Time Reavers

by Jacob Holo

  “They’re draining its blood,” Shoko said. “We have to get our fuel from somewhere.”

  “For the flyer?” Nicole asked.

  “For just about everything powered in Chronopolis,” Shoko said. “Actually, I’m not being fully accurate. Reavers have eight different fluids in their bodies, all of them useful.”

  “Even the stinky stuff?”

  “Yes, even that stuff. Shame about the smell,” Shoko said. “Come on. Let’s keep moving.”

  Nicole lagged behind. She craned her neck and gazed at the gutted reaver.

  So we’re corpse-eaters, huh, she thought. Well, better you than me hanging from the ceiling.

  “Nicole!” Rüdiger shouted. “Come on!”

  “Coming!” Nicole said, jogging after them.

  Shoko led them to the end of the slaughterhouse and down a tunnel. Here, the walls stopped resembling sandstone and took on a polished mirror shine. The floor looked like milky crystal. Nicole could just make out pipes crisscrossing beneath their feet.

  “We’re under the inner wall,” Shoko said, opening another door. “This will take us to the borehole dome.”

  “Let me get this straight,” Nicole said. “The Greeks were the Third Founding and Egyptians were the Second Founding. So who was the First Founding?”

  “We don’t know,” Shoko said.

  “Whoever they were, they built the inner city around 10,000 BC,” Rüdiger said.

  “They what?”

  “Fascinating, isn’t it?” Rüdiger said. “They built all this around the time our ancestors were discovering bronze.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “I agree, but here it is.”

  Shoko opened a shiny door at the end of the tunnel. They walked through it and emerged in the inner city. Unlike everything else Nicole had seen, this part of the Chronopolis looked completely new. Every surface shone like a perfectly clean mirror. Dozens of smaller domes encircled a massive central dome with cylindrical tunnels linking them. Nicole thought it all resembled a molecular model flattened against the ground.

  The dome exteriors were smooth and featureless. Nicole could only see one entrance, a wide semi-circle doorway into the largest dome. It dominated the center of the city, rising high above even the pyramids and obelisks in the Egyptian City.

  “The flyer is already fueled up,” Shoko said, walking to the doorway. “Once we’re inside, I can open the borehole and pilot the flyer through it.”

  She pressed her hand against a circular panel next to the door. The door split into eight segments and irised open like a camera lens. Shoko led the way in and shut the door once everyone was inside.

  Nicole looked around the interior. She half expected great humming engines of power or at least some arcane arcs of energy between pulsing machinery. Instead, she found a bare circular space with a flattened ceiling and a walkway around a hollowed-out bowl-shaped pit. It seemed the dome wasn’t a dome at all, but a half-buried sphere.

  A rusty steel railing lined the walkway. Yellow paint flaked off it. Grated metal steps led down into the pit. They looked completely out of place.

  Shoko walked to the stairs. Nicole heard the entrance slide open again. Everyone stopped and turned around.

  “Hi, guys!” Daniel said, his sword’s flat edge resting on his shoulder. “You miss me?”

  Viktor Surikov and ten Overwatch assassins stood behind him, dressed in black-and-red uniforms.

  Shoko drew her sword. Rüdiger summoned an aura of flame around his body. Nicole kinetically grabbed the railing and ripped off a section. She didn’t know what she’d do with it. Killing reavers was one thing, but fighting to kill a human being was something altogether different.

  Daniel rolled his eyes.

  “Think for a second, guys,” he said. “If I were here to fight, would I announce my presence first? I’m an assassin, after all, even if I don’t like my job.”

  “Then why are you here?” Rüdiger asked.

  “Because I know how stubborn you and Shoko can be. I knew you wouldn’t give up, even with the threat of execution hanging over your heads. So stop being suspicious, and for goodness’ sake, douse that thing before you set someone on fire.”

  “That is normally the point,” Rüdiger said.

  “Stand down, now!” Viktor shouted. “Or I will have you executed!”

  Nicole let the railing drop with a clatter. Slowly, Shoko sheathed her sword. Rüdiger let his flames dissipate.

