by A. G. Riddle
55
Kate had almost worn a hole in the carpet of her stateroom when the doors opened.
“It worked,” Perseus said. “The sentinel spheres have disengaged our ships.”
Kate exhaled. “That’s good news.”
“The bad news is that we’re losing out there. And another Serpentine fleet is on its way here. When it arrives, we’ll have to pull out.”
“Can you save anyone on the surface?”
“No,” Perseus said. “I’m sorry. We’re just not set up to fight the Serpentine ships or for planetary evacuations. Our ships were designed to defend against the sentinels.” He waited in the sitting room for a moment, and Kate sensed he wanted to say more, but there was simply nothing to say and nothing he could do.
Finally, Kate took a seat in the club chair and said quietly, “Thank you. I know you tried.”
Perseus paused at the doorway but left without a word. Kate sat for a while longer, unsure what to do, what she could do.
The double doors hissed open, and Paul, Mary, and Milo walked in. They had heard; Kate could tell from the expressions on their faces.
“What do you want to do?” Paul asked.
“I don’t think there’s much we can do,” Kate said.
The door opened again, and Perseus strode through, excitement on his face. “You need to see this.”
David had finally found what he thought was the command center of the Serpentine ship. It was a circular room with several hundred screens that showed Serpentine fleets hovering around hundreds of worlds. The Serpentine vessels drifted listlessly, and they were being obliterated by triangular ships.
Something had infected every link in the ring, severing it, as if the head of the snake had been cut off. That was the good news. The bad news was that he was trapped.
Kate stood on the Exile ship’s bridge, staring at the Serpentine ships that drifted around Earth.
“Could this be connected to your therapy that removed the sentinel threat?” Perseus asked.
“No. I don’t think so.” In truth, Kate had no idea. “Well, maybe.”
“Which is it?” Perseus asked.
“I don’t know.” Kate racked her brain. Something had killed the Serpentine Army from the inside out. Ares. His weapon. Isis’ research. In a flash, it all came together for Kate. “It’s us. Humanity. We’re the ultimate anti-Serpentine weapon. Our DNA, the Atlantis Gene, the plague, it was all about this moment. When the Serpentine Army assimilated us, our DNA was an anti-virus. It killed them.”
“That’s impossible,” Perseus said.
“Why?”
“They never made it to the surface of your planet to assimilate anyone.”
It didn’t make any sense. Kate was sure she was right.
“We’re not taking any chances. The leadership has ordered us to destroy all the Serpentine ships.”
“I think that’s wise,” Kate mumbled, still lost in thought.
She wondered how they could have assimilated…
David. When the military beacon had been destroyed at the Serpentine battlefield, they would have been able to see what was happening there. If they had recovered his body…
“I know what happened,” Kate said. “They tried to assimilate someone from our team. His name is David Vale, and we need to find him.”
“What are you proposing?”
“He’s on one of the Serpentine ships. We need to begin searching—”
Perseus held up his hands. “Are you out of your mind? We don’t even know how many ships there are. Millions, possibly billions. And this could be temporary or a trap. There’s no way we’re going to risk that for one life.”
“You are. You’re going to do it because I have something else you need.”
Perseus eyed her skeptically.
“The location of the sentinel factory—their control center. And if I’m right, the resurrection ark that contains all the Atlantean survivors, as well as one of your own. Lykos.”
Perseus stood there on the bridge, contemplating Kate’s words. Finally, he said, “I’ll take it to the high council. But even if they agree to search, they’ll want that location first.”
Kate nodded her agreement. At that moment, she realized the true genius of Janus’ plan. He had spread the memories across the three locations that could reveal the full truth—the Serpentine battlefield, the sentinel factory, and the stranded lander on the ruined world. It had been his ultimate backup plan, his contingency against Ares. Kate hoped it would work this final time.
“They’ve agreed,” Perseus said. “With conditions. They’ll scan the Serpentine ships for human life signs before they destroy them. No life signs, they fire at will. If they detect human life signs, they’ll send a robotic boarder to check it out. Anything fishy, they fire. If the robot finds your man, we bring him back under a heavy quarantine and do a thorough exam.”
Kate ran to him and hugged him.
The hours that followed were the longest of Kate’s life. She watched the triangular Exile ships maneuver the Serpentine vessels into a course for the sun. The black objects got smaller by the minute as they sailed into the burning star. She knew this was happening around hundreds, possibly thousands of worlds. She just hoped David wasn’t on one of the ships.
Paul, Mary, and Milo had joined her in her stateroom, but no one said a word. The feeling was like a hospital waiting room. Everyone was there for Kate, but there was nothing to say.
