by Mars Dorian
“I have to admit, life was simpler onboard the Stryker carrier. Not easy, but simple. I had my mission objectives and followed the orders from my superior. And now what the hex am I? A stranded pilot, a guardian, a mediator and, or, a hostage taker?”
“Every single decision of yours was a deliberate one. It was your choice to engage in this conflict. You could have become a regular citizen.”
“To become apathetic and watch the war from the sidelines? Not in a million millennia.”
“Then you’re exactly where you chose to be.”
Choice was relative.
Destiny sent him debris, the debris sent him here.
A world more mysterious than Stryker’s central command.
With every new step toward the center, the nervousness inside RX surged.
Damn.
I’m a soldier, I shouldn’t feel this nervous.
Shouldn’t feel like an offspring before Basic training, but I do.
I freaking do.
Aida chimed in.
“Whatever happens from now on, I’ll always be by your side.”
“Thank you, Aida.”
RX sprinted.
With no porter and APEX around, the path into Evergreen’s center took painstakingly long. Traveling by foot made him realize how big the colony actually was—almost the size of an average city cluster of the USC.
And not a single soul around.
“Looks like the whole colony has been evacuated.”
“Then how do you plan to find Norma? You can’t just call her up.”
“Good question. So far, everyone showed up whenever they needed to.”
Silence.
RX finally reached the center plaza. The hexagon building which harbored the commons looked like a monolith. A strange vibe oozed from its surface. Something that shook up RX’s body, down to the last cell.
“Hello, Rex.”
That voice.
RX loved to loathe it.
46
The great hall of dining, now forsaken except for one person.
Norma.
Leader of a colony with no leaders.
More twisted than a tornado on Alterra.
Like the queen of a crumbling kingdom, she sat on the other end of the commons and intertwined her fingers. Shot RX with a stare that could pierce permasteel.
Eyes full of burn.
“Put away your rifle, you won’t need it.”
“You know why I’m here?”
“I knew the second you set foot on this colony.”
“Are you coming with me? I promise no harm.”
“Do you want to know the truth?”
“What?”
She smiled. RX hated that.
“Rex. You’ve been holing me with questions from day one. Now I’m offering you all the answers.”
RX stepped forward and continued to hold the intense eye contact with her. Wasn’t hard, considering her magnetic presence pulled him in, even at this distance. RX swallowed his sour spit.
“Where’s everyone?”
“At a safe place. Every single one of them.”
RX walked around the first table row in slowmo.
“Outside the northern border is a battalion of USC soldiers and tanks. They’ve stopped their attack because I told them I’d bring you to their commander. You say you’re a fervent believer in peace, so let’s end this conflict without any more bloodshed, Norma.”
“Do you know how long they have been at war with us?”
“Almost a year?”
“Three years, thirty-two weeks and five days,” she said with the tone of a bureaucrat.
“And do you know how often they have attacked Evergreen?”
RX shrugged. Norma continued.
“Seven times. And can you guess how many times I attacked them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Rex, make an educated guess.”
He knew the answer, but he didn’t want to spill it. Norma already led the conversation and it was scratching his ego.
RX carried armor and an advanced assault rifle with HV rounds.
The technological advantage was his, and still, he feared her with every cell of his body.
“Zero,” he said.
“That is right.”
She leaned forward but stayed calm and collected.
“These renegade US Corps are just like their big brother in space—an imperial force that destroys everything that doesn’t want to assimilate into their toxic society. They keep talking about the virus, but they’re the real virus.”
Her voice traveled across the hall. It seemed to reverberate from every corner.
“I know you talked to commander Klaven, and I bet he told you his cute little story about Evergreen’s origin, but do you know what he really wants?”
“Peace.”
Norma laughed.
“By attacking us seven times? Hah, think for a second, RX. They want this.”
She stretched her arms into an arc.
“They want the power that is the key to this community. They want to abuse it to continue their relentless conquest.”
RX kept his voice leveled.
“How do you do it, Norma, how do you control all these people?”
She smiled for the first time, but it seemed wrong.
“Oh, I don’t control anyone. I’m a humble servant of something greater.”
She clapped her hands. The ground behind RX opened up with the same mechanism from the wall-opening doors.
Norma stood up and walked toward the hole in the ground. She descended two stairs and addressed RX with eyes wide open.
“What are you waiting for? Don’t you want to know the ‘secret’ behind all of this?”
This really wasn’t working as planned.
But he was tired of being tossed around like a ball by the two factions, not knowing what the rules of the game were. So he followed Norma and stepped into the underground with his rifle raised.
Whatever he was going to find down here, he wanted to be ready.
47
They entered a dimly-lit corridor. Norma took the lead, RX kept his distance and pointed his rifle at her.
She didn’t seem to mind.
