by Shawn Jones
Cort was directly between Clare and Speral’s ship, running toward Clare. Jeff Pence deployed his men in a semicircle with its base ten meters from the alien craft.
“Oh my Gods. Okay, Sis. So he’s a monster. He wants us all dead. Why are you attacking the Alien? She can’t be a part of his plan.”
“Cort, she’s accelerating. Five hundred meters from the ship,” Rhodes said.
“Dear Rand. You never did understand how I think, did you. I’m not going after the little porcupine. I knew Cort would try and save her. I’m going to kill him. He doesn’t want me. He doesn’t want any of us. We don’t want him either.”
“Oh Gods!” Rhodes screamed.
Cort stopped in his tracks. “Everyone stand down. That’s an order. If she wants to kill me, let her. Come and get me, Clare.”
“Cort, no! Don’t hurt her!” Rand pleaded through his own tears.
“I won’t. I’m letting her kill me. Do it Clare. Become me. Kill me now. Look, I’m putting my guns away. Kill me Clare.” Cort sat on the ground in front of her as he commed everyone on the security channel. “Do not interfere. I’ll be okay.”
Clare was only two hundred meters from the CONDOR now. The MERV was travelling at over one hundred kilometers per hour. Cort closed his eyes. Well, Amber. You said this suit will survive a direct hit from a tank. Let’s find out.
Clare slammed on her brakes and turned, cutting it so closely that the MERV’s exterior roll bar clipped Cort’s body and spun him around. The rear wheel then clipped a rock and the vehicle began to tumble. As Cort regained his bearings, the MERV came to a stop upside down thirty meters away and Pence sent the two forward sentries to the vehicle. The augmented strength of the CONDOR Twos made it easy for them flip the MERV upright and open the door. They pulled Clare from the wreck as Cort appeared beside them.
The atmosphere suit Clare was wearing appeared to be intact, though her left arm and shoulder were clearly bent unnaturally. Had it not been for the rigid collar of the suit, Clare’s shoulders would have been touching. She was conscious and looked up as Cort lifted her body from the ground. She struggled to say “Why wasn’t I good enough for you?”
“Clare....” Cort couldn’t find the words he sought. The two sentries watched as Cort carried her toward the colony.
She choked on wet, raspy, cough. “I’ve watched you kill so many people. I could have overlooked it if only you had loved me.”
“Clare. Don’t talk. Save your strength.”
“No. I need you to tell me. What did I do wrong?”
“Clare. You are like Angela was. You are innocent. Angela was okay with who I was as long as she thought I was doing the right thing. But when she thought about it, when she really thought about what I did, she couldn’t handle it. Just like you can’t.”
“I was okay until you attacked the other colony. You couldn’t have known they were here to attack us.” There was foamy bloody at the corners of her mouth now. She coughed and covered the inside of her visor with a fine, pink, mist. “You couldn’t have known they were here to fight us.”
“I always know, Clare. That’s why I couldn’t love you the way you wanted. Because I knew you couldn’t handle the pain of knowing who I really am. I am a warrior. Somehow, even Speral’s people know that about me. My name means ‘Death’ in their language. Angela knew that about me too. I am Death, and I don’t know how to be anything else.”
Pence stepped in front of Cort and opened the outer door to the airlock. As the atmosphere cycled into the chamber, Cort continued. “The only time I’m not Death is when I’m alone. Like when Sköll and I lived in the mountains. My only role among people is that of Death and Protector, Clare. No one understands that.” Cort felt guilty as he thought of Kim Point. “Almost no one.”
The airlock finally cycled open and two medics took Clare from Cort and placed her on a gurney. Removing her helmet, one of the EMTs looked back up to Cort. “She’s gone, sir. I’m sorry.”
“Thank you.” Cort opened a channel to Speral again. “Speral, you are safe now. Because of the incident, it will be a little longer before Wraith joins you.”
“Cort Addison, I understand. Thank you for protecting me. Kim Point said you are the protector of this planet. I understand that now. My mate was inappropriate in how he approached you. We have much to learn about your people. I will wait for Wraith.”
“Thank you.” Cort disconnected from Speral and opened a new channel to Kim. “I’m going back to our quarters. I need to switch out my CONDOR. Meet me there.”
“Okay, Baby,” Kim replied.
“Rand,” Cort said over the security channel. “are you still with me?”
“Yes, Cort. I’m here.” Rand paused. “I’m sorry, Grandpa.”
“Me too, Rand. I’d like you to be here when I get back. Okay?”
“Yes, sir. I’ll see you soon.” Rand opened a private link. “It’s not your fault, Grandpa. Really. Clare wanted something you couldn’t give her.” Cort could hear the emotion in Rand’s voice.
“Thank you for that, Rand. You have no idea how much I needed to hear you say that. I’ll see you soon.”
