H.A.L.F.: ORIGINS

by Natalie Wright

  “I’ll go first,” Jack said. He squeezed through the rocks. It was a tight fit, and the rough sandstone scraped up his shoulder.

  He emerged on the other side and found himself in a small cave. No lights, doors, or other evidence of a manmade structure were below, only a gaping hole no more than five feet around. Anyone unlucky enough to find the cave would likely fall to their death if not paying close attention to the surroundings.

  “Okay, step on through, but be careful. The tunnel entrance is just on the other side of the opening. A step too far, and it’ll be like skydiving in the dark without a parachute.”

  Jack had done some rock climbing over the years, but he hadn’t used the equipment in over a year. He’d practiced tying knots a few times before they packed their gear.

  He hooked a carabiner onto Alecto’s harness. “You’ll need to go down first. Sewell said there’s a ladder made of iron rods pounded into the rock. Clip yourself onto the ladder as you make your way down.” He demonstrated the way the clips opened and closed. “You’ll be tied to Anna, and the same rope will be tied to me.”

  Alecto cocked her head to the side. “If I fall, will that not pull you both down with me?”

  “The idea is that if you lose your footing, we’ll keep you from falling to your death.”

  Alecto simply stared off for a few seconds then said, “Yes. I understand.”

  “Once you’ve gone down a rung, reclip yourself. Then Anna will go down a rung, clip herself, then I will do the same.”

  “This is going to take forever if we have to unclip, step, clip and wait for the other two to do the same,” Anna said.

  Jack tested the knot holding the rope to Anna’s carabiner. They were so close that her body heat warmed him. He looked into her deep blue eyes. Her lips were parted slightly, her cheeks flushed. He pressed closer, their lips nearly touching. “Better to take it slow than end up sorry.”

  She stepped back from him. “Then let’s get going before I change my mind,” Anna said.

  Another lost opportunity.

  Alecto sat in the dirt at the edge of the hole. She gingerly knelt over the edge and clipped herself to the first rung. She clung onto the dirt and slowly eased herself over. “I have found the first foothold.” She unclipped herself, stepped down another rung, and clipped onto the next rung just as Jack had told her to. “Anna, you may proceed.”

  Anna sat at the side of the tunnel as Alecto had done. She looked down as if trying to see the bottom. “The first step’s a bitch.”

  “You’re tied to me. I won’t let you fall,” Jack said.

  She looked back at him and gave a weak smile.

  He watched her helmeted head disappear over the side and was relieved to hear her clip onto the metal rail.

  Anna called up to him, “Your turn.”

  He looked over the precipice of the giant black hole leading down to nowhere and wished he hadn’t. Even with the headlamp, he could see only about five feet downward. After that was a black void.

  He sat near the edge and eased himself closer to the abyss. He bent and clipped himself to the first rung then swung his legs out and down to the next one down. His heart leapt into his throat as his legs hit air and searched for the metal rung. He let out a breath of relief when he found it. He had taken only one step, but his forehead was already covered in slick sweat.

  The three progressed slowly downward. Jack got into a rhythm. Unclip, step, clip, and repeat. He didn’t look down. He focused on the foothold below him and the stone wall in front of him.

  They continued downward for close to an hour, with hardly a word between them. Each was focused on stepping carefully. Still, nothing but a dark void was below them. Jack tried not to think about that. He focused on counting to one hundred steps. When he finished, he would start again.

  He lost count of how many hundreds he’d done. He was on step number forty-two when the rope around his waist jerked. Anna’s scream pierced the silence of the black hole. He gripped the rung with both hands and tightened his muscles, willing himself not to fall.

  Anna swung below him, her body weight tugging at his waist. Her scream ended, replaced with a silence more unsettling than the scream.

  Jack hoped she hadn’t passed out. “Anna?”

  Her voice trembled. “I can’t get back to the wall.”

  Jack let out a relieved breath that she was conscious. “Don’t panic. I’ll pull you back.”

