by Ken Rivers
With more strength than I gave her credit for, she pushed with her legs against the pod walls and shoved the handlebars hard left.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I yelled at her. Both Midori and Aoi were wrapped around my arm, preventing me from reaching the handle.
The gorge was fast on us and over we went. My stomach dropped as the pitch of the bike angled down. Yare’s hand was stuck in place, eyes closed, veins beginning to surface on her forehead. She flickered for a second. The mists swirled below and looked almost solid enough to land on. The rhythmic pulse of the cannon fire bathed us in all manner of colors and sounds.
Then, like swiping from one screen to the next, the bike found ground and came screeching to a halt on the other side of the gorge. My baby took a beating, but she was still good enough to get us the rest of the way.
“See, B? They don’t build ’em like this anymore.”
Yare was slumped down in the pod, her tan skin drained of warmth and color and drenched in sweat. I felt for a pulse but nothing pushed back. “Lana, Yare needs help,” I yelled. Pusi was already out of the pod, looking back over the gorge. “She there, Marrrk.”
Cannon fire streaked overhead, straight over the expanse. Under the Old-Tech destruction and above the dancing mists, Lana came in, wings back on a near dive right for us.
“Go, go, go!” she shrieked as the sky grew darker behind her.
“Pusi, get on!” She was in and we were off with Lana flying close above the speeding bike. “Lana, Yare’s hurt bad!”
She dove, slid into the pod, burst into a green spray of smoke, and then orange light flared out of her hands.
We weren’t going nearly as fast as we needed to. Maybe twenty percent of max speed. The bike was in worse condition than I had thought. But, it was faster than running.
B tapped the rearview cam and I watched the sky turn into deformed, folded black layers of Kaiju hide. I thought it would be on us in moments, but again, the cannon fire turned it away. Tawa had turned it hard right, so much so that I thought the thing would bend back on itself. When the tail whipped around and scrapped the plains clean, the mists began moving in strange circular patterns. The same circular patterns exploded all around the occupied side of the gorge.
“The Cullers were launched across! They’re here!” I yelled.
Ragged breathing and hisses were far off at first, but they slowly grew in intensity and volume. A wall of gnashing teeth and berserker rage bore down on us.
“B! We need help, now!”
The walls of CONTROL and home territory grew larger, but I could see all paths and gateways were thick and smooth with no entry possible.
She stood up in the pod, slipped her Enforcer badge off her belt and started waving it back and forth at the uninhabited walls and ramparts. She slammed her fist down on her Clear-Tech. “Enforcer Radigan on Priority One Alert. I repeat, Priority One Alert! CONTROL, copy?”
The only sound was the breathing and sucking of copious amounts of air into over-expanded lungs closing in.
“Fuck, ANYBODY!”
There was small click on the other end. “Copy, Enforcer Radigan. Maintain current course and hold at nearest entry gate. We have a Class A threat at the moment, so hold until the alert is lowered. Over.”
“Negative, negative! We are being pursued by an overwhelming enemy force. Request immediate cover fire!”
I lost track of how many were chasing us. Just shimmering air from one side of the screen to the other.
“That’s a negative on support fire. Unable to confirm presence of threat. Maintain course and speed until—”
“God damnit! You listen to me right now you microphone-sucking piece of…wonderful human. Just shoot behind us, please. The threat is real! PLEASE!”
“Awaiting visual confirmation, over.”
B sat down, arm over the edge of the pod, and laid her head on it.
“You tried your best, B.”
Pusi swung her leg over the seat behind me and held on to me with one arm. “Turn camera off.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Trust Pusi. Pusi is lady.” Her hand found my crotch and swiped the camera off.
I felt her rustle around then get on her knees.
After a few seconds, another click from the radio. “We have visual confirmation. Support fire imminent!”
Pusi stayed behind me, leaning right to left, left to right.
I saw B watching with her mouth agape.
“B, what’s happening?”
“She did it. I can’t fucking believe it.”
“Believe what?”
