by Pal, J
“What?!” I exclaimed. “No! We can’t just kill her. There has to be a way to safely extract the parasite. I’m betting there’s a person in there desperate to break free. Think about it, Liam. What if she can hear and see everything that’s going on and hates it? We could perhaps figure out a way to get her back in the driver’s seat.”
“Mate, in case you’ve forgotten, I scanned Helena and Anna when they first appeared. Not using technopathy or high-tech goggles, but telepathically. It’s not a case of two people in one body. The real Helena isn’t asleep in there or a passenger along for the ride. There’s just one consciousness present, and it’s this centipede.”
“Then why the hell did Arjan burn down his own people?” I asked. “This doesn’t make any sense. I’m guessing the centipedes don’t have full control over their victims. The Hub’s shaking changed something inside Helena which helped her get control—”
“Are you listening to yourself, Matt?” Caitlin asked. “You’ve got a major savior complex going. Think about your safety and that of people around you. Not everyone can be saved. Helena made up an entire story about it being spinal armor on her back and a man named Omar building it for her. Helena knew what she was doing. These things have used human intelligence to figure out what makes us tick. It played to your weaknesses and interest in biotechnology to get in your head.” Caitlin got in my face as she spoke. “Weren’t you sure for a bit that Anna was a liar and Helena was a safe bet for the team? You got played like a fiddle by a damned monster, Matt. So how about you get your head out of your arse and listen to reason.”
“So what would you have me do? Kill Helena?” I asked. My heart rate had picked up during her speech, and I could feel my ears burning. Sure. I had killed Chroma when she’d attacked us in the cave, but that was in self-defense. This was an entirely different story.
While exploring our options, I summoned Delta and asked him for advice. I hoped he’d give us a solution or perhaps save Helena’s brain, but he shot our ideas down after a scan. Much to our surprise, he refused to go into detail. The system had placed a limiter on what he could explain, making the centipede’s existence suspicious. Delta informed us that he didn’t have the clearance level to summon machinery that could separate Helena and the centipede.
“We have to try to save her first,” Kitty declared after she and Jay got back. We filled her in on the attack and the centipedes, and she made up her mind in a heartbeat. “Matt is right. The odds are stacked against this venture, but we need to try. Killing her outright is out of the question.”
I wanted to kiss Kitty just then, but it would have been inappropriate, so I held myself back.
“I’m afraid I’m with Matt on this one too, love.” I hadn’t called for a vote, but Jay cast it anyway. “Chances are you and Liam are right, but we have to try at least. I won’t be able to sleep at night if tomorrow a centipede falls off a host and all of a sudden they return to normal. What then? Can we live with the guilt of murdering someone that needed saving? The most practical or efficient decision isn’t always the morally correct one.”
“Sorry, sis, I’m with Jay too,” David said. “I don’t think an insect is capable of displaying empathy or affection like Helena did when Anna’s brother passed. Perhaps I’m wrong and this monster has absorbed enough human memories to mimic emotions. That doesn’t mean it’s okay for us to jump to killing straight away. Even if we fail, we’ll know how to deal with these things better and more efficiently.”
“I know I don’t have the right to vote, but I’ll side with Matt too,” Anna added. “I don’t think it’s Helena who tried to kill me. It was that creature. That thing had plenty of opportunities to jump me. For heaven’s sake, we slept in the same room. She could’ve put a centipede on me at any time during that period.”
“Or it could be the gestation period,” Liam said. “Perhaps the centipedes initially spread genuinely pretending to be spinal armor. What if this Omar is the one controlled by the boss? He lets the agents lay dormant, then is activating them on will. Either way, my point is the original Helena is gone. I don’t know whether it was when the centipede first dug its claws into her or if something triggered her earlier today. I can say this though—that thing we saw fighting isn’t human.”
Liam’s statement didn’t change the vote. He and Caitlin weren’t surprised when they lost, but they respected our decision. They were willing to assist but promised to put Helena down if things got out of control. I agreed to the sentiment. As much as I’d like to save the woman, risking my friends was out of the question.
