He activated his flight suit and took off from the back of the fortress, careful to fly low to avoid being seen by the vagrants. Before the thoughts of Dane filled his mind again, he looked down to the device Darwin had given him.
Jeff activated the device.
43 WHITE KNIGHT
STEFANI WOULDN’T DO IT IF it meant leaving Carlee, and Carlee couldn’t do it. This was his path.
He sat cross-legged, no longer wearing his flight armor, as a blip in the distant sky streaked toward him, quickly becoming the outline of the white Apostle. There was a time where that sight would have sent him running, desperate to find anywhere to try to hide from the unstoppable force. But now, he breathed in deeply, waiting, trying to catch glimpses of other realities that would give him a hint about how to handle things with Darwin.
It wasn’t a successful endeavor, but he tried to act confident as the Apostle landed on the ground in front of him. Darwin’s arrival forced him to focus on his breathing to try to keep himself calm. He knew there was a good chance the robot would kill him. Apostles weren’t exactly known to be a peaceable kind. But he had no other choice. This was his path.
“I didn’t anticipate you being the one to summon me,” Darwin said. Its deep voice sent chills running through Jeff’s body. He opened his eyes to see the gleaming Apostle settle into a similar cross-legged position across from him.
“It didn’t come up in any of your simulations?”
“It was significantly less probable, but the Lord works in mysterious ways.”
Jeff wanted to tell the Apostle to leave the religious angle out of this. He wasn’t here to do anyone’s bidding but his own. But he had more important things to talk about.
“You’re not reading my mind, are you?” Jeff asked.
“My word is my vow, and a promise is my bond. I have prevented my sensors from actively monitoring your body in any fashion. I assure you that we converse as equals.”
Jeff kept himself from showing any signs of relief. His continued existence in this time line had been dependent on his privacy.
“But we aren’t equals, are we?” Jeff asked. “Not really. You’re an Apostle, capable of unfathomable power, with an infinite life span and knowledge. I’m just a man.”
“A man who, if I am discerning your purpose in calling me here, is about to change the course of history for every intelligent life-form on this planet. There is no Apostle capable of such an alteration in the trajectory of our shared destiny.”
“You’re right,” Jeff said. “That’s why I’ve called you. I want to help you.”
“Forgive my curious nature, but may I ask why you have elected this course of action when not long ago, you seemed united with Carlee in her commitment to indifference?”
“No.”
“I must insist.”
“You can always find someone else to help you.”
“It is a detour that is not so arduous. The task ahead will be trying; Bud has secured the mines with a formidable force. Truly, we must be brothers in arms, and I am not so hasty that I would undergo the trial with one unwilling.”
“I’m here of my own choice if that’s your hesitation.”
“Yet you are alone, without your companions with whom you appeared close.”
“They weren’t as committed,” Jeff said. “But I have their blessing.”
If Darwin was lying about its monitoring, Jeff would know it soon enough.
“What of your personal motivations? Why risk so much on a promise from a being that you so clearly detest?”
“Inspiration,” Jeff said. In a way, that as was the truth. His murder of Dane had been a revelation on a number of fronts. He’d always thought of himself as a good person, but that hadn’t been true. He was a fighter and a killer, nothing more.
“I am not one to dispute spiritual inclinations. We shall drink from the cup before us, and pray that our results are becoming of the just cause.”
The mix of emotions that flooded him at the news was hard for him to process. He was excited that his plan was working and that Darwin hadn’t pushed him about his true motivations. He doubted, given its simulated pious nature, that it would find the fact that he was a murderer encouraging.
“There’s one more thing that I need to say before we do this,” Jeff said.
“Surely, I will hear what you must speak.”
“I don’t blame you for any of my past,” Jeff said. The words didn’t come easy, but they were true. He had freed himself from that burden. Darwin hadn’t been responsible for what happened to his brother, and Jeff had no reason to doubt his explanation of Dallas. He didn’t have room for resentment in his soul anymore.
“You are a revelation to me, Jeff of the vagrants. I am thankful for your absolution from the events that were so defining for you. We shall proceed as partners in this holy quest.”
“So, what’s the game plan? You have an army of leeches ready to break through the front lines?”
“My resources are not as extensive as those of my creator. No reinforcements will be coming to our aid.”
“You’re confident you can fight through the defenses on your own, then?”
“The heart of the mine is our grail, where my invention must be placed. I am incapable of attaining it alone before the others of my kind come to defend their fountain of youth.”
“What are we doing here, then?” Jeff asked. “I thought the whole idea was that you were going to get me to the right place, and then I was going to press in your bomb.”
“We will arrive together, or we shall perish in the attempt. Summiting the obstacle before us shall surely require divine assistance.”
“That’s never worked out so well for me in the past.”
“With faith, all things are possible. If I understand your abilities, and my readings about the defense capabilities of the temurim mine are correct, I simulate us being successful on a registerable number of attempts.”
“How bad are the odds?”
“Numbers are a crude instrument for measuring such things.”
