by JN Chaney
Unless he was standing next to her.
Yes, of course. The bastard couldn’t order a strike on the ship if he was sitting in it, not without killing himself. He might spout all that nonsense about protecting his city, but Mei was willing to bet he’d never endanger his own life. He was too arrogant to be that selfless.
She glanced around the Analytics department. Gel’s office wasn’t far from this location. Given the danger in the city, he’d never leave the safety of this floating sanctuary.
Mei took a breath, bolting through the corridors. Here I come, she thought.
******
Gel’s office was in a panic. Multiple analysts ran in and out. There seemed to be no order to the chaos in this once tranquil place.
Two soldiers stood in the hall, trying to direct a crowd. As Mei arrived, several in the mob panicked, screaming and pointing. “They’re here!” yelled one of them.
One of the four soldiers raised his weapons at her. “Stop right—”
Before the man could finish, he collapsed on the floor, struck in the leg by a blast from Mei’s pistol. She’d been aiming for his chest, but oh well. She’d take what she could get.
The other soldier’s eyes widened at the sight of this. “You—”
Mei fired multiple shots, grazing his arm before finally landing a good shot on his neck. He joined his comrade on the floor.
Another soldier fired at her, ignoring the scattering crowd, and managed to nearly hit her. She ran at him, but was suddenly hit by both guards. One of them tried to hit her with the butt of his weapon, but missed, only tearing her shirt. The other grabbed her pistol, trying to pry it free. She struggled to maintain her grip, but couldn’t push him away. The man pressed a small button on the weapon and freed the ammunition clip, which fell to the floor.
Mei let go of the pistol and ducked to catch the clip. Inside were tiny gel capsules.
A hand clenched her neck, squeezing, lifting her up. She felt the pain and suffocating pressure as the stranger brought her to her feet. “Enough of that!” said the soldier. “Shoot her now, while I have her!”
Mei shoved a piece of her torn shirt, which she’d filled with a toxic gel capsule, into the guard’s mouth. He spit it out, but suddenly went limp and collapsed. The toxin was fast-acting, so the moment it broke and touched his flesh, he stood little chance.
Mei sensed the second soldier’s pulse quicken as he took a breath, squeezing the trigger.
She rolled, dodging the shot, which struck the floor.
He fired again, but grazed her shirt.
Mei came in close and struck the man in the jaw, staggering him. She followed quickly by stuffing the cloth into his nose, incapacitating him in seconds.
She left him there, but made certain to retrieve one of the soldiers’ rifles, and headed straight into the Master Analyst’s office.
The secretary stood behind his desk, throwing his hands up when he saw her. “Please don’t!”
“Where is he?” snapped Mei.
The man’s eyes glanced at the blacked-out office wall, then at Mei. “I don’t know!”
“Is he in there?” she asked.
“Please, I—”
“Open it,” she said.
“If I do that, I’ll—”
“Do it or I’ll shoot you.”
His eyes dilated briefly as he commanded the door to unlock. “Done.”
“Get out,” she said.
He nodded and ran into the hall as fast as his feet could carry him.
Mei went to the side of the blacked-out wall, peering in through the cracked door. She could hear someone inside breathing calmly. “Gel!” she snapped. “I know you’re there.”
“Indeed, I am, Doctor Curie,” said Gel from inside. “Come into my office so we might discuss your present situation.”
She aimed her weapon through the opening. There was an empty desk and no one around it. “Show yourself, Gel!”
No answer.
She took a step forward, studying the room, trying to sense his location. Mei could hear him, his heartbeat and breathing, standing slightly to the right of the doorway, waiting, no doubt, to surprise her.
I don’t think so, she thought, and swept the rifle around to greet him.
Gel stood motionless, unthreatened. “Hello, Doctor.”
“I swear I’ll shoot you where you stand if—”
He raised a hand and revealed a small blade, nearly striking her shoulder in the process. She dodged, barely avoiding it. “If?” he asked, gripping the barrel of the rifle and stabbing at her stomach. “You’ll do no such thing!”
She squeezed the trigger, but the weapon didn’t fire. “What the—”
“Having trouble?” He sliced her arm, splitting the skin.
She screamed.
He stepped at her, holding out the small blade. “I’ve disabled that weapon, my dear doctor.” He grinned. “Remember where you are!”
The knife came at her again, but she backed away before it could touch her, deflecting it with the barrel of the rifle.
“Bastard!” cried Mei, hitting him in the wrist with the gun.
He nearly dropped the knife, but managed to hold onto it. “You think you can do what you want. You forget yourself, Doctor. You forget where you are! You forget who I am!”
She ran behind the desk. “Back off!”
He charged, snatching her wrist and pinning her to the wall, holding the knife to her throat. “Quiet down, little girl,” he said. “Drop the gun now.”
She could feel the cold metal as the edge of the blade broke skin, releasing a thin line of blood. The pain and fear of it filled her entire body.
The rifle fell to the floor as she released it.
“Are you afraid?” asked Gel, pulling her hair back so their eyes met. “I can feel you shaking, dear doctor. Trembling like an infant babe.”