  “You have all tested my patience,” Viktor said. “It is with the greatest of reluctance that I have agreed to assist you.”

  “What?” Rüdiger asked.

  “You— you’re assisting us?” Nicole asked. “Why?”

  “Because there is a slim chance you will succeed,” Viktor said. “And if you fail, the matter of your executions settles itself.”

  “Err, thanks,” Nicole said. “I guess.”

  “Besides, I couldn’t let you carry out such a flawed plan,” Daniel said. “You guys need my help.”

  “What flaw?” Rüdiger asked.

  “Someone has to stay behind to close the borehole. Shoko can’t. She has to pilot the flyer. No one else in your little group can operate the machinery.”

  Rüdiger and Shoko exchanged looks.

  “Were you people thinking you’d just fly through and leave it open?” Daniel asked.

  “We will keep the borehole open for precisely one minute,” Viktor said. “That will minimize the risk.”

  “One minute!” Shoko said. “But it’ll take us three hours to get to Ludwigsburg!”

  “We’ll stay in tau prime for the whole trip,” Daniel said. “That way, no real time will pass during transit.”

  “We?” Nicole asked.

  “Yes, we,” Daniel said. “The Overwatch is sending along some help.”

  “How many guards?” Rüdiger asked.

  “One,” Daniel grinned. “Can you guess who?”

  “So what are they here for?” Shoko asked, pointing to the dozen assassins.

  “They’re here in case we’re wrong and reavers flood through as soon as the borehole is opened,” Daniel said.

  “And we have only one minute?” Rüdiger said. “A single mistake and we’re trapped on the other side.”

  “Still want to go?” Daniel asked. “You can back out and return to the wall if you want.”

  The room fell silent.

  Finally, Nicole said, “Well, this is stupid. Hey, Shoko? Where’s the flyer?”

  “At the bottom of the stairs. Why?”

  Nicole stepped past Shoko and hurried down the stairs. Eventually, the others followed her to the dome’s lower bowl along with two of Viktor’s men. The two Overwatch assassins stopped halfway down the stairs near a raised pedestal that must have been a control device for the borehole.

  Nicole reached the bottom of the stairs and looked at the flyer.

  “That’s it?” she said.

  It didn’t look like it could get out of the dome, let alone fly thousands of miles. The flyer was a teardrop-shaped platform with waist-high metal railings bolted on and no canopy. It had all the aerodynamics and sex appeal of a brick, but it hovered a foot off the ground. At least that was encouraging.

  “I was expecting…” Nicole said.

  “Something a bit more like a jet?” Shoko asked. “Don’t worry. It’ll get us there.”

  Nicole and the others climbed onboard. Shoko placed her hand on a pedestal in the center. The flyer cautiously ascended until it was directly underneath the flat roof.

  “We’re ready!” Daniel shouted to his fellow assassins. “Open it up!”

  One of the assassins at the control pedestal nodded. Above them, the roof split into eight sections and irised open. The flyer ascended into a wide cylindrical chamber with another mirror-surfaced roof. A skeleton of thick silver beams supported the perfectly smooth black crystal walls of the chamber.

  “We’ll pass through eight locks before en
tering reaverspace,” Shoko said.

  Nicole nodded. She held the railing with white knuckles and did not look down.

  “Pretty cool, huh?” Daniel said, walking up to her.

  “I can’t believe you changed your mind.”

  “Come on. Was there ever a doubt?”

  “Of course there was! I thought you were turning us in!”

  “I couldn’t do that,” Daniel said.

  “You could have fooled me!” Nicole said. “So, what changed your mind?”

  “Well, you did.”

  Nicole felt her face redden.

  “What… what do you mean?”

  “Pretty much what I said. You’re pretty good at leading by doing, you know?”

  “You mean you’re doing this because I’m willing to do this?”

  “Yeah, like that,” Daniel said. “I’ve stuck by you this far. How could I not be with you when you need me the most?”

  Nicole looked away and smiled.

  “That’s so touching,” Rüdiger said. “It brings a tear to my eye.”

