Heaven's War

by David S. Goyer

  Zack said, “I don’t know.” He smiled. “To the other side.”

  The other side couldn’t come soon enough for Valya. This habitat was a landscape out of a cold war nightmare.

  First they had traversed the open, shattered, scorched remains of a Beehive...though it was so distressed that none of them realized that until Makali pointed it out.

  Then it was onto a surface that was nothing but gray, hard-packed ash. Occasionally they passed hillocks that seemed to cover structures that had been blasted or crushed. The weird twilight, approximately half the light found in the human or Sentry habitats, with a nasty bluish tint (based on the type of star that warmed the deceased inhabitants’ home planet?), made it downright eerie. As a girl, Valya had enjoyed more than her share of monster and nuclear disaster movies. Now she half-expected to be confronted by a team of post-apocalypse vigilantes in black leather, or a swarm of fast-moving zombies.

  So far, however, there had been nothing at all. No movement, no color, no life, no sign that life had ever existed here. Just the settled ash of a nuclear winter.

  “Look at that,” Makali said.

  She had stopped in front of a good-sized boulder with fairly smooth sides. On it was the shadow of a creature that immediately struck Zack as crablike. It was wider than it was tall and seemed to be reaching out with flattened claws. “The former inhabitants, do you suppose?”

  “Probably,” Zack said. “It reminds me of images from Hiroshima.” He trotted forward, catching up with Dash and Dale, and forcing Makali and Valya to do the same.

  “Dash,” he said, “a question: What happened here? In this habitat?”

  “Sanitary procedure,” the Sentry said.

  “What needed to be sanitized?” Zack said. Valya wondered, had the crab creatures on the stone been the infection? Or the infected? Had the Architects—assuming they were the ones doing the sanitizing—destroyed a habitat in order to save it?

  “Apostates,” Dash said. That was the way it was translated, anyway.

  Zack looked at Valya, who shook her head. “Nonbelievers?”

  “Beings that refused to take part,” Dash said.

  “In what?”

  “Corrective actions.”

  “Against whom?”

  There was an uncommonly long pause. “Creatures called Ravagers.”

  “I don’t know that term,” Zack said, growing impatient. “We’ve got Architects and Sentries and Apostates and now Ravagers. What are the relationships?”

  “Architects and Ravagers are at war.”

  “So whoever lived here—they were the Ravagers?”

  “No,” Dash said, and moved off so swiftly, with its long, relentless strides, that further interrogation was impossible. Dale hurried after the Sentry, leaving Valya with Zack and Makali.

  All three were struggling with the lack of air. Valya wanted to prolong the restful moment as long as possible. She pointed back the way they had come, saying, “Whatever was detonated in that war must have been located behind us.”

  “Maybe they grew a nuke in their Beehive,” Makali said.

  “Don’t assume it’s a nuke,” Zack said. “There are other kinds of weapons. Energy, microwave, plus things more advanced races could develop.”

  “The results are the same, aren’t they?” Makali said. “Total destruction. So what difference does it make?”

  It made this difference to Valya: She realized that the Architects weren’t as advanced as she had hoped. And that nothing was as good as she wanted it to be.

  Valya, Zack, and Makali had to hurry to catch up, essentially having to take two steps for each one of the alien’s, like children struggling to keep pace with their parents.

  “About time,” Dale said when they caught him. “Do you really want to linger here?” he said.

  Valya was willing to concede that Dale had a valid point; the less time they spent here, the quicker they would reach the control center or power core, wherever the Sentry was leading them.

  She was tired beyond belief, panting with every step. Hungry. Thirsty. So afraid that she was growing numb to fear.

  And she hated everyone now. The stupid, unhelpful alien Dash. Dale, of course. And now even Makali and Zack.

  The only encouraging thing about knowing she was likely to die...was that they would all die, too.

  Zack hustled forward, closing to within earshot of Dash. Valya, Makali, and Dale did, too, even though it almost killed Valya to expend the extra energy. In fact, she lagged, and earned this: “Goddammit, Valya, will you fucking try to keep up?” Zack said. “I really need you.”