Cort stepped into his living area and began to take off his armor. Kim stepped up to him, taking each removed piece from his hands and dropping them to the floor. After unplugging his ATLAS interface, he peeled the FALCON suit off and pulled Kim into the shower. She seemed to understand his need and met it with her own. When he finally emerged from his quarters in a new armor set, he was looking forward to the rest he hoped the journey with Speral would provide.
“Wraith to Speral. I am ready. Please prepare for me to enter your ship.”
“Wraith, I am ready. I will open the seal now. It is similar to your entrance. You will enter the ship and wait for me to close the outer door. Then the inner door will open. I will be waiting for you.”
Cort stepped out of the airlock to find Speral waiting for him. The interior of the ship was very spartan, by human standards. The control surfaces were much lower to suit Speral’s height but he was able to stand fully upright, leading him to ask “Speral, why is your ship sized to accommodate our species?”
“Wraith, please walk with me as we speak. You may leave your equipment here.” Speral indicated a large room off the main corridor. Cort put his two equipment cases inside the room and followed Speral again. “There was another species similar to yours once. We took them to fight the enemy also. They were lost though. Now we use the ships to transport the inhabitants of planets that are about to be destroyed. The larger size allows us to transport a variety of species.”
“But this is hardly large enough to transport an entire species. Even if you have thousands of these ships, it would take you just as many journeys to evacuate a planet.”
“Wraith, we do not evacuate a planet. We bring samples of each threatened planet’s fauna to new planets to be seeded. In this way, we ensure that few species are completely lost. Your own third planet was in queue to be seeded. However, when we investigated the activation of one of our beacons, the planet was more advanced than we had anticipated. We would have left after our investigation, except for the attack on our vessel.” Speral opened a small door and said, “I must operate the ship. Please feel free to explore. We will launch from your planet’s surface. Once we achieve the proper orbit, I will transport us to the system Cort Addison wishes you to see.” Without waiting for Cort to reply, Speral disappeared into what he assumed was the control room of the ship.
The walk gave Cort time to think about what Speral had said. The Collaborative doesn’t fight the invaders. It runs from them. It’s trying to preserve endangered species. Noah’s Ark on a galactic scale. How long has this been going on? What is the enemy? How long does Mars have before we face this ourselves? And how the hell do I stop an enemy that can destroy planets?
Cort had a sobering thought. Speral’s people wiped out Atlantica. Why can’t they fight this other species? His thoughts were interrupted by Sp
eral’s voice. “Wraith, please join me near the control room. We have arrived.”
Fifteen
Five Thousand Light Years From Mars
When Cort arrived at what he assumed was the bow of the ship, Speral was waiting for him. She directed him to a larger door a little farther down the same lateral corridor and escorted him inside. On the far wall was a video screen. Cort said, “I’m sorry Speral, but this won’t do. A video image can be manipulated. I need to see what is happening with my own eyes. Cort Addison was very clear about this.”
“Wraith, I understand. It will be dangerous to comply with your request however. This planet is close to complete sterilization. At that point, the enemy will become aware of our presence.”
“Can you explain that?”
“Wraith, it is the nature of the entity. Once it is completely sterile, it becomes aware of its surroundings. At that point, it will reach out to other energy sources.”
“Do you mean to say the enemy takes over the planet?”
“Wraith, no. Once infected, the planet becomes the enemy.”
“Can you explain the process?”
“Wraith, we do not know how a planet becomes infected. Only molten core planets seem to be susceptible. Once a molten core planet becomes infected, its mantle is converted to crystal. The crystal then grows outward. Once it reaches the surface of the planet, it becomes sentient, or perhaps it is already sentient but unaware of its surroundings. The entity uses the core of the planet for energy. Another planet then becomes infected.”
“Where did the infection begin?” Cort asked.
“Wraith, it began at the galactic center. It is believed to have originated in the primary singularity.”
“It came from the black hole at the center of the galaxy? From Sagittarius-A?”
Speral closed her eyes and read for a moment. “Wraith, yes. In your language the primary singularity and Sagittarius-A are congruent.”
“What did you just do, Speral?”
“Wraith, I answered your question.”
“No, I mean when you closed your eyes.”
“Wraith, this is a computer,” Speral said as she touched the crystal on the bridge of her nose. “It projects an image on the inside of my eyelids. I gather and disseminate information in this way.”
A HUD on the inside of her eyelids. Useful, but I wouldn’t want to have to close my eyes in combat. That’s not a problem for pacifists though. They live their lives with their eyes closed anyway. “I see. Do you have any information about the other galactic arms? Are they infected as well?”
“Wraith, that is unknown. Our transport system is not capable of transitioning in such a manner.”
“Tell me how you transition, Speral.”
“Wraith, that is forbidden. Cort Addison is aware of the process.”
“It is my understanding that Cort Addison travelled through time, not distance.”
“Wraith, it is the same. Cort Addison took himself out of the timestream and reinserted himself in the same location spatially but not chronologically. Our process is the same, but we move spatially and remain fixed chronologically.”
