“He will be missed. He sacrificed himself to save humanity,” Achi says, as he holds up a vial. “We need to inject you with this, in case there are any remaining traps.” She nods her head. Achi injects her, and they share what they've learned.
Traemuña seeks out Fandtha. “You truly believe I would not know my own husband? We shared like Achi and Zaleria, at the symbiot level. There was nothing we didn't share. Gravis was regenerated beside me in our home. He is Zaleria's father. This thing can't be him.”
“I do not know the truth, uh, of what has gone on here. But this creature does not seem like a shell, and your, ah, sharing may have allowed you to ground a shell to the extent it would have seemed to you to be Gravis, because, uh, Gravis lived through you. Unfortunately, you are the only one who can determine the truth of the matter, which, ah, means you will have to share with this Gravis. I wish there were another way, but you know there are still, er, mysteries where our science cannot guide us.”
“What have you told it?”
“Only that it wasn't safe to let it out until we'd, uh, destroyed Ashtoreth.” Fandtha gestures at the ruins of the central processing hub that they've confirmed is destroyed and lifeless. “We believe this was Ashtoreth, and that it, uh, used the creature in the other room when it needed to have a vessel.”
Traemuña shudders at the thought and turns to face the sarcophagus. “Then let us discover the truth.” She walks over and regards the tomb-like pod that contains the assumed shell of Gravis. “How did you survive the volcano?” she asks.
There is an awkward silence, then his voice comes out of the speaker. “Who is that? I recognize that voice. How do you know about the volcano?” There is another long pause. “Traemuña? No, it can't be you. Why didn't you come back for me? Why did you leave me there?! Why did you abandon me?!!” He is angry.
“That is my name. I didn't leave you. I was destroyed, and so were you. We both regenerated in our home. We went on with our lives, raised a daughter, until you crossed over a little over 10,000 years ago. You are a shell.”
“Nooooooo!!!!!” he lets out an agonized scream. “That can't be true!!! That can't be what happened!!! Why are you doing this to me?!! What have I ever done to you?!! Aaaagh!!” He breaks down into wracking sobs.
Traemuña remains stoic. “We don't know how you managed to regenerate. Your symbiots should have given up after a year, but obviously something went wrong.”
“I regenerated in 45 days but found myself under the control of a machine intelligence—remnant of a fallen race that had been observing us. It'd found the Earth long before the galanen arrived and planned to subvert its development, to create a race in its perverted image. It needed me to learn about the galanen, to see how it could defeat our attempts to help the local primitives evolve. I've been its slave, Sklávoi ever since. If what you say is true, then please, destroy me, and let me find whatever peace I can in the beyond.”
Beltare regards the scene and comes to a horrifying conclusion. “Traemuña. Most beloved mentor. Why have you remained?”
Traemuña hears her comment, and her countenance begins to change. It goes from grim, resolved, to horrified. She turns to look upon the pod. “Will you share with me?”
There is a brief pause. “No. Please don't. Just destroy me; it is for the best. I seek nothing, I want nothing, just release.”
Traemuña will not listen. She reaches out, finds the symbiots she is so familiar with, and forces a connection. She also finds a few of her symbiots, just a small fraction of what once was, still coursing through his veins, and for the first time in 75,000 years, they sync up with their counterparts. She is no amateur at this. She knows exactly what she is looking for and quickly discerns the truth. It is heart rending!!
He is Gravis, the true Gravis!! Not a shell, but the mate she'd inadvertently abandoned in ignorance. Someone she'd been bonded to for over 150,000 years! Except it was really just over half that time; the other was a shell. Zaleria's father was just a shell. The being that crossed over was just a shell, and therefore likely perished, having no essence at all that could persist beyond this universe. The shock sets in instantaneously; she is paralyzed with remorse and sorrow for which words do not exist in any known language to adequately describe. The others rush to catch her before she hits the floor—her legs no longer able to hold her, eyes rolling back into her head, body completely limp.