  So she closed on the leader, even though she wanted to either kill him or die...or kill him, then die.

  “When we emerge,” she heard him ask the Sentry, “where do we go next? And how far is it?” He smiled unsympathetically at Valya, as if to say, Feel free to answer, too.

  “Exit habitat,” Dash said.

  “I understand,” Zack said. “But where are we then? Which way do we go? Where is the control center?”

  “Goals remain the same,” the Sentry said.

  “Can we fly Keanu?” Dale said. “Whatever he calls it, the ‘warship’?”

  “Control means control,” Dash said.

  “So we could turn it around and head back to Earth,” Dale said, as irritating as he was persistent.

  “Yes,” the Sentry said, its translator voice neutral.

  “Why didn’t you do that?” Zack said to Dash. “Why didn’t your people head home?”

  Dash never broke stride. “No control,” it said. “Before I was born.”

  They were three quarters of the way across the dead habitat now. Valya searched for their way out the other end as she considered the possibilities.

  While the translator offered the same words and phrases as before, there was something in Dash’s manner—the Sentry’s posture, even the pitch of its real voice—that had changed somehow.

  Of course, Valya knew that the Sentry, communicating in a vastly different language, with its own matrix of habits and assumptions, might very well kick into a second mode when revisiting the same subject at a later time. That was certainly a possibility—

  Before Zack could probe further, Valya stumbled and sprawled face-first in the dirt.

  It was her feet; she had been barefoot so long that her feet were raw and numb. Makali was first to offer a hand. “How is it?”

  In her former life, Valya had had a propensity for collecting foot injuries. Stubbed and broken toes, ripped-off nails; if it could be done, she’d done it repeatedly.

  And her usual method of dealing with it was to delay looking at the damage as long as possible, in the silly hope that it would be less than feared.

  That was where she was now, turning over her blackened feet and seeing that she had worn the skin off the soles.

  “Oh, shit,” Makali said.

  “We’re all this way, aren’t we?”

  “Not all of us,” Dale said.

  Makali was wearing the kind of durable footgear an experienced hiker or climber wore under boots. Zack had the soiled and torn footwear of his EVA undergarment. Even Dale still wore battered sneakers. “I wish I had something for you,” Makali said.

  “Help me get her up,” Makali said. Zack was still closely following the Sentry.

  “Fucking leave her,” Dale said.

  “What are you talking about?” Makali said. “We don’t leave people.”

  “She’s been dragging us down ever since we got out of Dash’s prison.”

  Valya sat on the hard-packed ground, its texture like asbestos, and listened to this exchange with little interest. Even though she found Dale’s attitude unfriendly and even infuriating, she wasn’t sure she could get up and walk again.

  But she was growing less happy with Makali, too, in spite of the fact that the woman was trying to help her. Why wouldn’t she just let her be!

  And as for Zack...what had possessed him to go to the Beehive
—

  Valya stopped. “Zack,” she said, her voice a croak. “Zack!” she called.

  But Zack had already turned back. “What is it now?” he said. In his impatience, Zack sounded just like Dale—or Zack talking to Dale. Which was exactly Valya’s worry. “How are you feeling?”

  “Awful,” she said.

  “Come on, Valya, Dale,” Makali said. “Can we just keep moving? Why does everything have to be a debate?” She, too, was uncharacteristically impatient.

  “Listen to yourselves,” Valya said. “We’re all on edge.”

  “Don’t we have every right to be on edge?” Dale said. God, he was annoying. She fought the urge to slap him—

  Steady; remember your discovery. “This environment is doing it,” she said. “At best we’re starving for oxygen. At worst, poisoned.”

  Zack, thank God, was quick to make the adjustment. “You’re right: I’ve been out of breath since we entered. And I’ve been...really, really angry and suspicious. I thought I was just worn out.”

  “You are,” Valya said. “We all are.”

