by S D Tanner
Taking a last look at Bart standing beside the bed he pointed at him, snarling as he did. “This isn’t over!”
“It will be if you don’t move your ass!” Judge shouted.
Now outside the door it only took a glance to see why Judge was pushing him outside the room. The corridor was on fire. Bursting from the door to the armory was a ball of fire. It bounced against the window on the other side of the corridor. It launched toward him, taking the path of least resistance. Rok was only twenty feet ahead and was heading toward the exit, which led to the narrow winding corridors. The floor beneath his feet was vibrating hard. Lolo was running ahead of Rok. She glanced over her shoulder at the fireball gathering speed behind her. Widening her eyes, her mouth opened in a silent scream.
A roaring sound had taken over from the wailing sirens. Heat from the fireball was speeding ahead of the flames. His feet slipped on the liquefying foam and greasy blood. Fleas, already deflated, melted even further onto the floor, spreading their slimy bodies across his path. Judge was pushing at his back helping him to stay on his feet, which skidded on the floor then caught traction and he ran. Judge was half a body behind him with his hand in the middle of his back. Yet even pushed by Judge and sprinting, there was no way to outrun the fireball burning its way along the corridor.
The window shattered with a loud crack. It started at one end and the sharp sound didn’t stop. As the ship lost integrity he felt pressure pulling him toward the window on his left. Any moment now he would he sucked through a small hole to the other side. He would become a stream of flesh pouring into space. They might already be dead, but their next death would be their last. His life didn’t flash before his eyes. There were no last second revelations. He remained a man without a past and now he had no future.
All he felt was pissed. Something had taken away everything he valued and now there was no time for revenge. In fact, ‘pissed’ understated how he felt. He was going to his airless grave filled with rage. His mission had never been to find out who they were, or to save the sleepers. How had he forgotten why he’d woken? They’d sworn to destroy Lunar Horizon wherever or whatever they were. Nothing he’d learned since this awakening was anything he hadn’t found out before. He should have left a note and maybe he had. The squad had a mission and, even if he died, anyone left would finish what they’d started.
His body lifted from the floor heading toward the breaking window and flames were licking at his heels. Even as he prepared to be squeezed through a tiny hole into space his last thought was for his squad.
“Hawk! Flak! Go!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: Impossible Dreamers
He landed on the floor with a graceless whump. Tangled in his own limbs he stretched and straightened until he was lying on his back looking up at bright lights on a ceiling. His mouth felt dry and his fingers were tingling as if he’d been asleep for a long time. Air was entering and leaving his lungs in a steady pattern, but he couldn’t feel his heart beating. He raised his right hand, placing it over his chest. The tube running through his body was what kept him alive, not his organs. Perhaps they were redundant now. One thought led to the next and he wondered how he could test his theory.
His eyes scanned from the ceiling to the wall, seeing a large screen in front of him. It was displaying the image of a spaceship. Appearing identical to the Prognatus it was breaking up. Fireballs exploded from the body and the domes were detaching. One of the hoops circling the ship keeled over until it smashed into the main body. The long cylindrical ship bent, before splitting apart. Opened like an unshelled peanut the two halves leaked small, ant-sized shapes. It took a moment before he realized thousands of pods were tumbling from the center of the main ship.
Something ignited in one half of the ship, setting fire to the undercarriage. The fire flared brightly and then extinguished in space. Pieces of the ship were tearing away until it slowly became smaller. Soon, there would be nothing left other than pieces of unidentifiable twisted metal. The pods would follow a pointless trajectory until they, too, broke apart. Once somewhere to sleep, the pods were now coffins for people who would never wake again.
Only one piece of debris appeared to know what it was doing. Purposefully firing from the belly of the ship the tiny craft was chased by an explosion.
A face loomed over his and interfered with his view of the screen. “You must be the luckiest guy in the universe.”
Dark-eyed with long black lashes, the woman’s face was too well structured to be called pretty. Her dark hair was cropped in a way that suggested her head had once been shaved. It was growing out evenly and wasn’t styled, or even combed. When she frowned her forehead creased, as if it were made of plastic. Her lips pursed with concern.
“Can you hear me?” She asked.
Feeling was returning to his body. The tingling in his fingers stopped and the hard floor against his back was finally registering with his brain. Licking his dry lips, he tried to speak, but he had no voice. Coughing to find his vocal chords, he replied, “Yeah.”
“I guess it didn’t work.”
Pushing against her chest so he could sit up he felt weak as a kitten. Something had robbed him of his energy, leaving him washed out and fuzzy in the head. Seeing him struggle the woman slipped her arm under his, heaving him into a sitting position. Now with his legs bent and half leaning against the woman he looked around the room. Judge was lying on his back next to him and coughing. Slumped against the wall under the screen, Rok had his arm across Ash’s chest as if he could still protect him. Lolo was the only one who appeared untouched by whatever had happened. She was climbing to her feet only ten feet from him.
