Oblivion: The Complete Series (Books 1-9)

by Joshua James

  All the doors in the hallway were open. The first Saito passed, he looked in. He saw Ben, lying on the streets of Annapolis. Around him was the wreck of a bombed train. One of his son’s arms and one leg were badly mangled, and Ben was crawling towards him, towards the open doorway. Saito wanted nothing more than to go to him, help him, but his feet kept moving.

  The next room Saito passed was in Ben’s hospital room, only it wasn’t quite the same as he remembered. Ben was in his bed; but instead of a window overlooking the city on one wall, there were only rows of artificial limbs, from floor to ceiling.

  Ben sat up in bed and stared at Saito as he walked by. He didn’t say a word. Saito could feel the anger in his son’s eyes.

  Room number three was dimly lit, with a single individual standing in it. Saito didn’t know who it was, but they had a creepy aura about them. Panic set in as the individual, a bald pale man in all black, looked up at him. His eyes were pure black, shining, almost obsidian. And his mouth, his mouth was wider than was natural, not smiling but neutral.

  Saito kept walking, unable to shake the feeling that the pale man was following him. He reached the end of the hallway, which turned into the inside of apartment 254. In the middle of the room, standing in a neat line, were the survivors he had left behind. There were Rollins, Ada, and Tomas.

  Rollins smiled at Saito, covered in blood. It was unclear if it belonged to his longtime friend or not. Ada, the young UEF Marine private that Saito had taken a liking to during their debacle on the Atlas, was frozen in mid-scream, reaching out for him. Tomas, who he didn’t know all that well, simply stood straight like a soldier, but with the same obsidian eyes as the pale man.

  Saito felt a cold hand on his shoulder. It made him feel slimy on the inside. When he turned to see whose it was, he saw the pale man right behind him. Now that pale man smiled, which only made him more unsettling.

  “Go. She’s waiting for you, friend,” said the pale man as he pointed with his free hand to Saito’s right.

  Saito walked towards the open bedroom doorway in the apartment; only it didn’t lead to a bedroom, but to his apartment back in Annapolis. It was an apartment in an apartment, which didn’t make sense; but nothing in this place did.

  Standing by the windows of Saito’s apartment was Beverly. She had her back to him. He once again tried to call out to her, but he couldn’t. Instead he walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. With his head on her shoulder, he looked out the windows she stared at.

  Annapolis wasn’t outside Saito’s apartment windows. Instead he saw open space and the UEF Atlas floating in the distance. He could smell Beverly’s perfume, a scent he thought he’d forgotten.

  “Do you see it?” asked Beverly as she tilted her head to the side and rested it upon Saito’s.

  Saito couldn’t answer. But yes, he saw it, or at least thought he did. Was she referring to the Atlas?

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Peaceful. The cold dark. It’s…comfortable.”

  Saito didn’t know what Beverly meant.

  “I miss you,” said Beverly, without moving her lips. It was like she took the words out of Saito’s mouth. She turned around and kissed him, but her lips turned motionless and cold. He looked and saw lifeless, cloudy eyes inches from his own. His arms unhooked from around her waist. Her bluish-skinned corpse floated away. Behind her was the wreckage of their apartment after the Oblivion terrorist drone strike.

  It was as if she’d died all over again. He was crushed. He fell to his knees and tried to cry out. No sound came out, only an aching in his throat.

  Calmly, the pale man walked into view. He grabbed Beverly’s floating corpse by her hand and started to dance with her. They spun circles around the absolutely broken Saito until the pale man let go of her and knelt down in front of him.

  “Wake up, Lee Saito. We need to talk,” said the pale man.

  Lee woke in a room that looked something like a hospital room, but not really. Everything was a little bit off, like a cheap imitation of something real.

  The bed had a mattress, sheets, and a pillow, but none of it was soft. The room itself was the correct sterile color and had the boring, depressing decor of a hospital room, but there were no windows and no doors.

  Where am I?