An explosion rang from beyond the building, coming from the city below. The lights flickered overhead. “Your city is dying,” muttered Mei.
“Perhaps so,” answered Gel. “Shall we go and have a look?”
She tried to move, but the knife dug into her. “Ungh!”
“Mind yourself,” he told her.
Gel dragged her out of the office and through the now empty halls. He pushed her along, one step at a time. The pain from Mei’s cuts burned as she walked. Her whole body ached, and for what? She had accomplished nothing.
Gel led her to a set of doors. “Here we are,” he said.
Light pierced through as the metal slid open, revealing a gray sky. The landing platform was there before them, several ships docked and ready, a few more lifting off. “Garden thinks it can seize this city,” said Gel. “But they’re fools, just like you. Every soldier under my command is headed there to kill every last one of them, and I have a strike team ready to penetrate their command center. I was planning to give the order this evening, but it seems my hand must be forced.”
He shuffled Mei to the edge of the platform overlooking the cityscape. The Hall of the Leadership, the largest building in Everlasting, blazed in fire as pieces of it lay scattered through the streets. Was Gel so blind that he couldn’t see it?
She felt him stiffen, then relax. He cleared his throat. “It would seem my army has engaged the terrorists. Very good. Very good. Ah, yes, and now the invasion of their stronghold begins.”
He must be receiving messages, thought Mei. Maybe if I can—
“If only you could live long enough to see the empire I will forge, perhaps you would understand, little doctor.”
“There won’t be anything left. Look at the smoke,” she told him.
“From the rubble I shall build an empire like none other, and I shall use its strength to subdue both our worlds. Oh, if you could only see it, Doctor. If only you—”
She felt his body go rigid as another message came in. Something was happening, giving him pause.
I need to be ready, she thought, trying to focus. It was difficu
lt with the knife at her throat. The adrenaline drove her to run, to flee, to do something—anything but stand there and be quiet—but she had to do it. She had to relax her mind.
She concentrated, pushing what she could manage, though it wasn’t much, and a second later she heard the flutter of wings from far away, followed by shouts amid the madness underfoot. Screams echoed in the streets, followed by a spray of ammunition as the two factions engaged one another. Chaos was all around her, and she tried to close it out…shut it down the way John had…the way Terry did when he rescued her all those years ago, there in the Ortego facility, moments before she struck Alex in the chest and sent him tumbling into darkness…into death…
No, away with that. Away with anger. Away with fear.
Away with rage and monsters and regret and desire.
Away with all the demons scratching at the glass.
Away with transient echoes of the past.
Away with fear of death.
Away…
Away…
Away…
And then, Mei Curie opened her eyes.
She took a long breath, filling her lungs, embracing the silence of a world under siege.
The air around her ceased to blow, and the smoke across the city no longer rose. There was only stillness left.
Only the moment.
She slid her neck along the knife, but the blade no longer cut.
In a fluid, single motion, she grasped his wrist and twisted it to aim the blade it at her captor’s shoulder before pressing it into him, releasing blood.
Gel fell to the ground, screaming. He tried to take the blade out, but Mei was already there, knees on his chest, hand around the knife.
She pushed on him, and he tried with all his strength to move her, but it was impossible.
Mei would not be shaken. Not anymore.
She gripped the Master Analyst by the throat, and with her other hand, yanked the dagger free.
His eyes went wide with terror as the blade came down again, striking into his chest. He screamed.
“No!” cried Gel. “No, no, no!”
He tried to get up, but she continued to stab him. “Just die!” she yelled.
Blood filled his stomach and poured onto the platform, pooling around them. Mei looked down at her hands and was shocked at how red they were.
She backed off of him, leaving the blade inside him, watching as the self-proclaimed king of Everlasting dug the knife out with trembling hands.
He tried to stand, but collapsed on himself, screaming as he struck the ground. With one outstretched arm, he pulled his way to the side of the platform.
She ran to retrieve the knife, taking it for whatever came next.
But instead of getting up, Gel only turned to look at the city, lying motionless. She watched him from a distance, thinking he might be dead. After a long moment, the analyst stirred, licking his lips and blinking.
“Pitiful,” he whispered.
She stared at him, saying nothing.
He shook his head. “Do you see them there? The people…like insects in the dirt…scurrying to live.” He coughed and blood spewed out. “The walls are failing…soon the gas will come.”
“What?” she asked.
“The gas, Doctor. It arrives to kill us all…to punish us for living. We don’t belong here…we never did.”
“The domeguard is failing?” she asked, but a second later, she felt it. The cold touch of a raindrop on her nose, followed by another.
He laughed, choking on his own fluids. “Everything is ending! Everything is done!” he cried as the shower fell.
Mei felt a panic in her chest. The people would die. All of them now. What could she hope to do?
Gel’s eyes darted around, no longer focused. With a sudden gasp, he cried, and he reached with his hand toward the sky, grasping at the falling rain. “I did everything for them. I was good. I was—”
“You did it for yourself!” shouted Mei, dropping the knife from her hand. It clanged against the platform before fumbling off the side toward the blazing city below.
