by Dorian Dawes
“Everyone disarm!” Nergal hollered. “This situation should be familiar to you.”
Snidely scooped Rogers’s pistol from the ground and kept the barrel of the rifle trained on the others, his smile widening. “Good to see you again. Glad to see you were able to continue our business.”
“Snidely?” Bluebird said, raising an eyebrow. “You look like shit.”
Talisha threw her blaster to the ground and kept both arms in the air. Her tone was more than a little annoyed. “There’s nothing for you here, Nergal. This temple’s going to cover the planet and destroy everything. We’ve gotta stop this shit before that happens.”
“That’s some fancy new armor, you’ve got there, Miss Artul.” Nergal sneered. “There’s clearly something in this alien tomb. I’ll be happy to let the big woman go if you give me that helmet of yours. I’m sure Snidely’s former employer would be happy to pay top dollar for it.”
“Not big enough, my love,” Snidely said adoringly, then broke into a fit of giggles. “The IGF has been after her secrets for years, but why stop there? There are other forces beyond even this galaxy. We sell to the highest bidder and retire like kings.”
Bluebird sniffed. “I was right about you from the start. You are a mercenary. Don’t give them anything, little bounty hunter.”
“What?” Talisha was taken aback by that. “No! Blue! It’s not worth your life. It’s just a helmet.”
“It is your culture!” Bluebird insisted. “Your legacy! Your people! It is worth protecting.”
“Yeah well so are you, dipshit.” Talisha said. She reached up to remove her helmet.
Bluebird’s lips curved down. “It is also highly unnecessary.”
She reached back and elbowed Nergal deeply in the ribs, somehow managing to keep his finger from scraping along her neck. Her powerful arms wrapped around him hoisting him up over her shoulder and slamming him into the ground in front of her. He scrambled up with a hiss and turned on her.
Talisha felt a rush of panic and promptly lowered her cannon. She didn’t think, she only fired. Her weapons were responding to pure force of will now.
“No!” Snidely screamed.
He used his inhuman reflexes to roll in front of the blast and stand just in time to absorb the energy with his body. He collapsed with a gaping hole in his chest. Nergal turned around to catch him in his arms. He fell to his knees, holding Snidely’s body close.
Nergal’s head shook, mouth open in profound horror. His bloodshot eyes welled with tears. “You fool. You damned fool. Why would you do this??”
Snidely reached up with a quivering blood-soaked hand to stroke the side of Nergal’s cheek. “Don’t know really. I think I must’ve believed all the pretty things we said to each other.”
Nergal choked back a sob. “I don’t want to do this again. I don’t want another man’s life to fade away in my arms.”
Snidely smiled weakly. “I turned out to be a lousy merc. Thanks for everything, Nergal. You gave me adventure and some meaning.”
“No,” Nergal whispered. The light faded from Snidely’s eyes. Nergal pressed his head close to his chest, tears now pouring down his cheeks. “No! No! No! No!”
Bluebird stood and grabbed her cannon from off the ground, keeping the barrel close to Nergal’s head. “If you try any more shit, you will join him.”
Nergal stared, slowly lifting his head. His eyes burned with hate. “Let me mourn in peace, damn you! Underneath your sanctimonious shit-talking, you’re as bloodthirsty and calloused as any. Least I’ve still a heart left to break, and I’ve lost the will to fight.”
Talisha stared, wracked with guilt and sorrow. She couldn’t focus on this right now. She turned away from the tragic scene and focused on the console.
“Everyone grab your guns,” she said. “Things might get a little hairy.”
She pressed a series of buttons across the command console. The whirring and the shifting of the temple building halted, taking with it the faint background hum of machinery. Only a deathly silence remained. She held her breath, not daring to hope just yet.
Mattu clamped a congratulatory hand on her shoulder. “You saved the planet. Your mother would be proud.”
A deep rumbling sounded from far beneath their feet. All eyes looked at the window and the catacombs beneath the temple. Translucent blue lights flickered over the surface of each and every cylindrical chamber.