  “Then it’s more important than ever that we get through this,” Makali said. She and Zack helped Valya to her feet....

  Her feet were numb and aching. She felt that every step scraped more flesh from the soles. But she realized the truth of Makali’s statement. She had no choice but to go forward, as they had done ever since leaving the human habitat....

  The forced march resumed, though it was more of a shamble. This end of the destroyed habitat was a mess, reminding Valya of Japan or Bangladesh after the big tsunamis of the past decade, where entire cities had been scraped off the face of the Earth, scrambled into tiny pieces, then crushed into a lumpy field of junk. There was nothing recognizable—not that Valya expected to recognize anything.

  But it was still a horrifying reminder of the destructive power of whatever had wiped out this habitat.

  Just as they closed in on Dash, the Sentry suddenly veered off to the right side, likely in search of the exit.

  Valya was turned toward Makali when her peripheral vision lit up with a flash. A moment later, he and the others heard a cracking honk.

  A ball of light rose to the high ceiling and floated there. The center of the habitat looked as though day had broken...revealing even more devastation than Valya had realized.

  The improved lighting also revealed that some structures were intact here, rounded, irregular domes like termite mounds three or four stories tall.

  “A flare,” Dale said. “Someone’s looking for someone.”

  “Connate,” Dash said. “My pursuers.”

  Zack could see big, mobile Sentry-like shapes at the north wall of the habitat.

  “Shit,” Scott said, “we should have realized they’d get through that passage.”

  Now the Sentry kicked into a higher gear, literally running away from Valya and the others, disappearing between the two nearest termite mounds.

  “Why is it leaving us behind?” Dale said.

  “Maybe Valya was right,” Makali said. “We got him out; he doesn’t need us anymore.”

  “Let’s not get lost,” Zack said, though the exertion was wearing on him; his voice was growing weaker.

  It had been painful for Valya to walk at a steady pace. Running was agony. She quickly lost the others as they entered the shadowy, debris-strewn alleys between the termite mounds.

  Even though she tried to keep up with the others—and Makali, in particular, kept looking back for her—because of the lack of light, the rough surface, and the tight clearances between the structures, Valya found herself alone.

  She stopped. They’re only a few meters away, she told herself. “Zack!” she shouted. “Makali!”

  Her voice was weaker than Zack’s...the sound seemed muffled, inaudible, as if she’d been shouting inside a recording studio—

  Then she heard a clear fluttering sound as the light changed, growing even darker.

  She barely had time to look up as a shadow fell on her, ending her pain and curiosity.

  PAV

  “What’s Keanu’s diameter?” Zhao said.

  Yvonne Hall looked up. “Ninety to a hundred kilometers, uncertainty due to its shape.”

  “You mean, it isn’t round?” Rachel said.

  “Not remotely,” the Revenant astronaut said. “More like an egg.”

  “Like the Earth,” Pav said. He had heard his father talk about things like this for years. He still didn’t know why it mattered. Earth wasn’t perfectly round; big deal. It had never affected him when he lived there.

  And Keanu was even less perfectly round. Again...what does it mean to me, Pav, right now?

  “Correct,” Yvonne told him, then turned to Zhao. “Why do you ask?”

  All four humans were sitting on the floor of the railcar, which had been moving smoothly, and at a steady rate, through a whole series of tunnels for the past hour. Rachel was next to Pav, resting her head on his shoulder and holding the Slate.

  Cowboy was curled up at their feet. Zhao and Yvonne sat across from them...a considerable distance, given the size of the railcar.

  “If we’ve been traveling for an hour, and our speed is thirty kilometers per hour, which is likely a low estimate, we should have traversed a third of the NEO, am I correct?”

  “If we traveled in a straight line, sure,” Yvonne said. “But...have you ever been in any big metro? New York, London, Moscow—?”

  “I’ve been in Moscow,” Pav said, not sure why he had to contribute to the conversation. It was either talk, or doze off.