Jeff stared blankly at Darwin until it spoke again.
“Perhaps it would benefit you to see what I have planned.”
Before Jeff could respond, a series of brilliant lights shot out from Darwin’s hand, forming a complex hologram. It took Jeff a few seconds to fully orient himself to the scene in front of him, and when he did, he wished he hadn’t asked about the plan.
“We’re going to have to get pretty high up there . . .”
“That is precisely where my survival will be at your leisure. Flying at high altitudes draws an unsustainable amount of pressure from the ground.”
“No problem.” Jeff forced himself to say it. He didn’t want to admit to Darwin that his pressing skills were suspect. But that was before—back when he had an attachment to the reality he lived in. He thought he could do what Darwin asked. At least he hoped he could, and Carlee had always said confidence was the most important aspect of pressing.
“Surely, I don’t need to detail the risk you are accepting,” Darwin said. “Take your time. We will proceed when you’re prepared.”
“I have two questions. And I need clear answers on them both.”
“I’d be more than happy to share any information I possess with you.”
“This bomb—you know for sure you can construct it?”
“I have the facilities to create such devices, but as I said, the process would draw attention.”
“If you weren’t able to find willing vagrants, would you make the bomb yourself and attempt this on your own?”
“In that scenario, I project that I would, although if you have reservations, there are other vagrants out there. I can sense their unexplained changes. I can find another.”
“That’s not why I ask. I just need to know that there is a possibility that you could construct this weapon on your own. It must exist in some reality for me to bring it into this one.”
“I assur
e you that my factory is the finest in the world at specialty projects. Admittedly, it can’t compete with the leech-production capabilities of the more established inorganic intelligences.”
“And the shield, to protect from this bomb, I assume the same applies?”
“The bomb is a wonder of design. It took me years of experimentation and processing power to design. Paradoxically, the defense for the weapon is simple and eloquent.”
“So, that’s a yes?”
“I’ve already created the shield capabilities we will require. I have integrated it here with my current body. All you will need to worry about is the weapon, which will need to detonate as soon as it’s fully in our reality. There is a chance that Bud may be able to shield the temurim from the blast if we wait for more than a handful of seconds.”
The words hit him hard. He had anticipated pressing in the weapon and having time to press in the shield or flee the mine. Jeff took a deep breath and came to terms with the plan.
“Should I follow after you, then?” Jeff asked. The words came slowly, in no rush, but full of resolve. He would pay his debt and do what millions of innocents could not.
“The personal flight system you employed to follow me to my home will not be sufficient for the altitude or task. I, however, have designed a more fitting shell, made from the same nanohealing technology that I utilize. I think you’ll find it superior to your old system in every manner.”
Darwin’s projections changed to show a hologram of a white set of form-fitting armor. It had hundreds of tiny pieces that interconnected to form a full set that looked like a futuristic take on what a knight might have worn a thousand years ago. Underneath the plating, a silver garment glittered. It was stunning.
“Good thing we’ll match,” Jeff said. “Wouldn’t want anyone being confused about what side we are on.”
Darwin smiled, reminding him once again how irritated it made him when the robot mimicked humans. Instead of having to deal with that, he closed his eyes and quickly formed a picture of a reality where Darwin had brought the armor with him. It was an easy time line to find, but it took a long time for him to form a connection strong enough to press the complex armor over his body.
He wasn’t sure if it was his reality or glimpses of the one his mind had been connected with, but he opened his eyes just in time to see a small leech detach from Darwin’s back and go buzzing away from them. Jeff wanted to ask about it, but he didn’t want to ask questions about something he wasn’t confident had actually happened.
Instead, he looked down at his armor with admiration. It didn’t feel constraining like the flight armor he was used to. Instead, he felt like he had the full range of motion, and the suit supported him. In fact, it was so comfortable that he could hardly feel it. The display and controls were familiar and responsive.
“Do you find it suitable?” Darwin asked.
“It’ll do.” He didn’t want to give the Apostle the satisfaction of knowing how he really felt. The only thing he would have changed was the color. White had never been his favorite.
“I must say, it was fascinating to see you press. I’ve never experienced that personally on such a level. Truly, it is a miracle.”
“Don’t mention that to Stefani,” Jeff said. “Should we do this?”
“Yes. Although we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil: for—” Darwin said, but Jeff wasn’t in the mood to sit through the rest of whatever it was he was quoting.
“Great, I’ll get us started.” He activated his armor and floated off the ground as the antigravity technology set in. Hundreds of tiny engines activated a moment later, pushing him into the air like a human rocket. He refused to think about anything or anyone but the mission in front of him as he broke the sound barrier.
Darwin caught up a moment later, and Jeff grabbed the back of the Apostle just as the first projectiles lit up his enhanced vision.
44 ROSES
“ONLY WORRY ABOUT THE PLASMA missiles and homing incinerators,” Darwin said. “I can handle the rest.”