Raising his hand, his voice still croaked unsteadily when he called, “Stop her.”
Two men appeared next to Lolo, each taking one of her arms.
Eyeing Lolo with suspicion, the woman asked, “Who is she?”
Although he knew there was a problem, his addled brain wasn’t cooperating. Who was Lolo? Watching his brain think reminded him of a seal lumbering across a beach. Laborious and sluggish, his mind slowly assembled data until he heard himself give a reply that surprised him. “Flea. End state.”
The woman was surprisingly strong and she helped him into the command chair. Crouching by the seat and staring up into his eyes, she asked, “Do you know where you are? Do you know who I am? What happened on the Prognatus? Did you find the Animax? Where is it?”
Holding up his hand hoping to stop the barrage of questions, he asked one of his own. “Who are you?”
“I’m Jessica. Don’t you remember me?”
Pulling away so he could study her face, he realized she was a more animated version of the robot called Jessica. “How did I get here?”
“The Prognatus moved away with the Animax. We used a beacon to trace you and then teleported you here.”
“Where did you get a beacon…or a teleporter?”
“In the dome on the ship. You found it.” Smiling, she added, “I got it working, though. You haven’t much patience for technology.”
“How long was I gone?”
“Only a week.”
Judge was listening to Jessica and shaking his head. “Why don’t we remember this?”
The other people on the Bridge were finally registering with him. Where, moments before, they’d been shadows on the edge of his consciousness now they came into focus. Several were armed and looked like Defensors. As he twisted in the seat he could see a row of faces staring back at him from the control panels.
Looking back at Jessica, he said, “Catch me up.”
“You were on the Prognatus and used a shuttle to come across to the Extrema. You wiped out the fleas on this ship.”
“How did I do that?”
“You infected them with a virus from the dome.”
“Then what happened?”
“You left and ordered me to wake the remaining Defensors on the Extrema.”
“How did
I get on the Prognatus?”
“You made it your mission to protect the sleepers and eradicate the fleas on every Ark. You and a squad went to the Prognatus.” Tilting her head at him, she asked, “What happened to you?”
His brain finally willing to work for him, he began piecing together the events. He’d woken on the Prognatus assuming he’d been asleep for a long time, but he hadn’t been. How had he ended up in the pod?
Judge answered his unspoken question. “We must have been put back under and the Jessica on the Prognatus woke us up again.” Looking at the other Jessica, he added, “Every version of you fights with your protocols.
He’d been on the right track with the viruses. Maybe that’s how he’d known to use them against the fleas. Even if he couldn’t remember using the viruses, they’d gotten rid of the fleas on the Extrema. Just as the Jessica on the Prognatus had told him, he’d been woken many times. It appeared Jessica was one stubborn woman. She’d woken him more than once trying to free them from the Arks.
Studying her smooth features, he doubted this version of Jessica was human either. “Are you a robot?”
A small smile played across her mouth and she looked at him coyly. “What makes us human?”
It was the same question he’d asked about being dead. If Jessica was in control of her own mind and able to think for herself then she was human enough. Each time Jessica had woken him on the Prognatus they’d tried to take control of the ship. Breaking their protocols hadn’t been easy. Every time they snapped one of the controls there had been another they needed to break. Their brains were not entirely their own, but like living with a mad addiction, they’d learned to work around their weaknesses.
“I failed,” he said matter-of-factly.
“I wouldn’t say that.” Flicking her head at the screen, she added, “You wanted to save the other sleepers. It was an admirable attempt, but you did save this one. We’re in control of this ship now.”
“Did I have a plan?”
Placing her hand on the metal part of his arm, she replied, “We have a plan.”
“Lunar Horizon.”
“It all starts and ends with them.”
“Do we know what happened on Earth?” Looking across at Lolo, who was still held by the two men, he said, “She told me a tall tale about a corporation taking over the world and releasing a virus.”
Following his gaze, Jessica shook her head. “That might be true, but we wouldn’t know.”
“Why?”
Her face fell and her mouth turned downward. “You always forget that bit. I don’t think you want to remember it.”
“What do I forget?”
With her hand still resting on his arm, she looked across at his squad. “We all died three hundred years ago. We don’t know what’s happened on Earth because we weren’t online. Lunar only brought us back for the Arks.”
“How far are we from Earth?”
“A quarter of a light-year, or six months travel.”
Nothing about their mission was as it had seemed. Cogless had lied and they were almost home.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: Being Human
The two men had taken Lolo to the room inside the armory. Empty of weapons, and with only one door, it was easily controlled. Bart hadn’t admitted what he was, but he knew the truth. It made sense that some of the fleas would have reached their end state on board the Arks. He suspected that was the point of growing them in space. They matured into whatever they absorbed, which in this case was the sleepers.