  Saito tried to get up. He was hit by sharp pains in his torso, one in his chest and the other his stomach. When he lifted the uncomfortable, sandpaper-like sheet, he wasn’t prepared for what he saw.

  On Saito’s chest was a blob of what looked to be something alive. It was flesh-colored, and moved like it had a mind of its own. Around the edges were the borders of an open wound. Was it some twisted form of bandaging, or was it a creature that had taken root in him?

  Inserted in Saito’s stomach was what looked like a slimy umbilical cord. Through the transparent sections, he saw some form of black goo pumping into his gut.

  Saito pulled out the umbilical cord. It hurt worse than anything he’d ever felt before. Black goo spilled out and sprayed all over the ground. When he tried to get the thing off his chest, it kept morphing around his fingers, making it impossible to dislodge.

  “I would leave it be. It’s saving your life.” A woman had appeared at some point in Saito’s room. She was in an old-fashioned nurse’s uniform. Her movements were erratic, like a film skipping frames.

  “Where am I? What is this?” Saito was inexplicably on the floor now, and crab-crawled backwards from the nurse.

  “He wants to talk to you. Come with me, please.” The nurse approached one of the hospital room walls, which opened up like liquid metal.

  Saito got up off the floor and followed the nurse, because…why not? What else was he going to do? How else was he going to find any answers?

  Am I still dreaming?

  Saito followed the nurse from room after room of scenes one might find on Earth or in one of the human colonies. From bars to school classrooms, each had walls that opened and allowed them to walk through. As he walked through, he saw unnatural-looking people who seemed as if they were trying to learn how to behave in each of these environments.

  “Here we are,” she said at last. It was a large room with a spherical ceiling and curved walls. Those walls and ceiling were made of churning liquid metal. Standing against it was a very familiar sight: it was what Saito saw every time he looked in the mirror.

  “What is this?” asked Saito as he looked at himself. Only this other him was perfectly groomed and in an immaculate UEF officer’s uniform, adorned with all the proper medals and bars.

  “The future, Mr. Saito. Or at least, preparations for the future,” answered the impostor Saito.

  “Am I dead? Is this a dream? Is this hell?” asked Saito. His legs were still a bit wobbly.

  “Dead? No. I assure you, you’re not.” Impostor Saito pointed at the wound on his chest.

  Saito looked down at himself. He didn’t realize he was naked. The thing inside his chest wound was still there. Black goo still dribbled out of the opening in his stomach.

  “We saw to that,” said imposter Saito with a smile.

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why keep me alive?” Saito asked. “Why do this? Pretend to be me?”

  “Who said anything about pretending? For all intents and purposes, Mr. Saito, I am you. A better you.” He pointed at his head. “In here I have all the same memories.” He pointed at his face. “I share your face.” He pointed at his heart. “And I love who you love.”

  “You’re a monster!” Saito snarled, his throat burning with the effort. It was so dry. How long had it been since he’d drunk anything?

  “I’m a human, down to my very genes; only I’m also a little bit more. I’m what your kind can be. What they will be.”

  “Why not kill me?” Saito asked.

  “I need you, Mr. Saito. I need you alive. I need you to help me. To help us.”

  “And why would I do that?”

  The impostor Sai
to’s smile got wider. “You’re going to stay with us a little while. You’re going to help us make your kind’s transition a little easier. And to make that a little easier for you…” From the floor a small pillar jutted up and out. It was made of the same liquid metal as the walls of this strange room.

  As Lee watched, the pillar turned into his wife. “Beverly…it can’t be…this isn’t real!” Saito trembled as his wife hugged him. She smelled exactly the same, exactly how he remembered.

  “It’s as real as you want it to be, honey,” answered Beverly.

  “This is just the beginning, my new friend.” Impostor Saito walked over to one of the walls and waved his hands. The walls parted, giving them a clear view of space and Sanctuary Station 33. “The beginning of a new age for humankind.”

  Sanctuary Station 33 blew up, splitting right along its main axis, spewing debris into the surrounding space.