Rogers scooped his pistol from off the ground. “Congratulations seem a mite premature, partner.”
From within the heart of temple arose a cacophony of wailing, a chorus of endless suffering and anger. It was the type of cry that made any who heard it feel its pain and heartache. The glass on the windows shattered as one by one the wraiths rose from their long-dormant tombs. They assembled within the chamber, spiraling around each other to create a shimmering blue vortex. Talisha turned her back on the sight and power-walked toward the exit.
“I’ve seen enough,” she said. “Let’s get the fuck out of this deathtrap.”
“I do not like to run from battle,” Bluebird said. She then looked to see the great pillar of screaming wraiths had expanded in size as more of the ghostly creatures joined it. “…but I can make exceptions. Let’s move!”
They hurried out of the narrow chamber and into the rest of the temple. Nergal remained behind, slowly rising to his feet. Talisha turned around soon as she realized he wasn’t with the group.
“We have to get out of here,” she hollered. “Come with us!”
He ignored her, continuing to approach the screaming vortex. His shoulders shook as he planted a boot atop the command console and climbed up into the shattered windows. The gusts of wind from below blew back his hood as he faced oblivion.
She could have rushed to stop him. Her jet pack would give her the speed she needed to latch her arms about his waist and pull him from the ledge. It wouldn’t save him. She knew enough from the look in his eye, that this was a man who was already dead. Prolonging his existence would be an exercise in cruelty.
He spread his arms and allowed himself to fall into the pit. She turned her head away at the last second, so she wouldn’t have to watch. She couldn’t say if it was right or not. She only knew she’d be haunted by this moment for years to come.
The rumbling and din of sorrow ceased. Everyone stopped running. Talisha turned her head back to the control room. The wraiths had vanished. She raised her arm cannon instinctively.
Nergal’s body slowly floated up into the chamber, bathed in shimmering blue lights. His head was lowered. His arms splayed out on either side of him like a religious symbol. His head rose to meet Talisha, eyes closed in an uncharacteristically serene expression. When his eyes opened, they were empty hot-white pools. His mouth opened with the thousand screams of the damned and the earth trembled once more. The very walls of the temple began to crack and break.
“The wraiths,” Talisha said, looking up in dawning horror. “They’re going to bring the temple down on our heads!”
“Cannon doesn’t think so!” Bluebird rushed in front aiming her plasma cannon at Nergal.
The sapphire-colored beam shot out enveloping Nergal’s body. Several of the wraiths screamed and vanished, but only more continued to join. Nergal and the wraiths shrieked at her and extended a palm. A blast of invisible power caused Bluebird to stumble back, but still she kept her beam trained on him.
“There’s no time!” Talisha shouted, noting more visible cracks appearing on the temple walls.
“These creatures have caused enough suffering!” Bluebird retorted, taking a determined step. “And they have suffered enough. It is time that existence ends.”
“We will die!” Talisha screamed over the din of the wraith’s wailing.
“Then you run.” Bluebird smirked. “I will not judge you, but it is not my way.”
Mattu stood next to Bluebird. “Those wraiths used you to kill my squad, Talisha.”
Talisha turned to face Rogers who on
ly shrugged his shoulders and trained his revolver on Nergal. She looked at the creature the diseased scientist had become. She could see his face twisted into an expression of rage and torment. Maybe once there had been hope for him, at the start of this week when they’d first set out for the temple, but no longer. He had been consumed by hate.
She charged her cannon, readying for a blast she hoped would be big enough to dislodge the wraiths from their host. The force of their power threatened to bowl her and the others over as crackling lights filled the chamber and debris from the collapsing temple was hurled their way.
On either side of them the walls crumbled and fell into the chasms. They were soon left with nothing but that thin platform and the rooms behind them. No walls separated them from Nergal and the wraiths. There would be no easy retreat.
“Everything will be made to feel our sorrow,” Nergal screamed even as the bullets and blasts pierced his chest. “All will know our anguish.”
