Julie nodded, not moving. “Yeah, I just -- they need some tools, in, uh…in Wetlab. So I’m just…just delivering them.”
Booker barely heard her. His gaze had settled on the instruments loaded onto her cart. A set of scalpels, a deep silvery dish, forceps, and what looked like a bone saw. He raised his head, meeting her eyes.
“Julie, no.”
“I’m sorry, Booker, it’s not up to me.” She turned and started quickly across the courtyard, towards Wetlab.
Towards Estelle.
Booker ran after her, catching up with Julie and put himself between her and the entrance to Wetlab, gripping the front of the cart with both hands. She came to a sharp halt, bumping into it. “Booker, seriously! You need to move, before --!”
“You can’t do this,” he said quietly. He was breathing heavily, but he didn’t seem to have the energy to shout. Not yet. “Julie, please, you can’t cut her up.”
“I told you, it’s not up to me.” Her eyes were wide, imploring, but he noticed she couldn’t quite meet his gaze. Instead she focused on his right ear. “This is just how it works.”
“Really? How many dead civilians have you people chopped up?”
“That’s not --”
“She deserves to go home, to get a proper funeral, not to be made into a science experiment!”
The entrance was torn open behind him, and Booker glanced over his shoulder to see a pair of people step out, one man and one woman. They were both dressed in blue scrubs and had masks pulled up over their faces. The man yanked his down with gloved hands. “What’s going on? Julie, we need those tools --”
“You’re not going to cut her open,” Booker hissed. Something was rising in his throat.
The man focused on him for the first time. “Who are you? Wait, no -- you’re the civilian. The FBI agent?”
“God damn right, and what you’re trying to do is illegal. All of this is wrong --!”
“Actually,” the man said, drawing himself up, “it’s not. Any and all biological materials generated by or involved in the discovery of an AUO become property of --”
“Fuck your biological materials!” Booker bellowed. “She’s a person, she’s got a family!”
“She is dead, Agent Hopkins. And according to our records, Ms. Kingston is the last -- sorry, was the last living member of her family.”
Julie pushed the cart against him. It was a half-hearted attempt, but it caught Booker in the wrong moment. He snapped, whirling to her and flipping the cart onto its side with a snarl. Medical instruments clattered to the ground. Julie danced back, staring at him with genuine fear. He immediately regretted it.
“Booker!” Nasim was coming out of Operations now, followed by a pair of security personnel. Both rested a hand on their holsters. “What is going on?”
“You condone this?! Is this how you run your company, dicing up --”
Nasim frowned, looking from him to Julie and the other doctors. Something unreadable passed over her face, and when she spoke her voice was firm. “No. This is not how I run my company.”
The male doctor gaped at her. “But -- Ma’am, protocol dictates -- we need to perform the full examination, now, before any aberrant material --”
“I am aware of protocol,” she snapped at him, and it was clear by the reactions of everyone that they had rarely seen Nasim al-Faradi in such a mood. “But I think we can all agree that this is beyond the pale. Estelle Kingston may not have been fully aware of what Pharos is, but she was still one of us. Her father was instrumental to the program.”
“Of course.” The doctor appeared to be making an effort at reason. “Of course you’re right, but -- but that’s all the more reason to perform the examination. In honor of her legacy, so that her death was not pointless.”
Booker stared at him, panting. Pointless. Of course it was pointless. Estelle was dead, that was it. What did it matter what they could learn if she wasn’t around to know it, to benefit from it? Nothing they found would bring her back.
Nasim sighed. Something inside her seemed to deflate. “You’re right, Bernard. Of course, you’re right. Booker, I’m sorry, but this needs to happen.”
“Why?” he demanded. “For God’s sake, why can’t you just leave her alone?”
“Retrieval is disposing of the Ark right now. We don’t know what effect that will have on any Remnant materials that may be inside Estelle, any changes it may have had on her physiology. If we are to learn anything -- if this entire endeavor is to be anything other than a complete waste of life and time -- then it must be from her. Estelle may be the key to salvaging this program.
