The Kenval Incident

by Philippe Mercurio

  The pressure caused by this transformation threatened the U-Barg’s integrity.

  With the help of tranquilizers and concoctions destined to reduce body temperature, the Artificial Intelligence tried its best to limit the damage. Alternating between analysis and hypothesis, it tried to discover the source of these physiological changes.

  The AI saved him while causing his downfall: blinded by deprivation, Widen forgot about his assault weapons. He threw himself into hand-to-hand combat with the cybrid. Hurling himself at him, he sought to land a mortal blow with each movement.

  Mallory risked a glance outside the laughable shelter provided by the round tree. Rather than blocking the cyborg’s attacks, Torg just turned them aside. The best way to confront an assailant with superior strength. At two arms against six, if the cybrid stopped moving, he would be torn to pieces.

  Despite the violence of the battle, the cyborg seemed not to weaken. On the other hand, Torg was showing obvious signs of fatigue. His opponent’s blades reached him repeatedly.

  Powerless, Mallory noticed with dread that her companion was losing ground. Over the years, he had become much more than a bodyguard. Seeing him roughed up so badly knotted her stomach.

  There were three deep wounds on his torso. Blood trickled onto his fur, but nevertheless, he persisted. His protective instinct, enhanced by generations of selection and breeding, allowed him to surpass his own capabilities. As long as he drew breath, he would fight for his captain’s survival.

  “Mallory!” cried Laorcq over the fracas caused by the clash of metal claws. “While Torg is keeping him busy, we have to take advantage and flee!”

  “He’s going to be massacred,” she tried to argue.

  Pragmatically, Laorcq didn’t want the colossus to sacrifice himself in vain. “He’s doing his job! And you? You don’t want to save your skin and that of your new friend?” he said, pointing to the colorful worm.

  The little jufinol wiggled against her, frightened by the furor of the combat. It trembled and tried to climb into her blue suit to take shelter. She was having trouble not succumbing to the waves of terror it was transmitting to her. Reluctantly, she decided to follow Laorcq.

  While they moved away from the battlefield, a strange whirring could be heard over the din of the titan’s duel. When the noise became strong enough to damage their eardrums, Laorcq cried out, “A Vohrn fighter jet!”

  She felt a shadow fly suddenly over them, accompanied by a gust of wind that made the tops of the trees tremble. Surprising Mallory, Laorcq turned back and shouted in the direction of the cybrid, “Torg! Get out of there! They’re going to bombard it!”

  Mallory looked back and her pulse raced: Torg was going to surrender. His adversary’s fists and steel blades missed him less and less frequently. Powerless, she saw him drop to one knee.

  With the colossus at his mercy, the cyborg leapt to disembowel him. Mallory forgot to breathe.

  Torg stood suddenly and pushed him away with both hands. Under the shock, one of his forearms broke, but he managed to push the murderous machine more than fifty feet away.

  The pilot started to breathe again. Oh! How she hated to be a spectator while others fought!

  Meanwhile, the Vohrn fighter jet dove toward the clearing. Mallory hardly had time to distinguish its lozenge-shaped fuselage, as smooth as a pebble.

  Emerging from the vessel, three glowing warheads shot toward the steel monster. Accompanied by the fracas of an explosion, a ball of white plasma enveloped him. The blast blew violently through vegetation and living beings over a radius of 650 feet.

  XXIX

  RESURRECTION

  STUNNED but uninjured, the jufinol in her arms, Mallory poked her head out from behind the shelter of one of the bulbous trees. Laorcq was standing not far away. For his part, he had escaped with a broken brow bone and a few bruises. Each marked the spot of a bullet stopped by his protective suit.

  Around them, the air seemed white-hot. A bitter odor of carbonized green wood blended with that of explosives. Little by little, the smoke and debris cleared, unveiling the remains of the cyborg.

  It was lying on the ground, and blood mixed with dark brown liquid was trickling through his metallic carcass. Mallory examined it thoughtfully: she had to admit that Morsak’s henchmen had done good work. Three missiles and the thing was still in one piece!