  Impostor Saito turned back. “Are you ready? We have work to do.”

  Book 3: Final Invasion

  One

  “And you’re sure?” Ben asked Ada stupidly, as if he hadn’t clearly heard the Marine tell him that his father, Captain Saito, was dead. Even though he knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that the likelihood of his father’s survival was slim, Ben had convinced himself that he’d save him.

  “I...” Ada started to say, then stopped.

  Ben could see she was struggling with something. “Well?”

  Ada took a deep breath. “We heard his voice over the intercom, only ... it wasn’t him,” she said.

  Ben was confused. “What do you mean?”

  “It wasn’t him,” she said again, hesitantly. “It was one of them. One of the Shapeless.”

  Ben felt like he’d been punched in the gut. “Are you sure?”

  Ada nodded reluctantly.

  “He sacrificed himself for the rest of us,” said Tomas. “He was a good man.”

  Ada’s glance made Ben think she didn’t necessarily share that assessment. He felt all of his energy and drive leave his body. All of this had been for the sole purpose of finding his father. “How did he die?”

  “He just...” Again, Ada hesitated. “He just walked out of the apartment.”

  Ben looked up sharply. “What? Like he gave up?”

  “He sacrificed himself for us,” Tomas said again, but again Ben could tell that Ada wasn’t agreeing. He glanced at the other Atlas survivors, but they all looked away.

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Ben said. “The old man was a stubborn bastard.”

  “There’s something … I think there was something that they were doing,” Ada said. “To draw him in.”

  The others seemed to be caught off guard by this, like it was something she’d discussed with nobody else. “How so?” Ben asked.

  Ada shook her head. “Just something about his demeanor. It changed right after one of the Shapeless touched him.”

  “Touched him?”

  “He was hurt in the escape. One of them gave him a sharp cut along his forehead. It was bleeding, but we were all hurt, so I didn’t think anything of it until … until he left.”

  Tomas was frowning. “I’m pretty sure one of them cut me.”

  “Hell, I think one touched me, too,” Ace said, looking uncomfortable. “Shit, you blew up half the damn station, and a lot of them into pieces in the process. All of us might have been touched by them.”

  Ada shook her head. “I don’t think they were after us. Not like they were after him.”

  Ben wasn’t sure what to make of any of this. He felt weak on his feet, like a fighter waiting for the bell.

  “Well, look, this is all fascinating,” Ace said. “But we need to get outta here, folks.”

  Ada nodded. “Agreed. We got a lot of them, but no way do I think we got all of them.”

  Ace nodded at the expended cold caster that Grimes had cast aside. “Do we need to get more weapons?”

  “No,” said Ben firmly, pushing down his emotions about his father. Now wasn’t the time for that. He had to reassess his priorities and get them all to safety. “We’d have to double back. We’re getting off this station right now.”

  “I like that plan,” Tomas said. He and Ada both looked to be in rough shape. They’d found cover in the cafeteria ahead of the blast, but they’d still taken the brunt of everything that had gone down to this point.

  “HUD, call Morgan,” Ben said as he stood.

  “Who’s Morgan?” Ada asked.

  “She’s trying to get our ship up and running,” Ace offered.

  “You’ve got a ship?”

  “We do. Finest ship in all the galaxy, darlin’,” answered Ace.

  “That’s what everyone told me about the Atlas,” Ada murmured.

  Ben’s video call popped alive in his HUD as the group started moving.

  “Yeah?” Morgan said with a fair bit of hostility.

  “Everything okay down there?” Ben asked, caught off guard by her tone.

  “Oh, you know, I’m trying to re-route power to the other engines, repair and reconfigure our nav systems, refuel, and oh yeah, I’m surrounded by literal corpses. So…yeah, everything’s ‘okay’ down here.”

  “How long until she can fly?”

  “An hour,” Morgan said. “Maybe two.”

  “Cut some corners,” Ben said. “We’re coming back and we need to get off this station.”

  “What? Why? Did you find your old man?”

