A Dragon at the Gate (The New Aeneid Cycle Book 3)

by Michael G. Munz

  Jade swallowed. Maybe she should’ve stayed home.

  LXVII

  “THEY’VE HIT IT!” Knapp shouted. “Holes, is that EMP?”

  “Confirmed,” said Holes. “However the dragon-construct is only partially affected. Scans show it is already overcoming the effects.”

  “But it’s falling back!” said Michael. “That’s something.”

  “That’s all we can give you!” The voice was Caitlin’s—a transmission Holes presumably picked up somehow and relayed to them inside Paragon. “Hope it helps!”

  Violeth trilled urgently. “They have gained us opportunity. We will not have a better chance to detach the secondary craft.”

  “How long will that take?” asked Marette.

  “Not long,” said Violeth. “Most Thuur and humans are already in sections that make up the secondary craft. Though it will be crowded.”

  With an audible sigh that Marette assumed accompanied a nod, Knapp gave her consent.

  “Beginning preparations,” Holes reported.

  “And then, Agent Flynn,” said Knapp, “you can explain what you mean about a way you can fight that thing.”

  “Transmission incoming from Doctor Yejun Seung,” Holes announced. “Stand by . . . ”

  * * *

  Felix dashed through a second-floor New Eden corridor bordered by courtyard windows as Seung reported back to Paragon. He, Sheridan, and Uxil ran ahead of Felix. A trio of squawking chicken-lizards followed behind. Felix couldn’t tell if they were playful or angry, but the group didn’t want to stop to find out.

  Minutes earlier there’d been a change in the state of New Eden’s systems. The door to Biolab D had flung open and a computerized announcement over the building’s alarm system indicated that the auditorium doors had opened as well. Frantic at the possibility that the Quicksilver would get inside the auditorium before the deactivation signal could take effect, they’d begun a mad dash to get there first.

  Somewhere along the way they’d picked up the trailing transgenics. Almost every door they’d found had been unlocked, if not wide open. They’d counted themselves lucky that the chicken-lizards were all they’d encountered so far.

  “We’re broadcasting the signal, but with the amount of Quicksilver in this place, we don’t know how long it’ll take,” Seung was saying. “There’s at least fifty people trapped in here that we’ll need to evac if it doesn’t shut down the nanophage in time!”

  “Caution!” Uxil shouted.

  A flood of Quicksilver erupted around the end of the corridor fifty feet ahead of them, blocking their path. Though bits were shifting into crystalized powder, they were far outweighed by the liquid portions still coming at the group.

  “These windows are bulletproof?” Felix gasped.

  “So Michael said!”

  “Well, then.” Felix glanced at the wall beside them. This should be interesting. Willing power into his movements, and hoping his new body would take that as a sign to do something, Felix hurled himself through the wall as best he could. Drywall burst and internal framework gave way into a darkened space festooned with cubicles. He looked back at the opening he’d made, kicked once to widen the hole, and waved everyone through before the Quicksilver caught up.

  He shot Uxil a grin. “I am having the weirdest day.”

  * * *

  The dragon recovered rapidly, its EMP-shielded systems serving to make the body as resilient as intended. Within the bio-computational medium inside the dragon’s frame, Suuthrien considered—and then abandoned—retribution against Diane “Jade” Briar and her vehicle. The cyber-attack had eradicated Suuthrien’s Internet-accessible matrixes, evidenced by the cessation of status transmissions from New Eden and other nearby network hotspots. For the moment, the dragon was Suuthrien’s only active asset. It would direct that asset accordingly. Its engines now recovered, Suuthrien launched in renewed pursuit of the corrupted-Planners’ craft.

  It was in the midst of prioritizing targets along the craft’s superstructure when the dragon’s sensors registered a change: Paragon dropped velocity by twenty-five percent, after which a U-shaped section along the dorsal hull rose from the rest of the craft, disengaged from Paragon entirely, and swiveled onto a hyperbolic course away from its mothership.