Gel watched it go. “I only wanted them to live,” he whispered, staring out into the dying metropolis. “It was all for…” He wheezed and gasped. “…It was all for the good of Everlasting.”
As he spoke the words, his arm collapsed, and suddenly his face was cold and empty. It was done. Gel, the Master Analyst of Everlasting, was gone at last.
******
When the Red Door arrived at the Tower of the Cartographers, Johnathan Finn and his allies, old and new alike, unloaded from the side of the aircraft.
He had come seeking answers from Master Gel, the manipulator behind all of his problems, but it became evidently clear that there was no longer a need. The girl he was looking for was sitting on her knees at the edge of the platform, covered in blood next to the body of the one responsible.
John ran to her, grasping her whole body with both of his wide arms, kissing her soaking wet hair.
She threw herself into him.
“Oh my God! I’m so sorry, Mei! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know what to do!”
Her fingers dug into his sides, but she said nothing. She couldn’t. Her entire body was trembling.
“Forgive me,” he muttered, and suddenly he was crying, unable to stop. Unable to breathe.
They wept together, his tears covering hers, surrounded by a dying city, there in the freezing rain.
******
Terry left the Red Door with Jinel, noticing the downpour of rain. “This can’t be good,” he told her.
“The domeguard has fallen. We need to do something!” she said.
“Do what?” asked Terry.
“Evacuate,” said Lena, stepping off the ship.
“To where?” asked Jinel.
“We have outposts,” said Emile Res. “Are there any ships?”
“Not enough to carry a civilization,” answered Jinel.
“Fair point,” she answered. “There’s not enough room for everyone, anyway. Each outpost can hold a few hundred at most.”
“Then we shall need an alternate solution,” remarked Lena.
“For now, I think getting everyone to safety is—”
The ground shook as another explosion erupted somewhere in the distance. “The hell was that?” asked Terry.
“The Citadel is held aloft using the city’s power grid. If the shield is down, there’s a chance this tower will fall,” explained Lena.
“You mean this floating skyscraper is about to crash into the city?” asked Terry.
“Exactly that,” responded Lena.
“How do we stop it?” asked Emile Res.
Lena looked at the building and then the sky. “There are multiple backup generators in place to prevent this exact scenario from unfolding. I don’t understand why they haven’t taken control, unless…”
“What?” asked Terry.
“They could have malfunction, but that’s extremely unlikely,” said Lena.
“Not when they’ve been sabotaged,” said Jinel.
“What was that?” asked Terry.
“We had one of our people do it a few weeks ago. It was part of a plan to take out Master Gel. Our man was captured shortly afterwards, so we assumed the generators had been restored. It seems there was an oversight.”
“To say the least,” remarked Emile.
Lena bit her lip. “If this tower crashes into the city—”
“A lot of people would die,” finished Terry. “We need to do something.”
“I don’t think we can,” said Lena. She looked at Jinel. “How could your people do this?”
“I’m sorry,” said the soldier, staring out into the cityscape. “I…”
“There’s no time for your regrets,” said Emile. “We need solutions!”
“Even if we could restore the generators, there’s little time to do it. We need to evacuate the city. Get them to the shoreline. Can we do that?” asked Terry.
Lena
thought for a moment. “Maybe. We would need access to the network. I could access it, given some time, but—”
“No need for that,” said Emile. “I have administration rights. You can use my account.”
“Great. Send it to each of us, please,” said Jinel.
Emile’s eyes dilated as she accessed the network. “I’m restoring your terminal access. One moment.” She swiped her hands across the air in front of her. “There. I couldn’t give you much, but you can now bypass level four protocols. That will give you access to the city’s sound system.”
“Perfect,” said Jinel.
“We’ll need a proper terminal,” said Lena. “There are several inside. Let us go, quickly.”
“How long before this thing collapses?” asked Terry.
“We have some time. It’s enough to send a message to the rest of the city to leave,” said Lena.
“Fine, but don’t stay for too long. We’ll be here waiting for you.”
“I’ll have the Red Door ready to go,” said Emile.
Lena Sol and Jinel Din both ran into the Citadel. With any luck, they’d be able to get a message to the rest of Everlasting before it was too late.
Before this tower fell.
“Terry!” Mei came running from the end of the platform, barefoot with John’s coat around her shoulders. “Oh, my God!”
They embraced. “Mei!” Terry answered.
“I can’t believe it’s you,” she said.
“It is, believe it or not,” he said, smiling. The platform shook, suddenly.
“We should probably get out of here soon!” yelled Emile, already on board the ship.
Terry sighed. “She’s right. Looks like the reunion will have to wait.”
“That’s fine with me,” said Mei. “I’ve had about as much as I can take of this place.”
******
Lena made her way with Jinel to the second Analytics bay. “Here!” she told her. “Find a terminal and begin broadcasting.”
“Right,” she answered.
The network was chaotic, with multiple channels down and an array of panicked departments trying to comprehend the situation. With all of the Leadership wiped out, there was no one to give direction, no voice to tell the people what to do or where to go.
