Heretic

by Philip C. Quaintrell

  Kalian set Malekk down at the base of the super subconducer, while ALF’s ship attached a new device to the infected Terran’s chest. The tendrils whipped around, fusing the machine to his very flesh, or what was left of it. Kalian was careful to make certain that he kept Malekk subdued at all times. Suppressing the nanocelium throughout the Terran’s body was easier than he imagined; it just required a finer level of control.

  “As soon as you’re inside, activate the connector and it will immediately tether itself to the Vanguard’s own nanocelium, forming a bridge between Malekk and it.” ALF was busy physically working on the helmet piece of the super subconducer as he gave his explanation.

  “Understood.”

  ALF stopped and looked down at him. “How is Naydaalan?”

  “There were a few questions as to where the bones in his right leg had gone…” Kalian noted ALF’s raised eyebrow and shrugged. “He survived; we’ll deal with it later.”

  Kalian still felt bad for failing to transport Naydaalan in his entirety, but the Novaarian hadn't complained for a second. He was a warrior through and through, whose only desire was to help the humans and destroy the Vanguard; he would always have Kalian’s respect.

  “Are you sure you can do this?” ALF came out from behind the great machine.

  “Don't worry, I'll be fine.” Kalian nestled into position, under the encompassing helmet.

  “It’s not you I'm worried about!” ALF exclaimed. “If you get this wrong my entire housing unit, me included, will end up fused inside the Vanguard. That kind of mess will kill us both.”

  “Now there’s an idea…” Kalian muttered under his breath, though apparently, ALF’s hearing was superior to that of a normal being.

  “I mean it, Kalian. You never tried anything like this on Hadrok. You’ll need to teleport both you and Malekk without taking everything with you.”

  “If I get this wrong, Li’ara dies… so I’ll be fine.” Kalian closed his eyes, as the helmet lowered over his face. “Just be ready to pick me up before the explosions start - there won't be much time once I give the signal.”

  “The emphasis will be on you punching your way out,” ALF added dryly.

  That I can do, Kalian thought.

  The ground opened up beneath him and Kalian fell into the depths of his mind once more. The white room awaited him, along with the vault door. There was no sign of Alai, though the exquisite and calming vista of Evalan lay in the distance, beyond the room. A wave of the hand sent the vault door into the wall, revealing the expanse of space and a burning ball of fire in the distance. The Raalakian sun…

  Kalian turned back to the white room and found Malekk lying at his feet. He could only hope that this meant he had tethered their physical bodies together. The idea was simple enough, he just had to hope it would all work as he imagined, no, not as he imagined; as he wanted it to.

  There was too much hope involved in this plan. For just a moment he considered the very real possibility that he would be dead in the next few minutes. It was times like this he wished he could think more like his subconscious, more like a machine.

  A mere thought had Malekk flying into his hand and he gripped him tight around the throat. With his other hand outstretched, the distant sun was dragged towards the vault door, expanding in an instant, pushing the stars aside, as it brought the Vanguard closer and closer until Kalian’s vision pierced its hull and he could see inside.

  Kalian imagined Roland in his place and wondered what he would do in his shoes. The bounty hunter never appeared flustered or nervous about any of the life-threatening things he did.

  The thought brought a smile to his face, however, when he considered Roland’s frequent expression.

  “Let’s skip to the good bit.”

  Li’ara paced the bridge of the Rackham. All twelve of the Gomar had joined them, though most were still exhausted from saving the Sentinel, leaving them to sit wherever they could fit. Roland had the ship ahead of the fleet, keeping the cube-shaped vessel dead centre of the viewport. The sun was growing larger and the bridge grew dimmer in response, saving their vision.

  Li’ara glanced back at Roland. “Magnify.”

  “Aye aye, Captain…” Roland altered the viewport’s perspective.

  The Vanguard sat just under a million miles from the sun. Its hull was torn and ripped in several places, with entire chunks of the ship missing towards the aft.

  It is repairing itself… Sef came to stand by her side.

