by Rexx Deane
‘That’s enough.’
Alvarez lowered his hand.
‘Now, let’s see if the cube can do it.’ The view on the six monitors, showing the cube’s vantage point, moved as Kerl picked it up and disconnected the bundle of wires. Pointing the cube towards the plant, he pressed the button on the side.
The same sounds Alvarez had made echoed around the room, this time generated by the cube. ‘Mueva ligeramente,’ the device repeated.
The plant twitched.
‘Hah! It worked!’ Kerl said, slapping Alvarez on the back. ‘This is amazing! You, my friend, are making history.’
‘Are we going to record everything I’ve been practising?’
‘It may take some time, but yes, we’ll do it.’
The image tore up with random squares of colour.
‘There is corruption here,’ Wolfram said.
‘Why is Alvarez speaking in that language?’ Aryx asked. ‘I’d never heard him speak anything other than Galac.’
‘When you intone, it’s usually a combination of sounds and speech patterns from your cultural heritage, but doesn’t always make sense.’
‘Interesting,’ Sebastian said, arms folded tightly.
‘Do you wish to continue?’ Wolfram asked.
‘Yes, please.’
The scene skipped forwards two weeks.
It was another recording session and Alvarez sat in front of the workbench, wired up once again. He intoned the words of a spell, but this time his hands fell to his sides and he slouched.
‘Nick, what are you doing?’
Alvarez raised his head. ‘Where … am I. Who … are you.’ His voice was flat, stilted.
‘You’re on the station … It’s me, John – what’s wrong with you?’
He turned in his seat to face the cube and touched a hand to his head. ‘What is this. What is the device this body is connected to.’
‘It’s the SI, remember? We’re using it to record your brainwaves, so it can implement quantum manipulation. Are you okay? You sound strange. Stop messing about. Look, I know you’re tired. If you’re fed up, do you want a break?’
The vacantly staring marine turned his gaze from the cube and straight at the scientist.
Kerl staggered back.
‘The device is not visible to us.’ Alvarez began tugging the wires from his scalp.
‘No, stop it! You’ll damage it.’ Kerl reached out but the Brazilian shoved him back and he slid along the bench, toppling over backwards and taking several beakers to the floor with him. Alvarez ignored the fallen Kerl and continued plucking wires from his head.
‘Stop it!’
‘You cannot be permitted to do this.’ Alvarez yanked the wires from the cube.
‘I can’t let you destroy my life’s work, not now we’re so close!’ Kerl picked up a fire extinguisher and held it over Alvarez’s head. ‘Stop it, I beg you!’
Alvarez struck out, but Kerl reacted quickly and brought the canister down on the back of his skull.
His body tumbled to the floor, unconscious.
The video skipped.
Alvarez lay strapped to the bed, wide awake. ‘Did I hurt you when I was out?’
‘No, but you managed to pull a few of the wires out and nearly wrecked the cube. Luckily, no permanent damage was done.’
‘Are you sure these restraints will hold me?’
‘I think so. I’ve primed you with a hypnotic suggestion so I can control the entity if it does happen again. I want you to try the last effect.’ He placed a vial of carbyne on the bed.
The chanting began and the air around Alvarez shimmered. His hands fell limp.
Kerl peered at him. ‘So, it’s happened again.’
Alvarez struggled against the restraints. He looked over to the workbench at the exposed cube. ‘We will destroy that object. It cannot be allowed to exist.’
‘You are in my control.’ Kerl’s tone was firm and confident.
Alvarez’s eyes fluttered. ‘You will not control us. We cannot allow you to control us.’
Kerl turned away, picked up a syringe and filled it with a drug from a bottle, obscuring the cube’s view. He turned back with the needle but somehow Alvarez had worked his arm free and his hand shot up to wrestle for it. Kerl moved quickly, plunging the needle deep into Alvarez’s left biceps.
Alvarez eased back onto the pillow. ‘You shall not control us. We will destroy the device, and you along with it.’