  That was easier said than done. Anna was a trim person, but she was dead weight, swinging and pulling against Jack. He tensed his legs, held tightly with his left hand, and pulled on the rope with his right. Sweat poured from his forehead into his eyes, and his shoulder muscles burned as he hoisted Anna up with one arm.

  Her helmet came into view. Seeing her gave him the extra jolt of strength he needed to pull her up next to him. “Grab on.”

  Her thin fingers trembled as she gripped the iron handhold with both hands. Her body quaked as he wrapped his aching right arm around her.

  “You’re all right,” he whispered.

  “Is Anna safe?” Alecto asked. Her voice echoed off the stone walls of the tunnel.

  Even with the halogen lamp on his head, Jack couldn’t see Alecto below them. Her voice was disembodied as if coming from the void itself.

  “She’s okay,” Jack called back. “Just shaken up. We’ll need to rest here for a few minutes.”

  If Anna could press any more closely into him, she would be a second skin. Jack clipped her to the rung with him, his body wrapped around hers. Even though her back was to him, he felt her heart hammering. She trembled against him.

  His lips found her ear and he whispered, “You’re safe now.” He nuzzled her hair and kissed her neck softly.

  Anna shuddered. She turned her face up to him.

  His lips finally found hers, and he kissed her softly. She did not shrink back from him as he’d feared she would. Anna pressed even closer to him and kissed him back. He squeezed her gently in his arms, making a warm cocoon for her trembling body.

  “Don’t let me go,” she whispered.

  He smiled down into her glistening eyes. “I fear, Miss Sturgis, that you are stuck with me.”

  She answered with a light kiss then snuggled her back into him as she tried to regain the strength in her legs to keep going.

  Kissing a girl had never felt so natural to Jack, even with Erika. Anna’s body snuggled against his felt so right. She fit there perfectly, as if they were a matched pair that had been separated but reunited. Though they were clinging to a stone wall, their situation precarious, Jack was filled with a joy he’d never felt before—and a renewed sense of purpose.

  They stayed pasted to the wall until Anna’s trembling subsided and her legs were no longer like noodles. His shoulder and arm muscles throbbed, and his legs ached from the effort of holding onto the thin metal rungs keeping them from falling into the abyss.

  Once Jack felt Anna’s breathing return to a normal pace, he said, “We should keep moving.”

  “I don’t think I can go on.” Anna’s voice was hoarse. Her face was still plastered against the wall and her quaking body curled into Jack.

  Jack squeezed her tightly to himself. “Well, you have two choices, love. It’s down or up. Either way, we can’t stay here. Do you want to abort this mission?”

  Anna was quiet. Finally she said, “No.”

  He squeezed her again before taking his arm from around her. He unclipped her from the wall. “A step at a time. Don’t look down. Clip on, and remember: I’ve got you.” He kissed her forehead.

  She took a deep breath. Her still trembling fingers let go, and she stepped down. Jack released another deep breath of relief when he heard her clip on.

  They continued downward. Unclip, step, clip, repeat—over and over, for what felt like hours.

  The change was subtle. The dry air became moister. The faint smell of iron in the rock was replaced by the odor of dirt. The change spurred them on, and
the pace quickened.

  “I see something,” Alecto called up.

  “What is it?” Jack asked.

  “Light.”

  His heart quickened with anticipation, but he recalled what he’d learned from his rock-climbing instructor: most mistakes are made near the end. “We’re nearly there, then. Stay focused.”

  Unclip, step, clip, repeat—again and again. Light seeped into the darkness from below. It was a barely there faint yellow that grew brighter with each step.

  “I see the ground,” Anna said. Her voice was excited and exhausted at the same time.

  A few steps later, Alecto called up, “I have reached the bottom.” Her voice was more animated than Jack had ever heard from her.

  Jack’s feet finally hit solid ground. His legs were like spaghetti. His shoulders and back ached as though he’d been beaten by a baseball bat.

  Anna was bent down, her hands on her knees. She wiped away tears and snot with the back of her hand.

  Jack unclipped the rope and stepped out of his harness. “You okay?”

  She rose up and smiled so widely her face looked as if it would crack. “I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my life.”