  Li’ara looked up at the big man and saw something more than concern. “What did Kalian tell you on the Marillion?”

  Sef stole a glance at her before returning to the Vanguard. You are very observant.

  “I spent three months hiding with you, remember? You don't say much, but your face speaks volumes. What did he say to you all?”

  We are not what we thought we are - the Gomar. Our purpose… I will let Kalian explain it to you, he saw it all.

  “Does ALF have something to do with this? With all of this?” Li’ara had always suspected the AI of being more than he stated. Lying and manipulation just came too easily to him.

  ALF is at the heart of it all, Sef said. He is the heretic they’ve been looking for.

  “OH SHIT!” Roland jumped forward in his chair and immediately dropped the Rackham into evasive manoeuvres.

  They all felt the artificial gravity loosen its grip on them for just a moment. Sef reached out and held Li’’ara in place as they witnessed the first of a barrage of missiles fly by their ship. The Vanguard had gone on the attack.

  “It has stealthware missiles!” Ch’len cried.

  “That’s not fair!” Roland weaved between the incoming nukes. “Don’t we have those?”

  Three Conclave vessels erupted in flame, scattering debris in every direction. The Marillion took hit after hit, as each missile punched through its shield as if they weren't there. In seconds the Rackham was rolling and ducking between ships and missiles.

  Roland’s hands were dancing across his console. “The Marillion is retaliating!”

  “We haven't received word from Kalian yet!” Li’ara pushed away from Sef and braced herself against Ch’len’s console.

  “Well whatever he’s doing, he needs to fucking do it already!” Roland swerved the ship, avoiding two more missiles.

  “Look!” Vox pointed at the viewport.

  The giant cube - ALF’s housing unit - was moving in front of the Vanguard, physically blocking the barrage of streaking gold missiles. Explosions on the other side of its hull faded against the backdrop of the star, but blue missiles could be seen leaving the cube and intercepting the Vanguard’s smarter weapons, which veered around the cube in an attempt to destroy the fleet.

  Li’ara clenched her fists until it hurt. “Come on Kalian…”

  Arriving inside the Vanguard was painful and chaotic, not in the least because of the increasing holes in its hull, exposing its insides to space. Kalian was forced to shut down his nerve endings and think fast before the light of the sun vaporized both Malekk and himself. The nanocelium in his armour grew over his face and head, as well as his hands before he floated in front of a gash in the bronze hull. The light streaming through the hole burnt everything and set his arm alight, turning the black into a glowing orange.

  The only sound came from his laboured breathing, inside his helmet. He should have thought of all this before jumping; the Vanguard was obviously not going to have gravity or life support inside.

  Using telekinesis, Kalian reached out and pulled Malekk back towards him. The sudden tug sent the Terran’s right arm flying out to the side, where the ray of sunshine reduced it to ash.

  Malekk woke up.

  Kalian’s concentration had lapsed just enough for the infection to take a hold again. Now with only one arm, Malekk launched his body at Kalian and sent the two careening into the interior hull. With no gravity, the pair silently floated in a tangled mess, kicking and grabbing as they bounced around insid
e the belly of the beast. More than once, Kalian was forced to shield Malekk from the sun - he still needed him in one piece, or at least enough of a piece to spread the infection.

  Esabelle’s face flashed inside his mind with every fist he slammed into Malekk’s head. He let just enough of his rage out to enjoy himself for a second. He was so much stronger now, far superior to Malekk’s grasp of Terran abilities.

  “Enough!” Kalian’s shout went no further than the inside of his helmet.

  Malekk was frozen in place, a metre from Kalian’s outstretched hand. The Terran pushed against Kalian’s telekinetic grip as if he were an animal snared in a trap. Being careful to avoid the beams of light, Kalian guided Malekk’s body towards the nearest wall and shoved him into it.

  “Time to go back where you belong…” Kalian mentally flipped the switch on the connector, activating the nanocelium within.

