"It's necessary."
"Hmm. I'm sure lots of people have thought that."
"Just be ready."
The pod opened after a few minutes. The woman within stirred and then started coughing. Tilda stepped forward and helped her sit up. The woman greedily drank the electrolyte infusion Hephaestus had supplied.
"Where am I" she asked.
"Not where you thought you would be," said Tilda. "My name is Tilda. You're at the Jellico Mountain Complex, a military installation."
"What am I doing here?" She looked wildly around the room, her eyes eventually settling on Drake. "Do I know you?"
"We haven't met," Drake said. Technically, it wasn't a lie. He'd been in another form the only time she'd met him, in another life. "I'm an old friend of Jason Grey."
"Drake?" she asked, but nodded. "I thought you looked familiar. He had a picture of you. What's going on? Why am I here?"
He hadn't known Jason had a picture of him; he wondered where he'd gotten it. "Are you married to Jason?"
"I am," she said with agitation. "Why? Why are looking for him? Can't you just leave him alone?" This last was shouted at Tilda.
"Elena, the military isn't looking for him. I am." Drake wasn't sure if there was a reason for Elena to distrust the military, or if Jason's paranoia had simply worn off on her. "Tilda's a friend. She woke you up so I could talk to you."
"It doesn't matter anyway," said Elena. "He's beyond their reach."
"What do you mean?"
"He's the captain of the Roald Amundsen. They can't get to him."
Drake had considered a lot of possibilities – except that one. "You're saying he's on his way to Alpha Centauri?"
She looked away. "Why did you take me away from the ship? How long has it been? I want to go back to sleep until the launch."
"Elena, there isn't going to be a launch."
"You can't stop it! His ship only has supplies for a one way trip!"
"Elena, there was a war."
"A what?"
"A war," Drake repeated. "Most of the Earth is dead, or worse."
"That can't be."
"This base is one of the few places where people are still alive. Most of the human species is dead. There won't be any follow up mission."
"No. You're lying." She turned her face away, but Drake could feel her pain.
"Elena, how much did Jason tell you about me?"
She turned back slowly and met his eyes. "He said you knew the truth about him, and that if I was ever in trouble, I should try to find you."
"Nothing else?"
She shook her head.
"I assume the truth you mean is that he isn't human."
"Yes," she said in a small voice, glancing toward Tilda.
"Neither am I," said Drake. "I'm... an alien. I have technology, a spaceship. I can go find him."
"He didn't go to Centauri."
"What?" Drake exclaimed. "Everything I've read said the mission was to Centauri. The computers at Key West confirmed it."
"It was a lie. He told me that the night before he launched. They were going to another system instead. I don't know which one. Centauri was a lie to fool the government, just in case they had a ship in secret and tried to follow."
Drake cursed and stepped out into the anteroom.
"Hephaestus!"
"Yes?
"Jason is on the exploration ship. How long will it take to find it?"
"Which system is it going to?"
"I don't know."
"How big is the ship?"
"I don't know that, either, but I'd guess it's small. It's probably running cold now, too."
"I'm not sure I could find it," Hephaestus replied. "I can send probes out along the likely destinations, but if you want them to find a ship, they will have to travel sub-light. It will take decades just to check the likely local stars."
"Then you'd better get started." Drake turned and reentered the inner sanctum. "I've initiated a search for him. Anything you can remember would help."
"I'm sorry. All I know is that Gerhardt had reason to believe there was an inhabitable planet there. I don't know anything else."
"Elena, it may take some time to find Jason, but I will. I won't let him die out there."
She nodded, unable to speak.
"You said you wanted to sleep. Is that still true?"
"How long do you think it will take?"
Drake shrugged. "It could take decades."
"These pods aren't meant to operate that long."
"That's why I had my own tech brought here." He gestured to the pod on the wall. "This is a stasis chamber. It's completely safe. Time stops within the bubble. No dreams, nothing. You aren't frozen. It comes on, then it turns off. You'd never know any time had passed, because for you, it would not have. In addition, you'd be impervious to harm within the pod. A bomb could detonate right on it, and you'd be safe inside."