“She just, how can I say it, she blew up like a pregnant cat and exploded micturate all over the Cullers!”
Pusi slipped back into the pod and sniffed my pant leg. “Yellow everywhere,” she said, “no piss for days.” She blushed and nuzzled into my thigh.
The ramparts, which were lifeless up until few seconds prior, were lined with sharpshooters holding guns longer than the length of my rail-bike. All of the rasping and choking behind me was replaced with pinpoint fire and the sound of flesh penetrated by high velocity sniper fire. Then no more dirt flying up behind us.
“Are you recording this, B? I swear to God I want this shit edited and on replay next time I sit for a listen.”
“I wouldn’t mind joining you,” she said.
“Then, it’s a date?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s a date.”
Cannon fire booms intensified and became more frequent. The rock underneath us cracked and splintered and began to sink in some places. The Kaiju and Tawa had turned straight into the barrage of light and fire.
Mists surrounded the massive body, pouring from holes and gashes and burned valleys covering its body. On the other side of the gorge, it absorbed them with ease, but the toll was beginning to show. It was hit with a fresh barrage of beams from underneath. It shuddered and slowed but kept pushing forward over our heads.
“He’s heading for the Spire,” said Lana.
“Then so do we. B, can you get the closest gate open?”
“On it.”
We were through and on our way down familiar streets and across much a more reasonable bridge-way. Although the city was on lockdown, I smelled Mexican food lingering in the air. Carne asada burritos with cheese and guacamole and sour cream and salsa fresca. I had enough reason to keep fighting to protect my girls but helping preserve the legacy of good border food in space could be enough motivation by itself.
The whole time, the booming of energy slamming into Kaiju flesh echoed off the closed doors and reinforced windows of the domicile units. The Spire came into view through the faceless office structures and managerial personnel buildings.
Wrapped around the Spire and being burned to death was the Kaiju. Volley after volley hit it from all sides. It shook and shivered and convulsed but stayed fixed to the top of the tower.
We all got off the bike and Pusi carried Yare up the stairs to the entrance. Great wrought-iron doors with bands of wood carved from giant conifer-like trees braced them, if only for aesthetic purpose. I pushed on the door with both hands and it groaned open. We stepped inside. To our right was the beginning of a staircase that wound up into lines of torches that seemed more like stars in the vast darkness at the apex of the mighty tower.
“I hate stairs,” I said.
Pusi kicked me in the ass and walked past holding Yare. “Sometimes, Marrrk say very, very, very stupid shit.”
B socked me in the arm. I guess when it rained it poured with so many women, but when they were irritated with you, it sucked bad. “There’s a lift over here. After you, Pusi. Mark can go last,” B said.
Midori and Aoi shuffled past, sticking close to Yare.
“Ya know, if I knew you were going to react the way you did, do you really think I would’ve said anything?” I pleaded my case. “The answer is no. It’s always no and I’m sorry. I never plan to say shit that pisses any of you off. Okay?”
“Just fucking with you, lover boy. We have a girlfriend to save,” B winked.
“Indeed, we do, B. Indeed, we do.”
Lana grabbed me by the arm and let the others get on the lift first. “Mark, when we get up there, you have to promise that you will do the right thing.”
“You know I will. We’re getting Yari back.”
“That’s not what I mean. If Yari chooses to bond with Tawa, for whatever reason, she can no longer be yours. She will be Mother to his Father. She will do anything for him, including killing all of us. If she makes the wrong decision, you have to kill her.”
“How about I just talk to her and convince her otherwise?”
“No. We are in the Spire, Mark. This is a place of very old magic. Everything is ceremony here. Even if she lies to placate him, her actions will be enough to bond her to him. It means she will be lost to us. And if she is, she will help him bring ruin to the galaxy. You have to promise, Mark.”
“Lana, you can’t ask me to—”
“Promise!”
“…I promise…”
27
Hurtling skyward inside the sterilized gray and sliver of the Occupation tech, there was no beating the ground with my fists, no screaming in vain, no racing heartbeat driving me on. I could only see one thing, the look on Yari’s face when she saw that I had come for her. Because I would never stop.