“We human beings suffer from exceptionalism. We believe our relentless thirst for domination is right. We believe that we deserve to colonize this galaxy. We are the virus that infects everything it comes in contact with.”
Norma sounded like a political campaign manager, but RX listened on.
“The US Corps found this planet and terraformed the surface. They built this pretentious colony, hoping to strengthen their military presence. Hoping to continue their domineering way of life.”
They marched deeper into the unknown tunnel. The air tasted wet and foul, similar, and yet different from the surface.
“When people in the colony turned mad, the officials of the fleet blamed it on an unidentifiable virus. They sent me down to this planet with a group of ground-pounders and bio-engineers to find the source of the infection. I discovered these underground tunnels, Rex. And what I found changed my life. And the life of a million colonists.”
More blahblah from Norma.
A faint light beamed from the distance.
“Since the dawn of humanity, we have searched for the right way to govern our race. We tried different systems, all of which failed in the long-term.
But maybe we looked at it wrong. Maybe we weren’t supposed to govern ourselves. It is foolish to believe we’re the only smart organism in the universe.”
Norma walked toward the opening and waved RX over.
“Come here, Rex, enlightenment is only a few steps away.”
He carefully stepped forward with the rifle trained on her. Marched into the cave hall and gasped at the sight. A giant plant creature sprouted from the center. Its roots carved into the rugged ground and ceiling. Thorns and circuit patterns etched into its surface skin.
Whatever it was,
it breathed.
Norma smiled.
“She lay dormant in the underground for centuries, maybe millennia. When the US Corps colonized this planet, they had no idea they were building their colony on top of an alien life form.”
Norma stepped forward, so did RX. His fingers shivered over the trigger.
Norma ignored his rifle.
“For a while, she was just watching the settlers on the surface. She was curious and learned about our life style, our architecture and technology. And then she released spores onto the surface and connected with every citizen.”
“Connect? You mean it manipulated them.”
“That’s such a loaded term for something far superior to us. Unlike us humans, she doesn’t want to destroy, but build. With us.”
She knelt next to a giant root and stroked its breathing surface.
A few overweight Evergreens sleepwalked into a line. Targeted the center of the alien plant. It opened and revealed a giant mouth with thorns, or teeth.
“What are they doing?”
“They are nurturing Her for our well-being.”
The first fat Evergreen stepped into the mouth. It devoured him and produced strange sounds. One overweight citizen after another was eaten by the giant plant. RX wanted to turn away and throw up, but the sight terrified him.
He couldn’t look away.
“So that’s your amazing plan for humanity. To sacrifice your own race to that thing?”
“No, you’re seeing it all wrong, Rex. Only a small number sacrifice themselves. The rest lives on and procreates, growing stronger with Her. It’s what you would call a win-win solution.”
“So, this thing controls the colony via the spores that infected the citizens?”
“It is the colony, Rex. Every suit, every house is connected to Her. She knows our minds better than we do, that’s why She leads us.”
Now RX realized his missing puzzle pieces.
The lack of communication devices.
The organic circuit patterns that ran through every Evergreens.
It was all part of the plant.
“It’s a symbiosis.”
She looked up and smiled at him.
“It’s more than a symbiosis. She is the body and we’re the bacteria keeping Her clean. In exchange, she lets us live in peace and health.”
RX grunted.
No matter what Norma said, no matter how sweet she tried to make it sound, it wasn’t right.
“You’re nothing but meat puppets to an alien.”
Norma narrowed her eyes.
“Even after all this time you’ve spent with us, you’re still entrenched in your limited military mindset. You have seen our people.
They’re happy and healthy, and they’ll live long. Very long.”
“They don’t have any choice. They’re nothing but drones enslaved to a hive mind. This is no way for a human to live.”
Norma laughed.
“Choice is a toxic vestige from our race. When humans choose, they choose wrong.”
RX watched the last citizen getting munched by the alien plant. The sight disgusted him with every new breath. He raised his rifle and pointed at the heart of the creature.
“What if I’d shoot now?”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Says who?”
“Says us.”
A new group of Evergreens entered the cave. RX recognized Toyler and Bloom among them. They walked around the alien plant and shielded it, hand in hand.
Like tree-huggers standing in the line of fire.
“Get away. I’m saving you.”
“You can’t hurt us, Rex. This community runs deeper than blood.”
“That’s not you speaking, Bloom. It’s the creature controlling your mind.”
Norma spoke with a motherly tone.
“We tried to integrate you from day one. But the spores had no effect on you.”
Thank tech for the narnites in RX’s bloodstream. They fought the parasites as soon as his helmet was off.
“Put down your gun and join us, Rex. Move away from your destructive ways. The fears, the sorrows, the violence. All that garbage clouding your mind. Once you’re connected, you feel nothing but endless joy.”
RX pondered her offer for a nanosecond.
On the surface, it sounded tempting.
No PTSD, no pain.
Just balance.