Elena let out a long breath. "I suppose I don't have much choice."
Drake helped her from the coldsleep pod. She was short, petite, and attractive. "I'll find, Jason."
"I trust you." She stepped into the stasis chamber. He activated it, and the mirrored surface showed him a distorted version of himself, which he ignored.
"Now what?" Tilda asked.
"I want you to come with me to the Anglin community. Offer them the services of the JMC. They'll accept. Hephaestus will provide you with medical supplies and food. That should help them survive the coming winter."
"And what of your friend Jason?"
"We wait."
Chapter Thirty-Nine
They found the base in no better condition than the starships in orbit had been.
Bodies choked the corridors, and the floor was slick with blood. Geoffrey choked back his gag response, glad he couldn't smell the dead. He knew exactly what it would be like, though: a cross between a butcher shop and a sewer. He remembered it only too well from his simulation training.
"Keep close and keep your coms open," said Tebrey.
Tebrey moved up the corridor away from them, and they followed. There were signs that the Empire troops had tried to fight and may even have killed a couple of the Thetas before being overwhelmed. At least two of the bodies they found were rapidly decaying, the way Theta entities did.
Geoffrey didn't understand that. He knew about it from the files he'd read, the pictures he'd seen, but he didn't understand why. No one had bothered to include an explanation in the reports for why Theta bodies did that, if they knew at all. It frightened Geoffrey to think the people he believed knew all about the enemy might be as much in the dark about them as he was.
He turned his focus to the task at hand. The interior of the base was like a maze, and he didn't want to miss something important.
"Damn it, we need more people," Tebrey muttered over the com. "All right, we need to separate."
"Sir?" said Pt'kar. She didn't sound happy. Geoffrey couldn't blame her.
"We're never going to find the computer core if we stick together. There's just too much ground to cover. I want you to take Meeks, Sergeant. Start on the second level. Deegan and I will scour this level and then move down to the third. Call us, and we'll be there as fast we can if anything happens. You see anything at all, you call me."
"Yes, sir." She turned to Geoffrey. "Come on." She crossed to the stairs and started up, her plasma cannon at the ready.
Geoffrey glanced back once at Tebrey and Deegan. They were already headed down the corridor. He didn't like this. He wasn't sure enough of himself to be on this mission. For a moment, he wished he was back home in Cincinnati, before he remembered it was gone. The city had been nuked during the war, by his own government. He supposed he didn't actually have a government anymore. There wasn't even a United States now. It was all gone.
"Come on, Geoffrey, keep up."
He clutched his rifle tighter and trotted up the stairs. Pt'kar was at the top, looking annoyed even through armor.
&nbs
p; "Sorry."
They searched the rooms near the stairs, but it was more of the same.
"Let's try Medical," Pt'kar said.
There was motion in front of them, and then fear came over Geoffrey like a tidal wave. He was glad his suit took care of all of his bodily functions, because he was sure he'd voided himself. The Theta had taken the form of a humanoid dragon-like creature that Geoffrey knew all too well. It was the form into which Drake sometimes shapeshifted when he fought.
What does it say about me, that my worst fear is my best friend?
Pt'kar fired her plasma cannon at the Theta, but it moved too quickly, scaling the walls and running along the ceiling. It flung black fire at them; Geoffrey's rifle exploded in his hands, and he stumbled back. Sergeant Pt'kar fell next to him, screaming as the black fire ate through her armor. The Theta laughed and leapt forward to finish him off. Geoffrey pulled the little pistol from behind his back, but he couldn't pull the trigger with the thick gauntlets of his armor. Of course – the pistol, he recalled, had been meant for use when not in armor.