In the Serpentine command center, David watched the triangular ships systematically destroy the Serpentine fleet. Of the hundred screens, only a handful still showed Serpentine ships. It was a massacre. On the central screen, which showed the rings of ships outside the one David occupied, a portal opened, and a fleet of triangular ships arrived.
They seemed to waste no time. Their shots immediately began tearing into the rings of Serpentine ships. The wave of destruction would reach David in seconds.
He watched the triangular fleet approach, bracing himself. At the back of his mind, he wondered if it was another illusion. A test. The lead triangular ship stopped, and David realized he was holding his breath.
Kate stood when Perseus entered.
“I think we’ve got something,” he said. “One life sign, on the Serpentine central ring.”
“Is he…”
“They’re running him through a battery of tests now, but he looks healthy.”
David sat in the decontamination chamber, waiting, debating what to do. If his rescue was another Serpentine illusion, what was the bait? How could he break it down the way he had the pit? He had to resist. He steeled himself. It’s all an illusion. No matter what they throw at me, I will resist.
The doors opened, and Kate stood in the well-lit, white walled corridor. Her brunette hair hung down, spilling onto her shoulders, and her face was radiant, her eyes alive. She was healthy, vibrant, the same person he had met, fallen in love with. David stood still, unable to move.
She rushed in and hugged him. He felt Milo’s arms around him too.
David decided that if it was a Serpentine illusion, they had won. It was too real to him. He couldn’t resist her.
Kate pulled back and looked in his eyes. “Are you all right?”
“I am now.”
At the sentinel factory, Kate and David paused at the wide window that looked out on the assembly line. The sentinel spheres were returning in droves. Kate wondered how many there were. Millions perhaps.
“What will you do with them?” she asked Perseus.
“We’re still debating. We’d like to use some to destroy the remaining Serpentine ships. It could cut the process down by years. After that, we’ll either scrap them or keep them in case another threat emerges.”
Perseus led them through the factory’s corridors. A trail of dried blood marked the path to the ark.
The outer doors opened, and Kate remembered the first time she had seen them, two miles under Antarctica.
In the deco
ntamination chamber, she paused. She had torn her suit off here, placing it beside the two small suits Adi and Surya had worn.
Inside the ark, teams were combing every inch of the ancient vessel.
“Did they find Lykos?” Kate asked.
“Yes. They’re still treating his wounds,” Perseus said.
“Can I see him?”
Perseus agreed and led them down the dim, metallic corridors to a large room where medical technicians were setting up equipment.
“Lykos,” Perseus said, “this is Dr. Kate Warner. She created the therapy that neutralized the sentinels, and she helped find you.”
“We’re in your debt, Dr. Warner.”
“You’re not. I want you to know that I was simply finishing the work Isis started. She was very, very sorry about what happened. Had she known the truth, she would have done things a lot differently.”
Lykos nodded. “I think we all would. The past is the past.”
“I agree.” She eyed the equipment. “You’re going to treat the Atlanteans?”
“Yes,” Perseus said. “We think the treatment we used to cure your resurrection syndrome will work on them. We’ll know soon.”
“What then?”
“We were actually thinking that we would return to our homeworld. Everything on the surface of the Exile world was destroyed, and going back underground doesn’t quite feel right. We’re thinking we could all make a fresh start.”
Kate smiled. She thought that a fresh start would have pleased Isis very much.
“There’s one more thing we’re hoping you can help us understand.”
Perseus led Kate and David to the massive chamber that held the rows of tubes. Just beyond the double doors at the entrance, a pile of bodies lay. All Ares.
“We’re still counting them. Cause of death was mostly blunt-force trauma, a few strangulations. Ship logs say he disabled his own resurrection.”
“Did you find any more bodies?” David asked.
“One. Outside.” Perseus held up a pad. Dorian Sloane’s dead body floated through space, the sentinel assembly line in the background.
David glanced at Kate.
She thought about the hate Dorian and Ares had shared, the things they had done—on the Atlantean world and on her world. She thought about Earth making a fresh start and about the Atlanteans, reuniting and rebuilding their civilization together.
“What do you think?” Perseus asked.
“I think we reap what we sow.”
Epilogue
Atlanta, Georgia
Paul watched Mary walk through the home they had shared, a look somewhere between shock and amusement on her face. “You never took the pictures down?”
“I uh… no.”
“I think we should.”
“Of course, I could—”
“We’ll put new pictures up.”
“New pictures would be good,” Paul said. It was the best idea he had heard in a very long time.
The front door opened, and his nephew Matthew bolted in, making a beeline for Paul. The boy hugged him, and Paul hugged him back with all his strength.
Natalie and Major Thomas followed. They looked tired except for the smiles on their faces.