  Malekk’s mouth opened in silent rage, but his body was already being fed through the connector and into the growing tendrils, which even now dug into the Vanguard’s hull. Every molecule of his body was being pushed into the bronze hull, where it would reconnect with its master program. Kalian wasted no time in sending a signal to the fleet. By the time their missiles found the Vanguard, the infection would have caused enough internal chaos to stop it from healing.

  He hoped.

  Malekk’s body was almost gone, a twisted expression of pain and defeat stuck on his pale face. There was nothing left of the real Malekk now, though his fate had been sealed from the moment the nanocelium entered his system.

  Kalian braced himself, visualising the path he was about to carve out through the Vanguard’s ship on his way out. He would be sure to do as much damage as possible. Before any action could be taken, however, an alien hand, large enough to encompass Kalian’s torso, gripped his shoulder and threw him into the wall. It took a moment for Kalian to regain his senses and examine the thing which had attacked him.

  It was definitely alien, but no alien of the Conclave.

  In the same way that ALF appeared as something not quite organic, so too did this alien. It stalked into the space on six pincer-like legs, each entwined in nanocelium and tubes. Its body was somewhere between that of an insect and a bipedal creature. It had long lost its colour, the flesh now a pale tapestry draped over black veins. Four bony arms protruded from its elongated torso and came at Kalian with sharpened fingers.

  As it came closer, using its pincer legs to dig into the hull, Kalian could see the thick bundle of tubes and wires that connected it’s back to the ship, out of sight. This alien had once been a native of some distant planet, chosen by them for harvesting and picked by the Vanguard to be its avatar. A fitting predatory creature for its new master.

  Had they been within an atmosphere, Kalian was sure he would have heard the alien scream or growl or whatever it did, but in the vacuum of the ship, there was only silence as the monster charged towards him.

  Kalian was connected to everything now, his Terran senses detecting everything around him. To that effect, he could feel the individual shells of the approaching missiles. He counted sixty-three warheads, two of which were certainly World Breakers if their chemical composition was anything to go by. The Vanguard had delayed his departure just enough to put him in range of the explosions, which were now moments from impact. The alien almost froze when Kalian dropped into his mind, where everything moved so much faster.

  He was going to die in a few seconds, but he would be damned if he was going to leave this life without looking at Li’ara Ducarté one last time. She would be safe with the Gomar, and it wouldn't hurt having Roland North looking out for her as well. Kalian knew he could leave her and she would be taken care of. He laughed to himself, thinking what Li’ara would do if she heard such thoughts. The red-head didn't need anyone looking out for her; she was a force to be reckoned with all by herself.

  Kalian would die, destroying the Vanguard and giving the Conclave time to prepare for the rest of them - there was no denying their existence now. This was all he had to give and he was content with his sacrifice. Li’ara would lead them against the coming army and he knew she would find a way to stop the harvest.

  The vault door was swept aside and Kalian looked upon the one person he loved the most. Li’ara was braced against a console on the Rackham, staring out at the cube, eclipsing the Vanguard beyond. She was so close he could smell her perfume and the scent of her hair. Her smooth skin called out to him and he was desperate to kiss her one last time. Without thinking, he stepped forward and reached out for her.

  Had he been struck by lightning, the experience would not have been as jarring as the next moment. Kalian felt the familiar pop in his mind when he emerged back into reality without meaning to. The white room was gone and so too was the Vanguard’s interior. He now stood beside Li’ara, who had yet to notice him, watching the great plume in the distance. ALF’s cube moved away, revealing an explosion that eclipsed the distant sun. The Vanguard had been disintegrated in a burning flash of light, with an intensity powerful enough to knock out the viewport completely, dropping them into the glow of the bridge’s holographics.

  Li’ara made a noise somewhere between a gasp and a scream at the sight of Kalian, but he barely registered it through the searing pain, which erupted in his gut and chest. Blood was already dripping from his ears and nose, filling his mouth with the taste of copper. The edges of his vision blurred, softening the hard lines and fogging the clarity of his environment. He was on the floor in the blink of an eye, with no memory of how or when he fell.