Everything Lolo had told him was probably a lie. She’d claimed a company called Lunar Horizon controlled Earth and they’d released a virus, killing two thirds of the population. At least she’d been slightly more honest about the Arks. They were incubators for the fleas and never destined for any colony. Judging by the technology that he and Jessica had found inside the domes the fleas were more than parasites. If he were to compare them to anything he’d call them a virus. They were adaptive, sneaky and smart.
The two men blocking the door with their bulky frames stepped aside as he approached. None of the other Defensors challenged his leadership, but he’d yet to talk to them all. While he’d been on the Prognatus, Jessica had worked hard breaking their protocols. She’d given them new orders, which would do for now. He needed them to act autonomously but for the moment, Jessica assured him, he could trust their blind obedience.
“Stand aside.”
“Yes, sir,” the two men replied in unison.
Although he’d spoken to Lolo on the Prognatus everything had changed. He was about to meet the species that had set up the Arks. He might not be the sharpest tool in the box, but even he knew better than to underestimate her again. Jessica had asked what made a person human. Under the circumstances it was a fair question. Neither he nor Jessica looked human anymore, whereas Lolo did and she wasn’t. A human was not defined by their appearance, but by their intent for others. Having human DNA wasn’t what made any living creature an enemy or a friend. A dog might not be human, but its loyalty made it man’s best friend. He and Jessica were bonded by their intent for the Arks. They didn’t need to know one another well to acknowledge their shared humanity.
Lolo only looked human, but that was where the commonality ended. Her species had used humans in every way possible. Jessica was a robot. He and his men were a hybrid between human and machine. The sleepers supplied a source of DNA absorbed by the fleas through their blood. Lolo’s intentions for mankind meant he’d rather have a dog by his side than her. Had she told him the truth about the viruses in the bag he would never have needed to test them inside the dome. It was Lolo’s fault they were in the dome and had accidentally released the cockroaches. He had no sympathy for her. She might look human on the outside, but he suspected it was only skin deep. When they finished interrogating Lolo, he would have the Medicus, Robert, take her apart.
Lolo was sitting on a bench at the back of the room. Seeing him walk through the door she gave him a welcoming smile. Given that she was their prisoner it wasn’t the greeting he’d expected. Swinging her legs over the edge of the bench, Lolo leaned forward, supporting herself on her hands. Her slight build and bald head gave her the wide-eyed innocence of a young girl. When he didn’t return her smile, she tilted her head and frowned.
“You’re angry with me.”
“You didn’t tell me the truth about the viruses. It’s your fault we lost the Prognatus.” Narrowing his eyes, he added, “That makes you a mass murderer.”
Her eyes became even wider as if the accusation shocked her. “What makes you think I knew more than you?” Waving her hand at the room, she said indignantly, “I woke up in the same place you did.”
“But you started life in a locker inside the dome.”
“Do you know how you were conceived? Can you remember your birth?”
Thanks to what had been done to his brain he barely remembered anything. Small snatches of his past would unexpectedly return, but he had no context for the memories. If Lolo was a newborn alien then maybe she didn’t know what was happening, but why had she lied?
“I don’t believe you. You knew about Lunar Horizon.” Leaning toward her, he asked, “How did you know about them if you were newly born?”
Narrowing her eyes, she leaned against the wall behind her. She crossed her arms over her chest and didn’t answer his question.
“I think you were put on this ship to monitor it.” Still refusing to reply, Lolo looked away and her mouth pressed into a thin line of disapproval. He allowed his anger to lead him. “Maybe you keep the tech working, or report to whoever set up the Arks.”
It was becoming clear she wasn’t going to answer his questions, not willingly anyway. Trying another approach, he softened his tone. “Lolo, what happened on Earth? Were you lying about Lunar Horizon being in control?”
Finally returning his gaze, her voice became tinged with sadness. “Why do you think I’m a flea?”
“Are you a flea?”
Uncrossing her arms, Lolo raised a trembling hand to her face. “I…I don’t know.” Leaning forward again, her next question sounded genuinely confused. “Did you know what you were when you woke?”
Despite his better judgment, he could empathize with her situation. “Did you know what the viruses would do?”
Lowering her eyes as if ashamed, she replied, “I knew they were viruses, and I suspected they would work.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that?”
Looking him in the eye, she replied, “I wasn’t sure what I knew.” Tapping her forehead with a still shaking finger, she added, “I…I have memories, but I’m not sure they’re mine. They…they’re not…complete. I mean, they don’t have any detail.”
He couldn’t hand Lolo to Robert. Maybe she was human and being used by the aliens. Perhaps she had been put on the Ark to manage the viruses they were growing in space. They’d done something to Jessica’s brain and his. What if they’d done something to Lolo’s as well? Jessica’s question ran through his mind again. “What makes us human?”
Taking a step forward, he took Lolo’s shaking hand in his. Looking her in the eye, he said, “How do you feel, Lolo?”