  “Shut up, Rüdi. You see this finger? It’s for you.”

  “Next lock opening,” Shoko said.

  The flyer ascended through the second iris.

  Daniel craned his neck back. “Man, this is so cool. We’re higher than the top of the dome, which means it’s bigger on the inside. That’s just neat.”

  “How can you be cheerful at a time like this?” Nicole said. “Don’t you realize what we’re doing?”

  “Of course I do,” Daniel said. “I’m scared to death right now.”

  “You don’t show it.”

  “Maybe I’m just good at hiding it.”

  “Third lock opening,” Shoko said. “What the… Hang on!”

  The flyer accelerated sideways.

  “Whoa!” Nicole shouted, wrapping her arm around the railing. Clumps of debris plummeted by. Nicole caught glimpses of human skeletons and empty reaver shells.

  Daniel leaned over the railing. “Look out below! Damn, I hope that doesn’t hit anyone.”

  “We’re likely to see more of that,” Rüdiger said. “The borehole was last closed in the middle of an invasion. Shoko?”

  “I’ll do my best,” she said. “I’m going to keep us close to the edge for now. The locks open so slowly, I should have plenty of time to see what’s falling our way.”

  They ascended further.

  “Here comes the fourth lock,” Shoko said.

  The center opened. A dead sentinel fell through. It tumbled down the borehole, crashing and breaking against the sides. Shoko darted the flyer towards the center and flew up before the lock had fully opened. From above, Nicole could see reaver corpses littering the half-open lock.

  The flyer climbed higher.

  “Daniel?” Nicole asked.

  “Hmm?”

  “How did you convince Viktor to let us go?”

  “In short, a lot of shouting,” Daniel said. “He told me if I survive and ever pull something like this again, he’s going to bash my head in with his war hammer. Oh, and if he ever says that to you, I advise you to take him seriously.”

  “What a charmer.”

  “You don’t know the half of it.”

  “Fifth lock!” Shoko shouted.

  The iris opened. At first, the passage above seemed clear. Then Nicole realized they were looking straight up into the largest reaver jaw she’d ever seen. It lurched against the opening lock and dropped down. Shoko kept the flyer centered, allowing them to pass through its open jaws. It whooshed past, crashed against the sides below, and spun away.

  “What the hell did that come from?” Nicole shouted.

  “No idea, but I’m glad it’s dead,” Rüdiger said. The iris opened fully, dropping heavy segments of the reaver corpse. The thing looked like it could eat juggernauts as a light snack.

  Nicole shook her head. They passed through the next two locks without incident.

  “Lock eight is just ahead,” Rüdiger said. “As soon as we’re clear, I’ll pull us into a freeze.”

  Unlike the first seven, the final lock was warped inward as if something huge had pounded it from above. But whatever forces had tried to breach it, the lock had held out. It separated and opened like all the others, if slightly slower.

  The flyer rose into an even wider shaft. The walls resembled a tightly-packed oil refinery, all pipes and conduits and dark machinery. The construction lacked the right angles of human design. It looked random, almost organic.

  Whatever purpose the machine shaft had served, it didn’t seem to do anything now. No reavers moved in its dark, dingy walls. No lights illuminated its deep, twisting passages.

  The flyer rose skyward. Nicole felt a tingle as Rüdiger pulled them into a tau freeze. The flyer was completely unaffected. It flew up and out of the machine shaft.

  “My God…” Rüdiger said.

  “Would you look at that…” Daniel said.

  Reaverspace lay before them: a twisting metal landscape that stretched to the horizon. Nicole couldn’t see anything that resembled forests or mountains or even a simple patch of dirt, just one convoluted metal anthill after another. It was as if the reavers had consumed their world, taking everything it offered and manufacturing it into one giant superstructure that covered the surface for as far as the eye could see. Harsh red lights glared within each mountainous structure. Nicole could see motionless reavers on the hive exteriors.