After a short discussion, Anna agreed to submit to a telepathic probe. She had wronged us in the past but, considering what we’d be facing, her help would prove invaluable. As much as I wanted to, we couldn’t just trust her word. Anna wanted to take down the centipedes and Metalsmith. We weren’t so sure about the latter, but for the time being, we had a common goal. It was Liam’s idea to double-check and ensure that she didn’t have a hidden agenda. He wasn’t incredibly confident in his telepathic abilities, but it was better than nothing.
After they left, Kitty, Caitlin, David, and I got to work on Helena. After gathering all the medical supplies, I injected her with a sedative. Just in case it didn’t work, Miley and Winnie kept her limbs and joints immobile. We didn’t know the extent of her abilities and weren’t too keen on finding out in battle. Caitlin poured rubbing alcohol along the spinal armor before approaching it with a scalpel. My stomach did flips, and I struggled to watch as she made a two-inch-long incision.
“It’s like I thought,” she said. “The legs have a firm grip on her body. Even if we had the skills, I don’t think surgical removal is an option. It will kill her or leave her crippled.”
“What’s next?” Kitty squirmed, looking away from the incision. She appeared more squeamish than me. It came as no surprise, considering her dislike of needles. “Can we try something else?”
After taking a moment to psych me up, I extended a stiletto-like blade from my new arm. The Charge Launcher still had a bayonet function, but after adding the biometal gland, I’d removed the old knife. The metal hummed as I passed a charge through it.
“I told you, surgery isn’t an option.” Caitlin stepped up. “There’s no point in putting her through needless pain. We might as well put her down.”
“It’s not that,” I said, pointing at the dead centipedes on the floor. “They reacted to electricity. What if we can get it to release her?”
“We shouldn’t torture her, though.” Caitlin sighed. “I didn’t vote against trying to save her just because I thought it might be dangerous. I’m pretty sure there is no helping her. Everything you do while trying to save Helena might as well be torture. You’re tormenting her for the sake of this dumbarse savior complex of yours. Even if we can save her, the resulting quality of life can’t be worth it.”
“Look at the technology I can build, though—”
“Then why didn’t you build something to rebuild your damn arm? Because you’re as clueless about me when it comes to medicine, Matt. You know all of this sci-fi bullshit, but not biology. Even if we can save her, Helena will need spinal reconstruction.”
“You’re right,” I told her. “At the same time, we need to try. The more we know about this creature, its weaknesses, and how it does what it does, the better our odds against them.”
Caitlin looked between us for a moment, then rolled her eyes and stood down. “When things go south, I’ll leave it to you to kill her then. I wanted to make things easier for you and take the dirty work out of your hands.”
If Helena was still in there, I hoped she’d forgive me for what I was about to do. When I poked the metal segments with my electrified blade, nothing happened. The charge wasn’t strong enough. At the same time, I didn’t want to risk a more powerful charge straight away, so I probed where Caitlin had made the incision. As soon as the blade made contact with unprotected flesh, Helena’s back spasmed. The segments shifted
, clicking against one another. They contracted, curling like prawn exposed to a heat source. A soft scream escaped Helena’s lips as her back arched inwards.
I pulled back, alarmed. Caitlin was right. Helena would be better off if we put her out of her misery.
“The blood on her back isn’t just from your incision, Caitlin,” I said. “I don’t know whether you saw it or not, but when she got hit by the Charge Launcher, the centipede wriggled. Close to half the legs came away from her back.”
“What about the head?” Caitlin asked, pointing at the bit that attached to the base of her skull. “Did that bit shift at all? That’s the lifeline. The spine can be fixed if by some miracle you get together a badass healing device, but I’m not so sure about the brain.”
As a last-ditch effort, I activated the Charge Launcher and shot her with a low-power projectile. Caitlin proved right. The centipede wriggled like mad and almost came away from Helena’s spine, but the bit around her skull didn’t shift at all. A scream escaped the woman’s lips again as she spasmed and cracks sounded all along her back and hips.