“Why do you not travel backward chronologically and prevent the infestation by the crystal?”
“Wraith, Cort Addison used the process in a way that is unknown to us. But it is not possible. Traveling backward through the timestream is not possible. Once a moment occurs, it cannot be changed.”
“I do not completely understand, Speral. Perhaps you will discuss it with our scientists when we return.”
“Wraith, I will do so to the limit of my restrictions. Our method of travel cannot be shared. It is a requirement of the Collaborative Government. Ours is the only species which has this ability.”
Galactic taxicabs? “Speral, I would like to leave the ship. I need to use my own sensors to observe the enemy.”
“Wraith, that is possible. Would it be acceptable for me to orient the airlock toward the infected planet? You would then stand inside the airlock with the outer door open. That would allow you to observe the consumption of the planet’s surface. It would also allow me to transition away before the planet becomes fully aware.”
“That is a good solution, Speral. I will go prepare.” Cort left Speral in the observation area and retrieved one of the two cases he had brought on board. Once in the airlock, he set up the equipment that Chief Rhodes had arranged for him. It was for all intents and purposes a small portable version of the same sensor package that the multi-purpose satellites orbiting Mars had.
After anchoring the gear and himself, Cort signaled Speral that he was ready. The airlock opened and Cort looked out to the planet that appeared to be in front of him. He was speechless. Without a reference point, he had no way to judge the planet’s size, but it filled the opening in the ship. Cort remembered the Aleutian Islands back on Earth, and thought the sight before him would resemble those islands viewed from space. The planet had a long belt of land masses moving across what Cort assumed to be the world’s equator. He could only see one of the polar regions, but it was obviously arctic, and the mountain ranges of several island-like land masses below him were capped with ice. Between the polar ice and the belt of land was a vast ocean of pale indigo hued water. Cort saw pink clouds floating across the stretch of islands moving from one hemisphere to the other.
As he looked to the edge of the planet’s atmosphere, Cort felt like William Shatner’s Captain Kirk looking over the shoulder of George Takei’s Mr. Sulu at an alien world below the USS Enterprise. Cort watched the islands below him and saw a massive gray wave approach a long shoreline. The land changed somehow and became the same pink-gray tone of the wave that overwhelmed it. Cort felt dismay as the water took on the same color. Waves stopped moving and the dull color climbed the mountains beneath him until only their tips still appeared natural. The airlock closed and Cort heard Speral say “Wraith, we have transitioned back to your world. Would you like to communicate with Cort Addison before we transition again?”
“Mars? We are back at Mars? Why?”
“Wraith, I did so to negate the need to travel through your system when we return here. I believe you will agree that time is of the essence.”
“Do not transition again, Speral. Please land and let me communicate with Cort Addison.” Cort’s mind was racing. “Speral, what I just saw. Was that the crystal converting the planet’s surface?”
“Wraith, yes it was. I can land, but we have limited time. I must transition to the Collaborative Government within seven of your hours.”
“Thank you, Speral.”
--
Argyre Military Headquarters
“You were gone less than an hour, sir. What happened?” Jeff Pence asked as Cort cycled through the airlock.
“Bad things, Jeff. You handled yourself well outside earlier. Get someone else to take over your duty, and get ready to leave with me. I want your entire team.”
Jeff saluted Cort’s back and responded, “Yes, sir!”
Kim Point met Cort at his office as he finished calling for an administrative meeting. He removed his helmet and pulled back his FALCON mask as the conference came online. He recounted his discussion with Speral about the nature and origin of the crystalline enemy, then played the sensor tape of the dying moments of the beautiful indigo world. “This is a big problem. We still can’t confirm it’s heading our way, but at this point, I’m inclined to believe Speral. This crystalline plague will get to us and we will die.”
“What do they expect from us, though?” Kim asked. “I mean, yeah we can blow a few ships out of the sky, but we can’t stop the core of a planet from crystallizing.”
“And how long do we have?” Cort was surprised that Rand was in the meeting, but pleased nonetheless.
“I don’t know, Rand. Frankly, I thought I was going to have a lot more information when I returned. I didn’t expect to come back here before we went to her conference. The return has something to do with the travel time
and graviton anchors.”
“I think I have an idea,” Doctor Black said. “Actually one of my people does. We were talking about it this morning. Their ships always appear at the last known locations of other ships. The data from the attack on Earth corroborates this. So perhaps they transition to points they have catalogued.”
“That would tie in with something else she said. She told me ‘Cort Addison used the process in a way that is unknown to us.’ She said I used the same technique. Apparently there are two potential variables. I used space as the constant, they use time as the constant. But there is a limit to the process. I didn’t get to discuss that with her. It wasn’t exactly the trip I had expected.”
“No kidding,” Rand said, “I didn’t even get to pack a bag, much less start my trip there.”