  Pensive, Laorcq also contemplated the flesh and metal monster’s cadaver, then helped Mallory to stand. With her combat suit deactivated, the dust and ash were irritating her sinuses.

  When she saw Torg’s condition, anguish knotted her stomach.

  Tolerating pain more easily than a human, he was still standing despite impressive wounds. His broken right arm hung sadly. Most of his body was covered with cuts, some of which were bleeding profusely. With a tight heart, Mallory approached him and caressed him affectionately. “My poor Torg. Don’t worry, the Vohrns will take care of you. They owe us that.”

  She then turned her attention to Laorcq. “Between Hanosk and you, it’s really a contest for the shittiest plan.”

  “On the matter of timing, I was more successful,” he acquiesced, without rising to the gibe. The last time a bomb blew up so close to me, I was on Venus. It must be fifteen years ago…”

  “I didn’t know you were so nostalgic,” she said sarcastically. Sighing, she added, “I asked you if vengeance made taking so many risks worth it. After this attack, you can forget what I said: liquidating Morsak will be a service to the entire galaxy!”

  With the jufinol against her chest and a hold on Torg’s good arm, she moved toward the Vohrn fighter jet that had landed nearby. It was rapidly met by a ground vehicle: a cylindrical van, identical to the one they had used when they arrived on Stranda.

  Four alien warriors got out. They hurried in the direction of the killer cyborg’s remains. Equipped with tools and steel cables, they disarmed it and secured it inside the fighter jet. They took off immediately, carrying away their macabre package.

  Mallory saw the van door open again to let Hanosk emerge. He said a few words to the soldiers and waited for her to approach him. Leaning over the animal nestled against her, he emitted a hum to calm it. She felt the effect through the telepathic link that connected her to the rainbow worm.

  “Apparently, he is very happy in your company,” declared the Vohrn.

  “You could have warned me about the jufinols. He invaded my thoughts in one fell swoop!”

  “A link has been created between you? Surprising. In any case, we don’t have the luxury of studying the consequences. Know only that we can’t separate you for the moment. It might let itself die.”

  The pilot lowered her eyes toward her new friend. Soft, colorful, and with the look of a beaten dog. No need to twist her arm. She had already adopted it.

  Coming back to the problems at hand, she demanded treatment for Torg, adding, “How did it come to this? Thirty seconds later, that steel monster would have massacred us.”

  “We made a mistake,” admitted the alien. “We sent our combat vessels to follow the ship that launched the cyborg. Once we understood the danger presented by that machine, I recalled one of them. It was rather far away, so the return flight took time. This decision put you in danger, but I don’t regret it: our fighter jets managed to board the transport ship.”

  She didn’t insist, preferring to focus on the good news. “At least it will be easy to make the delivery people talk.”

  The extraterrestrial agreed. “Healing my people remains the priority, but not by much. Putting an end to the Idernax CEO’s career has become urgent.”

  Laorcq came to join them and summed things up with a satisfied air. “New witnesses and an assassin’s carcass as evidence. Everything is in place to take down Morsak.”

  They got into the vehicle. There was barely enough room for the five Vohrns and the Sirgan’s crew. The devastated clearing disappeared behind the forest they were crossing. Too exhausted to talk, Mallory heard Laorcq
ask, “When do we move to the next stage?”

  “Soon. As soon as the cocig eggs have matured. We’ll take advantage of the time to heal your cybrid.”

  Tossing them about unceremoniously, the van carried them to the buildings on the edge of the cliff.

  In the Vohrn facility’s medical ward, Mallory was sitting in a large chair designed for the extraterrestrials. Along with Laorcq, who had now added another scar to his brow, she waited while Torg was being treated by the Vohrn doctors.

  They would leave for Kenval soon. This time, as soon as the Vohrns were out of danger, she would finally be able to take care of things!

  Tension flowed out of her, leaving the terrain open to fatigue. The little jufinol purred in her arms. If not for the sudden entrance of one of the aliens, she would have fallen asleep.

  “Captain Mallory Sajean? Our fighter jets have returned. They have escorted the ship that launched Morsak’s machine. Hanosk requests your presence. Apparently, one of the crew members knows you.”