Paul made the introductions.
“Mary and I were just discussing what we’re going to do from here.”
“Us too,” Natalie said, glancing at Major Thomas. “We’re going to report to the relief office downtown, see how we can help.”
They said their goodbyes, and Mary and Paul began collecting the pictures. They carefully removed the old photos and placed them at the bottom of a dresser drawer. They kept the frames. They had been a wedding gift.
Kate didn’t know if her hearing was going bad or if she had gotten used to the constant sound of hammering and power tools. And that commotion—from David’s constant construction projects—was the only sound for miles around. There was no bustle of a city, no airplane noise, no stadium nearby. His parents’ home was nestled on a large plot of land with a beautiful yard, surrounded by the greenest trees she’d ever seen.
She had wondered how she would like it. She’d never lived outside a city, but to her surprise, she found that country life suited her. Or maybe it was just the company. From the kitchen window, she could see Milo playing with Adi and Surya, being the big brother. He planned to move out in a few months, and David and Kate were dreading that day. But he had big plans.
David walked in. He was sweaty, white dust particles filled his hair, and a pencil rested behind his ear. Kate liked the look very much.
“Are we in destruction or construction mode today?”
David poured himself a glass of water and spoke between gulps. “It’s demolition, not destruction but yes, major demo.”
“Maybe that’s what I’ll start calling you: Major Demo. Or would you prefer Colonel Demo?”
He finished his glass and set it on the island, then grabbed her. “Oh, I think we both know I’m just a lowly private in this woman’s army.”
Kate tried to push away. “Hey, you’re sweaty and dirty.”
“Yes, I am.”
The phone rang, and David released one hand just long enough to answer. Kate still struggled with the other hand’s grip, but he released her several seconds into the call.
He spoke quickly, asking questions, listening, growing more serious by the second.
When he hung up, he looked at Kate. “They found it.”
Kate had wondered if the call would ever come. When she had made David promise in Morocco, she had been dying then and had assumed she wouldn’t live to see this day. Now she was filled with fear, and she knew why: she had hope.
The helicopter hovered just above the water. The pilot spoke to David through the ear piece. “We’re here.”
Kate glanced down at the water, then at David. He leaned across, kissed her, pulled his diving mask on, and jumped over the side.
For a moment, he floated just under the water, taking in the submerged city of San Francisco.
The readout on his arm marked the location, and he began pushing down through the water. When he reached the low-rise building, he swam through a broken glass window, careful not to cut himself. He snaked through the corridors, moving slowly, the light from his helmet illuminating his path. The doors were all open—this place had been evacuated quickly. The Immari labs were a collection of bizarre equipment and things David couldn’t begin to understand. But he was quite familiar with what he was looking for. In one of the central labs, he came face to face with the four tubes Patrick Pierce had extracted from the Alpha Lander under the Bay of Gibraltar almost a hundred years ago. They were the same tubes that had held Kate, her father—Patrick Pierce, and the two men who would become their enemies: Dorian Sloane and Mallory Craig. The four of them had awoken in 1978, and the tubes had remained vacant since then, with one exception: Dorian had placed the infant he took from Kate in one of the tubes. Or so Dorian had told her in an interrogation room in Antarctica months ago. Kate and David still weren’t sure if Dorian had been toying with Kate or if the infant really was in one of the tubes, but in Morocco, David had sworn he would find Kate’s child—even if it killed him.
He swam closer and shined his light into the first tube, waiting, hoping. The beam went straight through. Empty. The second—empty. The third—empty. At the fourth, the beam of light met clouds of gray and white. David inhaled. The clouds parted, revealing an infant. The boy floated innocently, his eyes closed, his arms and legs straight out. David felt himself exhale.
Back at the U.S. Army base on the new coast of California, David could sense Kate’s nervousness.
“They think they’ll have the tubes extracted within a few weeks,” he said. “They have an independent power source, but we have to be careful.”
“I’ve been thinking… about what we should do.”
“Me too. I think our son should have a brother or sister around his age.” He raised his eyebrows. “I promise t
o finish the house before your second trimester.”
“It’s a deal.”
Have you read A.G. Riddle’s other novels?
Keep reading for a preview of two series you might have missed: The Long Winter trilogy and The Extinction Files—both available now.
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The Long Winter
completed trilogy
Winter World (The Long Winter, Book 1)
longlisted for the 2019 Wilbur Smith Prize for best published novel
A new ice age... and a ground-breaking discovery... will change everything.
When a new ice age pushes humanity to the brink of extinction, a group of scientists race to find the cause—and any hope of stopping it. In space, they discover an object drifting toward the sun. Is it the cause of the Long Winter? Or our only hope of survival?