Kerl leaped back. Alvarez had somehow acquired a scalpel during the struggle; he drew the blade up to his own neck and, with a quick flick, severed both jugular veins. Blood streamed out, spraying the bed. Kerl dashed forwards and tried to cover the wound; both hands weren’t enough to staunch the flow.
Alvarez twitched. In moments, he’d stopped.
Sebastian winced. ‘I didn’t want to see that again. The vision I saw had him making those motions, then he faded away, obviously dead. Now we know why.’
‘Poor bastard,’ Aryx said. This had all happened right under their noses. If only he’d known what was going on at the time, he might have been able to do something!
‘You will find the next bit interesting, and possibly disturbing,’ Wolfram said. As if it wasn’t already.
The video jumped forwards.
Kerl had severed Alvarez’s head.
It was connected to several pipes and containers of fluid, and hung suspended in the frame Aryx had examined earlier. The wires trailing from the head and frame ran to the cube on the bench.
Kerl leaned towards the head. ‘Can you hear me?’ The view didn’t show the face, but Kerl smiled as though he’d got some visual feedback. ‘I’d like you to attempt the spell that moved the plant again. Focus is yours. You are in my control.’
A pumping mechanism moved up and down in one of the cylinders; words came from the head.
The plant twitched.
‘Excellent!’ Kerl clapped his hands together with a macabre glee. ‘Now our experiments can continue.’
Time jumped forwards several days, to a point only seconds before the explosion.
‘Here’s the money shot,’ Aryx said. He couldn’t wait to see that fucking Frankenstein-bastard Kerl meet his fate.
The scientist sat, working at the bench, checking the connections on the wires. Outside the lab, on the external view, a blurry figure walked up the corridor and out of shot.
Kerl remained blissfully unaware as a pinpoint of light formed behind him. In a microsecond it grew from a tiny speck to a roiling ball of fire, three feet across, a miniature sun. With a flash it filled the room and was gone.
Flame crawled up the walls. Everything burned.
The immolated Kerl stumbled, crashing into the bed, the workbench and the wall, before falling to the floor. Glassware deformed on the benches, dripping molten glass. The exposed innards of the cube melted, obscuring the six views.
The last recorded instant was from the security camera as the canister of gas exploded.
Chapter 33
Aryx shut his eyes at the bright flash. Kerl deserved it. Big time.
Duggan fell back on the sofa. ‘Oh, Lord … Fireball … I—’
‘Was not responsible.’ Sebastian sat next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. ‘It’s not your fault. It seems you were possessed by something like whatever took over Alvarez.’
Tears once again streamed down Duggan’s face. He shook his head. ‘I should have anticipated this. If only I’d found the diary, I would have known.’
‘How could you have known?’ Aryx asked. ‘Possession’s something from horror movies, not real life.’
Duggan gestured to his large book collection on the shelves in the corner. ‘Still, I should have suspected. It’s mentioned in a lot of medieval religious writings.’
‘What do you mean? Surely nobody ever reads any of that old stuff, much less pays attention to it.’
Duggan wiped away his tears. ‘In medieval times, the Church associated the practic
e of magic with demonic possession and being in league with “the Devil”. Did the Folians show you how ancient Humans were taught magic?’
‘Yes, I saw that,’ Sebastian said.
‘Then you’ll know that the Folians on Earth were destroyed by the Church, who thought them to be evil. Maybe the use of magic attracted other beings whose intentions were not so benign, and this was the reason for the misunderstanding.’ Duggan rose and began pacing back and forth in front of the screens.
‘So where does the carbyne go when it’s been used?’ Aryx asked. He had to change the subject – the idea of pursuing religious dogma and possession was even worse than believing in magic, and there were only so many impossibilities he could attempt to believe in a day.
‘I assume it sublimates into another plane of existence. It doesn’t vanish the same way it does when it evaporates in an unstable state, that much is certain.’
‘Could these beings exist in the same plane carbyne goes to?’ Sebastian asked.
‘Possibly. It would explain how the beings are attracted to magic users. I often wondered whether religious rites were based on real thaumaturgic practices. It could be that magic manipulates their realm somehow. Perhaps exorcism rituals …’ Duggan trailed off, his eyes apparently tracing patterns in the weave of the rug and shards of broken glass.