  Mallory racked her brain, but she couldn’t imagine who it could be: maybe someone she had encountered during a stopover? She met so many people…

  Her curiosity seriously roused, she agreed to see him.

  “I’ll go with you,” added Laorcq, rising in turn.

  The extraterrestrial guided them to the surface. At the foot of one of the trucks parked there, she saw a group of Vohrn warriors. Thanks to the purple toga he wore, she recognized Hanosk among them.

  When she spotted Lebrane wedged between two aliens, she hesitated between violence and jubilation at the idea of having him at her mercy. Her sensitive tattoos changed instantly into a tangle of black brambles. Echoing them, the telepathic worm’s fur bristled.

  The man who had forced her to participate in an attempted genocide, knowing that she would end up in prison or dead, addressed her with a wide smile. “My favorite pilot! I’m happy to see you safe and sound! If I’d known the cyborg was supposed to kill you, I would have ejected him into space. I swear!”

  She stared at him with disdain. As usual, the blond crook was wearing a suit with mismatched colors: light green accompanied by red on the collar and the linings, which emphasized his artificial tan.

  He began to take a step forward, but the warriors held him back firmly. Shocked by the nerve he had shown, Mallory said, “Oh yeah? You also didn’t know what was in the package you forced me to transport from Io to Kenval, I suppose?”

  Lebrane wasn’t flustered. “Obviously! My client required complete confidentiality.”

  Laorcq intervened, “You’re referring to Morsak? I’ve been following you for months. Drugs, prostitution, extortion… I have enough evidence to send you to prison for fifty years. You’re still free because I’m after your boss!”

  “He didn’t give me a choice!” Lebrane protested. “I had planned to meet up with you once everything was taken care of. Besides, I got some money out of him. I’m willing to share it with you!”

  Overwhelmed by anger, Mallory cried, “Are you kidding? Keep your cash! You launched that horror at us and ran away as fast as you could!”

  A red veil obscured her thoughts and invaded her consciousness. Taking everyone by surprise, she kicked Lebrane violently in the crotch.

  Folded in half by the pain, he would have collapsed to the ground if the aliens hadn’t held him up.

  Her fists clenched, Mallory breathed in and out deeply to calm herself. “Sorry. One more word and I’ll kill him!”

  Laorcq’s face cleared suddenly. “Hanosk! Search his mind. We’ll find out a lot of interesting details.”

  “You are correct, but the cocigs are ready. We must leave immediately. We’ll bring him along, and I’ll interrogate him during the flight.”

  At the same moment that the shuttle departed for Kenval, the carcass of the U-Barg moved. The Vohrn soldiers had deposited it in a refrigerated room. Despite the violence of the explosion that had hit it, the biological part of the cyborg continued its anarchic evolution. The process of fusion between the genotech components and the Earth organism continued.

  The Artificial Intelligence could no longer intervene. It had tried to stop the transformation, in vain. Logic now called for observation.

  Struck head on, there was nothing left of Widen’s brain but a jumble of cerebral tissue. The U-Barg’s human component was dead.

  Nevertheless, the biological part of the steel monster boiled with new life. Using the sensors implanted in its flesh and its metallic carcass, the AI recovered itself. It recorded a report: “Infection by Omsyn confirmed. Cause: fluid from a contaminated Vohrn. Origin: blood introduced through a deteriorated armor component (right pectoral plate).”

  While he had blithely ripped apart the unfortunates he found between himself and his goal, Widen had contracted the mutagenic virus. Blood from one of the soldiers had entered his body, leaking through a fissure in his cuirass.

  The man was immune to the Vohrn-specific strain of the virus. However, the alterations necessary for hybridization with the genotech machines had left the way open for Omsyn. Uncontrolled cell growth was only the manifestation of the first mutations.

  Under pressure from the flesh, the armor components began to disintegrate. New organs grew inside the cadaver. Crushed between a mass of muscles and a piece of metal, the capsule that contained the doses of jokal broke, adding to the biological maelstrom.