  Even Alecto’s lips were upturned in the semblance of a smile.

  They sipped water, ate protein bars, and gave their muscles time to stop quaking from the effort of traversing the tunnel. They switched their rappelling harnesses for weapon belts, each tucking a pistol into a shoulder harness, with a rifle across the back.

  “This way,” Jack said. He headed to the right, following the path lit by dim yellow lights embedded into the rock ceiling.

  The women followed behind him, their feet crunching lightly on the gravelly dirt path. Jack held his rifle at the ready, mentally preparing himself for whatever he’d find at the end of the tunnel and the entrance to A.H.D.N.A.

  26

  U’Vol

  U’Vol Vree had taken the first kill in the new M’Uktah hunting grounds on the planet K’Sarhi. After he lifted the still-beating heart of his prey into the air for all Vree to see, they swiftly fanned out across the esplanade and hunted with vigor. Nearly four years had passed since he had hunted, and his bloodlust ran high. He quickly took down three more Sarhi and ate their hearts before he was sated. Within minutes, Sarhi bodies were strewn everywhere.

  The Sarhi panicked and attempted to flee the wide-open area in which the Wa’Nar had landed. They screamed as they ran, headed toward the streets that led to the park. The Vree chased them, killing many before they made it out of the area. When the park was nothing but carcasses, U’Vol gave the order to continue their advance.

  U’Vol initiated a communication to the piloting crew aboard the Wa’Nar.

  The lead pilot, Tu’Rhen, answered him promptly. “Yes, Captain.”

  “Send the game dressing and packing crews out immediately. There are abundant fresh kill for them to attend to.”

  “Yes, Captain. I will dispatch them straightaway.”

  “Advise them to be vigilant, Tu’Rhen. This K’Sarhi is unlike any world we have hunted before. These Sarhi were easily dispatched, but their warrior forces may be on their way.”

  On board every Vree hunting expedition were a crew of Vree’Sho, the ranchers and farmers of the Vree class. They were well versed in methods to clean, dress, and prepare the fresh kills for storage and export. They would get the fresh meat quickly to the freezer compartments aboard the Wa’Nar before it spoiled.

  U’Vol was at the back edge of the Vree advance. He looked back at the Wa’Nar before he exited the open-air plaza to enter the fray in the streets. The Vree’Sho crew was already exiting the Wa’Nar and busy at work preparing the carcasses for travel.

  U’Vol left the plaza and entered a wide boulevard, now empty save for dozens of dead Sarhi. His men were further ahead and had fanned out in several directions down side streets radiating from the central boulevard.

  Through his cerebral implant, U’Vol simultaneously monitored multiple communication channels. A loud, thunderous explosion of gunfire erupted at the same time as his comm link crackled with reports of the first encounter of Sarhi counter-aggression.

  U’Vol was on all fours within seconds, the krindor electronics coupled with his genetically engineered body allowing his spine to undulate and his limbs to move as a canine’s. He headed down a street to the east and stopped when he saw a mass of bodies ahead.

  He analyzed the scene with the computer-assisted eyes in his helmet. The throng contained at least twenty Sarhi, but they were not as vulnerable as the first they had encountered in the park. These Sarhi wore primitive body armor. The armor was surely made to protect against Sarhi weapons, but the M’Uktah would have no trouble ripping through it. The graphene and drosh metals used to construct the krindors and the mechanized claws could cut through every material they had ever encountered. He watched as his men did just that. The Vree claws sliced open the chests of the Sarhi prey as if their primitive armor was no more than a thin layer of silk.

  The armored Sarhi also held weapons in their hands. Some were short metal objects while others were long, but all seemed to work on the same principle. A primitive firing mechanism caused a small explosion that shot a metal pellet at the intended victim. M’Uktah had used such weapons in their distant past, but once they discovered how to control and manipulate plasma and manufacture advanced metals, the gunpowder weapon had become obsolete.