“Please.” She motioned to her security personnel, telling them to stand down. “Come back into Operations with me. We’re watching the feed from Retrieval. Let the doctors do their work.”
“No.”
“Booker --”
“No, I --” He armed sweat from his brow. The desert was still cool, the sun still hidden, but he felt hot and cold at once. “Let me be there. When they do…when they do this. I don’t want her to be alone.”
One of the doctors from Wetlab made a skeptical sound. Nasim regarded him for a long moment. “I’m not sure I can allow that.”
“Absolutely not,” said the male doctor. “I won’t have this man running rampant --”
“Shut up, Bernard,” Julie said lightly. She put a hand on Booker’s shoulder. “I’ll be there with him, Ma’am. It’ll be alright. I’ll take responsibility.”
Nasim held her gaze firmly for a long moment. Then she nodded. “Very well. If it’s what you want, Booker.”
Booker nodded. He wasn’t sure what he had accomplished, if anything.
Julie picked up the cart, and he helped her gather the instruments from the dust. Then, with her at his side, he followed the two doctors into Wetlab. Booker could feel the eyes on the back of his head. He didn’t care.
“I really am sorry,” Julie whispered.
They returned to the transparent partition where Booker had first viewed the bag that held Estelle’s body. The bag was now gone, and she had been laid out on an operating table, a pale sheet draped over her. The bullet had gone in at a weird angle so that it rode the curvature of her skull, sluicing through gray matter and burning off enough kinetic energy to pancake against bone rather than explode out the other side. There was no ugly exit wound. The entry point was hidden beneath curls of dark hair. It almost looked as if nothing had happened. Almost, but not quite. The bright light hanging overhead revealed how pale her skin was, how lifeless, but it was something more than that. Booker stared at her motionless features, trying to figure out why they looked so much worse than when she was simply asleep. He didn’t even notice that Julie had gone to deliver the cart of tools until she returned to his side.
A group of three doctors entered the operating theater, gathering around the table. They all wore masks, rendering them featureless. One of them glanced through the partition, meeting Booker’s eyes. The woman who had stepped outside with her male counterpart. She quickly glanced away, positioning herself so her back was to him.
Julie took his arm. “You’re sure you want to be here?”
Booker nodded. His chest felt tight, but he nodded. “Someone has to.”
One of the doctors -- the male, Bernard -- cleared his throat explosively, the sound carried over a speaker above the viewing window. “Alright,” he said. “We are beginning the post-mortem vivisection of biological subject 307-E.K.” Booker closed his eyes at the word vivisection, but forced them back open. One of the doctors was now holding a shining scalpel, and the sheet had been pulled back, exposing Estelle as if she were no more than a doll. “We’ll start with a full craniotomy, then a deep-brain assay to see if exposure to AUO-RL001 had any noticeable effect on the neurological tissue. Making first incision.”
Booker clenched his fists until his nails dug into his palms. The doctor leaned over, bringing the blade to Estelle’s brow.
Then he paused. �
��Wait.”
Thirty-Nine
The Artifact Chamber
Jabal Musa, Sinai Desert
Rick, Kai, and the two doctors were placed in the care of Torv and instructed to pull back to the rear wall of the pit. Chris led the rest of Retrieval team forward, towards the artifact, where they would begin the disposal process.
“We cannot do this,” Okai moaned, even as Torv hauled the man back by one arm. “To destroy something just because we do not understand it is the height of ignorance!”
“Sorry, Doc,” Torv grunted. “It’s not my call. And even if it was, I’d probably disagree with you.”
The Ark’s activity had intensified since Rick and Kai spoke with it, as if their interference had spurred it towards the completion of its goal. Even as they were crossing the floor towards the cliff, more bolts of blue-green energy lanced out to form new connecting spars between the glassy columns and fill them with a flowing golden light. The air now positively vibrated with swarms of golden fireflies, a buzzing that Rick could feel deep in his chest and somewhere else inside himself. It was as if the chamber were being powered up, readied for some massive discharge.
“How long will it take?” he asked, hurrying towards the back wall with Kai. “To destroy the Ark?”