  Near the mechanical system’s hydraulic pump, the heart began to beat again. Four times larger than when it carried Widen’s blood, it re-irrigated the cyborg’s veins.

  Paradoxically, the U-Barg’s functionality was improved. Freed from its flesh alter ego, the Artificial Intelligence took control in an absolute fusion with the resuscitated creature. Now acting as one single being, its first decision was simple: Procure supply of necessary proteins.

  The newborn monster needed to feed.

  During his first phase, the U-Barg’s appearance easily allowed an observer to guess that he was a killer cyborg. His transformation had rendered him absolutely hideous: the result of a mutation between Earthling, Vohrn, and steel. Grotesquely wide and flexible, his human-shaped hands hung from his growing mass. Between the circular optical device and the neck, an oversized mouth bristled with hundreds of overlapping teeth.

  The slight hiss of a sliding door alerted the U-Barg. Three Vohrns had just entered the cold room.

  Before they realized the hybrid monster was still alive, he threw himself on them. They were torn apart like rag dolls.

  The U-Barg had to complete his mission. Surviving was only one step. With his mechanical hands, he seized one of the bodies, broke the bones, and ripped off the scaly skin. Finally, he tore it to bloody bits.

  Bringing a piece of muscle to his mouth, he pressed it against his fangs, intermingled by their anarchic growth. Only a tiny part of the substance made it through. With his metallic fist, he hit his obstructed dentition sharply, producing yellowish sparks. Insensitive to pain, he ripped out the excess canines and incisors.

  His jaw freed, he began to devour the dead aliens.

  The Vohrn shuttle landed in the Gloria City astroport under driving rain. Adding to the ambient humidity, the drops sizzled on the fuselage, heated white hot by air friction. The dark sky hung heavily over the buildings, ready to disgorge a real deluge.

  With the little jufinol nestled against her stomach, Mallory ran along the tarmac. She protected it from the torrent of water between the panels of her leather jacket. In front of her, Hanosk and other members of his species advanced rapidly. They kept an attentive watch over a container the size of a large trunk that contained the cocigs.

  Last came Lebrane, flanked by Laorcq and Torg. In full form thanks to the reptilian doctors’ treatment, the cybrid dragged Mallory’s former associate along by the arm. Lebrane was recuperating slowly from his interview with Hanosk but still had a waxy tint under his tan.

  Despite Laorcq’s insistence, the alien hadn’t wanted to reveal the infor
mation he had obtained by probing the crook’s thoughts. Mallory worried: if he refused to trust them, he must be worried about their reaction. That didn’t augur anything good…

  Relieved as they reached a dry place, she crossed the threshold of the entrance to the building that sat alongside the landing strip.

  After the assault on Stranda, the terminal seemed abnormally mundane to her. She could have been in any market port, on any planet. This impression was reinforced by the personnel, composed of a sample of all the known species. Even when threatened with extinction, Vohrn society continued nevertheless to function. Giving in to panic or self-pity wasn’t in their nature.

  They were approaching customs when Laorcq suddenly said, “Oh no, not her!”

  Before even asking the question, Mallory saw who he was talking about. Accompanied by a dozen uniformed agents, Lieutenant Lafora swept toward them.

  In the end, leaving the Sirgan behind hadn’t been enough to escape the police officer’s attention. The tall blonde seemed determined to arrest them, even if it meant braving the authority of the masters of Procyon.

  “I should have suspected. She couldn’t stand letting us slip through her fingers. She really holds a grudge,” Laorcq observed.

  Mallory couldn’t restrain herself. “You’re in no position to criticize her!”

  Travelers stepped aside quickly to let the officers pass. Lafora was holding handcuffs. Her firm intention to use them could be read on her face.

  XXX

  BLOCKADE

  LAFORA rushed up to the disparate group formed by the Vohrns, Lebrane, and the Sirgan’s crew. Behind her, the squad of police officers split into two. Under the startled gaze of the customs officials and travelers, one officer took aim at the Vohrns who were trying to intervene. Another busied himself by arresting Laorcq and Mallory.