  U’Vol watched as the Sarhi warriors stood their ground, firing round after round upon the M’Uktah hunters, but the bullets did not penetrate the krindor armor. U’Vol’s heart soared with pride in both his Vree as well as the M’Uktah scientists who had worked to improve the krindors since the Kreelan uprising. The Sarhi warriors fell one by one while he had not lost a single Vree.

  U’Vol had to admit, though, that the Sarhi fought bravely even if their primitive technologies meant they were woefully underpowered. The Sarhi stood their ground. As the Vree advanced further into the city, they encountered new waves of Sarhi warriors. These Sarhi are worthy adversaries, unlike the craven Navimbi.

  U’Vol had an incoming message from Tu’Nai at the front lines. “Look at this,” the message read. Once U’Vol acknowledged the message, his optical interface synced live with what Tu’Nai was seeing. The Sarhi had moved large metal vehicles into the streets. As U’Vol watched, the Sarhi fired a weapon that protruded from the front of the large box of a vehicle. The large weapon appeared to be simply a bigger version of the small, handheld ones that operated on a gunpowder method, but the punch was significantly larger. Two M’Uktah were down.

  “Are they dead?” U’Vol asked Tu’Nai.

  “No, just injured, my Captain. But we will need medical and reinforcements in this area if we are to advance further.”

  U’Vol immediately relayed the information to the crew of the Wa’Nar, along with the order for a medical team and additional Vree to assist in Tu’Nai’s quadrant.

  Typically, during the first hunt in new hunting grounds, U’Vol would take the first kill then hunt at the edges of the fray for a few hours before returning to the landing ship. He would monitor the hunt from the landing ship until the meat storage was full, then he would return with his crew to the Dra’Knar. Fresh crews would be sent to the planet to hunt, day after day, until the hulls of the Dra’Knar were full. It was a very large ship, thus the hunt could conceivably last for months.

  This K’Sarhi planet was not typical, though. Even the Kreelan had not the sort of advanced technology and firepower that the Sarhi had. Instead of making his way back to the Wa’Nar, he decided to stay with the hunt.

  Eponia’s worried words came back to him. “There is bad fortune for you in the scryr’s tea leaves.” He had laughed off her fears. U’Vol had never taken the cryptic warnings of so-called seers seriously. The scryrs were frauds, telling womenfolk what they wanted to hear. After all, how could tea leaves reveal his future?

  Then why do all of my senses wa
rn me?

  U’Vol batted the nagging worry out of his mind the way he swatted down a Sarhi who came at him with a sharp knife. He tore through the Sarhi’s body as though it was little more than an underripe fruit. He left it for the cleanup crew as he made his way to the front lines. The M’Uktah would take this city. He would see to it.

  27

  JACK

  Jack, Anna, and Alecto walked about two hundred yards and found a small opening in the rock at the end of the tunnel. It was no more than three feet tall and even less wide. Jack hoped he would fit through. Tex had come that way, but he was of a smaller build than Jack.

  “I’ll go through first,” Jack said. He got belly side down on the gravel floor of the cave and shimmied through, using his elbows to pull himself.

  The place smelled like a dank basement. After only a few feet into the opening, warmer, moist air hit his face.

  “What do you see?” Anna asked. She was on her belly too, her head poking into the small entryway.

  Jack switched on his headlamp and scanned the area. “Well, it looks like an empty cabinet.”

  “That’s odd.”

  He laughed. “For this place? Not the strangest thing you’re likely to see.”

  Jack knocked on the wood panels in front of him. After a few hard raps, one finally swung open. Warm, moist air rushed into the small cabinet. The room into which he peered was mostly dark, but low-watt bluish-white lights lit the floor and ceiling perimeter. He turned off his headlamp so that his eyes could adjust to the dim light.

  “I don’t see or hear anyone. I’m going in,” he said. When he reached the edge of the cabinet, he toppled down about six inches onto a dusty concrete floor. The room he fell into was quiet, the only sound a low hum that sounded like the buzz of fluorescent lights. Jack instinctively pulled the rifle from his back and moved slowly and quietly a few steps into the room. He neither heard nor saw movement. He bent down to the opening. “It’s clear. Come on through.”