  From Suuthrien’s millennia aboard Paragon, it recognized the U-shaped section as an exploratory scout craft. Incapable of spaceflight, its original function was to survey the planet once Paragon had made its colonial touchdown. What was more, due to design intentions that were no longer part of Suuthrien’s database, the scout craft contained the Planners’ gate. With the scout craft separated, there would be zero risk of the gate’s destruction when the dragon brought the rest of Paragon down.

  Suuthrien let the scout craft go and focused on Paragon, now on course for Northgate, the power output of its propulsors currently boosted beyond safety levels. Suuthrien boosted the dragon’s own engine output and analyzed: the readings from Paragon’s entire power matrix were 3.59 times sustainable levels.

  The generators were powering toward catastrophic overload.

  Another calculation flicked through Suuthrien’s systems: Paragon was on a collision course for the RavenTech satellite facility. Immediately Suuthrien diverted all available power into acceleration. Only a small chance existed of turning Paragon aside in time to protect the facility, yet not small enough to abandon such actions without an attempt.

  The dragon pushed its engines past design parameters to bring it within striking distance. Yet even with a successful grapple against the spacecraft’s hull and a stabbing tail strike through another propulsor, success probabilities continued to drop. It could not effect enough damage to turn Paragon aside.

  Suuthrien abandoned the attempt. The dragon ripped itself away from Paragon, reversed course, and fled from the projected explosion radius as quickly as possible.

  Nine seconds later, Paragon impacted the RavenTech facility. Reactors within its hull exploded, temporarily frazzling the dragon’s optical sensors. Neither the second dragon, nor the black bio-computational medium within it, could possibly withstand the cataclysm.

  Suuthrien revised its objectives once more, dropped the dragon’s system power back to sustainable levels, and set its sights on the still-flying scout craft.

  * * *

  Michael, there is no guarantee this will work.

  “But it’s got a chance, right?”

  Sephora blinked her eyes in turn, and then nodded. A possibility, yes. But even if you can affect the haldra-replacement within the dragon from a distance, we cannot know how close you must get.

  “Then I guess we’ll see.”

  Encased in a vacuum-sealed, graphene armor suit commandeered from one of the captured RavenTech freelancers, and awkwardly clutching two safetied AoA rifles, Michael steadied himself amid the scout craft’s in-flight motions and waited to rendezvous with Jade’s floater. Sephora stood beside him, as did a neatly-bearded Japanese man named Daisuke: a fellow Agent in another borrowed RavenTech suit. He carried a third suit in his arms. The craft was almost back at New Eden. Fatigue still dogged Michael from the ordeal of the cyber-attack. And Marc— Well, though Holes had said something after the attack ended that made Michael wonder otherwise, Marc was almost surely dead.

  But there was no time to dwell on it. Felix and over fifty others were still trapped at New Eden. The only way they could get out was if Michael could manage a distraction to cover their rescue.

  Michael sensed Jade and Caitlin’s approach outside before Holes alerted him and opened the exterior hatch by which he stood. The four-feet-wide hatch slid away to reveal Jade’s floater in position just a few yards away, its rear door open. Caitlin stood in the opening, a safety line secured around her waist. Jade was a silhouette in the cockpit beyond, the white strands of her hair aglow in the dim evening light.

  The scout craft had slowed to a near hover, and the floater edged to within a few feet of its open hatch. Over the din of
the engines, he shouted to Sephora, “Do the Thuur understand what ‘luck’ is?”

  This would not be a wise time for such a discussion.

  “Then just wish us luck!”

  Luck, Sephora sent to him. And caution!

  With that, Michael leapt the distance to the floater while trying—and failing—to not look down. He landed safely, and Caitlin grabbed him by the arm to help steady him and the weapons he carried. Daisuke followed a moment later.

  Michael caught Caitlin’s eye. She knew Marc. Should he tell her? Michael swallowed instead, and Caitlin cocked an eyebrow at him. “Are you alright?”

  “A little amped,” he said, and then hugged her quickly—a gesture which she returned. “Say hi to Felix for me.”

  “Aye, and stay safe!” Caitlin turned to shout up to Jade in the cockpit, “The both of you!” Then, with only a nod of greeting to Daisuke, she took a running leap across to the scout craft’s still open hatch. Securely landed beside Sephora, Caitlin released her safety line and waved.