  Ben felt a knot in his stomach rise up, and he pushed it down. Now wasn’t the time. If his father really was gone, he wouldn’t want Ben to lose focus over it. There were few things that had upset the bastard more. “See you in fifteen minutes. You need to get that ship flying or we might be dead. HUD, end call.”

  The group was hustling now. Ben was leading them at something between a fast walk and a slow trot. The fact was, if they ran into any of the creatures along the way, they were probably dead.

  They ran past a hallway with outward-facing bubble windows. Several of the survivors gasped as they saw the liquid-metal sphere floating in space.

  “It’s bigger,” Ada said. “It’s getting bigger.”

  “And closer,” Tomas offered.

  “How about we pick up the pace, Cap?” Ace said, right at Ben’s shoulder.

  “Good idea,” Ben said.

  But something told him that they might be too late already.

  Two

  “I’m so glad to see you guys,” Ada heard Francesca say. She was practically attached to Ada’s arm, and making it hard for her to keep up the fast pace that Ben was setting. She wasn’t sure how much she was onboard with this plan, but it was better than nothing.

  “I’m happy to see you too. But why are you out here?” asked Ada. “Where’s Walter and Rollins?” She felt guilty that it had taken this long for her to realize they weren’t with them. “Do we need to get them?”

  “They…they’re dead.”

  “Dead? What do you mean, they’re dead?” Ada said, faltering in her gate and causing the other survivors in the line behind her to slow as well.

  “He came for me, for us. And there was nothing… I was so scared.”

  “Who came for you?”

  “Captain Saito.”

  Ada glanced forward to see if Ben had heard; but if he did, he didn’t react. He had enough on his plate without hearing about this. “Captain Saito? You mean, a Shapeless that looked like him?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I think so. I mean.” Francesca wiped the snot from her nose. “I never met him before, but Rollins, he … he called him that.”

  “We really have to keep moving,” Ben said, noting they were slowing. Ada nodded and grabbed Francesca by the shoulder, and got her moving again.

  “Did he say anything to you?” Ada whispered.

  “He did… I dunno, I wasn’t really listening. I’m sorry.” Francesca started to break down in tears again.

  Ada pulled her closer. “Nothing to be sorry abo
ut. You’re so brave. You’ve survived better than I ever would at your age.”

  Ada was trying to be comforting, but she damn well meant it, too.

  “Son of a bitch!” yelled Morgan. She threw a wrench halfway across the docking bay. Her frustration had reached a fever pitch as she couldn’t figure out how to get off the couplings and disconnect the Lost’s clipped wing from the ship’s electric and fuel systems. It was all she had left to do to make the vessel flyable again. Then she’d realized she needed the wrench.

  “Hey, robot!” Morgan yelled at the station police robot that Ace had left behind for her.

  “Yes, ma’am,” answered the robot in a monotone voice.

  “Wanna get that for me?”

  “Please specify.”

  “The wrench! The one I just threw across the damn room!”

  “Please specify.”

  “Really?” Morgan sighed. “I dunno. You know what, never mind. I’ll get it myself.”

  “Would you like an escort, ma’am?” asked the police robot.

  “Sure. Why not?” mumbled Morgan.

  “Sorry, please speak up.”

  “C’mon!” Morgan tried her best to simultaneously step over and around the dead in the docking bay, while at the same time ignoring them. If she didn’t at least try to ignore the carnage, it’d drive her crazy. Maybe Ace could go skipping through it like a self-centered asshole, but Morgan didn’t have that same gene in her.

  Behind her, Morgan could hear the police robot following. It had no reason to try to step over the corpses on the docking bay floor, so instead, it simply plowed through them. Morgan could hear the sickening crunch of bone and the squishing of body parts behind her. She thought she was going to throw up. Again.

  “Okay, no, stop!” Morgan turned and put her hand up to the police robot. “Just watch my back from there.”

  “Roger. I will observe your back, ma’am.”

  Before Morgan went back to trying to retrieve her wrench, she happened to look out the plasma shield that separated the docking bay from space.