Aryx huffed and folded his arms. Typical, back on the subject. Might as well join in. ‘I bet they saw the cube as a threat because it couldn’t be possessed. That would be a good reason to destroy it, especially if magic affects things on that plane. They wouldn’t want something they couldn’t control having influence over them.’
‘I detect a theme,’ Wolfram said. ‘Everyone appears to dislike an uncontrollable SI.’
‘What do these “demons” look like?’ Sebastian asked.
Duggan ran his hand along the books on the longest set of shelves and pulled out a six-inch thick tome. ‘Here, have a look at this.’ He sat on the couch by Sebastian and leafed through the pages. ‘This is it.’ He held the book out for Aryx to see, his finger tapping a crude illustration at the top of a heavily illuminated page.
A red, winged bestial form with the lower half of a goat and the upper half of a man, with long, pointed horns and bullish smile stood over a young woman. The back of a hand was pressed against her forehead as the creature stood over her, breathing a mass of red swirls towards her.
‘That picture looks familiar,’ Aryx said, ‘I’ve seen a monster like that somewhere before, probably in an old movie or something.’
‘What is that?’ Sebastian asked.
‘The Devil, possessing a young witch.’
‘No, the red stuff – that’s what you tried to breathe into my mouth.’
‘Oh!’ Duggan frowned and ran his finger across the page. Whatever that language was, it was obviously difficult for Duggan to read. ‘The miasma – bad air. Possibly the soul of a demon.’
‘If demons are beings from another plane, is the miasma a transference mechanism for them?’
Duggan shrugged. ‘You know as much about it as I do. I’ve never encountered it before.’
Aryx pointed at the diary on the table. ‘Not even with William?’
Duggan picked up the diary. ‘Is he mentioned in this too? I couldn’t bring myself to read it. Did he get possessed – is that what this says?’
‘It seems like it,’ Sebastian said. ‘He tried to kill Cullen, who had a strange reaction to the attack. That’s when he decided to mount an assault on Achene with chainsaws and bulldozers.’
Duggan shook his head slowly. ‘What happened to him?’
‘Unfortunately, William was killed when they tried to get him off Cullen,’ Aryx said.
‘Poor lad.’ Duggan took a deep, shuddering breath. ‘I think the legends about possession may have been correct. Some say that if a possessed person brings another to near-death, the entity can jump into that person, possessing them permanently. It would explain why I was always returned to my invisible state. They wanted to keep me using magic, so they could possess me again and again.’
Sebastian’s face paled. ‘Is that their agenda, to take over people permanently? Did the one that possessed William jump into Cullen, and then make them all head for Achene?’
‘It certainly seems that way, old boy.’ Duggan returned the book to its place on the shelf. ‘Many religions hold these creatures in poor regard. Often, they wish to upset whatever world-order is in place, controlling the innocent in order to bring their plans to fruition. What their intentions are in the larger scheme of things, I have no idea. It certainly looks like they want to put an end to the Folians – possibly because they also represent a threat in the same way your cube does. They must be capable of purging the possessed, or know a way to defend against them.’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘I can only imagine that Kerl had instructed the Alvarez head to learn that ability after realising what he was dealing with. Although, I don’t see how William got possessed in the first place. He never used magic.’
‘He went back to Chopwood without you,’ Aryx said, ‘and he spent time on Achene away from you. Where did he go?’
‘Somewhere away from the Folians,’ Sebastian said. ‘They they lost contact with him when he went into the caves, which, back then, must have been fully subterranean.’
‘Then something must have happened to him there. As you can imagine, I was shocked when he took the ship without telling me.’
Sebastian started rocking, hands clamped tightly over his head. ‘Oh, Gods! What do I do about the investigation? The authorities will want someone to pin the explosion on. This is all too much. Duggan wasn’t responsible for his actions, but I can’t blame biblical non-corporeal entities from another dimension. I need proof!’
‘You can’t turn in the video of Duggan outside the lab until we find concrete evidence to prove he wasn’t acting of his own volition.’