Zaleria cradles her but is nearly as distraught, saved perhaps because she is spared the connection. That, and she has Achi, a rock of resolve who understands—better than any galan—regret. She and Achi went through a reconnection recently, and perhaps are better able to understand what she is going through, but it does little to help Traemuña. She is uncommunicative, numb with shock, beyond the ability of anyone to reach her. What Gravis is going through is shared with none beyond his mate, for no one else has connected with him. Fandtha and Toshi look at each other, unreadable expressions on their faces, beyond concern for their mentor and friend. Fandtha connects with the sentinels exploring Gravis' pod, and seeing nothing that concerns him, he commands them to open it. Gravis is tall, even for a galan, and very dark skinned, with straight black hair kept closely cropped. He has cyan eyes that blink at the bright lights in the chamber. He is not in good shape, his body degraded by his time in captivity and the energies that recently coursed through it. He appears haggard, scarred, and tattered. He falls onto the ground next to Traemuña and seeks to hold her. Zaleria stares at him, uncertain what to do. This galan is not her father but is the true Gravis—the dissonance is acute and gives her pause. He's been held captive for so long, there is no way to know if he is even sane. He stares into her eyes, sharing his pain in a way that transcends what even symbiots could convey. Zaleria shifts her grasp, allowing him to hold Traemuña, too.
Beltare watches all, empathetic tears silently rolling down her face—all the while a small, faint voice deep in her head sounds a silent warning. She looks at Achi, whose bond to Zaleria is currently his primary focus, but just as she believes he is completely immersed in stilling Zaleria's pain, she catches a glance from him; he has the same sense of foreboding.
Suddenly, Beltare feels cut off from the group. More precisely, the group is cut off from her. Achi, gesturing with his right hand out of sight of Gravis, indicates that she, Fandtha, Toshi, and Cloufen should move outside local range. He has somehow shut down his, Traemuña, and Zaleria's comms implants, isolating them from the collective. A precaution? The rest quietly, but quickly retreat until their symbiots no longer hear them and form a defensive perimeter, sharing their concern among themselves.
Achi commanded his and Zaleria's symbiots to shut down their comms implants, and through the nanites he injected into Traemuña, he has likewise taken her implant off-line. Zaleria's symbiots sensed another presence within Gravis. Something cold, calculating, and malevolent, ‘living' within several implants connected to his brain.
Gravis stops communing with Traemuña, stiffens, and rises. His demeanor changes abruptly, as he turns his eyes on Achi. “Why have you severed her connection to the collective? Why have you isolated yourselves? Where are the others?”
“I thought it prudent to keep an unstable machine intelligence from accessing the collective directly through a fully accessible comms link. Who am I addressing now? Ashtoreth?”
“You!! Why do you constantly hound my steps?! Aaaargh!!!” It shrieks as it forcefully assails Achi's senses through Zaleria's symbiots. It sends false inputs using a technique similar to what Achi has done to others. But being familiar with the tactic, he is not defenseless. While he and Zaleria share symbiots, they each commune with them differently. So as the feral machine tries to hack his connection, Zaleria feeds him her sensory input that their symbiots compare to reject the false information being fed into their senses. Individually, they would be vulnerable; but together, they are resistant to this onslaught. It cr
ies its frustration, then chooses another target.
Traemuña, lacking such unnatural resiliency, starts out of her stupor and begins viciously lashing out at Sklávoi Ashtoreth priestesses that aren't there but that fall along her line of sight with Achi or Zaleria. Neither knows where she acquired the pistol that is now in her hand, but she is very skilled. Thankfully, it is not enough to penetrate their armor—at least not yet. Achi wonders how long they can avoid serious injury.
Zaleria cries out in her head, “Guys, we need options! How can we turn this thing off?”
