Majesty's Offspring (Books 1 & 2)

by AJ Vega

  ******

  Julius lost all track of time. Time was no longer a word that was in his vocabulary. The only word that existed now was pain.

  An invisible force kept him pinned against the crystal, while Daniel Chin continued to work on him, using inventive methods of torture. After each session of pain and near death, he would heal him and then repeat the process over again. In between he would ask a question for which Julius did not have an answer for: “Where is the data?”

  “I can continue this for an eternity,” Chin said, “but your delicate human brain will eventually suffer permanent psychobiological damage.”

  Julius bowed his head, unable to come up with anymore words to give him. He did not know where the data was. Even when he tried making things up, Chin knew when he was lying.

  As Julius felt himself losing the will to fight, he heard a familiar voice.

  “Stop hurting him,” it said.

  Both of them turned to look. It was Haylek. He was holding the jewel necklace in one hand, and a flicker pistol in another, which he pointed at Chin. His hands shook so badly that it seemed likely that even if he did shoot, he might actually miss. The jewel glowed a creamy orange color that seemed to also glow from his skin.

  Haylek stepped up the stairs to the base of the platform and stopped. Chin moved away from Julius, his attention now seemingly on Haylek.

  “I did not foresee this,” Chin said. “Nice to have an unpredictable ending for a change.”

  “L-Let them g-go,” Haylek said, his voice quivering. “Or I’m going to sh-shoot this.”

  Chin looked at Haylek and smiled.

  “With what?” he asked, flicking his wrist in the air.

  Chin’s nanobots yanked the gun from Haylek’s hand, leaving him only holding the jewel.

  “Give it to me,” Chin gestured.

  Haylek shook his head.

  “I know you can’t touch it or my skin,” he said, “So let them go.”

  Chin took a few steps toward Haylek, and then stopped about a meter short of him.

  “Interesting,” Chin said, then whirled around and marched toward Chorus’ inanimate form.

  “Very devious of you,” he said, pointing a finger at her. “But it will cost you.”

  Chin made a gesture toward the Elation processor and then turned to Julius.

  “It will cost you as well,” he said.

  Julius feared another pain session was in store for him.

  “Let them go,” Haylek said, putting the crystal under his boot. “Or I’ll crush it!”

  This got Chin’s attention as he turned to face Haylek. Julius tried to push himself off the crystal structure, but the force pulled him back. It then occurred to him that suit’s fabric itself was being pulled to it, not his body—perhaps there was a way out of this.

  Inching his hands to the belt buckle, he felt the suit’s fabric pull his arms, but he still managed to get his finger on the suit’s assembly control and pressed it—releasing the assembly clamps at all the limb joints.

  Using a flexibility he did not think he possessed, he pulled in his arms through the sleeves into the torso. He then spread open the main entrance crease, giving a wide opening to leave the suit. Lifting his legs, he kicked himself out of the suit, falling forward and into the darkness of the chasm below.

  Julius reached out with his hands, barely able to grab the edge of the opening in time to save him from a fatal fall. As he dangled at the edge, he allowed himself to dare a look below. Beneath him, he managed to get a glimpse of the moon’s core—it was not what he expected.

  Towering from somewhere below, what looked like an enormous human head appeared. It was a woman, with dark hair—it resembled Chorus’ nanoform, but was at least a hundred times larger in scale. From the top of its head, the crystal structure emerged. Discharges of energy traversed the crystal from the base and traveled up to the surface of the moon.

  He wanted to see more, but he felt himself losing his grip. Pulling himself out through the opening, he rolled over onto the platform’s ground. Grabbing the pistols, he scrambled to his feet.

  Haylek was trying to stomp the jewel necklace with his boots, but it apparently had no effect.

  “Over here!” Julius yelled, waving one of his pistols.

  Haylek looked over, then picked the necklace up to his face.

  Julius could see it shining brightly now—blindingly so.

  His hand still shaking, Haylek threw the necklace toward Julius. The glow from Haylek’s skin winked out as the necklace traveled through the air.

  Julius raised both his Gemini flicker pistols, aiming one of them at the crystal jewel, and the other at Chorus’ Elation feed. He fired both at the same time.

  The shot struck the jewel, shattering it and sending its shards to the ground, with trails of tiny nanobots spilling from it.

  The other shot missed the Elation processor, and his follow-up shots also never connected as Chin darted in between him and Chorus, absorbing all of the flicker fire.

  Chin knocked both pistols out of Julius’ hands. The invisible nanobots then grabbed Julius again, pinning him against the crystal structure. Chin then motioned to Haylek, and the same invisible force took him as well, slapping his body against the crystal and hanging him next to Julius.

  Turning around, Chin inspected the broken necklace pieces on the ground. The nanobot vapors continued to dance across the shards.

  “There, there, little ones—calm down,” he said, putting his hand over it. “I’m here for you. You and your knowledge will soon be a part of me.”

  Julius tried to fight the force holding him to the crystal, but now it not only pinned the fabric of his undershirt, but the skin of his back as well.

  Just then, he felt a rumbling around him. He looked down at the opening around the crystal. From inside the moon’s core, an illumination appeared. As he stared at it, something shot up and out of it. He closed his eyes, feeling and hearing a surge of wind strike him. His skin felt a cold tingle—as if millions of tiny particles of ice ran across his face.