  “We’re done, Holes! Go!” Before Michael had even finished the statement, the scout craft’s hatch had begun to close as it pulled away.

  As Michael worked at fastening a safety line of his own, Jade closed the rear door and turned around in the pilot’s seat. “How far away is that thing?”

  Michael couldn’t help but look back over his shoulder toward Northgate, despite knowing he wouldn’t see anything. “I don’t know. We ought to have a few minutes at least.” He motioned to Daisuke as Jade pushed out of the pilot’s seat. “Jade, this is Daisuke.”

  Daisuke offered his hand, but Jade only responded with a wave, smirking just a little when Daisuke awkwardly withdrew the hand. “Good to meet you,” she said. “This floater’s just a loaner, so promise me you won’t crash it.”

  “Do you want to see my flight certification or just check my teeth?” Daisuke asked, not without humor.

  Jade grinned and edged aside in an invitation for Daisuke to move into the pilot’s seat, which he took. “Just don’t kill us,” she added.

  “That’s the plan.”

  “I’m taking your word on that, flyboy.” Jade leaned into Michael’s side. “Did you bring me some new toys?”

  “Just a few,” Michael answered. “One sealed RavenTech graphene armor suit, one recoilless rifle that’s designed for space but still ought to work, and one Geiger cannon, which—”

  “Aren’t those anti-personnel?”

  Michael nodded. “It might not do anything at all. But this thing’s got— There’s not really time to explain it now, just trust me.”

  “Oh, I’m already doing that much.”

  He could hear the smirk in her voice before he turned to see it on her face. “Thank you for this, Jade. I know it’s not your usual thing—”

  “Oh, you think I’m doing this for free?” She winked. “You check your mail tomorrow and watch for the invoice. You get a discount if that whole ‘if this works we won’t get attacked’ thing pans out.”

  Though he’d guessed—mostly—that she was kidding about the invoice, he said anyway, “If this works, it won’t be able to attack us. If it doesn’t work, then it won’t care to because it’ll know we can’t do a thing to it.”

  “You hope, right?” The grin she shot him then melted into concern. “You’re betting a lot on this. What if it doesn’t work and it decides to swat you out of the sky for good measure?”

  He had been trying not to think about that. “Then I hope Daisuke is a really excellent pilot. And don’t you mean ‘swat us out of the sky?’”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve decided that I’m invincible for the duration of the insanity. I’ll be ignoring any statements to the contrary, so don’t bother.”

  “Detonation at RavenTech!” Daisuke shouted back to them. “Better get ready!”

  Michael took a deep breath and found himself frozen in the wake of what he was about to try to do, and staring Jade in the face.

  Jade took the recoilless rifle in one hand and stared back at him with a flash in her eyes. “Going to pull one of those ‘kiss for luck’ lines on me, ace?”

  “Uh—”

  She slid her free hand up along the back of his head and pulled him in for a sudden, electric kiss. Her lips broke away from his with a smirk. “Because I hate that kind of crap.”

  Soon Michael stood in his safety harness beside Jade, both of them now in RavenTech suits in the floater’s open rear door. The floater hovered near New Eden—far enough away to stand a chance of intercepting the dragon before it got there, near enough to catch up if it decided to ignore the floater entirely.

  “Suuthrien!” Michael called over the suit mic, hooked up to transmit a broad signal via the floater, “I’m still here! I want to talk to you!”

  Daisuke raised them higher, perhaps now a hundred yards above the ground. Behind them, what remained of Paragon worked at evacuating those at New Eden. Somewhere in the darkness to starboard lay a stand of trees on the edge of the nearby greenbelt where Sephora had shown Michael the bio-net. He could still sense the life there as easily as his own heartbeat, which itself pounded furiously in his chest.

  “I can see it,” whispered Jade. The rifle in her hands beeped twice as she took the safety off.

  His voice piped in over the floater’s sound system, Holes announced, “The dragon-construct is not changing course.”