Kitty squeezed my shoulder. I got the message without her saying a word. This line of action wasn’t getting us anywhere. At least now we knew that the centipedes were weak to electricity. Considering Arjan’s fire-wielding powers, I couldn’t be so sure. The heat resistance could be something unique to his power though. It didn’t matter anymore. I stabbed my electrified blade where the centipede connected to her skull.
Helena’s spasms resumed, but she didn’t make any more noise. “The centipede isn’t dead yet!” David exclaimed, running in with his multitool. I didn’t need his help, though. My arm switched to the Coil Gun mode, and I unloaded three shots into the creature’s skull. The “Disassemble” option lit up, and I activated it without hesitation. We needed to know what made the beast tick.
Materials stored for creations and upgrades:
biometal exoskeleton
biometal claws
biometal pincers
altered McGuffin: Elastic Core
It broke my heart when Helena’s body went limp. My friends were right. There was no saving the centipede-people. We had no choice but to put them down.
Chapter Thirty
Mending Rickety Bridges
It was evening before Liam returned with Anna and Jay. They cleared her. Liam said she truly believed that her brother was part of the Hub. So when Anna said she wanted to protect the building’s interests and help empower it, it was okay to believe her. Jay had exposed her to Maya, and the overgrown pup had no complaints.
Jay’s canines initially had been confused about Helena and locals, and they couldn’t figure out why that was so. It was something about their scent that the dogs couldn’t figure out. He’d gotten a few of his upgraded dogs and cats out to study the centipede carcasses. Now he’d have an easier time tracking them down, and the monsters wouldn’t fool us ever again.
As a gesture of goodwill, I offered to move Anna up to the first floor, but she refused. The patch of green where we had laid her brother’s corpse sat in the basement. She wanted to stay around it for the time being. If we brought in new people and needed to use the basement for containment, then she’d consider moving.
After some thought, I gave Anna access to everything up to the second floor. She asked for permission to visit the third floor freely, but I refused. Only Kitty, Liam, and I had that luxury. The others would need to be accompanied by one of us if they wanted to admire the aquarium.
Anna expressed her excitement about contributing to the base. She prided herself in her cooking and volunteered to help with meals. When David asked Anna whether she’d like to join him on the Farm occasionally, the young woman happily agreed to that too. Most of all, she wanted to help us take down the centipede-controlled people. Unfortunately, she had lost her weapon during the battle against Metalsmith and needed something new.
“I think you should invest two McGuffins in her,” David said, taking me aside. “She’s going to become an asset. I can feel it.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about that, David,” I said. “Let her help around the base a little bit and get used to the team.”
“Do we have time for that, though? Jay won’t fight. We’ve got platyhawks circling over our heads and body-snatched power users that’ll soon come after us. We need her upgraded and equipped.”
A part of me wanted to point out that David’s growing infatuation with Anna was clouding his judgement, but I didn’t. He was barely a teenager and still needed to figure things out.
“He’s right,” Kitty said, placing a hand on the small of my back. “I know how you feel about her, but even Liam’s cleared her. We need all the help we can get.”
“Anna!” I called, waving her over. We’d just finished dinner, and she was helping Jay clean up. Anna joined us, eyebrow raised. I passed her a McGuffin. “If you’re going to fight by our side, a C-rank power isn’t good enough. Summon the System Assistant tonight before bed, ask for Delta, and have him upgrade you to B-rank.”
Anna stared at the McGuffin in silence for a while. “You mean all this time we could’ve used these stupid things to power up?” she asked.
“Technically yes, but it would be up to the System Assistant. Delta and I have a special bond. The others might charge you a lot more for the upgrade, but since you’re associated with me, he won’t.”
“Thank you,” Anna said, looking up at me with a fire in her eyes. “It won’t do me much good until I get a new weapon though.”
“That’s my second reason for calling you,” I told her. “My power is centered around building things for the people around me—”
“A bow. I’ve seen the stuff you make. Just make it sturdy with decent draw length.”
