by M. R. Forbes
Max answered before Caleb could open his mouth. “Vyte was once an Intellect. Not like me. A newer, more advanced version. An upgraded iteration designed to replace the organics in matters relating to the Relyeh. The closest comparison would be to you.” Max pointed at General Stacker. “Vyte was made to be the leader of the Axon military. Its orders were to defeat the Relyeh as efficiently as possible.”
Sheriff Duke started laughing again. All eyes turned to him.
“So your general decided the best way to beat the Hunger was to turn them against one another,” he said.
“Affirmation. Except Vyte is harboring a fatal exception. A programming error or malfunction. It decided it required full understanding of organic principles to complete the mission. It turned on its maker and merged with him.”
“By merged, you mean...what exactly?”
“An Axon-machine interface. A remote interface. The Council didn’t realize the organic was compromised until he began insisting on being named Supreme Leader of the Axon, due to his advanced understanding of how best to preserve the Axon for all time.”
“By becoming one with the Relyeh,” Caleb said, gaining understanding. “Merging with them, the way it merged with its maker.”
“Affirmation. Hahaha. Haha.”
“There’s nothing funny about that,” Nathan said, frowning.
Caleb ignored the General’s comment. “When I was unconscious, I wasn’t really unconscious,” Caleb said, regaining the attention of the group. “I have a connection to the Relyeh Collective through my Advocate, Ishek. The state Walt put me in left me open to the Collective, and Nyarlath took the opportunity to reach out and put me into her Construct.”
“Construct?” Pyro asked.
Caleb was expecting the question. “A pocket universe. The Relyeh Ancients can create them.”
“That’s impossible,” Lutz said.
“Sean, I think we’re at the point where nothing is impossible,” Sheriff Duke said. “However crazy it sounds. We’re talking about tech that’s hundreds of thousands of years beyond our understanding. Hell, just look behind me.”
The engineer slumped in his chair, embarrassed by his interruption. “Sorry, Sheriff.”
“Nyarlath wanted me to see her prison. She made me an offer. If I free her, she’ll abandon Earth and ensure her brothers and sisters don’t replace her.”
“You mean Earth will be free of the Relyeh?” Pyro said. “That sounds too good to be true.”
“They can’t be trusted,” Sheriff Duke said. “None of them can.”
“I agree,” Caleb said. “In any case, Vyte pulled me out of her Construct and into something it called the Q-net. It’s a machine-based interface to the Collective.”
“Vyte has access to the Relyeh Collective?” Max asked, stepping forward.
“That’s right. I think that’s how it captured Nyarlath.”
“If this were any other Axon, it would bring us to the verge of victory,” Max said. “But Vyte believes absorption is the only solution to ensure our survival. This is a disaster.”
“Not laughing now, are you?” Nathan said. “But what the hell was it doing here? Why did it take the neural interlink?”
Caleb spoke again. “Sheriff Duke, I know your wife was able to access the Collective through the interlink. Moreover, you said she was able to send a signal through it to some of the khoron on Earth, and use it to destroy them.”
“That’s right.”
“I think that’s why Vyte took it. It doesn’t want us to have it.”
“It could have destroyed it,” Sheriff Duke said. “It didn’t need to take it.”
“I don’t know why it took it. It must have a use for it.”
“I’m sure that’s bad for us.”
“I agree. We need to get the interlink back, and not only because we don’t want Vyte to have it. We already have proof we can use it.”
“Use it for what?” Lutz asked.
“To kill Relyeh,” Caleb said. “Khoron for starters. Maybe trife, depending on the payload Valentine dropped into my head.”
“That won’t help us against the xaxkluth,” Hayden said.
“I have information about xaxkluth in my datastores,” Max said. “The potential to destroy them exists. It is a good plan. Hahaha. Haha.”
“But that isn’t the whole plan,” Caleb said. “We need to unpack my brain, which means I need to connect with Proxima Command, or I guess the Organization. I assume they’ll know what they need to do.”