Gravis laughs. “Do you really think I'd allow you this far into my lair if you posed a danger to me? You haven't trapped me; I have trapped you!!” Traemuña's eyes start to glaze over, and she concentrates all her energy on trying to take Zaleria down. Achi is helpless; his choices are dwindling. He decides to see if he can take out Gravis directly, firing rapid fire bursts right at it, and around it, anticipating where it might dodge, but it laughs as his rounds fail to penetrate. He switches to energy, which refracts dangerously in random directions. He is out of grenades, having depleted them to get this far. “Traemuña, stop firing!! You are hitting Zaleria. Ashtoreth is tricking you!!”
It is laughing. It starts as a chuckle but rises in intensity and frequency. It is enjoying itself immensely. “She can't hear you, idiot!!”
He tries again using a local connection but can't break through Ashtoreth's grip. Zaleria takes a projectile through her left shoulder, her pain lancing through Achi as if it were his own. He has to act. He charges Traemuña and grapples with her; she is good, a fairly experienced fighter by galanen standards, but she has not seen as much combat as Achi, who quickly disarms her and neutralizes her pistol. She counterattacks with well executed moves, but Achi is able to dodge them while pulling out his last vial of enhanced symbiots. He knocks her flat and injects her as Zaleria goes after Gravis.
He has trained her well; she appears to catch him off guard but makes a feint anyway, not trusting such a skilled opponent to be caught unaware. She pulls the kick aimed at the back of his knee to try for his head, but the creature ducks and tries to sweep her plant foot out from underneath her. She follows her kick through, and rounds over her plant foot, dodging the sweep, but receives a side kick into the small of her back as a reward.
Achi commands all their firearms to be neutralized, with no option for override in the next two hours. His timing is impeccable, as Ashtoreth quickly overcomes Zaleria, grabs her pistol, and tries to fire it at point-blank range through her skull.
Zaleria uses its momentary distraction to push it away and give it a solid sidekick to free herself. She rushes off to the side, positioning herself 90 degrees to the right of Achi. Achi rises from the recovering Traemuña and moves to his left, further positioning himself from Zaleria and placing Traemuña between the two of them.
Ashtoreth has stopped laughing and eyes him with a predatory gleam. “You fight well, mongrel. You have learned much since we first crossed paths, what was it, about 5,235 years ago, give or take a few months? I think that is when I first sensed you walking around with Zaleria's symbiots inside you—completely ignorant of what you were. It amused me then to let you wander, to see what kind of mischief you might create. I must admit, you were always a disappointment. I never really heard anything about you, despite my extensive networks. I'd almost forgotten about you, until recently. Then I decided to play some games with you.”
Ashtoreth looks at them both. “You can't defeat me; you lack the means. You are just beginning to realize this.” It laughs. “But I like to get to know my victims, especially special ones like you. As Gravis can attest, I can take my time getting to know them.”
Traemuña looks horror stricken, as the recently injected symbiots have helped bolster her internal defenses, but they're all beginning to realize it won't last. Ashtoreth has far more computing power than they do, and it will soon be able to take them over, just as it had Gravis all those years ago. Perhaps it is time to execute more drastic measures.
Time. They need to buy some time. Achi looks over at Zaleria, who grimaces. Her wound is very painful, but she is still aware of all he knows.
Traemuña, back on her feet, stills her emotions and calls out in a penetrating, clear voice. “Fandtha, I think it is time.”
“Perhaps so Elder, but I think Beltare has an idea.”
“Actually, it was Achi,” she projects. “He said: 'Our Prey has embraced the darkness because it cannot know the Light. We must embrace the Light if we wish to destroy it.' Fight it as only an evolved being can, not as a machine would. Gravis is key.”
Ashtoreth stops what it is doing, a look of terror in its eyes momentarily, before it begins laughing—deep throaty roars, tears rolling down its face.
Traemuña ignores all this, but instead reaches out for her symbiots still inside Gravis. “Come my love, my bond mate, and share with me. Let us remember what we mean to each other.” All is quiet. No voice answers. But, there is something. A ripple of thought, deeply buried, suppressed.