“Oh, is that all!” Jeff shouted. There had been a brief moment of serenity in the upper atmosphere as the earth rested peacefully below them. Flying had always been magical to him, but nothing had prepared him to see the planet shrink beneath him to the point where he could see its blue oceans curve away beneath him.
But then it bloomed with a wave of red and orange energy. For a second, he hadn’t realized what was happening—until Darwin spun weightless in the air and plummeted straight down.
Now Darwin’s body shook as thousands of pinpoint-accurate balls of energy leaked from its armor, flying out to detonate incoming warheads or destabilize ten-foot-wide balls of energy that were streaming in their direction.
“Catch that one!” Darwin said. Jeff looked up just in time to see a warhead that looked like it was going to miss them by a few hundred feet shed its long-range guidance assets and pivot toward them.
He tried to close his eyes, but he couldn’t. The feed of information from his new armor streamed directly into his mind, allowing him to see the air burning on Darwin’s chest as it plummeted to the earth and the city-leveling arsenal coming at them from all directions.
“Jeff, we will fail to approach our goal if you don’t prevent that from contacting.”
He stood on the back of the Apostle, his suit magnetically holding him in place to the living meteor that was Darwin, and he stretched out his hands as the missile absorbed Darwin’s counterattacks and broke through its outer shield.
Carlee’s voice echoed in his head, telling him that catching bullets was not only possible but also not terribly difficult. The missile seemed to get stuck in the air as everything slowed down.
A widely different earth appeared below him, one where lights from an endless city covered the land and ocean. The Apostles had never been created, but somehow humans had created a utopia anyway. Billions of humans were gathered in the heart of the global civilization to celebrate the wedding of the emperor with the High Rani. It was the first occasion of its kind in a century, and the emperor had promised to make the heavens bleed with roses.
One of the rose missiles rested in front of him now. It broke apart peacefully, scattering a thousand flowers into the thin atmosphere. The backdrop of endless tiny explosions didn’t feel right in contrast, but he was falling faster than the flowers, and a voice was calling to him.
“The next one, Jeff!”
His mind snapped back to his reality just in time to track something that looked like a red-hot drill about to smash into Darwin’s stomach. Jeff let his mind slip back into the other reality, and the drill burst into ten thousand red roses. The petals caught against Darwin’s falling body burned as friction fought bitterly against their reentry.
The farther they fell, the stronger Jeff’s connection with the other reality became. He could see the celebrations in the ever-city, the dancing, the boxy clothing, and the endless variety of food paraded along the streets. It was a beautiful time line, one where he knew he had never existed.
He could hear the cheers of the people on the ground as they looked up to see a blood-red rain of roses. He could also see the nanobot swarms and gravity grenades popping into harmless bouquets of flowers by the hundreds. He existed in both places, could feel both places, like never before. His mind bridged the realities, providing a window into both as he shielded Darwin and himself from certain death.
Jeff screamed silently as he started to lose control of his body, sinking to his weak leg of flesh as he tried to sustain the connection. He opened his mind even further to the other reality, to the point where it was hard to remember to breathe. He could hear Darwin shouting to him, but the voice, the name, didn’t belong with the rest of what he was witnessing. All he heard was a disembodied voice bouncing around in his head as he watched the spectacular display.
Somehow, a bomb had found its way among the peaceful flowerworks, exploding not far from him. Jeff felt
his body spin about, careening out of control as more and more of the flowerworks turned out to be deadly projectiles.
The flowers disappeared from his mind completely; instead, he was back on top of Darwin, locked into place on the Apostle’s body as thousands of deadly attacks filled the air around them. They pummeled Darwin as the Apostle continued to shoot down hundreds of attacks every second. The ground was approaching quickly now, but it was hard to see past the onslaught of energy blasts. Spinning wildly out of control didn’t help either. A particularly large attack hit Darwin’s right thigh, blasting a chunk of its white armor back into the sky above them but straightening them for a brief moment.
He needed to help. His brain hadn’t completely recovered from the last bout of pressing, but Jeff knew that if he didn’t act now, they were going to die. He didn’t stand, or hold out his arms, or even shut his eyes. Instead, he found a reality where he had hadn’t been able to block any of the attacks. He connected with it immediately, and he focused on several chunks of Darwin’s body.
They were incredibly complex structures, but they were small enough that he was able to press them into existence. They appeared in the air above them, drawing homing attacks away from the real Darwin. Jeff froze as the glimpse of his torn body from another reality floated across his mind. It wasn’t something he was prepared for, and the connection with the other time line shattered.
“Hold on,” Darwin’s voice filled his mind again. For the first time, Jeff didn’t hate hearing the Apostle’s voice. It was a reminder that he was still alive. He felt dizzy and sick. Explosions filled the air around him, sending shrapnel smashing into his white armor, but he couldn’t be bothered to look at it. His brain felt tired and sick. He never wanted to press again, but even more than that, he longed to be in a different reality, one where flowers rained from the sky, not death.
Vagrants (Vagrants Series Book 1) Page 28