“You need to go to Proxima to do that,” Rico said.
“I know.”
“We just left Proxima. We’re fugitives there.”
“Then you can’t go back,” Nathan said.
“And you can?” Caleb asked.
“No. I’m a fugitive too. But you were a Marine and a Guardian on a generation ship. You have full citizenship rights.” Nathan paused, looking over at Sheriff Duke.
Rico looked at him too. “So do you.”
Hayden’s eyes shifted back and forth between the two of them. He shook his head. “No. I’m not leaving Earth. And I’m especially not leaving without killing the Axon that killed my family. It’s just not going to happen.”
“Hayden, we don’t have a lot of time.”
“How long would it take? How far could he have gone? We need the interlink back anyway.”
The Axon will take the interlink to a portal.
“Yeah, he will,” Caleb said out loud. “Ishek says the Axon’s going to make a run for a portal.”
“There are at least two that I know of within range of Sanisco,” Hayden said. “Maybe more. We’ll have to split up. And Proxima will have to wait.”
“The data you have in your head could be useless,” Stacker said to Caleb. “It might be a big risk for nothing.”
“If we don’t take a risk, that’s what we’re going to have left,” Caleb replied. “Nothing.”
“Damned if you’re right,” Stacker said.
“I will go with Sheriff Duke,” Max said. “Even if Card’s head is empty, mine is not. Haha. Hahaha.”
Caleb didn’t try to argue. The Intellect could disguise itself as anyone. Could it somehow copy their ID chip too? He wouldn’t put it past the AI.
“And what about the xaxkluth?” Sheriff Duke asked. “You never did explain why they stopped attacking.”
“A few reasons I can think of,” Caleb replied. “One: Vyte offered to leave this part of the world alone if I killed all of you. Maybe he’s hoping I still will. Two: he might be waiting to see what we do next. To judge our intelligence before committing anything else to the fight. Three: he’s confident he’s going to win, and he doesn’t want to waste any more builders on us.”
Three is most likely. I remain convinced. This is not a viable plan.
Maybe it wasn’t, but it was the only chance they had. “What do you say, Sheriff? General?”
“Let’s get the interlink back,” Sheriff Duke said. “Then we’ll talk.”
“Fine,” Caleb agreed. “One thing at a time.”
“Let’s do this,” Max said. “Hahaha. Haha.”
38
Hayden
“Consideration,” Max said, sticking close to Hayden as they entered the garage beneath the pyramid.
The vehicles were all in place, with the UWT tank in the pole position at the front. A group of civilians had already been stashed in the APC, and a group of modboxes were arranged behind the armored carrier, loaded with more nervous civilians. Every one of them was carrying a weapon taken from the armory on the floor below. The racks of guns and ammunition in Law were cleaned out, and whatever hadn’t been claimed for use was loaded into crates and divided among the vehicles with space for the munitions, both here and in two nearby garages where the rest of the survivors had gathered. Those spaces contained additional vehicles including an armored eighteen wheeler that could and would be carrying over half of the civilians on its own.
Guns weren
’t the only thing they were transporting. Lutz and Pyro had been given the task of identifying the areas of greatest need to ensure the fleeing civilians could survive an extended stay in their new surroundings. Beyond the apparent necessities like food and water, the two engineers had selected, disassembled and prepped a handful of machines that would make the civilians’ lives just a little bit easier. Hayden hoped their stay in Old Metro would be a short one, but the state of the planet left few guarantees.
Not that Hayden liked the idea of transporting the survivors to within easy reach of the xaxkluth, but as far as he was concerned, there was no better option. Out of the three possibilities Caleb had offered for the xaxkluth’s sudden reticence, Hayden wasn’t alone in his conviction that the aliens were waiting to see what the humans would do next. And if the enemy was waiting to react, it was essential for them to control that reaction as best they could. The only way to do that was to make one major play to get everyone out at the same time.