The Theta hit him and knocked him down. Geoffrey fumbled with the lock on his glove as the Theta directed the black fire at him, and managed to get the glove off just as the fire hit. The pain was like nothing he'd experienced before, and yet it was also very familiar. The pain was like every time he'd ever been ill: fevered, nauseated, burned, freezing, aching muscles, and weak from blood loss all at once. It was as if everything bad that had ever happened to him, happened again in that instant. He could feel his mouth open in a scream he couldn't stop, and then his unarmored finger found the trigger on the quantum pistol.
A blast of annihilation swept out from the pistol's solid barrel. Spacetime itself was torn asunder under the probability wave. The rip in space passed right through the Theta, and it screamed even more than Geoffrey had. He pulled the trigger again and blasted its evil head from its shoulders. He understood now why Riksen had been hesitant to give him this weapon. The psychic feedback was devastating. He also understood now how Tebrey could carry two of the things. Nothing the pistol did to one's mind could be as bad as what the enemy did to it.
Pt'kar was moaning as Geoffrey crawled over to her. At least she's still alive, he thought. He'd been sure she was dead when she'd taken that hit. He did what he could for her, but either her suit would save her, or she would die – there wasn't much he could do.
"Pt'kar! Geoffrey!" Tebrey shouted over the com. "Answer me, damn it!"
"I'm here," Geoffrey said wearily. "We're both alive, but Pt'kar is badly burned. I'm burned, too, but not as bad."
"Where are you?"
Geoffrey looked around. "Level five, section ten, if I read this right. I think we're near... Oh, shit." Two more Thetas had just entered the end of the corridor. There were coming fast.
"What?" Tebrey demanded.
"I think we're dead," said Geoffrey. He fired his pistol, but the range on it wasn't enough, and the two Thetas evaded, striking with the dark fire. Geoffrey was flung back and hit the wall screaming. Another blast hit him as he slid down the wall. I'm sorry, he thought. I'm sorry I didn't get to see Jason again, or Drake. I wanted so much more... Then the pain became so severe he couldn't think anymore. All he could do was scream.
Then Tebrey appeared in front of him.
He must of apported, Geoffrey thought dimly. I didn't know he could do that.
His entire display was covered with medical warnings. He was in severe shock and borderline systemic organ failure, not to mention the broken bones. When did I get those? he thought through the brain-fog. His suit pumped him full of drugs, trying to keep him alive.
Blasts of black fire were splattering away from Tebrey. He was blazing with blue-white flames and shooting with both his pistols, but more Thetas had shown up - six of them. Tebrey fell to one knee as the combined forces of the enemy drove their black fire through his defenses. Amazingly, he kept shooting, black flames rolling over him. He didn't stop fighting. Three of the enemy fell to his shots.
Then his pistols exploded as the entropy ate into the power packs.
Geoffrey heard Tebrey as he cried out and fell back against him. Geoffrey tried to pass him his small pistol, but his limbs didn't work. His medical suite had cut off the blood supply to his arms and legs to try to keep him from going into shock. He couldn't even fight back.
A burst of light filled the corridor. Silhouetted against the light stood an angel. At least that's what Geoffrey's drug-addled mind told him. Huge feathered wings spread across the corridor, and the pure light of creation flowed from the angel's naked body.
The Thetas caught in that light burst into flames screaming as they were reduced to ash. One tried to run, but a slash of his hand through the air sent a pulse of light down the corridor and incinerated it. Geoffrey tried to stay conscious – he wanted to ask the angel about his family – but the drugs and the pain were too much, and he passed out.
Θ
"We go on foot from here," said Drake.
"Why?" Tilda asked. She was followed by a small robotic 'mule' that carried the medical supplies for Anglin.
"Because I said so," he answered. He relented after a moment. "We can't let the people of this world know what we are or what we can do. We have to try to blend in."
"You think you're going to blend in wearing that?" she asked.