Lana made me promise to kill her if need be. I understood her calculated strategy. It would be especially selfish of me to sacrifice billions of lives to chase after a love that was fully extinguished by the magic of the Spire and the protocol of Levani honor and sacrifice.
From our first time speaking in the temple to running from the Culler, to her fighting to save my life, I was lucky. Maybe it was more than luck. I didn’t scoff at the idea any longer, the unscientific and non-technical notions of destiny. I let them have space in my head, and they brought me hope in a situation where many times there was none.
All thanks to Yari.
The lift shuddered to a stop and dinged. “Stay here,” I said and went out alone into the torch-lit temple with its pillars and archways engraved with symbols and signs of craft long since gone from the world.
There would be no hesitation, no let up. I felt it inside me, the pillar of resolve I stood on would not give or break. I would not be denied. The tower trembled underfoot.
Shadows broke around me as I came up another set of stairs leading into a circular room. Wind heated from the continued blasts upon the Kaiju whooshed in and funneled through the angled passageway.
I heard them as soon as I saw them. Tawa and Yari were naked together at an obsidian altar. A ceremonial sword handle protruded from the top of the stone slab. There was enough flat space for Yari to be on her back, up on her elbows and legs bent at the knees. Her toes hung over the edge and she was spread-eagled for him.
Tawa stood inches from penetration. Arms held out wide, the Life-Tech still in place, he formed a cross and looked up toward a hole in the top of the Spire’s dome. Great thunderheads had formed around the tower and rain was gushing into their eyes from above. It was no ordinary rain. Runes around the opening were on fire and the water plummeted down over their gleaming gold.
When he finished his prayer or spell or whatever it was supposed to be, he bent over her, and pulled her face to his with his unsullied arm.
The streaks of tears and rain on her face emphasized the sorrow and reluctance covering it. Openly sobbing as he drew her closer, she did not fight him. I could’ve killed them both in one hit during their moment of embrace. Two birds with one hate-filled stone.
Her hands slapped against his chest and held firm. Our eyes locked and she screamed, “Mark!” The gold showering down on them faded.
“You have an infuriating talent for showing up in places where you’re not meant to be, mechanic.”
I stepped up from the last stair and continued moving closer as I spoke. “Heard there might be a wedding happening. Where I come from, you marry in public so people have a fair chance to object, if they want to. Thought I’d do just that.”
Tawa’s hand sank into blue hair and he pulled her up off the altar, and held her in front of himself, arm extended for me to see. “Your objections are irrelevant. Your presence, however, is more than enough to ruin the sanctity of our bonding ceremony.” He yanked her back hard, his mouth rubbing against her ear, “Don’t you worry, now, the ceremony isn’t lost. We will be the new beginning of our people. No one will ever look down upon a mixed Levani again. Tell him you choose me, and I will leave him alive as my gift to you. Go on,” he inhaled deeply, taking in her scent, “tell him.”
I had closed half the distance between us, but I wasn’t close enough to attack yet.
“Mark, I…”
Tawa thrust her head forward, “TELL HIM!”
“Mark…I’m sorry,” she cried, then her shivering lip steadied. Her back straightened, and she began to pull away from him. “I love you, Mark.”
Tawa’s laugh was a slow chuckle that grew into maniacal laughter. “So many twists and turns with this one, hey, Mark?” He reached back with his fouled black limb, grabbed the ceremonial sword hilt and pulled forth a long sword that was etched with symbols and split down the middle from hilt to double tip.
“I remember seeing this when I bonded with Saiina. As my beautiful Mother-to-be stood in front of me, I couldn’t help but be curious, why would our ancestors have put this here, of all places? I thought about it for centuries, the whole while watching my Queen weaken.