  When the sensation stopped, he opened his eyes. Floating around the platform, a spherical cloud of nanobots circled them. Chin’s hands rose up in the air, as if summoning them from beneath the moon—the factory was operational.

  As Julius watched the expression of glee on Chin’s face, and the swarm of nanobots encircle him, he realized that he had failed. This time it was not only his crew he failed, but quite possibly the entire human race. His luck had finally run out.

  Just as he resigned himself to fate’s hand, he heard a roar from the sky. The sound was familiar—one he had not heard in a while, at least not inside an atmosphere.

  Above them, a group of four ships came down from the sky. As they got closer, he recognized them as Z-40 fighters.

  Wolf Squadron!

  One of them fired a single burst of well-aimed accelerated protons—striking the platform and knocking Chin off his feet.

  Julius felt the force pinning him to the crystal weaken for a moment, and he and Haylek both slid down before it took hold again.

  Chin stood up from the ground and raised his hands. The newly summoned nanobot swarm encased him in a misty shield. Wolf Squadron circled back around and fired another volley, but this time the blasts struck Chin’s nanobot shield, protecting him.

  Julius noticed that the force holding him against the crystal seemed to weaken with each of Wolf Squadron’s attacks. He looked down and saw his Gemini pistols lying nearby, no more than a couple of meters away.

  With all of his strength, he pushed himself away from the crystal. His body slid down toward the ground, but remained pinned. He reached out to the pistols, but they remained out of his reach.

  Wolf Squadron circled around them again. Two of the Z-40s dropped from the formation and made an attack pass.

  Chin’s nanobot swarm changed colors, turning into a kaleidoscope of red, blue, and viole
t swirls. It then streamed out to the sky like a rotating tornado, meeting the incoming fighters.

  The two Z-40s opened fire with their cannons. The shots impacted against the nanobot swarm, resulting in explosions that broke its cohesion, thinning its mass and causing it to splatter away in different directions.

  Julius felt something push against his shoulder. He looked up. It was Haylek above him, pushing down with his boot.

  “Try again,” Haylek said, his voice sounded raspy.

  Julius nodded. Using all of his strength, he pushed his body away from the crystal, as Haylek simultaneously pushed him with his foot. As he slid down, he could feel the crystal’s sharp surface tear through the fabric and into the skin underneath. The pain paled in comparison to what he went through earlier, so he ignored it and kept pushing off.

  Suddenly, the force holding him let go and he fell. This time he kicked with his feet, allowing him to leap over the chasm’s opening, landing on the platform’s ground instead. Julius grabbed his Gemini pistols from the ground and took in the scene around him.

  Chin was battling Wolf Squadron with his nanobots, which seemed to be dwindling in number. However, he knew Chin could simply conjure new ones from the factory—the pilots would eventually lose. If he fired some shots at Chin, perhaps he could distract him enough to give them a better chance.

  “Elation,” he heard Haylek say.

  Julius looked up at him. Haylek’s eyes were down to mere slits. His limbs hung from his body like a stringless puppet—it was as if he was almost dead or dying. Julius then looked toward Chorus; she was still frozen with her eyes closed.

  Raising his pistol, he took aim at the Elation processor and fired. The shot struck the base of the umbilical cord, sending it flying off and breaking the feed. The Elation sprayed out from machine, spilling the black foam of the drug across the floor.

  Chorus opened her eyes and looked up at Chin. Julius could see the luminescence of her eyes crescendo from black to a bright green as she came alive.

  Chin turned halfway to face her, one of his hands still outstretched and continuing to manipulate the nanobot shield. He turned to look at the sky, then back at Chorus—seemingly uncertain which one to focus his attention on.

  Haylek suddenly dropped to the ground, landing next to Julius—seemingly unconscious. Julius knelt down to check on him, just as a flood of Elation poured underneath them both. Julius scooped some of it up with his hands and then forced it into Haylek’s mouth.

  “Come on, Daryl,” Julius said, “take it in. Don’t die on me.”

  Haylek opened his eyes and stared at Julius.

  “Daryl?” he said.

  Julius shook his head—the ordeal and the talk of rescuing Daryl must have played on his mind.

  “Can you walk?” he asked.

  Haylek tried to sit up, but promptly lay back down.

  “Too dizzy… just go,” he said, his voice still weak.

  At that moment, Julius felt a rumbling in the ground. He looked behind him, and from underneath the crystal structure another stream of nanobots vapored out. The swarm flew up and then encircled Chorus, who held her arms in the air. Apparently, she was able to control it. She then turned to look at them.

  “Both of you, get out of here now.” Her voice boomed so loudly, that it could have probably been heard on the other side of the moon,

  Chin raised his own arms, and his own nanobot swarm began to grow and become brighter. The two A.I. offspring faced each other, and seemed ready to use the power of their nanobots to do battle.

  Julius holstered his pistols and then picked Haylek up by the arms, hunching him over his shoulder. A burst of adrenaline helped him run off the platform while carrying the weight of the hacker. Ahead, he approached the landing site and for the first time noticed that one of the transports was gone.

  The other transport’s platform was open. He went up the ramp, but before entering, cast one last look toward the crystal structure. A storm of nanobots and discharges of energy flashes engulfed the entire area. He could not even see Chorus or Chin through the chaos.

  The ground began to crumble and shatter around the platform. Chunks of the moon’s surface fell into the black chasm of its core and the sky began to glow white. As much as Julius wished he could help Chorus, he could do nothing now but flee.