“What is it, Max?” Hayden asked, glancing at the Intellect through his modified sunglasses. The Centurions had found them on the floor of the lobby during their sweep of the pyramid, and Pyro had lovingly repaired the damage, returning them to him with tears in her eyes. He was beyond grateful to have them back.
“Your friend Rico said a Relyeh warship is coming to Earth,” Max said. “It’s logical to believe the Axon who took the interlink would want to bring it to that warship.”
“Makes sense,” Hayden agreed.
“Axon portals require static, predefined coordinates,” Max said. “One cannot simply open a wormhole on a starship in motion.”
“That also makes sense. What’s the consideration?”
“There are two possibilities. One, the Intellect who took the interlink, which I will refer to from now on as Krake, will have to initiate the portal and wait for the connection to complete before delivering the device to Vyte.”
“Krake?” Hayden said.
“You don’t like it? It’s more concise than saying the Intellect-who-took-the-interlink. Hahaha. Haha.”
“It’s fine. Just an interesting choice. Go on. What’s the other possibility?”
“Two, there’s a portal at a fixed point closer to the current position of the Relyeh warship.”
“What is the current position of the ship?”
“My estimates based on Rico’s explanation place it approximately half a light year past Proxima Centauri. Unless…”
Max trailed off. Hayden glared at him. “Unless what, Max?”
“Unless it slowed down. Unless it stopped at Proxima.”
“Which is how likely?”
“Caleb Card said Vyte is building a digital Collective that has access to the Relyeh’s organic Collective. It’s possible the Axon here is communicating with Vyte in real-time through it. It’s possible the Relyeh ship adjusted course the moment the interlink was captured, to effect a more efficient escape. It’s also possible Krake will remain on Earth until the warship arrives.”
“So if Krake takes the interlink off Earth right away, he has to take it to Proxima. Or close to Proxima.”
“Affirmation.”
“Then we’ll follow him there.”
“That will take time.”
“Max, I have nothing more important to do than hunt down my family’s murderer. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. But you’re right. It’s better to shut him down here. Vyte is a he, then?”
“As much as any Intellect possesses a gender, yes. Hahaha. Haha. The logical outcomes are that either Krake is left waiting somewhere on Earth for the link to the Relyeh ship to become static, or he has to take a detour through Proxima. Either we have more time to catch up to him, or we know where to find him.”
“That’s good for us.”
“Affirmation.”
“What’s the bad news?”
“If the warship stops at Proxima, the settlement there may face imminent destruction.”
Hayden didn’t care for Proxima’s policies toward Earth, but that didn’t mean he wanted any harm to come to the civilians who lived there. He understood they had no idea what Earth was really like.
“I’d say better them than us, but I don’t believe that. Can they fight it?”
“And win? Negation.”
Hayden sighed. “You know we’ve already got our hands full here.”
“We must rid ourselves of the chaff,” Max replied.
“You mean the civilians?”
“Your concern with their survival costs us precious time, Sheriff. And they’re only a handful compared to the number of humans currently under threat across this planet and out there.”
Hayden nodded. The same thought had crossed his mind multiple times while they were preparing the convoy. If it were entirely up to him, he would have already abandoned the survivors to fend for themselves while he hunted Krake. But honoring his family was about more than seeking vengeance. Natalia would be ashamed if he let innocents die in his anger.
“We need to go that direction anyway,” Hayden replied. “It’s one of Krake’s potential destinations.”
“Understanding. Disagreement. Acceptance.” Max continued walking with Hayden in silence.
Hayden crossed to the center of the room near the dead xaxkluth. Time had only made the aliens’ smell that much worse, and he couldn’t wait to get away from them. He tapped on the small comm badge attached to his coat, drawing in a breath before speaking.
The first thing Hayden had done after his meeting with Nathan, Caleb, Rico and the others was to visit the survivors and explain to them that they had to abandon the city. He had sensed their excitement at seeing him the moment he had emerged from the lift into the garage where they had assembled, but he had also sensed the discomfort that formed when they realized Natalia wasn’t with him.