Talisha focused her power. The energy beam glowed white and hot and pure at the edge of her cannon. She looked on Nergal and for the first time understood him clearly.
“I’ve felt that way,” she called to him. “But you’re hurting other people now! Innocent people! People like Jefferson! You’re letting your own hate destroy you and everyone around you!”
“Let us suffer!” Nergal screamed. “Let everyone suffer!”
He pushed back again, and they were all nearly bowled over. Talisha hollered as she nearly lost control of the beam. She felt the strain on her psyche, to the point where the voices of the wraiths could gain access to her mind. It was everything she could do to fight them while keeping her cannon charged.
“I support revenge,” Bluebird said, shaking her head. “But not collateral damage. Anger and hate are only good when they’re useful.”
Talisha looked at Nergal with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
She fired the blast. It enveloped his entire body, and then consumed him. White rays of energy poured out of every bullet hole and wound in his fractured, broken body. The wraiths filed out of him in droves. They made it only a few feet before fading from existence. Nergal fell into the bottomless chasm
Bluebird grabbed Talisha by the arm. “Come, little bounty hunter. We should exit.”
She made no argument and ran even as she searched the scans within her helmet for the fastest route out of the temple. They rushed back through the twisted corridors, witnessing the destruction of the vast alien temple. Mighty pillars fell in their way, and the floor and walls collapsed behind them.
They’d just barely made it to what had become the entrance when several parts of the walls and ceiling came crashing down around them. Talisha barely had the time to use a boost of her jet pack to clear the distance. Bluebird managed to shield herself and Rogers with use of her barrier.
“Is everyone all right?” Talisha asked, taking a quick account of who was left standing.
Mattu’s pained groans alerted her, and she hurried to him in a panic. His body was pinned beneath a pillar, blood leaking from the corners of his mouth. He was wheezing badly, indicating a collapsed lung. Talisha called Bluebird over to help her try and move the rubble from his body. He coughed and shook his head.
“Don’t,” he said hoarsely. “This whole place is coming down around us. You gotta get out of here.”
“No!” Talisha yelled. Her voice then softened. “Enough people have died on this crap planet. I’m not going to lose you too, Dad.”
Mattu smiled at that. “So you think I might be your old man after all?”
“I’m considering it,” Talisha said. “We’re both pretty pig-headed, but so is Mom.”
“It runs in the family I guess,” Mattu said before coughing again. “Tell her I said I’m sorry, and I still love her. For what it’s worth, she did a heck of a job raising you.”
Talisha nodded tearfully. “Yeah. I’d say she did.”
“You’re not a bad guy, Commander Mattu.” Rogers said, tipping his hat. “You’ve got my respects.”
Bluebird said nothing. She only gave him an affirming nod, the type one military officer might give another. Mattu nodded back at her.
“Get out of here,” he said. “All of you.”
Talisha clasped her hand in his, holding his arm tight. She looked him in the eyes. “I’m glad I got to meet you.”
He held her fingers tight. “Not as much as I am.”
Talisha’s fingers slipped reluctantly from his. She turned away and raced toward the exit. Only once did she look back just before the end. He was saluting her. Walls fell between them, and he was gone forever. They scrambled out the temple entrance and into the daylight. Behind them, the temple retreated once more into the earth.
Around them lay the wreckage of a planet gone to hell. Corpses riddled with bullets fell in piles about the canyon, scattered amongst the debris of a hundred ships and vehicles. The skies still raged with bullet and missile fire like fireworks overhead.
Bluebird stared up, squinting. “The battle is ending soon.”
Rogers fixed her with a stare. “How can you tell?”
Bluebird slung the strap of her cannon over her shoulder. “Bodies on the ground outnumber those in the sky. When that happens, there is a victor, or everyone dies.”
Talisha wandered through the carnage, feet heavy. She tore her helmet from her head and fell to her knees. Her tears knew no end. Strands of hair blew across her face as she surveyed the mangled bodies strewn across the bloody sand.