But was that life worth living?
That thing in his mind, telling him what to do?
Would he cease being RX and become another meat puppet?
Serving the alien plant overlord.
With his eyes closed, he smiled.
Deep inside, he knew the answer.
He always did.
“There’s no leash on me.”
48
He tilted the rifle and fired a burst into the nearest root. The plant groaned, shook up. The Evergreens screamed in unison.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m liberating you.”
RX fired another volley of bullets and shredded the root. The Evergreens froze for a breath and marched toward him in perfect formation. A mindless horde of zombies coming after him.
Led by Bloom and Norma.
Damn.
“Aida, I need your help. Launch the APEX and release the V8 Titan Breaker missile to the coordinates I send you.”
“What about the deal with the US Corps?”
“They’re going to get what they want, but my way.”
“Roger that.”
The Evergreens stormed at him.
A crowd of humanoids, now reduced to manipulated meat bags. RX retreated but kept his target on the incoming attackers.
They surrounded him like a pack of bloodthirsty predators with no humanity left. RX didn’t want to shoot anyone, so he used the butt of his rifle and slammed it into the nearest mind slave. Kicked the closest ‘grabber’ to the ground and bolted back into the tunnel.
“Aida, status update.”
“I’m hovering over the location you ordered me to.”
“On my call, launch the V8 Titan Breaker while I lure the Evergreens away. Wait for my signal.”
“Roger.”
RX ran through the organic cave tunnel and made sure the manipulated mob followed him.
Easier done than said.
Judging by their emotionless eyes, they were looking like psychopaths ready to rip RX apart.
So much for the pacifist plant.
When he thought he was far away enough, he gave Aida the go.
“Launch.”
Five seconds of tunnel sprinting, and a giant blast shook up the underground.
The mob squealed even though nobody looked hit. They all cringed and fell to their knees, shaking like stun-victims.
“Aida, status?”
“Package delivered.”
RX grasped for air, clutched his combat rifle and maneuvered around the staggering Evergreens with vigilant eyes. To his surprise, everyone ignored him. Were they finally disconnected from the creature?
RX marched back to the cave hub and found the alien plant buried under rubble.
Good riddance.
But not everyone shared the same sentiment.
Norma pushed herself up from the ground.
“What did you do?”
“What does it look like?”
“You killed our mother.”
“I killed a monster.”
She jumped at him and lunged for his throat. Mind-controlled or not, Norma was as manic as ever.
“You filthy imperialist. I welcome you to my colony, offer you peace and you blow everything apart.”
He sidestepped past her, nailed her face with the butt of his rifle. Norma fell to the ground and whined.
Empathy left RX’s body with every new breath.
“I put my life on the line to save your colony. I’ve prevented a war.”
“But you killed our mother.”
Mother, mother, mothe
r.
To call this abomination of an organism mother was an insult to humanity. How dare they betray their own race? These Evergreens were sicker than he thought.
“It’s over now. Deal with it.”
“First I’m going to deal with you.”
Norma’s fury revved her up again. She swung a sharp piece of rubble and brandished it like a tactical knife. RX evaded her flank but slipped on the debris and rolled sideways on the ground. Norma aimed for his head when he pulled the trigger and sent a bullet through her nose bridge. Norma staggered and fell over like a meat bag.
Going plonk on the ground.
RX stood up again and observed Norma’s corpse.
The first time she looked peaceful.
RX said,
“Aida?”
“Yes.”
“It’s over.”
49
RX grabbed Norma’s body and schlepped it to his APEX’s cockpit.
“Any damage, Aida?”
“No hull penetration.”
“Good. Let’s get back to Klaven and finish this siege.”
For now.
Everything was now.
RX returned to the air space and rocketed toward the north-eastern front.
“Establish a connection with the commander.”
“Roger.”
The old man’s tiresome face brimmed on the HUD.
“Rex.”
He delivered his name with subzero passion, but RX ignored the lackluster welcome.
“I have her.”
“What?”
“Norma. I’ve killed her, and I’m bringing you her corpse.”
Commander Klaven’s face twitched as if tiny electro shocks zapped his cheeks from all angles. It took him four seconds to mumble a sentence.
“You have…killed her?”
“I tried to talk her into coming with me, but she refused. Things got a bit messy and now she’s a goner. I’m coming back to the hillside and show you the corpse, so cease your fire.”
Klaven still looked as if RX told him the fairy tale of a lifetime. So he pushed up Norma’s corpse in front of the display and let the man have a look at her lifeless face.
“She’s gone for good, but you can verify that yourself in a few seconds.”
Klaven’s answer seemed to lurk on his tongue.
“Okay, I grant you permission to land.”
How generous, RX thought. After all, he did all the work while the old man sipped coffee at his camp, shaking his balls and barking commands to his grunts. RX floated one hundred meters over the hillside and checked the scanners.