Drake was wearing his new powered armor, with a leather greatcoat over it. He shrugged. "The civilization here was on the edge of developing technology like this. They called it the Future Soldier project. Hephaestus made mine to look like what he found in their databases. I don't think it will seem odd to most people that I have it. Those who know me think that I was – what do they call it? – ah, yes, special forces."
"And my outfit?" asked Tilda.
"You wear the uniform of a high-ranking military officer, a colonel. Hephaestus has even created a fictitious unit patch for the Jellico Mountain Complex. This will be important for the future. We have to make sure they believe the JMC is real and can help."
"Why?"
"Because it's important for people to have hope."
They walked for kilometers before coming to the access to the elevated expressway. Here, far from any cities, the road was mostly devoid of abandoned vehicles. There was also less chance of being attacked by marauding bands of ferals. Their chances of being attacked by bandits were slightly higher, and Drake openly carried a primitive assault rifle he'd found in the installation.
Tilda also carried a rifle, slung over her shoulder, and a military-issue pistol. She wasn't a very good shot, but Drake didn't think it would be a problem. Airborne sentinels the size of small terrestrial insects circled them at set intervals. They would alert him long before anyone could get close enough to be a threat.
"I'm sorry you couldn't find your friend," Tilda said.
"Jason will turn up. Hephaestus has sent probes to check the routes to the nearby stars in the databases. It may take decades to find him, but he'll turn up. When he shows up at a system, Hephaestus will go and collect him and his crew."
"How do you remain so confident?"
Drake laughed. "What choice do I have? Would things turn out better if I despaired? No. Positive thoughts lead to positive actions."
"You know, it's strange," Tilda said. "Here we are, two members of an ancient race walking like common people."
Drake stopped and turned to meet her eyes; she flinched from what she saw there. "It's thinking like that which led to the Fall," he said. "People are people. We may have been the first, but does that make us better? The people here had almost discarded war when the plagues hit them. We did this to them! Our failures killed billions of people here. You'll understand once you've seen more of it."
"I'm not so sure I want to," said Tilda. "What I see in your eyes may be enough. You love them, don't you?"
"I suppose I do. They are our children, in a way. Our original forms were much like theirs are. We even revert to something
like them when we're at rest. Did you ever wear a form that wasn't human?"
"No, I wasn't good at the shifting. It had only recently been grafted into our species when I born. Not all of us thought it was good idea."
"I shift all the time," Drake said. "Or at least, I used to. I've been wearing this form most of the time since I was reborn."
"Your true form," she said.
"No, actually, it isn't," he replied as he turned and began walking again. "My true form is close to this, but I don't look entirely human."
"Have our people changed so much?"
"I'm only a half-breed," said Drake. "My mother was one of those commoners you spoke of."
"I'm sorry. I didn't realize."
He shrugged. "I think her people were descended from our original colonists, back before the War. They were long-lived and powerful. I think a lot of the older species are actually descended from those colonists."
"That's why we grafted in the shapeshifting ability," Tilda said. "So that the colonists could adapt to any world. It was never meant to be used to change form at will. That adaptation must have come later."
"After the War, the first universe was in bad shape. I've only seen spotty records from that time, but the universe was collapsing. It was small, only the one galaxy, but it was old, and it was falling into the black hole in the center of that galaxy. Those who lived in the shattered worlds built the rim to hold the collapse at bay, and the Instrumentality to guide it. The Courts were built from the ashes of the War."
"Tell me of this Instrumentality," said Tilda. "We didn't have it in my time."
"It's a sentient machine capable of supplying all of your wants and desires at a thought. It's funny, in a way. Very few of my people even understand the Instrumentality anymore. It has been so long since the War, so many generations have gone by, that they've forgotten what it is. Those initiated into its use think they are practicing sorcery. It's magic to them."
"How is it you know about it, then?"
"For one thing, I'm curious and tend to poke my head where it doesn't belong. Almost lost it a few times doing that," he said with a chuckle. "Secondly, I was the general of the forces that have hunted down the Enemy and protected the Courts for millennia."
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