“None of this was worth it,” she said. “All this horror. All this death.”
The Red Fleet retreated suddenly from the battlefield, zipping away on their schooners and ships. The Plymouth and IGF forces were too battered to even think about pursuing. One or two straggling schooners were picked off by cannon fire from the planet below, but for the most part Ching Shih’s army was left unharmed as they fled into space.
This caused a temporary lull in the battlefield as commanders from each side were no doubt wondering how to proceed. There seemed little point in continuing. The Plymouth forces were the first to depart.
A voice crackled into Talisha’s headset. It was faint and full of static. “Talisha, it’s Ching Shih. You need to clear off the planet.”
Talisha frowned. She hastily grabbed her helmet and slid it on as she stood. “Why? What’s happening?”
“Cyrus has taken hold of the Mayflower. I’ve reason to believe he intends to destroy the planet,” Ching Shih said. “Despite our differences, I don’t wish you destroyed in this way.”
“There isn’t anything we can do?” Talisha yelled. “Millions of people will die!”
Rogers approached Talisha. “What’s going on?”
“Cyrus has the Mayflower,” Talisha explained. “And all of its planet-killing weapon systems.”
Rogers stamped his foot into the dust. He placed a hand on his hat so it didn’t fly off his head in the midst of his temper tantrum. His body shook about like he didn’t know what to do with himself or the emotions surging through his systems.
“You’ve gotta get me to that satellite,” he insisted, grabbing Talisha by the shoulders.
“Do you think you can stop him?”
“No clue, but it’s on my head if Cyrus does something horrible. Will ya help me?”
Talisha squeezed his shoulder. “Always, cowboy.”
“Ditto for me.” Bluebird slapped each of them lightly on the back.
Talisha plugged in a few coordinates on her gauntlet. Her ship flew up to meet them at the canyon’s edge. They clamored inside and Talisha hurried to the cockpit.
She buckled in and leaned forward, eyes attentive. “Seat belts everyone. We’ve got stardust to burn.”
THE SHIP BLASTED toward the stars. In the distance, Rogers could see the Mayflower gradually uncloaking itself. He hadn’t anticipated the enormity of the satellite. How long had this weapon of mass destruction orbited in stasis over the planet while they a
ll went about their lives unaware?
Ching Shih’s voice crackled into her comm-line. Talisha transferred her to the radio in the ship. “Are you free of the planet’s surface?”
“We’re headed to you now,” Talisha said. “Rogers thinks he can do something to stop this.”
“Cyrus has me shut out of all the systems,” Ching Shih said. “If you think I haven’t tried to stop this. There’s something else you should be aware of. Make no attempt to scan the Mayflower.”
“Why’s that?”
“My attempts to make the Cyrus AI more docile utilized some of my own programs and technology,” Ching Shih said. “I think he might have used that to gain access to my special viruses.”
“It’s how you take control of other ships,” Talisha murmured, eyes widening with realization. “Any ship that scans you gets infected with the virus.”
Rogers threw his hat on the ground. “Consarnnit, woman! You took that hooligan AI and gave him not only a giant planet-killer but the ability to amass an army as well?”
“I thought I had him under control,” Ching Shih’s voice was stern, but apologetic. “I was wrong. I am a fool.”
“Nicer words than what I would’ve used to describe ya, ma’am.” Rogers fumed.
By now the effects of Ching Shih’s words were proving true. The Plymouth vessels that had attempted to reboard the Mayflower were turned around. They went flying back toward Talisha’s ship. Cyrus had infected those vessels and taken control of every system.
“My god,” Rogers said quietly, watching the ships fly in their direction, weapons arming. “He’s become a virus.”
Weapons fired from the remaining Plymouth ships and wyverns upon Talisha’s vessel. She took evasive maneuvers, sending the ship barreling out of harm’s way. Even with their forces greatly reduced from the battle on the planet’s surface, Plymouth’s ships greatly outnumbered her.