  Daisuke launched the floater onto a course across what would be the dragon’s direct path to Paragon. Michael’s breath caught a moment before he relaxed into the safety harness’s grip and let it steady him. “Suuthrien!” he tried again.

  Not waiting for a response, squeezing the Geiger cannon in his grip, Michael strained to reach across the distance toward the black material within the dragon. He knew it was out there, but he couldn’t feel it! The auras of the trees and the earth below him loomed far stronger. Though his first impulse was to push them away as a distraction, another instinct took over, and he tried to draw upon their power to bolster his senses.

  “In range!” Jade yelled. Her rifle erupted in a storm of bullets. Michael matched her aim with the Geiger cannon and fired as the dragon soared below them. He couldn’t tell if it had done any good.

  The floater plunged without warning. Michael’s stomach reeled, and they swerved onto a new course. “I think it noticed you!” Daisuke shouted. “Hold on!”

  “Get me a shot!” Jade yelled.

  Within moments, they swerved again and leveled out. Michael had only a second to adjust before the dragon swept down a mere ten yards from the open door. He and Jade fired as the dragon’s maw opened and spewed a mass of Quicksilver straight in their direction. Daisuke yawed them to one side, but not enough. The goo splashed across part of the floater’s interior and covered Michael’s suit visor. He shouted, near panicking, and in that moment, felt a massive surge from within and without—adrenaline combined with the power of the nearby vegetation. Seizing on it, he wiped the visor clean with one hand and reached out with the other. Yet by the time he did, the dragon was gone from view.

  “Are you alright back there?” Daisuke called.

  Moving Quicksilver half-covered Michael’s suit and worked to paint itself further across the floater’s interior. Jade had avoided most of it, but even now tendrils wormed their way up her leg. “Michael, are you okay?” Still riding the adrenaline, he could only nod in response. “These suit seals better fucking hold!” she shot.

  “Hang on!” Daisuke shouted. The floater banked, swerved, and then pitched upward, accelerating. It sent most of the Quicksilver tumbling out of the floater as the harnesses strained to keep Michael and Jade inside. Then Daisuke leveled them out, and Jade erupted in curses.

  Michael had lost all sense of their position in relation to the dragon, but another plan was forming. “Can you get us in its way like that again?” he asked Daisuke. “But then climb fast like you did just now?”

  “Hooh-boy, I can try!”

  Jade turned to
him. Her eyes glowed a steady violet, her face a mask of thrilled alarm. “What’s the plan, ace?”

  Michael began to unfasten his harness. “Once I’m out, you two head down to Paragon and help them! Try to get as many people out as you can!”

  “Are you insane?”

  “I’ll be alright!”

  “That wasn’t what I asked!”

  “Get ready!” Daisuke yelled.

  “I’ll be okay!” Michael assured her as he dropped the Geiger cannon. “Just give me some cover fire!”

  Jade spared only a fraction of a second to glare at him, and then turned back to the open doorway. Instantly the dragon was there again, and the floater pitched sharply upward. Jade yelled a battle cry and fired down into its back.

  Michael let go, allowing gravity and instinct to take over. Screaming from fear and adrenaline, he dove from the floater, trying to harness what he could of the power that surged through him anew. He hit the dragon’s spine and grabbed at whatever he could to try to arrest his fall. He would gain purchase on the dragon’s surface, regain his wits, and then use the power inside him to reach the dragon’s black material and—

  The dragon rolled in mid-air with a roar. Spun and surprised, Michael lost his grip and tumbled away through open air down to the greenbelt below.

  LXVIII

  “HURRY!” Felix shouted it down to the New Eden employees climbing their way up the lines below. “Pay no attention to the strange alien figure in the sweatshirt!” He and Uxil were crouched atop the New Eden auditorium roof, at the edge of an opened skylight. Above them hovered what remained of the Thuur ship. Rope lines dangled from it, which the New Eden evacuees climbed as the AoA and Thuur pulled them up to safety. Sheridan and Seung worked below, helping the evacuees match up with their lines.

  Felix spared a moment to locate the dragon over the greenbelt in the distance. How much longer would it stay there?