“Depends,” Torv said. He was lagging behind, dragging Dr. Okai with him. “On the mass of the AUO and its degree of activity.”
“The containment device,” panted Dr. Halley, hustling after Rick and Kai. “It generates a magnetic field several orders of magnitude stronger than the Earth’s own magnetosphere. It’s one of the only ways we’ve been able to manipulate the artifacts. It disrupts whatever cohesive force it is that holds them in their assemblages and quite literally pulls them apart. Well, that’s the theory, anyway. We’ve never tested it on an artifact like this one -- only small samples, dormant specimens. Nothing so active.”
Rick exchanged a look with Kai. “Uh huh,” Kai said. “And what happens if you attack the Ark and can’t turn it off?”
“Well…” Halley trailed off.
“My guess,” Torv said, “is it’ll bite back. Which is why we need to hustle, Dr. Okai, if you don’t mind.”
They had halved the distance to the back wall. Rick couldn’t shake the feeling that space wasn’t behaving the way it should. Normally a return trip always felt shorter because the mind was familiar with the route, but so far the trek back seemed to be taking forever, as if space itself were being stretched.
The chamber shook, clanging like a massive bell, and for an instant all the golden fireflies froze in place. Despite everything telling him to do the contrary, Rick stopped in his tracks. Dr. Halley, Torv, and Okai ran into him -- but rather than push him on, they all turned to look back as if compelled to do so.
Chris and the rest of retrieval had reached the Ark. It was difficult to see them in the golden nebula, which was now almost fully opaque, and the blinding glare of the Ark itself. From a distance they were rendered as three silhouettes backlit by the unearthly radiance, moving around the towers of the containment device as they prepared to activate it. Amongst them stood another form, bright and golden. It appeared to be watching them; straining his ears, Rick thought he could hear it speak in its hundred voices.
“We should go,” Torv said. But he sounded oddly distant, dreamy, as if in a trance.
The three members of Retrieval stepped back from the towers as they began to light up. A pale violet luminescence was added to the glow of the Ark, barely visible in its blinding radiance. A gaseous plasma, white-violet, enveloping the Ark.
“It’s working,” Halley breathed. “Look!”
The blue-green bolts of energy were rebounding off the inside of the plasma envelope, and a thick swarm of golden fireflies was gathering. They pushed against the borders of their prison angrily, but didn’t seem able to penetrate it. The Ark’s luminescence began to wane, and -- Rick blinked to make sure he was seeing correctly -- the golden figure was deteriorating, gradually blowing apart like a pile of leaves in the wind.
“Such a waste,” Okai said bitterly.
“Yeah.” Torv seemed to be coming back to himself, the spell broken. Rick could feel it too -- that tingling warmth that had been inside him since entering the Ark chamber was fading. “Alright, enough gawking. Let’s move.”
“Rick,” Kai said, good hand gripping his shoulder. “Come on.”
With physical effort Rick tore himself from the view. His last glimpse was of the golden figure, little more than a wiry stickman, withering like mist.
They resumed their trek to the cliff wall. Everything looked flatter, and a moment later Rick realized why: the glow in the chamber had begun to subside. There were fewer dancing fireflies, and no bolts of energy. It felt like slowly waking up from a strange and vivid dream, and again he felt an inexplicable sense of loss and disappointment. Dr. Okai was still whinging over the radio, and Rick found himself actually listening.
What are we giving up?
As if in answer, an enormous roar echoed through the chamber, and the ground bucked beneath them, throwing them. Rick landed hard on his stomach, faceplate bouncing against the glassy floor. He pushed himself up, winded. Kai was struggling to his feet, and Rick hurried to help him up, grabbing his good arm. Streamers of golden fireflies snarled around them and the chamber had brightened by orders of magnitude in seconds. From the corner of his eye he saw something that, at this point, seemed inevitable.
The Ark was spazzing out. Tendrils of blue-green lightning snaked in all directions, golden fireflies swirling madly. They were still contained within the plasma envelope, filling it with flashes of light and endless furious motion, obscuring the Ark completely.
“Ok,” Torv gasped, on his feet and getting the doctors up as well. “What the hell was that? Chris, anyone, can you hear me?”
There came no response that Rick could hear. From a distance he saw that Retrieval was backing away from the Ark, their postures uncertain. A deep hum was vibrating through the floor, the fireflies swirling faster and faster, their movements rough and angry. He felt something rising in his chest, like the moment before cresting a hill on a rollercoaster. One of Retrieval -- Chris, maybe -- tapped at their wrist, and the containment device brightened.
“Torv.” Chris’ voice was clear and sharp across the open channel. “Torv, get them out of here --”
The Ark exploded. Beneath a wave of crackling blue-green energy the containment device simply evaporated, the towers dissolving into dust. Retrieval team was next -- Rick saw their silhouettes fuzz around the edges, then flake away as the golden figure had done. A single, terrible scream came over the radio, then ended as abruptly as if the person screaming had never existed.
Before he had time to process what had happened there was another violent burst, the chamber shuddering, and a hemispherical wave of golden light exploded out from the Ark unhindered by the containment device. Rick threw himself backwards, trying to get away from the encroaching wave of energy, but it raced along faster than he could track, faster than he could think. Torv was shouting at them, voice wordless. Kai grabbed Rick in a one-armed bearhug and threw him to the floor, shielding him with his body. Both doctors were screaming.
The glassy stone around him began to fuzz as the wave reached them -- Rick felt a sickening lurch, a sudden sense of displacement, of falling -- and then the twisting threads of blue-green fizzled out, and the wave collapsed, rushing back into the Ark like an angry surf and collapsing into a point with a metallic bang.
Head spinning, Rick and Kai struggled to their feet. He felt like he was on the verge of puking into his helmet. Something was wrong, something had changed -- and in another moment he saw. The floor of the chamber had shifted, dropping by several feet in the wake of the Ark’s outburst. He now stood on a low platform with Kai and Dr. Halley, at the bottom of a pit nearly three meters deep. Torv and Okai remained at floor-level above them, having somehow escaped the restructuring. In the distance, t
he Ark remained on its dais -- only the dais was now a tall pedestal.
“That,” Kai said, voice thick with nausea. “Sucked.”
Lightning crashed against the towering pillars, thunder reverberating in the chamber, making the walls ring. Craning his head, Rick saw that the rear wall of the chamber now looked even taller.
“Come on!” Torv shouted. He was reaching down. If he was reeling at the sudden deaths of his teammates, it didn’t show.
Kai seized Rick by the front of his suit with one hand and hauled him up, the servos of his exoframe audibly whining at the increased load. Rick lunged, grasping Torv’s hand. He threw himself backwards, grunting. Rick scrabled with both feet against the glassy stone, trying to find purchase, and gradually managed to climb up. He collapsed on the floor, rolling onto his back, as Torv moved to help Halley. Rick stared up at the high ceiling, blinking away afterimages of Retrieval team as they were vaporized.
He rolled onto his side. Across the newly-excavated gulf, the Ark appeared to be going mad, exploding and reforming over and over again in a frantic way that reminded him of a thrashing, wounded animal. There was a ringing in his ears that almost sounded like a scream, and he felt a rising buzz, that sense of vertigo filling his chest once more.
“Torv, another one’s coming!”
He screamed with effort as he pulled Dr. Halley up. Rick threw himself flat and reached down, grasping Kai’s one good arm. He pulled and bellowed as his shoulder was nearly ripped from its socket.
It wasn’t enough. Kai let go, falling back before he could pull Rick down with him.
“Go,” he said simply.
“Like fucking hell!” Rick reached out again. “Come on!”
The chamber was vibrating, swarms of golden fireflies buzzing angrily around him.
Kai shook his head, but moved forward. And then Torv had hopped down beside him, kneeling, hands interlaced. “I’ll boost you, hurry!”
He was less than half the size and mass of Kai, but nobody argued. Kai backed up to the edge of the platform, then approached at a run. Torv gave a cry of exertion as -- briefly -- all Kai’s weight was placed on him. He flew upwards and Rick grabbed him by the arm, hauling him back. “Get him,” Kai said, even before he was fully up.
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