“What if I make an artifact?” David asked. He’d been watching my eyes as Anna spoke. The look in them must’ve given away my hesitance. “You make the basic frame, and then I’ll upgrade it with a McGuffin. That way I can take charge of helping it grow and improve. If Anna ever betrays us, I can disable the artifact with a thought.”
“That’s a compromise I can live with,” I said. “No offense, Anna.”
“None taken.” Much to my surprise, she smiled up at me. “I’d rather it be born from your power, David. That way, technopaths like Matt and Liam can’t ever interfere with my weapon.”
While Anna finished cleaning up, I got a sketchpad and pencil. Then, David, she, and I sat down to discuss what she wanted out of the weapon. It took close to an hour of brainstorming with everyone throwing around ideas the others disapproved of, but we settled on one element: the ammunition. Imbuer required projectiles she could touch before firing. The solution proved simple: biometal glands.
It came to me then. We had platyhawk parts in abundance. I could use them to make the perfect frame. Imbuer passively powered up Anna’s body, increasing her speed, strength, and senses. She could focus energy to a body part and boost them further. This meant I didn’t have to worry too much about the weapon’s weight or hardiness.
A queen’s bone plating provided the material for the base bow. The other option would be to use all biometal, but Anna wanted some weight to her weapon. Besides, David suggested he could work a future upgrade into the artifact that used the bone to create armor. It would prove much more resilient than biometal, that much was for sure. The drawstring’s material didn’t matter as much, as it would get its strength from the McGuffin, so I used platyhawk hide for it.
Finally, we came down to the ammunition. The biometal gland sat just above the grip in the arrow rest. A little bit of feathered metal would stick out of it at all times. Anna would need to grip it and pull back to create arrows from liquid biometal. The physics and biology behind it weren’t exactly perfect, but that’s what the McGuffin was for. Making the weapon barely drained my energy pool, and I had a jolly good time using it.
While David got to work upgrading the creation into an artifact, I got thinking about what
Anna had said. It was a vulnerability I had overlooked. We were all vulnerable to enemy technopaths. Kitty and Caitlin were mostly at risk. Once Kitty upgraded Morpheus with the McGuffin, the protection from the golem core disappeared. I could access his mind and, perhaps with some practice, even control it. Caitlin had no defenses against a technopath either. A talented individual could very quickly take control of their weapons and constructs and use them against us.
Liam and I had the power to resist such assaults, so now we’d have to figure out how to get Kitty and Caitlin the same awareness. Then I could look into installing a resistance device in the golems. Before we all parted ways after dinner, Liam joined us at the table. His spider drones followed him, carrying a crate of beer.
“Our numbers are growing, and you lot aren’t as horrible as I assumed,” he said, getting laughs from Jay and David. “So I was thinking we imbibe a little before mounting our assault tomorrow.”
“An assault?” I asked, unsure of whatever he was getting at.
“We need to take out the big nest sitting between the neighborhoods the locals control and us. I get the feeling it’s the big one.” Liam cracked a beer and extended a straw into the can to indulge. “I get it. Our primary threat right now is the centipedes. They seem to be on a crusade to collect biometal though. Since they live underground, they have a distinct advantage when it comes to taking down auranthers. Platyhawks are our domain. Let’s hit the big nest and all the ones we weakened in quick succession. We won’t just get a windfall of McGuffins and other materials, but take them out of the centipedes’ hands as well.”
“Are you sure about this?” Kitty asked, studying the holographic map Liam was projecting over the table. “Hitting all the nests in quick succession?”
“Not in succession,” Liam said. He pointed to the primary target lit up in red, “All at once. Matt’s Creations and the party’s growing competence has made it possible for us to decimate the platyhawks in their home. After taking out the big one, you’re going to split up into two teams and take out the others. There are a total of four crippled nests. We’ve taken out one half of the mating pair in each of them. As long as we play safe, it should be no trouble at all.”