“Do you remember the day we realized we were bonded? How we agreed to share all we were. Later, we consummated this by sharing not just our love but our very essences, through our symbiots. Come, let my essence sustain you now. Return to me, so that we may renew our bond.” This time, there is a definite response. A longing, a yearning, as if a man drowning for 75,000 years suddenly finds a lifeline within his grasp. Gravis reaches for it, grabs hold, and pulls.
“AAArragh! What are you doing?!!” Ashtoreth cries out. “He is mine. There is nothing you can do about it! Soon, you will all be mine!!”
Traemuña ignores the buzzing noise in her ears and focuses on her mate. On her memories of him. She shares all she recalls about their lives together, before their ill-fated mission on Earth. Their adventures, the place they made their home, always together. They were inseparable. Everywhere they went, and all that they did, they did with joy, and love. Soon, Gravis is joining his memories with hers, recalling everything from his perspective, rebuilding all that he has lost. The more they share, the more they feel each other, the less they can hear the voice of Ashtoreth. Soon, their shared memories of love, passion, laughter, and joy begin to drown out the pain. Soon, they confront the moment they separated, which threatens to kill the mood.
“How could you not know it wasn't me? You regenerated with a shell. I can't believe you didn't recognize it.”
“But it was you. You were such a part of me, that your shell tapped into that and lived the life you would have lived. That is your true life, not the one this thing has forced on you. Let me share it with you, so you may know it, and own it through me—as I own the pain you have suffered. Let our two lives be one whole, so that nothing can come between us.”
And this is what they do. Traemuña opens herself to all the pain he has suffered through 75 millennia, while he experiences the life he should have lived. And he sees, it was him. Traemuña knew him so well and carried his essence so completely within her that his shell became him. And Traemuña embraces the pain he has known, and the doubt, and reflects it back at him; this is now part of her, too. And by so doing they restore, and perfect their bond.
Ashtoreth tries to let out one last frustrated shr
iek, which is cut off when Gravis regains control of his corporeal form. Soon, their combined symbiots manage to disconnect the last of Ashtoreth's processing nodes within his body, and once isolated, they begin dismantling them.
The others walk back into the chamber. “We should get out of here and destroy this place,” Fandtha says.
“That won't be necessary,” Gravis replies. “Ashtoreth is here no longer. Its central nexus is elsewhere—there if I am not mistaken.” Gravis shares a set of coordinates. “You may take your time neutralizing this place and learning all its secrets. Its technology is advanced in its own way. As I'm sure you've figured out by now, it is a remnant of a failed machine race. How many more of its kind wander this part of the universe, it did not know; nor did it seem to care over much.”
Gravis walks over to Zaleria and gently hugs her, careful to avoid her injured shoulder. “I shared all that I experienced with your mother, who has shared back with me all that I'd missed. Someday soon, I hope I can add your perspective, so that I may be made more whole.”
She reflexively embraces him back, uncertain how exactly she should respond—conflicted. She finally gives in to her instincts, at Achi's prompting, and leans into him, her beloved father, tears rolling down her face. They stand there a long time.
Achi feels a presence behind him, a subtle deafness in space, where sound does not emanate as well as elsewhere in the room. “What made you think of that?” he asks Beltare.
She sighs, closer to him than he expected. She really is getting good at this. “Well, to be honest, I just kept thinking you were fighting its fight. It would have to know that we'd be forced to destroy everything here, and so it must have been prepared. Much of our leadership would lose a couple years while they regenerated, time it could use to its advantage. Therefore, all of this was a ruse. Bait to draw us out. A game for its amusement. As I was trying to think of alternatives, of how we could use our unpredictable, irrational behaviors to confuse it, your words came to me. It is the opposite of what it would expect. It had done everything it could to make us feel powerless, beaten, enraged. Love and selflessness is the opposite of all these emotions. I, I saw the truth of what you'd said and knew that the one galan least likely to be considered a threat was Gravis.”
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