‘What about your cube-thing?’ Duggan said. ‘That’s now got video evidence of possession on it.’
Sebastian brightened. ‘Good point. Gladrin will want to see that I’ve completed my initiation test, and I can present him the recording at the same time.’
‘I can’t see him buying the story,’ Aryx said, ‘and we can’t hand over the Chopwood diary, as that’ll expose the Folians.’
‘By the Gods! Why does this have to be so difficult? Nothing is straightforward.’
Duggan crouched to collect up the broken drinks vessels and Aryx wheeled over to help. ‘I’m sorry, Sebastian. It seems like this is all my fault. If I’d never gone to Achene …’
‘You can’t be held responsible for the entities’ actions,’ Sebastian said. His wristcom bleeped. ‘Yes?’
The ship computer spoke. ‘Incoming alert from Tenebrae station. Secondary shipment of carbyne located.’
‘I guess it’s irrelevant now, but where is it?’
‘Scanners detect the tracker aboard Tenebrae station.’
‘What!’
Aryx straightened. ‘It was probably a shipment for Kerl, ordered before the explosion happened. He had to get it somewhere.’
‘Either way, we have to go back to show Gladrin the video and give Wolfram back.’
The lights on the cube flashed. ‘Do I not get a say in my own fate?’
‘I assumed you’d want to go back to SpecOps.’
‘They kept me in storage until I had been given to you. Do you really think they will allow me to remain active?’
‘I don’t know. Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.’
Duggan took the tray back to the kitchen. ‘I’m sorry about the drinks. Would you like me to make some more?’
Sebastian turned to face him. ‘No, it’s fine, thanks. We have to go. Will you be alright if we head back to the station?’
‘Yes, lad, I’ll be fine. You go and sort out your evidence. I’m going to steer clear of magic for the time being, given the likelihood of getting possessed again.’
Aryx put the cube in his pocket, and wheeled around to shake hands with Duggan. ‘It’s been nice meeting you, if a little unusual.’
‘Likewise. Come back and visit me again soon. Maybe we can have a drink that doesn’t end up on the floor next time. Coffee is very expensive out here.’ He laughed. ‘Almost as expensive as antique Persian rugs.’
Sebastian came over and reached out to shake Duggan’s hand, but the old man got in first with a hug that cracked his back.
His eyes were damp and reddening again. ‘Thank you, my boy,’ he said, trembling. ‘Without you, I’d still be in that horrible state.’
Sebastian slapped Duggan’s back repeatedly. ‘I just wish it had been under better circumstances,’ he wheezed.
Duggan let go and stepped back to shake his hand properly. ‘You’re welcome here any time. Maybe you could talk me into visiting your station one day.’
‘We’ll see.’ Sebastian turned towards the door. ‘Stay safe! We’ll see ourselves out.’
Aryx waved and followed him to the docking area. ‘That poor guy,’ he said as he wheeled down the corridor. ‘He must be in a right state after that.’
‘I can’t imagine how he feels. He’s been trying for years to get back to normal. To do so and then find out he was responsible for the explosion … I don’t know how I’d handle it.’
***
Sebastian fidgeted in the pilot’s seat, his stomach fluttering, while the Ultima Thule docked with Tenebrae station and drifted through the dark transit tunnels on its way to the repair hangar. Aryx sat beside him in his wheelchair, with the cube on the console.
‘What if Gladrin doesn’t believe the video?’ Sebastian asked.
‘If he doesn’t, he’s an idiot.’
‘If you can locate the tracker on the station,’ Wolfram said, ‘you could give him a sample of the mineral to back up the magic research.’
‘Good idea,’ Sebastian said. ‘Computer, where exactly on the station is the tracker signal coming from?’
‘Private hangar 74 29 alpha.’
‘Redirect the Ultima Thule to that hangar.’
‘Access denied.’
Sebastian punched a few commands into the console. ‘Not … any … more.’ He sat back with his hands behind his head. Regardless of why it was off-limits, nothing was going to stop the investigation now. ‘Now, take us to private hangar 74 29 alpha.’