Their discomfort evolved into an uneasy tension among the nine deputies who had joined the civilians in the bunker. They had lowered their tear-filled eyes in guilty shame, which had left a bad taste in Hayden’s mouth. Had they abandoned the innocent to save themselves? Had they run away in fear while leaving others to suffer? If they had returned to Law instead of hiding in the bunker, might they have gotten to the Axon before it killed Natalia?
Was it their fault his wife and children were dead?
“Deputies, are we in position?” he asked, fighting to keep his voice from exhibiting his inner turmoil.
“Convoy One is in position,” Chief Ranger Hicks replied. Deputies Lazar and Bashti echoed the readiness of their respective convoys as well.
“Pozz that,” Hayden said. “Hold position and wait for my signal.” He tapped on his badge again. “Nate, the convoy is ready to roll.“
“Roger that, Sheriff,” Nathan replied. “Centurions are ready.”
“Pozz,” Hayden said. “Caleb, what’s your status?”
“The bait has been taken, Sheriff. We’re on target.”
“Pozz,” Hayden said, trying to hide his tone of continuing disbelief. What Caleb had promised them seemed too good to be true, but he had committed to putting his trust in the former Marine. There was nothing Caleb had said or done to make him believe he wasn’t on their side.
Only time would tell where that decision would take them.
“Deputies, on my mark,” he said, climbing to the top of the APC with Max. “Let’s get these people out of here alive. Caleb, at your signal.”
“Standby,” Caleb said. “We’re four klicks out and closing.”
Hayden could sense the tension building in the garage. When he looked around, he could see the nervous fear on the faces of the people in the cars. He imagined the same scene playing out in the other garages across the city where those groups of civilians waited to leave.
Waiting was always the hardest part.
And timing was everything. If they were going to get through this alive, they had to get it right.
“I’ve got a visual,” Nathan said. “Looks like three incoming.”
They had hoped for five, but it was probably enough. None of it would have been possible without Caleb.
“The xaxkluth just noticed them,” Nathan added.
“Get ready,” Caleb said.
Hayden heard the gas-powered cars rev. The APC began to vibrate softly.
“The enemy is holding position,” Nathan reported. “Standby.”
The tension increased. It felt to Hayden as if they were at the starting line of a race, eager to get off the line and out to a good lead. Calling this a race wasn’t far from the truth.
“Three kilometers,” Caleb announced, though Hayden had no idea how he was tracking the distance.
“Xaxkluth are moving to intercept,” Nathan said.
“They can’t afford to sit and wait,” Hayden replied.
“Standby,” Caleb said.
The ground began to shiver slightly, knocking dust and debris from the walls and ceiling. Hayden was tempted to ask Caleb if it was time yet. He was struggling to stay patient too.
“Standby,” Caleb said again.
The ground shook a little harder.
“We’re on them!” Nathan announced.
“Go! Go! Go!” Caleb shouted.
Hayden grabbed the base of the APC’s turret, holding on tight as it lurched forward.
They were on their way.
39
Caleb
Caleb’s eyes were closed, but he could still see.
His mind was connected across the Collective, to a trife on its way to Sanisco. He wasn’t directly controlling the Relyeh creature but observing its desperate scramble across the landscape, pushed to the north by an unstoppable force which itself was only a minute away from colliding with an immovable object.
It hadn’t been easy to bring trife into the area. Between Sheriff Duke, the goliaths and the xaxkluth, the demons were in short supply in the region. Most were disorganized and relegated to tiny nests that didn’t have the energy or the numbers to make a queen. It had taken nearly twenty minutes for Caleb to locate a suitable nest through the Collective, and another hour to bring the trife closest to the city heading toward it. The group he had found didn’t have a queen to lead them, which made passing instructions to them more challenging. But trife were simple creatures driven by programmed instinct and fixated on a simple instruction:
