by M. R. Forbes
Earth Undefeated
Forgotten Earth, Book Four
M.R. Forbes
Published by Quirky Algorithms
Seattle, Washington
This novel is a work of fiction and a product of the author’s imagination.
Any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 by M.R. Forbes
All rights reserved.
Cover illustration by Geronimo Ribaya
Acknowledgments
THANK YOU for picking up this book. You’re still here, and that’s awesome.
THANK YOU to my editor and beta readers for helping me work hard to put out the cleanest copy I can.
THANK YOU to my wife, for the generosity of your ideas and your love.
Chapter 1
Nathan hurried to his bedroom, reaching beneath his pillow and retrieving the sidearm he had stashed there. He never expected trouble here in his apartment, but it was an old habit that had only become more pronounced since he had come to Earth.
And now it seemed, trouble had found him in his apartment anyway.
He rushed back out to the living room, glancing down at Ebion. The robot was dead on the floor, powerless and broken. Lubricant had spilled out of the bullet wound in her gut, which must have also struck other critical systems which had forced her to shut down.
Could she be repaired? He didn’t know. At the moment, he didn’t care. The wound itself was more of a concern. The damage was impossible, dealt by an apparition of Sheriff Hayden Duke which had appeared on his balcony literally from nowhere.
And vanished again all too soon after.
Sheriff had come for him. The ghost had shot at him. He had managed to avoid the attack, and Ebion was caught in the crossfire. At least, that’s what his mind told him had happened. The worst part of the whole thing was that even though he felt fine, even though he felt sane, he knew his mind couldn’t be trusted.
He tried to remember what Doc had told him about the hallucinations. Something something gyri, whatever. Parts of the brain affected by chemical changes. That was all he knew about the effects of whatever had happened to him at the abandoned military base where he and James recovered the servers. That, and he had believed the symptoms were temporary. Four days had passed since their trip to the old installation, and this was the first time he had seen something that wasn’t there again.
His eyes returned to Ebion. Only, there had to be something there. The robot hadn’t shot herself in the chest, and he was sure he didn’t do it. He had been standing across the room, not even facing her, and his gun was still under the pillow.
Wasn’t it?
Either way, he was having symptoms again. Either way, it was bad news. He stepped over Ebion’s body and made his way to the door. Something had caused the soldiers on the base to kill one another, and then kill themselves. Something had driven them all mad. What if he and James had brought that something back with them? Doc had checked them out and a few hours later gave them a clean bill of health, and she hadn’t come back with any discoveries. But if the hallucinations weren’t a disease, something he was carrying within him, then what were they?
He could only think of one thing, and the truth of it terrified him.
The United States Space Force had used the key to open the artifact once before. Whatever they had encountered, it had caused them to close it again almost immediately, and then to separate the door and the key, to hide them away from one another so that it couldn’t be opened again.
Of course, that didn’t make total sense either. Why hadn’t they destroyed the key? Why hadn’t they destroyed the door? If it were that dangerous, wouldn’t that have been a better option?
There had to be a reason. Maybe he would get the chance to ask Tinker what that reason was.
Or maybe he would find himself on the wrong side of his nightmares before he managed to get help. They had opened and closed the door in a hurry. Were they trying to prevent something from coming through? Did they know what it was? Had they seen it?
Had they failed?
He was afraid they had. He was afraid one of Tinker’s so-called Others had slipped through, and it wasn’t even close to being as benevolent as Tinker claimed.
Tinker believed these aliens would protect them from the ones who had sent the trife, as well as any reprisals from Proxima. He believed whatever remained of humankind on Earth would be safe once the Others came and took over, and the survivors of Edenrise would worship the aliens as gods.
Tinker had been convinced by a series of visions and dreams that he was the Messiah. A Mad Messiah, as far as Nathan was concerned. A prophet and savior and preface to the coming of the Others. He had spent nearly his entire life preparing for them, searching for the key and the door and readying a virus that would wipe out both trife and human and give these Others a new world to call their own.
It sounded crazy. It felt crazy. Nathan had never bought into that part of Tinker’s plan, but he was willing to go along with it because James was willing to go along with it. Tinker’s replica didn’t agree with his maker either, but he accepted the level of insanity as the price to pay to rid the world of trife and end the centuries-long war against them. Tinker and James both wanted a free Earth.
Nathan just wanted to live in Edenrise and put the past behind him. Proxima, Niobe, the Trust, Sheriff Duke. He wanted all of it at his back and only the orange and red and pink sunsets off his balcony ahead. He was made to be a soldier, and as long as there was a mission ahead he couldn’t relax. But he wanted to relax. He wanted to be done.
He wasn’t done yet.
Worse, he may have unknowingly brought one of the Others past the energy shield and into Edenrise. He didn’t know for sure, and he didn’t know how he would prove it. What he did know was that he couldn’t trust his senses, and he couldn’t handle this alone.
He had to find James, and then they had to go to Doc, and then they had to figure out what the hell was going on.
Chapter 2
Hayden wasn’t alone in the hospital room for long. He could still hear the soft hum of the motor powering Tinker’s wheelchair fading down the hallway outside of his room when Doc came back in, flanked by a pair of soldiers.
“I guess I’m in trouble,” Hayden said.
Doc moved in beside him. She had a syringe in her hand, and she knelt down while one of the soldiers grabbed the side of his head and held it steady.
“You have no idea,” she said, jamming the needled into a vein in his neck.
He grimaced, grunting slightly as the shot burned its way into his neck. The soldier let go of his head as she detached his IV and monitors.
“What was that?” he asked.
“A stimulant,” she said. “It’ll heighten your senses.”
“Why?”
“You’ll find out soon enough. Let’s go.”
The two soldiers took hold of the bed he was lying in, while Doc detached his IV and released him from all of the equipment. Then she led the way, the soldiers pulling the bed along behind her.
Hayden’s heart began to race, the stimulant starting to take effect. Within seconds he could feel the pain of the wounds the Hellion had given him more acutely, like an itch and burn across his chest and leg.
They wheeled him into the corridor, a long hallway with white walls and a black and white tiled floor. It was sterile, cold and clean. He was immediately jealous of the immaculate condition of the place.. They didn’t have anything in such great condition in Sanisco. They were working on it, but rebuilding took time.
Time he wasn’t sure they were going to have.
Tinker
had told him what he was after: an artifact of some kind that the United States Space Force had hidden away, probably with the hope that it would either never be found, or it would only be uncovered in the event of a catastrophic emergency. That seemed to be the way the USSF had handled things during the war. Don’t get rid of anything that could be useful, but don’t make it too easy for others to find.
Tinker had also given him the clue he had uncovered on where to find it. John Wayne. Hayden could have laughed at the reference, if the reference wasn’t so dangerous and if Tinker’s desires weren’t so deadly. There was nothing funny about a man who wanted to end the trife’s reign on Earth and was willing to kill every human outside of his own city to do it. There was nothing funny about his outright refusal to work together to try to save more people before he launched his Armageddon.
And there was definitely nothing funny about the threat the man posed to Natalia and Hallia. Not only because he could kill them both with an airborne toxin.
The artifact he was after was inside the borders of the United Western Front. His territory. His people. Neither Natalia or Malcolm would give in to anything Tinker demanded without a fight, and after speaking with Tinker, he was certain it meant a fight was coming to them. One they weren’t expecting, and might not be prepared to handle.
Hayden wanted to stop Tinker from even getting that far, but at the very least he needed to warn them the man was coming. He needed to tell them about the Iron General and the weapons the Liberators possessed, like the bombs that had destroyed Bennett’s dropship and shot down Stacker’s Explorer.
He growled under his breath. It wasn’t enough that they had to worry about the trife breaking through their perimeter. It wasn’t enough that they had to be on constant guard against monsters sent from another world. To have to face a threat like this, coming from Earth, from one of their own? It was unthinkable.
Maybe the planet would be better off if Tinker destroyed everything and started over? Was he an idiot for trying to defend the remnants of humankind from being wiped out when it meant the trife would be gone too?
Did it even matter, considering they had strapped him to a hospital bed and removed both of his replacement arms? He had no way to fight them. No way to stop them. Even if he could stand up, even if he could run, he wouldn’t be able to open a fucking door, never mind fire a gun.
He couldn’t bear the thought of losing Natalia and his daughter. He had fought so hard to keep his wife, and they had both fought so hard to bring their child into the world. Maybe it was selfish and stupid not to sacrifice them for the future of the planet, but he didn’t care. They had proven the trife could be brought under control with the right tools and the right help. They had proven humankind could retake their world if only they worked hard enough for it.
He wasn’t against using the virus, but they had a responsibility to try to save as many as they could. Tinker said Hayden couldn’t meet the power requirements to run the energy shield, but that was bullshit. Tinker had no idea what kind of power sources he had access to, and unless he was using some alien tech to keep the shields up, how could he say it couldn’t be done? Tinker was worried about reprisal from Proxima, but that was his fault. Given a chance, Hayden was sure he could straighten things out. Command knew about him and the UWF. They were tentative allies, and even though Bennett was dead, he hoped they would remain allies.
As if there was any chance he was getting out of here alive.
They brought him onto a lift. A nurse tried to board with them, but Doc put her hand up to stop her. “Take the next one.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the nurse replied.
The doors closed.
“Where are we going?” Hayden asked.
“According to Tinker, you know something he wants to know, and you aren’t being very cooperative,” Doc said.
“I’m not that keen on helping him kill my family, and he doesn’t seem to want to negotiate.”
“Tinker doesn’t negotiate.”
“What about you?”
She smiled. “I’m a loyal soldier.”
“Fair enough. Do you have a family?”
“I do. They live here in Edenrise, so they’re already safe.”
Hayden stared at her. She wore a hard expression, the kind people took when they knew they were doing something wrong and they were trying to convince themselves they were doing the right thing.
“You’re going to torture me?”
“I’m not. I don’t have the stomach for it. I’d rather not be involved at all, but I have orders.”
“I didn’t come here to start a war with Tinker, you know. I came to catch a fugitive, that’s all.”
“I understand that, Sheriff. But whoever dragged you here got you mixed up in something much bigger than that, and now you’re not only part of it, you’re vital to our success.”
“I think one alien on Earth is enough, don’t you?”
“I think we need to guarantee the future of our species and the safety of our planet.”
“At what cost?”
“At any cost, Sheriff. Personal feelings be damned. Families be damned.”
“That’s a cold way to look at things.”
“It’s pragmatic. The current Earth doesn’t have room for soft emotions or soft people. Maybe the future Earth will.”
“I’m not arguing with the outcome so much as the methods. There’s a path we can take that saves a lot more lives. Sure, it may take more time, but isn’t it worth it? What’s another twenty years, thirty years, when it’s already been so long?”
“Tinker won’t live another thirty years.”
“And that’s it, isn’t it? He doesn’t get to be the hero. He doesn’t get to be the savior. He doesn’t live long enough to see it all happen. I heard him talking on the radio. About the will of the Others. He’s going to bring ruin to whatever’s left. That’s what I think. Because he doesn’t care about me or you or Nathan or James or even the people in this city. And I think you know it.”
Doc’s expression shifted slightly. Hayden knew she knew it, even if she stayed silent.
“Torturing me isn’t going to help anything. It isn’t going to get him what he wants. Sending the Iron General out west? That’s not going to work either. We aren’t defenseless out there.”
Doc didn’t respond. The lift came to a stop, the doors sliding open. They were underground, at a station that reminded him of the subway where Bennett had been shot, and he had let Nathan Stacker run.
He was really starting to regret that decision.
They rolled him across the platform to a waiting vehicle, twenty meters long and shaped like a bullet. They loaded him inside, and then Doc returned to the platform.
“Take him to the lab,” she said to the soldiers. “General Stacker is waiting for him there.”
“Yes ma’am,” they replied.
She stood on the platform, watching as the doors slid closed and the vehicle began pulling out of the station.
Hayden closed his eyes, trying to calm his overactive heart and nervous system, an impossible task thanks to the stimulant. They had healed him so they could hurt him again. He had been in pain before. Nothing would hurt him more than giving them what they wanted, not when it was Natalia and Hallia’s lives at stake. At least if Tinker were forced to send soldiers to the UWF, his people would have a chance to fight back. Maybe they could even delay him long enough for Proxima’s forces to return. What would happen then?
He grunted in pain as a fist came down on his stomach, taking him by surprise and knocking the wind out of him. He opened his eyes, looking up at the soldiers standing on either side of his bed. They were both smiling, pleased with themselves for hitting him.
“Just a small taste of what you’re in for, Sheriff,” one of them said, drawing back a hand and hitting him in the stomach again.
He refused to make another sound, absorbing the pain with determination. “You think you’re a tough guy, hitting a man with
no arms strapped to a bed?” He glared at the man who had hit him, narrowing his eyes. “When I get free, I’m going to kill you.”
The soldier froze for a second, momentarily intimidated by Hayden’s eyes. Then he hit him a third time. Then a fourth, laughing the whole time.
“Sheriff, what do you call a man with no arms and legs hanging on a wall?” the soldier said. He waited for a few seconds before answering. “Art!”
The two soldiers laughed.
“Sheriff,” the other one said. “What do you call a man with no arms and legs in the water?” Another pause. “Bob!”
They both laughed again.
The vehicle began to slow.
The soldiers quieted immediately, straightening their dark uniforms and coming to attention at either end of the bed. The vehicle came to a stop, and the doors slid open.
Hayden turned his head to the side.
The Iron General was waiting.
Chapter 3
“Sheriff Duke,” General James Stacker said. “We meet again.”
It was the first time Hayden was seeing the general out of his powered armor. He noticed the resemblance to Nathan Stacker immediately. It was impossible not to notice. But he was also taken aback by the number of replacements the man was outfitted with. One of his eyes. Part of his face. Both hands, and likely at least one of his legs as well. Even without the armor, he was essentially a cyborg.
“The pleasure is yours,” Hayden said dryly.
“Sir,” one of the soldiers said. “Delivering Sheriff Hayden Duke as ordered, sir.”
“Thank you, Corporal,” James said. “Wheel him out here.”
“Yes, sir!” the two soldiers snapped, grabbing the bed and pushing it off the vehicle and onto the platform.
“You can leave him,” James said. “Head back to your posts.”
