the tunnel Facehopper laid two of the EM emitters horizontally across the entrance; he separated them by one meter each, effectively forming a barrier that spanned the three meters of the entrance. He backed away, and when the Phants refused to advance, he nodded.
“Problem solved,” Facehopper said. “Let’s go. TJ, take point. Mauler, drag.”
We gave Mauler and TJ the last emitters and then sprinted down the tunnel. Without a jumpsuit, TJ was the poorest runner in the squad. By placing him at point, Facehopper ensured no one got too far ahead.
Surprisingly I was able to keep up, despite the insect lacerations I suffered. I favored my left foot, as the right was still excruciatingly tender. The pain faded somewhat as I jogged, replaced by a numb throbbing.
Side tunnels branched off now and again but we kept to the main path. I didn’t need a HUD map to know we were nowhere near the surface, and wouldn’t be any time soon. We were going to have to start looking for an alcove to seal off soon, though I had to wonder if the rock was thick enough to protect us from the burst of elementary particles. I was an astrophysicist not a nuclear physicist, damn it.
“Boss!” Mauler said from his drag position behind me.
We halted.
“What is it?” Facehopper shoved his way past me.
Mauler pointed his rifle, and the lamp tied to it, down the way we had come.
Behind us, a glowing purple liquid cast its own rays as it overflowed from a side passage. The liquid moved rapidly, trickling toward us with what seemed almost fervor.
A purple Phant. With only one emitter, Mauler wouldn’t be able to hold it back, not in the three-meter wide tunnel.
“TJ!” Facehopper said. “Your emitter!”
TJ brought the other metal bar over and Facehopper handed it to Mauler. The latter spread his arms wide, holding one emitter in each hand, spanning the width of the passage.
The Phant halted one meter away, unable to come any closer.
“Okay,” Facehopper said. “Okay. Let’s go, people. And Mauler, don’t fall behind. We may need you to pass that emitter forward again.”
We continued at a quick lope. Behind me Mauler kept both arms extended outward, reminding me of a medieval swordsman gripping two swords as he ran. The tips of the emitters scraped the walls on either side and issued sparks.
Mauler panted softly behind me.
“You’re doing good,” I told him as I ran. My voice came in ragged gasps, too: it wasn’t easy carrying around all that added muscular weight without a strength-enhanced exoskeleton. Like TJ, the two of us certainly weren’t long-distance runners. In Mauler’s case, it didn’t help that he had to carry those heavy emitters. I considered offering to hold them for a while, but I knew I’d just insult him if I did that.
“Don’t need your patronage, bro,” Mauler said, as if I’d made the offer anyway.
The Phant’s purple rays added to the ambient light of the lamps taped to our rifles and cast eerie shadows on the walls. Even though Mauler was positioned between me and the alien liquid, I couldn’t shake the feeling the Phant was directly behind me; whenever I glanced back, however, the flowing entity always remained exactly a meter beyond him, keeping pace.
“Stay alert, mates!” Facehopper said over his shoulder. “The tunnel seems to be widening.”
And so it was. As we ran, the passageway’s diameter increased bit by bit. So far, the purple Phant wasn’t able to slip past. But
I noticed Mauler’s emitters were no longer scraping the rock on either side. If the tunnel kept widening, it was only a matter of time before the alien entity flowed by him and began incinerating the rest of us. We couldn’t hope to outrun it, not without jumpsuits.
Facehopper called a halt. We convened near Mauler.
The glowing liquid waited patiently behind us, staying one meter away.
“All right,” Facehopper said. “Give me some options, mates.”
“Collapse the cave with Bomb’s microexplosives?” Fret said. “Now is as good a time as any to hole ourselves up.”
Bomb shook his head. “Tunnel’s too broad here. If we used all the explosives, we might get a partial collapse and that’s about it. Even if we could achieve a full seal, this close to the source the blast wave has a good chance of drilling straight through. Plus, we need a dead-end tunnel. Otherwise, we seal one side and the blast wave snakes around and gets us from the other direction.”
“Why not leave the two emitters here?” Trace said. “Space them half a meter apart. Block the Phant like we did to the others before it.”
Ghost folded his arms. “We can’t give up our last two emitters. You know how far we are from the surface? We’re going to be encountering more Phants. It’s inevitable. Not to mention crabs. And slugs.”
“We’ve already blown our cover with the crabs and slugs,” Fret said. “So the emitters won’t be of any help there.”