“Then one day, as another excuse for a Kaiju birthed from her unfit efforts, it dawned on me that it was put here for me. Put here for the one with the will and resolve to do whatever it takes to end the cycling of the Mothers. You see, cycles are inherently repetitive. They are put in place to keep things the same. But, there is no staying the same, you are either getting worse or getting better. It was clear to me then, and made even more so now,” he said taking her head in his hands and shaking it from side to side, “by this one’s recent choice, which way things have gone.”
He held the blade out, checking its weight and quality, eyeing the line of its edge. “I tried to do things traditionally, but in the end, it’s always up to me to break the mold. This is Rau-Kan. It means ‘blood sword.’ Since you’re a mechanic,” he heaved, and the blade slid out of the crevice of her chest, “you can probably guess why!”
He slipped it from her back and crimson poured onto the floor. The once-open middle part of the blade, where the fuller should have been, drank her life force and glowed red. “Here, you should be used to seconds by now. The rest is yours.” His boot launched her toward me. I ran and slid to catch her in my arms.
He swung around to leave. Reaching out my free arm, I squeezed my hand into a fist and brought the weight of the Father down upon him as he tried to run. He slowed, turned, held out the blackened limb which held the Rau-Kan in and kept moving away. “You should’ve planned better.”
I wasn’t strong enough to hold him.
He ripped the Life-Tech from his arm, stepped through one of the open archways out into the crushing booms of cannon fire, and plunged the sword into the Kaiju’s slick flesh. The sword pumped its contents into the thick wall of muscle. The tower room shook as the sword emptied. Tawa looked back and gritted his teeth like a wild animal and then smiled at me while the Kaiju finally slipped and rumbled down the side of the Spire, taking Tawa with it.
“LANA!” Yari was losing so much blood that it had already pooled. I stood and rushed toward the stairs, her long blue hair painted a red wave on the floor like an ink-soaked brush as I carried her.
B was up first, then Lana, then Pusi with Yare. We laid the sisters side by side, Lana with the full glow of her healing prowess covering Yari in reddish-yellow light. Pusi held Yare’s hand while she fixed her half-closed eyes on her sister. Her other hand was wrapped tight around Yari’s.
“Mark, what happened? I’ve never see
n this kind of damage. Her insides have begun to mummify.”
“He said it was called a Rau-Kan.”
She closed her eyes and took inventory of Yari’s condition then looked at me, “Are you sure? He used that name?”
I nodded and told them what happened.
She slumped down, the light healing faded, and she withdrew her hands. “Then there’s nothing I can do. That blade drinks blood and the soul and puts it into whatever you stab it through. A horrible relic. Even if I could keep her alive, she would be half-dead for as long as her body lived.”
“So, you’re saying we just let her die?”
“Even if we do, her soul will find no peace. It will float half in limbo, and half inside that Kaiju—and that Kaiju is about to become the worst thing this planet has ever seen.”
“Until when?” B asked.
“Forever. It’s all we can do to ease her passing.”
“We’ll do no such thing!” I was shaking by then, furious at it all. At the Levani, at the magic, at the Kaiju.
“When she’s gone, she will feel nothing from here on out. It would be what you call humane to make her last drink of life a compassionate one.”
The wind howled through the Spire, uninterrupted by the ceased cannon fire. The silence was harder to bear than the chaotic carnage wrought just a few moments earlier. Yari’s eyes were half closed, slipping through the entrance to the void.
A new sound rumbled from beneath. Different from every grunt and snort and roar the Kaiju had let out since I first saw it in the Jian-Di hideout. Mid-ranges ground out, ending in a high-pitched shriek that near froze the blood stiff in my veins.
B grabbed my arm and wiped her eyes. “We can’t stay here. We’re exposed, Mark.”
Cold, hard reality was shutting down the last fires of hope inside me. I shut my eyes against the sting of it. “Let Yare say…goodbye, first. I’ll go last.” I kissed my fingers and placed them on her peach-colored lips. “Then we run.”
Pusi rolled Yare onto her side and she began mouthing her farewells and thoughts of love into Yari’s ear. Like a doll, you could’ve imagined she moved or responded, but you knew she hadn’t. The stone under Yare’s cheek was wet with tears.