  “Kalian!” Li’ara was over him now, her red hair draped over his chest.

  The Gomar approached from all around and the world slowly went dark. Kalian had expected to fall back into his mind, where he could potentially figure out what had happened to him, but reality continued to fade away until a numb, lifeless void took a hold of him.

  Epilogue

  First, there was sound… then light in all its painful glory. Kalian couldn't make sense of any of it. It took his brain a few extra seconds to translate the muffled words and track their origin.

  “He’s waking up!”

  The woman standing over him had a featureless face, but the outline of red was unmistakable. Kalian blinked hard and Li’ara’s exquisite face came into focus, though it was marred by concern. A Laronian, Kalian didn't recognise, hurried into the room and immediately swept a hand-held scanner over his body. There were words ready in his mouth, but the lack of saliva made it impossible to form anything coherent.

  “His vitals are perfect…” the Laronian said. “I’ll alert the doctors.”

  “No,” Li’ara called. “Tell Roland to bring Garrion.”

  Garrion?

  It took Kalian longer than he was accustomed to recall the name, but eventually, his mind traced the name to one of the Gomar. Why would Li’ara ask for him?

  “What’s going on?” Kalian croaked.

  Li’ara smiled. “You’re alive…”

  “I already figured that part out.”

  Kalian lifted his hand to rub his eyes and found his arm to be connected to multiple tubes, each attached to a bag of colourful fluids. Holographics ran across the bare skin on his forearm, listing his vital signs and oxygen saturation. Li’ara practically jumped on him, in the bed, and wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed.

  “What the hell happened?” He willingly accepted a cup of water and relished in the cold liquid, as it swirled around his dry mouth.

  “We were all wondering the same thing.” Li’ara stroked the dark hair from his eyebrow. “After Naydaalan’s surgery, he shed some light on the particulars of your return, though his official report states differently. According to him, ALF activated a Starforge and brought you back, after hacking into some ancient cube he’s been hanging onto.” She bent down and kissed his forehead. “But that’s not how you got back, is it?”

  “Not exactly…” Kalian could feel his strength returning wi
th every breath.

  “We’ll talk about it with fewer ears around.” Li’ara put a finger to her lips. “You’ve only been out of the medder for a couple of days.”

  “Days?” Kalian sat up, against Li’ara’s protests.

  “Well, you’ve been in the medder for a month…”

  Kalian blinked, hard. He had no recollection of being anywhere inside his mind for that time, as he should have. How could he have been unconscious for so long?

  “What happened, Li’ara?”

  “After you jumped onto the Rackham, you collapsed. You were in a bad way. Your organs weren't just in the wrong place, they were badly damaged. You had a bleed on the brain, as well. The doctors say it was a bad one; you’ve been cared for by the best Laronian surgeons in the Conclave. Apparently, our physiology is similar. You needed multiple surgeries and a long time inside a medder tank. For the last couple of days, we’ve just been… waiting.”

  Kalian gripped Li’ara’s arm. “No one can know about this, about the jump. The Conclave fear us enough as it is; if they learned of what we were really capable of, we’d never get membership.”

  Li’ara replied with a warm smile. “While you’ve been asleep, Captain Fey and Captain Holt have been in talks with the Highclave.”

  “Captain Holt?”

  “The Paladin. Naydaalan said that ALF caught you up with his super-creepy perving powers.”

  “He did,” Kalian shared her infectious smile. “You know ALF could have healed me in half the time?”

  “Naydaalan said the same, but it was left to me to decide, and I-”

  “Don't trust the AI,” Kalian finished. “I know. Wait...” Her tone and smile pulled at his suspicions. “What talks?”

  Before any answers could be had, Roland and Garrion entered the room. Unusually, Roland was without his long coat or even his black and gold, armoured vest; he was simply attired in… clothes. Garrion, of course, was wearing his usual suit of nanocelium, which constantly worked against the Harness fused to his nervous system, granting him the powers of a Terran.