  Billows of black smoke rose from several reaver hives, their thick, greasy plumes inert. Nicole didn’t know if reaverspace had stars or a sun because smog choked the sky from end to end. A single streak of lightning flashed between clouds, frozen with lesser bolts splintering off it.

  “Look over there,” Shoko said, pointing to what resembled a flying wing. Nicole squinted, making out what might have been a head and red eyes on the front of the craft.

  “Is that thing alive?” Nicole asked. “It’s huge.”

  “Okay, I know this might be a stupid question,” Daniel said. “But does anyone know which way to go?”

  “Uhh…” Nicole looked to the others.

  “Fear not,” Rüdiger said. “Shoko and I have worked out our initial heading. If Ludwigsburg is in the same place here as back home, we will end up close to it. After that, a borehole under construction should provide quite a landmark from the air. I hope.”

  “If it’s in the same place?” Daniel asked. “You hope? That’s just great.”

  “What else do you suggest?” Rüdiger asked. “As I recall, we didn’t invite you along.”

  “So you’d prefer I wasn’t here?”

  Rüdiger said nothing.

  “So that must mean you’re glad I’m here,” Daniel said.

  “Don’t push it.”

  “All right, enough talk!” Shoko said. “Let’s see how fast this thing can go!”

  Nicole wrapped her arm around the railing again. The rear of the flyer ignited with blue light and the craft rocketed forward. To Nicole’s amazement, she felt neither g-forces nor air whooshing by. Giant reaver hives rushed by underneath them.

  “Time to crank this thing up to eleven!” Shoko said.

  The rear of the craft flared like the sun.

  Chapter 18

  Alpha Juggernaut

  The second borehole proved easier to find than Nicole had thought. Most of reaverspace consisted of endless metallic hives and choking plumes of smoke, but the borehole announced its presence with a pillar of bluish light splashing against the blackened sky.

  Flying closer, Nicole could make out massive machines ringing the borehole’s deep, black pit. They were each the size of skyscrapers, but warped in ways that would be unacceptable to human architects. Devoid of sharp angles, they looked more grown than built. None of the machines were the same size or shape, but all of them were crowned in arrays of circular stacks. Motionless blue fire blazed within each machine.

  Hundreds of reavers hovered above the borehole, many large enoug
h to swallow the flyer whole. It was hard to tell exactly how they moved because of the tau freeze, but Nicole imagined their bloated, oblong bodies floating lazily through the air. Long legs and metal tentacles dangled from their bellies, tending to the machines below.

  “Have you ever wondered if the reavers are limited in freezes like we are?” Rüdiger asked. “Humanity has everything from handguns to nuclear weapons, but we fight in freezes with swords and crossbows.”

  “I’m wondering it now,” Daniel said.

  The flyer descended sharply before Shoko righted it. Nicole wrapped her arms around the railing.

  “Uh oh,” Shoko said. She put both hands on the flyer’s central pedestal. “That’s not good.”

  “What’s wrong?” Nicole asked, not letting go.

  “For the last few minutes I’ve had this hieroglyph scrolling through my head,” Shoko said. “I think I just figured it out. We need to land right now.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we’re almost out of fuel.”

  “What?” Daniel said. “If we’re out of fuel, how are we supposed to get back?”

  “Baka! This thing runs on reaver blood! So shut up and pick a spot to land!”

  “Can you set us down next to the borehole?” Nicole asked.

  “I can try,” Shoko said. She angled the flyer forward, increasing their rate of descent.

  The propulsive light at the flyer’s rear fizzled into a streamer of faint sparks.

  “Oh, that can’t be good!” Daniel said.

  For a few seconds, the flyer glided forward. Then it dropped like a rock. Nicole’s stomach lurched into her throat. She screamed, clinging to the railing. They flew past one of the machine towers lining the borehole. Vast, twisted architecture flashed by. Some reavers began moving, momentarily pulled into the tau freeze, then snapped back to their original positions as the flyer plummeted past.

  They fell into the second borehole. Rough crystal walls and thousands of smaller reavers sped by.

  “Hang on!” Shoko shouted.

  “I’m hanging on!” Daniel shouted. “I’m hanging on!”