  “And I’ve been in Paris, London, New York, Beijing,” Zhao said. “What’s your point?”

  “These aren’t necessarily linear systems.”

  “You’re applying human reasoning to alien engineering.”

  “Come on, there are certain concepts that are universal. These people are seriously more advanced than we are in almost every field...but look at this thing.” She waved a hand at the ceiling. “Call it a module or an alien transport vehicle or whatever you want...it’s a subway car.”

  “Yes, and it’s moving through an alien subway system toward a habitat—”

  “—We hope,” Yvonne said.”

  “You’re in touch with the whole system,” Rachel said, rousing herself and looking alarmed. “Don’t you know?”

  “Everything shut down when the car started moving,” Yvonne said. “It was kind of a relief, I have to say. Like having the noisy folks next door turning off the loud music.”

  “It leaves us blind, however.” Zhao said. “Or, rather...deaf.”

  “Maybe it will start up when we get wherever this is going,” Pav said. He sure hoped so. For a moment, he imagined them simply ping-ponging through the interior of Keanu forever...or until they starved or died of thirst.

  “Look, everyone, the voices told me to get in the railcar, go with it. It’s taking us somewhere—”

  Zhao gestured to Pav and to Rachel. “Why aren’t you taking us back to our habitat?”

  Yvonne blinked, like a student facing a surprise question on an exam. “Because the voices said to take you to the control center. Not back where you came from.”

  “But what are we supposed to do there?” Rachel said.

  “That isn’t clear,” Yvonne said. “I realize that’s...not satisfying. I don’t like it, either. But there’s a job you and I and maybe even Cowboy have to do once we arrive.”

  The dog whimpered. Pav doubted he was responding to the sound of his name, because he seemed to be asleep. Pav wondered...what kind of dreams did dogs have? All about chasing animals? Eating?

  What kind of dreams did Revenant dogs have?

  Thoughts of eating prompted Pav to ask Yvonne, “Will there be food when we get to the control center?”

  She smiled. “I hope so. I haven’t eaten since I got killed.”

  “That’s so weird,” Pav said.

  “Tell me about it,” Yvonne said.

  “
Why are you doing this? Helping us. Finding the control center, all of that. If I’d been dead and brought back, I’d still be trying to figure it all out.”

  She gave a snorting laugh. “I’d like nothing better.” Then she grew quiet for a moment. “I screwed up,” she said. “About as big a screwup as anyone ever made—”

  “My dad says it was Houston and Washington’s fault—”

  “But I was the one there,” Yvonne said. “I was the one who...got scared and set off the bomb. So this is a way for me to put things right.” There was a faraway look in her eyes that made Pav uncomfortable, as if he were looking at a ghost.

  Then she said, “I just wish I knew what made Pogo go so crazy.”

  “I have no idea,” Pav said. He only knew what had happened, that Pogo Downey, one of the four American astronauts, had been killed, then turned into a Revenant. And that he had tried to go aboard the Venture lander.

  “It’s not like I’ve had time to think it over,” Yvonne said, shaking her head at the sheer mystery of the experience. “To me, it all happened, like, half an hour before I met you guys. I thought he was trying to take over the lander. Take off with it and fly it back to Destiny and not only leave everyone behind, but become some nasty kind of alien invader on Earth. But, you know, second thought? I wonder if he was trying to provoke me—provoke NASA or the White House—to set off that nuke and keep Keanu beings from reaching Earth.”

  “Could he do that?” Pav said. “I mean, aren’t you...under control?”

  Yvonne laughed. “Well, hell, I suppose I wouldn’t really know, would I? But what I think, right now, is this: We’re messengers or facilitators. We’re supposed to be a link between the Architects and you. We have information, but we’re not puppets.”

  Then Rachel stirred and shifted, distracting Pav. Yvonne reached for the dog, too, and the magical moment was over.

  Pav was okay with that. He was feeling the way he had when his father talked to him about business or politics, where his lack of even basic information made him feel stupid. He didn’t like that feeling.